Link Love Friday!

Hello all! What a crazy week. You may have heard already, but we had some intense storms in my neighborhood on Tuesday morning. Maybe I'll tell the rest of the story another time, but for now, here's a couple of photos of the tree that fell onto my house around 4:30 am:

(Everyone has a VW bus in their backyard, right?)

Quite ironic that while Jenny was working tirelessly on the fundraiser for the Alabama tornado victims, I was dealing with my own storm-induced drama! Luckily we just suffered some minor damage, small hole in the roof, damaged siding, and some crushed garden plants. But sitting in that closet (again) with the kids, scared half to death, hearing (and feeling the house shake from) the tree falling on the roof, I have a new sense of appreciation for everyone that has suffered from these amazingly powerful Spring storms we've been having.

So, posting for me has been light, I have a ton of other things going on too. But there's always time to share a few links! Creative and crafty endeavors relax me, looking at beautiful things is an escape for me. So I love sharing these inspirations with y'all every other week.

Link Love: Raffle Edition!

With our fundraiser in full swing, I thought I'd use this episode of Link Love to share a little bit about all our awesome prize donors! (If you haven't read about our raffle yet, go here. Your entry benefits tornado disaster relief efforts in our southern states.)

At the time of my writing, we have raised $930. The fundraiser ends Wednesday night and our goal is $2000. The Southeast sure needs our help. Look up coverage of the tornadoes' aftermath on local news outlets and the reports are harrowing: damage, death, destruction and the grim reality of loss.

When we started organizing this fundraiser, we contacted all our favorite shops, designers, bloggers, partners and friends. They were all so generous, it made our jaws drop! Here's a little round-up of these fabulous people and companies (in alphabetical order).

Felt Week: Links (and a giveaway extension!)

Felt Week is coming to an end. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, and have "felt" inspired! What has been your favorite part of Felt Week? Let us know in the comments, we'd love to hear from you!

The timing of Blogger's technical issues was unfortunate to say the least. We're still working on restoring 3 posts (Little Birdie, Tutorial: Needle Felted Strawberry and Focus on Betz White) and hope they'll be back up soon. We'll keep the Felt Week archives listed in the sidebar for a while, for easy access.

Since the Blogger problems interrupted our giveaway, we're keeping it open a few more days. We'll close the comments on Tuesday 5/17 5PM PST and announce the winner then. Go enter here for a chance to win an amazing felt bundle and needle-felting kit from A Child's Dream as well as a spring doll from Rainbow River Designs!

Please visit us next week, as we'll be hosting a raffle to benefit our tornado-ravaged southern states. Some very exciting prizes have been donated!

To close out Felt Week, here are a bunch of fun and useful links about everything Felt:

Link Love Friday!

It's Friday! Yay for the weekend!

In the mood for some new fabrics and perhaps a few kid-friendly project patterns? Go enter our latest giveaway. Lark Crafts is giving away a copy of Sew Tina! and Rhea of Alewives Fabrics has assembled a gorgeous Pomegranate Fat Quarter set, just for you. Go enter here. 2 days left!

Before I jump into my links for the week, let me share my latest obsession: Pinterest!


Have you guys signed up yet? It is awesome, such an efficient way to bookmark favorite things for visual people. It's wonderfully collaborative too. I love the online community aspect of sharing inspiration like this. Look us up (Jenny and Angel), we'd love to follow you too.

All right, here are my links!

Link Love: Earth Day, Easter and More

It's Friday! It's Friday! Sorry I'm a little late with the links. My husband is off work today and was hogging the computer. (He's looking over my shoulder as I write this, ha!) Happy Earth Day, by the way! Do you guys have any fun plans to celebrate the earth? We did a spring cleaning volunteer project last weekend, picking up trash in a historic downtown neighborhood, and I think we'll work on our potted garden and clean up the yard for a bit this weekend. Sunshine is in the forecast, yeehaw!

Moving on...

- Our Spring Runner Sew-Along concluded this week with some fantastic entries. Remember to go vote for your favorite over in the sidebar! I love each and everyone of them so much, it will be hard to pick a winner.

- In case you missed it, I posted the tutorial for my Charming Baby Quilt yesterday. It's as quick and easy as a quilt can be. If some of you make it, I'd love it if you could report back on the clarity of my tutorial. Need feedback!


My link love for the week...

Friday Links!

Loulouthi from Anna Maria Horner, sneak peek!

Craft Hope announces Project 12: Bracelet making for orphans! (Great way to get kids involved)

Love this creative way to fill in potholes by Juliana Santacruz Herrera, put some yarn in it!

Links!

Happy Friday! I have so many links to share with you today, I think I'll jump right in.

- Betz White just released a new organic collection of home decor fabric: Mod Max. Earthy and modern!


- Here's a nice treasury of Etsy items and shops whose proceeds go to Japan earthquake relief

Link Round-Up

Happy Friday from the house of sick. Blah. I am so done with this yucky bug. It's been over two weeks now since it entered this house. After caring for Ben and the hubby while they were knocked down by it, then taking my teeny baby to the ER for high fever (he's okay now), *I* am now coughing every 5 minutes. That is, when I'm not blowing my nose. Just, blah.

But, enough complaining. I expect (hope!) to be well again soon enough. And in the meantime, we've got lots going on around here!

Linky links:

Here's what caught my eye this week:

Art Box post by Maya*Made

Crossed quilt block from Long Thread

Anxiously waiting for Bird and Little Bird's new e-magazine!

Reading Babble's top 50 Craft Mom blogs for 2011 and feeling happy to see some of my very favorites listed (and dreaming of being on their list some day.....you can vote for us HERE).

Contemplating the purchase of Built by Wendy's Sew U Home Stretch (reviewed here on Made by Rae) because I've finally come to terms with the fact that about 75% of my wardrobe is made of knit (so if I'm going to sew for myself, I need to learn how to sew stretchy fabric, right?)

I'll be back next week to talk about how we celebrated the Spring Equinox, I hope that everyone has a GREAT weekend!

Link Love

I keep trying to work on this post and keep getting distracted by thoughts of Japan. I cannot begin to imagine the extent and reality of the devastation after this massive earthquake and tsunami. The pictures are just surreal -- though I'm sure the horror is quite the opposite for all going through it.

My words feel trivial, and posting links to pretty things seems a bit pointless and superficial right now. But, as I had already collected several links before today, I'll go ahead and post them in an effort to stay positive. Then I'll go hug my babies.

- Super cool retro screensaver clock via How About Orange

- I love these rounded corners by A Quilt Is Nice, totally doing this on my next quilt.

- Smart! A tutorial for contoured burp cloths by Cloud 9 Fabrics (she says, covered in baby spit-up)

- Can't wait to check this book out: Modern Basics by Amy Ellis. Every quilt photo I've seen on the blog tour has been gorgeous and apparently quite feasible.



- I saw this Wedding Ring Quilt by Story Quilt on Sew Mama Sew, it is stunning.

Update: if you feel as helpless as I do about the situation in Japan, here's a link with all kinds of options for donating and participating to the relief effort.

Links: Come on Spring!

Oh, Spring is almost here! My favorite time of year (well, I love all the Seasons but Spring is just SO lovely.) My energy is renewed with every new daffodil or crocus I see bloom! Here are some of the things that have caught my eye in the crafty Universe this week:

I LOVE reading about Farmama's spinning, knitting and other adventures with wool.

Elsa Mora never fails to inspire me: Flower Vision, turned into a miniature book.  And a really, really wonderful print, "Little Red Riding Hood". (The print I had to have, I would buy something from her every week if I could!)

Amy over at Angry Chicken has started making these gorgeous Birth Charts, that is next on my list.

Whipup.net has a new project: Action Pack, a downloadable craft magazine for kids! This issue is about beeswax, and we definitely have PLENTY of that! I've picked several of the projects for us to do during Spring Break, coming up in a few weeks!


Also inspired by Bird and Little Bird this week: Her creative space, and her daughter's creative space. And, a lovely handmade book tutorial!

Hand stitching post, curated by Melanie at A Sewing Journal: definitely considering this for my quilt.

What caught your eye this week? Come visit us on Facebook and Twitter, or leave a comment here!

Link Love

I cannot believe it's almost Friday already. Where has this week gone? I've been so sleep-deprived (and so distracted by the awesome Millennium Trilogy...) that I haven't registered the passing of the days. But, we've had a little bit of snow this week and a whole lot of fun with snow balls. Boy, how nice it is not to be hugely pregnant for this round of snow flakes!

Anyway, here I am babbling again. How 'bout I share some links?

- Beautiful oil cloth placemat by Wren Handmade via The Purl Bee. I am so making something like this when Henry starts eating solids!

- I have been living vicariously through Design Mom who just moved her whole family to France! Brings back so many memories of my childhood and adolescence! The hubby and I frequently think about doing something similar some day.


Photo by The Long Thread
- I love this Monster Tooth Pillow by The Long Thread via MADE. Ben has been obsessed with losing teeth for over a year now. The first lost tooth is most likely still a good couple of years off, but I'd better be ready for that big event!

- Awesome toy bag tutorial on Zaaberry via Made by Rae

- Another fab tutorial via Made by Rae is this Play Mat / Messenger Bag by Ginger Cakes. Wow! Check out the Made by Rae post for tons of ideas for "Boys on the go!".

- I can't wait to see this new line out, Storyboek by Jan-Cyn for Birch Fabrics (via A Sewing Journal), wouldn't it make a super cute baby quilt?

- Speaking of quilts, I really like this quilt top by Bloom. What a great way to feature large scraps of cool fabrics!

And that'll do it because I now have a very cranky baby on my lap. Gotta go!!

Link Love

Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, here is my obligatory round-up of Valentine's posts and others' round-ups, for last minute inspiration and printable materials:

- It's Not Too Late: Valentine's Day Printables by IndieFixx

- Valentine's Day Arm Warmers and Valentine's Cards: A New Twist on an Old Classic by Alisa Burke


Photo by Alisa Burke
- For crafts to do with kids, check out all the Valentine's Day ideas on The Crafty Crow

- Valentine's Round-up by Dana at MADE

- Get Your Valentine Make On by Design Mom

- Printable Valentine's Cards here and here via How About Orange

- Valentine's Day Round-up by One Pretty Thing

- Printable Valentine's Card Round-Up by Allisa at Quiltish

- 35 Printable Valentines on The Long Thread

And because I'm not that big a fan of Valentine's Day, here are some of my non V-day links for the week:

- Great idea for making a quilt out of a jelly roll by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts. That Sherbet Pips fabric is so cute!

- Free "Flirting the Issue" skirt pattern from Anna Maria Horner (PDF here)

- Cute and inventive Felt Ball Trivets on The Purl Bee


Photo by The Purl Bee
- Check out the finished Echino quilt top with improv blocks by Elizabeth at Oh Fransson!

- Great stashbuster by Noodlehead: pillow cases!

- Super cute swaddle blanket tutorial on Prudent Baby via Whip Up

And that's about it! Enjoy, and have a lovely weekend (and Happy Valentine's Day if you celebrate it)!!

Link Love

Happy Friday! The hubby has the day off and took Ben to the Seattle Aquarium for the morning, followed by fish n chips for lunch on the waterfront (don't you love the irony?). Anyway, here I am, alone with baby Henry... I think I'm going to hurry up and post these links, then head on out for a walk with the little dude in the wrap. What to do, what to do? Maybe the library or bookstore, a coffee shop and the neighborhood fabric shop? Sounds pretty good to me! Hope you have a great Friday and weekend!!

Here are my links for the week...

- I thought this quilt was so sweet, lovingly addressing a sad situation: made with hand-drawn squares by the classmates of a first-grader whose family lost everything in a house fire, by Artsy Crafty Babe

- Beautiful cowl by Snorka Knits, via Whip Up, who also posted a whole list of cowls in a Cowl Fever post. Who knew those were back in? I remember the navy blue one I wore obsessively in the late 80's!

- Beautiful mini-quilts over on Fashioned by Meg

- Speaking of quilts... Oh Fransson! has been posting a fascinating series on making improv quilt squares, with the gorgeous collection by Echino. I love this insight into talented Elizabeth's creative process.

- Go get your free PDF pattern for a reversible bucket bag on Sew Mama Sew (pic borrowed from Sew Mama Sew below)


- Cluck Cluck Sew just wrote about how to build a fabric stash. Great, straightforward advice. By the way, have you seen her collection of finished quilts? Insanely impressive!

- Here's a tutorial for a Child’s D-Ring Belt, by The Crafty Cupboard. I need to make a couple of those for Ben.

And that's about it! I have clearly been spending a lot of time browsing the blogs while nursing lately! Hope you enjoyed these links.

Valentine's Day Links!

Happy Sunday everyone! Here are some new (and some old) links for Valentine's Day!

Origami Heart Valentines (goes over the top of a sucker!) by Zakka Life

Painted Valentines (great for the under 2 set) by Paint Cut Paste

Needle Felted Conversation Hearts (a great beginner's needle felting project!) by Felt Cafe 

Beeswax Hearts Garland (wishing we had the beeswax cleaned for this one) by Resurrection Fern 

Vintage Valentines to print (great if you aren't feeling crafty or have run out of time!) by Bella Dia

Tasty Posies for Valentines Day (paper flowers with a sucker inside!) by Full Circle

Wooden Block Valentines (I may use this one for Ian's class) via MADE

Tiny Love by Maya*Made (lovely inspiration)

Jenny sent me two links that she's bookmarked this week too, here they are!

Have a heart strings by Dottie Angel

Fabric Valentine Heart garland from How About Orange

Link Love

Happy Friday! How are you holding up in Nashville after a full week of snow days?! I hope you're hanging in there! We got a ton of snow on Tuesday evening, but it had turned to slush by morning and was pretty much all melted by afternoon due to rain rain rain...

But enough about the weather! There is so much going on in blog-land right now! I think everyone is getting busy with the beginning of the new year and posting about their newest, latest projects. I have a bunch of links to share with you!

- Very interesting read: "Why you should care that the cotton crop failed in China this year" by Deborah at Whipstitch

- Amanda aka Soulemama posted about the solstice sweaters she made for her two oldest sons -- I love them both! They're inspiring me to knit something for Ben for next winter!

- Check out these adorable "forest friends" slippers by felt queen Betz White. The PDF pattern is available for sale here.

- How's this for awesome: The Top 100 Tutorials of 2010 on The Long Thread

- Visit Red Pepper Quilts for some quilt inspiration, and make sure to enter the giveaway of Amy Butler's Soul Blossom fat quarters!

- I'm seeing fun projects with glass jars left and right. Here are some cute bird jars on Gennine's Art Blog

- Melanie of Modern Organic Fabrics has started a new blog called A Sewing Journal (check it out and bookmark it, it's great!). She recently posted about Laura Gunn's new collection for spring. Love!!

- Here's a neat tutorial to make a modern log cabin patchwork pillow, on Design Sponge.

- I love this Kaleidoscope quilt by Cluck Cluck Sew.

I had to restrain myself from posting about 20 more links. I have bookmarked and put stars next to SO many posts this week! Tons of inspiration for the new year! What cool stuff have you found online lately?

Gifts from Nature Series at The Magnifying Glass

Just a quick post today since Ian is home from school for a snow day! You know how the city of Nashville shuts down when we get snow, I was horrified to walk into the kitchen just now to find that there is not one coffee bean in the entire house. So I've reached new depths of coffee desperation, I actually just added hot water to the already brewed coffee grounds at the bottom of the french press. Maybe I'd have been better off just drinking some tea? (I'll find out shortly, once the hot water squeezes the last bit of life out of those pitiful grounds.....)

Today I wanted to direct your attention towards the Gifts of Nature series at one of my all time favorite blogs, The Magnifying Glass. It's a series of posts about what types of things you can make from the natural materials that surround you, and I've taken advantage of several of these ideas already:

I've got a batch of Cinnamon Pine Cones hanging in a bag as I type!

I've got a pile of sticks on the porch waiting to be turned into kindling bundles!

These suet cakes are on my list for our Solstice celebration.

I have a reproducing cactus (it forms tiny little plants with roots hanging down on its tips, they drop into the soil around the "mama" cactus and start growing right away!) with lots of babies I'd planned to give to friends this year, similar to what is in this post about giving living plants to friends.

And I have just the right box to make one of these Nature Shadowboxes, although I might have to keep it for us instead of gifting it!

Have you seen any good decorating or gift ideas that use natural materials?  I'd love to hear about them!  (And that goes for you too, readers!)

Oh, the horror of a coffee bean shortage when you're stuck at home on a snow day!! How was that recycled coffee?? I hope you all are enjoying the snow day (at least you're not past your due date and desperate for the roads to clear, ha!).

Thanks for writing about The Magnifying Glass, I did not know of this blog and it is wonderful! I really like all the ideas to which you linked. I think we're going to make those suet cakes for Solstice as well! I also love those little pinecone elves, how fun are they?! Aside from my blog browsing last Friday, I haven't really done much internet surfing lately and haven't seen any ideas for gifts made from nature. I hope our readers will comment if they have good stuff to share!

Link Love: Christmas Stuff

Hello there! I've been doing a lot of blog browsing today while nursing my little piglet... I mean, newborn baby boy. Goodness, this baby can eat and he's got the cheeks to show for it! And I've got a bunch of Christmas-y links to share. I'm inspired, even though I don't think I will have any time to do any Christmas crafts or sewing. I don't even know if I'll have my Christmas shopping done in time... Flying by the seat of our pants, we are, this holiday season.

Here they are, enjoy!

- String ornaments by Artsy Crafty Babe

- Betz White has been doing a great series of Holiday Hints and I liked her "Comfort and Joy" post.

- Bluebird Baby wrote about celebrating St. Nicholas and it brought back a bunch of memories for me. I attended Catholic school in France during my childhood, and every year on St. Nicholas day, we each received an orange and baby Jesus-shaped brioche.

- The Crafty Crow has been posting all kinds of ornaments and Christmas-y crafts. I liked her post about Christmas cards kids can make.

- Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew made the cutest stockings ever! And she also wrote a tutorial for making a lined stocking with cuff.

- Check out these embroidery hoop ornaments by Melanie at the Crafty Cupboard.

- Dana from Made put together these sweet monogrammed ornaments out of felt, and posted a tutorial for making them.

There is so much more out there, but this will do for now! I hope everyone is enjoying the crazy holiday prep!

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Only a few hours left to enter the giveaway by sponsor Magpie Patterns! Click here to go read the post and leave a comment for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate. Don't forget to leave another comment if you like Magpie Patterns on Facebook, for a second chance to be entered.

Link Love: Fall and Thanksgiving

Well, this baby is officially late. My due date was yesterday! And I'm actually hoping he'll stay put a bit longer as we're experiencing a crazy snow storm right now! While the flakes are storming down, I'm browsing links to get ready for Thanksgiving -- as ready as possible, since there's a good chance we'll be having turkey in the hospital...

Here are some cute Fall and Thanksgiving links.

- Fall Felt Leaves Tutorial by Dana Made It

- Fall felt garland by Cluck Cluck Sew

- The Crafty Crow posted a bunch of turkey crafts this year and last: "The biggest list ever of turkey crafts for kids to make" and "12 turkey crafts for kids"

- Lovely Thanksgiving Leaf Garland by The Artful Parent

- Whit's Knit Winter Hats at the Purl Bee... These are making me want to knit some cozy head gear!

Links!

So, today I'm on a search for some applique tutorials so that I can figure out how to piece together my Solstice calendar. Here's what I've found so far! Some are not related directly to my project, but they are applique tutes nonetheless. Share any links you might have in the comments, readers!

Wool Felt applique in Hoop Frame (From Little Pink House, via Sew Mama Sew)

Machine Applique tutorial from Whipstitch (appliqued panties!)

Simple Machine Applique (Sew Mama Sew again, what can I say, they are awesome!)

Circle Spiral Applique tutorial

Thanksgiving Table Appliqued and Quilted Table Runner from Purl

I've got my pieces somewhat arranged, I hope to tackle (and mostly finish) this by the end of the weekend!