He's a Pussycat!

Pattern designer Valori Wells calls this sewing card pattern "Leonardo the Lion"...but he's really a sweet, lovable pussycat! Here he's sewn in Alice Kennedy's "Sunny Daze" fabric with yarns from my personal collection from The Grove.

He was easy as pie to make and quick too! While the pattern calls for stitched eyes, I decided this would be for an older child and used button's as eyes instead.

After he was done....I carried him around to show him off and flashed back to Jr. High when we all (or your Mom, Grandma) had fabric "wiener" dogs that our friends wrote on. A predecessor to the High School and College Annuals and now to Facebook's Wall. I guess sending messages to friends never ends...so here's my message to you.

If you're in San Diego, join me at The Grove in July when I teach how to sew
your own little pussycat!

All Day Apron!

And who wouldn't want to wear it all day? Lee and Charlene took the All Day Apron class at The Grove and decided on two really different looks, but both in the "now" colors of sky blues and sea greens.

Charlene used "Feeling Groovy" laminate from Michael Miller, which will be perfect when she's washing her dog! While many thicker laminates require a special "teflon" coated presser foot on your machine...this one was a cinch to sew without. She combined it with "Mingle", an abstract little open circle print in aqua and avocado ....

Great combination Charlene!

Lee selected a fabric called Filigree from a new vendor - Art Gallery Fabrics and combined it with lime/aqua dots and gray piping peeking out at the neck and the pocket tops! Very sophisticated pattern combination!

We love the back on this pattern - very flirty!

Great Job you two!

New Laminates!

I guess you know by now, that I love, love, love to buy fabrics! Before I started selling them at The Grove I always bought fabrics for projects. But as my schedule became so packed, I ended up just "collecting" fabric (time for sewing got squeezed out)! And for those of you who do the same....you know space soon becomes an issue! So buying and selling is the Best of Two Worlds!

I've been on a search lately for some fun laminates...something different than the vintage "cherrys" and "cowboys" and just got a shipment of two really cool prints! They're actually called "Coated cotton", but are usually sold much wider than normal fabric, at 54" to 60" wide. Great for covering outdoor furniture, tables, making bibs, changing mats...all kinds of things!

Here's my two latest...



They're both from Michael Miller...the one on the left is "Bicycles" and the other one is "Lil' Plain Jane". You might recognize the last one since I also have it in fabric too- the colorway is gray, citrine and white - a great color palette for interior design.

Stop in and see these great prints!

Christmas at the Store

Mandolin Orchestra

Our neighborhood stores and restaurants have a "Walk About" 4 times a year and last night was the Holiday one! Everyone turns out to sample tasty treats handed out by the restaurants and hear live bands at our internet cafe, begin their Christmas Shopping and sing carols to the Mandolin Orchestra hosted by The Grove, where I have judipatuti fabrics.

This year the weather was perfect...a sweater and warm scarf was all that was needed and the whole neighborhood came out! A trolley took walkers to different parts of the neighborhood and Santa, of course shouted Ho Ho Ho and visited every store and restaurant!



The Grove sparkled with Christmas glam from the little white lights, the Christmas Tree, the mistletoe crystal ornaments, Christmas stockings, wonderful sounds of Mandolins and lots and lots of delightful little sparkly's to give as stocking stuffers!

These trees are wrapped with silk yarn and topped with wool roving or a jeweled pine cone. A perfect Christmas Dinner centerpiece!

The Grove store owners Anne and Susan with the
Celebrity of the Night
Santa!

Watch my blog for the next shipment of Beadmats -
a perfect Christmas Gift idea for that Bead Artist in your group!

Coming Soon!

4 Days in the Candy Store!

Well, it was a whirlwind 4 days in Houston! Weather was identical to San Diego...and the theater district surrounding my hotel offered up a delightful fusion of restaurants! Loved it! And even better was the time spent walking up and down and crisscrossing (many, many times) the floor of the convention center wanting to buy every fabric and pattern in sight!

The booths were amazing...many vendors try to out do each other for the best booth and here's a few photos of some of the best!

Michael Miller Runway!

Michael Miller Fabrics staged a 50's Prom night complete with runway, big white vinyl-tufted "diner" booths for us to sit at and order. But the most fun...the reps all wore 50's vintage inspired clothes or the "real" thing, complete with 50's style "hairdos" and Princess/Prom tiaras.

While their booth took up at least 1000 square feet (almost as big as my house), many designers had small booths to showcase their new collections.




Here's Amy Butler's booth - loved the way the fabrics were displayed. Notice in the background, behind the poof pillows is her raincoat pattern in laminated cotton. I'm currently sewing it up as a sample for The Grove. It's adorable and comes in adult and children's sizes! Amy won a prize for best small booth! It's not hard to see why!
\
Tina Givens also won a Best Booth prize! Here's some photos and one with Tina and I. She's a delight and extremely talented - many of her new fabrics and her new book "Tina Sews!" will soon be joining my judipatuti line at The Grove.


Now begins the wait.... expect some fabrics to arrive in the next few weeks and others over the next few months. It's like seeing all the wrapped packages under the Christmas Tree and having to delay gratification for weeks! I said it then and I"ll say it now...

No Fair!

Buying Frenzy!

I'm off to Market! Leaving tomorrow to buy fabrics for "Fabrics at The Grove" and for my judipatuti Beadmat production. Once a year I travel to Houston for the largest tradeshow of fabric vendors in one place, at one time that specialize in cottons.

I've been to the textile shows in Los Angeles for apparel manufacturers and they're great shows but don't compare to the Houston Quilt Market for highlighting 100% cotton fabrics!

Last year I met Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner - both very personable, warm and amazingly talented textile designers. I expect to meet more emerging talent this year and buy their fabrics. I have also met some pretty talented pattern designers and will keep my eye out for new pattern lines to sew!

Yes, I'll take lots of pictures to blog about what's coming!

I also plan on scoping out unusual and colorful fabric combination's for my next Beadmat production. Will be setting the production schedule once I settle on the fabrics and their ship dates!

While I planned on wearing Winter clothes - you know - wools that I never get to wear in San Diego, I just found out they're having 80-85 degree weather! Guess I'll be leaving my warmies in the closet and my coat and umbrella hanging on their hooks!

Back to the Gym!

A few weeks ago Bridget and Jenny decided to make a back-pack in one of my classes at The Grove. Although the pattern was called "Gym Junk" from Vanilla House, they decided to use their packs for lots of other things and create something that was uniquely theirs!

The pattern was supper easy, including the grommet setting technique used to run the shoulder cords through. Jenny chose a great fabric combination from Robert Kaufman called Mingle Espresso and Mingle Cocoa (don't you just love these names?). Very contemporary styling!

While Bridget used one of my newest fabrics celebrating the "Day of the Dead" (very timely), with fabric from Alexander Henry called Calaveras and a pocket of pretty pink leaves from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane collection called Lindy Leaf.

Congrats!
on a job well done
in
barely a blink of the eye!

Too Hot to Handle!

August is almost over, but BBQ season is still in full swing! So in preparation for next weekend's Labor Day celebration I decided to make some "Pot Pinchers" to use for the pork 'n beans pot! What's hot dogs without the beans? Right?


Of course, I figured, I'd be the one using them since I made them out of floral fabric. But much to my surprise, my DH said, that while he totally wouldn't use the "rick rack" one, he loved the grey/black/citron printed fabric! AND would even use it!

Thus my latest idea...they are so easy to make that I'm offering a class to make them in Sept. It only takes a couple of hours to knock out one and an afternoon for a pair! While these particular pinchers don't go together...still have the other halves to make....you could mix and match using different patterns on different parts of the pincher! And the combination of fabrics and trims is endless!

If you can't make it to The Grove for the class, pick up the pattern by "Vanilla House" and get some fun fabrics and get ready for that weekend BBQ!

PS...not too early to think about Holiday gifts!

Creativity + Sewing = Smiles and Success

Thought I'd share with you the great work my students at The Grove did in their classes over the last few months. It's always fun to see someone move from "how do I thread this thing?" to "what's the next project you're teaching?" And I have to say, I've met some very talented students who just needed to have a little help in the "land of sewing"!

The first hour or so is often filled with doubt on whether the seam is sewn right or the gathers are puckered in the right places, and I notice lots of "breath holding - even though the Yoga studio is down the street". Once that's worked through, we start to relax and laugh and see something actually take shape before our eyes!

And here are the results!

Lee, in the Stella Strip Skirt she made standing next to her Mom
with the Stash and Dash Bags they made!

Liz with her colorful Needle Case and Jan putting the "pedal to the metal" on her Case!

Lisa and Michelle, almost done with their Dharma Eco Friendly Bags!


And Stephanie DONE!

Katie, Susan, Rita and Lee proudly showing off their awesome Market Bags!

Come and visit The Grove and sign up for a class...May will have drop in and work on your project classes for those that are "stuck" and in June we'll be having a Twinkle Sews Sundress class, a Summer Top class that combines crocheting with sewing (the crocheting part offered in May) and a Joy Bag class!

Whatever you do, wherever you are....explore your creativity!

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum Again

Have you seen it yet? I hear the visuals are amazing, that Alice has 12 costume changes and each one supersedes the one before it! The latest Tim Burton Movie....Alice in Wonderland is all the buzz and the buzz has made it to the world of fabrics!

Having just arrived in The Grove, are Tea Time, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee from Moda's "Wonderland" collection. They are great companion prints that are easy to combine in the same garment or accessories for the home.



I can see them together in Anna Maria Horner's Evening Empire Dress pattern or showing off in multi-patterned petals of Amy Butler's Mid West Modern Pillow pattern!


Break out the machine and start sewing up the special something...for yourself, of course!

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum photo courtesy of Movies.about.com guide, "The Dodo".