Happy Spring!

This morning I woke up with a hankering for just a little something special to celebrate Easter, (more like spring time, for us. Although, look here….still snowing). We ran to the store so I could get some vinegar and I picked up a loaf of just baked french bread, too. We almost ate the whole thing instead of making bread pudding but I really do love bread pudding. I served it in my girly cups with whipped cream and it was super.

 

“Now, you can’t have any till I photograph it. Oh screw it, let’s eat!”
(Edited to add: the recipe for this pudding is in the comments on my flickr photo. I add a little heavy cream to top it off.)

After that Paul went to the studio and I stayed home dyeing eggs. I only dyed 7 since I’m really the only one who likes hard-boiled eggs. And actually, that left plenty of room for experimenting. I decided to use wine glasses to hold the dyes and they turned out to be the perfect size.  Here are the tablets dissolving in vinegar:

 

This year I wanted to try wrapping the eggs in lace, which I saw in Martha Stewart Living. On top of that, I wrapped them up tight in hosiery to hold the lace in place (seal the hosiery with a twist tie). I wasn’t sure it would work but figured I would try some other things while I was at it, too- so I also tried metallic mesh, rick rack and paper flowers. Here’s one of them about to go into the dye bath.

 

The added benefit of the hosiery is that you can run a skewer through it and then hang just part of the egg in the dye bath. As a girl I used to sit there with my wire egg dipper, ever so patiently. I once tried to make a plaid egg using all of the different dyes– I don’t recommend it.

Here’s the finished lace batch. I don’t quite understand why the lace works at resisting the dye but the pantyhose don’t affect it.  Easter magic, I say. I love the seeping in quality of it, too. On the red/yellow one, I first dyed the lace-wrapped egg in yellow, then moved it, hanging skewer style, into the red bath. The dye creeped up the hosiery and gave it a weird marbled effect, which I like.

And here are the eggs I made with the other materials. The paper flowers worked quite well- almost better than the stickers (which made the hearts). The heart egg was also wrapped in metallic mesh which gave it a cool faded grid effect. To get the yellow flowers on the blue egg, I dyed the whole egg in yellow first, let it dry, then added the flowers/hosiery combo and let it sit in the blue dye.

 

I also made one with rickrack at the far right of this photo (see me removing it here). You can see more pics of the process over at flickr. Hope you’re all having fun, wherever you are.

Easter Egg Placemat

 

What is it?

 

Well, you probably already read the title. It’s an Easter Egg Placemat. Don’t worry- that’s a tiny plate, not a gigantor egg.  I made this last week in Bernina club, did some seam ripping last night (piping is hard!) and finished the decorative stitches today. I bought the kit for the class- so, no, this is not my usual color scheme, but I wanted to fit in. I did change it up a bit by sewing all of the stripes together, cutting the piece in half, and lining up the pieces perpendicularly when piecing the top.

All in all, making it was good fun. I’ve been feeling pretty lonely working from home lately. Plus I’ve barely had time to make anything for the sake of making it. Sewing straight lines up and down this mat was downright enjoyable!

I love Easter and I kind of miss celebrating it. My birthday always fell around Easter when I was a kid, and I’m sure that had something to do with it being one of my favorite holidays. Plus holidays are acceptable times to be crafty. Hopefully I’ll at least get around to some egg dyeing, even if I have to eat all of the eggs myself.

Ornament Swap

I wanted to share my bounty from the ornament swap before the holidays are a distant memory.  Here they are:

Aren’t they lovely? I can’t quite remember who made each one, but I definitely have my favorites! I love the pine-cone lady, the felt embroidered star (which I believe was Terri’s), and the pink/blue house painting. And, the little clothespin santa reminded me of something dear to me.

Here’s my own clothespin Santa,which I  made when I was about 3 years old. He might be my first ever craft, and I love hanging him on the tree each year. He lost an eye a long time ago, but he gets by alright.

2007: A Year of Crafts

 
Above are some of my favorite projects from 2007. This year (or is it last year now?), I dove into the big stuff- quilts, afghans, garment sewing, etc. In a sense I was waiting, and these crafts took up my time on a daily basis but also reminded me to look at the big picture if an individual square or block was feeling a bit wonky.  I felt really accomplished when I completed my bed-sized babette inspired blanket and our full sized quilt. I really love playing with patchwork, and I think there’ll be  more of it in the new year, although in smaller doses. I also crocheted a ton of hats (some of which I’m selling in a local boutique, yay) and I learned to knit.

This year I’d like to make more crafts that aren’t so purpose driven– you know, loosen up and have fun. I always worry about what I will do with said crafts, but maybe that’s okay for a while. I’m thinking that I’d like to give more handmade gifts this year as well.

Some main events of 2007:
-My sister got married January 1st! She’s expecting a baby in just a few weeks, and I am super excited to meet him.
-I went to Italy + London to visit Paul. Travelling can be hectic, but I’d like to do more of it. I don’t really fly around all that much now that I’m not in New York, and I miss the ease of being in a good location.
-I moved to Montana from NYC. Paul drove me and my stuff all the way here, with me charting a 102 fever most of the way. It’s been a real change (which I realize every time I go somewhere with massive shopping centers and huge crowds) but I like it. I do miss my independence here (I have no car), and I miss my friends, and I really miss the FOOD. But, I am a lot less tense and stressed overall, so I’d say that it’s worth it.
-I quit my job at Adorn–a necessary decision because I wanted to move. I’ve been doing a lot of freelance work for several mags, which was something I definitely wanted to try. Honestly, I prefer a full-time job, but at least I know that now. I do love that I was able to take a lot of fun road trips, and a nice 2-week xmas vacation, though– I never could do that with my 2 weeks of vacation time.

I have a feeling there will be more good things in 2008. I’m keeping my fingers crossed! Thanks to all of you who read, comment, and blog- I really do love seeing all of the inspiring things you’re making. Here’s to a happy new year!

Holiday Wrap Up (Part 1)

Paul is sleeping under many quilts right now. We made it home last night, just barely, but my luggage did not. I’m hopeful that it just went on to Alberta since we only had ten minutes to transfer (thank you airport cart man!), because I finally let myself buy some cute fabrics. And I want them! Oh, and you know, all of my jewelry and clothes and xmas presents. 

My camera cord is also in the missing bag, so I’m just going to show off some photos of presents I took before Christmas. I did not formally take the handmade pledge, because I knew that I was going to buy some books for Paul. However, I did manage to give handmade everywhere else. We aren’t big gift givers in my family, so I didn’t really have to stress myself out. (I am, however, thinking of all the cool things I can make for next year if I start tomorrow.)

 Without further ado:

2 sets of hot mitts by me with handmade (in Montana!) wooden spoons. I bought them from Harry Felton at the Holiday Bazaar, because they were so smooth and lovely and perfect to accompany the mitts.  I also had to buy one for myself, of course! (EDIT: If you want some guidance on making the mitts, check out this post.)

At the same fair, I purchased a couple of locally made teas, salve and lip balm. I used them for my gift in our white elephant swap, and my very pregnant sister picked them.  I got a pretty cool sewing notions box in the exchange (which I had to steal from my mom!)….which is also in the suitcase.  Perhaps when I get it back I can post some “Gifts in Action” shots.

That’s about it from this front. I had a nice, quiet, relaxing holiday. My phone totally died, so I couldn’t really call anyone, and I just spent time with my family and Paul’s family for the most part. I finished a lot of projects at home- a knit hat for me, three new cake hats for the shop, the beginnings of jewelry… I even sewed up a few quick gifts on my mom’s machine (I must go buy a  new one!). I also spent a lot of time wishing I was so relaxed when I was at home, with my craft room and craft supplies! Hopefully I can get cracking on some of my ideas today.

In other news, Kerry of Beaded Forest is giving away some fabric! Head over to her blog for a chance to win. She also has a lot of really fun projects posted, too– I especially love the otter she made for her father.

Last Minute Crafting

 

I was getting kind of fed up with my lack of holiday crafting (mainly due to work work work!) and a box of stuff from ReproDepot came just as I started making some fabric trees. I really loved the Full Moon Forest charm square set (a sweet deal at $6.95), so I went to task and made a patchwork tree. See how over at the ReproDepot blog.

This may be my last post for a bit- on Sunday I’m off for holiday travelling plus for about two weeks and want to actually not think about work for a while, during the moments when that’s possible. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Done and Done

I finished binding the baby quilt! It took quite a lot of time to do all of that hand stitching, but I had time, since I’ve been on the couch with a persistent cold.

Here are some overall shots of the quilt on our bed.  It’s pretty big– 40 x 50 inches, so hopefully my sister’s kiddo will be able to use it for a lot of years. I was noticing as I bound it that it would make a nice lap quilt…. but no, I must part with it.

 

You can see some more details on flickr.  Here it is with my first quilt, which was offended that I balled it up in order to make room to shoot the new one.

And if that’s not enough excitement for the day, check out my Holiday Swap Ornaments over at Reprodepot.  Here’s a peek.

I got two of mine in the mail today– they were sooo cute! I squealed “Ornament swap, ornament swap!” when Paul brought in the padded envelopes. I’ll share them all, but I want to save the surprise in case my swap group is reading.

Season’s Greetings Holiday Cards

I was thumbing through Martha Stewart’s holiday issue when the idea for my cards came to me.  I still love the woodland animals trend, which is probably because I actually get to see bunny tracks in the snow and foxes darting across the road late at night. I traced one of her cute deer templates and decided to go with it for my not exactly Christmas-y cards. I used a mix of papers from my stash along with some more cute flower cutouts–plastic this time– from American Crafts (like Depeche Mode, I just can’t get enough).  Although I am not a huge personal fan of traditional scrapbooking, there is something satisfying and instant about putting papers and trinkets together with a simple dab of glue.

 

I like the mix of patterns and the not quite matchy-matchyness of this set. I was drawing inspiration from the pattern layering I used to see all the time from the in the outfits of crafy and stylish miss Kayte (our stylist, when I was working on Adorn). 

The fact that it’s not technically winter yet and I’ve already fallen on the ice three times (twice today, one in sight of a bunch of kids waiting for the school bus) has me feeling a little bummed. I fell so hard my hat flew off, and that’s never not embarrassing! I ordered some ice cleats (who knew they existed?) at work, though, so hopefully that won’t happen again. Here’s hoping it’s not freezing where you are.

Turkey Day Place Cards

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week! Luckily I am not the one making the turkey, although I will be bringing a very large version of my cheddar corn spoon bread, which seems to be a hit. I also wanted to make some place cards for the table, just to cheer things up, and here’s what I came  up with. Everything was from my stash, bonus points for not acquiring new stuff!

Supplies:
-Assorted scrapbook paper in solids and patterns. If you have 8 x 8 paper,  cutting the 4 x 4 squares is a breeze.
-Ruler
-Scissors and Decorative Edge scissors
-Felt flowers (I used pre-cut flowers from American Crafts, you could also cut your own, use paper flowers, stickers, or whatever you want!)
-Sewing machine
-White Gel Pen or letter stamps and white pigment ink

Making It: Determine how many tags you’ll need. Cut that number of 4″ x 4″ squares from patterned scrapbooking papers. Fold each square in half. Next, cut that same number of 3 1/2″ X 1″ rectangles from  your solid papers with decorative scissors to make the name rectangle. For each card, center one rectangle over the bottom (”front”) half of a folded square. Place flowers on top as desired. Put the whole shebang under your sewing machine needle and stitch around the name rectangle with a long stitch. If you’re nervous about the flowers and papers moving while you sew, you may secure them with a glue stick, just make sure the glue dries before you sew so your needle won’t get sticky.

 
Note: The needle will  dull from sewing through paper, so you may want to mark it and set it aside for your next paper project– don’t sew fabric with it after sewing paper.

And voila! Place cards! To finish them off, I’m either going to write or stamp the names in white ink. There will be fifteen people at our dinner, so I’m going to wait until I have a list to do that part.

 

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone is having a fun halloween. I have no special plans but we did get around to carving these pumpkins on Saturday night (mine’s on the left). I conveniently forget what a mess it can be every year. After we carved them, I roasted the seeds with butter and garlic, and since I’m the only one around here who enjoys them, I ate them all myself. Yum.

Giveaway winners and a weekend update will come either later this afternoon or tomorrow. Happy Halloween!