AP Photo/J Pat Carter

At first glance, this picture may appear out of place on a sewing and crafts blog, but I did make the skirt I’m wearing!  This is me, my husband and my son… and Jamie Oliver. We spent the weekend at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. My husband covered the […]

One of my son’s friends turned five recently, and he had his party at a local ski area. (Lucky for me it was my husband’s turn to play chaperone… he got to stand outside while the kids went snow tubing). I made this shirt for the birthday boy, again using my Silhouette machine to cut the […]

I’ve seen a lot of blog posts and Facebook updates today in which people complain about not being “into” Valentine’s Day or about it being a “Hallmark holiday.” But I like it, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that! Now, I can see how if you are lonely it must be painful to have […]

My husband looks like a big fluffy Muppet, and he is SO happy about it.

Background: He always reads before falling asleep, but his arms, shoulders and neck get cold because he wears t-shirts (and refuses to wear long sleeves). So he had been wrapping a blanket around his shoulders but that apparently was unsatisfactory because it […]

Here’s my latest craft story for The Associated Press: heart-shaped pom-poms for Valentine’s Day.
I was inspired by the t-shirt pom-poms at Craftaholics Anonymous. I should have made mine bigger but I was pressed for time, and I didn’t have much wool roving to work with. They do look pretty hanging from my stairs, though my cats […]

My son started attending a new school in January, one that is very big on outdoor recreation, even — perhaps especially — in winter. They have a ski program, a pond for skating, sledding hills, etc., and they never cancel classes for snow. So I decided to make something that goes along with that hearty New England spirit […]

I made this cute t-shirt and “experiment” book for my son’s friend, Victoria, who is a fan of the “Franny K. Stein” mad scientiest books. The book is full of easy science experiments collected from different websites and assembled in a great free download at A Lemon Squeezy Home, so all I had to do was print the […]

I love this Retro Robot Plushie pattern by Gulf Coast Cottage. The first time I made it was last spring, as a gift for my son when he had his tonsils out. That time, I enlarged the pattern a bit, and used different colors of felt to make striped arms and legs. This time, I made it for […]

On my to-do list: three slipcovers for my newly-painted living room, a duffel bag to hold my son’s karate sparring equipment and a gift for a friend’s baby due in a few weeks. So what am I working on instead? A quilt. A CHRISTMAS quilt.
Every year I see all the new Christmas prints and think about […]

Another Christmas gift post! I realized I mentioned but neglected to share photos of the stuffed penguin I made for my son for Christmas. He has a small one (that cost a small fortune) from the New England Aquarium, so this one is “Penguiny’s Mommy.” (pronounced Pen-GWEEN-ee in case you were wondering).
The pattern is McCall’s 5780, […]