Fun Stuff

It’s that time of year again!  National Sewing Month begins today!  What will you make this month?  Try your hand at a new bag or scarf and enter the “Accessorize Your Life” contest.

We’d love to see what you’re sewing. Leave a comment and send us a picture.

I have the good fortune of knowing two couples who are becoming parents very very soon: one couple is having Baby #3 and the other is having Baby #1.  What does that mean for me?  The hustle and bustle of getting baby gifts made and shipped.

Of course, my go-to gift is a baby quilt.  My personal favorite is a Stacked Coins pattern, a la Handmade by Alissa.  But I also love to pull together scraps.  Or, in the case of the in-progress piece below, I like to use what’s given to me.  I’ve simply arranged the 12 blocks from my quilt guild’s last Block Swap and made a sweet little blanket that works for both boys and girls. 

Besides gifts for babies, I need gifts for siblings and parents, as well.  And, I hit a wall.  I needed inspiration and guidance.  So, I turned to the experts:

Anna Maria Horner.  Here’s a woman who knows about babies.  She’s had six!  And she’s got projects for a new baby, parents and siblings in her latest book: Handmade Beginnings.

Amy Butler.  She’s a celebrity among sewing celebrities.  And her fabric designs are versatile and timeless.  Her patterns are easy to follow.  Check out her book of pieces for kids: Little Stitches for Little Ones.

Lotta Jansdotter.  Love her printing techniques.  Why wouldn’t I love her projects for babies?  Cuteness abounds in Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing for Baby: 24 Projects for Newborns to Toddlers.

I still have much stitching to do on my Wonky Log Cabin Baby Quilt.  And, I have the troublesome problem of choosing just three or four more projects to complete quickly to send with baby gifts.  Gotta get them out soon, though.

Here at Havel’s Sewing, we love a good accessory. And, we love love love a quick and fun sewing project. We also love all the beautiful Japanese fabric that’s coming out lately – but we are a little overwhelmed by how much we’ve spent on a yard here and a yard there.

Make yourself a scarf for every outfit this Fall.

What can we do with a yard of fabric that we want to put on full display? We’ve seen tutorials on one yard skirts and bags, which are wonderful ways to showcase your favorite fabric. But our favorite way? Well, for our money, nothing beats a scarf.

Here are two quick tutorials that you can modify, if necessary, to make your own brilliant scarves!

Spool Sewing – Shot Cotton Scarves

Stop Staring & Start Sewing: Voile ah! A Teeny Tiny Tutorial

No need to modify – but we’ll be making both kinds of scarves out of our Japanese fabric stash. Oh, and we’ll also be hitting up Pink Chalk Fabrics for some shot cotton to make the Spool Sewing scarves exactly like the tutorial says. But you can definitely do this with other fabric, too. You may not want to fray the ends, but you can experiment with stitches all you like.

The Fabritopia/Stop Staring and Start Sewing tutorial calls for soft voile. With all the beautiful Alexander Henry cotton lawn that’s coming out, this is a great way to use a 1/2 yard of such striking fabric.

So, start sewing. You’ll have enough scarves to accessorize every outfit in your closet.

Like a lot of quilters and sewists, we’re over the moon for a lot of the Japanese prints available.  Often, at quilt guild meetings and block swaps, we notice Japanese fabrics we haven’t seen before.  When we ask, “Where did you find that?” we often get the answer, “Somewhere online.”  Well, we’ve collected a brief list of the best “somewhere online”s we could find.  Wanna find that fantastic Japanese fabric fast?  Try one of these sites:

We like Plum Wreath Blossom from Superbuzzy.

1.  Superbuzzy
This site has a great selection of Japanese fabric. When we were obsessing over new prints in the Seven Islands booth at Quilt Market, they told us we could find everything on Superbuzzy. They sell trims and other fun stuff, too.

Love love love this print from Fabric Tales.

2.  Fabric Tales
They’ve got all the awesome Echino stuff. Plus, they carry some really nice fabrics we’ve never seen before.

Fave circus fabric found at From Japan with Love.

3.  From Japan with Love
Lots of great Japanese fabric. Sent with love. Obviously. Get stickers and paper here, too.

Kokka Large Trefle is coming to Fabricworm this Fall!

4.  Fabricworm
Good old Fabricworm. They never let us down. They seem to sell out of popular prints fast, so be sure to sign up for an alert for when the fabric arrives.

Mwenda had this Alice print we searched and searched for.

5.  Mwenda’s
We found some of the fabric we’d been drooling over at our last quilt guild meeting on this shop. Love the selection.

Sit down at your sewing spot and sew!

It wasn’t too long into my quilt life that my friends and family stopped asking me, “How are you?” Instead, they started asking, “How’s the sewing?” The better question, I told them, was this: How’s all the sewing stuff?

By stuff, I mean the various activities that make up the quilt life: guild meetings, workshops and classes, blog and magazine browsing, fabric shopping and quilt show excursions. There’s a lot of quilt stuff going on…which doesn’t leave a lot of time for quilting. It’s easy to get caught up in the myriad of distractions and lose sight of the reasons I started quilting in the first place: the meditative quality and tactile satisfaction of sewing.

On days when I feel as if the quilt lifestyle is eclipsing the actual work, I take a deep breath and sit down in my designated sewing chair. I sit still and let the pull toward the computer and television pass. I don’t answer the phone. I sit down and sew.

Working on a project is a great reminder that you do not need to go fabric shopping at this time. At least, that is, until the current project is completely sewn. And is there better motivation for finishing a quilt than the promise that you can purchase more fabric? For your next one?

All the sewing stuff is terrific. It’s a reason to get involved with the sewing life in itself. But I aim for balance. The sewing life is pretty empty without the promise of making something. And that requires that you sit down and sew.

The FabShop Network recently posted a blog entry on their FabTalk site about Havel’s Sewing’s 7-inch serrated sewing scissors. Take a look:

http://blog.fabshophop.com/blog/

Pokey Bolton, host of Quilting Arts TV and founder and editor of Quilting Arts magazine

Havel’s Sewing is now the proud sponsor of series 600 of Quilting Arts TV. Havel’s Sewing has provided several of their unique fabric scissors and tools to dynamic television host, magazine editor and quilt artist Pokey Bolton for use on her show.

Quilting Arts TV features a variety of talented quilters and textile artists who bring original projects to share with the enthusiastic audience. Over 80 million viewers tune into Quilting Arts TV through PBS stations in 450 markets, which means 80 million viewers will now have the opportunity to see Havel’s Sewing products’ superb cutting abilities in action.

Aspire Media owns Quilting Arts TV, while Interweave is the publisher of Quilting Arts Magazine, which has more than 25 thousand subscribers. In addition to the print publication, Quilting Arts Magazine has a thriving online presence. The textile arts, home sewing and quilting are ever-growing in popularity due to the wide web audience and the number of tutorials, forums and craft blogs available. Havel’s Sewing is proud to be a part of that community both through their partnership with Quilting Arts TV and their own online efforts.

Find a station and viewing time in your area HERE.

Check out Quilting Arts Magazine HERE.

Buy Series 600 of Quilting Arts TV on DVD HERE.

We found Sew Deerly Loved when we were searching for Heather Ross Munki Munki fabric. This little shop delivered in a big way. And besides running the Sew Deerly Loved Etsy shop, this busy fabric seller has six kids, quilts and writes a lovely blog: lovely little handmades.

The shop is stocked with a great selection of Japanese fabrics and quilting cottons – sold in yardage, fabric sets and bundles. You’ll also find a great deal of popular patterns. And customer feedback is 100% positive!

Floppy Hat Pattern from McHats

Keep your cool this summer by making a floppy hat for protection from the sun.  Or, create super cute gifts from hat patterns from McHats Shop on Etsy!  We think these hat patterns are divine.  

Linen Flip Brim Newsboy Hat Pattern - image from McHats

The Linen Flip Brim Newsboy Hat is perfect for back to school – and you have all summer to sew!

Cut Out Beret from Craft Stylish - photo by jack deutsch

Or, if you’re feeling fancy, make yourself a felt beret.  These make terrific gifts – so get a head start on your holiday gift sewing.  Check out this tutorial by Nicole Smith from Sew Stylish.  You’ll need a good pair of small fabric scissors.  We think Havel’s Sewing Sew Creative 5 1/2″ Curved Tip Scissors will do the trick.

We love the selection at Fat Quarter Shop!  Of course, they have way more than just fat quarters.  They have quilt kits and free patterns.  And, they have our favorite:

Fat Quarter Clubs!

We love the Fat Quarter Club options.  And check out their other pre-cut fabric clubs.  Get charm packs and jelly rolls ready to sew!