Maisonette Love

What do I love?

-Fabric
-Boutique-ness
-Bungalows

Well folks, I am happy to say that I have found a wee bit of my personal Shangri-La right here in North County. At one of the craft fairs I did recently, a fellow vendor told me that she loved my fabrics (duh), and asked me if I got them from Maisonette, a local fabric store. I said:

"Huh?"

And after she explained, I said:

"A local fabric store that sells GOOD, FABULOUS fabric and is in a bungalow??! Nearby??! LET ME HOP IN MY CAR!"

Okay, so maybe I didn't go right then (I was still manning my craft fair table, after all), but you betcha I went as soon as I could. And it is....oooh....it is WOOOON-derful!

It's like fabric orgasm. Once you walk in, you will say to yourself, "I am never settling for less than this again." It makes other fabric stores look like total crap. I mean, yeah, sometimes you still have to go to them, but not for quilting cottons, NO. Do not. Go to Maisonette first. Support your local independent store, and you will not only feel good about where your dollar is going, you will walk out with some freakin' amazing stuff. They have:

-Amy Butler
-Anna Maria Horner up the wazoo (have I mentioned she's my absolute fave??), including her glorious new voiles & velveteens
-Heather Bailey
-Kokka/Japanese prints
-Ty Pennington's new line (sounds odd, but trust me, it's amazing)
-Michael Miller knits
-So many beyond awesome boutique patterns, including Colette!
-Jumbo rick rack, vintage buttons, french flannel, MM bias tape, adorable unique ribbons
-And way more

Fabulous beach themed fabric & gray cotton rick rack for a custom apron order. This is really not the most representative of the kind of fabrics they have there. I just wanted to point out that I went in for something super specific that I hadn't been able to find anywhere else, and they totally delivered!

Japanese canvas for an apron for my son. I cannot look at this fabric without getting a silly grin on my face.

The accessories!! Since I already have quite enough fabric for most of my projects, the extras are of the hugest draws to Maisonette for me. Adorable crocheted trims from Riley Blake, ridiculously choke-on-the-cuteness strawberry buttons, and an amazing jewel-ish applique I have ear-marked for another bag from Style Stitches.

I have never heard of these Jamie Christina patterns?! But my sister and I died over this dress, so she had to get the Honey Girl. We can't wait to make some adorable Summer tops and dresses from it! I mean, yes, it includes the dreaded shirring, but look at the awesome result!

Okay, and here is one of the biggest things: I can't think of any fabric store...or maybe even store, period, where the salepeople are so nice. I am willing to endure whatever to get my supplies, but sometimes I weary of the rude clerks at just about every fabric store I go to. Ahem. You know the ones I'm talking about. And also the quilt shops where the staff assumes I'm either a) a clueless young person who knows nothing about sewing or b) I know nothing because I don't quilt. Like I said, I endure it because I just need my supplies, and my expectations are low. But how nice is it to shop somewhere where they are respectful AND helpful AND knowledgeable?? It's lovely. :)

Can I have a Maisonette gift card for my birthday?? ;)

(BTW, I am in no way affiliated with Maisonette, and they haven't asked me to write this blog post. I am just so excited that I had to share. :) )

She Hath Fix-ed It

You may remember a very short time ago I posted that I had finally set up my Etsy shop, and I felt rather apathetic, er, overwhelmed. At a loss as to how to do the graphic design/photography aspects of this whole idea, I called up my Very Good friend Shari, and said,"helllllllp!!!"

So she did.

Reaaaallly. No REALLY. Like, I think at this point she may have put more work into my shop than *I* have! Shari has ridiculous photography talent and technical know-how, and that is why I am so honored to have these pictures of my creations!! Wow, just wow. Let me share:

Anyone else smell the apple and pumpkin pie with in this shot?? Thannnnnnksgiving....mmm....

Not going to lie, kind of happy about these butt shots. Um, who wants her butt to look bad? Not me, my friends.

(Incidentally, my irreverent husband calls these aprons, "the ones where you're not supposed to wear anything underneath.")

Just gonna let that sit...

Whoa, and on a completely different subject: kids aprons! Wait, I think I need more white space...

...

...

Okay, I'm good now. Um, how adorable is her little daughter modeling these kiddo versions? I love her "popped" foot and her pink Chucks!

Up close the mini-aprons are just like Mommy's. :)

Having visited my rather overstocked sewing room, Shari knows a thing or two regarding how passionate I feel about fabric. Specifically, I want to make love to piles and piles of beautiful fabric, dive into it, smell it, stare at it. I have a love-love relationship with it. I will only accept the best, quality and print-wise. *sniiiiiiff* Fabrique!

So, in the interest of taking fabric pictures "for custom orders", she took several shots of various piles of my fabric. *ahem* Yeah...these are for custom orders. Not for whipping me up into a frenzy of fabric lust. *cough* Nooooooo. Strictly busnaz.

These are all Christmas prints from a recent Fabric.com order. I got a great deal on them, as they were all on sale, and then I had an additional coupon code. Regular prices per yard for premium quilting cotton, as you may know, usually run ~$10 a yard. So happy that Fabric.com and Hawthorne Threads are always hooking me up so I can enjoy my favorite habit without having to pay full price every time. :)

Incidentally, these prints are mostly from Robert Kaufman and Alexander Henry, and they make me feel all Christmasy giddy inside.

These are some vintage Joann's prints. A while back they decided to jump on the whole Japanese novelty print bandwagon and came out with a few Japanese-inspired whimsy prints of their own. I gobbled these two up, but sadly my daughter is not so much into prints like this. Princess or fairies or flowers or bust, she says. Oh, she is so hard to please! :p~

Recognize these? Leftover scraps from the Glam Garden dress I made for my daughter's 1st day of school. Still completely gaga over this line. I don't have enough for anything big, but I figured I'd put them out there for some of my checkbook covers and wallets. At the very least, I am making something for me! :)

I am all about these saturated blue/turquoise prints lately; these are from two different designers. The top one is from Tina Givens' Fairy Tip Toes line, and the two down from that are from Jennifer Paginelli's Flower Power. These two lines are printed on the most amazing, luxurious quilting cotton. It is perfect for more structured items like aprons, and wears so wonderfully. The quality honestly spoils me when I am working assembly line, because it puts even some of the other premium quilting cottons I use to shame!

More of Tina Givens' Fairy Tip Toes. I am amazed at how she makes these rather different colors work together all in one line. Combining brights and pastels is no easy feat. Sooo beautiful--I can't wait to sew them into girly-girly-ness, whether it be some of my aprons, other kitchen items, or maybe a little girls' dress??

Speaking of clothes, YES, I am still sewing those. My kids need pajamas like they're naked (they aren't, actually, but you get the idea), and I still have those freaking Michael Miller knits calling my name very, very loudly. With two craft fairs under my belt in the last few weeks, I haven't had time to clothe my own kids, so I hope to remedy that a bit this week.

Until next time!

Michael Miller Knit Love

Folks, I am going through a difficult time here. Last week, this beautilicious stack of fabric arrived on my doorstep. *pant pant* It is a tastefully selected, meticulously planned assortment of the new knits from Patty Young and Michael Miller. Each cut has a highly specific place in its respective project. They are so soft. So bright and pretty. I love them, really, too much.

Except.

I'm moving.

And, like, this is a really AWESOME thing, because you probably don't want to hear the whole shebang, but we've been wanting our own House in Southern California (home of the formerly dead American Dream) for a very, very long time. We've gone through, well, some crappy stuff to get here. Nevertheless:

I need to sew! I'm going through withdrawal. I've spent the last few days packing--ugh!--many beloved items. Such as, my books and *gulp* MY FABRIC. I don't know how long it will be before I see these things again. It might be a whole month, ack!

Oh upheaval, how I dread thee!

I have not yet found the strength to pack up these particular knits. I'm hoping if I leave them long enough, I can just carefully strap them into the passenger seat of my CR-V and tote them over to my house by hand.

Who could shove Elvira in Toffee into an anonymous box, with an as yet unknown unpacking date?

I cannot bring myself to say goodbye to Mod Dots in Turquoise, oh no.

Neither Scandi Chirp in Multi. Sob. Can't do it.

And Carnival Bloom in Brown? Psha! Such a print would never languish very far out of my sight!

Oh yes, I have detailed *ahem* professionally sketched designs in mind for all these fabrics! Please.


I have "I-am-a-sucker-for-matching-fabric-and-pattern-marketing" patterns all ready. I'm good to go.

But that dang siren of responsibility calls. Grr.

So, I don't know when I will get to these. Hopefully it won't be too long. But no matter what, I must get some sewing in between all this packing ridiculousness. I really don't want to expire from creative interruptus. I do have a few projects up my sleeve that I am going to try to fit in. In the meantime I may have to write some more lustful sewing/fabric posts, blerg.

Rain, rain, go away

Usually our Spring weather around here is pretty mild, but this week we got in a very brrr Winter storm from Alaska. It is cold! And dreary!

Just in time for the doom and gloom, I happened to receive a package of bright, cheery fabrics from this a-mazing sewing shop I just discovered, Hawthorne Threads. This place, I tell you. They have just about the lowest regular prices I've found on designer quilting cottons, wonderful selection and searching ability, AND you can order cuts in increments less than a yard! (Nope, they are not paying me for this shill!) Believe me when I say these requirements are a tall order. Most of the quilt shops I've found don't meet my high standards, so I don't normally use them as a resource. I either go with a big box store (Joannns or Wal-Mart) or one of my co-ops. And since it's pretty hard to step into a fabric store with my 2 year-old these days, I tend to stick to the co-op for the most part, since I can do it from my computer.

In addition to all that wonderful value and easy-to-use-ness of Hawthorne, I placed an order on Monday, and received it on Wednesday. Hello, super fast! This was like a heavenly miracle to me. I am used to a 2-5 month disconnect between when I order my fabric from a co-op and when I finally get to touch it. Yes, I get my fabric much more cheaply that way, but, sheesh. Talk about fabric patience. And I loooooooooooooooooove fabric, so it can be very hard to wait.

So anyway, the reason I decided to break down and order from a regular online store was that, a) I have been drooling over this new line, Glam Garden, by Josephine Kimberling and b) lately I just cannot get the twirly, patchwork Analise dress pattern out of my head. I really want to use it to make a special 1st day of school dress for DD. Unfortunately, the patchwork view calls for small amounts of 7 different fabrics, and that doesn't really fit my co-op paradigm. So I searched, perused, and eventually decided to order from Hawthorne before the Glam Garden fabrics sell out. I am so glad, because who wouldn't want to get this at 2pm on a gray Wednesday?:

Okay, okay, so that's not all Glam Garden in the picture. I also found what I think might be, in all seriousness, the most awesome whimsical owl fabric, ever. What might this fabric become?? It's a secret!!

Disclaimer, the fabrics on the edges of the picture are actually not from the Hawthorne Threads order. It was just my luck that one of my co-ops happened to send a small package yesterday as well. The package also included a charm pack of Summer in the City by Urban Chiks. Charm packs are wonderful and affordable way to sample different quilting lines. They are usually around $5 from my co-op, so decided to try my hand at making DD a patchwork twirl skirt. This pack contains 40-ish 5" x 5" squares:

These next two prints are from Lila Tueller's Santorini line. I was surprised at how large-scale these turned out to be. One of the perils of choosing fabric from pictures, I suppose. I had intended them for a tiered Gracie dress for DD, but now that I have them in my hands, I'm not sure. I really love the sort stained glass look, and that combined with the roses just really reminds me of Beauty and the Beast. I think I may incorporate one of the roses in a Summer Belle sundress I'm making for DD. We'll see.

Continuing the princess sundress theme, I plan to make DD a Cinderella inspired dress out of these two fabrics. The blue one is one I actually already had. It is a gorgeous tone-on-tone quilting cotton from Jennifer Paginelli (can't remember what line). I have been not so patiently awaiting my 1 yard order of sparkly white Fairy Frost by Michael Miller so I could put these two fabrics together. You can't see very well in this picture, but the Fairy Frost fabric has sparkly silver glitter swirls all over it. The FF fabrics come in many, many colors, and I'm told that some very talented quilting ladies make these gorgeous stained-glass looking quilts with them. I'd love to see one in person--this fabric is just so pretty.

That's all for now! Next up, some SEWING. (I gave up on DS's jacket and have moved on to lots of fluffy, girly dresses for DD. My favorite thing to sew, besides knits!)

Presents from my mailman 10/22

I have received several lovely, fabricalicious packages in the past week or so. I. Love. Magical mystery fabric packages. I mean seriously, is there anything more wonderful than receiving fabric in the mail? Okay, maybe shoes. But still. I ordered all of this fabric MONTHS ago from various co-ops...and then forgot about it. Then they just appear on my doorstop, and it is a wonderfully joyful thing.

First up are some Alexander Henry quilting cottons. These are all 2 yard cuts of Fairy Wing Park. It's all wintery girls, cats, & dogs roller skating around a magical park. The coordinates are an all over bird print from the main print's trees. I also ordered a couple of the calico flower prints featured in the girls' dresses, but those ones got back ordered, so bummer. Anyway, the print is on a much larger scale than I realized, so other than maybe one Euro-type jumper (Farbenmix Feliz?) for DD, I'm a little stumped as to what I'm going to do with these. In the meantime, I looooove them!


Next are a few prints from what might be one of my favorite fabric collections ever. This is Fairytale Princess, also from Alexander Henry. I had originally intended these some for some type of sassy Euro apparel for DD, but now I am not so sure. I need to find a project that lets me use the items for a longer time than one size/season. I really hate to quilt or sew any type of home item, but I might have to buckle down. Or I could just frame them as prints & hang them up.


I mean seriously, check out these hilarious fairytale depictions and the freaking awesome Cinderella shoe?? So fabulous!


These are a few prints from Girly Girl by Art Gallery Fabrics. The quality on these prints is just wonderful. The blurb on the selvedge states "premium cotton", and they really are. All three of them came out of the wash much less wrinkled than my other fabrics. I believe the weave uses long-staple cotton fibers, which wrinkle less. They have a nice, light hand. Perfect for apparel for me. :)


Lastly, I got some nice knit prints from Mis-T-V-Us. I am super happy with the colors and quality of the top four, but the lower two weren't quite what I thought when I saw the online pics. I mean, they are very, very nice quality and all, just not the colors that I thought I was going to get. The orange is very bright. No worries though, sometimes fabric takes a little time to grow on and inspire me. The flower print is a nice french terry & would go well with some of the brown ribbing that I have a ton of, so I am thinking it might make a cute Fall-ish hoodie dress for my DD.


That's all...for now (really, does the fabric ever stop? No, it doesn't).

Presents from my mailman

Don't worry, he really is a man. Who is also a person. A mailperson/man.

My lovely ummmm...postally employed human was so kind as to bring me these recent gifts! Isn't he so nice? I love him:


Fabric from left to right: Gorgeous 100% Waterford linen...this is the real stuff, baby (2yds), Hot Blossom Sunset large floral (3 yds) and medallion print(1 yd), Robert Kaufman panda leaf--organic 60% cotton/40% bamboo.

Patterns: Indygo Junction Over the Top Tunic, and Maw Bell Sweet Summer Sundress pattern.

I had intended to use the linen/panda to make some totally crunchy reusable grocery & veggie bags, but now that I have them they are so fabulous, and I hate to use them for something so practical. I should, though. I want to make the longer sleeved version of the tunic out of my Hot Blossom fabrics. As for the 2nd pattern, it's a little late for sundresses, but I might do one as a pinafore for Fall for Vi.

This is a long-awaited order from one of the co-ops that I belong to. I have mixed feelings about co-ops. On the one hand, the prices are good and I have never been disappointed with the quality of fabric/patterns that I have gotten. On the other hand, my stuff can take for-ev-er to come (like, 4-5 months sometimes!), and often some of the fabrics I want get dropped from the order. For instance, I went crazy, CRAZY over the Hot Blossom line when I saw it. I thought it over carefully and ended up ordering 10 yds of the various prints. After waiting forever to close the sale, many of these bolts were dropped, and I only got 4 yds. Fine, I could order on Etsy, but unfortunately by that time most of the prints were not even available online anymore. The ones that I did find were mostly in the colorways & prints that I didn't want! Argh, so frustrating. I would take 3 yds of every print in the Sunset colorway if I could. Instead I am left with two prints that I didn't even intend to go together. Not that they clash, it's just not as mellow a combo as I envisioned. Oh well.

On to the next order:


Top row from left to right: Pirate Mickey cotton jersey--sooo silky! (me + DS?), gray/black stipe rib knit (DS), owls on putty waffle knit (tank top for me), large brown/blue stripe cotton/lycra jersey (DS).

Bottom row from left to right: Hello Kitty rib knit (*DD), turquoise rib knit (DD), hot pink floral cotton/lycra jersey (DD).

These beautiful knits are from Sewzannes--love her store and fabrics! She always has wonderful quality fabrics at reasonable prices. Also, her shipping is so fast that you would swear the mailman knocks right after you click "order". :) She sends everything priority, so it is about as close to instant gratification as you can get. When your fabric comes, it always has a lovely bow of some stretchy trimming tied around it--yay free stretchy trims! This time it was a pretty pink foldover elastic, which I will definitely use. It is the little roll in the center of the picture.

Okay, okay, I know what you are thinking. I do not need anymore fabric. I do not have ROOM for anymore fabric. But, well, what can I say? I have a greedy bee-otch inside of me, and she is screaming, "MORE FABRIC, MORE FABRIC!!!" Down girl, down! (Okay, here's some fabric.)

Truth be told, last week I reorganized all my stacks so they were perfectly divided, theme-ized and even. And now I have to fit all this in. Aaaannnd, I don't know how I'm going to do it. Luckily I have Fall/Halloween/Christmas coming up, for which I must do MUCH sewing, so that is really going to thin down the stacks. I think.

You know you love my obsession, too...