kitten projects + enchiladas
October 28, 2009 at 2:13 pm | Posted in chatty, cooking is crafty too, free crafty, I love to make things..., oregon | 2 CommentsI’m happy to announce that it’s my week to have a free craft project sheet at the Knittn Kitten! The week actually started Tuesday (ahem) but I’m a little swamped right now, so here’s a peek at my project a day after Diane and Heather were nice enough to write about it…
This is an ultra-simple, very customizable little pincushion project — very easy and quick to make. If you buy a half-yard of a cotton print and a half-yard of corduroy at the Kitten you can make 44 of them, believe it or not!
I’ve included instructions for a tufted version and a button-decorated version, but you can also embroider, gocco-print, or embellish them any way you please. They would also make nice sachets if you’d prefer. Okay, now that I’ve finished the hard sell, the project sheet is waiting for you over at the shop, so stop by anytime to pick up some pretty new things and a project sheet (or all of them!).
Last week’s project was Christine‘s darling cupcake patches! I got a copy of her instructions yesterday and they’re fantastic. You can still get hers and the other project how-tos — each one is in its own section with the materials you’ll need for the craft.
In other news, I have a new favorite recipe… we ended up with pounds and pounds of green tomatoes before we pulled our garden out
(this is after making three rounds of enchiladas — looks like we’ll have at least two more to go)
and the Oregonian ran this great idea for using them: squash, bean and cheese enchiladas with green chile and green tomato sauce. We’ve made three batches, each one slightly different, and the last one was the best. It’s definitely on heavy rotation around here and it’s so easy to double the recipe and freeze half.
My adaptations are: use half black beans and half pintos, use one and a half chipotle peppers instead of one, and add chopped red peppers to the filling. (Oh, and I left out the cilantro, I hate that stuff but you probably like it so feel free to leave it in, of course!)
stamps and sugar skulls (and quilts)
October 16, 2009 at 7:38 am | Posted in chatty, crafty events, I love to make things..., oregon | 4 CommentsI wanted to mention two super cool craft classes going on tomorrow here in Portland…
Alison Wood is teaching Stamp Carving at 100th Monkey Studios!
12-2 at 100th Monkey, $15
110 SE 16th Ave, Portland
And Cathy Pitters is teaching Sugar Skull Decorating at DIY Lounge — with music and refreshments, too!
3-6 at DIY Lounge, $40
1639 NE Alberta St., Portland
One last thing: I am so excited that my Modern Heirloom Quilt will be part of the Aurora Colony Annual Quilt Show, which opens today (Friday the 16th). We’re going on Sunday afternoon — I can’t wait to see the quilts!
Old Aurora Colony Museum
15018 Second Street NE, Aurora, OR 97002
(503) 678-5754
October 16-25, 2009
10:00 am – 4:00 pm Daily
kitten crafts revisited
October 14, 2009 at 10:50 am | Posted in chatty, free crafty, oregon | Leave a commentWow, this week (month? however long?) has been crazy and I have been hoping to find the time to post about some stuff I’m excited about, but that has been in very short supply. I have a big deadline November 1 and after that I hope to resurface and actually make some fun things and write about them! Thankfully Pearl’s Halloween costume is already done (in personal record-setting time thanks to CRAFT:) and the 14 pounds of apples I haven’t made applesauce with yet will keep for awhile. I have high hopes for November!
In the meantime, I went to the Knittn Kitten last week with Benedikta and got a good look at some of the new free craft patterns! Ethel has arranged them all around the shop so you can see the finished projects in their natural habitat. There are still free pattern sheets for all of the crafts to date up for grabs, so no worries if you couldn’t make it to the store until now…
This week’s new project is Joelle Groendes‘ appliqued kitty bag! So cute.
![blackcatbag[1]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2552/3952029018_6570210344_o.jpg)
There are also Diane‘s pretty patchwork tea towels in the fabric section,
Teresa‘s fancy hairpins near the seed beads,
and Heather‘s striking statement necklace with the jewelry findings.
And my pattern sheet will be over there as of the 27th — here’s a sneak peek at my project on the vintage fabric table!
I made some super simple button square pincushions using some favorite prints, corduroys, and buttons from a long-ago Kitten haul. You can see some of the current vintage treasures in the mix now — any of those patterns would be so cute with a button or two mixed in.
And by the way, if you’re not within range of the Kitten, we are planning to put together an ebook of all the patterns sometime next month! More on that soon.
p.s. The library has posted a podcast of the Crafty Writers Talking event last month that Diane, Alicia and I were part of — thank you again to the library for organizing the talk and to all of the crafty folks who came to it!
the Cathay Bank
October 7, 2009 at 10:22 am | Posted in california, vintage crafty | Leave a commentWhen I lived in Los Feliz, one of my favorite things to do was visit other neighborhoods in Los Angeles and take pictures of cool things I’d never seen before.
This tile mosiac mural at the Federal Building downtown totally captivated me — so beautiful and so well preserved.
Speaking of tile mosiacs, Clifton’s has some of the best ones I’ve ever seen out front.
I loved these two — the Observatory and the saber-toothed tigers at the La Brea tar pits.
Griffith Park is probably the place I miss most in the whole city… and speaking of the Observatory, it’s hard to take a bad photo up there.
Union Station is such a majestic place — I love train stations, and it is one of the most beautiful ones in the world.
And one day when I was in Chinatown with Jessica on our Day of the Dead tour, I took some pictures of the Cathay Bank. I didn’t know anything about it, except that I loved the way it looked. Then last month, the Los Angeles Conservancy contacted me about using one of them in a photo archive they created to celebrate 60s architecture in LA. The site just went up and it’s fascinating — there are tons of great photos from all over the city. The interactive timeline is really cool, and I was so honored to see my photo in it… and find out more about the bank, I had no idea it was so significant!
March 8, 1966: The first Chinese American Bank in Southern California, Cathay Bank, opens and provides much needed services and capital for development of the Chinatown area.
Visit the site here and add your own photos of 60s architecture in Los Angeles to their flickr pool, too. And if you are in LA, take some pictures for me, please! I never did get a good one of the Capitol Records building.
Yoda in action!
October 1, 2009 at 11:40 am | Posted in chatty, crafting with kids, holidays, I love to make things..., new writing! | 5 CommentsI finished the Yoda costume for Pearl this week and I’m so pleased that the tutorial is up over at the CRAFT: blog!
I had a lot of fun making all the bits and pieces, especially the hat (I actually ended doing a set of three, in baby, small toddler, and big toddler sizes — they are super easy to sew up!)
and the snake.
You can see the whole tutorial with lots more photos over here — thank you, CRAFT! And now, instead of frantically knitting away on Halloween afternoon (ahem), I have a whole month to do a few little costume extras. First order of business: add some snaps to keep that snake securely on a speedy Yoda’s shoulders!
p.s. just a friendly reminder, please ask my permission before using any of my photos… thank you!!
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