Sewing, blogging, and creative business.
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.
Today I have a fun, free pattern to share with you: the Josephine Doll. I made 10 of these dolls last week for a members of my local artists group. We do a holiday art exchange each year. Everyone makes a series of tiny originals and we put them all out on a table andRead More →
What makes a craft conference great? How can you create a truly transformative, relaxing, and inspiring experience for a broad range of attendees? Today on the While She Naps podcast I’m talking with two women who have the experience and understanding to answer these questions. Nicole Stevenson and Delilah Snell are the organizers of Craftcation,Read More →
I got a lovely email yesterday from someone I’ve never met. Her name is Karen Katin and here’s what she said: Abby, As a subscriber to your newsletter and avid reader of your blog, I wanted to say “Thank You” for the creative service that you are providing through your words and products. I findRead More →
Four years ago at Christmas time I was doing some holiday shopping on Etsy and came across SockHollow, an Etsy shop with wonderfully charming sock puppets like I’d never seen before. I bought two (a zebra and a giraffe) for our good friend, Huck, who was in preschool at the time. When they came IRead More →
On the While She Naps podcast today I’m talking about YouTube with The Crafty Gemini, Vanessa Vargas Wilson. Being a YouTube star was certainly an unexpected career path for Vanessa. While in law school she yearned for a creative outlet and asked her mother to teach her to sew. She took to it immediately. WhenRead More →
Guess who’s here just in time for holiday sewing? Ruby the Reindeer! If you’ve been reading my blog for a year or more (thank you!) you may remember the first version of Ruby from last fall. I decided to pull him from my shop before the Christmas season really began. It was a difficultRead More →
I love stuffed animals. And I especially love handmade stuffed animals. As we head into the holiday shopping season, I’m excited for an excuse to buy some special plush for friends and family. Here’s my hand-picked selection of softies that would make amazing gifts for kids and adults alike. Owl Pillow by my mimi, BigRead More →
It’s hard to find new podcasts. They’re the kind of thing you stumble on, following a link from a link, until you don’t remember how you got to where you are. I listen to podcasts on my morning run and I listen while I sew. I listen while I prep dinner and while I foldRead More →
image source I opened my Etsy shop on July 3, 2005. At that time setting up an independent ecommerce shop was an onerous task that required technical skills I didn’t have. Etsy was like a miracle. A week later I made my first sale. I’d been sewing plush toys for months and was desperate forRead More →
At the end of September I shared this delightful 1940’s sewing pamphlet by Coats & Clark as a free PDF. I was interested in bringing back some of these old patterns. Their style seems to fit perfectly with today’s aesthetic. Toys make all of us nostalgic and these are just so charming. I love theRead More →