happy friday

knits

I’ve been sewing with knits fairly often recently. In my quest to have enough Lindens to wear on a daily basis, I’ve stocked up on various knits. Of course I’m not prepared enough to have photos of said sweatshirts (and I hate doing the modeling!), so instead you get Hazel in cute new knit leggings.

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This print is from April Rhodes’ new line, Wanderer, for Art Gallery, and I was happy to find this particular one comes as a knit. I haven’t made myself anything yet from an Art Gallery knit, but I think they’re lovely – nice and soft and substantial.

Each time I post a photo of a knit top on IG, I’m asked where to find good knits, so I thought I’d provide a quick list of the places I check most often. Knits are hard to buy online, and after ending up with a large box of knits that aren’t quite what I was looking for, I try to stick now with a thicker knit, and I’ve had good luck looking for french terry, ponte, interlock or double knit, all of which are more substantial.

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Here’s where I shop for knits:

Harts Fabrics (I used this Splendid sweatshirt knit in one of my favorite Lindens  – though it’s a looser weave and unravels more than others, so beware of that).
Fabric Junkie has a large apparel section, separated by type.
Drygoods Designs always has a unique and ever changing selection of apparel fabrics, including some fun knits from time to time. I like the looks of this striped one, though I’d probably email Keli to ask about the weight before buying.
Felinus Fabrics on Etsy is where I’ve picked up a number of fun knits recently. She’s out of LA and adds new fabrics quite regularly. I’ve found that you often need to order when you see something you like, as her stock seems to be limited to what’s listed.

For the kids (most often for pj pants and/or leggings), I love the organic knits from Monaluna. The prints are cute and fun and my kids just adore them. As a bonus, the knit holds up really well to many, many washes!

This is just a quick list, and certainly there are great knits to be found in many shops, but hopefully this gives you a little start if you’re interested in ordering knit fabrics!

Posted in Fabric | Tagged | 4 Comments

Anna came to Vermont and we made market bags…

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Should I just add a photo and call it good?

No?  It’s true and all – Anna did travel to Vermont last weekend and we did make the market bag from her upcoming book, Handmade Style (due out in just a couple weeks, apparently!). That doesn’t really explain how fun it was and how much I appreciate Phiona of Nido planning such a fun event. Phiona put together a great weekend of sewing with Anna Graham, and while I was there mainly to help out, the lovely ladies attending the event hardly needed any of my help making bags, so in the end I was convinced to make one of my own. I’m not really a bag maker, so I was hesitant to give it a go, but I’m so glad I did (though I did have to have Anna sew a portion of the bag for me!) – I have a great bag now just begging for warmer weather and trips to the farmer’s market.

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The bag is a wonderful size, is super sturdy with a layer of soft and stable, and looks so polished with those great leather handles. I’m almost temped to attempt another!

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Thanks, Anna and Phiona, for a fun weekend of sewing!

Posted in Fabric, Household Sewing - bags, napkins, pillows | Tagged , , , , , | 20 Comments

a medallion quilt top

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I didn’t set out to make a medallion quilt, but it would seem as though I have. I pulled out these fabrics recently, pulling mostly from a fat eighth bundle of Anna Maria Horner’s Honor Roll line, and adding in other prints that I felt had that same kind of vibe.

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I started this one as I had just finished up my Liberty Churn Dash, so of course churn dash blocks were still on my mind….but this time in miniature. I made a few and squealed over how cute they were, but of course there’s no way I’d have patience for an entire quilt of 3″ churn dash blocks, so I put them together for the center of this quilt (initially inspired by an image of this quilt, which I had pulled out of a magazine ages ago).

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From there I had fun building out, adding various rings – some rings made up of other blocks (some half square triangles, plus blocks and larger churn dashes), and others of just a printed fabric. It was an interesting challenge to select what I felt was ‘the right’ next print, and I spent quite a long time auditioning prints on the design wall and studying them from afar.

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From the get go, my goal was to use what I had – this wasn’t a planned project, but I was really into it, and I didn’t want to have to sit around waiting for fabric to arrive, so I decided that if I didn’t have enough, I’d have to use something else or come up with some other solution. It added an extra little challenge into this project, as there were many times when I felt I had found ‘the perfect’ fabric, only to discover that I was way short!

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And in the end I’m really happy with how it turned out! I particularly love those projects that come along unplanned and keep me really interested the whole way through.

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Posted in Fabric, Posts about Quilts | Tagged , , , , , , | 25 Comments