For many years, I have appreciated the embroidery skills that my Grandmother displayed on her amazing crazy quilts. I began using the featherstitch about six years ago, and learned how to make lazy daisies, but I hadn’t tried many other stitches.

Part of my ethos, both personally and professionally, is that items I make and items in our house need to be both beautiful and practical. I don’t have any plans to make velvet crazy quilts—but I do plan to learn all of the stitches that Grandmother used…AND…put them onto practical items.

The Beauty of Quilts and the Comforts of Home

Yesterday, I was listening to a podcast that I recently discovered called Haptic and Hue. The topic of this episode was “Whole Cloth Quilts in the North Country” of England. While the entire episode was fascinating, a couple of minutes specifically grabbed my attention. (And, ladies, please forgive me if I made an error in transcribing your words.)

“…This very human trait of seeking something beautiful even though you might be surrounded by poverty and industry, these North Country quilts have the ability to help make houses into homes, give comfort, and provide pleasure for the eyes and solace for the hands.” -Jo Andrews

Making a Structured Tote Bag

In this post, I will show you how I made an original, completely unique linen tote bag—even I will never make another one exactly the same!

When I was originally planning this post, I was going to teach you how to design your own tote bag; however, I decided to wait to share that process with you until I have designed and made a few more sizes of bags to give you those instructions. For those of you who have no interest in designing a pattern, ByAnnie.com offers MANY patterns for purses and bags, as well as a variety of other products…