Appleton Dance

by Linda Theil Zo-zo got her own picture book for Christmas this year: Dances with Toads , a compendium of photos taken by her mom and dad during 2020. I used the Blurb BookWright software to produce a print-on-demand hardcover, and a free ebook download available on my Blurb bookstore . You can preview Dances with Toads by clicking on the Book Preview link below: Dances with Toads August & Septe... By Linda Theil Book Preview

by Linda Theil I wanted to make a holiday version of the "Spencer Ogg Cosmetics Pod" that I wrote  about here in September 2020. I love the pattern because it is quick and easy and very clever; and it makes up into a cute pouch that would be good to fill with candy or other treats for an inexpensive, but thoughtful and personal holiday gift. The gift pod could be cut in any pretty holiday fabric, but I had a piece of the "Novelty Gnome Stripe" from Shelly Comiskey's "Timber Gnomies" line for Henry Glass & Co., Inc. that I thought would be cute made up as a gift pod. Using the stripe posed an interesting challenge because the pattern is one-piece, so to make a one-way design work, you have to piece the fabric so that when you fold the pouch into shape all the design elements are right side up in relation to the constructed pod. If you didn't cut and piece the fabric, the design would be upside down on either the front or the back. This is not ...

 by Alisa Last year I inaugurated my new sewing machine with an advent calendar project detailed here .  This year I was inspired by Misty Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company to pickup another Makower UK panel to make a calendar for my mom.   The panel Misty demonstrated was sold out on MQC and Fabric.com. In October! So I turned to Etsy and picked the panel up from GardeniaFabrics. I started by cutting out the individual pockets and ironing the seam allowance under. I topstitched the upper edge of each and then sewed each pocket to the panel in its assigned spot. Once the pockets had been applied I cut the back from a coordinating fabric --  Andover/Makower UK Scandi 2020 Trees in red -- and ironed the back onto the front with Hobbs fusible batting . I did a little bit of quilting on the piece, outlining the sections for each day. Then I bound it with Kona Cotton yardage in iron . I used cuttings from my binding to add three loops to the top of the calend...

 by Alisa In the last few weeks I've become slightly obsessed with macrame after seeing a wreath project in the 2020 edition of Better Homes and Gardens: Holiday Crafts magazine.  The designer is Anne Cops, she sells these wreaths and many other cute items in her Etsy shop . I remember learning to macrame back in grade school, but I hadn't given it another thought until I saw the wreath and decided I had to get the supplies to give it a try. Now I've made, and gifted, three of them and I think I have gotten them out of my system.  I'll share the supplies list and a few pictures below in case you are interested in giving it a try! Supplies: 5mm Macrame Cord  Natural 5mm Macrame Cord Red 5mm Macrame Cord Green 9" Hoop Beads (optional) Resources: Pattern  "Knotting Thrill" in BHG Holiday Crafts 2020 Basic Knots  with pictures Double Half Hitch tutorial  YouTube I made one plain natural, one beaded natural and one red one.  What will you make?

by Linda Theil I fell in love with  CAPSULES "Stargazer" fabric line from Art Gallery Fabrics Studio  and could hardly bear to cut the selection of fat quarters I bought as a bundle. I made a tote  that I love and tote with me everywhere. So when I needed fabric for a 60-inch by 80-inch twin-sized quilt, I thought of my "Stargazer" stash. I won't say my "Stargazer" twin is the world's most brilliant or original quilt design, but it is very adaptable, fast and easy to sew, and lends itself to a modicum of self-expression. So I thought it might be worth sharing -- 'cause doesn't that sound great! And if you have fabric you can't bear to cut, you might want to try it, too. What you need for a twin-sized quilt: 12 18-inch squares of coordinating and/or contrasting fabric (possibly cut from 18-inch by 22-inch fat quarters A "jelly roll" of 2.5-inch by 42-inch neutral, contrasting, and/or coordinating fabric -- I used an all-gray je...

By Linda Theil I asked Alisa if she wanted a cosmetics bag to go with her set of Spencer Ogg Packing Pods and she said, "Duh!" I had made her a set of the lightweight packing pods with a "layer cake" of ten-inch squares of Robert Morris reprints from Moda, and blogged about the make here at "Spencer Ogg Packing Pods" . Diane Spencer Ogg also offers a free pattern for a "Cosmetic Pod"  along with a video tutorial on her YouTube channel that I wanted to try. Unlike the lightweight "Packing Pods", Spencer-Ogg recommended a sturdier fabric to give the little cosmetics box/pod some structure. She also said the pattern could be made in larger sizes by increasing the size of the free printed pattern. I had some of the Robert Morris ten-inch squares left over from making Alisa's packing pods, that I could use to make a matching cosmetics pod. I had to piece the ten-inch squares to make a piece of fabric large enough for the one...

by Alisa I recently made a small quilt for myself! I saw  this Instagram post by Kelly of  @jeliquilts  back in the Spring and I just fell in love. The inspiration is much more beautiful -- and quilterly -- than mine. I immediately went looking for that rainbow fabric. It is a Kona Cotton jelly roll from 2017 that was a tricky to find. I found the  Kona Cotton New Bright Palette Rollup  on an Etsy shop where it is now sold out. Missouri Star still has it on their site as "out of stock" so I do have hope they will restock. Meanwhile, the charm packs are available. If you are searching for this, be aware that there is a Kona Brights Palette with a slightly different color selection. I love this Kona New Bright one, but I'm sure there are tons of solids that would look just as lovely. My original plan was to sew 30 of the strips in the 41 strip pack together to get a 42 x 60-inch center panel and then border that six-inches all around and end up around 54 x 72-inch...

by Linda Theil I bought a panel with four "Botanica" placemats by Michel Design Works for Northcott and a "jelly-roll" of 42-inch by 2.5-inch strips of all the fabrics in the "Botanica" line so that I could use the strips to make a quilt-as-you-go backing for the "Botanica" placemat panels. I needed a fifth placemat, so I used scraps of the ginko leaf pattern from Michael D'Amore's "Daily Zen" line for Benartex to make the backing for the fifth placemat. I had to match the pattern to get a piece big enough for the back. Nice job, huh? Quilt-as-you-go is an easy technique for making placemats since the quilting is done along with the piecing. Each placemat on the "Botanica" panel is 21 x 14-inches, so for each placemat I cut a piece of quilt batting in that size, and spray basted one placemat from the "Botanica" panel to one side of the batting with Spray-n-Bond Basting Adhesive . I chose t...