Ember Costumes and Crafts

 I have decided, after having an incredible amount of fun writing a 53K word fanfiction last month, to go ahead and try Nanowrimo again! I have participated 9 times and won 5 times, and I'm even quoted in the official "No Plot No Problem" guidebook that they published. It is time to try again! Nano divides people into two distinct camps: Pantsers and Planners depending on what how you like your month to go. Pantsers write by-the-seat-of-their-pants and have a TON of fun. I've done this before and it can be incredibly relaxing to sit down at your computer and just let it all out. But...my novels at the end of my panster months are pretty much an incoherent jumbled mess. I've done Planner novels before and while they aren't quite as much in-the-moment fun, they do come out as more novel-ish. And since I did an incoherent mess of a fanfic last month, I'm going to Plan my way to a Novel for Nano!  In preparation I am:  1. Watching some of my favorite inspirat...

      I had a lot of trouble early this month getting motivated for Halloween, and costume-making in general. Usually I'm bugging my kids by October 1st to get them to tell me what they want to be, and I strategically plan my trips to the fabric store to align with coupons and when the cutting line won't be too terribly long. Since I don't really cosplay anymore, Halloween is my chance to endulge in my inner cosplayer and shine! Last year I went a little crazy getting all the details right on Rosemary's Sailor Moon costume .  This year though... I could barely get my box of decorations out, and finally did about a week into October. I tried for weeks to plan each kid's costume, I avoided the fabric store, and I instead threw myself into hand-sewing my Catan hexies and fanfiction writing. I think it's jut the general mood of "everything is canceled" and "why bother" and "no one will see these anyway." However, I've slowly been ra...

I made this much like my other quilted heart wall hanging , to go with Alli's Stargazer Quilt . It was much easier this time, and I quilted her name into it on the heart too! My lines of quilting are a little bit wonkier than I'd like, but from the front it still looks nice. I hope she can find a place for it in her beautiful new house! As soon as the pandemic is over I'm planning on having some craft-night sleepovers again.  Back before kids, I used to go over to her apartment with out friends pretty much every week for writing, drawing, sewing, and games. In the past few years we would still have the occasional craft night, but between babies and her roommates it was tough!  I miss doing those things! I mean, I miss a lot of things about life before quarantine, but craft nights and Mom's Nights In with the ladies at my church and Martial Arts Class are the biggest three now that my kids are back at school in-person. Someday, right?  

  For Alli's quilt I picked these Lemon Grass batiks in a fat quarter bundle for the background, and a nice bright pack of yellows from Lunn Fabrics on etsy for the stars. I love the bright colors and the contrast! These colors remind me of Alli and her beautiful sunny personality and vibrant artwork. After messing up on my previous version using this pattern (from Villa Rosa Designs), I did much better on the second go! It went together really quickly with pretty much no problem.  For the quilting, I used a free motion quilting foot on my home machine, a Singer CG (Heavy Duty) and it worked awesome. I did a meandering design in golden yellow thread on all of the stars, and used a yellow/green variegated thread in long wavy lines that alternate directions along the length of the quilt between the stars.  For the back, I didn't have enough of the green that I bought for the background, so I used the blue that I had intended for the binding and added a strip of flying gee...