We Left the Dog and Her Kid in the Hotel and Went to a Concert

Mother Mother was the first post-pandemic concert that I braved back in 2022. Cavetown was my kid's favorite when she was thirteen, and then she got me into him, too. So obviously, when the two bands announced that they were going on tour together this year, we had to go!

One thing that I feel like I have learned from the past couple of years of concerts is that I am too old and creaky to be battling these tweenagers and twenty-babies for standing space. I'm also short, and old enough that I get mad when I can't see. So for the very first time, I did something that I would probably have sneered the sneer of the poverty-stricken and able-bodied at when I, myself, was a twenty-baby:

Those are genuine VIP/Early Access armbands right there! We were front of the line along with all the other middle-aged moms and dads and their own lucky tweenagers and twenty-babies, all checked in and security screened and lined up ready to get our access to the pit a full 30 minutes before the billion other ticketholders... and then we were told that a storm was coming through and they made us all evacuate.

Let me just say that although the actual employees who worked at our venue were awesome, Live Nation's inclement weather plans suuuuuuck. They had a much more famous fumble that same night, when a sold-out Noah Kahan concert got cancelled after the crowd was already there, and nobody knew what was going on and nobody knew how to evacuate and nobody had cell service and everyone was confused. In our case, the entire crowd of Early Access ticketholders, and an ever-increasing crowd of regular ticketholders, walked behind a single employee who guided us A FULL MILE in the hot, muggy weather via various sidewalks and footpaths to a parking garage near Soldier's Field, where we all just sort of dispersed ourselves inside and milled about:

All those people facing left are mobbing an honest-to-god Snapple machine just outside the frame. I swear that I had not so much as seen a Snapple in twenty years until that afternoon, when I saw about a hundred come out of that machine. Whoever owns that Snapple machine had a GREAT day!

Here's me, looking like I could really use a Snapple:

We hung out in the parking garage for nearly an hour, during which time it never rained, and then we all hiked in a big mob the mile back to the Huntington Bank Pavilion, where absolute chaos was in progress. There were multiple lines, but it was unclear who had organized said lines or how they were structured or where they went. The VIP line was long gone. Mostly there was just a big crowd of people milling toward the one entrance, with everyone being confused and having different ideas about what everyone else was meant to be doing. 

Matt and the kid and I sort of milled purposelessly along with everyone else, and then someone said that someone else said that they were letting people with VIP wristbands through another entrance, so we went over there and milled about, and indeed, every now and then an employee would call for VIPs, and we'd all hold up our wristbands and mill our way to the front, and she'd let us through a few at a time back through the security line and back into the venue.

Thoughts and prayers for the VIP Early Access ticketholders who hadn't checked in and gotten their wristband by the time we were evacuated, and also for the regular ticketholders, because I saw on reddit later that many of them were still in line to get in long after the concert had started!

But silver lining: what with all the chaos and milling about and what-have-you, the three of us somehow managed to get spots right at the barrier in front of the stage. The only person I had to try to see over was this cameraman!

My personal rule for being right in front of the stage is that if you're there, you do the work. And so we manfully did our part as the opening act's biggest fans, as well:

Fortunately, it wasn't a challenge to be the biggest fans of Meet Me @ the Altar, because they were so good!

Here's a look back at the crowd between sets, when reddit tells me that about half the ticketholders were still waiting in line outside:

I'm SO glad I'm not standing in the back, craning my neck and sharing sweat with strangers on all sides. Such is the burden, and the beauty, of old age.

And here's what we were all waiting for!

I wanted to enjoy my favorite songs, but I also wanted to get some videos of my favorite songs, but I also wanted to sing along to my favorite songs but I learned at the last Cavetown concert that singing along while I video is suuuuch a bad idea because shockingly, I am SUCH a bad singer! I am an enthusiastic singer, but I am apparently reliably flat! So my strategy was to get at least a verse or a chorus of my favorite songs on video, then enjoy the rest.

I mostly refrained from singing while I was videoing, but I did not refrain from dancing, and I do not regret this. Enjoy the camera shake!

The kid and I spent the time between sets mostly gossiping, peoplewatching, and discussing how her older sister would have HAAAAATED being there with us. 

My partner was as miserable as she would have been, but he's a team player and is generally happy to hang out with us and hold our bags and hit the merch tent with screenshots of what we want, etc. He's the perfect concert partner!

The next week I would be in my doctor's office trying to get an audiologist referral, and when she asked me if I'd been subject to any especially loud noises recently, I would say no, but then when I got home I'd remember this moment and have to mark the "You accidentally lie about something" square off my Doctor Visit BINGO card. To be fair, my hearing has been deteriorating for a couple of years now, but also... um, as a matter of fact, I HAVE been subject to some especially loud noises lately, and I couldn't have been more excited to have been so!

I'm more of the Mother Mother fan and the kid is more of the Cavetown fan, but I still couldn't help sneaking peeks at her during the Mother Mother set so I could watch her having fun. It's objectively SOOOOO creepy to stare at people's faces, but I am fully leaning into my Soon-to-be Empty Nester Midlife Crisis Mindset, and I am soaking in that baby's face!

Also, can I just be extra middle-aged here and say that I love that she doesn't have her phone in front of her face? She's being much more Present in the Moment than I am, since I'm the one snapping blurry little pics and taking shaky little videos!

I was SO excited about this double headliner, and I definitely loved it, but just between us, I preferred the 2022 concert when Mother Mother was the sole headliner and played a super long set that included every single one of my favorite songs. Here, their set was still over an hour, but they omitted a couple of songs I love and condensed my absolute favorite song into kind of a medley. Here's a snippet of me cherishing the couple of verses we got to hear:

But here's the proper whole song so you can cherish it, too:

Nevertheless, we did get through a goodly number of my favorite songs:

Just picture me incandescent with joy!

Almost as soon as the concert had finished, the storm that we'd evacuated for earlier finally hit, and it absolutely dumped down. I have never experienced rain that intense! It was like actual buckets of water being poured directly on our heads, and it was super fun figuring out where to get the bus in the dark and the crowds and the buckets of rain and, it turned out, the fact that they'd closed off the street that the bus stop was on and so decided to just put the bus stop... somewhere else. 

And then it turned out that the bus also wasn't making proper stops, but was just stopping whenever someone dinged the bell? And not even at the next bus stop after the ding, but right when you dinged the bell the bus would screech to a stop and out you went into the maelstrom! So we accidentally got off several blocks too early, which wouldn't have been a big deal if it hadn't been, you know, DUMPING DOWN ACTUAL BUCKETS OF WATER ON OUR HEADS. We ended up scurrying between awnings, stopping under each awning to catch our breath and be upset, and then scurrying for the next awning, occasionally ending up under the same awning with other sodden souls. At least I wasn't worried about being crimed, because how could one possibly manage to hold us up in such a downpour?

The older kid did NOT appreciate being woken up when the three of us poured ourselves, dripping, into our hotel room, but OMG I was so happy to exchange my wet clothes--wet down to the undies, y'all!--for a hot shower, a pair of sweats, my brand-new concert T-shirt, and a heaping pile of McDonald's. 

The next time the four of us take a road trip together, it will be to drop them both off at their colleges!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, confrontations with gross men, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Make Quilted Postcards

 I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

Quilted postcards are a fun way to let someone know you’re thinking about them.

The scrap busting is a bonus!

It is apparently my Summer of Quilting Tiny Things, as I have quilted so many wee pretties so far! Completely ignoring the Foundation Paper Pieced quilt I promised my high school graduate for her college dorm bed, I’ve instead been busily sewing up little quilt-as-you-go bookmarks and zipper pouches and applique patches and these adorable postcards.

Quilted postcards have been my particular favorite lately, because they make such great gifts for so many occasions. I’ve made lots for the high school graduates in my life, but these would be a good gift for their parents, too. You can make themed and pre-stamped postcards for anyone planning a fun trip or heading off to sleepaway camp, and what better way to wrap up a visit to long-distance friends and family than with a lovely hostess gift of postcards that match their style?

You can turn most mini quilt blocks into a postcard, or alter almost any mini quilt block to be postcard-sized, as you prefer. Here’s how!

Materials

To make quilted postcards, you will need:

• cardstock, cut to size. Postcards must be rectangular, not square. They can be anywhere from 3.5″ to 4.25″ along their short sides, and 5″ to 6″ along their long sides. Any cardstock of approximately 65 lbs will work, or you can upcycle cardstock or thin cardboard food packaging. Be VERY careful with the latter, though, because your postcard can only be .016″ thick, maximum, and that’s with the fabric and interfacing and stitching!
• fabric scraps. My favorite thing about mini quilts is using up my teeniest bits of fabric scraps. Frankly, I’m going to have to get started on my kid’s Foundation Paper Pieced quilt soon just because otherwise I’m about to run out of teeny fabric scraps for mini quilt-making!
• fusible interfacing. I know that normally all I do is gripe about fusible interfacing and how it’s just an extra thing to buy and an extra bit of polyester in the landfill, but you DO need it for this project. Lightweight interfacing, or any scraps of any weight (as long as you don’t go over the maximum postcard thickness!), will be fine.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing supplies. My universal needle worked well for this project from start to finish. If you’ve got a super-new needle in your machine, though, you could switch it out for an old one when you actually start stitching over the cardboard.

Step 1: Pick your postcard size and cut the cardstock and interfacing to match.

I actually started off with 4″x6″ pieces of cardstock leftover from a previous project, so I trimmed about .25″ from the long sides because I was paranoid about any stitching or extra fabrics making my postcards slightly too long. Postage is expensive enough without paying for an oversized piece!

Whatever size you choose for your postcard, cut interfacing to the same size. I used my cardstock postcard I’d just measured and cut as the template for this.

Step 2: Sew mini quilt blocks to match the postcard measurements.

There are so many great ways to do this!

The photo above is of a quilt-as-you-go mini quilt block, which you can stitch directly onto the non-glue side of the interfacing that you cut.

For all the other quilt blocks I’m writing about, we’ll save the interfacing for the next step.

The photo above is a postage stamp quilt. To make this one, cut 1.5″ squares from your scraps, then piece them with a .25″ seam. If you want to make your postage stamp quilt SUPER tiny, cut 1″ squares but keep the .25″ seam allowance, and your finished quilt block will have eensy little .5″ pieces.

The postcard above is a log cabin mini quilt block. Piece it exactly the way you would a log cabin quilt block, again with fabric scraps that are 1″ to 1.5″ wide. I added extra pieces along the side to fill out the length.

The quilt block above is a triangle hexie. After finishing the hexie, I filled out the corners by piecing it with more log cabin strips, then trimming the block to size. I can use those scraps in another quilt-as-you-go mini quilt project!

Step 3: Add interfacing and stitch the quilt block to the postcard.

Unless you made the quilt-as-you-go quilt block and therefore already have the interfacing attached to the quilt block, fuse the interfacing to the back of the block now. This will add stiffness to the block to make it easier to sew, and it gives the postcard a little more support, as well. But you could probably skip the interfacing, too–if you try that, let me know how it worked!

After the interfacing is attached, do any quilting that you want to the block. Technically it doesn’t really need it, but it IS pretty!

Place your postcard and the cardstock wrong sides together, and clip in place–I finally splurged on a set of plastic clips a year or so ago, and I LOVE them. The fact that they’re plastic is a huge bummer, for sure, but I just have to commit to taking care of them so they never end up in a landfill on my watch.

If you wanted to change out to a junk needle in your sewing machine, do it now. Set your stitch length to around a 2 and your stitch width to at least a 3.

Sew around the perimeter of the postcard. I don’t try to catch the edge in the stitching or anything–I just keep the stitching near the edge.

Finally, trim any excess fabric from around the cardstock.

To use this postcard, add a stamp to the top right corner of the cardstock, then the address on the right side. Write your message on the left side, and pop it into the mail! You’re about to be USPS famous!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, confrontations with gross men, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Tutorial: Quilt as You Go Scrappy Mini Quilt Blocks

 I originally posted this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

From bookmarks to coasters to these little guys, my quilt as you go obsession continues!

These quilt as you go mini quilt blocks are a terrific way to use up fabric scraps, and the finished quilt blocks are endlessly useful in all sorts of ways. I like to use them to sew zippered pouches, stitched coasters, and quilted postcards, in particular, but I have my eye on a few more projects they’d look beautiful in.

So get out that basket of fabric scraps, because here’s how to some mini quilt blocks the quilt as you go way!

Materials

You will need:

• interfacing. I don’t usually like to buy proper interfacing, instead subbing in whatever scrap fabrics I’ve already got squirreled away. Eco-fi recycled polyester felt, for instance, makes an excellent backing for my quilt as you go bookmarks, and scrap batting works really well in my quilted coasters. But because I don’t always know how I’m going to use these particular quilt as you go blocks when I make them, I do like to stitch them to fusible interfacing. Some of my favorite projects work better with fusible interfacing, so this way, these blocks are all ready to go!
• fabric scraps. Even the teeny-tiny ones work for this project! My seams for this particular quilting project are generally .25″, so any scrap that’s at least .5″ along one side can be successfully incorporated.
• seam roller. You can always finger-press your seams, but I really like this handy little tool for pressing my seams sans heat.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing tools. I mostly use a small pair of sharp fabric scissors, but I do use a quilting ruler, cutting mat, and rotary cutter to measure the interfacing and trim the finished block.

Step 1: Measure and cut interfacing to the size of the quilt block.

The interfacing is what will determine the size of your quilt block, so cut it to your preferred finished size. I’ve got a specific project in mind for these mini quilt blocks, so I cut my interfacing to 5″x7″.

Step 2: Stitch the first piece.

Your ultimate goal will be to quilt these pieces as you go without leaving any raw edges visible on the front of the quilt block. To that end, I like to start somewhere near the center of these mini quilt blocks, and piece around that center point at least for a little while.

Because I want to preserve the ability to fuse this quilt block to my future project, I’m also keeping the fusible side of the interfacing on the wrong side, and stitching my quilt block to the non-fusible side.

With right sides together, stitch down one side of your first scrap piece. Aim for a piece that goes off the edge of the interfacing, as pictured above.

Fold the piece over so the right side is up, then use the seam roller to press it. If you’re not using a fusible interfacing as a base, feel free to iron, but I don’t want to fuse this piece to my cutting mat!

Step 2: Continue to add pieces, quilting as you go.

Place the second piece you want to sew right side down, lined up with one of the edges of the previous piece. Again, the ideal placement of this piece will extend off the edge of the interfacing.

Stitch down that straight seam, then fold over and press the seam flat.

As you continue to fill up this space, remember not to leave any raw edges. This becomes trickier after a while, and so I keep a few larger scraps in reserve for those times that I need to stitch a piece that goes from end to end across my block.

Notice from these photos that you don’t always have to line up your new piece at the edge of an existing piece. Since I’m doing this project mainly for scrap-busting, I also don’t trim away that extra fabric underneath the seam, even if I’ve stitched my new piece far back from the edge and I have quite a lot of it. That excess fabric can stay right there inside the quilt block forever, thank you very much!

That method does add bulk, though, so keep that in mind for your own project.

Step 3: Trim the quilt block to size.

This whole time, I’ve been encouraging you to run your fabric scraps off the edge of the interfacing to make sure they go all the way and you don’t leave any raw edges. But when you’ve completely finished filling up your quilt block, turn it over and trim the block to be even with the interfacing.

These mini quilt blocks are so quick and easy to make, and I love how they tend to naturally complement each other, since I incorporate many of the same scraps into multiple blocks.

And they’re perfect for so many projects! If you make your template 2″x6″, you can easily sew bookmarks. If your quilt block is 4″x4″ or 5″x5″, you can turn these into coasters.

And if your quilt block is 5″x7″, you can make the postcards I’ll show you how complete next week!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, confrontations with gross men, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Sew a Bookshelf Quilt Block

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

These bookshelf quilt blocks are a LOT easier to sew than they look!

I promised my rising college freshman a quilt for her dorm room bed, something that’s always easier to promise than it is to do, ahem. Just between us, I’d hoped she’d pick the Cats in Space pattern, because I’ve been dying to sew it without a good reason to, but instead she got on Pinterest, discovered bookshelf quilts, and asked if I could make her one of those.

My first ideas were significantly overengineered, based mostly on the Fandom in Stitches bookcase quilt blocks. I even went as far as to check out a bunch of books from the library, determined to teach myself Foundation Paper Piecing to make the quilt happen. Fortunately, though, I also started noodling around with my fabric scraps, and I figured out that I could use fabric strips to make a pretty darn convincing shelf full of books.

It turned out that my college kid loved the look of a plain bookshelf quilt block with nothing but books on it, no paper pieced vases or potted plants or little tchotchkes needed. And it’s certainly going to make my life easier to use the same piecing method for every quilt block! I’m also loving how I can use up fabric scraps, including more unusual scraps like bits of favorite clothes and old blankies and curtains, etc., to make books that also have secret sentimental value.

Here’s a tutorial for the basic bookshelf quilt block that I’ve been making dozens of over the past few weeks. This bookshelf quilt block is 10.5″ unfinished (10″ finished), but you can scale it up or down as needed.

Materials Needed

• neutral background fabric for the bookshelf. I’d recommend something like a Kona cotton solid for this fabric. My kid had suggested black or brown, but unfortunately not until I’d already started and gotten a couple of blocks under my belt, so for this quilt we’re going with the grey I originally chose.
• fabrics for the books. Anything that you can sew and that would feel pleasant in a quilt should work for this. Jelly rolls are really nice to work with, since they’re already cut to a good length, but any fabric solids, fabric prints that look believable as book covers, and most clothing-weight and home decor-weight fabrics can be used. I’ve got canvas, upcycled curtains, bits of old clothes, and refashioned formalwear cuts in the bookshelf quilt blocks I’ve created so far, and they all look great!
• measuring, cutting, and sewing tools. The most time-consuming part of the process is measuring and cutting all the fabric strips. I’m multi-tasking by catching up on Call the Midwife as I work–feel free to suggest what show I should binge next!

Step 1: Cut and piece your first book.

I’m going to assume that your bookshelf quilt block is also going to be 10.5″x10.5″ unfinished, so make your own adjustments if it’s not.

In your block, you want books that are different colors/patterns, different heights, and different widths. For heights, any book height between 10.5″ and about 2″ looks good, and for widths, I’ve been going with increments between 1.5″ and 2.5″.

Start with one book strip that fits those guidelines–above, my purple strip is 1.5″x6.5″.

Using a .25″ or .5″ seam allowance, as you prefer, sew a strip of background fabric short ends together to the purple fabric. I precut my background fabric into strips of my most common widths to save time here. Trim the background fabric as needed so that the finished piece is approximately 11″ (later, you’ll trim it down to 10.5″).

Step 2: Cut and piece additional books.

Pick a new book fabric and piece another strip! Notice how the new book, which once used to be part of a silk blouse, is both a different width and a different height. This is what will give realism and dimension to the finished bookshelf quilt block.

Don’t worry if your books don’t look good together, because as you can see above, you can rearrange them as you go until you get an arrangement that you like.

You can also piece the book strips to look like fancy binding, as I did with the book on the far left in the above image, and you can piece the book strips horizontally so that they look like they’re stacked on your bookshelf. The scrappiness of this project reminds me of the quilt-as-you-go blocks that I love to make!

Your final design should also be 10.5″ wide, subtracting the seam allowances, so keep piecing book strips until you’ve got it.

Step 3: Piece the bookshelf quilt block.

Piece the book strips together, ironing the seams however you like.

The final step to finish the bookshelf quilt block is to square it up to 10.5″x10.5″. If you need to add extra fabric to the height of the block, put a strip of background fabric along the top of the block and it will just look like you’ve got some short books in that section of shelves. If you need to add extra fabric to the width, stick another book on your shelf or add a strip of background fabric to either end to make it look like you’ve got space for more books on your shelf!

With 20 blocks done and 28 blocks to go, I’m so excited about how lovely this bookshelf quilt is looking so far! I’m getting anxious to start piecing blocks together to make whole shelves, but I know I need to wait until all my blocks are done so I can rearrange them until they look their cutest.

And with this method, the blocks are coming together so quickly that I might even have time to Foundation Paper Piece a couple of vases or plant pots or tchotchkes, after all!

P.P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to random little towns, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!