As many of you have heard by now, the craft world lost a major force last week when Kathreen, 41,  and her husband, Robert Shugg, 48, died while visiting a beach located south of Coral Bay. They were traveling around Australia and Kathreen was writing a book about their grand adventure. News reports are linking Kathreen’s death to possible contact with a deadly jellyfish. Robert is still missing. It’s  surreal to hear that their adventure ended this way. 

Kathreen and Robert are survived by their 13-year-old daughter, Otilija and 10-year-old son, Orlando. And the craft community is doing what it can to support the children during this time of unbelievable sadness. The details of how you can help can be found here.

While episode 19 was recorded during my rookie year as a podcaster and therefore a bit rough around the edges (thanks to me), it was nice to get to hear Kathreen’s voice again and listen to her talk about her love of photography and crafting, her work and family life.

Since our chat, Kathreen went on to write several books including ”Whip Up Mini Quilts” (Chronicle 2010), “Little Bits Quilting Bee” (Chronicle 2011) and a series of children’s craft books for Hardie Grant. And most recently she published a downloadable pdf magazine for kids called Action Pack.

Whether you knew Kathreen personally or not, there’s no denying her influence on the international craft community. When she created whipup.net, she gave us a site to check every day for the latest news on the international craft scene. I read whipup regularly for many years and I still remember the thrill it was to be mentioned on her site.

I am sad about her passing, but I remain inspired by her adventurous spirit and all the contributions she made to the international craft community. In many ways, she brought us togeher. Now let’s do what we can to keep her spirit alive in the community she helped build.

Collaborate. Swap recipes. Take pictures. Share what you like. Learn with your kids. Bring people together. Whip up stuff. Find something small to celebrate each day.

You can listen to the interview here.

Download mp3 file

I’m popping in to let you all know that I’m working on CraftSanity Issue 9 and will be headed to the printer soon. My sincere apologies for the delay. I LOVE working on the magazine and I’ve been twitching for months due to all the interruptions.

When I agreed to take on a job advising the student newspaper and teaching the accompanying journalism courses at the local community college last summer, I knew it would be a lot of work for very little pay. And I did it anyway. Why? I’m attracted to challenging situations and wanted to try to make a difference for the next generation of journalists. I think I helped a few.

What I didn’t know was that the job would simultaneously inspire and frustrate me, break my heart, consume most of my time and derail all my independent projects and business plans. Thankfully, I didn’t let it disrupt my family life.

I have a lot to offer in a college setting, but I have no desire to be a career adjunct – overworked and underpaid with no benefits or a standing invitation to graduation. (I didn’t have a ticket and was almost turned away when I went to watch my students graduate this year.) I wrote a proposal outlining the conditions under which I can continue to advise and time will tell what happens next. So my future as an educator is most uncertain. And I’m okay with that. If things are meant to be, they will work out. And I have a feeling there will always be challenging situations for me to dive into and try to make a difference. Those are endless, right?

I never plan to take time off blogging or podcasting or loom making or publishing. I just keep working. All the time. I finish one project and immediately begin the next. And most of the time my projects overlap leaving little time for public blog commentary. These days I document my joy most often on Instagram because it’s fast and easy and feeds my compulsion to take photos daily.

And now for a loom update… I have been overwhelmed with loom requests. Production slowed when my frame maker and I were both recruited for teaching jobs. I picked up more frames from him this week and will be restocking my shop as soon as I finish work on Issue 9. I’m very sorry that I have not been able to respond to every loom request.

This slowdown has inspired me to dust off a non-profit idea I’ve had for many years. I can no longer pound in every peg myself and I would love to spin CraftSanity Looms off into a self-sustaining community enterprise that employees developmentally disabled adults. I was inspired by a group of people I met while reporting a story for my newspaper column and I think the time has come to finally figure out how to write a grant, secure space and assemble a team. I don’t know the first thing any of this which makes it all the more exciting. Please contact me if you have any advice to share. I have a lot to learn. I will have time to discuss this further in about three weeks. :  )

My only regret about this latest blog hiatus is that I haven’t properly documented many great moments that I’ve shared with my family during the last several months.

*Abby’s first Girls on the Run 5K
*The Gazelle Girl Half Marathon
*Our family gardening project
*A collaborative quilt project that I’m working on with my sisters

But it’s all there on Instagram if you’re interested. Now I have to get back to work on CraftSanity Issue 9. There’s still room to advertise if any of you are interested. Ad rates can be found here.

Have a great day, folks!

Love. This print marks the beginning of what is shaping up to be a fantastic creative adventure. It all started when my 7-year-old daughter, Amelia, got hooked on printmaking at a free workshop in 2012. When I saw her happily making prints on an old book press, I knew it was time to finally surrender to the urge I’ve felt for many years to try to make my own.

On Christmas Eve Amelia received a little blue press as a present from my father. It was made of scrap wood and pieces of the old cupbards from my parents’ kitchen and Amelia loved it and told my father on the spot. I think I loved it just as much.

On Christmas Day, Amelia drew this “Love” design on a piece of paper and asked me to carve her drawing into a block. I was happy, too – ecstatic, actually.

We started making prints as soon as the carving was done and I think we both knew immediately that this is just the beginning of something wonderful. Amelia has made many practice prints with her little blue press, and now we’re going to send a little bit of love out into the world and see what happens next.

Today, Amelia, her big sister, Abby, and I will be demonstrating some basic printmaking techniques on WZZM Channel 13′s “Take Five” morning show.

*** Magazine Update: There will be printmaking in the forthcoming spring issue of CraftSanity Magazine!

The show is bigger than it was two years ago and features a fun variety of quilts and vendor booths. Thornapple River Rippers Quilt Guild members (from left) Rebecca Lydy, Kathy Dunn, Caroline Moffit and Vickie Ward, joined forces to piece the lovely raffle quilt behind them. You can read a column I wrote about another one of their guild members here.

Here’s a preview of some of the other quilts on display at the show:

Beverly Jones pieced this quilt by hand using 3/4″ hexagons. “It took several years… my “forever” quilt.” It was quilted by Agnes Oberth.

Detail of an appliquéd bird quilt by the late Carrie Honeman.

This memorial quilt was appliquéd by Carrie Honeman, pieced by Laraine Facca and quilted by Bonnie Rhoby. The pattern was designed by Elizabeth Root.

Beverly Jones paper pieced this quilt using Civil War reproduction fabrics.

In addition to checking out the quilts, I chatted with many interesting vendors at the show and spent some quality time talking to Mike Lydy and his daughter, Brandi Melkild, about the handmade quilting accessories that Mike makes in his wood shop. 

I bought a nice big, quilter’s ironing board from Hastings Wood Worker Mike Lydy. After I make some more quilts, I’ll have to put in an order for one of his quilt ladders.

I also stumbled upon a very sweet quilt story that I’m writing up for next Sunday’s column. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, go check out the show if you live close enough to pop over.

Back in elementary school a wonderful teacher showed my class how to make scribbles into art. I can’t remember if the original demo involved a black marker or crayon, but what I do remember is watching that black line loop-d-loop all over the page and feeling so empowered as a little girl with with a box of crayons.

I was small but I could scribble.

Three decades later, the scribble drawing remains my all-time favorite thing to draw and color. You can read my column about how my kids have inspired me to keep on scribbling here.

Now I hope you’re inspired to get out your crayons and make a scribble drawing of your own. Scribble drawings forever!

I chased my shadow on the wall of the basement for about two hours today. That’s how long it took me to complete a 13.25-mile training run on the treadmill. That’s a long time to be running toward a wall, but that’s the way I train best. My longest treadmill training run milage record is 22 miles completed in 2007 while training for the  full Grand Rapids Marathon. I admit that training run was pretty ridiculous, but this busy mama is not afraid to get creative with race prep. Often, I don’t have time to drive to group training runs and find running on the treadmill a safer option than a long solo run.

Today’s goal was to run farther than the 13.1 distance I’ll need to complete at next month’s Gazelle Girl Half Marathon in Grand Rapids, Mich. My legs are sore, but I’m feeling confident that my body will be ready for the race. I’m building my endurance by completing a minimum of three runs per week: one long, one medium and one shorter run that can be completed in an hour or less.

It’s not an ideal training plan, but that’s about all the running I have time to do and that’s just fine with me. I’m not looking to run my guts out at the race, I just want to enjoy the run and celebrate the fact that woman have come along way in the 40 years since Title IX opened the sports world to women. I’m going to run this race because I can.

What are you training for? Are any of you doing the Fifth Third River Bank Run. I haven’t signed up yet, but I’m thinking about doing the 25K. It’s a great race complete with outstanding crowd support.

Ok, I better get back to work on the magazine. There’s still a lot of fun work to wrap up.

It’s spring break week at the college where I teach, so I’m kicking my magazine work into overdrive between phone calls and emails from students who are still reporting stories during break. (FYI: There’s no such thing as spring break for diehard journalists in training.)

CraftSanity Issue 9 is shaping up to be a fun one! Let me know if you would have a last-minute spring project idea to contribute as I may be able to squeeze in another project. And if you would like to like to advertise, there’s still time for that, too. The rates are posted here.

I plan to cover printmaking in the next issue because it has become my latest obsession. Today I made some prints of a block I finished carving yesterday. The detail shot is posted above. I’m thinking it would be nice to buy or make a heavy duty press at some point, but I haven’t sorted all that out yet. What I do know is that I really enjoy the mystery and magic of printmaking and so I will continue carving and printing and printing some more. The process is slow without a press, but still very enjoyable.

There’s a lot of work to get through this week, but it’s all really fun and for that reality I’m truly grateful.

Hello! While I’ve been away from the blog I’ve become completely addicted to printmaking. LOVE IT!

After many  years of wishing I had time to get into it, my youngest daughter, Amelia, inspired me to jump in and now we’re both hooked. We printed daily during Christmas break and like to bust out the ink and rollers as often as we can. That’s why I’m really excited to start sharing what we’ve learned from our experiments.

In fact, I’m popping in to let you folks know that I’m headed back home to Fraser, Mich. to teach FREE printmaking workshops for kids and adults on March 23. The workshop for kids age 5 and up will be at 1:30 p.m. followed by the adult class at 3 p.m. Attendees will be taught the basics of printmaking and get a chance to design and make a print to take home. (Please note, that this is a kid-friendly event and no dangerous carving tools will be used.)

You can call the library to sign up: (586) 293-2055.  I hope to see some of you there! And if you’re a printmaker yourself, feel free to bring some prints to show the group and we’ll do a little “show & tell.”

Hello! I have a quick project inspired by my little sister, Julie, to share with you. We had a rare opportunity to craft together recently and she showed me and my girls how to make these fun and super-sized pendants, pins and rings using glass stones, nail polish and jewelry findings. (Julie made all the pieces above.) Fun times like these make me wish we didn’t have 2.5 hours of drive time between us.

Read on to make your own bling. These make great gifts for kids to make for their moms, teachers and friends.

Supplies:

• Glass stones measuring 1 1/2” in diameter
• Clear nail polish and several other colors of your choice. (Polishes with a “krackle” effect work especially well for this project.)
• E6000 adhesive glue
• Adjustable ring, pendant and or pin backs

Step 1: Cover the flat side of the stone with a base coat of clear nail polish. (All your painting will be on the flat side of the stone.) Let dry.

Step 2: If you want to create a random effect, apply a coat of “krackle” polish to the flat side of the  stone and watch it appear to crack as it dries. Then apply a coat of regular polish in a contrasting color to create an interesting two tone effect. Or, for a more more festive V-Day theme, paint a heart motif in the middle of the flat side of the stone. Let dry. Then apply a background color.

Step 3: Apply one more coat of clear nail polish to seal your design.

Step 4: Glue the painted side of your stone to the ring base, pendant or pin back and set aside to dry overnight.

Step 5: Sport your handmade bling around town and then get together with friends to make more.

Thanks for sharing this fun craft idea, Julie!

Dear readers, what Valentine’s Day crafts are you making this year? Please share ideas in the comments below.

It’s been far too long since my last update, but I’ve had some important work to do for my family and the college students I advise. It would take me a long time to recap the events of the last couple months, so I’m just going to skip ahead and tell you that I’m working on a new issue of CraftSanity Magazine. It will include projects, recipes and stories I love. There is still room in the issue, so let me know if you have a inspiring story or project to share. I’m still doing interviews. : )

Speaking of interviews, I miss producing the podcast and it sounds like some of you miss hearing new episodes. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this topic. I’d like to get it going again, but want to make sure there’s still an audience for it. If that ship has sailed, I’ll get to work building a new ship.

We’ve been enjoying some beautiful winter days here in West Michigan. I don’t enjoy driving on snowy roads, but I love photographing the West Michigan landscapes dusted with white.

I’ve missed this space and it’s good to be back. I have many projects to show you because I never stopped crafting during my unplanned blogging break. Making stuff is like breathing for me. I have to do it. Included in this post are photos of some of the random embroidery and twilling projects that I’ve been sneaking in when I can. I’d stitch all day long if I could.

If you want learn more about what I’ve been up to, you can check out my Instagram photos. I post photos there almost daily because it’s quick and easy to fit into my life.

Okay, I have a difficult column to write, miles to run and stuff to organize so I better get to it. Enjoy the day and leave me a comment below about what you’ve been up to. We have some serious catching up to do.