blogtober day 3 // new quilt planning

There is a delightful synchronicity, as I wrap up a reflection series of fifteen years of blogging and turn my mind to new things – specifically, new projects in my new space – that the top item on the list is a quilt for my biggest baby. My very first post, all the way back in June 2008, was about […]

15 @ 40 // day eleven

If something is worth doing, it’s worth over crafting. I really need that on a tshirt or a drink bottle or something. In my defence, this time at least, it started out innocently enough. Bear’s bestie asked if I could teach her to crochet. Absolutely, says I. Then I realised my one good hook was…less than presentable. Shout out to […]

15 @ 40 // day seven

I love Easter Bingo each year, for the ways it pushes me out of whatever rut I’ve fallen into and stretch my creative muscles in new ways. This year, we mixed up the prompts a bit, and one of my suggestions was “remix”. Once upon a time, Car & I attempted a 365 journal prompt challenge (which I failed quite […]

15 @ 40 // day six

Back when I was a tween crafter, probably around the same age Butterfly is now, I hadn’t long finished my first quilt, when we were heading off on holidays. For no other reason than it amused me, and I liked the fabric, and I wanted to, I used some of my scraps to sew a tiny backpack – from memory […]

hiding in plain sight

When the invitation first arrived, declaring the party to be a dress up one, my first thought was one of self-sabotage. Instead of thinking “oh yay! How fun!” it was “oh man, what if my costume is dumb and everything thinks I’m a giant nerd?”. Then I gave myself a strong talking to. “Self,” I said, “you ARE a giant […]

me made may week one

It’s interesting to me, how my relationship with and feelings towards, my me made garments changes each year. The corduroy pinafore of day one, for instance, I loved the year I made it. Hated it last year and didn’t wear it at all. Love it again this year and wore it multiple times even before the start of the month […]

Me Made May 2023

My first MMM, I sewed like a possessed woman all month long and filled out my me-made wardrobe. Last year, my second run through, I committed to handmade everything, aside from a handful of allowable exceptions. This year, I’ve noticed myself started to buy ready to wear again, less out of laziness and more out of languishing. MMM is a […]

needlework essentials 3.0 :: needle case {+ tutorial}

As I slowly built my newest needlework kit, I thought I was just about done…and then insta inspo struck, courtesy of my awesome #saturdaynightcraftalong community. I already had a magnetic needle minder, and a floss minder (my new rainbow versions of those are coming over the next couple of weeks!), but it involved threading and unthreading the one needle, and […]

Temperature Stitches :: February

At the end of January, I felt like I would stick with my daily temperature stitches, if I’d made it that far. Then February came, and I honestly considered giving up more than once. I even dropped into the chat the suggestion of starting over. If I dropped each colour down by one temperature range, my summer stitches would look […]