Friday, June 28, 2013

Designer Spotlight Friday: Sarah Jane


Hello! Sarah Jane here, and I’m thrilled to be guest posting today on the Michael Miller blog.  I have a new collection out, LET’S PRETEND, and since I wasn’t able to debut at Quilt Market (I’m 8 months pregnant!) I’m happy to introduce it to you a little bit here. 




LET’S PRETEND is a collection close to me, because it was inspired by that lovely phrase I hear so often with my kids. I love hearing “Hey, Let’s Pretend that we are in a castle and ….”  You know what I mean? It’s so precious to witness imagination.
And with that, I created a line full of imagination and play for both the sewer and the kids :)


The color and design is inspired by my love for modern European design. Clean, simple, bright at times and understated at times. Geometrics dominate the blender fabrics, and whimsical illustrative designs fill up the main prints. My times spent in small towns in Europe, and witnessing evening puppet shows, mime and mask productions, I created a collection of prints for children with that same whimsical meets modern flare. 

There are two color groups that work for boys and girls, and you can mix them up quite nicely. I like to pair them into neutrals and bright jewel tones, personally. The jewel tones bring out a lot of drama, and are great for colorful projects, while the neutrals stay soft and light. And of course, I have to have a panel print! They are so fun to sew with, and make for such great skirts, table cloth borders, curtain borders, dresses and yes, pillows! 



I designed this pillow around the MAKEBELIEVE panel print, with a bit of patchwork on the top and bottom edges. Super easy! I’m not going to give exact instructions here, (It’s fairly straightforward, and I’m sure you’ll want to make a pillow the size that you need!) But here’s a quick little DIY: 


FABRIC NEEDED:

Make Believe Panel Print as wide as your pillow form, plus ½ inch for seam allowance. I like to measure my pillows and make the cover about an inch or two smaller so it’s nice and firm.

16 prints from the LET’S PRETEND COLLECTION or 8, doubled up as shown. (Fabrics shown here are: Cloud Pictures-Sky, When I am King-Raspberry, Mr. Bear’s Harlequin- Flame, Cloud Pictures-Breeze, Wooden Blocks-Retro, Harlequin-raspberry, ShadowPuppets-Flame) To determine the size, take the width of your finished pillow cover size, divide by 8, and add ½ inch seam allowance (1/4 for each side of the square).  This pillow cover is 14x18, so each finished square is 2.75 inches.

ACT IT OUT print, or any other that suits you, equal to pillow cover size, plus 1” total for seam allowances, and plus about 8 inches more in width for envelope back.


INSTRUCTIONS:

1.     Measure your pillow form, and decide how big your finished cover will be. I like to keep my covers 2 inches smaller to make it look nice and firm. 

2. Cut your MAKE BELIEVE PANEL the final width of your cover, plus ½ inches (to allow for ¼ seams on each side.) Cut the top and bottom of the panel to allow for two rows of patchwork squares.  So if your finished pillow cover is 14x18 inches, I’d cut my panel 18 inches wide (plus ½ inch for seams), and 9 inches tall (plus ½ inch for seams). This allows for 2.5 inch finished squares on the top and bottom)

 3. Cut 16 fabric squares  (from 8 prints) into desired size squares. Mine shown here are 3 inches cut. Sew 8 squares together with ¼ inch seams. 



4. Take the two rows, and sew them to the panel print, with ¼ inch seams.


  
5. For the back, I like envelope backs. You can do what ever you want here. To make the envelope back, measure your pillow form, and then add 8 inches to the width. This is your total needed fabric. Cut the fabric in half, and hem the short side of each piece (the two sides that will face each other)
 
6. Taking right sides together, pin the two back envelope panels to the front of your pillow with ¼ inch seams, making sure your hemmed sides are overlapping each other to make the envelope backing 

7.  And as an extra option, this looks lovely with a bit of simple quilting.



And voila! A fun, unique and illustrated pillow! 

Have fun sewing! Be sure to add your projects to my Pinterest Group here (send an email to info at sarahjanestudios dot com to add) or add it to the FLICKR group here! And visit my blog for lots more inspiration and inside peeks :)




And just for you Michael Miller Fans, I have a discount for you! 15% off anything in my online shop, which includes art prints that compliment the fabric collection! Just use the code MM15 at checkout until July 1st 2013 here on my website.

Great to be with you, and happy creating!

xo

Sarah Jane

 

Friday, June 21, 2013

Winners of the Edges Give-away!!



Cristina said... An amazing collection that is truly versatile! I hope I win!

Nina said... Beautiful on it own but would be great to mix with other lines! Thank you for the giveaway!

sewpsyched said... Beautiful fabrics. Thanks for the giveaway

Solange said... Love those colors. Another great line of fabrics! Well done!

Deairdre said... I really love the colors! 

Susanne said... I love this line! Especially the canvas prints.

Katy McCoy said... Mmmmmmm - especially the oranges....

Deana Russell said... Absolutely lovely!

WandaFish said... Definitely a 'must have' collection! 

Anne said... Love Faith's mini and Rita's pillow. Such fun colors and textures.

Congratulations to the winners of our Edges give-away! If you see your name on the list above, please contact info@michaelmillerfabrics.com with your shipping address.
*Winners chosen at random by random.org

A big THANK YOU to Laura for guest blogging and taking us on a virtual tour of projects using Edges!

Head over to Laura's blog, Paint in My Hair, for more great Edges inspiration... and check out how Laura redecorated her boys' room!



Happy Friday!
xo mmf


Friday, June 14, 2013

Designer Spotlight Friday: Laura Gunn

Hello everyone, it's Laura Gunn and it's a real treat to chime in on Kathy's blog today, especially to talk about my latest line of blenders and basics--Edges.  With Edges I wanted to give sewers interesting colors and textures that would compliment their own designs.  The result is a wide and varied palette. And I can't wait to see all the ways you use it! 

As gratifying as it is to see my artwork on fabric, it's even more gratifying to see my fabric in the creations of designers I admire.  With the help of some friends at Michael Miller, I reached out to some of my favorite quilters to see how my latest line, Edges, would inspire them.  And honestly, I feel so honored to have a little bit of me in their beautiful work.



Faith at Fresh Lemon Quilts created this charming mini quilt.  It's like a box of candy.  Yum!  I just love how it shows off how varied the palette is in this collection.



Faith talks us through how she made her quilt here on her blog.



Ashley from Film in the Fridge calls this quilt Edges and Angles. Doesn't it look like it belongs in this beautiful seaside shot?  It's just so dang cool! 



You can read about her process in choosing background colors here.



My Dear friend Katie Blakesley at Swim Bike Quilt blew me away with this quilt she calls Gallery Wall.  The squares look like individual pieces of modern art!  While we're on the subject of how awesome Katie is, you really should check out the book she co-authored with Faith Jones of Fresh Lemon Quilts, and Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced--Vintage Quilt Revival.  Amazon is taking pre-orders!



Holly at Bijou Lovely is moving along on her project.  I love everything Holly makes so I can't wait to see how this turns out.  Be sure to follow her progress on her lovely blog.



This Flying Geese Pillow by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts is simply charming.  I love how she used the black and white prints to highlight the colors.  This pillow cover sold pretty quickly in her shop, but she has some beautiful quilt patterns available. 



Here is a no-sew project that I love.  Angela at Cut to Pieces designed this sweet pin cushion.  How clever is that?!? I may have to find a flower dish myself!



Check out the raw edge applique on these totes.  I do love dots!  Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts made these for her son's preschool teachers.  Wow!  It's good year if I remember to get something before the morning of the last day of school! ;-)

Happy sewing!
Laura

*All images have been used with permission.

Comment to win a charm pack of Laura's collection,Edges! 

Thank you very much to all who participated in our give-away! Comments are now closed.

Also, Check out Laura's blog, Paint in My Hair, for amazing design inspiration, sewing ideas, and more about Edges!
 

Friday, June 7, 2013

Introducing, Norwegian Woods!


Our new collection, Norwegian Woods, has hit the stores with a bang!




Check out how creators around the web have interpreted this line... including one of our own team members who sewed the stuffed owl and the Norwegian Woods outfit above. She used a pattern from Cali Faye for the wide leg pants in Mermaid Cotton Couture and CX5977 Scandi Leaves for the contrast border. The belt was created using CX5911 Cora

The owl tutorial is available here.


https://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/index.php/fileuploader/download/download/?d=0&file=custom%2Fupload%2FFile-1380561245.pdf


Emily Herrick designed a quilt for us called, Three's a Party.
The free tutorial can be found on our website.



We also have two additional free quilt patterns which can be found over on our website-

Three in a Row by Marinda Stewart

Norwegian Woods by Heidi Pridemore.

Happy sewing and have a great weekend!

xo,
MMF