A Crafty Fox |

This Little Foxy Went to Market

acraftyfox — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:16 +0000

…and now she’s home. And after 11 loads of laundry and a good scrub of my floors from a week away, I’m ready to share all of my pretty pictures with you. I hope you are as excited as I am to go through these. There was so much pretty fabric to look at and I’ll just share the highlights here. There is quite a lot more in my flickr photostream and even more in my instagram photostream.

Let’s start with the fabulous Tula Pink. Acacia is GORGEOUS.

These photos didn’t need any kind of retouching. This line really is that ‘glowy’ if that’s a word. Our little shop will be hosting a block of the month for that butterfly quilt. Kits will be available for preorder soon-ish (July maybe?) This line is set to be released the second week of September.

And here is her royal fabulous-ness in full butterfly mode. I love that she doesn’t take herself too seriously

Free Spirit is going to be offering precut kits for this quilt (the one that looks a little like my starflower quilt). Each fabric piece will be laser cut with a 3/8″ seam allowance and the papers for paper piecing will be included. If you like paper piecing, this will be such a great way to purchase your fabric!

Heather Bailey had a lot of new embroidery patterns. And a giant embroidered bird.

It was huge. Heather is such a rock star. Her new fabric line ‘Lottie Da’ is still hush-hush, but she let me peek at some paper samples. I think Heather Bailey fans will be really really happy with her new release!

(This bird is so cool!)

Jumping over to Windham, there are so many great new fabric designers that I am excited to get to know! Carrie Blomston of Such Designs is releasing her Collage collection.

This is a really inspiring fabric range and her booth was stunning. Mr. Fox is not a maker (yet!) but he said that he would like to learn to make this quilt when Collage arrives.

(Those are Carrie’s feet. You’ll have to take my word for it, but she is adorable!)
This line will be arriving in our little shop in July. What will you make with it?

Across the aisle from Carrie was Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew fame. The quilts in Allison’s booth are always inspiring, but I am really loving her color choices for her new ‘Wallflowers’ range.

I’m always excited to see pattern designers I love design fabric. Wouldn’t it be amazing to design the fabric for the quilts you make? And you can tell that Allison had a plan for these because her new quilt patterns are absolutely glowing with this pretty red, yellow, navy and grey color palette.

And last up for today, Briar Rose. I have a few more pictures of this booth, but I haven’t had a chance to pull them off of the camera. Suffice it to say, I think that Heather is really proud of it And she should be. The colors glow, the motifs are gorgeous, and the strawberries, well, they are basically perfect.

We were really excited to be able to get a few fat quarter bundles of Briar Rose from Sample Spree. Since we have had quite a few people preorder the line from us, we thought it would be fun to make a few people’s day. All Briar Rose preorders for Fat Quarter Bundles placed before the end of the month will be placed in a drawing and three lucky winners will have their bundles shipped on June 1st. So if you’ve been thinking of pre-ordering, there won’t be a better time! We do expect that we will have plenty of Briar Rose to go around, so if pre-ordering isn’t in the cards, don’t worry, we’ll make sure we have some when the line arrives!

I’ll see you all tomorrow with a run through of exciting upcoming lines from Moda (the return of the American Jane tape measures! Rain drops from Kate Spain! Scrumptious!) and all the pictures you ever wanted of Charlie Harper art on fabric.

See you soon!

We Have A Winner

acraftyfox — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:37:40 +0000

So, I consulted the random generator tonight and my winner is Alisa with lucky number 174!

I’ll send Alisa an email and send this little bundle off to her as soon as I hear back

We’ll be announcing a second winner for our newsletter subscribers in our next newsletter. Thanks so much to everyone who signed up (and everyone who entered our giveaway here and on Facebook )

And since I have had requests for fabric announcements here on the blog, specifically our ‘Inside Voices’ low volume bundles, I thought I would mention that we released our fourth Inside Voices bundle this week and it has flown off the shelves. This one has me really ready for summer!

We also added a black bundle and a navy blue bundle to our line up since I needed to add a bit of both of those to my stash.

Spring Quilt Market Preview

acraftyfox — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:04:05 +0000

With Spring Quilt Market just a week away, I thought I would share a little preview of a few things I’m excited to see all sewn up. Quilt market is always really inspiring to me and I find I come home itching to sew and create and try new things. I love that feeling!

Sarah Jane has an adorable new line called ‘Let’s Pretend’. I have loved her previous two lines and this one made me almost giddy when I saw the swatches.

Those empty picture frames give me so many ideas. I almost snatched them from my sales rep!

Michael Miller has these amazing new basics (Designed by Emily Herrick) that got my brain turning. They remind me of some of my favorite fabrics, but are such a fresh take on them. They’ll be in our little shop later this month

FreeSpirit is (finally!) reprinting some very hard to find and out of print fabrics from Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner. Both will be released in July and I will be so glad to see them again. French wallpaper in duck egg was one of the first fabrics I ever fell in love with

And the return of the climbing roses couldn’t come soon enough. All of these are on quilting weight cotton

Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew has her first fabric range coming out. Have you seen the adorable quilts she’s made from them? I’m excited to see more of these!

And of course, there is the new Tula Pink Acacia range which will be released in September. This color palatte is a bright interpretation of fall plums and spruce. I’m really excited to see what Tula has already made with these. (and what the backs of the quilts look like, too!)

So, that is a really quick overview of what I’m looking forward to. Do you have any lines that you can’t wait for? Any picture requests? Let me know in the comments and I’ll make sure to snap some and share them here

You can tune back in this time next week for the first in my series of quilt market posts

Thanks for reading along!

Pay It Forward 2013 Finishes!

acraftyfox — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:15:13 +0000

If you were following me a few months ago, you may have seen the pay it forward post I did here on my little blog. Last week we had a little extra time and I made a few of these cute little snap clutches. I mailed most of them off on Monday and I really hope the recipients are happy with them. I can’t really pick a favorite.

One of them (the little purple hex bee from Briar Rose) is for my giveaway and I made a couple of doubles that I haven’t decided what to do with. I cut into the Collage bundle I received the other day. This fabric just makes me happy.

For those who’ve asked for a how-to, I learned to make them from Kelly during Sewing Summit last year. I think we should all bug Kelly into writing a tutorial for us, what do you think?

Just as a warning, they are addicting!

Starflower: A New Quilt Top (and Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!)

acraftyfox — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:14:46 +0000

I finished piecing my star flower quilt Sunday night and I am really happy with how it turned out. I hurried outside for a picture before it started to rain a bit, so please forgive the unpressed, mostly finished quilt pictures.

I was thinking of making a pattern for this, but I’ve had so many requests, I’m thinking I’ll do a quilt along as soon as the fabric is released. Would you be up for that? Anyone want to join me?

If you are interested, our little shop has pre-orders set up for the Briar Rose range including similar solids to what I used that would be perfect to make this not-so-little quitl for yourself. You can find those here (and if you purchase anything else, we’ll ship available items now and offer free shipping for the pre-ordered bundle)

This is my favorite little block

It is kind of my tribute to the original quilt.

And I had a little time to stitch up some clutch purses and I am offering this little bumble bee for my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway. I love giveaway day and I LOVE giving things away!

I’m going to fill it with all sorts of delicious scraps and a charm pack of 19 prints from the Briar Rose range.

I am happy to ship anywhere that the sun shines

The Rules:
Step 1: Just leave me a comment with your favorite fabric designer or line.
Step 2: Our little shop has started a little bi-weekly newsletter so we can keep our customers and fans up to date with the exciting new arrivals we have coming. You’ll also be the first to find out about sales, specials, and scrap bundles when we list them. For the second entry, sign up for our newsletter (thank you!)

I’ll pick a winner on Friday. Who knows, maybe I’ll pick two

PS: I may be starting a really fun giveaway on my facebook page in the next day or so. Keep an eye out for it by ‘liking’ me here

A Glimma of Spring

acraftyfox — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:50:38 +0000

If you’ve been following along for the last month or so, you might remember that I made this cute little quilt from a couple charm packs of Glimma. When cutting the Triangles, I ended up with a lot of scraps that were big enough to save, but pretty small to use. But Glimma is so pretty, I couldn’t bear to throw them away!

So, I trimmed the pieces down into squares and made up this mosaic-y pillow. I would say patchwork, but the squares are nowhere near perfectly lined up. And in the end, I kind of liked the result better than practically perfect patchwork.

From the minute I cut the squares from scraps, I knew that this pillow was meant for a certain person. Now that it has arrived at its new home, I’m so glad to get to share it here.

I really love how fresh and springy it is. The colors in this line are really bright and pretty, which is probably why I have spent so much of my last couple of weeks cutting it and shipping it around the world. (If you haven’t already ordered yours, you can find it in our little shop here)

I also took a picture of the back of the pillow before sewing the actually back flap on. The quilting turned out better than I expected, so I had to document it!

Today, I am going to go try and finish a BUNCH of random works in progress that only have one or two little things that need finishing to move them into my finished projects category. What are you going to be up to?

Briar Rose

acraftyfox — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:15:45 +0000

When I was little, I was pretty much smitten with Sleeping Beauty. Especially with Sleeping Beauty as Briar Rose. So when I heard that is what Heather Ross was calling her new line of fabric for Windham, I was really intrigued.

So when this surprise arrived on my doorstep on Friday from Windham fabrics, I couldn’t believe it. I folded, refolded, petted, arranged and played with pattern ideas in my head. I wanted something classic, but modern at the same time. This line has a gorgeous blend of bright, cheery colors and sweet whimsical animals. Pretty much exactly what made me fall in love with Heather Ross to begin with.

After seeing this amazing vintage quilt over at Amy a la Mode I knew I had to make that work.

I am squealing with delight at how this is turning out. I really really love it.

So I’ve dropped pretty much everything else and I am obsessed with sewing these together. I love when things turn out just like I imagine them in my head!

Details:
Fabric is the Soon-to-be release ‘Briar Rose’ range from Windham fabrics. We’ll be taking reservations for these bundles starting very soon!
Pattern is my own based on a vintage quilt. I think it may be called ‘not your grandmother’s flower garden’.
Size: It will finish about 72″ x 58″ (twin sized, roughly)

Sharing is Caring

acraftyfox — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:24:29 +0000

This is a post I have been wanting to do for a little while. I really love writing patterns and sharing them in this space. The first time I wrote a tutorial (for this pillow:)

I was pretty sure no one would ever make it. But I was so excited with how fun it had been to make, I wrote it down (and I’m glad I did – I would have forgotten it!)

So when this pretty pillow from Darcy popped up on flickr, I was over the moon!

And then this one appeared (from my mom ) and I thought how much fun it was to see the same pattern reinterpreted in a new way!

And since then, I have LOVED seeing all the new possibilities pop up on Flickr and Instagram.

Here are a few more, made from tutorials from this little blog or from fabric from our etsy shop.

*Chevra-Hexa-Gon* quilt from Tracey at Swell Sewing

And this great ‘Show Off’ Pillow from Meg (who has some great stuff in her flickr stream!)

And this amazing way to use Mirror Ball Dots (this is the round and round pattern by Camille at Thimbleblossoms) made by my friend Linda (sunflowergirlsquilt on Instagram)

Thanks, Ladies, for sharing your creations! They make me want to keep creating!

And, if you find yourself using any of the tutorials on this blog, I’d love it if you added them to the A Crafty Fox flickr group so I can see them (and maybe share them?)

Happy Friday All!!!

Obsessed With Anna Maria

acraftyfox — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:45:32 +0000

This week, I have a few finished projects to show off and I can’t wait! My mom came into town last week for my little sister’s college graduation (congrats, little sis!) and spent the week helping out around my house and my shop. We made a month’s worth of freezer meals, did about 2,348,961 loads of laundry (and folded it!) and she even let me sneak in some sewing time on Saturday. I just wish she lived closer!

On Friday Night, I handed her this little stack of Anna Maria Horner linens. I am kind of obsessed with these and wanted to make something with them the minute they arrived in my shop. I’ve had the multi-tasker tote pattern since I saw Anna Maria’s sample made up in LouLouThi at Quilt Market in Salt Lake.
With a couple extra hands to play with my children, this pattern went together in just a few hours. It is clear, well written, and everything went together just the way it was supposed to. In other words, totally worth the money.

The reason I chose this pattern is the awesome outer pockets and the way this shows off a huge print. Like the ‘Ghost Wing‘ print from the new Field Study Linens. And I had to have something that showed off these feathers.

I love love how it turned out. And I love how the linens stitch up. They are really soft and pliable, but thicker than traditional quilting cotton so the bag has an amazing heft to it. It feels professional.

If you’ve been thinking about trying this pattern, I would say just go step by step and trust it. It all turns out perfect in the end

And here’s a little sneak peek of the next quilt I’m working on. I’m so so in love with Shelburne Falls. I didn’t think I’d love it when it first arrived, but now I can’t wait for this to be a new summery quilt!

Aiden’s Stars: A Finished Quilt

acraftyfox — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:14:23 +0000

One of my favorite things to do is to curate fabric bundles. I love how really different fabrics can come together and be more than just themselves. Not too long ago, a sweet customer asked me to give her an idea of how to use the olive Marth Negley feathers for a boy quilt.

This little bundle languished on my counter for a few weeks until the right idea came along. I pulled a few fabrics out and added a few gold and yellows to really bring the quilt to life. I love it to pieces.

(Gratuitous baby shot)

I used my Samurai Stars tutorial and varied the centers so that some stars had hour glasses and some had solid centers.

Here’s the finished project.

Yay for another finish in 2013!