I won a wonderful surprise gift certificate from collage (thank you!!) and picked out some amazing art supplies for the kids’ Easter baskets,

got to interview the fascinating Lizzy House for the PMQG blog,

finally got the chance to bring my Oceanside quilt to life (it was inspired by a photo I took at the beach in 2009… and now it’s pieced, backed, and at Nancy’s for longarm quilting!),

got to see four dozen beautiful quilt blocks on the wall for the PMQG Cotton Couture challenge,

and collected my most mysterious craft projects to bring to the Criminal Crafts-World of Geekcraft book party at Murder By The Book!

It’s this Sunday, April 29, at 4:00. Shawn (author of the stellar Criminal Crafts) and I would love to see you there for making ransom notes and comics magnets, plus drinks, snacks, and mysterious surprises! Barbara of MBTB has kindly ordered copies of Modern Log Cabin Quilting and Button It Up, too, so if you ever wanted to get one of my books signed (while learning how to make invisible ink, courtesy of Shawn), here’s your chance!

If you go:

Criminal Crafts + World of Geekcraft Book Party
Sunday, April 29 at 4pm
Murder By The Book, 3210 SE Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland
Drinks, snacks, craft projects and book signing
Free!

Last night after work and school, we had a mini-marathon family Valentine-making party, with some secret projects in different rooms, and a lot of construction paper action. Pearl and I worked on decorating one for Andrew (which I bought at Hammer Press in Kansas City last fall, one of my favorite cards I’ve ever snapped up), shortly after the two of them made me a pretty killer all-handmade one with lots of hearts and a super-sweet message inside. It wasn’t hard to distract Everett away from Pearl working on one with a vivid portrait of him on the front, and after she went to bed I pinked a heart from my favorite Denyse Schmidt dots and sewed it on a card for her. Whew! This was our breakfast table this morning with grandparent Valentines waiting to be opened too. It was fun!

Pearl also made a whole family of Valentines for her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, which I just loved. Andrew cut out hearts and she proudly drew each member of the family. They each got emailed photos today and hopefully the real thing will roll into their mailboxes shortly too!

But if you are over the age of three and a half and after some truly gorgeous last-minute Valentines, please stop by the Hello!Lucky blog and download any or all of their free (!) vintage-inspired Valentine cards! My favorite is the cuckoo clock but they’re all awesome. Thank you, Hello!Lucky!

I stopped by Collage this morning and picked up some treasures, including some good Easter presents for Miss Pearl (I never seem to be following some cool blog schedule of sharing my Valentine’s stuff early enough to do anyone else any good, then Easter stuff when anyone else might also actually be thinking about it too… oh well). The markers, one Moleskine, and the sun print paper are all for her. The other Moleskines might find a home with me, I have an idea I’ve been wanting to try to customize a plain journal. Maria was so awesome and helped me find just what I was looking for – including markers that don’t dry out when the lid vanishes into playroom chaos. Who knew?!

I’ve been working on my PMQG name tag this week and was so happy to track down the exact Sharpie I needed there in that perfect turquoise color, so I can write west coast crafty on my white bias tape before I stitch it down. Here it is in progress, looking a little worse for wear after a tote-bag trip for matching purposes. I’m so excited to finish mine, and see everyone’s name tags at our February meeting! If you want to make one too, here are lots of inspiration photos, courtesy of Heather, and Petra’s original post with photos from her presentation at our January meeting.

Last, here’s some more info about the Collage party. It sounds so fun… hoping to go for sure!

If you go:
Collage’s Sellwood Grand Opening!
Saturday, February 18 from 10-6
Special discounts and 60+ raffles, all day!
7907 SE 13th Ave. in Sellwood’s Historic Antique Row, Portland
503-777-2189

Okay, I’m off to make a red wine chocolate cake. Have a wonderful V-day!

Lots of sewing! I think my favorite things I made are my denim wrap skirt, Everett’s birthday banner, and the plaid Pendleton blanket for my mother-in-law. I also love my Denyse Schmidt improvisational blocks, and I hope that I’ll actually get to piece them into a bed quilt in 2012. If you’re looking for truly spectacular finished quilt projects, check out people’s mosaics and posts on the Modern Quilt Guild FB page. (All of my quilting time went to Quilts for Quake Survivors, so my contributions were all just parts of a beautiful whole, so no finished quilts to show this year – I’m ok with it!)

Speaking of Quilts for Quake Survivors, I wanted to post an update over here, too. We are winding the project down this week after donating 30 quilts to survivors of the earthquake in Japan (March and April) and raising $2825 and counting for Mercy Corps’ relief work (May-now). A HUGE thank-you to everyone who has donated fabric, pieced blocks, joined or sashed quilt tops, sewed backs, basted, quilted, tied or bound quilts with us. We are so grateful for your beautiful work!

These quilts are still available for a $150 donation to Mercy Corps – including the brand-new #6 in the collage, Michelle Freedman’s original Cat’s Game quilt!:

1. Batique 1 – 020, 2. Eclectic Asian – 017, 3. Block of the Month – 014, 4. Friendly haze – 004, 5. asian delight – 006, 6. Michelle Freedman’s Cat’s Game quilt – 022

If you are interested, please go to our page on the Mercy Corps website and donate $150 (shipping is on us). You can donate to ANY cause you’d like the money to go to, not just Japan. Just state your preferred cause in the subject line. Mercy Corps will distribute the funds according to your specifications on their back end. Then you can send an email to quiltsforquakesurvivors@gmail.com with the donation confirmation number and the number of the quilt and your shipping address. We will send you a confirmation email and ship the quilt within 48 hours via USPS. Also – if you’ve already donated $150 or more for end of year giving, you can send us the donor number and we’ll gladly send you a quilt as a thank-you.

After this week, we’ll donate any remaining quilts to Bradley-Angle House, a shelter here in Portland, for the women and children there. Thank you to everyone who has supported QfQ!!

I have a few more little things to share soon… like my favorite new hot chocolate recipe, and the finished 25-minute book and toy totes for Pearl and Everett (which were a huge hit on Christmas morning!). I’ll see you when I have a chance to upload some more photos!

I wrote up a simple tutorial, but you can also check out these great ones from Bonnin Designs and Beautiful Journey (update: and Wise Craft’s gorgeous salt shakers). I also made these plastic drink-cup “terrarium” versions last year, if you have those around instead of jars… they’re really fun to make too.

You’ll need:

-Mason jars with lids – I used a wide-mouth pint for my pink one and a half-pint for my red and purple one. Pearl’s (below) is a wide-mouth half-pint.
-Quilt batting remnant
-Scissors
-Glitter (mine was Crafty Chica’s line)
-Hot glue gun
-Bottlebrush trees or any other decorative bits for your snowglobe scene (my trees are from Magpie Ethel, spun-cotton mushrooms are vintage, glitter reindeer is from Crafty Wonderland, squirrel is from the Decorette Shop – Pearl’s animals are all from a bag of assorted plastic toys that was a gift)
-Ribbon, buttons, + embellishments for the jar lid

1. Trace a circle of quilt batting using the jar lid liner and cut it out. Sprinkle glitter on it and plan your little snow scene (remember, you’ll need to leave a little space on each edge for the jar sides). Hot-glue the glittered batting into the jar lid.

2. Hot-glue each decoration in place onto the “snow.”

3. Holding the jar-lid scene relatively still, twist the jar onto the lid, arranging it so that any label or lettering is to the back (or wherever you want it to be). Choose ribbon and buttons if you want to decorate the lid.

4. Hot-glue the ribbon around the jar lid, trimming it so it overlaps neatly, and then glue down a little arrangement of buttons at the front. Add little gold leaves or any other embellishments at each side if you like.

Pearl made an all-animal version once I finished mine. I have to be honest – this isn’t a super fun project to do with a 3.5-year-old, so I wouldn’t recommend it in tandem with younger kids (it’s no felt ornaments, that’s for sure). The hot glue and glass are obviously not kid-friendly so I had to keep all the good parts way out of reach and I was pretty stressed out until the last thing was glued, but she did have a lot of fun choosing and placing the animals, shaking glitter, and picking out buttons. I especially like the big one she added to the top.

Here are is the little one on the mantel…

…and the bigger one on the other side. (Yes, I really like deer.)

I hung the stockings way higher this year, since Everett is after anything within his startlingly impressive arm reach, so here they are over the mantel (instead of under it like last year). Which reminds me, thank you so much to Crafternews for featuring my stockings in a round-up of favorite handmade gifts from Potter Craft authors – I really love Linda‘s.

So, that’s my annual little last-minute holiday decoration project, in the grand tradition of winter wonderland terrariums (12/22/10), stockings for Everett and my mom (12/24/10), tiny gift bags, carnelian earrings, + owl ornaments (12/17/09), and the original set of 3 stockings for me, Andrew + Pearl (12/18/08). Happy Solstice + Happy Hanukkah, everyone!

The first project I saw that was right up her alley was the O Christmas Tree soft felt ornaments. Our Christmas tree desperately needs more cute, unbreakable ornaments – Everett has just started walking and he’s very good at it! This project is not only very 3.5-year-old friendly, it didn’t require a single extra thing from the store (I have a crazy stash of felt colors). Perfect.

We started with the kids (Pearl and her buddy Kirin) choosing the felt color they wanted for backgrounds. I traced a large jar lid and cut the rounds out with pinking shears, then asked what kind of decorations and shapes they wanted to add to their first ornament. The rule that worked well was that they could pick all their preferred colors, shapes, and sizes of felt pieces, but that I did the cutting and pinking. Then, once they’d placed everything just so, I glued the bits down and we cut out new rounds to decorate. It worked super well, and in just an hour or so, they had made six ornaments together! Here are Pearl’s. Two are similar to the ones in the book, but I really love that free-form circle one – she had a great time digging deep into my button jar for favorites to arrange…

Kirin made these three. That giraffe is spectacular (a collaboration between him and his mom!).

Then, a couple days later, Pearl’s friend Rowan came over for ornament-making part two. In the meantime, I’d made it to the craft store for googly eyes – Pearl announced that she wanted to make a Christmas present ornament that was looking at you. So she did.

Rowan made some great ones too – I liked the pipe cleaner hangers!

Holiday Crafting and Baking with Kids is an adorable book. Jessica mentioned in her introduction that she worked on it with her ten-year-old son Lucian, which I thought was so cool. They came up with 26 projects total, covering Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s – everything from table decorations, gift wrap and cards to garlands, cookies, and gifts. It’s so nice to see a book that’s meant for younger kids and bigger ones – so many of the kids’ craft books I have are still a ways out from my 3.5-year-old. This one is recommended for 4 and up, but many of the projects are very do-able for the preschooler. We want to try this one next:

Who knows how much Pearl’s snowflakes will look like the ones on the page, but I think they will be awesome – she was really excited to find special sparkly pipe cleaners at the store to bend and twist! The other projects she wants to make are the paper snowflakes, the brownie gift jar, and the happy New Year paper poppers.

Thank you to Chronicle for sending me this book! It has gotten a lot of love around here already. It looks like Powell’s downtown has a couple of copies if you are local!

You’ll need:
-a scrap of paper + paper scissors
-a 4″ x 6″ remnant of fabric (I used by-the-pound plaid scraps from the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store for mine, but I think solid-colored felt or home dec fabric would be perfect too, maybe with some embellishments like these?)
-a 6″ piece of ribbon
-pinking shears
-pins
-and a sewing machine (or needle and thread).

To get started, sketch or trace a simple paper stocking pattern like the one in the photos (I cut mine freehand from an old envelope, and it measures 3.5″ inches tall and 2.5″ inches across at the widest part, the toe). Cut that out with paper scissors.

Then fold your remnant and pin the pattern to it. Cut out two identical stocking pieces with pinking shears. Cut a 6″ length of ribbon to loop for the hanger and fold it in half. Tuck the ribbon’s raw edges inside the stocking pieces, at the top left corner, at an angle as shown. Pin the stocking pieces together at the ribbon fold and at the toe on the opposite side.

Stitch around the perimeter of the stocking, from upper left where the ribbon loop is all the way around, back-stitching at the beginning and end of your seam. Trim threads and you’re done!

I cut seven out in different plaids and flannels and just sewed them in quick little batches, using three different ribbons of varying widths. (I couldn’t get a good photo on the tree this afternoon, but Pearl let me borrow her Advent calendar.)

These are so fast to make and would be a nice extra to decorate a bottle of wine or cider for a party…

Anyway, I hope you like them! I’m working on a new round-up of all the holiday projects I’ve ever shared a tutorial for (or done a variation on and linked over to elsewhere), and I’m hoping to have that posted tomorrow afternoon, too. Update: Nope, naptimes go fast and this mega-post is still in progress a few days later. Looks like I will be posting it in December 2012, and I have a nice head start… in the meantime, I wrote up a review of this lovely book with lots of holiday projects for kids to make!

and another double-layer one in all the same fabric to fit our vintage (1950) set-in front doorway. A single fitted draft snake just kept rolling away from the bottom of the door, so adding a longer base kept it sitting neatly in place.

Some basics: You can use any sturdy fabric you like for these. I got all my wool fabric at the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store here in Portland, but you could also use home dec fabrics of any type or reclaimed denim.

I’d stay away from whites and light colors that might show dirt quickly. My bright colored one hasn’t had any problems, especially since wool is easy to brush clean, but the darker one seems totally stain-proof.

For this project, your basic formula is to start with a single or patchworked/pieced length of fabric that’s 7 inches x (the width of your door + 1 inch – so, you’d cut fabric 37″ wide to fit a 36″-wide door). And you’ll use a 1/2″ seam allowance throughout.

Here’s a super simple tutorial. I’m a low-fi type at heart, and ended up writing/drawing these steps on paper with a Sharpie instead of trying to do any kind of cool digital illustration. Hope you don’t mind…

Step 1: Cutting.

Patchwork variation… easy!

Step 2: Pin, sew, and stuff.

Step 3: Pin and hand-stitch up the open end.

Double draft snake variation!

Please let me know if you have any questions about the tutorial, and I would love to see your draft snake if you sew one. It’s gotten so cold around here, and I’m so glad to have these little guys guarding the front and back doors… seriously, in an hour or so, you’ll have a couple made and can finish the rest of your holiday crafting in cozy, non-drafty comfort! Or hey, you can stop by a friend’s house, casually measure the door, and make this as a surprise holiday gift.

One last thing: I’m teaching my Woolen Cross Pillow class at the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store on Saturday, December 17 from 10am-12:30pm ($40 includes all materials, plus extra fabric to bring home for a 2nd pillow). Portland Modern Quilt Guild members now get $5 off any Woolen Mill Store class, plus 10% off any purchases at the shop, so be sure to show your PMQG card to get both discounts!

Michelle is also teaching some great classes at the WMS this Sunday, December 11 – Stuffed Penguin (11am-1pm, $25) and Wool Nesting Baskets (2-4pm, $40). Check out her post for photos and more details!

I made a few tweaks to the Purl Bee’s version (exact details in a minute). Since these are for little kids, ages 1 and 3.5, I sized the bag down a bit. I also lined mine and added box corners, just because I like those things in bags. The first one I made is for Everett – owls, lined with cheerful yellow gingham, and with one of my way-back tags sewn in.

Here are my changes, in case anyone else wants to try a kid version too: I sized all the dimensions of the bag down, using two 11″ x 12″ pieces of fabric (one set in outer fabric and one in lining – you can basically make two bags out of 2 contrasting third-yard cuts of fabric), and two 18″ lengths of webbing for handles (one yard total per bag). I followed their directions for the most part, but streamlined a bit since no raw edges would show, and added box corners 1″ in from the bottom corners of both lining and outer bag layers before sewing them together. I sewed the tag into the lining, then sewed the bag and lining together around the perimeter with a small zig-zag stitch. Done!

The finished bag is the perfect size for bringing a few kids’ books and toys along for a playdate or car ride. It’s not super strong, just two layers of quilting cottons (I wouldn’t lug groceries or free weights in it or anything) but it’s perfect for a child to carry around. Using interfacing or home dec fabric would make this a much sturdier grown-up-style bag. You could also add a patch pocket, a little zip bag on a ribbon, or a button closure…

Here’s what I’m going to use for Pearl’s version – buttons on the outside, dots on the inside. Love that bright blue webbing! For my sources – I got the webbing at Cool Cottons today, the button print is from Bobbin’s Nest this spring, the dots are Katie Jump Rope from Purl Soho (2007 or so), the owls are a Japanese import (also 2007-ish), and the gingham was a yard sale find.

Speaking of fabric, this is what else I got at Cool Cottons! So, so happy they still had a nice selection of Lotta Jansdotter left. I got enough gray to make a skirt, one yard of the yellow, and half-yards of the two smaller prints on white and the orange.

This weekend is shaping up to be awesome and busy. I’m really excited for the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Sale – hope to see you over there one of the two days, I will be doing the rest of my holiday shopping! Portland Modern Quilt Guild will be hosting an all-day sew on Saturday (free to members, $10 non-members), yay! And my friend + fellow PMQG member Heather will be teaching a super cool glass etching class (1pm, $10) at the Portland Bazaar on Sunday!

One more bit of news on the PMQG front: I’m so honored to follow the amazing Christina as our guild president for 2012! Heather, Petra, Nancy, Ale and I will be the new officers and I am so excited to be on the board with them. Hope to see you at our December 15 meeting at PNCA – it’s a holiday potluck with lots of treats!

I cut out, appliqued, and stitched up his name pennant the other day with some of my favorite quilting cottons,

and hung it up in the rec room for a super chill little baby party on Sunday.

I also made a nice long string of blue, orange, and white wool pennants for him (using scraps in four colors and white 1″ binding from the Woolen Mill Store). Love how these turned out.
(Oh, and I used that precious extra hour on Sunday to replace the gnarly old wicker rec room curtains with some new ones in a Beach Boys plaid, also from the WMS – a one-yard cut was just enough to stitch up all three sets! You can see them in a couple of the snapshots above… trust me, you don’t need a before photo. Now that we have nice ones, I can’t believe we lived with the crummy old ones the last 4 years. Ugh.)

And my favorite first-birthday craft ever is the 1 shirt + bib. I made a cute set for Pearl’s first birthday in 2009 with one of my precious Flea Market Fancy fabrics,

to match the Pearly Grey birthday skirt I found at Crafty Wonderland (which she is still wearing all the time 2.5 years later).

So of course my little man needed a set of his own too.

These two match a favorite hand-me-down pair of pants I sewed for Pearl (the 18m size of my beloved Burda 9772 pattern – the fabric is Ride ‘Em Cowboy by Robert Kaufman, which I found in Joseph, Oregon two years ago).

I made him some vanilla cupcakes, and of course in the whirlwind of the day didn’t get any pictures of them. They looked just like the ones I made for Pearl’s first birthday, with a blue star candle + sugar sprinkles, but minus the pearl button cupcake toppers this time.

It was a fun afternoon and a victorious first cupcake for my sweet little boy! One happy side effect was that I had to re-organize and clean my craft room pre-party on the fly, since it’s right around the corner from the rec room, and it was in embarrassingly sad shape. Like the old curtains, I skipped the before photo, but it was cluttered with fabric, notions, and random stuff, and not at all inviting for sewing. Here’s what it looks like now – I still have some work to do, but I polished those three sets of cafe curtains off in less than an hour on Sunday morning on that nice clean worktable.

It’s so nice to be able to find everything again!

But after the weekend of fun (including the party, the awesome BUST DIY Guide to Life book event, and half-price tickets to Oklahoma! with Michelle), I have lost my voice and most of my energy has gone with it. So I will be back soon with a new craft book giveaway and some other fun things!

I did spend a little time crafting non-Halloween things on Halloween itself, ironically – I finished up two ultra-simple wool draft snakes I started the day before to guard the drafty doors in our 1950 house from the suddenly chilly weather. This one, at my front door (which is a vintage style with a tilted frame base), didn’t work as a single snake… so I stitched up a second snake and sewed them together along the seams. Here’s a better photo of the fabric (Pendleton’s sagebrush pattern, from the Woolen Mill Store).

I love the one I made for the back door, which was all blue and orange Pendleton by-the-pound wool scraps left over from other projects, pieced together into a long row and top-stitched. That one makes me happy to look at. I’ll definitely write up a tutorial for both styles in the next few days if anyone else wants to make one, they are a nice simple instant-gratification project!

Speaking of happy crafts, Everett turns one next week (!!) and I’m working on a second round of birthday pennants for him – I just finished a name banner like Pearl’s and now I’m making another set in the same blue and orange to decorate the rec room for his little party. A November basement in the gray Pacific Northwest can use all the cheer it can get, so I’m excited to make another set. (I kind of think you can’t have too many pennants.) I will post all the photos on his birthday (next Tuesday!). So far the plan is pennants, cupcakes, and a 1 shirt and pants. He is fun to make things for!

And speaking of non-crafts – I am so happy that Multnomah County banned the toxic chemical BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups, and reusable water bottles last week! After two valiant tries for broader statewide legislation that were each blocked by industry pressure, this local victory protecting kids in our county is awesome. Thank you so much to everyone who helped get us here, especially the 1,050 people who signed the petition I started on change.org (and the 20 of whom signed in person at our pediatrician’s office!). I was really proud to testify in front of the county commissioners at the public hearing last week and hand-deliver the petition, and we gave them a standing ovation when they voted 5-0 in favor of the ban. The Oregonian also spotlighted my letter to the editor on the BPA ban and the Safe Chemicals Act on the editorial page and printed it in full on their My Oregon blog, thank you!

I have a book review post planned for tomorrow and then I’ll write up draft snakes, birthday projects and anything else good I find a few minutes for after that. See you then!