Appleton Dance

by linda Theil I made several adaptations to Noodlehead's "Plover Pouch" for Emerson's birthday present. I had previously given her a medium-sized "Plover Pouch" that she added a cross-body strap to, so thought I'd make her a larger, sturdier bag with the crossbody strap built in. I modified the zip-end detail featured in the pattern to allow me to insert the strap ends into the top of the gusset. The "Plover Pouch" pattern includes three sizes with the largest measuring 12 x 7.5 x 4-inches. For the large bag, I used "Hedgehog Hollow" cottons by In the Beginning fabrics for the front and back exterior panels and the lining. I machine quilted the front and back panels to increase the stiffness of the bag, and I interfaced the lining with iron-on fleece as well. That was actually an accident, but the fleece interfacing in the lining worked out pretty well. The side-panel and bag-base gusset are made of Mora faux leather. I used a #5 dou...

  Velma Swaddle Theil & Stephen A. Theil, Jr. 1945 by Linda Theil When we were married, Steve's mother gave us an ornament from his first Christmas tree in 1944 to adorn our first Christmas tree in 1969. Steve was almost a year old on his first Christmas, but he had never met his father because his dad was in Europe fighting in the Second World War. His father was over thirty-years-old when he had been drafted into service; and he would not meet his son until another year had gone by. His first Christmas tree ornament was a tiny drum made from a tuna can, adorned with decorative paper decals proclaiming "Goodfellows Drum Corp". Two small wooden drumsticks were attached, but only one remains. Since our granddaughter, Emerson, is a percussionist in her middle-school band, I gifted her the drum this Christmas in remembrance of the grandfather and great-grandfather she has never known. Although my husband's father never spoke of his time in the service, recently Alisa...

  by Linda Theil Alisa gave me Girardelli chocolates and pre-cut fabric as tiny gifts in my 2024 Advent calendar celebrating each December day leading up to the holiday celebration. By Christmas I had an entire "jelly-roll" of 2.5-inch-wide strips of fabric from the "Holiday Flourish-Festive Finery" collection from Robert Kaufmann fabrics. I pulled some background and a blender from my stash and started researching block options so that I would be ready to sew once holiday festivities were over. One of the options I explored is a beautiful book, I Love House Blocks: 14 Quilts from an All-time Favorite Block , published by Martingale & Co. in 2017. A house block with a shed-like addition called "Little Country Home" caught my eye. The layout was adaptable to my 2.5-inch-wide strips, so I made a sample block as proof of concept. The block has a barn-like quality that I liked, so in  honor of my snowmobile-builder son, I decided to put a snowmobile in th...