VW bus pillow complete! Since I only had a fat quarter of border fabric, I patch-worked the backing. Serendipity! I like the way it worked out. The pillow looks a little lonely on that window seat, though. Don’t you think it needs a friend? A VW bug pillow, perhaps?
After many pleasant minutes ogling fabric online for Zeke’s VW bus pillow, I ended up with a print I grabbed at whim at Gather Here (370 Broadway, Cambridge). The print is geometric & groovy, flower-like without actually being flowery. But I only found a wee scrap–a fat quarter! I don’t care. I’m forging on.
I considered using linen for the VW bus print, but fabric paint is tricky stuff, and I wasn’t sure how it would sit on linen’s bumpy texture. Instead, I went for Kona natural cotton and neon orange fabric paint.
Is it boastful to say that I found my VW bus stencil from a couple of years ago helpful? I printed it out and cut the freezer paper stencil following my own instructions (you are being kind and optimistic if you think I could have retained this information unaided). I will post the complete pattern for the pillow when I’m done (for future me!).
Arrow through the heart? Make that, Number 2 pencil through the heart! Our valentine project this year is totally old school: super simple, low cost, and homemade from stuff we have around the house.
What you need:
Pencils
Washi tape or masking tape in different colors (we used Scotch masking tape from Michael’s)
Construction paper
Scissors
X-acto
Optional: Stamps and stamp pad
Step 1: Cut out hearts from construction paper (about 5 x 5″). Let the kids do this step. Lopsided? Looking more like a liver than a heart? Remember: it’s part of the charm!
Step 2: This is a step for a grown-up. Cut two 1.5″ slits with your X-acto, one in the upper left quadrant of the heart shape, one in the bottom right quadrant.
Step 3: Decorate with stamps, stickers. Go crazy, kids! Bedazzle!
Step 4: Wrap pencils in strips of washi tape. Don’t worry, your valentines will be able to sharpen their washi-covered pencils.
Step 5: Insert pencil through your valentine heart. Now repeat 24 times–fewer, if you’re lucky enough to have lower class sizes at your school. . .
The advent calendar was a big success! It was really fun to see the little village come together–so I thought I’d take a picture in all its elfin glory. Cheers!
My 2013 resolution: make a quilt.
Check. Completed, and just under the wire.
OK, enough already. Maybe I fudged it a bit and made a teeny-tiny wee quilt. Don’t be so particular! But ain’t it cute? It only took about 15 minutes to make versus the never-endingness of its queen-size version. (If anyone’s curious, I cut 2-inch squares, pieced together, made a mini-quilt sandwich with some on-hand batting, and finito. That’s how to quilt, man.)
And to go with the little quilt and the little bed, a little cupboard that I recently found in a Concord, Mass. junk shop:
homemadecity.com 