i heart linen

Mmmm...samples.

Just thought I would share some samples I made (except for the elephants, those are Melody-made! ^_^) for my new collection 'Washi'! 

The large pillows are Elizabeth Hartman's Chopped Vegatables pillow pattern.  I really and truly enjoyed making them.  Elizabeth's instructions are always super easy to follow and she's such a rockstar designer.  Love her!   

The cutie-pie elephants are Melody Miller's Elephant Tooth Cushion pattern.  She was gracious enough to make these for me and I'm ever so grateful because she made them so darn adorable! Thanks, Melody!!

And finally the bag is the Melanie bag from ithinksew.  Such a cute tote bag and it's a really great size as well. (23" x 19 1/2")  I think the hardest part of making this bag was sending it to Timeless Treasures.  I wanted to keep it! 

Anyway, fun stuff, right?  I'm dying to see what everyone is making with 'Washi'!!!!  Be sure to join the Flickr Group and show off your Washi goodness!  

Fat Quarter Pack Guest Designer at Sew, Mama, Sew!

Check out my Designer's Dozen over at Sew, Mama, Sew!   *does the cabbage patch!* Woot!

Kristin so graciously invited me to design a Fat Quarter Pack for Sew, Mama, Sew and I couldn't resist saying, "Yes, yes, yes!".   \^.^/

Run over to Sew, Mama, Sew for a chance to win one or buy one from their shop!

4 + 1

Having a good summer?  I certainly hope so.  Mine has been pretty quiet.  Not a lot of blogging, sewing, creating, or running mans sadly.  I just haven't had the energy for it.  The past 6 weeks have been physically and emotionally hard on yours truly.  Because.......well.  See for yourself! ^_^

Yes my dear bloggy buddies, I am having a baby! Yay! I'm about 10 weeks along now and has this little one has been giving me the business!  Let's just say I've spent the greater portion of my mornings, noons and nights in the past month and a half worshipping the porcelain god.  I've already been to the hospital twice, once to the ER and the second time they admitted me with Hyperemesis.  I spent about 3 days in the hospital last week getting rehydrated and pumped up full of anti-naseau medication.  2 dress sizes later and I'm feeling pretty good again.  

I had pretty bad morning sickness with my first two wee ones, but never this bad and I'm praying that I can finally have some relief after the 12th week.  *crosses fingers and toes*  I still can't believe we're going to have another little one!  I'm so excited and scared and thrilled and nervous and utterly and divinely happy.  Children are such a blessing and I can't wait to see our wee one. February 27th seems so far away, but I know it will be here in no time flat!  Wow. A baby. ^_^

I'm also quite please to finally know part of the reason I've had such a bad case of blogger's/crafter's block lately.  *whew*  I thought I was losing it!  I'll get it all back sooner or later I suppose. 

Anyone know anything about sizing children's patterns?  I have a project that I've been working on that I want to make as a tutorial for everyone but I'm not quite sure how to adjust the pattern so that it would fit other size children.  If you think you might be able to help me please shoot me an email! ^_^

Anyhoo, aside from the non-blogging, non-crafty porcelain god worshipping action that's been going on around here, there hasn't been a lot of fabric shopping happening either.  In fact, I haven't done any major fabric shopping since last Summer when I started sewing for the book.  I bought so much fabric that i really felt like I had more than enough to last me for a long while.

I have indeedy gotten into buying a few vintage lovelies here and there, though.  Two of my most favorite finds from Ebay..........

This sheer delight has a gorgeous orange border running parallel to either edge of the selvedge.  I'm thinking of making some panel curtains for our bedroom and Mel thinks I should use it to make something for myself.  There's about 6 yards of it!  Still deciding. 

And this.  Is this not the GREATEST PRINT EVER?!  I LOVE THIS FABRIC!  I have to say I was really having a battle on ebay to win this baby.  I was NOT letting it get away from me.  Why aren't there more prints like this these days?  *sigh* Oh bunnies, vegetables, and flowers how I love thee.  

In other news, the newest issue of Sew News has hit newstands and your dear blog pal is on the cover! Yay!  I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am about this. I did notice that the tutorial on the Sew News site didn't show a photo of the pouch.  That would kind of help when making it so have a look here.  

The Interweave Press store also has a darling little preview of my bookety book book, so run on over and take a lookety look look! (Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see the preview)

Interweave also has a few titles coming out that I'll be adding to my wish list, you might like a few of these as well................

Well, happy Monday folks!  I'm off to worship a different type of porcelain.  ^_^

RandoMonday

• I think I need to move to Toronto just so that I can shop here.  Oh well, I always have the blog.

• My Son + Photobooth + His sister's hand-me-down jammies = Cutie pie

• Uh-huh. I'll be making some of these.

• A vintage orange tea pot I bought on Etsy.  Kawaii. ^_^

• Be nice.

• This blog is loverly.

• This one too.

• Facebook can be fun.  I've connected with some people I haven't seen since the elementary school! You can be my friend too! ^_^

• I think I'm going to make a paper lantern.

• Ever have this tea? It's yum.  It smells so nice and I love the muslin bags.  The box is purty too. But the tins are heaps better!

• How sweet is this pillow?

• Can she just stop it already?  How does Elizabeth just crank out the awesome so easily?

• She needs to stop it too, sheesh.  Always something cute here.

• Let's see.....who else.  Yup, them too.  Just stop.  Loves it.

• Mmm hmm....you too.  I can't take it.  Cute!

• I need this book. Yes, yes, you need it too.

Happy Monday! ^_^

Thank you and....

(I started a rag ball to do some rag crocheting.....I doubt I'll ever get around to it.....but I like how the ball looks so I may just leave it sitting on my desk.)

Thank you for all of your awesome comments from my last post.  Those two mini me's are my joy of joys.

It's so funny because I was just busy taking shots of them with my phone.  When we came home and I uploaded them, I just paused and thought to myself..."look at that....they love each other....wow."  Sometimes you forget that little ones have those feelings too.

^_^  And for those of you wondering about Bella's coat, I bought it at Old Navy.  It was the LAST one in the store.  I had to hide it from these two ladies who were frantically trying to find them.  I think they would have gnawed my limbs off to get it too.  Sheesh.

I just went to the website and they have them there AND they're on sale! $25!!  Size 6m - 5T! Run I tell you! Run! The coat is super cute....I wish they had them in my size.  I wonder how many of those coats it would take to make one giant one for me?

Where to get..........

the gingham! I've gotten quite a few inquiries as to where I get mine from my previous post.  Enough that I figured I'd make a little post about it.  Wanna hear it, well here it go.....

Most of what I have is Japanese, which I've managed to acquire from several places around the web. This gingham is almost always 100% linen or cotton.

Etsy Sellers I recommend:

Matatabi - Francis has some chocolate linen gingham here.  I know, are those three words allowed to be together? Chocolate, linen, gingham? Trouble.

A Little Goodness - Leslie's got some lovely reversible gingham with polka dots on the back! More trouble.

Talk to the Wind - Lot's here too.  More reversible with dots.

Cotton Blue - Some gingham fabric, as well as linen gingham ribbon.

Cotton Break - Some black and white here.

SaucyLouise - A few with smaller checks.

Down Shadow Lane - Not Japanese, but big lovely gingham checks to be had here.

Non-Etsy:

Kitty-Craft - There's some pretty Mocha Brown Double Gauze that would make a great scarf here.

and of course we all know Superbuzzy.

Then there is the non-Japanese gingham that I've acquired.  It's really difficult to find 100% cotton gingham here in the US. There are few places to buy 100%. Usually what you find is a PolyCotton blend, mostly polyester and a little cotton.  *shudders* I refuse to use synthetics. I'm quite threadjudiced indeed!

Ebay - Sometimes you can score some nice ginghams here, in fact I've gotten most of the cotton fabric from here.  You can bid or you can 'buy it now'.  Be sure to read the listing thoroughly and see if it is a blend or 100% cotton. If it doesn't say then ask the seller.

These other places have gingham as well(some polycotton if you don't mind):

Fabric.com - Heaps!

Fabric Direct - 1 inch checks here

Vogue Fabrics - They have some flannels too! Mmmm....flannel.

Warm Biscuit - Great shop, 2 yard minimum though.

I hope that helps. Now go get your ging on! ^_^
If anyone has other places to add, please comment.
Share your knowledge, homie.

Oh, Jennifer commented with a great link showing some really lovely scarfs in Japan! Thanks Jennifer!

Yellowing

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone's weekend was divine!  Mine was busy, busy, busy! Ikea run, grocery shopping, spring cleaning, laundry, rearranging some of our rooms, worked on some projects, and the weekend is over.  *sighs*  Weekends should be 3 days long. Maybe I can start a petition to change that.

Huge thank you to you all for your comments on my last post!  Some really great suggestions as well, I took some notes! Thanks! And thanks to the folks at Craftzine for posting about my calendar. If any of you make a calendar I'd love to see it, let me know!

Sssoooooo.  I've fallen for yellow!  I know how can you not when it's all over the place these days.  I guess I'm a little late, but I'm finally hopping on the yellow bandwagon.  We even painted one of our walls yellow.

Some newly acquired 'yeller' stuff. The pot and the plant are from Ikea, I chose a succulent because my thumb is every color in the rainbow but green. Please don't fear for this little plant's life! I'm keeping my fingers and even my Technicolor thumbs crossed that I can keep this plant alive. 

The fabrics are mostly from Sew, Mama, Sew from a few weeks back so I'm not sure if they're all in stock still.

I think I've been so apprehensive with it because it's such a hard color to pull off.  I just can't bring myself to wear yellow clothing just yet, I mean I'm 5' 10". I feel like I'd look like a big ol' giant walking banana or something!! Not cool.  I'm sticking to fabric, accessories, and housewares for now. 

Upgrades and the like

I know! two posts in one day! ^_^ *does the runnin' man*

Well, we've been doing a little bit of sprucing up around these parts lately.  We've been painting our living room and I must say it's been quite the adventure.  I actually like painting, it's sorta fun.  Well, when it's your house I guess.....I couldn't imagine doing it as a living.  Ugh.  Anyhoo, we decided to paint each wall in the living room a different color. We're not quite finished but I'll show you the red wall.  It came out so lovely.  I was a little apprehensive at first, red is such a strong color and I just couldn't see painting the whole room this color.  So we did just the one wall. (I'll show you the room as a whole when we're finished.)

As you can see my workstation has had a bit of an upgrade as well! Wooot!  I fell in love with the idea to use the Ikea Asker Series as craft storage.  Where did I see it?  Craftapalooza that's it!

So I made a little Ikea run this weekend and nabbed a couple items to clean up my desk.

Asker series stuff, Rajtan spice jars, some Kassett magazine files and boxes, and  two cutey plants and Billig plant holders for good measure.   

These jars are perfect for holding all those buttons and things that we love so much!

My goal was to make it a little more funtional and have my tools really close to hand.  (Oh and to get rid of my ArtBin toolbox.  It made me feel like I was still at design school.)  Also, my fabric stash has grown so large that I can't store it on the table anymore.  It now resides on three, yes THREE shelves in my linen closet.  The sheets and towels now have a new home. Sorry guys.

Let me also introduce you to my new baby.........

It was time for mama to get a new machine.  My old one has served me well, but it literally was like a no frills sewing machine.  Like it shouldn't have even had "Singer" printed on it......it should have just said..."Sewing Machine".  No cool features or anything, it just did what it was created to do.  Sew. 

But this new machine......*faints*....it's a Janome Memory Craft 4400, computerized, tons of different stitches, drop in bobbin (I had the old fashion bobbin case before...ugh), and it looks super cool when you turn it on in the dark! Tee heeeee!

Can't wait to start cranking out some new projects on this baby. I feel like such a grown up now! ^_^

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Just thought I'd share a cutie pie purchase I made on Etsy.

How lovely is this necklace? I found it in this quaint little shop by the name of EmilyE Jewelry.

Take a look at some of the other oh so pretties Emily has:

I'll definitely be doing some more shopping here.  I think my paypal account is in serious trouble! Happy shopping! ^_^

I'm so proud!!

Hello all!  Long time no see! ^_^  Thank you so much for your comments on my last post!  I think you'll be seeing a lot more of those little coasters around here. 
So, some of the wonderful things I wanted to happen fell through last week.  So, I guess I've kind of been pouting around and didn't feel like posting.  Until I got a little bit of news from my Mom!

Her shop in Miami is featured in the April issue of Lucky magazine!! How cool is that?! You rock Mommy!

She and two of her friends spent two months in Capri, Italy learning how to make wonderful sandals, like the ones below, all by hand.  You can choose what style, colors and adornments you want and they make them right there in the shop while you wait! 

I'm so proud of my mom!  We'll be going to see her in Miami for a week in April.  I don't know if I'm more excited to see her or to get my hands on a few pairs of handmade sandals!  ^_^  They even make little girl sandals!  Bella and I will have the prettiest feet in NY this summer! (After I get a pedicure of course.)