Hi, Christine here. As I sit here in the office, surrounded by windows on two sides, I hear periodic thuds. Thuds of cicadas hitting the windows. Thud. Thud. Here in Cincinnati, we are in the midst of cicada season. It happens every 13 or 17 years (depending on the brood) where cicadas emerge from the ground, mature, mate, lay their eggs, and then die. Around the office, we're at the mating stage. So there are many, many cicada flying around (they're rather clumsy creatures, unfortunately) looking for mates and singing their mating songs. In theory this shouldn't be a big deal, but when you are in a pocket of them, like we are here at the office, it's really quite disagreeable.
However, in the spirit of the season, I thought I'd share with you some fabulous fabrics Eileen brought to my attention from Cicada Studio. The designer of the fabrics sells them on her Etsy shop along with some super cute items made from the fabric. I love the graphics on the fabrics, and I'm intrigued by the fact that all the fabrics are 50% linen 50% cotton. Sounds like it would make for a fabulous texture for home decor items. Enjoy!
Have recently taken delivery of a new sofa - lovely chocolate and coffee shades, with a 'chaise end' - heaven! Anyway, once I'd dragged myself away from it, I wanted to make a couple more cushions to add colour accent. My sitting room was very red before, so to ring the changes I thought I'd try bright blue.
Choosing the shade isn't easy, but buying packs of charm squares is an addiction I'm sure isn't just mine. Many designers offer 5" x 5" (or even 2.5" x 2.5") packs of swatches of their collections - they're a quick and cheap way to have their whole range in the palm of your hand without committing to yards of fabric (also, the packs are totally adorable!). My current fave UK site for fabric is Cotton Patch - they specialise in patchwork and quilting supplies, but their biggest dept is fabric where they offer yummy little charm packs. Not just great for checking colour and pattern, they're also fab for small sewing projects, applique motifs, experimenting with pattern and colour, and building a physical wishlist of fabrics you want (just write on the back of the swatch the designer and fabric name for future reference).
There are even Charm Pack Clubs (check out this Moda one from the US The Fat Quarter Shop) that mean having dinky charm packs regularly dropping through your letter box!
Hopefully I'll find the perfect cushion fabric soon, but in the meantime I'm just enjoying browsing through my stash of charm packs dreaming of owning the fabric by the yard . . .
Hi! It's me, Christine. As we've discussed here before, I am a pretty huge Amy Butler fan. But she's not the only designer whose fabrics I covet. I just came upon these new fabrics by another favorite designer: Lotta Jansdotter. I love her stationery sets, and now can't wait to get my hands on some of her fabrics. Below are a few of my faves from her collection. Yippee!
This weekend, the Crafty Ninja and I took a road trip down
to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. As luck would have it, one of
the exhibits currently running was Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt.
And as super-duper luck would have it, the day we went down was Gee’s Bend day.
The quilters were there signing books, talking to visitors, singing—very cool,
indeed.
As we were walking through the exhibit, we turned a corner
and there were the most beautiful quilts of all. To me anyway. They were green.
And orange. And corduroy. All the things I love!
It turns out that during the 1970s, the Sears company hired
the women of Gee’s Bend to sew pillow shams for the company, using the hip
fabric of the time: burnt orange and avocado corduroy. The women saved the
remnants, and created these warm and beautiful quilts. I love the weight of
quilts, so I can’t imagine anything cozier than snuggling under a heavy
corduroy quilt on the winter’s night.
So, now I need to find me some corduroy and start sewing. A
corduroy skirt perhaps? If you have sewed corduroy before, please share your
tips! I’d love to find a good resource for the fabric (especially green and
orange, of course).
