Appleton Dance

Ocimeae Lavender Farm, Webberville, Michigan by Linda Theil My friend Mary took me to Webberville to cut lavender yesterday and the adventure was totally uplifting in every way.  Ocimeae Lavender Farm on Gramer Road in Webberville, Michigan is finishing up this years u-pick lavender festival from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day through Saturday, July 12.  Update 7/11/25: Owner Tom Smith said today they plan to extend public access to cutting on weekends through July, or as long as the blooms last. Our morning spent in the lavender fields was balm to the soul and delight to the senses. I thought of my friend Rosemary in her love of Provence would have been thrilled to find a memory of her favorite place on earth so close to home. Ocimeae Lavender Farm, Webberville, Michigan The sales barn features lavender products including lavender oil and hydrosol that they distill on site. Distillery at Ocimaea Lavender Farm, Webberville, Michigan Sales barn at Ocimeae Lavender Farm, Webbervil...

LESA associate Mark Rogers unloads backpacks in Howell today. by Linda Theil  Livingston Educational Service Association associate Mark Rogers said, "We appreciate you!" as he unloaded a dozen, supply-filled backpacks we delivered in Howell today for the LESA "Backpacks for Kids" program. LESA is accepting donations of backpacks and school supplies through July 31, 2025 for free distribution to students in school districts throughout Livingston County on August 7, 2025. For more information about LESA's Backpacks for Kids" program visit the LESA website at https://www.livingstonesa.org/community-resources/backpacks-kids . We spent Saturday at Alisa's house filling backpacks with all the great supplies kids need to go back to school. We filled handmade pencil pouches with pens, pencils, scissors, erasers, and a pencil sharpener. For more information on how we made the pencil pouches visit our AppletonDance blog post titled "Fast Archie". We did...

Mini "Arch" pouch, pattern by Diane Spencer-Ogg. 6.5x5x2.5-inches by Linda Theil We needed a dozen pencil pouches to put in the backpacks we are filling for the annual "Backpacks for Kids" project organized by the Livingston Educational Service Agency of Livingston County, Michigan.  I thought Diane Spencer-Ogg's new "Arch Zipper Pouch" would make a cute pencil pouch if I reduced the "medium" pattern option to 80-percent of the original. That reduction made a pouch measuring 6.5-inches wide, by five-inches high, by 2.5-inches deep. Since I had to make so many pouches, I looked for ways to simplify the already perfect design to reduce the drudgery of so much repetition. Although the pattern has a beautiful two-color option, I decided to make the one-color option, reducing the number of pattern pieces to one piece for the body of each bag, and two identical pieces to construct each zipper placket. I also eliminated the lining, and the interior...

Cathy and Carla on the beach at Sterling State Park, Monroe MI, May 2024 by Linda Theil Several years ago, Alisa discovered the full-amenity cottages on the beach at Sterling State Park in Monroe, Michigan; and we have enjoyed several family vacations there. Two years ago, I invited my cousins to spend a long spring weekend at Sterling, We enjoyed it so much we went again last year, and plan a trip for this year, too. I wanted to make a commenorative goodie-bag for this years trip so I chose a photo from last year and developed a color scheme for a tiny duffle and matching mini-backpack. The duffle is made from the Spencer-Ogg "Arch Zipper Pouch"   in the medium size -- 9 x 6 x 3-inches; and the mini-backpack is the "Bitty Bug Pack" pattern by Carolina Little Stitches. Both bags are made with Tilda "Chambray Dots" and faux waxed-canvas from Sally Tomato . For the feature panel on the front of the mini-backpack, I resized the  Sterling beach photo with my...

  by Linda Theil Zoe likes penguins; so, I made her a penguin birthday card using a video from Missouri Star titled "Penguin March" . The video describes how to make a garland of penguins, but I just made one penguin with a ribbon. I attached the penguin to Zoe's birthday present using the ribbon tied into a bow around the gift. You can buy a pattern from Missouri Star, but I just followed the directions in the video without a printed pattern, and although I made some mistakes, the penguin turned out cute enough to win me a hug from Zoe.

by Linda Theil Diane Spencer-Ogg, owner of Spencer-Ogg, Ltd. in Greater Manchester, UK, released a new mini-duffle pattern she calls "Arch Zipper Pouches" in two sizes with printable pattern pieces and video tuturial. Her video introduction can be viewed at the end of this post. As always, Spencer-Ogg has hit the ball out of the park with the elegance of her design and the precision of her process. I have made two of the 10x8x4-inch large-sized Archies -- as her  fans have dubbed the new pattern. The bag shown above is made of Mora Faux Leather in grape from Emmaline Bags of Alberta, Canada. The interior, shown below, is cotton from the "Art History" collection by Marcia Derse for Windham Fabrics. For my second Archie, I quilted a panel from the "Guess How Much I Love You" collection by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram for Clothworks. With this new design, Spencer-Ogg debuts an updated pattern-production method that provides printable pattern pieces and a c...