I’ve been posting lately about the treasure of beautiful, hand-sewn vintage quilts that I found in my Mama’s house, and the shocking conditions in which they’d been stored: stuffed in a closet, stuffed in a garbage bag, with MOTHBALLS! Another that my mother had put aside for me was folded up, hung on a HANGER, and then stuffed inside a garbage bag. The quilts were all visibly worn-looking, weak, and discolored along their fold lines. On my Nana’s friendship quilt, some of the color of the embroidery that served as the signature of the women who pieced the quilt had…

I realize that we are now two whole days into the new year, but forgive me while I take a moment and look back on 2008 in yarn. Just like all the fabulous fabric that we’ve found over the past year, our yearning for eco-friendly yarns has taken us far and wide with much much more to come. So, check this space for more earth conscious yarns in ‘09. We’ve found some true gems in fiber form in 2008. We learned about frogging, that big box stores do carry organic yarns, and that you can make yarn out of old…

I don’t know about you, but Christmas week at my grandparents’ house isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity. Papa does get up at around 5 am, of course, so if I got up, too, I could hang out with him while he sits at the kitchen table and reads the newspaper and drinks coffee for three hours. Then we can move into the den and watch Fox News for a while. We could yell at the dog, watch through the front window to see what the neighbors are up to, and when the postal worker comes, well, we are going…

January 6th is the submission deadline for Garth Johnson from Extreme Craft’s book 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. Any sort of crafty upcycling project is fair game! [Creative Commons photo by M.A. Enriquez] Read more of this story »

[Creative Commons photo by Richard Moross] If your friends and family are anything like mine, you probably have a mantle covered in greeting cards by now. Of course, some cards are special and go right into the memory box after New Year’s, but there are some that would probably end up in the recycle bin. Why not use your crafty skills to give them a new life instead? Here’s a little round up of some fun ways to upcycle those old greeting cards. Read more of this story »