The Krista Connection

The Make It, Take It bloghop continues today with more chances to win a copy of the book and more opportunities to learn about the inspiration behind the projects!  You can read about Krista Fleckenstein's handy Crafter's Apron here. I just love all of the prints she paired with Essex linen, resulting in a super-stylish apron you can wear at home or on retreat.

Photo: Brent Kane for Martingale Inc., all rights reserved.

Keep your readers, scissors & marking tools handy!

Krista Withers is sharing her work in the book today (here) as well.  She's written a two page essay in the book outlining her Ghost Quilting technique and explaining how she goes about planning, auditioning and marking quilt designs. You'll see her masterful quilting on the Stepping Stones table runner and the Orange Grove quilt, both found in the second section of the book.

Have a look at Krista's blog for process photos and a lot more quilting!

I hope you're enjoying learning more about each designer's project on the tour this week. The support and excitement for the book has been amazing. I thank you!!!

Craft Hope for Haiti - Aprons!

I read about Craft Hope's latest initiative over at Maureen's lovely blog the other day.  When Craft Hope ran their first fundraiser on Etsy for Haiti, I donated a small art quilt. Turns out the purchaser was also a blogger. We exchanged emails and Duff became a lovely and HI-larious friend.  Since that time, I hadn't really kept up with Craft Hope (I understand their website is under reconstruction so they are operating on Facebook these days - probably why I'm out of the loop. I'm useless on fb).  I'm rambling.

The gist of this latest project is supply pretty aprons for women who are rebuilding their lives and homes in Haiti. Easy. Especially when Maureen has written a fantastic tutorial so that you can  make an apron in about an hour out of 4 fat quarters. Seriously! I made this one yesterday afternoon right after she posted the tute.

In her post, Maureen suggested the over skirt pieces would be perfect for drying hands, so I ran with that and used linen for those pieces. A repurposed linen shirt of B's, actually. You can see I left the shirt tail hems in tact along the bottom.

modeled by the lovely D

I had two pretty Amy Butler fat quarters for the centre panel and ties and used a pink/green print, who's origins completely escape me now, for the waistband.  Anybody recognize it? (eta - of course, it's from Heather Bailey's Freshcut. Thanks Katie!)

Think you could whip up an apron and ship it to Tennessee by May 31st? If so, all the info you need is in this post.  While you're at it, why not make up a second one for your mom?  Mother's Day is next Sunday here in North America!