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The handmade

So , Happy New Year. I'm not quite done with Christmas. I tweaked my back so I had a few useless days in there and now I'm back to normal and finally blogging the Christmas gifts.

I really wanted Mr. H and I to make our main gifts for the kids. So, really, that meant I wanted Mr. H to make the main gifts for the kids because 1. he's super talented and 2. the things they wanted were more wood things than fabric things. So, at the 11th hour he pulled a rabbit out of the hat and made some amazing gifts.

Biscuit mostly asked for American Girl Doll stuff. Check out this dresser! Cherry with cedar drawer bottoms. Mr. H spared no expense for the doll :)

The dresser is already arranged in the doll "nursery" with a globe and a tv etch-a-sketch on top.

For Oscar the car track thing that is still a total hit. Any minute now he'll consistently figure out how to put the car on straight.

Biscuit sewed this pillow for her dad (fabric from Ikea) and made him these pencil holders (cans wrapped in wood grain contact paper). Can you tell he likes wood?

I sewed a wonky-but-functional sleeping bag for the American Girl Doll.

For Mr H. I made a leather koozie for a mason jar. It was half joke half useful now that we use mason jars for cups and I gave him a Cuppow to make a jar into a travel mug. The koozie idea is straight from Design*Sponge. I had been planning to make a quilted thing but leather is way manlier.

I also made my mom and dad an apron with fabric I got printed YEARS ago at Spoonflower and never used. Print is a series of paintings of buildings done by a ~4 year old Biscuit. Dad also got a wool blanket I stitched up and failed to photograph (partially since it wasn't done until December 28. Oops)

And I made a wooden spoon. I was very proud of that spoon but gave it to my sister (with a tea towel I sewed/printed) and failed to photograph either. I'm working on another spoon so I've got another chance.

Mr. H also made several iPad holders (blocks of wood with a slot for the iPad). They were very nice and very well received. No photos.

Finally, Oscar received a toy my grandfather made. My grandfather died decades ago but in retirement he made wooden toys he sold at craft shows and my mom has a large collection she's been doling out to my kids. Oscar got the train. Note the $18 (!) price tag. So cheap.

So, there you go some gift highlights from 2013.

Crafty Slumberland

Crafty Slumberland was a success! Ages ago I mentioned that my friend Shelley and I were hosting a crafty sleepover party for our friends. It was an all inclusive 24 hours of kitchen-themed crafting (and cooking). Seven friends registered (and paid) but, sadly, one got the flu so we were 8 for the event. We kicked it off with Shelley's mixology class and headed into the kitchen to make caramels, jalapeno jam and peppermint bark. It was a bit of a comedy with the jam not jelling and the caramels getting crispy so our guests learned what not to do. We also made granola (slightly burnt) and drank wine.

Sunday was sewing day. Each person got 1.5 yards of natural linen and we set up a fabric printing station. I made up patterns for them to make an apron, tea towel and wine bag and individuals made some or all of those projects. Plus there was a beading station for wine charms.

Shelley made all the food we ate (yum!) and I handled most of the crafting (fun!) and it was a super awesome weekend. I'd show you more than one photo but my computer is acting up so, instead, good night :)

Kitchen frenzy

Today I finally got productive on preparations for next weekend's "Crafty Slumberland" (a craft sleepover I'm hosting with a friend--we have 7 guests! and 4 crafts! and 5 food crafts! in 24 hours!).

I wanted to double check recipes and patterns so I made these apple cider caramels (they're good!), some truffles, some jalapeno jam and then several quarts of applesauce because I have a lot of apples and the hot water bath was going.

I also made an apron (the other day) and modeled it while cooking soup for dinner.

Biscuit took these pictures for me. I think they're incredibly unflattering but that might not be Biscuit's fault ;)

Apron and tea towel are two of the sewing projects at Crafty Slumberland. We'll be printing on the fabric but for these samples I dip dyed them. The results are imperfect at best but I like it!

Strategy #458 to get us out the door on time and without tears

I made these little clothes bags on hangers out of scrap fabric. The words were stamped with a set of foam letters that had been bathtub toys.

This is our first week with the system and so far so good. We haven't fought about clothes once! On Sunday Biscuit fills each bag with a complete outfit (including socks!). It makes the mornings a tiny bit easier. Note: we are not morning people.

Thursday is my favorite, it's made with fabric that was part of a dyeing experiment ages ago.  Happy Friday--hope you had a week free of arguments about socks!

Twinsies

Last Christmas Grammy gave Biscuit an American Girl doll. It's one of the dolls you order to look like the child. For a kid who couldn't care less about dolls for her first 5 years she's really liking playing with "American Lisa" no, wait, her name is "Irene Lisa" no, wait, we're just calling her "Lisa" now.

A few weeks ago, on a whim, I decided to make matching skirts for Biscuit and Lisa. They came out so cute! (thanks for the fabric, Lauren--I'm 99% sure it's from you) The fabric is a baby wale corduroy. Skirt has a simple elastic waist and bias binding at the bottom. 30 minute project, tops.

As soon as these were done we ran to the store and Biscuit picked out fabric and we made a set for my niece's 5th birthday (and her American Girl doll, too). In typical fashion I finished sewing it, threw it in a gift bag and walked out the door to the party five minutes later. Needless to say, no photographs.

Biscuit wore her skirt (and her favorite wedge heels ;) to my parents' house for the mega garage sale last weekend.

Made pretty good money to put toward Biscuit's room remodel (aka the project that is going to drag on f o r e v e r). Hopefully I'll be sharing before and after bedroom photos soon!

Quilts/muffins

From the comments and conversations with friends it seems folks are a bit intimidated to enter the quilt giveaway. Don't be! It's really not hard and there's no such thing as screwing up an experiment. Whatever happens happens. Really. 24 hours left and I'll draw a name. Of course if this sounds totally lame to you, don't enter.

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Right now I'm heading out to the craft shack to sew up some more samples/practice for my quilt class TOMORROW. I should really be more organized. I'm teaching patchwork pillows at Beverly's. It should be a fun time! And I'm even MORE excited for my next class. Just as soon as I work out the details ;)

I need to make a bunch of muffins for an upcoming field trip for Biscuit's class (like 50-100 muffins). If you can point me to a tried and true muffin recipe I'd be very grateful and will, in return, post my mother-in-law's bran muffin recipe for you. I thought of Swistle's pumpkin muffins but pumpkin seems wrong for spring. Ideas?

Textile experiments

With thanks to my friend for the perfect name I'm finally ready to introduce this idea on the blog. I've been thinking for months about a series of, for lack of a better term, "interactive" quilts and textiles. Basically I create a piece that is in some way incomplete and then someone else finishes it.

Sort of like those stories where one person writes a sentence and passes it to the next. But with a quilt.

Here's how "it takes two" is going to work:

• I create a piece (a small quilt, pillow cover or other project).
• I post a photo of that incomplete piece on the blog and open it up for comments.
• Anyone who in the United States who is interested in playing along leaves a comment (if you're outside the U.S. and willing to chip in for shipping please join in--I'll pay for domestic shipping)
• I'll select a winner (probably randomly but maybe not) from among all the comments
• I'll mail the piece to the winner
• Within one week of receipt the winner will complete the quilt following the instructions provided
• The winner will take a photo of the completed quilt and email it to me and/or post it on their own blog/flickr etc.
• The winner keeps the finished project good or bad as it may be.

I know it all sounds a bit odd but I'm really excited about this. I have at least 10 ideas in mind and 3 projects already complete or partially complete. I hope to post once a month or so until I run out of steam.

Want to play? I'll post the first quilt today!

Thanks so much for reading and hopefully for playing along.

Reading pillow

Speaking of pillows given as gifts, I realized I never blogged about one of my very favorite projects! This pillow was a gift to my mom for Christmas.

I took a photo of Biscuit's bookshelf (I tidied it up first)

Then I had it printed, pretty much life size, onto fabric at Spoonflower.

And I sewed a pillow. Which is very fat because the pillow I shoved inside was a bit too large.

My mom gave Biscuit nearly all the books so it's fitting she have the pillow.

I got several other photos printed onto fabric but so far haven't made the rest into pillows. Seeing this again makes me want to get back to that project. So cool!

Come and sew

Gosh it's been weeks and I never reported back on the sewing class. It was so fun! All the registrants were friends, friends of friends or blog/facebook connections which was cool.

I had marketed the class as "learn to sew" but only one of the four participants was actually a newbie. The other three were ladies who just wanted an excuse to get their sewing machine out of the cupboard and complete a new project.

I actually think a better class structure/marketing strategy would be "come and sew." Participants of all levels would be encouraged. Classes could be a bit larger and the focus would be on completing a fun project and learning a few new techniques during the 2.5 hour class.

Of course I realized all that after already setting up the March class--learn to sew a tote bag on March 18. But still, all levels are welcome.

The absolute best part of teaching the pillowcase class in February is that two of the participants are still sewing like crazy. Now that their machines are dusted off they can. not. be. stopped. It's so cool to think I had a bit to do with them getting back into sewing. Best part for sure.

For a baby girl

Yesterday I spent the holiday helping my friend sew a quilt for her soon to arrive baby girl.

The pattern was (obviously) based on one from Denyse Schmidt's book but as much as I love the look of Denyse's work the assembly instructions are way too tedious. So we cut wonky strips and sewed them together and then squared up each square. I LOVE how it's looking. Next step, quilting and binding hopefully to be done before baby is!