Spinning Stars

Enter Spinning Stars Quilt.

I've designed this new free pattern for my Loulouthi fabrics, which you can grab off my MAKE page, and we've prepared kits over here for each of the palettes. This one above is a throw size, made up of 9 blocks, and from the Juliana palette.



I hand tied the throw with a pretty aqua pearl cotton, at every corner and every center of each block. Hand tying is fun for me, quicker than hand quilting and I like the fuzzy little knots poking up across the surface of the patchwork. Sort of silly almost, but still pulled together. I aspire to be just like a hand tied quilt. (Anyway, YES, I know! Where are those stinkin' thread kits? I'm twiddling my thumbs along with some of you, but I was told end of June, so it should really be any day now.)



While I do love the messy, mix-y , patch-y of a quilt, I decided to play around with some solids too. Its amazing how different these quilts with the solid bands are. And how the solid influences the feel and color story of the whole thing. This solid aqua is paired with fabrics from the Eleni palette. I also backed this one with voile, which makes your needle just sink right in beautifully if you are handquilting, and who wouldn't want a layer of that against you on a cool night? So soft. It was such a push to get each of these finished before market, so I had some help from my pal Brittney to piece two of them (thanks Britt!). And while its not really recommended to bind up the edges before you quilt the layers together, market will push you into just that kind of corner.



So it came along just like this, safely pinned, and waiting to have the stitching realized (as it still waits). The main reason I introduced solids to these is to have some open ground to feature hand stitching. So on the above I'm a little torn between tying and stitching. Hmm. Every quilt I design is like a new friendship, and you learn something. What I've learned from this one, is that I gravitate towards blocks that have a center, as do these pie shapes, and so the background stars. There is so much power play that can happen between the two, depending on how the color and depth arrangement gets fooled with, that you can really go on and on. Which is just the point to all this I believe.



And I did-go on, and on! This is a crib size version from the Isabela palette, and I love it! So fun to hand stitch in playful primaries.



And extremely enjoyable to allow the background stars to be really graphic, using high contrast colors from the gold and blue. I think I like this poppy-ness partly because its a small-scale, playful quilt.



I put a solid voile on the back of this one, to give various hues of stitching center stage.



Spinning Stars. I hope you enjoy it! I had no idea when I was drawing it up a few months ago that it would be such a summery, starry tie-in to the upcoming holiday. Hooray.

Sparkley wishes, and lots of love, AM

A June & Johnny kind of day

Patchwork and these two got together extremely well. Amen.

I'll be back soon with a new quilt pattern for you to dance to. xoAM

Shop Talk

Here's today's bullets, look out:

:: I am so thrilled, honored, humbled, excited (and all those other things that make me sound nice and modest) to be over visiting with Amanda for her soulful mothering series today. I wrote about my messy kids. Ha, no not really. Well, sort of.

:: I have a new blog banner, get outta your reader and get over here to see it, you.

:: And a new front page.

:: I updated my FAQ page

:: I updated my about page to include the facts that I have actually written two books, not one, and have 6 children not 5. Hasty, you say? I think it was time.

:: I created a new slide show of my Quilt Market booth

:: I (finally) have slide shows for Innocent Crush and Loulouthi up on the fabrics page.

:: I now have a Loulouthi flickr group waiting for your projects.

:: There's a Little Folks and Folksy Flannels sale going on in the shop now (yay!)

:: I have a Sample Room! I do, I do, I do! At least while it lasts.

:: I love tabouli.

:: The kids captured a menacing spider that has been following me around the studio for a few weeks.

:: Isabela named him Stanley and feeds him moths.

:: She feels conflicted about the moth feeding thing, but Stanley won't touch Special K or pretzels.

:: Its gettin' real in the Whole Foods parkin' lot.

:: A few of the above points are not so much relevant to shop talk as they are of general all around importance.

love from the summer house, (haha, no I don't have a summer house, just this one, where its currently summer) xo, Anna

the Source

(a view from the porch of my Dad's house in Greece)

Because of my dad, I witnessed very early in life that painting is a perfectly fine thing to do with your time.
Because of my dad, I learned that how you spent your day, in spite it's struggles, was simply the path to get you home with your family under one roof, together each night.
Because of my dad, I didn't even know until I was twenty or so that there are places that will change your car's oil for you.
Because of my dad, I learned that olive oil, fresh tomatoes, salt and crusty bread can be enjoyed at 7am as easily as 11pm (and most especially if its past your bedtime and you're invited out of bed to the late night kitchen table in your nightgown to "have a few dunks with bread").
Because of my dad, I may have anywhere between 3 to 6 gallons of the purest, greenest, most beautiful olive oil from his trees in Greece in my home, at any given time.
Because of my dad, I learned to never take a photograph of people enjoying a meal after the meal is over and there is nothing but empty plates on the table. (What the bleep is the point after the food is gone? People might think you don't have any food.)
Because of my dad, I don't get scared when people yell.
Because of my dad, I welcome being told that I am doing anything the wrong way.
Because my dad, I learned that watermelon is best kept cold while camping if you're able to get that good spot towards the back of the campground with the stream, so that you can wedge the melon between a few rocks and let the cold rushing water do the rest.
Because of my dad, I've never bought a house that wasn't situated up on a bit of a hill and well above the road level (this has saved me and my family more than once).
Because of my dad, I know that I could have bought any of those houses for less, if I'd just held out a little longer after the 4th counter offer (but I couldn't stand it).
Because of my dad, I know that after you cut the fourth leg off of a frog it can no longer hear, as evidenced by it staying still when you tell it to jump (sorry, really, really bad family joke).
Because of my dad, I knew that dating a boy should commence somewhere around 35.
Because of my dad, I knew I was entirely loved even when I brought home a boy at 18, and then his baby at 19.
Because of my dad, I learned that unconditional love is the most difficult, most worthwhile thing you do in this life.
Because of my dad, I've had the joy of drifting into a late afternoon nap (on that porch shown above), blown by a gentle breeze sweeping down a mountain side, and sung to sleep by the rolling, chiming sound of sheep's bells in the distance.
Because of my dad, I learned to embellish my storytelling with anything necessary to make it all a little more humorous or enjoyable, and to be sure that no one is ever laughing harder at the story than me.
Because of my dad, I learned the harder you try not to bring something up in conversation the longer it takes you stop making (and remaking) your point once you do (dad, are you paying attention?)
Because of my dad, I know my single most important accomplishment was finding a man that would love, provide and care for me and our children, in every adventure life brings. Even if it was that 18 year old kid that I brought home about 20 years too early for my dad's liking.

Happy Father's Day to the both of them! Wishing all of you dad and dad-figures every happiness today!
xoxo, AM

A quick change to the Quick Change Trousers

The Quick Change Trousers is undoubtedly one of the most popular patterns to make from my Handmade Beginnings book. I think its obvious why: they are sweet, simple, reversible, easy to make and easy to wear. It almost deserves a flickr group all its own, because there are so many adorable examples on the book's flickr page (along with so many other great sew-ups)! And in my book, (not sure if that pun was intended) any great, straight forward pattern calls for some fun adaptations. In fact all patterns call for this to me. Having a pattern is great, but it is always just one way to do it. So today I thought I would share another, really simple way to do up these trousers.



Making the shorter variety of the trousers is an obvious adaptation that really requires no explanation or change to the pattern other than amending the length. Great. Yay. Got it. But Roman's wiggleyness, and activity level these days really makes me on the constant lookout for one piece clothing, so that his clothes will stay on. (Almost all childrenswear manufacturers stop that at 24 mos for some reason, what the heck? It drives me nuts.) And though the book pattern for the Quick Change Trousers only goes up to 24 mos (no space for more!), because it is so simple to begin with its also pretty simple to grade up in size. Roman is slightly taller than average for his age, but he can still wear the 24 mos size in this pattern due to being pretty narrow through the hips, and we don't do the cloth diaper thing (do you? wow, I am so proud of you. sigh.)



Here are the main components of amendment to turn your Quick Change Trousers into overalls:

- Transform the front leg pattern piece into one continuous leg + bib front piece. To do this you are really just adding a rectangle to the top waistline edge of the front leg pattern that extends to cover your baby's chest. This will mean the center front seam of the pants will continue up in a straight line to the top of the bib (how long this line will extend depends on your child's height and how high you'd like the bib to be). The top horizontal line of the bib is at a 90 degree angle to the center seam line. The bib width will not be as wide at the width of the front leg but stop a few inches short of that- really just depends on how wide you'd like the bib to be. The side edge of the bib, at least Roman's, is a straight line just until it is a few inches away from meeting the waistline of the pant leg again, and then it curves out towards the side to meet the waistline. Of course, just try it first on paper, and pin it to your annoyed toddler's shirt to have a look.

-You'll also need to make some straps. Roman's are a finished 1.5" wide, which I think looks nice and supports the 1" wide buttons well. His overalls have a few extra inches of finished strap (the button end of the strap behind the bib) to allow for some button moving once he grows a bit. To make the straps, I first cut the straps extra, extra long, sewed them right sides together with one finished end, turned them out, pressed them, then stuck the unfinished ends into the back of the pair of pants he was wearing, crossed them across his back and then over his shoulders to judge how much I might need to shorten. In all instances I firmly believe in messing with your kid to get it right. No reason for you to suffer alone, I say. Struggle brings two people together. Team work is worthwhile work.

-Where was I?

-The assembly of the overalls will follow the exact assembly of the trousers, with the exception of:
-sew the straps into the back waistline seam before you join the inner and outer pants together
-only create an elastic channel on the back of the pants between the outer edges of where you have placed the two straps, and anchor the elastic in place at both ends of the channel
-double sew a pair of buttons on opposite sides of each finished strap end to keep them reversible (total of 4 buttons)
-create button holes in top corners of bib front



We used an adorable Kokka print (covered in chalk above) that I picked up at Purl when we were in NYC earlier this year. Roman loves this print so so so much. For the months I waited to get started on the project, he would bring me the fabric and gesture for me to spread it out on the floor so he could lay on it. I need to go cry now. I'm back. He is such a stinkin widdle sweetheart.



And because of that I put hugs and kisses on his butt. Fabrically, not literally.....but well, his little tush has been loved. Oh and the reverse, is made all from this print, which is adorbs, but haven't gotten him still again lately to show you that. We've made a few pairs now, and all have been worn shirtless too.

have fun, lots of love, Anna

A perfect summer evening that coincidentally did not involve any boys except for one cute baby who was put to bed early

Four girls, homemade personal pizzas, a movie, and a movie credit too (for which I am now finally ranked as cool with my girls- that was easy, ahem). I did find this nice little story on the process of bringing Miss Moody to life.

A lovely night while the boys are off on their own adventure.
thanks for all of your (ongoing and ridiculously too nice) support.

xo, anna

Probably a large topic for a Summer Friday

But a topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately. And that is DO. What I do. What we all do. But maybe perhaps also kinda what I've done. I speak of course about my work.

The window that my website, and especially, for the past five years, my blog, provides into my process, which has transformed over the years, has generated lots of emails, phone calls, handwritten notes of asking how. How do I do it? Sometimes its very specific, like how did I get into fabric design, etc. - a topic that (maybe its just me but) I feel has been covered well over the past few years in the creative blog realm-, how did you get a book published, how do you care for all those kids and run a business, etc. But often just a very general how, which I sort of sometimes don't know how to answer except to say that I am still figuring it out. I will admit that the approaches can be a little overwhelming sometimes given my schedule with work, and of course my family, but I always, always want to help, and to answer questions, and to offer insight. I am sure that there have been some emails that have slipped through the cracks. And I'm sorry for that. I do have a FAQ, and I do offer interviews, where lots of this stuff gets answered. So it is helpful to have some of these answers on autopilot at times.

I guess what I'm rambling on and on about here, is that I am not sure if what I can offer is even what you would call an answer as much as it is a response. A very personal one. One that may or may not work for whoever is asking. But I also think that anyone who reads me here knows that these questions slowly get answered, in a trickle of sorts. Few people have the time for that in order to simply to get a pressing question answered, yet, I think there is an assumption that there is some specific template of life. Or a secret that no one has revealed or a school where you learn this very set of trades. Or that success somehow will occur if you just know that one thing that no one seems to tell you.

This isn't even going where I thought this would be going.

Its challenging for me to write about what I do, because it is indeed always evolving. Constantly. Being in business one way or another is something that I have done now for 20 years. It very simply started by me earning extra money in college by using one of my best friend's parents' basement to make dresses that I sold to a local retailer. They sold well. We had a kid. I was also waiting tables 20 hours a week and earning a fine arts degree. After earning that degree no one beat my door down to offer me a job so I opened a shop to flesh out the clothing line with the help of my mom. That was wonderful but also incredibly challenging. Its hard. Its physical. I do not envy retailers at all. After 3 years I closed shop and went to wholesale with the clothing line but after kid 3 it was too much, despite the fact that it was taking off and I couldn't keep up alone. Then I turned to partnering with manufacturers. And over the past 10 years, I have had almost every experience you can imagine good or bad in that arena too. But the most important thing I've learned is to read and even write my own contracts and that everyone in any partnership has to get something out of it and its that overlap of your happiness and theirs that makes the situation work. If you aren't both happy at the same time, there is no point in continuing. Period. Forget your pride and what might feel like a failure. A success is knowing when something isn't working because that means you are paying attention.

I feel so content about where years of struggles and successes has arrived to. And of course there have been struggles, there always are, for everyone, even the most successful person you can imagine. I think that the perception is when you see only the good, that good is all there is. That's because there is simply nothing to show for failures.

Being in business, albeit a mostly comforting and handcrafted one, essentially begs for maximum possible gain for minimal input. On every level. I can get caught in the trap like anyone, to only think in these terms. How much will this grow my business? is this worth my time? will it work? is it relevant? how far reaching is this? etc. Optimize, optimize, optimize. But I think I have arrived at a place. And this is really (if you're still with me) what I'd like to say. These questions do matter. I've only been able to do what I do for a living because I have asked all these questions along the way with every single endeavor. But the place where I am now (and things like this video have helped me get to it) is that its OKAY if something might take more time than its worth in dollars. And that every now and then I NEED that. We all do. Why earn a living but lose yourself in the process?

I am fondly remembering the very slow work that brought me to love making and ultimately to the faster paced, and mass produced items that I now have a hand in creating. I don't resent mass production. It enables me to share my work with each of you if we look at it honestly. But I'm not happy with only that. I don't care about things that I don't care about. Its not important to me to be a label on a product that I would never dream of bringing in to my home. It was important to me for a time because I, like many, are tricked into believing that bigger must certainly be better. Better because certainly then you have more choices about how you want to live. What I'm learning is that bigger, just for the sake of it, means you have far fewer choices about how you want to live because you become ultimately burdened by surrounding yourself with things that you might not care too much about. So if you are going to go big, you better love it. All of it. I think that if you love what you are doing, really truly care about it, and are able to share that love in a meaningful way, then it will really just end up working. Call me Pollyanna.

I was listening to a great story this morning on NPR about a local woman who built a cake pop business due to not being able to get enough photography and design work in the present economy. My take away from her story was that she decided that WHAT she was doing for a living was less important than HOW she was living. That is huge to me. Being a photographer was not giving her the life that she wanted. Yet that doesn't mean that she had to stop being one, but decided not to get hung up on making a living from it. This kind of choice to me is empowering and not debilitating. You can read/listen to her story here. Another favorite sound bite from it is that she can't help but smile when she talks about the cake pops.

I want a cake pop.

Anyway. Sorry. Posts like this are few and far between as I do busy myself with the tangibles, so I find it hard to just sit and compose my brain space sometimes. The simplest things will spark these kinds of thoughts. For me lately its been lots of little things. Watching Juliana carve out her ideas about how she wants to live and work, that video from Greece, the fact that I wanted to take a day off and sew muslin bags hand stamped with my needleworks logo to package my upcoming Aida cloth cuts, despite the fact that business-wise this is not an optimal use of my time. But it is special to me, so I don't care (see some of those muslin envelopes stacked in the photo above). The repetition reminded me of those days in my shop where I made up to 20 dresses a day sometimes. Phew. Actually this post is about how I am glad I don't make 20 dresses a day anymore.

But maybe making 5 or so would be nice. In fact, I do have a new venture called "visiting artists", a concept that I have been stewing on for months, that I will be sharing soon. I think more than anything it will celebrate the slow making that I find myself missing some days.

More soon. I have much to DO.
have a great weekend, and as always thanks for sharing the journey.
and keeping asking me questions, just forgive my often slow responses.
xoxo, Anna

And slightly less rough around the edges

My favorite part about reading the comments from my last post was the utter gentleness that each of you who had constructive criticism exercised in your words. I am here to tell you, that yes, I know. I know. Really. I do. That intro piece is not right. Which is partly why I loved it so much yet definitely have not embraced it as a finished work. It entertains me, and even makes Nicolas laugh after a few days distance. I am thankful that the snazzy interwebuals allow me to share the process in all its quirky glory.

And really.

An animated intro? Not my biggest goal in life. Silly to begin with perhaps, but sometimes we just can't help ourselves.

I will look back on this like I do the photograph of myself at age 2 wearing nothing (really, nothing!) but a football helmut and a little undershirt that was very tight on my chubby belly.... a family favorite yes, but not quite right to share with the whole world. Ahem.

But speaking of works in progress, off to my corner of the living room.
thank you for the millions of dollars worth of 2 cents. Priceless.
xo, AM

Embroidery + Angst

I don't know why this is making me laugh so hard. Nicolas and I are working together on some needlework videos for the launch of the goods (just a few weeks hopefully), which I am over the moon, no, over the man in the moon excited about. Anyway, we are playing with an intro. I loved this yesterday. Today I woke up and watched it again and it just sounds so funny and drum-lesson-teenagery to me that I think its hysterical. Which might mean it needs some work. Or it might mean its just perfect. (Do you feel like someone is shooting at you?) Either way, he is a regular riot to work with.

3 cheers for 13 year old boys and working at home.
(hip hip...)
xoxoAM

Yup.

And how was your day?

Why does it already feel like the middle of the summer both in temperature and temperament around here? Does the temperature do that the the temperament? Methinks.

xoxo, Anna (who will commence to a cold beer and a comfy couch now thank you)

p.s. I so lurved reading all your very thoughtful comments about the dear sweet lace-making Yiayias in the Etsy video. I am in such good company here. thank you.