Lumplings take on the Big Apple

Tonight will be a packing frenzy as the Amy Rue clan gets ready to hop on a plane going north to New York. Finn has been absolutely New York mad, so Hans and I promised to take them this summer. And here we are, in a newborn summer, going where there's lots of hot pavement. Yikes. But we are all excited; the children are desperate to hit the toy stores and I'm getting itchy just thinking about seeing the Cath Kidston store.

I still need to post on the amy rue website that any orders placed will be fulfilled next week.

lavender & flax pillow with frayed applique and vintage buttons

For years and years I've made lavender sachets for friends and our family. The kids both sleep with one; sometimes they'll reach over and squeeze it for an extra lavender oomph before falling asleep. One year, I made up a bunch of them for the goody bags at Finn's birthday party and all of the kids loved them (well, except one..and obviously she had a sniffer problem!) I put them in the drawers and linens, where they stay sweet forever.

My whole point is that it just now came into my tiny brain to offer them at amyrue.com. So I'm sewing up a batch and they'll be available in the next couple of weeks.
Some Lumplings halfway done. for some reason I have not found the perfect way to make Lumpling dresses. This was my newest attempt and something about it just looks like Austin Powers to me. So back to the pattern board as I draw and scheme new ideas. I want something very simple and Lumpling-like. It's bound to click one day.
More of the patchwork pillows underway. I'm still in love with fabric squares and I just don't see an end in site with that! Over at Posie Gets Cozy blog today she had a great post about inspiration and mentions how lovely a simple patchwork is and I was happy to see that I'm not alone. I'm sure that an experienced quilter would laugh at the quilts that I made for the children or the Lumpling pillows, but just seeing the fabric sewn together makes me happy.