CraftSanity with Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood

Tonight I am making a quilt top. It's a super basic design made with a combination of stash fabric and some new fat quarters. I usually give away most of my projects, but this one I'm going to keep for my family to use in our living room.

I started out with a more complicated design, but quickly realized I would never finish it in time for my appointment next week with a professional machine quilter. I've never taken a quilt to be professionally quilted before. I usually use my machine to do very basic quilting or tie the quilt with yarn. I figured I'd see what it's like to work with a pro after a local machine quilter contacted me. So, I'm going to go through the process and write about it for an upcoming art & craft column.

I admit that it is totally insane for me to be quilting right now. There's so much other work to do, but I figure when I'm old and gray I'll remember the fun of making this quilt and not the housework and podcast work that I skipped to make it happen. I'm having fun and think I just might actually pull it off ahead of schedule. If all goes well, I hope to finish the quilt top tomorrow.

In other craft news... I sent out the fabric postcard swap partner information early this morning. If you think you signed up, but didn't get a message from me, send me an e-mail and we'll get it figured out. The Pen Pal match-ups are next on list, so stay tuned.

The girls stayed in their PJs all day today because it was just that sort of day. Abby was feeling a bit green around the gills (again), which made me feel a little green around the gills, too. And even though she missed out on making "friendship mix" (I'll tell you want that is in a bit.) today in preschool and didn't get to go the Y, she was a pretty upbeat about being under the weather. When she realized that I was really keeping her home from school today (after a sleepless night of illness), she settled in with her new square sketch book and a bowl of crayons and got to work. She's into drawing little creatures with circle cheeks and flowers that look like dandelions that have turned to seed.

She definitely wasn't her usual boisterous self, but she did jump off the couch at the chance to play with my bin of fabric scraps with her sister. In and effort to get a quick crafty fix before heading to work, Abby and Amelia "helped" me design and stitch the tops of about a dozen or so quilted coasters. It's funny because of all the things I make, I somehow seem to be able to slip into that creative zen zone the fastest when I piece scrap fabric. I work quickly, placing strips of fabric together and then deciding "yes, it works," or "no, it doesn't" and then I move on. I especially enjoy watching what happens when I ask the girls to "design" a coaster. I love watching what colors they pick and have been pleasantly surprised by their selections on several occasions. This also a fun way for Amelia to practice recognizing colors. And there's something really great about hearing a small child say the word "turquoise" in a way that seems surprising even to them.

I didn't get far on this project today, but it felt good to work briefly with the fabric scraps. They're the most liberating pieces of fabric to work with. Since they're just little bits and bobs and leftovers, I'm never worried about wasting them on a poor design choice. I seem to reserve that craft stress for situations when I'm working with fabrics measuring a half yard or larger. : ) While I enjoy sewing the pieces of fabric together, I think the ironing may have been the most relaxing part of today's craft session. I don't know what it is about ironing, but I find it rather calming. I love pressing the seams of a patchwork piece open flat and then flipping it over to get that first look at how it shaped up. So fun.

Okay, before I sign off, I have to tell you about friendship mix. It goes like this: All the kids in the class bring a cup of their favorite cereal to school to contribute to a big mix. All the cereal is mixed together and redistributed for each child to eat and enjoy. I think this would make for an interesting way to make Craft Club trail mix with the folks I hang out with on Tuesday nights. Hmm...

I'm a sucker for old sewing machines. I'm not particularly fond of how they sew, but I LOVE how cool they look.This lovely Ambassador sewing machine belongs to Cara Redeker-Theile, the artist I feature in my latest art and craft column. The piece will be in tomorrow's print edition of The Grand Rapids Press (back of the Home/Garden section) and also posted online. Check back here tomorrow for links.

Cara's machine was a $20-thrift store find and fully operational. It doesn't do anything fancy and weighs a ton, but has already lasted longer than most modern machines ever will. Seeing it reminded me of an interesting piece tracing the history of sewing machines that I just read in the March issue of Threads magazine. The article by sewing machine aficionado, Dale Yelich, credits Elias Howe with patenting the first practical lockstitch machine in 1846. The first "portable" electric sewing machines didn't come on the scene until 1920. And you wonder why great grandma had big muscles. She had to be ripped to lift her 2-ton sewing machine onto the dinning room table in order to sew a new dress.

I wish sewing machine manufacturers would bring back some of these old vintage machine designs with a modern twist. It would be so awesome to be able to sew on with vintage-looking turquoise machine tricked out with all the modern-day functions. I love my Janome, but it's plain white and pretty boring to look at. I wonder if the original owner of Cara's Ambassador realized how lovely that machine is? Hmm. I'll probably always find old sewing machines intriguing.

Today was Abby's first official preschool snow day. When I told her that her school was closed because of the heavy snow, she immediately asked: "Is it closed forever?"

So, instead of going to class today and practicing her alphabet, Abby and her little sister, Amelia, got to play under the quilted "Party" banner I made for them over the weekend. They're really into throwing parties for their dolls and stuffed animals, so I'm doing my part to supply them with fun decorations. I swear I could make decorations for them all day because they respond with so much gusto. For this mom, having two little girls clapping with genuine enthusiasm when I installed the homemade banner above our front window was pretty darn great.

And just so you readers don't get the wrong idea and start to think that I'm going to try mislead you into thinking that my children are perfect and my life is a dream. Let me share this little tidbit. The day after I completed the banner, one of my little darlings decided to unroll my bobbins. I just about fainted when I saw the debris.



Big sister blamed little sister, and little sister confessed with a wide-eyed smile. But it doesn't really matter who did it. The damage is done.

Okay. I'm going to go back and reread the part about my girls clapping for me and go to bed.

I'm so tired of plastic, battery powered children's toys. With all the recalls following reports of toxic paints, it was a relief when a story I'm reporting led me to Hop Scotch, a great little shop on Cherry Street in Grand Rapids that sells children's toys and clothing.

It was inspiring to visit a place that offers some fantastic alternatives to the toys I always seem to be tripping over in my living room. Most of the goods are locally made, which is extremely cool. The place was filled to the brim with hats, diaper soakers, diaper bags, sweaters fashioned from recycled wool, blankets, softies, and sets of beautiful blocks made by the Grand Rapids toy company, Uncle Goose Toys.

I zoomed in on the pita (pictured above) made from wool felt by Grand Rapids maker Hilary Seabolt. I had seen her work online previously and was very excited to buy this ham, cheese and lettuce pita for my daughters. Usually, I can't wait to unveil any new handmade toy purchase, but I seem to be coveting this fabric pita. Hmm. Maybe I'm worried my girls (ages 2 and 3) will fight over a single pita sandwich? Or, maybe on a subconscious level, I bought it for me.

When I look at this pile of fabric and ribbon I see potential. There's the potential for wild success and equal potential for devastating failure. It sounds dramatic, but there's a good reason to pause as I size up these materials that I'm going to attempt to fashion into a cape. I'm either on the brink of a satisfying project or, possibly, the edge of a major sewing disaster. My gut is telling me there will be no middle ground on this one.

It helps that I bought the wool on sale for 60 percent off. So if I screw this up I won't be wasting as much money as if I paid full price. Regardless, this is an interesting place to be - floating in that limbo of possibility.

The paper pattern pieces are cut out and ready to go, and I can't wait to try on my finished cape, but yet I hesitate to get started. I'm just not ready to pin them in place and make that first cut. Perhaps courage will meet me tomorrow evening at my dining room table where I hope to pick up my heavy silver shears and SNIP!

I'll officially commence this project and see where the sewing gods lead me.

Check back here tomorrow for CraftSanity episode 64.

With the holiday craft wave behind me, it was time to make something "just because." So that's what Abby and I did tonight after her little sister, Amelia, tuckered out. Meet "Lucky Dog," the first in what I hope will be a series of new softies that will adorn our home in the coming year. I got this pattern out of "Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals" by Therese Laskey. This is a delightful book that the girls and I have paged through numerous times, marking pages with sticky notes so we can easily find the softies we want to make.

The "Lucky Dog" design is by Leesa J. Perry and Australian maker who writes a great blog called Little Munki. According to the book, Leesa creates softies "that will please her little boy." What a great reason to make them. Although, I must confess I like handmade plush toys just as much, if not more, than my daughters.

As you can see our dog looks similar to the dog in the book with some slight variations. (Honestly, I don't know that I'm capable of making an exact replica of anything.) For example, Abby and I didn't take the time to weight down our dog's arms and we skipped the felt collar with a button and decided that our dog's name was "Lucky Dog," not "Lucky."

I thought this project was screaming for a typewritten dog tag to dangle from the collar we fashioned from a scrap of binding tape. I can't wait to show Abby the tag on the back when she wakes up. (She tuckered out after we finished stuffing.) The tag has our names and the date we created this toy. I'm trying to make a point to label special projects because I can never remember when I made particular things and figure this is a great way to elevate our projects to a whole new realm of special.

Speaking of softies, here is a photo of the sock monkey, my sister, Julie, made for Amelia for Christmas. Isn't it great?! I absolutely love it. You can't tell from the photo, but this little sock dude is wearing a removable vest.

Check out this great site for everything softie.

Yeah, and about that podcast... I'm going to tape a new intro right now. Seriously.