Spring applique

I was thrilled when I spotted some adorable purple and white baby and toddler long-sleeved shirts on sale at Target a few weeks ago. They made the perfect base for some spring time shapes made with this sweet April shower print (actually called Hushabye Droplets) from Tula Pink.



I definitely needed some spring thinking. I'm looking forward to my flowering magnolia tree and some green grass and birds twittering outside my window...



In the meantime, about a dozen of these shirts and onesies are for sale at The Shop Next Door! I just dropped them off this afternoon.

I threw in a couple of things for the boys, too:

Yarn!

I'm not a contender in the Knitting Olympics (who knew there was such a thing?), but my new project does coincide with the challenge pretty nicely. Look at this very pretty wool yarn I picked up at Home Ec Workshop in Iowa City the other day.



It's currently about 6 rows into becoming a nice, warm, very simple, chunky knitted scarf. I hope to have it done by the time the next winter Olympics rolls around.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nanaimo bars

I was browsing food blogs looking for inspiration for Olympic-themed cookies or cupcakes to take with me to an Opening Ceremonies gathering, when I saw a treat that looked awfully familiar.



Nanaimo bars!

Or, at least, that's what the blogs were calling them.

To me, they looked suspiciously like Prayer Bars, one of my favorite holiday treats growing up. My mom made them every Christmas, adding green food die, and sometimes mint flavoring, to that middle buttery-sugar layer. My only two attempts to make them ended in disaster -- a crumbly mess. So I gave up on Prayer Bars and kind of forgot about them.

Until these turned up.

Toddler Backpack

image from www.byhandathome.com

Now that I know that this gift has arrived safely in its birthday boy recipient's little hands, I can finally show off my (er, Colden's) toddler backpack!

This project was so. much. fun.



The pattern is from Made By Rae. I knew I had to try it the minute I saw it on her blog. I bought the pattern almost immediately. I bought the fabric a few days later -- I love the sweet, colorful, happy pattern. It seemed like a great fit for a creative little boy.  It wasn't until later that I realized that the Bremen Town Musicians had other significance, too: Colden's mom, Kendra, and I first became friends while acting in a children's theatre production of Bremen Town Musicians during our first years of high school!

So, anyway, I promptly ordered the perfect pattern and the perfect fabric, and then they sat. And sat. And sat.

There were a few things that intimidated me a little about the pattern. I called for a zipper, and I'd never sewn on a zipper before. It also requires pipping, another thing that I'd not only not tried, but also heard bad, hard, frustrating things about.

So, I made a practice bag with fabric left over from another project. Thanks to some fancy feet handed down by mother-in-law, attaching the pipping turned out to be a breeze. The zipper, it turned out, was even easier.

My downfall was

Patchwork pillows

I was having a conversation with a friend a while back about our sewing styles.

She likes to take raw materials and piece together something new. No pattern. No tutorials. Just experimenting and creating.

I, on the other hand, generally like to leave the hard work up to other people. I prefer to let them take the time required to go through the trial and error of creating a pattern. I don't like ripping things apart and recutting and resewing. And I like to know that if I start a project, I'm going to end up with a usable final product -- not a half-finished heap of fabric that I'm tired of working on but can't bring myself to throw away. I'm pretty practical that way, I guess. So, really, I'd chalk up any of my successful sewing projects to being able to follow directions well.

But, lately, I've wanted to break out from under the restraints of following directions, and decided that improvisational quilt blocks -- turned into pillow covers -- would be a great place to start. I started by going to Tallgrass Prairie Studio to read up on on how to creating wonky log cabin blocks, then shut my laptop, pulled out my fabric scraps, and got to work.



After a few of those, I went totally directionless and just started piecing fabrics together. I'm really happy with the way the blocks -- and resulting pillow covers -- turned out.

Oh, hello

Boy. Once you slide out of the blogging habit, it's tough to start back up again.

Especially when you've built up a big backlog of stuff to talk about. (But, perhaps, been negligent with photographing along the way.) I've been working on my sewing space again (painting! and organizing! and accessorizing!), making some gifts, experimenting with patchwork pillow covers, learning how to screen print, appliqueing some more onesies for The Shop Next Door, and baking bread in 5 minutes a day!

I don't know where to begin.

I need an ice breaker.

How about something that's not mine at all, but the work of another local stitcher who sells her handiwork at The Shop Next Door?



I fell in love with this octo-plushie from Jayne Danger when I stopped by the shop on Saturday -- apparently  I walked in about 5 minutes after she'd dropped them off, so I got first pick from the gaggle of newly displayed adorable octopodes. (It was tough pick between this one and a blue guy with a comb-over.)