Fabric Flair

Bloom by CP Designs for Studio e Fabrics

When I was a little girl, my grandmother always told me stories about the cherry  blossoms in Washington, DC in the spring.  It was a fond and beautiful memory for her that clearly took her back in time when she thought about them.  I've never seen them in person, but when I unpacked the boxes from Studio e containing their Bloom collection in early December, I got an overwhelming "grandma feeling".

The shop and the holiday was so busy that I didn't have time to post about it then, but because the collection warmed my heart, I wanted to take a moment and share it with you now.

Bloom by CP Designs for Studio e Fabrics comes in 2 colorways 

a pink/melon/brown combination

and a green/purple/grey combination

Magnificent Magnolias! Laura Gunn's new collection arrives early!

Is there any smell as recognizable as a magnolia tree in full bloom?  We have a sweet little magnolia tree planted outside our family room window and sadly last year a frost in the spring did some serious damage.  We were without our beautiful blooms and scintillating scents last summer.  As advised, we cut the tree way back to allow room for new growth this year.  We have high hopes that our little tree just might make it!

It's a good thing they'll be plenty of beautiful magnolias inside this year, as marked by the arrival of Laura Gunn's latest collection Magnolia Lane for Michael Miller Fabrics.  Just look at how beautifully Michael Miller is able to capture Laura's oil on canvas artwork in textile form.  It's as if you could reach out and feel the brush strokes!

Blue Magnolias painting by Laura Gunn

 

Magnolia Lane fabric collection by Laura Gunn 

The vibrant yellows and greens combined with the cool turquoise blues and warm browns makes this a wonderfully serene collection that is also full of life. 

And what better way to ground those beautiful floral prints than with a textured solid that appears exactly like what it's named from....Painter's Canvas!

And now I'm off to try to figure out for which new sewing or decorating project I'm going to use Magnolia Lane!

Amy Butler book/fabric giveaway winner!

You may be wondering how on earth I selected the giveaway winner.  First, I assigned numbers to everyone who left comments.  Then I made a list of everyone who earned extra entries by buying fabric yardage during the sale (and letting me know they were entering!)  I did that in the order in which I received the orders.  So person number 30 (just picked that number as a for instance) might also be assigned the numbers 74, 75, and 76.  Then I used a random number generator (first one listed when I googled) to pick a number between 1 and the highest number.

I swear it wasn't as complicated as it sounds, but I just wanted everyone with extra entries to know how I factored them in!

And without further ado, the number generator picked 99 who turned out to be:

Taslimsidi said...

I'll play! I plan to make some functional but pretty storage pieces for my office. Hopefully out of Soul Blossoms!

 

Well Taslimsidi, I have your address and shipping info because you were also a customer with 11 extra entries!  But I need to know which color group of Amy Butler fat quarters you would like to receive, so either respond here or convo me and I'll work on getting that right out to you!

Thank you to everyone for playing and helping to make the giveaway and sale a huge success!

NEW YEAR, NEW PROJECTS SALE AND GIVEAWAY!

Right now you can save 20% off everything in the entire shop!  Including sale items, patterns, kits, trim and more!  Sale ends Wednesday, Jan 12, and I expect many collections to fly off the shelves, so don't wait!

AMY BUTLER GIVEAWAY!

To help you get a jump start on your new projects, I'm giving away

~a copy of Amy Butler's Style Stitches: 12 Ways to 26 Wonderful Bags

~a Soul Blossoms fat quarter set in the colorway of your choice

 

 

 

All you need to do is be a newsletter subscriber AND leave a comment about a sewing project you intend to complete in 2011!  That's it!

Oh, but if you'd like extra entries, you can earn 1 for every yard of fabric you purchase during the sale!  8 yard order, 8 extra entries!  Just leave me a note in the message to seller box at checkout to let me know you'd like to use your order for more entries.

Sale ends Wed, Jan 12th and winner will be drawn Thursday, Jan 13th.

Good luck!

It's been "sew" long!

Okay, so apparently I took December off from blogging.  It wasn't intentional, just sorta happened.  But I have a good excuse (if there is a such thing)!

I had a 95% handmade Christmas for the first time EVER.  It was like a crash-course boot-camp for my sewing skills.  And ya know what?  I didn't take a single photo!  Not one!  So here's the projects with links to the fantastic sites from which I got the patterns.

First, from Amy Butler's In Stitches, I made 2 kimono style bath robes.  A little tricky, had a difficult time at first with the shoulders, but overall I thought the pattern was great and the instructions fairly clear.  I was pleased with the end result.

Next up is an adorable "Double Dutch" ruffled skirt from Owly Baby on Etsy.  This skirt was super easy, even for someone who has never ruffled anything before in her life!  Okay, well maybe I've ruffled some feathers, but with some super easy instructions for several different methods, I was gathering away in no time.

 

My first stuffed animal ever was a Woodland Bunny from Sewing Bits and Pieces by Sandi Henderson.  I made a mistake or 2 and the ears didn't turn out quite the way I thought they would, but it was a lot of fun!  I used a couple fabrics from the Sweet Divinity collection from Riley Blake Designs.

 

 

I made a couple of notebook covers from some vintage looking baseball fabric using a pattern I discovered at Skip to My Lou.  It was a cute project for the sports lover in the family.

 

 

Instead of wrapping my gifts this year, I made tote bags from fabrics that coordinated with the gifts inside using very easy instructions also from Skip to My Lou.

 

And the project that nearly made me completely insane was a twin size quilt made from a combination of All Star 2 fabrics and Hooty Hoot owls for my son's new big boy bed.  This project deserves a post all it's own, so I'll just share the fabrics I used for now.

 

 

 

And last but certainly not least, I made several pairs of flannel pyjama pants for my husband, my son, and me.  We have a (very silly) tradition of wearing new jammies Christmas Eve night and I decided to take it upon myself to make them this year.  After a couple pairs that didn't make the cut, I ended up with light blue printed flannel pants for all 3 of us.  Not sure how much we'll wear them, though, I'm afraid the stitching will give out!

Now to some, this may not be the feat that it became for me, but on top of the usual fabric shop duties I nearly drowned!  So to those of you who were so patient while my shop was closed for a much needed break, I thank you!  Happy New Year!