Handmade for Newtown

Have you guys heard of Handmade for Newtown? This is an online auction organized by my friend Rachael and From The Heart Auctions to benefit the parent community in Newtown, CT after the horrible massacre that happened there a few weeks ago.




I donated an original piece of burlap art to the auction to help raise money for the cause. It's called Sunset Birds. It is handmade with fabric designs appliqued onto a piece of upcycled burlap from a coffee sack. The artwork is stretched onto a wooden frame, professionally finished and ready for hanging!

You can see the auction listing for it here and if you'd like, bid on it!




There are a ton of fabulous handmade items, along with supplies like fabric, patterns and more up for grabs. Go check out the auction album and bid generously, it's going to a good cause!

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what's open for bids:








Pretty awesome, don't you think? Go check out the auction album and bid away!

You can "Like" From the Heart Auctions on Facebook here.

And here's my artwork again, just because I took a bajillion pictures of it, ha ha!




You will find the how-to and rules for bidding when you go to the auction album. It's pretty self-explanatory. You bid by leaving a comment with a higher dollar amount on whatever item you'd like.

Bids will be accepted through Friday, January 18 at 10pm EST. Go bid!

Infinity Scarves and Coffee Cozies

Hi there!

I mentioned yesterday that I made quite a few gifts this year, but surprisingly, it didn't feel like that much. That might be because I had just come out of working like a nut to prepare for my first Holiday Fair. Or it might be because I made several of the same, easy gifts!

I mentioned yesterday that I made quite a few infinity scarves this year. Here are more I made for you Angel, as well as for Ben's teacher and assistant-teacher, and last but not least for my Mom! There are all made of voile from various Anna Maria Horner collections. So soft, and wonderful to work with!










I bought some Field Study voile to make one for myself too, so I'll try to take some pics and share how I make these. Super easy peasy and they just use ONE yard of fabric.

The other gift I made a lot of were coffee/tea cozies. I started by using a cozy pattern (that I can't find right now) that featured a velcro closure. I made this teacher gift for Henry's preschool teacher, who also happens to be my neighbor and friend. I gave that to her along with an assortment of teas in a handmade fabric bucket (more on those soon!). This one features a print from the new Stamped collection by Ellen Luckett Baker (love!!!!).




Then I decided to simplify the cozy pattern and made a whole bunch of them by skipping the velcro and just sewing both ends on top of one another. It worked great. I made one for myself using some leftover Echo by Lotta Jansdotter and I use it all the time (which tells you just how I often I splurge on lattes, ahem).






Since we weren't going to be in Texas with my family for the holidays, we sent a care package. In it, I included a coffee cozy for each adult member of my family. When we connected with them on Skype for our traditional Christmas breakfast, they each had a coffee cup in hand, adorned with a cozy. It made my day more than any gift!


Have you caught on to the infinity scarf craze? Do you have a favorite pattern? What do you think of working with voile? What are some of your favorite go-to holiday gifts? Let's chat in the comments.

Gifts for Secret Santa Exchange

Hello!

We're back to the school routine over here, as of yesterday, and I'm trying my best to get back into the swing of things. It doesn't help that I'm a bit (a lot) sleep-deprived due to getting sucked into yet another dystopian trilogy. Oh, how I love to read with my little Kindle, but I need to stop staying up so late!

I've been going through all my photos from the holiday season and realized I made quite a few gifts this year! I will start by showing you what I made for a handmade Secret Santa gift exchange with a group of mama friends.

In this exchange, we all provide some helpful tips and personal information about our tastes and wishes to help guide our Secret Santa. Among other info, my gift recipient said she would love a new scarf and small jewelry, and adored the smell of lavender. I focused on those points as I made my gifts:


- A pair of earrings

I made these with sterling silver and jade beads (at least I think they are jade, salvaged from a former bracelet) from my stash. It was fun to make jewelry again, it had been a while. There was a time in my twenties when I made new pieces almost every day!




- An infinity scarf

This scarf features voile by Anna Maria Horner on one side and double cotton gauze in a light shade of coordinating chartreuse on the other side (Angel, do you recognize the style, I made yours at the same time!). I actually made quite a few infinity scarves for Christmas this year and will share more tomorrow.




- Lavender dryer bags

These are so easy! I use reusable cotton tea bags, fill them with drier lavender and zigzag-stitch them shut. I then create a little pocket out of pretty fabric and stuff the tea bag in it, then top-stitch them closed. You can throw one of these in the dryer with your wet clothes and your laundry will come out smelling lovely! Multiple uses for each bag until the scent disappears.






- Scrappy Stocking Ornaments

I used my own tutorial to make some little ornaments for her! I kind of like this non-traditional color scheme, what do you think?




I also threw in some homemade cookies. And that was it! I hope my recipient enjoyed her Secret Santa gifts!!

I myself received some pretty cool handmade Secret Santa gifts, including a large button trivet similar to this one on MAKE. I love it!


Did you guys participate in any handmade exchanges this holiday season? What did you make? What did you receive?!

New Year's Giveaway!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you're all well on this first day of the year. I'm so excited to get back to the blog with a huge giveaway!!

My entire family has been sick since the beginning of Christmas break, so our holidays have been extremely low-key. This means, however, that I had time to clean up, organize and purge. I went through my entire fabric stash a few days ago and decided to be ruthless. I filled an entire garbage bag with miscellaneous fabrics I hadn't used or thought of using in over a year. The bag is going to my teenage neighbor who is currently learning how to sew!




When purging, I also took out several cuts of designer fabrics, and decided to give them away! See above, these are all gorgeous prints and I hope they will go to someone who loves them as much as I do!! Since I was planning a big giveaway, I also decided to throw in some books! Lark Crafts generously sends us books to review on a regular basis and I have so many, it's time to share!

B is for Bookmarks

Hello Angel,

I hope you're feeling better! Things are so busy here, preparing for Christmas, shipping orders from my shop, etc, that I haven't had a chance to breathe deep and fully process the tragedy in Newtown, CT.

There are so many wonderful, eloquent, thoughtful essays and articles out there about it that I don't feel the need to add more to the mix. Let it be said though, that I have not cried so much and so uncontrollably in a long time, probably since I was severely depressed a decade ago. This horrible event seems to be affecting everyone more deeply than previous similar occurrences. Probably because of the shattered innocence. My personal processing mechanism is to focus on the productive and the positive (which is why you've seen "regular" posts around here) so I've been trucking along, trying to deal as best as I can.




My lovely friend Rachael told me about ABC's Of Love: 26 Ways To Pass It On, a blog project she is working on along with other crafty friends, to encourage all of us to find simple ways to share love within our families and communities. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to channel some of my sorrow for the victims and their loved ones into a productive and positive endeavor. I decided to contribute B for Bookmarks, and share a simple project I worked on with a class of kindergartners on Friday, weirdly enough, at the exact same time I found out about the Newtown massacre.

The curriculum in Ben's kindergarten class is project-based. Their current project is "Fabrics around the world". They've talked about different fabrics, their texture and purpose. Because of my "expertise", I was invited by the teacher to do a little presentation and a project. We focused on quilts, patchwork and the amazing possibilities of fabric scraps! I had prepped a little project the previous day, and we made fabric bookmarks with the kids. They could either keep their bookmark for themselves, or give it as a gift -- and they unanimously chose gift-giving. So sweet!

Here are the 2 bookmarks I made beforehand and brought as examples:

December Sponsors: Christmas Shopping!

Happy Sunday!

In this last stretch before Christmas, there is still time to get awesome gifts for the crafty person in your life (or spend that Christmas cash on some crafty goodness for yourself!). Please welcome back our lovely sponsors for December: Drygoods Design Online, Fat Quarter Shop, Felt on the Fly and Sew Well Maide, !

Here are some gift ideas from these wonderful businesses. We hope you'll check out what they have to offer and consider them for your holiday shopping!


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My gift selections at Drygoods Design would include a fat quarter bundle of Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry, a few yards of that amazing metallic gold linen, a couple of Orla Kiely plant pots, and a gift certificate for good measure!




For you Seattle locals, how about some classes at the brand new make*do*mend studio? I had the pleasure of touring the space last week and it is absolutely fabulous!


You can find Keli and Drygoods Design Online here:
Shop -- Blog -- Facebook -- Twitter -- Pinterest

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Craft Fair Tips From a First-Timer

Hi Angel,

I am sorry to hear you're sick. I hope it's a quick bug! We're staying in this weekend, for the most part. The kids both have a cold and it's sleeting outside, so we're painting ornaments, making a gingerbread house and will probably bake Christmas cookies tomorrow. After the horror of yesterday, I just want to snuggle my babies this weekend.

Let's focus on something positive, shall we? As you know, I participated in my first craft fair here in Seattle last weekend, the Holiday Arts + Crafts Open House, and thought I would share photos and tips from my experience! It went so well, I was super happy.




Do some research and prepare

First off, if it's your first time doing a craft fair, do some research and prepare! I am so thankful you reminded me of that, Angel. I looked up the tips you had mentioned on Lupin Handmade and from there, read more via this list of links on Handmadeology. Extremely helpful! I made lists, I made plans, and felt empowered.