A Brief Leave of Absence …
Today I’m busy editing and uploading my photos from my trip to Europe, but found something cool I thought you’d like. As you know, gifting is right around the corner, and we sewists and thoughtful...
View Article‘Tis the Season …
One of my great joys since my grandchildren started school has been to make holiday and end-of-year gifts for their teachers. Each year the teachers would get similar items, but each different. And all...
View ArticleFleece: an antidote for sub-freezing temps
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...
View ArticleDolly and Me
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...
View ArticleThe best kind of compliment
Thursday afternoon, around four o’clock, I was working killing time in the TV room when an incoming text pinged. Here’s what I read: “So, I have now seen both [your sons] with these handy fabric/mesh...
View ArticleEnd-of-school-year teacher gifts
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...
View ArticleWhen is a Uniform Not a Uniform?
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...
View ArticleEating Serger Pie
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...
View ArticleNo Speeding!
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...
View ArticleMore Little Gifts
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...
View ArticleFor Gifts and For Me
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...
View ArticleBaby, It’s Cold Outside
It took the winter of 2014/15 a little while to set it, but it’s here now. Boy, is it here. The temperature for much of yesterday was right around 0°, with wind chill temps in the minus-teens. Tomorrow...
View ArticleGayley Girl Gift
My New Year’s resolution is to have only one project going at a time. And that translates to “finish what you start.” I can be a tad ADD, i.e. “Look at that pretty piece of fabric; I think I’ll sew...
View ArticleA Winning Tute
The Jazzman and I have little travel pillows that I got at Bed Bath & Beyond. We like knowing that whatever the hotel (or cruise ship) has to offer, we’ll have a pillow along that we know and love....
View ArticleKeep Calm and Sew On
I hate how busy I’ve been this semester. I’m preparing a full-length “Cosi fan tutte” for late April. A kids’ version of Cosi, with its own abbreviated score, will be presented the morning of that...
View ArticleA Little Box Pouch
What to do when you realize you have all the necessary Christmas gifts for the family gathering except for one—your [virtual] sister-in-law? You dig into your treasured shibori stash, find a tutorial...
View ArticleLittle Bags for Old Friends
In mid-March, I attended the 50th reunion of the Class of 1968 of Forest Lake Academy, near Apopka, FL (Orlando outskirts). I grew up in Orlando and attended Orlando Church School (now Orlando Junior...
View ArticleTwo More Sidewinders
I wasn’t completely sold on the Sidewinder pattern that I made up for the Sew Sweetness Secret Santa exchange, but I had already cut the pattern out in another fabric, so went ahead and made it up,...
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