Melanie Made 👩‍🎨✨

Backlog Readathon A readathon that runs in the last week of a season, with a focus on reading down your stacks of books and TBR lists.

One week until #BacklogReadathon begins! The goal for this readathon is to spend those last few languid days reading a bit more than usual. It’s a great way to finish up an annual goal or get to those dusty TBR books! #booksky

www.backlogreadathon.com

A baby-sized quilt top lying on a hardwood floor. The foreground includes 2 pixelated plants in a saturated dark orange, and the background is a very light teal blue. The bottom of the quilt shows a checkerboard pattern in the two colors.

Finished my quilt top yesterday! Next I need to wash my backing fabric. #quiltsky #quilting #grannycorequilt #dcpgrannycore

A pieced section of a quilt top with a pixelated plant in bright orange against a pale warm blue background

Welp, my suspicions were correct: for some reason I thought aligning to the edge of my presser foot was 1/4”, but it’s actually 5/16”. 🤦‍♀️ Continuing to use a 5/16” SA for the rest of the quilt top so the problem is consistent. I have some ideas on how to fix the design! #quiltsky #quilting

Bright orange and pale mint blue fabric pieced together into a checkerboard pattern, on a cutting mat. The strips are a little misaligned.

Finished the checkerboard but it’s coming up just a wee bit short in both directions. 🤔 Going to piece the flowers before deciding how to solve the (probably ironing) issue.

I ain’t mad about it—crafting is a practice in imperfection and problem-solving for me! #quiltsky #quilting

My hand holding two bundles of pieced strips. One bundle has bright orange and pale warm blue horizontal stripes, and the other bundle has the colors inverted

SOMEONE is way overdue to swap out their rotary blade (it’s me) (I will never learn)

#quilting #quiltsky #grannycorequilt #dcpgrannycore

Granny Core Quilt PDF Pattern The Granny Core Quilt takes inspiration from our favorite heirloom fiber art motifs. This pattern uses clever strip piecing techniques that will help build your cutting and seam-matching skills. Instr...

I’m working on my first capital-Q quilt! It’s the Granny Core Quilt in the baby size, which will hang on the wall in my wee baby’s room. #quilting #quiltsky #grannycorequilt #dcpgrannycore

daisychainpatterns.com/products/gra...

I’m going with Cici’s Pizza! 🗳️

Flower Power Socks A floral foray into colorwork socks

Finished knitting my second pair of socks last week! #knitting #knitsky #sockKnitting #colorworkKnitting making.melanie-richards.com/flower-power...

My hand holding a stack of two yarn cakes, each in different tones of variegated pastel purples. Both are actually Spincycle Dreamland in the color “Tough Love”

Finally used my ball winder and swift! Cake, anyone? #knitsky

Purchased a couple patterns from @sewliberated.bsky.social for the first time! As a person who tends to fall in the middle of size range overlaps, I appreciate that they give you the full range to download with one purchase 💜 #garmentSewing

A sock in variegated yarn of cream, pinks, and lime greens. Around the cuff is a dark green flower motif.

The sock turned inside out to show the floats inside. This creates a negative image where the flowers are made from the variegated yarn, and the background appears dark green.

Finished knitting the second sock of my second pair! Now I just need to block them. #knitsky #sockKnitting #colorworkKnitting

Pattern: Cuff Club vol 1, August by Summer Lee Knits

A set of yarns in autumnal shades of orange, slate, and cream. Some doodle decks for colorwork knitting patterns, a sticker, and a package of pink knitting notions

Two skeins by Spincycle Yarns in a variegated purple pink light tone. Three skeins by Sewrella in three color ways: a variegated yarn in pinks, yellows, and peaches; a solid peach; and a third yarn in pinks, blues, and aquas. Beside it are little items by Shelli Can: two enamel pins, sew in maker labels, and a zipper charm that says maker.

The spoils! Excited about my woolen treats and jazzed to be around so many people who love this hobby as much as I do. The vibes at #flockFiberFest are calm and sunny, A+ event. #knitting

Two small valais blacknose sheep in a pen filled with hay. A sign says their names are Estella and Endora. They have black faces and cream wooly fleece.

The sheeps were even cuter this year! #flockFiberFest

Second year attending #flockFiberFestival! My favorite thing is watching everyone arrive in their me-made knits 🥰 #knitting

An open sketchbook on a desk with four color panels in blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, chartreuse, and two greens. Each panel shows the same marker drawing of green and purple mountains, but the marker under layer changes the tone as it mixes with the top layer.

Finally got to join a live session of The Scribble Brigade with @sophiemcpike.bsky.social! ✨ We played with how different color underlayers change the vibe of an otherwise consistent drawing. Parallel play makes everything more fun 🥰

#sketchbook #TalensArtCreation #Tombows #EcolineBrushPens

Made in July 2025 Not a big month for making, but got a couple little things done regardless.

Trying a new format for my crafting blog: a wee monthly roundup! #knitting #sewing

If you're thinking of starting a newsletter, I'd strongly recommend you consider using an alternative to Substack! Someone wrote up the reasons why and some alternate platforms:

Two 6x9” quilted mug rugs, with stitch lines in a diamond pattern. The cream fabric features hamsters shaped like onigiri and holding items that are usually paired with the rice balls, such as shiso leaves, seaweed, and octopus

A small, indigo-colored Japanese tea mug on one of the mug rugs. It has no handle, and the glaze has a subtle dappled pattern.

Made some mug rugs yesterday with my leftover 🍙🐹 fabric #sewsky #sewing #quilting

The pink zipper is such a nice touch!

Closet Core T-Shirt Dress Sewed my second knit garment—a t-shirt dress—and wore it to our baby shower!

And my second knit garment, a tshirt dress! This went much better than my first foray into stretch knits #sewsky #sewing #meMadeWardrobe #ClosetCoreTshirt

making.melanie-richards.com/closet-core-...

Onigiri hamster project pouch A canvas project bag for knitting, featuring some of the most adorable fabric I’ve used to date

Got a couple blog posts up for my June sewing projects! First up, a project pouch featuring onigiri hamster fabric 🍙🐹 #sewsky #sewing #sewingForHobbies

making.melanie-richards.com/onigiri-hams...

A prompt list graphic for an art prompt list, called "August Adventures" and with a list of weekly prompts for August "bloom + journey", "meadow + rain", "ancient + trinkets" and "sprout + magic". The drawing features a journal scrapbook style composition with little drawn "photos" and scraps of paper.

NEW PROMPT LIST ALERT!!

A bunch of friends and I are hosting an August prompt list, with two prompts per week (do one or both for each week). I'm so excited for it to staaaaaart!! Will you be joining?

#AugustAdventures2025 #art #illustration

I prefer that too! I’m hoping we see more indie stores in more cities to fill that space 💜

Sounds like you already have fabric in your stash that you’re hoping to match. For future purchases, some sites like Blackbird Fabrics or Stonemountain & Daughter enable you to buy matching thread with your fabric!

Me too!

Didn’t finish sewing my T-shirt dress today as planned, but I did finish the cuff of my second flower sock!

Pattern is Summer Lee’s Colorwork Cuff Club, August.
#knitting #knitsky #colorworkKnitting #sockKnitting

elmo from sesame street is standing in front of a wall of fire . Alt: A raggedy stuffed Elmo from Sesame Street standing in front of a wall of fire, with arms outstretched to the heavens in desperation

Sewing a neckband on a stretch knit garment #sewsky

A small square sketchbook with a drawing of a tree-lined path in vibrant greens. There’s a cool, fairly dark green for the lines and shadows and a warm green for the mid tones.

Tested out my Diamine Amazonia ink sample with a little en plein air drawing! The lighter green is my favorite Ecoline color, Bronze Green. 🌿

#sketchbook #urbansketching #pleinair

A sketchbook with opaque circles swatched in 24 different colors of acrylic paint markers. The right-hand page lists prices and cons. Pros are about time to prime, opaqueness, dry time, and feeling when using them. Cons are the limited color range and single nib size.

Swatched the new Copic acrea paint markers and I think I might like these more than Poscas, actually! I hope they continue to expand the range.

#sketchbook #talensArtCreation #copicAcrea

Hi friends, I’m Melanie! 👋

I work in tech, love color, and draw / paint just for fun. I plan to use this account as a casual way to share my sketchbook.