quilts given and received

Twin gave me a beautiful quilt as a wedding gift. It's now my faithful tv-watching sofa blanket--if I am on the sofa, chances are pretty good that I am under this quilt. It's the perfect size, and so pretty.
It's made mostly of Joel Dewberry fabrics. I love the mixture of floral prints and geometric ones. The best part is I can tell how carefully Twin picked out these fabrics with me in mind. They are the kind of colors and prints I love best, and she got it just right.
I love how the back is pieced with larger pieces of the different prints. I am always too lazy to piece the backs of quilts, but it's so worth the effort.
And this is a snowball quilt that I made for Matt's mom last Christmas. I'd never made a snowball quilt before, but it was a fun pattern to sew. It's one of those patterns where you get the visual impact of curved seams, without actually having to make any curved seams, because the octagons read as circles from a distance. I think to truly get a "snowball" effect, I should have made my squares smaller, but if you step back far enough, my snowballs do look pretty much round.

I used polka dot binding. I love binding, it's always my favorite part.

I'm about halfway through piecing the blocks for a new quilt for Matt. It features gnomes, and I am very excited about it. Am hoping to have it finished by Christmas, though I'm not sure it's going to happen. Luckily he has a birthday in February, so if I miss Christmas, I can just say that I was always intending it to be a birthday present anyway.

advent calendars on etsy!

For the past few years, I've been making these pyramid garlands as an advent calendar. I fill them with good dark chocolate and I munch my way through December. They look so very cheery hanging from the mantel, though I used to hang them between two bookcases in the days before I had a fireplace.

This year I've come up with an improved template and two new designs. And if you'd like to have a forest of little pyramids of your very own, now you can purchase the kit on etsy! I'm selling them as PDF downloads--you just print and assemble. I will admit that by the 24th pyramid, your scissors hand will be a bit sore. But it's so worth it in the end, to see your little line of trees appear.

The "Starry Trees" design is new, and I love the way it looks hanging from this fallen branch. It was very odd--I had this vague notion that a tree branch would look cool, so I walked out into the backyard and immediately picked up this branch. Perfect size, knobby branches, lovely bark color. The stars are obviously aligned for the Starry Tree Advent Calendar.

The Mod Trees design is similar to the classic one I first made a few years ago. Lime green and red is about the perfect combination.

And I will point out that a Lindt truffle fits perfectly inside a pyramid. I alternate the white chocolate with the dark chocolate. One of these years I am going to tuck in little notes or toys instead of chocolate. Maybe. Probably not.

Happy counting down!

pillow challenge

Erin's Pillow Week Challenge has me thinking pillows. One of my friends in college had a roommate from France who would always pronounce "pillow" as "peeeeeeellow" in a very charming way and so that is how I always pronounce it in my head. (Sometimes it slips out in conversation too and then people look at me funny.) But I do love making new peeeeellows for my house. I have a little stack of homemade covers that i have made over the years and I swap them out as the season or my mood demands.

I made two patchwork pillows over the summer out of leftover fabrics from the wedding. I had collected a pile of old vintage sheets from thrift stores to use as table coverings, and I wanted to create something out of the fabric afterward as a keepsake for my mother and aunt. I alternated a square of vintage print with a calm gray linen. I actually inserted zippers into these as well, which I rarely take the time to do. (Though Erin's method looks so easy I might be doing it more often!)

I also wanted something new for the sofa with cooler weather approaching, so I sewed two of these linen pillows. I had two small scraps of this floral print from Globalweave Textiles that I bought a couple years ago from Purl. I just did a simple envelope enclosure in the back. I contemplated piping, and then I wussed out.

In case you're interested in past pillow projects from the archives, check out my coloring book pillow, tuxedo pillow, and rainbow pillow. Isn't it funny how when you have a blog you name all your projects...it does make them more memorable I guess.

I have had new dog bed covers on my list for ages, so hopefully this week I can get going on those. I bought an awesome plaid flannel that I think will be perfect. (Matt is lobbying for a new puppy and when I showed him the fabric his response was, "aw, a little black lab puppy would look great on that.") I think we're going to resist a new puppy for now, but I am determined that the new dog beds will have piping. Red piping. Gonna get on that pronto.

Thanks Erin for the peeeeeellow challenge!

halloween 2010

BOO! Halloween is probably Matt's favorite holiday. He loves zombies, monsters, ghosts, flesh-eating piranhas, really anything that is creepy or grotesque in an entertaining sort of way. I, on the other hand, am a total chicken. But I am trying to be supportive. We have yet to find a horror movie that I can watch, but we are going to keep looking.

I made this linen mask for Matt, sewed the mouth up crudely, and painted the edges with fabric paint. When we moved into the house, we actually found a scythe in the shed (along with an old-fashioned plow), so that came in handy.

Jennie carved the pumpkin on the top step using the tutorial from last week's DesignSponge post. She used linoleum-cutting tools, which proved a challenge. It was difficult to carve deeply enough with the tools so that the light showed through. But the carving is so delicate and pretty.

For this wee white pumpkin, we got out the drill and drilled a ton of little holes in it. At first it looked like swiss cheese, but once it was lit up, it looked more like a starry night sky.


We had fun. We have too much leftover candy, though. It's all downhill from here, straight to Christmas. Might as well enjoy the sweet season.

crunchy leaves and blue blue skies

I took these pictures near Boone, NC. Twin and I drove up onto the Parkway for a late afternoon hike, and all the colors were so beautiful. I'm a summer girl, but autumn can be awfully nice too.



We're in full Halloween mode this weekend. Twin and her boyfriend are visiting, and although today is devoted to football, tomorrow afternoon is all about the pumpkin carving. I saw an electric pumpkin-carving tool at Lowe's. Have you seen this? It looked like an electric screwdriver and it came with all kinds of different tips to carve various effects. I almost bought it, but decided we'd do it the old-fashioned way. It seems a bit excessive to use a power tool to carve a pumpkin.

These Halloween shirts are a gift that recently went to two of my best friends, who now live in Texas. This summer, they became foster parents to three little boys (5 mos, 2 yrs, and 10 yrs). Almost overnight, they became a family of five. I can't even really imagine the challenges and joys of this experience, but I am so proud of my friends.

The t-shirts were freezer-paper stenciled. The little boys got cute monsters and their older brother got a zombie. Because who doesn't love a zombie?

Hope everyone has a most spooky and merry weekend!

a dollhouse for two both

Twin and I made a dollhouse. Eeee! It's the Coventry Cottage from Greenleaf. I have been contemplating these dollhouse kits for the past couple years, thinking it would be really fun, but also worried people would think I am a little crazy. Seeing as I already play with dolls and am a grown woman with no children. However, when I mentioned it to Twin she just said "That sounds fun!" as I knew, of course, she would. Because she's cool like that.

We spent two weekends on the house. The first weekend, we stained, primed, and assembled the main parts of the house. We also painted both interior and exterior. These kits are not for the faint-hearted. Luckily Twin and I have great attention to detail (aka nitpicking perfectionism), so this was great fun for us. I can see how some people get really into miniatures. And there are people who are really into miniatures. I browsed a few dollhouse forums online and these people are serious. I could totally see myself being one of those people.

The second weekend, we shingled the house, put together the furniture, and made all the interior furnishings.

The Coventry Cottage is one of Greenleaf's smaller kits, just two rooms downstairs and an attic. We made the upstairs a bedroom. You can see here that we never got around to shingling the back sections of the roof. We ran out of time, you see. But we'll get to it.

In the living room, we wallpapered one wall with some William Morris wrapping paper that I have had forever. We didn't really know what we were doing, so we just slapped it on with Mod Podge. Is there anything that Mod Podge can't do?

Almost all of the furniture was included in the kit, though we did pick up a few little pieces from a local craft shop. The cuckoo clock is one of my favorite details. I want a cuckoo clock in my real house one day.

The kitchen got red gingham curtains and a cheerful tablecloth. The men in our lives have been very supportive of our dollhouse efforts, good men. Matt even found the Shaker cabinet at the craft store and brought it home to us. I love it.

Twin made the teeny tiny cushions for the easy chairs. She concluded that sewing tiny cushions is challenging, and sewing tiny, perfectly round cushions is nearly impossible. And yet they look perfect. We ruminated on the best method of hanging curtains for quite a while and then ended up just hot-gluing them straight to the wall. Seemed to work just fine.

And below is a slideshow with a bunch of in-progress pictures. We aren't crazy, are we? Or maybe we're just crazy in a good way. I'm gonna go with that.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

one year of gardening down

Now that we have been in our house for a full year, it's exciting to see how our efforts have altered the overall look of the house, and also to daydream about all things we'd like to do in the future. Of course it's a little daunting this time of year, seeing aaaaaaall those leaves fluttering down. (Really? We have to deal with those leaves again? Already?)

Matt and I might just be the perfect yard maintenance team. I get to fuss around with the flowers and pretend I am the master gardener, while he does all the real work. It's a very good deal for me. He keeps the grass just so, trims all the edges just so, deals with our mountains of leaves, and whistles while he's at it. I've never really thought about it, but gardening is like any work of art. The shapes and colors and balance are important, but it will all look like crap if everything runs together willy-nilly.

Monday, Matt was home from work (he got the day off, the stinker) and when I came home, I saw that he had worked his magic. You see, he apparently has a magic wand that blows away the leaves, trims away the weeds, and neatens all the edges. Who am I to question his magical ways, or discover the source of his power? It is best left to the imagination, I think.

He even took down the two spindly cedar trees that had been choked by neighboring trees into a brown, half-living state, and which I have been eyeing unsympathetically for the past year. I can't tell you how happy this makes me.

I have so many plans. We need ferns, hostas, solomon's seal, bluebells, and muscari in our shade bed. We need azaleas, rhododendron, asarum, and arum in our wooded border. We definitely need more vines on our fence -- carolina jessamine and star jasmine. We're planning a new sun perennial bed in the front yard. (I haven't even explored sun-loving perennials yet.) I dream of japanese maples and cherry trees.

All in good time. For now, I am learning to care for what is here. I divided my first perennial this past weekend, and I think it went well. I want to raise some succulents indoors this winter. We're researching vegetable gardening.

I do love our patch of earth. Even more than I thought I would.

P.S. The new season of This Old House started this weekend on PBS. I love that show SO DARN MUCH. They are working on this odd-duck of a house from the 1940s on the Charles River. In the first show, they busted up the old boiler and discussed asbestos abatement and river conservation. Among other things. It is all so fascinating. You should check it out.

mandy gets new togs

Lately I have been wanting to sew some clothes. But I couldn't figure out what to sew, or what fabric to use. I pulled out all my patterns and sat in front of the fabric stash and waited for inspiration to strike. And it just didn't. I'm still not so good at sewing garments that it doesn't seem an Endeavor (with a capital E) each time I start one. I couldn't muster the creative energy.

But then I remembered Mandy. She has been sitting patiently in the corner of the craft room ever since I bought her. (Was that really two years ago? egads.) I had promised her a whole new wardrobe and I hadn't produced so much as a stitch. But dolls are very forgiving. She is still just smiling away at me, so prettily.

I sewed pants! I've never made pants before. Turns out it is not so hard after all, particularly when they are sized for a 16" doll. I have some corduroy pants just like this that I cherish to an extent that is rather excessive. But they are the perfect pants, so Mandy needed some as well. The shirt was fun to sew, especially all the little details, like the tiny buttons that cover snaps underneath.

Her second outfit. She is obviously ready for prep school here. I had some issues with the collar that I covered up with trim. Matt laughed because I styled her hair differently for each outfit photo. Well, of course I did.

She needs a nightgown. The Mandy doll that I had growing up had a flannel nightgown with pink rosebuds that my Grandma sewed. I also have a scrap of baby blue wool houndstooth that is just asking to be made into a jacket of some kind. If I can figure that out. Wait for it.

fall wreath

I saved a bunch of hydrangea blossoms from the wedding and hung them upside down in the attic. The blue ones didn't dry so well, but the enormous white ones dried beautifully. In fact they are just as beautiful dried as they were fresh I think. I pulled them all down from the attic this weekend and put together a new wreath for the front door.

I love the way it all looks rather fall-y, with the browns and whites and just a touch of green. It was very easy to put together, though some of the lovely, small brown leaves were very delicate and kept falling off the stems the moment I touched them.

I picked up the brown dried flower/seed pod things at Michaels. I went in thinking I would get fake berries for a bit of color, but dried flowers are expensive! Even the ones at Michaels. So I contented myself with the three brown flowers and thought that would be enough of an accent.

Here they are close-up. And those are the very delicate brown leaves which will probably be blowing away off my wreath very soon. I need to spray the whole thing with some kind of fixative (hairspray?) to help it last.

It has all of a sudden turned to autumn here. We've had some cold nights, and we've turned on the heat. Planning to decorate for Halloween this weekend. The pups and Matt have been enjoying the football. The dogs are rapt, can't you tell? To them it's just pack nap time, and they love it.

painting books

When Twin graduated from her library science program, I painted a set of bookcovers depicting her most beloved books. I had the idea after seeing the artwork of Jane Mount, who has done an awesome series of paintings called the Ideal Bookshelf. I loved the idea, so I asked Jennie to give me a list of her nine favorite books of all time. I ran out of steam after the first six, but I still think they are a pretty cool display. Christmas Carol was one of my favorites to paint. I found an image of an old vintage copy online with Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig dancing. This Rough Magic is one of our beloved Mary Stewart books. Jennie and I have loved every single one of her books, since the day long ago when Mom first put one in our hands.

The Blue Castle is by L.M. Montgomery--one of her few stand-alone novels. Tells the tale of a spinster who has given up hope of finding love. (But don't worry, it's actually very funny.) Horton was a book that was read and re-read to us by our mother. "A person's a person, no matter how small."

The Frog and Toad books, on the other hand, were always read to us by our father at bedtime. And of course, we had to include a Jane Austen. Funny how Twin's list of favorite books would be nearly identical to mine. Or maybe not so unexpected. The books that are most dear to us are the ones that have been our friends for many years.

Here they are all together. I am not much of a watercolorist, but I really had fun making these. And hopefully they will help liven up Twin's new office, now that she is a really-truly librarian, all official-like.

thanking twin

This spring my sister finished her graduate degree, which meant it was time for her to find a real job again. After a few months of suspense, she is now happily settled with a great job in a new town. I'm happy because she's only about a 2-hour drive, farther than I would like but certainly tolerable. Before she moved, I made this stationery set as a thank-you gift for all the help she gave me during the crazy wedding preparations.

I printed the cards with my gocco. Does anyone know if gocco screens go bad after time? Because I had a time of it making these. I've always had such great results with my gocco, but this time my image did not transfer well at all--they printed with what looked like a spatter of paint across the design. I think I wasted at least three screens trying to get these to print properly. It was rather frustrating.

Anyhoo, I finally got a tolerable print, and then I made a bunch of little stickers to go with the cards. I printed these on my inkjet printer, onto sticker paper. Then I punched them out with a 1" circle punch. Some of the stickers have her return address or her initials and the rest just have a little dahlia on them. The little tins fit so perfectly in the box, I was very excited. I have a ton of these tins in different sizes and I use them to hold little sewing notions like snaps and hook and eyes. I can't remember now where I found them, but if anyone would like to know I think I could figure it out if I tried.
I bought the cigar box at Michael's (the Angry Chicken put me onto these--she has made several gifts using these boxes). I lined the bottom and lid of the box with fabric for a splash of color. I just cut a thin piece of cardboard to the right size then wrapped the fabric around and glued it on with ModPodge. I also used ModPodge to attach the fabric into the box. I painted a simple little dahlia on the top of the box. Lots of red for my beloved Twin. xoxo