Sew Darn Cute

Now It Can Be Told

This is an old drawing Ivan Brunetti did of me, which I thought would be very appropriate for me to post today... because I'm writing a book! I've hinted in the past that I had some top secret projects in the works, and this was one of them. I just got the go-ahead to let the world know that next winter, you'll be able to buy a copy of Sew Darn Cute: 25 Sweet & Simple Projects to Sew & Embellish, published by St. Martin's Press. The book will contain a variety of fresh and playful patterns for beginning and experienced stitchers alike—including patterns for several items I used to sell on my website, like cupcake totes, layer cake pouches, and crochet hook cozies. I'm so excited to finally be able to share this news, and even more excited to share these projects. In short...wahoo!

Travelin' Like a Wilbury

How cute are these dudes? Answer: extremely! You're looking at Jennifer of Textile Fetish and her adorable daughters Olivia and Chloe. We spent the day together in Austin, Texas on Monday, winding down from a looong weekend I spent working at Maker Faire. It was great being shown Austin (or at least a bit of it!) by a local, and especially great that it was a local as super-sweet and funny as Jennifer. Her kids are such friendly, hilarious little monkeys too. Thanks again, guys!

This is a pic I took of the Lion Brand Yarn booth at Maker Faire. I love their new yarns and patterns!

Maker Faire was an overwhelming and altogether great experience, and in addition to all the mind-blowing science-fair-gone-wrong (and if Mentos-and-Diet Coke fountains are wrong, I don't want to be right) activities happening, I also got to see so many of my favorite people—my fellow CRAFT staffers, but also great folks like Jenny Hart, Jennifer Perkins, Faythe Levine and my new pal Cecily Keim. Hanging out with all these inspiring and creative people at once got me really excited for the upcoming Felt Club Holiday Event, and I was finally able to finish getting up the vendor gallery for said show. Can I just say...WOW! I knew we had chosen a killer array of crafters but seeing their stuff all in one place makes it even more real. I am so excited (and freaked) for November 18.

Know what's funny, though? I barely had time to unpack my bag before I had to hop back on a plane again, this time for NYC! I'm writing you now from a hotel off Broadway where I'm staying with my fellow CRAFT blogger Natalie Zee. If you tune into the CBS Early Show (and I do mean early!) on Saturday morning you'll get to see a "Last Minute Halloween Costumes for Kids" fashion show we've put together. I'll be working the scenes backstage as a costume stylist/kid wrangler while Nat works her on-camera magic. Best of all, we were able to rope some great CRAFT contributors into creating the costumes for our little segment: Diana Eng, Cathy Callahan, Susan Beal, and Nancy Flynn. If you're not an early riser and don't have a DVR, you'll be able to view the segment on CBS online later (and we'll be posting costume instructions and photos on Saturday too). I'll keep you posted—please wish us luck! This is one of the crazier things I've ever had to work on so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Right now though...bedtime! Being in three different time zones in one week has me totally zonked. If there are any traveling salesmen reading these...how do you do it?!

Yay (and Phew)

Above is a (not so great) photo of my latest batch of crochet hook cozies, which I completed last weekend. Yesterday I packed them and a ton of other stuff up and spent 45 minutes at the post office mailing everything out. Now I'm D-O-N-E done! There are no more orders waiting to be shipped out, I can finally breathe. It's such a huge relief to be finished with it all, though I did get sort of wistful all over again about closing my shop. I really do believe it was the best thing to do considering everything else I have going on right now—and I'm excited to craft for myself again—but it was an odd thing to be addressing a big stack of parcels for the last time. Anyway, if you were waiting on an order from SewDarnCute, it should be arriving soon, so keep an eye out! Here are the zip codes I sent packages to (maybe yours is among them?): 48336, 95465, 02655, 90042, 63122, 20190, 94560, 94301, 60505, 75052, 60647, 20712, 60506, 20906, 50010, 91205, 55123, 46986, 60622.

And now that the going-out-of-business maelstrom is over, I can work on deep-cleaning and reorganizing my studio—I have new shelves to put up, fun paint-by-number woodland paintings to hang, and lots of fabrics to fold and stack. I actually love doing that sort of organizing/cleaning and am looking forward to the "clean slate" feeling it will bring. With everything this Fall has in store (Maker Faire, Felt Club, the holidays, etc.), it's exactly what I need right now. Speaking of Maker Faire, I'm going to teach two crafty demonstrations while I'm there: pumpkin pincushions and charm jewelry. I may also be giving a talk about starting a crafty business. Most of my time will be spent in the CRAFT area and/or the Maker Store, so if you're in Austin on October 20 or 21, please come by and say hello!

Done with the Fair, Headed to Austin

Oh, my. I don't think I really realized how crazed things would get when I closed my business. Thankfully I'm in the home stretch now, and should finally be done sewing and shipping everything out by the end of this week. I was just at the post office with another dozen or so packages today. Eep! Sadly, during the mad crush of sewing, my old reliable 1957 Singer decided to conk out on me. Usually I can fix it again by taking it apart, dusting and oiling and lubing, then reassembling. This may be a job for the pros, though.

HowEVER, I was able to score a great deal on a new Pfaff last week at the LA County Fair, after one of our Felt Club demos! A local sewing shop donated 8 Pfaffs for use in the quilting area, and throughout the month, they would be in use by area sewers working on charity quilts and the like. At the end of the month, the gently-used machines went on sale for half off (and if you know how much Pfaffs run, you'll know that's a great savings). If you're in the market for a new sewing machine, I definitely recommend checking out Pollard's Sew Creative in Pasadena (or Glendora). They  gave me a great deal (my likewise-impressed pals Sean and Aldo ended up buying a machine too!) and all their machines include warranties, a year of free lessons, and the chance to "trade up" to a fancier machine within a year if you so desire (they'll apply what you paid for machine #1 towards machine #2). I'm really happy with the customer service I received from these folks and am so happy I took the plunge.

What else? The demos we did all last month at the fair were incredibly fun. I learned a lot of new stuff, like how to bind books from Tyler Bender, and met a lot of great people. If you're a local pal who stopped by to say hi, THANK YOU! We all had a ton of fun. At the amigurumi demo, my friend Narumi of Mr. Funky helped me refresh my woefully inadequate crochet skills (those are her handmade stuffies above!) so I've been practicing making flowers when I watch TV ever since. A few from this week are pictured above. So relaxing, and I love the near-instant gratification.

In other news, planning for the November Felt Club is going at full speed. Last week was our long, long jury meeting, and we ended up with over 70 wonderful vendors. Sadly, some of our old favorites didn't make it in it this time, if only because we try to mix it up each time. We had 300 applicants for only 70-something spaces, so if we want the show to be different every time we really need to switch people out and bring in some new blood. Even so, not everyone can make it in and inevitably some talented people get left out. I think our vendors have a great attitude about this though, which I'm so grateful for.

Also! Looks like I'll be in Austin, TX on October 20 and 21 for Maker Faire. I'll be demonstrating different craft projects and basically helping spread the word about CRAFT magazine. I'm a CRAFT evangelist, don'tcha know? Anyway, if you're in the area, be sure to come by and say hi! I'll post more details as I get them. Oh and I hope you'll consider bookmarking the CRAFT blog, I post on there nearly every day (most times several times per day). Between myself and the rest of our blog crew (especially Nat!) it's a hoppin' joint! I've also been doing a series of "Craft Biz Q+A" interviews with a variety of talented people, such as The Little Friends of Printmaking, Heidi Kenney of MyPaperCrane, Christine Haynes of Twospace, Susie Ghahremani of boygirlparty, and Cathy of California. The interviews run every Tuesday around noon, and you can check out the archive here.