Etsy

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Castle Peeps Giveaway!

June 21, 2010 in Etsy, Fabric | 117 comments

Welcome to my very first giveaway!

I am thrilled to be working with my friends Peg and Becca at Sew Fresh Fabrics.  Peg and Becca are a pair of fabric-loving quilters who recently opened an Etsy shop, specializing in modern designer cottons and Kona solids (a shop after my own heart!). I have crossed quilt-y paths with them in various places – Flickr quilting bees, the blogosphere, and even our local quilt guild.  That’s right, I might be shopping online, but I’m also shopping local! It’s more than just fabric, though.  Not only are you supporting a pair of wicked awesome gals by shopping with them, but you know you’re working with people who love it just as much as you do.  You can tell when the package shows up at your front step (or, in my case, when Peg knocks on my back door – lucky me!), pressed and folded and packaged with great care.

Anyways, today I’m lucky enough to give away one fat quarter bundle of the new Lizzy House collection, Castle Peeps! This will be six fat quarters in the green colorway.  How much do you love this new line?!

To enter, visit the shop and leave a comment telling me your favorite color Kona Cotton that they have currently in stock, and what color you think they should order next!  (Seriously, people. Solid obsession over here. Stage an intervention.)

Comments will remain open until this Friday at 5pm.

And if you want to keep up with all of the great stuff they have in stock, you can also check out their blog, as well as “like” them on Facebook.  They’ll have another shipment of Tufted Tweets next month (squee!), and a continually expanding selection of solids.

Thanks to Becca and Peg for doing this giveaway with me, and for being such a great (local to me!) resource for beautiful fabric!

Edited: comments are now closed, but if you want to order some fabric or suggest new colors of Kona to Becca and Peg, you can always reach them through the Sew Fresh blog!

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A label for every occasion

June 9, 2009 in Etsy, Finished Objects, Quilts | 3 comments

Since my first (hideous) attempt at a quilt label, I feel like I have made substantial improvement.  Where we stand now, I have two different labeling strategies.

For things on my Etsy shop, including custom/commissioned orders, I use my teeny tiny quilts label.  In a low-key attempt at consistent branding, I printed up some business-card-sized labels using a word processing program, and print them out on some iron-on transfer paper.  While I don’t adore the look and feel of the iron-on stuff as a general rule, I think it’s the right choice.  It’s small (only about 1.5″ x 2.5″), it’s clear and easy to read.  It says “handmade with care by: / teeny tiny quilts / 2009″, and also includes the URL of my Etsy shop and my email address.  Hey, you never know when you’ll get referral business…

doggy quilt labels

For quilts that are given as gifts to friends, or that I’m just making for myself, I have started doing handwritten labels.  The wording may vary, but it seems that the critical components are:

  • some description of the quilt’s purpose (“for baby Henry,” “Old Red Barn Co Quilt-along”)
  • some description of when it was made (for now, I’m just sticking with the year, I think that’s specific enough)
  • my name (since, you know, the whole purpose of a label is to virtually sign your work)

Here’s the one I made for Duck, Duck, Frog.  “made with love for / Henry Joseph / from / Liz J— / 2009″

frog quilt label

Simple, small, to-the-point.

So, here’s my question for anyone out there reading, and you don’t have to be a quilter to help me out.  The purple & green quilt is complete (and I love it and can’t wait to show it off…), all it needs is a label.  And I’m not sure how to word it.  It’s a gift for a good friend and her baby-girl-to-be.  To the best of my knowledge, they have either not yet picked a name, or not yet shared that name, so I can’t address it directly to the baby.  Just saying “baby girl” seems too generic.

How would you word a baby shower quilt label?

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Finished for Friday – Pinwheel Doll Quilt

June 5, 2009 in Etsy, Finished Objects | 7 comments

Playing along with Finished for Friday at Lit & Laundry today…. and it’s my TENTH finish of the year!  Ah, who are we kidding, it’s my 10th finish in under three months. There wasn’t really any sewing the first three months of the year. :-)

This quilt top has been sitting on the back burner since right about the time I started this blog.  It was one more doll quilt that I wanted to make to add to my Etsy shop, but the sudden flare of quilting obsession, two quilt-alongs, and a couple of custom orders always bumped it further down on the to-do list.  In fact, it wasn’t even listed on my white board of works in progress.  But I realized it would be a great little thing to bring with me to Maine last weekend, so I got the quilting all done and binding attached, and perfect little project it was!

Pinwheel doll quilt

It will get listed in my Etsy shop as soon as I get around to writing up the listing, maybe this afternoon? Honestly, it’s been an exhausting week, so if a nap wins out this afternoon, you won’t hear me complaining.

Pinwheel doll quilt

The Framed Pinwheel pattern was from a tutorial on About.com.  The fabrics are some fat quarters I picked up at Joann’s, and the backing is a Moda print from my local quilt shop.  I’m a sucker for a striped binding.  The final measurement is 19″ x 25″, a nice little toddler lovey, doll blanket, or even something nice to tuck into a carseat. Quilting was pretty much in the ditch with a varigated rainbow-colored thread.

Pinwheel striped binding

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Finished for Friday – Doggie Style

May 8, 2009 in Etsy, Finished Objects, Quilts | 6 comments

Lit and LaundryAlright, so that title is going to get me some very weird Google hits. Ah well. Time to play along with Finished for Friday at Lit & Laundry!

Finished bright and early this morning is the set of dog-themed ragged square quilts and matching pillows for a custom Etsy order by my friend LauraC.  (And by bright and early, I mean my husband’s snoring and kids’ yodeling woke me up at about 6:15. I knew I wasn’t going to fall back asleep, so I made the pillowcases before I got the kids out of bed. Rebecca wasn’t real pleased toward the end, there, but we all survived.)

Doggie Quilts

All that remains is to sew on some labels (more on those later) and run them through the washer and dryer for that soft, ragged-y goodness.  Why haven’t I washed them yet?  Ahem.  It might have something to do with the fact that my husband attempted (on his friend’s recommendation) to fix our underperforming dryer on Wednesday night.  Thursday afternoon, I went to Sears and purchased a new washer/dryer set.  That’s how well Wednesday night went.  Did I mention he started his “fix” while there was already a wet load of clothes in the washer? Awesome.

Doggie Quilts Doggie Quilts

Anyways, these super-cute quilts and pillows are for two little boys about to turn three years old, and their favorite puppy stuffed animals. One blue, one red.  The twin thing, as I well know, can be tricky.  Sometimes you want them each to have something, and you want it to be roughly the same, and yet individual.  So the prints are different but related, pattern is the same, one red, one blue.  (And the red is not nearly so shocking a color in person, not sure what was up with the color and my camera this morning.) I hope they enjoy them!  Happy almost birthday, boys!

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My first label

May 4, 2009 in Etsy | 2 comments

You can tell I’m a quilting newbie, because tonight was the first time I ever labeled a quilt.  Someone (OK, my aunt) actually bought one of my listed items on Etsy and I need to ship it ASAP to a friend of hers as a baby shower gift.  I figured a label was the right thing to do, so I grabbed some solid parchment cloth and a fabric marker and, well, did my best.

Quilt label

It measures just under 2″ x 3″.  It’s a small quilt, so anything larger I think would have been too much.  I sort of wanted to write the Etsy shop URL, but the point on my pen is not so small, so that’s the best I could do.  It’s hand stitched on, and the raw edges were pressed under.  It’s not superb, but it’s a first try.

If any more experienced folk are reading, any suggestions for someone new to labeling a quilt?  These aren’t for show or anything, just for sale on Etsy or maybe to give ot a friend.  Do you like to hand-write them? Do you have a favorite permanent fabric pen?  Do you prefer something you can print on the computer, or do you order labels from somewhere?  Do you think labeling is overrated?  Educate me!

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