Book Review- Sewn Spaces

Sewn Spaces : Fresh and Modern Projects for Your Life and Home by Joel Dewberry is a book full sewing projects that showcase lovely prints to decorate your home.
Most of the projects are very simple even for someone who is an absolute beginner at sewing. The emphasis is on the fabric, not in fussy construction techniques and the introduction has instructions for the various skills and techniques you'll need to know to complete the projects.
The simplicity of the ideas combined with great colors and palettes is inspiring. From the first couple of projects which are appliqued cards, and going to more involved pieces, almost everything in the book can be completed in an evening to create one of a kind decor items for your own home or making a perfect gift.
One of my favorite projects in the book is the bird sachet. The shape reminds me of the pretty little felt doves that my great aunt made for everyone in the family for Christmas trees one year, but they are updated and made usable throughout the year by using brightly colored flowered prints for a very folk charming appeal.
There are lots of good projects in the book. Some wearables that are actually wearable. Designs that look modern and fresh. The home projects are good ones.
My favorites are the pocketed memo board, the butterfly mobile, the very roomy farmer's market tote, and the quilt and pillow cases.
You can get this either from MyCraftivity.com or by clicking below from Amazon.com. The Amazon link is an affiliate link and helps pay some of the costs of maintaining this site.
Sewn Spaces on Amazon.com

Currently working on..

We are a household full of summer cold coughing, and we wound up missing the 4th of July fireworks because of it. It's a symphony of sick punctuated by sneezes.
So mostly for the last few days, I've been curled up reading or watching dvds with my darling husband and crocheting tawashi for my dad's house.

I didn't keep track of how I made any of them though, so expect patterns when I feel better enough to count up the rows and figure it out!

I also made this little snail. I'm very happy with the spiral on the shell, less happy about the body, so the design still needs some work.

And I used one a bead made by a local artist I like quite a bit in a necklace. 

You can find more of her work at Fish Lips and Bird Teeth Studio. Kelly very occasionally does magpie pieces that I adore. Her ravens are full of awesome and humor. This eyeball was one the little beads she was selling at a bead show in October. I got 4 of them and have been hoarding them for the right piece. I really like this necklace. 

Off and on I'm working on a Kindle book collection of recipes for a sandwich maker. It's lemonade out of the lemons of my oven still not being fixed. He did promise it would be repaired by Thanksgiving. Until then, well.. I'm working on adapting some quick bread recipes and other things to making them in a little sandwich maker. And debating getting my toaster oven back from my dad. 

Speaking of Kindle books, they changed the payment structure for them, and I reduced the price of my brick stitch Kindle book Basic Brick Stitch Earrings. It's 2.99 now. 

If you are interested in writing your own Kindle cookbook, craft book etc, I have a tutorial written for coding for Kindle format. You can find that here. It's completely free. I'd love to see more people use Kindle self-publishing for crafts and recipes. It's a lot of fun, and one of the easiest ways out there to self-publish. I have a bunch more mini-cookbooks planned. 

Cupcake Box- 4th of July printable

Another printable cupcake box. If you haven't seen these put together yet, check out my first one here.
The inserts are the same for both boxes, and print two to a page. To make two boxes, you print out one page of the inserts and 2 each of the top and bottom pieces. Click on the images for the full sized version.

Threadless sale and new Kindle

One of my all-time favorites reprinted. I don't have this one yet, but for Alice fans and people who sew, it's wonderful isn't it?


And Michaelangelo is a party dude!


Only a few of these left, but isn't it just a great design?



The new Kindle? I didn't think I really wanted a DX. I sort of wanted one. It seems like it would be nice, but my little Kindle 2 was just fine for me. Well. I was wrong. Because the new DX is *black*. And it's so pretty with improved contrast and after I saw it, I started telling everyone in my family how much I wanted it. Really really truly.

Isn't that gorgeous? Well.. hopefully my yelling "WANT WANT PRETTY NEW KINDLE!" was enough of a hint.