Sale Alert: 8/29 - 9/4

Happy Monday, y'all!

This week, we're letting you choose your own sale!  Use the coupon code "save15" and take 15% off all orders of $25 or more (prior to tax and shipping).  No exclusions - so you can save even more on products that have been marked down previously.  Happy Shopping!  :-)

We also got word today that we're getting 12 more Little Apples charm packs!  They should be here Wednesday or Thursday and I will update you here as soon as they are available. :-)

Happy Sewing! :-)

Customer Spotlight: Laura

Hi again!  One of our customers, Laura, sent us some pictures of a beautiful table runner she made with Countdown to Christmas.  Take a look ...

Here's the back.  I love this numbers print. :)

Thank you so much for sharing your project with us, Laura!

We still have charm packs available (and 15% off through tomorrow).

Happy Sewing :-)

Happy Weekend!

Hi everyone!  Sorry it has been quiet here all week ... the school year kicked off on Thursday so I had open house and 2 days with students this week.  The beginning of the year is always extra time consuming. :)  So, I haven't forgotten about you and will be back to blogging this week. :-)

If you are on the east coast, I hope you are staying safe and sound with Irene making her way up the coast.  We have some wind advisories here and I sure hope we don't lose power because I want to sew! :-)

Happy Sewing! :-)

Sale Alert: 8/22-8/28

It is time for another Sale Alert at Sew Lux!  This week, all precuts are 15% off while supplies last!

Happy Sewing!

Customer Spotlight: Katie

Hiya!  Today I wanted to share a project made by one of our customers.  This Customer Spotlight is a little extra special to me since Katie is my friend and coworker at school.  And since our students come back this Thursday, I thought it was fitting to show a school-themed project.  :-)

Katie loved the 3 Pocket Wall Organizer tutorial and has made at least two since I posted the tutorial ... one for her sewing room and one for her classroom.  (I really wasn't surprised by this as she is super organized at work! ;-)

She used the Designer Beads Red as her background for this project, which was a perfect compliment to the school-themed novelty print she had.  She added some stitching to make several pockets in each row and its perfect next to her whiteboard at school.

Thanks for letting me spotlight your project, Katie!  I'll see you Monday ;-)

If you have a project you'd like us to share that uses either a tutorial and/or fabric from our shop, please email us.

Happy Sewing!

Sophie is Here!

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to share that Sophie is here and is now available on our website!  :-)  We have still have some charms left, 17 prints in yardage, and of course fat quarters!  Here are some favorites so far ...

Pinks (of course! hehe)

Blues and Greens

Lovely, right? See you tomorrow!

Happy Sewing! :-)

Giveaway Winners ...

Happy Tuesday!

Just popping in to say thanks to both Anita and Amy for giving the bitty whirligig block a go!  They made some great blocks and we're sharing a $10 gift certificate to sewluxfabric.com!

Thanks for playing ladies! :-)

Happy Sewing :-)

Summer Break Block Tutorial

Hi again!  I promised a tutorial for my Summer House blocks and I was planning to call this quilt "Summer Break" since (a) I am using Summer House and (b) I designed it over my summer break!  I'm real creative when it comes to names, I tell ya!  :-)

Let me say that I am sure this block pattern is not new or earth shattering nor do I think I'm the only person who ever thought it up ... but I did dream it up in my sketchbook and here's how I chose to make it. 

For each block, you will need one 5" center square and six 2.5" x 5" strips.  If you are using a 42-square charm pack with solid centers (cut from yardage), one charm pack will yield fourteen 8.5" blocks. If you use centers from the charm pack, one charm pack will yield ten 8.5" blocks.  Hope that makes sense. 

Let's play with Late Bloomers for the tutorial.  I am using centers from the charm pack.  (For my original, I used Bella Snow yardage to cut center squares.)

So, from your charm pack, choose a center (or cut a 5" square from solid yardage or use a charm from a solid charm pack) and choose 6 additional charms for the border.

Now, carefully stack the 6 charms and cut them in half like shown.  (You can cut 2 or 3 at a time if you are more comfortable doing so.)

Now, layout your block.

 

Stitch the top and bottom pieces to the center square and stitch the two side strips together. (Sew RST and use a 1/4" seam.)

 

Then attach the sides to the center piece.  Use a ruler to help you line up the seam with the middle of the block. (Sorry for the dark photo.)

Press your finished block!

I trimmed my blocks (not shown) to 8.5" square to even up the edges nicely.  :-)

Note: for the Summer House blocks, I cut all the charms in half and then just randomly pieced side strips and pieces to the top and bottom of the charm square.  When using centers from the charm pack, you may wish to be more deliberate about fabric placement.

Please let me know if you have any questions.  I'd love to see your projects if you use this tutorial! :-)

Happy Sewing!

Sale Alert: 8/15 - 8/21

Hi everyone!

This week, Dogwood Trail is on sale - save 20% on yardage, fat quarters, and charm packs from this collection.  We have the main focus print in four colors ...

They are so pretty in person!  Sale ends on Sunday, 8/21/11.  And we're always adding new things to the Last Chance page!

Also, two new products this week ...

Essential Dots in Jet Black

and another Jaybird Quilts pattern - Off The Rail.

Happy Sewing! :-)

Summer House Progress

Edited to Add:  I will post a block tutorial for this tomorrow (Monday).  :-)

Hey there everyone!

I've been doing some playing with a Summer House charm pack and some Bella Snow.  I am thinking of doubling the number of blocks to make it bigger.  We'll see.  Here is my progress so far ...

One charm pack yields fourteen 8.5 inch blocks.  So, unless this is going to be a kid quilt or have a bazillion borders I'll end up making 14 more.  :-)  Today is the last day Summer House will be 20% off ($7.50/yard) ... I'll start changing prices about 10 PM EST tonight and updating for the next sale.
Happy Sewing! :-)

August Bitty Blocks

Happy Friday y'all!

I was working on my Bitty Blocks for the Bitty Block Committee swap on Flickr today and managed to finish one of two sets and the prototype for the second one.

This month's theme is jars and a lot of folks already used fruity prints, etc.  I really wanted to do a button jar and thought about sewing on real buttons, but thought that might make piecing the block a little tricky.  So, I came up with this ...

I think they are pretty stinkin' cute!  :-)

Then, I started thinking hard about my other theme ... white + a color - in my case purple.  You know that pink would've been a better choice for me! LOL  Anyway, not a lot of purple in my stash to work with and I wanted a block that would be kind of different.

I decided to do a mini dresden in the corner of the block.  It took a few tries to draft a pattern the right size, but here is my prototype ...

What do you think?!

Well, I'm outta here for now .... see ya tomorrow.

Happy Sewing! :-)

B's Quilt

Happy almost Friday, y'all!  This is my last weekend before teacher workdays kick off next week and I'm trying to get a lot of things off my to-do and want-to-do lists before I head back to the real world. 

This week, I created a smallish quilt for my "nephew" - my bestie's baby is who about 10 months old.  Mama loves owls and when I saw this fabric while dropping off my machine for service a few weeks ago, I knew I had found the perfect print for a quilt for B.

I finished the binding this morning and took some photos with my Droid 3 when I delivered it - so I'm sorry that they aren't the amazing quality. But here is the whole quilt ...

And here is the back ...

And a closer view of the first two rows of blocks.  (My favorite is the one where the owl and squirrel look like they're having a conversation.) 

You can see the free motion quilting in the narrow borders a little better in this photo. Love the loops. :-)

Aside from the owl print that I fussy cut and used for the back as well as the multi-color print with the yellow background from the same line, all the other prints were from my stash.  (Well ... maybe a little Essential Dots in grass green and orange as well! ;-)  I'm so glad I finally found a use for that stripe as well!  The colors are super bright and a bit wild, but I think it all works together well.

And, I made a sweet label...  A little appliqued initial and a note using a permanent fabric pen. 

Even though I finished this in less than a week, I wouldn't say that I have mastered my quilting ADD.  I have another owl quilt that I need to start on and a many other projects in various stages of completeness.  Hope to remedy that tomorrow and this weekend!

Happy Sewing! :-)

Needle Book Swap Part 2

Hi again!  About a week ago I shared about the needle book package I sent off and I wanted to share what I got in return from Lauree.  Guess what color I requested? Yep, you guessed it. ;-)

Look at all these goodies she included!  You see that pinked edge strip?  That is some beautiful Cape Ann by Oliver + S.  I can't wait to get that yardage this fall!

I love that the needle book looks like a little envelope. I've always enjoyed stationery (well, office supplies in general) and writing letters to folks.  How cute is that owl fabric on the inside?

Here's the back with the envelope closure.  So nicely done!  Thank you, Lauree!

Happy Sewing! :-)

Hexies + Giveaway Update

Hey everyone!

Anyone else have quilting ADD?  I won't embarrass myself with a "WIP Wednesday post" tomorrow.  ;-)  But I will show you the hexies I hand pieced awhile ago ... as in last fall.  (And I only remember because I took them on a road trip to a football game.)  Well, I think its about time I just make something with these.  Not sure I'll get around to adding a lot more anytime soon and these are some of my favorite prints from my Greek letter shirt business days - all dug out of my overflowing scrap bin.

What should I cover with them?  My calendar/planner, my quilt sketch book ... hmmm ...

Also, I guess I didn't give folks enough time to whip out a bitty block ... so I extended the linky deadline to Sunday.  Hope you can share an itty bitty block with us!

Happy Sewing!

Sophie Sneek ...

Hi there!  We're excited to have charm packs of another new collection in stock!  Sophie by Chez Moi charm packs arrived today and we're expecting the yardage to ship very soon! 

This photo shows the assortment you'd get in your charm pack...

Here are the prints we'll be getting in yardage very soon ...

Very pretty, right?!

Happy Sewing! :-)

Sale Alert: 8/8 - 8/14

Hi everyone!

Hope your weekend ended well. :)  Just wanted to share that we're making room for ALL the wonderful lines coming August - October ... we have 10 new collections coming in over the next 60 days or so and we need to make some room!  We've permanently marked down 12 collections (some as low as $5.50/yard) AND this week you can save on Just Wing It (15% off) as well as Summer House (20% off)!

We also wanted to share that we had so much fun with the Summer Spectacular in July, that we will now have a weekly special EVERY week!  I'll be posting them here on the blog as well as in our weekly newsletter.  Each weekly special will run from Monday - Sunday.

So, take a look around and add a great print at a great bargain to your stash today!

Happy Sewing!

Summer House Swoon

Hi again!  So I finally got around to stitching all the blocks together for my Summer House Swoon block!  Here she is ...

I used the Twinkle Tonal in Bright Blue and the Cabbage Rose in Robins Egg for this one.  Love that combo!  A few things about this pattern ...

First, these blocks are BIG.  (I didn't crop out my toes in the photo just so you could see the scale.)  I mean, I thought "24 inches... that's a big block", but yea ... seems a lot bigger in real life than I imagined!  LOL  Hooray for needing less blocks for a big quilt.  ;-)

Second, there are a LOT of points to match up.  Next time, I think I will press everything open and spend more time trimming and pinning so everything lines up better.

All in all, I love how it turned out even with a few imperfections.  :-)

Happy Sewing!

Bitty Block Tutorial + Giveaway

Hey there friends!  Happy Friday :-)

Last month, I joined the Bitty Block Committee swap on Flickr and jumped into the 3.5" block craziness!  :-)  I had made a bitty whirligig block and a few folks wanted a tutorial ... so here goes! 

First, I'll show you my original blocks ... "modern solids" was our theme.

Ok, let's get started!  I designed a little sketch first ... here's my original.

Now, grab a piece of cardboard - the backing of those sweet charm packs is perfect for this.  ;-)  And cut a 2" square.

You'll end up with this ...

Perfect!  Ok, using your ruler, trace a diagonal line.  Note - the line should be off of one corner by 0.5" but lined up with the other corner.  (Corner to corner would make a regular pinwheel.)

Draw a line with a pen or pencil.

Now ... line up your ruler along the diagonal and ADD a 1/4 inch.  Slice.  You'll see that we've included the seam allowance on our template.

Ok ... now you need FOUR 2" squares and four strips for the background.  (I eyeball the strips - but they need to be long enough and wide enough to cover the triangle on the corner of the squares after you sew.)  Line up your template on the squares and mark where the corner was lopped off on the template.

To sew, line up the background strip with the line.  Stitch 1/4" inside the line.  As illustrated in the picture.

This next photo shows three steps.  1st: Trim the corner from your square fabric.  2nd: Press open the seam toward the background.  3rd: Trim the block back to 2" square with your ruler + rotary cutter.

Line up your blocks so you know you'll be sewing them in the right direction.  ;-)  You want to sew the top 2 and then the bottom 2 together and press in opposite directions.

Then sew the rows together and then I press this seam open.

Viola!  You love it, right?

I used the Essential Dots Bubblegum and Bella White for this and am just imagining what a rainbow of these bitty dotty blocks would look like.

Wait, didn't I mention a giveaway in the title of this post?!  Well ... here's your challenge!  Make a bitty whirligig block and share the link with us below.

Giveaway Details: Please share a link to a post that includes a block (or project including a block) made from this tutorial.  Include in your post/Flickr photo description a link back to this tutorial post.  Deadline to be included for the giveaway drawing is Sunday, 8/14/11 at 11:59 PM.  We'll draw FIVE random winners to receive a $5 gift certificate toward anything at Sew Lux.  International stitchers welcome.  Winners will be announced here on the blog on Monday, 8/15/11.