Erik HOMEMADE Coffee Break eZine

It's Our 3rd Birthday!

 
on the World-Wide Web!

January Welcome

2011, Looking Ahead!

 
Here we are a few weeks past the New Year and at Erik HOMEMADE(R) we are getting ready for some exciting projects to come!

In the next few weeks we will finish our CHRISTMAS 2010 MYSTERY QUILT...by the end of February, give or take a week. This particular project presented us with some challenges that we didn't expect, but in the long run, was a great learning experience; lots of same size pieces, a little confusion, and a few major holidays added to the mix! We hope you are using your scraps and having fun! When this project ends we will announce a contest for you to submit photos of your finished (quilted, bound, embellished!) projects for a new photo album for our side bar! We are very excited to see what you have made! Next week will announce the winner of our SCRAP PILE MYSTERY QUILT contest!

In late February we will offer a "trip to the Tropics": a week of short posts inspired by Erik's holiday trip to Hawai'i! We have a some fun things to share with aloha that we hope you will enjoy!

After that, we will begin a short series to make a quilt we call "Our Susannah!" It is a simple quilt with a border using the SUSANNAH block! This quilt would make an excellent quilt for a gift, or better yet, a beautiful quilt to use to teach someone else to quilt! Of course, Erik is using Civil War fabric, but any pretty fabric will certainly due. We hope to post a photo-tutorial with the pattern for the SUSANNAH block as we make the quilt!

We will also launch 2 block-of-the-months...one post a month with a whole month in between to make the block! Our redwork blocks will feature an easy to embroider download for you to use as you like. We will also start posting one block per month for a new sampler quilt based on the life of American patriot Benjamin Franklin. Each month will feature an short introduction, historical fact, or short story relating to Dr Franklin's incredible life along with a quilt block that will fit into a sampler style scrap quilt! Even if you are not a fan of American history, the traditional block patterns may still be of interest to you...a great addition to any quilter's pattern library. Once we have dates set, we will pass the announcement on to all of you! The fabrics are on the cutting table as we write!

Of course, we also will have a few recipes and craft ideas scattered here and there! We are happy to have you as our readers...and look forward to creating many more projects for you enjoy! Happy New Year, and Happy Crafting!

 

 
  

Our Warmest Christmas Greetings 2010

 

From Erik and everyone at Erik HOMEMADE

We wish you warm Christmas Greetings

 
Vintage Christmas card (circa 1940's) from Erik's collection 

Christmas Greetings sincere,

To say "How do you do?"

 And to wish just the best,

"Happy New Year" for

You!

Click here to print a copy of this vintage greeting card->Download Craft pdf Template-Vintage Greeting Card Christmas 2010

WELCOME to our New Site!

Welcome to our re-decorated and re-designed Erik HOMEMADE(R) Coffee-Break eZine! Take care; the paint might still be wet! The site went live this morning (at 1:20am EDT) after much preparation--but as they say, the time spent preparing, is time well spent! Everyone on our Action Team appreciates comments and criticisms from our readers, some of them leading to changes on our page 

The most obvious change is the color banner at the top of our Main/Home Page. The plan right now is to keep the banner current with the season or holiday. Each photograph has a corresponding box explained on the Banner Sources Page, another new feature. Instead of plain words, each category has a ribbon button to click; the pages,a typewriter key. We have added Facebook plug-ins, and enlarged the right side bar to accomodate larger photos. The text has been enlarged for easier reading. The Archives Page has been eliminated and a few things simply re-named.

With all of the changes, everything you are used to is still here, though it might have moved from the left to the right, or vice-versa. We left everything in plain sight and none of the URLs, as originally published, have changed. In theory, all external links should still be valid. We chose to leave some photos as they were simply to keep some bearings in line. If you can not find something you are looking for, or need help, please let us know.

We truly hope you enjoy this new site! We look forward to hearing your comments...For our subscribers, expect another post later in the week, just to see how things are moving along and that all is working as it should be. 

Enjoy exploring the new site!

Welcome, Welcome!

 

With the recent announcement of our Mystery Scrap quilt, new members are subscribing everyday--something we are very excited about here at Erik HOMEMADE(R). We would like to extend a very hearty welcome to all of our new friends! For those of you who are new to our site, we invite you to spend some time to get to know us; click through the Categories, and browse our Pages. There are certainly more projects you may like to make, or at the very least, download. Although we are almost through our first year, there are recipes, treats, or projects for you! On the left side of the screen there are also links to our recipe blog, BLESS THIS LITTLE KITCHEN, and our Stash-One-Day-at-a-Time calendar, where you can find photos of fabrics from our quilt fabric stash!

If you are a long time subscriber, welcome back! We are glad you are a part of Erik HOMEMADE(R)! We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued interest, and to invite you to re-aquaint yourself with our site; flip back through the older posts, pages, and categories, and see what you like! And if you are not into quilting, not to worry! We will still post more great projects and recipes you are sure to enjoy!

Soon we will announce the 3 lucky winners of our WARM WINTER WISHES sticker embellishment packages! There will be a tasty Mayonnaise Muffin recipe (made with ingredients you may already have!) and of course new surprises, reviews, and craft projects, and more--not just a mystery quilt!

We are glad to have you all as quilters, crafters, and most of all, readers! Don't just feel free to write us a note, or leave a comment, but also email your friends, share our site--reblog, tweet, hoot, or holler our content as you see fit!

Above all, WELCOME!

Snowmen, a lesson re-learned for the New Year

 

 

Many times people have remarked about my perfectionism. It isn't so much that I want things to be perfect as it is I have an idea in my mind's eye how I would like something to look when it is crafted. After all, I think anyone who undertakes any project does. When I design, I really do have an idea what the finished piece will look like. Herein lies the what might have been my undoing!

When I was going to design school in Europe, things were easy! All I had to do was create. Lots of drawings, sketches; marker and paper, all so easy. Until! Until I had to look for a button I had drawn or a detail I had dreamed up. Most of my designs were never really created. But when as design was to be made, the search was on! When I couldn't find the exact detail, I would have to "settle" for something "close to the original"...or scrap the sketch and re-draw the whole thing with the new found item. It doesn't seem like a big deal now, but back then it was BIG drama. I had seen the overall finished work and that is how it had to be for real life. I didn't like to "settle".

As I have gotten older, things have changed, and I have tried to heed the words of my mentors and create keeping an open mind--or "mind's eye wide open", as I heard so many times. These past holidays reminded me of that very lesson: I had an idea for an ornament to give my friends--snowmen made from a simple silver glass ball, dressed with a knit stocking cap and button mouths; how cute they would be. Being busy right up to the very days before our festivities, I would gather the supplies from my list and glue, glue, glue. Piece of cake!  NOT SO FAST! Having to wait until so late in the season proved disasterous; the shops were out of orange foam for the noses, the buttons I found were too big, and plain silver balls were nowhere to be found! I looked everywhere for a large striped knit that would be perfect for the snowmen (as I saw them)! And now what would I do?! The snowmen wouldn't LOOK the same! I felt as though I was "settling".

After a bit of searching, I found a white and silver ornament package, in the right size nonetheless, at the grocery store! Mom dropped by with some old striped t-shirt fabric she had found during her move...and the little snowmen began to take shape; not the shape I thought at the begining, but shape anyhow. At the craft store I found wiggle eyes, larger than I planned and with no orange foam, I bought bright orange pompons! A simple jingle bell would replace the pompon on the end of the cap...since I was going to use one as the nose. The button smiles got scrapped. 

And how cute they turned out! All by chance, looking nothing like the sketch at the start! They had such a cheerful look that I had not anticipated. And my friends adored them! I think it is what makes them special. They were an organic creation made up as I went along. I think this may be my New Year's resolution: let ideas blossom somewhat on their own and not worry so much about the details involved. I may have learned the lesson years ago, but this year I will try to use the ol' lesson more often!

My little 'unexpected' snowmen, ready to be gifted! Nothing like the original idea--I don't see how they could have turned out better! Have a great new year everyone!
  

Holiday Wishes 2009

As this vintage greeting card declared, so many years ago, our Holiday wishes for you:

Christmas bells ring out again,
Upon the midnight clear,
As thoughts of ours
With joy combine
To bring you Christmas cheer.

 

From all of us at Erik HOMEMADE(R), we wish joy, peace, and love at this festive time of year.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here at the Erik Homemade(R) Studio, we are really lucky. Not just because we get to do things we love to do, but we are surrounded by, well, quite frankly, wonderful people with lots of great ideas, and for them we are thankful.

We are also fortunate to actually get two holidays almost every time: the holiday itself, and earlier on, the holiday as we get to prepare for it! Take for example Thanksgiving 2009...a couple of months ago I made the pumpkin pie for our November banner and Thursday's Thought for November 26th (Thanksgiving Day here in the US). That meant that there was fresh pumpkin pie when Thanksgiving was on our minds...what better way to set the mood! After the photos were taken, we got to eat pie! (We even had whipped cream!) Almost at once we were remembering aloud the holidays past and how the little recipe from the back of the pumpkin label is our pumpkin pie of reference!

Celebrating our First Birthday!

How exciting it is for me to announce the first birthday of ERIK HOMEMADE(R) on the world-wide web! And what an exciting year it has been! Looking back, it is amazing to reflect on what we have learned and accomplished! Our computer skills have improved, our horizons expanded, and our HTML knowledge--well, it is getting better everyday, and we still have time to craft!

An Easy Summer

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow"

--Helen Keller

I find it truly hard to believe we are already to July 4th and well into the warm summer weather we longed for during the dark of winter. How time goes by!

In the studio, at quilt club, and almost everywhere else, we hear the same song: times are tough. Not just in our neck of the woods, but everywhere, people are making sacrifices to make ends meet--hard descisions that impact the way money is spent and savings are gained. The good news is that thrift is being rediscovered and homemade is in vogue.