Baby Countdown: 1 week, 5 days ’till due date!

I finally finished my little pink and yellow crooked quilt (left) – on the right is a larger and more-perfect quilt made by my very talented mom.

I used 5″ squares, was very inspired by the Swedish Summer Quilt and followed these directions for binding by Jay Bird Quilts.

After about 6 inches of whip stitching the binding I stopped – it looked awful and felt really rough. I checked my mom’s binding and of course, being perfect and all, you can’t even see the binding stitch! I sent off an email to see how she did it and took out all the previous stitches. She sent back this youtube video of the quilting ladder stitch (at 5:26 in the video) – easier, faster and it looks wonderful!

I can’t see myself ever being a full-time quilter, I’m way too impatient and messy for measuring and perfect squares. However, there’s such a huge sense of accomplishment on finishing that I don’t get with many other projects. Awesome. :)

The first workshop was “Soldering for Maidens” with the lovely Paula Hardesty. Unfortunately I was too enthralled with soldering to snap any process photos but here’s what I made!

In case you’re wondering, they’re supposed to be lumpy like that – texture!! It was actually a lot easier than I imagined and Paula was a wonderful and thorough instructor, really sweet too.

Last night I attended the workshop “Ancient Amulets” with Laurie Mika. I have to say this, because I thought it all night – she’s basically who I want to be when I grow up. Wordly, artistic, smart and her techniques, swoon! If you ever have the opportunity definitely take a class, buy her book, research her online – she’s awesome.

The above photo are pieces from the class, I wish I knew who’s was who and everyones name! And here’s my little guys:

One woman’s comment on the purple one, “Oh, that one’s….. different?” Story of my life! My new friend for the day was Gloria from Surprise, AZ – kind and funny with a great attitude towards life and art and a big big heart.

Today I took the day off to get some work done, which of course I haven’t done yet. Tomorrow is “Plastered in Wax” – I’ve been wanting to learn encaustic painting for YEARS, cannot wait. Then Sunday is “Creating Hollow Forms in Color.” Not sure I’ll be blogging about every day but you can check out all the photos on flickr!

First I sanded down the chairs, cleaned them and spray painted them white.

Then, I scuffed ‘em back up and painted the back red to match C and Z’s red and frosty blue kitchen.

I cut out a piece of cardboard the shape of the seat and very quickly (and roughly) made up some little chair cushions.

And here it is, my very first before and after! :)

Spent yesterday sitting at my sewing desk experimenting with piles of buttons, wire, pliers, embroidery floss and fabric scraps. I’ll probably try a few more times but am pretty happy with the above results. I’m donating the ornaments to the 5th Annual Artist-Made Ornament Exhibition at MADE art boutique!

Call to Artists by MADE art boutique
Everyone is invited to create a holiday ornament to benefit arts programming in the Phoenix Elementary School District. All submissions are welcome. Each ornament will be sold at MADE art boutique and all net proceeds from the holiday ornaments will go to the Phoenix Elementary School District to support arts programming.

The Phoenix Elementary School District, established in the Churchill Addition, has been serving kindergarten through eighth grade students since 1871. MADE hopes to increase proceeds for arts education for deserving students in this district that serves families living in our neighborhood.

Any type of holiday ornament may be submitted. Each ornament must be functional and lightweight enough to easily dangle from a small tree branch or string. All ornaments must be ready to hang.

Ornaments need to be delivered to MADE by December 3, 2009.

Opening Reception – First Friday December 4, 5-7:00 p.m. Ornament sale begins at 5 p.m.

Crafty Pod
• Designers in a Changing World, with Sarah Hodsdon
• Branding Your Crafty Business, with Margot Potter

Craftsanity
• A Conversation With Amy Butler
• Taking Flight with Soft Sculpture Artist Abby Glassenberg

Craftcast
• Talking with Timothy Adams

CRAFT Podcast Archives
Hello Craft
Crafty Chica Podcast
Thread Banger
Etsy :: The Storque

Since getting my new Viking sewing machine last fall I’ve been doing lots of ‘free-motion’ sewing… I saw a cute Valentine’s Tutorial a couple of weeks ago by Lucy Kate Crafts and learned about darning feet. I was amazed at the tiny detail she could get with the foot and decided to invest in my own! I’m so glad I did, it’s a million times easier! I was using the foot on the left, with the feed up even (it was too hard to control with the feed down) – now I’m using the darning foot on the right, feed down and it’s so easy.

I went a little crazy on the Gutterman threads at Jo-Ann’s the other day, 50% off though! They have such lovely colors, and I just really like the way the spools look. Perfect for a thread rainbow.

I made a few Monome Cozies (for sale here) too, cursive handwriting is so fun now…