by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 11, 2013
I was at Mad About Patchwork a few weeks ago searching for some Kona Cotton in Charcoal for my husband’s T-Shirt quilt and I got a bit lost… well… maybe a lot lost. I ended up with 3/4 of a yard of Octo Garden in Aqua. The Salt Water line by Tula Pink is really great. I wasn’t sure at first, it’s a bit strange – octopuses… really? The way they are incorporated into the fabric is really fun and unexpected – right up my alley! Looking at the Salt Water options again I also really like the Sea Strip in Aqua. Maybe some throw pillows for the couch?
I have had some trouble finding aqua coloured fabrics in the right shade for my living room, which has a red and blue colour scheme. It’s surprising how often they are too purple or too green. Anyhow – this shade of aqua is perfect, thank goodness! I can cross this project off my list, it has been too long in coming. Though the chair seat re-cover doesn’t have any sewing involved, it does have the gorgeous fabric. Also, it is graced with a Valentine’s project worthy pillow, so I’m good with it!
Octo Garden Chair
This chair used to be covered in this fabric, just for reference and so you can see how wildly my tastes have changed in the last 5 years. Don’t worry, I made the photo small so you aren’t blasted with the craziness!
The chair sits in the living room against a wall to provide a bit of extra interest along with the red couch and chair. I have been looking for something to recover it with since I changed the colour scheme over a year ago – has it been that long already?!
Here’s a better view of the octopus himself, or themselves, since there are many in the pattern. I really like how it doesn’t look like a sea creature from across the room until you walk closer. And the splash of pale blue is much better than the golden yellow/red that was there before.
Now all I have to do is finish painting light gray over the darkish taupe I have in most of the house. I think it will freshen up everything and maybe provide me with a few more photo walls, hooray!
The pillow was made following this tutorial by Noodlehead. I made it a bit smaller by printing the template about 1/2 size and then decreasing the seam allowance by the same percentage. I really like how it turned out and the contrast with the chair is fun too!
Speaking of Valentine’s, I am making some for my daughter’s class based on this idea and will post a printable for them by Wednesday morning – just in case you procrastinate as much as I do and want to make some too!
Along with the gorgeous fabric, I can’t forget to remind you about the interview with Pam from Mad About Patchwork I posted on Saturday – she even gave us a coupon code for her Canadian online fabric store – check it out! (And just in case you are wondering, I have not been paid to post her information. The opinions are all my own, she really does have a great store!)
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 24, 2013
I was talking with my husband about the horrible state of Canadian online fabric shopping, at this point I had found only one store and the fabric selection is not exactly my taste. So I went looking further and managed to find 6 shops! (If you are from the US you can just ignore this – you are SO lucky to have so many good online fabric stores.) Anyhow, getting back on track…
Speaking of fabric… how about some eye candy!
I have pinned them all onto this board called Canadian Online Fabric Stores. {Update: There are now many more shops thanks to my wonderful readers!} If you are in Canada I hope the list helps you out. I will continue to update and pin more (if I can find them!) I am noting that they are “Untested” if I have not tried to buy anything from them and will update the status of the store if/once they have been tried. If you do try one, or know of one that is not on the list, let me know so I can pin it or add your comments. If we all work together we may be able to save each other some of the trouble (and the shipping and customs costs!)
Note: No fabric prints were harmed in the making of this photo!
Just to keep you guessing… I am posting a tutorial that uses this photo on Saturday. It is for something we made at our “Sewing Club” (name yet to be decided). And, if you want a laugh or a groan(!), check out the comments on this post. There are a lot of very creative people out there thinking up names for our sewing night. Add your own! We’ll let you know what we land on.
** Update: Since this post we’ve interviewed several Canadian Online Fabric Stores and posted more about Canadian online shopping. Click here for more posts. Follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Bloglovin’ so you don’t miss any new information! And of course – don’t forget to follow the Canadian Online Fabric Store Pinterest board. Go get some fabric!
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 19, 2013
The first and most exciting is that the first meeting of the …. umm…. “Friends We Know that Sew” Club… was last night. We’ve definitely got to come up with a better name for it! Everyone was commenting that they aren’t sure how to explain the …. umm…. “Club” to all of our non-sewing friends – so any suggestions (write in the comments!) would be gratefully received!
I should likely have taken at least 1 photo of the 5 sewing machines on my dining room table and the (gorgeous) fabric and amazing projects everyone was working on. It is so much fun when you are able to talk with a whole bunch of other people that love to talk about what you love to talk about! We are super excited to have another night soon and maybe all work on the same project together over an evening.
The second exciting thing is that I stole away for a bit this afternoon to go to the fabric store. I was inspired by one of my friends’ quilt projects and have bought fabric to make a couple of quilts for my daughters. I have had the pattern for The Proverbial Quilt by Denyse Schmidt for a few years and haven’t got around to making anything with it as yet. I think I have finally come up with a saying that I like and will post more about that later.
I’ve always been “scared” to start a quilt – first I am not sure that I have the patience to finish it – and to cut out all of those pieces! Second, I am overwhelmed by the enormous options for fabric that are online. I can’t decide what to pick and so usually give up before I have ordered anything. There are just too many good fabrics! I decided today that I was just going to go and pick something at my local specialty fabric shop and not care so much! Here’s what I came up with.
Quilt 1 – Pink and Blue
This quilt will be for my older daughter. I asked her to go through my fabrics and come up with some that she liked and she ended up picking a lot of pink and blue, so that was the starting point. I bought a few new fabrics to supplement what I already had. The solid pinks will be the text, the blues are for the front of the quilt and letter backgrounds. The pinks on the bottom of the photo are for the back. I still have to go find 2 more light blues at another store to fill out the selection – the fabric I was able to find for the other quilt is a lot more varied.
Quilt 2 – Purple and Green
My youngest will be getting this quilt. She seems to like green as her favorite colour, so I went with that and purple for good contrast when reading the words. The top solid purple/pinks will be the text, the greens for the top of the quilt and the darker purples (from the bottom of the photo) for the back. I knew I had been saving my Heather Ross “Far Far Away 2 – Sleeping Beauty” 1/2 yard for something special and this is it. I love her fabrics, and Sleeping Beauty is perfect for a tiny person’s quilt.
So long for now, I am off to prewash my fabric – how boring! If some of it had not been washed already I suppose I could skip this step…. ah well. Maybe I’ll get a bit of time to play with it tomorrow.
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 10, 2013
*** Update! There is now a tutorial on how to sew this bag here. ***
I noticed that the photo of my gray diaper bag – blogged here – is sending a lot of people from Pinterest my way. (Hooray!) Comments say “love the colours” – so in hopes of helping them out here are most of the fabrics I used.
The white dots: Michael Miller Fabrics – CX3755 Gray Huevos
The elephant fabric: Here is a similar one on Fabricworm: Jay-Cyn Designs for Birch Fabrics, Mod Basics, Organic, Ellie Fam Orange
Inside I used gray with white polkadots: Michael Miller Fabric – CX3744 Gray Quarter Dot
Unfortunately I can’t locate the gray with flowered white “dots” in my selvage pile – so this one is going to have to be anonymous for a while. I will post the name if I find it.
Along with that, Abby, the creator of Sew Much Ado (who posted the original tutorial) left me this super-nice comment – “These are great! Probably my favorite that I’ve seen yet! So cute, I love the additions you made, and the gray fabric is perfect!” How nice of her to comment back, and just minutes after she noticed that I commented leaving a note on her blog. So much fun!
by Sherri Sylvester | Dec 13, 2012
A few weeks ago we visited family in Ohio. Luckily they lived near a Jo-Ann Fabric store, unluckily we didn’t have much time to spend there, luckily I didn’t have time to buy the store out!
Here’s what I found in half an hour…
The two fabrics on the left were selected by my 5 year old. She wants a skirt out of the pink/lemon/pear fabric, and a dress from the tree fabric. They are both a small wale corduroy and are quite soft. I have issues with both, the pink is not cute enough and the trees are overly cute and need some toning down! I have some ideas… once I finish this Christmas sewing… The one on the right is my favorite. It is by Dwell Studio and is destined to be a LeapPad2 case for a small munchkin. Though I think it may be spring before I get to it!
I am always looking for things that make a more professional looking finished product. This coloured velcro and below, the coloured elastic will be fun to play with.
I suppose that is not much considering the amount of sewing stuff the store has to offer, but (thankfully for my budget!) the haul was relatively small. I do find that I shop online or in the more “expensive” fabric stores anyhow, the quality of the fabric is better and the designs are trendier. Places like Jo-Ann’s though are fantastic for notions, thread and accessories.
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 2, 2012
I have run into the ability to buy myself some “for fun” fabric and can’t decide what to do! I know this sounds like a ridiculous problem, but keep reading…
Whenever I go online the selection is so big that I usually give up because I can’t decide. I don’t make quilts or I would buy precuts in fat quarters of everything. And sometimes I can’t think what I would make out of something, so I don’t know how much to get.
I think it might be easier if I bought more fabric more often – or maybe bought fabric whenever I saw something I really liked… Hmmm… anyone want to sponsor my blog? (and maybe also buy me another closet to put the fabric in?!)
In the meantime – here are a few things I have seen recently that I think are worth spending my current “fun” money on. Which are your favorites?
1. Cori Dantini – Beauty is You – Sunglow Palette
2. Moda – Half Moon Modern – FQ’s
3. Cloud9 Fabrics – GeoCentric Circles – Turquoise
4. Laurie Wisbrun – Perfectly Perched – Nesting Chairs in Celebration
5. Alexander Henry – Once Upon a Time – Princess Kingdom in Natural
6. Laurie Wisbrun – Brrr – Ice Palette
7. Lotta Jansdotter – Bella – Pebbles in Grey Plank
8. Moda – Bonnie and Camille – Marmalade – Pinwheel Strawberry Raspberry
9. Kokka – Echino by Etsuko Furuya – Ni-Co 2012 Cycling Mocha
