Got this great new fabric into the shop.
It's called To Market To Market by Print and Pattern for Robert Kaufman.
Myself, Liz and Lisa are all making napkins out of it.
Liz and Lisa came up with the most wonderful method for doing the corners. We will share that with you over on the Sew Modern blog soon.
And Liz made pot holders!
Get your fabric here!
This quilt was a group effort. Lisa cut it and my employee, Ariga, pieced it and I did the quilting and binding.
The pattern and fabric are both by Monica Solorio Snow of Happy Zombie fame. The pattern is called Taking Turns and is available in the spring issue of Quilts N More. I was more than thrilled when Monica contacted me and asked us if we (Sew Modern) would provide the quilt kit link for the magazine! Monica is hilarious, even in emails, but for an example you should check out her post here.
We chose to use Kona cotton in orange for our quilt. Monica, appropriately used Snow in hers for the magazine.
I quilted it on Harley (our long arm machine at the shop) and did a daisy chain for the first time!
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!
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!
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?
Well, all I've had time for up until now was playing around with Harley (our long arm at Sew Modern) what with running the store and the 4 kids and all. But finally...
...tada! A finished quilt!
It was really fun doing this wavy stitching...my hips even got into it! I will definitely be doing this stitch again.
I used a layer cake (10" squares) of Just WIng It by Momo for Moda, added some Kona Caribbean for a border, and 2 fabrics from Riley Blake's Daydream collection for the backing and binding. I used salmon colored Isacord thread for the quilting.
Oh and my friend Alison won the Project Modern challenge with her awesome quilt using a similiar style of stitching which she did on Harley at Sew Modern!
Yay, Alison!
Not everything I make is for the store. Nor is all the fabric I buy for or even from the store. I got this fabric from One King's Lane and it's made by Mod Green Pod. I backed the pillows with Kona cotton in Curry (okay, that was from the store).
I made this apron as a sample for a class at Sew Modern. I also wanted to test out one of the patterns from Joel Dewberry's Sewn Spaces. I am hoping to do a series of classes from the book as we sell it in the store. Some of the feedback I've heard from customers is that it really needs some pictures of the process. I agree with that assessment and in addition I found (with this pattern anyway) that some of the instructions seemed, well, just not like the best way. So I worked it a bit differently with help from Lisa, and I do love the result. The basic pattern is great as far as size and style is concerned- I really think it's adorable without being fussy.
The fabric is home dec from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms collection and the solid is Kona cotton in Candy Blue.
With a little help from my Triple B friends, this baby quilt got made as sample for the store of the adorable fabrics in the All Star 2 collection from Riley Blake. If you haven't tried them yet, wonky star blocks are really fun to make. Check out this tutorial.
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