Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Last day for Nesting Chairs

Where has January gone?! I can hardly believe that today is the last day of the month. Eek!

Just a reminder that Nesting Chairs is officially being retired from my shop and today is the last day it will be available. I've got some small quantities in inventory and if you need more just let me know since I'll be placing one final order tonight.The whole collection (fabric and the pillow panels) are marked at 15% off so if you'd like some get them while you still can.

Blue and Orange pillow panel detail

Yellow and Grey pillow panel

A little mug rug I made

Zipper pouches

Monday, January 30, 2012

More Jack and Jenny | Baby Blocks

I got so excited yesterday when I was cutting into Jack and Jenny and posting pictures that I blew off all the stuff I *should* have been working on last night and sewed instead.  :) Sew much fun. I'm headed to a baby shower in the next few weeks and thought some cute baby blocks would be fun and easy. I used all 3 color stories of Jack and Jenny and I think they turned out really cute. I hope mama and the new baby love them too!






If you missed yesterday's post about Jack and Jenny, scroll down a bit and take a peek. It will start shipping to stores in Feb!!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Meet Jack and Jenny!

Who missed having donkeys in wellies around?! I definitely did and I'm so excited to be able to share my newest fabric for Robert Kaufman. Meet Jack and Jenny! (Did you know a male donkey is called a Jack and a female donkey is called a Jenny?)

The collection is made up of 3 patterns and comes in 3 color palettes.





Look on the far left. Cute raindrops on the selvage! 

Petal color palette

 Water color palette

 Grass color palette


 The fabric will start shipping to quilt stores in February so ask your favorite online retailer or local quilt store if they're going to be carrying the line.

I'll also be doing a giveaway here soon, so stay tuned! I have a baby shower gift to make and think either a baby quilt or some stacked blocks would be really fun to sew.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Giveaway winner and a reminder about Nesting Chairs

Thanks so much for all of your great comments on the Modern Whimsy + Bejeweled pattern giveaway! I had a great time reading all about your dream fabrics! So many lovely fabrics out there aren't there?

There are two lucky winners. But via random number generator, the winners were Victoria and Karen. Congrats!!

#43 Victoria
My dream fabric is 100% cotton, has polka dots, and is soft as a pup's ear!

#86 Karen
My dream fabrics are ones which, no matter which way you cut and slice them they still look fabulous, and you don't tire of using them. Thanks for the lovely giveaway!

I also wanted to show off a fun little needle case I made a few nights ago. I've been saving some selvage and thought this would be a sweet little project to use them on. And I was excited to find a perfect little piece with the bunnies from the Modern Whimsy selvage to put right on the front. I just heart those little bunnies!



And a quick reminder, only a few more days left until the final sale on Nesting Chairs is over. I'll be placing one last order for fabric and the end of the day this coming Tuesday, 1/31. So if you're hankering for the yellow/grey or orange/aqua color stories, get them before they're gone!! p.s. If you need more than what's listed in the store, just email me and I can set up a custom listing for you. 







Sunday, January 22, 2012

Modern Whimsy Giveway + a Bejeweled Pattern

Who wants some Modern Whimsy? :) And to sweeten the giveaway, Amanda Murphy, a fellow designer with Robert Kaufman and a supremely talented pattern designer, has given me 2 copies of her pattern Bejeweled to giveaway too!

See how pretty Bejeweled is?! Amanda used Modern Whimsy for her sample and it is simply gorgeous.



Robert Kaufman cut some ten-squares of Modern Whimsy for Amanda and me so we are each hosting giveaways and giving away 10-square packs and including a copy of the Bejeweled pattern for the winners.  These ten-squares include one piece of each print, so they won't be enough to complete the larger version of the quilt, but you will be well on your way!

I'll be drawing two winners on January 26, 2012 and Amanda's giveaway will wrap up the same day. So after you leave your comment here, hop over to visit Amanda for more chances to win. 

To enter here, tell me something about your "dream fabric".  It can be something that is currently on the market, or something you spied in the past, or something you've imagined.  What is it about the fabric that makes it so dreamy for you? It is a specific motif or color? Or is it all about the scale?  I'd love to hear all about it. Make sure you leave me a way to contact you. 

And if you're a new visitor, I'd love it if you sign up to follow my blog!

Giveaway is closed

Monday, January 9, 2012

Final Sale on all Nesting Chairs fabric!

Yep! You know what a Final Sale means!! I'm super excited to share the news that Robert Kaufman has decided to print Nesting Chairs! Yea!!

Four of the Nesting Chairs designs will be released by RK in April 2012 and shipping sometime this summer.
The new color stories are completely different from what the grey/yellow and aqua/orange I've had in the store, so if you're a fan of those color combos and want to add them to your stash, now is the time!

I'll ONLY have them available in my store through the end of January 2012 and they're 15% off in celebration of this Final Sale. If you need more yardage than what's listed in the store (or if the listings expire when I'm not looking), just lemme know and I can set up a custom listing for you. I'll be printing as needed to fill orders for the duration of the sale. :) When orders are placed I'll email you with a rough shipping estimate.

Here are the sale prices:
-Fat quarter: regularly $8.50 - now 15% off = $7.23
-Half yard: regularly $17.00 - now 15% off = $14.45
-One yard: regularly $34.00 - now 15% off = $28.90
-Pillow panels - now 15% off = $12.75

And a reminder of what the fabrics look like :)

Zippered pouches I made 

My sewing machine cover

 My sewing machine cover

Nesting Chairs set in yellow and grey

 Nesting Chairs pillow panel in blue and aqua

Nesting Chairs set in yellow and grey

Nesting Chairs pillow panel in blue and aqua

Detail of Nesting Chairs pillow panel in blue and aqua

Friday, January 6, 2012

Show and Tell!

It's show and tell time! :) I took some much needed time away from my computer over the holidays and spent a few days crafting, sewing and organizing my studio. (I just re-read this post and I got very long winded! Sorry folks!)

First for the crafting! I was itching to make something using Modern Whimsy that would be a quick-ish project and would be something I could hang on the wall in my office. A month or so ago, I was prowling one of our vintage markets and I stumbled upon this old flour sack from Fant Milling (and it's from Texas!) so I snapped it up. My sweet friend Megan Van Sipe of the Lilac Saloon gave me the idea for the sequin and beading embellishment and with that I was off to the races. Thanks Megan! You creative thing you...


I am now officially in love with reverse applique too. Seemed like a great way to incorporate Modern Whimsy and give the project some great color. I also found some fabulous lemon yellow sequins and added them to a few words along with some green fabric pen so they would pop. Using fabric paint, I painted in the gladiola flowers and the leaves and added some little blue seed beads around the flower edges to give the flowers some more definition. They flowers had really faded over time but there was just enough detail left that I had something to work with. And for the bottom leaves I added some embroidery just to give it some more texture. So I got to play with a bunch of techniques which was really fun!



So after crafting, it was on to cleaning and working on my studio. For me, there is something so fabulous about getting organized. Since I work from home, there are 2 rooms that I spend a lion's share of my time in and I really work to keep them tidy so I don't feel too overwhelmed with clutter. The first space is my office (where my computer is) and then there's my sewing studio (where all the pretty stuff lives). For my office, I hung some shelves and cleaned off my desk. Love my shelves! Yea Ikea! I thought about adding some more cork tiles above my desk, but realized that I'm so short that I couldn't reach another row at the top to even pin anything. So the crowded pin board lives on. Ha! (Would have been nice if I had emptied the overflowing trash and recycle bins beneath my desk before I snapped this shot though!)


Since jumping off of the corporate hamster wheel and working on building my licensing business, I've been living by this mantra: Do not overestimate what you can accomplish in a single year...And do not underestimate what you can do in five. I'm still working, working, working to expand my designs into other categories but it never moves as quickly as I would like. So these are my words to live by and I moved this piece directly over my desk so it's close at hand. I worked with the very talented Grace Hester who created the beautiful typography for me. She has an Etsy store here and takes custom work if you're interested in having her make something special for you too.


And last, but certainly not least, is the studio. The wire racks that I use to organize my fabric were on sale at Lowe's so I snapped up another one. Ready and waiting for all the fabric that RK is releasing this coming year.

And I had some great wall space over my cutting table, so I painted a simple peg board green, added some pegs for my rulers, hung some Ikea (again yea Ikea!) white buckets for scissors and little rulers and added a few simple shelves. Used some of my washi tape to cover the edges of the shelves. (Oh, don't get me started on the beauty of Japanese masking/washi tape...I got mine here). And viola. I love, love, love how it turned out. (Project note: If you do this project, make sure you install some 2x2s behind the board so you have spacers which allow you to add hooks and stuff...Loads of holes in the wall back there, but that sucker isn't going anywhere!)



Finally, I found some large Ball Mason jars at the grocery and organized all my little scraps by color (see them at the top of the shelf there?) I saw that brilliant idea somewhere on Flickr (wish I could remember where so I could give credit to the idea but I'm coming up blank..). Whoever you are, thank you! Its a gorgeous way to sort scraps and is absolutely perfect for the projects I would love to try from the book Scrap Republic by Emily Cier.


Ta-da. And that's what I did over the holiday break!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

New Spoonflower fabric for my Etsy store?

Happy new year everyone!! I hope you had a wonderful holiday! My break was delightful. I imposed a 3 day ban on working on my computer and it was simply divine. So nice to get a break from being so digitally tethered. I am excited to see what 2012 holds. I think it's going to be a great year!!

Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a new Spoonflower collection that I hope to launch later this month. Color checks are complete and I have a few yards on order so I can get my pictures taken and get everything listed in the store. So excited for you to see them!! Swans. Geese. Chairs. Patterns. Very mod and very yummy! Can't wait!!

There's a 2nd collection that I've been tinkering with and wanted to see what you think. Since the donkeys are being printed by RK (and will be available later this year!), I wanted to introduce a new critter to the mix in my Etsy store. But first the story behind the design...

I live in an area that used to be sort of rural. Which means there are some lots in my neighborhood that used to be ranch land and are grandfathered into the zoning restrictions. There's a horse that I see nearly every day and across the street from my grocery store and the Home Depot, there's a plot of land that has 2 Llamas on it.

You should have heard me the first time I spied those Llamas! All alone in the car, I screamed "LOOK! Llamas!" And now, every single time I drive down that street, I gleefully shout 'LOOK! Llamas!" Don't care I'm alone or with company, I say hello to the llamas. They are ridiculously cute and make me happy every time I see them. So I was of course compelled to whip up a few patterns for my new llama friends. :) It takes a great deal of self control not to pull off the road and go introduce myself to the Llama's care takers however... Perhaps I should make a llama quilt and 'bribe' my way into their lives :)

Whatcha think??Should I go ahead and print up some Llama fabric (and the pillow panel on the bottom)?  I can get them printed and listed within a month or so. Llamas anyone??