I found this great Alexander Henry print after reading Last Minute Patchwork Gifts (which is fantastic) and falling for the whole cloth quilt that’s in the book. I finally got around to putting the quilt sandwich together at the last craft night (yee haw! red wine and sharp scissors!).  The back turned out pretty good–if I do say so myself.

everything wasn’t so wrinkly when I put it together I swear. It’s been folded up in my bag waiting for me to attempt the hand quilting. Anyone have any advice?  The baby isn’t even born yet (no, mom, I’m not pregnant) so I’m way ahead of schedule. For once. And if the olympics keep sucking me in and making me stay up waaay past bedtime, then it’ll be done it no time.

It was actually chilly when I woke up this morning. The tomatoes are barely ripe and I can’t wait for the cold weather to get here.  I really can’t complain, it’s been a pleasant summer here in the midwest. It’s just not the season for me. I’ve been thinking about making a coat for winter, but I think it may be beyond my skills right now. So I just look at the lovely coats other people have made.

1. little red riding hood cape by ilikeyouworld
2. plum coat by LittleHouses
3. the peahoodie by Abigail Adams
4. mustard pea coat by stewwie

There are some really fantastic clothing shops on etsy.  A lot of these things are made just for you, with your measurements and all. This is couture for the masses! I love it. Do you know any good clothes makers (tailors? fashion designers?) on etsy?

Thanks for all your post office bag love. Who knew a strip of fabric with handles could be so exciting?

Now that I have an etsy shop I find myself at the post office more than ever. Along with all the packages I have to carry I have a stroller to push and a toddler’s hand to hold.  The packages are always weird sizes and never seem to fit in a paper bag, so I came up this handy dandy post office bag. It’s just a long piece of fabric with some handles and pockets, but it works like a charm. The pockets are sized to fit a long envelope and there is one on each side. I put my receipts, my stamps, and my custom forms in the pockets so they don’t get lost in the bottom of my purse or the diaper bag (which they usually do).  I figured since there are so many etsy sellers there must be a lot of you who have this package transport problem (kids or no kids) and so I wrote a simple tutorial for this super easy bag. It shouldn’t take more than a couple hours from start to finish. And if you make one drop me a line so I can see!

post office bag tutorial

materials

• 1 1/2 yards heavy duty fabric (I used some home dec fabric I had on hand, but canvas, denim, corduroy, or even twill would work)
• a little more than 1/2 yard interfacing (somewhat stiff)

• thread to match

directions

CUT:

1. two 18″ X 40″ pieces of fabric
2. one 18″ X 40″ pieces of interfacing
3. four 3″ X 18″ pieces of fabric for the handles
4. two 7″ X 12″ pieces of fabric for the pockets

SEW:

1. fuse or sew the interfacing to the wrong side of one of the large pieces (this will be the lining)
2. with wrong sides facing sew each of the two handles together
3. turn out and press
4. find the middle of one of the handles and fold the long sides in to meet and pin
5. continue the fold 4″ out from the middle on either side and pin
6. do this to the other handle and press both
7. your handles should have a 8″ folded part in the middle and the ends will still lie flat
8. sew concentric rectangles on the folded area to anchor it down
9. stop to admire your work
10. take the two pocket pieces and fold the short sides in 1/4″ and press and 1/4″ again and press
11. do the same on the top and bottom
12. sew the across the top of both the pockets
13. pin the pockets 5″ inches from each short side of the outside piece.
14. sew the pocket on and reinforce the top two corners (with an X or a triangle)
15. pin the handles to end of the lining, right sides facing (you should see the fold line)
16. place the outside piece on top of the lining right sides facing (pocket should be down) and sew all
17. around with a 1/2″ seam, leaving an opening for turning out
18. trim the seams, turn out and press
19. topstitch all around
20. create a bottom by stitching large concentric rectangles equidistant from both the handles
21. that’s it! you’re done! off to the post office…

To see any of these pictures in more detail, please go to my flickr site. If there are any problems with this tutorial, please tell me . It turns out it’s much harder to explain how to make this bag than it is to actually make it!

Sometime you just have to pat yourself on the back for making the damn pillow already.

Dorie from tumbling blocks asked me if I’d like to help her start a quilt block swap much like the virtual quilting bee and common thread, where 11 people make a quilt block for one person each month.  Of course I said yes and many months later we actually got the thing up and running. Dorie had the first month and picked some pretty fantastic fabrics. I had the idea to do some sort of fussy cut looking at the tree print and came up with what I thought was a pretty simple design. It took much longer than it should have. Nothing big went wrong, but every single little thing did (bobbin threaded wrong, a batch of strips cut too short, out of white thread mid block, and on and on).  So finally it’s done and in the mail a day late, oh well. I don’t really have much quilting experience (here is my one and only quilt) and piecing is harder than it looks–at least for me.  This swap should get my piecing skills up to snuff. It’s my turn next (well this) month to pick the colors and eveeeeeentually make the quilt.  It’s for our bedroom because I spilled bleach all over the quilt we normally use in the summertime (it was just a store bought one, but still. damn). I only have one color in mind so far: gray. I need to get crackin.  You can check out everyone’s block at our flickr page if you like and see all the lovely ladies who are involved.