Once upon a time, I was little.  My first sewing project (that I remember) was a little pincushion for my mom.  I made it from some stretchy knit scrap fabric and stuffed it with polyfill.  If squished, the pins would go straight through and poke the fingers on the other side.  Completely impractical.

Being a good mom--the type that treasures the weird and random things her children make her--my mom was using that pincushion right up to the day I gave her this one for Christmas.

Much more practical, but pretty enormous.  I'd seen the pincushion teacups, but when I saw this pretty little bowl at Target, I knew it would look great with this fabric stuffed inside.  Viola, pincushion in a bowl.  Fingers are spared.

I made these Patchwork Placemats for my sister-in-law. They're intended to be a set of breakfast placemats, so I chose this bright fabric I thought would be the perfect start to any day. The stripes and polka dots are Moda Swell, the flowers are Ginger Blossom. I bought them both off Etsy a while back, you might remember my excitement.  

I used the tutorial from Wink Designs (find it here) for the placemats. It was great--very easy to follow.  I skipped the quilting I was supposed to do on one section, because I've never actually quilted before and didn't have time to experiment.  Next time, though, I'm planning to give that a try.

I included a jar of oatmeal topping using the recipe from Martha (that's her picture, because I forgot to photograph mine). I left out the honey because it apparently required the mix to be refrigerated, which I couldn't deal with.  Do you just store the wrapped gift in the fridge until Christmas? I couldn't wrap my head around it, so I mixed up the fruit and nuts, packaged it in a cute reusable cannister, and called it a day.

Also included in my set was a big cannister of brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal, which I mixed together myself. I topped both cannisters with printed labels and wrapped everything together.

Viola. Breakfast in a box.

I have a confession, I don't use one of those fancy "feeds" or "bloglines" or whatever.  Partly because I don't understand them, partly because, well, I just don't. 

Instead, I bookmark everything.  My favorites folder is on the brink of bringing down the whole computer. It's bad news, people.  Because I don't use a feed, my blog checking is kind of crazy and random.  There are the usuals that I check every.single.day. You see them over there on the sidebar? Yup, those.

Other days, I sit down at the computer, pull down my bookmarks and peruse my favorites. Random picking. I'll think, "Hey, Dabbler, haven't been there this week! Oh, Pure Joy! Wonder what those crazy Ex-Pats are up to..." And it goes on like that, sometimes for hours.

Then, when I go through the trouble to pull up someone's blog and find it hasn't been updated since I last visited, I get frustrated. Crazy frustrated. I seem to feel entitled to regular updates on people's lives. 

And now, here I am, one of those bloggers that drives me crazy.  Unpredictable, undisciplined, unfinished...

What I'm saying is this: Your frustration? I get it. 

(and I made granola again, but it wasn't as good this time)

The fabric colors for the criss cross coasters were so fun I decided to make a doll quilt from them.

This is my first attempt at a pieced quilt, but so far I'm feeling good.  I haven't even completed one block, but feeling good nonetheless.

I'm trying the Disappearing 9 Patch, using this tutorial. So far, things are moving along quite nicely. Like I said, I sewed the first nine patches together, I've cut them up and rearranged. Now I just need to sew the rearranged patches together and I'll have one block completed. 

I'm not completely sure how many blocks it takes to make a doll quilt, or how long the actual quilting process will take, or how to really do the binding, but I'm still feeling pretty optimistic. If nothing else, I'm just happy to be back in the crafting groove.

Things are happening around here again.  Domestic things...

Homemade Granola! Why didn't anyone tell me how delicious homemade granola tastes? I decided to whip some up primarily as a cost saving measure (I haven't run the numbers to determine whether this was less expensive). But this stuff was delicious.  After a bit of research, I decided granola was pretty versatile, so I went with the recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (you're wondering why there's a granola recipe in a bread book, aren't you? It's to use when making the Granola Bread, a variation I haven't yet tried).  It took me five minutes to throw together, and it only took that long because I had to search high and low for my coconut. Easy peasy.

I used sliced almonds, coconut, regular oats and some raisins. I also doubled the amount of vanilla it called for, because I love vanilla granola. It's crazy good. Mr. Plaid and I were snacking on it throughout the evening.  We finally had to call it quits so there'd be some left over for breakfast.  The recipe makes about six cups...

Also in the kitchen this weekend were some delicious cupcakes using a recipe from Scholastic's Parent and Child magazine. It's a Sandra Lee recipe (find it here), so it starts with a cake mix. I didn't have all the things on hand, so I improvised. Here's what I used:

• Yellow cake mix
• Box of white chocolate sugar free pudding (I don't usually do sugar free, but this was left over from a Weight Watchers faze I went through)
• 1 cup Whole Foods Cherry Vanilla soda
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• about 1 cup white chocolate chips, or however many were left in the bag...
  

The cupcakes were great. They ended up very moist, and had such a good flavor that they didn't need frosting. You can't always say that about cakes from a mix, but these were tasty. Um...no pictures, because they were gone quickly.

I give you: The Criss Cross Coasters

As boring as coasters may seem (ahem, Mr. Plaid), they are fun to make and do bring a bit of excitement to the living area.  I love that they need not match the decor, as Jennifer wisely commented, they can bring a splash of color to the room.

Once I figured out that these guys needed to be pinned, it was smooth sailing. Initially, I made a couple of coasters only to discover during the "flipping" stage, that I hadn't caught some of the fabric layers in the seam.  So, I had to unflip and resew and it was quite a pain.  The slippery fabrics were the worst.  However, these are extremely easy to unflip and fix, so if that happens to you, do not throw in the towel.  

 
I decided to just alternate the backing fabrics, so that you could see more of the fun flowered pattern.  For the lining, I just used a flannel, because I felt like it would be a little more absorbant. And, because I don't always follow directions, I didn't use any fusible web. I didn't feel like my fabric needed it, and I was sewing through an awful lot of layers as it was.

This tutorial was extremely straight forward and easy to do (once I pinned the slippery fabric in place).  The flipping was a breeze. The only other challenge was trying to get those corners poked out nice and square. Which, you can see, I'm still working on...

The fabrics are both from Joann's.  It's apparel fabric I picked up on clearance at the end of spring to make summer clothes for the girls. Since we all know how well that turned out, I thought I might as well use it for coasters.

If you'd like to win this lovely set of four coasters, leave a comment on this post before I choose a random winner next Wednesday.  And for those of you thinking coasters are dull, I'll throw in a little something extra. I'm not sure what it will be just yet, but you'll get the coasters and an accessory of some sort.  (It will not be my favorite Kate Spade teacup pictured above! Because I love, love it!)

Please welcome the long-awaited Tea Towel Apron.  So exciting that Scarlet even got to come out of the craft room to model it:

 
It's not quite the Throwback Thursday project I initially planned...but it was so much fun designing it!  I based it off of this tutorial from Martha (she calls it a "dish towel" apron, not nearly as classy).  But her top was square, which I didn't want.

 
So I changed it.  Then I decided the entire thing in two matching tea towels was...well...dull.  So I added a flap:

 
The flap is not stitched along the bottom, so it can be used for drying hands and things.  I thought it nice to have a separate little hand-drying apron attached to the larger apron. That way your clothes stay covered even while you're drying your hands.  Is that important? Not sure. But it sure makes for a cute apron!

This was made from a set of tea towels I bought at Target (they came two towels to a set, so I used one and a half sets).  I also own the matching table runner...which will make it hard to let go of this apron. I mean, imagine what a clever hostess I would be, what with my apron matching my table and all.

The ties for the neck and waist were super easy, made from cotton twill tape.  I've considered writing a little tutorial to show you how I did it (the whole apron, not just the ties). Maybe later this week?

By now, you know how it works: Leave a comment on this post by next Wednesday, and you'll be entered to win this apron.  Completely random, completely free.