Monday night I met up with my dear friend Deb to wish her well on her new life adventure. She’s moving to Minneapolis, and while I will miss her, I am so very happy for her and excited to see what creative and amazing things this next chapter of her life will bring. We met up after work at this sweet little tea room in Royal Oak, called Goldfish Tea, where I sipped the most fragrant and lovely cup of Jasmine tea I’ve ever had. This was the sign outside the tearoom and I can tell you, they’re not lying. Or joking.

Anyway, when I finally stopped waxing poetic about this life changing cup of Jasmine tea that I had been served, I had a nice visit with Deb, and some other friends that had also come by to wish her well. I wanted to get her a little something to mark the occasion, but in the spirit of creative risk taking, something that Deb has taught me so much about through our friendship, I decided to make her a bookmark using a new (to me) collage technique I had just read about in this wonderful book by Kelli Nina Perkins, called “Stitch Alchemy”. Oh, and did I mention that I waited until the night before to make her gift, so if it had been crap, I’d have been out of luck!

FRONT

BACK

Making this was a lot of fun, I combined fabric, paper, tissue paper, glue, fabric trim, yarn, machine stitching and used dryer sheets. Yes, I was saving used dryer sheets. But see, I used them for something!  When I started out I had no idea where this would end up, and that’s what made the process so fun. It so easily could have gone very wrong, but I really like how it came out and I think Deb did too.

The moral of the story is I need to take more risks in my creative life, do lots more collage, and drink more Jasmine tea.

My partner, Colleen, makes the best stuffed cherry tomatoes, or as we call them in our family, “Little Balls of Love”. In fact, when she first made them, our nephew Andrew counted them all out and told us each how many we could have. He wanted to make sure he had his share! They are so yummy, and lucky for you, I badgered her into giving up her recipe just in time for your Labor Day festivities.

Little Balls of Love

2 dozen (or so) cherry tomatoes 1″ or larger

1/2 pound bacon

1 pkg. regular cream cheese

1/2 pkg. low-fat cream cheese

2 green onions, chopped fine

1 t. Garlic powder

salt & pepper to taste

HOW TO:

Cut cherry tomatoes in half, scoop out seeds, set aside.

Fry bacon until crispy, drain well and chop, removing any fat chunks.

Combine  cream cheese, bacon, green onions, garlic powder, pepper & salt to taste. (be very sparing with the salt, the bacon will make mixture salty)

Fill tomato bottom halves, placing tops as you go.

Enjoy!

A vegetarian option is to replace the bacon with chopped basil, also yummy!

Yes, I am having a great time sewing all these aprons.

No, I can’t wear all these aprons myself. So I decided to list them for sale at my etsy shop. Yes, I am once again an etsy seller. Its great getting back into the swing of things. I feel all productive and stuff.

I hate when I get a nagging urge to do something creative that I haven’t done in a long time, and then not being able to just drop everything and do it! This time it was painting— watercolor, in particular, that I wanted to do, but life got in the way for a couple weeks. Today, I was finally able to sit down and do a little painting… and I do mean little.

Since it had been a couple years since I had done any painting, I decided that maybe starting with ATC sized paintings (2.5″ x 3.5″) would be a good idea. You know, not quite so intimidating. This is what I came up with today.


Not bad, but I can do better. I’ll just have to keep working at it to get my painting mojo back.

I also sewed 2 more aprons and a pillow this weekend. I’ll photograph them and blog about them tomorrow. I’ll be listing them in my Etsy shop soon as well!

These aprons are so quick and easy to make, I made some more!



I like the extra little detail of embroidery on the pocket. I’m by no means an expert embroiderer, so this gives me a chance to practice.

This apron was made from a pillowcase that had a pretty floral border and trim on it. It makes for a really nice touch at the hem of this apron.More embroidery. I think the next ones I make I’ll embellish the pockets a little bit more. Next time, I’ll try making a bibbed apron from a pair of pillowcases, what do you think?

Aprons have been on my mind a lot lately. Maybe it’s the retro 60′s influence of my favorite show Mad Men, or maybe it’s my longing to be more of a homebody and cozy up my nest. At any rate, I have been refashioning vintage pillowcases into cute little hostess aprons!

Here is how to do it:

Start with a standard size pillowcase in a pattern that you like. I found several vintage pillowcases at the thrift store. This one had colors I liked and a pattern  I remember from the 70′s.

Turn the pillowcase inside out and with a rotary cutter (or scissors) cut the bottom and the side seams.

Measure pillowcase 20 1/2” lengthwise from hem, mark and cut.

Kitties are always so helpful when you’re sewing!

Press 5/8” in on the two short edges.

Double raw edge under to fold and hem.

Open out the remainder of the pillowcase fabric and fold lengthwise. Cut on fold into 2 long pieces. Fold one of the pieces heightwise and cut in half. You should now have 1 long and 2 short pieces.

Sew 1 short piece to each end of the long piece making a 1/2” seam. Press seams open.

Apply interfacing if desired to bottom half of the band.

Fold right sides of the band together heightwise and mark the middle with a dot on the bottom edge.

Open out and place wrong side up on your work surface and make a dot 9 1/2” on either side of the middle dot.

Fold the apron piece in half with right sides together and make a dot on the edge to mark the middle.
Machine baste the apron piece 1/2” and 1/4” from the top.

Pin the band to the apron piece matching the middle dots. Pin the edges of the apron to the dots on the band and pull up the basting threads to gather the apron to fit. Make sure that your gathers are evenly dispersed.

Sew with a 5/8” seam. Trim seam allowance to 1/4”

Fold band in half, right sides together, and pin. Cut a 45 degree angle on each end of the band.

Pin the band ends up to where the apron seam is.

Sew with a 1/2” seam allowance

Trim seam allowance to 1/4”,  clip corners, clip seam allowance next to apron edges, and use a knitting needle to turn ties inside out. Press.

Press band under 1/2” on open edge over gathers. Pin. Machine stitch or hand stitch closed.

Pocket
Cut a square about 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ from a coordinating fabric scrap. Or do what I did, which was to use a pocket pattern piece from one of the patterns in my stash.

Press under 1/4” on top edge then press under  1″ again. Stitch edge close to fold.

Press under 1/4″ on remaining sides of pocket.

Embroider or otherwise embellish pocket if desired.
Try on apron and determine placement of pocket. Pin.

Stitch 1/4” from edge.

Put on your apron and go whip up something fabulous in the kitchen!

I want to share more photos of my Detroit Maker Faire fun. We went this past Sunday, and had a great time. I have to say, I wasn’t sure what to expect, since this is the first Maker Faire I’ve been to. It lived up to its reputation for being the place for innovation and DIY artists of the highest level. As befitting the Faire’s proximity to the Motor City, there were many creative and eco-friendly modes of transportation on display.

From a 4 wheeled, 4 person bike with lounge chairs (above) … to this amazing bike contraption that seated 7 (below), there were cool and unusual bikes riding all through the Maker Faire areas!

This is a Voltek electric car. I would love to drive around town in this baby. Space age!

And this two wheel bike could , surprisingly turn on a dime!

This wonderful machine was the most “Steampunk” thing I saw all day! (and I saw lots of steampunk!) It is a replica of the H.G. Wells’ Time Machine built by the Goodrich High School Robotics team. The details on their time machine are incredible!

This was probably one of my favorite exhibits at the Maker Faire, its the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir! According to the Maker Faire website, “This award winning art car from Houston has 250 electromechanical fish and lobsters, 300 pounds of batteries, 2 Linux computers to coordinate all the singers, and more than 5 miles of wire in the control system. “Quiet please, this is serious.” I LOVED it. Then again, I love sushi, too. As long as it doesn’t sing to me.

I’m back, finally, after a very long time away, hopefully more organized and with more time to start blogging again. Yesterday we went to the Maker Faire! I’d been looking forward to it for so long and it didn’t disappoint. There were so many creative and innovative exhibits, and it was exciting to be around so many DIY’ers that thrive by thinking out of the box.

One of the things I was most excited about seeing was the life size Mousetrap game. This game holds a special place in my childhood memories. I was about 3 or 4, and my mom and I were at my aunt’s house. My aunt got the game out for me to play with and I proceeded to figure out how to put the whole thing together so that it worked. My uncle was so amazed that he gave it to me to take home! So naturally, I had to see the life-sized version in action.

There was just so much to see. This is the Stitch Zone tent where you could learn all kinds of needle arts with hands-on demos and instructions from The National Needlearts Association.

Craft magazine also had a table set up, and they brought some projects that had been featured in the magazines. It was great to see them in person.
And I got the biggest kick out of this guy— a 15 foot tall statue of one of my favorite DIY guys, Red Green, made out of Duct Tape! That’s me standing next to him so you can get an idea of the scale. I just love how they did his plaid shirt. I guess you can really make anything out of Duct Tape.

Watch for Part 2 of my Maker Faire experience on Thursday. Just too much cool stuff to put in one post!!

Wow, its been a while since I checked in here. I have to get better at integrating blogging into my every day life. It’s still new to me, and not at all automatic. Doesn’t help that I have the day job from hell, either.Don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful to have a job. Especially now, since my partner has been laid off for a while. But this is our busy season at work and my free time is very limited. I did manage to do a shirt refashion and have several others planned.

This is the shirt before:

Boring. I didn’t wear it much. So I refashioned it with a bit of crochet:

Here’s a look at the detail:

This was a lot of fun, and I love the way it turned out. More to come soon!

Hurry Spring!

Oh what a month was February! Actually, it wasn’t the greatest month here. We had a few expensive catastrophies: our refrigerator decided to stop working, so we needed to replace it, then both my dear partner (DP) and I needed new tires on our cars. Apparently navigating through snow and ice is easier if you actually have tread on your tires. Huh. Who knew?

We had garbage disposal problems which required apparently both snaking out and swearing at (just one of those was ineffective, but together, bingo) and we had to call the furnace guys out, but they said all was well, and I’m good with that. As my favorite knitting podcaster says, “If you’re cold… put on a sweater. That’s what they’re for.” And I will.

Oh, yeah, and DP and I both were sick. Twice. (I mean come on, its the shortest month for gosh sakes). First with some weird norovirus, then with the flu. I’m still recovering.

Maizy 2001-2010

And saddest of all, we had to say goodbye to one of our furry babies. Maizy the kitty started getting sick after the first of the year, and after many trips to the vet, and many different tests and pills and special foods, she just couldn’t pull through. We never did find out what was wrong with her. So we’re still mourning the loss of our sweet kitty, but we know she’s in a better place now.

Meanwhile, I did actually do some crocheting, and managed to make some belated Christmas gifts (or they could actually be early Easter gifts!) for several great-nieces. I felt bad because I ran out of time to make them gifts for Christmas. They haven’t received them yet, so I won’t show photos.

So welcome March! I’m ready for you!