Holiday wishes

To all of you from all of us
 best wishes

Sweet Holiday Owlie Softie

WHOOO, WHOOO'S
the most adorable little owl??
Why this guy of course!

compliments of 
Patty Sloniger's
Sweet Owlie Softie - Tutorial
 made up in HO HO Hoot CX4982

......stay tuned ...

as Patty  starts our

Designer Spotlight Series 

in January!

Tammis Keefe Christmas Projets

We love Tammis Keefe's whimsical take on the holiday season.

There's still time to snag some of her wonderful prints for these 

Quick and easy Projects 

Twinkle Angels/ DN4938

 Tammis Angels Banner

Download free patterns here

 

 

Tammis Angel stockings

Download free pattern here

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah 

The eight day festival of lights 

 began at sundown tonight.  

 This is one of the prettiest Menorahs I've ever seen 

from West Elm. 

for more wonderfully curated inspiration check out the very tasteful blog Don't Sew Angry.

CM4895 Shalom/ blue

CM4475 Dreidels & Stars/ nite

from Thoughts to Print

Quick and Easy Wreath

 

 Another great Quick and Easy project;

DIY wreath

made using styrofoam balls and torn strips of our fabrics!

(idea: include the kids,  just snip the width you want along the selvage and let the kids do the ripping)

by Trenna Travis 

ultra talented photographer, interior designer and artist.

pssst... if you haven't been to her facebook page- go now.

Quick and Easy Gift bottle wrap

Tis the season 

for hostess gifts!

a festive drink to share, a bottle of bubbly or a favorite wine.

Rather than yet another paper wine bag,

try this Japanese style fabric wrap (called furoshiki). 

Not only does it have a nifty carrying handle,
they'll have the fabric square to re-use.

furoshiki bottle wrap

we used about a 36" square piece of fabric, 

which worked nicely for a typical size wine bottle.

  CHEERS!!!!!

 

Quick & Easy Holiday projects

It's that time again, 

The season is upon us.

 give that special someone /  something special 

made by you just for them. 

We'll be featuring projects so simple
you can whip'em up
and
spread the love and good cheer around:

hostess gifts, teachers, you name it the list goes on and on....

for your own table and theirs: 

festive place mats and napkins

prints: CX4924 Mod Holiday and CX4925 Mod Flourish

place mat tutorial

How special is that?!

2011 Houston Quilt Market Set-Up

Set-Up Fall Quilt Market 2011 from shawn wallace on Vimeo.

Video by our fab Shawn Wallace

Do we have fun or what?!

more to follow.....

Next stop Quilt Market

next stop Houston

Quilt market here we come!

Secret Garden Laminates (aka Sandi crashes the blog)

Hello Michael Miller fans!  It's Sandi here, gate-crashing the Making it Fun blog!

I'm so happy to share with you my newest venture with Michael Miller Fabrics - laminated cottons.  I have wanted to do a group of these fabulous fabrics for awhile, and with Secret Garden - I was given the green light to pick out some of my favorite prints to be laminated.

When we started looking over the Secret Garden prints, the first obvious choice to me was the Garden Gate design in all of its mossy, rainy colored splendor.  When I designed this print, I wanted it to look like an ornate Garden Gate, with the remnants of past grown flowers still clinging to the iron.  What a perfect print for a drizzly day, don't you think?  I have a raincoat in the works.. in three different prints.

To accompany Garden Gate, my Lock & Key and Vintage Ironwork prints in those lovely tones of gray joined the lineup, and were soon followed with the Midnight Party Dress and accompanying Vintage Ironwork in Berry:

When I received my sample yardage to play with, I started thinking about the obvious uses for water-resistant fabrics.  Raincoats, lunch bags..  but I wanted to really push creativity with this unique fabric.

My first project was to recover an old, outdated sewing caddy that had great bones and construction.  Look at the before:

Please try not to be overly jealous of my gorgeous turquoise carpet.  We can't all be so lucky..

But do be jealous of what I found on the inside:  (and with a price tag of $9.99, I would have snapped it up even if it wasn't full of lovely vintage sewing goodies!)

So I got to work and stripped away the covering and gold foil trim and covered the lid with my Garden Gate laminate and covered the body with some mod podge and Garden Damask.  Working with the soft laminate was a dream.  It moves and drapes like a regular cotton, but obviously is laminated to make it water resistant.  The coating prevents cut edges from fraying, which makes projects like this particularly easy-peasy.

I think it is a definite improvement, and now I can put my feet up on it and just wipe it clean.  And now I want to sew everything in a laminate, just to be able to "wipe it clean.."  It's a really great feeling - if you will be attending Quilt Market in a few weeks, please stop by our booth to see fresh ideas using this new fabric!

I will be back after Quilt Market with some more tips and tricks to sewing with this fabric, a free quilt pattern for the laminates (yes!) and some care tips.

But in the meantime, enjoy!

genius interrupted

Iconic Visionary
creative genius

and the best Commencement speech/ life lesson
EVER!

life at Michael Miller

Congratulations!
Sarah
you're the winner in last week's

Spa Collection Giveaway!
 please email your name (along with your blog name)
and street address to:
info@michaelmillerfabrics.com

We're in the throes of quilt market prep  and  thought I'd share a few behind the scenes pictures while I'm here in our New York headquarters.
(For those of you that don't know, I split my time between our New York office and northern California studio)
 

meet my latest attraction/distraction

Chester the office dog

Bernese mountain dog, gentle giant

(105 lbs and growing)

and the biggest fan  of our bean bag chair

tutorial by Joanna of stardust shoes

   yes that's Laura Gunn's gorgeous prints he's lovin'

 can you tell he's the apple of their eyes?

not everyone's as distracted as me

after all there's work to be done
and
it's all arriving at the last minute 
of course....

Next week California........

Spa collection giveaway

Congratulations!

Mrs. Pringle. Chip. 

you're the winner in last week's 

Cocoa Berry Color story giveaway!

 please email your name (along with your blog name) 

and street address to:
info@michaelmillerfabrics.com

now for today's special treat:

 who doesn't feel like they're ready for a spa day?

our in house artist, videographer and now model Shawn sure does!

Relax, Rejuvinate, Recharge

......Ahhhhhhhh.... 

are we there yet???

okay- okay, 

snap out of it!

considering we're all in 

pre-Quilt - Mkt.- lock -down - mode here,  

we're most definitely NOT there yet.

But seriously don't these colors put you in that 

"Spa state of mind"?

Breathe in, breathe out and imagine you're at the Spa and a yard each of the Spa collection prints pictured above have just been delivered to you on a tray as you lounge by the pool sipping the drink of your choice.....

now, go ahead leave a comment (what are you sipping??) 

and you could win a yard each of the spa prints pictured above.

winner announced next Wednesday.

Namaste

Cocoa Berry color story Giveaway

Congratulations!

Sally

you're the winner of last week's 

Petal flower fairy giveaway!

  please email your name and street address to:
info@michaelmillerfabrics.com

Now for today's color story:

Cocoa Berry

The anchor color for this story is a deep rich chocolate brown. This warmer version of black makes all colors next to it sparkle and pop.

It's considered a basic today but around 2005 it was considered the radical  new "black".  Also, in case you're wondering, it's a trend that started on the streets of Paris - specifically with brown and pink. It sounds so silly now but it caused quite a stir, suddenly the new trend was causing a rise in handbag and shoe sales (after all you couldn't be caught wearing black shoes with brown pants!)  It also meant one more thing to think about when packing a suitcase- black pants? brown pants? 2 pairs of shoes?  decisions, decisions....

(that's one reason my purse is black and brown)

Now that brown is the accepted norm we're starting to see "white" as the "new" color to throw in the mix.

All the colors on this bed accentuate the others.

duvet cover designed by Marinda Stewart

            instructions coming soon on our website       

                       

   love polka dots!

  especially this quarter dot CX3744 in fuchsia

Clear bright colors

contrast, contrast, contrast!

so, do you have a favorite anchor color for your wardrobe? quilting? home decor?

leave a comment, share your thoughts and you could win a yard of each of the Cocoa berry fabrics pictured above.

Winner to be announced next Wednesday!

Petal flower fairies Giveaway

Congratulations!

Lulu et Gigi


you're the winner of last week's
Urban Grit Color Story
giveaway
 please email your name and street address to:
info@michaelmillerfabrics.com


we've got  a special treat today:
our latest Petal flower fairy collection by
 Cicely Mary Barker

Pure fantasy land,

dreams are made of this.

quilt by Marinda Stewart
instructions coming soon on our website 

 more flower fairy fun here

So, when you were young, did you believe in fairies? 
Every little girls' fantasy?
Leave a comment and you could win a yard of each of the fabrics used in the quilt pictured above.
Winner to be announced next Wednesday! 

Urban Grit colorstory giveaway

Congratulations!

sewing_lil_roses

you're the winner of last week's 

Lagoon color story 

giveaway

 please email your name and street address to:
info@michaelmillerfabrics.com

Now for today's color story:

Urban Grit

You could call this color story neutrals but I think there's so much more to it. This is the one story that really speaks to the time we're living in.  In rocky times it says stability.  It's solid but not stodgy.  It's the wise investment in pieces that will never go out of style.  It's  the palette that can be cutting edge new or just plain edgy.

as we speak these just landed in my mailbox

 personally I think to make this palette work, it's all about the contrast between the shades. If I want a combination to "pop" and not look drab it's my preferred tweaking technique. But then again that's personal.

note the cream "almost white" in these.  Trust me it's intentional.

 What's your thoughts on this timely yet timeless color story?

leave a comment and you could win a yard of all the 

Urban Grit prints pictured above!

Winner to be announced next Wednesday!

Lagoon Color Story Giveaway

Congratulations!

Mercedes F. 

 

you're the winner for last week's 

Orchid gray color story

giveaway

 please email your name and street address to:

info@michaelmillerfabrics.com

Now for today's color story:

Lagoon

This has been one of the most popular color stories ever.  It used to be known as "the money color " in  New York's  garment center/ dress business.  Whatever the latest color trends were, this winner would always be added to the lineup because it always sells. 

The whole range of blues, teals, emerald and turquoise with touches of lime.  The depth and intensity of the colors may change from year to year but it's attraction stays constant.  I think it's our  connection to nature that draws us to it.  The blues of the sky, the turquoise of water and the green shades of nature.

  Is this your go-to color story?  Does it resonate with you?

leave a comment, let me know and you could win a yard of each of the Lagoon color story prints pictured above.  

The random winner will be announced next wednesday.

And I'd like to say to all you east coast folks 

dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene;

this week's water theme color story is purely coincidental.

Here's to calmer times and the soothing effects of

natures' favorite 

blue and green palette.