The last month was all about sewing and pattern creation.  We've all had a great time, but it's time to take a reprieve from notions and get back to the aromatherapy side of Caught Red Threaded.  The chemical composition of essential oils, when combined with our body's own chemistry, can have powerful effects on our physical and emotional well-being.  The combination of essential oils is nearly limitless.  It is in blended formats that essentials oils (with individual expression) can lend themselves to the overall effect. Today, we will make a Love Potion spritzer for home and body.  You will need to gather the following supplies: 4 ounce spray bottle distilled water 1 teaspoon epsom salt (or other salt) Sweet Orange Essential Oil Lemon Essential Oil Cinnamon Essential Oil Rosemary Essential Oil Ylang Ylang Essential Oil dropper (optional) funnel (optional) spoon- for salt  When working with essential oils, be sure to know what you are buying as no

It's a quilt.  It's a pillow.  It's a quilt that folds in to a pillow.  It's a quillow! This tutorial promises to show you just how easy this is to make, especially if you already make quilts and other blankets.  It is also suitable for the beginner but please be patient with yourself, as this is a lengthy project.  When sewing, please remove pins before they arrive at the needle.  Sewing through a pin can cause your needle to break.  Since this has the potential to create bodily harm should it fly off, it is safe practice to remove all pins prior to their arrival at the needle. To begin, you will need the following: Cotton Thread Fabric Cut 11 18"x18" squares (front & pocket) 60"x60" (back panel) Pearl Cotton No. 8 Sewing Machine Twin Size Batting (72"x90") Straight Pins Curved Safety Pins Curved Sewing Needle You can chose the style of quilt, or leave your squares 18"x18".  This tutorial

Disclaimer:  If you want to skip ahead to the tutorial, it's at the end of this post.  I promise to tell a good story, and do recommend you read it, but I also understand that we all have limited time, and you might need to make another run to the grocery store to pick up more Kale- only the 4th time this week you've run out.  It is the start to a new year, after all. If you aren't familiar with Iowa City, let me shed some light on its significance.  Also known as the City of Literature , Iowa City is bursting at the seams with literary culture.  Not everyone is an author, but in the (over) educated heartland of America, Iowa City is home to short-story writers and poets alike, self-help gurus, M.D.'s who are published in the mainstream, and even children's book authors. Iowa City is full of culture, in a (mostly) otherwise bland state.  There's the Iowa City Arts Festival, the Iowa City Book Festival, the Iowa City Jazz Festival, Sand In The City, and more

The weather outside is absolutely frightful.  It's a frigid -10 degrees before the windchill.  Sure, living in the midwest leaves me with little room to complain about the arctic tundra in January, or the sweltering humidity in August.  When it's this cold outside, all I want to do is curl up on the sofa with a mug of hot tea and a cozy blanket.   I've already had three cups of hot tea this morning, mainly to keep my hands warm.  I also had a chance to finish up the lovely scrap quilt seen above.  All that was left to do was the binding.  Later in this post, you'll find the tutorial on how to make this quilt.   I do my best to use up scraps of fabric.  Whether it's in a quilt, as eye masks, rice packs, key chains, you name it.  I even managed to make a fabric pom-pom for my daughter to hand in her room using selvaged edge scraps.  Admittedly, that was a little over-the-top.   This morning, in addition to over-caffeinating and binding a quilt, I al