Amber Dusick

creative itching (quilt!)

It turns out I can only go so long without making something pretty.

Pretty much all of my free time is spent on Illustrated with Crappy Pictures™ these days but I started getting itchy to make something that looked, well, good again.

So I finished a twin bed sized quilt for my eldest, since he recently (okay, 6 months ago) moved into a bigger, big boy bed. 

I made my own binding, but not in a "look how crafty I am because I can make my own binding" way. It was because I lost the binding that I had purchased nearly 6 months ago. It is buried in my craft room somewhere and the clock was ticking so in a panic I just made my own.

My craft room that now looks like this again. 

Notice that little birdie fabric on the binding at the top and then again 6 rows down? Designed by my friend, Marisa. She gave it to me recently, so it is a good thing it took me so long to finish this quilt. Things always work out for the best, don't they?

Have a happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate!

 

 

 

 

birthday shoes

So it is a tradition that I get shoes for my birthday. It is also a tradition for me to post about it! My birthday was last weeked and my mom sent me a pair of TOMS in Morocco Classic.

They looked like this when they arrived:

So of course I couldn't let that be. A couple hours and several fabric markers later:

Ah, much better. I actually picked them out with the intention to color them in. Love them now, I don't think I've ever had such colorful shoes. 

By the way, here are my birthday shoes 2008. And here are the ones from last year. I couldn't find the rest but I'm sure there are in the belly of this blog somewhere. 

woodmouse toys in Simply Handmade magazine

So six months ago, a magazine, Simply Handmade by Northridge Publishing, contacted me about showing one of my wooden items in their magazine.  The magazine world as you probably know works about a half year (or more) ahead of schedule.  I sent the requested info and then forgot all about it.  

Until today when a box arrived in the mail!

Now here is the deal, I was expecting another tiny image on a page as part of a collage of other work (like in the two other zines my wooden work has been in) so imagine my shock when I flipped through and found an entire two page spread devoted to it!  I had no idea.  

In addition to an incredible feature, they sent me a box of crafty goodies.  Oh, yes please!  

So Simply Handmade is a new publication that focuses on handmade projects and includes how-to instructions for them.  Tons of inspiring crafty projects in there.  I can't wait to spend more time pouring through it.  

And for all you fellow crafters reading, you can submit your own work for consideration, I believe they are accepting work for Jan/Feb 2012 right now and here are the themes they want to focus on.    

boys & pirates

What IS it about pirates?  My boys are captivated by them suddenly.  Honestly, I'm thankful it isn't dinosaurs or firetrucks because that shit bores me.  But aren't pirates just romanticized bad guys?  There is something alluring about them though.

It all started with shooting cannons at pirates at the Renaissance Faire.  Then came the questions which were answered by a few library books, including this Eyewitness Books Pirate one.  We love that series of books.

Then he started asking for "pirate clothes" and given that he doesn't very often request handmades by me anymore I happily made him something.  Knowing that he wouldn't take it off for days at a time I made sure it was normal clothes with a touch of pirate.  Some striped pants, a freezer paper stencilled tank top and a felt hat and he was set!

Well, except for that wooden stick he carries around as his "pirate sword" which is actually a piece from an art easel.  It is dangerous too.  So now I had to make him a sword.  Two actually.  What good is one sword when you can play with a little brother when you have two?

So I designed some soft foam swords and now our house is filled with happy pirate sword play and lots of "ARRRRRR" sounds.  

I hope you ARRRRRRRR having a nice week!

 

 

painted china hutch finished!

I first mentioned wanting to paint our antique breakfront hutch in November.  I finally did it!  You see, my list is long but I really do get around to all of my projects eventually.  

 You can see the before & after photos and the full instuctions on my decor site.  This particular project took me 16 hours to complete.  No, not all in one day.  I'd love to work like that but with children tugging at my pantlegs and the sun shining outside I had to break it up over two weeks.

What finally pushed me to start this project was getting our solar tube installed in the dining room, which beamed down natural light right onto this cabinet.

I'm still having fun arranging all the vintage goodies inside, that display probably will be ever changing since this is one of the first things you see when you enter my home.  

Starting any big projects this spring?

My Maternity Shirt Pattern (or just a mama shirt pattern)

I finished a shirt.  For ME!  It is so, so much harder to sew for myself than for my kids.  But I persisted and came up with a pattern and finished product I was happy with.  Mostly.  Here is the free pattern.

Surprise!  I'm pregnant again!  Kidding.  KIDDING.  I wanted to design a maternity/non-maternity cross-over pattern so I needed a maternity shot.  I used props.   

This is my yarn baby.  This is what was under my shirt.  No babies allowed.

Here I am after I birthed some wool yarn.

The top turned out pretty cute.  I got the orange/red polka dot fabric from a friend & had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it.  I don't usually wear those colors and initially thought I'd use it for couch pillow covers but I'm loving it on me.  

Do you have colors you always wear?  Ever want to branch out? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Baby Bib Sewing Patterns

I drafted two free baby bib sewing patterns this week.  My little guy has just started showing an interest in solid food at 12 months.  And by interest I mean he puts food into his mouth, explores the flavor and them promptly spits out 90% of it.  Holy cow, this is messy!  I had forgotten.  So.  Bibs.  

Birdie Baby Bib Pattern is a simple, reversible design.  I love it because it is cute and it is great for catching drips but it isn't great for chunks that land in his lap, so...

 

One Piece Pocket Baby Bib Pattern is a full-coverage, serious bib for super messy eating.  I made it with some laminated cotton fabric I got from Laminated. 

Anyway, they are both free.  There are PDFs of the pattern you can download and print for your handmade bib sewing pleasure. 

I'm on a pattern making sewing kick it seems and I'm going to take advantage of it!  Enough of those darn babies though, next up I'll make something for me for once.  I'm thinking of designing a shirt.  I never make shirts for myself - they seem harder because of the boob factor.  But I'm going to try.  Will let you know if I come up with anything. 

Am I the only one who is in full denial about the holidays coming up?  I haven't even thought about it yet. 

Hand Knit Baby Hat Contest

Any knitters over here?  I'm hosting a Hand Knit Baby Hat Contest over on my other site and figured I should tell you guys about it too.  The prize is a $100 gift certificate towards yarn.  So it is pretty cool if you are into that sort of thing.  

Honestly, I LOVE yarn.  And knitted items.  Especially baby knit items.  Like cozy baby hats.  Which is exactly why I wanted to do a contest for this.

It has been ages since I did a contest over there, the last one was in 2008 and it was a baby quilt contest.  I looked through my blog archives and I don't think I ever even mentioned it over here.  Oops!  Sorry bout that.  Back then I think I was keeping my internet lives separate.  Now I feel free to jumble them all together when I want.

Right now the baby hat contest has zero entries.  So your odds for winning are pretty good today.  Course it doesn't end until December 10th, 2010 and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will beat my last contest of 180 entries.  The early days of these contests always have me pacing nervously and worrying "What if nobody enters?  Ack, this is terrible!" and stuff.  I check my email obsessively for entry notifications.  My husband hates this part.       

PS - Halloween was lovely.  The only problem is that I can't stop eating candy.  I have to eat it otherwise my son will eat it and I don't really want him eating all that sugar (actually corn syrup which is worse) and crap in it.  So I will sacrifice myself for the cause.  I have a feeling I'm not alone in this mission. 

 

 

 

 

Handmade Robot Costume

We are officially *almost* ready for Halloween.  One robot costume down, three to go. 

Are you ready for Halloween?

 

leaf rubbing thank you cards

I hate writing thank you cards.  Doesn't everyone?  They always felt so formal and forced to me.  So now I have my son do them.  Much better.  Now I look forward to sending them. 

We did some leaf rubbing cards to send out to everyone that attended his party.  Leaf rubbings have got to be one of the quickest, easiest and most satisfying crafts for autumn.  Quick and easy is the name of the game this week.       

We've been attempting to catch up this week, but mostly treading water. 

And now it is Thursday night and I find myself wondering why my baby's head smells like Indian food.  Oh, is it because I haven't bathed him (or myself) in several days and his head rests in the nook of my armpit all night long and it has been like 100 degrees here?  Yeah, that.

One of those weeks.