A Day in the Life of Crafty Assistants

Sometimes being a crafty assistant can be a little slow.

Sometimes it is more interesting to push buttons then to sew them.

Sometimes you need to steal buttons.

Most of the time you just watch everything to make sure it doesn't move.

Did something just move!?!

The "License Plate Game" Quilt

My husband has been to 49 of the 50 United States. I have been to a good number less, but still a pretty good number. It is one of our hobbies to pour over the Rand McNally, collect travel guides, plan trips and go on trips. In chatting with my good friend Brooke, I know that she and her husband do the same thing. And have done quite a bit of traveling themselves especially as part of Jeff's career. Did I mention that Jeff is a geography professor?

When I found out the pair were expecting I started to think about what sort of quilt I would make them. Someone on flickr posted a quilt they made with this fabric and I immediately knew this was what I HAD TO MAKE! So I called my husband at work and made him buy it for me on Ebay because Ebay scares me.


So here is the quilt. It was one front panel with a border and then I quilted the whole thing by outlining the states, all the states with my sewing machine. Alaska took forever! And I put off the East Coast until the end and then went for coffee and bought myself a mocha as a reward for that. Little curvy lines are not my forte but I am so glad the I powered through because I think it looks terrific.

My hope is that one day when Nora is older, that she and her mom and dad will be able to keep track of all the states Nora has been to by adding buttons to the quilt. I think this is a great idea and I hope that this fabric is still in print when I have kids.


I made this felt garland to go with the quilt, just for a little extra brightness and decoration for Nora's room.

Bountiful Blessings

Bountiful Blessings

I begin this blog by celebrating my mother’s birthday which is ths Tuesday, March 25. These are the photos and the story of her birthday gift.

The Story First:
I knew my mom’s birthday was coming (it is hard to forget when it is the day before your own.) But it hadn’t occurred to me that it was her 50^th birthday until my Aunt Kathy inquired with me about what my plans were for my mom’s birthday. I normally do something nice and almost always thoughtful, but I started to worry about what to do for a "special birthday" I moved into an immediate state of panic and stressing about what to do for her. After a week of asking people’s opinions I finally asked my mom whether she even really cared she was turning fifty. Her response was, not surprisingly, no.

She said she doesn't feel old and as the Olsen's tend to be a bunch that sticks around for a long time, mom felt that celebrating the milestone birthdays was a bit premature. It would not have occurred to me that she was turning fifty as I still see her as I did when I was five, though maybe not as tall. So, thank heavens I was relieved of trying to do something momentous for her birthday like I don' t know what I decided to make her a wall hanging for her office/craft room.

She is my biggest crafting fan and crafty supporter. She is responsible for at least half of all my craft supplies and she never bores of long conversations about design ideas and always loves to hear about my purchases after I go to the craft store. Which is often and I purchase a lot.

The Gift:

“Bountiful Blessings”

I’ll tell you how the sun rose… a ribbon at a time. ~ E. Dickinson
33” x 33”

This piece has 50 interfaced circles hand stitched to the background fabric. No quilting on this project, I used the buttons to hold the layers in place. The design is from Quilterscache. I don’ t know that any part of this project represents a “special birthday”. I think what the overall project does express is a general sense of joy in the natural world. My mother does this very well.

She loves it by the way. She called this morning while I was still sleeping so I lay in bed listening at first about all the different fabrics and buttons I used and how much she liked them all. I answered questions about which buttons were new and which were antique, which was my favorite and more. We moved on then to discuss all my projects I had planned for the weekend. Perfect. Happy birthday Mom!