Abby’ class went on a field trip to the zoo today. I went along and took all the usual zoo photos, but this is one of my favorites. It’s a photo of Abby and a classmate trying out the toilet paper roll “binoculars” they made in class. Such a simple project, but so cute. The kids all looked like they were having a great time looking through their homemade binoculars. I love it when a simple craft is a big hit with the kids. Kudos to the teachers on this one!

We had nice jacket weather today. And I’m really enjoying all the flowering trees this spring. I found the one below to be particularly lovely.

I drove more than 100 miles today to report a story about a quilter and her fabric scraps. Turns out the trek was well-worth it. I’ll be taking my first foray into paper piecing very soon. Have you tried that?

Today, the girls and I planted spinach seeds in those nifty planters that hang over the porch railing. The seeds are from last season (or maybe the season before), so we’ll see what sprouts (if anything) in 8 to 10 days. I need to read up on how long seeds keep and plenty of other gardening facts because I’m planning to go green this summer.

I’m going to grow a garden and try to keep it alive all summer long. I would love to grow enough tomatoes to do some canning and salsa-making. I’ve been gardening as long as I’ve been a homeowner, but this year I’d like to take it a little more seriously. It’s all part of my green summer plan to eat local, shop local, drive less and eco craft and refashion more. I plan to document this reduce and reuse experience, too.

Anyway, I kicked things off by joining this farm and I’m really excited about it. I’ve been wanting to participate in community supported agriculture (CSA) for a couple years, and thrilled that we’re finally doing it. It will be fun to take the girls to the farm and show them where their food comes from. I figure this will be a good green earth lesson to supplement our backyard gardening experiences.

* On the podcast front, I expect to post a new show sometime this weekend.

Abby’s “happy monster” quilt is finished. I put the final hand-stitches in the binding at approximately 1:30 a.m. this morning. It feels good to get caught up in a project like this with my beautiful daughter.

And she likes it! That’s the best part.

I plan to embroider a label for this quilt. I’m going to stitch Abby’s “signature” and write a little dedication. This little quilt is our first major collaboration. I’ve enjoyed making it so much that I’m a kind of sad it’s over.

There’s a bigger story behind this quilt than what I’ve shared here and I ended up it writing it up for my Mother’s Day art/craft column. My editors got wind of this quilt project and asked me to write a column about it. When I sat down at my desk this morning, I was kind of surprised by the story that rolled out. I was only planning to write about this project, but I ended up getting way more personal than that.

That’s the thing I love about writing, the truth and clarity that comes when I spend a little time at the keyboard. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t really processed the events of my life until I write about them.

I invite you to come back here Sunday for the big reveal and links to my column. The mumbo jumbo above will make a lot more sense after you read it.

This is the knitted amulet bag I made last weekend after I was inspired by a recent art & craft column interview I did with bead artist Nancy Seven VanDerPuy. My first attempt at bead knitting initially rocky, but I warmed up to it quickly and now I’m hooked.

Today my weekly column is about VanDerPuy, author of “Knitting Beaded Purses: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Own.” She lives in Wisconsin, but attended Calvin College here in Grand Rapids and will be in town this week for a book signing and Tulip Time appearance. So if you’re local, you can meet her in person. Her story is inspiring, so check it out. And be sure to download the amulet bag pattern pdf. It’s a fun project.

Oh, yeah, I’m giving away a copy of her book, too. Leave a comment over at my “Running With Needles” blog to get in the random drawing.

I finished my first free-motion quilting foray this evening! Yippee! It feels really good to be at this stage. It’s not perfect, but I’m glad I decided to quilt it myself. It was a risky move, but so worth it. It’s been really great to discuss the progress of this quilt with Abby everyday. Tomorrow, I’ll work on the binding, which will be comprised of bits of all the prints used to frame the embroidered blocks. (Thanks to those who commented for helping me decide.)

Today we had a little photo shoot at the dining room table because this collaboration between Abby and I will soon appear in print. Abby was drawing with crayons in her sketchbook while Amelia “helped” me sew. While waiting for the photographer to arrive, the girls pulled two dining room chairs up to the front window so they could “listen to the rain better” while they colored with crayons. I like listening to the rain, too, so I thought that was great. However, it’s way more fun to listen to two little girls discuss the sound of rain and ask to open more windows to “turn it up.”

Aren’t these crocheted vases cute? I just got my hands on a copy of “Uncommon Crochet” by Julie Armstrong Holetz and this vase pattern spoke to me. The design is clever in that you place a plastic tube inside so you can use them to display flowers. I love fresh flowers and can’t wait to pair fresh blooms with crocheted vases. I’m sure I’ll be blogging more about this delightful book in the future. Julie, thanks so much for the inspiration. We should totally chat sometime…

I guess I needed a short break from Abby’s “Happy Monster” quilt, especially after yesterday’s goof. I’m going to to a little more stitching tonight before I hit the hay. I’ll be so relieved when I’m sitting outside in the swing hand stitching the binding in place. That’s one of my favorite parts of this process.

I was cruising along with the free-motion quilting only to discover that the backing fabric had folded back onto itself. &*%$!

Time to rip it out a large section and start again. This time-consuming error is a major pain in the rear, but I’ll recover. Tomorrow is another day.

So I’m machine quilting now. I decided to go for a completely random pattern to take the pressure off. So far it’s going okay. I’m amazed how physical this part of the project is. Managing the weight of the quilt while trying to move it under the needle as evenly as possible is a bit of a challenge, but I think I’m starting to get it. I’d love to stay up all night to finish this project, but I must sleep. Let me know what you guys think about binding options. I haven’t settled on a color yet. Cheers! - JAH

I can’t wait until I’m safely through this part and deciding what color binding to sew on.

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Jenny Hart didn’t pick up an embroidery hoop until well into adulthood, but that didn’t slow her one-woman mission to put embroidery back on the craft map.

Very quickly after becoming obsessed with the relaxing and creative possibilities of the stitching herself, Jenny decided to bring us all along for the ride. She turned her passion into a successful craft business called Sublime Stitching and introduced the world to rockin’ new embroidery patterns that are clever in their appeal to everyone from bikers and rockers to children and the more experienced stitchers who buy their thread.

In addition to being a savvy business-owner, Jenny, 35, of Austin, Texas, has gained fame as a fine artist whose distinctive embroidery work has been collected and exhibited widely. On this episode of CraftSanity, Jenny talks about her personal mission to inspire hipster crafters everywhere to pick up a hoop and get stitching. Her modern rock-n-roll and tattoo-style designs, offer young crafters and experienced veterans appealing alternatives to the traditional embroidery designs of old.

Forget the fuzzy bunnies, Jenny is all about creating hip new designs that make people want to learn to embroider. During this episode you’ll also hear about her latest collection of fun embroidery designs published in the her new book “Sublime Stitching Craft Pad.”

More Jenny… Read Jenny’s blog and check out her guest blog entries over at Dinosaurs and Robots. Visit the Sublime Stitching flickr pool to see how embroidery enthusiasts have made her designs their own. And listen to more music from her band The Hidden Presuaders.

This week’s project: Download this Sublime Stitching modfashion diva PDF. Transfer to fabric and get stitching! (Thanks, Jenny!)

Enter to Win Sublime Stitching Goodies: Jenny and her team are super cool and donated a load of Sublime Stitching goodness. Leave a comment below about your wildest embroidery adventure to get in the random drawing to win a pack of Jenny’s designs. (Links to your latest embroidery projects very welcome!) There will multiple winners! The deadline is Saturday, May 10, 2008. Good luck everyone!

Click the sponsors link if you’re interested in sponsoring next week’s show.

Support the show! Buy a CraftSanity T-shirt or button.

Taking Names: Who do you want to hear from next? Send your comments, guest and show topic suggestions to jennifer@craftsanity.com

I taped the quilt to the dining room floor and basted it with pins. Now for the quilting… I’m going to stitch around all the embroidered panels first, working from the center out. Then I’m going to fill the spaces in between with free-motion quilting. We’ll see how it goes…

In unrelated news, I invite you to read this week’s craft column about Grand Rapids mixed media artist, Diane Moser. If you’re local, please consider signing up for the free artist trading card workshop the Grand Rapids Craft Club is sponsoring on May 13. Space is limited, so e-mail me by Wednesday if you’d like to attend. Details can be found on my “Running with Needles” newspaper blog. If you can’t make it, download the pdf instructions to make your own ATCs at home.

Last night I thought this project was going to kill me. I was swearing up a storm trying to transfer itty-bitty glass seed beads onto a strand of size 8 perle cotten and thinking people must be insane to knit projects this small. I was watching (okay mostly listening) to an episode of “The Wire” on DVD and transferring dainty beads onto thread. The episode ended before I had that part of the project squared away, but I finally figured it out without losing my mind or too many beads.

Then things got serious. I got out the 0000 needles I bought yesterday and started knitting. In that initial awkwardness of feeling like a super-sized knitter with giganitic fingers using tiny needles belonging to a sprite, I knew I had crossed over to the place some knitters never go: I crossed over to crazy. I felt like I was riding a motorcycle blindfolded or something because it took my eyes a bit to adjust to the smallness of it all and the dangerously stupid part was how I kept using my mouth to move the beads up the thread closer to the needles, which in turn put the sharp needle points very close to my eyes. (I’m sure this is probably the stupidest way to move the beads, so please don’t try this at home.)

I don’t care what anyone says, you have to be seriously hardcore to knit this dainty stuff. I would have continued life in the dark about his had my weekly newspaper craft column not forced me to once again expand my craft horizons.

I probably never would have tried to knit with needles this small if I didn’t have to test the pattern for an upcoming craft column. I used to think people who used 0000 were nuts. (Now, I know they are and proud to be one of them.)

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to dig deep enough to muster patience and skill required by this project, a small amulet necklace. The artist who wrote the pattern (and does amazing work by the way), told me that this micro-knitting is part of her spiritual practice. This took me a bit to grasp since my initial fumbling and swearing had me feeling like I was on the fast track to knitting hell.

But then something happened. I relaxed and surrendered to the project. I stopped trying to fight the pattern and rewrite it from a point of confused ignorance. (Taking patterns “under advisement” is one of my time-wasting bad habits. Don’t do it, especially when knitting with 0000s.) Once I committed to following the pattern, something unexpected happened. I started to enjoy my mini-knitting. I loved it, in fact. (Well, all except for the transferring of beads part. That was for the birds, but the knitting with beads kind of rocked.)

I’ll be posting my finished project along with links to my art & craft column on the bead knitting artist with Michigan ties in this space next weekend, so stay tuned. I’ll also be posting the pattern for an amulet bag that I tested today. It’s a good one. It might make you swear at first, but if you stick with it, it will challange and inspire you. And if you’re able to successfully complete this challenge, you will have earned the right to feel like a total bad a** knitter for at least a few hours. (I completed a basic pattern and strutted around my kitchen a bit this afternoon because I seriously didn’t think I could do this. Now I’m planning my next bead knitting experience.)

All you knitters who knit on 0000s like it’s no big deal, I salute you! R-E-S-P-E-C-T! And those of you who use those little sprite needles to make amazing beaded jewelry and purses. You people rock! I didn’t realize it until today, but that is some hardcore knitting.

Peace Out.

(See I told you this experience changed me. Time to go try to lift up my car and slam a Pepsi.)

I stitched the crayon holster onto Abby’s “Meathead Hat” today and she filled it up with crayons immediately, put it on and grabbed her sketchbook. I was tickled by her response because she’s not this enthused about everything I make her.

When presented with the Elmo smock she said: “Uh, I think that’s for Ameila.”

While looking rather forlorn modeling the pillowcase dress, she said: “Can I put some regular clothes on now?”

So, yes, the fact that she was happy to put on an elfish hat and wear it in the house while sketching was a big kick for me. Nevermind that it’s April and too warm for this hat. Amelia asked where her hat was, so I whipped another one up in about an hour. (Today is my day off and the dishes are dirty in the sink. That’s how I find time to craft, folks.) I still have to make the crayon pocket for Amelia’s hat, but she seems to like it already. So this pattern passed the kids test and gets two sticky thumbs up from CraftSanity’s junior product testers.

This pattern that I keep rambling on about is from the book “Knitalong.” And some of you are probably starting to think I’m on commission for the authors given the way I’m pushing this pattern so hard. But I’m not. I just think this pattern is super cute and fun to knit and think you should try it. Download the Meathead pattern for free and see what you think.

Note: The pattern calls for two strands of Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky held together, but I used Lion Brand’s Wool-Ease Thick & Quick and was pleased with the result. I might try to knit my next “Meathead” in the round to increase the speed and eliminate the need for sewing up the seam. Oh boy, it looks like authors, Larissa and Martin John Brown, have created a monster by releasing this pattern into my world! It’s fun and addictive. I’m in serious trouble. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before all the little kids in my family have one of these.

And here’s your friendly reminder. I’m giving away a copy of “Knitalong” so listen to the podcast and add your comment below the episode 76 post to get in the random drawing for the book. The deadline is tomorrow. (April 26.)

I’m so glad my little meatheads like their hats. This made my day. I know, it doesn’t take much. : )

I put the darning foot on my Janome and busted out with a little free-motion quilt action this afternoon. Wow, that was fun. Seriously, I really wish I would have tried this sooner. I have some more practice stitching to do before I will commence stitching on Abby’s “Happy Monster” quilt, but I’m starting to believe that I might actually pull this off. And, yes, I do realize this is probably not the best quilt to test my free-motion skills on, but I’m an impatient woman and motivated by a deadline that I will explain soon in more detail.

Tonight I ironed the quilt back. Tomorrow I plan to baste the quilt sandwich together and we’ll see when I work up the nerve to quilt it. (Hopefully, this weekend.)

Thanks to those of you who posted helpful free-motion quilting advice. I found it very helpful. Your support has made me feel a little more confident about this craft risk I’m about to take. I’ll give you a full report on how it all shakes out. I’ll be ready to quilt this thing as soon as I settle on how I’m going to work the stitching around the embroidered pieces. Right now the plan quilt up to the printed borders and leave the embroideries alone.

It was just the three of us at Abby’s birthday tea party. We made cherry Kool-Aid to serve as our “tea.” Then we packed up a few cookies, a blanket and the plastic cups with matching saucers that we borrowed from Nana. We assembled in the “clubhouse” which is a little wooden platform about four feet off the ground that serves as the slide landing of the weathered play equipment in our backyard. There we sipped our tea while Juna lounged in the grass below. The girls wore their sun hats and I wore an apron. It was a lovely event.

After dandelion picking and swinging on the swings, we came back in to make a teapot cake which turned out about as well as I expected for my first attempt. (Thanks for all your advice, Susan!) I took a shortcut and made the spout and handle out of paper. I know, that’s kind of lame, but Abby didn’t seem to mind that I skipped the fondant. I’ll have to give that a try when I have a little more time.

We didn’t do anything expensive or extravagant today, but it’s clear we didn’t have to.

“That was fun, mama,” Abby said when we returned indoors.

It really was.

Happy 4th birthday, sweetie!