Simplify

A whole bunch of fabric

First of all, a big huge THANK YOU to all of you for the Craftsy love.  It has been so much fun seeing so many familiar faces over there as well as brand new ones!  Thank you so much for joining me!  I have the best students.  :-)

Also, I posted a coupon code on my Facebook page today.  If you need a Spring Break project, you might want to check it out. 

You know what I love to see on blogs/instagram/anywhere? Fabric. Fabric I don't have, fabric I do have and haven't found the perfect use for yet, stacks of fabric, fabric that is my style and fabric that isn't, it doesn't really matter, I just really love looking at fabric. It's just so pretty.

See?

Today my shelves and sewing room are cleaned up, and despite the 3 crazy boys literally running and screaming throughout my house (Spring Break), I took some pictures of some of the shelves in my sewing room. 

I organize my fabric in a few ways, but first, if it is one of our lines, I try to keep that line together somewhat.  See, here is my (mostly) Bliss and Ruby stash.  I am scared to use this because I can't get it anymore. I don't think that makes me a hoarder, I think it makes me careful!

And this little corner with Vintage Modern and about half of Scrumptious (the rest is on my sewing table).  

The Marmalade shelf so cheery over there under my books,

And Happy-go-lucky (my current favorite) is finally tidied up.  I've been pulling from the a lot lately, and it is nice to have it all on the shelf.

A few of you have asked about where my Cotton Blossoms and Simple Abundance is.  Well, what is left of it I keep that on the shelf in my office (where my desk is and where I keep all the patterns and shipping supplies) so I can enjoy fabric in there too.  I should show you that room sometime.  After it's clean. (Becuase let's be honest, it is never clean.) So here's a picture of my bulletin board instead.  

I love our fabric, and I while I absolutely love to sew with it, I also love sewing with all kinds of other fabrics too, as my Scrappy Trip andFarmer's Wife can attest.  

In fact, this shelf holds some of my more recent purchases, and the reason I should stay off Instagram. 

I'll show you more of that later if you want.

So what do you think? Are you as nosey as I am?  Do you love seeing what's in other people's stashes? What do you want to see?  Anything else that you enjoy reading about on blogs? See, I'm in a bit of a blogging rut, and I would love a suggestion or two. Or a hundred. :-) Thanks for stopping by!

 

Pre-Cut Piecing Made Simple

It's here, it's here!!  I am so darn excited that I feel like I'm going to burst!  My Craftsy class, Pre-Cut Piecing Made Simple is all ready to go as of about 10 minutes ago, and gosh I am happy!

(I'm going to ask for your forgiveness ahead of time, because there will be far too many exclamation points in this post.) 

Last fall in the middle of one of the boys baseball games, I got an email from Craftsy about filming a class with them, and my immediate answer was a big YES. I started getting putting the class together that very night.  And after months of sewing, emails, sewing, conference calls, sewing and an exhausting but amazing trip to Denver to film, it's finally ready. I don't know whether to celebrate or take a nap!

See, I don't get to travel and teach very often since my boys are still so young, but I really do love to teach people how to sew, as my sewing night girls can attest. (Well, could attest, it's been too long, girls. Let's work on that!) I have so many people ask for beginning sewing advice (especially cutting- it can be tricky!) and this covers all that and more. 

I also teach you all my tricks for sewing and cutting quickly, as well as being organized while you sew, which means you can squeeze more out of your sewing time. So in the first lesson we cover all the basics, cutting, pressing, seam allowances, chain piecing, pre-cuts etc.  Even if you know all that already, maybe you'll pick up a tip or two that will help you out!  Then we'll make Piece of Cake 3 from a Layer Cake and learn to sew borders correctly.  

Followed by a lesson where you design your own project as we go out of charm squares and half-square triangles, which I think you'll really enjoy.  I can't wait to see the projects in the photo gallery from that lesson!

 

There's another lesson on making the Hashtag quilt (which is a Craftsy exclusive pattern) which is a Jelly Roll quilt and was actually one of my very favorite projects out of Happy-go-lucky.  We learn to strip piece on this one, and it comes together so quick!

And last but not least, a Swoon class where you can make your Swoon blocks along with me.  Out of fat quarters, of course. That one was really fun to film, and by that time I was getting a lot better at saying "Pre-Cut Piecing made Simple".  Only I would end up with tongue twister for a title.  ;-)

 

Oh!  And also a finishing class, where I show you how I baste my quilts, calculate binding and backing) machine quilt and then bind.  All of the patterns are included in the course, and once you enroll, you have lifetime online access, which I love.  I've taken other online classes that expired after 3 weeks, which was frustrating because I wanted to go back and access the material later on when I had a question.  This is one of the things I love most about the Crafsty platform. It is there whenever you need it. Whether you go through the whole class this week, or it takes you a year. Or 5 years from now you want to make a Swoon quilt. Awesome.

Did I miss anything? I think that's it! They sent me a link for 25% off the class to share with you guys, so if you would like to join me (and I hope you will!) just click here and you can get started.

Just one more thing.  Just... thanks.  Thank you so much everyone at Craftsy (especially you, Susanne and Rachel) for your unbelievable patience. You are AMAZING at what you do. This just wouldn't have been possible without you.

Also a big thank you to each of you who come by every so often and say hello.  I am overwhelmed by your kindness and encouragement. I couldn't have done this without you either.  Oh, and you too Jarom.  And of course my sweet mom who came all the way here just to help me practice my classes and get things ready to go. Love you both.

Sheesh, what's happening to me?  I'm getting all teary just writing this!  Well, I am off to my sewing room.  I've got more new stuff to sew, patterns to write, bundles to ship (thanks!!), market to get ready for, and two baseball practices tonight.  

Best job ever.

Spring Cleaning

Once in a while, I just need to do a little spring cleaning.  I never know when it is going to hit, but when it does, there is no stopping me!

Yesterday I decided it was time to move Scrumptious off of the dining room table and into my sewing room.  The only problem was, I didn't have anywhere to put it.  So I pulled out a few bolts, and then a few flat folds, and then some fat quarters, and finally got it put away.  But what to do with all that fabric?  Cut it up, of course!  

Since I can't keep it all, I thought I would list some mixed bundles for you guys in the shop.  They are a mix of Vintage Modern, Marmalade, Ruby, and yes, Bliss.  Each listing shows 24 fat quarters, and you will get 10 of them.  If you want to buy more than one of the same bundle, you certainly can, and I will do my best to make sure you don't get any duplicates.  Of course, it all depends on how quick you are!

Over on Instagram and Facebook there was some pleading for International shipping.  SO, I'm going to try it out this time shipping to Australia and Canada and see if I can get it worked out.  You can read more about that in the product descriptions.  I wish it wasn't so ridiculously expensive now (really, I do) but we'll just make the best of it, I guess.

Anyway, here they are!  All from my own stash. I hope you like them!  Man, my arms are sore.  

Happy Monday!

c

Just a little update

Wow!  Well thank you so much for all the help on my last post!  It sounds like there are several great feed readers out there, but so many of you suggested Bloglovin' that I signed up for it last night.  I was able to export and import my Google Reader feed, which wasn't too tricky, so I'm back on track.  Thank you!! Click here if you want to f

A few more things:

*Over on the left sidebar is an option to subscribe via email.  If you would like to receive my blog posts in your inbox, that's the place to do it.  :-)

*Also on the left sidebar you can see a few new buttons.  There's a button for Facebook, Bloglovin', Pinterest, and Email.  I have been meaning to do this for umm... a while now, so I guess this was the push I needed!  

*Thank you to all of you who have found your way over to my Facebook page and made me feel so welcome!  I convinced my mom to set one up last night too, and you can find her here at the Cotton Way page.  

*Just a suggestion, don't start fiddling with your blog at midnight.  Because soon it will be 1:00, and then 2:00, and then you'll accidentally lose the whole thing and have to figure out how to get it back around 3:30.  

*Yawwwwn

 

Thanks again everyone!

 

Changes

I'm sure many of you saw the same news I saw today.  Google Reader is shutting down.  What???  As someone who keeps tabs of all my favorite blog friends that way, I am really disappointed.  Darn it.  

I tried to find an alternative reader option and am still looking, but it looks like the best option right now is to keep up through Facebook.  SO, I finally did it.  I set up a Thimble Blossoms facebook page.  

 

I didn't see this coming.  ;-)

I'm not the most savvy facebook user, so I still have a lot to figure out, but I would love it if you would join me over there and say hello.  I've got a lot of exciting stuff coming up that I can't wait to share with you (new book, classes, patterns, fabric, bundles!) and I'll be sure to do it all there.  And to kick things off, a giveaway will be popping up over there soon.  

So, is there something I'm missing out on?  Do you have a favorite reader or way to keep up with your blogs?  Are you going open a facebook page too? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

edit:  Just to clarify, I am NOT leaving this blog, just trying to come up with a way to let you know I've updated it.  :-)

Mouse ears and fat quarters

So you already know that a week ago my Scrumptious pre-cuts arrived, but what you probably didn't know, is that the next morning we packed up the car and drove to (where else?) Disneyland!  We had planned the trip before I knew that fabric was coming at the same time, but I am so glad we still went, even if I was plotting what to do with the fabric much of the time.  (Can you blame me?)

The beach was perfect, as always.

As was Disneyland.  

(Carrie, I bought these Mouse ears and took this photo just for you! They wouldn't take them off!)

Our friends, the Lesues just happened to be there as well (shocking! ;-), and we had the best time with them. As always.  

Gosh we love that crazy place.  We have annual passes this year, so we've been trying to get good use of them.  So far, so good!

The Scrumptious yardage arrived while we were gone, so as soon as we got home I started sewing and haven't stopped. (Sorry about the Instagram photos, I'll get some better ones for you soon!) 

(He's such good sport)

So yep, I'm having the best time sewing with Scrumptious, and enjoying mixing it up with happy-go-lucky even more. Tonight I made a project that used both of them and a little Marmalade as well.  It all plays so well together!  

If you need me over the next month or so, it's a safe bet you'll find me here:

In my pajamas.

You've been warned.