Tag Archives: handmade

Random Doings

Just this evening, I finished stitching my first set of blocks for the As You Wish Quilt & Stitch along.

The Princess Bride. Seriously! The Buttercup blocks were designed by Elizabeth from Such A Sew & Sew. The quilt layouts for the event were designed by me.

This is the one I’m using, though the more popular of my two designs for this event is definitely this one.

I did an epic post and my TTMT this week all about the UFOs I want to at least touch, and hopefully finish, in 2014. Today I made an actual, physical list on a giant piece of paper. My goal is to finish 2014 with less projects than I started with. I thought that maybe marking projects done from a real life list would inspire me and remind me of my goals!

New projects aren’t on this list, just stuff that’s been hanging around prior to this year.

Marie and Merlin say hello!

I made these postcards to send to my daughter. You see, I’m a giant geek mom and send my college freshman daughter a postcard every day. Yeah, you heard that right. EVERY day. She loves it. I love it. We’re all happy!

Anyway, I have these ancient printable postcards that are essentially a sheet of cardstock with perforations. To make these, I found an awesome wallpaper on fanpop.com by deedeedee123 and printed it to an 8 1/2″ x 11″ document without borders. It seriously worked a treat!

Because. David Tennant. Yeah.

Current crochet project…for The Linus Connection, my longtime favorite, Sideways Shell.

This one is slow going because I’ve mostly been working on hand embroidery the last month. My monthly goal is to donate two blankets per month to The Linus Connection. I missed it by ONE blanket in 2013 and I was super bummed. Seriously. ONE short. Pffth. I’ll do better this year!

This is the first UFO I’m tackling for 2014. It’s 11 on the list. *points up* I’ve already gotten a good start . It’ll be a baby blanket and will again be donated to Linus. This one is so ancient, I don’t even remember when or why I started it! So far, I have done a quilt as you go technique and have most of it done. The goal is to have this one finished before next Tuesday!

Share your Paper Piecing Vintage or any other Sewhooked-inspired photos with the Sewhooked flickr group for a chance to win fun prizes all year long!

Happy Thursday, friends!

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Paper Piecing Vintage BOM, just $12 on Craftsy

12 patterns in two sizes = 24 patterns!

Join the Paper Piecing Vintage Facebook Group and piece with friends!

Crafting The Holidays

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It’s officially the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S.!

The leftovers are in the fridge and the countdown to gift giving for many people has begun.

Black Friday? Nah, I don’t do that. I advocate a Handmade Holiday season!

Want to shop handmade? Etsy is a great place to start. There are loads of talented crafters, makers and artisans selling their wares.

You can even find a few goodies made by yours truly. I’ve got quilted items I made myself, magazines my patterns have been featured in and I’m regularly adding scrap bags of fabric from my own stash that are perfect for paper piecing (for a limited time, of course…even Tribbles stop breeding eventually!).

Here are a couple of the goodies currently in my Etsy shop:

Sweet Skating Sue is just $19.99 and comes ready to hang.
OR you can make her yourself for free.
Never paper pieced? This $3 tutorial includes complete instructions and the pattern to make Sweet Skating Sue yourself!

Fairy Tale Femmes + In A Castle, $99.95
This sweet quilt is 30″ x 37″ and come ready to display or snuggle. Includes a sleeve for hanging.
OR You can buy the Fairy Tale Femmes and In A Castle patterns and make your own!

Find more ready-to-gift items right here in my Etsy shop!

Still have plans for making lots of gifts but aren’t sure where to start? Check out all the awesome projects and patterns here on Sewhooked and my fandom website, Fandom in Stitches!

Free Quilt Patterns

Tutorials and More (this page is undergoing an update, so it’s a little crazy over there!

Yarn (mostly crochet) patterns

By popular demand, all of my Harry Potter patterns are now back on Sewhooked! The people have spoken and I listen. 😉

For more fandomy goodness, including even more Harry Potter, be sure to visit Fandom In Stitches. You’ll find designs by myself that are not here on Sewhooked and lots of awesomesauce stuff from many other talents designers.

Many of my Sewhooked patterns and a few of my tutorials are now available on Craftsy for easy access! One of my goals for 2014 is to get ALL of my patterns and tutorials, both free and for sale added to Craftsy so you will always have an easy way to find them!

Go straight to the Sewhooked goodies on Craftsy!

Want to learn something new and WOW your friends and family with your awesome craft-ability? All Craftsy classes are on sale for $19.99 or less. Woo-hoo! Remember, the super cool thing about Craftsy classes is that once you buy a class (and remember, some of them are FREE), it’s yours forever. Watch any time, day or night, as many times as you like. Cool, huh?!

Do you sell your handmade goodies? Share a link to your shop in comments and I’ll put together and epic post next week to share with all my readers!

Paper Piecing Vintage: Sign-ups start December 3!

Make this one for yourself or as a gift and have it done by the end of 2014!

Coming January to Fandom In Stitches!

Only two more days! Remember, I’m donating $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November! You’ve got until Saturday to buy your copy and help with a great cause!

That’s it for me for today! I have a full day of spending time with my family and enjoying the heck out of having my daughter home from college to look forward to. 😀

Happy crafting,

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Featured Pattern: Tree Trimming, $8 on Craftsy!

TTMT #142 – Handmade Gifts and an Idea

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

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Join me for my workshop:

Registration is open!

Sewhooked: Jumping In With Both Feet

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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.

Bright Crayon Reversible Bib

Rock & Roll Baby Bib

Tree Trimming, Hard Copy Version

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!

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A Year of Blankets

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The Linus Connection‘s 2010 A Year of Blankets. Enjoy the gorgeous handmade goodness and consider helping out a blanket making charity in your area in 2011.

Learn more about The Linus Connection, my favorite charity:

My December Donations:

The Ugly Quilt, a quilting experiment gone wrong. I just could not make myself like this. I tried. Eventually, I just gave up and stitched the blocks together. Several people told me it was very striking. The two redeeming qualities of this quilt – it lay perfectly flat for quilting and it squared up exactly. I’m sure someone will love it, I was just very tired of looking at it.

Blue Granny – I love this ‘ghan. It is made of leftovers from Blue Bricks and the last couple of skeins of blue yarn in my stash.

Also? Picot edges make me happy.

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SEWHOOKED SHOP |SCHEDULE | SEWHOOKED FB
JEN FACEBOOK | TWITTER | FLICKR GROUP

My Friends Make Stuff 2010

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You may remember Handmade For The Holidays 2009, where I talked about my crafty friends that make and sell handmade awesomeness.

I started posting this list originally on Livejournal back in 2007 and each year I collect names from personal friends who are crafty and awesome, making all kinds of great things to sell. This year, I’m including an author friend because he is a very talented artist and self-published, which is, of course, awesome!

I personally own stuff made by everyone on this list. It’s ALL amazing, and made with skill and love, and in the case of the books, beautifully illustrated and a joy to read.

Also, I will happily continue to add the names of my friends to this list until the end of 2010, so if you should be on here and aren’t, just drop me an email!

Also be sure to check out my shop and etsy store for quilting, paper pieced patterns, crochet hats and buttons!

Listings are in alphabetical order by first word. 🙂

Convivial Crafter

What you sell: this year will be hats, and aprons and maybe a few bags

Price Range: $10-$50Int’l Shipping Available?: yes but shipping will be charged differently.

Fateful Fiber

Neon Delirium (Sandman) Handspun, DFTA Yarn, Blazing Baby Hat

What you sell: Handspun yarn, fingerless gloves (coming soon but I do take custom orders), baby hats, adult hats. Right now the shop has yarn and 1 baby hat

Price Range: $10-30

Last date to order before Christmas: I’ll do my best to ship as close to Christmas as I get orders. Mail takes at LEAST 3-4 days so I can’t offer guarantees, but I promise to do my best!

Int’l Shipping Available?: Yes, just convo me for a shipping quote.

Von Allan Studios

What you sell: writes/draws graphic novels

the road to god knows… – available at these stores
Stargazer – available online (Amazon/B&N) or in stores in January.

Price Range: In the $15 range.

Int’l Shipping Available?: If you would prefer not to order from an online retailer AND your local stores aren’t carrying the books and won’t order them…please e-mail.

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SEWHOOKED SHOP |SCHEDULE | SEWHOOKED FB
JEN FACEBOOK | TWITTER | FLICKR GROUP

It’s Bigger On The Inside

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Free TARDIS paper pieced pattern, designed by me
and tested (as shown) by the ever awesome Shae.

Oh, fandom quilting, how do I love thee?

Bigger on the inside, that’s how!

In a fit of I Am A Fan, I made this a highly detailed TARDIS. I designed this pattern to be a 6″ block, but I would recommend enlarging it even bigger to work on, just for sanity’s sake. Shae made her’s 6″ and it worked out beautifully.

TARDIS Pattern

Why is the pattern purple? No idea. I drafted it back in May of 2009 and then it got lost amongst my files. When I unearthed it a couple of weeks ago, I realized it just needed numbering and separating. My guess is I had some really good wine and thought the purple was blue…

Need more Doctor Who?

How about a Dalek quilt block?

Sample pieced by Stephanie T

Or a fandom tee?

More hardcore fan, you say?

Tardis Door Mural

Need even more DW? Check out crafty_tardis on Livejournal and the Doctor Who crafts flickr group.

Happy crafting!

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

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Smiling Santa Gift Bag

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I’ve been making these Santa bags for a lot of years now, but this is the first time I’ve ever shared a how-to for it.

Other similar bags I’ve made include Rudolph, Christmas kitties and Christmas trees. Change the basic bag to any color and add polka dots or stars for an easy birthday bag!

Smiling Santa is reusable, giftable, and darn cute. He’s fast to make with simple embroidered stitches and a button nose. If hand stitching isn’t your thing, fabric paint will work in a pinch!

You’ll need:

Smiling Santa reference
9″ x 12″ acrylic felt – 2 white, 1 red, 1 flesh
scissors
large needle
embroidery floss: white, red, blue & green
red button
ruler
optional: sewing machine
optional: rotary cutter

supplies

I use eco-friendly acrylic felt. It’s easy to find, cheap (20 cents a sheet) and sturdy.

Find the bottom of your bag and cut 1″ squares out of the opposite corners for each white sheet. This will create a faux gusset and allow your gift bag to stand up.

Cut the flesh-colored felt sheet down to 8″ x 5 1/2″. Fold in half and cut a gentle curve.

Open flesh-colored felt. Align 1″ from top of bag, centering so that each side has approximately 1/2″ of white felt showing.

Using the white embroidery floss, hand stitch a running stitch around the two sides and bottom of the face.

Add eye details with a straight stitch (eyebrows) and chain stitch (eyes).

Add button nose with red embroidery floss. Add mouth, also with red embroidery floss, using the chain stitch.

Pin two pieces of white felt together, face inside. Machine stitch 1/4″ seam on two sides and across the bottom.

Optional: hand stitch on the inside OR hand stitch on the outside using red embroidery floss.

Fold the open corners on the bottom together, matching outside seams. Fold seams in opposite directions to reduce bulk. Pin in place.

Machine stitch bag corners.

Turn bag right side out.

Fold 1″ down on top of bag, overlapping face. Pin, then straight stitch around. Stitch under side seam.

Finished stitching on the top of bag.

Cut two 12″ x 2″ strips from red felt.

Fold straps lengthwise. Straight stitch along the length with green embroidery floss.

Pin handle to outside of bag 2″ in from the sides.

Straight stitch snowflake or asterisk to hold handles in place. Repeat for the back of bag.

Stuff with goodies and gift it!

Feeling creative? Try your hand at a Christmas Tree!

fun variations, Dec. 2000

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

This is part of my “Way Back Craft” series; patterns, crafts, tutorials and general crafty memories before the days of this craft blog.

Crafts: Buy handmade for the holidays

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Shopping for handmade items can be daunting and if you’ve been to etsy recently, you know there are about a zillion people selling there, which can make it very hard to know where to start.

In a continuing effort to make, buy and give handmade, I’m collecting a list of my friends that sell handcrafted items.

In a few days, I will take all the collected names and post a big ole list of online shops with the hopes that my all friends will benefit.

If you make items to sell and would like to be in the “My Friends Sell Handmade Stuff” post, please comment with the following information:

Link to where items are for sale
Example List of items available
Price range (example $5 – $50)
Sample Photo, optional (just one please)
Other pertinent information

Please only share links to your own handmade items for sale. If you have friend that also sell their own handmade items and you think they’d like to participate, please direct them to this post so they can add their own information.

Happy Crafting!