Pay It Forward

I'm pretty late at posting this, but I signed up to Pay It Forward from my cousin Angelic's blog. You probably already know what this is but in case you don't, here you go.

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I already received a wonderful Christmas tile from Angelic. I'm not sure what I will send, but I think you'll like it.

So, anyone out there interested?

Happy Anniversary!

Todd and I are celebrating our 7th anniversary today. And of course, it's been just like any other day. One year I'm sure we'll have the time and money to do something special (more than just dinner at Chili's) but this is not the year. The timing is kind of tough. It's right after Christmas so the money is all spent, and it's right before we go back to work (school starts TOMMORROW! What?!)

I told Zoë that I was going to post about Todd and she said, "You mean about how great he is?" Exactly. He is great. He's the greatest. This picture is an outtake from our wedding announcement photo shoot.

I can't express to you how amazing my husband is. He's smart, so smart. He's funny. He's creative. He's talented. And above all, he loves learning. There's never a time that he's not exploring something new, from photography to computer programming to playing the ukelele. He's just the best.

Also he helps me in so many was. For example for work he helped me make a DVD that plays images of Utah landscapes in a loop (as inspiration for my students as they worked on their projects). He taught me how to put art images onto my iPod so I can show them in the classroom over the TV. And tonight he helped me extract a two minute clip from a podcast that I'll play in class tomorrow. People think I'm so technically savy but really it's all him.

And he's about the best dad a kid could have, really. I could go on and on about this. But I'll just say that my kids love their dad and they are lucky to have a father who has given up so much of his professional and creative time to spend with them every single day.

I love Todd more and more every day and I still can't believe that I found such an amazing person. He really is unlike any other person I've ever met.

Handmade Christmas: Jams

Christmas PJs are a big tradition at our house. I made a pair for Todd and I a few years ago and they're lasting (fortunately we haven't outgrown them or anything.) But the kids get new pairs every year on Christmas Eve. I was pretty surprised that they totally were not expecting them this time. They were so excited when we showed them to them. I guess kids don't really catch on about traditions for a while.

Anyway, I couldn't be happier about these because the kids have pretty much worn them constantly since Christmas. They change in and out of them all day and wear them every night. I've washed them a few times already. Making clothing for your children is always risky business. Mostly they hate what you've made and refuse to wear it. Fortunately that did not happen this time. I think flannel and cozy have something to do with it.

Ike's picture is the closest we have to something in focus. You just can't get that kid to stand still. Also Zoë is trying her best not to laugh in the picture. It was Christmas Eve and she was pretty much twitching with excitement.

Handmade Christmas: Small Quilts

This year I made a bunch of small quilts for Christmas using my 5 year old's drawings. I have been saving drawings for a while, intending to embroider them. But I really don't have a lot of embroidery training, and although I like the way it looks so much, I don't have the patience, really. I am an immediate gratification kind of person. So I made these.

I start by tracing the drawing onto white or cream muslin. I just used a pencil because I can never find my wash out pen and I've decided to stop buying a new one every time I need one. So, trace it onto the fabric. Then I just start sewing strips of fabric around the center, log cabin style. I go specifically for wonky here and I am never very careful about measuring my finished size, in fact I just eyeball it, making it bigger than I need.

Choosing the fabric is my favorite part of the project. I just have a thing for making color and pattern combinations. Really, it's the most fun.

Then I pin a piece of batting and backing fabric to the back, um, obviously and just start sewing. I use a lot of pins and start out by sewing the picture. I just shorten my stitch, let up on my tension, and go really slow. I go over each line two or three times, and sort of break the drawings into sections in my mind so I can sew them easily.

After sewing the drawings, I change the thread to white or pink or something coordinating, and just quilt all around in a square spiral, through the log cabin parts.

Next I add any hand stitching, appliqué or buttons. The back of the snowman quilt actually got kind of messy, so I stitched another piece of fabric over the back, to hide the mess. I think maybe it just made it look messier.

Next I wash and dry them to crinkle them up and fray the edges.

Then I just sandwich them into frames. Some of them really didn't fit into the frames (remember that I totally didn't measure?) So I just cut into them until they fit, then washed and dried them again to refray the edges. Some of them fit the frame size pretty closely, and some of them are smaller so they kind of "float" in the frame, with a piece of colored paper behind them. Oh, and I actually bound one of them and added a hanging sleeve on the back. I just felt that it should be free.

There are no rules in this type of little quilt. I just looked at them and tried to think of what should go where. You probably notice influences from some other craft bloggers. With all the great inspiration out there, it kind of just mixes together into our projects, doesn't it?

This was a fun project for me, but of course my daughter Zoë felt like I totally wrecked her drawings with some of the colors that I chose. I guess that's what happens in collaboration some times.

Handmade Christmas: Mix CD

I thought I'd go over a few of the gifts that I made for Christmas this year. I almost never document the things I make and although I almost can't believe this, I'm finding that I actually forget some of the things I've made for people. So this year I'm taking notes.

Todd and I made four mix CDs for some good friends of ours. They often say that they need some new music in their house. So these mixes were to share some of our favorite music. All four CDs had different types of music, I think. Or just a different tone for each, I guess.

It was really fun to pick the songs for the CDs, and listen to the new mixes about a million times to be sure that we picked the right songs. But even more fun was making the case to hold the CDs.

I looked online for a long time to find a simple paper case that could hold four CDs, but couldn't find one. So Todd and I talked for a while and came up with something that we really like.

First, the outside case. I didn't make this up at all. I followed the directions for the portfolio box from this book by Barbara Mauriello. (And by the way, I was lucky enough to take a four day book binding and box making workshop from Barbara and let me just tell you, she's awesome. I've been making books for a long time, and she had a lot to teach me. And it wasn't anything fancy. It was just very accurate and straight forward ways to do the most basic steps. I really learned so much. Anyway, her book is awesome. Buy it if you can.)

The sewing on the box was a little tricky, but I think it turned out okay.

Inside the portfolio is a 4 panel accordian. It's made of some medium weight chipboard and various heavy papers that I had. It was really fun to choose papers for this project. It was all about the weight and the colors. Also it was fun to do something totally without pattern. All the papers were solid colors. Plus they were random papers. One of them was even the cover of a Canson Biggie paper pad.

I made each panel individually, then joined them with hinges of handmade paper and Sobo glue. We printed album lists from iTunes and inserted them behind each of the CDs.

I pretty much want to make one of these for myself now, even though I mostly don't use CDs at all anymore, I just put them all onto the computer and onto my iPod. Maybe I'll just make one, fill it with blank CDs, and put it on display somewhere.

Maybe I'm lame.

Excellent Christmas Traditions Swap

Over a month ago I signed up for the Holiday Traditions Exchange at Montessori By Hand. It was a lot of fun to participate in and it helped me get into a holiday mood a little early.

I have to admit that I have been the worst swap partner in the history of the internet. I received my package from my excellent partner Kristin at Knit One Quilt Too almost two weeks ago and I haven't even posted about it. I am here to say now that is was a wonderful package and we were so lucky to receive it.

The ornament that she sent was a beautiful needlepoint snowman. We love it. Some strange light in this picture makes it look brownish there at the bottom, but it's not. It's perfect.

Everything was wrapped so beautifully, my kids almost couldn't wait for me to snap a picture.

Kristin sent a really fantastic hand knit and felted stocking that was filled with goodies. She also sent a recipe for Anise Drops which sound so delicious. Finally her daughter Chloe wrote such a nice description of their holiday traditions that she made me want to join in on the fun.

You can see that my kids were pretty excited about the package.

And here is what I sent. It's a mini quilt (more on that in a future post), a hand bound journal, a few simple sketchbooks, and an ATC kit (that's what's in the black box.) It was fun to put this together and even more fun to receive such a wonderful Christmas package. I could really tell that Kristin is an excellent crafts person and that her family is very close, especially during the holidays.

My New Job is Starting

I just got home from Back to School Night at the elementary school. It was my first official duty as a new visual arts specialist. I introduced myself and the new art program. It was pretty crazy but also pretty encouraging. The parents and kids and even the teachers all seem super excited. Which makes me feel more at ease. I'm really excited about this job and I hope it turns out to be a benefit not only to the kids that I'll be teaching, but also to myself and my family.

I have started a new blog, dedicated to my new job. Don't worry. I'm not quitting this blog. I'll go on posting here just as rarely as I ever have but I will probably post on the other one much more often. So if you're interested in what's going on, just pop over there.