Pooches & Pickups Playmat and a Giveaway at Sew Fantastic

Terri over at Sew Fantastic created an absolutely adorable playmat from Pooches and Pickups and I couldn't wait to share it with you. When she received the fabric in the mail, her little girl Sophie claimed the fabric as her own and she and her momma worked together on this super sweet play mat. Don't you just adore the circles?! It brought such a smile to my face to hear that the fabric helped to create a special bonding time for Terri and 3-year old Sophie to work on a project together. Happy playing Sophie and many thanks to Terri for sharing your Pooches playmat!

AND....Terri is giving away a FQ set of Pooches and Pickups so zoom (sorry... couldn't resist) over there and register to win before 4/23.

Selvage Whale

I can't believe that I haven't posted about this yet. Late last summer (wow time really files doesn't it!) I was perusing Etsy and stumbled across With Hugs N Stitches where I found this adorable little stuffed whale made from selvage. Urban Circus had just come out and I immediately knew I needed (yes needed!) one of the little whales from Tufted Tweets and Urban Circus selvage. So I contacted Akiko and shipped her some selvage and a few weeks later, this little guy came to live with me. He lives on my fabric shelves and makes me smile every day :) I may just have to get him a friend made from Pooches and Pickups selvage!

Pooches and Pickups Winner and a Market Bag

Wow! What a tremendous response!! Thanks so much for all the great feedback and encouragement. I'm so thrilled to hear such excitement about the designs. The line holds a soft spot in my heart so I hope you guys really have fun sewing with this line. It sounds like there are some really cute quilts, stroller blankies, picnic blankets, appliqued tshirts and even a few PJ pants planned. And I really loved getting to read your great stories about your pooches (and kitties and chickens!). Thanks for sharing them with me.

I've just finished drawing the winners using the random number generator and 2 lucky ladies have FQ sets of Pooches and Pickups shipping out to them on Monday. Congrats to #59 - missbossypants and #139 euphoria. I hope you love the fabric and will share pictures of what you make in my Flickr Group!

The team at Robert Kaufman designed this adorable type treatment for Pooches & Pickups. So cute, huh?

I've been wanting to try out the Jane Market Bag pattern from Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy and I thought Pooches and Pickups would make a cute little bag to take to the farmer's market. I love the way it turned out. Alicia's pattern was super easy to follow and the bag came together in a snap. I think I may have to make a few more! If you have any other easy peasy patterns for home goods or accessories, I'd love to hear about them. I'm always on the hunt for cute and easy projects to work on :)

Pooches and Pickups - Finally revealed and a Giveaway!

Let me start by apologizing. I didn't mean to torture you with the sneaky peekies! But at long last I can finally share my newest line for Robert Kaufman! Pooches and Pickups is headed out to the sales force today so if you have a store, call your rep and place your order. The fabric will start shipping to stores during April so start planning your sewing projects now. I'm also working on a few projects with the fabric that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks.
Pooches and Pickups is made up of 3 patterns: Big Trucks, Small Trucks and Pooches. It comes in two color stories: Spring (blue and green) and Summer (red and ochre).

A friend of mine came over a few weekend ago to help me snap some pictures of everything and we giggled and gabbed while drinking coffee and setting everything up. Boat loads (or should I say truck loads) of fun! I didn't even plan out that I was wearing my Pooches and Pickups PJ shorts for our photoshoot. And yes, I was still in my PJs for the photoshoot. And yes, that's an old boxspring on my wall...I just adore all the shapes and patterns it makes and turns out its a fabulous prop. :)

Now, for the disclaimer... Do as I say, not as I design. Huh you say? Lemme explain...I designed this fabric as a little tribute to my sweet Clara dog. (It's been a year since she passed away.) And that girl LOVED, LOVED, LOVED riding in my car. Ears flapping and drool flying. But I drive a station wagon (sassy huh?) which frankly didn't make for very cute fabric. So insert vintage pickup truck in place of wagon and I was off to the races. The design became exponentially cuter with the pooch in the back, so into the bed of the truck the pooches went. But it's pretty dangerous for pooches to ride in the back of truck, ya know? So you see my dilema. Do as I say and not as I design. Keep your pooches safe inside your cars or trucks. :)
Now for the free fabric! I'm giving away two FQ packs of Pooches and Pickups to two lucky winners. You know the drill...Leave a comment here on the blog and tell me what you'd like to make (or tell me about your pooch!). I'll use the random number generator to select 2 winners this coming Saturday evening, 4/16/11 at roughly 6pm CT. Good luck and I hope you love the fabric!

Nesting Chairs - Mug Rug

I started this little project last weekend and woke up this AM itching to sew something. I wanted a little project I could start and finish quickly and was hoping to be able to use some of my Nesting Chairs fabrics and have the opportunity to use some fabric from my stash. I've been hoarding a few small pieces of grey and black handprinted fabric from Umbrella Prints and from Summersville. So this little mug rug mini quilt turned into the perfect project to be able to feature some of those fabrics without depleting my whole stash.

I wish I had remembered to leave more seam allowance for the big bird (so his head wasn't getting lopped off) but c'est la vie. This was also my first try at attaching a binding completely by machine and it was really a breeze on a small project. Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday!

Urban Circus Quilt Pattern from Gen X Quilters

Since the launch of Urban Circus I've seen some really adorable quilts come to life! And here's another one that was brought to my attention and I wanted to share it with you. The applique elephant in the middle is just precious, don't you think? And I love the echo quilting around the applique.

The pattern is available in Anne Marie's store, Gen X Quilters, so wander over there if you'd like to take a peek :)

Another Pooches & Pickups Sneaky Peaky!

Pooches and Pickups is coming soon! Yipee!! Only a week until I can finally post pictures and show you what I've been so excited about. But in the mean time, here's 2 things to tide you over. Another sneaky peaky!! I've had this old vintage toy truck for a while and it's the perfect prop for shooting fat quarters of Pooches & Pickups, no?

And for a giggle, some hilarious pictures of running basset hounds (make sure you click through...these are great shots; courtesy of Dave Stoppera via Buzz Feed). Nope, no basset hounds in Pooches and Pickups, nor are my pooches running, but a friend of mine shared these pictures with me yesterday and it will be impossible for you not to laugh. :) I have always, always loved and wanted a Basset Hound. Now I want one even more. I personally love the ones where the skin around their eyes has pulled back and they look kinda psychotic but still amazingly cute. Have a great Tuesday!

Wow. What beautiful pillows!

I know you guys have heard me say this before, but I really love to see what you create with my fabric!! I received a sweet note from Kate over at Needle and Spatula letting me know that her mom was buying her some of my Nesting Chairs fabric for Kate's birthday. (Thanks Kate's Mom!) So, I was really hoping Kate would share pictures of her pillows once she stitched them up. Imagine my delight to see these pictures pop up in my Flickr group.

I just LOVE the way Kate pieced these together, don't you? Each one is so different and they make a gorgeous trio. She's used my Nesting Chairs fabrics and the yellow boxes (yummy and they are a great pairing for the yellow in Nesting Chairs!) are from Patty Young's Sanctuary line. One my favorite parts of Kate's posts is that she made these for pillows couch she doesn't yet have. I did the exact same thing with pillows for my couch...I was so excited about a new couch I could just picture it and wanted it to be decked out in all sorts of pillow finery. So my couch pillows were sewn well in advance of my new couch too. :) [I'm also noticing in looking at the pics from that post that my cats are getting really fat! Oops...]

Kate's written 2 posts about her Nesting Chairs pillows - here and here so head on over there to read more about how she created her gorgeous pillows.