August 22nd, 2011
Janell here, In March I got a hold of some of Jen Allyson’s Quite Contrary Fabric Collection from Riley Blake and I made my daughter this cute summer dress, but what’s a girl to do without accessories? Make some of course!
There’s still time for a few summer craft projects, these flowers are so simple you can whip up a bunch to enjoy for the rest of the summer or give a few away, they make perfect gifts. Simple, sweet, and handmade.
The best part about these projects is that they can be made from fabric scraps. Those of you who work with fabric have oodles of scraps. I chose five different fabrics from Quite Contrary. For the first flower, you’ll need thread, a needle, scissors, and extra embellishments like buttons, hair clips, or a head band if you choose.
Start with cutting a circle about the size of your hand from one piece of fabric. You don’t need to make this is perfect circle, in fact a little imperfection adds to the fun of these flowers.
The take your threaded needle and simply stitch about a ¼ inch all around the border.
Then gently pull to cinch the circle together. Repeat with another circle of fabric slightly smaller than your first circle. You can make multiple layers to add depth and beauty to your flower. Once you have at least two circle flowers you can layer them one on top of the other and stitch together. I added a button so I sewed all three together at the same time. You can also use jewels or beads in the center, or leave the flowers plain.
Now you can attach the flower to a clip or a hair band or an elastic hair tie. I wanted to make a fabric covered hair hand to attach the flower to. This is also very simple to do. Take your head band that you want to cover and a few long strips of fabric. I chose to tear some strips because I like the raw frayed look of the edges. I started with two long strips that were about ¾ inch thick. Take a hot glue gun or your favorite craft glue and start at one end and wrap the headband with the fabric strips adding glue about every inch or so.
You can attach your flowers with a little glue or you can sew them on as well. I chose to do both to make sure they were very well attached since I knew my toddler might not be so gentle with her headband.
I even made a card with an extra fabric flower that I had.
The second flower is a “no-sew” flower, also great for scraps. Tear some strips of fabric anywhere from 1 inch thick to 2 inches. You can experiement with the thickness to find one you like. Tie a knot at the end of one strip and start twisting the ends around the knot to form a circle. As you go place glue around the edges. I used a hot glue gun, because that’s what I already had out, but a quick dry craft glue would be ideal and you don’t have to worry about getting burned.
Here are three examples of the different looks you can get from different fabrics using the Quite Contrary line.
The hair clips (below) I started with the pink polka dots for the center of the flowers and then wrapped them with green circles. I filled the center with brads and buttons.
Try layering multiple flowers for a larger hair barrette or attaching to a pin for a fun, colorful broach. Make a few for present toppers, magnets, scrapbooking or t-shirt embellishments, there are so many ways to use fabric flowers.
August 20th, 2011
^^ That is my little quilting helper! Unfortunately piecing 3 squares at one sitting is about his limit.
Spurred on by my new resolution to finally learn how to quilt AND an upcoming meeting of my local modern quilters guild I actually jumped feet first into quilting. I decided to do a SUPER DUPER simple quilt to get me started and found this easy-to-follow quilting tutorial online. Of course I felt the need to complicate it a bit by making more than 2x the squares so I can have a great big PICNIC quilt! And what better fabric for a picnic quilt than my Quite Contrary by Riley Blake that just feels so bright and summery. So last night I cut the fabric from the bolts, and this morning, I cut my squares and then cut them into slices and even got a few squares pieced! Here is me cutting with my helper who is not so entertained by this whole process.
See! I couldn’t even get him to smile for the camera! Not amused mom.
Anyway, since this tutorial was easy enough, I have thus far sewn 6 squares:
And a closeup:
And of course I would probably be done sewing the squares by now if I could get this baby to nap! There is also that pesky problem of not being able to find the Iron… details details. Either way, I am super excited to have begun my very first quilt! I’ll keep you posted!
August 19th, 2011
I just got back from Utah, which means I got to pick up a LOT of fabric from Riley Blake (and A LOT of paper from My Mind’s Eye… but that’s another post).
I was super excited to get home and line it all up in my new craft room (which will someday have actual shelves to hold it all). So here it all is! Now I just need to figure out that whole quilting thing. But I swear I’m going to go to the Sacramento Modern Quilters Guild meeting this week to get me started! Okay back to the fabric!
My Lost & Found fabric just debuted- it’s made of blacks, greys, reds, pinks and creams, and I love it!
Since I’m so in love with grey right now, the black/grey set is my favorite. My most favorite fabric is the grey one in the center. I am in love with it and want to use it for about a million home decor projects, in close second is the white/cream stripe (yum!) and the black and cream labels. I can’t wait to start playing with them!!
And here are all the red and pink ones! I love these ones too (especially the palest pink ones), but not with the fiery passion that I love the grey ones with!
And of course we can’t forget the Holly Jolly fabric! I already blogged about this from Quilt Market, but I am so excited to have it and start my Christmas plans. I would have to say my favorite thing about this line is that the colors are just so vibrant and yummy. I seriously just want to caress the fabric, I’ve never seen reds and burgundys that supple before!
And here they all are together! So lovely 
June 20th, 2011
Okay so I know I have not blogged about quilt market yet, but my newest fabric line called Holly Jolly from Riley Blake was released at Market. The collection is a Christmas collection, and I just love all they grays as well as how vivid the colors are. The collection is available at quilt shops, and online quilt fabric retailers. I also want to give a little shout-0ut to fabric.com who is carrying the full line. I met the buyers from fabric.com at Market and they were the sweetest ladies and absolutely fawned over Ollie.
Here are some of the lovely projects that were displayed in the Riley Blake booth:
That deep red is just such a yummy color, and I love the gray skirt too! Now I just need to start on my Christmas decorations early so that I can finish them in time. I think it would be so much fun to have a Christmas quilt too! I don’t have time to make one myself, so maybe I’ll see if I can find someone who will sew me one!
And for those who follow my designs, Riley Blake is also releasing some of my Lost & Found patterns as fabrics – and glitter/shimmer fabrics:
And coming in October 2011 – So Sophie Fabric too!
February 26th, 2011
Hi everyone! Thanks so much for all the great entries! I especially loved hearing about what you’re going to do with my fabrics. We had 378 entries and so I’m giving away all 4 sets of fat quarters! Here are the random winners:
KellyG s
Love those as papers and love those prints as fabric! I think I would use some to make flowers for scrap pages and projects. Maybe I would actually sew, a pillow, or apron!! Great stuff!
Patty says:
I would love to have my mom make a cute apron for me for the Festival of Trees Sweet Shoppe out of this fabric. It’s perfect for it.
Lindsay says:
I subscribe via RSS
Erika Sews says:
02/18/2011 at 9:23 AM (Edit)
I just subscribed to your RSS feed! Those are absolutely lovely fabrics and I’d love the chance to win some!
Congrats ladies! I’ll be sending you each an email asking for your mailing address so I can send out your goodies! Be sure to let us know what you did make. I’d love to see your projects!
