Category Archives: Etsy

The Latest Updates at Needle & Foot

Hi Everyone! I want to share a change I am implementing at my shop. I have had so many issues with trying to properly list my products and use the shipping tools provided by Etsy. I think the tools are great for sellers who usually receive orders for one item at a time. With an order for just one item, the postage is calculated based on the region the item is being shipped to and the weight of the item. This means if I receive an order for a yard of fabric, the shipping is calculated accurately for my customer.

The problem occurs when a customer orders a list of different things. If an order is made for 2 yards of one fabric, a yard of another fabric, and a bundle of fat quarters, the shipping is invariably over-charged (by quite a bit). Many of you have been very loyal customers since I started stocking the shop with quilting fabrics (which I am oh so grateful for!!) Those of you who have ordered a number of items on one order know about this issue and also know that I refund the shipping overages to you. As time has gone on, the shop has grown and my order rate has become nice and steady. At this point, I find I am spending a bit of time refunding shipping overages and sending notes to customers explaining why they were overcharged for shipping. It has become tedious and time consuming.

Flat Rate Shipping, Only $6.99!

After thinking about this for a while, I have found a solution! All orders at the shop will now be charged a flat rate of $6.99 for shipping. Any order, no matter how many items – one fee, $6.99. This means customers ordering a number of items, regardless of the weight of the items will only pay $6.99. I will happily cover the rest of the shipping expense. Coming to this decision was difficult. I have been looking at the order rate and the number of orders I had to refund shipping on. As that number grew, it just made sense to streamline things.

Another factor that drove this decision is that I realized I was losing sales because of the mis-quoted shipping charges. If a customer shopped and put a number of items in her cart, the shipping quote would be for $14 or $15. In fact, just two weeks ago, a customer wrote to me asking if this was the correct shipping charge. I explained the situation and reassured the person I would refund the overage once I packed their order for shipping. However, the person ended up shopping elsewhere. I understand that. She isn’t familiar with me and has no reason to trust I will actually refund the extra $9.00 she was going to have to pay at checkout.

Over the past months I have tried to work with the tools Etsy provides. Don’t get me wrong. I am a very happy Etsy seller. Etsy provides a great way for me to own and run my business. I believe the problem lies with the variety of items that are combined on any one order I receive. With flat rate shipping the transactions will happen smoothly and for my shoppers who need to order a number of things at one time, it will actually make shipping less expensive. Any order of two and one-half yards or more will usually weigh over one pound. This means it needs to be sent flat rate for the best shipping cost. At this point, shipping is charged at $7.10 for the padded flat rate envelopes I use to ship orders.

What if I Only Need a 1/2 Yard Cut?

I realize this flat rate shipping charge isn’t the best option for the person who chooses to order a 1/2 yard of fabric or a couple of fat quarters. Don’t worry! I have figured out a solution for this too. I will have two listings available for purchase. There will be a listing for a generic fat quarter. On that item, you will be able to leave a note telling me which fat quarter(s) you need. That listing will use the regular shipping calculation and my customer won’t have to pay $6.99 for shipping one or two fat quarters. Similarly, I have a listing for a generic 1/2 yard cut. Again, the customer will tell me which fabric they need a 1/2 yard of and the shipping will be charged accordingly. To find these listings, you can type “fat quarter listing” or “1/2 yard listing” in the search box and they will come up for you.

It is my hope I have considered the variety of needs you, my customers, might have. But as always, I want to hear your thoughts! Please let me know what you think of this policy change. Did I explain it clearly? If you have questions, feel free to ask. When one reader has a question, it is highly likely others are wondering the same thing. Please ask!

Having this shop over the past 18 months has been a blast. You are all the greatest and I am so appreciative of you. Thanks so much. Hard to believe but the fourth anniversary of my blog is June 4th. That seems reason enough to celebrate, doesn’t it? Come back in a few days and we will have a party!

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March Blogger Bundle by Yvonne Fuchs, Quilting Jetgirl

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Yesterday was the first day of spring though for much of the country it doesn’t feel like it. Today I want to provide a glimpse of spring with this month’s Blogger Bundle. Curated by my friend, Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl, this bright, cheerful bundle is filled with vivid color. On the off chance you aren’t familiar with Yvonne, she is a blogger, modern quilter and pattern designer who lives in Southern California with her husband and Puppy the cat. I met her several years ago and since then she has been a constant source of information and inspiration to me and her many readers. She is involved with the Quilters Planner, was a leader in the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop for several years, and is actively involved with the Modern Quilt Guild. All that being said, the most valuable facet of Yvonne’s work is her effort to build community within both the quilter’s on-line and ‘in-person’ communities. I greatly appreciate how Yvonne tirelessly supports each of these.

Let’s look at the bundle she curated! It contains fabric from across lines in shades of pink, yellow and green. There is a delightful ‘rainbow’ component to this selection which includes pieces fro Art Gallery Fabrics, Windham Fabrics and Henry Glass Fabrics. Yvonne chose to use pieces designed by Maureen Cracknell, Carrie Bloomston (one of my all time favorite designers), Kim Diehl and Dana Willard.

As usual for me, the bundle surprised me. I can totally see putting the pink arrows with the two rainbow fabrics. But when she added the cheddar yellow (from Maureen Cracknell’s Garden Dreamer, and the grassy green and rich rust fabrics from Bloomston’s Dreamer line, the collection became richer and more sophisticated. I was pleasantly surprised by this. Each month, working with these quilters, watching them pull colors together, I learn more and more.

For more information, please click here to read Yvonne’s Blogger Bundle post. She has one bundle to share with a luck winner too! As before, this bundle is available in my shop and is on sale today through Friday. (One thing to note: I am leaving Friday night for a week with my son and his family. So orders placed before 3pm on Friday will ship by Friday afternoon. Orders placed after that will wait until my return and will ship on Monday, April 2nd. If you have questions, email me at [email protected] or leave them in the comments.

Thank you to Yvonne for creating this pretty bundle and brightening our day with it. It will no doubt add color to many quilter’s stash!

Blogger Bundle – Kitty Wilkins of Night Quilter

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This month I am excited to share a new blogger bundle with you! It was curated by Kitty Wilkins, blogger, quilter and incredible photographer. Be sure to check out her work at Night Quilter. I first got to know Kitty when she and Stephanie Palmer (Late Night Quilter) teamed up and created the very popular Facebook group, Late Night Quilters. Kitty was also one of the bloggers who supported the grand opening of my fabric shop last March. She is a very talented person and I was so pleased when she agreed to create the blogger bundle for February.

I knew I was in for a treat when Kitty emailed me with a suggested bundle. She pulled fabric from several different lines. I believe her starting point was Tartan Field Midnight from the Bountiful line designed by Sharon Holland for Art Gallery Fabric. She built from here and added two more Art Gallery pieces, Twinkle Star Berry and Sashiko Florette in Teal. I was really surprised to see the tiny orange stars twinkling across Twinkle Star Berry are the perfect match to the orange in the Tartan Field Midnight. I had no doubt about Kitty’s skill with color but yikes! These pieces are really complementary. Then she added a light blue Color Weave by PB Textiles. This blue works great with Tartan Field. Go Kitty! Finally, she chose a piece by Alison Glass (Knowing what a fan Kitty is of Alison’s fabric, I was not at all surprised to see her pull from this line.) The green fabric is called Numbered (in Grasshopper) and it works wonderfully with Tartan Field.

Kitty knocked this one out of the park. I love the choices she made. This is such a great learning experience for me. I am enjoying talking about color and fabric each month as the blogger groups pieces together that I may not have thought to put together.

Kitty has more to say about her choices with this bundle. Please click here to read more about this bundle of color. Also, she has a bundle to give away to one lucky winner. You’ll need to check her post out to learn how to enter.

Finally, this Blogger Bundle is available beginning today in my shop. It is on sale for 20% off through Saturday, February 24th. No coupon code needed, the price is adjusted for you. Come over and take a look.

I hope you are enjoying the blogger bundle posts each month. You are in for a treat in March when I share the bundle curated by Yvonne Fuchs, of Quilting Jetgirl! See you then.

Blogger Bundle – Sarah Goer Quilts

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I am really excited to share my first Blogger Bundle with you! For the past couple of months I have been working with a group of awesome quilt bloggers. They will be curating bundles of fabric from my shop for me and I will offer these as both fat quarter and half-yard bundles. It has been a really fun experience for me and I am learning!! There is always something new to be learned, isn’t there?

This month’s bundle was curated by Sarah Goer. She writes at Sarah Goer Quilts. A stay-at-home mom of two school age children, Sarah has a passion for fabric, color and quilting. She has (already!) taught her two young kiddos to quilt and they will have a quilt hanging at QuiltCon next month. Sarah and I became acquainted several years ago when we both were starting our blogs. Since then, we have worked together on several different projects; the most recent of which was when I pattern tested her new Scattered Squares pattern. I really admire Sarah’s use of color. Her newsletters always contain a few fresh palettes to inspire the reader. I enjoy seeing the suggested colors she offers up.

When she agreed to put a bundle together, I knew I would like it! Honestly, this experience has been so interesting. I am in my shop each day working with these fabrics; cutting orders and shipping them off to customers. But seeing the collections that someone else puts together reminds me that there are endless combinations to be made with those yummy bolts I have downstairs!

Sarah chose a grouping of teal blue, gray, navy blue and yellow. I was surprised there was no purple in the bundle as that is often a go-to color for Sarah. 🙂

But this bundle works! It is really vibrant and bright! This collection includes the following:

Terra Firma Sunlit – from Maureen Cracknell’s Garden Dreamer line
Dots in Gray from Red Rooster’s Basically Low line
Atomic Web from Michael Miller’s Sassy Cat line
Sashiko Florette in Teal from BariJ’s Wild Bloom line
Frogland Friends Coordinate by Henry Glass

What do you think of this bundle? I am curious to hear your opinions. Also, Sarah has a post up today talking about our project and she even has a bundle to give away to a lucky reader. Hop over and take a peek. Maybe this is your lucky day?

Of course the bundle is also offered in my shop. It will be on sale today and tomorrow only, for 20% off!! (No coupon code needed.) Prices go back to normal on Friday!

Black Friday Fabric Sale!

Winter Friends Christmas Stockings

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While visiting my son, daughter in law, and grand baby in Vermont last month we talked about the holidays. This is the first Christmas we will be apart. My daughter in law is working her second year of her residency as a radiologist. Apparently the second year residents don’t have the best work schedule. She is working over Thanksgiving and Christmas both. So the three of them will be celebrating holidays in between her shifts at the hospital. Such is the life of a new doctor.

Always ones to look at the bright side, my son and DIL are kind of excited about Christmas though. Because they have always traveled to California for Christmas since they married in 2010, they have never had their own Christmas tree or stockings. They have an 8 month old daughter and it is time to begin their own family Christmas traditions. When my DIL asked me to make them stockings I was so pleased. What a fun project to tackle. I showed her pictures of the fabrics I have in my shop and she chose the Winter Friends line by PB Textiles. This is so perfect since they are a very outdoorsy family living in Vermont. What better theme than woodland creatures, Christmas trees and snowmen?

I was looking around on Pinterest for inspiration when I asked the kids what they had in mind. They said to make them coordinate with the set of fabrics but to make each stocking with a different design. So this is exactly what I set out to do!

First I wanted a template for the size of the stocking. I remembered I had an old pattern from Simplicity that was designed by Eleanor Burns (of Quilt In a Day fame.) The size of the stocking wasn’t exactly right but it was enough to get me going. I cut stocking shapes from batting and that is what I quilted my piece work to. From there I looked for ideas on line. I found this tutorial by Amy Smart (Diary of a Quilter) and liked the idea of doing a ‘quilt as you go’ strip pieced design for one of the stockings. Beyond that, I thought I would do a basic patchwork design and just go from there.

The strip pieced QAYG stocking was a breeze. It came together easily. This was the first stocking and I did use a few strips from other Christmas fabric scraps. I kind of wish I had not done that because for the next two stockings I stuck with just the five Winter Friends prints. Not a huge deal though. For the QAYG process, I cut random width strips and sewed one on top of the other beginning in the middle and working out to both the top and bottom. Once the strips were sewn to the batting I trimmed to the stocking shape.

What originally got me wanting to add other pieces was this bit of text saying “the stockings were hung” which I thought cute to include. It looks cute and the colors match well enough so I left it as is.

For the next two stockings I made rows of patchwork which I then used for the stocking front in the same QAYG fashion. I fussy cut the blocks featuring the larger snowmen, deer, woodland animals, and Christmas trees. These were alternated with 2 1/2″ squares of the other prints. I love the way the patchwork looks when set on point. This is my favorite of the stockings.

The second patchwork stocking is also really sweet. I made little four patch blocks, fussy cutting the squirrels and hedge hogs to be used with the green snowflake print and the plaid print. The four-patch squares are a little wonky but I am calling that a charming design feature. 😉

I sewed a curved piece of a cross hatch neutral fabric over the toe of each stocking to make it look sock-like. I also embroidered a line of stitching to decorate it a bit more. The toe pieces were hand cut so each one is different from the next.

The back side of each stocking is made with the larger print. This decision was made purely out of laziness. I had enough of this fabric in the sewing room at the time and would have had to walk all the way downstairs to grab more fabric if I chose a different one. How lazy can a quilter get???

I don’t know what the kids plan as far as family size but for now they have three stockings made. I set aside enough fabric to be able to make two more stockings should the family grow! I might not have exactly enough but they will still match the original stockings well enough. I am really happy with the stockings and hope the kids use them for many years to come.

In celebration of the upcoming holiday season, I have put all of the holiday fabric in my shop on sale for the weekend. Use code HOLIDAYFABRIC25 to receive 25% off any of the Christmas fabrics listed. I hope you will take advantage of this great sale which will run through end of day on Sunday, November 19th. Orders will ship out first thing Monday morning so you will have your fabric in plenty of time to do some holiday sewing!

I am linking up with my favorite linky parties. For more information, click on Link Ups at the top of the page.

Ferrari Handmade – Grand Opening Celebration

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Today I have something really fun to share with you. This week my sister Patti is celebrating the grand opening of her shop, Ferrari Handmade!! She has been working incredibly hard on this for several months now and she is ready to invite you to come and browse her shop.

Let me take a few minutes to introduce you to Patti. Of the six of us sisters, she is number three and I am number four which means…. yes, she is older than me. I will admit this gives me satisfaction in a sort of unhealthy way. It is readily apparent in the photo above. I am the baby and she is to the right of me — even at this age, she is clearly older and wiser than I. (I love this picture – two more girls were born not long after this.)

Patti and I shared a bedroom growing up and we fought constantly. Like, really and truly — all the time. Funny how once you live apart you miss the person that drove you nuts for so long. We would love to live near each other again. We share a love of sewing and we both took sewing classes from Mrs. Handley back in high school. She haunts us somewhat and if we have a sewing mistake or a major project fail, we will say “Mrs. Handley would be so disappointed.” (I wrote about Mrs. Handley a long while back if you want to hear more about our esteemed sewing teacher.) Yes, Patti and I have been sewing a long while now.

We both made lots of our clothes during high school (remember, my father owned a fabric store so we had ‘easy access’.). Not long after high school, Patti moved to Southern California, married and started her family. (Click here for a post about the bridal gown she made for her wedding.)

Once Patti started having children, her sewing changed a bit and she began sewing for her kids. She has a five children, three girls and two boys. One of the things Patti really enjoyed was making costumes for her children. Her girls were very involved in theater when they were in high school and she made costumes for them.

Maria playing the part of Tina Denmark, in the play “Ruthless”

As Patti’s kids grew up and began their own families, she shifted her sewing priorities yet again and began to focus on her grand children. Hers are very lucky grand kids because she has made some really fun costumes for them.

When her first grandson, Jack, was just a baby, his mother, Maria (same girl as the one that played Tina Denmark in the costume above) had to speak at Comic Con in Southern California. She asked Patti to make a costume so she could dress him up as Jack-Jack, from the kids’ movie, The Incredible’s.

Last year, two of her grand daughters wanted to dress up as Princess Lolly and Queen Frostine from the kids’ Candyland game. Grandma came through and the girls were adorable.

The older grand daughter (Queen Frostine) had a recent obsession of Veruca Salt, the character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. She was thrilled with this costume from her Grandma.

Am I getting the idea across? She loves to sew and she sews a lot! It came time to think of another way to put her sewing to work for her. Now that her children are out of the house, she has a lot more time. I have written before about how helpful she has been by working the quilt shows with me. As we spent time together preparing for and working the shows, the more she thought about having her own business. She loves creating these wonderful outfits for her kids and wanted to expand on this hobby of hers.

And so it began. Ferrari Handmade came to fruition just days after she decided to open a shop. Once Patti decides to do something, there is no going back. She epitomizes the phrase, “Go big or go home”. She commits and dives in. Patti began researching fabrics and selecting designs and creating dresses. She had a soft opening at the last quilt show we worked and she was quite successful. She sold a number of dresses and little tote bags and took home orders for custom work.

She has been sewing fiend over the past weeks.

She is lucky to have a great studio to work in. I may be a wee bit envious. Ok, yes, I am envious – it is a lovely space. (Real life crafting comment though…. she made me promise to tell you it never looks this clean. She wasn’t ready to go public with a picture of a messy space just yet.) 😉

Her inventory grows daily as does her selection in her Etsy shop. Right now she is focused on creating a dress in each of the fabrics she has on the shelf. She is making sizes 2T through girl’s size 8. I really like the system she utilizes for stocking her shop. She lists at least one finished dress which the customer is welcome to order, or the customer can place an order for that dress in a size that works for her child. Patti will take the order and ship the dress within five business days (though she is usually faster than that– she does not seem to require very much sleep.)

I think one factor setting Patti’s product apart from others, is her use of trim work and unique accents. Most of her dresses have piping accents at the sleeve, bodice or neckline and many have ruffles or under skirts in coordinating fabric.

Her fabric selections are the perfect combination of pretty and practical. She uses quality cottons which are easily washed, so her dresses are beautiful but also practical for children; ready to be worn and played in.

Of all she has made for this season, this is my favorite.

I love the dark blue celestial pattern with that bit of gold trim peeking out at the sleeve and from the hem of the lining.

How about these snowmen on blue – it is great for the holidays but could easily be worn all through the winter months.

This dress features snowflakes on a deep red background. I should note that Patti uses a very generous hem so these can be worn for a long while before the child out grows the dress.

This sweet holiday dress has a rustic feel to it. Patti chose a print featuring Christmas ornaments decorating a background of pine. I love the bias strip of plaid she used to accent the bottom of the dress.

Handmade doll dresses to match your little one’s dress.

One more thing I have to show you. Patti also makes doll dresses that fit American Girl Dolls, or other dolls that are 18 inches tall. I love this!! How fun to surprise your little one with a matching dress for her doll. If you are shopping and select a dress for your special girl, you can also order a matching dress. She has some in stock but will happily take orders for others to match the dress you are purchasing.

Hopefully you now have an idea of the style and excellent quality of the items made by Ferrari Handmade. Because so many of you either have children or grandchildren, or a special child in your life, I know you will be happy to hear Patti is offering a custom dress to one lucky winner. To enter the giveaway, you need to do two things. First hop over to her shop and take a peek at the dresses she has listed so far. Come back and comment here to tell us which dress is your favorite. (Hoping this will provide some input on the fabric choices she is using and then she can plan accordingly.) The other requirement is to either like her Etsy shop so you can keep track of what she is offering, or to follow @ferrarihandmade on Instagram. Either way, you will then be able to hear about any promotions or new product that might be available in her shop. So, you have two simple tasks to complete and you may win a lovely handmade dress for your special girl.

Additionally, readers can use the coupon code GRANDOPENING20 to receive 20% off any orders at Ferrari Handmade. This coupon is valid through the end of day on October 10th. Definitely a great deal on a gorgeous gift for a little one.

Thank you for taking part in this celebration of Ferrari Handmade. I am so proud of my sister and the work she has done to get this up and running. If you feel so inclined, please share the news of her shop with any of your friends who might appreciate Patti’s work. It takes a village and I love the way our community supports each other! Good luck with the giveaway!

Sewcial Bee Sampler Quilt Top

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This week didn’t go quite as planned. But I have learned to be flexible because my week rarely goes as planned. I had scheduled time to quilt Sam’s jersey quilt at the long arm shop but this plan was derailed by a migraine. Fortunately, the woman running the shop is very flexible and was able to reschedule me to Thursday of next week. Hopefully, that will work out for me as I am really looking forward to quilting it.

After a day of recuperating, I pulled out my blocks made with the Sewcial Bee Sampler during the spring and summer. I loved this QAL which was hosted by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland. For the majority of my blocks I used scraps of Fleet and Flourish (designed by Maureen) and solids from my stash. Toward the end though, I added in a bit of Garden Dreamer and one scrap from Alison Glass because I was really running out of Fleet and Flourish. Thankfully, these all worked well together.

Somehow time got away from me toward the end of the quilt along and I completed only 20 of the 25 blocks designed for the quilt. I pulled out the blocks, looked them over and decided that 20 blocks was plenty. These are 12 inch blocks and there is sashing, so the quilt makes a generous lap size. Even without the last five blocks, it finished at 58″ x 72″. I love these blocks and wanted to finish this one up.

I used Mesh Joy, from Sharon Holland’s Gossamer line for the sashing. This low value print is a huge favorite of mine. Actually, it is a favorite of many which was made clear by how quickly I sold out of two full bolts of it. The colors and grid like print are really soft and work with so many colors. I am please by the way it enhances my blocks. Between the colors, Maureen’s fabrics, the sashing and the block design, I am thrilled with this quilt top. Samplers are a favorite of mine, second only to basic, simple patchwork. It is fun to see the varied design of the blocks, some with large chunky shapes and others with smaller, detailed designs. Sashing is a life saver for me as I am not a precise quilter. With sashing, I know my less than perfectly pieced blocks won’t need to line up corner to corner.

I think I will try quilting this project at the long arm shop too. I want to do a loose all-over pattern so it is soft and cozy. It is second in line, after Sam’s jersey quilt.

Chemex cozies for my shop

Besides finishing up the Sewcial Bee quilt top, I have been making Chemex Cozies for my shop. It is getting to be the time of year for holiday shopping (I know, it is still 80 degrees outside and fall has barely begun!) so I need replenish stock in my shop. It has been fun to shop my own store for fabric to make these.

With holiday shopping around the corner, my shop will become busier than usual. I need to look at the sewing I hope to accomplish during the last part of the year and prioritize. My personal sewing tends to be less during this time as my Etsy projects and holiday gift sewing increases. I had planned to take part in the Wayward Transparency QAL hosted by Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl. I love the pattern she created for the event, so much so that I am sponsoring the event with a giveaway prize. However, this isn’t the right time for me to begin another quilt. If you haven’t looked at this event yet, I highly recommend it. The pattern is really cool and the transparency effect is striking. The QAL for this striking lap size quilt has barely begun with fabric selection happening now.

Julia and I are heading up to Apple Hill this weekend. About an hour’s drive from here, there are lots of you-pick places, yummy Apple Cider donuts, pumpkins and all things autumnal. I am looking forward to spending the day with her out and about. I hope you have something fun planned for this weekend too!

Be sure to stop by next week. I have a fun post and giveaway to share on Tuesday!

Linking to my favorite places. Please check out the links at the top of the page, under Link Ups. See you back here next week!

Wednesday WIP Update

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Yesterday I thought it was Wednesday. All day long – I even took the trash can up for pick up (which happens early Thursday morning). Guess what? It was Tuesday. So it is like I gained an extra day this week! I need to organize myself so I use the extra day wisely!!

At the moment, I have three quilts actively in process.

The Sewcial Bee Sampler hosted by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland. It is week 23 for the sew along but I am behind by four blocks. Once I get behind on something, it is hard for me to pick it back up and focus on it. I will try to get some of these blocks done though. I really like the first 18 or so that I have made and I look forward to laying them out and looking at the overall quilt.

The floral and cream quilt (Twisted) that I started in a class at the beginning of June. I am hoping to get together with my friend Sophia and we are going to work on this one together. I have lots of pieces prepped for chain piecing. This one will come together quickly.

My Ring Me quilt hasn’t been touched since I started it last spring. Remember when I shared this as a part of the blog hop for Amanda Jean Nyberg’s recent book? I love it but I haven’t worked on it for a long while. It is going to have to continue to wait. There is too much going on right now!

I also have two new quilts to start. One is a whole cloth baby quilt for an Etsy customer. She wants a bright and cheerful quilt for her baby girl who is due any day now. I am going to start this one today.

The other is a quilt made of football and baseball jerseys for my nephew, Sam. He is off to college in the fall and wants me to make a quilt with his huge collection of jerseys. I am a little bit nervous because these aren’t knit t-shirts (which I have worked with before). These are made of that silky jersey fabric. I am unsure how I will stabilize the fabric. Also, the logos are all over the place as far as size. Hmmm…. If anyone has any suggestions or if you can point me to an article on this, that would be great!

Along with all of this, I am making some changes with my Etsy shop and how things are organized. I decided to separate the pattern sales from the fabric sales. Both are growing a lot and it makes sense to have two different shops. There are only 15 categories a seller can use in their shop. Splitting these between the fabric and patterns in one shop is becoming difficult. So I am slowly moving the patterns over to the new shop. This is a labor intensive task as there is no way to do it automatically within Etsy. I have to re-list each one and I have hundreds. I try and do a few each day. If you have shopped for patterns with me in the past, the new shop is called Needle and Foot Sews, Vintage and Current Patterns. It would be best to favorite both shops if you want to keep track of the patterns. Hopefully it won’t be too long before this is complete.

I better get to work!! I am going to baste the whole cloth quilt and get it started this morning! Later this week I will be posting the fifth interview in my Meet the Designer series. You will get to know Carrie Bloomston and there is a giveaway involved in this one! Don’t miss it.

If you have not yet signed up for my newsletter, please do! Click here for the sign up form. You will receive an email from me about every 4 – 6 weeks with information on what is new in the shop as well as highlighting any upcoming events or promotions.

Such a Sweet Finish

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I have a finish to share with you this morning! I began this little quilt a couple of months ago when I had the Sweet Tweets fabric (by Kim Schaefer for Andover) in stock. There was a panel fabric with these fun critters and I made both a quilt top and three stuffed blocks out of it (with a few pieces to spare!) I wanted to wait a bit before finishing the quilt though. I sold out of the rainbow stripe that I wanted to use as a border. I knew Kim Schaefer was coming out with a new line that had a similar rainbow stripe and I had it on order for my shop. (Note: I am sold out of the Sweet Tweets panel now and Andover has told me they will not be reprinting any of this line. It is kind of unfortunate because it is such a cute one.)

The new rainbow fabric is from an Andover line called And Z (from the alphabet song… W, X, Y And Z!) It also has a sweet alphabet panel and lots of fun coordinating fabrics, including a new rainbow stripe, which I used as the border on this project. I greatly appreciate when a designer works to make sure successive lines work with the one prior. It makes it much easier to use your stash. Anyway, this rainbow stripe was perfect for the Sweet Tweets quilt border.

Once I had the borders on, it was time to quilt it. There is a whole lot going on with this quilt, cute focal fabric, stripes and dots, and all sorts of color. I thought it best to keep things simple. I outlined the critters with my walking foot which anchored everything down.

Next I free motion quilted large and small loops between the critters. I was using Glide thread in basic white and it was wonderful. I am really impressed with this thread and I need to get a few more colors to have on hand.

For the small row of sashing between the critters and the rainbow stripe border, I quilted a little wavy pattern. Finally when I got to the border, it was time to switch from curves to a boxy motif. (Side note – look how dry the pasture next door to us is…. We have had such a heat wave and the grasses are really dry now. )

For the backing, I used a red stripe given to me by my sister last fall when she was purging her closets. It is perfectly bright and cheerful. The binding was a bit of a decision for me. I posted a photo on Instagram, asking people for input or suggestions. When someone said solid black to frame it off, I agreed. I think this quilt needed a simple binding for the finish.

The back side actually displays the quilting better than the front (as is often the case.

Look at the combination of the blocks and the quilt. This was such a fun way to use this panel fabric.

This quilt finished at 30″ by 38″ which is a nice size for baby. The quilt makes me happy and I am sure it will look cute in a nursery with a baby playing on it. There are so many colors, patterns, and critters to look at!

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Finally here is a heads up on a great promotion over at Craftsy during this long holiday weekend. Might be the perfect time to select a new class for less than $20.00! So many excellent classes are available and once your purchase it you have it forever. What a great way to build your library. (Affiliate post)