Happy New Year from Crafty Girls Workshop

From NOW (6:00pm Central Standard Time) until MIDNIGHT (12:00am CST)

use the coupon code

HAPPYNEWYEAR

to get

20% OFF

your entire order, EVEN SALE ITEMS!!

GO NOW!! VISIT THE SHOP!! Tick Tock time's a wasting.

Oh and did I mention, that all your fabric purchased will count toward the 25 Yard Dash?? IT WILL!

Happy New Year (be safe everyone),

Anna

25 Yard Dash - Have you been training?

Are you making resolutions for the new year? Something like "Run more, eat better, finish those unfinished objects (UFOs) hanging out in my closet, etc" Well, now you should resolve to buy MORE fabric from Crafty Girls Workshop because when you do you'll get special REWARDS! And of course, if you start sewing you'll probably forget to eat anything NOT healthy, and you'll be running to the mailbox and you'll get your UFOs finished! (see sample resolutions above) So, yeah, you should really buy more fabric from Crafty Girls Workshop.

Here's how the 25 Yard Dash works (I'll even be the one to keep track of your yardage purchases!):

• 25 yards purchased = 25% discount on one order!
• 25 MORE yards purchased (total of 50) = FREE SHIPPING on one order (if you're local, you'll get another coupon)
• 25 MORE yards purchased (total of 75) = YOUR CHOICE of FREE SHIPPING or 25% discount code
• 25 MORE yards purcahsed (total of 100) = a PERMANENT coupon code just for you to use FOREVER

Now, perhaps you want to purchase more than just yardage? Maybe you want to buy some fat quarters or other precuts? Well here's how that converts to ADD to your REWARDS:

• 1 charm pack (42, 5" squares) = 1 yard
• 1 honey bun (42, 1 1/2" strips) = 2 yards
• 1 jelly roll (42, 2 1/2" strips) = 3 yards
• 1 layer cake (42, 10" squares) = 2.5 yards
• 1 fat quarter (18"x22") = 1/4 yard

There is literally no time like the present to get started. And keep your eyes glued to this blog for extra ways to earn more yardage credits in coming months.

Happy Shopping!

Anna

New to the Shop

There are SOOO many new fabrics and patterns that just arrived this week now available in the shop! I just can't wait to make up some sample napkins and placemats with this CUTE fabric:

 

and a little bit of this orange and yellow plaid to go for the binding or accent is perfect.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Special DEAL THIS WEEK ONLY: Fandango by Kate Spain

To view the entire collection in stock click here

To view the charm packs click here

To view the 1 yard bundle click here

This is a one week only special! What a great way to use up that cash that Santa gave you for Christmas. OR why not treat yourself because you made it through the holidays! Be sure to grab some yardage if you buy the charms or you might regret it later. And don't forget to check out all our great patterns both electronic AND printed! Ready, set, shop!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Handmade Holidays

NOTE: Sorry for the lack of pictures, two reasons for that 1) Blogger doesn't let me add more than one picture to a post and 2) I don't really want to risk any of the recipients of gifts reading out what I made for them before they get it!

I'm amazed at myself. Every year for the last six or so years I've said I was going to make gifts for everyone on my list. Then at the last minute I ran out of time (because 12 months just isn't enough!) and ended up buying gifts for people. Amazingly, this year, perhaps it's because my list of people to give gifts to is shorter, I've been able to make gifts for pretty much everyone! And the funniest part is the reasoning behind giving handmade this year was different. Yes it's because I know a handmade gift is special and more love goes in to making it than in just picking out an item at a store, but mostly it's because I didn't want to go SHOPPING! Is that lazy or lame? Here I am, in my studio four days of the seven day week (and more if you count that I come here after work every day) and I just decided, I can make gifts for people. And I did it. Mostly I just made pillowcases but I think they are personalized enough to the recipient that they will really like them. The gift I'm most proud of is a wallet I made for my brother in law. I used fabric from a shirt found at goodwill and it only took me maybe an hour at the most to make it. I hope he likes it and can get some use from it. I'm probably going to make one for my dad for Father's day or his birthday. The thing is brother in law is difficult to find gifts for, he's vegan and doesn't use anything with animal products and other than that, I don't know much about what he likes. So when I decided to make a wallet I had a feeling he'd like it, even if he only uses it for a little bit. In fact, the tutorial I found after searching and searching the Internet ALL day yesterday was actually REALLY good! It's on a blog called Quiltish which I am actually and very happy I found. Well, I'll do my best to take some pictures of the pillowcases and other gifts I made this year. Maybe with the recipient and their smiling faces! In other news, I brought my doggy Starbuck up to the studio with me today and she was pretty good. It was nice to have a little company even if it's the four legged kind. She likes to stand on her hind legs and look out the window at the passing cars. I didn't get the organizing that I'd planned to do accomplished but the gifts are made so that's an accomplishment in itself, even it if it IS Christmas Eve!

Happy Holiday Stitches!!!

Anna

Design Wall, continued

                                       

Here's what I worked on yesterday with a new pattern I just got in from Threaded Pear. It's called Sugar Free and uses either a Layer Cake and a Jelly Roll (for a bigger quilt) or 2 charm packs and a Jelly roll (that's what I'm using) I finally decided to just chop up my yummy precuts of Figgy Pudding from YEARS ago! I love the Basic Grey fabrics, especially their holiday lines. In fact, I REALLy regret not getting any yardage at the time of getting these precuts because finding yardage of Moda Figgy Pudding is practically impossible. Luckily their newer line called Fruitcake is a little easier to get. I think it's rather hilarious that it's about two days before Christmas and I finally got inspired to make a Christmas quilt! But this pattern is SOOOO easy I mean, I literally started on it yesterday and the top is really ALMOST done. I think I'll be able to get the top finished tonight. I LOVE patterns like that. In fact, I'm thinking about having a Sugar Free quilt workshop, just come in and spend some time making this quilt. I bet you could get it done between 6pm and midnight. Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of Christmas fabric in stock, but I bet this would also make up pretty awesome with a Sugar Pop Charm Pack and Jelly Roll. Sorry about the horrible picture, it's a rather grey day and the lighting isn't very good around here.

Happy Holiday Stitches,
Anna

My Design Wall

Here at the Studio, I am fortunate to have an entire wall for my design wall. After brainstorming about different options to make the wall useable (i.e. putting up insulation board etc) my dad found some acoustic tiles at Home Depot for about 43 cents each, yes I said 43 CENTS. So to cover an entire wall that is about 10 feet in length, it cost about $8.00! The acoustic tiles work well because I can pin in to them easily (just creates a pin shortage around the place) but I figured out that I could pin a flannel sheet to the wall and then just stick the blocks on that (DUH) maybe in the new year I will get some flannel yardage and consider actually using some sort of adhesive to attach it, but for now pins work.  SO, to get to the point, this has given me some room to put up projects I'm working on (and those of other people who create things in the studio). I've had this funny Hello Betty Honey Bun quilt up on the wall for quite awhile. Now that it's up there, the idea of putting ALL those tiny blocks together is sort of daunting. See?

And no, I haven't even bothered to count how many of those pieces there are. So the pattern is an Amish Brick pattern and the fabric is a Hello Betty Honey Bun, so I'm calling it Hello Brick Wall. I plan to add a small grey border and a large border in Jade, both Bella Solids that I LOVE. In fact, making all those tiny bricks was pretty easy, just strip pieced them, one 1 1/2" honey bun strip and a 1 1/2" grey strip made it pretty quick, then chopped them into small 2 1/2" units. Now I just have to sew all those together!

Well, since Blogger is being a real pain right now and not letting me add more than one photo (WHAT IS WITH THAT!?) I'll have to continue this post later. Geez!

Happy Holiday Stitches,

Anna

Crafty Girls Workshop Registration NOW OPEN

Click here to sign up for classes

THE STUDIO IS OPEN

We're now accepting registrations for classes at Crafty Girls Workshop!

Click any of the links below to see the available classes and sign up ONLINE!

• Eco Crafts Market tote (Be good to the environment, take this tote to the store for your groceries)
• T-shirt Quilt class (Turn your t-shirts into a memory quilt to treasure)
• Keychain Clutch (beginner) (perfect class for a confident beginner)
• Pillowcase (beginner) (Get to know your sewing machine)
• Git 'er Done Finishing School (great for getting those New Years resolutions off to a great start)
• Handmade Holidays Gift ideas (Get a jump start on makings holiday gifts for 2011)

Space is limited to allow for personalized instruction.

Never fear, classes will be taught multiple times a month and some will repeat monthly.

Or just come in for

Open Studio Time

 

Open Studio Time is just that, time for you to come in and work on a project using my machines and cutting tools. Perhaps you need a little bit of guidance or advice, that's part of the Open Studio benefit.

 

Studio Hours:

Weekdays by appointment during the day, OPEN 5pm-8pm

Weekends 10am-5pm and after 5pm by appointment

 

I'm looking forward to meeting you at the studio very soon!

 

Happy Holiday Stitches,

Anna

 

 

Busy with Trees

Happy Holidays to All

Here's the tree in my studio. It's much prettier in real life (sort of like me, haha).

Here's another tree I've been working on, just today a little bit. I've been dabbling in something called ThreadPainting. I'm sure I'm not doing it exactly right, I haven't had the time to watch the YouTube videos yet. But it's been super fun playing with some new variegated thread I got at Quilt Market.

Here's what it looks like:

It's sew fun!!

That is all done with thread.



Pretty don't ya think?



In other CLASS news, I finished listing A TON of classes on the website today. Registration is officially open! Class sizes are limited so please drop by and sign up ASAP.  Click on the link for Classes on the left or the Class Calendar. Well, the weather here hardly feels like Christmas but perhaps that will change this week, you never know here in Texas. Sometimes it's warm and the next day it will be fridgid.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

    

Crafty Girls Studio is OPENING SOON

Coming soon to San Antonio, TX in fact, it's already here, I'm just working on finalizing the details for our January Calendar,

Crafty Girls Studio

1100 Broadway Suite #311

San Antonio, TX 78215

Do you want to learn to sew?

Do you want to meet other people who enjoy crafty projects?

Do you need a Crafter's A.D.D. Support group? 

If you are in or around the San Antonio, TX area (or happen to be driving through) please feel free to stop by and get your craft on! Very soon I will have all the new classes posted on the webstore for you to sign up and pay your registration online! Spaces in the classes will be limited to 6 students so be sure to sign up for the newsletter to find out all about new classes and class openings. There is also an open studio option, meaning if you need a BIG place to spread out your project, with irons and cutting boards set up ALL the time, plus a sewing machine for your use while in the studio, then sign up for OPEN sewing time.

This weekend all the artists in the building are opening their studios for the world to see their art! I hope you'll stop by to see some great art and see what's going on in the Crafty Girls Studio! It will be a great chance to sign up for January classes! There will be door prize drawings and a make and take for you!

Think you'd like to attend? Please visit my Meet Up page to RSVP.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Crafter's A.D.D. or Mixed Media Artist? You be the judge

Yes, it's true, not only is Crafter's A.D.D. a totally awesome blog with TONS of great project ideas (not to mention about 74 awesome Thanksgiving projects and recipes!) but I just feel like I'm totally in tune with the idea behind the name. It wasn't until I actually found this blog that I realized I HAD Crafter's A.D.D. I mean I knew I would go between projects like a butterfly between sweet flowers, constantly changing my mind and adding new projects here and there, but it never dawned on me what that was. I blame it on my Midwestern Crafty Iowa roots. It all started when I was really in to scrapbooking, and yes, I mean the uber cutesy, frilly, have-to-have-every-tool around sort of scrapbooking which was while I was in college. I was going to be an elementary school teacher and scrapbooking seemed to be a great creative outlet for me (even though I had no kids my life wasn't all that exciting). It was like creating bulletin boards, but in a book format. So I was reading a scrapbook magazine one time and I saw a full page ad for Stampin' Up! which was a direct selling company (i.e. home parties) for rubber stamps. Well, I needed a job and i didn't realize this would actually require WORK so I called the toll free number and the next thing I knew I was signing up and paying $400 out of pocket to buy some starter kit of stamps (and WOW did I get a lot of stamps). Oh and I didn't mention that I was still in college at the time and trying to sell ANYTHING to a ton of poor college students, let alone something that requires thinking was rather difficult. So I let that cool off awhile and sold off most of my stamps, except the letters and some of the staple ones for various occasions.
By this time I was really getting in to my teaching job and was super duper busy. Oh and I bought a house and by that time I had figured out that hosting home parties was a GREAT way to get FREE stuff as the hostess! So I signed up for a stamp party, a scrapbook party, a Southern Living party, (my poor, poor friends) and it was super fun. In fact, I enjoy the scrapbook party so much I signed up to be a Creative Memories consultant about a week after my party. It was a natural extension of my day job, teaching, plus gave me a little creative outlet, plus that was sort of the reason I signed up to do the stamp thing in the first place, because it could be used for scrapbooks (until you realize you'll never have the right stamp set when you need it). Well, I did that for a year or so, never really turned it into the business it could have been I mean, when would I have had time to do that anyway? And by that time, I was about to get married. Let's recap here so far I've :

- Sold rubber stamps to make cards and scrapbooks
- Sold scrapbook supplies to make scrapbooks

(My dad always says I have this strong entreprenureal spirit and that I get it from my Grandmother who was always trying to figure out how to fix up antiques and sell them or to make ceramics and sell them or something. I find that whenever I want to do something crafty my brain makes me wonder how I can do it an make money at it.)

Well when I got married my new mother in law introduced me to the amazing world of SEWING and FABRIC! We went to Creations in Kerrville which is like the Mecca of fabric for the San Antonio and Texas hill country area. It didn't take too long to turn me to the dark side! I was hooked (oh yeah, she let me sew on her BERNINA too) She guided me to make some pillowcases and some curtains and somehow in 2005 I decided to take a beginning quilting class with my mom.

Long story a little shorter, of course I turned my love of fabric and sewing into a business! I mean, why not start an online shop to sell fabric? I could carry fun and bright fabrics that not many shops in our area carry and you know what? It worked, it is fairly successful. But it's a TON of work, and now I've added on to that A.D.D. by renting a studio space to open up to the public to TEACH CLASSES! Oh and this is on top of my full time job. Yeah, I'm not a teacher anymore and I don't even have a mother in law anymore either.

And the A.D.D. strikes again because when I went to Quilt Market in Houston this October, I was a little overwhelmed but also inspired by all the ways fabric can be used besides just in quilting or as part of quilting but to make quilts into art. One of the wonderful women I met at Quilt Market works for a distributor that is sort of the MECCA for those of us with Crafter's Attention Deficit Disorder, I mean they sell EVERYTHING. Yeah, everything you see at JoAnn's? They probably got it from Notions Marketing. (Sorry I digress) but this nice woman mentioned that she had a long arm quilting machine and she told me she believed that quilting is really an art. And then she showed me one of their new products, FABRIC PAINT. Now I can get plain white fabric and paint it and stencil and MAKE IT MY OWN! WOW! Oh and there are SOO many books available about this. (see below for suggestions) And now that I have a studio space I have some ROOM to play with this sort of thing. Plus, there's another wonderful woman in my building that is an Art Quilter and SHE dyes her own fabric before she quilts it.

Now the funniest part was that this long arm quilter/sales rep for Notions Marketing said that she was cleaing out her studio/creative space and realized that she had supplies for all sorts of different creative projects (i.e. stamps, scrapbook supplies, fabric, paint, dye, etc) and the she said it "I'm a mixed media artist" OMG did that strike home! Because it's possible to take all these different media for crafting and put them together to create mixed media!! And that totally justified my crazy Crafter's A.D.D. existence. And I realized, I'm not alone! In fact, I think the Quilt Market is possibly actually just a fancy way of getting all these crazy mixed media artists all in one place at a time and there might be a support group meeting for it somewhere. So would you like to see a list of the other mixed media/crafter's A.D.D. projects I've got in the works?

- While at Michael's today bought some cool chunky blue yarn and some GIANT knitting needles and YES my sister taught me to KNIT!!! never thought I'd do that, EVER
- Just ordered some blanks for creating stamped metal jewlery (off Etsy of course)
- Inspired by a magazine called Handcrafted Jewelry to make my own now
- Ordered some glass dome pieces and some of the backings to make more jewelry
- Tons of new fabrics on order
- Planning to order some of that awesome fabric paint
- Bought the supplies to make soldered glass pendant jewlery (hmm, notice a trend here at all?)
- Plus card making supplies and these awesome new clear stamps I've found that are inexpensive, pretty and easy to store because they are flat (you have to stick them to a plastic block for the stamping part)

Not to mention all the fabrics and patterns I've ordered for the shop and the quilt projects I have in the works (i.e. in my head). So even just reading back over this VERY LONG blog post, I'm realizing that when I  write I have a little A.D.D. too. I need to focus more. Well, maybe that will be a post for another day, or a goal for the new year. We'll see.

Hmm, what do you think? Can you relate to this?

Happy Stitches,
Anna
  
                                      

Happy Turkey and Football Day plus ePattern SALE!!!

In celebration of Turkey and Football day (a.k.a. Thanksgiving) I wanted to offer something that is almost instant gratification. Maybe some of you are just itching to get out there and get shopping for your Christmas gifs, OR maybe you want to make some Christmas gifts this year. Well, guess what? You can hop over to the shop and order an ePattern and you'll probably get it within 12 hours! Probably faster! That means that you'll probably get it in enough time to start working on it TODAY! Yes, I know you have a lot of prep to do for Turkey day, but once the Turkey's in the oven or all the food is eaten and everyone else is watching football, you might be able to slip away long enough to start on some of these CUTE outfits for your little ones.

OR maybe you'd like to whip up a quilt, since the pattern is electronic, it will get to you before the stores even open at Midnight and you can get started and still have time to shop tomorrow!

Also here's a bonus!! If you purchase an epattern you can use the coupon code PDF to get 15% off your purchase of FABRIC to go along with it! But you have to put the code in the box at check out in order to get the discount.

I don't know about you, but I'm actually planning to avoid the stores tomorrow, in fact, I'm supposed to go in to WORK! What a thought! Although I might just take a half day and go work in the studio on some fun outfits for my niece and nephews.Oh and I think i forgot to mention the BEST part!!

ALL ePatterns are $1.00 OFF the regular price until MIDNIGHT tonight!! 
 Sale has been extended through Cyber Monday November 29

That's like BUY 8 Get one FREE!! At midnight I'm putting them back to their original prices. SO YOU BETTER STOCK UP!

And don't forget about the Hoot n Nanny tote pattern Giveaway going on AND all the fab projects over on the 12 Days of Craftyness post.

Happy Stitches and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Anna

12 Days of Craftyness UPDATED

I don't know any other good way to do this so here it is.

I've updated the list, I'm up to probably 8 links (some are links of lists of other projects) so go check it out and if you have anything to add, please do!

12 Days of Craftyness

Oh and if you make anything from these project links I'd love to see it! Send pictures or post them in the Sew and Show Flickr group.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Hoot-n-Nanny Tote Pattern AND Fabric Giveaway!

Trish over at Two Peas in a Pod, is a fabulous pattern designer and I actually got to meet and chat with her at Quilt Market a few weeks ago. We talked about doing a pattern and fabric giveaway together (since I have fabric and she has patterns) and so this is the week for it! Here is the A-DORABLE pattern we're giving away (One over here AND one over on Trish's blog). It's called Hoot-n-Nanny and it's SOOOO cute!

The bestest best part about this adorable tote is that it can use SCRAPS or a charm pack! Plus some cute linen or coordinating fabric. SOOOO My half of the giveaway is a charm pack (your choice from the shop) PLUS 1/2 yard of fabric (your choice from the shop).

You might want one of these:

PLUS a little bit of yardage of your choice for the lining!

I have MORE yardage of Sugar Pop coming in during December. The precuts ALWAYS ship before the bolts. But they should be here soon!

You can comment on THIS blog post for a chance AND over at Trish's blog for another chance to win!!

I think Trish put it perfect when she said "Just leave a comment. Cause we're cool like that and know that you are busy stuffing turkeys and cleaning house, etc. Any old, preferably something nice and cheery comment will do."

Winners will be drawn on November 27th at midnight.

Happy Stitches!!

Anna

Cute and Quick Projects for the Holidays aka 12 Days of Craftiness

Ready for a trip around Blog Land? I have found some cute projects and wanted to share them. I won't be posting them all at once though. Hopefully I will be able to update this post with a new link every day for the next week or so.

1) Melissa from The Polka Dot Chair posted a tutorial for an AWESOME tote bag ornament!!

2) Lots and Lots and Lots of REALLY cool projects over at Whip Up's list of tutorials!
Knitting, crochet, sewing, and lots of other crafty goodness.


3) Cute SCRAPPY flower at Pink Suede Shoes! This would be cute done in red and green fabrics or maybe all white for a Christmasy theme.

4) For a new baby, why not make some of these cute baby blocks featured over at Moda Bake Shop? They use a couple of charm packs, so you could use some fun bright fabrics like Sugar Pop from the shop.

5) DuoFiberworks eBook Handwork for the Holidays - I'm in LOVE with the go fish game handmade!! Also, love the bean bag animals. OK, it's not a free pattern, but this could totally be worth it because you could probably make most of these items from your stash and only have spent the price of the eBook!

6) Here are some free patterns and tutorials from Duo Fiberworks too.

7) A couple of FREE patterns to make some cute mini quilts from Kathreen Ricketson's book Mini Quilts (also a great gift idea for a fellow quilter) plus another FREE quilt pattern from the book.
















8) Projects for gifts for guys? I always think guys are the HARDEST people to make gifts for but I found a great list of different ways to make iPad and Kindle covers and most are from UPCYCLED sweaters and stuff. COOL! You know, I bought a wool sweater vest thing from Goodwill not too long ago and had no idea what do to with it, except I knew I was going to felt it for something. Now I have some great project ideas.

By the way, Tipnut is one of THE best resources for TONS and TONS of ideas for EVERYTHING under the sun! I mean, I get the daily e-mail with TONS of ideas, including 25 recipes for Turkey leftovers and 45 different pumpkin spice bread recipes (I swear they are reading my mind) but also TONS of different sewing and crafting projects. I mean, TONS (did I mention they have TONS?) And usually it's all in an e-mail I get every day. I think EVERYONE should sign up for that e-mail because if you hate it, you can just delete or unsubscribe but they do all the work for you to find so many different projects and tutorials around the web and then compile them on a webpage and then send you the link in one e-mail! (And NO I am not getting any sort of compensation for this, I just LOVE Tipnut!)

More to come...

And if YOU find any cute tutorials around blogland, please feel free to share them in the comments!

Happy Sitches
Anna

Fabulous Announcement: Crafty Girls Workshop has a HOME!

Miz Crafty Girls Workshop (me) has been busy lately because of a very special Work in Progress (NO it's not a baby!) I have a STUDIO space! Yes, I've done it, I signed a lease and it's official, Crafty Girls Workshop has a HOME! If I wasn't so tired and if I could find my camera, I'd post pictures of it, maybe tomorrow. But I've been going to my studio EVERY day after work and putting in many hours to move all the inventory over there and set it up JUST SO so that it's perfect when anyone wants to stop by to take a class or a private lesson or have some studio time. In the meanwhile, the online shop is still OPEN FOR BUSINESS and I've also managed to list somewhere around 20 bolts of fabric in the last few days. Stop by the webstore to see the new cute fabrics that have just arrived! If you are local to San Antonio, TX, send me an e-mail to say hi and I can give you some more details about the studio. I'm sew excited!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna


Here are some books I'm going to be reviewing while I plan out my crafty Studio.

Innocent Crush, Parisville and Wild Word: New Fabrics Just Listed

Psst... I just listed some fabulous new fabrics in the shop.
Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner

Parisville by Tula Pink

Wild World by Jenean Morrison

All produced by Free Spirit fabrics and all are premium 100% cotton

I've also added some great new magazines and more than 20 fab patterns!

While you're visiting my shop, click on the bunny to join in the fab shop hop and enter to win gift certificates from every shop you visit!

More is arriving this week and will be added to the shop soon. Don't forget MODA is on sale this month!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. BIG news coming very soon.

Coming Soon...Fabric, Patterns and Kits OH MY!

Stay tuned for fabulous pictures of fabrics, patterns and kits that are soon to arrive (if they haven't already). New items are being added almost daily to the site. We're anxiously awaiting the NEW fabrics I ordered at quilt market but until then, stop by the shop and grab some GREAT deals on MODA! Oh, and if you would like to get coupons in your e-mail, sign up for the newsletter OR if you want to get my beautiful bloggy posts in your e-mail sign up for the blog feed! I just added that today and I'm SEW proud of myself! Also, a special announcement coming soon... (might involve a giveaway or two, or three)

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. If you're out there and want to say HI! Please feel free, I LOVE reader comments! Why not tell me what's going on in YOUR quilty life right now? It's nice to know I'm not just talking to an Internet wall.

Denyse Schmidt Improvisational Patchwork Workshop

My favorite improv block

I spent Monday learning how to let go and have fun with improvisational patchwork. The block pictured was the second block I made. After that it got wild and crazy as we were given about 30 minutes to piece blocks and make a total of 6 blocks for the day.

Some of the blocks were square and some ended up sort of a rectangle. But they were all beautiful in their own special way. Here are some other pictures of the day.


Our first group of blocks



The Awesome Denyse Schmidt

It was so fun to see the variety in the colors and the sizes of the blocks. We had so much fun with this technique that we're already having a "reunion" Improv party on Friday! This workshop was completely worth the money and I can't wait to Improv some more soon. Since Jodi from Pleasant Home was using her scraps in a Sew Scraps Along this month, I wanted to show how I learned to use some scraps up on Monday. I don't want to give away the "secret" of this technique, I'm sure Denyse Schmidt talks about it in her book(s). It was fun though! What do you think? Would you try this improv style?

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. I will be adding my pictures to a flickr group specifically created for our DS Workshop for San Antonio so other participants can add their pictures as well.

{Recovering From} Quilt Market

This was my second year to attend the Fall Quilt Market in Houston. It's a trade show for fabric shop owners. It was a blast! Not only did I get to meet and talk to some of the absolute celebrities of the sewing and quilting world (Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Tula Pink, Tina Givens, and BariJ, to name a few) but I also got to SEE Ty Pennington, in real life!! Totally didn't expect that!!

Isn't BariJ adorable? I'll have those tote patterns listed soon!



Yes, I know it's blurry, sorry! But it's Ty Pennington!

Yes, Ty Pennington actually designed fabric! Do any of you remember him from his Trading Spaces days? He had much crazier hair back then (before Extreme Makeover Home Edition). Well, he apparently has always loved design and has a degree in some sort of graphic design or something and he even cut the wood blocks out to create stamps for his fabric design. Cool, huh? Oh yeah, and he's easy on the eyes too.

Other than the awesome picture of BariJ and Ty Pennington, I took pitifully few pictures. I think I was a little overwhelmed with it all. But don't worry, I made up for the few pictures during quilt market by taking TONS of pictures during the Denyse Schmidt Improvisational Patchwork workshop on Monday!

I've been going to bed super early these last few days because spending one evening driving 4 hours to Houston, then two full days walking around surrounded by amazingly talented artists, designers, fabrics and quilts, then ordering fabric like crazy, buying patterns like crazy, and driving back 4 hours to San Antonio and then going to a full day workshop with Denyse Schmidt has just worn me out! Plus, I have a full time job too! So, new patterns and fabrics will be appearing in the shop very soon. And remember that if you are on my e-mail list, you will be included in the group that receives a special coupon code and first notice of the fab patterns and fabrics when they arrive. 

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Twitter Quilt Market Updates

So, I've jumped on the Quilt Market Twitter-er bandwagon now and guess what? IT ROCKS! I figured out how to tweet from my cell phone and if you check out the right sidebar over there ------>
you'll see some of my updates from Quilt Market. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to bring my cord for my camera so even though I'm taking some cool pics I can't post them! Bummer! BUT I'll post them soon when I get home, maybe Monday evening. I also hope to have some pictures from the Denyse Schmidt Improvisational Patchwork workshop I'll be attending on Monday! Totally quilty weekend! So, did you see the total market bonus? If you leave me a comment here telling me the quilting/pattern/fabric designer celebrity you'd like to see me get a picture of, I'll send you a FREE pattern!! Be sure you have added your e-mail so i can write you back and send you that pattern.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Scrappy Birthday Fabric Giveaway AND Quilt Market!!

Drumroll please...

The winner of the scrappy birthday giveaway is #61 out of 198 comments!

Lori said...


Last year was a quiet one. Went to dinner and celebrated with family. I would make a doll blanket for my granddaughter.


Congrats!!! I've been in touch through e-mail but if you see this first please e-mail me anna@craftygirlsworkshop.com with your home address so I can send the box of goodness out to you!!

Thanks to EVERYONE who entered! It was so incredibly awesome to get 198 birthday wishes from you all plus getting to hear what everyone would do with the scraps. I truely think that quilters are the mostest generous people EVER!!

I'm heading out to Houston Fall Quilt Market in just a couple of hours, yippee! I'll probably be a little slower in replying to e-mails because I'll be at the Market all day but just know that I'm searching out FABULOUS new patterns and fabrics and awesome new goodies for the shop.

I'm also going to do my bestest to figure out how to use Twitter so I can give updates about what's going on so I hope you'll follow me on Twitter. AND if you want some cool info about this trade show for fabric shop vendors, go to your Twitter account and search for #quiltmarket It will bring up everything everyone is saying about Quilt Market including pictures! I guess the cat's out of the bag now!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Are You a No-Reply Blogger?

I've received SOOOO many awesome comments/entries into the scrappy birthday giveaway, BUT guess what!? Some of you (whom I shall not mention) are no-reply bloggers and if you WIN the giveaway I won't be able to contact you and I'll have to choose SOMEONE ELSE!!!!! SOOO, please hop over to Jodi's BLOG and read her GREAT post about how to change that so that you CAN be contacted. THANKS!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Sorry for all the capital letters, I just want to get my point across. did it work?

Scrappy Birthday to ME plus a Fabric Giveaway!

(Cue birthday song)
Scrappy Birthday to me...

For my birthday this year I want to give all of YOU a chance to get a gift! I'm sew excited to be participating in this:





 By giving away this: 

 Isn't it pretty? It's a box chock full of lots of cottony scrappy goodness! It is ALL 100% cotton from the best manufacturers and quilt shops. These are mostly from my personal stash of scraps (and there's more where this came from!) Yes, that is some of the Daisy Chain line from Amy Butler in there in the corner. You'll see that show up in a quilt or two some day in the future. So do you want to know how to enter? It's easy!

 Leave a comment to say HI! and tell me what YOU did for your last birthday! oh and tell me what you'd do with a box full of scraps.

That's ALL you have to do! (You must include a way for me to contact you) If you happen to surf around on my blog and see other posts you like, then please follow me or if you visit my online fabric shop and like the fabric shop, please sign up for my at-least-once-a-month newsletter for coupons and news about specials. (Rumor has it that I might just pack some more scraps into scrap bags and sell them for an AMAZING price on my website...) Or you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook. But you don't have to leave an extra comment for that. Oh, and don't forget to visit Jodi at Pleasant Home and say HI over there too!

I'll select a winner using Random Number Generator on Friday October 29 before I head out to Houston for the Fall Quilt Market (SOOO excited about that!).

And here's the absolutely, positively, bestest best thing about this post! A COUPON CODE!

Enter the code HAPPYBIRTHDAY to get 15% off your entire order!!

Hurry because this code will only last until October 31 at which point it will turn back into a pumpkin!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Please share my badge if you would like!


<a href=" http://craftygirlsworkshop.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="crafty girls button" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4854580169_075ce5c512_m.jpg" /></a>

Spill the Beans Sunday is BAAACK!!

The topic for today's Spill the Beans is... FINISHED PROJECTS! OR projects you hope to get fininshed really soon.OR whatever you are working on right now! (I like variety)

Here are a couple of quilts I finished THIS WEEK! Yippee, two in one week is pretty major for me. Plus, my next work in progress.

This is the second quilt I'm adding to the group to be donated to a local shelter for families this fall. My local Crafty Girls Workshop meetup group has been working on these month by month. It's sort of my own design, although it's super easy to do so anyone could figure it out. A new friend that I met through the SA Modern Quilt Guild has a longarm machine and she generously offered to quilt it for me, which helped me to get it done so quickly. She even added a custom butterfly in the quilting at my request.

 Then I found an absolutely awesome explanation for doing machine binding in the book called Dare to be Square Quilting. (Here is a great feature about the author, Boo Davis) So after hunting down a bias tape maker I whipped out binding for this quilt and the second quilt that I made to give to my surrogate niece, Lily, who just turned one year old this week! Her birthday party was yesterday. Here's her quilt:

I quilted it using my stitch regulator and it went pretty quickly. I love to make the backs of quilts interesting too, so I used flannel and did an applique of her nick name which is Lily Bug.

Here is "Da Bug" with her quilt, doesn't she look ecstatic to receive it? Her mom and dad loved it and everyone ooh'd and ahh'd over it so that was nice.

And just because she's SOOO cute, here is one more awesome photo of yesterday's party.

Really, I only took about 65 pictures and three or four video clips of the day. I just couldn't put my camera down, I mean how could I with a face like that!?

Now, let me show you a little bit of my NEXT project. I had a honey bun, which is 1 1/2" strips and some backing fabric from a line called Hello Betty. I've had this for quite awhile and finally decided I wanted to do something with it. The president of the SA Modern Quilt Guild had shown off a quilt she made with the same fabric using a grey for a contrasting solid color to help the patterned fabrics POP out. So I decided that since Crafty Girls Workshop HAS some Moda Bella Solid Grey, why not use some of it in a quilt? Well, then I had to find a pattern, and the Does Not Compute pattern was pretty close to what I wanted, but without the robot (Maybe another project someday) turns out I just wanted the pattern that is called Amish Brickwork, SO that's how the idea for Amish Betty was born. Here are my supplies.

I've already made significant progress. The pattern is from Dare to Be Square also and the author gives a great explanation of using 18" strips to do strips piecing to really speed up the brickwork background part. I spent my SA Mod Quilt Guild Sew In day yesterday from about 10 am to 2 pm sewing 50 patterned strips to 50 grey strips. My next step is to press them and cut them into the brick pieces, I can't wait!!

OK, YOUR turn to SPILL THE BEANS! I want to know what you're working on right now! Please share and feel free to add a link to your blog if you've posted pictures. I'm not doing a McLinky thing, but just put the link in your comments. Thanks!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

I'm sharing this on Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative

Quilt Pattern Winners!

Congrats to the two winners of the PDF quilt patterns!

and

I will be in touch with you shortly to confirm your choice for the pattern! I hope you both will be able to share pictures of your finished quilts with us in the future! I just love to see finished projects from items from my shop!

I have been very busy this week, finished quilting and binding TWO baby quilts and have decided on my next quilt project! I have pictures to share of all of this but it will be in my next post later today. Tomorrow is a crazy day for me, I have an 8:00am meeting for the SA Mod Quilters Board, then from 10am to 2pm is the SA Mod Quilters Sew-In at Las Colchas and THEN around 2pm is the birthday party for my best friend's daughter's 1st birthday! Talk about busy! I'm totally looking forward to it though. Well, must get going, I have some winners to e-mail before I get started on my "day job."

Happy Stitches,

Anna

ePatterns are Eco Friendly So I'm Giving Some Away!

Part of the trasition for Crafty Girls Workshop has involved figuring out how to build up our offering of patterns without having to have a place to store them. Well, then it hit me, why not work with some designers like Denise of Whimsy Couture who design patterns to be distributed through e-mail!? It's good for the environment, it keeps the prices low (NO SHIPPING costs!) and it allows me to work with new designers and really get to know the girl behind the design. So a few weeks ago I contacted a couple of quilt pattern designers, who both happened to be from Australia, and they both happily agreed to let me list their patterns in my shop! Yippee! LOOOONG story short, Crafty Girls Workshop now offers QUILT patterns for sale that will be e-mailed to you within 12 hours of your purchase! Look at a few of the fabulous options we have:

Sand Castles (Rebecca Johnson)

Charm Bracelets by Kate Conklin (charm pack friendly)

 

Rolling Meadows (JR Friendly) by Rebecca Johnson

These are only a few of the patterns available. The best way to find the patterns on the Crafty Girls Workshop website is to look at the links on the left side of the screen, there you'll see the link for Electronic Patterns (since ALL our patterns are electronic now that makes sense, right?) and when you click that you can choose the type of patterns you want to browse, such as Quilts or Kid's Couture, etc. Pretty soon I'll be adding even more patterns to the listings such as Tote Bags, Embroidery/Stitching and Home Decor. If you happen to know anyone who designs great patterns for electronic distribution, please send them my way! I love to work with designers!

Alright, now on to the GIVEAWAY portion of this broadcast.

This time there will be TWO winners! One will win a Rebecca Johnson pattern and the other will win one from Kate Conklin. BE SURE that if you enter, you include your contact information so I can get in touch with you if you win! Here's how to enter:

• Visit the links above for the electronic QUILT patterns and then come back here and share which pattern you'd like to win, if you just LOVE more than one, list them in the order that you LOVE them.
• Sign up for my e-newsletter (be sure to tell me you did) for shop updates, coupons, and sneak peek specials (link in the right hand sidebar)
• Become a follower of Crafty Girls Workshop, follow me on Twitter, and "like" me on facebook (if you don't already) or just tell me if you do already
• Visit Kate Conklin's website and tell her HI from Crafty Girls Workshop (you can e-mail her or leave her a comment on the blog)
• Become a follower of Kate Conklin's Blog (totally worth it)
• Visit Rebecca Johnson's blog and tell her HI from Crafty Girls Workshop
• Become a follower of Rebecca Johnson's Blog (also totally worth it!)

Stop back here and be sure to leave a comment for each of these entries, OR you can leave one comment telling me each thing you did, I'll still count your name that many times, I promise.

OK, so get going and have fun looking at the beautiful quilt pictures on these talented Designers' blogs!!

I'll announce the winners on Sunday, October 10, 2010. Hey, that's 10-10-10!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Moda Bake Shop Update

It's Wednesday, must be time for our weekly update of the GREAT tutorials on Moda Bake Shop! Haha, just kidding, but I did notice that there is an awesome new tutorial just for JELLY ROLLS! And guess what? There is only ONE more day left of Jelly Roll Madness Month! Have you used your coupon code yet? I'm sure the madness will continue in to October anyway. So here is what I found on Moda Bake Shop.

This is called the That's the Ticket Pillow and I think it's AWESOME! Sooo cute! What a great way to use up some JR strips you have left over from some other projects.
There is another tutorial over there for a very cute Diaper Bag but I cannot "borrow" the picture so I encourage you to jump on over there and download the PDF pattern anyway. Then hop over to Crafty Girls Workshop and buy a jelly roll or two (use your coupon code for a 10% discount) and you'll be on your way to a fast, fun, and easy project to keep or give as a gift. And don't forget that if you happen to have made any items we'd LOVE to see pictures of them in our Sew and Show flickr group (linked in the tabs at the top of the blog.) More to come tomorrow!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Little Red Cottage Giveaway WINNER and Stuff

The Random Number Generator has spoken and the winner is...

Ruth who said

"I would embellish Christmas gifts."

CONGRATS Ruth! I've contacted you through e-mail but if you didn't get the e-mail please contact me ASAP with your mailing info so I can pass that on to Michele from Little Red Cottage.

Thanks to EVERYONE who participated! We had an amazing number of comments and participants. It was really fun to hear what everyone would do with those lovely fall goodies. Oh, and now we've actually been having some nice COOL weather here in south-ish Texas, I mean like, highs in he low 80s and lows down into the 50s!! That's almost UNHEARD of for us this time of year. Usually it's still in the 90s and swimming weather.

So, thanks again and stay tuned more giveaways to come to celebrate the last week of JELLY ROLL MADNESS month! Can you believe it's almost over!? There is still time though to use the COUPON code JR10 to get a 10% discount on your ENTIRE order! Oh and guess what? There might be a mystery sale going on. I'm going to sneak in to the shop and drop the prices on a particular group of fabrics. But the only way you'll know is if you visit and check the shop for the discounted prices. Shh, it's a secret! OR I might offer a hint or even tell you flat out if you happen to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter. HINT: It might be one of the sections I mention below.

I've also rearranged things a little bit over there. I spent most of Sunday adding main category sections for Collection, Manufacturer and Designer. I hope you'll go take a look because I think the arrangement makes A LOT more sense now. You can even view fabrics that sort of go together based on a Theme or Print, such as Dots or Stripes, Graphic or Novelty. There is even a separate section just for Collection>Bella Solids AND Theme/Print> Tonal/Solids. I hope you'll let me know what you think of the new arrangement. Maybe drop me a line by filling in the contact us form on the website or leave a comment on this post. It's sort of fun, like rearranging furniture, you know? But don't worry, I think this is an arrangement I'm going to stick with for awhile.

Well, I guess that's all for now. More fun to come soon!

Happy Stitches,
Anna