Stack, Group, Fill, Dump

My youngest nephew is about to turn 2. He loves to organize, group, stack, dump, and collect items into various bags, buckets, boxes –whatever he can get his hands on.

I watched him “doing his work” with all kinds of random items from around the house. His “work” inspired this felted project.

For the number bags:

various colors of  w00l felt

embroidery thread that matches the chosen colors of felt

tapestry needle

black beans

tacky glue

Cut 2, 3×3 inch squares for each bag. Using a color that contrasts your felt, thread a tapestry needle, doubling your embroidery thread and knot the end. Holding both squares insert the needle into the back of the top square so the knot is on the inside of the square. Whip stitch around three of the edges, fill the bag with the beans and continue your whip stitch closing the fourth side. Tie a knot, weave in the end and cut.

Cut numbers free hand or print out this 0-9 Number Template PDF. I think the free hand looks a lot more fun! Glue the numbers on a contrasting bean bag using tacky glue. I chose to add the black dots on the back as a second way of counting. These are also adhered with tacky glue.

The bag is made with a large piece of wool felt. I cut a large rectangle (28×11) and folded it in half so it is measuring 14 L x 11 W. I closed up the right and left sides of the bag first, using a crochet method inspired by a Purl Bee project. The tutorial is here. A whip stitch would also work just as well. I used scrap yarn to create the tie, doing a simple crochet chain and then adding a tassel to the end.  To enclose the tie at the top of the bag, I folded about 3/4-1 inch of felt over the tie and stitched it closed allowing a little space for the tie to move around. I free-handed the letters for his name and glued those in place with Tacky Glue. There are so many options for making the bag — whether you have cotton fabric, felt, yarn, thread whatever. Get inspired to be creative with what you have and make something your own.

(Photos by Roslyn Street)

Leather Crafting

I am up to things! 

As I continue learn my way around the city of Chicago and find all that it has to offer, I am meeting new people, exploring activities on and off my artistic radar, and having a lot of fun. I love creating and I am finding myself drawn to and inspired to take on many different DIY projects.

I have been absent from the blog but it is not off my mind. With the help and motivation of a friend, I have decided to change the look of the blog and start sharing more of what I am doing.

You got a taste (no pun intended) of some of my creations outside of the kitchen, but I was still trying to circle back to food. Well, I can’t promise food all the time. Sometimes it might be food but it might also be crafting, sewing, knitting, shopping, decorating — whatever it is that has me busy that week. I hope that people will still find time to stop by my café of creativity, to see what I am up to and maybe be inspired to DIY.

– alli  

 City Purse

I have met some great people down the street at a local knit shop. One of the many wonderful customers is a woman who has been making leather shoes for 30 years. Sara, of Sara’s Shoes, has a lovely studio North of the city and has decided to open her space to teach leather working classes. A few of us went yesterday and learned about the materials and how leather is worked. I created a pattern for this little city purse, first in my head, and then on paper. With Sara’s guidance and cheerleading, my pattern came to life.

The size is perfect for walking around the city with just your essentials — ID, cash and credit, cell phone, lip gloss, and house keys. I absolutely love my little bag and have already started coming up with more leather notions as a reason to go back.

(Photo by Roslyn Street)

Holiday Gift Bag, Cookies Included

With all the holiday gatherings and Christmas parties I am finding it very difficult to carve out time in the kitchen to cook!  I have been working on a few other projects — we survived the work holiday party. It went of pretty much without a hitch. Paul did the majority of the organizing, and did a fantastic job.  I was asked to contribute on Thursday afternoon December 8th. My job was to throw together gift baskets for the party on Friday December 9th.  I sat at my computer and figured out how I could put together  18 gift baskets, without using baskets and brainstormed the contents of each of these non baskets. I jotted down some ideas and crossed them off (with my V7 roller ball pen) as I didn’t like them or thought of something else. Paul had mentioned he thought it would be “great” to include some of my homemade chocolate chip cookies. Right. So cookies made the list, along with a couple of other things.

I figured out what I wanted to put in the basket and then took a trip to JoAnn Fabrics for presentation inspiration.  My mom always had rolls of clear cellophane around the house. It is a great material to use for a gift that doesn’t have to be a hidden surprise — 4 rolls of that in the cart. All the holiday items were 60% off. BAM!  I saw some red tree ornaments and immediately thought of the company logo. It is a red ball with the letter F and number 5. I got some silver paint and figured it would be a fun decoration for the bag. Bags of tinsel. Check. 100 feet of gold ribbon. Check. My sanity. Uncheck. Below is the ornament. Do not worry. We didn’t attach a paperclip to the guests ornament. That is Paul’s lovely touch.

Friday morning I ran into Costco to find the Michael Bublé holiday CD. We saw him on 60 minutes. Thought it would be great. I ended up with A Classic Christmas 2 Disc set featuring Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, and more!  Paul headed out for the wine and I ran home to whip up about 80 chocolate chip cookies. Yes, THE Chocolate Chip Cookies. I wrapped the cookies up in bags I also purchased at Joann Fabrics. All together we got away with some nice looking bags, they weren’t over the top and the ornament was a big hit. Looking forward to some reviews on the wine. It came highly recommended.

(Photos By Roslyn Street)