I have been eyeing others' pretty pretty completed projects from the Alabama Stitch books. (BurdaStyle's Alabama Stitch-inspired contest gallery is particularly awesome.) The just look so soft— comfortable, yet elegant, rustic, yet refined. When my mom was visiting, she bought me Alabama Studio Style as a little present. I already had some organic cotton knits that I had bought on sale, and so a project was born.

Flat on, it seems ridiculous to make an entire top by hand with just a needle and thread. Why would you? It goes so much more quickly by machine. Ah but, the problem with that logic is that it leads you to say, Why bother to sew at all? Because, you can get it more quickly and possibly cheaper at Target. Which brings us back to the beginning. For me, and I know this is true for many of you, I sew because I like the process of making and because having, using, and sharing something I've made makes me really happy. Natalie Chanin's focus on process is reassuring. There are many steps to these projects (copying, tracing, cutting (twice), xacto-ing a stencil, stenciling, painting, drying, pinning, and finally, sewing), but each has its reasons and explanations of technique. We're not doing this for no reason, we're doing it for every reason.

Technical note: If you one of these stenciled projects, don't buy the little spray cans of fabric paint at the craft store. They contain almost no paint and have poor control. If I do it again, I'm going to do as the book suggests and use watered down paint in a dollar store spray bottle.

Technical note 2: I made a mylar stencil, but I think a felt stencil would have been best. The sprayed-on paint beaded on the stencil and threatened to bleed. I think the felt would just absorb it. I though about doing Meg's freezer paper stencil but the thought of doing all the cutting and not having it on something permanent bothered me.

I just spent the last hour catching up on blog reading, and it made me so excited! Lord, there is just so much out there. I want to use up my yardage, and finish quilts, and buy yarn in California, and make really cute things to wear this summer, and I want to do it all right now. Ah, internets, you have me again!

These are the purl bee's felt rosettes (rosette barrettes!). I did them as part of "Art to Wear" with my Girl Scouts. No surprises—I am enjoying that badge quite a bit. It is taking us some time to work through though, because I chose ambitious projects. Someone who is handy with a needle and thread could whip up a rosette barrette in 15 minutes, but it naturally takes a bit longer if you're learning some stitching basics at the same time. It may have taken time, but I'm glad we did this project because in the end, they all looked good. We all know how it feels to make something that looks good v. something that looks like we had to make it in art.

The troop and I also used bleach pens for this badge, making patterns a la angry chicken or stitch in dye. Each girl got a plain green, square bandanna and went to town. Now that was a successful project.

I got my printed fabric swap package in the mail yesterday, and wow, do I feel like a lucky girl. Each fabric is amazingly beautiful and so unique--nothing you'd find at JoAnn's or anywhere else!

The sunny baby faces on green are from Mimi, the mermaids are from Petie, the orange hand dyed wood print is from Ms. Nobody, and the flying squirrel and tree with dots is from Crafty McGee. Many thanks to all of you!

Now, what to do with them? They deserve to be showcased and not stashed away in a too-pretty-to-use pile. But, the material is very dear, so the object(s) it will become should be one that will get some use. We'll see.

Thanks to Bitter Betty for organizing the swap! I love that she color coordinated all the random fabric she received so that the packages that went out had some color cohesion. (at least, mine did.)