Uppity-Mama

Karavan Whole Cloth Quilt

Oh, I just LOVE this fabric from Valorie Wells' Karavan collection.  I added borders (art gallery pure elements in Cozumel Blue) to my two favorite prints and used one on the front and one on the back.

I pebble quilted it on the longarm machine at the shop.  I quilted all around the circles on the front which gave a lot of texture to the quilt.  The circles are puffy!

The binding is Art Gallery Lace Elements in Plum.

I tried wool batting this time and it was really nice to work with and gave a bit of extra loft to the circles, I think.

And my kids do claim this one is warmer than the quilts with cotton batting.  Nice on these chilly Los Angeles mornings!

 

Growth Chart Quilt

At fall Quilt Market, back in October, Thomas Knauer did a schoolhouse (lecture) about his new fabric line and gave all who attended a pattern called Growth Chart.  Isn't it sweet?  And so easy.  The pattern calls for a differnent back but still utilises the rest of the strips used in the front. You can purchase a PDF download here.

This fabric line is called Pear Tree.
I went with the pink and green colorway for my quilt as you can see and echo quilted around the "chart."

Thomas' next line is called Flock and
I can't wait to get it in the shop in February.
It's really groovy!

Lorax PJ's for Beckett

I used the Oliver & S Sleepover Pajama pattern for these.  I love Liesl's patterns.  I learn some new technique with each one and I always love the result.

It was really hard getting these pictures...he just wouldn't stand still!

This fabric isn't out yet, I got it at Quilt Market, but we will have it in the store as soon as Robert Kaufman releases it.
I'm not usually big on character fabric, but The Lorax is a real favorite in our house so I couldn't resist.

Embroidery Kick

Getting into embroidery lately. Here's one I just finished from the book Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart. 

I hung it in the store. You know, in the embroidery section:

And here's a link to an awesome site with embroidery stitch tutorials:

http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org/

Happy Stitching!

My Thoughts on Small Business Saturday

Today is being called "Small Business Saturday" and outside of my own self-promoting small business desires, I have a few things to say.

It's true that small business often cannot offer the lowest prices or even the largest selection of goods, but here is what they CAN and most often DO offer.

More personal customer service: Often small business are specialized and the owners and employees feel passionate about what they sell which creates a better shopping experience for their customers.  I know from my own experience that I really enjoy helping customers with their selections, their sewing concerns, and even just chatting and catching up about life, our children, etc.

Unique merchandise: Very often you will find things offered by smaller business that you can't get anywhere else.  And really, who wants to have exactly the same thing as everyone else? 

Special services:  Personal shopping, decorating, one on one help with projects relating to their merchandise and a willingness to cater to the particular needs of customers including special orders, shipping, gift wrapping, etc.

Here is a sampling of the small businesses that I support all year long:

YOLK in Silverlake, CA

They have some of the most unique home decor items I've seen anywhere as well as cool toys for kids, handmade and independently designed items,

such as this groovy tray:

Yolk sells some items items in their online shop as well, if you aren't local.

KleanSpa products

I met Jennifer at the Unique L.A. craft fair a few years ago and I have been addicted ever since.  Even my husband just asked me for more of the MANproducts I got for him.  And my 11 year old daughter wants them for Christmas.

My personal favorite scents are Karma-L-Krunch and Where Angels Go. 

 The Whipped Sugar Body Scrub is DIVINE!

Wildfiber in Santa Monica

The biggest, most beautiful selection of yarns I've seen in a big bright space with comfy couches for resting and working on your projects.

 

Ian, Johnny, Lisa and Jackie are hands-down the most competent and knowledgable staff when it comes to all things vacuum and sewing related.  I've purchased about 15 machines and 2 vacuums from them over the years and not one of them has given me any real problems.  And if they did?  I KNOW Tanner's would take care of it at the lowest possible cost to me.  I love these guys.  You will too.

 

Who will you support today, this holiday season, and all year long?

A Pirate Quilt, Me Hearties!

This was really fun.  I started with some fabric from Riley Blake's Pirates.  I used my GO cutter to make the hexagons---so easy!  I fused them onto the quilt with Steam a Seam 2 and then hand stitched each one into place with embroidery thread.  Then I embroidered the pirate images and stiched the map line.

At that point I thought maybe it was a bit boring, but after I quilted it, I really liked it.  Stripey bindings are always a hit for me too.  It was just fun to make it all up and incorperate different elements into it than I usually do.  I NEVER thought I would be into hand stitching so much, but I'm really digging it.

Zig Zag Quilt with Terrain

I made a baby quilt for a friend, using a charm pack of Kate Spain's new line, Terrain for Moda.  I actually didn't use all of the prints as some were, frankly, not my cup of tea.  Which is odd because so many of the prints in this collection are right up my alley.

 I'm often an all or nothing kind of girl so this surprised me!  I started by making 1/2 square triangles thinking that I'd mix up all the zigs and zags but when I layed it out I found it much too busy for my eye.  So I put it together with the zigs and zags in one print each. Am I making any sense?  In the second photo you can probably see what I mean, and that this could have been done using strips of the fabric instead of charm squares and would have looked better that way.  Live and learn, I say.  It's still pretty cute.

Back to School Backpack

Ramona came over to my house the other day and taught me how to make this adorable backpack! It's just the right size for kids, not too big and not too small, with padded straps and a little zipper pouch attached. She is going to be teaching a class at the store on September 14th and 21st, from 6-9pm.  Get in on it!

via uppitygirl.typepad.com

Hurry, Scurry!

 

 

Alissa is having her 2nd annual fundraiser for Action Kivu, a non-profit group that helps congolese women and children.  There are awesome prizes to be had for donating, including a fat quarter pack of the entire line of Happy Mochi Yum Yum donated by Sew Modern. There are also hard to find Heather Ross fabrics, as-yet-unreleased Denyse Schmidt fabrics, a quilt by Anna Maria Horner and more.  Please give to this incredibly worthy cause and get yourself entered to win!

  

 
 
 
 
 

Happy Mochi Dress for Mira

Every August 4th we celebrate the day Mira came into our family.  We go to dinner at Gyu Kaku and sometimes she gets a present.  Past presents have been little things I picked up in Korea when I got her.  Now that she's 8, I'm out of those little gifties so I made her a dress and promised her her own sewing machine when I get a new one for the shop.  She was very excited about the machine and I could hardly get her to stop moving for these pictures!

The fabric is Happy Mochi Yum Yum in India Blue with Fiji in blue for the tie.  I used McCalls pattern 5419.