Giveaway Winners

Congrats to Estee and Jenny who have won the giveaway!! 

Thanks to everyone who entered, what amazing resolutions you all have they were very inspiring to read each one. I guess now that you've written them down you have to do them! I'll be sure to check in again in six months to see your progress.

IN THE SHOP:

There are some NEW fabrics listed in the shop as well as new classes AND new charm packs!!

Have a great Tuesday!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

ORIGINS Charm Pack Restocked!

I was able to REORDER the Origins Charm packs and they are now in stock ($6.50 each)! Just in time to take advantage of the ORIGINS SALE going on until Saturday (or Sunday). So hop over there RIGHT NOW and grab some charms because they won't last long at this price. PLUS grab some yardage for only $7.00 a yard and I'll refund any over charge of the shipping. And believe me, you'll kick yourself if you don't get that coordinating yardage when you buy the precuts. I speak from experience. I also have so many great patterns that use charms in the shop! Especially some cute quilt patterns and they are PDF so you'll get them in your e-mail within 12 hours of ordering!

Happy Shopping!

Anna

P.S. If you place your order before 4:30pm CST, it might even go out the door today!

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

Bella Solid Precuts - Inspiration

1. Book Cover, 2. Christa's quilt: front, 3. DSCN1183, 4. Aqua HST's -- Off Center Diamond ., 5. 106_2616, 6. fair and square 2, 7. In the Window, 8. tiny ticker tape, 9. Figure 1.1, 10. New project, 11. snips, 12. spare change quilt, 13. building blocks14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

Lately, I've been very pepped up about the new solid precuts that Moda has released. I've seen more and more modern/contemporary quilts that use solids, which is sort of funny since the Amish only used solids anyway, but the look is distinctly modern and fun! I'm not exactly an expert on the history of this style, but I first noticed it when I got the book Material Obsession which was written by two awesome women in Australia. It seemed as though the quilters in Australia had chosen to use lots of white in the sashing to really make the colors of the printed fabrics they chose pop off the quilt. Of course, AmandaJean from Crazy Mom Quilts was also a big proponent of white sashing and a simple but sort of modern design of quilt. I was soooo excited when Moda announced back in April that they would start making precut charm squares (5" squares), layer cakes (10" squares) and even jelly rolls (2.5" strips) in solid colors! The charms are absolutely PERFECT for making half square triangles, resulting in beautiful pinwheel quilts, or even for making a coin quilt. The Jelly Rolls just happen to be the PERFECT size for sashing (or at least the size I usually use) at 2 1/2" strips. And that means LESS cutting and MORE time for SEWING and QUILTING! Yippee!! Thanks MODA!! But Moda even went a step beyond that, they put together some amazing combinations of their Bella Solids into those precut lines, I'm trying out the 1930s line which even though it seems specific to a time period, it's not, if you look at it away from the time period context. To me, putting those beautiful saturated colors, they are all solid, against a white or even black background (by surrounding them with strips of those colors) will really make a rather modern statement. They also have a line of precuts that use the Marbles, which are an incredible array of marbley (is that a word?) colors. The specific one I purchased for the shop is called Citrus and I LOVE it, I can't wait to put it together with one of our Bella Solid Black jelly rolls to make those Marbles just JUMP off the quilt! Just look at how this beautiful quilt came together with solid strips and some grey to set it off.





If you'd like some more inspiration, check out the Fresh Modern Quilts Flickr group, where I went to grab most of the pictures in the above mosaic.

So what do you think? Do you like the idea of modern quilts or do you prefer lots of prints? Spill the Beans!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. Did you notice the new tab up at the top for Fun Project Links? You should check it out. It's a place where I'm putting some links to ideas of what to do with different size cuts or colors of fabrics.

Wacky Website Challenge Winner!

Sorry this is a day late, but the winner of the Wacky Website Challenge is Shelley from Free Indeed! She has won a charm pack from Kate Spain's new line called 12 Days of Christmas PLUS a yard of white on white snowflakes. These would be perfect for a table runner, tote bag, small quilt or tons of other stuff! I can't wait to see what she makes out of it! Shelley, I e-mail you but if you see this post, please contact me with your mailing address!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Bunny Hill Designs, Oliver + S Patterns, and New 12 Days of Christmas Fabric Now in Stock!

Welcome to the Saturday Shop Showcase

 

New Patterns  New Yardage

We just received several new patterns from Bunny Hill Designs that were recently released at quilt market. We are completely in LOVE with her premier fabric line called Lily and Will (sneak peek here) due to arrive in October, but we snatched up these patterns right away to help you plan for your fabric purchases! Haha, actually, we just LOVE these patterns so much and see so many possibilities with them that we wanted to make them available right away! Not only are there several new Bunny Hill patterns, but Oliver + S had a couple of sweet little girl patterns that would be perfect for summer and all the way into the fall! Anne Sutton from Bunny Hill and Liesl from Oliver + S must have been in cahoots before Quilt Market because look at this version of the Sunday Brunch Jacket is so adorable! We have the cream quilted fabric ON ORDER because we think it would be AMAZING in this pattern (oh and with the blue plaid/checker TOO CUTE!)

Now as for that funny Christmas fabric in the middle of the mosaic up there, what IS that!? Well, it's the yardage we've purchased to coordinate with our precuts of Kate Spain's newest line called 12 Days of Christmas. Yes, it's getting to be that time when we need to start thinking about Christmas, ugh.

And while we're on that topic look at these great bags Regina just finished!

Here is a little bag that Regina just finished working on using an Aster Manor Charm Pack. Isn't it lovely? It has a drawstring top and a nice strap, plus pockets on the inside for your hard to find items. It is quilted together and a great bag for a grab and go Saturday trip to the market or a day on the town. This tote bag is listed in our Etsy shop as a finished item for sale. Perfect for a birthday (or Christmas) gift or gift for yourself!

But wait, there's more!

Freebird Bag

Here is another one, made with the same pattern but using a Freebird charm pack instead. These bags are fully lined with coordinating fabric and would make a great addition to any wardrobe. I've also heard these are great for carrying around knitting and other crafting supplies. Both bags are 14" wide by 11" tall. Don't forget the month of December (and all gift giving associated holidays) is only 7 months away! Time is running out!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Wacky Website Challenge and GIVEAWAY

I'm back and I said I'd fill you in on the details of what I need help with. I need all of you crafty ladies (or gentlemen) who have crafty eyes to visit our website and look for typos, misspellings, wrong pictures, etc. You see, in a month's time, Crafty Girls Workshop DOT com is going to be participating in the Fab Shop Hop!! I want our website to be spic and span perfect for all the visitors. Also, I have some flexibility with the way our shop is sorted into categories so if you have any suggestions I'd LOVE to hear them. Remember, we have over 150 bolts of fabric, so it isn't really feasible for me to go in and completely change the categories, but if there is another way to sort the items that you'd like to suggest, please let me know. So here is the deal:

If you will visit the website, "shop" around, click on items, visit the links, test things out and then come back here and put a comment on this post that says "Hey, I visited your shop!" You'll get 1 entry into the drawing.

THEN, if you find something that needs correcting and let me know THROUGH E_MAIL (to avoid any embarrassment) you'll get 1 more entry into the drawing! If you comment on here with a correction, I'm not going to count that entry.

THEN, if you have a suggestion for improving the website and you e-mail me your suggestion(s) I'll put your name in the hat again and you'll get 1 more entry in the drawing.

Here's a bonus:
You can visit/comment/e-mail me EVERY DAY this month for another entry! Meaning, if you visit the website EVERY DAY this month and come back here and comment "Hey, I visited your shop!" or something like that, I'll put your name in the hat EVERY DAY. If you happen to find another typo or broken link and e-mail me you can do so every time you find an oopsy for another entry! I'll also give you another entry for any honest suggestions you want to offer me through e-mail.

You could possibly end up with at least 30 entries this month! Pretty cool, huh? Oh, you probably want to know what the prize is, right? I mean, what could possibly be worth all that work?

How about a BRAND NEW charm pack of the 12 Days of Christmas line PLUS a yard of white on white Snowflake fabric? A charm pack has 42 squares of precut fabric. They are 5" square which makes into a cute baby blanket, throw blanket (with sashing), tote bag, even an apron! Here is a picture of the white on cream, so you can get an idea of the actual snowflake pattern. The fabric you will win is actually white in the background so that it coordinates perfectly with 12 Days of Christmas. (We also just ordered three more bolts of coordinating fabrics from 12 Days that should arrive very soon.) So, are you ready to help me with some quality assurance of my website? On your mark, get set, GO!!

Oh, and since I'm posting this a day into June, I'll hold it over onto July 2 so that you can get an extra day to enter.

Happy Hunting,

Anna

Spring Top Week: Final Round!

Made by Rae

I've been rather quiet about this when I should have probably been shouting from the rooftops

"It's Spring Top WEEK!!"

We're a sponsor you know! What? You didn't know? You have NO idea what the you-know-what Spring Top Week even IS!!! Well, then you should definitely visit Rae over at Made by Rae to find out all about Spring Top Week! (That link goes to the archives of all the posts about this special week!)

If you DO know that Spring Top Week is all about the excitement of entering your home made/home sewn tops into a competition to win some ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS prizes (and in that mix is 2 yards of fabric from OUR shop!) and you haven't had a chance to vote on the final Top of the Tops, then you best get on over there!!

I think there is already a sort of clear leader at the moment, but I'll let you go over and check it out for yourself.

In OTHER fun and creative news:

I just listed a new KIT for making an adorable patchwork skirt out of charm packs!

Patchwork Skirt Kit

I can't wait to try making one of these myself (then I'll have to find some little girl to test it out on.)

So, any fun and exciting sewing plans for the rest of the weekend? Or are you all already snuggled happily in your sewing rooms already instead of chained glued to your computers and Google Readers?

Happy Stitches,

Anna

P.S. The irony is that if you answer that last question, it probably means you aren't working in your sewing room!

P.S.S. If you'd like some inspiration for making some ADORABLE dresses for your little girls, check out Brown Paper Packages, she's using the SAME pattern and altering it in some way almost every day for a MONTH! Plus, her little "models" are too cute!