Friday, December 23, 2011

Flat Rate Shipping Special from Dec. 23 - Jan. 2!

'Twas the day before Christmas Eve and our rotary cutters stopped rolling.
The fabrics were all snuggled, bolts on their shelves.
The mailman was happy to be assisted by elves.
The UPS man stopped complaining about our second floor shop.
Shipping at Sew Fresh had come to a stop.
We're taking some time to spend with our kin.
We'll be back again in time for 2012 to begin.

Flat Rate Shipping for $2.50 US/ $6 Canada and $7 International
No minimum order.

Refunds will be made to PayPal account upon shipment. Shipping will resume on Jan. 3. Post office is closed on Jan. 2 for legal holiday.

May you enjoy this holiday with family and friends! 

Becca and Peg

Thursday, December 15, 2011

More Yuwa and Kei fabrics from Japan

Kei Honeycomb Dots

My Berlin prints from Marie Jacobi

 
Birds from the Live Life Collection

  
La Vie En Rose by Kei




Apples and Pears on linen/cotton blend

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Nestled all snug in their beds

Drea: Don't look if you want to be surprised!!

Becca has been at the sewing machine and she's achieved stinking cute again (see stinking cute bird). She's making Three Bears Sleeping Bags for her niece and nephew for Christmas using this awesome pattern from Flossie Teacakes.

Lamb is playing the part of Mama bear and modeling the medium sleeping bag made from Birch Fabrics Storyboek Cheater print. Papa bear's bag is made from two Daiwabo prints: the Rescue Vehicles and Tip Top Car Panel (the back is also from that panel). Baby bear's bag is made with Tip Top Elephants and some Japanese Ed Emberly fabric. (Note: We've ordered the Ed Emberly collection from Cloud9 Organics for next year!)


Bear is modeling the girls version in some classic Heather Ross Far Far Away II Rapunzel. Papa and Baby also have some FFA Princess and the Pea and Sleeping Beauty. (Check out our Japanese fabric section for some Heather Ross if you like.) The Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley binding really makes the little one pop!


Merry Christmas to all the little lambs and bears!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Wouldn't you like to make one too?


How awesome is this, folks? Let's all oooh and aaah over Becca's scrap quilt, shall we? And the bird on the back laying an egg? Just stinking cute!

Do you want an amazing quilt like this to come together in no time? Here's her secret. Keep a bin of scraps near your sewing machine. To keep your stitches efficient and to maintain tension as you chain piece, we like to use leaders and enders. Run a pair of scraps through the needle before you begin your chaining (you don't have to be picky or fussy with matching). Before you cut your chain, run another set of scraps through and only cut off what you are chaining. This keeps fabric in your machine at all times, eliminating the need for long pulls of thread before you cut.

Keep working these scraps into rails, log cabins or crazy blocks. You'll probably end up making a few purposeful blocks to complete the quilt top but there you have it... a scrap quilt top. Thrifty, efficient and gorgeous to boot. What's not to like?

How do you make your scrap quilts?

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Quick Project - Take 2


Don't be alarmed. This is really a quick project. The recipe goes like this:

One part Dead Simple Quilt Along
One part Charm pack (mixed with solid squares)

Chain piece and whoop, there it is. A lap quilt top right before your eyes.

Quilt with simple straight lines or have some fun with your free motion quilting. If you want to speed up your binding, check out Rita's tutorial on machine stitching your binding.

Stitch with love. :)

We've got our pre-cuts for Terrain and Little Apples at ridiculously special pricing right now. Find yourself a few quiet hours (probably the hardest part of this entire project), get comfy at the sewing machine, put on some tunes, maybe a cup of tea (or glass of wine) and have at it!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Quick Projects - Take 1


It's November folks and we don't need to tell you which season is fast approaching. So much more doesn't need repeating as well. Busy.... yup. Budget.... ouch.

So we're talking fast and easy holiday projects here. One sitting, maybe two. Materials that you probably have or maybe you'd need to purchase a fat quarter here. :) Just sayin'.

Today is clutches and checkbook covers. The checkbook covers that Becca made with Echino linen/cotton blends use a Keykalou pattern. The clutch envelope (Echino with some interfacing to stiffen) was a bit free-form, based on this tutorial. The patchwork zip pouch is also an improv. Lots of jumping off places can be found online. Need to put in a zipper... You Tube can show you how. So much of the sewing community is so generous with their tutorials. Use them well and credit them generously.

Let's make this a handmade season people. A little love goes a long way. And please show us your creations in our Flickr group. (Sounding a little Hill Street Blues here, don't know why, but you better be careful with those needles out there.)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

At Long Last - Scrap Bee Progress


 

Quilt tops from Round 2 and 3 of the Scrap Bees! We bet you thought you'd never see them. Us too. And we're so glad we found a sunny day on Friday to get these photographs before it SNOWED on Saturday night. (Snow before Halloween for crying out loud!) These are being backed now and will make it to their respective destinations (Quilt Challenge for ALS and Margaret's Hope Chest).

We are planning to continue the scrap bees next year and are working to streamline the process. We have a nice list of volunteers that we'll be contacting (let us know if you want to be added) as we get rolling again. Thanks for your willingness to participate along with us.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Outfoxing the Gang


 


Lizzy House's Outfoxed is now available in the shop in three colorways!


With matching Kona bundles, of course.




 
Meet the Gang by Marisa and Creative Thursday is also available in three colorways.

and you know what these are.