MakingOver Quilts

I love making pies for potlucks, holidays, really all the time. But transporting pies can be a pain. Years ago I saw something called a "pie cozy," which is like a pie-shaped potholder with sides that wrap up alongside the outside of the pie pan. So, recently when I came across a strawberry fabric that reminded me of strawberry pies, I decided to make my own pie cozy. I've now made two -- one strawberry, one pumpkin. Here are the directions, in painful detail and with pictures.  Materials Pie Center - At least .25 of a yard (more if the print is bigger)  Contrast - .5 yard for contrast on front + backing  Sides - Strip 4" wide and approximately 42" long Piping - Strip 2" wide and approximately 42" long Batting - Strip 2" wide and approximately 42" long + Square 15" wide and 15" long Thread for piecing Thread for quilting (hand or machine, or both) Spray adhesive Spray starch Steps 1. Press all fabrics. I

I have a lot of hobbies. More than I should. Two of my favorites are quilting and pie making. I recently came across some adorable strawberry fabric and started down the road of combining my passions for quilting and pies. The first item to come out of this fusion is a pie cozy, meant to look like a strawberry pie. It's even reversible to accommodate larger pie pans. The process of making this cozy made me really hungry. It also made me think about some of the commonalities between quilting and pie making. Aside from being associated with the home and "women's work," there are several other commonalities worthy of note. The first commonality is that they both take patience. Given this, they are actually pretty unlikely passions for someone like me. Someone with so little patience that my childhood was filled with my dad repeating, "patience is a virtue, my child" as I fumed. Even though I have been sewing and baking since I was very

By my count, I have made 23 t-shirt quilts over the last seven years. That's more than three a year. Each year, interest in custom-made, unique, personal quilted items only grows and I see a lot of questions and debates about how to best make a t-shirt quilt. My process has been revised over the years and I am happy to now share my tips! First, a couple of comments. I prefer collage style t-shirt quilts. This means that I cut each shirt to a different size and then piece them together like a collage. Other people prefer keeping all shirts the same size and even sometimes including frames or sashes around each piece. I think those quilts are beautiful too, but I personally find the collage style to be most reflective of the t-shirt vibe. So, this advice is particularly about collage quilts, but some advice might also be applicable to other designs. Also, t-shirts are stretchy. You probably already know that. What you might not know (or accept) is that it stretches as you c

Mary Shelley gave her famous Frankenstein story two titles. Most people only know it as Frankenstein , but the full title is Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus . I have always loved the double titling. It signals that the story can be read on multiple levels. The first level is the topsoil. It's the story of one man's arrogance and the monster he created. It's terrifying and fascinating and resonates with wide audiences. The second level is the deeper bedrock, where the roots grow in search of nourishment. For Shelley, Greek mythology was part of the bedrock that motivated the story of Dr. Frankenstein. Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the Gods and brought it to the humans. As punishment for this, he was tied to rock where an eagle would come and eat his liver each day. Every night he regrew his liver and every day the eagle returned. Fire, a step forward for humans, was the source of unending misery for the one who brought it. Dark, right? Literature,

I'm a sociologist, so the central features of Karl Marx's ideas about capitalism and society are woven into my perspective on the world. "The history of hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles..." and all that. Social scientists continue to disagree about the extent to which Marx was correct in his theories, but I have always found parts of his ideas to be compelling and reflective of my experiences. For example, I have had a lot of jobs. I started working as early as I was legally able (15) and often pieced together multiple part time jobs throughout my adulthood. In each, Marx's characterization of tensions between hourly wage workers and the owners of the means of production has resonated with me. While I didn't always know the owners of the businesses I worked within, I always felt their presence through the rules/procedures they created and the managers they chose. Even more apparent to me was that this tension between workers and