Urban Circus - Giveaway!

It's been a while since I've done a giveaway hasn't it?! Well lets change that right now. How about a full set of FQs of Urban Circus?

I had so much fun designing these prints. I guess they come from that 'I-guess-I'll-always-be-a-little-kid-at-heart' place we all have lurking just beneath the surface. Just leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite toy or game was as a kid. And have fun reminiscing!

I'll randomly select one winner this Friday Dec 10, 2010 around 8am CT.

Have a great week and can't wait to hear a little about your childhood!

Journals atre on ON SALE! Great stocking stuffers!

What a great stocking stuffer these little journals would make! I carry one in my bag everywhere I go and it's just perfect for jotting quick notes (or sketches) they're super durable. They made with special canvas covers that are resilient and water-resistant and are filled with 100 blank pages of partially recycled paper.

And for a week only (through next Sunday 12/12), they're marked down from $12 to $10. They come in 8 different patterns with my designs, so now's a great time to stock up. These are only available in my store so when you're thinking about gifts this year, perhaps one of these would be perfect for someone on your list!





Need more quantity than what's listed in the store, just let me know and I'll check my inventory.

Let the holiday decorating begin!

Can you believe that today is the last day of November? This year has completely flown by and I can hardly believe the year is coming to an end soon! It's been a wonderful, wonderful year and I plan to make the very most of every minute of the holiday season this year. Even though I live in Texas (where we're lucky to have 'fall-ish' weather with practically no winter) it really feels like the holiday season around here already!

The day after Thanksgiving, I put up the holiday tree and it looks really lovely. I grew up in a house where there was a menorah next to a tree every year and I've continued the tradition here in my home. :) The tree is looking lovely and I had hoped to put pictures up today but this post ended up being longer than I thought so I'll share more pics and some other cute holiday projects later this week.

I've been busy making holiday gifts and new stockings for the mantle. I had SOOOO much fun with these. Tufted Tweets everywhere in my holiday decor this year!!



As you know, I'm not the greatest free motion sewist (is that the right word?). But these little cuties were the perfect solve for that. And felt. Glorious felt. The most forgivingly wonderful fabric. I love that they look handmade and love all the crazy stitching. I was really inspired by 3 very talented ladies to make the little circles. And then it took off from there. Stockings. Ornaments. Garlands. Oh my!

The fabulous Lucie Summers (check out her Etsy store here) and her mom, made the world's most amazing quilt. Seriously jaw droppingly gorgeous, eh? Take the time to click through her photo stream. You'll be amazed...

And I have been lucky enough to strike up a friendship with the incredibly talented, sweet and funny Sam Cotterill of mummysam fame. Her new book, Fanciful Felties is divine. Beautifully written, super duper fun projects and really just an overall delight to read. I am thoroughly addicted and am working on a small softie village for the guest bedroom. And being the very talented gal that she is, she also has some gorgeous fabrics she's designed for sale in her etsy store.

For months I've had a huge crush on the fabric boxes that Lesley at Smidgebox makes. So super, duper cute! I'm hoping she'll be making me a few early next year!

And finally, the pattern for the stocking itself (free!) is from Amy Butler and can be found here. I of course added the little peek-a-boo circles to the front of the stocking. Her pattern is wonderful and it's fully lined which I love. My stockings are lined with green Birdies on a Wire which it turns out is a great holiday fabric!

I've also sewn up some holiday ornaments and a garland in this same style. I actually made TWO garlands. One for me and one for you! I'll be doing a giveaway in the next few days and someone will be able to hang a Tufted Tweets garland in their house very soon! The only rule will be no making fun of my free motion stitching 'skill'...I'll also share some details on how I made the little peek-a-boo windows (easy-peasy) in my next post. Have a wonderful night everyone and have fun with your holiday decorating!!

A blog post from my publisher about the book!

How delighted was I to be pointed in the direction of a lovely and very sweet post by Rotovision about my upcoming book, The Complete Guide to Designing & Printing Fabric. They also included some sneak peeks of a few pages which they've kindly agreed to let me share here! In addition to the 'techie' tutorials for how to digitally set up repeats and all that good stuff, there's loads of information in the book about color, inspiration and tutorials for hand rendered designs too.





It just gives me chills to start to see everything coming together. I have to tell you that writing the book was one of the most challenging and fulfilling things I have been fortunate enough to do. All of the text is now officially complete after 5 months of really, really hard work. (Yahoo!!!) Now I'm working through the editing process and I'm getting to start to see some of the layouts from the art director. It's really amazing how many people are involved and how long the whole process takes. I can hardly believe it will be next fall before I get to hold a copy in my hands!

In addition to getting to interview some amazing designers and collaborate with some really talented people, another one of my favorite parts of the book was getting to work on all the photography. I completely and totally lucked out and was able to get the talented Ryann Ford to do my photography and Robin Finlay to do my styling. What an amazing duo they are! I only wish we had taken more 'behind the scenes' shots. This was from one of our shoots where Robin styled a fake bed to show off this gorgeous Bird in Paradise fabric from Umbrella Prints.



When you see the final shot, you would NEVER in a million years guess that the bed was actually a couch cushion. :) As we get closer to the publication date (next fall is still a long ways off!) I'll have more and more to share with you. Stay tuned!

Santa Donkey - Tree Skirt finished!

First, thanks to everyone for making me giggle at myself and my previous tutorial for charred croutons. :)

Over the weekend I finished off my tree skirt! Am really happy with the way it turned out and its going to be so much better than the usual wadded up sheet that usually doubles as a skirt each year.

The only challenge is that every time I put it down on the ground to photograph it, the cats come over to 'help'. So just pretend there aren't kitties lying on it/under it and you'll get the idea. I'm beginning to wonder how these curious little creatures are going to do when the tree actually arrives. I'm beginning to fear for the safety of my ornaments...

In other holiday crafting news, I'm working on some fun holiday garland from Tufted Tweets and I'll post pics of that as soon as I get them done. Hoping to possibly get them finished this week. Maybe I'll even make 2 and do a giveaway!!

What fun holiday sewing projects are you working on?

Another reason I would prefer not to have salad for dinner

So I figured I would have a nice quiet night at home and eat a healthy salad for dinner. Here's how my well laid plans literally went up in flames around me this evening...

1. Make salad. Healthy leafy greens. Me: "Gee, this will be a nice healthy dinner. I should do this more often! Hmmm. Fresh croutons...gee that sounds great. Where is that loaf of bread anyway?"
2. Cut croutons from loaf of bread
3. Place croutons in toaster oven under broiler
4. Completely forget about croutons
5. Wander out of kitchen to sort mail
6. Remember croutons
7. Run like a crazy person across house towards kitchen
8. Enter smoke filled kitchen
9. *X&^%*!
10. Grab potholders
11. Throw back door open
12. Remove charred/flaming/smoking used to be croutons from toaster oven and place them outside to continue to smolder
13. Realize that smoke detector is about to go off
14. Close door so cats do not run away forever when smoke detector starts
15. Race towards hall closet for broom (cannot reach smoke detector)
16. Smoke detector goes off
17. Smoke detector then sets off the house alarm
18. Push button on smoke detector to stop screeching sound (i.e. slam broom end into smoke detector)
19. Jump off chair and run to alarm pad to turn off alarm
20. Phone is ringing (alarm company) so run back to kitchen to get phone and tell them all is ok
21. Miss call from alarm company because phone not on charger. Where is phone?!?
22. *X&^%*!
23. Run upstairs and find cell phone instead (pass two terrified cats on the way)
24. Call alarm company
25. Alarm lady: "Hello Ms. Wisbrun, we have dispatched the fire department to your residence."
26. Me: "Ummmm.... You can cancel that call. I just burned some croutons."
27. Alarm lady: "Pardon? So you do not require the fire department?"
28. Me: "No ma'am. So sorry for the trouble. All is well here. Thank you for your help."
29. No longer hungry. Stupid salad.
30. Head to kitchen. Where is the gin and tonic instead? I'll just have that for dinner and enjoy the burned toast smell that has permeated every room in my house.

Hope you are having a wonderful, crouton-less evening where you are! :)

New fabric in the shop | Polar Bears!

I am so super excited to announce that I have 4 new patterns in 2 color stories listed in my Etsy store. Wahooo!!! Say a big hello to the Polar Bears :)

I've been working on these polar bear designs since late summer and finally decided they're ready to make their big debut. Every time I look at them, they make me smile so I really hope you like them too.

In terms of the colors, I got so many emails when the 'Sherbet' color story for Urban Circus was retired and it's one of my all time favorite color combos. So I'm thrilled be able to bring it back. And there is a more gender neutral color combo of aqua and red called 'Ice' that I just adore.

Everything is available in the store and I have a few yards of each ready to ship now and can print additional quantity of whatever you need. Have a great weekend everyone!

Multi Bear Dots in Sherbet

Small Bear Dots in Ice

Flowers in Sherbet

Dashed Stripe in Ice

Progress - Santa Donkey Tree Skirt!

So sorry for disappearing for a while! I was on a much needed vacation (to Santa Fe which was amazing!!) and have just returned and am diving back into my giant pile of projects.

I'm slowly but surely I'm making headway on the Santa Donkey tree skirt! I knew I wanted to do something with big pieces and white sashing so I could really show off some of my favorite holiday fabrics and be able to highlight my Santa Donkeys and Holiday Boots fabrics. I have to say, I'm really loving the simplicity of it all and it sewed together super duper quickly.




I'm very inexperienced with free motion quilting. In the past, I've either hired out that portion of my quilt projects or tried them myself (which translates as: most of my attempts to date with free motion quilting have not ended well...) But because I really, really wanted this tree skirt to turn out well and I am determined to finally get the hang of free motion quilting, I turned to the ever-so-talented blog community for help.

As always the tutorials from Elizabeth at Oh Fransson! saved me from myself. So that's how you make a quilt sandwich without giant creases, lumps and bumps! I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent on previous projects crawling around on the floor only to end up with a lumpy quilt sandwich. Which of course led to a hot mess of a back once I got started on my quilting. But not on this project!! The back is just as smooth as the front. :)

And then there was the actual pattern for the skirt. I found a fantastic tutorial for a square tree skirt from Crazy Mom Quilts and have modified it to fit my design. Her instructions for the hole in the middle are genius.

I hope to finish off the project this weekend so will post pics when I'm done. Hope everyone is doing well!

Kitty mind meld

Do you ever have those days where your to-do list just never seems to shrink? I'm having one today. But I took a break a few minutes ago and looked over to see this. Kitty mind meld (oops, I just gave away the secret that I'm a bit of a Star Trek fan, didn't I?)

Just wanted to share the cuteness. Ok, back to work!

Urban Circus Giveaway winner + PJ pants

Thanks to everyone who dropped by over the last week to leave a comment about how you have been (or would!) using Urban Circus! It's always so much fun to hear about all the creative ideas you have in store. And to those of you who shared new pictures of what you've been making with the fabric in my Flickr group, an extra special thank you. What gorgeous and inspiring creations!

And now to announce the winner of the giveaway. Chosen by random, the winner is #89 Jennie who said: I would love to make a quilt for my baby granddaughter's room and a wall hanging for her brother's room with this delightful colorful fabric.

Jennie: Fat quarters from the entire collection are headed your way. I really hope your grandkids love what you make with the fabric and that you have a great time sewing with it.



I also want to share a pair of PJ pants I made for myself from the pink Elephants fabric. But since I couldn't model them and photograph them at the same time, you'll have to imagine what they look like. Here they are in an artfully arranged pile. :) A kid at heart, I just couldn't resist a pair of adult PJ pants from the pink elephants. They have quickly become my favorites. Why should the kiddos be the only ones who get to wear animal prints?!


It's a beautiful day here in Austin so I'm headed out to enjoy the rest of my afternoon outside. I hope everyone has a wonderful, wonderful weekend!

Giveaway - Urban Circus FQ set

One of my favorite parts of the day is checking my blog and my Flickr account for new comments and pictures. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to see what you guys are making with my fabric. The quilts, the bags, the clothes... SOOO cute! Lately I've noticed there haven't been as many pictures of creations made with Urban Circus though.



So I'm hoping that perhaps if I entice you with a giveaway, you'll post some more pictures!! Here's how the giveaway will work.

--Only one entry per person regardless of how many pics you post or comments you leave please. I want everyone to have a chance to win!

--The winner will receive a full FQ set of both color stories of Urban Circus. That's 8 FQS!!

--TO ENTER: Leave me a comment here (this will be your entry to win). Tell me either what you have made with Urban Circus (or any of my fabrics!) OR if you haven't made anything yet, tell me what you'd like to make! I will draw a winner after 9am CT on Saturday 10/16/10.

--Then if you have pictures to share, just head over to my Flick group and post your pics! I would really love to see what you've made!!

To get you in the mood, here are a few pictures of some recent creations from some very, very talented folks! (Thanks for sharing these!!)

Baby Kimono PJs
by dodgebutterfly.blogspot.com


Urban Circus Quilt
by xceler8one


Have a wonderful weekend!

Getting started on a holiday tree skirt

I've been trying to figure out what to make for the house at the holidays that can be festooned with cute little Santa Donkeys and Holiday Boots. And then I remembered that I don't have a tree skirt. Every year I end up taking a bed sheet and 'draping' it around the base of the tree. Which pretty much always looks like I have a wadded up sheet under my tree. So this year, I think a tree skirt is in order!

I'm just getting started on the skirt and frankly not really clear (yet) on where I'm headed but I know I want to do some squares with Santa Donkeys in the center and some other squares with some Holiday Boot hexies. This Chartreuse Kona Cotton is a perfect match and it happens to be one of my all time favorite colors.


I'll post pics as my tree skirt progresses. And the Santa Donkey and Holiday Boots fabric is posted for sale in the store. And if you've started any projects with the Santa Donkeys, I'd love to see pictures so make sure you post them in my Flickr group.