*****WE NOW HAVE A DEADLINE FOR DONATIONS: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16. SEE BELOW FOR MORE INFO!*****

[We also have a new shipping address for projects! See below.]

I was very lucky to make it through Hurricane Sandy without any damage to my home or myself or my loved ones. I am so grateful. It’s been heartbreaking to see images of the devastation that has occurred right here in my adopted hometown… and making matters worse, it has started to get cold in New York City this week. It’s as if winter has suddenly arrived, and that is the last thing we need right now. Many, many Sandy victims are living without power, which means no heat. Many of them have lost a lot if not all of their possessions, which means limited supplies of warm clothes.

Yesterday, Natalie from A Dose of The Delightful (another New York-based crafty blogger) and I started thinking about what we could do to help those victims without electricity, heat, or even proper shelter. We knew there had to be a way to harness the power of crafters to help–because if there’s anything knitters, crocheters and sewers are good at, it’s making warm things. So we decided to create Make It Better – A Craftalong for Sandy Relief. The goal? Rally crafters to make warm hats, scarves, blankets, mittens, socks and sweaters–and deliver them to people in need as soon as possible.

Will you join us?

If you’re in the NYC area, be sure to check out Maker Faire this weekend at the New York Hall of Science in Queens (the one-time site of the World’s Fair)! It’s a big crazy festival of people making anything and everything, from crafts to robots.

I’ll be demonstrating on the Craft Demo Stage at 4:00 on Sunday, teaching people how to make the One-Hour Skirt from my book Sewing in a Straight Line. So come on by to meet me, have your book signed, and get a free lesson in skirt-making! I’ll be selecting one person from the attendees and making a custom skirt for her during the demo, so maybe it will be you!

Hope to see you there!

****UPDATE: This event has been postponed till August 29. Hope to see you there!****

Hi all, I’m very excited to announce the first SEWING IN A STRAIGHT LINE event! It’s a launch party, it’s a book signing, it’s a meet-and-greet, and it’s a sewing lesson — all happening at the awesome Etsy headquarters on August 8! If you live in the NYC area I’d love if you’d join us in Brooklyn for an afternoon and evening of sewing fun! Here are the deets:

WHO: You! And me! This event is open to the public. (Reservations are required as space is limited – see below for more info on that.)

WHAT: This is a multi-part event – here’s the breakdown:

3:30pm Live Webcast: I’ll be live on the internet from the Etsy labs demonstrating how to sew the One-Hour Skirt from Sewing in a Straight Line. You can tune in to watch it on your computer, from wherever you are.

4:00pm Sew a Skirt Workshop: Join me in person at the Etsy Labs to sew your own skirt! That’s right – walk in with some fabric, walk out with a cute skirt! This event requires basic sewing skills and is by reservation only, so click here to reserve your spot.

7:00-9:00pm Launch Party, Book Signing, Meet-and-Greet: This portion is open to anyone (sewing skills not required), though you must reserve a spot because space is limited! There will be mingling, snacking, book signing, sewing (make the 60-Second Hello greeting cards from my book), music and more. It’s going to be fun and I would love to see you there! Click here to join the party!

WHERE: The fabulous Etsy headquarters in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

WHEN: Monday, August 8 (see times above) MONDAY, AUGUST 29

WHY: To celebrate the launch of Sewing in a Straight Line and give some of us a chance to meet in person over some sewing, music and snacks. Yay!

 Come on by to make this skirt or just to join the fun. Hope to see you there! xoxo

The view from my kitchen after a rain storm.

Big changes have been in the works around here… Drum roll please: I moved! To Brooklyn!!!

After 13 years in Manhattan, this was a big, big deal for me. I was so resistant to leaving that tiny island, but at the same time I felt the call of something new — so I finally took the leap across the river. So far I’m loving my new place, but before I start sharing all the goods on my new digs, I thought I’d dedicate one post to my last Manhattan home. I still feel so sentimental about Manhattan, and my last apartment really was an old-school New York gem from another era.

This is where I lived for the past couple of years; it was a studio in the East Village that I sublet from a friend. I was in the same one-block vicinity of the East Village for almost all of my 13 NYC years, except for a brief stint in the West Village. So, this spot was really my New York home. An imperfect home full of tourists, drunk NYU kids, passed-out bums on my stoop, major noise 24/7 and no space whatsoever — but also where I knew the people who owned the best home-cooking Ukrainian diner, where I often bumped into someone I knew wherever I went, and where I could get anything, literally anything, within a five-minute walk.

This apartment was a studio, a large(ish) rectangular main room with a separate kitchen. The main room held my bed, living room area, work area, books and clothes. The total size was about 380 square feet. Since it was a sublet, it was a mash-up of furniture that was already in the space combined with my own stuff. Ready to take a peek?

My humble lil’ kitchen — more details and a before-and-after are at the end of this post.

Super cute exposed brick fireplace, with my great-grandmother’s mirror.

The apartment had amazing bay windows with deep window seats and a great view. The light was stunning; no question, the windows were the best feature about this place.

This vintage medical cabinet is the only piece of furniture I’ve kept with me throughout all my NYC years. I really love it.

I modified Ikea Enje blinds for all the windows, removing the shade that came on the blinds and replacing it with fabric. I’ll do a how-to post on that one of these days.

The windows looked out over the intersection of Second Avenue and 6th Street, with a view of the famous Block Drugs store. The apartment was just one flight up so you really got a birds-eye view of the street – I spent hours sitting in these windows people watching.


A couple of details. Some of my vintage knitting needles in a crystal vase, and a vintage paint-by-number horse.

A little dresser and book nook.

To organize my jewelry, I used these great display cases. They were perfect because I could stack them to save space, and the glass tops allowed me to shuffle them around and see what was inside without having to open the lids.


There was a CD rack already installed in the apartment, and I repurposed it for books, which made it look like one of those cool skinny bookcases.

Not sure why I didn’t manage to clear the clutter is this shot – oops! Anyway, my “living room” was never quite complete but I always liked my clear coffee table and my cow rug. The coffee table (from CB2) was perfect for this area because it gave me a lot of surface space (since I tended to do a lot of work on the couch) without taking up visual space.

The pass-through from the main room to the kitchen with my hanging vintage lamp.

Another view of the pass-through.


Big-scale Blythe art I made to hang over the bed. Pillows were cast-off magazine props from my former office.


This corner was my teeny-tiny work space, crammed right in there behind the sofa and next to the bed. Glamorous, right? Part of me didn’t want to share this photo because it’s not very pretty, but I thought I’d go ahead and show what Manhattan living really is, honestly. Plus, when I think about it, I’m more than a little amazed (and kinda proud) that I made a lot of work in this little nook — including designing, sewing and writing my sewing book. Just goes to show that we really can accomplish a lot with very little sometimes. (I’m going to try to remember that.)

Whenever I’d remove something from a these shelves, Kitty would squeeze herself into the empty spot. It was her favorite thing to do and it always surprised me and cracked me up to find her perched among my craft supplies, always when I least expected it.


One of the projects I undertook in this space was sewing a slip cover for the sofa. In New York there is a very special phenomenon known as My Couch Is Stuck In My Apartment. In this case, the friend who sublet me this apartment purchased this sofa a while back, only to find upon delivery that the sofa wouldn’t fit through the apartment door. (This, sadly, happens a lot around these parts.) The solution is to call a couch doctor, who will rush to your building, cut your sofa into two pieces in the hallway while you hold back tears, move the pieces into the apartment, reassemble the sofa, and charge you a lot of money. (Crazy, right? That’s how we do.) So, that happened to this couch, and consequently the couch was pretty much stuck inside the apartment. To freshen things up, I made a slip cover for it. I got the whole body done and then never finished the cushions. So for my last several months in the apartment, I had a white slip-covered sofa with green cushions. D’oh!

Also, check out the floor – it was this very vintage gray and white tile with pink insets. Old school!

And finally, a couple before-and-after shots of my little kitchen. As you can see, it had a very impactful tile mosaic back splash which I like to think was made by some interesting East Village artist back in the 80′s. A cool piece of neighborhood history to be sure, but not exactly my style. (I’m convinced the same artist did the tile work in The Tile Bar around the block – if you’re ever in the area, check it out.)

My solution was to hang a piece of peg board over the mosaic, concealing the crazy tile and giving me lots of space to hang my pots. I also had the old brown door replaced, which really refreshed the room, and hung wallpaper inside the glass cabinet doors to conceal clutter.

I think it was pretty cute in the end! And goodness I love that wallpaper (it’s this one from Anthropologie). I still have a good bit of the roll left and hope to find a use for it in my new space.

And of course, no retrospective of this apartment would be complete without a few shots of this classy lady posed throughout the space.

This really is the end of an era, but change is good and I feel great about my move. I’ve been a busy little bee working on the new apartment and can’t wait to start sharing photos very soon.

So long, old apartment, and so long, Manhattan! Thanks for the memories!

I’m about to say something scandalous.

Here goes.

I’m not really that into quilt shows.

I know, I know. As someone who sews, and as someone who quilts, that is just wrong. Right? But the truth is, I don’t know the last time I’ve seen a quilt show that’s really excited me. Of course, there’s always something wonderful about so much handmade work all in one spot. But most quilt shows tend to be more traditional, and my taste in quilts leans way more modern. And so that’s why, when someone says quilt show, my mind tends to wander.

But when a friend invited me to Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC this past weekend (otherwise known as The Red and White Quilt Show), she assured me it was something I couldn’t miss. The truth? I hadn’t done my homework on the show, didn’t know what I was in for, and agreed to go more for the company than for the quilts.

I didn’t expect much.

And then? I had my mind blown into a million little pieces.

First I have to say, my pictures don’t do this justice. (All I had was my camera phone. What a shame.) Second, keep in mind that the venue for this exhibit was at least as big as a football field, and maybe four stories tall inside. The scale was enormous. Look how little the people are.

So. This is the sight you saw when you first walked in the door. A towering spiral of red and white quilts surrounded by more and more quilts that floated in the air behind it, seemingly into infinity.

I gasped, broke out in goosebumps, and almost cried.

My stomach hurt a little bit. I’m not kidding. I’d never seen anything like this, and it was truly moving. I kept saying strange things in my head, like what is this place? Who did this?

Am I on another planet? One with a landscape made of quilts?

Surrounding the center spiral were a series of huge hanging cylinders of quilts. The pieces were hanging from simple cardboard tubes (each tube double-hung so that there were two quilts hanging from each one, both with their right sides facing out), and the tubes were all joined together, both vertically and horizontally, with thin cable. It created a beautiful metaphor for the connectedness that’s inherent in quilting. It made me think of quilting bees, of quilting circles, of women joining together to make these creations and of families who passed them down.

In the very center, below the huge spiral, was this ring of empty chairs, each draped with a quilt. This was a lovely nod to the anonymous stitchers who made these masterpieces.

Every time I looked up close at the detail on one of the quilts, I got a lump in my throat just thinking about the women who made all those painstaking stitches. I wonder if they worked by candlelight, or sitting out on their porches, or gathered in a church hall?


At the very back of the hall was a wall of quilts hanging in a sweeping arc.

Every single quilt — all 651 of them — was perfectly lit, creating brilliant spots of red and white floating on a black background. It was so beautiful.


Most amazing of all? This show is only open for six days. That seems almost cruel. If it had been open for even one more weekend, I would have demanded that my mom cancel whatever she was doing and come see it. (And that you do, too.)

This collection, amazingly, belongs to one woman. Joanna Semel Rose has been collecting red and white quilts for decades. She has amassed over one thousand pieces, and says she made the collection by memory, never checking to see if she already owned a pattern before buying each new quilt. This exhibit is only half of them. Can you imagine that? Where did she store them all??

When her husband asked her what she wanted for her 80th birthday, she said she wanted to share her quilts with the city of New York. And this is what happened. (Hello, awesome. I hope my 80th birthday is at least this remarkable!)

The stunning, modern concept for how the quilts were displayed was the work of NY-based design firm Thinc. (Also cool: the display is designed to be completely recyclable. It’s just cardboard tubes and metal cable. Brilliant.)

You could look for hours and hours, and still find new things to see.

This quilt broke my heart a little. It was made up of hundreds of children’s hand prints, each embroidered with the name and age of the child.

Photographs of every quilt (in much better quality than mine) can be seen on the American Folk Art Museum website. Click here to access a slide show that takes you through the quilts.

And here’s a great New York Times article about the exhibit and Mrs. Rose, and some cool photos of the exhibit as it was being hung.

Sigh. What more is there to say? As far as quilt shows go, the bar has been raised.

And, I think I want to make a red and white quilt.

Some yummy sewing sights I spied recently in my travels in the city…

rainbow ric rac at Daytona Trimming and wall of vintage sewing machines at AllSaints Spitalfields

zippers, zippers, zippers at SIL Thread

jewel-like spools at SIL Thread and cool old-timey storefront on 25th street

Usually in bad weather I hibernate like a bear, but today I took a walk in the snow to snap some shots around my neighborhood. I love New York when it snows. Here’s what I saw…

East Village tenements and snowy trees

vintage bikes

neighborhood ladies in Peruvian hats

cool signs

stylish dogs wearing shoes

bundled-up me

my much-used-this-year galoshes

When I got back home, there was only one right and proper thing to do: make hot chocolate! So I whipped up a little spicy dark hot chocolate on the fly. This recipe is very forgiving, so feel free to improvise according to your preferences and what ingredients you have on hand, and chances are it will still be delicious.

Spicy Dark Hot Chocolate for a Snowy Day

1 1/4 cups liquid (I used 1 cup water and 1/4 cup half & half; you could use all water, all milk, soy milk – whatever you prefer. Use less liquid if you like a really thick drink.)

2-3 oz dark chocolate, chopped

1 T cocoa powder

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t cardamom

generous pinch sea salt

generous pinch cayenne

1 T agave nectar (or any sweetener of your choice)

Mix it all up in a saucepan over medium heat till warm and steamy. Serves 1-2, depending on your mood.

I was too excited to drink this to focus the shot

On a rare trip to the upper east side this past week, I discovered this gem. Where can I get a sign like this for my kitchen?

Happy friday, cupcakes.

I’m not really a spinner, much as I would like to be. My mom treated herself to a nice new spinning wheel a couple of years ago, and I’ve tried a few times to steal it, but so far without success. Who am I kidding, there’s no room in my apartment anyway.

Too bad, because next weekend I’ll have a prime fiber opportunity just blocks from my craft room, when a REAL LIVE MOCK COTTON FIELD will be constructed at the corner of Broadway and Houston Street. (That’s the heart of SoHo, where a Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, giant Adidas store and a zillion lanes of traffic reside.)

According to New York Mag, Supima Cotton peeps will be handing out bales of cotton to passersby on Saturday, March 8 and Saturday, March 15. They’re promoting a new Supima store that’s opening nearby.

I love New York.