Hugging my coffee :: GIVEAWAY WINNER!

So, what's new bloggin buddies. I SEW missed you all, and I am afraid you might not hear from me much until the 12 days of Christmas giveaway That will start on December 1st. I will contact all the vendors this week for details. If you still want to participate please email me that way if someone backs out last minute I have some back ups. Plus it's free advertising for your blog or Etsy shop.

Me and my Coffee have been best friends this last few days. I am sad to say that I have closed the shop for now. I am hoping to re-open by Christmas but that is not likely. ( Please email me if you need something though, I will try my best to squeeze you in). I have been swamped not only on Etsy, but my wholesale vendors are selling them in their boutiques faster then my little fingers can sew them. I think my sewing machine needs a rest! Ha!

And for the Hawthorn Threads Giveaway I had over 800 entries for the Studio e half yard set and you will never guess who won......

November 4, 2009 6:08 AM

Mary Grace McNamara said...
Hi Terri, thanks so much for the pointer to this great new site! What wonderful fabric selection they have! My favorite feature is the bundles since I have a hard time finding fabrics that 'go' together when shopping online.

What a great giveaway too! Thanks for the chance to win!

MGM

CONGRATULATIONS Mary Grace, you lucky girl you.

Thank you to Everyone for participating in the opening of Charlie and Lindsay's new shop. Don't forget the more you buy from them the best price you get. Who could ask for more. (P.S.) They have a special treat for us again during the 12 days of Christmas giveaway so stay tuned!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAY SHOPPING!

I smell Christmas

Just a little show and tell for you all. The UPS man dropped off Sophia's Christmas dress today. I knew as soon as I saw it, that it fit her personality perfectly. I was so scared that if I waited to long they would all be gone. Well I was right two days later they were on sale and clearance out and you guess it.... gone!

I put it on her and felt a little tear in my eye. She is growing up so fast. She looks taller, more girl like instead of baby. She has a personality all her own with Independence that shines brighter everyday. All I can think is , she is all mine. God blessed our family big time when she came into our unorganized mixed up world. I love every second I get to spend with her. Isn't she just beautiful.

For those of you wondering we got the dress here.

When Christmas comes around, I look forward to the smallest of things. The glimmer in children's eyes with the thought of Santa coming to their house with something special. The smell of the Cinnamon pine cones when I stop by my local craft shop. The enormous amount of creativity that people spend all year on just for the beautiful reveal during the holidays.

Wishing all of you a perfect Holiday season.

My Messy Space - shop closing

Well sorry to everyone for all the non-blogging I have been doing this last week. The shop has been so busy, I have rarely seen my computer, or had time to write more then a simple email. I have a little bad news, but some good news to go along with it.

First of all some good news, there is still a few days to enter the GIVEAWAY. Hawthorn Threads has come by and read all of your lovely comments, and even went the step further and made a few changes upon the requests that all of you had said you wanted to see. (they are amazing like that) If you signed up for the newsletter at their shop then you got a heads up on what they brought to the shop this week. I am SEW excited!!!

My other news is that Unfortunately I will not be launching the new stuff until 2010, I have way to much on my plate right now and I would rather it be done correctly rather then quickly. For those of you who were looking forward to it. I apologize, but I promise it will be worth the wait.
HEADS UP THE SHOP WILL BE CLOSING DECEMBER 15th FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON!!

I also have a few tutorials I want to share with you all as well. As you can see from the picture above, my sewing space is quite a mess, but I love it when I am sitting there creating things. So I better get back to my beautiful SEW -Fantastic Mess. Until next time.

P.S. Welcome to all you new followers, I do see you and promise to come say hello soon. Thanks for sticking around through my busy time everyone.

NEW {dot} com Site Launch :: Hawthorn Threads - GIVEAWAY

Super News my fellow fabric junkies. I am sure you have all heard me rant and rave about how much I loved Charlie and Lindsay over at Fabric supplies on Etsy. The customer service those two give is absolutely phenomenal. After much success on etsy, they have outgrown the small little shop you all know as Fabric Supplies. But wait... There is Great news

Charlie and Lindsay launched a new website Hawthorn Threads late last month, with a more user friendly environment. Now they are offering more beautiful fabrics, tiered pricing for loyal customers, photo uploads for your projects made with there fabrics as well as including the link to your Etsy shop (how cool is that). You can now view what is in stock and how many yards are available. You can shop by color, designer, theme, collection, etc. The site Hawthorn Threads is truly genius. Extremely fun to shop on, I admit I have already made a few purchases because it's so much fun, and the fabrics are just beautiful. (shhh, don't tell my husband) ;)

I could seriously blog about this shop all day, but I will let you have some time though to go check it out for yourself. Hawthorn Threads is providing a generous offer to all of you as well. In celebration of the new site launch, they are giving away a 1/2 yard set of Holiday Magic; 6 prints, 3 yards total by Studio E . Yummy Christmassy goodness huh!

So Go ahead... Click over to visit them. Then come back here and leave a comment on what your favorite feature, or fabric was about the site, or maybe something you would like to see them offer. Do this and we will enter you in this wonderful giveaway from Charlie and Lindsay over at Hawthorn Threads to win a 6 half yard fabric bundle by Studio E.

Want more chances to WIN ???

1 More Entry for following our blog publicly here at Sew - Fantastic

3 More Entries for Spreading the word and posting about this Giveaway

5 Entries for Signing up to receive Hawthorn Threads Newsletters (click create an account at the top right of the home page, or click here)

5 Entries For adding this button to your blog
(Copy the code in the box below then add to your sidebar)

<center><a href="http://www.hawthornethreads.com/home"><img border="0" src="http://www.hawthornethreads.com/ads/sew_fantastic/button.jpg" /></a></center>
5 Entries for any purchase made from now until Saturday November 14thPlease don't forget to come back and let me know what you did to earn your entries so that they can be logged in to win.

And....If that wasn't enough for you, there is a fat quarter set being given away as well on their site click here to view and enter.

That's it! Now go go GO... Have fun browsing and shopping, and playing. Don't forget Christmas is right around the corner and you need to make something special for someone I am sure. I myself am trying for a handmade Christmas 2009. Let do this!

INTERNATIONAL COMMENTERS ARE ALSO WELCOMED TO ENTER



COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED

BIG News :: You do not want to miss this

Just a few quick things for all of you to get excited about.

1:: For those asking, limited edition items should be in the shop by the end of the month.

2:: Sew Fantastic opened a new Destash shop here. For those of you that love my scrap bags, you will want to heart this shop for the future, I have some things posted but there is much more to come.

3:: A Fabric Store that I have talked about quite a bit had a huge Dot Com Site launch this last week and they have contacted me with a very generous giveaway for all of you. Should be posted tomorrow. So come back an visit.

4:: There is a Giveaway posted for my shop if you would like to win $20.00 for Christmas money to spend at sew-fantastic. Click here for details. There is also a 20% discount code for all you shoppers.

That's it ! I hope everyone is having a great week.

Practice Makes perfect

Practice Makes perfect, originally uploaded by sewfantastic2009.

So I took My very first quilting class on Thursday, that is unless you count the class where you learn how to use a new machine. I have learned from watching others and books, blogs, videos etc. I would have to say that I preferred the class over trying to figure out things on your own.

The class was learning free motion Quilting and bias binding. One small attachment on my machine and a sew slip mat over my sew steady table, and I was drawing with needle and thread. To be honest I have only tried this once about 6 years ago when a singer dealer convinced me to buy a walking foot for quilting.

So obviously I am still very amateur, but I wanted to show you all cause I am so excited to quilt again. It's funny how something so small can spark your interest in an old love for something isn't it. I learned many cool tricks as well that I will be sharing with all of you shortly. Until then.. I hope everyone had a very happy and spooky Halloween.

November Gift Guide feature

Hello friends! Just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up on whats to come for the up and coming holiday season. First of all Sew Fantastic will be featured on a gift guide starting November 1st. Click on the button above to check out where it will be, along with many other fellow crafters. Stop by and let her know that sew-Fantastic sent you over to be eligible for all the giveaways all month long. Also add her cute button to get the word out to everyone in time for the contests. Second there will be a few items re-vamped in the shop for a limited edition Christmas 2009 offer, as well as a few new items that will only be around through Christmas.Wishing everyone happy holiday shopping this year.

Trick or Treat Mini Bags :: Tutorial

Yay Halloween is almost here. I wanted to give you a fun craft that me and Sophie did the other day. Remember the Alexander Henry remnant we found at Joann's? Well this is what we did with it.

Since our house doesn't get many trick or treaters, this was a super fun way to dress up our cheap Halloween candy. That way each kid that stops by our house will get their own pumpkin drawstring bag full of candy. (please pardon the quality of the pictures, I still can't figure out whats wrong with my camera)

Here are the directions to make your very own mini treat bags to. Enjoy...

(to enlarge any of the pictures, just click on the picture itself)

Step 1:: cut out a rectangle from your desired fabric that measures 3.5" x 9.5"

Step 2:: Fold and iron the long edge over about 1/4 inch towards the wrong side of the fabric.

Step 3:: Fold and iron the short edge 1/2 inch towards the wrong side of the fabric.

Step 4:: Sew the shorter edge across, along the rough edge of the fold. (approx 1/8 inch from the raw edge)

Step 5:: with right sides together, fold the two ends to meet at the short end where you stitched.

Step 6:: Sew along the longer edge, stopping where the top stitch begins( see picture) If you sew to far then your opening will close up.

Your bag should now look like the first picture shown above. Turn your bag right side out to make it resemble the second picture. Now you have your treat bag. Take a piece of twine or ribbon and use a safely pink at the end to thread it through the top hole on your treat bag. Push the string through one end out the hole and right back into the other side making sure not to cut ribbon thread yet.

After you have strung your bag tie a knot at the ends of the ribbon. (we also used a lighter to singe the ends to prevent them from coming unraveled.) Now you and the kiddos can stuff them full of candy! When your done tie up the top and set it in your trick or treat bowl.

There are many ways to make these bags, this just happens to be our version for the trick or treaters. To adjust the sizes just make your rectangle larger. There is not such thing as a wrong size when making these. Super easy, and fun to. Enjoy!

Sunday Stash :: Japanese Scraps

I have in the works a scrappy quilt made completely of Japanese scraps and linen. In my head this quilt is just the coolest thing I will ever make. I have slowly been collecting scraps.. ans I mean slowly. I wanted a huge variety but shipping from Japan is not a pretty sight. Lucky for me I found this cute shop that offers bags of cute scraps. The shop is called Beautiful Work on Etsy. I apologize ahead of time for the overload of cuteness if you click on their shop link.

I love love love everything thing I received, the best part was knowing what scraps I would get from the picture. I am always afraid of ordering from japan just randomly you know.

On another note, me and Sophia found this cute Alexander Henry remnant over at Joann's the other day. Stay tuned for what it will become!

Sew Fantastic Buzz :: Matching Seams

Although I have been a sewer for more then half of my life, I would consider myself nothing but amateur when it comes to quilting. Quilting is something that I enjoy for a few months, and then it gets put away for a long time until the urge comes back. This could be a year or more when it happens. I really wanted to start , and finish a quilt this year. So I joined Jane's Aqua Red block swap. (story here)

Today I cleaned off my sewing space to fill it with Aqua and red disappearing nine patch quilt blocks. (tutorial here) After wasting a bit of fabric doing some experiments, I thought I would share a little something.

To pin.... or not to pin... That is the Question!

After sewing and sewing as fast as I can to fill shop orders, Quilting is quite tedious to me. The thought that has to go into each piece, and the process to put it together correctly are quite nerve racking sometimes. I am a instant gratification kind of gal you know. I used to be an eye-baller. You know one of those people who eyes the fabric and hopes it all works out. Me and my seam ripper have a love hate relationship.

After many ways of doing it differently, I found that indeed pinning your fabric in place makes more a more accurate match. (Duh Terri) I also wanted to see if placing the pin in vertically would work better then horizontally, just for kicks I guess. Now keep in mind there is no wrong or right way in the process of making any quilt. It's strictly what works best for you. I know there are quite a few beginner quilters out there who could find this conversation intriguing I suppose.

Anyway, the vertical matched up more accurately for me which came to my surprise. Reason is that you have to pull out your pins before the machine runs over them(or let the machine run over them... to scary.) . The horizontal pin can be placed out of the way and left until the piece is sewn completely. So I guess I expected the horizontal pins to work best.



Now that I have lost all of you, I am curious is there a trick to make sure seams always match up? Is it the way you pin, or the kind of pins you use. How can I guarantee that when I iron my block, the corners will match just so perfect that I can throw away my seam ripper.

Does something this wonderful exist?

Dress up time

Just wanted to take a break from my sewing machine to show you all something cute. I am totally in love with my little girl, she always amazes me. I love it when she blows me kisses when I leave the house, or when she jumps up on the couch to snuggle and watch Tinkerbell. This little girl ROCKS my whole world.

Anyway, today she got to pick out her outfit. Once a week I let her choose, and she keeps choosing until she has a full outfit. This is what we wore today. Her super cute Jean Skirt. New visor hat, and stripey tights. She did end up with the kitty puddle stompers instead of the sneakers as well. I tried to talk her out of the boots, but it was a no go. My favorite part about her outfit is the sweater. Her cousin Cailey who is now 5 years old, wore this sweater when she was Sophia's age. It was passed down to us and we love it. I think she did pretty good for only being 17 months old. Lucky for her the closet is mostly pink.

Hope this post makes you smile as much as it did for me. Aren't kids just wonderful.

Felted Friends WINNER!!

It's not to late to grab one up over at Olivia's Felted Friends. Olivia wrote me the other day and let me know that all of you were sending her very kind and encouraging words. I think it is important for us all to support each other no matter what our ages, or talent. I am thankful for our youth, for keeping our fondest crafts alive.

Thanks again to everyone who left Olivia some love, or purchased from her shop to support her journey to collage. It didn't go un-noticed that is for sure. I encourage you to share her shop with your blog readers, or purchase your own felted friend, that is unless your the winner!!!!

Number 9 was:: Jacquie who made a purchase to gain 10 extra entries, and it looks like her strategy worked. Congratulations Jacquie

Thank you again everyone who participated... until next time!