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 Kathy’s favorite things to do while in the shop is choose 3 coordinating fabrics for pillowcases. Here she shows her choices for the body, trim flange, and hem of a pillowcase out of the Wee Woodland collection by Keiki for Moda. She can literally plan pillowcases all day long, and then we have to think of excuses to make them. Actually, the Million Pillowcase Challenge is a great excuse. If you haven’t heard of it yet, take a look and consider participating!

Our favorite pillowcase pattern is a double trimmed pillowcase with a clever trick that makes it super quick and easy to sew, and gives you a lovely hem with an enclosed seam. In fact, we’ll be teaching this method in a class this Saturday!  It’s the perfect project for a novice sewist, or anyone who just wants to feel the satisfaction of completing something in less a couple hours. (I’d love the satisfaction of completing a project in less than a month!) Once you make one, you just want to keep going. In fact, our teacher Evelyn Greene made boatloads of pillowcases with this pattern for Christmas last year. What a great gift!

I think the holiday pillowcases might be our favorite.  I have great memories of finally being allowed to pull the Christmas pillowcases out of the closet after waiting all year, and seeing what little treasures were to be found in the print of the pillowcase as I laid in bed.  But before Christmas is Halloween, and Alexander Henry’s spooky prints have just been begging to be made into pillowcases.

Our glow-in-the-dark fabric makes the perfect touch as a little trim piece. And I adore all the little different haunted houses in the Boo! Street print.  Just so perfect!

Join us this Saturday 9/11 for the Magic Pillowcase class, the first in our Beginner’s Series. It’ll be a blast!

Two amazing friends and their kids were about to move across the country (Miss you, Mylers!), and I just kept thinking of those hours in the car, and what they might want to listen to. So I burned some cds and made these little sleeves for handy keeping.

I chose fabrics from Alexander Henry, Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks, Art Gallery’s Filligree, & Tufted Tweets and loved how they just went together.

Thinking I might want to recreate them sometime, I started taking notes, but this is as far as it got

because it was pretty simple, really. For each cd envelope, I used heavyweight fusible interfacing inside & made 2 identical 5″ pockets that I just slipped inside each other and sewed closed around the top. I quite liked the result and may be making more of these for little gifts, and for the cds that get tossed around my car.

Then there was a package to send to California for my dear friends who always act as home when I just need to get back there for the beach and some good shopping.  These new Kaffe Fassett prints (Ombre and Radiation) in the Pastel colorway were just calling to be made into something for them, as they could go with all the vintagey pastel kitchenware they have.

I ended up making 16″ square napkins and 4″ square coasters. It was a simple right-sides-together-turn-inside-out-and-topstitch kind of project. The coasters have some heavyweight interfacing for sturdiness too.  Looking at them does kind of make me want to have a picnic at the beach.

Been making any hand-sewn gifts lately? Show us in our Flickr Pool!

Tonight we had Creative Guild meeting so it’s about time that I put up some photos from last month’s meeting, eh? Here’s what some of our ladies were up to in February.

Emma Jean is the lucky inheritor of this vintage appliqued quilt top.  Anyone know what this block pattern would be called?

Jennifer’s been on a softie kick.  Here she’s got Hector Giraffe, Polly, and the monky who’s name I forget but who has the most awesome plaid pants & suspenders.  I believe these are all from Softies Only A Mother Could Love.

Nita recently made this ultra sweet Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress for her brand new niece with the AH Spotted Owl print. I’d wear it.

That’s just a taste of all the amazing things our guild members have going. More show & tell from the Suppose Creative Guild soon!

I can’t believe this is the blog of a fabric shop and I haven’t yet blogged about any of our fabric creations.  I will have to add links to these fabrics in our web shop later, but I wanted to show a little bit of what we’ve been working on.  Our entire staff has been sewing for months to have samples for the shop ready when we open next weekend. I’d been a little too busy to sew but I just couldn’t stand it any longer and last week I finished this quilt top using Anna Griffin’s Darcey Collection from Windham Fabrics. I am so in love with the collection and just had to make something with it.

I’m also in love with all of our fabrics from Alexander Henry.  I needed a project out of these owlies, so I made a potholder.

Mom won’t let me post any more of our creations so they’ll be a surprise for the grand opening.  9 days and counting!