Sewhooked: Jumping In With Both Feet

Grandma's House Quilted Potholder Set
Grandma’s House Quilted Potholder Set

It’s been a while since I talked about my business. I post a lot of crafts and patterns and, of course I talk about Harry Potter (no, no…really!?).

Sewhooked is not just the name of my site and business. It’s become a community of crafty people that are near and dear to me. As you probably already know, I design and sell quilt patterns. What you may not know is that I also sell hand crafted items, including custom-made buttons and hard-copies of my patterns on Etsy.  All of my available patterns are ready for instant purchase and PDF download in my shop here on Sewhooked.  For quilt shop owners, my patterns are also available for wholesale purchase. Email me for details.

After a year of working on Sewhooked part time, I’ve decided the time has come to try my hand at running my business full-time. Up until now, I’ve worked on Sewhooked whenever I have time, squeezing in minutes here and there between other things.

At the end of the summer, all that will change. I’m leaving my part-time job at the quilt store where I work and am going to take a session off from teaching to build my inventory and focus on my business. There have been some changes in my life recently which make me feel the time is right to work hard, to work longer and to make Sewhooked everything I want it to be.

What can you look forward to? Well, more patterns, for sure! Creating patterns is my first love, and there are lots of ideas rolling around in my brain, just waiting for their chance to make an appearance. I’m tentatively planning a Block of the Month quilt for my shop next year, which I would love to be guided by those that would like to participate. More on that once the Project of Doom has wrapped up.

There will also be new hand-crafts available through Etsy. After a brief hiatus, Custom 1.5″ Buttons are back, including optional graphic design services. Soon, I’ll be adding grab bags of fabric from my crazy-huge scrap stash, as well as limited edition cards featuring photos of some of my quilts.

Photos in this post include some of the items currently available for sale through Etsy. PDF Downloads are here.

Reversible Bib
Bright Crayon Reversible Bib

Rock & Roll Bib
Rock & Roll Baby Bib

Tree Trimming - bulk order
Tree Trimming, Hard Copy Version

1.5" Custom Made buttons
Custom Made 1.5″ buttons

What kind of quilt patterns are you looking for? What handcrafts would you be interested in seeing on Etsy (keeping in mind that I do not sell items made from my Harry Potter and other fandom patterns out of respect to the authors/creators)?

I’d love to hear from you!

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

Counting Down To Harry, Wednesday

Counting Down To Harry, Wednesday Counting Down To Harry, Wednesday
Phoenix Rising Conference Tee, 2007

It has come to my attention that I bred earworms among many of my readers yesterday. Yes, yes, Save Ginny Weasley can definitely do that to you!!

Today’s shirt is very special to me. I didn’t stencil it. I didn’t reconstruct it. It came as-is and it’s perfect.

This is my conference tee from Phoenix Rising, held in New Orleans, Louisiana in May 2007. It was the last Harry Potter conference I attended. It occurred just two months before Deathly Hallows was released. There was something palpable in the air, a very “this is it” sort of feeling. It was the last mass gathering of hard-core Harry Potter fans that I attended. It’s the conference where I met, in real life, many of my online friends. It’s was also the debut of my Harry Potter quilt, My Magical Lens.

hpcrafters_pr meetup

We had crafty meet-ups.

Phoenix Rising hpcrafters_pr ATC swap
We swapped ATC cards.

Buttons for Phoenix Rising

I gave away hundreds of buttons, as well as providing buttons for a number of podcasts.

We drank hurricanes and listened to Wrock. My BookCrossing group (now defuct), book-bombed all the common areas with free books. There were costumes, and characters and theorizing, and asking, repeatedly, urgently, Is Snape good or evil?

Jewels, Stephanie, Jennifer and Petra
We went to a ball and got to be Cinderella, or Ginny, or Hermione…or Fawkes for a night.

This is the shirt I pull out when I’m feeling nostalgic for that all-too-short weekend. My sister and my best friend were there. There were friends from all over the world, all in the same hotel, breathing the same air. That conference was special, it hummed the feelings we were all having building up to the release of the final book, the one that would close our canon. For many of us, it was the first and the last time we got to see each other, to occupy the same space. Hopefully, very hopefully, it won’t be the last.

Yeah, a shirt really can make me feel all that.

Countdown To Harry, Tuesday

Countdown To Harry, Monday

Countdown To Harry, Sunday

Countdown To Harry, Saturday

Countdown To Harry, Friday

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

PoD Week 26

This is your weekly reminder that The Project of Doom, A Harry Potter Block of the Week Mystery Quilt, is taking place over on Harry Potter Paper Piecing (hp_paperpiecing on Livejournal).

Today’s pattern is Week 26!

NEW – Join the Project of Doom on Livejournal to talk PoD, share photos, questions and stories!

Previous Patterns:

Links go straight to posts including block samples. If you do not wish to see photos of the blocks, click this link for previous posts.

Photobucket

https://i0.wp.com/i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae176/hppaper/sponsoredby.jpg

My Kitchen Window
My Kitchen Window, a pattern from the Sewhooked Shop

Counting Down To Harry, Tuesday

Counting Down to Harry, Tuesday

Save Ginny, purchased at a live H&tP show during Lumos, Las Vegas, 2006

I’m not sure when I first discovered Wizard Rock, but it was probably some time in 2005.

I had heard a whisper, a whisper about Harry & the Potters. Back in 2005, Facebook wasn’t the thing, MySpace was. So I went there, and I looked, and I found them.

They’re not the best vocalists in the world, but I love their lyrics and I love their heart. They’re fans and they get it.

The first opportunity I had to see Harry & the Potters perform was at Lumos in 2006. I bought this shirt without a second thought and I have worn it until the threads are starting to come out. It’s one of my favorite H&tP songs…and one of my favorite fandom tees.

We’ve got to save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk

We’ve got to save the school from that unseen horror

We’ve got to save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk

We’ve got to save the school again

Since the early days of Wizard Rock, about a million other bands have come on the fandom scene. My heart still belongs to Harry & the Potters…and I admit it, a little of it belongs to Draco and the Malfoys.

What?! Every girl has a little touch of poison. Click for a listen. 😉

Countdown To Harry, Monday

Countdown To Harry, Sunday

Countdown To Harry, Saturday

Countdown To Harry, Friday

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

TTMT #118 – Twenty-One Shirt Salute

In which I talk about Harry Potter, earrings, my Bear Paw UFO and some goodies received in the mail. Don’t forget, the July TTMT challenge continues, and there are lots of videos being posted this month! If you’re looking for some great new craft vloggers, Talk To Me Tuesday is the place to go!

Countdown to Harry continues later today!

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

Counting Down To Harry, Monday

Counting Down To Harry, Monday

Leaky Cauldron tee, purchased  2006

Today is a super special day for me. Not only am I counting down to Deathly Hallows on Friday, but today just happens to be my 17th wedding anniversary! Seventeen amazing years with my soul mate, Eli.  For almost two decades, he has loved me, supported me, and most of all, put up with me and all my craziness. Quite obviously, he’s a keeper!

Eli & Jen 1994
Eli & Jen, 1994, hiking in Big Bend, Texas 

White Sands
Eli & Jen, 2008, White Sands, New Mexico

So…The Leaky Cauldron (representing the website, not the pub!)….

This is one of two t-shirts I purchased to wear at Lumos in 2006. My order did not make it to my house before the conference, so the t-shirts never made it to Vegas.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this shirt for years. I love the design. I love the color. When I got it, late (grrr!), it was too big for me, huge, in fact.

I immediately reconstructed it to size it down. I don’t usually mess with the length of the tee when I she-shirt them, but this one was so long, that I did.  Unfortunately, I messed up and ended up with a shirt that was shorter than I wanted .

So, I tried again. This time, I added insets in the sides and extended the length with some white fabric from another tee. That worked for a while…and then I lost weight, and it was once again too big. SO, I resized it a third (and final!) time, making the side insets a bit smaller and, finally, have the shirt you see here.

This tee has also been retired to my some-day-when-I-can-bear-to-cut-them-up-quilt pile.

Countdown To Harry, Sunday

Countdown To Harry, Saturday

Countdown To Harry, Friday

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

Counting Down To Harry, Sunday

Counting Down To Harry, Sunday

Honeydukes tee, painted, stenciled and reconstructed, 2006

This lovely (hot!!) summer Sunday, I continue my personal countdown to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 by wearing a different HP tee leading up to the movie release. I counted this morning, I found 19…and I think there are more floating around somewhere. And those are just the shirts that I can claim as my own…

Once upon a time, I went to Las Vegas. The year was 2006. Harry Potter canon was a year away from being closed. It was my first con. I was a fairly new moderator over at Harry Potter Crafts on Yahoo!. I did not yet volunteer for the Leaky Cauldron (2006-2007). My Harry Potter quilt was started, but not complete. There was no Harry Potter paper piecing and I had very few fandom friends.

Lumos was the con that changed all that. I met tons of new friends, both crafty and those that worked for The Leaky Cauldron. I realized fully how many crafters, costumes and creative people were part of  our fandom. My fandom.

In the build up to Lumos, I created t-shirts for every day of the conference. I wore this one to the opening feast.  Honeydukes has always been one of my favorite places in my mind. Magical candy, what more could you want in a shop? This tee was reconstructed using directions from Generation T, a combination of “Outer Lace” (tee 16) and “Ties to Die For” (tee 18). The stars (left shoulder) were stenciled. I wanted the Honeydukes name to look like a sign, so it was created by taping off a rectangle, stenciling that in and then free-hand writing on top of that with fabric paint.

This shirt feels a bit, hmmm, young, for me now, but it brings back memories and reminds me of online friends that I haven’t seen with my own eyes in many years.  I brought Honeydukes out of retirement just for today.

And yeah, that’s a white streak in my hair. It’s au naturale.

Countdown To Harry, Saturday

Countdown To Harry, Friday

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

Counting Down To Harry, Saturday

HP T-Shirt Countdown

It’s Saturday and it’s day two of my Harry Potter t-shirt wearing marathon as I count down to the release of Deathly Hallows, part 2.

Today, I wore my Ravenclaw tee. This is a stenciled tee made from a stencil I created and cut from freezer paper . Good Ravenclaw tees are hard to come by and I wanted to represent my house! See those spiffy earrings? Gifts from hp5freak!

Not only did I get to wear my Ravenclaw t-shirt today, but I wore it to Anime Overload here in Austin, a local anime and pop culture convention. I did not run into any HP characters, but we did see the 11th Doctor, Agent Washington and a number of other favorite characters.

Free stencils on the craft page.

How long do we have to wait until the movie is released? Click to find out

Me with my quilt

 

Wearing my tee at Phoenix Rising, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 2007

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post! (See, I said it again!)

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

Counting Down To Harry

Counting Down to Harry Potter DH2

I’m wearing an HP shirt every day leading up to the release of the last Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part 2.

Why yes, I am that big of a dork fangirl.

How long do we have to wait until the movie is released? Click to find out

Today’s shirt is a Hogwarts Crest tee that I got from Hot Topic ages ago. It’s one of three (or is it four?!) crest tees that I own. You can’t really see  it, but I’m also wearing owl earrings, too.

I always count down to Harry, whether online or in real life. For my Half-Blood Prince count down, I talked about (free!) stencils!

Tomorrow, I’ll be sporting one of my own stenciled tees. In all honesty, I could probably have worn HP tees for a month without repeating, but some of my old favorites have been retired and are being saved for a some-day-when-I-can-bear-to-cut-them-up-quilt.

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post! (See, I said it again!)

Photobucket


Shop | FB | SHFB

Flickr | Twitter

Classic Film Quiltspiration from flickr

Classic Film

Get Classic Film

At the bottom of every post, I say something along the lines of  “Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!” This sentence has changed from time to time, but the idea is always the same…share photos and I might post them here!

Promises, promises! Enough with that…let’s post some quiltspiration.

All of the following pieces were created using Classic Film, a traditionally pieced pattern available for sale in my Shop. The intention of this pattern is to be able to use any 5″ (5.5″ unfinished) blocks you choose to create a film strip.  It’s been one of my most popular non-paper pieced patterns, though many of the quilters that have used it have added paper pieced elements. It’s even more exciting for me when the blocks they add were designed by me!

003
Fairy Classic Film by midge817
, incorporates Fanciful Fairies for a sweet wall hanging!

Twilight cover wall hanging
Twilight Cover Classic Film by liljabs
uses Twilight blocks by Cat Magraith and Lilja herself. Patterns available on Fandom In Stitches.

011
Wizard of Oz Classic Film by midge817
 beautifully incorporates licensed Wizard of Oz fabric with sepia-toned fabrics.

Hogwarts Classic Film
Hogwarts Classic Film by liljabs
 uses my own Hogwarts House patterns, available for free on Fandom In Stitches.

Finished top 1
Harry Potter Classic Film by hpfan_poa
 uses a combination of mine and Connie Tessier’s patterns, all available for free on Fandom In Stitches.

From here on out, Featured Photos from the Sewhooked Flickr (say that five times fast!) will replace the Sew Awesome Craft award. If your photo has been featured, feel free to grab one of these images for your own! I apologize for not having the html easily available for you. My current blog host does not support that feature.

Add your Sewhooked photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post! (See, I said it again!)

signature-2016

Craftsy Pattern Shop ♥ Etsy Shop

Facebook ♥ Sewhooked on FB ♥ Sewhooked Facebook Group

Instagram ♥ Flickr ♥ Twitter

Posts on this blog contain affiliate links. Thank you for your support. ♥