More gifts for the kiddo

LazyToddler's third birthday is looming on the horizon, which means I've been sneaking off to Toys R Us instead of crafting, and I've been spending waaaaay too much time browsing on etsy. I have to admit, etsy is a little short on non-clothing gifts for the toddler set - lots for babies, lots for older kids, not so much for those who are short on attention span and long on destruction. So with that in mind, I've been trying to find things I think she'll enjoy, at least until she breaks them into (hopefully) non-lethal pieces within 20 minutes of opening them.

Not really. I have found a few things that I think are age-appropriate and fun. In the order in which the packages made it to our door:

Pixie Dust star-shaped goat's milk soaps from abreathofFrenchair. These arrived super-fast, in great condition and in the cutest packaging I've seen yet. Yes, there really is that much pink packing paper in that adorable black-and-white box! I think LazyToddler is really going to enjoy using these in the bath, and the small size means that we won't be stuck using one yucky bar of soap for weeks and weeks. And she's going to smell yummy, just in time for the stinky sticky summer season. Bonus!

Handpainted ceramic pendant from LisaEverettDesigns. They're available in all of the colors shown above - I ordered the white one, figuring that it's likely to match more outfits that way. Of course, we're dealing with a three-year-old's sense of style, so that was probably unnecessary :) I'm going to pick up some ribbon to use to make the "chain" for it, which I'm hoping will prove more durable (or at least more easily replaced) than the regular link chain on some of her dearly departed jewelry. If this one works out well, I may pick up some of the artist's other paper-covered pendants for the kiddo or myself - but these looked more durable for now.

"Pink PJs" ribbon wand from (who else?) ribbonwand. I think this is soooo cute, with the stripes and the pinkness and all. I'm hoping that the "Brass swivel hardware to ensure ease of movement" will prevent some of the tangling problems we had with a stationary-mount silk streamer we got for Christmas last year. Plus, the stick is shorter, so it's less whackable than her current rain-stained, knotted, pathetic-looking one. I wasn't sure this would make it here in time for LazyToddler's birthday, since it was coming from Canada, and Canada Post is notoriously laconic when it comes to getting stuff to the lower 48. But it showed up today, a little more than a week after the order was placed, so, Go, Canada Post!

That's it, at least so far. I may keep trolling for a while to see if any t-shirts strike me as must-haves, even though LazyHusband will kill me if I bring one more item of clothing into her room. It's okay if she never wears anything more than twice, right? Back me up here, peeps!

The Goddess of Craft - she is a vengeful, spiteful thing

1. You are happy because you sold eight of your SWAK blankets in a week, so you bought a lot more fabric to make new ones for the shop? Okay, now you won't sell anything for three weeks. Bwahahahaha!
2. You have a deadline looming and a sample quilt to make? Okay, your stash no longer has three fabrics that coordinate. Bwahahahaha!
3. And you're out of chocolate! Bwahahahahaha!
4. And your toddler refuses to take naps! Bwahahahahaha!
5. You get up early to get some work done before your toddler awakes? Okay, now she'll get up at 6:40am, but only on days when you wake up early. On days when you sleep in, she'll sleep until 8:30am, thus depriving you of 90 minutes of time that could have been spent in the studio. Bwahahahahahaha!
6. Trying to entertain the kid for an hour while you get some work done? Okay, now the portable DVD player is broken ... but only when you try to use it in your studio. Anywhere else it works fine ... but all of the work you have to finish requires that you be in the studio. Bwahahahahahaha!
7. You have no deadline and a huge pile of scraps you're trying to use up? Okay, your stash is now chock full of fabrics that coordinate with the scrap blocks ... but you don't have enough yardage of any of them. Bwahahahahahaha!
8. Oh, and the cat puked on the pile of fabric you stored on the floor because you were too lazy to file it. Bwahahahaha!

Stay tuned - later this week I plan to slice off the end of my finger with a rotary cutter, then set my studio on fire with a shorted-out iron. And, if things go as planned, the kid will pee on a finished quilt that's ready to ship to a customer. Should be fun!

Oh, and Block of the Month folks:

Here's the recipe for the cookies I brought on Saturday:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,173,144170-236207,00.html

Enjoy!

Ruffled Yo-Yo directions - as seen in Birds of a Feather April block of the month

Greetings, Block of the Month quilters! As promised, here are the directions for the ruffled yo-yos we used to decorate April's block of the month. Hope you enjoy making these as much as I do!

In all the photographs for the yo-yo construction, the lavender fabric is the “body” and the yellow fabric is the “contrast.”

For each ruffled yo-yo:
1. Using either scissors or pinking shears, cut a 5” circle of body fabric and place it face-up on your work surface. Now cut a 4 ½” circle of contrast fabric and place it face-up, centered on top of the body fabric.
2. Cut off an 18” piece of thread that coordinates with the body fabric and thread it through a handsewing needle. Knot the end several times so you’ve got a decent-sized knot.
3. With the pair of fabrics in front of you so that the contrast side is up, fold the closest edge of one yo-yo up toward the center of the circle – you should mostly see the body fabric. Push the needle through the body fabric and contrast fabric about ½” in from the edge of the larger fabric circle, pulling the knot snug against the body fabric.


4. Fold the edge of the fabrics toward you near where the thread comes through, forming a hem that is a little more than ½” wide on the largest circle. You only need to hold about a thumb’s width of the edge folded over at one time – if you try to fold too much, you’ll run out of fingers to hold it in place and the folds will end up straight instead of sort of curved.
5. To lock the knot in place, push the needle down through all four layers of fabric near the fold about 1/16” to the right of where the thread comes through the hem. Now push the needle back up through the hem and body, about 1/16” to the left of where the thread comes through. Pull the thread through so that there is no slack.

6. Hem the edge of the whole circle with a running stitch, making the stitches about ½” long and as close to the folded edge of the fabric as you can. The longer the stitch, the smaller the hole in the middle of the finished yo-yo. The fastest way to do this is to rock the needle up and down a few times, taking several stitches before you pull the thread through.



7. Leave the stitches loose so there’s plenty of room to work while you sew. When you make it all the way around the yo-yo, take one last stitch to the left of the original knot, then pull the thread tight to gather up the stitches in the center of the yo-yo.

8. Squish the yo-yo flat so the hole is in the center of a gathered circle and the ruffles are spaced evenly around the hole. Take a small stitch in the edge of one ruffle near where the thread is coming out from your last stitch, but don’t pull the thread taut yet. Now put the needle through the small loop of thread you’ve got left from your last stitch, and pull it taut to make a knot around the edge of the gather. Repeat this to make a second small knot.
9. Now push the needle through the hole to the inside of the yo-yo, feeding it along one ridge of a gather until the point comes out near the edge of the yo-yo. Pull the needle through and pull the thread snug. This should have buried the tail of the knot inside the yo-yo.
10. Knot the thread on the edge of the yo-yo by taking a tiny stitch and putting the needle through the loop formed by the stitch (as in step 8). Place the yo-yo in the desired location on the quilt block.

11. Take a tiny stitch into the surface of the quilt block and then back through the edge of the yo-yo, but do not pull it all the way taut yet. Push your needle through the small loop of thread you have left in the stitch and pull it taut to make a small knot.
12. Secure the yo-yo all the way around the edge at approximately ¼” intervals, using a whip stitch that catches the edge of the yo-yo and travels along the back of the quilt block from stitch to stitch. 13. When you reach the beginning of the stitching for the yo-yo, take another tiny stitch, pull your needle through the loop of thread, and pull it taut to make a small knot. Now feed the tip of the needle into the edge of the yo-yo, pushing it along the ridge of one gather until it emerges in the hole in the center of the yo-yo. Snip the thread near the center of the yo-yo.

Guess what

So guess what's printing, even as I type?

Despite a (temporarily) dead computer, a dead DVD player, and a toddler who's lucky to be alive after what all she pulled today, I finished the pattern for Saturday's trunk show! Four printed, twenty more to go. Come on, ink cartridge, don't fail me now!

New pattern will be available here and on my etsy shop Saturday evening ... gotta give the Birds of a Feather folks first dibs on it.

Well, fine. Be that way.

Dear LazyToddler:

Okay, fine, you're almost three. I get it. You don't want to nap, you want to stay awake and become increasingly cranky as the day wears on, finally dropping from sheer exhaustion around 7:30. That's fine with me, as it gives me time in the evening to spend with your father, time that can be spent completing sentences and not speaking in the third person or telling stories about a fairy named Liza.

But I need time to work on Lazy Mama stuff, and since you aren't taking a nap with any regularity anymore, I thought I'd be smart and get up an hour early to get work done before you wake up. You get up around 7:30 am most days, so I'd get up at 6:30 and get a whole mess of stuff done despite still being in my pajamas. And it worked great ... the first day.

But now you've decided to start waking up earlier and earlier, no matter what time we put you to bed. Yesterday I woke up at 6:40, and you were up at 6:49. That's not even enough time to pee and get the computer turned on and operational, much less make any significant progress on the pattern that I HAVE TO HAVE FINISHED BY FRIDAY NIGHT. And when my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, you were already stirring and making up stories with your stuffed animals. I just gave up and laid in bed for an extra 15 minutes, reveling in the hard rock station you apparently tuned my radio to sometime yesterday. Nothing like "BBBBBBBBBBad to the Bone" to start your day off right, I always say.

So now you're at preschool, and I have one and a half glorious hours to finish this darn pattern ... only I don't feel like it. I feel like blogging about your annoying sleep patterns, and the deer tracks I found in the backyard, and the yummyness of the pork roast I made for dinner last night. Oh, I'm going to get around to the pattern - I always do - but I'm not happy about it.

So you'd better be ready to take a nap this afternoon, kiddo, so I don't have to pull out the Sesame Street video again (although you're getting ridiculously close to being able to read, thanks to the darn video, so it's not all bad to have a DVD player as a babysitter, right?). Because despite my name, Lazy Mama isn't feeling so lazy today.

Sincerely,

Mama, aka "George Gershwin" (don't ask, Internet, it's not my fault that she's decided I'm a character from a stupid bedtime story involving Rhapsody in Blue and a little fairy named Liza ... at least I'm not Herr Drosselmeyer anymore)

A whole new world ***

I've always made my first contact with potential customers for my patterns in person. That way I can schmooze and show samples of my projects and generally look pitiful, er, professional enough that the shops buy my patterns. It's worked pretty well so far, especially since I was able to cram a few shop visits into our recent vacations (Hello, San Diego! Hello, Ocean City! Hello, Fruitland!). But there's a limit to how many stores I can visit, especially with an increasingly impatient toddler in tow, so I've decided it's time to try a new approach.

Yesterday I mailed pattern catalogs to a select group of quilt supply stores that I think are a good match for my products. I put some research into this, trying hard to find shops that seem to have a decent customer base and a selection of fabrics that mesh well with my style of crafting. After all, there's not much point sending my catalog to a shop that specializes in country colors and Civil War reproduction fabrics, is there?

If my success rate with the catalogs is anywhere near my success rate in person, the mailing will have totally been worth the effort. Ideally, of course, I'd love to sell to all of the shops I've contacted ... but I know that's a long shot, especially since a lot of craft-related businesses seem to be tightening their belts. Stupid recession ... But at least now that the catalog is written and my research is sort of down pat, I can expand my mailing list pretty easily if I want to send out subsequent mailings. Wouldn't it be nice if I had to worry about making sure I wasn't selling to competing stores in the same geographical area? Squee!

Anyway, I don't get nervous about approaching store owners in person, even without an appointment, but sending a catalog out cold gives me pause. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort - who knows how many of the catalogs will end up in the trash can, unread, no matter how well-reasoned and insightful they are? And I'm not sure if this approach comes off as amateurish, too forward, or just normal business. And, of course, agonizing over it on my blog is soooooo professional, right?

Right. I'll just shut up now. If you're visiting from one of the shops I mailed, Hi! I'm really not as neurotic as I seem!





*** Can you tell that I've been forced to watch waaaaaay too many repeats of the stupid Little Mermaid song on YouTube, all in the name of brushing a Certain Someone's hair without listening to indignant screams?

Dear Copyright Infringer:

http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/2008/04/definitely-not.html

I won't even mention your company name here, for fear of driving up your spot on google's search ranks. You know who you are, and if my readers don't, they can read your name on photos of the toys you made at a factory in the Philippines after stealing the design from an independent artist and trying to pass it off as your own.

You're a fraud, a fake, and a liar. You suck.

Sincerely,

The entire legitimate Internet crafting community

Come meet Lazy Mama!

When: Saturday, April 12th, 10am to 5pm
Where: Birds of a Feather, 36840 Detroit Rd., Avon, Ohio 44011
Why: I'm going to be showing off my new ruffled yo-yo technique, as featured in the shop's April Block of the Month design. I'll also have a trunk show featuring samples of all of my patterns for sale in the shop, as well as some goodies to share with my adoring public.

Have a question about one of my quilts? Hesitant to buy a pattern when you've never seen a sample in person? Curious about whether I really am as drop-dead gorgeous as you imagine? Stop by and mention that you read the blog and I'll have a little something for you!

I'm sure you understand

In order to accommodate the higher prices I've had to pay for fabric, paper, ink, plastic bags, and just about everything else on the planet, I've decided to adjust the wholesale price of my patterns to $4 each. Prices for individual patterns purchased through etsy for personal use have not been changed.

Thank you for your understanding - now, go sew something!

Button, button

I just spent 15 enjoyable minutes sorting through a box of buttons my mother picked up at a yard sale last summer (I think it cost $1). It's one of those squat round metal boxes that used to house butter cookies, but now it's the repostitory of two pounds of the Ugliest Buttons in Ohio.

I have found that if you need a button sorting cohort, a potentially OCD not-quite-three-year-old is the perfect answer. I'm telling you, she was picking up on MY mistakes ("That's blue green, Mom, not green blue!") and was fascinated by the whole experience.

The tackier the button, the better, as far as she's concerned, which makes the whole process more interesting. Rhinestones, spangles, sparkle-embedded-resin ... she's all in favor of it, and she has to show every "coooooool!" button to me for inspection and approval. This gives me plenty of time to muse about the rest of the mundane buttons, trying to figure out what sort of outfit they might have come from. I mean, there aren't that many uses for 2.5" purple plastic buttons that would end up leaving them with huge deep scratches across the front (and who would save such a thing, which would only be useful in the case of a Huge Button Emergency). And why are there a dozen teal shirt buttons in there, each still attached to the metal bale that stuck it to the display card in the store?

Any suggestions on how to store these suckers once they're sorted? I'm thinking one of those hardware caddies from Home Despot, but I'm open to other suggestions. I need room to store about a handful of about a dozen colors of buttons.

And now, if you'll excuse me, she's shouting "Let's play the button game again!" so it looks like I might get to finish sorting out the navy buttons tonight, after all.

WIP

Any guesses?

Twitchy fingers

First up: New variation on the toe-up socks I've been churning out recently, this time in Berroco Comfort Sock, a 50/50 blend of superfine nylon and superfine acrylic. These are going to be a Mother's Day present for my mother-in-law, who should like the yarn color that Liza picked out for her.
I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out, and the pattern is easy enough that I may try writing it up to share. I don't have any knitting patterns written out yet, so it would be a nice change of pace from what I've been working on recently.

And: the triumphant completion of Eve, the sweater I made using the wrong size yarn and different size needles, but still ended up mostly the right size. And I didn't even have to frog the aborted previous sweater to get enough yarn to finish this one! How's that for awesome?

And before I get any snide remarks about my photo skills, let me point out that when one is taking photos of oneself sans makeup at 1am, it's important to make sure that the camera IS blocking your face. Trust me on this one, okay?
Hmmm, is it drafty in here, or is it just my sweater. Yeah, I thought so.

Next up: ???? Wait, I don't have a project. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The horror! And to think, I was less than a mile from Susan Yarns today, and I didn't have time to stop by. Bad knitter! Bad knitter!

How lazy am I?

Yesterday my daughter and I spent a half an hour making construction paper bunnies and chicks with cottonballs glued on to make them fuzzy. And today we made these:
Four days after Easter, using raw eggs, which ups the Laziness Quotient logarithmically, I think, sort of like the Richter scale. And we may not get around to putting the princess stickers on them until tomorrow. That's how lazy I am.

Finally finished

I proudly present ... the Octarine Socks!
These socks have been an effort, let me tell you. First of all, I decided to try the toes-up method again, only this time I wanted to add a little bit of a pattern to them. I decided to just throw a purl stitch in every so many stitches, which ended up in a multiple that was one stitch larger than the number of stitches in each round, so the rows of purls would spiral. Great in theory, not so great when I got to apply the math and ended up with wonky sized rows at the end of the round. See how most of them are seven stitches wide, only about 2/3rds of the way down it's only four stitches wide? Oops.
Figuring that the color would blind anyone to the initial problems with the pattern, I forged ahead, making great time and getting to the first heel turn pretty quickly. Only, I forgot that I was working on larger needles, so I had fewer stitches per round than most patterns, so when I worked to where they recommend and started the heel, the length of the foot from heel-to-toe was shorter than it should have been. I could get the sock on, but that sucker wasn't going to be comfortable. But did I notice this early on? No, I noticed it when I tried it on to decide where to start the ribbing ... you know, the LAST THING you do on the sock. Gah.

Faced with a short sock with a Frankenstein pattern problem, I did what any sane girl would do ... put it down and worked on other stuff for a while. And decided not to make the same mistakes on the second sock, which indeed was much closer to the right length and pattern.

So, when the first sock is too short and wonky, and the second sock fits, what's a girl to do? Frog the first one and start over again? Nope.
Now I've got a backup, and I didn't have to admit defeat on the wonky sock.

On the positive side of things, I have now knit enough socks with this pattern to have worked out most of the kinks with turning the heels. Not only did I not have to go back and close up any huge holes, a couple of the heels look like this:
Go me! Go me! Go me!

Oh, and the Holy Alpaca sweater is done, except for sewing and blocking. All I have left are sewing the arm and side seams, but with the weird pattern to this fabric, it's going to take me forever, so it may be next year before you get to see it. And unless I can block it down to be much smaller than it seems to be, I'm going to look like I have Orangutan Arms when I wear it.

Shop message

****SHIPPING ALERT****
I will not have access to my shop for the next few days, so anything ordered between 3/19/2008 and 3/24/2008 will ship on TUESDAY 3/25/2008. In order to make up for the inconvenience, I will upgrade all US shipments to Priority Mail at no cost to buyers, so you'll probably get the package the same day you would have if I was able to ship with my normal diligence and speed ;) Have a great Easter, everyone!

FREE PATTERN - Very Vernal Placemats

I developed this pattern as a free giveaway for Birds of a Feather in Avon, Ohio. If you're in NE Ohio, I can highly recommend that you stop by and say hi (and pick up a pattern while you're there spending lots of money on cool fabric and yarn). If you're not in NE Ohio, you're in luck, because I'm posting the pattern here!

Directions:
1. Cut one 13”x17” rectangle each from front fabric, back fabric, and batting.
2. Lay batting flat on a work surface, smoothing out any wrinkles. Lay back fabric face-up on top of the batting, smoothing out the wrinkles and matching the edges.
3. Lay the front fabric face-down on top of the back fabric, smoothing out the wrinkles and lining up the edges as best you can. Secure all three layers around the outside of the rectangle, using straight pins or quilt binding clips.
4. Using a 1/2" seam allowance, stitch around the perimeter of the rectangle, pivoting at the corners and leaving about a 4” opening for turning.
5. Trim the corners on the diagonal close to the seam to eliminate the extra seam allowance. Turn the placemat right-side-out through the turning opening, finger-pressing the seams flat and making sure the corners are completely turned.
6. Pin or binding-clip the edge of the placemat all the way around, folding the extra seam allowance inside at the turning opening. Topstitch about 1/4" in from the edge all the way around the edge of the placemat.
7. Trace desired template from the end of this post onto paper or cardstock (you'll need to size it up, since I can't get it to show as full size - the egg is about 7" long and the flower is about 5" long). Cut scrap strips to be 2 1/2" wide or narrower, using a pinking blade if desired. Sew the long edges of two scrap strips together with a 1/4" seam, holding the wrong sides together as you sew so that the seam allowance ends up on the right side. Press seam open. Repeat, adding strips on to the ones you’ve sewn until you have a block that’s at least as large as your template.
8. Cut appliqué shapes from the strips you’ve sewn together, pinking the edges if desired.
9. Use temporary spray adhesive to adhere the appliqués to the placemat in desired locations.
10. Use a free-motion foot or darning foot to stitch around the edges of the appliqués, stitching about 1/4" or less inside the edges of the shape.
11. Complete quilting as desired.

Coming soon to a blog near you

Gotta finish the editing on the new FREE PATTERN, but it will be up sometime tonight or tomorrow, good Lord willing and the creek don't rise. Here's a peek to hold you over until then ...

Well, that worked surprisingly well

I managed to get all four borders on and corners matched before the end of LazyToddler's preschool. The four corners don't all look identical, but each meets in a tidy fashion, so I'm happy. Wait until you see the rest of this one ... it doesn't look anything like whatever you're imagining, I can almost guarantee you that!

Pray for me

I'm going to attempt a mitered fancy border on a quilt pattern. Heaven help me, it's going to be ugly in here for the next hour or so.

Not getting much done

I made the executive decision that the best way to get LazyToddler to bed on time after the time change was to grit my teeth and not let her nap for at least the first few days this week, as this usually makes her so tired that she passes out face-first in her dinnerplate. So instead of a nice two-hour stretch of time to work on my projects during the afternoon, yesterday I had five minutes to check my e-mail while she worked some puzzles, and a few minutes to get some quilting done on the double wedding ring table runner while she watched a video on the portable DVD player in my office.

After 10 or 15 minutes, LazyToddler said in the sleepiest, most pitiful voice you can imagine, "Mama, stop sewing. I want you to come watch this video with me. It's really good - please stop sewing." So I did what any self-respecting crafty mom would do - I shut off the infernal machine and snuggled on the floor with my daughter, watching a tap dance video from the library.

(And I sketched a few ideas on a scrap of paper, which I was mean enough to not let her scribble on afterwards ... crafty moms have to be firm once in a while, you know.)

The shop update is complete!

For once, I'm early with something big!

The shop has been updated with a ridiculous number of new SWAK swaddling blankets, plus some quilts and the Linking Rings pattern. I probably won't be doing another big shop update until after Easter, so now is a great time to buy. Go check it out (and buy something)!

Linking Rings Table Runner pattern page

Linking Rings Table Runner pattern

A little bit of misdirection and simple sleight-of-hand creates the illusion of interlocking rings on this quilt ... but when your friends ask how you did it, just tell them, 'It's magic!'

Approximate finished dimensions: 14"x34"

A person with average sewing skills should be able to finish this project in less than three naptimes (6 hours).

Photos from the pattern directions - cutting the rings:

Basting the rings:

Pattern includes illustrated directions and suggestions for additional variations on the project. It is packaged in a resealable plastic bag (6"x9"), ready to hang and sell.


Wholesale price: $4.00/pattern


Suggested retail price: $7-$9, or whatever the market will bear in your area


Free shipping on your first order! Shipping charges for subsequent orders will be the actual charges for USPS Priority Mail to your destination.


I am willing to make free samples to display in your shop, if you are willing to provide the materials. Please contact me for more information on this service.


For more information or to place an order, please contact Gretchen Woods at Lazy Mama Designs: lazymamadesigns (at) yahoo (dot) com.


NEW!! You can also place orders through my shop at etsy.com - just convo me with a request, including the number of patterns you'd like to buy, and I can post a custom listing for you at the wholesale price.


Thank you for your interest, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Whetting your whistle for the March 10th shop update

Six new SWAK fabrics! New craft patterns! New quilts for tummy time! It's gonna be a party on Monday! I'm going to end every sentence with an exclamation point whether it needs it or not!

Preview of things to come

Oh stash fabric purchased in Lancaster this summer, how I love you!

Showing some love

Found at Huntington Beach this afternoon

With love and admiration to my fellow Cleveys who are obsessed with beach glass and stones:

Lake Erie Beach Glass
zJayne
Kimberly Monaco Designs
stonz

... and possibly some others, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

TGIF (Thank God It's Finished)

A week or so ago I plowed through the last of the piecing on the throw-sized double wedding ring quilt I'm making from leftovers from a previous project.

You can tell I really was paying attention to detail throughout the process... which is why this is now a personal project, not something that's going to be for sale.

And then I hit a wave of massive productivity this weekend, including almost two days without a toddler underfoot (thanks, LazyHusband!), and I completely finished piecing the tablerunner I'm making out of more leftovers from the same project.

This time, though, I split up the work so that I wasn't rushing to get through all the hated parts, doing them five minutes at a time and doing them as right as I'm ever going to. And it looks freakin' awesome.

And I finished two tummy-time quilts (one completely from scratch), and a bunch of SWAK blankets, and got started planning a couple more, and I finished the pattern for the YoMama quilts, which I just sold the first of today. I'm telling you, I was on a roll.

So now I can go and knit some socks for myself, right? Because I'm running out of wool-sock-wearing-weather.

YoMama Baby Quilt Pattern page

YoMama Baby Quilt pattern

Finally, a baby quilt that doesn’t keep you chained to the sewing machine for hours! This project combines some machine sewing with a lot of very portable handsewing, making it great for crafters on the go. This quilt is great for tummy-time!

Approximate finished dimensions: 36" square

A person with average sewing skills should be able to finish the machine sewing in about one naptime (2 hours). This project requires several hours of additional time for handsewing, but this time can be squeezed in whenever you have a few minutes.

Photo from the pattern directions - making the yo-yos.

Attaching the yo-yos.

Pattern includes illustrated directions and suggestions for additional variations on the project. It is packaged in a resealable plastic bag (6"x9"), ready to hang and sell.

Wholesale price: $4.00/pattern

Suggested retail price: $7-$9, or whatever the market will bear in your area

Free shipping on your first order! Shipping charges for subsequent orders will be the actual charges for USPS Priority Mail to your destination.

I am willing to make free samples to display in your shop, if you are willing to provide the materials. Please contact me for more information on this service.

For more information or to place an order, please contact Gretchen Woods at Lazy Mama Designs: lazymamadesigns (at) yahoo (dot) com.

NEW!! You can also place orders through my shop at etsy.com - just convo me with a request, including the number of patterns you'd like to buy, and I can post a custom listing for you at the wholesale price.

Thank you for your interest, and I hope to hear from you soon!

I got a treasury

Check it out and see if I'm making any sense at all.

My treasury
Sheesh, I'm going to bed.

Anyone want to guess why I'm posting this today?

btw, the official music video is here, but they disabled embedding (and Angus was wearing normal clothes), so I had to pull this concert footage instead.

Silly, silly woman

A few years ago I had the idea to collect the signatures of my favorite authors on fabric, and turn it into a reading quilt. I know, I'm just a cesspool of wackiness sometimes.

Anyway, after tracking down a few authors at book signings, realizing a few others were dead, getting no response from a few (ungrateful louts), and getting some by mail, I sort of hit a wall. I was out of people to ask for signatures, but I didn't have enough blocks for a decent quilt. So the supplies for the quilt have been sitting in a nicely labeled shoebox on the shelf in the closet of two different houses now.

Earlier this year it occurred to me that I might be able to flesh out the quilt if I included autographs from my favorite craft authors and bloggers, but I've yet to do anything about it. That is, until the Yarn Harlot announced the locations for her upcoming book tour, and I realized she's coming nowhere near me. Wahhhh!

But all is not lost! My parents live close enough to Philadelphia that I'm actually considering making the trip there in May to see the Harlot's appearance at this: http://libwww.freelibrary.org/bookfestival/visitor.cfm . Might even drag the kid and the grandmother with me and send them off to the storytime tent while I stand in line with my Sharpie and a square of muslin taped to a piece of cardboard.

Or, I could just send the muslin up to Canada and see if I can get her to sign it long-distance. But then I wouldn't get to show her whatever sock-in-progress I have going in May ... oh, the decisions!

Thinking warm thoughts

mobile from etsy, of course

My new secret weapon

Yep, it's a shuffle. Jason got it at a technical conference he attended earlier this month, and he was generous enough to give it to me. I give him credit for not hiding it for a week and presenting it as my Valentine's Day present ... the corporate logo on the back probably would have given him away.

You'd be amazed how many yo-yo's you can sew on during one podcast of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

YoMama Infant Quilt prototype finished!

What is it? A quilt you can use to make an infant's tummy-time a little less boring (and keep your carpets a little less urp-covered). Machine pieced from visually stimulating black and white prints, the quilt features brightly colored hand-stitched yo-yos sewn to the quilt by hand to provide the quilting.

This is a prototype; patterns to make your own, as well as some completed quilts, should be available in the shop later this week.

This is the inaugural project in my new line of patterns designed to be completed at least partially by hand. All of the hand crafted parts of these projects are will fit inside a gallon-sized plastic bag (most will fit in a quart-sized one, which is perfect for popping in your purse or diaper bag). This approach allows crafters to take the project with them and do some work during the little pieces of idle time they can find throughout the day. For example, I made all the yo-yos for this project while watching Sesame Street with my daughter, supervising my daughter at an indoor playground, and riding in the car.