That last potholder grew out of a need for mindfulness in my life. This one, on the other hand, was sewn out of jealously. If you follow the lovely Kayanna on instagram (@junecraft) you already know about the amazing quilt she’s making. Every other day or so another quilt square sewn in bold colors and milky pastels would pop up on my feed and I would freak out. I mean look at this!

Quilting is not my strong suit, but the block was too pretty to pass up. Freshly Pieced has a fantastic tutorial on how to put this block together. She also has a template to print out that you sew directly onto so everything comes out perfectly. I did not print it out (as you probably can tell). The finished quilt square was much too big for a potholder, so I cut the pieces much smaller. Why I didn’t just shrink the template too is beyond me. The lazy man works twice as hard–and stays up sewing late into the night.

This kind of quilt square is incredibly fiddly, but also immensely satisfying when it comes together. In the future I might even have the urge–and possibly the patience–to make a whole quilt. My scrap pile would like that time to come sooner rather than later. Or maybe I could go into the potholder business, because–just so you know–it’s pretty much potholders from here on out.

I made a bunch of potholders recently. I thought this little project would help me get my sewing mojo back and also make the kitchen a more welcoming place.

My intention was not so much “buy a cute and funny little scrubbie so washing dishes is SUPER FUN!!”  I’m trying to respect the job it is I do. Motherhood, housekeeping, much of anyone’s time really is errands and tasks and doing the damn laundry again. We’re told, especially as young mothers, that scheduling “me time” is supposed to erase the stress and monotony of our daily chores, but forced relaxation isn’t going to change the fact that there is laundry to be done.

It’s not that I’m horribly uptight and unable to relax–most evening you will find me on the couch–it’s that all of these things are a huge part of my life. I can’t put them all in the category ” things that need to be done before I can live my real life.” Some people, as Stephinine said, “border […] on poetry when they write about doing laundry or mending clothing.” I will never truly feel enlightening scraping oatmeal out of the bottom of the pan, but I can respect my roll as a caregiver and bring some joy to the tasks that come with being a mother.  My gnarly ass potholders told me my job as a mother was secondary; this silly star potholder says otherwise.

On a completely different note, elsie marley now has its own Facebook page. I know lots of you use Facebook to keep up with blogs, so now you can follow me there too!

This may look like a quilt, but it’s really only like a quilt.  It’s two vintage sheets stitched together and bound it quilt-like.  Most of the summer my kids were using their winter duvet covers as light blankets and it was bothering me to no end. So the quilt-like idea came about.

After too many trips to the thrift store, I finally found two quilts that would work.  I cut them to fit the weird ikea bed we have and pinned them together. I knew I wanted to quilt it in long slightly uneven lines–actually just like this beautiful quilt. So I contacted the maker and grilled on her quilting techniques and thread choices.

Then I picked up two different spools of variegated thread (wow, that stuff is expensive): a blue, magenta, and purple one for the flowery side and a more rainbowy one for the purple side. After what seemed like 400 hours of sewing straight lines, I moved onto the binding. I found this awesome Japanese polka dot bias tape in Frances’ beautiful shop, miss matatabi.

I sewed the binding on at the beach (and got many weird looks) and ta! da! Quilt-like thing! Now to start the next like-a-quilt for my son…

You say you’ll never dress your kids in matching outfits, but then you have a bunch of kids and realize how freaking cute it is when they wear matching outfits. So you do it even though you know they will hate you for it later.

The bow tie is of the fake variety. I made it with the help of a lemon squeezy tutorial. The tie tie is the real kind. The pattern is the little boy tie from the purl bee. I made one last year for easter as well. It’s a very mediative process, making a tie, lots of hand sewing and ironing. Sounds no fun, which is why I forgot how much I love it.

The whole orange/floral match matchy thing actually came from this dress, which came from a garage sale last summer that my husband and daughter went to. I wouldn’t have ever bought it and he doesn’t remember buying it, but whatever, we had it and it fits perfectly. I decided the tie was the worse bit about it, so I cut it off and made a new one.

Not perfect, but at least better. The orange headband was a last minute addition after my daughter cut herself some super de-duper short bangs. Right in time for grandma to see. Nice.

We had a lovely Easter with lots of  little kid cuteness and a beautiful brunch too. I hope your weekend was full of baskets stuffed with candy and not too many candy induced meltdowns.

I’m going to sneak in a little rainbow before the end of the day. While I was tiding up my studio I came across a couple fitted sheets I cut out a long time ago but didn’t sew up. I ran this one through the serger and 10 minutes later I had a fitted sheet. My kids’ beds are funny sizes, so don’t think I’m crazy for making sheets, it’s kind of necessary.

We’re slowly changing up the kids’ room–see that little sneak peek up there? This weekend it will get painted, but I’ve been saying that for the last four weekends, so maybe not. Oh and now you know: there is a panda at the end of the rainbow or a white tiger, depending on which way you go. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.