New Stuff... on New Year's Eve

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for all of the well wishes. I am feeling a bit better. You all are so sweet to me :)

We just got these two new collections in.

Helen's Garden is so fresh and fun I am seeing many spring lovelies made from this:

 

Theodore & Izzy is adorable. I can see so many fun stuffies or children's clothes out of this. The florals are so crisp and graphic.

I hope this has been a wonderful year for you. If it has been trying I hope that the New Year brings new hope and peace to your family.

How about a little something for you?

Hi Everyone,

We are having a little sale for you all today. Just so you know we won't be able to ship until next week. I am still not at full strength and I don't want to have a relapse so I want to give myself a little extra time and not stress myself out :) So here it is 12 hours only...

Finally feeling a little more human...

I went to the shop to cut a few last minute orders that we got today. I gave the girls Christmas Eve off. It took me 2 hours to do 3 orders. Needless to say I am not at full strength yet :)

I did pick up the laptop and the camera and I have just gotten the pictures I took, before I got sick, downloaded. I know I have said this a bunch but Heather Bailey's Lottie Da and subsequently True Colors are just some of my favorite fabrics that came out this year. I decided to mix the two together and create these new bundles. You can find them in the Fat Quarter and Half Yard sections in the shop.

Tangerine and Lime

 

Pink and Dove

 

 Teal and Olive

 

Charcoal and Orchid

I also made these fun color bundles.

Navy

  

Coral

Moda Sale

Hi Everyone,

Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.  Okay not greatly because I have felt like death warmed over for the last few days. This is the first time in my adult life that I have had to stay home from work for being sick. It is no fun to not be able to go to work but not be able to have any fun either. Here is a little sale for you before Christmas...

20% off all Moda fabrics including pre-cuts. It is already marked down and the sale is through Midnight Monday night. This is the cute little tin sign Moda sent us as a Christmas present this year. It looks like an old fashioned Coca-Cola sign.

Flash Sale

24 Hour Flash Sale. Now until 8 AM Pacific Time Tomorrow. 20% off everything in the shop use this coupon code: WRAPITUP

Looking for Contributors and Sample Makers

Hi Everyone,

Last year I had asked for volunteers for contributing to the Newsletter and it went okay. Mostly I was so overwhelmed with running the business all alone that I didn't get things mailed out in as timely a manner as I had wished to. Believe me no one is harder on me than I am on myself.

Now that I have some very helpful employees I think all will go much more smoothly.

I am looking for a core team of about 10 people to make samples for the shop or write tutorials and patterns for the blog and newsletter. Sample makers will have to be domestic but tutorial and pattern contributors can be from anywhere. You will only be asked to do 1-2 projects in the next year which doesn't seem like a lot but please be honest with yourself and us and give it some hard thought. It would be very sad to me if we ended up with a lot of people not fulfilling their promises.

There are some fun perks which I will discuss with you if you apply. Not the lease of which is new fabric to play with. I know from past experience that we will get a lot of emails so please understand that I can't pick everyone.

Your work doesn't necessarily have to be quilting related but use of fabric is, of course, a must :)

Please include a link to your blog or photos of some of your work.

If you are applying to be a tutorial or pattern maker please include pictures of your original work. I promise not to copy it or share it with anyone else and I am a protector of copyrights, even implied copyrights.

If you are applying to be a sample maker I will give you a choice of a few patterns to make but the decisions on fabric will be mine because they have to fit with the esthetics of the shop.

Please email at this special email address contributors.intrepidthread@gmail.com to apply.

I will answer all emails but it might be a few weeks. I would like some time to really consider each person. So give me until January 10th or so :)

Winner of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway

Hi Everyone,

Here to announce the winner of this Fat Quarter Bundle of Mint To Be

Drum Roll......

The Winner is DianeY who said:

I'll have to say seam ripper, as well, but one notion I really like when I need it is the Bloc Loc Flying Geese ruler. My geese are no longer a little wonky! 

 Thanks Diane! We are going to be carrying Bloc Loc rulers in the shop thanks to Diane. I know there are 4 more people that said Bloc-Loc rulers but Diane was the first.

Thanks to everyone for playing!

Handmade Holidays 13 and a Giveaway

Today we are sponsoring a giveaway on Maureen Cracknell's blog. We are giving away Mint To be Fat Quarters in Mint (which by the way is a lovely aqua or light teal) not really mint green... just saying.

Don't enter here go over to Maureens blog to enter.

Also this weekend we are giving you and your loved ones 10% off on Gift Certificates. You can buy the certificates 10% off and get the full redeemable value. Sale goes until Midnight on Monday 12/16/13

Today I am featuring these sweet Art Quilts by my friend Maree:

I love that you can display your love of fiber on your wall... take a look at all of the cute offerings by Maree here  good news Aussie Friends Maree is there where you are so shipping will be less than coming from here I figure :)

Handmade Holidays Day 12

Hi Everyone,

Have to post a little early today. I am driving my child 4 hrs to see a movie. It is only playing in three places in California so I don't have a choice. She is honestly the easiest kid. Never asks for anything, isn't a clothes horse, doesn't even want a cell phone. If she asks to indulge her love of all things Japanese once in a while I feel like that is okay. She is starting Japanese in school in the next semester and she has been teaching herself the Kanji characters for the last year. She wants to be a translator.

Today I am featuring Vickie from Quilt Rhapsody.  Vickie has some super fun Hexagon quilts in her shop but what really caught my eye were these two Holiday pillows out of fun modern fabrics:

I hope you will go over and take a look at her fun bright shop.

Give yourself a gift

Hi Everyone,

Would you like a surprise this holiday season? Fill your own stocking with one of these Fat Quarter Bundles of 12. You will receive one of the bundles shown, which one you get will be a surprise. These are all hand picked by Colleen (the same one that picked all of our amazing Fat Tuesday bundles, so you know you are getting something oh so good! These would make great stocking stuffers for your quilty friends too. Just in case there is any misunderstanding these are fabrics from our regular stock and not Holiday Fabrics. There are 22 available.

Surprise Bundles

Handmade Holidays and a few things I made...

Hey Everyone,

I am having so much fun featuring you all. Today I wanted to make a special shout out to my friend Lexi I was fortunate enough to be at her house over the weekend making Jewelry and spending time with the other creative friends, you know...  the ones that don't necessarily sew... although some of them do... but that is a story for another time. Lexi is an amazing (I know I use that word a lot but it is true) jewelry maker. I love to make jewelry but I am so happy to be lucky enough to have picked up a gorgeous piece from her this weekend. Can you guess which one?




This is just a small portion of her display in her studio but my piece is there. aren't the vintage thimble tassels adorable?

I was going to feature Lexi on the second day of Handmade Holidays but she didn't have anything listed in her shop on etsy so when I saw that she had all of these lovelies I got on her case. Now I am not saying I was single handedly responsible but she did list a lot of her items on etsy including some of her sweet watercolor paintings.

Her shop is The Shabby Calavera Personally the piece I am lusting over right now, because I saw it in person and it is gorgeous, is this leather cuff:

If no one buys it by tonight it might have to come home with me... even though I bought a piece from her over the weekend. Her prices are so reasonable that I have a hard time resisting.

Can I just say Lexi it the Hostess with the Mostest when she hosts classes. We do potluck and by the time it is time to leave she has everyone's dishes washed to take home and all packed up. She is the best!

The class I took at her house was taught by my favorite teacher Kristen Robinson who lives in my hometown in Oregon (No, I didn't know her then) her son goes to a school that I helped name. Kinda fun trivial facts. HA! If we are lucky she will come to the shop to teach a class in Spring.

These are the bangle bracelets I made on Saturday (they aren't completely finished):




Then Sunday we were all together again at a larger venue for Kristen's Journal making class. My Journal needs some finishing. I have to add patina to most of the pages because the theme is Victorian Christmas so I have to make the bright colors more antique with some alcohol ink etc... but here is an idea of what it looks like:




This is some vintage silk toile I used on the cover and on the first page is some over dyed silk brocade I have been hoarding.The broach is a vintage piece that I found at an amazing local vintage only flea market a year ago.



Embroidered silk dupioni and a little envelope I made a couple years ago.


My blackboard page



A place to put a picture (my turquoise nails? Go Sharks!)


Some embossed silk and vintage french lace. I have some Victorian Santa charms to put on the charm holder. Normally I don't get into making art journals. I try, but then I run out of ideas. I am really proud of this one.

Handmade Holidays and Balance

First some pretty pictures...

Kristine, of my sweet local customers makes the most gorgeous Modern quilts and Pillows. Her workmanship is over the top perfect. Her Etsy shop is called Josh and Paise. She has some truly lovely things like this Cathedral Window Pillow:

She is giving 10% of all her sales from now until the 15th to toys for tots.

Susan at Silly Gramma Quilts makes the most adorable baby toy quilts. I especially love this one:

And what do you know? She might just be related to someone else we know. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree :)

Balance was my word for the year. I decided in January that I wanted to try to achieve balance between work and home life. Most of the year was a fail on that. After opening the brick and mortar everything just exploded into an even bigger work load. I feel terrible that a lot of things at home have gotten left until the last minute... the Christmas Tree isn't even up yet. I feel like we are turning a corner though and I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Now that I have a few employees that can help with the work load I actually get to take at least one day off a week. May not seem like much but I was working about 12 to 14 hrs a day 7 days a week for a while. Last week I took two half days off and this week I am taking a day and a half to take my daughter to another city to see a Japanese movie that is only playing in three places in California. I just wanted to say thank you to all of the loyal customers that have stuck with us through the growing pains. We wouldn't be able to be here without you.

Hugs,
Julie

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day...

Hi Everyone,

We are taking a break from Handmade Holidays today. 

It is that Day of Days the ever anticipated Giveaway Day...

For our Giveaway how about a Fat Quarter Bundle of Mint To Be :

All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is leave a comment below telling me the one notion you can't live without. Please leave Rotary Cutters, Mats, and Sewing Machines off. Anything that isn't a "standard item" is fair game. I will read all of the comments and the person that that brings up the item that I pick to go on my notions wall will win. This Giveaway is open to all including our International guests. It will close December 13 at 5 p.m. PST

Don't forget to go on over to Sew Mama Sew and enter all of the other giveaways.

Handmade Holidays Day 8

Did I mention that I got a Jury Summons for my Birthday? Yep, it came on my birthday! Thanks Santa Clara County!

Here's something cute. I think I should wear one to the Jury selection :)

Julie makes these adorable hats in all different sizes for her shop That's Sew Julie S she also has some cute patchwork projects and... well really I have to show another one of those adorable hats:

Don't you think the judge would be impressed?

Handmade Holidays.... Day 7

Today I got to make Jewelry with one of my all time favorite teachers, Kristin Robinson. If you have ever read Belle Armoire Jewelry you have probably seen her work before. She is a sweetheart. I have another class with her tomorrow. So much fun!

Here is my featured shop for the day:

Denise at August Blossoms makes these awesome camera straps. There is a place for your lens cap ... I am always wondering where to put that thing...and these two are made out of Joel Dewberry fabric... doesn't get better than that :)

SALE Holiday Fabric is 50% off MSRP

Hi Everyone,

All of our Holiday Fabrics are $5.25 or less.

Mint To Be is here

This is so pretty. I adore the Navy mostest...but they all are pretty incredible. I love the floral damask prints (not my usual) they have butterflies in them :) I saw a girl on a plane a couple months ago in an A-Line long skirt made out of an Ikat print like the navy one and it was gorgeous! I love the leaf shaped Herringbone Ogee too... lots to like here.

Mint To Be

Handmade Holiday Days 5 and 6

Well, obviously I lost my mind for a little while yesterday and thought I had already posted and I hadn't. You forgive me right?

Today (day 5) is Handmade Presents for you... or for you to make rather. I mean I know most of you are crafters that is why you follow me right? If you are anything like me then you probably are intrigued by other crafts beside quilting or sewing. I love taking art classes. Especially Jewelry classes. I find when I take an art class my sewing creativity goes up too. It can definitely get me over a low mojo moment.

One of my favorite art class online teachers is Christy Tomlinson. I took her She Art Workshop and I made some things that I am still amazed came from my fingers. My oft repeated phrase is "I can't even draw stick figures." Of course the witness of my handwriting too. Here are a couple of the pieces I made....

This for Brooke



This for Jackie



Christy has many super fun classes and she started doing this before Craftsy or at least before Craftsy was widely known.

I just discovered this next one. Dawn DeVries Sokol  runs journaling workshops. I have to admit I have never understood Art Journals. It is true. I used to ask people what they were or what they were for and no one could tell me. I really like this little class I am taking from Dawn called 1231 each day we get a prompt. It is true that I don't always sit down with a journal and do the full exercise but it always gives me new ideas. Sometimes when I am working so hard at the shop I run out of creative fuel and I need a little spark.This fits the bill.

Day 6

Okay admit it if you are a girl you probably love jewelry. This is one of my favorite places to get jewelry from for myself and for my family.

Two Silver Moons I adore these rings... I love the slightly worn look adn the spinner ... just something about this makes my heart sing.

Do you have a little girl that you love to dress up? Kimberly (a long time customer of mine) at I Married Mr. Rogers makes the most delicious little girls clothing. Look at this adorable Mary Poppins skirt.

I love shops with great pictures don't you?

Have fun kids!

Handmade Holidays Day Four

Hi Everyone,

All but 3 orders are shipped and those are waiting for external forces. I am feeling so much better without that hanging over my head.

Ready to see my picks for pressies today?

Heather the owner of Junie None makes the most adorable buntings and super prices. They are afordable and adorable. Check out these fun modern banners/buntings:

Barbie has the most amazing imagination. I love her plushies. Each one is so unique. I identify especially with Meg the Adorably Geeky Chica  (seen below) Go check out Barbie's shop PlachiePlushies for more fun items like... Anonda the Sea Unicorn

Thanks for visiting!

Handmade Holidays Day Three and Another Stop on the Cushion Hop

Hi Everyone,

If you are local to our Brick and Mortar and you know Miss Molli please comment or email me. I have a special announcement to make especially for our Sparkly Friends. Speaking of Molli it is his turn on the Cushion for Christmas Blog Hop and I gotta say I am lovin' this purple pillow. Hop on over for a little tutorial... and a giggle!

I love the name of this Handmade shop... A Needle Runs Through It .. so cute. If you love boxy pouches and zipper pouches but don't have the time to make one for all your friends you really need to check out Maria's shop. Her execution is so professional.

I had to show this one because it uses one of my favorite fabrics from Field Day by Josephine Kimberling Such a cute little bag:

And check this one out too... how cute would these be for a stocking stuffer. Perfect for the little girls to store their treasures in. Oh how my Barbie shoes long for one of these bags  :)

Here is a shop near and dear to my heart. My sweet friend Heather makes the most adorable dolls. I commissioned one from her a year or so ago and if you have been to my shop you might have seen her hanging around... she is our mascot. The shop is Made by Hethr and I think your little princess needs this little princess she also has some eh hem action figures if you have a boy... Zombie dolls :) Take a peek :)

Thanks kids :)