mr. monkeysuit

feeling quilty

Thank you for all your fabulous suggestions on how to quilt this. I knew if I put it out there you would solve my problem. Over a hundred of you voted and I found a bunch of new quilting favorites.

Here are some;

Citric Sugar suggested pebble quilting which I think would look great but I'm not sure I have patience for. I tried a small sample of it once and it is work.

Flaun and Greta suggested concentric circles and spirals, another idea I also loved. This is a great example. Or spirals like upstatelisa.

UK lass in US suggested interlocking squares which is a close second to my very favorite suggestion. 

But the one that made me go wow was by Rossie who sent me a link to simply robins flickr photostream.

Go there now! Quickly. Run. Look at it and soak it all in. She is amazing. 

I do so love finding something this beautiful so unexpectedly.

photo borrowed from simply robin

Rossie directed me to the above photo (thank you!!) and I think it is a perfect fit for the orange quilt. 

photo borrowed from simply robin

Look at the use of color in this one. Just gorgeous. And the quilting...ahh.

Treat yourself to a cup of tea and spend some time browsing through Robin's work...you'll come away filled with inspiration and feeling quilty all over.

blog :: http://simplyrobin.blogspot.com/

flickr :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplyrobin

orange quilt...well...

...almost. The top is pieced and in fact has been finished for a while.

My mum was here in June and she helped me finish the back and then we basted it together.

 

I carefully rolled it and put it on a rack with one or two other wip quilts.

And there it has sat. And sat. For many months now. Because I can not decide how to quilt it.

It's generous twin size so I really want to meander/stipple quilt it because that is going to be the easiest and quickest way, by far.

But I don't know...maybe it should be concentric squares...or stitch in the ditch.

And so it goes on. 

Please help. Cast your vote and help me finish this sucker.

How should I quilt this quilt?

meander
concentric squares
stitch in the ditch
other; ideas please?

books and giveaways

Exciting news!

Alissa and Kristen are writing a book all about our virtual quilting bee, Block Party.

It will include quilts made by all of us...so I'm going to be in a book. Neat, huh?

But YOU can be a part of it too, by way of the Block Party blog quilt along. Even neater, huh?

 

But wait there is more good news.

 

There's a giveaway going on right now over the the Block Party blog.

 

So scoot on over there and win yourself some fabulous fabric...

...and join all of us on our quilt making journey.

I think this is going to be so much fun.

dying yarn, simple style

An unexpected (ahem) day off from school (that would be Columbus Day. So not really unexpected unless after seven years of living here you still forget about it.) led us to this project.

 

I read about it in the latest Living Crafts issue and was instantly taken with the simplicity of it, so at a local fiber festival I picked up a skein of Dye For Me Happy Feet with this very day in mind.

 

A day when my two little ones needed to get out all the food coloring and pipettes and get to work on an experiment. They did indeed love dying the yarn and the instructions seem pretty fool proof.

 

We ended up with a skein like this and yes, yes, I do realize now I should have heeded the advice about restricting color choice but they were just having so much fun with it.

 

I wound it into this and knit up a small swatch.

Pretty, pretty colorful.

The plan is to make two pairs of socks with it. Not for me.

But for four little happy feet. I think they'll dig some rainbow socks.

moleskine cover tutorial...for you

 

A little something from me to you.

 

It's the moleskine tutorial I had for sale in my shop.

What better way to celebrate new beginnings than sharing? 

You can find the tutorial here and there will be a permanent link in my sidebar.

The cover fits the soft back Moleskine cahier notebooks (5 x 8.25”) but will also fit the hardcover notebooks (5 x 8.25”) with a little less wiggle room.

PLEASE DON'T

• sell the pattern or use it in some other non-copyright friendly way

BUT YOU CAN

• make this pattern as many times as you want
• link to the pattern on your blog
• show and tell- I'd love to see your versions so please send me photos or links
• sell the finished product in your online shops, craft fairs, etsy, wherever

Just in time for the holidays.

Happy crafting friends.

table quilt

We spend a lot of time at our kitchen table. Eating...yes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, tea but also drawing, painting, reading, crafting and or course just chatting.

But the tablecloths were a nightmare. The table is just a cheapy one from Ikea so rather than freak out when the kids inevitably get paint, glue and marker all over it I made the decision to let them do their messy work straight on the table and have tablecloths over it when we eat. 

Anyone who has young kids, (please tell me mine are not the only ones) knows that every time they get up or down from the table it is like watching a bad magicians trick. The table cloth gets caught and everything goes flying. I'm scrabbling around trying to rescue 2 cups of scalding hot tea, oatmeal, maple syrup while my kids are obliviously dragging the entire meal away with them. 

Enter the table quilt.

 

You know how little things sometimes make huge changes in your daily life. This is one of them.

 

Table ties.

I made the quilt just as I would any other, though I used cheater patchwork fabric for the top, so it was quick, quick, quick! I measured my table and made the quilt about 1" smaller at each end, then added the ties. I got the idea from here.

It works so well, I can't not tell you how much more relaxed I am at mealtimes now. And how much neater my table looks, even when it is filled with clutter it still looks better.

Table quilt joy!

Other random goodness:

:: You! You are goodness. Thank you to everyone who wrote in kind words about closing the shop. It feels so right to do it and it is always nice when you get the extra support from friends. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and to make all those connections with me. You are all great.

:: I am a bit behind with my emails. If I owe you one, I'm sorry it should be there soon.

:: I still have some stock left in auburnsmalls. I am planning on shutting it at the end of the month. If you are interested in something I am open to offers, discounts, swaps and trades. Email me or convo me and we can work something out.

:: Julie Morstad has a shop. Just throwing that out there because I love her work. 

:: I had a couple of comments asking if closing the shop meant I'd be closing my blog. No, no, no. In fact I am hoping that I'll have just a smidgen more time for more posts! 

Happy Monday. xxx

fabric acorns and quitting

In the end it was an easy decision to make.

 

I'm shutting up shop. Closing Auburn Studios. And it feels good. 

I tried, for a year, to run a small business, you may remember some of my doubts. Well those doubts kept growing as the business grew. I spent a summer working in my sewing room and feeling like I was missing out and after months of wholesale orders, commissions, craft fairs and Etsy (and not much to show for it) I finally realized, that to make this work...to make enough money to make this worth my while...I was going to have to put in a lot more hours away from my family. A lot.

It was a no brainer. All the anxiety I'd been feeling for over a year fell away. I realized I want to be with my kids, look after my family and keep a cozy home.

I know I am lucky to be able to choose. I also know it may not last forever. 

But right now, I like having a few extra minutes in a day to make some fabric acorns.

story time

Floyd is big into writing now and emergent reading too so when I saw this set I knew I had to make one. 

Of course being the craft supply hoarder that I am, I had everything in my craft cupboard.

The wooden blocks are from Casey's Wood. I think mine are 1.5" which was big enough to fit most of my stamps. The stamps are from The Small Object, Craft Pudding and some other random places.

I also have a few blank books on hand for making up our own story books. I get mine from Bare Books, they are so reasonably priced and have a great selection. 

Here's Floyd reading his favorite book EVER made using one of the Bare books. We took photos of his carefully crafted playmobil pirate scene then printed them. Andy and Floyd put the pictures in order and wrote the story, I typed it up on the computer and printed it out and then we stuck it in the book with a LOT of glue sticks. Floyd adores this book and learned it by rote, took it to school and talks about the next pirate adventure he wants to write about. How great is that?

Next up we'll be trying the blank comic books.

I made a little drawstring bag to keep everything together using some BuBu and PuPu fabric. I think I got mine from Superbuzzy but this is the only place I could find the same print.

 

And that's it!

 

Stories, hot cocoa, log fires.

Sounds like winter is coming.

new socks can make you happy

Roll around kick your feet in the air happy. 

Who knew?

sweet smelling laundry

I am not a fan of tumble dryer sheets. I don't like the way they make my clothes feel or smell. It just reminds me of being in a laundromat and who needs to be reminded of that. Hours of watching laundry spin, people lurking round, bored out of my mind. Anywho. I don't like laundry sheets but I do like fresh laundry and I like the smell of lavender and chamomile too.

Well looky here...my new lavender and chamomile dryer sachets!

A great way to use up my little scraps of linen and does anything look cuter than brown ink stamps on linen? Not much I tell you. Not much.

They are about 4" x 4" and filled with herbs. You could go happy on these things and fill them with whatever scent you love. Mint, basil, rose, jasmine, eucalyptus. I'm going to try some more and report back but so far these suckers work great. They won't last forever but you can always refill them with fresh herbs.

Oh and I tried doing it with an open weave muslin and unless you like lots of little bits of dried flower debris stuck to your clothes, I'd sick with linen. 

Supplies as follows:

organic lavender and chamomile from nanu on etsy (lots of cute laundry supplies)

postman stamp from the small object

girl stamp from craft pudding

VersaCraft stamping ink for fabric found here

tutorial for making the sachets here