Oh, Boy!
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Oh, Boy!

We are debuting my entire line at the 2011 Fall International Quilt Market and Festival in just one week in Houston. (gulp.) (!!!) (hurrah!) I have been crazy busy for months designing and finalizing and preparing…

I just can’t wait any longer to reveal my newest puppet pattern—the Oh, Boy!™ Finger Puppet pattern. It was completely inspired by the interests and passions of my son. Five year old boys are just so cool. And the thing is, every time he picks up my other puppets, he makes them clobber each other. Aah, the lovely inherent violence of boys. I am the non-violent sort—more of the peace-loving-hippie type, really. So it has been quite a lesson in gender differences for me to see how boys are so innately warring and keenly interested in all things that can launch, hurl, shoot, or fling. Not to mention their love of heavy machinery, espionage, gadgets, and Star Wars (even if they haven’t actually seen the movie). read more

October 22, 2011
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Eulogy for Nanu
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Eulogy for Nanu

My grandmother, Nanu, died this week at the age of 94. Read about her in an earlier post here. I had the honor of eulogizing her. I have missed her for so long. Here is what I said:

To be adored. To be adored is a rare gift we are given in this life—a gift we are given by the few people who actually care enough to do so—to adore us. To be adored sets a person up for success. We can feel comfortable enough to take risks when someone on this earth believes in us. You know I am going to say that Nanu adored me. And she did—as she adored her children, her husband, her grandchildren, the Epsman’s, and her dear friends. But, oh how I adored her back. Every single little thing about her. read more

October 22, 2011
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Lego Chess game
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Lego Chess game

Lotso vs Yeti in a game of speed chess! I couldn’t help myself. It is rather tricky to make a tiny chess board from Legos and I hope to make a more elaborate version one day. The bishops have antennas…or is it antennae? The knights look rather horsey, so that is good. But the pawns are too short.

September 2, 2011
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One Family, One Meal
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One Family, One Meal

If there are six billion people on the planet and half are women, then it is safe to say that there are 1 billion women on this earth who are currently keeping house (or hut) with their mate (or sans a mate) and maybe raising children. Some of these women have jobs, some don’t. Some have plumbing, some don’t. Some go to grocery stores for food, some slaughter goats in the dirt yard. Some have thick, taupe wall-to-wall carpet, some have compacted mud floors. But all keep house. All sweep. All cook. Many tend to kids. Every day. I jokingly refer to this as the Housewife Olympics. And I not-so-jokingly say that I am not doing very well in the Housewife Olympics. read more

August 14, 2011
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The Princess and the Pea
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The Princess and the Pea


I am thrilled to announce the newest pattern in my line: The Princess and the Pea Finger Puppet pattern. I had so much fun making this collection. I wanted the Princess to be sweet and sleepy and the Queen to be slightly bossy and a bit dominant as she is written in the original Hans Christian Andersen tale here. And, btw, no need for revisionist history here, peeps. He wrote it in 1835. Let’s just let it be, nkay? read more

July 16, 2011
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Wonky Little Houses™ Quilt
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Wonky Little Houses™ Quilt

Having passed through many loving hands, the Wonky Little Houses™ Quilt is finally finished. I LOVED making this quilt. Certainly, I was making it for the pattern cover– but in my heart I was making it for my little girl. I wrote her a secret message, only visible when the quilt is folded down. It says, “may happiness always find you.” This is the biggest quilt I have ever made- a Twin. The pattern is a companion to my Wonky Little Houses™ Pillow and for a sense of scale, I increased the size of the houses. Once finished, the quilt moved on to the amazingly talented and loving hands of Carol Meka from Tomorrow’s Treasures. I was referred to Carol by my pals at the Bernina Connection. When I met Carol she was in her converted, carpeted three car garage studio sewing away on her old Bernina in bare feet. The first thing she said to me was, “come on in–sorry for my socked feet–I have to quilt in socks–I always tell my students that–you just don’t have the control you need on the foot pedal in shoes.” I kinda fell in love with her the moment I met her. Bubbly, wise, gentle and kind. I just love people who are so comfortable with who they are that they start a conversation as though they have known you forever. Anyway, Carol quilted my quilt so beautifully. She filled it with artful meanderings and included flowers, hearts and spirals that are only visible on the back. I requested back-and- forth channeling for the grass and she surpassed my expectations. And then she bound it. I am not ashamed to say that I am terrible at binding and will happily outsource that particular job to someone so much more qualified than I am. And then Jill came over and photographed the quilt for the pattern cover. As usual, her photos are just so good. So, check back in the shop in a week and the pattern will be there for sale. AND when you check back, you might be surprised to see the look of my website and blog. But that is another story…
(If you look closely, you can see my message written in thread at the top on the folded over flap.)

July 6, 2011
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T-shirt Yarn, anyone?
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T-shirt Yarn, anyone?

So my friend, Cyndi Coon, is a making, blogging, artsy, craftsy, chefy, supah-stah. She’s a writer, designer,promoter of all-things-craft, a marketing whiz and all around cool person. I adore her and have done so for a long, long time. She is a real, live human– real the way you wish everybody could be. You can see her blogging about craft here and here and visit her website here. Now, I’m no dummy…and I can see a good thing when it is staring me in the face. I saw one of her tutorials for creating jewelry from old t-shirts a while back and I just couldn’t shake it. It is so good. So simple. So fun and easy to make something that looks fabulous. I thought about her amazing and addictive T-shirt Yarn jewelry tutorial and collaborating with her somehow (read: vulturishly profiting off of her talent and/or promoting and supporting her by publishing and selling her pattern so we can both become rich beyond our wildest dreams off of recycled t-shirts.) And I just had to ask her if she’d like to be a guest designer for SUCH Designs. To which she said yes. So, SUCH Designs’ two newest patterns featuring Cyndi’s designs will be coming out in the next two weeks! These are kits including the items you need to create your own jewelry and hairwear. Check back at my etsy shop to buy yours soon! I will give you a sneak peek of our incredible…nay, words-cannot-describe-the-greatness photo shoot with the mind-blowingly talented photography duo behind www.jillandjill.com (Jill McNamara and Jill Richards or rather, Tall Jill and Short Jill, as they call themselves.) In an effort to promote all the people I adore, let me just say: hire these women to photograph your life, your business, your kids, your house, whatever…just do it…you’ll be glad you did. So, Cyndi wrangled up some models (who are not models) by simply putting out a call to her friends on Facebook. Little did we know that we would get the three perfect girls on the perfect afternoon with the perfect photographers with the best T-shirt Yarn jewelry this side of the Mississippi. Allow me to stop writing so you can see the splendid fruits of that day.




June 7, 2011
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Craft Camp!
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Craft Camp!



Now that summer is here, it seems that whenever we scrape a few kids together over here for a play date it turns into Craft Camp. Oh, the joy! Last week we had two kids over for a lantern project. I just love Todd Oldham‘s book, Kid Made Modern. This ain’t your grandma’s kids crafting book. It is whip smart, hyper-cool, super gorgeous and just plain fun! Each chapter is introduced by the work of a modernist artist or designer and the crafts relate to that genre…Noguchi, Marimekko, Luis Barragan, Alexander Calder. Tremendously cool. So, this lantern project is from the book. read more

June 5, 2011
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