Appleton Dance

Alisa's shopping tote Here are the rest of my handmade holiday gifts for 2014. I started out with the aprons featured in my Dec. 2 post  "Handmade holiday presents 2014: Hot Cider apron panel"  . For one of my favorite gifts, I used that same apron panel to make a shopping tote for Alisa using the  Metro Shopping Bag pattern from Bags: the Modern Classics by Sue Kim (Stash Books, 2011) p. 81. I used a coordinating fabric from Wilmington Fabrics  "Hot Cider" line, and for a touch that I really love,  I added piping to the seams of the front and back panels. If you add piping to your project, don't forget to strip the cording out of the last one inch of both ends of the piping to make the top seams easier to stitch. The tote handles are made of webbed belting available at JoAnne Fabrics. Tote in cotton twill by Project by Cotton, made in Japan I also made this tote in a c otton twill with a multi-colored, stylized cat design by  Project b...

Baumeler/Bimeler cabin built 1817, oldest building in Zoar, Ohio. Photo copyright Linda Theil This handmade holiday present is a gift to you. If you like, you may download a free iBook version of my architectural photo study titled Zoar Ohio  from my Blurb bookstore at http://www.blurb.com/b/5792171-zoar-ohio   .  I love making personal books using the Blurb software and website to create unique publications that I can print on demand. Since Blurb announced their iBook option a few years ago, every book I publish can be digitally shared using Apple's iBook application. All my books can be downloaded as iBooks at no cost and viewed on any computer or mobile device equipped with the free iBook app. This year, a chance conversation reminded me of a series of architectural photographs that I took in Zoar, Ohio in the spring of 2007. I had printed the photos and put them in an album, but thought it would be great to use those photos to create a coffee-table book for...

"Hot Cider" apron panel by Nancy Mink for Wilmington Fabrics I bought the  "Hot Cider" apron panel by Nancy Mink for  Wilmington Fabrics  at the American Quilter's Society expo in Grand Rapids this summer. I thought it was pretty so I bought a coordinating stripe and a "Hot Cider" panel in the same line. When I pulled all my Christmas panels and fabric out of my stash in preparation for making some handmade holiday gifts, I thought the apron would make a great Thanksgiving gift to send to my faraway friends Virginia and Janet and Cindy to use during their holiday preparations. I ordered more apron panels and some other coordinating fabrics from Hancocks of Paducah   and got busy when they arrived in mid-November.  Instead of using the ties that came on the apron panel, I used a 28-inch length of cotton belting for the neck ties and cut 3-1/2 inch wide by 32 inch long strips from coordinating fabric for the waist ties. To line and make the a...