At Home with the Lowenthal Walsh Family - momfilter

At Home with the Lowenthal Walsh Family - momfilter

Cascading Color Quilt

Inspired by my daughter's well loved, worn out clothing from her first five years, I created this quilt for her fifth birthday. I love how it reflects her childhood memories and the time that has passed. The clothes are so soft from years of laundry. Also, check out how the color study turned into wall art.

color spot

Do you have a spot in your home that inspires you? Here's a color spot from my house, a rainy day glimpse of sunshine.
The bowls were a big purchase several years back from Sundance catalog. They move around the house holding keys, toys, flowers, various collections, even ... salad, their original purpose. Wherever they pop up they somehow simultaneously multi-task as mini canvases and clutter collectors.

buttons

Buttons are one of my favorite embellishments. Sure, I love their form and color, I am always a softy for a circle, but it is the button's little history that I so cherish. I like to imagine the long years behind a button, rather lowly despite the practicality. This little item had had years at work, countless washes, travels in a suitcase to who knows where.

I add buttons to finished dresses just for decoration. I use mismatched, scratched, dinged-up buttons intentionally for purpose. I have even been known to sew a hole load up buttons onto some fabric and pop it into a frame, a sort of button melange. There's something rather quaint about their absolute necessity, imagine your favorite button down without just one button. Then think about all those old-time handmade stuffed animals with the "just right" buttons for eyes.

When an old article of clothing is too beat up, even for the pass-along pile, snip off those precious buttons, stick 'em in a drawer and find some use for them down the road. On a rainy afternoon, let your kids sort them by size, color, number of holes.

This little collection belonged to my grandma. I inherited them along with her classic old sewing table and an assortment of tired, brittle, yet colorful spools of thread.

Purl has a lovely button selection. You can check it out here. The green dress featured is for currently for sale in my etsy shop.

monkeying around

It is a dream come true for me to sew with my son. He is super into crafty projects. He loves the sewing machine, for its machine-ness, the forbidden needles because I don't say, "be careful," and the endless thread color choices for their candy store qualities. Well, to equate choosing thread to choosing candy from a candy store may be a bit of a stretch for a 6-year-old boy, but you get the point. So when we dreamed up this summer sewing project, it did not take long before he and I were willing to skip a meal, a play date, a run, whatever it took to bring this bag to fruition. His early love of the classic sock monkey was brought about not only by it's seeming resurgence, perhaps too strong of a word, in the recent years, but also by our dear friend, Magic Janine, who made him his very own sock monkey, complete with an outfit and a hand stitched, "I love you" heart. The bag will be the go-to for summer essentials, namely swimsuit, towel, snacks, a pocket for goggles and a buck, just in case.

This bag features Moda fabrics from their "5 Funky Monkeys" line. The red fabric is simply a cotton print, designed to look like the classic sock monkey sock. Check out their full line, complete with playful bananas. Infinite potential.

paper flowers

Well, sheepishly, I admit that good ol' Martha inspired this crafty party decoration. I hung the decorations around the house for my daughter's birthday party. One hung outside above the front door, in lieu of ballons, signalling, "Yes, indeed, you've arrived at the right place on the right day!" The paper flowers add such a festive flair around the house that we left them up after the party. Now it is a month later and there is no plan to take them down. I think it would look classy to use plain old brown paper lunch bags and hang them in the backyard for a summer party, yikes, not too close to the votives. This is a simple 5 minute/$5 project that adds a festive homemade feel. Check out the simple tutorial here.

while waiting for spring

While waiting for spring, which in Minnesota, is much anticipated, quite elusive and ever so sweet, I came up with this little pick-me-up project for the windows. If it takes too long for the birds to come, the bulbs to rise, the buds to break, bring spring to you. As a bonus, they make some lovely morning shadows on the east facing windows. Perhaps decorating the windows is child's play, but why not (re)live?
The papers pictured are from Paper Source.