stitches and tulips

denyse schmidt for joann fabrics

I got some!

The bottom three are my favs so I got a full yard of each.

Afterwards I found some online advice for using Joann's coupon books in order to get a number of them (or any fabrics) at 40% and 50% off.  I plan to go back for a little more yardage this week.  The one I don't have that I really want is the red with the white and blue flowery arrows.  Love that one.  It's elusive at my two local Joann stores so I guess I'll venture to St. Paul.

And, weirdly, one of my local Joann's had Alexander Henry's Farmdale Blossom in turquoise at 30% off, which meant $5.19 a yard.  What?  I got two yards.  Obviously. 

I've heard about these crazy sightings of designer fabrics and Joann's. Where there must have been some shipping mishap and for one reason or another, they're just sitting there in the "Novelty section" among a sea of other (less awesome) fabrics, standing out like a sore thumb.  But I thought it was an urban myth.

project selvage entry!

So, if you're a fabric fanatic, you know about Project Selvage.  Michael Miller and Spoonflower are teaming up to find the next new fabric designer in what's been described as a Project Runway of sorts for textile design.  The challenge was "baby boy" fabrics.  I've been wanting to try my hand at fabric design and Spoonflower for some time, so when I read about this I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give it a go.  I've taken two graphic design courses and I've never designed fabric before so, yeah, I'm a total novice.  But this was FUN. And - I had to read several tutorials for illustrator to figure out how to get the repeat right so I learned a lot.

There are over 1000 entries and tomorrow they announce the top 75.  If you haven't already seen the amazing talent in this competition you should click here and check it out.  See?  Holy crap!  There are some awesome baby boy fabrics entered in this thing.  And that is excellent news for all of us since there is a serious dearth of good boy fabrics out there.  

I called mine "Cloudburst Crib."  But, after the fact, I decided I like just "Cloudburst" better.  Ah well.  Making it into the top 75 would be a crazy miracle so I'm not anticipating having to issue any sort of correction!

Here's a close up on the design detail.  

I plan to print some up for myself at some point in the future.  That's the beauty of Spoonflower, right?  Sort of like publishing your own book or something - just for you.

 

celebrate the boy! Henry's racetrack quilt.

I am just eeking this in at the very last minute of Celebrate the Boy.  I finished this quilt on December 19th - just in time for Christmas - but I'm just blogging about it now.  It was my first Christmas gift to Henry.  You recognize it, right?  Yes, yes you do.  It is HEAVILY inspired by Hillary over at Wee Wonderfuls.  Listen.  When I saw the racetrack quilt that she made for her son Oscar, I melted.  Completely.  And then I went and bought the Encyclopedia of Classic Quilt Patterns.

A few weeks later I was busily cutting and sewing blocks together and Henry's quilt started looked so (SO) much like Oscar's (maybe because of the combo of vintage and 30s repro fabrics?) that I emailed Hillary and confessed.  I basically said, "Congrats on the book, I seriously LOVE your stuff, and pretty please don't be mad but it turns out I totally ripped off your racetrack quilt."  She was incredibly gracious and said "every little boy deserves a racetrack quilt."  I think she's right.

I used vintage scraps, a few japanese prints, and a number of 30s reproduction prints.  

I backed it with a vintage cotton.  Love strawberries.  Love red, white and blue.  Love this fabric.

I straight-line quilted it.  The lines are a little more than 1/4 inch apart.  I bound it with leftovers from the 30s repro fabrics I used in the quilt.

Right now it serves as a play mat on Henry's bedroom floor.  We also got him some race cars and wooden racing turtles and I can't wait until he understands the "racetrack" part of this quilt!  Right now he mostly hangs out on it and, every now and then, becomes focused on a bright patch of fabric with crazy intense concentration. Cutie pie.

This quilt was also a great learning experience.  It was the first time I pieced curves and the first time I did any sort of embroidery.  I love it!  And I hope Henry loves it for years to come.

christmas sewing

Christmas sewing is in full swing in our house.  I over estimated how much I can get done in a few short weeks, once again, even though I tried seriously, deliberately not to.  Am I the only one who does this?  

To help things along, Sean declared today "sweat shop sewing day" and took complete control of childcare.  It was a productive day.

Two different quilts for two different recipients.  Both have a ways to go but I made a significant dent.  

vintage fabric and linens quilt

Finished!  This quilt is made almost entirely from vintage fabric and reclaimed bed linens with the exception of the white (Kona Cotton) and the black and white gingham (Robert Kaufman).  The quilting is done a quarter of an inch on either side of the ditch.  I backed it with a minty blue sheet.

Even though I love the way it looks, from this quilt I learned that you shouldn’t bind with gingham or any other more loosely woven fabric.  What a huge pain in the ass it is when your binding starts unraveling just as you think you’re approaching the finish mark! Lesson learned. 

My favorite parts are the pink stripes with orange flowers and the bits of screaming fluorescent orange polyester.

This is the largest quilt I’ve ever made.  It measures 85 x 85.  A monster in my book – especially when it came to the machine quilting.  I love it.  But I’m glad it’s over.

pincushion for me

I took a break from the holiday sewing and made this little guy for myself. This is all done out of vintage feedsack scraps, except the center of the block which is 1930s reproduction fabric. I've found some amazing bits of feedsack fabric recently. That ebay app spells real trouble for me. It really, really shouldn't be that easy to bid on fabric.

No real pattern. There is a whole world of beautiful pincushion inspiration out there if you need it. In this case, I just sewed random sized strips into a teeny log cabin, attached a backing (not shown, also feedsack) and the gingham tag, cut to size, and stuffed it. Happy little pincushion.

 

back

Had a baby three months early.  Spent 4 months in the NICU.  Then four months on maternity leave.  Now we've got a new, and better, normal.  And it means I am back to crafting and blogging about it.  The blogging part was a surprise, but I guess I couldn't stay away.

Meet Henry! 

Now back to crafting.

 

inspiration

I've become addicted to flickr over the last year and this is why.  This is a sampling of my favorite photos from other crafty folks.  It's what's inspiring me for 2010.  Some of these are projects I'd like to try, some of it is just eye candy, some of it I need to wait to try until we buy a house (read: photo #22, orla kiely wallpaper - I own one precious roll but it was too expensive to waste on a condo we plan to sell and I'm heartbroken I can't put it up tomorrow and look at it every single day), and some of it I need to make quickly before the baby comes.

Today I'm getting on a plane to LA and I plan to crochet the time away - I'm making granny motifs for some garland, inspired by photo #4.  Vacation, good friends, kiddies to spoil, good food, warm(er) weather, and 12 hours of travel time to crochet.  Love.

 1. Tulle dress, 2. Untitled, 3. Milk Butter & Eggs, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Linen bundle, 7. brick_quilt, 8. The Guardian, 9. IceMilk Aprons - Whisked Whipping Cream (Front), 10. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!, 11. Hip hippos baby booties, 12. Desk, 13. liberty-lined baby kimono, 14. Untitled, 15. 300, 16. Linen covered buttons, 17. adele, 18. embroidered elephant pull toy , 19. Sleepy sheep, 20. My favorite quilt, 21. Untitled, 22. preparing..., 23. placemat, 24. My collection of Vintage wallpaper, 25. a small miracle...

watch out. too cute.

The last few weeks have been filled with highs (I'm having a boy!) and lows (I've been put on bed rest with some ugly and scary, but resolvable, symptoms).  Bed rest plus going into a state of obsession over this pregnancy for a few weeks has meant very little crafting. Although, my mom, my sister and I did get crazy crafty over Thanksgiving weekend (pics soon).

Things are starting to look much better. To prepare for being "released" from bed rest (fingers crossed) I bought an unholy amount of fabric for Christmas gift making.  And, of course, some for the littlest mister. 

Here's a quick look at a few of the fabrics for the little guy.  I'm warning you - it's too cute to stand.

 

 

Mini mushrooms and hedgehogs?  What!?  I almost passed out when I first saw this. 

Etsy fabric sellers (especially those who sell Japanese fabric) are my favorite.

  
   

more table runners

I'm getting the hang of these.   This was for a friend a few weeks back.  My pictures turned out blurry so I have no length shots - but basically the length is strips of three different fall colored fabrics surrounded by linen.   Kind of like one strip of a coin quilt.  Seven weeks until Christmas - I'm thinking these will be perfect gifts.