Date Night Fabric

Today I get to officially introduce you to Date Night, my second fabric collection and my first to be released under the Riley Blake Designs banner (Five and Dime was part of the Penny Rose Fabrics division). I love these prints, and I'm so happy to finally get to share them with you!

I grew up on a steady diet of movies and television from the golden age of film, and these fabrics are a love letter to some of my favorites, which were almost always romantic comedies. Inevitably the characters seem to wind up on a date at a supper club with dinner and dancing. The clothes are amazing -- chic dresses, suits and ties, classy hats on both men and women. It's like a whole different world, and I find it utterly charming. If you're new to the time period, here's a list to get you started:

It Happened One Night

The More the Merrier
Bringing Up Baby
The Thin Man
The Bachelor & the Bobby Soxer
It Started with Eve
His Girl Friday
Bachelor Mother

There are 8 prints in this collection in 3 colorways, all spring pastels in shades of green, blue, and pink with just a touch of yellow and white. I was very much inspired by the feedsack prints of the 1930s and 1940s as I designed these fabrics. And here they are...

Main

Bouquet

Datebook

Candy Box

Corsage

Sweet Nothings

Posies

Cufflinks

It's pretty hard to choose favorites when it comes to your own designs, but two prints stand out for me from this collection. I can't stop using the Candy Box stripe -- especially in blue -- which makes the sweetest quilt binding ever. The Date Book print is particularly special to me, though. I've always wanted a small scale calendar print for fussy cutting, so it was a thrill to finally design my own. If you look very closely at the December calendar, you'll see that the 11th is circled, which was when my husband and I went on our first date. We were married exactly one year later minus a day on December 10th, so I think we can officially call that date a success!

I'm starting to see Date Night pop up in shops all over the place. Be sure to check your favorite quilt store to see if they're carrying it, and tell them to get in touch with Riley Blake Fabrics if they don't have it yet. I hope you enjoy sewing with these fabrics as much as I loved making them for you.

On Monday I'll be sharing the free Vintage Vanity pattern that I designed for this collection, so be sure to stop by!

Spelling Bee Saturday: Typewriter Pillow

Everyone knows that I love a good typewriter project. I even designed the Typewriter Mini Quilt as a free pattern to go along with the release of Sew Organized for the Busy Girl several years back. This little block from Lori Holt's Spelling Bee book is a great way to play with the theme in a single quilt block.

It's always so fun to choose the fabrics for these blocks. The green dotty print makes a great frame for the scrappy keys -- and who wouldn't choose a polk-a-dot typewriter over a solid one any day! -- and I love pulling in a text print for the paper. The navy blue prints are a nice contrast and give this color scheme a slightly preppy look which I love. And that book print by my friend Jill Howarth from her Once Upon a Time collection for the typebar -- oh my goodness, I adore it!

I knew right away that I wanted to turn this block into a pillow, and I love seeing it on the couch in my bedroom. For the backing, I used striped gray and white linen which goes with everything and makes a sturdy case for the pillow form.

This pillow just makes me happy every time I look at it -- every . . . single . . . time.

Thanks again to the Fat Quarter Shop for setting up this fun sew along, and to Lori, of course, for writing such a fabulous book.

Happy sewing, friends!

Spelling Bee Saturday: Sewing Machine Pouch

It has a vintage school theme.

That's really all I needed to know about Lori Holt's Spelling Bee book to convince me that I needed a copy. The adorable picture blocks were just icing on the cake. When Fat Quarter Shop opened up the sign-up sheet for bloggers to choose their blocks for the sew along, I raced to get the slots for the sewing machine & typewriter blocks -- no surprise to those of you who know me. Today I'm sharing my version of the sewing machine.

I made the smaller size which finishes at 6 inches. Originally I had hoped to turn it into a pincushion, but it was just a bit too large. So instead I made a pouch, framing and backing the block in aqua gingham from Lori's Bake Sale 2 collection.

I desperately wanted to use a small floral for the machine itself, and this print from Apple Farm by my friend Elea Lutz was the perfect scale. The Handmade print from Lori's Bee Backgrounds collection made darling buttons for my machine which I hand quilted in red embroidery thread. Striped aqua accents were a great contrast, and I adore that little cross stitched heart on the spool at the top!

I lined the pouch with a pink cherry print from Bake Sale 2. It makes such a happy lining, doesn't it?

As soon as I sewed the last stitch on this pouch, I took it right downstairs and gave it to my mom for Mother's Day. I'm so happy to say that she loves it. Considering that she's a master at cross stitch, I loved being able to give her something with accents in that theme.

Several months back, my husband had a day off from work, but my girls and I still did our homeschool classes so that we could stay on schedule. I spent the morning tutoring, giving tests, soothing ruffled tempers, counseling my two older girls about struggles they were having, and so on. Finally just before lunch, I sat down next to my husband for a moment to chat.

"This is what I do all day," I said with a rueful laugh, and he smiled.

"You know," he said, looking at me thoughtfully, "it's not glamorous . . . but it's important. You're forming our daughters' character. It's the most important thing you can do."

And I remembered again why I love this man.

So happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there, as well as to all of you women who may not be moms, but are still investing your lives in loving and (sometimes) mothering the people around you. It's definitely not glamorous work and so much of it goes unsung, but we're making a difference . . . one life at a time.

Jot It Down Organizer for Quilts and More Magazine

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine. ©2018 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Back when I wrote Sew Organized for the Busy Girl, my amazing tech editor was Joanna Burgarino, and I was thrilled when she became the new editor for Quilts and More magazine last year. She was kind enough to ask me to contribute a project for the Summer 2018 issue which has just landed in stores. I had a great time designing and sewing up this travel-friendly Jot It Down organizer last fall, and I'm so happy that I can finally share it with you today!

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine. ©2018 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

The idea for this kit came originally from my daughters. As a mom, I often find myself waiting in doctor's offices or restaurants with three restless girls in tow. I used to try to keep coloring books on hand, but now that my girls are getting older, they're more drawn to games and activities rather than just filling in a coloring page. Last year I started keeping a kit in my purse filled with a few memo pads and pencils for those moments of waiting, and it was an instant hit. The girls loved using them to play games of tic-tac-toe, make birthday lists, or draw imaginary characters. I loved that it was easy to carry, encouraged their creativity, and served as an emergency sketching kit when I had ideas of my own while we were out and about. 

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine. ©2018 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

The cover of the kit is made of English paper pieced hexagons -- though there's an option to just use a single fabric if you want to make things simpler and quicker. Small projects like this one are such a great opportunity to pull out the hexies, which are more time consuming but oh so fun to make. 

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine. ©2018 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

One of my pet peeves for these sorts of kits is that the pencils and pads can slide out the top, but I added flaps to the inside which take care of the problem. Extra firm interfacing gives the case a solid feel, and simple elastic/button closures are easy to sew. It's the kind of project you can finish in less than a weekend -- my favorite sort, of course!

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine. ©2018 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

So many thanks to Joanna and her team for giving me the chance to be a part of this issue and for making the process an absolute joy. Be sure to pick up a copy of Quilts and More on your next trip to the store. And if you make one of these organizers, be sure to tag me @fabricmutt when you share pictures. I can't wait to see them!

Saturday Morning

I'm typing at my dining room table this morning, looking out the window at the misty green aftermath of a rainy night. The squirrels are dancing from tree to tree, and I can see deer grazing in the distance. My daughters have spent the morning playing spy games around the house with their walkie talkies, reminding me of when my sister and I used to do the same thing in our front yard so many years ago. In a few minutes we'll be heading off to our favorite Mexican restaurant for our standing weekly lunch with the whole family -- and by "standing" I mean that the restaurant has a table set and waiting for us when they open on Saturdays because they know we'll be there.

It's been a busy week, full of secret sewing and things I can't tell you about yet, but soon...hopefully soon. I have a stack of projects I've been working on which are almost ready to share and another stack that are going to be consuming every free minute I've got for the next three months. And on top of that I'm trying to wrap up our homeschool year in the next five weeks, so several hours of each day are spent grading spelling tests and reteaching math lessons and the like. Sometimes I wonder how I think I can possibly get away with it, this game of smoke and mirrors that I play, trying to look like I'm on top of everything while secretly flying by the seat of my pants. Yet somehow it all gets done. And when I stop stressing over things and just relax and enjoy them, I can stand back and look at it all with more perspective, remembering again how grateful I am that I get to do all of this.

My Date Night yardage arrived this week, and I'm currently sewing up a storm for Quilt Market. The more I work with it, the more I love it. There is a story behind this collection, of course, but I'll wait to share it with you when its June release date is a little closer. Until then, I hope you enjoy looking at that stack of fabric as much as I do...

Grandale Rollcake Bag

Is there anything better than blending together two things you love? It brings to mind chocolate peanut butter cups and rainy Saturday afternoons and Cary Grant movies that are directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Today I get to share one of those things: a darling vintage inspired collection called Grandale by Keera Job for Riley Blake Designs which I paired with the Rollcake Bag pattern designed by my dear friend Minki Kim. The result is a little girl's dream purse -- at least I assume so, since my three daughters all gasped with delight as soon as they saw it!

I've never sewn a bag with a lace zipper before, but I will definitely be doing it again. I absolutely love the delicate accent this adds to the piece. The Grandale prints couldn't be sweeter. The tiny floral on the main panel and the faux cross stitch print that I used for the gusset are my favorites in the collection.

This type of bag is inevitably tricky to sew, but Minki makes it as easy as possible with her great instructions and photos. I had to trim my gusset a wee bit smaller to fit, yet everything came together with no trouble at all.  I added crosshatch quilting to the side panels and straight line quilting to the zipper panel and gusset to give them all some texture, and I love they way they look. Even though the bag is small, there's a surprising amount of room inside.

This little bag will be packed with goodies and then sent off in the mail to my niece, who is celebrating another birthday at the end of this month. And I predict that it will take approximately five minutes before one of my daughters asks me to make another...

Let's Bake Table Runner

Today is my stop on the Let's Bake Sew Along, hosted and created by the amazing Lori Holt. These sweet little blocks feature ingredient canisters, a hand mixer, and a quartet of cupcakes. They're from another one of Lori's beautiful applique quilt patterns, and I decided to turn them into a runner for our breakfast nook table.

I used a mix of prints from several different Riley Blake designers as well as some RBD basics to get the eclectic look I love so much. It was a surprise to me how small these pieces are -- the individual blocks finish at about 6" square -- and this makes the project go quickly, even with the hand sewing. Applique is something I very rarely attempt but always enjoy. Adding extra touches like a ric-rac "cord" and "cherry" buttons just make this piece so much fun.

I made a few changes from the original pattern. There is no ric-rac at the top of the cupcake liners because I forgot to order it in time, and I only made 4 cupcakes instead of 6 so that it would fit more neatly on the runner. I also fussy cut a few words from Lori's adorable recipe print for the canister labels instead of embroidering the words from her pattern. My daughters thought "Doughnuts" and "Cookies" were a great idea!

The runner is backed in a mixing bowl print from Lori's Bake Sale 2 collection. It's a perfect match for the front of the runner, and I love the way it looks with a frame of aqua and white striped binding.

It's been a goal of mine to make seasonal runners for the little table where my girls eat breakfast every morning, so it feels great to add another one to our growing collection. Baking is one of my very favorite things to do, and now that my daughters are starting to help out in the kitchen more often with me, I know they'll be thrilled to have this reminder of those special moments in front of them every morning when they wake up.

Happy sewing, friends!