Nanaimo bars

I was browsing food blogs looking for inspiration for Olympic-themed cookies or cupcakes to take with me to an Opening Ceremonies gathering, when I saw a treat that looked awfully familiar.

Nanaimo bars!

Or, at least, that’s what the blogs were calling them.

To me, they looked suspiciously like Prayer Bars, one of my favorite holiday treats growing up. My mom made them every Christmas, adding green food die, and sometimes mint flavoring, to that middle buttery-sugar layer. My only two attempts to make them ended in disaster — a crumbly mess. So I gave up on Prayer Bars and kind of forgot about them.

Until these turned up. Get the whole story »

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Toddler Backpack

image from www.byhandathome.com

Now that I know that this gift has arrived safely in its birthday boy recipient’s little hands, I can finally show off my (er, Colden’s) toddler backpack!

This project was so. much. fun.

The pattern is from Made By Rae. I knew I had to try it the minute I saw it on her blog. I bought the pattern almost immediately. I bought the fabric a few days later — I love the sweet, colorful, happy pattern. It seemed like a great fit for a creative little boy.  It wasn’t until later that I realized that the Bremen Town Musicians had other significance, too: Colden’s mom, Kendra, and I first became friends while acting in a children’s theatre production of Bremen Town Musicians during our first years of high school!

So, anyway, I promptly ordered the perfect pattern and the perfect fabric, and then they sat. And sat. And sat.

There were a few things that intimidated me a little about the pattern. I called for a zipper, and I’d never sewn on a zipper before. It also requires pipping, another thing that I’d not only not tried, but also heard bad, hard, frustrating things about.

So, I made a practice bag with fabric left over from another project. Thanks to some fancy feet handed down by mother-in-law, attaching the pipping turned out to be a breeze. The zipper, it turned out, was even easier.

My downfall was Get the whole story »

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Patchwork pillows

I was having a conversation with a friend a while back about our sewing styles.

She likes to take raw materials and piece together something new. No pattern. No tutorials. Just experimenting and creating.

I, on the other hand, generally like to leave the hard work up to other people. I prefer to let them take the time required to go through the trial and error of creating a pattern. I don’t like ripping things apart and recutting and resewing. And I like to know that if I start a project, I’m going to end up with a usable final product — not a half-finished heap of fabric that I’m tired of working on but can’t bring myself to throw away. I’m pretty practical that way, I guess. So, really, I’d chalk up any of my successful sewing projects to being able to follow directions well.

But, lately, I’ve wanted to break out from under the restraints of following directions, and decided that improvisational quilt blocks — turned into pillow covers — would be a great place to start. I started by going to Tallgrass Prairie Studio to read up on on how to creating wonky log cabin blocks, then shut my laptop, pulled out my fabric scraps, and got to work.

After a few of those, I went totally directionless and just started piecing fabrics together. I’m really happy with the way the blocks — and resulting pillow covers — turned out.

Get the whole story »

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Oh, hello

Boy. Once you slide out of the blogging habit, it’s tough to start back up again.

Especially when you’ve built up a big backlog of stuff to talk about. (But, perhaps, been negligent with photographing along the way.) I’ve been working on my sewing space again (painting! and organizing! and accessorizing!), making some gifts, experimenting with patchwork pillow covers, learning how to screen print, appliqueing some more onesies for The Shop Next Door, and baking bread in 5 minutes a day!

I don’t know where to begin.

I need an ice breaker.

How about something that’s not mine at all, but the work of another local stitcher who sells her handiwork at The Shop Next Door?

I fell in love with this octo-plushie from Jayne Danger when I stopped by the shop on Saturday — apparently  I walked in about 5 minutes after she’d dropped them off, so I got first pick from the gaggle of newly displayed adorable octopodes. (It was tough pick between this one and a blue guy with a comb-over.)

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Christmas gifts I made

There are two potential problems with this post:

1) It’s nearly two weeks after Christmas.
2) I don’t have photographs of most of the gifts I made. Either because I forgot, or because I was a lazy photographer and the pictures didn’t turn out very well.

But. Really.

1) I couldn’t post about Christmas gifts before they were given! And most of them didn’t arrive at their final destinations until after the holiday. (Oops.)
and
2) Most of the crafty gifts I made aren’t that interesting to look at anyway: holiday place mats and napkins, a baby blanket (like this), a knitting needle roll… At least, not in comparison to this very photogenic project. Meet Colby the elephant.

“Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts,” which is where I got the pattern, calls him Peanut. But I renamed him. And gifted him to my pal Colden. The elephant is so cute (and, once I figured out how to gather the fabric for the nose, so easy to put together), I just might have to sew up a twin for myself.

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Merry Christmas

One great cookie recipe + one set of Fred ABC Cookie Cutters =

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