Art designed to Inspire

Riley Blake Designs 2014 Post Quilt Market Designer Blog Tour!

Hello and welcome to our little place here in the blog world and thanks for stopping by! I'm thrilled to be today's featured stop on the Riley Blake Designs Post Quilt Market Designer Blog Tour. What a great time I've had scrolling through all the Riley Blake Designer blogs full of beautiful collections and amazing projects! Its a true honor for me and our company to be included in this group of top industry designers and brands. At Riley Blake Designs we all work as a team creating fabric collections that quilters and sewists can turn into wearable art, quilts and gifts. Creativity is all about sharing art in our larger community and inspiring each other along the way. We hope you continue on this blog tour and find inspiration to create your own piece of art! Don't forget to comment at the end of this post for a chance to win a GIVEAWAY of a Fat Quarter Bundle of Happy Flappers!

Previous Blog Stop: Sue DaleyNext Blog Stop: Marin Sutton

 

 

Without further ado I will introduce you to our first fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs. It's called Happy Flappers and it features cute and colorful owls with bold florals. It comes in 3 different color-ways in 100% cotton as seen above but that's not all! Some of the patterns are also available in flannel and knit too - something for everyone! You can see the complete collection at Riley Blake Designs.

 

If you have been following our art brand for a while, you may recognize the owls and floral images from our stamp and scrapbook collections that have been produced in different formats over the years since 2004.

 

 

For our Riley Blake fabric collection I wanted to use some of our old favorites but with a fresh twist. I picked through our archives and re-drew some of the owls, put them on branches and in trees for a charming woodland effect. The Riley Blake team asked me if I could add a floral print so that's when I introduced our "Funtastik" flowers. Voila! "Happy Flappers" was born.

 

When our Happy Flappers fabric samples arrived I was so excited and knew I had to make something - but with what? I hadn't used my sewing machine in years - it had been relegated to the basement. After a trip to the repair shop my Vintage Kenmore is now back in action. It doesn't make a lot of fancy stitches, but it can handle the basics, which will be fine for me and my beginner sensibilities. One thing is certain - I won't be giving any of the professional sewists a run for their money. After I make a few Christmas gifts, I think I'll go back to the drawing board - literally. 

 

 

After a long hiatus from sewing (20+ years), I decided on this lined drawstring bag as a good beginner project. I love how it turned out and I'd like to make more in different sizes too.

 

 

Feeling emboldened by the success of the Drawstring Bag project, I drew up my own pattern to make an Owl Toy. It finished up wider than I wanted so I think I'll make adjustments to the pattern before I try it again. I tried appliqué on this one - something new for me. The zig-zag stitches proved to be a little tricky for my old machine so it's far from perfect, but not bad for a beginner.

 

 

Keeping with the owl theme, I made an Owl Bib using appliqué and lastly I made a Travel Mug Cozy as seen in my previous post with a tutorial.

 

 

Check out this stunning necklace by Carmi Cimicata. Isn't it amazing? Carmi is a multi-media artist specializing in resin, wearable art, jewelry design and crafty DIY. She is also a social media designer for craft manufacturers. I met Carmi recently (she tells a funny story about that on her blog) and gave her some samples of Happy Flappers. I knew she would make something great, but when she sent me pictures of what she was working on, I was blown away!

 

You can see how Carmi made the necklace on her blog: CarmiCimicata.blogspot.ca

 

Flappers and Friends Quilt Project is available FREE on the Riley Blake Designs website or you can download it here: Download Pattern_HappyFlappers.

 

 Here’s the complete line-up of talented designers on the blog tour - I encourage you to check them all out - so much amazing inspiration!!

11/6 – The Quilted Fish

11/7 – Bella Blvd.

11/8 – Deena Rutter

11/10 – Lila Tueller

11/11 – Carina Gardner

11/13 -Bee In My Bonnet

11/14 – Fancy Pants Designs

11/15 – My Mind’s Eye

11/17 – Zoe Pearn

11/18 – Sue Daley

11/20 – Kelly Panacci

11/21 – Marin Sutton

11/22 – Lori Whitlock

11/24 – Melissa Mortenson

11/25 – Melly & Me

11/28 – Scott Jarrard

11/29 – Elea Lutz

If you made it to the bottom of this blog post you deserve a chance at a Give Away. Write a comment below for a chance to win a Fat Quarter bundle of Happy Flappers. The winner will be announced at the end of the Riley Blake Designs 2014 Post Quilt Market Blog Tour - December 2nd.

You can follow updates on our website and our social media pages: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. Thanks for visiting our blog!

Happy Flappers Travel Mug Cozy - Tutorial

I just love a coffee, tea or hot beverage when I'm out and about in the cool weather and my travel mug is now much easier to handle thanks to this easy peasy Mug Cozy. I made it with our Happy Flappers fabric from Riley Blake Designs. This Mug Cozy turned out so well that I think I'll be making a bunch as Christmas gifts! If you'd like to make your own cute Mug Cozy just follow along and feel free to download our template Download KP_TravelMugCozy. It's free!

Gather your supplies, print and glue your template onto cardboard and cut your fabric strips, lining and fusible fleece (see measurements listed on download file).

Select your fabrics to cut 11 strips - I used 7 different patterns from our Happy Flappers collection to make the strips with a few repeats.

Using a rotary trimmer, cut 11 fabric strips: 1.5" X 4.5" and lay them side by side to create desired composition.

With a 1/4" seam allowance, sew all strips right sides together along the 4.5" side to create a continuous patchwork piece. Press seams open and lay flat (right side up) with template on top. Trace around the template with water soluble pen.

With wrong sides together, pin the patchwork piece to the lining fabric as shown above. Cut along the traced pen line, take the pins off and set aside the shaped patchwork and lining pieces.

Refer to photo above and sew elastic hair tie onto right side of patchwork piece at the mid-point edge of short side. Trim excess hair tie.

Cut the template to the dotted line or use a second template (I made 2 templates and glued them to cardboard because I want to use them multiple times) and place it on the fusible fleece. Trace around the template and cut out the fusible fleece.

Fuse the fleece to wrong side of lining fabric and place pieces right side together, then pin.

With patterned fabrics right sides together, pin through all layers.

With a 1/4" seam allowance, sew along all edges with right sides together. Leave an opening at one end for turning. Trim the corners.

Turn inside-out so the right side of fabrics are facing out. You may need a turning tool to pick out the corners. Fold the open edges in at the seam allowance and topstitch all the way around about 1/8" from edge.

If you have a large button with a shank, you can make your own button from Happy Flappers fabric - TUTORIAL for DIY button ON INSTRUCTABLES  or use a regular button. I used one of the cute owls from the C0421 Cream Flappers Owl because it stands out against the strips of multi colored patterns. With your finished button, wrap the Cozy around your travel mug and pull the elastic tie to determine where the button should be secured at the left side of Cozy. Sew the button onto the fabric and you're ready to use your cute owl Cozy. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I love mine. Cheers!

Look "hoos" here - Happy Flappers!

Our first fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs is in stores now and we couldn't be more excited. It's a cute collection featuring woodland owls and colorful flowers. I can imagine making lots of fun projects for babies and little girls. I think I will drag out my old sewing machine and give it a whirl.

Click the following link to see all the designs in cotton, flannels and knits. HAPPY FLAPPERS at Riley Blake Designs

Our collection and many others were recently featured at Houston Quilt Market 2014 in the Riley Blake booth. Here are some pics I found on the RBD blog (thanks Cindy!). So great to see since we weren't able to go to Market this year. Look at those beautiful quilts, cute dresses and bags!

I am so inspired after seeing all these great projects made with our fabrics. I am a beginner sewist at best, so I hope I can do the fabrics justice. I'll get sewing and post my projects in the coming days and weeks - stay tuned!!