Happy easter 2020

Our family Easter was different this year, as it was for a lot of people. My family, including Mom and Dad, siblings and their families, usually get together for Easter dinner. It’s a day of food, hiding and finding baskets, conversation, laughter, and games.

Because of the unknown and the fear of spreading a virus…I wonder if once this is all over, we’ll be less fearful or more?… We didn’t have our big family gathering.

We did, however, manage to get a good share of our family on a Zoom conference to see and hear each other. It pales in comparison to the real thing, but it still made me smile to hear the voices of the littles and the laughter of the bigs.

We don’t have to like the hand we are dealt, but how we play it out, is up to us.

Happy Easter, friends.

Your friend,
Anne Dovel

What are Egyptian walking onions?

I posted a video on IGTV (Instagram TV) the other day, about one of my favorite edible and decorative garden plants.

The Egyptian Walking onion, so named, because to make new plants, the sets that grow on top of a mature stalk, get heavy and bend over and grow there. So, it appears to walk across the garden, in slow motion.

First of all, every part is edible. You can use the early spring growth as scallions. You can dig up a clump and use the bigger white parts in anything that calls for onion. They tend to have a little more bite than a regular onion.

But, I must confess, that for the most part, I keep them around because I love how they look, how easily they grow, and for companion planting in my vegetable garden.

Even though they propagate easily, they don’t become invasive. Once you dig up a clump, it’s gone. It won’t grow again. If you trim off some of the green, like scallions, it will grow from that root. You can also eat the itty bitty sets that grow on top, if you like peeling. I tried pickling them once, but it was too labor intensive for the result. I have thrown them into a jar of pickled green beans, however, unpeeled, for flavor.

The video I posted is on Instagram. I’ll include the link here. And, if I figure it out again, I’ll post the video IN this blog post. Now, isn’t that all fancy?

Your friend,
Anne Dovel

Quarantine sewing

Now that I’ve had my soapbox time in prior posts, here’s what I’ve been up to, and huzzah….I figured out how to put a photo in my post. I don’t know…do you like that, or should I link to the picture on Instagram? I’ll even turn the comments on, if the random stranger who comes by this blog wants to comment on that!

One of the things that has just warmed my heart, is how art and craft businesses and enthusiasts have been so generous in providing some free or discounted patterns, or just simply moving up the launch of a much anticipated pattern or kit, to help people stay engaged in something other than worry during this time. (For future readers, “this time” is the very strange Covid-19 time.)

Along with doing my fair share of shopping, when I notice an account on Instagram sharing a free tutorial or pattern, I choose one and make it. Chouette Kit in France, has given 3 free tutorials recently. I’ve made all 3. I made the little stuffed whale from thrifted wool, a project bag from panel yardage, and this little bunny treat bag from linen and vintage tea towel.

We were supposed to have family Easter dinner, 40+ people at our house this Sunday, but that is not going to happen now. We can blame the stay at home order, but the weather has also played a spring trick on us and we are supposed to have a wet, sloppy snow on Easter Sunday.

Because the pattern is in French, I’ve been asked to show in English how to sew it. I love picture books, so maybe that’s why I could follow the pictures in the French pattern!

It always takes me so long to actually make a video, because of the setup process and then uploading the video. Since this is my hobby, I don’t have a video set up already in place where I can plop down and start recording, or someone to edit and upload, so I can keep sewing!

We’ll see what happens.

By the way, this is day 10, no personal facebook posts. I’ve gotten over the hump of feeling “I should go post this on Facebook,” for every silly, snarky thing that pops in my head!

So, tell me. Do you like having a picture on a post? If you are looking for all my quarantine sewing pictures, you’ll find them on Instagram right now!

Your friend,
Anne Dovel

Sweet bunny treat bag

This pattern is free from Chouette Kit website.

I am using fabric that I have during “quarantine.”
The blue is a linen/cotton blend and the cream is a scrap from a vintage tea towel that someone had marked a cross stitch design on with pencil. I think that makes it even more charming.

The sweetest handmade bunny treat bag

One of the things I’ve enjoyed doing lately, is sewing the free patterns that some of my favorite Instagram maker accounts have posted.

This morning, I saw the free bunny treat bag that Chouette Kit from France, posted. Including printing and cutting out the template, the entire project took less than 30 minutes.

And it’s so sweet. I used a scrap of a vintage tea towel and some of a modern linen blend that I had leftover after making a shirt.

Bunny Treat Bag post on Instagram.

Your Friend,
Anne Dovel

What about that fabric stash, quilter?

My last soapbox on the masks, concerns the meme that basically criticizes quilters for their stash of fabric, saying that finally, they’ll have a reason to use it.

Okay. Here we go. Quilters receive a lot of criticism, from themselves and from non-quilters, about buying fabric “just because.”

There are people who spend thousands of dollars going to football games. Hundreds are spent on hair color, nail polish, tattoos. Tens of thousands on antiques and antique car collections. And a quilter comes home with $100 worth of fabric for her stash and it’s …excessive?

I don’t buy into that. If your family has no food to eat, and you come home with fabric that you don’t have a plan for and have to find a place to shove it because all your cupboards are full. Yes, I believe that would be irresponsible. Someone needs to point that out to you. You aren’t reading this blog, so we are an an impasse.

If, on the other hand, let’s say you use fabric. You don’t want to always be running to town, wasting hours, when you come up with a project you want to sew, and keep a good stash of a wide variety.

What about people like me, who just really love textiles. I love the texture, design, color, feel. Why is it any weirder for me to buy a couple yards of a fabric that I love, instead of buying clearance stuff at Target to fill my shelves? (Nothing against Target)

People often like to tell others how to spend their money, if it doesn’t line up with their priorities. It’s okay. It is, what it is.

On the flip side, if you follow me on Instagram, I always encourage you to use your fun fabric. Either display it, so you can see and touch it, or make it into something. It’s so much more fun to use favorite fabrics, than to hide them away. It’s more fun to use beautiful quilts, than hide them in a vault to keep them safe.

And guess what? If you use those beautiful fabrics that you bought and are saving for just the right project, you’ll find more beautiful fabrics. You’ll make room for new discoveries. It’s like how meditation can help clear out the cobwebs so you have room for other thoughts. When you use fabric that you’ve hidden away, it opens up space in your storage or life, for new treasures.

When we had little to spend on fabric, I got so much joy out of buying even 1/8th yard. It was often my time out of the house, when the hubs would come home and give me a break from the demands of being a mom. I would go to the quilt shop, buy a snippet of fabric. It’s all I could afford. But, it brought me great joy. A

And, then, I would save it. Not use it. It was special fabric, I should have a really special project to use it in.

Let me tell you, when I finally flipped that thinking around, and started using my favorites, it brought more joy than when I found or bought it. Because, instead of folded up in a tub, hidden away, it’s now a runner on my dresser, or a placemat, napkin or mug rug, that I see every day. And it brings that charm into my whole house, instead of hidden away in a tub.

More on how to use your fun fabrics, in the future.

Until then, you’ll find me using recycled/upcycled fabrics and brand new fabrics, on my Instagram page.

Your friend,
Anne Dovel

What about those masks?

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, about the masks that my dad asked me to make, but I didn’t finish, because I got on a facebook stalker rant.

Will I wear a face mask? I suppose I will, if the situation warrants it. One crafter got an earful from an Instagram blaster (those people who live only to post negativity on strangers’ feeds) saying she shouldn’t be trying to sell her cloth face masks. Why the heck not?

This is a soapbox for another day, but this goes back to the age old opinion that if you know how to sew, you ought to be willing to do it for free for those who don’t.

No. You don’t have to. I don’t go to a lawn service and ask them to mow my yard for free, because they have equipment and know how to mow so well. I don’t walk into a store and ask for everything to be free, because obviously, the store is great at procuring goods.

If it is on your heart and in your mission to sew face masks (yes, yes, yes…they are not medical grade, never will be, and yes, yes, yes… they are really to protect others from your spit, not so much the other way around and yes yes yes yes…your BEST defense against this Covid19 virus, is washing hands with soap and water while you sing the alphabet song and keeping your distance. Okay… disclaimers present) where was I? If you want to make hundreds and donate them, do.

But, here’s where I get my hackles up. When some negative, ignorant person, sitting behind a screen tells someone they shouldn’t get compensated during a crisis? Again, I say…why the heck not? It’s their time, they bought the fabric and elastic, and they have bills to pay too.

That’s my soapbox for April 7. If you want to sew and donate, do. But, if you want to sew and sell, be proud of that. You should be compensated for your time and materials. If someone says you shouldn’t, that’s their perspective.

I will say, from a marketing perspective, don’t overstock your etsy shop with masks. This time will pass. And unlike the memes that say we will all be changed after this, I don’t agree. I think those who take something from it, and decide to change, will. Others, once the crisis is over, will gradually go back to the same way they lived before. It’s always a choice.

My last soapbox on this will “air” tomorrow. It’s regarding the meme telling quilters that finally, they are using that stash. Oh, it’s a good thing I’m all alone here on my blog. And I don’t swear. Not out loud.

Your friend,
Anne Dovel