WIP: Milk and Cookie Table Runner

Hi Angel!

Well, I had grand plans for this year's Christmas in July, but life took over with a series of most unfortunate events -- family illness and injuries, toddler molars ruining sleep for everyone, and to top it all off, a car wreck.

Thank goodness everyone's okay (though the car isn't, but that's why we have insurance), but a week later I'm still a bit shaken and distracted by the whole thing, in particular the incessant calls to and from the insurance, the crash shop, and concerned family and friends. Mini-PSA: please check your blind spot, friends. Some guy didn't and cut me off on the highway (I-5!!), causing me to bump into the car to my left. It could have been much, much worse and I'm so grateful it wasn't.

Moving on... Aside from my little tree ornaments (tutorial here), the only thing I've been able to complete for Christmas in July is the first few steps in making a new table runner. I really liked John Adams' Milk and Cookie Mat design (free pattern download here) and decided to triple the basic patchwork shape and turn it into a Christmas runner!

Stripy Patchworky Placemats

Good morning! Guess what, we had snow on the ground this morning! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I'm so done with the cold weather. Bring on spring, pretty please!! But wintery weather is good for one thing: staying warm inside and getting lots of craft and sewing projects done. One of my latest gift projects finally reached its recipients and I can now share photos!

Do you remember when I showed you a sneak peek of a grey and linen project, and asked for input on what to do with the leftovers? Well here's the actual project: grey and linen stripy patchworky placemats!


Some time last year (I don't remember when or how, there are apparently holes in my brain) I befriended Rachael, the crafty maven behind the blog and shop Imagine Gnats. Through email and Facebook, we've gotten to know each other quite a bit and she's just a lovely person, not to mention super inspiring with incredible productivity and creativity (check out her awesome mod quilt and her first embroidery patterns, for example).

Maverick Star Pillow

Hi Angel, I hope you're enjoying the morning and not pulling your hair out over all this Flickr trouble (dear readers, you may notice some broken photo links on the blog right now, we cannot figure out what happened and have contacted Flickr to help us out... Cross your fingers for us!). In the meantime, I wanted to show you a few more photos of the pillow I made with the Maverick Star quilt pattern from Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts.


Pillow covers are so fun and fast to make, and they're a great way to give a room a quick makeover! I like switching out our pillows every so often and make the living room look fresh and new. Since I had just re-upholstered our ottoman, I was on a roll to spruce up that room!

Pretty in Patchwork Doll Quilts: Book Review and Giveaway

Dear readers, today I'm excited to share my thoughts on the book Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts which Lark Crafts sent me for review a couple of months ago. Lark Crafts is generously giving away a copy of the book to a lucky reader, and Angel and I are throwing in some fabric to make your own patchwork projects, so read on!


Pretty in Patchwork is a new series by Lark Crafts. In this book, Cathy Gaubert leads a group of 20 top designers who contribute an array of patterns for doll quilts featuring applique, piecing, embroidery and more. Doll quilts are the perfect size to try out new techniques and quilt designs without the commitment of a full size quilt. The quilts featured in this book would look great as works of art on a wall.

Getting Things Done...

Hello friend! Time keeps slipping by in fast-forward, it seems. I've been meaning to post a little update for days and just can't find a moment. Right this minute, I have one kid down for nap, one kid "reading" to himself in the living room, loads of laundry churning and a cup of reheated coffee in front of me. Time to steal a few minutes and show you what I've been up to!

Mostly, I've been busy working on stuff for my shop on Etsy and finishing a custom order. The items for my shop are patchwork pouches (I showed you the WIPs a couple of weeks ago). I'm pretty happy with how they turned out! I especially love the green and purple ones with the contrasting linings and charcoal zippers, I think I'll make more.

Grey + Linen

Hi Angel! I hope you're well. How is the remodeling progressing on the house? You must be so antsy to move back and settle in (and set up your new studio space, ha!). I can't wait to see the things you made for the craft show where you had a booth last weekend, hint hint!

In the meantime, I wanted to show you a spur-of-the-moment project I've been working on. I need some input and ideas!


Grey is my favorite color lately. Blame it on Seattle... as well as the amazing fabrics currently available everywhere featuring that muted and versatile color. I've been on a mission to finish a well-overdue gift for a friend (more on that soon!!) and I wanted it to feature a combination of greys and linen.

On My Dining Room Table

Happy Monday! I am currently SWIMMING in works-in-progress. Too many ideas, not enough time... and too many kids, ha! I thought I would share a few pics of what has been occupying my dining room table this weekend.

Remember these and these? I got the urge to play with scraps on Friday and began experimenting with the makings of a few pouches.

Progress on the Wedding Quilt!!

Happy Monday, friend! I hope you stayed safe and dry during the storms that ripped through the Southeast last night. It's true, I now live in earthquake country, but I do not miss the tempestuous weather of Tennessee -- so scary!

I wanted to show you what I worked on this weekend: progress on the Wedding Quilt for my cousin Clarisse. The weekend turned out to be quite busy, hence this isn't as much progress as I would have liked to show. But, I did some experimentation with scraps and love the way it turned out!




If you need a refresher on my wedding quilt project, here's my original post explaining the project, looking at inspiration and seeking input. And here's my work in progress post from back in September! (September?! Whoa, time flies!!)

100 Pretty Little Projects: Book Review and Giveaway

How is it Thursday already? AAH! Slow down the countdown to Christmas puh-lease! Anyone else freaking out that it's less than 3 weeks until the big day? I did complete a Christmas gift yesterday, but more on that in a second.

A couple of months ago, our friends at Lark Crafts sent us the book 100 Pretty Little Projects to check out. I am excited to share my review with you guys today and show you the fun project I made from it. If you'd like a copy of 100 Pretty Little Projects for yourself, make sure and enter the giveaway at the end of this post for a chance to win one!



100 Pretty Little Projects
Pincushions, Potholders, Purses, Pillows & More

100 Pretty Little Projects is a compilation of favorite projects from the popular Pretty Little series. It features cute and practical projects from fabulous designers and crafty bloggers including adorable pincushions, coasters, patchwork potholders, doll quilts, pretty pillows, trendy clutches and much, much more. The book is organized in four loose categories: Enjoy, Use, Hold and Give.

Tutorial: Scrappy Stocking Christmas Ornament

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I'm so excited to have a tutorial to share today!! I was inspired by a custom project I did recently for a lovely customer (more on that soon) to create some patchwork stocking ornaments. This is an awesome scrap-busting project. It is simple and pretty quick: you can sew half a dozen ornaments in an afternoon. And the result is so cute! (At least I think so, I hope you do too!)




I decided to leave the edges raw, so they fray a little bit. I think that's part of the charm of this scrappy stocking, but if you don't like that style, you can use that fray spray, or sew the stocking right sides together and turn it inside out. My tutorial will show you how to make the raw-edges top-stitched wrong-sides-together version shown in the above photo.

Here we go with the tutorial (if my kids let me focus long enough, oy).

Scrappy Stocking Christmas Ornament




For this project you will need:
- fabric scraps (I used quilting cotton and natural linen)
- batting scraps
- lightweight interfacing (optional)
- felt scraps for the cuff (optional)
- ribbon, yarn or twine for the hanging loop
- scissors, sewing machine, thread, pins, washable fabric marker

Stop Sign Pillow

Good morning! Yesterday we shared our review of Stash Happy: Patchwork and mentioned that we both had been working on the hexagon project from the book. Today, I'd like to show you my finished project! I ended up making a throw pillow for the couch.

When Ben saw me working on hexagons, he asked me "Are you making a Stop sign?", I replied "Um, no", and he argued "Well, those are hexagons" (as in "don't you know that rule that all hexagons must become Stop signs"). So, to humor him, I've called this pillow the Stop Sign Pillow. I know, I know, I could have just corrected him and told him Stop signs are really octagons. This all seemed funny to me at the time, but now I'm thinking I'm just sleep-deprived and delirious. Oh well. Let's move on, shall we?


Angel, do you recognize the prints? I used the scraps of Anna Maria Horner voile from your Turning Twenty quilt that you sent me forever ago! I had never worked with voile before and never made hexagons before. Leave it to me to turn something simple into something complicated. I thought I would talk a little bit about the tricks I used to make this project happen.

Patchwork Pouches - Round 1

Well, hello there!

I have been so busy working on our fundraiser that I haven't had much free time to sew lately (Wait, "free time"? What's that?). No complaints or regrets, it's all for a great cause -- especially reading the news about the latest tornado disaster in Joplin. Horrifying and reminding us of the dire need for help in those devastated areas of the U.S..

I did carve out some time a while ago to make progress on my patchwork pouches since I had to send some out as birthday gifts (including one to you, Angel!!).


How did this start? Let's see...