Ellen Luckett Baker is author of The Long Thread, where she writes about her adventures with sewing, crafting, and kids. Her book, 1, 2, 3 Sew, was recently published by Chronicle Books and her debut fabric collection, Quilt Blocks, is now available. You can find fabrics from this collection right here on Etsy.  Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband, two daughters, and a growing number of pets. Currently she is working on her next book, 1, 2, 3 Quilt, scheduled for publication in fall 2013.

With bright colors and simple construction, this patchwork blanket will help you get excited about summer. Take it with you to the beach, pool, or park. The basic construction will introduce you to a few quilting techniques, but without binding or top quilting, the simple pattern is easy for those new to sewing. This blanket features the bright, geometric designs of my new fabric collection, Quilt Blocks, which is inspired by the timeless designs of quilts, but with a modern twist.

These instructions use three pieces of fabric sewn together to form the backing, but you can also use a vintage sheet or, if you are a more experienced sewer, you could use waterproof fabrics for the backing for added function and durability. For the flags, you may choose to use 20 different fabrics or make them all the same. I used 12 different fabrics, with most of them repeating.

Supplies:
4 yards backing fabric
2 yards white cotton fabric
20 fat quarters printed cotton fabric
½ yard striped cotton fabricâ€

Finished dimensions: 72†x 64â€
Seam allowance: ¼”

Directions:

1. Cut fabric and batting. You will need to cut the following:

• 10 ½†squares of patterned fabric (cut 20)
• 6†squares of patterned fabric (cut 20)
• 6†squares of white fabric (cut 20)
• 15†X 4†white fabric (cut 16)
• 4 ½†x 64 ½†striped fabric (cut 3)
• 72 ½†x 64 ½†batting
• 16 ½†x 64 ½†backing fabric (cut 2)
• 40 ½†x 34 ½†backing fabric (cut 1)

2. Make half-square triangles. First, you will need to form a set of half-square triangles for each flag. With a 6†patterned square and a 6†white square, place the fabrics right sides facing and mark a line down the diagonal using a pencil or pen. Stitch ¼†from this line on either side, as illustrated in fig. A. Cut down the center, open the square, press and trim if needed. Repeat until you have sewn all twenty sets of squares together to form forty half-square triangles. Press the seams to one side.

3. Sew half-square triangles together. With like fabrics together, sew one half-square triangle to another, with right sides facing and white fabrics together. See fig. B. Repeat until you have twenty joined pieces. Press the seams open.

4. Finish flag pieces. Sew the joined half-square triangles to the 10 ½†squares, with right sides facing. Be sure that the center tip of the white triangle is facing towards the patterned square. See fig. C. Press the seam towards the square of fabric.

Thank you to Ellen Luckett Baker  for sharing this project with us. For more sewing projects like this one, check out 1, 2, 3 Sew, available from Amazon and your local independent bookstore. If you make your own picnic blanket, share a photo with us in the Etsy Labs Flickr group.

More Things to Make | Picnic Blankets on Etsy

Photo by Angie Six on Flickr

In Amsterdam, community members are gathering at cafés, not for a cup of coffee, but to fix broken toasters and vacuum cleaners. Started as a small volunteer-based center, the Repair Cafe has become a success story, attracting more than $525,000 in funding. “In Europe, we throw out so many things,†said Martine Postma, the journalist who came up with the idea. “It’s a shame, because the things we throw away are usually not that broken. There are more and more people in the world, and we can’t keep handling things the way we do.”

The Repair Cafe reminds us that our definition of “broken” has radically changed over the past 50 years. We used to sew patches on ripped clothing and wrap duct tape around frayed extension cords, but now it’s easier, and often cheaper, to just purchase a replacement. “This cost 5 or 10 euros,” said a women, referring to a black H&M skirt she brought to the Repair Cafe. “It’s a piece of nothing, you could throw it out and buy a new one. But if it were repaired, I would wear it.”

The movement towards repair isn’t just bound to Amsterdam; a small gallery in Brooklyn, New York, now invites community members to bring in their broken and worn belongings. “Anyone can bring something in and tinker with it. If you don’t fix it, you can turn it into something else,” said gallery owner Tammy Pittman. “We turned an MP3 player into a telephone. Somebody once turned a shoe into a lamp.” Now known as the Fixers Collective, not only do participants save money by revamping their goods, they also learn how something works by tinkering with broken parts.

1010uk on Flickr

Participants of the Repair Cafe examine an appliance.

This approach hearkens back to earlier habits. “In the early decades of industrialization, people might pass down, repair, or sell service products like ovens, refrigerators, and phones to junk dealers,” writes architect and designer William McDonough. “Today most so-called durables are tossed. Who on Earth would repair a cheap toaster today? It is much easier to buy a new one than it is to send the parts back to the manufacturer or track down someone to repair it locally.” Instead of this constant disposability,  McDonough envisions a cradle-to-cradle approach to design that encourages companies to create waste-free products.

Even with do-gooders like McDonough, it will never be easy to persuade companies to create long-lasting products. It’s no secret that many retailers practice planned obsolescence, deliberately designing and manufacturing objects to have a short lifespan so that consumers constantly purchase new versions and throw out the old.  The Repair Cafe and various other fix-it groups emerging around the world are an example of how people are taking matters into their own hands to completely redefine consumption. It appears we have the beginnings of a fix-it economy, where the most highly valued skill is the ability to mend.

Chappell Ellison is a designer, writer and design writer. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York where she serves as a contributor for The Etsy Blog and design columnist for GOOD.

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As a young boy on King Island, Sylvester Ayek learned the ways of his Iñupiat elders: hunting, foraging, and the craft of carving walrus ivory and wood. Today, he sells his artwork to support his traditional subsistence lifestyle, struggling to maintain Iñupiat ways in a quickly changing world.

For more information about subsistence living and Alaska Native Peoples sale of ivory, read the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines.

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Elizabeth Duvivier  is a writer and director of the Squam Art Workshops. Squam is a lake, a gathering, and a community that is brought together by a series of retreats that aim to celebrate creativity as a way of life.

Five years ago, I launched a series of creative retreats called Squam Art Workshops. Squam celebrates creativity as a way of life, and our mission is to dissolve restrictions and limitations on the definition of what it means to be an artist. We celebrate joy, fun, pleasure, beauty and the natural world. Our community receives encouragement, training, inspiration and experience that nurtures the creative spirit. As you can imagine, many wonderful things have grown out of these gatherings, but the greatest treasures, for sure, are the friendships and connections that have developed.

When my friend Jeanine Caron married her British boy last December, I knew I had to have something special to offer the newlyweds. As it happened, I had a set of four vintage pale blue napkins that had been in Jeanine’s Montreal apartment, which she gifted to me before she moved house to London. (She gave them to me because I loved them so much, so only two went into the runner. Two are still with me!) And, I knew just the person to help me incorporate this sentimental textile into an heirloom linen: Maya Donenfeld.

As Maya says,  “I love taking something old and transforming it into something fresh and new. I teach others how to create with salvaged materials in my classes at Squam, on my blog, with patterns in my Etsy shop, and now with my brand new book, Reinvention: Sewing With Rescued Materials.â€

To learn how Maya turned these supplies…

…into this heirloom-worthy table runner with a story to tell…

…follow us over to the brand new Etsy Weddings blog. There you will find full instructions for this project by Maya Donenfeld, as well as an array of other how-to’s, tips, and stories to help you craft a handmade wedding. Read more after the jump!

Etsy Weddings | Squam Art Workshops | How-To Projects

Elizabeth Duvivier is a writer and director of the Squam Art Workshops. Squam is a lake, a gathering, and a community that is brought together by a series of retreats that aim to celebrate creativity as a way of life.

Photo by Combat Paper Project

Hello, creative Californians! We have a great slate of creative programming in your great state this month. Join in the fun on Thursday, June 7: in LA, make handmade paper on a bike-powered contraption with the Combat Paper Project, and in San Francisco, learn about pickling.

Craft Night at Craft and Folk Art Museum in LA

Klugmann Photography

For this month’s Los Angeles Craft Night, Drew Cameron from the Combat Paper Project will join us for an evening of bike-powered papermaking. The Combat Paper Project’s mission is to use art-making workshops “to assist veterans in reconciling and sharing their personal experiences as well as broadening the traditional narrative surrounding service and the military culture. Through papermaking workshops veterans use their uniforms worn in combat to create cathartic works of art. The uniforms are cut up, beaten into a pulp and formed into sheets of paper. Veterans use the transformative process of papermaking to reclaim their uniform as art and begin to embrace their experiences in the military.”

At this Craft Night, we’ll learn some basics about papermaking and witness the bicycle-powered paperbeater. Participants will be able to make a sheet of handmade paper and also create their own custom stamps from various materials. $5 admission includes materials and snacks. Free admission for members of CAFAM. RSVP is suggested: rsvp@cafam.org.

When: Thursday, June 7 from 7 to 9 p.m. PT at CAFAM.
Where: Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Blvd (at Curson), Los Angeles, CA

Craft Bar at Museum of Craft & Folk Art in S.F.

mudandtwig

Caught in a pickle and don’t know what to do on a Thursday night? Join us at MOCFA  in San Francisco to learn how to pickle different kinds of vegetables. The evening will also feature a make-your-own label station. Craft Bar’s Stitch and Bitch is making a return this month, so bring your knitting needles and yarn, or use the Museum’s. As always, MOCFA supports liquid courage in crafting, so adult beverages will be available.  $5 covers admission, tips, tricks, and materials.

When: Thursday, June 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. PT at MOCFA.
Where: Museum of Craft and Folk Art at 51 Yerba Buena Lane, San Francisco, CA

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