I’m very excited to be part of the new Crafty Tree Trimmings ornament-making ebook! I was asked to design something with beads and buttons, so I made a set of Sparkle Ornaments — a super fun way to use some of my favorite glittery bits and pieces.

I made two ornaments, a pink and gold version and an all-blue one. It was fun to bring our little silver tinsel tree out for the photos and listen to some Sufjan Stevens while I made the ornaments — it’s still early, but I’m looking forward to the holidays this year!

The book is a collection of six ornaments to make in all different crafty mediums from some of my favorite designers. The book includes:

* Crocheted Flower Ornament, by Linda Permann
* Felted Gingerbread House Ornament, by Betz White
* Bead and Button Sparkle Ornament, by me
* Vintage Treasure Ornament, by Kayte Terry
* Gossamer Thread Three Ornament, by Diane Gilleland
* Paper Globe Ornament, by Patricia Zapata, who is also the book’s designer

The cover spotlights all the ornaments so nicely, and each how-to has a clearly photographed set of photos and any full-sized templates you need, right in the book’s pages.

Fifteen percent of the book’s sales go directly to Project Linus, an organization we were all eager to support. Here’s a bit more about them:

It is our mission to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.”

And Diane and Patricia structured their book in a very innovative way: each contributor receives a portion of the sales as well, so we are shareholders in a sense as well as creative contributors — very cool!

You can find the book here and check out a flickr pool of ornament photos here. I would love to see what you make from the collection!

I’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!)

I 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

I 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!!

Yoda!

I spent 45 minutes wandering around the madness of the 30% off sale at Fabric Depot holding my trusty Yoda action figure up to different bolts of fabric, but I think I got some good ones! The polarfleece is super soft and cozy for her hat, and I liked the cheerful orange-stars quilting cotton for her snake — after I chose the dull green and dark brown, the bright safety-orange felt I’d originally picked up felt like it completed a miniature hunting palette or something. So since she’s one and a half and I get to make the costume, stars it is!

I’ll post photos and a tutorial when it’s done… I’m going to finish it early this year (unlike last Halloween when I was still fringing a scarf a half-hour after the party started).

I’m very happy to be part of the Summer of Making next month at the wonderful PNCA here in Portland!

The Continuing Education department has put together a fantastic line-up of classes, and they’re offering a very generous giveaway this week if you help spread the word about them…

from the blog:
We have a nice package of promotional items to give away. This includes a signed copy of Susan Beal’s Button It Up, Denyse Schmidt’s Quilt-It Kit, a yard of County Fair, Patchwork Promenade Print by Denyse Schmidt and a Summer of Making Poster. To win leave a comment on the blog, become a fan of Summer of Making on Facebook or mention us on your Facebook profile or blog. You will get one entry for each of these (maximum of 4). We will randomly select the winner June 21.

I am very honored to be one of the teachers alongside some of my favorite crafters. Denyse Schmidt is coming to teach a two-day workshop, which I am so excited to take! Jess Beebe is teaching By Hand: Needlework and Macrame, Sarah Schlosser-Moon is teaching Artful Blogging, Brenda Mallory is teaching Contemporary Fiber Art, and I am teaching Bead and Button Jewelry.

I’m so excited about this class. We’ll have four days to work on jewelry, beading and embellishment techniques of all types, a luxurious amount of time to make things! Bead + Button Jewelry meets Monday through Thursday, July 20-23 from 10-3 in a nice big classroom with natural light at PNCA — all the details are here.

from the website:
In this hands-on class, students will learn and practice a range of beading, jewelry-making and embellishment techniques, including wirework, stringing, weaving, knotting, gluing, hand-sewing, and other craft methods. Bring in your own favorite pieces to design around, complementing them with vintage and new beads, buttons, findings, chain, fabric, and other materials from Susan’s collection.

Aside from the nuts and bolts of practical making, we’ll focus on color, balance, arrangements, and intuitive design – creating a collection of jewelry and other crafts that bring your treasures to life. With four days to work together, we’ll create a collection of instant favorites for gifts or for yourself, while building a strong foundation for designing future projects with your new skills.

The projects we create will reflect each student’s personal sense of style and other favorite elements – instead of a cookie-cutter approach, each designer will enjoy the flexibility to focus on what he or she prefers.

If you want to know more about any of the classes, you can download a syllabus for each one on its page at the Summer of Making site. And if you have any questions about mine in particular, please ask away over here!

One last thing: if you are interested in taking Bead + Button Jewelry, I would be thrilled to have some crafty friends in the class. If anyone who registers mentions that they read my blog or either of my book sites (or have checked out my flickr, or know me through Portland stuff) I will put together a special package of vintage beads and buttons as a thank-you! You can leave a comment here or just let me know the first day of class, and I’ll put something fun together with some of your favorite colors and styles and bring it for you to craft with the second day and beyond.

p.s. I’m cross-posting this announcement on my Button It Up and Bead Simple sites, too, so sorry for the exact repetition if you see it more than once, but since the class ties together techniques from both of my books, I’d like to spread the word in all directions!

Andrew was working on a project in Seattle all last week, so instead of flying down to the Golden State as planned, Pearl and I ended up heading up to the Evergreen State for a couple of days instead. We stayed right downtown, which was fun, and got to visit the market, the big awesome library, Uwajimaya (for browsing craft books and sharing a Beard Papa cream puff), numerous coffee shops, a couple of kid-friendly pizza places, and Szechuan Noodle Bowl (for green onion pancakes – delicious). Best of all, we took the ferry out to Bainbridge Island, which Pearl loved. It was a gorgeous sunny day and I took about a zillion photos, but here are my two favorites… leaving Seattle

and approaching Bainbridge… Mt. Ranier is really something on a clear day!

Meanwhile, Sunday was my last-ever CraftStylish post. As of yesterday, June 1, the site has been restructured pretty dramatically (which you can read more about here and here; update as of June 3, also here and here) and none of the dozen of us who were regular contributors are going to be weekly posters any more. But they’re keeping the archive up, so while I’m sad to lose the freelance job and the chance to design projects over there, I’m really grateful that my work will still be out there — along with all the great projects I want to try from Kayte, Linda, Erika, Lee, Diane, Cal, Jennifer and Jeffery! I may do something else there occasionally later, but for now they’re streamlining quite a bit, and Sunday’s post is it for now. My project posts are all archived over here and I made a flickr set with some of my favorite project photos here, if you’re interested.

So, here are my last two projects — I gave my jewelry-making heart free rein for these. First, I used some of the stellar Crafty Chica paints and imagery to make this simple decoupaged pendant and matching earrings. This is a sweet little project, very quick to do and fun to wear.

And then this week I wrapped things up with an Art Nouveau-inspired pendant using some of my all-time favorite bits and pieces: vintage beads, charms, and shrink plastic.

So, thanks so much to Michaela and everyone at CraftStylish for the chance to be part of it all this last year and a half!

I love veggie burgers — and after a few too many gardenburgers at restaurants with no other vegetarian options, a good homemade one* is amazing.

So when I joined another play food swap I immediately thought of making some felt veggie burgers (since Pearl is also a fan), and after a brief and unproductive flirtation with the idea of tempeh tacos, it was on to the burger pattern-making, cutting and stitching!

I started with a tiny version of each piece (bread x 2, swiss cheese, burger, and lettuce) so I could get the proportions right and try out a few stitching and cutting ideas. Once I liked them (I really love the tiny ones),

I made my real patterns and watched basketball while I cut out 56 (I think?) felt pieces.

A quick trip upstairs to the sewing machine, a baby break, and a last round of lettuce leaves later,

I had all seven burgers finished — one for Pearl to keep, and six to swap!

I didn’t have any sandwich bags, so some pink ribbon had to do instead. (I used red ribbon for my fortune cookies a few months ago, come to think of it.)

So they’re packed up and ready to take to the post office, and I think I might try a side of sweet potato fries next. And I’ll definitely post photos when I get the rest of the play food — the sneak peeks I’ve seen look awesome!

(here’s what I got last time, in a bigger swap)

*My favorites are the one at Detour, the seasonal one at the New Seasons deli (which I had for dinner tonight) and the Chez Gourmet pecan flavor, but I really miss the Monster Burger from the long-gone Daily Grind. Anyone who used to work there want to share the recipe with a fan? Or do you have a favorite to share?

…except that I like both of them, I guess.

Our garden is kind of freaking out, in the best way. The combination of nice steady south-side sun, decent rain now and then, and some plain good luck has turned our formerly teeny snap peas, Red Russian kale and collard greens into giants! I took this photo on Friday right after I put in the tomatoes and peppers (at the back), exactly four weeks after I planted these little guys.

Day 1:

Day 28:

kale:

collards:

Yay! We’re really happy about it. I’ve had a gray thumb (that’s a charitable description, actually) for years and it’s really fun to see the garden come along after last year’s in the back yard didn’t really like us much (probably something to do with the late planting, unexpectedly crappy soil, over-shadiness, and total amateur approach in general). We’re going to pick some greens for the first time today!

On a totally different front, I just did a jewelry project for CraftStylish that I wanted to share over here.

I haven’t had time to make much jewelry lately (nor wear any, with my quick-grabbing toddler on the case) so this was fun — I took apart an old necklace I never wore and turned it into a necklace and earrings set.

Maybe I’ll wear it while we’re eating our fresh greens…

p.s. thanks for the nice comments and emails, I am going to whip up some teeny terrarium kits and offer them up later this week!

One of the things I didn’t get a picture of was all twenty of my finished party-favor terrariums together before they went to their new homes (darn!), but thanks to Caitlin, here are two of them living in harmony together.

I found the little bunnies and dinosaurs at the Decorette Shop, rounded up some moss from my neighbor’s yard, got my buddies to save empty baby-food jars for a few weeks, showed my ID and signed all sorts of forms in triplicate to buy a can of spray paint, and spotlighted some of my favorite vintage pearl buttons from the Kitten as a little topper for each one.

I love how they turned out! This is an easy and fun little project that you could add your own favorite elements to, and it would be perfect to do with older kids (ie, not Pearl). If you’d like to make some of your own, I wrote a tutorial here which is based on Jenny Ryan’s excellent Mason Jar Terrarium tutorial for CRAFT:.

Speaking of making them, I have some of everything left over and I’m thinking of offering up some kits as prizes to my blog readers. Would anyone out there be interested in a build-your-own-terrarium set? If it seems like fun, I’ll write up a post in the next day or two with a chance to win some pearl-button terrarium kits!