Ember Costumes and Crafts

Another historical doll outfit! This dress was made with the Thimbles and Acorns pattern "Laura and Mary." Which is based on a photo of Laura and Mary Ingalls taken in 1880.

I made this riiight before Miles was born, a small project to lift my lumbering spirits! I had a little trouble with the cuffs--entirely the fault of my brain, not the pattern--and I had to try three times to get them right, but otherwise it was a very easy, straightforward project. The fabric is just a cotton quilting cotton from my stash and the cute button is from my big bucket of estate-sale buttons.

I've read the Little House books countless times through my life and always loved them. In fact, they were what got me interested in sewing to begin with when I was a little girl! My first ever sewing project was a bonnet for one of my dolls, followed by a bonnet for me! I had blue dress that reminded me of the one in the picture on the cover of "On the Banks of Plum Creek (my favorite Little …

I LOVE watching costume-making videos on Youtube, and Morgan Donner is one of my favorites! She mostly focuses on medieval reenactment which is her hobby, but like the video below, she has projects from lots of different eras. Check out her channel!

What I'm Reading Wheel of Time 12: The Gathering Storm
Brandon Sanderson was a favorite author of mine before I had heard of Wheel of Time at all, and part of the reason that I started reading this series. Some reviewers have said that the transition between the novels written by Jordan and the ones by Sanderson is jarring, but I found it not just smooth but..refreshing. In the last few novels that Jordan wrote, the story was stagnant and the endless descriptions were dragging the pace down, so it was very nice when things got moving again. Sanderson's style is different, but I think he got the core of all the characters right.  This book picked up the pace and started on the massive task of resolving plot lines that had been danging since the very first book!
Wheel of Time 13: Towers of MidnightThe endgame is in sight, characters that have been apart for a long time are finally coming back together, and exciting changes are FINALLY happening. I especially liked Perrin's …

So this isn't exactly a Catan Quilt update, but it is definitely related! (I made this about a month ago, before I had Miles!)
As mentioned previously, I once, many many years ago, made a Catan pillow for my couch. I used scraps, had zero knowledge of how to sew hexagons or quilt anything at all, and was very literal in my interpretation of the game board! Over the years this pillow has been used and abused and well loved, but after being barfed on (and washed!) one too many times, it was finally time to throw it away. 
So, being allllmost done with all the land hexes for my huge Catan quilt, I went ahead and stitched together an actual game-sized selection of hexes and quilted them onto some rejected mountain-hex fabric to make a new pillow! The back, like the previous pillow, has a pocket opening so that the cover can be washed and the inner pillow replaced as needed.
It's a small project and a small win, but I really needed that. This pregnancy was difficult and we've …

Welcome to the world! Meet Miles Gabriel. He came into the world last Friday and has been making everyone very happy! He was 8 lb 1 oz and 18 3/4 in long and has a lot of very dark hair! 
My posting schedule will be a bit off from usual as I endure the sleepless nights and recover from my c-section, but I have a few posts already mostly typed up and ready to go that I will put up when I have time. Our family is thrilled to meet him and glad that everyone is healthy. 

Finished! With a week to spare, I got new baby's dinosaur quilt done. The main fabric is a pack of fat eighths called "Hear me Roar" by Studio E Fabrics which I ordered off of etsy...I meant to buy a fat quarters pack and accidentally got fat eighths...the first of many mistakes! The border fabric is just some quilting cotton from Joann's. I try not to use quilting cotton from Joann's because I have found that they fades A LOT after years of use and hundreds of washings compared to more expensive brands. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Once I have some fabric in hand, it's hard to find good color matches online rather than in person, plus I didn't really have time to wait for shipping. Technically this baby can decide to come whenever he feels like it at this point! 



I had many problems while I was making this quilt, and even though I'm overall happy with how it turned out, I'm still not ecstatic about it. It's not my favorite q…