It was just at Spring Quilt Market that Jess and I were saying, “I wish Lotta Jansdotter had quilting fabric!” And lo and behold, Windham Fabrics will be sending her first collection, Echo, this Fall!

Let me back up a minute, in case you’re not familiar with Lotta Jansdotter. She is a Swedish printmaker and textile designer who is based in Brooklyn (formerly San Fransisco).  We’ve long loved her simple, organic style which is often in the form of stamped designs inspired by botanical shapes. You may have seen her papers and other goods in stores like Anthropologie over the years, not to mention her sewing books, Simple Sewing and Simple Sewing for Baby, which are favorites round here.

Get to know Lotta in in which she gives a tour of her studio. Isn’t she adorable? And you can bet we’ll be squealing with excitement when Echo arrives in November!

This is how I look after work most days, trying to hustle home as much fabric as possible.

I knew the minute I saw Heather Bailey’s new fabrics from Free Spirit at Quilt Market that I had to make a bag with them. Garden District is a collection of wide, heavy canvas that’s just asking to be tossed around and treated roughly. It screams, “I can take it and look good too!” I wanted a big bag to show off the large Nouvelle Rose print, so I chose Heather Bailey’s Saturday Market Bag pattern.

I’d somehow never made a Heather Bailey pattern before this, but it was just as easy to follow as I expected.  And I actually started and finished it in the same day, so I avoided some unfinished project guilt there. The pattern includes several versions of the bag, and I made option 3, without the bow or contrasting sections. I decided to go for the reversible option, so didn’t put any pockets in either. The pattern calls for lightweight canvas for an interfacing, but since I was already using heavy canvas for both the outside and lining, I left the interfacing out. And am glad I did. Another benefit of this canvas is that it’s extra wide at 58″, so even though the pattern calls for 1-1/8 yards each of outer and lining fabrics, in the canvas it only takes about 3/4 yards each.

I love how simple, pretty, and BIG it is. It’s named right, because I’m so ready to take this thing to the farmer’s market Saturday! Because I intended to use it as a shopping bag and I know I’ll be filling it to the max, I didn’t put in the optional snaps that let you contract the sides. So since I left out bows, pockets, interfacing, and snaps, the bag was a quick sew. From cutting out fabric to the last topstitching it probably took at most 4 hours.

The one cheating moment I had was to machine stitch the straps closed instead of hand sewing them. I figured since I was topstitching anyway, it wouldn’t look any worse to have a seam there.

This photo also gives you a bit of a sense of the texture of the canvas. It’s substantial weight gives it a more professional look. We’ve had the Free Spirit home dec weight sateens in the shop, but this heavy canvas is new. I’m very happy with the quality of it and I think it will be quite useful.  I’ve got a backpack in mind for my next canvas project. For now the Saturday Market bag is on display in the shop, and kits are available for this very version.

We’ve been working hard developing some new class curriculums around here, and we’re pretty exited about it. The first two classes in September are my own newest, Clothing Construction 101 and Thread Doodling, which both came about after some sewing projects that I ended up loving and thought you guys might too.

A few months ago I made the Roundabout Dress pattern by Anna Maria Horner…

but the blouse version…

which looked like this on me…

but only when I wasn’t making this face…

Anyway, all the while I sewed, I kept thinking what a great beginning pattern it was.  It’s clearly written, so it will be great for learning how to read and understand patterns.  It has pleats and gathers, great techniques for beginning clothing sewists to learn. It doesn’t have buttonholes, zippers, or set-in sleeves, which can be saved for the post-beginner clothing class. Other elements of this blouse give us the chance to teach about bias trims, cuffs and waistbands, and basics of custom-fitting a pattern. Not to mention that it’s just a really great shirt!  You’ll actually like to wear the first piece of clothing you sew.  I can’t say the same for the first shirt I sewed, in a class my freshman year of college.  It was a white button down, and looked like an oversized janitor’s uniform. It went missing long ago. That will not be happening with the Roundabout. My blouse was made with Triflora voile in Mermaid (notice my note about voile on the supply list if you sign up). Class stars September 6. Follow the link for Clothing Construction 101 for all the details, including supply list and how to register.

Thread Doodling all started when I made a little zipper pouch, which I posted previously.  It combined machine applique and free-motion machine embroidery. I found the technique irresistible and did some more…

I called it thread doodling, because there was no pre-planning or marking lines, no fixing mistakes, and it had the playful feel of the doodles you probably did all over your notebooks when you were a student.  You don’t have to be a good drawer or have an impressive vision. I like to start by remembering what kinds of things I used to doodle as a kid, and go from there…

These flowers became a throw pillow, which is one of the options for how to use your thread doodle in our class.
Once we go over how to prepare your materials and practice the free-motion technique, the project will be very freestyle. It can take on endless incarnations depending on who’s doing the thread doodling, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with in class.  Thread Doodling takes place in exactly one month on September 16.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll feature more of our classes here on the blog soon, in the mean time check out our entire Fall class line-up. And I hope you’ll join us in the classroom!

We alluded to this project a bit ago, and now we can show some progress!  This is the Wild Garden quilt. Well, quilt top. It still needs to be quilted, which I have been having internal debates about how to do.  But the bamboo batting is ready and waiting, and then it will be time for a pattern release!  Yup, Wild Garden will be available from our own Golly Patterns in August.

The idea is simply to frame a panel with border-after-border, which we love for showcasing fabric that we don’t to detract from with over-designed piecing. You may recognize the Loulouthi fabrics, obviously that collection. More photos and info on the pattern to come, if I can just make up my mind about the quilting…

Greetings from Korea! I am in the Land of the Morning Calm, which happens to be the place where the good majority of the fabric that we carry is made. Just a quick check-in to say hi and share a few photos. The colors and patterns everywhere here are inspiring.

Yesterday in Gimhae we went to Eunhasa, an ancient Buddhist temple that burned in the 1500s and was rebuilt in the 1600s. This is the underside of one of the “beef tongue” roofs.

Lanterns and ceiling of the temple:

many orange Buddhas:

And today we visited the Gukje Market in Busan. The first thing we saw there was wallpaper. The Koreans take their wallpaper very seriously. Every surface of the tiny apartment we are staying in is covered in it.

And of course, fabric. From Hello Kitty to home dec. All of it enticing. It draws me in like something stronger than a strong magnet.

Headed to Seoul tomorrow, where I’ve been promised the most massive fabric warehouse ever is waiting for me.

Of the few things I take very seriously, my sleep is one of them. My bed has such a heavenly mattress that I love it a little more than a person should love a thing.  And of course, my comfy bed has got to be pretty too. (I totally believe that the aesthetics of our environments affect our mood.)  So the transitioning of the winter comforter to the summer comforter was the perfect time for a bed makeover.

For me the simple, right-sides-together duvet cover has become the go-to when I want something for my own bed but there’s not enough time (or I’m too impatient) to make a new quilt. When you have a large print to show off it’s especially perfect. I had been dying to get my hands on the the huge-scale prints in the Loulouthi collection in particular. The tricky thing is, a queen duvet cover requires 2 widths of fabric, and with prints this big they had to be matched. It turned out much better than I anticipated, only needed about a foot of extra fabric and I just pinned before sewing. Barely noticeable!

And since I like to change things up a lot, the back has a contrasting print so I can flip it if I’m in a more purpley mood.

The fabric particulars:

• duvet front fabric: Summer Totem in Grapefruit
• duvet back fabric: Framed in Shadow
  • 4 3/4 yards for each side of a full/queen duvet
• pillowcases: Stockings in Twist
  • 1 yard per pillowcase

My duvet cover sewing tips:

• Don’t bother squaring up until after you’ve sewn the two sides together. When I square up first, by the time I’m done sewing the sides and top together, the bottom don’t match up anyway so I have to square up again before hemming.
• As in making pillow shams, if you make your duvet cover slightly smaller than the duvet, the corners will stay put and be nice and full.  My duvet is 82″ square, and I usually make my duvet covers about 81″ square.
• Closing the bottom a foot or two in from the sides helps keep everything in place too, plus there are less ties to tie and there is still plenty of room to fit it over the duvet. I usually do this by hemming the bottom, then sewing it closed near the sides with the same seams that I sew my ties on with.
• If you’re lazy like me, use narrow twill tape instead of making ties.  I prefer ties just because once I had duvet cover buttons that would not stay done up.  For this project, it looked better than the grosgrain and satin ribbons I had on hand and saved lotsa time.

If you’ve got duvet cover sewing tips too, please add them in the comments!

Wow. Just wow. You guys are amazing. I promise we didn’t ask for those comments just to make us feel good (although it does). But that was more helpful than I had hoped!  I will be able to tell you more about what it’s for later. It is so great to hear in our customers own words why they like to visit Suppose. I think more than one of you deserve a FQ bundle.

Mitch may have visited from farthest, but I know her well enough to believe her when she says to give the bundle to someone else. I will just have to sew something for you myself. And deliver it to Wales in person. So although I wish everyone could get one, our winners are Jill, Brandi, & Lindsey #1, all for either traveling from very far or having very compelling and helpful answers. I’m contacting you guys with details on how to get a Prince Charming colorway bundle to you. Jill, you get extra gold stars and hearts for basically doing all my work for me, and for typing it all on a cell phone! And thank you to each of you all, I hope you know how much we appreciate you now and always, and hope to meet those of you who haven’t yet visited!

Ok guys, I’m working on something and I need help from you: answer this question in the comments: How far have you travelled to visit Suppose, and why were you willing to make the trip to come here?  I will send one of these Prince Charming fat quarter bundles to whoever came from farthest away and/or gives the most compelling answer!  I need this stuff within a week so the giveaway will close at noon, Mountain Time, next Friday July 1. And dont forget to leave your email address also. Ready, go!

We all know the kind of sorrow that can come because of the short runs of fabric printing these days.  There’s nothing like figuring out you need a little bit more only to find that the fabric is sold out and out-of-print. The fabric companies most often only run the lines once, and when they’re gone they’re gone.  When those companies actually listen to the wishes of their customers and bring back a beloved print, it can feel like a miracle. Well, in the case of the Ghastlies, it’s a Halloween miracle.

This line has by far been one of our most popular collections ever, and last year we used it for this quilt from the  Material Obsession book.

This year, not only has Alexander Henry reprinted the original Ghastlies print, but there is a whole new Ghastlies collection in that non-tradition Halloween colorway of grey/mauve/sage. And this time we find the Ghastlies hanging out indoors. Knitting together (what is that, a chicken cozy?)…

and having an angsty family dinner…

Don’t you just love all these perfectly dour facial expressions?

I do feel a bit bad for Mr Ghastly, who can’t even get Mrs. Ghastly to look at him before he leaves for a long day at the office. (Based on his bag, maybe he’s an old-timey doctor?)

But if you look closely, you’ll see that despite that irritated pucker on her lips, Mrs. Ghastly has got some rose-colored glasses! I hope you enjoy the Ghastly family as much as we do.  We’re working on a new quilt with them, photos soon!

One of the most exciting things happening with fabric right now are all the different substrates included in fabric collections. In just the last year or two, we have seen an explosion of collections that include voile, velveteen, corduroy, linen, or knits along with the the regular quilting weight cottons.  While some might be hesitant with these new-to-quilting fabrics at first, I hope you’ll be a bit daring instead. Seeing quilters mix the different textures right into their quilts has reminded me that there really are no rules and that the possibilites are endless for making your quilts more interesting.  Right now I’m working on a pieced quilt that has: voile, velveteen, heavy sateen, and quilting weight cottons, all in each block. More on that later. For now, I want to share a few projects we’ve used the interlock knits with.

This quilt, paper-pieced for us by the wonderful Sharon Moran, used the City Weekend collection (by Liesl Gibson for Oliver + S for Moda) of woven cottons on the front. But for the back, we chose a coordinating interlock knit from the collection. We were a bit apologetic to our quilter, , about sending a knit back for her to quilt on, but she just brushed it off and had no trouble whatsoever. Fabulous! And now the back is so soft, with the kind of comfort you get from flannel, but more sophisticated.

The great thing about these Moda knits is the quality. They are 100% cotton interlock, which is a double-knit, and strong. Interlock is not jersey, which is single-knit and therefore usually thinner.

I was obsessing over the orange-red knit dot from City Weekend, so although I had no pattern and had never really sewn with knits before, I went for it.  I only dared do this with the encouragement of my friend Anita who is always able to construct amazing concoctions without a pattern. I had a knit shirt on, so I used it as a guide as I added Dolman sleeves and a couple extra inches since I wanted it to fit kinda loose and I hadn’t pre-shrunk (this is a no-no with knits, yikes!).

I didn’t use a Serger, just my regular machine with a ballpoint needle and a zig-zag stitch. I had to adjust what started out as pretty wild alien shoulders, but that was the only glitch. Phew! In fact, it turned out to fit perfectly after I washed it.  Here I am showing off those Dolman sleeves. And I can’t tell you how comfy it is.

After that I felt like I should use an actual pattern for my next project, so I rounded up one I had, written specifically for knits. It’s actually out of print, but I think it’d be pretty easy to draft. It just has a boatneck and Dolman sleeves (which apparently I’m loving lately) and the front piece is exactly the same as the back. (We also have this great knit top/dress pattern for adults, this one for kids, plus this and this from O+S)

It was pretty fast to sew, and I love it more than I thought I would.  I ended up using a contrasting woven fabric for the sleeve tabs, because I accidentally stretched my knit tabs too much, but I think it turned out better this way.

All in all, sewing with knits is not the intimidating thing you might think it is if you’ve never done it before. Here’s what you need to know:

• Pre-wash knits first. They’ll shrink more than wovens.
• Use a ballpoint needle, which will keep the fibers from snagging.
• Don’t fret if you don’t have a Serger. Just use a zig-zag stitch, which allows the fabric to stretch without breaking the stitch.
• In general, don’t pull or stretch the fabric as you sew it, or you’ll get a wavy seam. I also found that raising the position of my presser foot slightly can help it feed through more freely. (Hopefully your machine has this feature.)

Be sure to check out the Oliver + S tips for sewing with knits.  Patty Young also has some helpful showing hemming techniques for knits. Next on my to do list: piece a quilt top with knits. I’ve seen it done and I want one for myself!