Craft Month

Hi everyone!

It has been craft book month for the past 30 days :) and of course I had to wait until the very last minute to participate. There is something about a looming deadline that lets me get creative.

Let me say that I rarely buy craft books. I own three, one of them Amy Butler's Style Stitches. Now, I know that this is probably one of the books almost everybody has at home and the Cosmos Bag is probably the most made bag. 

But if you want to use faux leather (not quite sure you would call it that, basically it is plastic and sewing with it has the same advantages and challenges that coated fabrics create) you are probably wondering if this bag is even possible to make.

 

The short answer is: yes! I simplified the pattern a bit: no outer side pockets and no clipping the edges on the bottom panel the way it is described in the pattern. You also have to be carefully when sewing with faux leather because every stitch shows and your stitches shouldn't be too narrow because it can tear the fabric apart.

I must also say that this is not an easy pattern to make - contrary to what the description says. Having a lot of experience with sewing patterns comes in handy but if I hadn't had them I doubt I would have tried. Last time I made the pattern, I was shocked to see how huge it turned out so this time I shrank all the pieces to 75%. I think it is the perfect size now!

Because I was afraid that the handles may come undone if I pieced them together, I cut them in one single piece. Now, getting the lining and the outer fabric to match up was quite a challenge but I basically folded the seam allowances to the inside, put the left sides together, put paper clips in place instead of pins and just topstiched through both layers. No turning necessary :)

And here it is on me (yes, with a heart the same color as the bag!). If you made this bag, let me know how you thought it went, I would love to hear it.

Have a great start into the week!

Johanna

Thank you and a giveaway at the end

Thank you everyone for repinning me! I am very grateful that you helped me!

Unfortunately, I didn't make it under the first ten people to fill up their repins, so no fabric for me. I must say that I found it a bit unfortunate about how everything was handled. I do understand that giving away that many bundles is too much for a business but as a shop owner myself I usually limit the things I give away (or I keep an eye on the giveaway to make sure it doesn't bankrupt me).  But I really don't want to restart the discussion here, a lot of people made their point over at the blog post announcing giveaway winners.

Now, onto happier things. This quilt was made with the help of my friends from Bee Germany and uses Dolce from Tanya Wheelan and two solids. It doesn't have any batting, just a back and a front and I simply quilted around the stars. Now I can use it as a table cloth and not just as a summer quilt.

And now onto the giveaway! In order to say thanks to you, I am giving away a small stack of Dolce by Tanja Wheelan. There are a few FQs and some Fat Eights in there as well as some scraps.

I weight it and it makes for 2 yards of fabric. 

 

Just leave a comment over the next three days and I will select a winner on Sunday. I will send it anywhere in the world.

 

 Good luck to everyone!

Johanna

I need your help on Pinterest

Well, as you all probably now know Fresh Squeezed Fabrics is having a wonderful contest over at pinterest. If you pin a bundle from Randi and get the number of repins that the bundle costs you get the chance to win it. 

I had my eye on Perfectly Perched for a while, it is just too pretty to resist. And I need your help to get it! Will you please repin my pin here? 
All you need to do is click on the link, it will take you to my pin. Then you click onto "repin" and you pin it to one of your boards. You need to be on Pinterest to do this. For instruction how to participate go to Randi's blog post.

 

And please leave a comment so that I can repin yours as well.

I have about two more days left :)

Thank you so much for your help!

Johanna

Some fabric bundles

Hello everyone!

I have been rearranging my stash and I found some fabrics that I didn't even know I had ( I do hope that happens to some of you, too :) )
Some of that has to go so that my closet doesn't explode again (like it did last week...)
Up for graps is a bundle of some fabrics from the Meadowsweet collection from Sandi Henderson with a coordinating brown solid.

Measurements from left to right:
brown solid: a bit less then half a yard
pink dots: a bit less then a yard
orange rose: a bit more then 1 FQ
Pink flowers: 1 FQ
Vintage Paisley: a bit less then a yard in length,
half a yard in width
dark roses: 1.5 FQ
middle roses: 1.5 FQ
5 prints of large scraps plus some 8"scraps that are not pictured.
All in all about 3.5 yards of fabric for 25€ (which is about 30$). Shipping will be 7€ (9$) international, 2,20€ within Germany.

The next fabric bundle is from Sandi Hendersons Farmers Market/ Meadowsweet collections plus a matching Amy Butler print from her Lotus collection.
They are all half yard cuts with exception of the Amy Butler print that is missing a 4 by 8 Inch piece. You would also get some matching scraps with these prints if desired.
All in all a bit less then 2.5 yards of fabric for 16€ (which is about 20$). Shipping will be 7€ (9$) international, 2,20€ within Germany.

I would love to give those fabrics away but fabric is just too expensive being a student with no money :)
Please email me or write a comment if you would like to buy one of these bundles. I will get back to you with a paypal invoice and send them off as soon as possible.
Thank you!
Johanna

And some Scraps....

Update: gone, thank you!


I also have some scraps that I am willing to part with. Unfortunately I will only be able to ship them to someone in Europe and you have to be willing to pay shipping charges because the package is quite large. There are 2,2kg of scraps, mostly quilt shop fabric. Some of the scraps are as large as a fat eighth, but most are smaller. I used scraps like these to make my string quilts, like this one:


Shipping costs to anywhere in Europe is 17€, within Germany it is 6,90€. If you prefer that I just send you the quilt shop fabric in this package then shipping costs will be 8,90€ for within Europe and 4,10€ for within Germany.

Just leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Hope you are having a great day!


Und nun noch ein paar Stoffreste, die ich leider nicht mehr selber verarbeiten kann. Leider kann ich sie nur innerhalb Europas verschicken, da ansonsten die Versandkosten zu hoch werden.
Es sind hauptsächlich Baumwollstoffe in Quiltqualität darin, insgesamt 2,2kg, meist kleiner als ein Fat Eighth. Leider muss ich dafür Versandkosten berechnen. Innerhalb Deutschlands kostet es 6,90€ für das gesamte Paket. 4,10€, wenn Du nur die Quiltstoffe möchtest.

Bitte einfach einen Kommentar hinterlassen (inklusive Emailadresse) und ich komme dann auf Dich zurück.

Einen schönen Tag!
Johanna

New Selvages

Update: All gone, thank you!


I have some selvages to give away. Does anybody want them? I was planning on definitely using them this time but life got a bit in the way :)

If there only was a way to make summer last longer!
Here are some pictures from sunny and warm Italy. And yes, I was very reasonable: not more then one gelato a day :)