Category Archives: Gifts

For Gifts and For Me

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One morning about two weeks before Christmas, I walked into the Bernina store where I work and noticed several women lined up holding bolts of Shannon Cuddle, a microfiber fleece. (Here are some examples of this fabric: 1; 2; 3.) Benartex makes a similar fabric named Minkee. I believe Minkee has been around longer and is more well known. The variety of microfiber fleece that people are most familiar with is the dimpled version, frequently used in making baby blankets. My coworker had seen a video for an infinity scarf over the weekend and made one out of Cuddle. It … Continue reading →

More Little Gifts

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At this time of year, I’m always looking for [quick] cute little gifts for holiday party hostesses and (even more importantly) my grandchildren’s teachers. Shortly after starting to work at a quilt shop, someone showed me the microwave bowl mat. Brilliant! You know how the microwave dings and you grab your soup bowl and then cry out in pain because it’s so hot that it burns your fingertips? Some brilliant crafter figured out a solution. I’ve read ten or fifteen tutorials, and the one by Lisa Lewis Koster was the one I liked the best. (I’ve removed the link to … Continue reading →

No Speeding!

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I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me say how overfull my schedule is. But I miss having hours on end to just tunnel into my basement hidey-hole and sew my heart out. So in this overbusy time, I snatched a few minutes to cut out and begin sewing a Porta-Pockets Purse Insert from StudioKat. Michele [Lepore-Hagan for State Representative] gave me a fabulous bag from her sister’s handbag line to thank me for all the work I’ve done on her campaign. I have never loved a handbag as much as I love this one. And I’ve never had such a … Continue reading →

Eating Serger Pie

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You’ve heard of eating Humble Pie, or of eating one’s words, right? Well, after this weekend’s sewing, I’m eating Serger Pie. Way back in, oh, 1998, I bought a serger. Honestly, in retrospect I don’t know why I bought it. The magazines I was reading and the classes I was taking at the time all talked about sergers and the beautiful work they allow the home sewist to produce. So I thought I needed one. I bought the Bernina 1100DA, took the guide classes offered by the dealer in Vienna, Virginia, and then tucked it into a cupboard. I moved … Continue reading →

When is a Uniform Not a Uniform?

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When it’s a great, beautifully constructed, Katherine Tilton Vogue top. My friend, Leslie, teaches at Interlochen Arts Camp during her summer breaks from the university where she chairs the dance department. My son, grandkids, and I drove up to Interlochen earlier this summer to visit her. Now, anyone who has attended or visited Interlochen over the years knows there’s a camp uniform. Light blue shirts and dark blue pants or shorts (or, much mocked through time, knickers for the girls). When I observed one of Leslie’s musical theatre classes the first day we were there, I was horrified. No one … Continue reading →

End-of-school-year teacher gifts

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For most of the past seven years, I have taken advantage of my sewing and knitting talents to create handcrafted gifts for the grandkids’ teachers at Christmas and at the end of the year. I’ve even heard that some of the teachers tell my daughter-in-law they look forward to those gift occasions. (Whew! Sometimes I worry that they’d rather have a gift card.) A month ago a Tucson friend of mine posted on Facebook a small zippered bag she had made. She shared the link to the tutorial on Amanda Niederhauser’s “Jedi Craft Girl” blog. I thought the bags were … Continue reading →

Dolly and Me

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I was never a doll girl—at least, to the best of my memory. There were dolls in my childhood life, but they were never something I couldn’t live without or something that I spent time playing with. I’d rather play with this toy where you had a square green plastic plate with holes in it, a whole bunch of flowers (I especially remember the daffodils, which we didn’t have in Florida), and a planting tool with which you pushed the base of the flowers into the holes in the green square. I wish I could remember the name of that … Continue reading →

Fleece: an antidote for sub-freezing temps

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If you’ve read the newpapers or watched television or opened up Weather.Com in the recent week, you know that—along with the rest of the northern and eastern half of the Continental United States—we have been quaking in our long underwear. My son recently moved into a new-to-him, old-in-the-world-of-insulation house and has asked me for insulated drapes for windows. As he was moving in and getting settled, he decided to paint a few of the rooms that were the most color-challenged. The Jazzman helped out, and the project involved taking Miss Ridley to the paint store and asking her what colors … Continue reading →