Juicy Bits

139: in the house

That's right, Timber is in the house!  Or rather, shops.  But it could be in your house if you bought some, and now you can.

These photos are from Mary's blog showing Timber on the shelves of Tumbleweed Quilts. 

It does seem to go nicely with the Hope Valley.  Definitely great company to be in.

So I don't know everyone who's got it on the web.  If you're a shop owner carrying the whole line and want me to add your name here, I'll update once in awhile.

I do know the following have/had most or all of it:

Hawthorne Threads

Fabritopia

Fabric Worm

JCaroline

Venezie Designs

Sew Mama Sew

Hart's Fabric

Calico House - Lincoln, NE (402)489-1067

I shall attempt to get a flikr group up soon so you can show me when you start sewing...

JT

138: under the sea nursery

Hey, that rhymes!  I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

This is Theo's room before the "big boy bed".  It was really designed as a nursery in the true sense of the word.  He slept in our room for over a year, but I loved to sit in the rocker and nurse him.

 

 

This before shot is how the previous owners had the room.  

 

Of course I made lots of things in the room.  I've shown you the quilt and numbers collage before, but here are a few more:  

Pillows, roman blinds, a turtle and two fish, covered lampshade, and, of course, the border mural. 

Instructions and all the supplies you might need for blinds can be found here.  There's a bit of math involved, but they're really not that difficult.  The turtle and fish are from patterns by Rumpled Quiltskins.

The border was another of my past-the-edge-of-sanity projects.  

Truly.  

It's painted from a stencil, but instead of using one color for the waves and one for the background, I felt the need to make it more like actual tiles by painting each square individually with a range of blue hues.  And no, one coat wasn't enough.  They all needed 2-3 coats.  Do you have any kind of idea the kind of time that takes?  Well, I do, and it's no picnic.  100s of hours.  

And this is how I spent the nesting energy of my second pregnancy.  About 1/2 way through I wanted to quit, but I can be plenty stubborn when preggo.

Here's hoping Theo develops a love for fish.  Right now it's all trucks, race cars, and trains.  I really don't want to have to change this any time soon.

JT

137: a christmas bloom

Just dropping in to say a quick hello.  

Thanks so much for all your kind words about my magazine ad.  I'm anxious to see what you guys make with Timber once it's in stores.  Speaking of which, it should be shipping soon and I promised to post a list of those of you shop owners carrying the whole line so people know where to go.  So once you get your stock in, let me know and I'll link away.

And so this post isn't picture-less, I thought I'd share this little christmas flower that I made to adorn Aurora's Holiday attire.

It comes from the book Kanzashi in Bloom.

I think these flowers are gorgeous and so easy to make.  The book gives basic techniques and then a bunch of sample projects.  To be honest, I doubt I'd really do any of the actual projects, and the basic techniques are really very simple, but the book is still worth it as an easy reference and a good guide to which kinds of glue to use and stuff like that.

The holly leaves are made from wool felt.

JT

136: in print

So, if you happen to be perusing the pages of Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting this month,

 You'll come across this on page 63:

 

That's my very own magazine ad for Timber.  Aw yah.

I'm getting so excited, it won't be long now until it hits stores.

And, yes folks, my husband and I did carry our couch into a field so I could take pictures.  

JT

135: oops I did it again...

Don't you hate it when you forget to photograph things?  Especially stuff you've made?

Well, maybe that mostly applies to those of us who blog.  Making gifts now serves a dual purpose for me...a thoughtful present for a loved one, and something to show y'all.  

But then I forget to document them.  oops.

Anyway, as I mentioned I didn't make that much this Christmas.  As much as I love to, it was totally a good call and helped maintain my sanity.  

 

But I did make this bag for my sister.  It's the Abigail Bag from Serendipity Studio.  I really love how this turned out.  The pattern was great and easy to follow.  Since it was a last minute idea, I was hesitant to do a bag with zippered pockets and all, but they were easy.  

The one thing I'm thinking for next time around is bag feet.  You know what I'm talking about?  Those little metal bumps on the bottom of some bags?  I've seen them in my local fabric store.  I think they'd work well on this bag since it has a nice solid shape and stands up.  Since I did it with regular quilting fabric (mostly my Timber collection) they would probably help it last longer.

I also made a super-cute apron for my other sister, but, you guessed it, no pictures.

JT

134: one, two, three....under the sea

2010 is here.  

I'm not in a very introspective mood right now.  I've been reading lots of lovely posts about what people have accomplished over the last year, and sort of feel that's what I'm "supposed to" write about.  But I'm just not there.  

It's true, my life has changed A LOT in the last year, and almost all for the better, but I think looking forward to all I need to start on this new year is getting in the way.  So pardon me if I don't reminisce with the rest of you folks, and just simply move on to new things...

 

Anyway, this is a little preview of a room I've been meaning to show you.  It's Theo's nursery/bedroom, and it, as you can guess, has an under-the-sea theme.  

This is my favorite project from the room.  A counting collage.  Each number has a corresponding sea animal, and you'll note I didn't forget the often neglected 0.

   

Here's how I made it:

 First I figured out which animals I wanted to use.  Of course you could do it with any theme you'd like, from flowers or fruit to trucks or zoo animals.  Really just about anything works.

Then I researched pictures and drawings of the intended subjects.  The internet is so wonderful for those of us not too confident in our illustrating capabilities.  I wanted to trace the images so they could be recreated in only 1 or 2 colors.

 Then I took the outline drawings and traced them onto Steam-a-Seam2.  Remember you have to do the reverse of what you want in the end.  Then I stuck the outlines on the fabric and cut out the shapes.  Little things like the crab legs I did in separate little pieces instead of trying to cut out one big complicated thing.

I printed out the numbers and traced them on the Steam-a-Seam2 the same way.

 
 

 I had pre-planned the layout and the sizes of each piece I wanted.  They are made from regular wood canvas stretchers you can get at art supply stores (mine were ordered online to get all the different sizes).  

 Using the "frames" as a guide I laid out each number with it's animals onto a larger piece of batik fabric.  When I was satisfied with the composition I ironed them in place according to the instructions.

Since they're going to hang on a wall and not really get "used" didn't feel I had to stitch the edges or anything for stability.  But I did do a satin stitch around the numbers for an outline.

 
Then I "stretched" each one over the stretchers.  All I did was use a staple gun to staple it smooth over an around to the back of the stretchers.  You want to start in the middle of each side and work you way out to prevent wrinkles.

 And then hang them all up on the wall in a pleasing layout.  

I want to type: "That's it!" here, but who am I kidding?  It was a lot of work....

But so worth it.

JT