Modern Organic Fabrics is a favorite Etsy shop of mine, and now Melanie has just opened her own independent online shop.  It’s been exciting to see so many new lines of organic fabric entering the market over the past couple of years and Melanie offers a nice selection, including the new fabrics pictured above from Cloud9 Fabrics, Daisy Janie, Birch Fabrics and Westfalenstoffe. To celebrate her opening, she  is generously offering a $50 gift certificate for you!  Here’s some more information about Melanie and her shop (from her about page):

Melanie O’Brien is an energetic fabric-aficionado who has turned her focus to organic materials. As she stocks her shop she is searching out bright prints, colors and great design in organic quilting cottons, knits and more. She is also on the lookout for the best patterns and tutorials for utilizing these fabulous fabrics.

Melanie is the mother to three young girls and she works from her home in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. Before opening Modern Organic Fabrics she was the voice behind The Fabric Shopper blog.

To enter, simply take a look at the shop here, then come back and leave a comment about your favorite things. This giveaway is open internationally. Please enter before Sunday, March 14 (midnight eastern).

I made these before Christmas this past year, thinking they would be good ornaments. But the egg-shape of them really made me think of spring. I was inspired by this yarn bowl, but I think Martha Stewart has done something similar as well. This fiber bowl also looks like a fun spring craft project.

Anyway, I found a nice knit cotton sweater at the thrift store, then the kids and I unraveled it, dipped each strand in a mixture of equal parts white school glue and water and wrapped the yarn around balloons. We left the eggs on wax paper to dry overnight, then popped and removed the balloons. As simple as that. Messy and fun.

I’m counting down the days until spring arrives, but there are signs that it’s on the way! Daffodils in our front yard, planted for the fairies to make their homes. My younger daughter is a firm believer in fairies and I’m encouraging her.

And since I’m out of my mind, I agreed to do another auction project with my daughter’s first-grade class (they have two per class). I have been thinking a lot about batik lately and thinking of ways to make batik fabric without hot wax. Then I saw this lovely experiment from Jennifer Judd-McGee, which led me to this brilliant tutorial from That Artist Woman. So many creative people out there. I did this quick sample and will be making fabric designs with the kids next week. I’m thinking of a vertical patchwork wall-hanging that could also be used as a table runner, with some color inspiration from A Stitch in Dye. More on the project soon.

Liberty of London! Yes, I am getting excited about the new Liberty line coming to Target. No, I am not being paid to talk about it. Tana Lawn prints always make me think of spring. Here are some Liberty finds on Etsy:

Dusty Pink Silk Dress, $200 from 13 Threads.

Pair of Liberty Pillows from Plum Cushion, $125.

Princess and Pea, $48 from Dolittle Design.

Liberty of London Coin Purse, $24 from Sew Lola.

Pram Kittens, $16 from Dotty Monkey.

Large Buttons, $3.50 from Notions by Polly Danger.

Toddler Merino Sweater, $54 from Sew Katiepie.

Liberty of London Clutch, $75 from Pretty Lulu Bridal.

Wonderland Top, size 6m to 7 years, $60 from Maison de Lucille.

Sorry I’ve been absent from the blog for a while. I’ve been working on the book but made some time to help my daughter’s first grade class with their auction project. The theme of the auction is based on Van Gogh’s The Starry Night painting, which I have to say didn’t excite me too much since this painting has taken on a life of its own through commercialization. Yes, I am jaded. But when thinking of it from the perspective of a seven-year-old who may not have ever seen it, it’s a pretty cool painting.

I talked to the kids about Van Gogh, totally unprepared to discuss the serious stuff.  But of course a kid pipes up and says “Didn’t he cut off his ear?” So I clumsily responded  by saying that he was in a fight with a friend and was so upset that he hurt himself. How do you explain that? I left out that he gave the piece of his ear to a prostitute. They were aflutter with more questions. And then, the question “How did he die?” I discuss all kinds of stuff with my own seven-year-old, but am not prepared to talk about these things with other kids, so I responded that I didn’t know. Those first-graders really made me sweat.

Anyway, so for the auction project we decided to make a night time scene of Atlanta using scratch foam printing. I got the idea from Glitter Goods, so you can read her helpful tutorial. But of course, I somehow managed to make this more complicated. Rather than having the kids make their drawings directly on the foam, I had them do preliminary sketches, then scanned these on the computer, reduced the size, taped them onto the foam and had the kids trace to make the indentations. An important thing to remember(one that I forgot), is that when you are printing, text will need to be in mirror image so that it prints the right way. I had to go back and fix those with words in them, but luckily I had scanned in the drawings so it wasn’t too difficult.

I’ll show you the finished project after the auction, but the prints above are from my daughter’s drawing of the Peachtree Plaza. She loves this building because it is a circular building with a rotating restaurant on the top floor that offers a full view of the city. It was damaged by the tornado in 2008 and they are still replacing windows, so she included some blacked out spaces. I made this series of her drawing to frame. I’m enjoying happy spring colors right now even though it’s still quite cold here.

My seven-year-old made this pillow for her doll bed over the weekend. I was impressed by the fact that she made this herself from start to finish including cutting the fabric, sewing the stitches and stuffing. I did help her pin it closed for the final stitches after the stuffing. But seriously, she hid behind a chair to surprise us. I think she did a great job. The doll is from Project Grab Bag (looks like her shop is temporarily closed, but you can find the dolls here). The blanket on the bed is a patchwork scrap from a project I was working on a few weeks ago.

I made these cereal box books with my five-year-old last week. Very similar to my cereal box journals from last year, but your kids can sew these themselves. The instructions are over at Alpha Mom.

I know it’s not spring yet, just wishful thinking. I happen to have a large number of scraps in my sewing room at the moment in these lovely beach-inspired colors. And I just received a review copy of Alabama Studio Style, which has a lot of string-pieced projects (more on that later in the week).

So here’s a quick tutorial for string-pieced coasters. It seems that I do a lot of coaster tutorials here, but I’m a fan of quick, easy and useful things. And this is a great project for fabric scraps.

Supplies (for 4 coasters):

• Fabric scraps: min. 24″ length
• Backing fabric: 5 1/2″ x 22″
• Quilt batting: 5 1/2″ x 22″
• Matching thread

1. Cut fabric scraps with minimum 24″ length. Cuts should not be straight.
2. Sew right sides together until you have a width of 6″ or more.
3. Press.
4. Cut off sides and top to form a rectangle 5 1/2″ x 22.
5. Cut out tops, batting and backing fabric in 5 1/2″ squares.
6. Sew around, leaving an opening to turn right sides out. Opening should be on a side with one continuous piece. Clip off the corners.
7. Turn right sides out, press and hand stitch the opening closed.

I’m taking a blog break so I can get some work done on my book. See you next week!

I’ve not been posting many projects lately because I am working like a dog on my book. Do dogs work hard? Most dogs I know don’t, but maybe if you’re a sled dog in Alaska or something. Anyway, since I can’t give you many details about the book, I thought I’d share a couple of  things that have been inspiring me lately.

Quilts of Gee’s Bend: I can’t remember what year I first laid eyes on these amazing quilts, but the power that these women put in their work is amazing. I think these quilts speak volumes about the beauty of necessity. Pictured below is Mary Lee Bendolph’s Blocks and Strips of 2002.

Children’s art: As always, I’m influenced and inspired by my children’s art. There’s something about the simplicity and directness in the work of a child that can’t be imitated. My seven-year-old’s apple drawing is pictured below. She was working on a cardboard box, which created those great textural lines.

Liberty of London: Always an inspiration. And I will definitely be making a trip to Target on March 15 when their new line arrives. Look at this adorable girl’s dress. You can see a few other images on the Oprah website. Thanks to Laura for sending me that link!

Oh, and one more thing that I wanted to mention. The very talented Kristal of The Rikrak Studio is holding a fun competition called the Handmade Olympics and I was nominated in the category of Favourite Blog with a Handmaking Focus. So I wanted to say thanks to Kristal and to Tara of Scoutie Girl for putting me on the list of finalists. If you’d like to vote for me here, I would be grateful.

In case you’re behind on the handmade Valentines, here are some quick printables:

Heart Crayon Cards from The Long Thread.

Lovebirds Card from The Long Thread.

Valentine Card Envelope from Natalie Jost.

Color Your Own Valentines from Up up.

Candy Matchboxes with downloadable paper from Brooke Reynolds,  featured on Brides.com.

Vintage Valentines from Vintage Holiday Crafts.

Dog Valentines from Hotcakes.

Sweetheart Cards from Bunny Cakes.

Cute Printable Cards from Oliebollen.

Zebra Cards from Bunny Cakes.

Kiss Cards and Wooden Valentines from Mmmcrafts.

Vintage-style Printables from Ruffled.

Goodie Bags and Brownie Bags from Twig & Thistle.

Bird Valentines from Ollieblog.

Owl Cards from Living Locurto.

Animals from Secret Agent Josephine.

Snail Lollipop Cards from Zakka Life.

Je t’aime Cards from inside a black apple.

Love & Rockets and Giddyup from Cottage Industrialist.

Pretty Love Card from Little Miso.

Ladybug Valentine and Butterfly Lollipop Cards from Skip to My Lou.

Vintage Valentine Sheet from Altered Stuff.

Printable Cards from Maquette.

Valentine Maker at Invys.

Do you love me? Card from Indie Fixx.

Cute Kids’ Valentines from Style Crush.

Sweet Sweet Cherries Japanese Fabric, $3.50 for a fat quarter from Stefanie Style.

Matchbox Necklace from Yellowgoat, $185.

I Love You Archival Print from Lisa Congdon, $25.

Vintage Footed Bowl, $30 from Brandeye.

Plate Set, $145 from Ninainvorm.

Antique Wood Block, $18.50 from ta ta.

Porcelain Earrings, $27.50 from Suus Keramiek.

Pudgy Hippo from ViolaStudio, $45.

Porcelain Hearts, $24 from Art Mind.