How I like to party

stairway bunting

With bunting. (as if you didn't know!)

We held a dinner party to celebrate my birth, and I decided that we needed a bit of updated festivity.  With fabric scraps in hand, I added said festivity in a matter of hours.  You can too! Here's what I discovered: you can sew a zigzag stitch right over yarn!

This means sewing bunting is amazingly easy.  No need to sew each flag separately; not cutting thread between them and back stitching and blah blah blah.

Here's all you have to do:

1. Cut triangles of fabric
2. Pull out spare yarn
3. Turn sewing machine to zigzag stitch
4. Place yarn under needle

Fireplace bunting

5. Sew a few inches
6. Place triangle wrong-side-up underneath yarn
7. Sew
8. Repeat steps 5-7 until you've used up your triangles
9. Hang

Spurred on by quick bunting, I opted to make a table runner the same way. This time I pinned the triangles and yarn, but still zigzagged my way across the swath of fabric (a sliver of a drape I scored at Goodwill for something like four bucks.)

party on the table.

Also, I made a baby bunting for the cake.  This required bamboo skewers (two), twine (mine was black), and tiny tiny diamonds of fabric (double-sided triangles).  I folded the diamonds over on themselves, over the twine, and used glue dots (you know, the scrapbooking kind) to keep them closed. Tie the twine to the skewers, skew, and you're ready to go. Instant cake party.

Instant cake party

And lastly, scraps of joy for the light fixture. (These are modeled after miss dottie angel's sprightly spring scraps. Hers are vintage wallpaper scraps, but mine are actual scraps from the bunting.)

This is particularly difficult to photograph in my not-very-sunny house. Also, these photos were all taken pre-dinner-party, when it was already dark out and we were in a massive dash to put the finishing touches on...just a little bit of handmade pasta.

Please note: This pasta has not yet been cut into its appropriate strips. also, the yellow dog was not allowed to eat the pasta.

Things I forgot...

I've been looking through old photos and found a few gems I forgot to show you...

This pillow is cute, but may not be so comfortable to lean on...

shameless detail close up shot

t-shirt scrap rose! how fabulous is that?

tiny fish button, thus the discomfort

back

birthday card, celebrating a monumental year

namely, my mother's 60th birthday present and its corresponding card!

I feel like a kid

with a new box of crayons.

All that hope and ambition wrapped up in embroidery floss. Because this girl is becoming an embroidery-ing addict. Watch out world. Anything that isn't strapped down will soon be embellished with these delicious threads.

More. Bunting.

This time for the niece and the nephew for Christmas. (Nana already bought Brendan an apron, and Ani will just have to wait.)  The bunting spells out their names and adds a couple end flags for extra festive fun.

Red, blue, and yellow for the boy.

With stars.  (And buttons, beads, and embroidery.)

Pink, purple, and sage for the girl.



With flowers.

(And buttons, beads, and embroidery.)

I don't know that kids love wall hangings for Christmas (it probably ranks up there with socks), but hopefully they'll cut me a break.  I just assumed that they have all the plastic noise-making toys they could ever dream of.  And everyone needs a little decor now and then.

Merry Christmas you two. Your auntie loves you!

Christmas presents, or how I made 11 aprons in two weeks

This year, 11 people close to my heart received an apron for Christmas.  I was so impressed with that one I made for Joe that I couldn't fathom not making more.  (I am officially over it now, though, so don't you worry.)

I picked out custom fabric for each recipient, right down to the coordinating pocket fabric.  That was maybe the most fun part--picture me and Joe in the fabric store, arms piled to eyeballs with bolts of fantastic patterned fabric, trying to keep them all straight for the woman unlucky enough to be working the cutting table at the time.  And then the hardware. And then the twill tape.

Once home, after pre-washing, of course, I measured, cut, ironed, pinned, and sewed until my fingers were raw and the dogs were covered in errant scraps of thread.

And then, because I love customization--the idea that something was made just for you--I embroidered a little swatch for each one bearing the initials (or nickname) of the recipient.

In keeping with the kitchen theme, Joe and I mixed up some amazing hot cocoa, made our own vanilla extract, and made more marshmallows for our gift list as well.  But more on that later.

Merry Christmas all.  And here's to peace and abundance in the new year.

I'm obsessed

with bunting.  Ob. Sessed.

But it's just so jolly and cute.  (And, if you'll remember, it brings the party.)

This year for homemade ornaments (a yearly tradition I forcefully gift upon my family and friends), I have made tiny tree bunting in delicious holiday colors.

Simple as cutting up a heap load of triangles, sewing their sides, turning them right-side out, ironing flat, and stitching into skinny bias tape. This required much patience, as the entire project was very small.  This caused a lot of squinting and hunching over my sewing machine, and a few exasperated seam rips, but the end result is definitely worth it.

For fear that my gift receivers would have no idea what tiny bunting is for, I crafted these instructions:

And then, because I can't leave Christmas scraps in my possession, I made each bunting its own tiny draw string bag, fashioned from this expert tutorial from Skip to My Lou.  (Note: these bags are neither as easy or as fun to make as they might look.  They are, however, as CUTE as they look, so I persevered.)

Merry Christmas all!

For Joe

He cooks, and by cooks I mean crafts, a meal for us every night.  And because he's an elaborate chef, he gets his clothes dirty in the process of splashing homemade chicken stock here, and reducing with red wine there.

And so, with heartfelt love and a bit of humor (I mean just LOOK at the fabric!), I made Joe an apron to wear with pride and to protect his duds from grease and flying au jus (complete with embroidered initials, lest anyone wonder to whom it belongs).

So far it's working. He wears it nightly, and no longer complains of phantom greasy spots appearing on his shirts.  Also, he looks adorable in it.

And, as you can see above, even Roody approves.

Come and Play (Number 17)

A string of tiny flags, each their own mini quilt complete with color, texture, messy edges, studded with buttons from  Button Button (where you can buy a pound of buttons for $4 Canadian).

[click on the photo above to enlarge.]

My studio thanks me, and I, in turn, thank Dottie Angel for the inspiration.

Honestly, I may never go back to clean seams and perfect stitches.

Sit. Stay. (number 18)

Because I love a collage.

Because I had a number of coordinating swatches from Joe's past life in textiles, and because I just couldn't get rid of the pillow forms because I knew they could be so great.

Because when you come to our house, I want you to sit. And stay.

thirty-one! (and 28.)

Finally! I buckled down and did it.

And it only took two hours, but it was a matter of repainting the "project room" and creating, in its place, a studio, complete with computers and guest table and a dawg bed and room for the sewing machine.  Oh, and finding the time, the black fabric from my stash, and the patience to learn something new.

The something new? Mitered corners, baby.  They're both easier and harder than they look.

Big ups to the blogosphere for showing me the ropes, specifically Skip to My Lou.

Shop update!

New stuff available in the shop, including (back by popular demand) changing pads AND a healthy assortment of other baby goodies. Also, please note, there are things in my shop now that feature...wait for it...cupcakes. Oh yes.

new in the shop!

A super-sweet pillow complete with a secret pocket...and...wait for it...a pocket monster!!!


I had so much fun making this...it's a great stash buster as I can cobble together all my little scraps left over from past projects, plus add embroidery and other findings (this one even has a bell...yes...it jingles!).

close-up of of embroidery

pocket monster hiding in his pocket.

Find it here.

Number Six

Felted a sweet little argyle vest and made this dainty pig. Thanks to Martha Stewart for the recipe (in her latest holiday magazine...) which finally explained to me in words and pictures that I understood (I'm not the most spatially-oriented gal) how to craft and sew a belly/leg gusset that works.

Christmas projects round one: ornaments

I can safely post these today as they have arrived to their respective hosts!

I'm of the opinion that each year you need to receive or purchase at least one ornament--hopefully with the year somewhere on said ornament, so as to bring memories to mind when you unwrap them the next year and for years to come.

If I get the urge, I like to provide those ornaments to my loved ones. And this year, I found this sweet little tutorial from pimpstitch and was pleased to find all the materials needed to make a set of these already in my possession! (I heart a stash-buster.) More houses from other people across our sweet globe can be found here.

I had so much fun with these. Picture me on my pillow-top mattress of luxury in my Marriott hotel in Tampa, Florida, after a long day of conference meetings, watching HBO and embroidering away. I added tiny beads in the center of the flowers and on the front doors, as well as on the bottom of each house with the year.



This last one (one of a kind) I made for my Secret Snowflake at work (Yes, Snowflake..it's gender neutral. It's holiday-neutral. And when I named it that, I thought it was funny--it's funny to be so PC as to make things ludicrous.) My snowflake loves a hummingbird, and I just happened to have a screenprint containing one! Huzzah! A few silkscreen passes, some cutting, stuffing, sewing, threading, and beading, and TADA--I give you hummingbird and bumble bee ornament.