i heart linen

Boucherouite!

Boucherouite!  Don't you love that word?  Yeah, I had to look up the pronounciation myself.  It's pronounced boo-shay-REET and it's a word derived from a Moroccan-Arabic phrase for torn and reused clothing. A Google image search of the term brings up tons of pretty eye candy.  

Speaking of eye candy, my third Fat Quarter Gang tutorial is ready to roll.   Boucherouite, you say?  No, I'm serious, check it out!  I LOVE to sew, but every now and then I like to whip up projects that don't require a needle and thread.  These boxes seemed to fit the bill.  They're going to hang out with me in my studio.  Find the tutorial here!  

Oh! Also, please note my tutorials are for personal use only. Please do not sell this pattern or sell the items you create from it. Thank yoooooouuu! ^_^

 

I made this pretty box using super, awesome Sarah Watson's Boucherouite Blush fabric from her Luxe in Bloom collection.  *swoon*  I looooooove her work.  She's totally my homegirl......okay in my head.  :D

I also can't wait to get my hands on Indian Summer.  *more swoon*

Are you working on any projects for your sewing space?  Leave a comment here to win a bundle of this lovely fabric. 

Art Gallery has some ruley rules for entering the draw:
Subscribe to the Art Gallery Fabrics blog
Follow Art Gallery Fabrics on Pinterest
Like Art Gallery Fabrics on Facebook (optional)

You can also post pics of your completed projects in the Art Gallery Fabrics Flickr group!  You just might win something!  

Refashion? Upcycle?

Was going through some of my closet and purging last week and came across this clutch that I bought from Target several years ago.  I looked it over...."Meh", I thought to myself, "I haven't used this thing in eons."

Blech, I typically love mustard yellow, but for some reason this sad little clutch just wasn't speaking to me anymore. Out it goes.  I tossed it aside.  Then I started to think about it.  Why not just take it apart and use the pieces as a pattern to make a new one???  YEESS!!  So I went to work.  I gathered my seam ripper, and my eyeglasses screwdriver, and the clutch and dropped them all in my purse.  I took the whole thing apart while waiting in line at carpool. LOL

I didn't think to take a before picture, because honestly, I wasn't convinced that the finished product would be post worthy.  I just knew that it would probably end up being a disaster, so I figured why bother. lol  Kicking myself in the butt now, but I did take a pic off all of the pieces. (See above)

It took me a few days to figure out how I wanted to put this together again.  I took my time.......I used cardstock, spray adhesive, steam-a-seam, batting, a fat quarter of my Clouds fabric, a fat quarter of Kona Cotton Coral, some thread, and a fancy Japanese zipper that I had stashed away.

I measured twice and cut once over the weekend and stayed up all night last night to finish it. (And no I haven't been to bed, yet.  I know. I know!!  But I just couldn't sleep because of excitement...for obvious reasons. :P)

The hardware was SO easy to put install!  The frame comes with screws and you just slide the frame on top of the clutch and screw that bad boy down.  The clasp installs similiar to magnetic snaps that ,any of us are familiar with.  You know the ones with the two prongs??  Easy peasy! 

I'm so, SO pleased with how it came together!!  I lcan tell you that it was very simple to put together, just a lot of cutting, but I think we're all used to that by now. :P  It's incredible easy and what I love about it is that it looks like advanced sewing, but it's so not! Anyone could make one of these.

I just went on Google trying to find this frame, beacuse I do believe I need to make another!  I managed to find a few on Etsy from a few different shops in Asia, (Here, here, here, and here!)  but so far nothing local.  One shop even has a similiar clutch featured, but sadly no pattern.  :(  So I guess you know what that means!! *cough* ^_~

I can't remember the last time I made something just for me, as I'm always sewing things for friends, family, the littles, work.....so happy that I can keep this all to myself!  

Tsuru! ^_^

It's live on the Cloud9 website today!  Run on over for a closer look! Woot!

Catching up......

So I've got a winner to announce, don't I? 

Well here goes!  

#31 Beth T.!!

Beth T. said...

"I'd wing my way to New York City, my favorite place on earth.

xoxo for the lovely airplane pattern. My dad was a pilot in WWII and Korea, and my best friend's dad was a commercial pilot. I'm thinking of making a wall-hanging for my friend, her dad, and one for me in remembrance of my dad. Thanks much for sharing."

Congrats Beth!  Please email me your info so that I can forward it to AGF! 

I'm so happy that so many of you like my airplane!  One of the comments I received asked about making it bigger and I thought, "What a FANTASTIC idea!".  So I'm working on making templates available for those of you who would like to make a JUMBO jet! I'll keep you posted!

I got the swatches back from Spoonflower for my Cloudy Clouds print!!  The colors came out a bit more muted than I expected and at first I was slightly disappointed.  But I think I really like them this way!  

I went ahead and made the print available at my shop, but please be aware of the color difference.  Just seeing these in print are making me even MORE anxious for my next collection to be born.  Can't wait!

Well, my Littles are back in school and although I miss them terribly it's been great for me to catch up on some projects I need to finish.  Not a lot since I still have my sweet Matty here with me and he keeps me pretty busy! 

I recently finished up another mini quilt that was going to be used for a special project, but it fell through sadly.  I don't have a pic of the finished quilt as of yet, but I took a pic of the top when I was finished with it a while back.  I promise to post pics of the finished quilt when I'm not busy being a lazy slug. :P

So here it is!  Presenting ........'Mod Hexies'  

I was cruising through Pinterest one day and saw this incredible tile floor (which I can't seem to find now. Boooo.) and I just KNEW that it had to be a quilt! Pinterest is good for something other than drooling I tell ya!  I really do get A LOT of inspiration there these days.  

I'm thinking about posting the tutorial for it here, but I haven't made up my mind as of yet.  It's completely machine pieced and sews up pretty quick.  It looks complicated but it's truly not so! Those are the best types of quilts if you ask me! ^_~ 

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!  

Hey.....

   

"Pssst....Guess what."

 

"I'm FOUR today!"

 

"Yup and my Mommie made me this super awesome outfit and I love to twirl in it!"

*twirling,twirling, twirling*

 

*more twirling, twirling, twirling*

"What?  Nope, I'm not dizzy.  Because........."

".......it's my birthday and I'm FOUR!" 

^_~

Bye-bye '08. Hello '09.

Hello!  Happy New Year!  I hope your holiday season was joyful!

I love the holidays but I must admit, I'm so happy that it's over.  It's so much fun, but man are you worn out after it's all over.  It's such a busy time of year, filled with friends and family, parties, shopping, gifts, food, oh and birthdays too!  My birthday was on the 29th. Yup, 32 = Me.

2008.  Sheesh, what a beast you were.  But wonderful none the less.  Such a nutty year.  I think I accomplished a lot. Somehow I still feel like I didn't do all that I could have done, though.  Leave it to me to beat up on myself.  Who better? :P 

Throughout the year I sort of just moved full steam ahead.  I put each project on the shelf and sort of forgot about them.  I went through my archives and files and looked at photos of the things I've made this year.  You forget how much you've done!  The time goes by so quickly and so much happens.  I actually found myself looking at photos of projects and thinking to myself," What? I made that in 2008? *scratches head*  Really? Wow. Cool."  What a whirlwind of a year you were, 2008!

2009 promises to be one of those types of years and I'm so ready for it!  Tons of projects to start and finish, new aquaintances to be made, some new beginnings, some dissappointments and some triumphs and just good ol' life in general.  I hope your year is filled with all of these things and more.  Happy New Year to you! ^_^

In Stitch-es

Yay! They finally arrived!  *does the running man* 
I just got my free issues of 'Stitch' magazine by Interweave Press!  The whole reason I got a book deal in the first place is because of this lovely new magazine!  Tricia (the editor) contacted me back in April to do a couple of projects for her new magazine that they planned to debut this Fall. 

This project turned into an even bigger project!  So it's got a special place in my heart.
I had to be Secret Squirrel about it this whole time and now I can finally talk! *faints*  I can keep a secret....but a secret like this is so hard to shelve! Eee!

This is one of two projects of mine that's been featured ......
It's so weird seeing your work in print! So exciting! *dances the cabbage patch* (Meanwhile, how funny is that link?!?!)

How cute is this tote bag by Susan Wasinger? Can't wait to see her books !

One of Lisa Congdon's awesome pillows!

There's also a great article by Melinda Barta about organizing your sewing space. Oh! and a skirt pattern by Jenny Gordy of Wikstenmade
There are so many wonderful and innovative projects by a lot of wonderful and innovative talented people. I feel so fortunate to be included among them. Thank you Tricia! 'Stitch' looks oh so good!
If you haven't already please, please do pick up a copy! I'm so thrilled!
*dances the Roger Rabbit*
Woot woot! ^_^

One quilt, two quilt, three quilt, four..........

Hello all.  It's bee a while. A month in fact. I know....I keep disappearing.  This has been a busy time for me.  But I never meant to be away so long. Life just took over.  The entire family has been ill......I've got a cold, Bella has a cold, Mel has a cold, Elijah had a terrible case of Roseola.  Four days worth of a fever of 104 F.  We spent a several hours in the ER last Thursday.  No trick or treating for us.  I've also got deadlines hitting me left and right......family issues....the list goes on!  But I'm still here, happily alive and happily kicking. 

So what have I been up to you say? Well besides all of the crazy happenings of that thing called life, I've just been sitting in front of my sewing machine trying to finish all 25 of the projects for my book.  They're due in December (it was originally November but I got an extension....*wipes sweat off of brow*).  Still not biting my nails, but getting close! *faints*  I'm not doing the running man these days though.  Sorry Jennifer. :P  But, I have managed to do some stuff for One Quilt.  It's my month to send the fabrics and such.  So this is what I came up with.

I loved to draw houses when I was a little girl.  My Bella loves to draw and doodle and watching her the other day reminded me how much fun drawing houses was for me. I'm going to make this quilt for my Bella and I thought it would be so nice to see the other 11 talented ladies take on a house.  So that's our theme for the month.  Huizen, maisons, casas, domy, hus, HOUSES! woot! 

I've put together 11 of these sweet little bundles to ship to each of the other participants.  I can't wait to see what they come up with!!!

Here's a peek of what I've done for the previous months:

October - Beth

September - Leah

August - Meg

July - Dorie

Mmmm...Lavender

I've had some lavender sitting in my fabric closet (what used to be the linen closet) for a few months now.  I' bought it with the intent to make little scented sachets with it.  Well, the thought kind of bored me after a while.  I wanted to make something different.  Sooooooo......I pulled out the ole sketchbook and came up with these!  (I know, I know......I have ten billion other things I should be working on.  But sometimes you can't control these types of crafty urges.)

Lavender filled trivets! Yay!  (You can see the backs on my Flickr)

Put a hot pot of tea on it and the heat fills the room with a lovely lavender aroma.

Or you can put it in your linen closet......

Or you can just hang it up somewhere........

Or you can sit at your desk and smell it .......

Or you can.....okay I'll shut up now. ^_^   I doesn't seem right for me to keep six trivets all to myself.  So, these little babies will be in the shop sometime tomorrow.