Appleton Dance

Dutilh Centennial Cookbook art by Holly Pultz, 1979 by Linda Theil There is nothing more real than a meal. If you wish to learn about the real lives of humans, discovering what they ate is a good foundation for understanding. Community cookbooks are primary sources for what people ate; how they ate it; and sometimes, why they ate the meals they chose. It is our contention that the recently released digital edition of the Dutilh Centennial Cookbook is a perfect resource for this type of investigation as it is full of recipes and kitchen lore covering Twentieth Century kitchens in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. As an example you can learn on page 55 that the editors included an Italian pasta dish translated to "Straw and Hay" in a Christmas Eve dinner menu highlighted by an original Holly Pultz drawing of baby Jesus in a manger. This cookbook is a treasure of real lives at a real time in a real place. Watch "Cooking Up Change" promo reel for some sizzle! This yea...

by Linda Theil I sewed my second "Clever Core Tote" designed by Diane Spencer-Ogg this weekend. I made this one for my sister-in-law, Susan, who loves a good tote! I used fabrics from the "Slow Stroll" collection designed by Stephanie Sliwinski of Fancy That Design House for Moda in 2022. For this tote I followed the pattern's two-tone layout using two color iterations of the same print from the collection. S-O "Clever Core Tote" crafted by L. Theil in "Slow Stroll" by Moda I added a decorative strip of fabric and D-ring on the front of the tote, omitted from the back. The "Clever Core" design features an integrated, zippered pouch; and a full-sized, zippered-pocket inside. The bag is roomy at 13x11x4-inches, well-designed, and very sturdy in its construction. For the strap I used 1.5-inch wide, cotton webbing from Penny Supplies. I preferred the tan webbing, but Susan chose the jauntier blue! Update: August 25, 2026 I made a bag c...

by Linda Theil I recently learned that the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild's 2027 quilt show will have an entry category for accessories, so I thought I might make a bag to enter in the show. I had a quilted landscape that I'd made in Karen Eckmeier's "Accidental Landscapes" workshop; and I thought that UFO might make a nice panel for a tote. The workshop was a lot of fun. For those interested in pursuing her technique, Karen Eckmeier has produced an "Accidental Landscapes Magic" YouTube video and an Accidental Landscapes (Quilted Lizard, 2008) book available from Amazon. For my quilted panel, I had used fabrics from Sarah Sczepanski's  "Rust & Bloom"  collection of monoprints published by Free Spirit Fabrics in 2023. I had purchased a half-yard bundle of the collection, so I had several fabric choices to use in the construction of my new tote. British designer Diane Spencer-Ogg just released a new, small-tote pattern, the "Cleve...

by Linda Theil It's not too early to start thinking about donations for the Livingston Educational Service Agency's annual Backpacks for Kids! project. July 30, 2026 is the deadline for donations; and local-district, free distribution is 4-6 PM on August 8, 2026. For more information check out the LESA Backpacks for Kids! web page. Alisa has purchased ten back packs and all the required school supplies to fill them and I have made ten pencil-pods -- one for each backpack.  When I went looking through my stash for materials for this year's pencil pods, I found a lot of small scraps from a project I made last year using the "Hedgehog Hollow" collection by In the Beginning fabrics. You can read about that project on my blog post titled "Three pillows and a quilt" . Although the orts were small, the images are so beautiful I thought I would use the scraps to make as many pencil pods as I could eke from the leftovers.. My goal was to feature the beautiful an...

by Linda Theil I have a maker friend who will only create utilitariean items; she knits exquisite wash cloths, dish cloths, and scrubbies, and sews rag rugs. Although she is an esthete, she is a utilitarian esthete who eschews profligacy and will not agree to own any more handmade bags from her profligate friend, lest she tromp too heavily upon the earth. Well! I can't stand it any longer! I have made her a big bag! A "Maker's Tote" by Noodlehead -- a roomy carry-all in the shape of a doctor's bag. The bag was featured recently on the Noodlehead makers' FaceBook page, and I bought the pattern on sight because I had never made a tote of this type. The pattern features two sizes; I made the larger one that finished at approximately 15 x 12 x 7-inches. The pattern is an older design released in 2015. There are no pattern pieces, just a well-organized list of cuts. The directions are clear but are illustrated with line drawings instead of the photographs that ar...

by Linda Theil Cranberry Library announced today that it has published the Dutilh Centennial Cookbook Digital Edition on its new Local History webpage. They said: "Cranberry Library is pleased to provide access to the Dutilh Centennial Cookbook Digital Edition , published in honor of the centennial celebration of the dedication of the Dutilh Methodist Church on November 30, 1979." As organizers of this digitization project, we are grateful for and indebted to library staff Leslie Pallotta, Director; Rebecca Bess, Assistant Director; and Mallory Laporte.  This longtime wish and dream could not have come true without the generous support of The Reverend Tom Parkinson, Pastor of Dutilh United Methodist Church; who wrote a moving dedication to the digital edition of this work. We thank him. Dutilh Centennial Cookbook  editorial assistant Janet Duncan of Cranberry Township provided this contemporary newspaper clipping from the November 3-4, 1979 edition of the Butler county New...