I’ll admit I totally bought this toy for myself.  I fell for this wooden robot the first time I saw him and saved up my pennies (this is no 2 dollar plastic pig) so I could take him home.  This gentle giant is designed by David Weeks, who has made many super fantastic things like the beautiful and clever flashlight/candlestick combo the castlight.  Well designed toys are much easier to find these days, but they are sometimes more design than toy, know what I mean? But this simple robot is just right. Be warned, once he moves out of cube form you will have to work pretty hard to get him to go back to that convenient shape again unless you are some sort of rubiks master.

We are at a toy crossroads these days, I think. My girl is five and my boy is four (the baby is happy playing with a spoon). They still play with little people ,we call them guys, but they are in pretty rough shape–most have a limb or an ear chewed off by the dog.  Is there a toy like little people for the next age up–playmobile maybe? Blocks and big legos are still going strong. We are slowly venturing into little legos as the baby stops putting everything in his mouth. Do you guys have any recommendations for good building toys? We got Citiblocs for christmas and they are super awesome! I would have never picked them up–they just look like sticks, expensive sticks–but they teach you how to build in a different way than regular blocks do. Anyway, long winded way to say, “hey, do you know of any good quality toys that my kids will play with for years to come, rather than the next three minutes?”

We celebrated my little boy’s fourth birthday this past weekend–a week late. On his actual birthday we were all too sick, or if not sick then too crabby, to do much of anything.  But this week we were better! We ventured out of the house! And we had a sledding party!

My son actually came up with the idea (is he secretly reading crafty blogs?) while we were in Hawaii oddly enough. And it seemed perfect: the sky had just dumped ridiculous amounts of snow on the midwest. But then we got back and it was 40 degrees and you could see the grass! In February!  The day before the party it snowed a few fluffy inches, just enough to fly down the hill on. Thank you weather.

It was a small party, so making favors was a pleasure rather than a production. We made vanilla marshmallows, which we packaged in waxed paper bags all prettied up with snowflakes. I doubled my friend Lily’s recipe for hot cocoa mix only used regular sugar and threw in a few teaspoons of salt for good measure.  Some of the hot cocoa mix went into jars I scrounged up and with the rest I made a vat of hot chocolate for the party. And then made a vat of whipped cream to go with it.

Obviously, I stole the tail gating idea from Courtney and actually I think this was the first time I’ve ever even been to a tail gate party. Not a lot of sports fans in the family.  It is awesome (if you didn’t know). And it is super awesome for a little kid’s party. They just come and go when they please, while you help yourself to another spoonful of whipped cream in your coffee. dontmindifIdo.

Slowly everyone’s toes froze and it was time to go home. But before that there was much sledding and snacking and frosting on faces. I say it was a success and my big four year old boy says so too.

I love thinking in three-dimensions.  The challenge of making my sketch come to life as a stuffed fabric toy or sculpture is something I can’t resist.  There are so many options, so many beautiful materials and interesting techniques that make it all come together.  It just makes me happy to sit down and try.  And when it works…man, that’s thrilling.  I feel like I could explore softie making forever and never be done.

Each bird came about in its own unique way.  For instance, I was out on a walk with my kids in this little nature preserve behind our house and found a piece of tree bark. It was a good-sized piece and was totally intact except for a round hole that had clearly been pecked by a woodpecker. I brought the bark home and made a woodpecker to perch on it.

The flamingo was a dare. Could I balance a bird that was leaning over?  Yep.  Fun!

The chick was all about the materials. I thought it would be cool to sew a  bird from fluffy terry cloth.

So each bird has a story to tell about how it came to be.  I just try to be open-minded and not be afraid to accept a challenge.

Mistakes are part of each and every sewing project and they are hugely important, no matter how aggravating they can be at times.  Each bird pattern started as a prototype.  I drafted the pattern, sewed it up in muslin and then stuffed it to see how it looked.  Then there’s an editing and redrawing process to fix the mistakes in the prototype.  Sometimes the second draft doesn’t quite work either and more editing and redrawing is needed.  I try to constantly remind myself that even if something ends up in the garbage, it is not a waste of time.  I may not be able to totally fix it now, but in a few days or weeks or years the solution will come to me and I’ll try again.

And hey, sometimes I make beautiful mistakes!  The head on the raptor started life as a doll’s head.  I had it all sewn up and stuffed on my desk, but the doll’s body just never materialized.  So I sewed a bird body instead, attached the doll’s head, and voila!  A new bird was born.  And I rather like him, too!

I think it was an accident the first time it happened, or rather laziness on my part.  My machine is nearly 20 years old. It is a Bernette 330 and the Bernina dealer is really far away from  my house.  As a result, I was lacking in basic supplies for many years. For instance, I only had one bobbin. What a huge pain! One day I had a dark thread wound around it and didn’t want to unwind it to switch threads for a white bird because that would have been a big waste of thread.  I just threw caution to the wind and decided to sew the bird in dark thread. When I had it turned and stuffed I really liked that each seam was visible. I like that you can see the maker’s hand in the finished piece.  After that, contrasting thread became a regular design element in my work.

I had no problem giving away a bunch of my secrets in The Artful Bird.  It is amazing to see people making their own birds now, and I’m thrilled that my techniques can be used and adapted by anyone interested in fabric bird making.  I do have a plan for one more book. It is actually an idea that pre-dates the idea for The Artful Bird.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I have been inspired for years by the four other fabric bird makers that I feature in the book and I really wanted to include their work so that readers could share in that inspiration.  I was so excited when all four of them agreed to participate. Having a conversation with each of them about their processes for making fabric birds was amazing for me.  It really was a highlight of the eight months that I worked on the manuscript and projects for the book.  I owe each of them a sincere thank you.

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Thank you so much Abby!

By now I’m sure most of you have heard about the protest going on in Madison, WI.  So this month, in lieu of our regular wine and chocolate and stitching and bitching craft night, we tromped down to the capitol and crafted for change.

I’m going to refrain myself from political speeches here–though by the signs it’s quite obvious what my politics are–but I will share some pictures, because it was amazing. The capitol was full of spirited drumming, moving speeches, the kindness of friends and strangers, and so many awesome hand lettered signs.

The sign behind her says:

what we think
what we know
what we believe
is of little
consequence
compared to
WHAT WE DO

I don’t know anything about spinning, but I know that this is one super cool spinning machine.

hey look! it’s me.

We are finally home. And while I would like to say it’s wonderful to be back, my kids seem to have come down with all the illnesses they missed while we were away, so I am too busy nursing three very sick and whiny jet lagged kids to even know where we are. I only have a minute of quiet while everyone naps, so I thought I’d show you a bit of where we were.

we stayed in our friend’s amazing house.

we hiked up to..

amazing views.

we went to the beach everyday it didn’t rain (this is a crappy phone picture, but still!)

and we ate amazing food. It was an amazing trip. How could it not be? We are incredibly lucky to have such generous friends who live in such an unbelievable place.  We are offically screwed for all our future vactaions.

A quick shout out to all the awesome bloggers who kindly took care of this space while I was away: Anna, MaryJo, Julia, Rae, Holly, Erika, Abbey, Lily, and Eerika.   They baked and sewed and drew and photographed all that is the best about winter. Made winter look like paradise.