While there I waited 5 hours in line to get into Sample Spree! Okay granted, a big chunk of that time was spent napping – after my ordeal on getting there, I really needed one!  (that story will be told later).

Sample Spree did not disappoint! There are some great fabric lines coming down the pipe in the next few months! I picked up some great lines from Moda, Kokka, Art Gallary and Windham (WOW!! I’m really excited at what Windham has coming down the line)

The line behind me

Tula Pink has a new book, thread and fabrics coming out!!  If you don’t already know – I’m a HUGE fan of Tula Pink and am so happy to see her expanding into all aspects of the quilting market!

Tula Pink and her biggest fan!

I’ll be talking more about what I noticed at Quilt Market at the Quilt Market Wrap up this Sunday from 1-3p. I’ll be giving away a signed copy of this book to one lucky winner.

After the slideshow be the first to shop all the things I brought back from Quilt Market before I put them out on the floor!

You can sign up for the Event here.  Members of Sewtropolis are free, just give a call to let us know you are coming!

Second in line at Sample Spree – wait till you see what I bought!!!!

Heather Bailey has finally come out with embroidery Patterns and felt!! We love Heather Bailey

Look, Alexander Henry pimped their ride too!!
See you on the 26th where I’ll give away a signed copy of this book to one lucky winner!

I almost stole this… not really, but I wanted to!

I’ll also be attending the Schoolhouse series on Thursday, I signed up for some classes that are unique to sewing and quilting store owners!

I also can’t wait to meet the designers, authors and pattern makers. I have plans to visit the Colette Studio and visit with Sari and Amy Butler – super excited about that. Quilt market is always so full of color and excitement. I’ll be able to meet up with other shop owners from not only the Twin Cities, but from other states as well. There are a few I’ve talked to over the phone, but have never met, it will be nice to finally meet them in person.

My Greek Girl – Anna Maria Horner!

Given all of that – and that is a lot! What I am most excited about is seeing my friends and family in the Great North West! My dad will be in Portland that weekend and will take my boys so I can concentrate on the happenings at Quilt Market. Afterwards the boys and I will drive up the Coast of Washington onto Bainbridge Island and then take the ferry into Seattle.

All aboard!

We’ll spend a day sight seeing with my brother who lives there and if everything goes as planned I hope to meet up with a old college friend of mine. It’s been almost 30 years since I last saw him, and after searching for him for the past 15+ years I had all but given up…. Until out of the blue he sent me a message on Linkedin. (I love the power of social media!) I can’t wait to catch up with him!

I hope you’ll follow along on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. I promise to take pictures of EVERYTHING!! And when I get back I promise to share everything I found. So mark your calendars now for Sunday, May 26 for the Quilt Market Recap!  Sewtropolis Members get in free!

See you soon!

I noticed a lot of other Scooter owners driving around with a crate strapped to the back of the scooter. Makes perfect sense, but I had to take it a step further. Check this out!!

Nice huh? I’m pretty proud of myself. I even used a laminate fabric for the print for easy cleaning.

There were only a few seams to sew with this crate cover making it literally a 10 minute project.

With my ‘Bike Basket’ and now ‘trunk’ I think I’m set for carting my stuff around.

A few months ago (closer to a year ago) I was cleaning out my sewing room (i.e., basement) and saw the pattern in either a book or magazine that I had.   Since I have a thing for scrappy quilts I quickly added, it to my WIP (Work In Progress) pile.

I think what I like most about scrappy quilts is the randomness of them.  I also like the idea of using up my ‘scraps’ – which I always seem to have a ton of – as evidenced by this project.

Each scrap was cut into 2″ x 3.5″ pieces and then pieced together in this order.

There are 17 pieces in each block and I have 90 blocks in this quilt (9w x 10h)…. so that works out to 1,530 teeny tiny pieces of fabric!

Yes, that’s a lot of scraps!  Each of them remind me of a previous project – some old, some new.

I’m going to name this quilt “Confetti” because that is what all those tiny pieces look like.  Don’t you agree?

So, last fall when I was given the chance to take a temporary assignment at a big corporation, I decided to take it, and for the past 7 months I have been working part-time, doing my best to make ends meet. Because I wasn’t going to be at the assignment very long I tried not to get attached to the people I was working with. I’m a big baby at “Good-Byes” and I didn’t want any sort of Drama! But, try as I might – they kind of grew on me. So at my Going away lunch on Tuesday I gave each of them a little token of my appreciation.

(I ended up keeping the blue bag because I didn’t think the person I made it for would appreciate it as much as she would a Passport Holder – which I neglected to take a picture of – but trust me it was cute).

While I was working there, I was also working on developing a Strategic Plan for my business through Women Venture. I have already started to implement some of the goals on my Plan including the Community Quilt which kicks off June 29th and our Sewing and Quilting retreat on October 18-20. I hope that you all will join us for both events AND more importantly, share my website, Facebook page, twitter name, etc., with all your friends. The more the merrier as that is so important to not only my small business – but most small businesses!

I’ll miss the people I worked with, but I’m hoping that if I ever have to pick up another temporary assignment it will be because I WANT to and not because I NEED to.

Glad to be back at the store 100%!

The pattern came from the book: Dare to be Square, by Boo Davis.

This is the second quilt I’ve made from the book… we’ll, technically the first, Drew made the Robot Quilt.

There are 10 projects all together, everyone will get the chance to make at least 4 of them.

All material and instructions are included – all you need to do is show up and sew!

If you want to see the items we’ll be making visit the Sewtropolis Pinterest board here.

If you like what you see, then be sure to sign up here! As always Sewtropolis Members receive a discount!

During the summer I like to ride my bike to the store, but I live 12 miles away and sometimes getting there is no problem, it’s the energy to ride all the way back.  Last summer I thought “I should get a Scooter!”  and then winter set in and I completely forgot about it until I found myself needing a second vehicle for my son who just started working out at Lake Minnetonka.  He’s saving his money to buy a car, but until then I do NOT want to drive out to Lake Minnetonka everyday to drop off/pick up.  So I bought myself this:

Isn’t she purty?  My favorite color and everything!!  She’s just my speed and SEW much fun to ride!  With my Son’s of Anarchy jacket and now my Scooter I’m that much closer to living the SAMCRO life!

It was one of those happy co-incidences that she came into my life.  I, for once, was ahead of schedule one day so decided to take the long way to work.  Heading down Lyndale I saw her sitting there with a For Sale sign on her.  I stopped and talked to the owner who said she only had 161 miles on her, but ran perfectly – it just wasn’t her cup of tea!  I wrote the check then and there!  After getting her registered I strapped on my helmut and rode her home!  OMG – SEW much fun!!

My son and I took her to the gas station near the house and spent a whole $5 to fill her up and that’s including the two sodas we bought!  I can’t wait for this horrible, horrible winter to break it’s grip on us so that I can ride her to work!  Till then, my son has been riding her to Trader Joe’s every night.  Amazing how he can think of things we need!  ;-)

The Crepe – which I love

And the Hazel – which I also love.

But the newest Laurel dress was by far the easiest Colette Patterns dress I’ve made.  Not too simple, after all it does have a few details, but simple in design and construction.

I chose to make version 3 in the Amy Butler Sateen fabric – seriously, this fabric feels like butter.   There is an invisible zipper on the back, but you could just as easily put in a regular zipper.

I love this simple beginners sheath dress with the ruffles on the sleeves, simple yet flattering for most body types.  The pattern comes with 4 views including a top, but there are supposedly 29 different ways you can make this dress.  I’ll be teaching version 3 on Tuesday, May 7th.  If you want a quick sheath style dress I would highly recommend signing up here.

Have you signed up for our Giveaway?  Post your comment here to win one of three scrap bags I’ll be giving away!

I used scraps to make my Weekender Travel Tote and these potholders! Unfortunately, I haven’t even made a dent in my scrap pile. So, lucky for you, my faithful readers, I’m giving some of them away!

I have three bags full of scraps that I’m giving away to some lucky customers.

How do you win a scrap bag? Three ways:

1. Come into the store and tell us which sample I’ve blogged about is your favorite.
2. Leave a comment here telling me which is your favorite sample.
3. Leave a comment on Facebook under this blog posting telling me your favorite sample.

I will then draw a name from each of the entries: in store, blog or Facebook. I may have extra scraps for the ‘in-store’ winner – just saying it may be worth a trip in.

You must leave a comment on this post -(just trying to keep it simple).  On Facebook you must leave a comment on this posting when it shows up on the feed. And finally, if you come into the store, your entry must land in the “Official Blog Entry” Box.

I will draw names at the Pinterest Party on Sunday, May 12!

The ‘in-store’ person will get to choose their bag first – which may or may not be stuffed with more scraps.

The other two bags will be sent to the winners of the blog/facebook postings.

It’s been a while since I did a giveaway, I hope this helps makes up for that!

I have been thinking of making up this Weekender Travel Bag by Amy Butler Designs for a long time. This is not the first time I’ve made this bag, but it is the first SUCCESSFUL time I’ve made it.

I’ll admit this pattern is not a easy one to make with all that thick interfacing she calls for! What the heck is that all about?

I decided to use batting to give this bag some structure – batting that’s been quilted! (smile).

With all the sewing I’ve been doing I’ve created quite a few scraps – to add to my ever growing scrap pile. Since blue is my favorite color I decided to use up my blue scraps and create the main fabric. I then quilted that onto some muslin, using the long arm quilting machine – I love that long arm of mine!

Sadly I discovered that I didn’t quite make my ‘quilt’ large enough and had to create two more pieces in order to have enough quilted fabric.

But, I did it and after that everything seemed to go together just fine.

I am really happy with this bag. When I get back from Quilt Market I’ll be using it as my yoga bag.

They were in the Spring Break Kids Camp in early April!  Both learned to sew at Sewtropolis and I love that they were in the same camp and made the same pants!  (the Lucy from Violet Fields Threads) which remind me of Charlies Angels – thus the pose.

Both chose their own fabrics; the one on the left chose Kate Spain, the other Tula Pink).

On the last day we had 3 other kids join us, two made pillowcases, the other made a totebag – as you can tell it was one big (Sprint Break) party!

If the boys and I want to watch a movie then we turn on the Apple TV and watch one through Netflix or iTunes.  I kept hearing what a great show Son’s of Anarchy was so I searched for it on Netflix and all I can say is Oh eM Ge!  I love this show!!  And I’m a girl who spends maybe 1 hour a day watching TV – and now all I think about is doing what I need to do so that I can sit down and watch SOA (SAMCRO for all you fans)

This is crazy!  Last time I was this hooked on a show was when Grays Anatomy first came out. I love SOA – I’m not so sure what the allure is for me, I am so not into bikers AT ALL!  But there’s something about cheering for the Good Bad guys (vs. just the Bad guys) that has sucked me in!  I even ‘liked’ their Facebook page!

I am so into this show that I decided to make myself a SOA jacket! Yea, you read that right – my own Son’s of Anarchy jacket! Check it out!

Ready for SAMCRO

The fabric is Skulldiggery in a home dec weight from Alexander Henry.

I decided to make it reversible with white on one side and black on the other.

Black side when I’m feeling bad ….

White side for when I’m good

The pattern is Amy Butler’s Sandlewood jacket! It may look familiar – this is the second one I’ve made.

and the back…

I made the thigh length mainly because I didn’t have enough fabric to make the longer length… which I’m now glad I did. I’m pretty sure I’ll get more wear out of a jacket this length.

I am at the end of season 2 on the Son’s of Anarchy. I now watch it in bed on my iPad – which makes for some pretty interesting dreams of me wearing my jacket while riding on the back of Jax’s bike!

Um yea!

The pattern is Amy Butlers Liverpool shirt/tunic/dress. I decided to make the dress length because according to the fashion magazines, shirt dresses will be in this Spring.

The fabric is from Valori Wells’ Novella line, I saw a shirt dress in a magazine that was in this color way (one of my favorite color ways) about a week before the fabric showed up at the store. I took it as a sign that it was time to make this dress.

There were a few things about the pattern that made no sense to me (such as the seam down the back), but overall I would say it’s a great pattern for the intermediate sewist.

.

The instructions for constructing and attaching the collar were nice and clear. It’s been a while since I did a collar so I appreciated the clear directions.

One of my favorite touches about the dress are these orange buttons!

I added them up the front and on the sleeves (which you can make in three lengths). I think the buttons give the dress a nice ‘pop’! What do you think?

I decided to do pebbles on the white using Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread.

And even though it was very time consuming,(pretty much all day) I really like the effect!

I took a Instagram/Facebook poll to see if I should quilt the blue and almost everyone agreed – I should quilt it. I’m thinking I will, but in a smokey gray color – something that will blend in.
But that may have to wait till the next snow day.
Which I hope will be soon!

First up is this beautiful cape!

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m really proud of this cape!

The fabric is a velvetine from Anna Maria Horner. We have been making a ton of her Figure 8 scarves kits from the velvetine, so it was high time I ‘took it to the next level’! The pattern is Favorite Things Cape pattern.

When it came time for the buttons I did a informal Instagram poll. The choices were these large silver buttons.

Or these beautiful white vintage buttons. Most people said they liked the white vintage buttons…. But I just couldn’t bring myself to use them! I think I need to love them a little more. Eventually I’ll get to a place where I’ll be ready to let them go, but in the meantime I think the silver buttons makes the cape look ‘rich’.

The cape will be on display for a few months, next time your in the neighborhood stop in and check it out!

Thank you everyone who answered my call for Quilt Blocks! I received enough quilt blocks to make 6 lap sized quilts.

I also received two quilt tops a crib quilt and a large finished quilt.

I spent the morning yesterday taking all these pictures of the quilts and when I got to the last bag I discovered that there was a whole bag of quilt tops that I mistakenly thought were completed quilts!

Which means I’m not quite done with quilting everything.  I’m not sure if the tops will make it to the victims of Sandy, but they will be donated to a worthy cause.

Thank you everyone for donating blocks, backing, binding, and of course the beautiful finished quilts!

You all are the BEST!!

I don’t know what made me stop dying fabric, maybe it was a combination of having to do it in my basement (which gets cold in the winter), adolescent boys who I wouldn’t dare leave alone for more than a minute for fear of a fight breaking out, or who knows… what I do know is that I always hung onto my dyes thinking that one day I’d have more time to go back to it.

That day was this past Saturday. One of the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild members took the same dye class all those years ago, but unlike myself who stopped, she kept going. Seeing her beautiful hand dyed fabric would perk up something inside of me that craves playing with color!

This past Saturday a group of us met at the Textile Center in St. Paul and learned how to dye fabric – or for me; respark those color cravings again!

Can you see my turquoise blend in the first row of cups below?  The idea was to go from dark to light in 8 gradations.  Turquoise is a difficult color to work with, it requires a little more TLC to get the color to adhere to the fabric.

Sure enough when I rinsed my fabric the turquoise wasn’t quite as vibrant as I was hoping they would be.  But I still love them!  

Here are all my ‘color wheel’ dyes in cups before adding the fabric….

And after!

Aren’t they just beautiful?  I love them!!!  I already know what I’m going to use them in!

These are my “Mad Scientist” fabrics – made with left over dye – I’ll never be able to replicate these colors – which is both good and bad because I’m in love with the bronze fabrics!

And here are all the fabrics I dyed.   I can’t wait to do another batch, next time I’m keeping notes and cutting swatches!

I saw these on Pintrest and loved the idea of them.  They are filled with rice so that you can just pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds as your heading out the door!   I use them when I take these two for a walk.

It just so happens that I had some scrap flannel laying around so after I made the first pair I made up 5 more because of this post I posted on my facebook page:

“Pay it forward 2013! I promise to make something handmade for the first five people who comment. They must in turn post this and make something for the first five people who comment on their status.”

And, actually it was kind of fun to have a quick, “seasonal” project in my back pocket to make for the first 5 that responded.

They are easy to make:  Cut 4 pieces of fabric and 4 pieces of flannel 5″x5″.  It is very important to use 100% cotton (or other all natural) fabric and thread.  If you don’t you could start a fire in your microwave!

Lay your fabric pieces right sides together.  Then lay your flannel pieces on each of the wrong sides of the  fabric pieces.

Sew around three corners using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Fill each with 1/2 cup of rice.

Sew opening closed and voila – pocket warmers.  You could make feet warmers by cutting your fabric pieces a little larger – say 12″ x 6″.     I’m sure you could fill these with anything other than rice, but I know rice works so I’ll stick with that.

See you at the next Sew-cial!