Flirting the Issue

I played baseball with my brother in the backyard as often as he would agree to play with a girl. This would only be when I could catch him between Atari, playing army with Steve Beck up the street, his daily ingestion of $1.49 Totino's frozen pizza, and better offers to do more fun things with cooler kids. I was tomboyish, but not a typical tomboy. I liked playing with the boys best because they seemed to argue less, but I also liked figuring out things that were pretty too, like fancy barbie clothes and flower doodles on my math folder. It took me a while to dress like a girl though. Most of it seemed a fuss, got in the way of doing more important things like catching pop flies. (If you're here for anything of value, please skip down to the last part of this post, I'll turn my back.)

It took me a while to figure this all out. Girlness. And clothes. And how girls wore clothes. And what seemed most important was that if I was going to do that, I didn't want to do it like any other girl. I have vivid evidence of this stored in my brain. My mom might remember this. (I'm hoping my brother doesn't, or he'll never play catch with me again.) One night as I lay in bed scheming of how I would talk George into playing catch the next day, I also schemed a better way to wear a skirt.



I had a short, flouncy skirt that cinched in at the waist. I did not like anything that was tight around my tummy (nor wool, nor collars, nor highwaisted pants). So I decided that I could wear the skirt like a poncho, waistline around my neck, with jeans, the flow of the skirt leaving me plenty of room to catch and throw a baseball. I even got up out of bed, closed the door, turned on my light, dug my skirt out of the pile on my closet floor and held it up to my neck to see if it would be long enough to meet my jeans. Perfect. Lights out, back to bed. Dreams that even George would think its cool.



"What are you wearing!?" said he.
"Shut up, lets go throw." said I.
.
.
.
"Anna Maria Demacopoulos, what on earth are you wearing?!" from the lady in the kitchen window. And it was back to tshirts. Eventually I figured a few things out.



For one, I figured out this new skirt, that has a very uncanny resemblance to my childhood neck skirt. But. You should wear it like this. At your waist. (It also looks great sitting low on the waist, across the hips.)



Then glance towards the glow of the window, offer a demure smile, and no one will need to be convinced that you are both a girl and know just exactly how to be. Despite the time and fashion hiccups it took to get there.

Here's your link to the Flirting the Issue Skirt pdf. This is the same skirt design that you've seen here and here.

I've organized all my free patterns onto a new page called "make" at the website so that they are no longer polluting my sidebar here. That felt good!

And yes, we made some kits too. I think this would be the perfect Valentines Date skirt.
(don't forget your baseball mitt!)

xo, Anna

On Boys and Danger

Eeech. Jeff just emailed me a picture of a scaly, little, skinny ankle, with a surgery scar, some inkpen marks (from surgery I guess) and what looks the bulge of screw heads near the surface. The subject line was "Nicolas wants you to see this". Of course he does. He loves flaunting anything scary or disgusting in my face. They are at the orthopedist right now getting the cast off in favor of I'm not sure what- waiting to see if it'll be a splint or another cast. I feel like I'm gonna lose my Luna bar. But I don't think its because I'm grossed out. I think its because I'm scared that he's actually healing. I want him to heal. I want him to heal. You know what he'll want to do after he's healed right? Right. Eeechblechdahblunchech.



I took these pictures just a few days after he got the cast. Mopey boy. As sad as its been, there has been safety in that little leg cage, at least for me. I have had so much sympathy for this kid. He's practically had to swat me away a few times when I've tried to help him too much. He has handled being off his feet and not skating so much better than I would have guessed. Watching him struggle to get used to the cast was hard. We've had lots of conversations about risk taking. My dad contributes to that conversation like this: "He has to stop that skateboarding business!" I know where he's coming from. Its a conflict. Nicolas does not dig team sports. Nicolas is strong, creative and very, very coordinated, despite what these portraits evidence. And the thing is, is that he has an unbelievably high tolerance for pain. I love and hate that. Nicolas loves to skate. Watching him not skate is not fun. But here's the thing that I think is unique to this type of sport and wears on my weary heart: it is a practice of learning to do dangerous things. And as good as you can get doing dangerous things (and he has) they are still dangerous things. What's worse, the better you get the more dangerous things you try. And then your mother falls over from exhaustion.



And then call your friends to tell them about your wicked injuries and pretend that you don't really enjoy the attention.



And while you're off your feet, you get better at making skate videos of your friends at your favorite local skate park.

And then your mom blogs about it because she is so proud of you, even if most of your bravery is exemplified by scaring the living daylights out of her on a hourly basis.

The other thing. About boys. And girls. And danger. We've had four broken bones in this family. Only one of those was earned by actually doing something. Nicolas was trying to get better at something that he loves. The other kids were, uhhh, playing *butt blaster, jumping off a bed, and swinging from a tree. And while you can be skeptical about a future in professional skateboarding, I don't know any professional butt-blasters, bed-jumpers, or tree swingers.

Skate on, Nicolas.
I just wrote myself into a tear. Sniff.
And a laugh. Ha.
xo, Mom

*Butt blaster is when one person lays on their back, feet in the air forming a seat that the second person sits in. When the person laying down bends their knees all the way back then shoots the other across the room with a forward thrust of their feet, a butt has effectively been blasted.
*It is not recommended.
*It is incredibly fun.

Crochet Chronicles (4): House Hunting

I have been wanting to photo all those adorable Amigurumi toys that Juliana made for her siblings. Once I half-heartedly looked through the playroom and found two, got distracted. Another time I found one in the living room, had the thought to then keep looking but sunlight was fading. I always seem to see a few when I'm not ready to take a photo. (I'm pretty sure that this is a cruel truth of blogging.) But today, the first day in I don't know how long where I was entirely alone for an entire day in my home (happy dance), I thought that I would (rays of sunshine too) find all those little varmints and shoot their portrait. So, I looked. I found one. One duck. Ya know why I found it? Cause it's mine. Juliana made this one for me. One duck. One cranky duck who cannot find any of her dumbigurumi toy friends anywhere. What is with my kids!? This place is a complete and total mess! (I'm very sure that this is a cruel truth of mothering.) But on my hunt around the house I found.....



....this, we'll call it a weaving on the living room couch. I looked over last night between the chorus of family snickers at American Idol gafooeys and found Isabela to be doing this. She didn't ask me how, or anything, she just took it upon herself to warp and and weft this little piece of cardboard for fun.



On the girls' bedroom rug (which you really can't even make out anymore because of everything that is disguising it) I found this scarf that Eleni has started after I taught her how to single crochet over the holidays. She will pick this up and sit next to me any time that I have yarn in my own lap, and it is obvious how entirely grown up and smart this makes her feel at (as of last week) 7 years old. It sort of grows in all directions, though not purposefully. I found that the attitude that I give her in response to this unintended sort of wonkiness, is the attitude that she has officially adopted. It goes like this : "Oh well, its fun, and you get better the more you do it and its better than doing nothing."



On Eleni's bed I found Blueberry wearing her first attempt at a scarf that got really curly. Oh well, Blueberry needed a scarf anyway. I do remember too now, that Isabela crocheted a scarf and a teeny, tiny beret for her little owl Amigurumi, location unknown.

Inspiration is such a funny thing. In my naivete (after 19 years of parenting, it fades not) I presumed that all these little toys would get made, and that they would become the characters of hours of imaginative play, sit pristinely on a bedside table perhaps, or maybe tuck neatly under a pillow. (In fact they are scattered. Somewhere. I'm sure we'll find them. Or likely if I ask they can tell me exactly where.) It also reminds me how after Jeff had spent days building them a gorgeous house way up the in cedar trees, instead of playing in the new tree house they were mostly just inspired to nail wood to trees. Lots of trees. It seems that giving them handmade mostly inspires them to make. And what more could we give them really? As is typically the case, whenever a good thing has been done by us- the parenting portion of us, which increasingly includes Juliana,- it was undoubtedly and completely done by mistake.

A cruel, humbling truth.
But cause for joy, nonetheless.

Have a great weekend, xoxo, Anna

Where I snuck out

Sneaking back in after a weekend in Palm Springs helping my friend Heather teach a sewing workshop. It was so so so so hard. Jeff stop reading here. It was so so so so fun. I had no idea when I scheduled it with her in December that I would be coming out of one million seventeen snowdays and in dire need of mental repair. (And believe me, had I planned it before the class was booked, I would have told you about it.) The format was great, everyone brought their own projects and Heather and I each just flitted around helping where we could, offering advice, deciphering patterns, building muslins, and sometimes scribbling less that appropriate things on those muslins but all in the name of the perfect fit. (But I certainly did not pay a woman with a free pattern to march around the crowded pool wearing said muslin. No sir.) We were at the Ace the whole weekend, which was an experience in itself. I can't believe I didn't take my camera. Actually yes I can. To leave home, I walked down an icy hill at 6am in the dark with my luggage to get to our car which wouldn't make it up the night before. So yes, balmy Palm Springs was just slightly different than my current norm.

Despite the delicious food, stylish accommodations, groovy inhabitants, adult snowcones and sunny poolside settings my very favorite part was doing exactly what is shown above- helping Raven and 15 other lovely talented women geek out on some sewing detail.

Thank you Heather for asking me! And you promised to draw me on your blog, so I'm waiting, lady. And I don't care if you're still by the pool without me.

xo, AM

A Quilt for Queensland Auction!

I won't even bother to describe the devastation in dear Queensland since the flooding except to say that I cannot even conceive of it. They need help, every form of help, money and prayers. Today I am offering this quilt that is dear to me up for auction (more written about it here). I designed the fabric, the quilt, and pieced, patched, hand quilted and bound every bit of it myself. In fact, much of it was even hand quilted on that amazing journey we took last year. So you can bet that blood, sweat and most definitely tears also inhabit this piece of work. But it still smells nice, promise.

The quilt is made from my Gathering Flowers Quilt pattern in the Twin/Full size which is 72" x 90" and is backed entirely in the Square Dance Berry Voile. This quilt is a mix of cotton voile and cotton quilt weight fabrics.

How to bid on this quilt:

1. Bidding starts at $100 US.

2. Place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder.

3. Bid must be in whole dollar increments.

4. This auction is open to everyone in the world, and I will offer free shipping worldwide.

5. The auction begins now and will end at midnight on Monday, January 24, 2011.

6. At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner, so please leave your comment with a link to your email or blog.

7. The winning bidder will donate the amount of the bid directly to the Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal and send confirmed receipt of payment via email to sales@annamariahorner.com. Then we will ship this beautiful quilt to you!

Happy Bidding! Be sure to see the master list of all the current auctions happening around blogland.

EDITED TO ADD: Thanks to each of you for your generous bids, and most certainly to our winning bidder, Diane. I also want to thank Toni Coward so much for coordinating the auctions and making it so very easy for the rest of us. We often feel powerless. I particularly didn't imagine I would have the time to do anything to help as I am feeling behind with my own efforts for Tennessee Flood victims, however the mere mention of auction and her willingness to get the word out and provide a template made it so simple. Thank you! Diane I will get in touch!

lots of love, Anna

Crochet Chronicles (3): Poppy, Gray, Mint

But while she was here we crocheted. A lot. I think I've mentioned this. What I haven't mentioned is that the happiness that it gives me is something hard to describe. Its simple and its complex maybe, too. Its this: it is a feeling of laziness, happiness, fulfillment and duty all in one. It gives my lungs goose bumps and I feel like nothing will ever sadden me ever again, because we've sat busy, together, working away and enjoying. (Please make fun of me now, roll your eyes, or click to a worthy blog or get back to work or something. I understand.)



On the same shopping trip where I bought knee socks and pajama pants she made the more ambitious purchases of mint green nail polish and poppy red lipstick, which indicated that she was the more likely of the two us to get off the couch at some point and do something with people who do things. This scarf that she made is just the continuous pattern of whats referred to in my go-to-crochet-book as the strawberry stitch. And if I weren't obsessed with cropped photos of late, and had I asked her to spread the layer out, you would see the repetitive strawberry motif. But I didn't, so you cant.



But anyway, she only began this scarf for herself after she had made precisely one Amigurumi animal for each sibling as a Christmas gift. The kids have been begging me for (uhhhhh) two years to make these, and it took Juliana being here for someone to do it. As she worked on them in plain site the kids would bombard her with whines, wimpers and whys about how they wanted one too, because Juliana insisted that she was making them for her friends. Sorry I don't have a pic of them at present, but they are loved and scattered around the house.



Smack. Right on that cheek. Juliana is the family crochet fairy. The kids were so excited by the little owl, duck, penguin, coffee mug, turtle and octopus. Sigh.

In other news:

* Dear sweet Judi has posted a little Q&A we did over at her SewRetroBookBlog today, and (thats a big AND) I'm giving away quite the pile of sewing loot and she is giving away a copy of her lovely book over there too! So head over and say hello....I think she has a question for you to answer in the comments, so be good and follow instructions, or you will be sent to the back of the line.

* I am so excited to have been asked to be a judge for the Handmade Olympics created and hosted by rikrakstudio. I will be judging the blog category, so go make your nominations now! There are over $2000 smackers worth of prizes, so better yet, have your friend go nominate you!

* I'm sure you and your kindness have already been directed towards flood relief efforts for Queensland, but please also visit Toni Coward's MakeItPerfect blog to support all the blog auctions that she has listed there. There is gorgeous stuff up for grabs and all for a good cause, of course. If you can't purchase anything just directing some of your own readers or pals there will be so appreciated. I plan to post something for auction here tomorrow, so please check back!

*Okay kids, I think that's it.

*Oh wait. This isn't nearly as important as those items listed above but yesterday at the Verizon's after being told I was due for a completely free Droid, and went through all the hutzpuh to get it, I actually heard this statement come out of Verizon girl's mouth: "Okay, so your total for the free Droid comes to $130.17". I repeated it back to her hoping she would find the humor in it by placing an emphasis on the word "free". She didn't laugh, but said something about a rebate that I can't remember. Which I think is part of the plan.

lots of love,
Anna Maria

The Art Student, a portrait from January 2011

Is it possible that I could miss 1 child when 6 friends (you read that right) have been over here playing with my other 5 children? (6+5=11 btw). More than possible?

The best winter break ever. Then she drew a rabbit on her wrist and hopped back to school, which she accidentally referred to as "home". Which made me sad. But now that she's there, it makes me entirely happy. To call it home means that she's happy too.

So today we are good.
Back soon with more from the Crochet Chronicles.
xoxo,Anna

Crochet Chronicles (2): The Ruffle Neck (or- Where I Continue To Digitally Dote)

We were somewhere. Textile, I think. And Isabela saw a scarf that was ruffled around all edges. I remember it to be a knitted scarf, but I felt confident that we could crochet it. She picked out a wooly yarn with teal, navy, black and with some accents of rust spun along.



As it is such a thick yarn, I used a really large hook beginning by just making a couple rows of single crochet along the length. I included some baubles in the next row, then repeated another few rows of single crochet.



So after about 5 rows of sc, I began to double crochet. Every few stitches I included 3 or 4 dc's into a single stitch to begin creating the ruffle. Then it seems it was the very next row that I began to scallop by hooking about 7 treble crochets into one stitch, then skipping 2 or 3 stitches, slip stitching through the next, skipping a few again then trebling several into one again. And so on. Got it?



I just thought I would tell ya in case you wanted to wing one. The above pose was her idea. My little stylist.



We decided after a scalloped ruffle was along one side of the scarf that we didn't want the other side to have a ruffle. It had nothing to do with her anxiousness to put it on. Or my aching fingers after speed crocheting it in one evening.



Or that she wanted to poke her fingers into the baubles.



And to commence being an utterly adorable 9 year old in the wintertime with golden hair and a ruffley, warm neck.

Bravo Bela.

(and yay mom)

modestly, mom

Crochet Chronicles (1): The Lion In Winter

Its embarrassing how much my rear has been in a cushy chair crocheting for the past few weeks. I was all set to just do one or two things, but then Juliana seems to have become just as obsessed with hook and yarn, so that the pair of us now just encourage it in the other. We crochet, we chat, we nibble, we repeat. I did leave the house once this week with all the girls to go shopping. But I bought a new pair of pajama pants and some knee socks. We know where that'll take me. One night our crochatting had us up till 4am. But we were finishing Christmas gifts. So that's excusable. Another night 2 am. Most nights after 12am. Then finally one night had us giggling so hard and trying to fit Whoppers in our nostrils so I told her that the next night she had to go out and spend time with people her own age. More mature than me. Anyway.



I made a lion for my baby. His first word was ROAR. So they get along perfectly. I was inspired by the lovely Blabla line of soft toys and pillows (for years now). Simple and friendly.



Also seen snuggling along here is a sweet single crochet blanket Juliana made while I was pregnant with Roman. And the reverse side of his crib quilt peeking out beneath it all.



Once abandoned for more stimulating activity, this little cub has no trouble finding surrogates.

A few lion specifics: Saffron & rust yarns are both Amy's organics, face details were radom wool or silk scraps. The face (and back) is just single crochet increasing in the round for a flat circle (I found an online tutorial to refresh my memory) and the mane is just a ruffley couple of rows of double crochet. I sewed a simple inner pillow using a solid cotton and inserted into the crochet cover when I was about 3/4 of the way around stitching the front to the back. The face details were just chain stitched on embroidery style using a giant yarn needle. That was my favorite part.

More soon, xoox, Anna

How much for that puppy- errrhh quilt -in the window

Ever since a photo of Mister Leo Dog snuggling one of my new quilts made an appearance in my blog header and on the front page of my website, I have been snowed with emails about whether or not this is the Gathering Flowers Quilt pattern, which fabrics exactly went into making it, did I hand quilt it and if so with what, oh and is there a kit. So Leo and I thought we would answer those of you who asked and the rest of you can just look at the pictures of the dog which in my opinion are worthy of collapsing from cuteness. But who am I to say, really?



Actually I'll do all the responding. Leo will edit.



From over there.



Yes this is my Gathering Flowers Quilt pattern. Isn't it exciting how different one pattern can look if you completely switch up the fabrics? I love the original version that is on the pattern cover, but those swirly flowers were begging me to be scrapped together with a little of everything. I chose to use all one block style for this quilt (the pattern offers two), which is just flat piecing as opposed to the gathered rosette style block. It definitely saves time, and allows for more fabric variety in the flower. And this variety of fabrics includes all my Innocent Crush cottons, all of the Pastry Line stripes and the Square Dance panels (now printed on smooth cotton voile). My color plan of attack mostly just had me keeping the flower centers (pie shapes) as lighter tones, the flower petals as medium tones, and the background shapes as deeper tones. I just cut up everything, made each block sort of without thought, then arranged the blocks together with a pretty careful eye for color balance. In the end I sort of wished I had switched the lighter tones to the petals and the medium tones to the flower centers. But that's why I keep making quilts. Amen.

And yes I hand quilted just the outer edges of the petals and I think I'll do the criss-cross lines of the flower centers too somehow.... still thinking. Its a different look than the more intense quilting on the solid background of the first version....but I like it. Lots. I used Anchor's perle cotton in a creamy white, size 8, and whatever embroidery needle was nearby at the time. (I go on and on and on about hand quilting here and here.)

And a kit that I'm calling the Gathering (Wild)flowers Quilt. This is really as wild as I get these days.

Leo says good.
Good dog.
Happy patching and napping. xo, Anna

In 2010

I feel like I can only remember the last few weeks of this year. The weeks that I've been waiting for in a sense. All of us together in this house playing, cooking, eating, sleeping, teasing, caring. Being together. But just like last year, as I think a little harder, season by season, child by child, I can make out the changes, the growth, the moments and the in-between that made 2010 what is was.

In 2010:

:: I made as much as I could and when it still wasn't enough, I asked for help
:: That's new, but it welcomed new employees to my business and new friends to my flock
:: I've decided on some things that I simply don't want to do with my time, so I hired someone for that too
:: I am now sure that if my work doesn't allow for personal creation time, that I must take it by force, and I did that a few times
:: I killed so many situations with kindness that my cheeks are killing me from smiling
:: I determined that its still the best policy
:: My cheeks will get stronger, along with perhaps deeper laugh lines
:: For the first time I spent a lot of money on a bottle of fancy face cream for the above
:: I am not sure I noticed a difference
:: I painted 3 rooms of my house
:: Four, if you count that one wall in the living room
:: I dreamed on and on about more that I want to do with this house of ours
:: I planted tomatoes for the first time, and learned a bit to do a better job next time
:: I kept meaning to dig more and to plant more
:: I mostly tended to my flowers on fabric
:: We were gripped, heart and soul, as we watched our neighbors' belongings wash away in a flood
:: I was gripped then again, by the kindness and generosity that hundreds of strangers have shown to my neighbors by participating in my little quilting effort
:: I read letters that came with the donated blocks- they were of hope, love, and loss
:: I met and spent two days sewing with some wonderful women to assemble thousands of blocks into (what will be) more than 150 quilts
:: I learned that a sewing circle can be created in your neighborhood and it can also be created across thousands of miles. Its the same.
:: I delivered 37 quilts to families in need (so far)
:: I held out my hands to welcome the first steps of my youngest son, and we crashed to the floor in proud giggles, fixing every problem that I had that day and every day in my life, in the process
:: I've watched this boy affirm his place in our family and blossom a personality that we could have never guessed
:: When that personality hit the dog on the head with hard objects I steered it towards kindness
:: Leo is happy for the above
:: I watched my two younger girls form a team of sorts in almost every thing they do
:: I watched my older two boys wrestle with their friendship, and separate into two rooms
:: I watched all my children care for their little brother without being asked to, as its just now in their nature
:: I paid college tuition
:: Wow (regarding the above)
:: I wondered how I would survive with my first baby at college
:: I cried and I cried and I cried
:: Then we did it
:: And I cried some more
:: I ached as I watched little Roman kiss his sister's Skyped face on the computer screen
:: And then, as evidenced by my writing here today, I survived it
:: I owe every ounce of that survival to my husband, who is so solid, and so loving, and so understanding, that I forget he is a separate person sometimes
:: Our girl survived it too, beautifully
:: As recently as three days ago, I stared right through an orthopedist as he told me that Nicolas's broken ankle from a crumbled skateboarding trick, would require surgery and two screws to avoid arthritis before he is 25 (I had driven away from the skate park feeling wrong)
:: As soon as I heard the phone ring, I knew it was him, hurt
:: I listened to a dozen doctors, nurses, anesthetists, stayed awake, prayed, waited in 3 different waiting rooms, felt guilty, and a little helpless, though these are not new circumstances to us after 6 children
:: Once he was sewn up, casted, home, fine, not in any pain and everything was over, I decided it was time for me to sob and be scared as I went off to a hard, deep sleep
:: That's not a new occurrence either
:: And with that surgery behind us, we are all, without a doubt, intact
:: My dear love decided my motherly efforts for the past few days were worth a bouquet (and I didn't even have to live through this to get it)
:: I was happy to have this beauty to consider, prune, trim, arrange, design and marvel at, allowing it to also be what it is, if not just a little better in my eyes, with my encouragement ~ just like my year

A hard wind is blowing outside today, marking the last day of 2010 with sparkling sun and unnatural warmth. My heart is filled up, ready to release, then fill again with what our next year holds. I thank you for your visits here, I wish you every bit of love and warmth to begin the new year with happiness, hope and inspiration!

Be well, and Happy New Year!! xoxo, Anna Maria

(O) Little Town

Last night I printed out simple melody sheet music for the piano for a bunch of Christmas songs. I never got past learning just the simple chords as a kid, but it was still so satisfying somehow to be able to bang out a little tune and sing along. As a 9-year old I enjoyed the solitude at the old piano downstairs playing to an empty room that absorbed the sound of my tinkering. As a mama, trying to recreate that enjoyment on a kindof broken electric keyboard that shuts itself off every time more than one note is played, along with a living room full of holiday-frenzied children, some practicing with voices right along, one reading, one doing handstands and another (guess which) trying to wedge himself in between me and the thing keeping me from him... well. It wasn't quite the same. Then there was Jeff, who, not being able to even read sheet music, can sleuth the tune out of any song on the piano, whether Coldplay or Bach, in a matter of seconds, helping me peck out O Little Town of Bethlehem. Such a sweetie.

Distractions, memories of former musical aspirations aside, I enjoyed playing for my little town. Just one little note at a time. They enjoyed it too. Little, insignificant moments made better because we have them together. And so many more to come.

Wishing you many little and big moments with those you love, Merry Christmas and see you back here soon, xoxo Anna Maria

Snowday(s)

And just like that, winter arrived. I don't remember the last time we got snow before Christmas, but at least its one wish we can now cross off the list.

Booted, gloved, layered, frosted, hot cocoa-ed, Chexmixed, loud kids were not part of yesterday's studio plan. It is now part of today's plan. Yet the word plan for what the day will likely become, is silly. This one always finds her chair though, right under my nose as I work. This studio, with the garage underneath, gets quite cold (9 degrees outside, last check!). Being in the business of fabric and quilts comes pretty lucky. She's nestled under her new favorite, which is another version of the Love Emblem.

A quick word to say thanks to my friends at Delish Magazine for sharing our little Q&A in their lovely Winter edition online mag. I really enjoyed our chat, which likely means the feature may document me rambling, but if you're putting off anything, this should help you do that for about 10 minutes.

Okay, I might pretend like I'm a good mom for a bit and make a batch of loukoumades to rise while the kids are still konked out on the playroom floor.
Stay warm, xo, Anna

Love Emblem

Free Pattern download: Love Emblem Throw + Pillows

More free love. Other images, here and here for this project. Have fun! I think I forgot to add fabric requirement for the heart fabric, but uhh, I'll leave it up to you. How big is your heart anyway? Huge, I'd say.



As for me, I'll be spending some time on this little pillow version for Roman's big boy bed (he's not in it yet, don't go cardiac on me) because we could use a little softness around Mr.Ruff-n-Tumble (-n-adorable).

enjoy your weekend,
xo, Anna

Love Letters

An early Christmas gift to you. The "Love Letters" quilt free downloadable pattern. Alexia designed this ever so lovely quilt to feature my Innocent Crush quilting cottons. This patchwork shows mostly the "swept away" palette with a stamp (get it, on a letter?) of tourquoise from the "charmed" palette. Pretty. We've listed some kits for both palettes over here.

You can download the free "Love Letters" quilt pattern here.

Other thingermajiggins:

* If you'd love to know where the he** your scarf kit is, its coming, we've been waiting (very impatiently) on more yardage
* People like scarf kits
* Particularly if they are made of velveteen, because they are warm
* It must be cold out there
* I wouldn't know, I haven't been outside in a few days because
* I'm working to finish two more free patterns for you
* I should have the "Love Emblem" one ready for you by Friday which will enable you to make these pillows or this quilt
* Yay
* Then a lovely "Flirting the Issue Skirt" free pattern
* Double yay
* This week I was able to reduce the number of emails in my inbox from 513 to 147
* I feel good about this
* Getting hit in the head by forcefully swung pantry door by your toddler does not feel good
* Neither does getting hit on the other side of the head by a (full) sippy cup when you are laying on the couch because you have a migraine
* Getting pinched and scratched on the cheekbone doesn't feel good either
* All of these afflictions happening within 5 days of each other is something I'm not sure has ever happened
* Being Roman's mommy isn't for sissies
*This post is entitled "Love Letters"

Love Always,
Anna

Figuring the 8

I named this the Figure 8 Scarf (we sell 18x72" pre-cuts here) because it reminded me of what I used to tell myself as a little girl to get the hang of twisting a rubberband around my hair to make a pony tail. Once the band is around once, you twist it, turning the band into a figure 8 before you pull the pony tail through the band a second time. Putting this full loop scarf around your neck is just the same. Plus figure 8 sounds winter-y and fun. Plus I can't do it on skates. So. Yea. While making a two sided sewn loop is a pretty easy thing, I thought I would save some of you from the never ending pull through to the right side that can happen depending on how you've put it together. C'mon. You've done it at least once on your life, right? Its the mystery of the loop. So here's how I do it with out depositing coins into the cuss jar.



* After making sure that each layer, in this case the voile and the velveteen, are trimmed to the exact same size, and also making sure that the width of the two pieces is uniform throughout the length, use a 1/2" seam allowance to sew right sides together along the two long edges
* Start and end each of these seams 1/2" away from the end of the length
* Pull through to the right side and press
* Then press a 1/2" width of voile back against it's right side, as shown above, on both ends



* Now fold the length, making sure its not twisted, with velveteen sides together, aligning their ends and pinning together as shown above- Make sure the voile is folded back and free of this pinned line, going only through the velveteen
* Use a 1/2" seam allowance to sew the velveteen ends together, keeping voile free and out of your stitch line



* Press the velveteen seam open as shown above and be sure to tuck the velveteen seam allowances at the side edges underneath the voile layer



With the voile now, you essentially reverse your previous pressed creases to begin enclosing the scarf seams by doing the following:
* Press one of the voile ends flat, and laying it over the open velveteen seam allowances, and underneath the other voile end
* Press the remaining voile end so that the crease folds in the other direction, against its wrong side, tucking it's raw edges in against the wrong/inner side of the scarf
* You can likely still see the previous crease line on the lower layer of the voile (notice above), lay the folded edge of the upper voile layer along this line



* Blind stitch the two layers of voile together, passing only through their layers, and not passing through the velveteen

Before you cuss me about the hand sewing, I chose to hand sew the finish for three reasons:

1- To do a good job of top stitching here, you would need to top stitch through all the layers, and make sure your stitch line lands right on the velveteen seam line in the appropriate position on the other side to look pretty- if that's a challenge for you, hand sewing is your friend
2- Usually the upper fabric gives a little more as you sew than the under fabric does, possibly more so when working with two substrates, and you would not want to stretch one beyond the other in this scenario especially, because you'd end up with a funky bubble (unlike just trimming off the difference if you were making a quilt block or at a hemline. I hate funky bubbles.)
3- Sewing only the voile to itself, lets the lined scarf loop stay open all the way though, keeping the velveteen layer free of the voile layer, so that subtle twists can happen more easily with the two fabrics, making it prettier to wear

So there.
Have fun.
xo, AM