A Heartwarming Congratulations

Reading all of your comments over the course of the week has brought me such deeply felt happiness. Thank you for sharing your loving acts of kindness and charity for people who need a little extra this holiday season. You are making such a difference in other people's lives, including my own. I hope you'll take a little time to read through all the comments, to encourage others to read them as well, and to share a feeling of gratitude for being alive at the same time as so many wonderful, creative, thoughtful people.

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season!

Much love,

Kate

B r r r . . .

Is it me or is it getting cold out there?? If you live in the southern hemisphere, you may be getting your winter boots out...while the rest of us put our flip flops on. But whether you're sipping hot tea or iced tea, you must be gearing up for some Christmas in July sewing, right?! Just in the (St.) Nick of time, my newest holiday fabric collection, In from the Cold, is starting to ship! Here's a look at the color range:

 If you have any Joy scraps in your stash, this collection will coordinate with it perfectly. And if you're looking for some holiday sewing projects to get started on, here are a few ideas.

I designed this quilt as a free project that you can download here. It has lots of steps, but think of it as a block-or-two-of-the-month and you can easily finish it by Christmas. You can also order a kit —including a printed version of the pattern — from Fat Quarter Shop. 

We've also seen some fun projects popping up on the Moda Cutting Table recently. Tammy at Moda made the mugs even cuter by making mini versions of them.

 She created tutorials for making this sweet gift bag ...

... and festive placemat ...

 ... as well as this table runner (i hope a tutorial will be posted for this too. If it is, i'll be sure to link it up). **Update** here's the tutorial for the table runner!

 So we thought it would be a perfect time to give some fabric away to get you started on your holiday sewing! We'll be divvying up this giant pile and sending packages off to 6 lucky winners.

To enter, here's the thing. I have finished designing next year's wintery collection and have a possible name for it in mind, but i'm just not 100% sure about it. *hint** it's less whimsical than the last two collections, and a little more "pretty" and  "wintery". All you have to do is leave a comment with a suggested name (one entry per person, please). Put your thinking hat, mittens and scarves on and get creative! Winners will be announced next Monday the 24th.

Sweet Little Surprises

I like sweet little surprises. Who doesn't! And “sweet little surprises” sum up this time of year pretty well here in our new neighborhood — crisp mornings, visits from family, friends, new neighbors, and migrating birds at the feeder. Reds, oranges and yellows are slowly coming into the landscape, and we've prettified our front porch with some happy mums and a pumpkin (or is that a gourd?). Hope you are enjoying the shift in seasons as much as we are.

Some newsy news...i recently learned that a bunch of fun gift wrap, tissue paper and gift bags i designed has finally landed at 400 select Michaels Stores! Pete and i raced over to the nearest store to check it out and take some pictures so i could share this exciting news with you. We didn't find any in our location, so maybe you'll have better luck! Here's a sampling of what it looks like:

You can always ask the store manager if they'll be getting it in or if they could order it (wink, wink). If you find it and like it, i'd be so grateful if you could leave a "thumbs up" or review on the Michaels website. Thank you!

As we were roaming the aisles at Michaels, we came across another sweet little surprise...

...my Christmas goodies have already arrived! I had no idea they'd be in the stores so soon. I don't know about you, but i'm not exactly ready to be decking the halls or making lists and checking them twice (i haven't even bought Halloween candy yet), but now i'll be prepared for when the time comes. There's all sorts of fun stuff including these note cards, magnetic list pads and chubby pens...   

...and these adorable little shaped melamine plates.

I think these plates would be perfect for some festive cookies, don't you? Fortunately, my extensive clutter of cookie cutters, colorful sprinkles, and frosting bag/nozzles made it in our recent move. I know i saw them somewhere around here, and hope to find them before Christmas! An assortment of cute holiday gift wrap should hit the shelves at Michaels some time in November, so keep your eyes peeled — for all i know, it might even be there already.

What sweet little surprises are finding you these days?

 And here is a little fur to end the week. These two are so happy that their kitty hammock was finally unpacked!

It's starting to feel like home sweet home around here at last.

Have a wonderful weekend.

xo,

kate

Sew Merry and Bright Giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by on my day on the Sew Merry and Bright book tour. Such a perfect title, wouldn't you say? Just look at this colorful cover!

This latest book by Linda Lum DeBono, is a fresh, creative celebration of festive, colorful sewing projects for the Christmas/winter holiday season. It includes 21 (twenty-one!) sewing projects, with very clearly written and illustrated instructions: from whimsical stockings, to tree skirts, pillows, placemats, table runners, an assortment of lovely tree ornaments, and several adorable quilt patterns. And, for new sewists, Linda has included a helpful “basics” page, to provide “some essential techniques and product information” for her outstanding projects.

 I was so inspired by many of Linda's creative patterns and had ambitious hopes to sew up a couple of the projects using Joy. But by the time i reached for my scissors and thread, they had already been packed and stored! Once i dig them out, i plan on making some of the "It's a Green Christmas" placemats...with a little red thrown in. Maybe something like these?

from left: tannenbaum in holly, winter garden in snow, winter garden in holly, winter garden in snow and peace in holly 

from left: peace in berry, winter garden in snow, treeline in holly, winter garden in snow and winter garden in berry 

 You could also make some matching napkins, roll them together with the placemats, tie with a ribbon and make one of Linda's fun stockings to stuff them into:

design©Linda Lum DeBono photo©Brent Kane

What a cute gift that would be!

Sew Merry and Bright is a book worth giving and a book worth keeping. Want one?! Many thanks to Linda and her publisher, Martingale, who were so generous to share the fun and have provided two signed copies to giveaway. Not only that, i'd love to give you a head start on some of the projects, so i'm also giving away a layer cake of Joy with each book! 

Just leave a comment below and i'll pick two lucky winners tomorrow.

And don't forget to keep hopping along...up tomorrow is Lee of Freshly Pieced. Merry merry early holidays to you!
*** Thanks for stopping by, alas, this giveaway is closed.***

Just In Time For (Next) Christmas

With a little less than a week until Christmas, i'm about knee-deep in gift wrap and tissue paper...and there is hardly a day where i don't find packing tape stuck to my shoe or sleeve (or worse). The other day i was on line at the post office and the woman in front of me was kind enough to point out that i was dragging a trail of red curly ribbon around my ankle. After removing it, i looked up to thank her and saw that the front of her coat was covered in glitter! Ah, the signs of good cheer are hard to miss...and there certainly has been a lot of it around here lately. I hope the same for you, no matter how you celebrate the season.

If you didn't get around to making everything you'd hoped to this year (like me), i definitely had you in mind when i designed my next Christmas fabric collection for Moda! It's called "Joy" and will be touring around with the Moda sales reps in the beginning of January. Among an assortment of festive patterns, the collection also includes a fabric panel that has all the pre-designed pieces to make

two cute stockings!

I sewed them together in no time, and this photo shows only one of many options for embellishment.  But please refrain from throwing candy canes at me when i tell you that this collection won't be available for sale until June 2012. The good news is that will give you plenty of time to get a *big* head start on next year's projects.

So please excuse me...i'm heading back to the post office in a couple minutes, but this time, i'm going to do a head-to-toe "ribbon check" first.

Merry Moda Blog Hop!

Or it could also be called the "Moda Jingleblog Hop"? Nah, that might turn into "Jingleblop" which just doesn't have the festive ring to it that Head Elf Lissa was probably hoping for when she came up with this sweet idea. Hmm, how about "Moda Claus Is Coming to Town"? Anyway, no matter what you're calling it, i hope you're having fun visiting everyone and collecting all the block patterns and yummy recipes that have been shared. The blocks would make a really cute sampler quilt (i can say that now that i actually know what one is), or pick a few and make a wall hanging, table runner, pot holders, pillows...the list goes on.

The block i designed for you is called Parfait and you can download it here along with a recipe that was given to me many years ago from a very dear friend. She called the recipe The Perfect Cupcake and it definitely lives up to its name — especially if you pile on the ganache frosting. But if you do that, you might want to change the name to The Disappearing Cupcake. Hope you enjoy them both! Here is what the quilt block looks like in

some prints from Terrain.

sorry for the poor-quality after-midnight-up-too-late photo

I would like to thank Super Elf Lisa Christensen of Three Kids Designs for her help in writing up my block design instructions. As much as i try to take this step, she always makes it look so much easier than i can imagine — and in fewer steps, too! I would also like to thank you for making my world so much happier and brighter by sharing your amazing handmade creations with me. It is a joy and blessing that lasts all year long.

And since not many opportunities come along where you can segue into a chat about parfaits, i just have to share this with you now. I was on Etsy recently and came across a shop called SouZou Creations. You have to see it to believe it! I am dying over some of their jewelry. Sofia gave me permission to show off this adorable parfait ring:

how cute is that?

And these strawberry jam filled cookie earrings:

love!

Ok, moving right along...

Around here, we're starting to have a merry little Christmas. It started with this merry little tree that we put up last weekend.

It has filled our living room with the sweet smell of pine, and brightened the evenings with its soft twinkling lights. I probably don't even need to tell you how happy Franny and Lou were that we brought a tree into our home...just for them of course. And then once we started decorating it, they were so excited to have a whole tree covered in new cat toys! One of my favorites happens to be one of their favorites too: the fuzzy puffball snowman head.

I should have guessed.

But luckily, we were smart enough to put our very special ornaments close to the top and out of paws'-reach. This is one of our most treasured. It was hand-painted by our dear friend Melissa. Not sure if you can see it, but there is a clothesline circling the ball and on one side are Santa's coat, pants and mittens...

art is ©Melissa McNamara

...and on the other side are his socks and undies!

Speaking of Santa...when my sister and i were kids, my Mom and Dad...er...i mean Santa really got creative with the whole stocking tradition. They would find zany things that looked like they might be from other countries — like a book written in Japanese, or tiny ceramic painted clogs from Denmark, or candy from Germany — and my sister and i delighted in imagining how Santa must surely have picked these things up and tossed them into his giant sack as he travelled the globe in his sleigh. It was a magical adventure to sort through the trinket-ie treasures and a memory i will keep forever.

**Update: My Dad just emailed me to say, "What about how Santa would knock over the firescreen and then leave his footprints in fireplace ashes all over the rug?" I guess that must have been his favorite part! See? Memories for everyone. Thanks for reminding me about that, Dad. Love you.**

So in honor of this tradition, i'd like to give away some fun surprise stocking stuffers! I don't think you'll want to miss out on this...cough, cough Good Fortune...cough Terrain. Please just leave a comment below and I'll pick a few winners over the weekend. (Some of you were so quick and left comments before i revised this part! So if you renamed the blog hop, or told me your favorite holiday tradition, don't worry...you'll still be entered in the giveaway!) 

Please remember to visit these designers who are also posting today:

Thimbleblossoms

Kathy Schmitz Studios

Laundry Basket Quilts

Primitive Gatherings

And if you've missed anyone along the way, you can go back this post for a complete list of designers to visit. Thank you for stopping by!

xo,

kate

A Flurry of Ornaments

I'm thrilled to announce that a flurry of beautiful ornaments are now available at Crate and Barrel! The creative team at Crate has outdone themselves yet again by selecting just the right application for the design assortments we collaborated on. I'm always amazed by the time and care involved in getting everything just right — which is why i am so happy and excited to finally be able to share these with you!

First up, these intricately carved wooden snowflakes come in sets of twenty-four and are packaged in a gift-ready holiday red plywood box. They're the perfect size to decorate everything from holiday centerpieces and wreaths to swags and mantel arrangements...

...or to add some snow-kissed winter wonder to your Christmas tree!

photo courtesy of Crate and Barrel

Next up, this set of delicate glass ball ornaments are made in the Czech Republic and are sold in sets of four. They're embellished with circular sprays of glittery pine and each is a little different to bring a lovely variety of style and elegance to your holiday decor.

Place them in a glass bowl to decorate an entryway or side table...

Photo courtesy of Crate and Barrel

...or mix them with other ornaments of different sizes and shapes with similar coloring to create a merry and festive look!

photo courtesy of Crate and Barrel

And finally, these adorable holiday glitter pals are dressed for the season with some sparkly flair! They come in a set of three — a reindeer, snowman and penguin — and are ready to hang with a loop of red satin ribbon.

I have to say it was so much giggly fun to see my artwork jump right off the page and into the 3rd dimension.

It's not too early to start decking the halls, is it? Don't know how much longer i can wait! How about you?

Surprise in the Aisle

Last night, i realized we were out of milk. No milk = no cereal in the morning, which = not a good start to the day, so off to the grocery store i went. No matter what time of day it is, it's always crowded in our local store...so over the years, i've drawn a mental map of the place for just these times when all i want to do is zip in and check out. You too? Even so, it's quite an obstacle course to get to the far back corner where the milk is, and i couldn't find a clear aisle to zip down! Canned goods aisle: full. Baking aisle: not even going to attempt it (plus, i wouldn't get passed the chocolate chips without buying them). Pet food aisle: what? did everyone run out of pet food at the same time? skip.

Then finally, the seasonal aisle (i think that's what they call it) where books, movies, magazines, patio furniture, balloons, wrapping paper, and halloween candy can be found...was empty. Smooth sailing! As i zipped by, I quickly glanced over at the magazines and continued on my way then stopped in my tracks. Did i see what i thought i saw? It was definitely the colors that registered in my mind, delayed by about 8 feet. Back up. Nope, i didn't imagine it! So i grabbed this off the shelf...

...and felt a Flurry of excitement (duh, sorry) to see that beautiful giant snowflake quilt on the cover! I flipped through and found the pattern instructions on p. 36. It's called "Snow-Kissed Star" and is made by none other than Konda Luckau of Moose on the Porch Quilts!

How weird that i just linked to her blog yesterday but didn't even notice her post about it! Anyway, i love this pattern and the instructions look really simple. The center snowflake uses only 1/2 a jelly roll (plus white for the background), so you could actually make two cute n' quilt-ie christmas gifts!

I continued to flip through the issue before plunking it in my basket, when what what to my wondering eyes should appear but...

...these a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e. elfen stockings made by Vanessa of Lella Boutique! (btw Vanessa, i still can't wipe the dopey grin off my face either *wink*)

Congratulations, Konda and Vanessa! And thank you for making my trip to the grocery store so memorable. Except i was so excited after finding the magazine that not only did i get milk, i went back for the chocolate chips too.

Cute (and quick!) Gift Tag Idea

The wrapping paper is flying around my studio as i wrap up so many fun little packages for the winners of my giveaway! I've been having lots of fun with this and thought i'd share an incredibly quick, ver r r y simple way to embellish your gifts with a cute handmade gift tag like the ones i made in the photos above. I think it took me all of 10 minutes to make one.

You can certainly fussy cut images from any fabric to make these, but i used the art on the panel i designed with my 12 Days of Christmas collection. As you can see in the photo, there are a bunch of extra images on the top and bottom. On the bottom, there are some in squares and some in circles (you were wondering what the heck to do with these, right?):

You'll also need:
some scraps to use for backing
HeatNBond — i used ultrahold
an eyelet tool — i used my handy Crop-A-Dile punch kit.
(i love this thing!)

or instead of the eyelet tool, you could also sew ribbon/yarn/ric-rac between the layers as shown in Option B

Step 1: Cut out whichever images you'd like to use (or all of them like i did!) leaving a border. You don't have to be too careful cutting them out. I mean it. look:

Step 2: Cut a piece of HeatNBond that will be big enough to cover the back of your image or lay your image on top of a piece of HeatNBond and cut through both layers so pieces are approximately the same size. Again, you really don't have to be too precise because we'll trim them to perfection in step 5.

Step 3: Fuse HeatNBond to the back side of your image
Step 4: Pick a complementary fabric to use for the back

Step 5: Fuse front layer and back layer and trim

Step 6: Kind of hard to see in this pic, but i finished the edges with a zig zag stitch with matching thread. Contrasting thread would be nice tooStep 7: Pick a corner and use your eyelet tool to fasten an eyeletAttach to your gift and under the tree it goes!

OPTION B (for attaching ribbon/yarn/ric-rac):
When you get to step 5, only fuse 3/4 of your top image to backing and leave an opening at the top. Trim.

Cut a piece of ribbon at whatever length you'd like. I cut mine to about 16" so i'd have enough to make a bow when i tied it to my gift. Fold it in half, give it a quick press with your iron and place the folded end in the opening on your image tag:
Iron to fuse the layers (this will really only hold the ribbon in place while you sew). Then sew a zig zag stitch around the outer edge to finish. Tie to your gift and give it with joy!

Oh, and by the way...all the gifts in these pics will be going out to some of this week's winners! If you haven't already joined the fun, please go back to this post, leave a note and you'll be entered to win. I'll draw another name later on today!