Giveaway!

Amanda & Ashleigh of The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery have kindly provided me with a copy of their Valentine Truffle Gang Cross Stitch Pattern to give-away to one lucky reader!


Check out the tutorial for making it into a card below and comment THERE to enter! Let me know what you're working on at the moment!

Don't forget to leave your email if it isn't viewable in your profile! Giveaway ends Wednesday night! :)

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card Tutorial

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

A cute, crafty alternative to your typical Valentine's Day card! Stitch up some chocolate truffles for your sweetheart!

Go grab the Valentine Truffle Gang Cross Stitch Pattern by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and get stitching! It's a quick little stitch, you'll be finished in no time! :)

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Materials:
Finished Cross Stitch
Card Stock
Scissors
Pink Thread
Water-Soluble Pen
Bone-folder (optional)

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

1. Take your card stock and fold it in half. Use a bone-folder or your fingernail to crease the fold.

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

2. Measure 15 squares on all sides of the stitching pattern and mark with your water-soluble pen. Cut 1 square inside the pen marks.

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

3. Center your cross stitch over the front of your card. You may choose to use a glue stick (just a little!) to secure. Gently unfold your card before sewing it down.

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

4. Load your sewing machine with coordinating thread and stitch around your cross stitch 3/8" from the edge. Stitch around it twice, making sure NOT to backstitch. When stitching, try to line up with the cloth to sew in a line of holes.

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

5. Turn over your card and pull your threads gently to bring all the threads to the back. Knot and trim.

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

6. Pull three rows off your Aida cloth (one at a time!) on all sides. This gives you a sweet frayed edge.

Valentine's Day Cross Stitch Card, originally uploaded by jenib320.

7. Voila! Find an envelope or wrap in tissue paper! :)

*Thanks to everyone who entered the pattern giveaway! See who won here!*

Favorites

Favorites, originally uploaded by jenib320.

1. they're multiplying, 2. Do Good Stitches Bee Quilt, 3. Hello my name is Amanda... 10:365, 4. Linen Bag with Vintage Quilt Strips, 5. do. good stitches Faith Log Cabin quilt, 6. A year in scraps..., 7. pumpkin spice, 8. Hankie Quilt, 9. Year of the Rabbit Needlebook

Wednesday

Stitching, originally uploaded by jenib320.

I've been slowly stitching away at the cocoa mug, and thanks to Christina reminding me to use a blunt needle, it's coming along a lot better! I picked up the super cute truffle gang pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery yesterday! I'm going to stitch it up for Michael's v-day card I think! :)

Bee Hexed In - For Brooke, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Finished up Brooke's block for Bee Hexed In! I love her color choices!

Thrifting, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Picked up a few goodies thrifting on Tuesday! A Dream On Butterfly sheet/pillowcase in brown! And a blue/green sheet that has been on my wishlist forever! I also stocked the shop with lots of cute pillowcases! :)

Vintage Sheets, originally uploaded by jenib320.

One of my very favorite vintage sheet patterns! I hope there are more colorways!!

Home Sweet Home, originally uploaded by jenib320.

This sweet papercut made by Crystal arrived this week! I can't wait to pick up a frame for this beauty, and to choose the perfect vintage sheet to use as a backdrop! This pink and orange one is definitely in the running! Crystal just opened up a sweet little etsy shop if you'd like one of your own! :)

George, originally uploaded by jenib320.

He just looks so sweet in his big box, I cannot resist him!

Today I love the..
Smell of: Crisp morning air
Sound of: Imogen Heap
Taste of: Smacks cereal!
Sight of: George bunny
Feel of: Sweatpants :)

Good Things about Today:
- Managed to get some errands run
- It didn't get dark until after 5pm today!
- 3rd Rock from the Sun!
- First class on Friday is cancelled!

The Art of Choosing: Fabric Folding

The Art of Choosing is a series discussing fabric, color, and the fabric selection process! Here's what's been posted so far:

1. Recognizing a Fabric's Overall Color
This Week: Fabric Folding

I switched up the schedule a little bit so that the series makes more sense! Originally we were going to be discussing how to build a well-rounded stash, but we're better off organizing our stashes before we do any shopping! ;)

The Art of Choosing: Folding, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Today I'll be showing you how I fold my fabrics. This method allows you to fold all your cuts that are a yard or less, down to the same size. This is really helpful for storage and organizing because you can mix yardages. I've been folding this way for about a year and it's been working great! I think I may have originally seen this method over on Christina's blog!

When I started putting together this post, I was planning on taking photos of each stage. Early into the process I realize that this just wasn't a practical solution. So, despite my camera shy-ness, I decided to make a series of videos showing how to fold 6 different size cuts of fabric. Please ignore my weird voice and the horizontal orientation of the videos!

If you'd like you can watch all 6 folds here in one video, or watch the individual videos below:



1. Fat Quarter

Fat Quarters, half-yards, and yard sized cuts are folded exactly the same!

2. 1/4 Yard


3. 1/3 Yard

This works great for any cut in between 1/4 and 1/2 yard!

4. 1/2 Yard


5. 3/4 Yard

This works great for any cut in between 1/2 yard and 1 yard!

6. 1 Yard


Hope that was helpful! See you next week for another post! :)

Catch up!

Mendocino, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Started my Mendocino quilt! Each block will have a mermaid or large octopus center and then framed in colors from that fabric!

do. Good Stitches, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Stitched up the Hope circle's December quilt for do. Good Stitches! do. Good Stitches is a fun charity quilting bee over on flickr! Rachel just wrote up a lovely post about it if you'd like to learn more or get involved!

Fabric Mail, originally uploaded by jenib320.

I have been keeping to my Stashpact11 goals so far! No fabric buying has happened since some solids at the very beginning of the month! Wonderful swap fabrics have been coming in instead, making it much easier to be good! :)

FINISHED!, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Speaking of fabric swapping! I finally finished my Park Slope collection!! This is my favorite fabric line and I couldn't have done it without my swapping buddies!

George, originally uploaded by jenib320.

George, originally uploaded by jenib320.

George gets two photos today!

Thank you all for your great response to my series post on Tuesday! I'm looking forward to preparing this week's post!

Today I love the..
Smell of: Twisted peppermint candle
Sound of: Imogen Heap
Taste of: Diet Coke
Sight of: Mendocino fabrics
Feel of: Warm scarf

Good Things about Today:
- Managed to get some errands run!
- Finished another quilt block
- Cleaned up the apartment a little
- 3rd rock from the sun! :)

Favorites

Favorites, originally uploaded by jenib320.

1. Contemporary and Vintage Baby Quilt, 2. 2 blocks done, 3. Project Palettes: Amsterdam, 4. Yellow and Grey Lady of the Lake Progress, 5. blues and greys, 6. I wish I had a washing line., 7. great white north bee pink star block #1, 8. Tea Cozy - front (2010 UFO #3), 9. i am lOVING...

The Art of Choosing: Recognizing a Fabric's Overall Color

The Art of Choosing is a series discussing fabric, color, and the fabric selection process!

It's time for the first section of our series! Today we're going to discuss how to identify a fabric's overall color. This may seem somewhat straightforward, but it can be tricky! It will be really helpful later in the series when we discuss organizing a stash by color and creating color schemes! And don't forget, there is no right or wrong way of doing this! This is simply the way I do it! :)

I've broken this section down into three different parts. First, I'm going to show examples of different types of fabrics. Second, we'll dissect the color palette of a few fabrics, and finally you'll be challenged to identify overall color of a few difficult fabrics! Also, for more information on the fabrics in each stack, simply click on the image to be taken to flickr, which has information on each print!

1. Tone on Tone Fabrics

Tone-on-Tone Fabrics, originally uploaded by jenib320.

These are the freebies! Tone-on-tone fabrics use different tones/shades of the same color to create a pattern. This makes it very easy to identify an overall color. These types of fabrics are a great basics to start with when putting together a color scheme.

2. Color + White Fabrics

Color + White Fabrics, originally uploaded by jenib320.

These fabrics are generally made up of one single color in addition to white. The white is used to create the pattern on the solid background. The color is more dominant than the white, again making these relatively easy to identify. Another great place to start when organizing a palette.

3. Fabrics with Small Accents

Fabrics with Small Accents, originally uploaded by jenib320.

These fabrics have generally a strong background color with small accents of other colors. Again, at first glance it is easy to identify the colors of these fabrics. The accents are minimal enough that they don't take away from the overall color. When choosing fabrics for a project however, it is important to be mindful of these accents.

4. Fabrics with Large Accents

Fabrics with Large Accents, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Here is where things start to get tricky! These fabrics have large accents of other colors! They have strong background colors, which can be used to identify the overall color. However, in this case especially, the accents cannot be ignored when putting together your palette. While it is not necessary to have all accents represented in the palette, making sure that the colors work well with your palette will make it more successful! These are great fabrics to build a palette around! We'll discuss more about building schemes around a single fabric later on in the series!

5. Multicolored Fabrics

Multicolored Fabrics, originally uploaded by jenib320.

These fabrics are made up of many different colors and are therefore often difficult to identify. Now we're going to take a few of these apart and discuss their color!

Analyzing Fabrics

Start with the Selvedge, originally uploaded by jenib320.

When analyzing a difficult (or any!) fabric, often the first place I like to look is the selvedge. Those little colored dots can be helpful! While small, they do provide a look at the colors used in the fabric separately. It can also be helpful to tape up your fabric and look at it from a distance! Now that we've discussed a few things, let's dissect some fabric!

Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt

Flea Market Fancy, originally uploaded by jenib320.

This popular fabric is mainly made up of gold, pink, ivory, and brown. The two dominating colors, gold and pink, are represented equally in the pattern. This makes it a judgement call! I tend to stick this print in with my golds!

Midwest Modern II by Amy Butler

Midwest Modern II, originally uploaded by jenib320.

This fabric has a lot of different colors. It's made up of dark pink/red, two shades of pink, two shades of yellow, and turquoise. Because three of the six colors used are pinks, in addition to the background color being pink, I categorize this fabric as dark pink/red.

Good Folks by Anna Maria Horner

Good Folks, originally uploaded by jenib320.

I always struggle with this fabric! It's composed of brown and pink with small orange accents. I think that there is more pink than brown, but the brown stands out when this fabric is among other pink fabrics. Because of this, I generally consider this fabric brown.

Sugar Snap by Melissa Averinos

Sugar Snap, originally uploaded by jenib320.

This fabric is made up of ivory, two shades of pink, orange, and two shades of turquoise. the background color in this fabric helps first identify this fabric as ivory. However, the accents are bright and pretty dominating, which leads me to place this fabric in the multi-colored section of my stash.

Weekends by Erin Mcmorris

Weekends, originally uploaded by jenib320.

This fabric has tons of different colors! Two shades of pink, two shades of burnt orange, gray, ivory, green, and white! The dominating colors are pink and burnt orange, but there are so many different colors that I categorize this as multi-colored as well.

Challenge Fabrics

Challenge Fabrics, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Now it's your turn! If you'd like, give these four fabrics a try! Share your guesses in the comments! You can guess the color or type of fabric, or both!

I hope that this section was helpful to you! Feel free to post your questions and comments. If you have a question, don't forget to be sure your email address is viewable so that I can respond to you! :)

Next week's post will be on Building a Well Rounded Stash!

Giveaway Winners!

It's time to announce the winners of the giveaway!

Orla Kiely Shopping Bag, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Ms. Random.org choose 18 & 52, which is: Andrea & Natalie! Congrats ladies! I'll be emailing you later today for your addresses!

Thanks for all your wonderful comments and enthusiasm about the series! Check back tomorrow for the first section! :)

This Weekend

Dream On, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Finished up my Dream On quilt top this afternoon. It's made of 4 charm packs and kona in corn yellow cut into charms. I'll be backing it with the Dream On inspiration vintage sheet that I thrifted, and bound in various dream on prints from Amanda! Thanks again for sharing dear!

Turquoise, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Played around with some turquoise!

Vintage Sheets, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Organized some of my vintage sheet collection by color!

Happy Mail, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Been swapping away, which means happy mail!

George, originally uploaded by jenib320.

George :)

Check back tomorrow for the winner of the giveaway!

Today I love the..
Smell of: Cinnamon candle
Sound of: Despicable Me
Taste of: Blueberry waffles
Sight of: Finished quilt top!
Feel of: Wool socks

Good Things about Today:
- Finished up my quilt top!
- Watching Despicable Me!
- Chit-chatting with quilty friends :)

Shop Sale!

To celebrate the long holiday weekend, everything in the shop is on sale!

Vintage Sheets, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Favorites

Favorites, originally uploaded by jenib320.

1. I Think I Love You, 2. Baby Mish Mash, 3. Wonderland quilt top finished, 4. Moon Tree, 5. sunday sewing, 6. little Forest quilt (with a few gnomes), 7. Bag Front, 8. Herringbone Linen - Modern Whole Cloth Quilt, 9. Mug Rug Swap Round 2 for Emedoodle

Wordless Wednesday

Quiet, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Thrifting, originally uploaded by jenib320.

Snow, originally uploaded by jenib320.

George, originally uploaded by jenib320.