Blue Nickel Studios

Technicolor!

admin May 9th, 2013

My friend Emily Herrick sent me this sweet little bundle of fat 1/8’s of Technicolor, her fresh-out-of-the-gate line for Michael Miller Fabrics:

I was thrilled to get them the day I did. I had just had some less-than-best news on two fronts in my life, one of them being my mom’s blood test not being better as we had hoped, the other being some dayjob stuff that wasn’t terrible, but not what I had hoped for. And I had already been feeling somewhat down during Easter week. This package came at the end of a beautiful Easter Saturday. It was like a breath of fresh air.

To be honest, I had seen Technicolor online via an industry preview page, and while I liked it, I was a bit afraid the scale of the prints might be much bigger than I would like. I was delighted to see them in the scale they are! Perfect little blenders! Many “read” solid but aren’t. They are so nice and basic, they will go with Many other lines! A couple of the prints are “two for one” meaning you get two prints at a time….when you buy a half yard of that line, you would get two different fat quarters. Other fabric companies have done this in the past, and I love this concept!! Great if you are on a budget and want just a little bit of both!

Here’s what I have been able to do with them so far.

I made these bags based on Monica’s SUPER Bag pattern found here. I modified her bag by making the sides 1” shorter in length. I love the “tiny” feeling of them. And they make great bags for dolls. I will have to make some more and show you them with Linda’s dolls. I made these for Quilt Market and the Generation Q booth for some giveaways.

I wanted to make up some four patch blocks and just play with them, but I just haven’t had the time….Market is one week away, and I still have to finish three bindings on quilts (no big surprise there!!) and make some more bags and pack…oh, and silly other things like work the dayjob for the next 6 days, and possibly pay some bills….nothing new for the week before Market! Crazy….excited but anxious all at the same time!!

World Tour …….

admin April 17th, 2013

Once again I get to play with David Butler’s newest line for Free Spirit. This one is called World Tour, and yup…it’s his best yet!

The first thing that I noticed and absolutely love in this mix is the printed linen!! First, it is just a bit thicker than the regular quilting cotton, but much more “substantial”. And the drape and hand of this linen is just incredible! It is perfect for bags and lightweight jackets, etc. I am thinking about getting a vest made out of it, but not sure if I will have time before Market which is when I want it for.

Each print is named after places around the globe, from Fiji to Canterbury to Osaka to Kashmir and they go great with his past lines. I am sure they will also play well with others even though I haven’t had much of a chance to do that yet.

The quilt that I am making for Market is David’s design, and you are going to love it! I am not allowed to show the full thing here yet, you are just seeing pieces of it today…...... I will post a photo of it here while I am at Market. It is great for those guys in your life! Very Dude-sanctioned!!

But I did have scraps, and you know how I can’t throw out any scraps! So I have been playing with this “planned” improv piece tonight while the World Tour quilt is at the quilter’s, and I am waiting for the other fabrics for three other Quilt Market projects to get here.

Not sure where this is going, but this is where it is starting from. I am thinking more and more that this one is going to be named Reykjavik. I added some hot pink solid I had floating around, and I have some Curious Nature prints in mind as well as this red/burgundy Ombre from my stash by Blank Quilting

I have similar plans to do this with some Glimma from Windham fabrics that have been here in the studio for awhile that I have been wanting to feature…..and actually I had drawn up this idea for Glimma first…..but I had all these half-square triangles and skinny strips from fussy-cutting…..and well, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do…..

A tisket, a tasket, a Tula Pink Basket….

admin March 31st, 2013

In my Easter basket this morning…..some Tula Pink fat Quarters….from the Birds and the Bees that most delightful line from Tula that I had the pleasure of giving out at Spring Market last spring, but NEVER managed to get any myself (how on earth did that happen??) Very, very happy to have them for my own use….

I…uh…had more candy than that in there too, but I ate some and sorta hid some from myself….

And thanks for putting up with my spiritual travailing in my last post….my wife’s grandmother used to say “life is a yammerdahl” which is supposed to mean “life is valley of tears” in Danish (but I just looked it up…and I can’t find it, so it’s anyone’s guess as to it’s origin or translation) .....

Anyhoo…life is full of trials and jubilees, isn’t it? So nice that today “feels” a bit better than yesterday. The gorgeous weather and a wonderful church service have so helped improve my attitude.

Hope you are having (or had) a wonderful Easter if you celebrate it, and a wonderful weekend if you don’t.

Time to Play….

admin March 27th, 2013

well, really there isn’t much time for playing around these days. Even though I am down to one dayjob from two! This last month and more than a half, I feel like I have been catching up on rest and not much else. It is probably very much needed. The nice thing is that I am getting a little time back to sew, and though I really do need to work more at time management in other areas, this sewing bit is still fun (most of the time).

Here are some progress photos on a Free Spirit project that I am working on using Ty Pennington’s Fall 2012 line. It is fairly new by current industry standards (or OLD by past industry standards) and you still should be able to find some it out there. I went with the Sunset colorway as I have been working with a lot of cool colors lately and the warmth of these prints felt very summery to me!

I am working on a tablerunner and placemat set out of these. Hope to be done with a Free PDF for you to download soon.

And here are some scraps I have been sewing together as I go in the fashion that my friend Victoria has now made “famous” although it really isn’t anything “new”. I love how Victoria has made it fun for others now too though! I have loved doing this for so long, it’s fun to see what other folks do with their scrappy playtime!

I have been doing these type of things for years. Here is a photo of some very old ones that I turned up during ….ahem…. “cleaning” the studio.

I love finding these old things and see how my palette has diversified since then. I don’t want to say changed, because I still love these old things…well, most of them at least…

Well, back to sewing….and actually in a bit, I may go out to do some mowing…before the rains come again....

What about you? what are you up to??

slightly cleaner

admin March 8th, 2013

You probably can’t really tell by these pictures because I didn’t take a before shot….but they are both tidier than before..

Really….the top of this dresser was just piled with fabric….and I couldn’t really access it at all…the stuff in front of the grey shelf unit still needs to find a home, but I was happy just to see it looking a little better.

That grey shelf unit in the first photo had found itself camped out down here in FRONT of the yellow drawers…...for about a year and a half I think….I know, I know…...anyhoo…..moving it out of there reminded me how FUgly this yellow dresser is…So I am going to paint it white I think. Actually, I am only going to paint the drawer fronts white, and then update the knobs one at a time so they all end up being different.

Oh, and also, in those drawers….well, I uh, found fabric that I hadn’t seen for QUITE awhile! So some of that is going to get given away, used, or sold in a grab bag or seventeen…..and I will keep whittling away at the pile to the right of the cabinet as well….and redoing those shelves as well…they are a little too deep and that is annoying, but they were free and I can’t afford something nicer yet…so they will have to do…..

Chopping away at that “elephant” one piece at a time…...

What are you up to today??

Ingenuity…..

admin February 25th, 2013

This week’s FOLK Journal Challenge prompt (okay LAST week’s prompt…I am just barely getting this post up in time!) is:

How do you perceive ingenuity? Where do you see ingenuity thriving today?

Wikipedia describes ingenuity as being “the quality of being clever, original, and inventive, often in the process of applying ideas to solve problems or meet challenges.”

To be honest, I have been thinking about this all week. And it has me a bit stymied…most likely I am overthinking it…I do that with most things. I think ingenuity is actually all over the place. I do especially think I see it thriving in the arts and crafts world where things are not “necessary” as far as “economy” goes, but so very necessary for the soul. I believe we are all created to be creative by the Greatest Creator of all, and I think that in that creativity, ingenuity pops up in many forms, especially when times are hard financially….which a lot of the world is right now…

I really have more than one example of that, but I thought I would take today’s prompt to talk about a little hole in the wall “shop” so to speak in a suburb of Seattle called Ballard. About a month ago, I managed to squeeze in a little time to stop and visit Keli at Drygoods Design and learn a little more of what she has going on over there. I thought it was a regular quilt shop, but it is more of a community, sewing / learning lounge with some great stuff for sale as well. It is small, but packed with great “modern” Sewist-stuff. Keli birthed this idea of a place where people come together to sew and learn and TRY out a large variety of tools and ideas BEFORE they have to buy said tools, etc. There’s more to it than that, but all of it is pretty hip and well, “ingenious” is one of the words I would use to describe the place.

I didn’t have nearly enough time to visit with Keli, and so I am planning another trip over there as soon as I can to spend more time learning about the great things she has going on. But I thought I would show you a few pix of the place.

And if you go to find the “Lounge” it isn’t easy…You go into a coffee shop and there up the backstairs is Drygoods Design…a wonderful little discovery.

I just discovered that all of the great pictures that I took there are nowhere to be found….so I only have this one of the wonderful Liberty Tana Lawn and blue baker’s twine that I bought that day…..and the free Pixie Stix (Keli says every in in store and online order leaves tied up in baker’s twine with a Pixie Stix)....I thought that was a pretty fun little concept myself.

I really wish I had more time today to talk to you about it, but I gotta skadoodle!

Steampunk Love….

admin February 12th, 2013

So today I bring you my little SteamPunk Hearts … just barely in time for Valentine’s Day, but none the less …in time….sort of….

I have had this Seven Wonders line by David Butler for Parson Gray and Free Spirit sitting here for longer than I wanted it to, and I was just itching to cut into it for a bigger project, but before I started that I thought I could bring you a little project for fun!

Here’s what I did (I think they call this a tutorial, because I have a lot of pictures….)

First I sewed 4 narrow (roughly 1” to 1.75 ” x 12” or so) strips together like this:

Then I sewed some wider strips (about 2” to 3” x 12” or so) together like this:

Then I cut that strip set in half (ish):

I flipped one half of this set around and then sewed the narrow strip between the two halves like this:

For the backs I sewed four wider strips together (about 4-ish” x 12”)

Then I pressed these two pieces right sides together (pressing the layers together helped them “stick” together a little better I felt) and pinned the pattern sheet I created for three heart sizes to both pieces. (Click here for the PDF template for the heart shapes.)

Then I just sewed right on the lines through the paper and both layers of fabric, starting at one end of the dotted line and ending at the other end. Do some back stitches when you start and end on each heart to make stuffing the hearts easier. I set my stitch length to 1.25 instead of my normal 2 to make tearing the paper off easier later.

Note: I didn’t always sew directly on the lines…..and the world didn’t stop turning….at least here it didn’t…..

Then I pulled the paper away from the fabric and cut the shapes out of the fabric. I used a very neutral thread, so that made it a little hard to see the sewn lines, but I didn’t necessarily want my stitches to be noticeable should they be stretched when stuffed. You might want to use a thread with more contrast to make cutting them out easier.

So here they are cut out.

After that I just turned them right-side out and pressed the opening nice and flat so it would be easier to sew up by hand after I lightly stuffed them with fiberfill.

So after that I just lightly stuffed them with fiberfill, sewed some ribbon (that was PERFECT for this project!) on for hangers and sewed on some beads and buttons for a little embellishment. If I have time tomorrow I may make some more in a more “traditional” Valentiney element.

Feel free to make as many as you want! And share them here if you get the chance as well!

Fabric Sweep!

admin January 18th, 2013

Or Eye Candy! as I might call this post…

I have been SOOOO overwhelmed with the two dayjobs over the last few months, and I haven’t been able to show you some of the fun lines that I have received from some of those wonderful manufacturers out there…

So here’s what I have already played with:

Cloud 9’s Happy Drawing, Too! by Ed Emberley.

Pattern coming soon in downloadable PDF form here at Blue Nickel Studios for a very reasonable price.

Birch Fabric’s Camp Modern/Camp Sur.

I made a quilt for Fall Market with this fabric and that quilt is going to be redone in another line for a magazine this year, so I can’t show the quilt, but it is fun and easy….

also I started a project with Thomas Knaur’s Flock last year and I think that I am going to add some of this line to it. I really don’t like doing one-liner quilts anyway, and this palette goes very well with Flock in my opinion, so there you have it. That pattern should also be available here in awhile as well.
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And here’s what is coming up to play with!!

Here are two really “guy-style” prints

Free Spirit’s Seven Wonders by Parson Grey.

Cloud 9’s MicroMod by Rob Bancroft.

I have this grand idea for these two mixed with some solids and other equally ‘rugged’ prints that may eventually spawn a second book (when I ever get this first freakin’ book done!)
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This sweet line is going to be a project done in connection with GenerationQ soon too.

Clothworks’ Little Village by Kinkame

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And this one? oh…just love this so much…..I have something planned with a nice solid orange….and maybe a little grey…..Hoping to get it in a magazine too, but the fabric may already be too “old” for a mag, so you may be seeing it here as a pattern as well.

Kaufman’s Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander.

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Big plans? oh yeah, as always? So much fabric, so little time…..

What are you loving here the most? Leave a comment and I will send a random winner some scraps* from their favorite line listed above. I will draw a name next Monday on Martin Luther King Day. That seems an appropriate day to win something, huh?

*Some scrap bags will be larger than others based on what I have left and what I can bear to part with…..

Heather Ross Prints….part two…

admin September 7th, 2012

Have I told you that I am working Two Day Jobs currently? I can’t honestly remember if I have or not. I try to keep my Day Job stuff on the downlow somewhat, because there are so many rules at all Day Jobs about what you say about them online in social media venues. So if you notice, I never really really refer to them by “name”. I know that some people from my first Day Job may read here, but probably not a whole lot of them. This blog is mostly of interest to my Fabricy/Quilty/Designer friends….... Anyway, yeah, I have been working two Day Jobs in a transitional period in my life right now….so that’s why sometimes, I just don’t get back here to the Blue Nickel as quickly as I would like! (oh, and yes, these are two day jobs Besides my Blue Nickel and Gen Q work….)

But I did want to finish up this book “review” of sorts on Heather Ross Prints. So as I said in the original post, I sent some of the files that were on the included CD to Spoonflower for my own personal Heather Ross prints. Two of them I downsized to a much smaller scale because that’s what I wanted. I was pretty much pleased with the results. Spoonflower fabric has never had quite the intensity that the main manufacturers seem to produce in my eyes, but most of these prints if not all are not readily available anymore….And in fact, I am pretty sure I have never seen the Ski Girl in print anywhere.

So first the prints that I “shrunk” from the original CD included in the book. I did this awhile back, so I don’t really remember “how” I shrunk this, but I don’t think it is too complex, the file is already set up in repeat. I think that as long as you don’t change the proportions you would be good to go. The clothespin people in the print were originally about the size of a standard clothespin so you can see how I shrunk them down in my picture. The Snow White laundry fabric was even larger in my recollection.

I used the Snow White laundry print for the below project from another book by my friend John Adams and friends (including me) that I will be sharing with you again soon. (the print copy has come out, and I wanted to talk a bit about that here in the upcoming weeks)

I am loving the simplicity of the above block…and think I want to make some more blocks mixing up solids and prints….we’ll see where that takes me!

And the large Water Ski Girl print as I call it was originally for a beach cover up in Heather’s book, but I really wanted it to put in a glass front cabinet that we have in our bathroom that never did end up looking like I wanted it to. I had imagined it having all sorts of pretty and cool stuff in it; not as many toiletries, etc. (what was I thinking?)

So here are some shots of what I think will end up happening. It actually isn’t permanently in there yet, because I need to cut it and get some of that springy stuff from the hardware stuff to mount it inside. But I thought you’d like to see the look of it. I am pretty happy with its potential!

I had never seen this print before, so I am pretty sure it is unique to this book and CD (correct me if I am wrong).

So that’s it for SOME of the things you can do with Heather’s book. As I stated in the previous post, there are MANY things you can do with the designs on the CD. Another thing that I really want to work out is some notecards with some of her images. She has the cutest images preset for cards (but I have to make sure they match the blanks that I have here first)

Oh, and last but not least, I have some exciting news! I am going to be on Pat Sloan’s Radio Show on October 8th! It will be recorded so you can listen to it other times too, but I just wanted to give you a heads up. I have been told we’ll talk for 13 minutes, so I am sure I am sharing the show with at least 2 other people, probably 3. Click on the icon to link to her show! Pat is so Marvelous and so enjoys this love of fabric and thread that we do! I feel very honored to be among her guests.

Heather Ross Prints…..part one…..

admin August 3rd, 2012

So one cool thing about being a blogger and getting your name out there more is the fact that people will send you stuff for free to share with other people in the hopes that those other people will buy their product. And it is nice to get somewhat compensated for your time as blogging, even as rudimentary as my version of that is, is very time consuming. (i.e. why you don’t get a lot of posts out the Blue Nickel when real life seems to be Exceptionally full around here). So here’s today’s cool thing. Abrams/STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books sent me this book by Heather Ross:

And for the record this a great book!! There are 20 projects with specific templates saved on the CD that comes with it (this CD alone is a treasure!) for the projects in the book. You can print your own stationery, wallpaper, dishtowels etc. But you also get a set of Spoonflower repeat-ready designs just waiting for you to print your own versions of Heather’s charming printed fabrics. Now granted, printing with Spoonflower is way more expensive than buying the manufacturer versions of them. But some of these designs you can’t find at all, AND you can do a little changing of the scale and such to suit your needs. I have an order out now and when it gets back here, I will let you know how they came out.

These are some very fun tea towels that you can interchange the monogram and give as gifts…..oh, look, an “H” for Hansen…how handy is that??

This Mermaid Shower curtain is wonderful because it uses Heather’s original fabric design, but took the scale up to make a terrific bathroom accent!

Fun Novelty pillowcases above and some great paper and journal projects below.

And for me personally, Heather wrote up some “designing” guidelines and info for wanna-be fabric designers like me. Okay, she didn’t write it personally for me, I haven’t met her yet. But you know what I mean, right?

I haven’t really had a lot of time to read the book in details, but with all of the other books that I have seen on the book, I am sure this will help even more when I get to it….except for maybe that cat on the chair. I have enough trouble getting things done without a cat sidekick to help me out.

And in the back, as if this wasn’t enough, there are also actual papers printed for you to cut up and use for all sorts of crafty projects. Although, I don’t think I could ever cut into them. But I might.

It comes out in October this year and retails for $24.95 US / $27.95 Canada.

And yeah….if you can swing it and you love the Heather Ross style, you should get it, or at least put in on your Holiday wishlist…..with a gift certificate to Spoonflower too I think. All in all, it seems like a really good deal to me. Especially if you love Heather’s style.

Be sure to come back and check out how my Spoonflower order from some of the designs came out. And just a note, I am pretty sure that some of the designs on the CD have never been printed on commercially available fabric before.

Side note: If I used the word “cool” too much in this post, forgive me. I went back and tried to get rid of most of them because when I was editing, I found that was pretty much the only adjective I was using. Cool, huh? Not so much when you are supposed to be a decent author….or something like that!

Well, what do you think? Have you used Spoonflower before? Do you love Heather Ross prints? How is your summer going? What’s cool to you? I love hearing what you think, can you tell?