This is a pattern in the Little Bits Quilting Bee book that I finished a while ago and have just now gotten a decent picture of it. It’s challenging to photograph a quilt in low lighting, which was about all we had around here until a few weeks ago! But alas, here it is. I bought the fabrics last year in July with a plan to make a quilt, although I wasn’t sure at the time what pattern to use. I was thinking of making one up until I became enamored with the quilts in the book and I knew the fabric was destined for this geometry. I just love the color mix paired with the white and the chartreuse binding–so fun! I did loosely hand quilt this one, but I mean loosely–I used a very long stitch and just did it along the pattern already in place, which is quite spread out. I love it. It makes it just crinkly enough and still feels almost as special as the ones I quilt painstakingly! It didn’t take much more time than it would have to tie it, either, so I may be doing this more in the future…maybe.

We have been out and about enjoying the fruits of summer–the beach and walks and more berry picking. There has been some engrossed bouts of sewing, but only on cloudy days! I hope you are enjoying your summer (if it’s that time of year for you).

I made some strawberry biscuits, fresh strawberry pie (not pictured), and 12 jars of strawberry-honey jam. Yumm! The jam’s a little runnier than I would like, but it always is and Ryan doesn’t seem to mind so we’re calling it good. I’m trying to get Christmas gifts in a manageable state for doing them homemade this year. I’m leaving my job and going to give the stay-at-home mom thing a chance. I think it will be lovely!

We spent yesterday evening whiling away the afternoon in the sun, reading our books while Ulysses happily entertained himself with his wheelbarrow full of water, some containers, and measuring spoons. Summer has arrived and we are all the better for it.

Cut the outside fabric 14″ wide by 10″ tall (note: I determined the height of mine by making sure it would fit my tallest brush. If your tallest brush is much shorter, I’d recommend decreasing the height to size of brush plus 1.5″.). I used a cotton for mine.

Also cut one piece of cotton batting (this is to make the case sturdier. You could also use Timtex) and one piece for the inside fabric (cotton or vinyl). You should have three pieces total–one for lining, one for outside, and one for batting.

Cut the pocket fabric 14″ wide by 6″ tall (note: if you made your height shorter, you’ll want to also decrease the height here.). Cut the button loop fabric 5″ by 1.5″.

Finish one 14″ edge of the pocket fabric. Finish the button loop.

Place the batting on the wrong side of the fabric. Quilt the fabric and batting together in whatever pattern suits you. I chose swirls.

Take the inside fabric and the pocket fabric and place the pocket fabric on top of the inside fabric. Both of the right sides should be facing you. Fold into thirds. Sew vertical lines beginning at the top of the pocket fabric to the end of the fabric at each third interval. Decide how many places you’ll want for thin versus fat brushes. I assumed 1 inch for thin ones and 2 inches for fat brushes, however my friend’s fatest brush did not fit, so you’ll want to test yours.

Place outside and inside pieces right sides together. Pin the button loop in place. Sew along three sides, starting from the top left to the bottom left (so you don’t sew over what will be the left side of the case). Turn it inside out and press the seams flat with your finger, if you used vinyl, or press with the iron if you used all cotton.

Fold in the raw edges on your one unfinished side and sew an 1/8″ hem. Fold it into thirds and sew your button in place so it lines up with the button loop. Voila!

After much searching, I found an organic strawberry u-pick in Monroe, so a friend and I set off with our boys to pick strawberries! We both like to can and I’m planning to make strawberry jam (trying this honey strawberry jam recipe). She’s got a dehydrator and a big freezer, so has a few more plans. The boys had so much fun! Once they realized that they couldn’t eat the strawberries they picked immediately (there was a fair amount of mud that needed to be washed off), they lost interest in picking and instead traipsed in the mud and did general boy playing “at the farm,” as Ulysses kept repeating. I’m planning on putting our haul up tomorrow, so fingers crossed for setting!

Happy Father’s Day to all of you dads out there! Here’s the goodie basket we prepared for our local superdad. Printables for the goodies are here; printables for the card are here; cute interview printable here.

The boys have been really into rockets lately. There’s a real rocket attached to a building in our neighborhood, the Fremont Rocket, and Uly asks to take that route to his school in the mornings to see it. This was followed by the brilliant idea to watch YouTube videos of people giving tutorials on how to shoot off model rockets. Ulysses can explain the whole thing to you: first, you put in the wadding, then the engine and ignitor, turn the key, say 5-4-3-2-1! (very very loudly), followed by rocket noises (how are boys so innately good at making machinery noises?). Hence, the rocket party.

I worked on the decorations for about a month ahead of time so I was able to get a number of things made. I made: the invites (just cut out construction paper), the stamps used to stamp the napkins and cutlery; those hanging rockets were poppers filled with confetti (tutorial here), 5-4-3-2-1 garland, cake (made with Twizzler pull-aparts and ice cream cone for the base), and fruit rockets and cookies with a rocket cookie cutter. I set up a panini bar for dinner and had lots of panini-type things and three panini grills going.

Ryan built the model rocket (USR are little’s initials) and we walked over to the school across the street to shoot it off, which incited a crowd. Of course the rocket didn’t go off the first or second time, but with the YouTube expertise and two Boeing engineers en fete, on the third time the rocket went up up up in the air!

I’ve been seeing so many fun cloud and rainy things on Pinterest, and I was inspired to make this blanket for a sweet little boy who is about to be born. We celebrated Ulysses’s third birthday this weekend so I’ll have pics of that up soon.

I embellished these party forks and spoons that are made out of eco-friendly wood (pressed birch to be exact), and are compostable. I made a few different sets because it was kind of addictive, and put a few sets up for sale in my Etsy shop.

p.s. If you felt like pinning these, I would be appreciative!!

I’ve been slowly paging through the Japanese embroidery books I got myself for my birthday this year. There are a number of the kid-inspired designs I’ve been wanting to try. This one looked simple enough and the right size for a pocket, so on it went. It hardly took any time, so I decided to add a few stitches to the bottom, too. I love it when projects turn out in no time.

We’ve had brief and glorious encounters with the sun here in Seattle. It’s starting to warm up and I’m debating whether I should pull out the summer wardrobe or if that would jinx us with another Junuary (what we call June around here most years). I am busy planning my little’s THIRD birthday party. Wow. I can’t believe he’s so grown up already. He moves into the preschool room at school next month and I’m adding another day at work. Happy sigh. How I love that little guy so.