Cassandra Ellis

Posted in Sewing, Stuff to make by

The work of the British quilter Cassandra Ellis is so inspiring. Her impossibly pretty home was featured on design*sponge recently, and her quilts are scattered throughout. I often find it difficult to strike a balance between modern simplicity and lively patterns when I am thinking about making a quilt. I want to use bright colors and patterns, but I don’t want to end up with something chaotic or too patchworky. It looks to me like she is guided by the fabric–she uses gorgeous colors (yay red!) and prints, which are always a good starting point. Then she seems to piece them together improvisationally. The end results are stunning.

More ruminations on photo albums

Posted in Photos, Stuff to make by

Here is my rather small collection of albums. My trouble isn’t so much the albums as the picture taking. I like to take the same annual photos, but manage to take very few in between. My albums are a little reminiscent of Groundhog’s Day–like each year consists of the same handful of days. My greatest photographic achievement to date was taking a photo of Betty with every elf from A to Z in Santa’s Village, including B, Betty (!). (I can’t wait to do it again next year.)

Inkodye fabric printing

Posted in Stuff to make by

Jessica Jones, How about Orange blogger, has a great series of posts about printing fabric using Inkodye, which reacts to sunlight like a sunprint. It looks like lots of fun, and I want someone to try it! I really love the safety pin fabric.

I am meanwhile working away on some quilts, cushions, and other home improvements.

Ruminations on photo albums

Posted in Paper, Photos, Stuff to make by

What do you do with your photos? I can’t seem to be satisfied with letting them linger in the ethereal digital realm.

I still go for the tangible: I order matte-finished prints with the white borders and then stick them in photo albums with little paper corners. (In case anyone’s wondering, I use Kolo albums.)

(Note Zeke & his pal Birdy looking at a photo of a Zeke & Birdy looking at a photo of Zeke & Birdy looking at a photo . . . )

I have accumulated a lot of albums! I am a sucker for arranging images–but is there a better way to go about archiving my life? Also, I’m perpetually lagging two years behind . . .

I really like this flip book of bicycles from Wren Homemade made with Iphoto and printed by Apple. Making albums with Snapfish, Shutterfly, Kodak, etc. is fun, too, but I don’t love the print quality in the final product. I’d be interested to hear your recommendations–please share!

Cute as a spare button

Posted in Fabric printing, Kids, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

Buttons are cute. Even the word button is cute. So I figured I couldn’t go wrong printing an image of a button (using a hand-drawn and hand-cut freezer paper stencil) on this little muslin drawstring bag I had in my drawer. (Oh yeah, the bag once held the spare buttons to a sweater I had bought a while ago.)

Then I got really carried away and made this onesie. I realize the letters aren’t exactly centered, but I’m hoping you won’t notice. I don’t have any wee babies in my life, so if you do have one who happens to be 13 to 18 lbs., and who is verifiably as cute as a button, I will send this onesie to you!