The holidays are a perfect time to get crafty. Spending time with family and friends making decorations together can be a great excuse to try a new technique. Maybe needle felting is something you’ve always wanted to experiment with? Or cross-stitch? When I’m yearning to venture into new crafty territory I like to start with…
Settling In
These past few weeks have been a bit of a transition as I settle into shifting the bulk of my content creation over to Craft Industry Alliance. The podcast and newsletter have now officially been moved and it feels great. There were so many technical and design details that went into making all of that…
An Important Announcement About Some Big Changes
I have some big changes to share today about both my podcast and my newsletter. The changes are related and they’re rolling out on the same day which makes it nice to be able to do a single post explaining everything at once. I’m excited and a little nervous to tell you about them. If…
Doing Some Visible Mending on Jeans
I’m short. Actually, at 5′ 2″ I’m taller than my mom and my grandmother (my younger sister is taller than me by an inch), but in the grand scheme of things I’m still pretty short. This was rubbed in recently when my middle daughter, Stella, who is now 13-years-old and in 8th grade, grew taller…
Vinyl Stickers for Your Laptop that Will Let Everyone Know You’re a Crafter
It’s back-to-school time, my favorite time of year. I loved being a student and I spent many years as a teacher so when the weather turns cooler and all the back-to-school catalogs begin arriving at my house I can’t help but get excited. School supply shopping is always so exciting. Fortunately, I have three kids…
Checking out TikTok
I joined TikTok. It’s been an interesting experience in every way, not least of which is simply telling people this. My older daughters are now 13 and 15 and they are horrified, to say the least. “There’s no way you can understand TikTok, mom. It’s memes you don’t get.” Okay, I’ll accept that. There’s definitely…
5 Books I’m Enjoying Right Now
Summer is the perfect time to sink into a good book and thankfully a whole bunch of really interesting books have piled up over here in the past few weeks. Some of these came to me because the authors will soon be guests on the podcast. Others were sent to me to review. And still…
Fabric Shopping and Other Adventures in Portland, Maine
My husband, Charlie, and I spent four days in Portland, Maine to celebrate our anniversary and just to spend some time together while two of our three kids are away at camp (the third stayed home with a college student to look after her). Although Portland is just two hours away from Boston, neither of…
Templates for Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction
In 2013 my book, Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction, was published by Lark Crafts. This book was my baby. The idea for it came to me way back in 2009 when I was searching for a guide to designing my own sewing patterns for stuffed animals and couldn’t find one. After months of looking…
Free Pattern: Plush Apple
Today I have a free pattern to share for this cute plush apple. I made mine a Red Delicious, but you could definitely sew this pattern up in light green fleece to make a Granny Smith. This is an easy pattern to sew up in just about an hour. I used a pair of 8mm…
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 90
- Next Page »