An Etsy Love Story

About a dozen women were hoping to buy this bag for themselves and maybe even hinting about it to their husbands or boyfriends, but one lucky woman is about to get it for Valentines Day. I traded emails with the man who bought it, and discovered that his woman is crazy about Etsy and hearted this bag a while back. I think it is so sweet that he knew about it and bought it for her. I don't know your name, but you are one blessed woman to have a man who would study you like that. I say, he's a keeper.

Making Hay, While the Sun Shines

This post was inspired by this poster by Slide Sideways

Everyone I know in the Northern Hemisphere is ready for Spring. While we probably aren't making hay, we should be making pictures whenever we do get a sunny day (like yesterday here.) Sometimes it means running outside to shoot some photos, making other things on the "to-do" list wait (like the laundry.) In Spokane, our morning light tends to be a little blue for portraits, making people more attractive in the late afternoon (or maybe it was that glass of wine ;-) I am glad I caught the frost on the trees at sunset last week, I may never see that again. There is a group on flickr that is fun to look at, with extreme cold and heat photos.

Frosted branches at sunset by me, Attractive person on a late afternoon hike also by me ;-)

Making Posters - Valentines Idea Number 3

Since Valentine's and the 100th day of school tend to go together, it's fun to combine the themes. This poster of my younger son that we made for his 100 days of kindergarten project still brightens our hallway three years later.

What Daddy wouldn't turn to mush at receiving a poster of himself with his daughter for Valentine's day? This poster is about 20" long and 15" wide. It was printed on letter sized paper, the white edges were cut off, then the pieces were arranged and taped with double stick tape to a sturdy piece of tag board. For Caleb's poster above we left the white borders on and covered the poster with 100 kisses made from a rubber stamp and red ink. Here is the step by step instructions for printing your own valentine poster.

Using Microsoft Publisher 2007, the "how to" is easy.

1. Open Publisher and click on >blank page sizes>posters>22x17 (or whatever size you want.)

2.>Insert>Picture>from file>(I sized my pictures on photoshop to 20x16, and that is the file I used)

3.>File>Print Set up. Choose "Tiled" Choose paper size 8.5x11 "Portrait" Set the horizontal and vertical overlaps for .25

4. Once that is set. Check the print preview to see how it will tile print.
















Voila, now you are ready for a Happy Valentines Day and only 80 more days of school 'till Summer vacation!

Coffee Search

My friend Randi is redoing her shop and it looks great. One of her new items inspired me to look further for coffee themed items. I love it!

Embroidery Made Easy

Proving that I really do sew, here is a tip on how I do some fun embroidery work without going blind or poking my fingers. To get the hand sewn look I have created here on your sewing machine is easy.

1. Fill your bobbin with heavy thread, like upholstery thread or, as I used in these examples, denim top-stitching thread.


2. The thread in the top of your machine should match the fibers in your fabric.


3. For free-hand designs like the faux gilding in the banner photo, back the fabric with stabilizer and insert the fabric and stabilizer into an embroidery hoop. (No hoop necessary if you will be using a normal presser foot and feed dogs to make a simple design, like the flower below.) The hoop will give you something to hold onto and "steer" with as you use free-motion stitching to fill in the desired area with your design.


4. Draw your design or, if you like to wing it like I do, draw the borders of your design area on the stabilizer. You will be stitching from the back side, on the stabilizer, (on the inside of the hoop if you are using a hoop.)


5. After you take the first stitch, pull up the bobbin thread through the fabric, so you are not stitching over that tail of thread. Stitch your design, following your drawing or your imagination.


6. After the last stitch, cut the threads and pull the tail of the bobbin thread through the fabric to the back side where you will tie the two threads together. Also tie the beginning stitch. If you have trouble pulling the thread through, thread the bobbin tail thread onto a needle and pass it through the fabric that way.

If you wouldn't mind clicking on one of the quick feedback boxes below, I would appreciate it!

Take Me Home, Country Road

John Denver journal/album by VintagePaperWorks
I was doing the grocery shopping this morning and the in-store musack was that John Denver song. It made me think of myself when I was my daughter's age, singing along to his happy music. I wondered if anybody can afford to be that low key anymore (maybe I should have said "laid back" because I did not intend a musical pun there.) I thought "I bet you don't have this on your Ipod!" Then it made me think "but you could have this." (Strawberryluna's artwork on your ipod. The link is to her blog post about it.)

Then John sang "...West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home..." and I thought of the most refreshing featured seller interview I have ever read on Etsy's blog. Dolan Geiman being from Virginia and maybe about as unpretentious as John Denver himself. ...Sweet times in between the English muffins and the bananas...

Cabin Fever Decorating

You know you're tired of Winter when all you can think about is redecorating the house. As I have been working with Amy Butler's bright fabrics for tea party chairs and bags this Fall and Winter, I mentioned to Rory that I would love to redo the house in bright fabrics. He laughed. I think he had a vision of everything turning into bubble gum and tea parties, like this chair I made for Gabrielle.



Sometimes I will leave a couple of my bags on a chair to get him used to the idea. (The chair in the upstairs hall is perfect for that.) He'll come around. By the time I actually redo things, it will be his idea ; ) ...but don't tell him I planned it that way.











This boring couch is going to get redone in a bright green crypton herringbone for the base. Then, for the back, each pillow will be unique and colorful, something like this beauty from Stitch in Dye. Next to it on the wall, I've got room for new art too, like this poster from Strawberryluna.





I'm having fun using poster sketch to look at fabrics and art together. Okay, all done dreaming and planning for today. I have got to get that next pattern out or people will start to think I don't really sew or make patterns, I just blog.