Blog / applique
honeycombs wall quilt
For a dear friend's birthday this month, I stitched up a small wall quilt, using prints by Umbrella Prints from my fabric shop and some scraps of chambray.
Inspired by Betsy's honeycombs, I stitched up my own by hand, using an English paper-piecing technique.
I then machine-appliquéd the honeycombs to my quilt top and did echo quilting around the edges.
I stuck with my now-favorite rounded corners, and used up the rest of the binding I had made for this quilt. I used a coordinating vintage blue print for the backing, and I added both a label and a hanging sleeve.
I loved having the chance to work with these prints (they're among my favorites) and I'm happy to report that the birthday girl loved her gift.
mini quilts for the alzheimer's art quilt initiative
The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) is one of my favorite charities to support. The work they do to raise money for Alzheimer's research is amazing, and I have my own growing collection of quilts that I've purchased from their site over the past year and a half. I've been wanting to donate quilts to AAQI for quite some time, and last month I finally did.
I made two mini quilts---each one...
salty oat banner
Sneak peek of the banner for my table at Merry Mart, coming up on December 5 in Baltimore.
thank you!
A salty oat cookie (!) made by the lovely Beth Hempton.
Everything's packed, the movers have come and gone, and we're currently camping out on the floor of our Austin house, getting ready for our drive to DC, which starts early tomorrow morning.
I grew up in New England, so I'm excited to live on the East Coast again for the first time in eight years, but there will definitely be things I'll miss about Texas (including our friends, queso, and the melt-in-your-mouth fresh tortillas from H-E-B). However, one of the things that I will miss most is the Austin crafting community. I've met an incredibly inspiring and supportive group of women here in town, and I'm sad to say good-bye. And so, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who's helped me along the way, answered my crafty business questions, taught me new skills, cheered me on, and made me feel so welcome.
Thank you to the gals of EtsyAustin. Though I joined this enthusiastic and active street team only weeks before finding out we were moving, I've had so much fun meeting members, attending events, and learning more about running a craft business in Austin.
Thank you to Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club, who took me on as an intern, let me help her make lots of cool crafts, passed along oodles of business advice, and shared books and supplies. I had so much fun working behind the scenes at NSC and learned so much about the day-to-day operations of a small craft business.
Thank you to all of my teachers at The Stitch Lab (such an amazing space and resource for crafters!), including Kat McTee and Rachel Hobson who taught me so much about embroidery and challenged me to try out new stitches and techniques.
And finally, thank you to the amazing women behind The WonderCraft (especially Beth H. who made the uh-mazing piece pictured above and wrote the sweetest blog post to go along with it), who have been so supportive of Salty Oat, dispensed great advice, and carried my items in their boutique. I had a blast interning for them (and using their button machine!) and will miss them dearly. (For those of you lucky enough to still be in Austin, I highly recommend you go visit them this weekend at their new location in East Austin!)
I've scheduled a recent craft project post (the first in a while!) to appear on Thursday (we'll be driving somewhere through Tennessee), and when I come back on Tuesday, I'll be blogging from our new apartment in Silver Spring---while hopefully surrounded by our recently delivered furniture. Until then...
