I’m very excited to have finished this patchwork Progress Pride Flag quilt. The pattern is by Bobbie Gentili from Geeky Bobbin. All of the fabrics are scraps from my stash.

This was a fun project and the finished quilt is really bright and colorful. As part of this process, I also enjoyed learning more about how the design of the Progress Pride flag came to be.

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I just finished this English Paper Pieced challah cover. I’ve been working on this project on and off (mostly off) for about a year.

The block pattern came from The New Hexagon by Katja Marek. I love this book so much. With 52 ways to divide up a hexagon template, you could devise projects for the rest of your life! While looking through it I noticed one block looked like it had a Star of David in the center and this made me think I could use it to create a piece of Judaica for our family. A challah cover felt like a reasonable project.

The solid fabrics are Moda Grunge which I like because the print makes them look like they have just a hint of texture, even though it’s quilting cotton. I was hoping to evoke the colors of Jerusalem, although when the fabric arrived it was a bit more orange than I’d planned.

The blues are all bits of scraps and, as I was working it, I love that my kids recognized the prints from doll clothes and other projects I made for them when they were little. Each star has seven blue prints.

I decided to line it with two pieces of white fabric, rather than batting, so it would be thick enough that the EPP seams are smoothed out, but not too thick that it doesn’t drape.

This was a fun hand-sewing project and a challah cover is something we’ll really use.

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I’ve wanted to make a Raggedy Ann for many years now. I had sketched her out in my sketchbook and created a Raggedy Ann board on Pinterest. But I kept getting caught up in the legalities of selling an unlicensed Raggedy Ann pattern. The Raggedy Ann and Andy characters seem to be in the public domain, but I haven’t been able to figure out if the look of the doll is? So, I put the idea aside for a long while.

Just recently, for some reason, it came back to me and I thought why not just make her and not create a pattern for sale. I feel like Raggedy Ann is such a classic doll and also such a challenge. How to create a Raggedy Ann that’s cute and not creepy?

This project was definitely made possible thanks to Spoonflower where I was able to order small-scale red and white striped fleece for her socks and a small-scale blue and white floral fleece for her dress. (Fleece mostly comes in very large-scale prints which don’t lend themselves to doll-making, but I love fleece for dolls because it’s durable, soft, machine washable, and easy to sew.) I had fun figuring out how to make her curly hair with fleece loops.

Although my kids still find Raggedy Ann to be terrifying, I’m happy with her.

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If you’re looking for a gift for the off-beat, nerdy, and all around awesome person in your life, look no further. From custom plushies based off of the popular online game เดิมพันกีฬาประเทศไทย, to handcrafted Harry Potter wands perfect for cosplay or every day spells, I’ve got you covered.

Links in this post are affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small percentage at no additional cost to you. Thank you.

This DnD dice-shaped bath bomb dissolves in water to reveal a complete set of dice! Great for role-play-game fans, people who love to bingo for cash and lots of fun to use!

These adorable Among Us plushies are perfect for anyone who loves video games and wants a cute piece of room décor or just a lovable stuffed animal!

Have a young gamer in your life? A Nintendo light-switch, will look great in their room or game room and make it extra cheerful! You may also consider online games like Sudoku, crossword puzzles, etc. for your kids!

Remember the furby toy that was popular in the 90’s? A long furby is a handmade plushie with a furby faceplate! A tee-shirt with a long furby on it is perfect for anyone who loved furbies when they were new, and especially for nerdy crafters in your life!

Speaking of furbies, this adorable, irresistible, enamel pin is essential for any jean-jacket, backpack, or tote bag!

For Harry Potter fans or cosplayers, a wand is an essential costume piece, and what better than a custom one, perfect for any occasion?

Cosplayers will love these resin horns with a nearly-invisible head band. Coming in a wide variety of colors and styles, these are a must-have!

These cute planters in the shape of Pokémon will be adored by fans of the game or the popular app, Pokemon Go!

Intricate, beautifully designed dice are a must-have for DnD or other RPG game players. With a nice weight, shine, and texture, these not only look great but play great.

For book lovers, nothing is more comforting than the smell of the library. Why not bring that sent home with this soy-based candle?

Gamers and fun sock collectors will love these video game socks! Lightweight with vibrant colors, these socks are perfect for any season!

This set of 5 Rubik’s cubes is great for both beginners and pros at solving these complex puzzles. With bright colors and smooth turns, this set will occupy kids and adults alike as they work to solve each side of the cubes!

What avid reader or aspiring librarian wouldn’t love these dangling book earrings? Gorgeous and lightweight these would look great on pretty much anyone!

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I’ve just finished three reversible bucket hats, one for each of my three kids. This was a project that I started early in the spring, inspired by my oldest daughter who wanted to make a bucket hat for herself. We bought the Betz White Reversible Bucket Hat PDF pattern and I helped her make one with fabric from my stash. She wanted another one, made from more ideal prints so we ordered some from Hawthorn Supply. Due to the pandemic, it took a while for everything to come in.

Meanwhile, I made a size medium hat for my youngest daughter and ordered plaid fabrics to make another for my middle child as well. Then, of course, work and life got busy and stressful and the weeks of summer flew by. But finally, I finished all three. Find out the benefits of bringing kids hats for your children when going outdoors.

This pattern is very easy to follow and comes together quickly. The results are lovely, just like a store-bought hat. Rather than using canvas, we used quilting cotton (since it comes in so many more prints) and fused all the pieces to lightweight interfacing before sewing. This worked perfectly.

As the summer comes to an end I’m endeavoring to finish up all of the projects I started early in the pandemic. It’s time to move on to fall sewing projects.

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One of the best things about summer camp, besides making new friends, swimming, and playing Capture the Flag, is coming home with armfuls of arts-and-crafts to show your family. Since many camps are canceled this summer, we’re doing our best to bring the joy of camp crafting to our kids at home. I came up with this list of camp craft kits that will help bring summer camp right to your door this summer. I hope you enjoy them! Let me know in the comments what your favorite camp craft was as a kid.

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A fun twist on the kid’s classic pony bead keychain!

Rock painting kit: Decorate your house and garden with fun painted rocks! Perfect for all ages.

Everything you need to make duct tape wallets and other crafts (book and tape). Try solid colored or patterned tape, or both!

Everyone knows the plastic lanyard crafts we all made as kids. Relearn how to make them with this book and the matching lanyard, which is available in glitter/transparent and solid colors.

Who could forget that staple of summer camp, the friendship bracelet? This set of string and book make it easy to learn how to make bracelets to keep and share. Perfect for older kids!Tie-dye kit and soda ash: Bring the rainbow home with tie-dye! We do this every summer and always look forward to it. A tip is to soak your clothes in soda ash before you die them. This fixes the die in place so the colors turn out vibrant. Then, let your dyed clothes sit overnight before rinsing them for bright colors that are sure to impress.

It may be warm outside, but it’s always good to make something cozy for the winter, plus learn a new life skill. Try your hand at knitting or crocheting with these kits (purple and green, white).

Make a mural on your driveway or sidewalk with a big multipack of sidewalk chalk. Write messages, make hopscotch games, or draw. Chalk is always a good time.

Do you have a favorite summer camp craft? Please share in the comments

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I’m super excited to have finished this heart mini quilt in time for Valentine’s Day. I actually cut this quilt out last January and have been very slowly stitching it while on phone calls and long car rides. It was slow going until the last month or so when it all finally came together.

This quilt is English Paper Pieced. I designed it using a heart block with small diamonds in between – super simple, but I think with just three colors its a striking design. The red fabric is Tula Pink and the gray is an old Cotton + Steel print that I also used for the binding and the backing. The white is a tone on tone polka dot.

Here it is just a few weeks ago! Once I began attaching the shapes I got motivated to put it all together.

I tried out some big stitch quilting on this quilt using #8 Perle cotton in white and I’m really happy with how it turned out. The gray fabric has white dots so the stitches blend in on the back.

I cut the binding strips 3″ wide (rather than 2 1/2″) and I like how the binding provides a sort of frame for this quilt.

There’s something so satisfying about a mini quilt and since I make dolls I can always use a doll-sized quilt to tuck someone under. Hooray for the first finish of 2020!

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I’ve been doing some sewing lately! I will confess that I’ve been on a bit of a sewing hiatus for a while. When I became the full owner of Craft Industry Alliance in May of last year I needed to shift my focus to that business almost entirely. There was just so much to learn and so many projects to tackle.

Now that I feel I’ve got a handle on things I’m slowly getting back to my sewing table. First, I made a quilt for our friends Ethan and Matt. They just had a second baby. I made a quilt for their first daughter so I really wanted to make another one for them. I had this April Rosenthal Jelly Roll in my studio (I originally bought it to make a patchwork softie that would be a companion to my elephant, but then life happened). We gifted it to them in December.

Next, I’m still working on creating a PDF (and possibly print) pattern for the bird that’s on the cover of my first book, The Artful Bird.  I hadn’t made one in several years and made so many mistakes sewing the first prototype! But now I’m back in the bird-making groove and the second one just needs to be stuffed.

I’m also working on an English Paper Pieced mini-quilt for Valentine’s Day. I actually cut this quilt out last year, worked on it a little, and then put it away. Now that it’s back out I really enjoy sewing it in the evenings and I love how it’s coming together. I may just finish it before Valentine’s Day this year (we’ll see).

What about you? What are you working on?

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It’s winter vacation here which means I have three kids hanging around the house for two weeks. In our family, this means major crafting is taking place. A trip to the library yielded some great books to guide us and I wanted to share our favorites with you. My daughters are 9, 13, and 15 and these are books that we’ve all enjoyed equally. Some of these titles are fairly new, and others have been out for a while now.

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Here are four craft books I highly recommend:

How to Draw Cute Stuff: Draw Anything and Everything in the Cutest Style Ever by Angela Nguyen

This book is jam-packed with drawing tutorials that are super simple – each tutorial is just three steps – and create absolutely adorable drawings (see her style on her Instagram account here). Subject matter includes people (with various expressions, hats, clothes, and shoes), animals of all sorts, buildings, vehicles, food, and plants. Besides filling a sketchbook with drawings, you could do so many things with these drawings. Decorate envelopes to make your snail mail more fun, create greeting cards, or draw on your notebook or paper lunch bag. And, you could easily turn these drawings into embroidery patterns and adorn your jeans or jean jacket. For $12.95 this book is totally worth buying and would be a great gift along with a pack of colored pencils and a sketchbook.

Create This Book by Moriah Elizabeth

Moriah Elizabeth is a popular crafty YouTuber (her channel has 4 million subscribers) and this is her book of creative prompts. You write in, and on, this book, making it your own. Prompts include things like “create a page of stripes” and “draw a set of twins.” For all those moments when someone says, “I’m bored,” hand them this book and some colored pencils. (We bought this book since it’s something you write in.)

Florals by Hand: How to Draw and Design Modern Floral Projects and Alli Koch

I’ve long admired people who can take a Micron pen and just draw flowers, but I haven’t been able to do it myself until we got this book. See Alli’s style on her popular Instagram account to get a taste. This book provides step-by-step instructions for all sorts of flowers, plus floral frames and lettering projects. Once you learn to draw a particular flower it’s easy to use it in your own projects (and again, these could become great jumping-off points for embroidery). We also checked out Alli’s second book, Modern Florals, but found this first one to be more comprehensive.

Pop-Up Design and Paper Mechanics: How to Make Folding Paper Sculpture by Duncan Birmingham

I’ve always loved pop-ups and I’m definitely a three-dimensional thinker, so this book has been a real treat. Starting with the most basic (yet still magical!) design, Duncan Birmingham walks you through every sort of pop-up you’ve ever dreamed of creating. The way we’ve approached this book is to learn each technique, then turn it into our own creative project (the book doesn’t dictate what you do with the pop-ups, it shows you the underlying mechanics of how to make them). The open-ended nature of each chapter has made this book incredibly fun! Plus Birmingham has a YouTube channel where he shows you the same content that’s in the book. The video supplements are really great. I can’t recommend this book enough!

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My daughter, Josephine, turned 9 this week and had a Harry Potter-themed sleepunder party. For those of you not familiar with a sleepunder, it’s a party where everyone comes in their pajamas with a favorite stuffed animal, has dinner and watches a movie together, and then goes home before bedtime. So all the fun parts of a sleepover, without the exhaustion of a sleepover!

Nothing says “sleepover” like watching a great movie with your best friends. Whether you have younger kids who are new to the slumber party scene or veteran teen overnighters, this list is sure to get the night off to a great start. We’ve got everything from silly comedies for kids to romantic tearjerkers and super-scary movies for teens. if you’re a fan of Heartland and want to travel to Canada you can check out the little town of High River where the show is filmed and see all of the filming locations.

We were searching for a craft the girls could do together and we arrived at what I think is an ideal sleepover party craft activity so I thought I’d share it with you.

I love this craft for a few reasons. There’s no mess and nothing to clean up. It’s easy enough for kids starting at age 8 or so,  maybe even a bit younger, but still fun for tweens or even teens – the only skill needed is the ability to tie a knot. The materials aren’t super expensive. And the finished results are something the kids can use at the party, and then take home and continue using for years.

For our pillows, we bought:

• 2-packs of 16″ pillow forms from JOANN
• several yards of fleece in coordinating prints

To prep the materials you’ll need a ruler and a sharp pair of scissors. We cut our fabric into 22″ x 22″ squares and then cut fringes that were 1.5″ wide x 3″ deep all along the edges. We cut a square out of each corner and discarded it.

Each girl chose a piece of fleece for the front and one for the back. Place them wrong sides together, lining up the fringe, and just begin tying the knots. Each fringe gets tied in a double knot to secure it.

Once three sides are complete, slip the pillow form inside, then tie the fourth side. Done!

The girls worked on their pillows while watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Once they finished their pillows, they used them to get cozy during the movie. Everyone enjoyed it and was successful! But for those who don’t have the time yet to craft their own pillowcases, they can instead turn to sites like silk pillowcase UK.

For those seeking a blend of comfort and luxury, options abound in the realm of pillows. Companies like Downland Bedding offer a wide array of filling types—from hollowfibre to microfibre, 100% polyester, or even luxurious Goose feather and down—that cater to various preferences and budgets.

This diversity ensures that every pillow serves not only as a decorative accent but also as a plush support for relaxation and lounging. Whether scattered on a sofa for a casual movie night or neatly arranged on a bed for a touch of elegance, pillows are essential in transforming a room into a haven of comfort and style.

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