Our Banner is up!

             

               Yeah! On Monday evening - finally, our sign company arrived with our 15" long banner. It is beautiful! And, certainly eye catching. I think it is the needle! The sign is definitely noticeable from the highway. We have been super busy all week with lots of wonderful new people dropping in to check out the "new shop on the block." Everyone has been thrilled to find out that we are actually a real fabric store! That is what they are saying! Well, of course, we are! What exactly is an un-real store? I suppose they are referring to the big box fabric stores that predominately sell crafts these days. Hmmm . . . .

Here are a couple of pictures of the sign guys putting up our banner.

Measure twice and hammer once ~ see the tape measure up there!

Yeah, man, it is looking good!

And, after the banner was up, they cleaned the windows and added our door art.

Sew It Up Studio!

I love our new name. Once again, I think it is the needle that really makes it! And, the shop hours are now posted next to the door. We even had our street number above the door remade. All nice and new!

                     This is the third and final time for me to move the shop to a new location. Each time I forget how labor intensive it is; I suppose that is a good thing. Kind of like delivering a baby. If we remembered how painful it is, we would probably not have any more children! This shop is really looking good. All of our trims are now unpacked and beautifully displayed. The button cabinet is beautiful and, believe it or not, our classroom is nearly empty of boxes. We are currently working on the class calendar. Our new "back-up" cutting table is being stained and will be installed this Sunday. There is still furniture to be repainted; perhaps that will happen this Sunday as well. Ah, I can finally see it coming together. Which is a good thing since we are going to have a Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday, June 2nd!

I'll post pictures of the inside next!

WE HAVE MOVED!

SEW IT UP STUDIO HAS MOVED! 

OUR NEW ADDRESS IS:
MAYFAIR VILLAGE SHOPPING CENTER

740 GRAPEVINE HIGHWAY, HURST, TEXAS

THE BEFORE PICTURES:
The carpet is out and the walls are coming down!

  

                  Boy oh boy does it take a lot of work to move an entire store!  Of course, it is not just a matter of packing up the merchandise and transporting it to the new place. No, no, first you must tear down and renovate the new place! I knew the new location had great potential . . . and after tearing out seven walls, removing tile, ripping out the old carpet and linoleum, hauling off all of the debris, replastering, painting and replacing every single light fixture, it was finally ready to move into. And, who did all of this labor???  Why, my husband! ~ the most supportive, loving man that I know! He truly believes in me!


Here are some pictures the shop now ready to move in. . . .  some of the fixtures have been moved over.

This will be our classroom someday soon! 
Check out how high these boxes are stacking up!

And, then we started moving the fabric! It was amazing that we had so much to move. Hundreds and hundreds of bolts - we should have counted them!

So, we started getting the fixtures situated and putting the fabric and trims out.

Each day, it gets better & better! We have new gorgeous white shelving.

And, now we are getting our huge assortment of patterns organized!

Look - how pretty! Our samples are now out on display for our kits!

Here is a picture of the outside of the shop - NO SIGN YET! but hopefully our banner will arrive soon!

The Wool Mouse House

  

The Mouse House: There is more to wool than just for clothing! 

About a year ago I was asked by my son if I could make him something to put his wireless mouse in that would protect it as he carried it from one place to another. He is a Senior now at Texas Tech University!

So I proceeded to see what I could come up with. I looked around my sewing room and spotted a piece of wool coating. I had used it to make blankets for a guest bedroom. It was a beautiful black and white herring bone pattern ~ very masculine.  After cutting up several pieces of paper, I came up with a very simple design. Do you ever wonder why the simpler the design the more difficult it is to figure how to execute it? Soooo true! So, I made two houses, one for my son and one for Dad. Then his friends wanted their own. And, then came a request for a wireless keyboard house! See, what I got myself into . . .

This fall we got in some beautiful wools at the shop that are heavy enough to replicate my "mouse house". No, I did not order them specifically for this project, but one day I was "feeling" one of them and decided that it was time to make my own "mouse house".  Luckily, I had taken pictures of my first effort with my iPhone to have as a reference and my son happened to be home to allow me to see it live. Mine needed to be a little more feminine.  See, how cute it is!

So, how do you make one? Well, here is my pattern for all to try.

From your felted wool, cut 2 pieces 4“  wide X 8“ long; and 1 piece 4“ wide X 5 1/5“ long.

You will need 1 piece of velcro approximately 1 1/4” in length.

1. Fold down the top edge 1/4" - of your smaller piece; pin & sew.

2.  Mark the center of this piece and measure down 1” from the hemmed top edge. Pin on one side of your velcro. I usually use the softer velcro side here.

3.  Repeat step #2 with just one of your longer pieces of wool. I use the scratchy velcro side here. This
piece will be the inside of your mouse house. It is entirely your choice if you want the right side of the fabric to show or the “wrong” side.

4.  Layer the two longer pieces of wool one on top of the other. The piece with the velcro must face out; not in between the two. You will probably not need to pin these together as the wool wants to stick to itself.

5.  Now place the shorter piece of wool on top of these two; lining up the unsewn edge with the bottom of the two longer pieces of wool. Both velcro pieces must be on the same side in order for the “flap” to fold down and close with the velcro.

   

6.  Topstitch 1/4” from the edge completely around. You will be stitching through 3 layers on the bottom half and only 2 layers on the top half. Try rounding your corners for added interest.

7.  “Pink” the edges with pinking shears or pull out a few threads all around to lightly fringe.

Fold down the top of the longer piece over the shorter bottom section so that your velcro pieces touch thus closing your mouse house.

After my "mouse house" was done and I invited my own mouse to check out its new abode My son looked over at it and said, "I bet that your phone would fit." So, I tried it and yes! ~ it fits perfectly!
So, my "mouse house" can double as a iPhone case!

Ruby Star Quilt

Ruby Star was one of the two quilts that we debuted at the Quilt Festival in Houston. Linda Davis, is one of the "Sew It Up Sisters". She designed the quilt using a charm pack from Moda's Ruby collection.  So, here's the pattern!

Ruby Star
by Linda Davis

Finished size 50” x 50”

Materials needed:
   1 Ruby charm pack
   1 ¼ yd white background fabric – I used Moda Bella bleached white

   1 yd red tone on tone for inner border and binding

   1 yd floral for outer border

   Batting 51” x 51”

   Backing 3 yds

I like having leftovers so my yardage requirements are on the generous side.

Cut (16) 5” squares from white fabric

Cut (16) 4 ½” squares from white fabric

Choose 16 charms for the star points

Draw a diagonal line on the back of each of the 16 charms then put them right sides together with a white 5” square and sew ¼” on each side of the line.

Cut on the line and press one toward the print and one toward the white.  Each of these half square triangles will need to be trimmed to 4 ½”.

Sew each pair together along the white edge with the prints forming a “V”

Choose 16 charms for the centers and trim each of these blocks to 4 ½”

Sew these squares into a 4 patch, this will be the center of the star.

Lay out your centers and your star points in a way that pleases you then sew a 4 ½”square to each end of the upper and lower star points

and sew the remaining star points to the sides of the four patch. You can then sew each row together; you will have 4 stars that are 16 ½” on each side.

Cut (5) 2 ½” strips of white and then cut 16 ½” strips, you need 10 and should be able to get two from each strip.

You need (9) 2 ½” squares for the cornerstones, so cut your remaining charms into 2 ½” squares and decide which you want to use.

Sew the sashing between each block to connect them and then sew a horizontal row with the cornerstones between and sew this to connect two rows of stars and then one on the top and one on the bottom.

Cut (5) 2 ½” strips of the red and join these end to end to make your inner border. Measure across the quilt and cut 2 pieces that length and sew them on and then measure across the other way and cut two borders that length and sew them on.

Cut (6) 3 ½” strips of the floral fabric, sew them end to end and measure and cut as for the inner borders and sew on the outer borders.
Your quilt is now ready to be layered with batting and backing and quilted. Use the remaining red tone on tone for the binding.

This makes a nice small quilt to layer on a table or cover  the end of a bed or the back of a chair.  If you want a bigger one just use more charm packs.

'Tis the Season!

Poinsettia by La Todera Patterns

Its definitely time for making Xmas crafts! 

I love to "play" in the evening by stitching up something pretty such as these Poinsettias as well as the  Cream Puff Christmas Trees. Both of these are patterns by La Todera. I met the designer last spring at a sewing venue ~ she was great and I fell in love with all of her patterns for flowers! Before we went to the Houston Quilt Festival I made up several of the Poinsettias and three sets of the Christmas trees for our booth as samples of the patterns. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined how many of these patterns we sold! We ran out twice and then took orders. You just never know . . . .

I found some pictures on my phone that I took while making a poinsettia and thought that I would share these on my blog. Perhaps if you are making one or would like to get a pattern of your own and try one out, my notes will help your flower turn out . . . Perfect! However, I must say that, Julie Creus, the designer of La Todera patterns, has clearly written step by step directions that include a black and white photo of each segment.  

So, here goes . . . after I cut out my petals and fold them into the proper shape, I put a couple of pins along the center folds so that they do not have the opportunity to shift AT ALL! You will want the "points" of your flower to be very pointed ~ naturally!

You could trim off the bottoms to make them more even than mine are shown here, but I do not think that it is critical.

Julie's directions are quite clear about where to begin your first stitch and where to end your last, but I am very much a "type A". I want a map! She tells you that you will have a specific number of stitches per petal - it varies with the size of the petal. So, I did a little math and will the help of a ruler and my trusty Frixion pen ~ which is a new erasable gel pen from Pilot (you can order them from our website as well as locate them at your local office supply) ~ I marked "dots" on my petal. Voila, my map!

This was my attempt to make the flower impossible to mess up! 
See my dots!!!

 

Another helpful hint is that I used heavy duty quilting cotton thread to stitch up my petals. I honestly cannot remember if Julie's pattern suggested to use this or something else. I gathered each petal as tightly as I could pull it and then knotted each petal off before I added the next one. After all of the petals were stitched - one immediately following the previous one, I then tied a couple of really secure knots at the end of the circle of petals. Before I cut this thread, I then pulled my needle through the very first pleat of the first petal, pulled tightly to draw them all into one circlet and tied another couple of knots.

   

Here is the final flower before I added the centers.

I followed the directions to add the centers for this flower. Look at my very first picture above to see the little green puffy centers. Cute! But, of course, I always have to add my own creative touch. If you look closely at the other two flowers you will see that I glued beaded balls to the centers! 

Of course, all poinsettias are not white! So, I made one up in a white and silver taffeta rather than a red tone on tone quilting cotton. Isn't this elegant!

After I made several Poinsettias in different sizes which by the way make great centerpieces, tree ornaments or brooches, I decided to try making the Cream Puff Christmas Trees and got hooked.

Here is my first set in Christmas print in soft blue and lime.

Next, I tried an eclectic mix of hot pink, gold and red!

Notice that I got a little more adventurous with my decorations.

But, then . . . I decided to really go out on a limb (pardon the pun! - ah, there are no visible branches!) and chose a black and white snowflake print and really went crazy with tree decorations!

Maybe I am having a little too much fun! 

Nah!

So, after all the Turkey and trimmings have been devoured, escape to your own bubble of creativity and whip up some gorgeous flowers and trees! Happy Stitching!!!!