spontaneous crafting

Sort of like spontaneous combustion but without all the smoke and mess. (And definitely more fun...)

I admit that I am weak in the face of new crafty things. Even if they've been around for ages and I've admired them from afar but just haven't gotten around to trying them out yet.

I recently discovered Craft Sanity. Its an outstanding craft blog by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood, a fellow Michigander.

I am apparently very late to the party, she's been around for a long while now doing wonderful crafty things. She has over 100 podcast episodes and just issued her first print issue of Craft Sanity magazine (you can also get it as a PDF but I love the feel of a magazine in my hand so I went that route):


I was happy to get it yesterday because I'm currently nursing a cranky back and it leaves me looking for entertainment (reading and word search puzzles are usually my addictions of choice).

Jennifer wrote an article on making an apron using English paper piecing:


I'm not so much about aprons (as evidenced by the paint spattered condition of my poor clothing) but those little hexagons are entrancing. I've long wanted to try English paper piecing, it seems like just the right amount of tedious and cool mixed into one.

Well, there was also a giftie included with the magazine - a package of small hexagons from Paper Pieces with pre-cut fabric. I found the large warning on the front of the directions to be humorous:


I keep my little owl sewing box next to the sofa so I dug around and found a needle and thread and figured, "Why not? I'll give it a go."

Fifteen minutes later...I had this:



Um....

Well...

I want to make it friends.

It was ridiculously easy. And incredibly cute. And I can see so many different ways to alter them and projects to make and...

Damn.

I really didn't need one more thing to fall for...

After I got the whole thing stitched together, I got to worrying that I wouldn't be able to pull the paper pieces out. (I am a firm stitcher. When I sew something together, its for life. Which is probably not an admirable skill when doing this kind of craft.)

I snipped the basting stitches on the center one since all its sides are securely attached to neighbors and the paper piece came out like a champ:


I need to give the rest of it a good press and then I'll yank the other paper pieces out.

Here's another view:



Isn't it cute? And easy. Did I mention easy?

I can see this on pincushions and tote bags and scarves and christmas tree ornaments and...and...just wait until I can get up off the sofa - I'm going to make an army of them!!!