A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

Wow, it's been 9 days since the Martha Stewart sewing party!  My other visits to the Martha offices for their Tastemakers Event and Holiday Craft Sale were fun and this was another inspiring night. 

I went with my friend She Crafty, her co-worker Amy and we met another Amy as well. 

The event celebrated the release of the brand new Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts and the book was included in the admission price.

I loved the embroidery section since I've been getting into it these days.

This is embroidery with ribbons.

And little fruity cocktail napkins.

I'd like to learn about patchwork.

And quilting: this was a machine that could do it all by itself.

I love this thread from Gutermann: quite strong and such great colors.

These beautiful displays were sooo Martha, looked like they were right from the magazine.

And there was an area where you could make your own tomato pincushion.

This was a station about dyeing fabric with Rit Dye.

And there was one about stamping below.  We also met the talented Lotta Jansdotter who's teaching a class over the summer about fabric printing, wish I had snapped a pic of her too!

At the end there was a generously heavy gift bag with the book, magazines, scissors, threads, needles, coupons, dye and more!  And the towel on the upper left was machine embroidered at the party.  Now I really have to get started!

Easter Wrapup

Hope everyone had a Happy Bunny Day!  There sure are a lot of baby bunnies in this shop window.

and over at Amy's Bread there were bunny-shaped loaves for sale.

I remember all the years my Mom made this Easter bread out of sweet dough and candied fruit.  I loved the sprinkles and dyed eggs that covered the glaze on top.

She always had great Easter projects: a bunny cake, Easter egg tree, ducky lollipops, chocolate covered peanuts and raisins that we boxed up to give to grandparents, teachers and friends.  I wish I had pictures of all of it, but it's so much harder to sort through prints than to scroll through your digital photo library, but here's one.

This year I had a few projects in mind too.  I started out with 3 sizes of lace doilies from the amazing Boutross Imports in Brooklyn.  Mike and his mother Mary are so sweet that when they sent my package it had candy inside too!

Then I had to find containers that were about the right size to fit each one

because

with a little fabric stiffener they were going to wear them like litle bonnets.

not to make little hats, but when they dried they were little bowls!  Thanks to this Martha Stewart tutorial.

Next I needed to blow out some eggs, kinda messy!  I was really doing more of the pierce-egg-shake-rinse-with-water to get all the yolk out method, but eventually it worked.  The boyfriend tried not to be too horrified when he found this scene on Saturday morning.

and he was also patient enough to help me dye them on our way out the door to enjoy a beautiful, warm, sunny weekend.  This looks like an egg tree, or egg lollipops, but I was just trying to dry them.

Then I cut out designs from some pretty paper napkins

to decoupage the blown out eggs, thanks again to Martha. 

And the Easter Bunny, I mean boyfriend's daughter, left us some cute bunny cards this morning.

and we definitely have more than a few made out of chocolate in the house too.  Not sure those will last too long though...

...and Out Like a Lamb...

I must be the only one in New York who wore a winter coat today, temp's going up to 60 and climbing over the week.  I figured yesterday would be my last March flower post (and the month would end with rain), but then these tulips came into the office.

I'm not usually an orange person, but this shade is really soft.  We also got some gerbera daisies and parrot tulips for a party last night, so I rescued the extras.  

We did a crazy kids' candy station

and chocolate fountain from Dylan's Candy Bar.

And at last I had some relaxing time to organize sewing stuff.

The little packet of fabric is from Purl Patchwork in Soho and the pieces are about 25" x 17" so I need to figure out what to make.  I'm starting to understand why people have such fabric stashes!  The only piece that's labeled is this cream, pink, orange print from Amy Butler.

And on April 15 the Purl yarn and fabric shops are moving in together and there's a fun customer appreciation day on Saturday the 24th.  They're also promising online surprises if you can't make it in person, so check out their Purl Bee blog.  I like this cute little map they made to show the new location on Broome Street, will definitely be making a trip over there soon.

Drenched in NYC

[from: fanpop]

April showers are early in New York and this is 'Rainy Day in Paris', painted in 1877 by Gustave Caillebotte.  I reached my March goal of doing a flower arrangement every week (and sometimes 2), so one more: I started with yellow freesia and am ending with creamy white freesia.  My little nail peeking out is polished with Exposure by Essie.

I also made a goal to take a ballet class, which hasn't happened yet, and to  learn to use my sewing machine.  So, even the rain can't dampen my excitement for this Stitch Fest event at the Martha Stewart offices on Thursday to celebrate their new Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts, yay!

If you're in the area there are still tickets left!  Hope everyone stays dry today, or there's some sun where you are :-)

Just In Time...

It's my 50th post and I finally finished a knitting project!  I can't even remember the last time I could say this, but today I completed my merino candle flame cowl from this pattern by Sarah E. White.  Yesterday I visited the Totallysuperdeluxe pop-up sale hosted by Jocelyn Joson in her husband's video studio in Soho and found out they have these every other month, cool! 

I bought the frosted glass buttons above and wasn't sure what I'd use them for until I was finishing up my cowl...

I started this at the beginning of the month with Organic Merino Wool DK from Sublime that I got at Gotham Fine Yarn in the Lower East Side and thought the buttons would be a nice, little touch.

I admit that I sometimes start more projects than I finish, so it was good to get one done just in time for what will hopefully be a spring warmup soon after not such a great weekend. 

I also bought some bright daffodils to cheer me up and put them on my beloved desk next to an Easter project I started.  Hmmm...still have to finish that hat for my Dad too...but gotta post this before it's tomorrow, right now it's 11:59 p.m....