Did you miss me? We went on a short notice, laid back, lovely vacation to my family’s cabin last week. There was not much to do (no internet!) except take walks in the woods and…

look at funny shaped buildings,

sit around the kitchen table, and maybe do a little sewing.

It was so quiet and so nice to be away for a bit. Sorry to all of you waiting for an email–it’s coming! And yay! for all of you who signed up for kcwc: 232 so far! I’ve got a list of what I want to make, but I need to edit it down to the things I can actually make. What about you? Do you have a list yet?

p.s. all these photos are from my instagram feed, but you can view (and comment and follow and favorite) them online at web.stagram.com.  Even more elsie marley, just what you wanted :)

Here is a little project to spring up your home.  I made this pillow in springy greens, but any colors would of course work. Ticking would look very nice, with the stripes going opposite ways. The pillow is based on a simple quilt square (does it have a name?) and comes together super fast.  Happy Spring!

color block pillow

materials:

• two squares of fabric slightly larger than your pillow
• square pillow form
• zipper slightly smaller than your pillow

directions:

1.  Cut your fabric 2 inches larger than your pillow. For example: my pillow was 13in square, so I cut my fabric into 15in squares.

2. Put the squares together, right sides facing. Using a straight edge, draw a line diagonally across the fabric. No one will see the line, so you can use a regular pencil or pen.

3. Sew 1/4in from the line. First sew on one side of the line, and then on the other. You will have two seams, one on each side of the line. This is shown more clearly in the photo below.

4. Cut directly on the line you drew.

5. Ta Da! You now have two squares. Open them up and press the seam to one side–the side with the darker colored fabric.

6. Now you have a choice. You can line the squares up, right sides facing, with the seams also alined like I did in the photo above. Or you can arrange it so the triangles are oriented differently on each side–the seams will not line up, but will make an X. Play around with it and see what you like. But unless you have a clear fiberglass couch no one is going to see both sides at once.

7. I am not going to explain how to do the zipper, because there is a good tutorial that does it already–Sewing 101: Zippered Throw Pillows. This is the method I use for putting zippers in pillows and it is dead easy. There are other ways that look a bit nicer, but this one is super fast and hard to screw up. I encourage you to try it if you haven’t used zippers before–you will succeed, I know it!

8. Try the pillow on your pillow form. It might need some taking in. I had to take mine off and sew it a bit smaller to make it fit. Hey look, you’re done! And you made a super chic, color block, geometric, trendy as all get out pillow. Your couch will thank you.

Spring has sprung and that means it’s time again for kcwc! Kids Clothes Week Challenge is a bi-annual event here on elsie marley where I challenge you to sew one hour a day, each day for 7 days.  The idea is that we all have the urge to sew clothes for our children, but we don’t always give ourselves the time to do it.  If you commit to sitting in front of your sewing machine, or tracing patterns, or cutting fabric, for one hour each day, then at the end of the week you will have some very well dressed kids. And a very proud mama (or papa) too!

All you need to do to sign up is leave a comment on this post. If you would like to know more about kcwc you can check out the kcwc faq page. You can also head to the elsie marley flickr group to check out creations from kcwc past or see all my posts on kcwc here.

If you would like to sponsor elsie marley during kcwc, I would love to have you! Kcwc has become wonderfully successful, so much so that traffic to this little blog doubles during kcwc month! Sponsor spots go up a bit in price ($40) but it’s totally worth it. Drop me a line if you’d like to get in on the action. elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com

Okay! leave a comment and sign up! spread the word! and sew like crazy!

kcwc spring 2012 buttons:

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It feels like the fourth of July in Wisconsin, but Easter is still a few weeks away. I’m going to try not think the weather is apocalyptic, but rather start making things for spring. Here are a few projects from the elsie marley archives to get you going.

1. bean bag bunnies. These are still getting played with 4 years after I made them–that’s like 40 in toy years!

2. the quick little bunny. Recycled, fast, cute, this bunny gets it all right. It’s even more adorable with a bandanna!

3. homemade peeps. sugar high! sugar high! sugar high! sugar high!

4. eggs in the mail. Did you know you could send plastic eggs in the mail? Wouldn’t it be great to get one in your mailbox?

Got any good spring things in the works?

it’s been a while since my last installment of things on the internet that are awesome. So here you go, a few awesome things for spring.

–blocks as hooks. It is a super simple diy and super chic but still perfect for a kids room.

–cursive letters made into adorable animals. Just right for my little girl’s obsession with learning cursive.

-a perfect wooden mp3 player. Too bad it’s pricey as hell.

–wrapped, braided extension cords. This was a design sponge diy from a while back that I must have missed, but damn! isn’t it awesome? I love useful, sculptural, crazy art, but as my mother would say, “That’ll keep you busy.”

–estonian kringle.  Wouldn’t this be lovely on Easter morning?

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