Momma Needs a New Pair of Shoes!

Actually, momma needs more cash to finish out her Flea Market Fancy addiction.

After holding onto this lusciousness for years - it is finally time to let some of it go. Don't worry, I'm making myself one big hefty stash of every print, but it's time to clear bolts. I've got it all listed on eBay and on Etsy so you can take your pick of locations to shop. Just to mix it up!


Violet's Etsy Shop

Violet's eBay listings

This is the beginning of the madness. I'm also going to start listing all of the leftover Kung Fu Bambini clothes at ridiculously low prices - like $5 - $10 for $40-$80 pieces. I'm drowning in fabric and itty bitty pants!

A Fabric A Day Keeps the Doctor Away!

You might as well call me the anti-stash buster. Whether its my stash or your stash, if its decreasing your stash you're looking for, I'm no help to anybody!

Oh what a week! My stash has gone up and then down and then up again and it's been SO MUCH FUN!

Monday: I started off the week with a trip to Goodwill. I can't even remember how or why I ended up there. I swear there was a reason... maybe not. It's always just sort of a blur. I'll be driving in the car headed to the bank or the grocery store and the next thing you know, I'm in a Goodwill with a cart full of awesome. As usual, I digress.. I picked up these vintage goodies.


 

The prints came from two different Goodwill stores actually, but their coloring matches to a T - must be a 70s color palette thing - or they've both yellowed equally over the years. Ewwww! Luckily, they are both cotton and they've got some soaking in their near future. The cheater is on a roll and has a few yards on it. I love the colors and the styling. I really want to make this a light summer picnic quilt and machine quilt in all the cheater-ditches. Then I found the sweet little vintage Raggedy Ann and Andy and I think I have to incorporate them somehow. They just go too well together - and what in the heck else am I going to do with vintage Raggedy Ann and Andy hugging poodles, sheep, donkeys and a sheep dog?

 

 

Tuesday: My first package containing Sugar Snap by Melissa Averinos of Yummy Goods showed up on my doorstep. I ordered the complete collection from three different sources. This first package was from Rock City Quilts. They shipped super quickly and were friendly through email.

Wednesday: Modern Domestic Designer Fabric Sale. I was there participating by selling extra fabric from my Kung Fu Bambini clothing line. And I kept giving fabric away. I was selling it for $3 a yard - and pretty much throwing in an extra yard for every 2 or 3 someone bought. One lovely quilter bought six yards of fabric from me for a quilt back and I ended up talking her into taking home six yards of another fabric. My fabrics multiply like bunnies. I started off the sale doing so good - I wasn't going to buy a thing. And then I watched so many gals buying up yumminess from Garnish Apparel and Church & State that I had to give in! I bought this super fun Cameo print from Garnish that I think needs to be a top with a little black ribbon belt - and pearls of course.


 

Then I bought this yummy mint green fabric and lace from Church & State. The fabric is a knit and feels like butter. It is actually 100% silk with a linen weave or something super fancy like that. All I know is that I have the cutest dress in my head with a little lace peeking out of a raw edge hem and a lace-rose corsage thingy. Can you tell that I have way-not-enough experience to be working with such beautiful and precious fabrics? I'm hoping I can pull it off and not make the girls cringe when they see what I've done with their gorgeous fabrics!
 

On my way out I had to pick up a vintage Alexander Henry fabric with these giant red and gold tulips on it and some mustardy gold little tiny roses and a few yards of some beautiful trims from Michelle at Eclectikid. Dang it, no pictures of these! Well, when the girls get sundresses out of it, I'll show you then, deal? Deal.


Thursday: Next stop, garage sale! I found an ad on Craigslist for a "Fabric Garage Sale" - the details said that it was a quilt shop from the coast that had closed down. I did some research (all hail the power of google!) and found that the shop had closed in 2007 - this led me to believe I might find some sweet goodies there! Okay - we all know I was looking for Flea Market Fancy. ha! I didn't find FMF, but I did find some Amy Butler Charm for $2 a yard!
 

There were seven different Charm prints there, but I already had most of them and somehow I actually kept myself from just buying everything she had. Instead the littlest Craft picked out a batik with leaves on it for a back to school dress (I know, I can't believe I bought a batik either! - and I actually really like it. Never say never people!) I picked out some white stars on a creamsickle-y orange background for a Lemon Squares quilt by Faith at Fresh Lemons Mondrn Quilts . This is supposed to be my fourth quilt on my quilts-to-do-list - and I brought home eight yards of Charm that I was low on.


Thursday night: Mama hits the mother load! Thursday night gets its very own post about the festivities, but I'll go ahead and tell you the fabric part of it now. Miss Terri over at Sew-Fantastic gifted me a 2.5" charm pack of Flea Market Fancy and a FQ of yellow barbells. So now I have all of the centers to my wonky log cabin quilt. I now owe Terri my first born son. I have a sneaking suspicion she'd be happier with some Amy Butler Gypsy Caravan instead.

I was completely inspired to do a Flea Market Fancy complete collection quilt by Megan of Lucy & Norman. Her quilt is gorgeous and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to get my hands on all of the prints to put together a wonky log cabin. This quilt is next on my quilting-to-do-list!

 

See what I mean??? Mother load, people! Still on the hunt for more fabrics to do the strips on my quilt. Hint Hint Hint. :) I have some swaps I'm hoping work out. Thank goodness for the kindness of other sewers!

Friday: Boo-Yah! First off, in the mailbox was an FMF Pink Posies FQ from a delightful flickr swap. And right under her package was my copy of Small Stash Sewing! Hooray! Where am I going to start with that??? I think with a belt - or maybe with Unicorn and Moon. Oh man, I can't decide! And then just about an hour later, Hello Sugar Snap! ALL of this yumminess came today! Full yard cuts of every other print I needed (and a couple or three extra yards of one or two prints!). I ordered these from Creative Merchandise. They had the largest selection of Sugar Snap fabrics in one place and they were also speedy and kind.

I am still missing Kimono in Cocoa if anyone wants to hook a sister up! I'm planning a quilt and Thanksgiving dresses for the girls. I was inspired by The Adventures of Wondermommy. I'll probably use a similar, but slightly different pattern, but I love her combination of Wallpaper in Cocoa on top and Lace in Cocoa on bottom. To me the brown and orange colors are hearthy-warm-perfection for Thanksgiving, but it is all SO vibrant!

 


Dear Lord, luckily I will be out of town for the Fabric Depot sale tomorrow. Whew! Now, someone hide this post from my husband :)

Freshcut Quilt-uvet - Second Quilt Finished First!

I did it! I really, really did it! I finished a complete queen sized quilt, turned it into a duvet, ruffled that baby, quilted it myself on my Bernina and we are actually using it on our bed!

  

A long while ago I was swept with the urge to buy the entire Freshcut collection from Heather Bailey and turn it into our bedroom quilt. I've never taken on a real quilting project like this one. As I think I've mentioned before (I talk to myself a lot - so sometimes it is unclear what I've actually said outloud. ha!) - I've made many turn and topstitch baby quilts and a couple of patched tie quilts, but this is the full-meal-deal of quilting.

 

Now - this is not the first one I've started. My Gypsy Caravan quilt was started before this one, but I had to stop half way through and regroup. I have a weird attachment to my Gypsy Caravan fabric and it wasn't turning out perfect so it got put to the side to age a bit more... like good scotch and cheese :)

 

So - back to Freshcut. I began in 2008 and then, as with my Gypsy quilt, something wasn't quite right. I blogged the beginning here. I became a member of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild and pretty quickly knew what was "wrong" with my quilt. It needed sashing! They both needed sashing! And so I ripped. My little seam ripper and I ripped all the blocks apart on both quilts and it felt great! Someone actually suggested I just cut the seam allowance off. That is blasphemy! And lose 1/2" off of each block?! P'sha! teehee.

I had already purchased these linen-like cotton panels from IKEA that I had put ruffles on for the bedroom and that's what I used to sash my quilt. Once it was sashed, backed, and quilted - I added a third layer to this tasty little cake and made it into a duvet cover and then sewed on the layers of yummy ruffles. The quilt is the perfect weight for summer and with the duvet in it is the perfect weight for winter. Pure perfection for our bedroom!

 

So, whatchya think?

Some details:

I started with the Heather Bailey Freshcut Quilt pattern that is free from her website here.

I then adjusted the 12" blocks to be 16 1/2" blocks since I didn't want to add more blocks (making the number and pattern uneven) for the larger scale (queen) that I was making. I amount of yardage from the original pattern was sufficient for the increased size.

I sashed and bordered with 5" strips.

Missing Pics ?

Apparently, this little photo was being shy and wasn't showing up. Thank you Scott for letting me know!

So, if you couldn't see her before. That would be my portfolio on the left and my sketch book on the right posing with their long lost sister-spread.

Once upon a time...

...a (not-so) little girl from Kansas went to market. Yeah, that's right, I'm going to blog about market now after over a month. What's it to ya? Besides, John thought he was last and someone needed to help him out of that. lol! Well okay, it might also be because I have something kind of, sort of, important (to me at least!) to tell you :)

I'm going to back track a wee bit.

I believe I mentioned one or ten times I had booked my trip and been so graciously invited by the amazing Melissa Averinos to join she and her bestie Beth Dunn at a fabulous bed and breakfast for the stay in Minneapolis, MN. When Beth and I arrived at the B&B after meeting up at the airport this amazing piece of gorgeousness greeted me as I walked through the door. Now I know I showed you this pretty little peacock before but I didn't fully explain the significance. Yes, I happen to have a bit of a vintage chenille bedspread addiction, but it was more than that. I was a million shades of nervous about this trip. I almost backed out until Melissa extended her invitation and then the timing felt like fate. So when I walked through the door and saw this sweet bird greet me, I seriously about fell the heck over. I may have screamed.

You see, I was putting all my eggs in one basket with this trip and I carried them all in my little petal messenger bag that I designed for market especially to carry this important package. What was in this little package that had me shaking in my shoes?

After screaming and possibly dragging Beth into my room to show her and explain why I had gone completely mad I pulled out my sketch book and my design portfolio and dropped them on the bed to show her.




That, my dear friends, is a tiny little sneakie peak at my design portfolio on the left and my sketch book in the center lying on their sister-spread. I was at market to show my portfolio and and try to sign with a fabric company as a licensed fabric designer. It was a goal that I achieved and that I hope to tell you and show you a lot more about soon.

And since my peeps over at the Portland Modern Quilt Guild scooped me, I better just tell you now!

My name is Violet Craft. I am a wife, a mother, a children's clothing designer, a craft-a-holic-maker and I just happen to be the new licensed designer for Michael Miller Fabrics.

OMG, that feels so darn good. I won't have anything out for MANY VERY LONG MONTHS so your patience is greatly appreciated. In the meantime I hope to fill these posts with my journey to becoming a fabric designer and some fun reveals and projects along the way.

So, come on, let's ride this train!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane...

or actually, in our VW Rabbit. We're now headed to the coast for an annual family camping trip. 

I shall start with the amazing B&B that I had the awesome opportunity to stay at with Melissa Averinos of Yummy Goods and Beth Dunn, a most Accomplished Young Lady. And now that I've sent you to their blogs, their photos are going to be WAY better than mine :) 

This peacock bedspread was there to greet me upon arrival. If I believed in good omens (and I think I just might - especially after this!) there could not be a better good omen for me personally. I happen to have a certain love for chenille and for peacocks and this girl set my spirits HIGH for the trip - each and every day. I shared a couple of other loves with our B&B as well - McCoy vases, freaking awesome breakfast and hand printed wallpapers. *sigh* *swoon* LOVE!

If you are even in Minneapolis and love a great architecturally intact B&B and don't hate amazing food, then you should not miss out on Evelo's Bed and Breakfast. 

I totally lied to you....

again. I totally planned to blog all weekend, except I barely had time to sleep!

Quilt Market was fantastic. The majority vibe of market felt energetic, fresh, and supportive.

I met some fabulous (real, non-avatar, walking and breathing) people! I had some not-so-encouraging and some over the top encouraging appointments. I came, I saw, I pitched, and I hope to have something more to tell you about that soon!

In the meantime, I will download, upload, link, share and swoon over the next week.

I leave you with Owlie McPillowpants and Moon.