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