Friday Favorites 50

Happy Friday! It's time for another Friday Favorites post! Catch up on previous posts here: Friday Favorites Archives

- This cake may have been on a past favorites, but I made it again this week! It's such a fun one, if you like marshmallows.

- I made this creamy chickpea salad for a quick lunch this week and it was great! I think next time I might add some green onion.

- Pattern designer Jodie Carleton has been sharing her experiences with her patterns being stolen and sold without her permission across the internet, so I wanted to support her by picking up one of her patterns (directly from her online shop!). I decided on the Sunday Best Elephant Pattern, but it was hard to choose. She has so many cute designs!

- I bought some dry grapevine wreath forms to craft with (hopefully this weekend). I'm finally ready to dip into my stash of dried strawflowers. Going to do something similar to this tutorial.


- Love these pincushions that Elisabeth Woo made with my long scrappy pincushion tutorial (mine shown above).

- I never tire of seeing other people's workspaces or sewing rooms. Anna Maria Horner shared her studio this week, all empty and ready to move in. Looks dreamy!

- Speaking of interiors, this home tour caught my eye on Pinterest.

- How cute is this free chicken ornament pattern from Ann Wood Handmade?

- We're rewatching Downton Abbey (our yearly rewatch), and I want to profess my love for the schoolhouse in the village. I love brick buildings, and this one is just so good!


- Sweet Dusty got extra comfy on my lap this week!

Have a Great Weekend!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

What I'm Working on Right Now

Happy Wednesday! I wanted to spend a little time today sharing the various projects I'm working on at the moment. I've decided to shake things up a little this year and turn my monthly reports into quarterly reports! So instead, I'd like to sprinkle in a few more posts like this one.


Late last month, I whipped up a couple of pincushions just because. I went through my stash of random blocks and pulled out these two. Within a few minutes I had pincushions! I filled them with crushed walnut shells. For more on how I like to make/finish pincushions, see this post: All About Pincushions.


Back in December I put together this quilt top (and a backing!) made with lawn that I'd indigo dyed. Fast forward to the end of January and I finally got it sent off to be quilted. I'm excited to add another all-lawn quilt to our summer quilt stash. They're so soft and light.


In other quilt news I've been working on my double wedding ring, still. 6 arcs to go! I really hope to make progress on this quilt in February. We'll see. Ideally this month I will finish those 6 arcs, make a test block or blocks, and choose a background fabric!



This week I decided I wanted to make a valentine's inspired bag. I also decided that I wanted to use Lu Summer's 'porthole technique' to showcase a cute fussy cut print. I think it turned out pretty cute! You can find the technique for this type of patchwork in her book, Quilt Improv*. I turned the block I made into an everything size Lined Drawstring Bag, of course!



I've been doing a little crafting too! Our neighborhood is hosting a valentine's scavenger hunt. Basically you decorate your house with hearts and folks can walk around the neighborhood and see everyone's decorations. I decided to participate and went with a rainbow theme! I added them to all the street facing windows and our front door. Nothing fancy, just construction paper and double sided tape. I used my cutting robot* to make quick work of all the cutting!


I also finally made progress on my colorwork mittens! It may be small, but after letting it sit for months on end, I finally knit the colorwork thumb. I really dislike knitting thumbs in general, but colorwork ones I dislike even more. I had been putting it off until this past weekend when I made myself sit down and just knit the whole thing. Now I can start the second mitten, at last!

Happy Making!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Friday Favorites 49

Happy Friday! It's time for another Friday Favorites post! Catch up on previous posts here: Friday Favorites Archives

- I recently bought a happy pack from artist Heidi Moreno and these are two of the postcards that were in my pack. I'll admit I shed a few tears when I pulled out the bunny one. They immediately got framed and hung on the wall in our kitchen. Tomorrow marks two years since we lost George bunny, I can hardly believe it's been that long.

- I love this quilty art print by Sophie McPike.

- This new book* on sewing clothes by Amelia Greenhall and Amy Bornman looks really cute!

- We've made this sandwich a few times in the past month with heirloom tomatoes and it's been a little magical slice of summer in the middle of winter. The only thing we don't add is the chile oil.

- I really wanted to give making english muffins from scratch another try. I used this recipe from Bigger Bolder Baking and they turned out great!


- My hellebores are sending up buds!! I love how early these bloom, can't wait for them to open up.

- Hilary Goodwin shared the backstory of her best in show 2020 Vision Quilt, it's really worth a read!

- This post by Colleen Molen (and the conversations in the comments) about fabric consumption really spoke to me.

- I've really enjoyed the content from Cassie Stephens (@cassie_stephenz) and her recent video on repurposing dried out glaze caught my eye. Beautiful projects made with something that could have gone to waste!

- We binged the first season of Only Murders in the Building over the weekend, and loved it! I love mystery shows and this was a great mix of mystery and funny.


- Kitten was playing in an empty laundry basket this week, here she is about to jump towards me! :)

Have a Great Weekend!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Rainbow Drawstring Bag Advent Calendar

Happy Wednesday! Today I wanted to share my finished rainbow drawstring bag advent calendar!


Back in November, I had the idea to make a second drawstring bag advent calendar, this time one specifically to use for a tea advent! (see my first calendar here: Drawstring Bag Advent Calendar) There are a lot of ready-made tea advent calendars you can buy, but I liked the idea of this one being reusable and also that I could use teas I already have. My intentions were good, but sadly I didn't finish the bags until this month. That's okay though. I decided I can do it anytime I want, or even just wait until next December.


I wanted this calendar to be simpler than my first one. I knew I wanted to use non-holiday fabrics for it and quickly settled on using food/fruit themed fabrics. I have a large collection of these types of prints, so it was fun to dive into my stash and choose 24 different prints. I also decided not to number them. I didn't want to compete with the prints, and I liked that it would give some additional flexibility.


I also decided to make the most streamlined bags I could. I used my Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern and the Expansion Pattern. These are all the tiny size, but without the gussets. I used easy going variation from the expansion pattern and used a single fabric for the outside of each bag. These changes made the bag construction much faster!


Here they are, all together! I love how cheerful and colorful they look. Again, since these are made with non-holiday fabrics I feel like they could be used as a little countdown calendar to many different things! I have a feeling they're going to get a lot of use.


I finished them all off with paracord, since again this is the easiest thing to use for the ties when making this many in my opinion. I went with white, which I carry in my shop.


I love seeing all these different fabrics used. Some I purchased in 2022, and there is one that I've had since 2007!! A real time capsule of my stash. Clearly I've always loved food fabrisc!


My storage/display plan for this calendar is to use a basket or bin to hold them. Now I just need to fill them up with tea! :)
Happy Sewing!