Advent Calendar

…and not a moment too soon!  I’ve had all year to work on this, but alas, I still ended up working on it at the last minute.  The good news is that if it weren’t for the sew along, I may not have got it done at all.

The last few days I had a  new advent calendar idea running through my head  and since I hadn’t gotten past the 7 stockings I made in August, I decided to give it a try. 

Goals for this advent calendar

* It can’t look girly (I have 3 sons).

* It has got to be fast enough to finish in 2 days.

*It should be able to hold the contents of our Usborne Advent Nativity Book scene.

I’m happy with how it turned out.  The numbers needed to be boyish as well, but still a little festive.  I printed the numbers out on brown cardstock, punched them out  and stapled (yes, STAPLED) them onto the pockets.

I’d like to say that I felt that the staples went superbly with  the theme, but who am I kidding? Stapling was just plain easy. 

If you’d like a pdf of the numbers, here it is: Advent numbers

Check out the Advent Calendar Sew Along Flickr group.  Who can’t appreciate and love this one?

I’d love to see your calendars – add ‘em to the group or leave a link in the comments.

My contribution as we enter the busiest shopping season of the year…

AKA shopping tips by CraftApple.

If you sew a lot and live in the US, chances are you’re like me and make plenty of trips to JoAnn’s.  I purchase most of my fabric at my local quilt shop or online, but for all other supplies, I go mainly to JoAnn’s (armed with coupons) or my local WalMart which (thankfully) still has a sewing and crafting section with rock-bottom prices on things like interfacing and thread.

I’ve learned a few things on my recent trips that I’m going to share with you.  My hope is that it will make your shopping experience better and that you’ll share your shopping tips with me!!

If I’m going to purchase anything that needs to be cut at the cutting counter (batting, fabric, interfacing, ribbon, boning, etc), my first stop in the store is the little number dispenser at the cutting counter.  If the numbers are 15 to 20 numbers from who they are serving at that moment, I take a number before I shop.  Sneaky, eh?  I’m a pretty fast shopper, so I’ll head over and get all my supplies and usually only have to stand in line for a few minutes.  1 sneaky point for me. 

If I plan on purchasing something only because I can get it cheaply using my coupon, then I have to do 2 things.  First, I make sure that the item isn’t labeled as on sale.  Secondly, I mentally prepare myself to part with the item in case I can’t get the discount.  Why?  Because sometimes an item will be “on sale” like it was for me today, but not clearly marked anywhere.  I wanted to purchase Artful Blogging magazine for $15 (usining my 50% off coupon, that would have been $7.50).  When I was checking out, it turned out that the item was marked down to $14 making it ineligible for a coupon discount.  Sneaky, huh?  1 sneaky point for JoAnn’s.  When I realized what had happened, I turned right back around and returned it.  Bummed, I was.  But I’ll try again next time and I dare say I shall be victorious!

If you are purchasing bag-making supplies, like magnetic snaps, consider checking the bag-making section of the store rather than the notions section.  At my JoAnn’s Etc store the notions are on the more sophisticated-looking side of the store, near the frames and upholstery fabric.  In the notions section, you’ll find nice brand names on items like  magnetic snaps, packaged nicely and priced at $4.  If you don’t mind going to the other side of the store (where they sell feathers, clay and cool-for-teens learn-to-knit kits) you’ll find nestled among the pre-made, ready-for-embellishment denim totes things like magnetic snaps and swivel hooks packaged in little baggies for much cheaper.  These magnetic snaps aren’t my favorites (they’re very thick), but will do in a bind when I’ve run out of my supply from my regular magnetic snap shop.

These are my new favorite swivel clasps from Joann’s ($2.50 for 2), in the latest bag that I made for myself.

 

Yum, yum.  I’ve waited a while for the perfect project for this linen by Megumi Sakakibara.  Josh calls it my Jesus bag because of the crosses.
 

If you are a Target shopper and want to purchase things like shower curtains just for the fabric, consider this:  when the item is on clearance (you know, with the red stickers), if the final digit is a 4, then the price is the lowest its going to be which usually means  a good deal.  If you want it, buy it!  This shopping tip came from Beth and after testing it out using my ultra-fine-tuned shopping radar, I believe it! 

So do you have any shopping tips you’d like to share?  I’d love to hear them.
Okay, just one more picture of the bag. I love these doodles!

I’m on a Bag-Making Kick.

I’m on a bag-making kick.  Don’t ask me why.  My next pattern is a bag and it’s almost done.  After making a gazillion of those bags, I thought I’d be sick of bags, but I’m really enjoying these simple ones – the kind I used to make when this blog was in it’s infancy – a mere baby blog.  I think I’ll call it a blog l’enfant as in:  Sometimes I think back to the carefree days of  my blog l’enfant.

Sadly, since there is so much new fabric coming out all the time, some fabric looks old even though I haven’t had it that long.  These first two are made with Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain.  I’m just experimenting with different shapes and sizes here.

I love the fabric on this one.  Can you believe this one was a Target shower curtain?

Not sure where all this bag making will take me. Perhaps nowhere. Perhaps someplace fun.  We’ll see.

Shopping Lists

I’m feeling a bit more on top of Christmas this year than last year.  Now if I could only get my advent calendar done, I’d feel superfantastic.

Usually I spend a day the week before Christmas baking cookies, then we drive all over town delivering them.  I enjoy it, but I wanted to try something different this year – something I could do ahead of time that could be delivered whenever and that didn’t need to be given fresh.  Huge thanks to Cindy for the idea.  Her tutorial is here.

I started off with pieces of the boy’s artwork that I’d been saving up for a few months.  I cleaned them up in Photoshop to take care of random marks and smudges.  Then added lines and sent the files off to the printer.  They printed and cut the sheets in half.

The super cool stuff  in this project is the padding compound.  It’s a fun pink that dries a deep red.

It took me a while to learn that I do better rubbing it on with my finger.  After that it took me a while to get the pink off my finger.  In fact, several hours later and it’s still a pretty pink. 

Here’s a little sampling of my boys’ work.

Car-Shaped Soap

Soon after making crayon cars I tried making soap cars some bars of Dove soap.  It involved a cheese shredder (what was I thinking?), the microwave, and a kitchen that smelled like soap for a few days.  The soap looked funky, but it held it’s shape and has worked just fine in the shower.  But it wasn’t gift-worthy.

So yesterday I went looking at soap-making supplies at Michael’s.  Am I the only one that didn’t know making soap was so easy?  I got myself some glycerin, fragrance and coloring and went to town.  I melted the glycerin, added color and fragrance, and poured it into the mold.

Clear glycerin with blue coloring and vanilla fragrance.  Mmm.  Vanilla.

Now melting crayons is just plain fun, but soap making?  That seems like an art.  So I’m not going to pretend to know anything about the *art* of  making soap but here are some tips in case anyone decides to try.

• Grab your craft store coupon to use on the glycerin.  $10 for about 4 -6 bars of soap isn’t cheap.
• Don’t spray the baking pan with cooking spray.  The oil tended to bubble up through the soap and was hard to rub off.  See the bubbles?

• White glycerin colors very girly.  Have you ever seen a more feminine bar of blue car soap?

• The liquid glycerin cools and hardens fast so pour it to the top.  Going back and topping off later might not leave you with a smooth bar of soap.
• To get the soap out of the mold, wait until the soap has cooled and hardened.  Then turn it upside down and put it in the freezer.  After an hour or so, bang one end of the pan on your carpet until the cars fall out.  I think I burned a few calories with all the banging.  The carpet was the only quiet thing I could bang it on, with the kids sleeping, you know.

My son Timo was so happy with our soap that he volunteered to go take a shower just so he could use it.  Now THAT’S the sign of a great craft for boys.

Car cake pan here.

Stitch Magazine

The first issue of Stitch Magazine I ever purchased was in May.  I had purchased some advertising with a few other crafty businesses and I wanted to see the issue.  It probably isn’t a great business idea to purchase advertising in a magazine you’ve never seen before, but I couldn’t have been happier.  The advertisement looked great and I was contacted by a distributor who saw the ad.  The advertising was definitely worth it and when I went through the magazine I was impressed.  I’ve been feeling pretty ho-hum about my current magazine subscription which I won’t *cough*cough* mention here.  Each issue was starting to look the same and wasn’t providing much inspiration or good bathroom reading.  The only problem is that Stitch only comes out twice a year. 

But then at Quilt Market I was walking by the Interweave Press booth and saw it – the latest edition of Stitch.

Isn’t it beautiful?  I mean really, how can a tote bag look that good?  I feel like this is one editorial team that has their handle on the pulse of the crafty blogging world.  I had to have one but they weren’t just giving them away.  If I wanted to walk out of Quilt Market with a copy of Stitch,  I had to become a wholesale customer.  So I did.  Really, the magazine is that good.  They’re in the shop here.

If you have a favorite sewing magazine, I’d love to hear about it.  Right up there with Stitch is Cotton Friend which is really hard to come by in this part of the world but provides plenty of good *cough* reading and inspiration.

Sewing Pattern Designer’s Blog List

Ahhhh.  I’m in the point of pattern writing that feels great – second only to finally finishing the pattern itself:  the place where I’m 90% done.  The place where the worst is behind and good things are ahead – where I can be excited about what is to come.  It’s a good place. 

The name of the pattern is still undecided.   See how I conveniently covered the working title with my Ginghers? 

Pattern designers seem to be popping up everywhere!  I was surprised at how many new pattern lines were out at Quilt Market and it was exciting to see what everyone was creating!  I’ve found designers to be so friendly and helpful and overall just a fun group of people to hang around.  I’ve decided to start a page here on this blog for Indpendent Sewing Pattern designers to share their blogs.  Mostly so I can keep track of them, but also for any of you who are interested.  Requirements for listing:

1. Have at least 3 non-quilt patterns published on paper.   Quilt designers are welcome as long as they have 3 non-quilt patterns as well.  I’m not trying to exclude pdf pattern designers, but designing pdf patterns is a lot different than designing for paper and I’d like to create a list for paper publishers.

2. You must have a blog.  I’m not advertising for websites here (which might violate my tos), just making a list of blogs.

I’ve gotten the list started with some of the biggies as well as some people that I met recently.  Feel free to list your friends or your mom as long as they fit the requirements.  Leave a comment and I’ll work my way through and add them as I have time.  Thanks!

Reflections

Every year I come back from quilt market with 2 distinct emotions.  On the one hand, I feel completely inspired, wanting to go home and create as much as I can.  On the other hand, I feel completely humbled by people who are able to inspire the masses and be productive.  While I’m putting out a pattern here and there they are writing patterns, writing books, designing fabrics, all while taking care of their children.  Besides the obvious creative differences, another difference is people.  I don’t have people.  No Craft Apple staff.  Wouldn’t that be nice to have people?  I chatted with Darlene Zimmerman about having people.  She was so encouraging.  She told me about starting her business in 1992 and only this year has she started hiring a housekeeper.  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

So while I don’t have people, per se, I am thrilled to have dependable test-sewers and a supportive husband.  I’m so happy to have a sewing room - even if it needs a major cleaning - and a little buisiness to call my own.  And I’m always excited to be able to talk to a small part of the craft world through this blog.  Besides inspiring me creatively, those fabric heroes of ours have inspired me to work and to be focused.

Ready for some more inspiration?  Anna Maria’s book, Handmade Beginnings (sorry, can’t find a link) due out in May:

And Sandi Henderson’s book Sewing Bits & Pieces due out in April.

Both are published by Wiley. 

On a side note, do you remember the first few times you read craft blogs and noticed lots of pictures with people’s heads cut off?  It used to seem weird, but after a while I got used to it.  It seems that it has become a normal part of our culture.  So normal that both of these books have pictures without heads.  Funny.

Quilt Market Houston 09

It’s official.  I love spending time with these  girls at Quilt Market!  I’ve decided it’s not just because we get along and laugh together.  On a subconscious level I love not feeling short around them.

Great meeting so many new people -

* The fun and creative Sheree of Sheree’s Alchemy - love those wool bags, Sheree!

* Finally, finally, FINALLY got to meet my long-time blog friend Kathy of Pink Chalk Fabrics.  What a complete joy to finally meet you!  We tested eachother’s first patterns in what seems like forever ago.  I had to remind myself that we hadn’t actually met before.

* Great new pattern line by Lola Again for Izzy and Ivy Designs.

* I had to buy this pattern from Serendipity Studio.  It will be like wearing a Chemisette Handbag on myself!!!

I felt like I was taking  a ton of pictures, but I get home and realize I didn’t take enough.  These are two lines of fabric I can’t wait to get my hands on…

Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks voile – this is going to be perfect for clothing.

 

And Heather Bailey’s  Nicey Jane.  Completely clean and crisp.

 

This couch was for those of us who swooned from cuteness overload.

And to the folks at Moda, I just want to say…

Crayon Cars

If there’s one thing that needs improvement in my mommy-ing , it’s to enjoy doing crafts with the kids.  As the kid’s homeschool teacher I do different crafts with them, but truth be told, I don’t enjoy it that much.  In fact, if given a choice, I always pick the least messy craft.  Doing crafts really brings joy to the kids, but I get frustrated with them mess.  I mean, the house is messy enough without getting out the glue and the yarn, the paint and the play-doh, you know?  I’ve needed help and there have been a couple of books that have been helpful:

• Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World.  We’ve been using this as part of our curriculum this year.  We’re currently studying Central America so I’ve been able to pick out different crafts from that region of the world.
• Green Crafts for Children.  This one had a lot of basic ideas – lots of stuff that I’ve seen online.  But it was inspiring enough for me to make pom poms with the boys and little cork animals.  It’s a nice one for the kids to look through and pick an activity out of.  My only complaint is that many of the crafts are aimed toward girls.
• Drawing With Children.  While this may not be crafting necessarily, I had to mention this book.  I love this approach to drawing.  It’s concepts are simple enough for the kids to understand but foundational to drawing.  Not being an artist myself, I’ve learned a lot using this book.

So let’s get on to the latest craft the boys and I did together.  It wasn’t too messy and was lots of fun.  Crayon cars. 

 

Melting crayons certainly isn’t new, but when I saw this car cake pan ($22 at Target), I had to try this.

1.  Peel the paper off of the crayons.  Sitting around peeling the paper off of the crayons together was fun!  A great fine motor activity that we all enjoyed.  My sons are pickers like me.  We sorted the colors so that the final cars would be different shades of the same color.

2.  Break the crayons up.  Snap, snap, snap!  Break the longer pieces up.  The boys loved this part.

3. VERY IMPORTANT STEP:  spray your car shapes with cooking spray to help the cars come out of the pan easily.

4. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Much hotter and your house will smell like wax for a few hours.

5. Fill the pans with crayon bits and pieces.  Here they are ready to go in the oven.

 

10 minutes later:

10 more minutes:

See how they aren’t full?

6. Add more crayons if necessary and put them back in the oven for another 10.

That’s better.

7. Remove from oven and cool. They should pull away from the edge of the pan as they cool.

8.  When completely cool, the cars should come out with just a little gentle encouragement.

 

In addition to using the crayon pieces we had around the house, I also purchased several boxes of 68 count Crayolas.  2 boxes ($5 total) made ~8 of the smaller-sized cars (we didn’t even try the bigger cars).  Not the cheapest little crayon, but certainly doesn’t break the bank if you’re giving a little gift to a friend.  I think we’ll be making some of these up for the boy’s buddies when we pass out Christmas cookies this year.  And for the girls?

 

These little hearts were made using mini silicone hearts cupcake cups I purchased around Valentine’s Day.