The Stars Over The Thornapple Quilt Show is going on this weekend at the Barry County Expo Center near Hastings, Michigan. The show opened Saturday and will be open Sunday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The show is bigger than it was two years ago and features a fun variety of quilts and vendor booths. Thornapple [...]

The CraftSanity Magazine Issue 8 Preorder Sale is on! Preorder your copy by Wednesday (11/14/12) and save a dollar off the cover price! You can also sign up for a CraftSanity Magazine subscription and have the next 4 issues automatically mailed to your home. Here’s a preview of the fun projects, stories and recipes featured [...]

It’s way after midnight and I just sat down after a long day of loom building. I’m sleepy and happy that there will be quite a few CraftSanity Looms under trees around the globe this holiday season. While I have barely begun my own holiday preparations, I’ve been shipping out looms as fast as I [...]

Have you ever seen one of these hand-crank knitting  machines by Mattel, Inc. that make cute little knitted yo-yos? I stumbled upon this vintage craft beauty – complete with two manuals – last weekend at an outdoor market in Fraser, Mich. (my hometown) and bought it for a dollar. I haven’t had a chance to [...]

Yesterday I did my weekly “Take Five” craft segment on weaving with fabric on potholder and other peg looms. (I admit I’m a bit obsessed with the topic right now.) I’ll be demonstrating this technique and selling looms from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday 9/6/09) at the Fulton Street Artisans Market near the [...]

When I quit my day job in early July it was as traumatic as a birth. As I walked down the back “employees only” hallway the last time as an official staffer, I cried like a baby while trying rather unsuccessfully to hide my face behind a vase-full of sunflowers. It was a pretty pathetic [...]

Today I showed Take Five viewers how to do some basic weaving on recycled cardboard. From cereal boxes to packaging from the mail, cardboard is readily available and ripe for free loom-making. While cardboard looms are great for introducing kids to weaving, this project is for people of all ages. I’ve been weaving for more [...]

Like so many other makers and fans of the handmade movement, I’m very disappointed that lawmakers passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) without carefully considering how it would impact small handmade businesses. I’m all for making sure kids have safe toys, but disagree with the language of the law that will require handmade [...]

I’m writing my next Grand Rapids Press art and craft column about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that takes takes effect Feb. 10. If you’re a maker with a handmade business please e-mail me your story. And feel free to post a comment below, too. (Just omit your personal contact info, of course.) This [...]

I have a billion things on my to-do list this week and I shouldn’t have removed the magazine from the plastic until Friday afternoon to avoid all possibility of distraction. But I got totally sucked into the December issue of Martha Stewart Living, specifically the short feature on paper clay ornaments on p. 98. I [...]