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1,2,3 Sew Flickr Pool

Did you know that 1,2,3 Sew is shipping from amazon? It should be hitting your local bookstore or fabric shop soon. I actually spotted a copy at my local Barnes & Noble last week. I’ll be sewing things from the book all summer — just to show you different colors, fabrics and options here and there.

I recently made the Market Bag from the book using Melody Miller’s Ruby Star Rising Viewfinders fabric. Love this fabric. You can see my latest version above and the one pictured in the book below — made with a pear patterned cotton fabric and a burlap bottom.

I made the bag just like the one in the book, but added some quick embroidery and made the squared bottoms a bit smaller. I’m thinking this will be a great summer tote — to load up towels for the pool or take on quick day trips. I also think it would work really well for traveling as you can just tie the handles and make a smaller handbag, as shown below.

If you’ve already got the book and have started making stuff, I’ve set up a flickr pool. So make something and share it!

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Modern Blocks

I’m thrilled to be a part of this upcoming book from C & T Publishing, Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favorite Designers. Due out in the fall, it features many designers with their interpretations of the modern quilt — from appliqué to embroidery and all kinds of techniques in between. This looks like a book I would totally buy even if I didn’t have a block in it. My block has a pleating technique to add texture to a quilt. Which reminds me, maybe I should make a quilt from that block. One more project for the list.

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A Sneak Peek into 1,2,3 Sew

Bibs and blankets and burp cloths, oh my! You can learn to sew all of these things in my new book, 1,2,3 Sew. Since we’re talking about handmade baby items all week, I thought I might go ahead and give you this sneak peek.

In the baby chapter, the projects all feature hand embroidery so in addition to learning how to sew these baby staples, you can also learn some embroidery tricks or add your own embellishments to personalize baby gifts. You’ll sew the simple sampler burp cloths first, then move on to the baby blanket with blanket stitched edging and finally the sunshine baby bib which features a variety of embroidery stitches. So get stitching!

If you pre-order my book, you may even receive it in the mail before the end of the month! So get ready for those baby projects.

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1,2,3 Sew

Turns out that this book actually does exist in real life and not just in my imagination. After working on it for such a long time, I wasn’t so sure, but it came in the mail last week! Although it won’t be available in bookstores for a few months, it’s finally finished.

The idea behind the book is that sewing is a cumulative process, with your skills building as you go. So the projects are organized in groups of three in each chapter, increasing in complexity with each project so that you can build on the new skills you’ve just learned. For instance, in one chapter you’ll make a simple grocery tote, then an art bag with a divider and pencil pouch, then finally an insulated drawstring lunch tote. There are 33 projects in all, with a teaching focus so you’ll learn along the way. And even if you’re an experienced sewer, hopefully you’ll want to try out the projects.

For the cover, I wanted to add texture, so I digitized and machine stitched the title, then on the title page (shown below) and all of the chapter openers, I hand-stitched and photographed designs that Chronicle’s graphic designer created. The layout and design of the book was a collaborative process, with me mostly driving the good folks at Chronicle nuts with my detail-oriented personality. When I first thought of writing a book, I assumed that I’d just sew the projects and write the text, but it’s much more of a DIY project. I created the illustrations and styled the backgrounds, with the photographs taken by my friend Laura Malek. I’ll write a post about the full process when it’s closer to the release date. But as you can see the book has a wire-o binding that allows it to lay flat while you sew, a nice rigid cover with rounded corners, and it also includes a pocket with full pattern pieces.

You can go ahead and pre-order it now! I’ll share projects and photos from the book soon.

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Today

I’ve been spending a lot of time in my sewing room, but not actually sewing much. Working on the computer and creating a few patterns for upcoming publications (though I can’t show you these yet). So I thought I’d show you a bit of today’s inspiration.

Here’s what I’m reading:

Vera: The Art and Life of an Icon by Susan Seid. Vera Neumann’s artful surface design is amazing and continues to inspire today.

Print & Pattern by Bowie Style. A compilation of great surface design from the blog of the same name. Here’s the work of Pata Pri, one of my first Etsy favorites.

Quilt Artistry: Inspired Designs from the East by Yoshiko Jinzenji. Breathtaking work here.

Quilting Line + Color: Techniques and Designs for Abstract Quilts, also by Yoshiko Jinzenji. More beautiful work. I love how she plays with transparent fabric as you can see in the image below. You have to see her hexagon quilt.

I’ve also been receiving some freebies (a great benefit of blogging). This cozy stack of wool came from Heavens to Betsy (one of my newest sponsors) and this wool felt ribbon came from Felt-0-Rama. So check out all of their amazing goods and make something warm.