10 Uses for Your Fabric Swatches

With my latest Spoonflower swatches arriving, I thought I'd share the love a little and link to some other blogger's tutorials. Each of these tutorials are great projects for your swatches (or scraps)! Some of them will require two or more swatches, or you may have to shrink the pattern just slightly to make it work with an 8 x 8 swatch - but they're all pretty close.

1. coasters
2. quilt squares for quilt blocks
3. coffee press cozy
4. hot pads
5. child size bath mitt
6. a small garland
7. door knob ornament
8. dish soap apron
9. snap box
10. fortune cookie

Since my favorite fabric was designed from my living room window I wanted to be able to enjoy the print in my living room, so I a very simple coaster - just some batting sandwiched between two layers of fabric and topstitched.

Next time I make a pdf tutorial, I'll try to keep the file size small so it doesn't overload my bandwidth! Thanks again for all the interest - now go check out some tutorials!

New Spoonflower Swatches

I got some swatches in the mail yesterday - it feels like Christmas!

These first two: Leap Frog and Duck Duck Goose, turned out well. The color of the duck's feet printed yellow when I intended it to be orange, but the rest of the colors are as expected. Since these colors are lighter than the fat quarter I ordered, I noticed how thin the fabric is this time. I guess it's pretty normal for a quilting cotton - but I would like to see spoonflower offer a heavier fabric, too.


I really liked how these prints turned out, but as I tried to think what I might use them for, I realized I wouldn't. I would never buy this fabric in the store because I'm not usually into children's prints. And these are so specific. Somebody else might use them, but I probably wouldn't. Not the kind of thing I was expecting to learn from my swatches, but it'll help me make better designs in the future.


These two I love! By the time I designed these, I'd gotten some tips from Kimberly Fraser at Spoonflower (they're so helpful) about color. So I'd checked my colors with proof colors and gamut warnings on photoshop, and all of these colors turned out as expected. I'm still thinking about ordering a color swatch though.

This is my favorite design. It's my grandmother's jade plant hanging in my living room window. The thing I learned from this print is that I really like the way my drawings translate to print. I was afraid they'd look too amateur since they're just scanned drawings, but I think the lines turned out really beautiful. I'm thinking of developing this into a whole fabric line - which I've never done before. But I'm definitely looking forward to giving it a try.

Giraffe Pattern

Remember the Orange Curtain Project? Remember this cute giraffe?

I made up this pattern because I thought that gorgeous fabric needed to be a giraffe. So now he's one of our favorite stuffed animals around the house. I have been meaning to share the pattern, but I'm only just now getting to it. It's available in my etsy shop now: giraffe pattern along with the last of the orange crafts for sale.

Made one? I'd love to see: Add it to the wewilsons pattern pool.

Fat Quarter Purse Frenzy!

I'm so excited that my little tutorial was linked on:

whip up
spoonflower
one pretty thing
craft gossip
craftzine

Eek! How cool!

Unfortunately, my pdf host only allows about 400 downloads of the file per day -my bandwidth and inbox just can't take it anymore. The tutorial is now available for a small fee through my etsy shop. Good luck!


Update - Some tips on printing the pattern:

You have a few options. You could print it out on multiple sheets of paper, then trim off the margins and tape it all back together (Thanks to Candice, who told me if you print it through paint, you'll need to scale it down 65% before printing). Or you could scale it down to fit on one page and then take it to some place with a copy machine and enlarge it to it's original size (10.5 x 18"). OR you could do it the old school way by scaling it down to one page and printing that out, then using graph paper enlarging it by hand.



Thanks for all your compliments and interest - it's been a wild few days!

p.s. I'd love to see pictures of bags you make from the tutorial, so send me pics or links.

Snow Day with Sourdough Bread

We had a fun snow day, and I got a chance to use my honey starter. I used a recipe that included active dry yeast, so it accelerated the whole process. I wanted to just rely on the sourdough, but I decided I should get the hang of this before I become a purist. Anyway, this loaf turned out really great. It had a nice sourdough flavor (not sour milk). I made a loaf and a bunch of small rolls for John to use in his lunch. Yum.



L, Nellie (our new dog), and I got a chance to play in the snow a little. Another little happy - check out the new binding on my cookbook. I was complaining about how all the pages were falling out, and John took it to work to have it rebound. Librarians get all the great perks.

Fat Quarter Purse Tutorial

My first Spoonflower fat quarter arrived today! I was really pleased that my first fabric turned out really lovely. I didn't have any problems with color, and the quality of the fabric is very nice.

They recommend you order swatches before you buy a lot of fabric, but I hated to have to wait all that time to see my fabric, and then only have a swatch - so I went with a fat quarter. In the meantime, I tried to figure out what to do with my first self-designed fabric, and I came up with a purse pattern that uses precisely one fat quarter. It's a sling purse, with zipper, lining, and an adjustable strap.



So, I made my pattern into a little pdf tutorial (another first for me!) for any of you wondering what to do with your fat quarters. The tutorial is now available for a small fee in my etsy shop.

Update - the pattern has been reformatted to a four page pdf, so it prints nicely on regular paper.

Made one? I'd love to see: Add it to the wewilsons pattern pool.

Sourdough Waffles

Bingo! These turned out great. No picture because they pretty much look like the last waffles I made. I did notice the batter was a little runnier than my Betty Crocker recipe, but it puffed up nicely in the waffle iron. Also, not a strong sourdough flavor, but considering my last attempt, I think that's okay. I am starting to think it was the over-rise that caused the "too sour" flavor of the last bread, but I'm liking my honey starter better now anyway.

Tomorrow, we'll try a plain loaf of sour dough bread, and see if I can get it right.

Sourdough Bread Attempt II

Here's the chocolate cake I made with my Amish Frienship Batter. It turned out really lovely. The recipe is here.

Unfortunately, my first try with one of my own starters was not so lovely. I spent the better part of two days working on this sourdough french bread. It rose beautifully, baked nicely, and then tasted like sour milk. I think it's just the flavor from the starter since it was made from sour milk - although I may have also let it overrise, and I'm not sure yet how that affects sourdough bread.



Yuk. I'm trying my other starter (this one made from honey) this morning with waffles...

Another Wallet

I made another sketchbook wallet for a friend who's turning 16. Here it is without a book attached, so it looks a little smushed. I made sure it was big enough to slide one of my little notepads in. This one came together a little more nicely than the last, and they're a little addictive to make.

Accidental Baking

I wouldn't have thought it possible to accidentally bake a cake, but if anyone can do it, its me. That's just the kind of cook I am.

I had written down two variations for my Amish Friendship Bread starter, but ultimately decided to go with the sourdough bread. It wasn't until I was well into my mixing that I thought, "wow this is a lot of sugar for bread."

Then I realized I was following the other recipe, and I was past the point of no return. So I went with it, and here's a chocolate cake instead. Hey, I got to use my bundt pan.

As if I Need More Mouths to Feed

At least these are just jars.

Here are my three starters. The Amish Friendship Bread starter that Brittany gave me (in the bag) has been bubbling away. I've started baking with it, but I'll have to share that story later. I'm going to try to pass on some this week.

The starter in the jar on the left gets its yeast from natural bacterias in the milk. It was pretty stinky, but it started working pretty quickly after I added the flour. I have started some bread from it, but it won't bake until tomorrow. Here is the starter recipe (I've already forgotten where I got it):

Cover 3 cups milk and let stand for 24 hours.
Add 2 cups flour, stir and cover, let stand in warm place several days.
Stir daily if separates, ready when bubbly and smells sour.

The last starter is supposed to catch wild yeast in the air. It has been covered with just a light cloth all week, and bubbles a little, but not a lot. I just fed it today, so it will be ready tomorrow for me to try another sourdough bread. It follows this recipe:

Mix 1/2 tsp honey, 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup bottled water.
Cover lightly and let sit in a warm place. Stir twice a day for five days.
On day 6 add 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water or milk. Let stand 24 hours.
Ready when bubbly.

sketchbook wallet

I made several sketchbook covers during my orange curtain project. But none of them really worked out - I think they were just too bulky. It made me not want to carry the sketchbook at all. So here's my new sketchbook wallet (sorry, no curtains involved). It's a little slimmer, but can hold essentially the same stuff.



I like this a lot and have been doing better about using my sketchbook for the last several weeks. It snaps around the sketchbook with a simple piece of elastic and has a piece of chipboard on one side to make it lay nicely against the book. I've got my pockets stuffed with laminated pictures of some of my favorite artworks, some scrap paper and vellum, paper clips and glue dots, pen, pencil, charcoal and eraser.



Sketchbooks are one of the easiest and most productive ways for an artist to keep fresh, so I really want to get back into one. I customized some of Keri Smith's creativity prompts to keep me going. The first one I used was, "draw your favorite tree" - so the little sketch you see is the locust tree by our back porch.

Beer Bread

I've got some sourdough starters going (more details later), but since I won't be able to make bread from them for awhile I thought I'd give this a try. I googled around for recipes, and no matter where I looked they were pretty much all the same:

1 12 oz beer
3 Tbsp sugar
3 cups self-rising flour

mix dry ingredients, then add beer. Stir with wooden spoon, then your hands. Bake in a greased loaf pan at 425 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

I got this bottle of imported Belgian beer because I was told it's a really good beer, and I love good ingredients. The whole thing mixed up in just a few minutes, and since I baked mine in my iron skillet instead of a loaf pan, it only took about 30 minutes to bake. It has a great yeasty smell and wonderful flavor. It's hard on the outside and really soft and moist inside. It was great toasted with butter. All in all, it was a really easy to make and turned out incredible. So my first completed alternatively-leavened bread is a big success!

Studio Redo - Again

I've done several studio redos over the years. And every time I see these beautiful studios on whip up I think I need to do it again.

One thing I always notice is the neat stacks of fabric beautifully color coordinated. When I first saw this post on how to do it, I thought, "I would never take the time to do that."



I stayed up till one last night folding and ironing my fabric. I condensed four large baskets of fabric to one basket of scraps and these beautiful stacks. Not only does it take up less space and free up my baskets for other stuff, now I won't have to rifle around in wrinkly mounds of cloth with every project. I also have nicely separated spaces for sewing and painting.





I was proud to switch my unfinished projects to a smaller basket, get all my etsy wares and supplies in one place, and still have room to grow. Also, since I'm not doing a lot of painting, i set a couple of small paintings I like around to remind me that I can still do it.





It may not be a super beautiful room, it may not even be a room, but today it's a happy place.

Waffles

I've been really into waffles lately. I've decided that chocolate chip waffles with strawberries on top are just about the best thing ever. Made with whole wheat and flax meal and topped with freshly whipped cream and maple syrup, I don't have to feel too guilty about the chocolate chips. Almost too good to be breakfast!

Amish Friendship Bread

Brittany shared this Amish Friendship Bread starter with me this week. The bread pictured is some she made since I won't make mine for another week. It was so moist and yummy. I found lots of recipe variations here, and I'm trying to decide which one I might try. The whole concept is neat, like a chain letter in the form of bread. You can start one, too.

I've always been really interested in starters, but have never taken the time to try one. This might be my motivation. I read recently about beer breads, which use nothing but the yeast in the beer to make the bread rise. My aunt Beth made some a long time ago for a family holiday, but until now I never realized how cool it was. I'm really intrigued by these various cultures that make bread rise, especially sourdough starters.

I have this really great cookbook, The Sunset Cookbook of Breads, that I've been using for several years. I really like this book for its introductory chapter on bread ingredients and properties. It explains how each ingredient functions, which makes me feel a little more confident when experimenting and substituting. It has a good section on sourdough breads and starters so I think I'm going to have to give one a try. I'm tempted to start several different starters with various recipes to see which one I like best, but I'm wondering if I really have the time. We'll see.

Makings

I usually like to make stuff for Christmas gifts, but just didn't have the energy to do much this year with the jolly sickness and all. I did manage to make L one gift at the last minute, this sweet fabric dollhouse (pattern here), and a little wooden family (inspired by this etsy shop). I would have loved to do more embellishments on the inside, or make some furniture or something, but I was lucky to finish this on Christmas Eve. I thought it would be a good way to start talking to L about the new baby!





Before Christmas, John built L a new bed, which we have all been grateful for. I thankfully started this little blanket for it before I got sick and finally finished before Christmas. I wanted something sweet and girly, but not too bright since we already have a lot of furniture in our one little bedroom. It has little birds, leaves, mushrooms, and flowers appliqued on some of the blocks. I used some bits of my vintage flour sack fabrics to do some details on the birds and flowers. Hmmm... I should get a close up shot.



And finally, I made these wool longies for L some time ago from an old sweater - and aren't they cute?

Christmas

I was too busy enjoying Christmas this year to think to take many pictures, which I think is really the mark of a good holiday. But here's the few I managed.



Our tree. yep.



We had a big ol' breakfast on Christmas morning after all the excitement.



We had a good time at Mom and Dad's house with all the kids and activity, but since I have no pictures to show for it - here's a snap shot of mom and dad on their way out of town. After packing up the house, they headed for Oklahoma, but stopped for a litte IHOP with us before they left. L had a good time with Gran and Papa and especially liked tickling Papa.



We also had a nice visit with John's family, and we did actually round up the kids for a picture. oh, so sweet. We celebrated Grandpa's birthday with some Burma-Shave style signs along the driveway: "If you ain't heard/ then read the sign/ our dear old dad/ is 59!"

Puppy

We found this puppy up the road and are harboring it from the coyotes. Anyone know what breed he is?