I am, admittedly, one to judge a book by it’s cover.  I mean if it’s crap inside, I’m not reading it, but I’m still happy to look it at (luckily I have discovered the inter library loan system and now am not broke with a house full of poorly written, pretty books). This is the picture of a cover of the book called Book Quilts 1700-2010. Kathreen wrote about it on whipup and I’ve been itching to get my hands on it ever since (it hasn’t been released quite yet). I mean just look at that quilt on the cover!

Magda at bohemian girl made some monotype butterflies with her son, painting a design on one side then folding it in half to print on the other. We followed suit with some butterflies of our own a few weeks ago, but now that spring has stalled a bit we may need to make them again.  The mask she made in the same manner for carnival and I just can get over how eerie and beautiful it is. (Magda also has quite a nice etsy shop, if you didn’t know)

I loved the double wedding ring design the first time I saw it, but always thought it was a little too old fashioned for me to make for my home. Denyse Schmidt, of course, made a super fantastic modern version called the single girl quilt, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been a single girl. So when Molly posted this photo of her friend’s quilt I was in love all over again. They took this very traditional quilt pattern and made it super modern. It might even be a little too modern, but a few prints thrown in the mix could even it out for me. Go check out the post, because Molly has some nice thoughts on this modern/traditional juxtaposition in design.

And one little awesome baby coat rounds out this week’s things on the internet that are awesome.  It’s a poncho! It’s a jacket! It’s two! two! two mints in one! It’s the crabby baby jacket, designed and skillfully executed by Lisa from Mama Uses Needles. I’ve always said that baby clothes should have no arms and finally someone heard me. This poncho pops over the little one’s head and then you just zip it up the sides. genius! and cute to boot.

Sorry, I was going to post this on Tuesday but the week just got away from me. This week’s things on the internet that are awesome aren’t things, but a few site that I’ve found to be particularly fantastic.

The first is a fairly new site devoted to talking about creativity called Make and Meaning. A lot of craft is done in public way now, thanks to the international stitch and bitch that the internet created, and there are a lot of new issues to talk about.  Some of my favorites so far are the article on crafting and irony and blogging and mediocrity. This site is run by a fantastic group of people (futurgirl, sister diane, dudecraft, to name a few) so I’m sure we are in for many long and lively discussions.

One of the things I miss most about my life before children is reading the New York Times, Sunday especially, but really any day will do. Now I’m lucky to read one article online. But the one I did stumble upon this week led me to this blog about creating zero waste.  Granted the author of the blog is a little on the crazy side (all white house!) but she presents her way of living in a compelling way.  In a letter to whole foods she asks them to “give [us] credit for [bringing] home jars and bags…not just grocery bags: some of us have graduated from the grocery bag level.” I think it’s time we all graduated from the grocery bag level.

The last site is a blog run by my friend MaryJo. She is an amazing seamstress, knitter, crocheter, mother, canner, farmer, business woman, and about a thousand other things.  She has spent this last week on her blog talking about the tools of the (sewing) trade. And they are awesome. I bet you don’t know what this is:

but you always needed it. Go see find out what it is here and see other three here: pattern weights, from the doctor’s bag, bias tape makers.

I’ve had yet another crochet fail, so I’m going to drown my sorrows in the fantastically creative work of others:

These despondent little leaves are an example of the beautiful work by Lola Goldstein.  I never thought I’d be in love with leaves that suffer from ennui. Her soft boiled egg set with a little egg shaped salt shaker is pretty cute too.

I’m not much for resolutions mostly because my birthday comes up pretty fast after new years (this friday!) and it’s depressing to take stock and realize you so quickly fell short of all those goals you set just four weeks ago. But this creativity chart by Eerika from rag pets is simple and beautiful and is more about keeping track then MUST SUCCEED! She simply colors in the block if she has been creative that day. You could color code the squares or just go crazy with your box of 64 crayons. Someone in the comments even suggested making a quilt based on the chart when the year is done, which is fantastic and reminds me of Lea Redmond’s idea of knitting a scarf where the color of the row depends on the color of the sky that day (she also does the world’s smallest valentine, which is super awesome and seasonally appropriate).

I have wanted a set of letter cookie cutters for a while, but I am now totally holding out for these helvetica shaped cutters by Beverly Hsu.

and last, but far from least, on the list of things that are awesome on the internet this week is this curiosity cabinet by Suzanne Norris. I think the octopus is my favorite. It’s sold in this amazing shop called the Otherist–in Amsterdam– that I discovered via Kasa at the paperama blog.  It looks like a beautiful shop to visit, but their online shop ain’t too shabby either.

I’m starting to really enjoy these linkydoo posts (awesome name stolen from miss rae) I hope you don’t mind them too much. Since I’ve started to crochet, I’ve been on the look out for crochet blogs. I found this one (sc) recently and though I can fake reading french a little, really I have no idea what she is saying but her work is lovely enough even without the words.

Erika from fox and owl makes beautiful articulated teddy bears (and kitties and dolls too), but it’s this idea that I’m going to steal. Healthy and hilarious!

Another craft project idea on the list to steal (someone has a flickr set called “ideas I have stolen” that I always thought was fantastic) is this painted square set from mer mag.  Part art part toy and super fantastic all over.

From another blog I can’t read comes this project. Perfect for valentine’s day or mother’s day or just to use up the ridiculous amount of random art we have piled up in the house.

have a great weekend!

hello. it’s been a little while, sorry. A stomach bug came and destroyed us for a week, but now all has been washed and we are feeling much better, thank you. Nothing has been made, so I’ll show you what other people are making.

If I had a spot in my house for this, you bet your ass I’d be making it. via the always awesome brick house.

This beautiful gold necklace is made from squash seeds painted with gold leaf.   Super fancy and yet almost free!

Trula is a pretty new blog that shows off all the awesome kids clothes the mama makes. They are comfy and stylish and (thankgod) not just for girls. She has an etsy shop (and I’ve got my eyes on that bag).

I’m bummed that I was laid up all week with the sick, because I missed out on Lily’s week of shapes, but she mentioned she might host a week exploring line and one for shadow. Maybe if we all pester her enough it will happen soon.