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Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day

Tomorrow is Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day, the day when fabric shops around the country offer discounts, giveaways, demonstrations and other fun activities. I’ll be at Intown Quilters here in Atlanta with Rashida Coleman-Hale and Melody Miller around 11 am if you want to drop by and say hello! Intown Quilters has copies of 1, 2, 3 Sew, plus my new Stamped fabric collection.

Although I love to shop for fabric online, there’s still nothing like touching the fabric in person, chatting about quilting, and supporting a local, independent business. So find your local participating shop here and head out for a visit tomorrow!

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Handmade Holidays in Atlanta

Happy Holidays! There are a lot of handmade happenings here in Atlanta this month and I thought I’d share a few ideas for your holiday shopping.

First off, I’ll be at Whipstitch this Monday, December 10 from 6:30-9:30 pm for the Whipstitch Customer Appreciation Holiday Potluck! I’ll be there with samples from my Stamped collection (which you can order from Deborah). Rashida Coleman-Hale and Melody Miller will also be on hand to show you their new collections! Pictured above are images from Stamped, Tsuru and Ruby Star Sparkle. And I think Deborah may have copies of her new book, Stitch Savvy, for you to preview!

Also on the west side of town, Seed Factory is having a pop-up event the next two Saturdays with handmade goods, Santa, and a candy counter with gingerbread and hot chocolate from Star Provisions. Check here for more details.

Then in Virginia-Highland, the Indie-pendent is hosting a weekly holiday market on Thursdays in Belly (on the corner of St. Charles and N. Highland). There will be some hands-on activities, plus you can get some shopping done!

Then head down to the Indie Craft Experience’s holiday pop-up shop in Criminal Records in Little Five Points. Handmade goods from some of your favorite local crafters. And if you’re like me, you can also pick up a gift certificate for some vinyl for your husband while you’re in there.

It looks like Beehive has a trunk show this weekend and they’ve had some great things in there the last few times I stopped by. And while you’re out, be sure to run by Youngblood Gallery and pick up some handmade goods before they close! These last four handmade shops are located so conveniently near each other that you should take some friends and make an outing.

Now, if you live near Atlanta and would love to get away from it all, I should tell you about this wonderful creative retreat from Southern Circle Retreats, with Jenni Horne and Tiffin Mills. You should buy that for yourself this year! I think creativity helps bring sanity. The retreat will be at Serenbe, just south of Atlanta, on January 25-27. Check here for more information.

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Pleated Tote Tutorial

Should I call this a Make it Monday post? Anyone who has read this blog for a long time might remember that I posted tutorials regularly on Mondays. How did I have time to do that? Anyway, here’s the tutorial for the simple pleated tote that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. Just click on the .pdf file below to print the instructions.

Note that the instructions guide you to sew two rows of topstitching on the bag, which I did the first time around, but not on the bags pictured here. So I’ll leave the topstitching decision up to you. Also, the instructions don’t include any pockets or snaps, but feel free to add whatever you’d like. Here I made the bags with my Stamped collection in the pastel on charcoal cheater print and the purple ginkgo leaves. See my previous post for fabric availability.

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Stamped in Stores

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. On to the next holiday!

I’m seeing my new collection Stamped for Kokka popping up in a few stores. Though it hasn’t shipped everywhere yet, here are some of the online shops that currently have the collection available. Some of these stores are having sales, even on their new fabric! I know you’re supposed to be buying presents for other people, but buy some fabric and make something! And today is Small Business Saturday, so shop away.

Fabricworm

Sew Modern

Pink Castle Fabrics

CityCraft

Pink Chalk Fabrics

And locally here in Atlanta, I know that Intown Quilters will be carrying some of the collection and it looks like there may be an opportunity to order through Whipstitch. More details soon. The photos here are works in progress for my Quilt Market samples. Those have traveled on with the distributor, so I still don’t have them back to take full photos of the projects, but you’ll see these projects soon in various places!

 

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Monday, Monday.

I’m tying up loose ends this morning. I made this bag over the weekend, using the new Nani Iro brushed twill from Miss Matatabi. Soft and beautiful fabric! This fabric has a bit of shimmer to it on the pink flowers and the band lining brown fabric has super bright neon polka dots, which my camera refused to adequately capture here. I also used my scalloped gray fabric for the interior lining. I’m making some scarves and cowls with this fabric for the Indie Craft Experience, and may make a couple of these bags with a reversible option.

I talked to the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild over the weekend and was excited to see so many quilting enthusiasts all together! I’m planning to head to QuiltCon in February and am really looking forward to it.

 

And this Wednesday begins a fun Wrap-Along for the new book, Ruby Star Wrapping by Melody Miller and Allison Tannery, organized by Amy (Sukie) of Sukie Don’t Ya Know. So, grab a copy of the book, make some things and link to your projects! There will be weekly prizes and different bloggers posting every few days. See the full schedule here. I’ll be making a project later in the month.

Also, wanted to let you know that I have uploaded images of my Stamped collection for you to use for your online shop or on your blog. Feel free to pull images and share the fabric!