Shop Update!! Loads of new goodies!

Super excited to announce that I have a whole bunch of NEW limited release fabric and pillows panels now available in my Etsy Store!

The designs are bright and cheery and perfect for ringing in Spring, which is already starting to make an appearance here in Austin. I hope you love the new designs and can't wait to see what you make!
I hope you'll hop over and take a peek. 

And of course, the original Oh La Llamas are still available!

Giveaway winner | And a sneak peek of my new Spring Etsy goodies

Thank so much for the great comments about the new embroidery patterns! Its always fun to try something new and I had such a great time playing with the embroidery. Must. Get. Embroidery. Machine. :)

The lucky winner of the thread set is Mama Spark who was number 20. Congrats!! I hope you love the goodies, courtesy of Embroidery Online!

And a quick reminder of the new designs and the pillow I made out of the embroidery motifs.

You can find the patterns over at Embroidery Online.  Happy sewing!

I'm off to take some pictures of all the new goodies that I'll be adding to the Etsy store soon. I have 6 new pillow panels + and 7 new fabrics to share with you. You know I love a good pom pom trim for a pillow, so I stitched up some pillow panel samples with all sorts of pom-pomy pretiness. :) Stay tuned for the shop update!

• New spring llamas
• New donkeys
• Foxes
• Swans...oh my!

New license! Embroidery designs and a giveaway!

Guess what!? Some of my designs are now available as digital embroidery patterns through OESD on Embroidery Online! There are 25 designs in our first collection, Trucks and Transport, and I think they might be just the thing for little boys who love big machines. Fire trucks, earth movers, cement mixers,  and even a trash truck and traffic cones. The designs are available for use with just about any embroidery machine and can be downloaded from Embroidery Online or your can order a CD.

My current sewing arsenal doesn't include an embroidery machine in its ranks, so the team over at Embroidery Online stitched up some of the applique samples for me and I designs and sewed up these 2 cutie pie Trucks and Transport pillows. What do you think?!

And the backs!

Look at all of the fabulous little  details that are worked in automatically using the embroidery patterns!

(Basic instructions for the pillows are listed at the end of this post, along with a few work in progress shots to help illustrate how I put everything together.)

Oh, and guess what else? Robert Kaufman will be releasing a coordinating line of fabric this fall.  Fabric AND coordinating embroidery designs. Squee!! So excited!!

All the thread you need for the Trucks and Transport designs come in a handy 26-spool (600 yard) collection of Timeless Thread. And the team at Embroidery Online has a complete thread set (valued at $78) to share with one of you! Just leave me a comment here before the morning of 2/10/13 when I'll randomly choose a winner. I'd love to hear how many of you have an embroidery machine or if your sewing machine has embroidery capabilities. And if you don't, is a machine on your wish list like it is on mine?

Here's a preview of all 26 designs in the Trucks and Transport embroidery patterns collection!

Here are some guidelines for you on how I made my pillow covers.

Embroidery Motifs (each done on a single piece of white quilting weight cotton) with lots of extra space for trimming
1 - Trash truck - 4" wide
1 - Dump truck - 4" wide
2 - Cement trucks - 5" wide
2 - Flat bed trucks - 5" wide
1 - Fire engine - 5" wide
1 - School bus - 5" wide
1 - Tractor - 3" wide
1 - Earth mover - 4" wide
4 - cones group of 6 - 1 inch tall
8 - cones single - 1 inch tall
2 of each - text - 1 inch tall

Other supplies: 
I used white quilting cotton for stitching the embroidery motifs and for piecing the pillow
A dark grey quilting cotton for the road strips and orange quilting cotton for the stripes on the back
White cotton embroidery floss
2 orange 20" invisible zippers
Black pipping

Finished pillow size - 19" x 19"

Use 1/4" seam allowances for piecing

1. Trim the bottom edge of the fabric for each stitched motif leaving 2" between the bottom of the motif and the bottom of the fabric

2. Layout the strips in order, stacking and folding to get a sense of how you want to compose your pillows. Once finished, your strips will be 21 or 22"  wide, so as you lay everything out work with that as your width. Here's a guide I used for a rough height of each of my strips:

white (top)	5.5
grey	2.25
white	5.5
grey	2.25
white	4
grey	3

See how they're just sort of  folded into place for positioning? 

3. Now that you're sure of your layout, trim the bottom of the fabric for each stitched motif to leave 1/2" of white space below the motif.

4. Sew each of the white stripes (left to right with 1/4" seams) piecing the elements together to leave roughly the same spacing between elements that you laid out in 2. Remember, its an art not a science, so don't worry about making spacing between elements perfect.

5. Make sure that each row is at least 21 or 22" wide so you have some extra to trim later

6. After you sew the 3 white strips, trim them to the heights listed above

7. After you sew all the strips, start piecing the strips together. Start with the 3" grey strip at the bottom and work your way up to the top

8. For the back of the pillows, I followed the same basic idea but added an invisible zipper below the top orange panel.

9. Use an embroidery hoop and hand embroider the white road lines onto the grey strips.

10. Trim to 19" x 19"

11. When sewing the front to back, I added a basic black pipping to give the pillow a nice finish. I always,  use 20" pillow down forms in 19" cases so they are nice and full and fluffy.

Spoonflower news and a giveaway!

Happy Friday everyone! I am so excited to share that Spoonflower has added my Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design book to their Welcome Pack. So if you've been wanting to give digital fabric printing a try (or it makes a great gift!), here's a great way to dip your toe in the water.

Included in the pack are:

• $35 in Spoondollar credit for the recipient to spend on Spoonflower
• A Spoonflower swatch book with samples of all the fabrics and materials, including wallpaper and wall decals
• A copy of my Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design book which includes step-by-step tutorials for designing patterns (both digitally and by hand), as well as insider tips for developing a collection and bringing it to the marketplace.

I've teamed up with Spoonflower and we posted an excerpt from the book on the Spoonflower blog about how to create a seamless repeat by hand using paper, pen, tape and good old fashioned scissors. The full tutorial Paper Cutting Repeat tutorial from my book is available here.

AND, the fabulous folks over at Spoonflower are graciously giving away threee FREE welcome packs! Just hop over to register to win here before 2/5/13. They'll draw a winner on 2/6/13. Good luck!!

On a personal note, this is such a huge full circle moment for me. I started my entire fabric design journey by trying Spoonflower and just seeing what I could do. To have them including my book as part of their Welcome Pack is really, truly astounding to me. Never in my wildest dreams did I see where this all would lead. [Insert giant happy smile here] Thank you so much to Stephen, Kim, Garth and the entire Spoonflower team for making me a part of your family!

xo

Giveaway winner and my Z for Zipper pouch

I always love to hear all of your ideas for what you'd make with my fabric. And ya'll did NOT disappoint. What amazing ideas you came up with! I simply cannot wait to see what you make, so once you have some Bright and Buzzy in your hot little hands make sure you share the love and post pictures in my Flickr group? Pretty please?

I was able to carve out some sewing time this past weekend and made up a really fun zipper pouch with Bright and Buzzy. And I LOVE my little pouch. So. Very. Much. But before I show it to you, let's get to that giveaway winner, shall we?

Via random number, the lucky winner is #139, Margaret who said:
I love this fabric. I have a kids quilt pattern that I have been wanting to make forever. It requires strips of bugs in a line for part of the design. Either of the bees or the birds will be perfect. Thanks for sharing your amazing talents with me. I can't wait to get my hands on this fabric. I also think I need a kitchen redo and bees could be buzzing all around while I cook. Pot holders, towels, new curtains, chair cushions and of course a mug rug or two.

And then because her comment made me laugh so hard I actually spit out my coffee, I'm also sending a set of fabric to #44 Michelle who said:

Seriously, I'm surprised there haven't been more growth charts in non-barf inducing children's fabrics. Hopefully you've started a trend! 


Thanks so much to everyone for sharing your great ideas for the fabric, and for the great laughs and I hope Bright and Buzzy will be making its way onto your sewing tables soon!

And now onto my new pouch. Ta-da! I think its first job will be to be my supplies pouch for Quilt Con (which is right around the corner!) I'm going to be speaking on a panel on fabric design AND I am going to get to take some of the great classes so I'm getting geared up for that! A girls gotta have a cute supplies pouch, right?!

To figure out my sizing and for instructions on the contrast bottom, I loosely followed the Noodlehead Open Wide pouch tutorial. (Thanks Anna!)

Here's the front. For the top, I used the Z for Zipper from the Alphabet panel along with 2.5" squares of the cross hatch prints from the growth chart panel. Then the contrast bottom uses the darker of the two honeycomb prints. Bright and cheery, isn't it?!

And a shot with a  pencil to show scale. The pouch measures 13" x 9" so its a great size for big goodies. I used mid weight interfacing so its got some substance but isn't too stiff.

The inside is also lined with the honeycomb print. I love opening a pouch and seeing a pretty lining.

And the back is made from my Modern Whimsy circles (which are a perfect match!) along with a few more cross hatch print squares from the growth chart panel.

Thanks again for participating in my giveaway and for all of your great comments about Bright and Buzzy. I'm so tickled that you are as excited about this new line as I am! I still have all of those fun bee prints to play with still and I can't wait to start cutting into them soon! 

Bright and Buzzy | Giveaway!

Tick tock, tick tock. I have been watching the clock and the calendar, anxiously awaiting the day that I could do the grand unveiling of Bright and Buzzy, one of two of my new collections for Robert Kaufman. And today is finally the day!

I have so many ideas swimming in my head for things to make from the collection. And even though it's perfect for kids, I can see so many uses for it for those who are just young at heart. (See how I artfully skirted calling myself old there? Nicely done if I don't say so myself...)

There are 6 fabrics in the collection and they have all just been released by Robert Kaufman so they should be making their way to stores soon. 

• Buzzy bees in 3 fun colors. I was so happy to be able to do these in a more non-traditional palette than what you usually see for bees. 
• Honeycomb in two shades
• A full yard panel with one animal or item for each letter in the alphabet. 
• And a full sized growth chart that goes up to 60" inches high. 

On the image above, the yard panel in the corner isn't to scale, I squished it down so it would all fit together in one little graphic.

\

Fun honeycomb selvage shapes

Attempted to take a picture of the yard alphabet panel and Fiona came to help. 

And then Dexter had to get in on the action. It totally looks like they're making out. Which is really inappropriate blog content but it was just too funny not to share. 

Wait...what, is that a whale under that tail? And a raccoon peeking out from behind that foot? 

I see all sorts of fussy cut opportunities for this panel. 

How adorable would pennant flags be to spell out a kiddo's name?!

This weekend I'm going to be making a zipper pouch with my Z. I can't wait. 

A close up of one of the owls from the growth chart panel. You can get an idea of what the whole thing looks like in the graphic at the top of the post.  I think the owl on the swing is my favorite. :) 

Or maybe the bunny. 

Bzzzz! Bee and honeycomb goodness. I keep thinking "bee-still my beating heart". 

Guess my mind is on Valentine's Day!

Thanks for wading through all of the pictures! As a reward, here's a shot of the giveaway goodies. A FQ set of all the fabrics + full alphabet panel and the growth chart. 

• I'd love to hear what kind of ideas you have for the fabric!
• Post your comment here before the morning of Tuesday 1/29/13. 
• Make sure you leave me a way to contact you. 
• And as always, international entries are welcome!

I'll post the winner (and hopefully my little Z zipper pouch) on Tuesday morning. Good luck!

p.s. And if I wasn't already spastically excited about Bright and Buzzy, there's ANOTHER collection to share. I am beyond excited and bouncing off the walls over here with glee. (And I might have had one too many cups of coffee today perhaps...) 

I'll do a full post about Holiday Sweet Tweets (and a giveaway) once I get my yardage shipment, but here's a few sneak peek shots. It's also just been released by Robert Kaufman and should be shipping to stores soon. Birds. Peppermint tufted ottomans. Sassy couches and striped chairs. (Insert big dorky happy dance here!)

Visit your local quilt shop day!

This Thursday, 1/24/13 is Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day.  I am a huge supporter of local shops (as well as online retailers), so when FabShopNet asked if I'd be interested in being a part of their blog tour, I was of course tickled to participate. In my lovely and creative home town of Austin, I am so very fortunate to be able to have two amazing stores where I can always count on a welcoming smile, a laugh and an immediate creative infusion.

So why do I personally love local quilt shops so much?

When I was living in NY and struggling with a decision to leave my full time job in advertising, I allowed myself, for the first time in many years, the mental space to dream about what I really, really wanted to do with my life. I loved my job but knew it was time for me to make some major changes. During my soul searching and trying to identify themes where I was really in my happy place and felt the most joy, fabric, color, texture and creating things kept coming to the forefront. It sounds corny to people who aren't part of our fabric tribe, but there are few thing so creatively nurturing and inspiring as walking into a fabric store. And I love that if you're reading this, you likely know exactly, precisely what I mean.

The moment I walk in and see all the colors and patterns together it immediately makes me start to think about what gorgeous thing I might be able to make next. It just energizes me and makes me happy.  And it  was that joy and excitement that has always come from seeing all of those delicious bolts of fabric together in a shop combined with a desire to build a life for myself where creativity could be infused into my work that led me to the decision to finally jump off of the corporate hamster wheel and follow my dream of becoming a textile and surface designer.

So for me, I will be forever grateful for quilt shops and their owners. So get out there and go visit your LQS this week. And if you're in Austin, make sure you pop in and say hello to two of my local favorites.

Leslie Bonnell's Stitch Lab

Jessica Sloan's Remnants:fiber [culture]