Friday, August 26, 2011

little folks strip quilt tutorial


Love, Love, Love this quilt.

When we first got in Little Folks fabric about 6 months ago I longed to make up a quilt using a bunch of all these great prints. (so hard to narrow it down) So I decided to make a strip quilt making sure I got in all of my favorites.



I kept the width of the fabric since voile's measure about 54" wide and picked my must haves, which ended up being 22 prints. (eek)


Being a strip quilt I cut the fabrics all different widths, giving some dimension to the quilt. Since I wanted to include all 22 fabrics I did not have a certain length in mind. Just went with what ever size it turned out being.


Which ended up being really long... A good size throw for sure.

I backed it with Forest Hills Sweet. I loved it so much I could not bare to cut into it.




I machine quilted straight lines across, in a variety of places. Then I hand stitched with pearl cotton the same, in a variety of places. I made sure that the pearl cotton did not match with the fabric, I wanted it to stand out.




I bounded it in marine and coral dobby dot from the pastry line, that coordinates so well with little folks. (the dobby dot is now retired but the pastry line without the dots are available)

Over all I LOVE this quilt. I can't wait for it to get a bit cooler so I can snuggle..

Here are the other details: Little Folks Strip Quilt

measures: 47" x 94"
22 prints for little folks voile
quilted: machine straight lines and pearl cotton hand stitching
bound: marine and coral dobby dot voile



See what's NEW..

Just in from Riley Blake......

Indian Summer - We have the full collection in yardage, Charm Packs andLayer Cakes

This collection comes in 3 color ways BROWN, PINK AND GREEN

PINK


GREEN


BROWN

also in pre-cuts are


FARM FRESH


LOST AND FOUND


PROMENADE


and GRAND BAZAAR LAYER CAKES

were back and a sweet sneak peek.....


Just a quick note, we are back and all orders have resumed to normal shipping times. If you have taken advantage of our time away and used the code to get 10% off your order YIPPY for you.

As for the picture above, isn't that sweet.....more to come on it this week, plus a tutorial!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

little apples


work in progress, baby blanket quilt top. waiting on the yardage to come out so I can finish...love it already.

(linked up to quiltstory, sewmuchado, and bluecricketdesign)

Away and 10% off fabric


We will be away from shoppe from August 18-20, the shoppe will remain open AND we will be offering a 10% off discount just for our blog and FB followers. The 10% off is good for anything in our shoppe just excludes shipping. When checking out use coupon code: summer and the discount will be taken off. (Discount begins Aug 17-Aug 20)

This is a great time to get some new fabrics just in like GRAND BAZAAR, INDIAN SUMMER, PRECUTS, AND LOTS OF NEW SALE ITEMS. We also have a new section "create your own bundle" which are listings in pre determined amounts all you have to do is buy the one you want, then let us know which fabrics. So fast and easy.

REMEMBER all orders placed during this time will ship out Monday the 21. We are still available for convos and to set up reserved listings.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

My guest appearance over on Sew Sweetness


Today starts 30 days for Sewing Back to School articles over on SEW SWEETNESS and I'm the first quest blogger!!!!! (so fun) Can you guess what my topic is about? If you've guessed FABRIC PAIRING, you are correct. Below is my post, but head on over to SEW SWEETNESS, for many other great topics and helpful hints during the next 30 days.

ENJOY!

Have you ever been overwhelmed when selecting fabrics for a project? Do you know where to start? I'm here to share with you a "How to" guide on fabric pairing and selection. This is a great beginners guide and a refresher for others. Hope you enjoy, so Lets get started!

The "How too's" of PAIRING and SELECTING FABRIC

{The fabrics you choose is a big part of what will make your project special and uniquely yours}

There are tons of different types of fabric that I could write this whole article on. {sigh} Today I'm just going to focus on 100% quilting cotton which is the bulk of what we sell over on PoppySeed Fabrics. We do carry other fabrics such as minky, flannel, Japanese imports, laminate, nylon, satin, knit and voile which are equally fun to work with.

When selection fabric for a project it's good to know, it's all about color, print and style. Knowing the difference between WARM VS COOL fabrics is half the battle. Reds, oranges and yellows are considered warm colors.

While greens, blues and violets are considered cool colors. Generally warm colors "advance" or seam to appear more prominent compared with cool which "recedes" or stays in the background.

Can you categorize your prints into warm and cool? How about large, medium and small prints?

Knowing these differences will make pairing fabrics much easier.

Do you know what a Monochromatic color scheme is? (don't worry at one point I didn't know either)
The term Monochromatic Color Scheme means to use only one color. Combining fabrics of the same color tone but different scales large and small, creates a more interesting monochromatic color, like so.

This is another options when pairing fabrics.

I'm often asked by customers, how to choose print fabrics for a quilt. My answer is always the same, "Use what you Like" Relying on your own tastes is the best way to end up with a project that you are happy with. So, how do you do this? Easy, start with one fabric at a time. Choose 2-3 of your favorite prints, this choice will be the ones you MUST have in the project your making.



From there, you are going to mix and match different fabrics trying to pick up the colors from your main fabrics choices. Once you have the right fabric combo that you love, you have your fabric bundle.

(click HERE for this bundle)

Here is another example of pairing


Now if you have a print that you love but don't know what colors it will go with


A good rule is to look on the selvage of that print, these little circles give a indicator of what colors are being used in that design. This will help you figure out what other coordinating prints will work.


Based off of these little color circles I put together this bundle



Now, if after this process you are still uncomfortable with your selection or the idea of choosing a bunch of different fabrics. Look instead for a fabric collection you find appealing and buy all the fabric for your project from the same collection. A great example of this is the new Grand Bazaar collection from Patty Young which has 26 great prints to choose from.

(found HERE)

This will give many choices of big and small prints to coordinate with what you are making. By selecting fabrics from the same collection you will have the freedom of choosing what you want but knowing that the fabrics will match. Also a good thing to know is that fabric collections usually come in 2 or 3 color palettes. This helps tons when you just want a certain color to work with. Grand Bazaar comes in 3 color palettes. See how each palette is so different in color.

Sometimes we tend to always stick with the same colors or prints, however by using a fabric collection we get a wide variety of prints and colors which coordinate and make your project look awesome.

One of my favorites coming soon to shoppe, is Little Apples from Moda. This is the entire collection.

When using the entire collection in a project, you can make some really cute things!

(little apples, quilt top -soon to be a kit for purchase)

I hope the process of selecting and choose fabric is a bit easier. Here are key points to remember....

*WARM VS COOL
*LARGE, MEDIUM, SMALL PRINTS
*MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME
*PICK 2-3 FAVORITE PRINTS AND START FROM THERE
*REFER TO COLOR CIRCLES ON FABRIC SELVAGE
*WHEN IN DOUBT GO WITH THE WHOLE FABRIC COLLECTION..

REMEMBER: "The fabrics you choose is a big part of what will make your project special and uniquely yours," try new things, be creative!

and most important HAVE FUN!!!!!


Enjoy,
Kim
from PoppySeed Fabrics



PS. We would be happy to assist you with all your quilting and project needs. We love creating custom fabric bundles and will help you pair fabric for your special project.




Thursday, August 11, 2011

remember this?


the quilt not the baby...hehehe. I had first shared this voile quilt HERE when I did a tutorial on it. It's called "Around the Block" and it was so fun to make. I have finally finished quilting it and wanted to share.


front


back -made out of folksy flannels (HERE) with solid water voile as the borders. (HERE) and bound in magenta pasrty line voile. (HERE) so yummy


My Little neice Kenzi loved it! so soft and cuddly.


Monday, August 8, 2011

Rose Cuddle Owl Pillow Tutorial


Meet "koko" (as named by my 3 yr old) She is a bigger versions of the so popular owl pin cushion found HERE by DIY Dish.


I had first made the pin cushion from this tutorial, but once it was done my 3 yr old would not give it up. I wanted to make her a big one she could use as a pillow or tote around like a doll. So here is what I did.

1. Print the pattern ONLY for the small pin cushion HERE
2. Take it to your local copy shop, and blow it up 200%
3. Follow the directions, basically your doing the same thing as the small pin cushion but larger. (Stuff with filling and not walnut littler)

To make your owl soft and cuddly use Rose cuddle minky found HERE

My wings are made out of ribbed knit, eyes, nose and legs out of scraps

We love our "koko"



(linked to sew much a do, Quiltstory and sugar bees)





Sunday, August 7, 2011

$3,008 in giveaways!


This has got to be the biggest giveaway to date! Head on over to BLUECRICKET DESIGNS To find out all the details. Above picture is what were giving away... HURRY GO NOW AND ENTER!!!

My NEW bag!!!!!


I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new bag I had made by Rebecca from retrofied over on etsy. My bag is from NEW ECHINO NICO SPRING collection " scooter in black". I had been eyeing Rebecca's bags for some time now, and when these fabrics arrived I knew I had to have one. She was so great to work with and once my bag arrived I was really pleased with the quality and design.

What's great for all of YOU is that if you buy a bag from Retrofied during August you will get FREE SHIPPING... that's right any bag, any size FREE SHIPPING.... Here are a bunch of my favorites.





Head on over to RETROFIED and pick out your bag today, remember to get FREE SHIPPING just mention your from our blog during check out.