I’m so pleased that the new issue of CRAFT is out! I really love this one, there are tons of inspiring projects to try (33 total!), super interesting crafters featured, and some truly great holiday handmade picks too…

here are a few of my favorite things in no particular order: Diane Gilleland’s profile of Teresa Sullivan (a fellow Portland beader!), Natalie Zee Drieu’s crafty guide to San Francisco, Christine Haynes and Kent Bell’s fabulous party dress project (pictured above), the whole Papercraft section (too many things to list one by one…), Christy Petterson’s personalized notebook project, Susan Brackney’s paper mosiac-ed floor (must be seen to be believed), Mister Jalopy’s tin can tiles project, and Cathy of California’s folded magazine cat and mushroom pincushion.

And I have three pieces in this issue, too — a modern heirloom quilt, a jewelry box, and a recycled sheet project! I really loved making the quilt and it was such a treat to create it for the magazine — I’ve wanted to make something like this for years, and this assignment was the perfect excuse to visit Purl Soho and buy the Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope collection, get out my Gocco printer, and choose some favorite pictures for photo transfer on fabric. It was finished just in time for our second wedding anniversary, so that was cool too.

I wrote up instructions on how to create the squares, embellish them, join the strips together, baste the front and back, and bind it, along with tips on how to build the log cabin squares and make your own bias tape. The whole thing took me about a month and now it makes me happy every day when I see it on the bed.

I also made an Enid-Collins-inspired jewelry box embellished with rhinestones, ribbon, and sparkly trim, which was a lot of fun.

And I turned a vintage sheet into a trio of little things: a craft apron, belt, and sunglasses case.

Thanks so much to Carla and Natalie for the great assignments! You can pick up the latest issue of CRAFT at bookstores, subscribe online, or get the issue at the upcoming Felt Club and Crafty Wonderland events. Viva CRAFT!

I got a chance to do some crafting for fun this week, for the first time in far too long! I whipped up some fun appliqued pieces for my dear friend and for her little boy, due in December. I found a onesie, a baby shirt, a bib, and a t-shirt for her at the Children’s Exchange (a maternity and kids consignment store down the street), and added some fun, simple appliques to liven them up (and cover up a boring design, in the case of the red onesie).

I have always loved whales so this seemed like the perfect little thing to decorate his pieces with. The applique process is so simple: just draw your design on the paper side of a piece of steam-a-seam, press the sticky side to your fabric, cut it out, peel away the paper, and press it onto the garment with a hot steam iron. It worked perfectly on each of these little things. Then I just edged the designs with a tight zig-zag stitch for added security.

I also added a little heart-shaped applique with a monkey on it to a plain bib the same way!

And I appliqued a little sewing machine on a plain t-shirt for my super crafty friend.

This is a great instant-gratification craft project — just fancy up something plain, or cover up a rip, stain, or ugly design with a bright, cheerful applique!

My new article on Gocco printing is up on venuszine.com! I got to interview Mark Pawson of Print More Postcards and Cathy Pitters of Bossa Nova Baby and feature some of their amazing Gocco artwork. The piece was originally going to run in the fall issue of Venus, but got bumped to the website since there was so much content this time — but my article on letterpress, featuring the beautiful work of Carye Bye of Red Bat Press and Maria Vettese of Port2Port Press, is in the current print edition.

gocco-printed postcards by Mark Pawson from the Print More Postcards series

dogwood-flower gocco-printed and stitched vintage sweater by Cathy Pitters; photo by Greg Pitters

The Venus DIY section is paper-themed this issue, which I think is such a cool idea. I really love Gocco, so writing about it and spotlighting some of my favorite artists was a lot of fun! I’m also excited that I have a new Gocco project in the upcoming issue of CRAFT: (05) so more on that later…

I went to the last one of these and it was amazing! If you haven’t gone to a big free-for-all swap like this one, do yourself a favor and mark your calendar now.

When: Sunday, October 7th, 12-4 pm

Where: The 100th Monkey Studio, 110 SE 16th Ave (SE 16th and Ankeny), Portland

Admission: Bring any craft supplies you want to swap, and a $5.00 donation for 100th Monkey’s Art Scholarship Fund.

What happens: You’ll drop off your stuff at the entrance, and then head inside. We’ll give you an empty bag, and you can take any materials you can use from the swap tables.

We do have some guidelines on what to bring. Here they are:

- This swap is for yarns, beads, buttons, papers, rubber stamps, fabrics, sewing notions, art/craft books, paints, drawing materials, and anything else that relates directly to making art or crafts.

- Please don’t bring discarded items that could be “reclaimed” into other projects. We’re big fans of reclaimed materials, but they aren’t the best items for this kind of swap. (But you might consider donating them to SCRAP instead.)

- Fabrics must be at least 1/2 yard. Please do not bring smaller scraps, or finished or half-finished garments.

ps: I seem to be locked out of flickr at the moment, but once I’m back in I have some pretty photo posts ready to go… Viva Sampler!

I had such a great visit to the Bay Area last week — it was so much fun. Besides Meredith’s wedding, which was beautiful, I had a chance to meet up with Christina, Nancy, Natalie and Tricia to criss-cross the city on a beautiful summer afternoon looking for crafty treasures.

Natalie pulled up my blog on her iPhone, which was really fun to see! I love how cute the miniature version is…

First, we headed out to shop for vintage buttons. Instead of mentioning specifics, I’m going to quote Nancy here: “Since it seems to be an unspoken rule in the Bay Area crafty community, I cannot disclose the exact location of these wonders. But if you are really button-hungry, you can probably find it with a little internet search” (which is precisely what we did!).

I have such a soft spot for brightly colored plastic buttons, so that was most of my haul:

Then we all stopped by SF Etsy/Sampler headquarters, in a beautiful open warehouse space downtown. The windows are huge and gorgeous — they said they haven’t turned on the lights once since they moved in.

Lynn and Jennifer were hard at work on the upcoming Sampler:

And these bins are just about 40% of the cool handmade samples — not even half of the contents.

Have you heard about the Sampler reuse contest? Just do something cool and inventive with your Sampler box (there are plenty of inspiring pictures in a flickr set here), and send an email with photos to Team Sampler (details here) by September 8. The winner gets a free month of Sampler… hooray!

I still can’t believe that yet another visit to San Francisco has passed without me actually going to see Mission Dolores! I guess I’ll just need to plan another trip soon — maybe for Bazaar Bizarre?

I’m in Berkeley, recovering from two amazing, crazy days at Maker Faire and Bazaar Bizarre… I just collapsed after I got home last night. I took 200 pictures, taught two workshops, bought some really cool handmade stuff, and hung out with lots of great crafty people. More on this in a couple of days — I’ll be writing it up for whip-up mid-week, with plenty of photos!

In the meantime, here’s a heads up about some cool Portland stuff going on. This upcoming Sunday, May 27, there are two crafty events to hit if you’re interested in crossing town — I think it will be a fun afternoon!

From 11-4, Sister Diane of Church of Craft will be hosting a craft supply swap at One Hundredth Monkey Studio (110 SE 16th Ave.). I’ll be there at the beginning for sure, it sounds great. I certainly have one or two things to donate, too.

And from 2-3:30, the girls of Portland Super Crafty and I will be leading a free shrine-making workshop at the Northwest Portland Library (2300 NW Thurman St.). Register online, in the library, or by calling 503.988.5234. I’d love to see you there! (We’re doing five more crafty events this summer, and Diane is doing six, so mark your calendars now!)

Cathy Pitters‘ Forget-Me-Not Shrine, from Super Crafty

More info on the crafty swap:

Hi, Crafters -

I hope you’re coming by the Craft Supply Swap this weekend!

Here are some details for you:

- Please bring any art or craft materials that you aren’t using
anymore. We’re open to pretty much everything — paints, fabrics, yarn, beads,
buttons, pens and pencils, clay, paper . . . .

The only stuff we’re not looking for are those random cast-off things
you’ve been hanging onto in case that perfect project comes along. You
know . . . those paper-towel tubes and the guts of that old transistor
radio.

- There is no admission fee for this event. We do ask that you bring
something to swap. The 100th Monkey Studio will have a collection jar to
take donations for their Art Scholarship fund, in case you’d like to
donate a bit.

- You are welcome to take any art or craft materials you can use from
the swap. We’re not placing limits on what people take, but we hope
everyone will respect that this is a community event, and leave plenty for
everyone else. We are donating a large portion of the leftover material
to Outside In.

- We will have three free craft tables going on during the day, so you
can also hang out and make stuff:

From 11:00 - 1:00, we’ll be making Fabric Scrap Flower Pins.

From 1:00 - 3:00, we’ll be making Refrigerator Magnets, using all kinds
of found objects.

And from 3:00 - 4:00, we’ll be making Fused Fabric Greeting Cards.

This Saturday is the Jill Bliss opening at ReForm School — I can’t wait to see her new work! I’m really looking forward to the show. Lovely co-owner Tootie mentioned that there will be a mix of pieces, from terrariums to original drawings and limited-edition prints, and Jill wrote about some of her ideas for the artwork here, which was so cool to read.

I love Jill’s illustrations — I have a journal and address book of hers, plus her native flowers notecard set and her Farm Life calendar with Saelee Oh. I’m especially fond of her recycled and reclaimed fabric pieces… and did you know she has a whole gallery of vintage sheets on flickr?

If you go:

Forest Coral by Jill Bliss
opening Saturday, April 14, 7-10 pm
ReForm School
4014 Santa Monica Blvd (at Sunset Junction), Los Angeles
323-906-8660

I’m in the middle of a suddenly hectic day since Andrew’s flying up to Portland tomorrow for work, so I’m sure you’d rather check out Christina Loff’s excellent eco-crafty post over on SFist than anything I can think up in this state. It’s a great round-up column with tons of links to cool Wardrobe Refashion-type make-overs, from books to online tutorials to Bay Area shops and resources. I’m most impressed by the fact that she used her sewing machine to alter a pair of knee-high boots to fit just right! Wow.

*update: Christina mentions that she’s planning to post a picture of the boots on her blog soon… can’t wait to see them!

Speaking of eco-craft, have you seen the new collective blog Sew Green? I love the introductory posts and the blogroll is amazing — so many conservation and environmental links.

I went to Portland Church of Craft this Sunday, which was so much fun. Fifty-two people came out to craft with felted sweaters, and everyone made such cool things! I already knew that I wanted to sew a pig-something to celebrate the Chinese New Year. So I thought about doing a pincushion or a stuffed toy, and then realized that my iPod could desperately use a soft little case — bingo. I improvised this one on the spot and took some pictures along the way. So if you want to make a lucky little Year of the Pig iPod cozy, here’s how I stitched mine!

But first, a quick note: If you’re a knitter, be sure to check out M.K. Carroll’s “Mobile Monster” pattern from Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation — that’s what I used to make my pink pig cellphone cozy last year. Since her design definitely inspired me, I want to give full credit to her beautiful work. Like her adorable pattern, my new felted pig has buttons for the eyes and nose, and triangles for the ears, even though its construction and materials are different. (p.s. don’t miss her super cute etsy shop!)

This is a very easy piece to sew, and you can probably finish it in under an hour. It could also be adapted to hold a camera, phone, or any other little electronic-type thing.

You’ll need:

Sharp scissors
A piece of felted sweater, at least 12 inches by 4 inches for a full-size iPod
Big-eye sewing needle and heavy thread (for the blanket stitch)
Regular sewing needle and thread (for stitching on the buttons)
Two small buttons for the eyes
One large button for the nose

1. Place your iPod on the piece of felted sweater (as shown in the first pic above) and cut it to size so it’s slightly wider than the iPod on both sides. Just eye it, erring on the generous side — you can always trim it to size later. Length-wise, just make sure it completely folds over the iPod twice, plus there’s enough for a flap for the pig’s face. For a full-size version, I cut my felted wool piece so it was 3.5 inches wide and 12 inches long.

2. Make a narrow fold on the bottom edge and pin it down. Use your big-eye needle and heavier thread to sew a running stitch securing that seam (as shown in the second pic above). Then fold that bottom section up towards the middle with the raw edge inside, pinning both sides, so that your iPod can slip in easily.

3. Now you’ll use a blanket stitch to sew both sides of the cozy. Once you finish the first side, knot it securely. Check to see if your iPod fits in neatly or if there’s too much room — if there is, trim the second side and re-pin it. Blanket-stitch the second side the same way.

4. Shape and trim the top so it’s a neat curve, and blanket-stitch all the way around that, too.

5. Now it’s time for the fun part: making the face! Cut two small triangles out of felted wool for ears (mine were about 3/4 inch on each side) and blanket-stitch two sides of one. Attach the third (bottom) side of the ear-triangle to one side of the top of the cozy, also using blanket stitch. Repeat with the second one.

6. Use your smaller needle and normal thread to stitch on the eyes and nose buttons. You could also do a little embroidery or felt applique, or add rick-rack or something else cool.

Here are a few more pictures from the Church of Craft meeting — I brought Pink Craftie along, of course…

…and I even got to meet Heather of CROQ, and got a peek at the new issue (which I have a craft project in!). It looks awesome, I can’t wait to get my copy in the mail. And if you want to see more cool felted stuff, Diane posted her pictures and a cute write-up, too! It was such a fun afternoon.

I got home yesterday to a surreal 60-degree spike in temperature — from gray and below freezing in Brooklyn first thing in the morning to 83 degrees and sunny in Burbank in the afternoon. It was so strange to lug my heavy coat, two sweaters, hat and gloves off the plane and through the warm, nearly blinding sunshine, but I have to say it felt so good on my skin, after I’ve been so cold all week. And even better than the unexpected spring/summer weather, I got to have a joyful reunion with my sewing machine!

Last night I went out to Lisa Congdon’s art opening at ReForm School, which was amazing — I’m writing a review for the Adorn blog tomorrow with my pictures. Lisa was so nice and her work just shone in the intricate groupings she created, so seeing it all together was dazzling. I bought the very first piece at 7:15! I also got to hang out with Cathy, Jessica, and Charles Phoenix, which was lovely. It was such a fun night, and really inspiring!

So this morning when I woke up with tons of energy before 7 am (thanks to the time change) I decided that it was finally time for my first Wardrobe Refashion project — altering a super-preppy whale skirt I spotted for $1 last week in a Connecticut thrift store. I love whales — here, here, and here are some of my favorites — and I have three skirts with whales on them. So what could be better than a refashioned fourth one??

The waistband on the skirt was teeny-tiny and the length was pretty unflattering on me, it hit at mid-calf and didn’t look that great. So I cut nine inches off the top, created a simple 1/2-inch double-fold elastic waistband, rethreaded it with 3/8-inch elastic, saved and re-sewed the belt loops, and ended up with a comfortable, perfectly sized 19-inch-long a-line skirt!

I still have that top length of fabric left — I’m planning to sew a tiny reversible handbag with a contrast kelly green and navy print soon. I may steal the piping belt for the handles but for now it looks so cute on the skirt, I’m leaving it in place.

And I still haven’t bought anything new! The other cool and unexpected side effect of doing Wardrobe Refashion is that I’m really loving the very last new thing I did get, a pair of pink pajamas I bought in January… they seem a lot more [I can't think of the right word here... valuable? special? I don't know] than if they had been sandwiched between whatever my second-to-last purchase was and the mini H+M spree of t-shirts I chose not to do. And everyone else’s blog posts and pictures are super inspiring, too.

It really feels like restricting my buying has shifted my perspective away from acquiring without appreciating to appreciating without acquiring. So thank you, Wardrobe Refashion!

(cross-posted to the WR blog)