Christmas Catch-Up: Pork Cuts free applique pattern

I don’t generally consider the slaughter of a pig cause for celebration, but apparently parts of Germany do. The Other and I were introduced to the idea of Schlachtfest several years ago through an East German children’s game of the same name (or rather, the similar “Schlacterfest”), in which players compete to assemble various cuts of pig into a full swine. (Though in true communist fashion, players eventually learn that to win the game, they have to cooperate rather than competing like capitalists.)


The Other is also the main cook in our household, and frequently comments that he’s never sure what defines particular cuts of meat. So what better Christmas gift than an apron with a pig appliqué handily labeled with pork cuts? OK, maybe it’s not so handy, but it’s gruesomely amusing. To our twisted senses of humor, at least.


I used a store-bought apron as the base to save sewing time. The pig and Schlachtfest label were stuck on with fusible web (my favorite is HeatnBond Lite). To avoid having to use a separate stabilizer, I sewed the detail lines on the pig and the letters and numbers before peeling off the backing paper of the fusible, gently tearing it away from the stitches. A zigzag round the outer edge, and the sow’s ready for the kitchen.

Download my free Pork Cuts appliqué pattern (in PDF or as an EQ7 project file) if you want to embellish your own apron—or whatever else! Of course, you could just use the pig shape without the cut lines if you’re not feeling so morbid.

Sometimes it’s nice to just stitch from a kit

No design to plan, no supplies to track down (except matching Persian yarn when my chain stitch is tighter than the kit apparently intended…grrr).

Are you loving the blue gingham wallpaper from our kitchen? Yeah, me neither. Distracting from the mingitude with gaudy seventies fruit currently beats stripping the paper. Though I should perhaps save “gaudy” for this lurid little number from another vintage kit:

Love at first pork?

Kitchen projects in Stitch

Check out the current issue of Quilting Arts Stitch for my pattern to make these nametag placemats, which of course double as placecards. I’ve been itching to make something like this for ages, so I was thrilled that Stitch liked them too.

Also from the spring 2010 Stitch, my felt Stepping Stones potholder makes a quick hostess gift or spot of wall decor. Try cutting some of the circles from felt in houndstooth or another pattern!

Make sure not to miss my baby quilt or the other great projects in the magazine!

So long, days of tidiness

I've been lax about posting since packing up my apartment has kicked into high gear, partly because the boxes, rubbish, and other various bits scattered round the place are making my brain quite a confused place. I just posted some photos on Flickr in memoriam cleaner days.

Quilting is more or less on hold, though I'll likely hit a fabric shop or two with the Mother when I see her this weekend for Middle Brother's wedding. I finished a backing for Spots so I can hand it off to her for quilting—I thought I had enough print scraps from the top to easily make the backing, but it ended up being a stretch. I'd show you a photo, but there isn't a clear surface available for picture-taking in the whole apartment! It's seriously making me bonkers.

Charles Harper and Eleanor Grosch

I bought these prints by local artist Eleanor Grosch last year. They immediately reminded me of Charley Harper's illustration style (especially the focus on gracefully curved birds). I wondered what she thought of his work, and then I saw on her blog that he's her favorite artist! "I'd like to thing our work has some similarities," she writes; I for one have always associated the two. Do check out her shop, where you can see more of her work, including some beautiful stuff using more pattern. And take a look at Caroline Tiger's interview with Grosch.

Charley Harper, for his part, seems to be cropping up quite a bit recently. After writing about Harper in Handmade Modern, Todd Oldham has a 420-page, $200 monograph, Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life (no, that isn't an extra zero) due out in June. Just a few days ago print & pattern ran a post on Harper, too. I saw this set of notecards at a shop yesterday and was tempted to buy it—if this set had been in stock, I would have bought it. Actually, I probably would have bought two, one to use and one to frame/admire. But for now, I'm waiting for my copy of Introducing Our Western Birds to arrive after reading about it here—it seems to be illustrated in a similar style.

All the bird business got me itching to stamp out the Feeding Frenzy pattern I've had in my head for a while now. I'd like to print yardage too, but for now I wanted to see how the crowds of pigeons looked on these book covers, as I'm thinking of starting an Etsy shop.

And Column Inches? It's still coming along, but slowly due to the slice-and-dice improvisational technique I'm improvising (no, that isn't redundant). The top looks completely pieced together from this photo, but it isn't quite wide enough. I wish some of the text strips were a bit more angled, so I'm seeing what I can do with the last few pieces.

Tchotchke Tuesday: Gumby and Pokey salt and pepper shakers

Lord knows I have plenty of it. So I shall endeavor to post on a random objet each Tuesday—my life needs structure.

Origin: Antique shop in Michigan
Cost: Free—'twas a gift

These salt and pepper shakers, I'm afraid, are not the only presence of Gumby and Pokey in my apartment. In fact, they've penetrated into every room in some incarnation. "Are you a big Gumby fan?" people ask. Well, no, not really (though there was a bit of a phase in high school), but how could I argue with the aqua and orange? It's like they were made for my color scheme. Seeing all the photos up here makes me wonder if perhaps my colors are too schematic, but it's not really that oppressive. It just looks a bit like a HoJo. A HoJo with Gumby and Pokey lounging round the pool.

As a side note, these are the kinkiest shakers I own. Why? Because Pokey's shaped perfectly to—ahem—get intimate with Gumby's leg. See how G's elbow would slide right into the crook of P's neck? A bit like way-back plate tectonics, with all the continents fitting together like a puzzle. I prefer G and P to maintain a bit more personal space.