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I seldom sit down to review a year, other than making conversation. But this has been quite a year. And I know that its been quite a year because I began saying that around June- this has been quite a year . I am so grateful to have this space to share the biggest or littlest things in my life and work and I'm downright unworthy of all the encouragement and inspiration I am able to find in your support. For that, thank you so so much . And if you don't mind, if for nothing more than my own tiny benefit, here is a personal, albeit somewhat scattered, review right off the cuff.... In 2009:: ::My mother's lymphoma was declared in remission. A fact upon facts that I never managed the capacity to talk about here. We all struggled through, no one more than her, and the whole ordeal has just made me feel like I've joined the human race...joined the common suffering of fear, joined the common elation of completely loving. ::I experienced the first slow splitting of fiber

I have been stealing as many moments as possible in the crochet chair ever since Thanksgiving, and slowly everyone is getting a little layer of love added to their wintry accessories. I need to remind you that I have no real knowledge of what I'm doing when I sit down to crochet anything, and typically just make it up as I go. Maybe everyone feels this way. I think this is why knitting has never stuck with me. It seems less like something you can manipulate like I have been able to get away with when crocheting. My mom has taught me to knit precisely six times and I still haven't gotten comfortable with it. But I do have knit envy , especially when it comes to all those wonderful hand knit socks and lovely sock yarns. I have been using several sock yarns (which I would consider the above) for things that are not socks which feels like a guilty pleasure. All that said, I love a quickie. I fell in love with this skein at my favorite local fabric shop turned local fab

School is officially out. Eleni just jingled (really, she has bells around her neck) all the way up the hill from the bus stop and eagerly pulled out some goodies from a giant crumpled paper grocery bag. Here are some favorites: This is Peanut-Pretzel-Rudolph. A torn paper Christmas Tree. A gift from her K teacher. Do you remember this book? I loved it sooooo much. "Down fell the snow- plop!-on top of Peter's head." Each of our kids that can write has written a Christmas list and each of these lists has included "a white Christmas". Oh that sounds easy enough to buy. We might just have to use our imaginations for that one. hope you're warm and calm in the midst of cold and chaos~ Anna

Wowzers! I had no idea the amount of flannel love that was happening in the universe and feel all has been revealed to me (Jeff and I were eating at our favorite Indian lunch buffet today and overheard a woman sitting by herself, saying very loudly at her cell phone " so much has been revealed to me and I can't wait to share it with you, its amazing ". We were without a doubt intrigued and wondered over 4 plates of curried vegetables, rice and naan just what she was referring to. This is a long explanation of why I felt the need to use the word reveal ed in my first sentence. I just didn't want you to be in the dark about my word choices. I am a caring person like that.) Anyway. I decided that accompanying the two winning names of my flannel giveaway should be the full reveal on those sweet little chicks . So above is the Henny Penny & Six Chicks project that is one of the nursery sewing projects in my upcoming book Handmade Beginnings . Underneath Henny

**Before I start with some flannel fun and a giveaway, I want to clarify something: The Folksy Flannels collection is a completely different collection of fabrics from both Good Folks ( 44" quiltweight cotton ) and Little Folks ( 54"voiles , dobby dots ). It does combine imagery from both of those collections, but is retranslated into new colorways and is printed on 44" wide cotton flannel. It just so happens that the flannels are shipping before the Little Folks collection which I introduced first and should be shipping before the end of the year last I heard. Is this clarification helping anyone? Better stop before I confuse things more. We are having a little too much fun with the flannels! These teeny tiny chick brothers & sisters are the smaller part of a book project which I can't share completely yet, since the book isn't out till the spring. But just so you know, they have a very sweet mama and their tiny wings are made of Velcro. There. That

A pattern he is likely to repeat. (like me at the pie table.) hope everyone had a relaxing weekend with those you love~ xo,Anna

Its gonna be a short work week & I wanted to stop in first and share a few things, and if you're on the mailing list, sorry for the overlap in info, suffer through it or click through pilgrim! * First and most important, I fully intend to wear one of two things over the next several days : an apron : or : a pile of yarn- under which I will be making things I don't need and maybe a few gifts for people who don't need things either. * I have a new collection of aprons and dishtowels in the shop and I am super excited to say that included in this group are some fun little girl aprons~My girls are always tying my half aprons up to their underarms, so they are giddy with anticipatory-holiday-baking excitement over these! * Overwhelmed with thankfulness for all that we have, I know I'm not the only one who'd like to spread a little love around at this time of year. And without a doubt there are more families in need these days than ever. We will be donating a porti

The mountains are for shopping! Between studio sessions of my class last weekend , the girls and I were able to get in some very enjoyable (a little too enjoyable) shopping. While almost every shop in Gatlinburg boasts an amazing supply of leather, fudge, knives and swimwear , and other's are called Cooter's Funhouse , there manages to also be some serious little jewels among the shopping venues. I found myself in the Arrowcraft shop/gallery 3 times within 4 hours in one day. I could not get enough. The only thing that kept me under control was the fact that we only had two cars to get everything home. First this gorgeous little vase, is my personal token to remember my time spent at Arrowmont. At the risk of sounding entirely too Zen, it is just so completely what it is. A pure example of gorgeous handcrafted, handglazed pottery of Southern Appalachia. You can't grow up in East Tennessee as I did and not be aware of the craft history and inherent traditional art d

I had the privilege this past weekend of teaching a fine art studio class to art teachers from around Tennessee at their annual TAEA conference at Arrowmont School for Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tn. Thats right. I taught teachers . I know. Who would think they would need me for that. Well, my own former h.s. art teacher roped me in to be an instructor for the second year, and it was again, so, so enjoyable. I couldn't have had a more eager group of smart and fun people to work with, eager most likely bc they seldom have the chance to make their own art and naturally they seemed at ease to not be in charge of a bunch of kids for a change. Somehow, I could relate. The basis for my two-day class was "reinventing textiles" through painting, drawing, and collage as shown in my piece above entitled "remedy". I got to share my fabric scraps (which they devoured like a bunch of students ) and then got to watch lots of interesting things happen. The studi

I am in love with sewing again. I never stop liking it, but honestly I am lurving it again. Plugging my own fabric aside (just slightly), it is just so refreshing to hold new fabrics in my hands that really feel and drape differently than anything I've ever designed myself. I will confess it feels a bit empowering, too, to think it up, do it and then have it in my hands and set into crafted reality what was just a musing of the mind last winter. More than just the fun, textural, little, nubby dots that run through these 4 "square dance" prints and 8 "pastry line" prints, the joy I am taking by playing out all the uses for that block design in "square dance" is just so satisfying. The goods are 55" wide, and the block is printed in two sizes, on the yardage. 4 of the larger blocks spread side-by-side from selvedge to selvedge, followed by two rows of 8 smaller blocks below and then it repeats. And the yardage is also designed so that either

I have been so busy finalizing the new patterns and getting them off to be printed, sewing some beautiful clothing with the new fabrics for the girls which will be used for some print ads and just simply trying to keep up with laundry and this house. Normally I don't even include any housework in the list of things I am trying to get accomplished, so even mentioning that here means things are finally starting to slow a tiny little bit after what seems like months of non-stop non-stopness. Today I insisted upon a slow stew. Which included a slow shop around the grocery with coffee in hand and a sleeping baby in the cart. (Can you think of a better way to shop?) After the ingredient chopping was complete and the bubbling was just beginning, I also insisted upon a slow walk around the yard with my camera. Everything I found through the lens plus the warm smell of beef stew that hit me once I came back in the door reminded me why I seldom feel the need to leave this house. Espe