More Austin Fun -- Remnant fiber [culture]



Here is a MUST go to shop when you are in Austin -- Remnants: fiber [culture]. Urban and youthful, there is a lot of fabric lovin' going on here and Jessica will make certain you fall in love with quilting, sewing and her too! If you are in Austin for QuiltCon stop by and tell her we sent you. She has special events going on throughout the event at her store and also in her booth.

Here is here schedule and address! Stop by and say Hey -- that's what they say down here in Texas!

Thursday, 2/21 from 2 pm - 5 pm

FreeSpirit's Valori Wells shares her art & soul with RFC.

Friday, 2/22 from 1 pm - 4 pm

Alison Glass from Andover Fabrics

Saturday, 2/23 from 2 pm - 5 pmMelody Miller of Kokka Fabrics

In the RFC booth at QuiltCon:

Saturday, 2/23 from 11 am - 1 pm

Meet Alicia Diane Durand, author of Quilts, Tacos and Tattoos!

Yes we are talking about our competitor's here but it is all in the name of fabric and quilting -- plenty of love to go around.

Here is the address to her shop:

10435 Burnet Road, Suite 106, 888-TO-QUILT

QuiltCon is nearly here! Will you be there!

The State Capitol in Austin, TX



The State Seal, Looks like a Quilting Star!



They say everything is bigger in Texas and we are certain the organizers behind QuiltCon are agreeing with only two days to go before the doors are open to the Modern Quilt Guild's first show.  The show will be filled with tons of quilty education and also quilts, fabric, sewing machines . . . you name it, all as big as Texas.

Yesterday we took a field trip to visit our friend Leslie Bonnell at Stitch Lab. They were busy folding, prepping and getting ready to have everything you'd ever want in terms of FreeSpirit and Rowan fabrics on the show floor.  In addition to the Stitch Lab Make It Take It area of the booth, FreeSpirit and Rowan artists will be stopping by to meet and greet.  If you are going to be there, stop at booth 300 and sign up for the Stitch Lab's awesome daily giveaway gift bags including a Denyse Schmidt extravaganza, Anna Maria Horner crafty bag, FreeSpirit goodies like Valorie Wells fabric and projects plus items from Parson Gray, Tula Pink, Verna Mosquera and more; and a Rowan bag filled with Kaffe and Amy Butler goodies.

Stop by booth 300 to meet our designers:

Friday, February 22
Valori Wells, FreeSpirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Saturday, February 23
Anna Maria Horner, FreeSpirit . . . . . . . . . . 9:00 am - 10:00 am
Denyse Schmidt, FreeSpirit . . . . . . . . . . . . 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Amy Butler, Rowan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Parson Gray (aka David Butler), FreeSpirit . 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Even more exciting, FreeSpirit designer Denyse Schmidt is the Keynote speaker the evening of Saturday, February 23.

The Winner of PreCut Patchwork Party is . . .

We randomly selected quiltytherapy as the winner of Elaine Schmidt's new book PreCut Patchwork Party along with a FreeSpirit fabric bundle!  Congratulations!

Precut Patchwork Party is full of fun, modern projects!

Thank you to FreeSpirit Fabrics for asking me to be a guest blogger. I am so excited to tell you about my newest book for Creative Publishing International – Precut Patchwork Party. As the tag line says on the cover of the book, it’s full of “modern projects to sew and craft with fabric strips, squares and fat quarters”.

I have been a huge fan of FreeSpirit precut fabric bundles for a long time . I often pick them up with absolutely no idea of how I will use them. The colors and patterns just look so pretty all together in a bundle.

There are lots of patterns and ideas available for using precuts charm squares, strips and fat quarters to make quilts. But I wanted to design a collection of projects for this book that were everything but quilts. So Precut Patchwork Party will show you how to make a variety of home dec projects, as well as wearables, accessories and gift items. I’ve included lots of basic sewing information, tips of working with precut fabrics and several of my favorite sewing techniques like fabric rick-rack and rosettes that can be made from folded precut strips.

Here is one of my favorite projects from the book:

Tisket Tasket Fabric Basket (Insert photo of baskets.)

Fabric strips from Kathy Davis’ Blossoming collection are used to make these woven fabric baskets. Make a few to organize your spools of thread and notions in your sewing room or use one to hold a casserole dish (and sew a coordinating lined napkin with a couple of fat quarters).

The beauty of working with bundles of precut fabrics is that they are coordinated by color or theme or designer collection and all the fabrics work well with each. Mix and match as you like. You really can’t go wrong. And sewing with precuts is really easy - lots of straight sewing. All the projects in my book utilize the standard sizes of precuts so you can get started right away with very little time spent cutting fabric (not everyone’s favorite part of any sewing project).




Elaine Schmidt



The projects in this book are perfect for a new sewist as well as someone who has been sewing for awhile. They all are constructed with very basic sewing techniques. Anyone who makes quilts and wants to do something new with their stash of precuts will find inspiration. So next time you can’t resist buying those beautiful bundles at the quilt store, know that there is a lot you can make with them, other than your beautiful quilts.

Editor's Note: Tell us why you love to sew with precuts and we will select on random commentator to win a copy of Elaine's book along with a set of precut bundles so you can get creative the minute you win. Winner will be drawn on Monday, February 18.  



What is your New Year's Sewig Resolution? Tell Sew4Home.com and win!

Over the past four weeks we did a series with Sew4Home featuring Ten Collctions and Ten Designers.  Now, there will be TEN WINNERS!  At stake, for those who choose to participate, is 10 yards of fabric for each winner.  We, along with Sew4Home, are offering 100 yards of fabric for the taking.  The fabric represents the twelve projects featured during the series.  Some of the collections are shown here.

Sew4Home.com will randomly select 10 winners posted on the Giveaway story, click here, as well as the other articles within this 4-week series. The first two drawn names will be the "first place" and "second place" winners; these two lucky ducks will get a mystery grab bag of 10 yards of fabric plus an 18-spool thread gift box courtesy of Coats & Clark. The remaining eight winners will each get just (Ha!!! JUST!!!!) the ten yards of fabric.

Click here to read the details on how to enter to win.  TEN people will be randomly selected from everyone who posts a qualifying comment on one or more of the twelve 10 Designers & 10 Collections project articles as of midnight PT February 28, 2013. No purchase necessary to enter. Void where prohibited.

A LOVE-ly Valentine's Tutorial!

Are you going to be having a romantic dinner at home for Valentine's Day and need to spruce up your table a bit? Well here is the perfect tutorial! Ok, maybe you aren't having a romantic dinner but want to spruce up that table anyway :) or you want to make a sweet gift for a friend! Below is a quick and easy tutorial that is very unique and will go well in any home. The fabric is featuring Tanya Whelan's, Petal Collection-Sewn and Designed by Melissa at 100BillionStars. So go on, sew with love!

Click Photo for Tutorial