Purple Frog Friend

Just sent this purple frog off to my Mawmaw. I love making these and she has wanted one for a while. We've been a bit quiet on Facebook because we're mixing the live CD and making Holiday gifts. Hope everyone is doing alright. It's been a time of deep thought and feeling for our country these last few days...

Happy Pincushion

My pincushion is so happy! The pins are having a party.
It's recovering from a sewing marathon where I finished a quilt for my neighbor's daughter & made a matching pillow too.
I love December because I seem to sew and sew!

JenisWhatNots Opens on Etsy!

A little ole thing just came together! I have opened a mercantile on etsy. Yip yip yippee! Right now, I have letterpress cards up there. Just made them a couple of weeks ago with my Dad, Greg Hankins. Can't wait to hear what y'all think of it!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JenisWhatNots

Handmade Paper Delight

Handmade paper! So much fun. I can't believe I waited this long to make my first piece. This is soooo satisfying. How wonderful to see junk mail turned into unique paper!

Barbie Gets a Sweater

It's true! I have Barbies. When I was a kid, I had so much fun doing Barbie hair. I'm not sure why I didn't go into cosmetology. I probably did so much hair – Barbie's hair and my own – that I wore out on that career before I finished high school.

Last week, I was visiting my Mawmaw and she had a little bag of yarn that someone had given to her church. Since none of them knit, she asked if I would like to have it. Yip! Yip! Hooray for hand-me-down yarn!

As I was re-wrapping the yarn and transferring it to a basket in my studio, I found this little pretty. How nice for ballerina Barbie to have a little sweater vest for her warm-ups before performing the Nutcracker this Christmas.

A nifty fact for folks who have our Jewell Ridge Coal CD. This little sweater vest was knitted by Peggy Patrick, daughter-in-law of Puny Patrick who is squatting behind his dinner bucket in the center panel of the inside of the CD package. I always thought he looked a bit like Toby Maguire. Peggy passed away a few months ago and her husband donated some of her sewing notions and such to Mawmaw's church. 

I feel honored to be carrying on with Peggy's yarn and sewing notions. 

She left behind some more of this blue yarn, so perhaps I'll take my sister's suggestion and make ballerina Barbie some pants – or at least some leg warmers!

Sending cozy thoughts from our little ole cottage in East Nashville,

Jeni

Beginning Again. Time to Finish That Live CD!

After a big ole weekend of unpacking & cleaning and a few films at the Nashville Jewish Film Festival, we are getting into the mixing of our live CD! Crossed fingers would be much appreciated! Here is Billy in our dining room studio...

Soul Cakes

Today, my Mom & I made Soul Cakes to celebrate Halloween & All Saint's Day. They are so very yummy & we highly recommend this recipe. I substituted 1/4 tsp of cardamom for the Allspice & Nutmeg because we like cardamom so much. 11 minutes was a good baking time for us! Wish I could send these to every friend! They are so more-ish:-) http://recipewise.co.uk/soul-cake

Letterpress & Tanning Lamps

Who knew that this treasure from the 1970s would be useful in an art project. You can use it to expose photo-polymer plates for letterpress printing! Working on some new things for our Jeni & Billy mercantile....fun with Dad!

Project photos & etsy store coming in a few weeks!

Cutest Little Ole Pillow

Really excited about tonight's house concert in Laurel, MD! We have had such a beautiful day learning about Jewish traditions from our hosts. Our host's step-mother made this pillow. It is just the very cutest thing ever! I am determined to make one too.

Celebrating Today

Getting ready for day two here in Crozet. It's beautiful to wake up in the Airstream & head over to the stage. The crowd is smaller this morning as people finish up at church and make their way over after. Things feel calm as the miniature train rolls by and I feel so thankful to be here with Billy doing this work.

Spool of Cheer

What is it that makes me love this spool of thread? This is the kind of thing that can make me feel instantly calm. Sometimes I think I should carry something like this in my pocket or my purse for moments when I feel flustered. I saw this in my friend Debbie Snider's sewing room. She makes me feel calm too. Miss you Debbie:-)

Custom Book Cover

Today, I am trying to finish up this book cover for all of the passages I will be reading at our Songs By the Book concert at Chesterfield Library on Oct. 11.
I originally made the book cover for a composition book that I already had in hand, but the pattern I used had a mistake in it! So glad I wasn't teaching this to a group and found the mistake when none of our books fit.
So, I had to decide whether to make a new cover or make a custom book. I decided on a custom book. So you may see this at our shows & I am likelyl to read to you from it.

Mawmaw Tries a Triangle

Mawmaw wasn't too sure when I showed her the pattern for Anna Maria Horner's Folk Dance Quilt. She had not fooled with triangles in her umpteen years of quilting. So, I started piecing the triangles myself while she finished up a nine-patch quilt top. Well, curiosity got the better of her and my Aunt Princess Temple was depending on her to learn how to make this beautiful quilt, so I taught her how to piece the triangles.

I will not kid you. These triangles are no picnic to sew together and we used our seam ripper quite a bit, but we felt like the result was well worth the effort.

All of this fabric except the blue floral on the far left is available at Jo-Ann right now. Quite a bit of it is Denyse Schmidt. I definitely support my independent fabric shops and I especially love to use recycled fabric, but the only fabric store that was open on a Sunday on our drive from Central VA to Southwest VA was Jo-Ann. The poor women there were about as worn-out as great-grandma's ironing board.

I am still hand-sewing the binding on this quilt after finishing the rest of the work about four weeks ago, but that is the life of the DIY musician – projects always hurry up and wait!

Love and Happiness from me, your friend,

Jeni