Bari J.

Introducing... LillyBelle!

My first line with Art Gallery Fabrics will be released soon... for now I'm so excited to tell you a little about it and share a bit of the world of LillyBelle with you! Please watch the video below. Also, please join Pat Bravo and me for a live twitter chat tomorrow at 1PM EST ... details here.

 

I've just posted the Beachside Holiday PDF sewing pattern! It's right in time for the weather to get cooler... you'll be wanting to take a beachside holiday very soon.

To kick off this pattern, I'm giving away two PDF copies.

Comment anytime today or tomorrow before 8PM PST and you can win.

Available on my website OR  patternspot.com AND will soon be at fatquartershop.com as well! 

The winners have been picked. Comments are now closed. Please see the next post.

I thought I'd get more done this summer than I did. In the end, I ususally over estimate my get it done prowess. I know some of you've been waiting on the Beachside Holiday pattern... it will be back from the quilter soon, and I promise I will bind it FAST and take photos. The pattern is done. I'm just waiting on a good photo for the cover. So, if I'm not overestimating my binding skills (ahem) it really will be done shortly.

Also, I did say I'd have the Fall Quilts and More in my shop and it is now there. (Wipes sweat off brow. Marks one thing off The List.)

And now I'm wondering... What else have I promised? Seems like I'm working my tushy off here. Although ... just thinking aloud here... the tushy seems rather large for having worked it off... and on the other hand, the juicing has really been helping... if you wondered.

On the sewing front, I made my little 2 year old nephew a t-shirt. The guy is obsessed with clocks for some reason. My sister has a photo of him sleeping with his wall clock. So for his birthday party he will be wearing this hand embroidered T-shirt. I'll post the pattern over on We Love French Knots for any of you who want a cute simple clock pattern. I hear toddlers love them. Apparently it's not just our little man.

I will admit that I did make curtains for our kitchen again this weekend. I say I'm "admitting it" because I might have a small problem with changing curtains in that same spot...this is the fourth curtain rendition for the area. Can you tell that this is one of my favorite prints from Paris Apartment? (hint: the background on this blog)

I blame it on being a fabric designer (and mind you I am not whining ... I am SO lucky). But you want to use your fabric for everything. And you really shouldn't have four million different fabrics in one room. So I'm trying to go more one tone... I didn't get too far on one tone, but this fabric does have a cream background. And I went and made pillows to go with them. I'm thinking I brought it together by mixing white and cream, no? We are getting closer to matching or something of the sort.

I have a couple projects that have got to get done... stuff for other people's blogs and such and then I swear to the heavens above I will finish that hex quilt that was for my sister, Ilisa's 40th birthday which was in April. I am SUCH a slacker bad sister!!! 

Ah, well, as I write, The List, it is a-growing. So have a super day, and happy sewing to you!

A couple weeks ago our friend Pam (ours being yours and mine) came over to play. It was one of those mornings. She had tweeted she was unfocused or something of the sort, and I tweeted back, "come be unfocused with me" or something like that.

I had been contemplating starting a new quilt with my Paris Apartment fabric, but wasn't sure of my direction. But along came Pam and saved my day. With just a few hints and tips I was able to come up with a great new design.

Pam is not just a quilting genius, but she's also a computer whiz!

I've been working with Photoshop forever. Since the first version, I believe. But when Pam showed me how she was using it to design quilts, I wanted to bonk myself over the head! Why didn't I think of that? I've designed all of my quilts on photoshop, but not like this. On top of that, I knew how to do all of this, but never thought of it for quilt making. Seriously. It was Pam Kitty Genius! Create custom shapes and use them over and over for quilt blocks. I don't know what I was doing, but it wasn't easy, like this is. 

 

Above is the quilt I designed. (It will, of course, be a pattern shortly... as soon as I finish sewing it up and it's quilted...

...which is (ahem) what I should be doing now. Instead, I'm writing this post cause it sounded like fun.

Wanna' know how you do it?

You simply use the pen tool to create your shape.

 

The shape is a "path" that you can make a custom shape from.

Choose edit: define custom shape.

Now you have a custom shape you can choose to use however you want! 

When you chose the shape tool, this appears at the top of the screen. Just choose the blobby looking thing on the left, then you can pick your new custom shape from the drop down menu.

And voila!

This is one of my custom shapes!

 

 

 

The original of this piece was made for an auction in SIsters, OR this summer where I'm teaching at The Quilter's Affair. So if you're going to be there come and bid high for a good cause!

But if not... I wouldn't want to leave you out. I've made it into a PDF pattern. And, not to leave you hanging if you don't already know the the stitches... there are 7 embroidery stitches included with detailed instructions and illustrations. Never you mind you'll only use five of them in this pattern. Two are just for fun! 

This pattern is based on my Paris Apartment fabric line, and will be one in a series of patterns.

You can get this pattern, here, on PatternSpot.com OR on my website (scroll to bottom).

Happy stitching!

I'm so excited to be able to finally tell you this. I have a really fun new product coming out. I am working with Melanie Royals of Royal Design Studio on a new venture... stencils. The kind you paint on your walls. Melanie is expert extraordinaire in this field. I've loved her work for a long while and I'm so thrilled to be working with her.

The Bari J. Collection is coming soon! Here's a little tiny taste of what's in store:

copyright Bari J. 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I'm exhausted. I shouldn't be writing this because I should go to sleep, but I felt compelled to tell you that I'm exhausted. I've finally got my patterns about ready to go to print (thank heavens), I've been sewing like a mad woman and everyone in my house is ticked off at me for ignoring them. And that includes the dogs.

People in this house are not used to me throwing frozen lasagna at them and saying "see ya". And heavens to Betsy, they've had leftovers too. People are not happy with me. They're socks don't match, their clothes are not clean and more than once a teenager has called from school to say, "Hey, my lunch account is not full." That's life in this household right now. That's life in this household the month before quilt market.

Ah well, whatever and whatever. I have my patterns almost ready, I've ordered postcards (above), the booth is being built (thanks to one INCREDIBLE Super Husband who has more fabulous ideas than you can imagine), and samples are being made. Oh, and I ordered "I'm Inspired to Sew" pins for 100 lucky people. I'll pass them out at my book signing (Saturday the 14th at quilt market, C&T booth) and then the rest will get given away at my booth. And "oh" again! I have a surprise, non-fabric related product that will most likely debut in my booth. It's pretty stinking cool, if I say so myself. 

Maybe someday I'll send my kids to college with $ from this business and they'll thank me for not matching their socks.

More art for your kitchen... My fourth Spring pattern release is a sweet little apron. It has two rounded pockets and features a double skirt with a collaged border plus a heart shaped waistband. Instructions for free motion quilting and fabric collage are included.

Based on the original Millie Fleur from my handbag line, this new sewing pattern is updated a bit. Now it's fully reversible. It's also easy to sew with a drawstring closure. This pattern will be available early May. Featured here in my Paris Apartment fabric line from Lecien.

Edit (7:20PM): My sister just pointed out that it was the day of my grandma Millie's birthday. This bag is named for her. I knew it was her birthday when I wrote a check this morning, but it didn't occur to me until my sister said something on about it on Facebook. Oddly, I felt driven to post this today. I finished the sample late last night and spent the day photographing. Happy birthday, Grandma. You must be watching down from above.

It even has a pretty back side with a sweet pleated pocket:

And you get two bags for one with it's reverse side.

The photo above is the *temporary cover* for my newest pattern, Springtime in Paris. It's temporary, because I'm still not positive about the photo. It's almost there. 

I need to get cracking with the writing part of this, but I thought I'd share a little of my process with you.

I was thinking about this as I was working on it. A lot of how I work has changed over the years. For one thing, I'm much more patient with myself. I know that there are a lot of variables that come into play that I don't think of when I come up with my "great idea". Oftentimes, it takes many tries to get it right. Sometimes, many many tries. The Izzy Pincushion Pattern for instance? That took me six tries before Izzy would stand up on her own. And at one point, I was so tired, that I sewed her tail to her head and her ear to her butt.

So, with that kind of experience behind me, I knew when I started this bag, that could be the case. When the challenges came up, I was prepared. In the past you might have found me curled up in the fetal position claiming I was never going to make it and that possibly the world was ending.

Years ago, the first bag I made was an envelope clutch. Not only did I not have a pattern, it was the first time I'd taken out my sewing machine aside from 10 years earlier to make some very simple curtains. It took at least 10 attempts before I figured out the geometrics of that first bag. And I wasted tons of fabric doing it. It was incredibly frustrating. Now if I need to make something that is brand new to me, I at least know to make a muslin first. 

For this bag, it wasn't exactly "new to me". So I decided to "skip the muslin". Afterall, it's based on a pattern I made years ago for my handbag line, the Lizzie Pocket. So it was going to be "no problem."

Except, for the sewing pattern, I wanted to change a couple things. First, I wanted to add a zipper. And I also I wanted it to have a handle.... And I wanted it to have a flat bottom. Oh, and also? I wanted to finish the ends of the zipper using ribbon. I knew how to do all of these things except that I'd never added a zipper underneath a flap before I'd never used ribbon at the ends of a zipper, and I wasn't exactly sure where the heck the handles were going to go. I knew in the seam with the zipper it would have been bulky and goofy, so it wasn't going there. Since I was at a loss, I decided to bag the handle for the first prototype. (yes, I totally knew there would be more than one prototype.)

So here was the first try (make a note of this... I finished this whole bag, hated it, ripped out each seam and made it a second time with the same fabric)

My reaction (I talk out loud to myself in my studio): "Whoops! That right corner doesn't want to sit right... And wow, I think I made the loop a little long for the button. Do I want a button? Yes, I want a button because some people won't have the magnetic closures so I need to give them an option here. Also, It sure would be nice if it came in two sizes... Hmmm... I'll deal with that later."

Here's take two, I worked it with the handles. And it was a great idea... except...

Me to self and possibly to Izzy and Max the giant Labradors who live here: "ooooh, that's much better. Still not crazy about the loop. And what am I going to do about the handle". ((You can't see here, but it was flipping backward)) "Hmmm, maybe I'll add some buttons" (I tried that, I don't like how it looks) "Hmmmm... maybe a *bunch* of buttons will make it work. Could be cute?What about some French knots? Oh, what the heck, I'll try both."

Oh lord help me! WHAT was I thinking?

Ah! Much better:

Hello? What about actually SEWING the handles to the top of the bag? Oh. I see. (Sheepishly) That works nicely.

Some other challenges along the way... first, the zipper: Turns out, you need two pieces of ribbon for each end, and you have to sew them on at the same time. (3 tries, 2 uses of the seam ripper before I got it straight.) 

Another of the things that had to be different about this pattern as opposed to the Lizzie Pouch was that it needed to use different pattern pieces for the flap, back and front whereas Lizzie is made from one piece of fabric that is folded to form an envelope. One of the reasons for this was of course, the zipper. It needed a seam to rest in. Which meant that the zipper, the flap and the back panel would go in that seam. That actually turned out to be only slightly challenging. I relented, and did the "B" word. Basting. And it truly required it so I didn't mind so very much.

That's it in a nutshell... at least the prototyping part. It wasn't too painful, and the pattern will be better for all the effort that went into it. 

Now for actually Writing, Illustrating, and Designing the pattern booklet itself. Since I took lots of photos as I went along and wrote lots of notes, that'll be a snap, right? 

I'll be sure to let you know.

Oh, yeah. I'm making room in my studio for a big old load of Paris Apartment sample yardage that should be arriving soon. So how about some "Pretty and Petite Studio Stacks" of Country Lane for your stash? $9.25 for 5 fat quarters. Limited quantities.

Hello again. I've been totally out of it sick with nastiness for the past week on top of the crazy root canal fiasco and have finally gotten around to this point on the to do list... #4,187: List goodies on website. Yeah, I skipped numbers 1 to 4,186, but who's counting? The goodies are there, and that's what matters.

Included are Spring closures for handbags, GORGEOUS real braided leather handles, incredible reproduction ribbons, rhinestone buckles and bags of usable scraps pressed and in big pieces from each of my fabric lines. Oh and PS... I added vintage buttons and baubles as a bonus to each fabric pack. Grab it while it lasts! You can find it all here: click click click.

At least the azaleas seem to enjoy it.

The way Izzy's eyeballing that sewing basket, it makes me believe the rain Inspires her to Sew.

Maybe she'd like a pretty raincoat.

 

After a somewhat painful emergency root canal and a itchy all-over allergic reaction to the ensuing anti-biotics (I'll spare you the gross details), I needed this to arrive today. The large floral is the second strike off for this particular Paris Apartment print. And the orange is the exact shade of happy I was looking for. The whole line is now off to production in Japan.

 

My mommy is in town for a visit. And she found the unfinished version of this pillow which I made in July for a class sample. It's a project in Inspired to Sew and this one is an UFO I'd entirely forgotten about. Mom wanted it and that was just the excuse I needed to divert my attention from what I was doing and make it into a pillow for her. Glad it's finished and has a new owner.

I did manage to finished up two of the Slice Fabrique projects and sent them off to Utah for photographs before I got distracted. Of course I took a few of my own before they left.

And in other news, my studio appears in the newest edition of Studios magazine with the one an only Ty Pennington on the cover!

And look! We're BFF's in the table of contents... Yup. That's my studio pictured right beneath his. 

Ty Pennington. Bari J. Ackerman. BFFs. 

I'll be getting a few copies in stock soon if anyone wants one. 

 

 

A ways back I posted about a project I was working on for Making Memories Slice Fabrique Digital Cutting Machine... custom applique designs that can be cut out automatically. I don't know if maybe you remember?

Well, I'm so excited about it now, I could pee! Yesterday I received a sample digital card with my very own designs on it. You guys, it is SO flipping cool. I love this thing. It is so easy. You just iron fusible web on your fabric back, set it on the Slice cutting board and press a button. So totally addicting.

I've been dying to show you. My card, like my upcoming fabric line is called, Paris Apartment, and the designs will coordinate. I'll be designing quilts and projects to go with both that will debut at Quilt Market. This is a small sneak peek a just a few of the projects. There are 18 layered designs on the card altogether.

Above is the chandelier design (yes, there's a chair too!). It can be cut to assemble to an amazing finished size of 17 1/2". This one will go on a 24" pillow. It took me less than an hour to cut all the pieces (there are 22 in all). I machine appliqued them on and did little French knots for the drippy crystals. It's made from the Lecien Flower Sugar line.

This cake stand design is 5.2" wide. I'm making this piece into a tea towel. I used my light box to trace the words "let them eat cake" on it and then I used a backstitch with Cosmo Multi-work Embroidery Floss to embroider it. The fabric is Paris Apartment and a touch of Flower Sugar.

Below is the cameo design. I'll be doing a bit of embroidery around it then leaving it in the hoop to display. I've again mixed Paris Apartment and Flower Sugar. The cameo itself is a dark grey shot cotton.

Fun, right? Well, back to work... and making dinner and cleaning up this joint. I'm teaching tomorrow (see sidebar) and my mom is coming to visit for a week! I'm so looking forward to all our misbehavin! I'm taking her to my favorite tea room, Crown and Crumpet! I'll take pictures to share, no worries. 

 

 

 

In my real life, I've never been to Paris, let alone lived there. But like many Americans, it's something I dream of.

My upcoming fabric line from Lecien, Paris Apartment, is how I imagine I'd live my life there. 

The names of the prints (all translated to French) express rooms that would be in my apartment, designs you'd see in it and the people who would be with me. There's a sewing room for Anna (le salle du couture d'Anna), my 15 year old daughter...

and a salon (le salon d'Emily) for Emily who is 13.

I imagine Super Husband and I would enjoy relaxing in our lovely sun room (le salle du soleil) and I'd fill the place with chintz prints (le chintz moderne) and vintage linen (le linge d'epoque). And of course, it would be overflowing with flowers from our little garden (le jardin).

Of course, I'd love for you to visit me in Paris. I'll save a guest room just for you.

 

PS. These are fabric "strike-offs". They are the first prints that the mill in Japan does to show the fabric company and designer what it will look like and so color etc can be approved. What you are seeing here is the first I'm seeing on fabric. Some of these colors may not end up in the finished line. 

This line begins to show to distributors and stores in March and it sounds like they will end up in US stores in June.

 

 

Did you sew today? After the gym, errands and a large round of procrastination via Twitter, I ended up with an ounce of afternoon sewing time. I've been wanting to make a spider web quilt even though probably everyone else is totally done with them, so I started that quest. Now, however, I'm thinking of making just this little star portion into a zippy pouch because I don't really have time to finish it and I loathe UFOs sitting around. The Ladies in Waiting (projects I have fabric and ideas for already) own a large enough portion of this studio. So this may be as far as I ever get on a spiderweb quilt. I guess I just wanted to know how to do it, then once I knew, I didn't care anymore. I'm like that sometimes.

Were you inspired to sew today? What'd you make?

In other news...

My good friend Monica asked me to pick the winner for her Inspired to Sew Giveaway...

So here goes... 

Out of 193 (wow!) entries the winner is #19! Nancy, claim your copy of Inspired to Sew!

 

 

 

In Theory...

This should work.

In practice, it's a curved piecing nightmare that refuses to lay flat.

So, for those of you more experienced than me, any ideas?

 

This was going to be another zippy pouch. But then I spent an inordinate amount of time on the embroidery.

Cause I love hand stitchery.

The purple and red are all hand done and the stitching on the seams is by machine. Maybe now it wants to be a pillow?

Or add blocks and make a big quilt? Maybe a bigger handbag. What do you think?

BTW, it occurs to me... if you are interested in these stitches, I'll be teaching them in a free online class... You can check my sidebar for details. I promise it to be lots of fun. 

For those of you who are curious, the roses on the roofline are bullion stitch mixed with some french knots and lazy daisy stitches.

On the side of the house lavender is growing. Also made with bullion stitches. And on the ballerina's dress I added a little yellow rose made from bullion stitches.

And this is the piece prior to hand embroidery.

Any ideas? What should this be?

Possibly I need to be sent to rehab for a zippy pouch sewing addiction.

I am seriously avoiding doing what I need to do around here. 

 
Excuses for sewing these little bags when I'm totally supposed to be focused on creating new sewing patterns:

1. I'm clearing scraps out of my studio to make room for more creative thought.

2. During the process of creating these bags I might just come up with that one incredible idea that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

3. My mom has requested a bag like this but with pockets for her knitting needles. So now I have to make at least one more.

4. It relaxes me. If I'm relaxed I'm more likely to come up with some fab sewing pattern designs.

5. I need more bags. No. Really. I need more bags.

6. I'm using up my supply of leather handles which is taking space in this studio.

7. They are starting to fill the website. Sort of.

8. Creativity breeds more creativity? 

9. I can't help myself.

10.  I can't help myself.

 

 

My lovely twitter friend, Cara Wilson, from Cara Quilts came up with this fun idea: Get people from all over the world together all at one time to talk sewing/quilting. We do this on Twitter. Live on Tuesday evenings 9PM EST! And people really do show up and chat with us from all over the globe.

It's Called Talkin' Tuesdays. All you have to do is search #talknt and then follow along in the conversation. Chime in if you'd like.

And, to win prizes, Re-tweet the prize tweets.

Tomorrow night, I'll be sponsoring #talknt with a give-away of 2 signed books,

a 4-pack of sewing patterns and 10 fat quarters of Country Lane. I'd love to see you there! 

Long ago in a land far far away I started sewing handbags. My initial idea was to create one of a kind pieces. But before I knew it the business expanded into offering design your own handbags, and really what were production handbags. I was using a local seamstress and then a sewing contractor. What I loved, sewing, had gone off to someone else to do.

Over the years I came to realize that what I really connected with was sharing my love of sewing. By creating sewing patterns, focusing on writing a sewing book and doing surface/textile design I was back to my true passion. I couldn't be happier. 

I made the decision to make this the focus of my business a year ago, but I missed my little one-off projects that were so special you can't really make them into a pattern. And I hadn't really changed my website to reflect my change in focus either. So this past week I finally made the switch. 

 

I changed my "about" page to reflect the change, I fluffed up my home page, and I took down all the "old" finished products and replaced them with new one of kind pieces. I'll be offering my sewing patterns, my book, some fabric, and one of a kind handmade goodies made just by me. I simply listed three items yesterday. One sold within 20 minutes which made me realize that my instinct is probably the right one.

Today I've started making simple fun little items to continue to list on the website. The unfinished piece at the top of this post will be listed soon. It features my some of my favorite techniques: collage, patchwork and a little bit of embroidery. 

I hope you'll keep watching for more of these little bits of happiness. And of course new sewing patterns, fabric and more are on the way as well. 

Happy sewing!

My last project of 2010. I made two of these iPad covers. The first one was a massive fail that ended with me pitching shards of fabric in the trash. And several curse words. After I work out some kinks, I think maybe I'll put together a pattern with several gadget cover patterns included. 

Happy New Year to you all!

 

Everyone in my family is under the impression, that if you want to learn to do something you go to YouTube and search for your subject. Super Husband learned how to fix our television, how to catch squirrels in the attic and how to fix the window that refused to go back up in our car. My girls have learned to make soap, found recipes for body scrubs, and how to put on make-up. There was the infamous hair cutting incident that started with a YouTube video and ended up with an unwanted mullet on the part of a certain 14yo girl, but never the less, YouTube is our Go-To. I have learned knitting and crochet, fashion drawing, and I recently learned a great method for cutting hexagons and a method for machine piecing hexagons.

I discovered this Kaye Wood video and her awesome rulers and immediately ordered one to start making a hexagon quilt. 

Of course, I didn't want to hand piece hexagons. But lucky me, this video was listed in the sidebar of related videos. 

This quilt has been relatively easy so far using both of these methods, and I feel like a super-accomplished quilter having tried something new.

You do get left with a bunch of these little triangles when cutting with this method, but luckily, they are perfectly usable. Of course, I can see making anything with these taking a lifetime, but then, maybe I'll just spend the next 60 years making little hexies out of tiny triangles.

On another note, this post would be incomplete without introducing you to my latest tool obsessions as I gained a few in the process of making this quilt. Are you a sewing tool junkie too? I may buy more tools than I buy fabric. I could be exaggerating, but maybe.

This quilt-go-round, I found these erasable pens. They erase when you iron them and mark very nicely on fabric. Even when you mark on the bias, the fabric doesn't stretch. Love that! My hot pink Frixion pen has been invaluable for marking the 1/4" starting and stopping points on my hexagons. I can't wait to use them for embroidery and applique.

And speaking of marking the 1/4" starting and stopping points, I really like this Jinny Beyer Perfect Piecer tool. It has all sorts of angles marked and little holes where you put the pen through to mark your points. And I imagine there's tons of other uses for it too that I've yet to figure out.

On that note, I'll leave you with a bit of advice... make sure your teenage/pre-teen female children understand that not all YouTube videos are useful. Especially ones that advise using your leg shaving razor to cut your hair. I'm just saying.

PS Since I know someone will ask, the fabric I'm using for the hexagon quilt is Flower Sugar by Lecien. Available here.

[Edit: I'm so honored! Kaye Wood commented on this post! For another way to piece hexagons watch Kaye Wood's Hexagon Cut and Sew video. This method allows you to avoid having to mark your 1/4" points!]

Knowing how much my girls love the softness of Minkee or Cuddle (they are brand names for those fluffy, soft wonderous fabrics), I grabbed a couple kits full of fat quarters several months ago to make some blankets for them for Hannukah. Of course, I procrastinated so long that they got them the day after Hannukah ended, but you're not counting, right? Day nine works for me.  I don't *love* the colors and prints of these, but they are workable, I think. Next time I plan on finding some of the Moda brand as I hear they have great colors to work with.

I had it in my head that this was going to be relatively easy, that I'd just whip them up and be on to the next thing. And I would have been if I knew then what I know now about working with these fabrics. So I thought I'd let you in on what I learned along the way. Some of these hints came from friends on Twitter where I vented my frustration.

1. Apparently a serger would do a fantastic job with Cuddle/Minkee. But I don't own one, so I was stuck with the sewing machine. But if you have one, Mary from Confessions of a Craft Addict says use it. 

2. Next I heard it would have helped a lot if I fused a woven cotton interfacing such as form flex to the back of it according to Debra Lynn from Fat Quarter Shop. I use that on everything, so I have no idea why I didn't think of that myself. But it was too late for the first blanket, and I was too lazy on the second one. But my bet is that this works like a charm.

3. I was smart enough to use a ton of pins, which really helped. In fact, I used 5 for every 8" square. I highly recommend taking the time to do this.

4. A walking foot is a great help if you have one.

5. For long stretches of rows, I started in the middle and sewed to one end, then the middle to the other end. This helped avoid much of the stretching along the way.

6. As I sewed blocks together I did end up cutting any corners that stretched a bit to square them up.

7. I pinned seams before I started a row, but if, as I approached, a seam wasn't matching, I did do a little stretching and tugging in the appropriate direction to "make" it match.

8. You can see I did the two quilts differently. I started with the fun Log Cabin block on the quilt below and used a ton of little squares around it. However, I quickly found this was going to cause me lots of pain with seams not matching etc, so the next one, I cut all 8 1/2" squares. Much better.

9. I did not bind these as if they were quilts, I simply placed the back and front of the blanket right sides together and then sewed them together leaving an opening to turn as if it was a pillow.

10. I also did not quilt these. I put in over 100 pins in one and tried to quilt by stitching in the ditch and made an immediate mess of the thing and ended up pulling out stitches (not an easy feat with this fabric). So my plan is that if the girls are finding the edges are turning funny as they use them, I'll go back and yarn tie them.

That's all folks... I think in the end these turned out really great. And I would totally work with this fabric again even though half way through I swore I'd never ever ever do so. I guess it's like having a baby. You forget all about the pain once you have the fruits of your labor in your arms. Well, sort of.

 

Covering a chair is actually easier than you might think. I'll be recovering another chair just like the one I did for market. I will do an in depth tutorial with pictures of each step when I do that, but for now, this is a brief explanation of how I made this simple cover. The fabrics I used for this are from my Country Lane collection, and I used the curtains from my booth (which is Kona Crush in Natural from Robert Kaufman) as both the skirt for the chair and the skirt on the table. 

This is an office chair from Target. I just treated it as if it were a regular chair, ignoring where the seat curved in toward the back (see bottom of post for before photo). In other words, for the back of the seat, I used the same measurement as the width of the top of the chair even though the seat actually curves inward and is narrower.

To create a pattern for the back (which is plastic and therefore, I couldn't just pin fabric on it) I literally placed the chair with it's back down on my desk on top of a large piece of paper. Starting in the middle of the back, I traced the curve of the top of the chair to it's end and around the curve. I then folded the paper in half and cut along the line to get the shape and added the length from the top of the chair to the seat. Then I added seam allowances of 1/2" to the pattern piece. I cut two for the back and front of the chair. I made ties for the back of the chair so that when you sit on it, it doesn't slip forward too much. Then I sewed the front and back pieces together with the ties sandwiched in the seams.

For the seat, I pinned the fabric onto the chair, nicely centered on the grain with the pins where a seam would go. I then traced the seat shape adding 1/2" seam allowance with chalk and cut out the pattern piece. Then I sewed the seat piece to the front of the chair back piece. 

For the skirt, I measured around the seat front pattern piece and the back piece and added the numbers together. Then I added nearly half of that number so I could gather it.

After gathering the top of the skirt, I pinned it onto the chair top, leaving half inch at each end. I started sewing and finished sewing around the skirt at those half inch marks and then simply sewed the seam shut using a 1/2" seam allowance. Then I sewed trim on.

That was it. Pretty simple and much prettier than the ugly green chair this was ... eeew. 

Stay tuned for another tutorial coming soon which will include draping the fabric on an upholstered chair and putting in a zipper. 

 

It started simply enough: I got an email stating that I needed to take some photos of the studio for an upcoming project. Yay!

I email right back, "No problem".

Typical of me. Leap. Then look.

I look at the email again. "The photos will be due November 30". 

Right there and then, the list began to grow in my head. I need to change the skirt around my table. It's too busy. I need to make a new slip cover for the office chair. Old. And too busy. I need to paint. I need to make a new cover for the ironing board. I need to completely de-clutter. I need to empty the fabric cabinet and re-fold all the fabric. I need to remove boxes and clean the shelving, and clean the carpet. On and on and on. The list grew.

And then the realization. The week after next is Thanksgiving. Photos have to be taken this week. OMG. I have to get the room ready this weekend.

And so we did. Super Husband helped me paint an accent wall, and I've been sewing and decluttering and making this place look like Sewing Studio Mecca ever since. 

I'm still in shock I got the plaid relatively straight on this ironing board cover. I used Jona's tutorial at Stop Staring and Start Sewing for this. Jona. You rock. Thank goodness I remembered you had this. I'd have reinvented the wheel and it would have taken goodness knows how long.

In case you are wondering... that fabric IS re-folded. That's as good as it gets. 

At any rate... I'll post more about all this later. Tomorrow? Same time same station?

It's time to clean the carpet. Yeah, I know. No one will ever know in a photo. But I will. 

 

I. Am. So. Excited. About this quilt.

It has everything I love: embroidery, applique and collage... with instructions for all of it. You'll learn French knots, backstitch, stem stitch, free-motion quilting and freezer paper applique. And it features all the good things in life: petit fours, cake, flowers, cute shoes and presents... Really, what more could you ask for? 

 
 

 

 

 

The trim is the pre-made crochet that I love which will be available from Above All Fabric. 
      

 Pre-orders for retailers and distributors are available by emailing me at (Bari at BariJonline dot com.) TBD: Oct 20.

 

As you know, handbags are my specialty. I love 'em, can't have enough of them and can't make enough of them. These two are amped up versions of bags that have been in my handbag line for many moons. They have special touches like rounded edges, crochet trim, added pockets, and tailored pin tucks. Bags for sewing patterns are so much more fun to make than finished bags. 

With finished bags you have to worry about whether you will be able to find someone who will sew a bag with rounded cuts or someone who will add special trim. And if you do find someone, you worry about how much it will cost to get them to do it the way you want it done. After-all, sewing contractors and manufacturers want to do it fast and on an assembly line. 

But with sewing patterns, the sky's pretty much the limit because the "end product" is being created with tender loving care by home sewers like you! What could be better for a designer than that? 

The bag below, which was the "Emily Tote" in my original line is now the Flower Market Tote. It's been given a curvy opening at the top and a long rounded top double pocket with pre-made crochet trim on it's front. The trim I used is made by Moda and is available through stores which will be listed on the pattern ... I may end up carrying it as well. I love the stuff! 

This bag, which was the "Lara Hobo" in my original line is now the "Notting Hill Hobo". It has added pin tucks to give it tailored look, and it comes in two styles (patchwork or solid fabric) and two sizes. There are instructions for free motion quilting a pretty motif onto your bag as well. 

 

Both bags are available for wholesale pre-order through me (email me at Bari at Barijonline Dot com), and they will be available through distributors soon as well.
 

  

 

Lucky me lucky me lucky me! Nanner nanner nanner. I got me some of Elizabeth Scott's debut line, Red Rose Farm and you didn't! 

 

That's mean. 

But... Nanner nanner nanner!

Aw. I'm sorry. 

I shouldn't tease you. I just can't help myself. You see, I've got friends in high places ... Ummm... Elizabeth lives, like, down the road and she's my friend, I'm happy to say. So she gave me some of this goodness to play with and I made myself this laptop sleeve I've been waiting to make until I had the perfect fabric.

And lucky for you, Red Rose Farm is shipping next week. And it's available at Fat Quarter Shop.

I really love this line. Run. Go get you some!

I find the process of creating endlessly fascinating. I never know where ideas will come from or where the smallest of ideas will take me. The only thing that is for sure is that I will wake up in the middle of the night thinking I've stumbled upon some sort of brilliance in my sleep. Often I wake in the morning to find that what I thought was brilliance at 3:14 am is nothing short of insanity. And then there's times that something just clicks. 

I had one of the clicking moments last weekend, and I haven't been able to get my mind off it since. 

I had been doodling Friday night and Saturday morning. Paper dolls. What I considered a complete waste of time, but oh, so enjoyable. 

Here's what I came up with:

   

And here's the WIP that I dreamt up at 3:14 am on Saturday morning...

 

I love it when that happens. And yes, I'm fool enough to fill in that whole ruffle on her dress with French knots... which will probably take me the better half of my life... but it will be worth every second!
 

 

 Way back when I first started sewing I am sorry to admit, I was afraid of the sewing machine. 

But with a penchant for fabric and thread, I did what any good color addict does, I started stitching by hand. I had picked up The Embroidery Stitch Bible at B&N, and away I went. It is truly what brought me to sewing.

I've gotten away from it for some time now... just busy with all the other stuff. 

Then prior to quilt market I got into it again with the idea of freely stitching embroidery and mixing it with collage and applique. The result of which was this pillow:  

The yellow border is turned under, hand stitched applique and then the center is collage using free motion quilting.

I then added bits of embroidery on top.
 

 

 

Over the past few months I've become more and more interested in this mix it up concept. Then in July I was introduced to the work of Judith Baker Montano... She was teaching at Sisters and I bought two of her books there... Floral Stitches and Elegant Stitches. You saw her crazy quilts in one of my posts below about Sisters. Seeing her work sort of brought me to a full circle of where I've been going in sewing for the past several years, and definitely reminded me how much I love to hand stitch.

These days I just can't get enough. I've started a new quilt pattern that I can't wait to get out to you. 
At the top of this post and below are a few bits and pieces of what I've been doing using Country Lane (which is now in stores, btw. Visit Fat Quarter Shop to get yourself some!)

 

  
 Anyways, lots of fun is being had here in my studio... and elsewhere as this is one portable sewing art! I am really looking forward to introducing this pattern... I think you all are just going to fall in love with embroidery as much as I have.

Dear Blog,

It has been a long time since I last wrote. I'm sorry, and I've missed you. 

We were in Arizona last week. And I didn't even say goodbye or leave you with something fun to do. To top it off, the only pics I have are of my sister's son who is adorable, but since he's not mine, I don't feel right posting those even though I know you will oooh and ahhh because he is the most adorable baby in the entire world. I'm not biased. Really. He is. Edit: Except for my brother's baby who ties for first place in the cutest baby in the entire world contest.

Oh! But I did take a photo on the road of my two babies! Too bad they hate posing for pictures. We always take the dogs with us so we are on the look out for Good Places to Let Them Do Their Thing. On our last trip we found this amazing orchard at the end of a dead end street. This time, I was sure to take a photo. I'm positive we are not supposed to let them out there, but ...ahem... we do pick up after them so I hope Farmer Brown never comes after us with a shot gun for trespassing. 

At any rate, this here is what you get when you ask 12 and 14 year old sisters to pose for a photo after they've been in a car for five hours and still have eight left to go. I say, "For crying out loud! Just go stand together over there and look like you like each other! One, Two, Three!". Snap. Sigh. Give up.

 

In other news, I'm getting ready to go to Sisters on Sunday. So I have been making extra samples, copying patterns and generally planning my classes. In the middle of this I was asked (and I'm glad I was, trust me) to submit some art work to someone ... but within three days. So, I gratefully scrambled to get all that done. Pretty happy with the results too. Last night I stayed up until two in the morning. I don't think I've done that since college! I mean stayed up to work. But I did what I had to do, and frankly, I loved every minute of it. However, due to the stress, my darned chin broke out again. (I feel the need to say this so if any of you see me Sisters and you only see me at events, where I am generally stressed out, you will know that I don't always look like I have the measles.)

But, I digress. Before I go I wanted to leave you with at least a little something to make up for my desertion last week, but then I never got anything done to give you. And then I remembered... I have been meaning to post about this for a month! Actually since Spring market in May. I did a little project with my Art Journal line for Sew4home. I just love their website. It's full of fabulous projects. 

I did two for them. A pinwheel playmat and a little burp cloth. I hope you will make them and enjoy.

And btw, you can get some Art Journal fabric from many online stores including Fabritopia, Fat Quarter Shop, Hawthorne Threads and more! Just saying.

 

 

Well, have a great holiday! See you in a week ... or less if I figure out how to get photos off my camera and on to my laptop while I'm away. (I know. I'm a genius.) 

XO,

Bari
 

 

I thought the Gracie Girl Doll Shoe Pincushion seemed a little lonely all by itself. So I added a Gracie Girl Needle Book to bring a little bit more sewing joy to the package. ie., you'll be getting a two-fer with this one!  I loved making the prototypes for this project. The little French knots that fill the pinafore were my favorite part. It's a great project to work on sitting out in that lounge chair this summer, and they make great gifts for the sewers in your life. The instructions include how-to for the hand stitching so it's not something you have to be an expert at. This pattern-pair plus the Lill Street Messenger are due to arrive here for shipping at the end of this month. Keep your eyes peeled.

 

 

I did what Izzy did this weekend... 

I slept:

 

I ate:

 

((Izzy didn't have strawberries, yogurt and granola, but believe me, she would if we'd let her.))

And I sewed. This is the most I managed to accomplish aside from a limited amount of laundry. I sewed a tea towel from my Art Journal fabric. 

(Of course Izzy didn't sew or do laundry. But there's a chance she'd sew if we'd let her do that too... She's smart like that, you know.)

 

 
 

 Years ago, when I first started making handbags, I tried every interfacing known to sewing-kind. I ended up throwing in the towel on regular sewing interfacing when I started getting the bags made by an industrial seamstress, and I won't even get into that. It involves rolls of fabrics and heavy machinery. The most important thing is that when you sew a bag at home you end up with a bag that feels industrially sewn. Or at least as close as you can get. 

On my first go-round, I just used a woven cotton fusible interfacing. Clearly not enough. I like a bag that stands up. I had no idea what I was getting into at first. 

Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, next I tried Timtex. I used that for a long time, but I hated every minute of it. Timtex is a thick interfacing that is fusible. It almost feels like a thin layer of foam. It makes for a very thick bag that stands on it's own, but good grief it's a pain in the neck. It tends to crunch the fabric and cause bubbles when you bend it after fusing it on. I tried putting a layer of thin interfacing under it to remedy that. It worked. A little. But sewing through Timtex alone is a pain in the keester. Try adding another layer.

Then I tried fusible fleece... which I still use a lot of. I like it because it adds body to the fabric. But... it only makes the bag stand up a little bit. Not completely. I have been known to double the layers of it though, and I often add a layer of woven cotton fusible interfacing underneath. That works quite well.

About six months into this process of trying different things, I found heavy crinoline. It works very nicely. But it's cousin, Buckram, is even better. While still thin like the crinoline, it has just a tad more stiffness. However, it is not fusible. And I don't like that it's a loose layer. So, to remedy this, I put it on top of a layer of fusible fleece, and add small, thin dots of fabric glue here and there to hold it in place. I don't recommend adding glue unless you have a layer of something in-between the fabric and the buckram or you'll see the dots of glue on the fabric and have little stiff spots.

 And, I'll add another little caveat... you've got to be aware that buckram is used for millinery, purses, corsets and more. It does a big job. It makes the bag stand up, but I'm not going to tell you it's heaven to sew with. It's definitely doable, but you will need to be patient. The hardest part will be the topstitching when finishing a bag. I do have some suggestions to help there though. Here goes:

1. Make sure your bulky seams are trimmed pretty well. You can't trim too close because you don't want the seams to open, but you can get pretty close and trim some of it out. 

2. When you get to the seams where it gets bulky, stop, keep your needle down and rotate the wheel by hand a couple of stitches. 

3. I also suggest slightly increasing your stitch length for the top stitching.

4. If you have one, use a walking foot. 

5. Needle down position. For a long time, I didn't realize that my machine had a needle down position. Meaning, when you stop sewing, the needle stays in the fabric. If your machine has that feature it is really helpful when doing that last topstitch to finish the bag. That way you can sew nice and slow, stop to make sure you are sewing straight, that the lining isn't rolling up into the way etc. Call me a goober, but when I figured that out, I thought I'd won the sewing lottery.

The bottom line on interfacing for bags: Layer it. I now use a combination of Form Flex, Fusible Fleece and Buckram.

So there you go... Oh. Did I say something about a give-away?

 I did. My Art Journal line of fabric is shipping to stores 4/25... If you want to win a fat quarter stack of the whole group, I'll pick a winner on that day. 

Just leave a comment and tell me what you'd like to do with it. You can have an additional entry, if you tweet about the give-away. Just make sure you tweet @barij so I see it.

Happy sewing!

I've never been able to get enough of the whole bird theme. I think it's because of all the little creatures, they really are just the sweetest ... as a design element, I mean. Not for instance, the ... ahem ... pigeons... who have invited themselves to a party on my roof. (Sorry PETA, don't come after me.) 

You can see that my bird obsession runs a little wild in my fabric designs. I just received a small bundle of Art Journal the other day and started sewing up a messenger bag...It was funny how the birds lined up so perfectly with my pattern piece on the right side of the bag, wasn't it? It was like I designed the fabric to fit the bag. I don't have that kind of foresight, but I really was pleased none the less.

 

There was also a bird in my Full Bloom fabric line, and yes, I did just contribute to a book called "Little Birds". When picking items for my OpenSky Shop the bird theme obsession has gone unchecked. You saw the print in one of my previous posts. But there's also decor eggs in a nest, a ceramic bowl, and I especially like this vase with the bird sitting on it's side. I'm thinking right next to the stove for kitchen utensils. But I also see pussy willows or cherry blossom stems in it. And the blue works with my new(ish) curtains and canisters. 

 

I've got to wondering... how long have I been using the whole bird theme? So I rifled through some old files. And I have to laugh. 

Some of you may know that one of my first handbag designs involved a little birdy...

 

But I even found it in some collage art and jewelry I created almost 10 years ago...

 
 

 

What I'm showing you here? The tip of the iceberg. 

And it's not over people. Although I can assure you my third fabric line contains no birds, I will make no promises. I like 'em, and until I'm sick of them, well, they're here to stay. 

Tweet.

 
 

 Before I get started... Keep your eyes open for a fabric and sewing pattern giveaway in the morning over at the Where Women Create blog!

It's been quite a long week. It feels like I've been doing a million different things, and I have. I finished a free download for a quilt for Art Journal which is now being technically edited, I finished my quilt for our master bedroom (OK, fine. it needs quilting and binding but whatever), and my sewing patterns came in and began to ship which was super exciting. I also have been working on my OpenSky Shop quite a bit... you can see the new button to the right and I made a pretty banner. The flowers in the button and banner were fabric rejects. They didn't quite go with the rest of the line. But I'm making good use of them anyways.

OpenSky has been getting some great suppliers, and I'm super loving the stuff I have in my shop. Especially the bird themed items. I love this print below... it's not to scale here... I photoshopped it into the photo of my settee, but you get the idea. You can probably tell, I like the colors a lot... the pillows below are in Full Bloom. I think they look nice with the print.

 

(And I repeat: the print is NOT to scale and has been photoshopped in)
 

Below is the quilt I've been working on for the past year and finally put the outer borders on today. Love it. It's for our master bedroom and it's made of Anna Maria prints. The first border is a combination of velvets that were samples I had laying around. I love the combo. And the outer border is a shot cotton.

 

 

 

 

Well, that's all folks. I'm one pooped pup. Going to go sit in front of the TV and stuff patterns into bags. 

PS... I'll give you one hint what this is all about. It has something to do with that upcoming giveaway I mentioned. 

 
 
 
 

I told you this would happen. Since I bought my ruffler, I have had a small addiction. I have to put ruffles on everything. And though I usually send most of my shop sewing out to a seamstress, I decided to do these pillows myself. Because I like the sound the ruffler makes, and I like how fast it goes. I like that what used to take 1/2 an hour now takes 5 minutes. I am powerful. I can make ruffles without getting ruffled! 

So get 'em while they last. There's not a lot of them in the shop, but right now there are a few 14" pillows with super-yummy oversized ruffles. 

 

A month ago, I said I was determined to get my sewing patterns to market. And I set a goal to have them ready for pre-sale by February 9. It's February 11... about time, huh?  

I'm proud to introduce my four debut sewing patterns, Izzy Pin Cushion and Toy, Kitchen Art Accessories, The State Street Tote, and the Green Living Market Bag. Each one has a little something extra in the directions. The Izzy Pincushion has directions for the blanket stitch for applique and a nifty rolled rose in felt, the Kitchen Art Accessories have directions for fabric collage using free-motion quilting plus embroidery stitch directions for the leaf of the pear pot holder, the State Street Tote features either a magnetic closure or my signature spring closure (which will be available wholesale), and the Green Living Market bag features instructions for French seams and a really neat way to do a double sided cuff.

All of the patterns are now available for wholesale only pre-order. Approximate shipping is March 15, 2010. If you are a store owner and would like to carry my patterns please contact me and I'll send you an account number and password for my wholesale shopping page on my website. I'll need your state resale number to set up your account. They will also be available through several distributors. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

This slip cover was created because I needed to make the black chairs in my kitchen lighter for photographs. We didn't end up using them, but it was so easy to do, I'm going to make two more for the chairs I didn't cover. Here's what I did:

Measuring and cutting:

1. Measure chair back across and to the seat.

 

2. To cut I added 1/2" to the measurement going across and 3/4" to the measurement going down.

3. Cut two layers of fabric on the fold in your new measurements. The fold is the top of the chair, so you are cutting the long way.

4. For a ruffle, cut a piece of fabric double the width of the chair x 4 1/2".

Make Ruffle:

1. Fold the ruffle fabric in half the long way right sides facing. 

2. Sew a 1/4" seam on each short end of the ruffle.

 3. Press, trim and turn so the right side is out.

4. Press

 If you have a ruffler for your machine, by all means, use it. I did. But if not do the following:

5. Using an 1/8" seam allowance sew a basting stitch across the right side of the ruffle. Pull thread to gather.

Hint: I like sewing from the middle to each end.. That way I have less of a chance of breaking the thread when I pull it over the two shorter distances. Another good idea is to sew two lines of stitches to give you a fuller gather. Always press your ruffle after you have gathered to hold it in place. 

Attach the ruffle to the back side of the slip cover:

1. Fold the short ends of the slip cover in 1/4" toward the wrong side of the fabric and press in place.

2. Pin the ruffle in place 1/4" from each end of the right side of of one of the ends of the slip cover with the raw edges of the ruffle along the fold you just created.

 
 3. Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew the ruffle in place.

Create the slip cover:

1. Fold the piece together right sides facing and sew each long edge using a 1/4" seam allowance (pin the ends of the ruffle inward so they don't get in the way).

2. Press stitching, trim corners and turn and press again. The ruffle is now facing down and the folded edge you sewed on is folded under.

Hem:

1. When you pressed the ruffle down, the hem of the ruffle side naturally turned up toward the wrong side of the fabric. Now turn the other side up 1/4" toward the wrong side to match and press in place.

2. Turn the piece inside out, and edge stitch along the inside edge of the folded hem using a 1/8" seam allowance.

Finishing touch:

1. You'll notice at the top of the slip cover that the top corners are rather pointy. To make them more of a box shape, fold each pointed end down 1/4" onto the side of the slipcover and hand stitch in place.

 

  

 

The past week is all a blur. I learned a lot. It was fantastically exciting, incredibly time consuming and often plain old tedious. It took two full days to take the photos with the exception of a few "how to" shots, but it took over a week to get the house ready. 

I moved tons of clutter out of my studio, the living room, the kitchen and both of my kids rooms to prepare. A lot of which is still in the dining room. 

Getting the composition of each shot was really interesting to me. The photographers take the shots, we all looked at them, rearranged the shots, took different shots of the same things and then when we decided on the ones we liked the focus had to be checked. This entails zooming way in on every pixel on the computer screen. The computer is attached to the camera so the pictures go straight there. 

The lighting in my house is really not good at various times during the day, and we happened to pick two of the greyest days ever seen in Northern California. So, lighting the shots was a bit problematic. I thought it was very interesting to see how it's done though. Often the lights in the house were turned out as they turned the photos kind of yellowish. But then they use big pieces of foam board and a silver screen to reflect what light is in the room. I got lots of new ideas for taking my product pictures and learned a little bit about how to use my camera. 

The photo above is the mess from cutting and arranging flowers to "style" the photos. Styling photos is more fun and way harder than I thought it would be. I sort of knew. But I didn't. Props for photos are super important so I spent a fair amount of time searching for those. Again, great fun, but also time consuming and somewhat stressful. But when you see how it all turns out, everything is worth it.

In the end, I think the photos are going to be beautiful. It's funny. I didn't picture the photos to be in my own home. I think it's that I feel slightly insecure and maybe a little exposed by the idea. But they are definitely going to be very much my style as we used mostly my own things. 

That's it in a nutshell, really. I'm still processing that I actually wrote a book. So this was sort of an out of body experience. Maybe it will sink in when I see the book in stores... or maybe when my Mom sees the book in stores. (((Man! I so wish my grandfather were here to see it!)))

I had tweeted the other day that I was going to clean up my studio and give you a tour. While it's still not completely clean, I'm on the way. I did get a note from the photographers at C&T today with photos of my place attached telling me to move this, clear that and get rid of... everything. Yikes. Oh, and by the way, this movie clicks off abruptly at the end for a couple reasons: A. I don't know how to properly operate iMovie, the editing software on my computer and B. YouTube only allows you to load a 10 minute video and apparently I talk too much. Anywho... enjoy!

 Today my mission was to find props for book photos. So I headed out to one of my favorite antique shops, Blue Door in Livermore, and proceeded to spend the better part of the morning there. That place is packed with stuff so you have to go around and around to see it all. But here are the goodies I got...

 

Of course, I managed to squeak in a couple of goodies that weren't for The Book (you can guess as to which ones).

But I did resist these things which were kinda' irresistible...

This pile of vintage ribbon had my name all over it:

 

And these totally made me think of Miss Joanna:

 

Now I'm going to clean up this mess of a studio so I can get some work done. And the side effect of that may be to give you a virtual tour using the Flip Cam... Stay tuned.
 
 
 

And that's how I like it. Most of the time. But sometimes I have so many balls in the air, that I can't catch my breath and celebrate things like reaching goals and even small victories along the way. I forget how far I've come and continually ask myself, "Ok, you did that... what's next?" without stopping to smell the roses for a minute. I'm always running for the next thing without acknowledging the first. 

And even as I say this anxiety over what I "should" be doing right now is nagging at me. 

But for a minute I'm going to celebrate by taking the time to blog and share.

What have I been doing? 

I got a couple of sewing patterns out to testers, spoke to distributors and printers and I finalized my third line of fabrics with Windham last week. I'm really proud of this bunch. I think it's my most cohesive work so far and it's audience is broad. It falls in the contemporary category, but if you like country and vintage this might be your thing too. It will be introduced in May at Spring Quilt Market and in stores in the Fall. So weird to even talk about it being that Art Journal is not yet in stores. 

 I also managed to get enough aprons cut and sent to the seamstress so that my sister can take them with her to some of her Southern Living at Home shows. 

 

Today I launched a new little product, or really an old product made new... key fobs in French Velvet. They feel super luxurious. Love them. 

 

The biggy that I've been avoiding thinking about is photos being taken for my book... at my house... on Monday. We planned the shots last month, and now I'm getting props together and making sure this place looks photo worthy. I'll be sure to have photos of the C&T publishing photographers at work to share with you. 

Alrighty. I'll be getting back to work now...

cue Circus music.

Can you see the perfectly spaced pleats in this ruffle? I made each and every one by hand. 

Errr... uhhh... They were made with a brand spankin' new ruffler attachment on my sewing machine.

I had no idea this existed, and now I can't believe I ever made a ruffle without one. Thanks to a suggestion from The Infamous Pam Kitty Morning, I went ahead and bought one of these sweet babies. And I just made 350 inches of ruffle for a project in about 5 minutes. 

Mine has three settings for spacing the ruffles, and I haven't tried it yet, but apparently you can create your ruffle, and attach it all in one fell swoop too.

So... ahem... if a ruffle-less project ceases to exist around here, you'll know why.

(((Since I know you now have to have one... To get one for your machine, contact the store you got your sewing machine from or the manufacturer.)))

My first attempt at creating my own videos, this is a look at how the spring closures work on my handbags. They are available on the Alison Wristlets and Frannie bags. Both are available here.

 

There's nothing like a beautiful package to brighten up your day. This package from Norway was just what I needed yesterday. I've been in love with Emily's (of Ravenhill fame) work forever. So these dolls in my Full Bloom fabric (mixed with some Heather Bailey fabric, I think) are gifts I will treasure always! Thank you so much, Emily.

 

(Go ahead, admit it, you're jealous!)