(That colorful, shabby chic one on top is for me! Squeeee!! Love it.)

Yeah. Can you believe that quilting? See the bird she added? She does this all on her machine, free-form.

I can’t even draw lines this perfect, much less sew them.

The applique quilt is simply gorgeous.

These squares are coming together for a quilt. I cannot get over the precision required.

Yeah. If only these skills were genetic.

~K

Let’s start with what was awesome about the pattern: working with chenille is new to me. And I love the way it blossoms after a good wash:

Of course, I love the idea of creating a project with just one yard of fabric. And making it my own. After a lame first attempt, I customized my second clutch by sewing velcro for the closure and hot gluing some vintage buttons:

Our winner for January, randomly selected is: Surya. Congrats! Email me your mailing address and you’ll receive a yard of fabric, along with a few other sewing notions.

So pretty, right? Love that button and the bright fabric. Nice work, lady!

The February project is: Barnaby Bear on page 227. It’s a softie — and this project will stretch my sewing abilities. Plus, selfishly, I’m visiting a friend next month and staying with her two boys. Mr. Barnaby will make the perfect gifts.

Remember the rules:

1. One pattern will be posted each month. To participate, you sew this pattern and add at least one photo to the Flickr pool.

2. I will use a randomizer to select a winner.

3. The winner will be featured on the blog, and sent a yard of fabric as a prize.

Fire up your machines and keep emailing with questions. We’ll figure these out together!

~K

Or, apparently — to turn into a dog blanket. Some friends in Phoenix recently adopted a new pup. I know one of the issues I continue to deal with after adopting Willie Nelson Mandela is his separation anxiety. I’ve read pound pups in particular suffer from the panic of being left for good again. And again. And oh look, I’m just stepping outside for a second and yet Nelson is again making that weird yippy noise like he’s never going to see me again.

What does this have to do with old rescued linens? I found this cute vintage handtowel at the thrift store this weekend. It was in a stack of other pieces of fabric I picked up. Knowing I wanted to put together a small care package for my friends’ dog, I pulled out this piece for the backing of a puppy blanket. The idea is the dog sleeps with this, or has it on his/her bed when you are home. But if you are preparing for a trip, the owners sleep with it for a couple days. The blanket then stays with the dog when they are away, but their smell stays with the dog — providing a bit of comfort to our otherwise anxious pups.

No idea if it works, but I do know that a bit of handmade blanket love, with a splash of super soft fleece, never hurt anyone.

~K

{click on the photo for pattern details.}

I picked this yarn up in Tempe because it reminded me of the ocean. Thankfully, I bought two skeins, which worked out perfectly. There was enough for the long fringe, and to wrap the gift and attach washing instructions.

Fellow knitters — call me crazy, but I’m putting a new rule on this craft. I am no longer letting myself “buy a skein because it so pretty!” I have so many odd ball gorgeous single skeins of yarn, and few projects I actually want to knit with 1 ball. No more. I’m going to work through my current stash and then be disciplined to buy what a project calls for.

Does anyone stick to this? Or have a better plan?

~K

New year, new paper, new start. A few I created this week as gifts for friends:

For Bruce, who is traveling regularly to Africa, doing amazing work. I used an old almanac to include geography text on the back:

A birthday gift with a bit of Heather Bailey flare.

For Dana, a PhD student in Forestry and birthday girl. I finally had a chance to use this patch, which I’d been holding on to for years in my sewing box:

It scratched a creative spot in my brain to use different materials — sewing cardstock, vintage trim, fabric, paint, stamps, hot glue. I’m trying to make more time to for this type of play; doing so simply makes me happier and more patient.

~K

With flannel.

That said — the entire project took less than an hour. It requires cutting squares, sewing simple lines and being able to trim. Anyone — yes, you! — can do this if they want to. Looking forward to seeing what you create!

~K

Really.

I’m not being dramatic.

I went to send Christmas cards this year and realized a handful needed special postage. Australia. The Netherlands. Japan. There was the small stack of American friends I’ve made through sew-alongs and swaps over the years, some of whom I’ve met and others I haven’t yet. This is a sweet group of like-minded folk — those who love the idea of diving into a new book, hitting the sewing shops, digging through vintage linens at thrift stores, and more than anything: figuring out how to make it ourselves.

We’ve long since past the time when it is less expensive to craft it yourself. Never mind the expense. There is a specific, priceless joy attached to conquering a pattern. To presenting the perfect gift with your own label tucked neatly on the inside seam. Figuring out how to make something out of what you have on hand.

And so, to my friends far and wide and newbies who may have added “learn how to finally use that sewing machine” to their 2012 list of goals: I present a new challenge. The folks at Storey Publishing have come up with a lovely new sewing book– Fabric by Fabric: One-Yard Wonders. In fact, my dear friend Sue has a pattern included! So proud! She gave me a copy of this book for the holidays, sparking this entire idea.

With this book and a new challenge in mind, here are the 2012 Fabric-by-Fabric sew-along rules:

1. One pattern will be posted each month. To participate, you sew this pattern and add at least one photo to the Flickr pool.

2. I will use a randomizer to select a winner.

3. The winner will be featured on the blog, and sent a yard of fabric as a prize.

That’s it. Easy peasy. Ready for your first assignment?

Let’s tackle the “Shaggy Chic Chenille Clutch” on page 177. Extra points to those who make the pattern their own. Let your creativity shine. If you are in, leave a comment. If you want help, shoot me an email. Nothing would make me happier than seeing more friends experience the joy of domestic sewing prowess.

Ready? Let’s do this.

~K

Is it weird I made one sock monkey for Christmas — and fairly haphazardly at that, considering my “first” of any sewing project is bound to be wonky — and it made me want to make one for each of my friends, only customized?

Imagine tiny outfits and props. Embroidered details. Monograms.

Then again, who wouldn’t want a monkey custom made for them?

~K

Case in point. This morning I was outside spray painting at 8 am. What would I be tagging, especially so early? Wearing tennis shoes and my pajamas? In the snow? Salsa lids. Logically. 

Lessons learned: spray paint and snow don’t mix. Dogs like to drag off spray painted projects into the snow and bury them, which can be a total bitch to find without a metal detector. Lavender bath salts in a salsa jar is an absurd idea. Not even cute ribbon can make this spicy project tolerable.

Total fail.

Then again, ability to crack myself up at how bad things can end up? For certain.

Fear not Grinches! I have other ideas up my little jammie sleeve. Onward!

~K

I’m working through my yarn stash to whip up a few gifts. (Not going to lie: it is a lot more fun to work with wool when there is snow on the ground.)

Also not going to lie: it is going to be a lot more fun to knit now that I have a model who works for treats:

Doesn’t he look thrilled?

Actually, now that I look at him — he looks like he needs a haircut.

~K

Come to find out, my little garden bounty of squash looked much prettier than they taste.

In other news, I’m pretty sure I tried to serve roasted, decorative gourds for dinner last night. And it wasn’t even a Amy Sedaris recipe.

~K

Last week I mentioned I’d be preparing a fancy new recipe with my new 2 week food planning guide. (By the way, that guide is changing my life. I no longer do a dozen market runs for odd ingredients, or worry if I’m going to have the right items on hand for a meal. The mystery is gone, and I love it. It’s planned, working and yummy. Booyah.)

That fancy new recipe was this month’s cover for Bon Appetit: prosciutto-wrapped stuffed pork loin, over apples.

Pros:

Beautiful presentation

Kale. Any time I can use kale, for humor’s sake, I do. Adam hates kale and thinks I’m insane for regularly finding ways to include it in my diet. And so, as our friendship goes, I find ways to add kale to breakfast. And cocktails.

I learned a new cooking technique: butterflying a loin. Who knew it was so easy? (And here I thought butterflying a loin was pulling a muscle in the 200 meter.)

I got to use a meat thermometer I didn’t even know I owned. Score one for the gadget gods!

Did I already mention beautiful presentation, with cooking twine and all? Such fun to put together. 

The baked apples. Propping up the loins to cook over halved apples is genius. And the result is savory, sweet deliciousness. The meat with the cooked, tart, green apples is nothing short of delightful.

Cons:

A dozen expensive ingredients, including $10 worth of mushrooms that ended up being indistinguishable

Not a recipe for a single cook. If Alma hadn’t been visiting, there was no way I could have tied the pork together alone. It was not a hard job, but one that certainly required 4 hands.

DRY. The cook time is totally off. Comments on the recipe show that I’m not the only one to be disappointed with how dry the meat came out of the oven. Come to find out 100 minutes at 400 degrees is a MOTHER LOAD OF HEAT for one little 2.5 pound loin. Some 45 minutes would suffice. (Use yer trusty thermometer to judge.)

And perhaps most “con:” gross leftovers. I tried having this for lunch today and it just wasn’t good. Chances are I will not make this recipe again. The meal cost more than $50 to cook for the 3 of us, with ample leftovers. Sadly, I was counting on those for lunch and dinner today.

~K

And only 9 months late — a Christmas gift for Meg.

~K

A former coworker turned 40 last week; the celebration gave me a much needed nudge to try Amy Butler’s charm clutch pattern.

I anticipate making many, many more of these with what I learned after the first go-round — including one for me, with vintage trim I tucked away for the perfect project.

~K

I’m not sure where I originally heard the theory of gardening in thirds, but I’d guess it was from my Grandma Maxine. She grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania during the Great Depression and was forever transformed. She is exceptionally thrifty, I’d guess in part because she was no stranger to hunger as one of five kids. She is also exceptionally generous. She has led a life of giving. Thrift and gift are forever entwined in her view; the more clever you are with money and supplies, the more you can help — and in this case feed — others.

Gardening in thirds goes a bit like this: when planning your garden boxes, you plant three times as much as you anticipate needing. One third comes home to your kitchen. The next third is sacrificial — you anticipate losing this to the critters in the yard. This is, after all, organic gardening. And the final third is to be giving to others. Could be your neighbors, or in this case — the local food bank.

Metro CareRing is a unique food bank to Denver for several reasons. The director, Lynne, noted her favorite room at their small facility is the produce space. In this area, clients can select the fruits and vegetables they want to take home. This reduces waste and provides a bit of humanity to those in need. They have a choice; they are not simply given a box and expected to make the best of it for the next month.

And so, when the radishes were begging to be picked, their purple bodies bulging from the earth, to the food bank they went.

Thank you, Grandma Max. You’ve taught me more than I can say.

~K