Bloomerie

Strictly Solids Winners

2012-05-14T00:38:51Z

Happy Mother's Day, y'all! (And that goes to all the mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who celebrated the day, too!) We definitely picked a great day to announce the winners of our Strictly Solids Michael Miller Cotton Couture giveaway!

After all, there is no better way to celebrate than with FABRIC!! (That color card is also pretty fabulous, though!)

So without further ado, our winners are:

Michael Miller Cotton Couture Color Card goes to... Christina of Sweet Sapling for her gorgeous flickr entry seen here

and

Michael Miller Cotton Couture Fat Quarter Bundle goes to... Amorette of Sew While He Sleeps for her comment: "I love the orchid cotton couture solid - gorgeous, and not too pinkish. This is a gorgeous stack! I have a color card already too - so someone else could claim that wonderfulness!"

Congratulations, ladies! Email us at hello{at}bloomerie.com with your mailing address and we'll send your prizes right over! And everyone else, keep adding your pictures to our flickr group here. (Please, oh please!) We want to share what you all are making!

Wristlets for Blend Fabrics

2012-04-30T21:37:07Z

See all that cuteness?

I recently had the opportunity to make four little wristlets for Blend Fabrics, featuring new stuff from Cori Dantini (Beauty Is You), Maude Asbury (Tinsel and Crabtastic), and Jessica Swift (Molokai). These quads will be making their way to Quilt Market this month in Kansas City. (How exciting!!!)

Can I tell y'all how much I enjoyed working with their fabrics? I love it when my sewing machine just stitches through it like butter. Blend Fabrics may be a new company, but I'm guessing they know more than a thing or two about fabric and great design! (Blend is a new licensing division of Anna Griffin.)

See more little snapshots of these on my personal blog, Stitch Love Blog.

You'll also be happy to hear that Tinsel will be in the shop any day now! And we'll definitely be adding more from Blend in the very near future.

And one more thing before I go... don't miss our strictly solids giveaway if you haven't already checked it out!

Strictly Solids... and a giveaway!

2012-04-28T01:09:07Z

Hey y'all! Just wanted to pop in before the weekend officially begins to share a few things with you. Namely, this juicy stack of solids and a doubly delicious giveaway. You won't be able to resist this one, I guarantee!

Lately, I've been thinking about what inspires me as a quilter and sewist. I have to admit that prints dominated my world in years past and I thought of solids only secondarily. Quilt backings, linings, bindings, a calm place for the eyes to rest in an otherwise print-heavy design, etc.

But I have to admit that the recent shift toward solids has really taken its hold on me lately. So much so that I went on a 2-month quest for THE perfect solid.

One with a silky hand and soft drape. A tighter weave that didn't lend itself to unraveling. One that worked well for quilting AND sewing. (Hello, clothes!) One that my sewing machine just ate up like butter. And yes, one with the juiciest colors.

So what did I find? Michael Miller's Cotton Couture solids.

In a word: glorious.

Really.

Like... you should try these for yourself. And then come back and tell us how much you love them!

Speaking of trying them... we've got a pair of giveaways for you:

The first is for a lovely fat quarter stack of Michael Miller Cotton Coutures solids in a rainbow assortment. (That very one sitting at the top of this post.) The second is for a much-coveted Michael Miller Cotton Couture color card.

This one:

SQUEEEE!!!! A color card of your very own! (Never guess on the color again!)

All in a cute compact package.

So who's in? We're giving you a couple of ways to enter:

For 1 entry, comment on this post telling us what solid color you work with the most -- OR -- which Cotton Couture solid is your favorite.
For an additional entry (1), upload a photo of a completed sewing/quilt project to our Bloomerie Fabrics Sew & Tell flickr group.

That's it! We'll randomly select 2 winners by May 13, 2012, and announce on this blog.

***No purchase necessary to win. Giveaway open worldwide. Two winners will be selected at random using random.org. Winners will have 1 week to claim prize. If any prize is not claimed, another winner will be selected for the giveaway.***

For our BFFs...

2012-04-04T18:39:39Z

Phew! It's been a super busy few days since we announced our BFF sale. We're wiping away the excess threads and taking a breather to pop in and let our blog readers know about the sale. There are still some mighty good deals to be had... and we still have new fabrics being added weekly (including some of those chevron prints and Leah Duncan's premier quilting weight collection, Maya).

Come on over!

Not so scrappy, eh?

2012-03-14T00:51:21Z

Forgive me, but I've been totally slacking in the blog posting arena lately. Shame... SHAME!

Especially when I've been dying to show off what our 4 lovely bloggers made with that "Not So Scrappy" bundle of fabric we sent out in February. So without further ado... {drumroll}

Jo and I are thrilled with what Kim, Katie, Sharon and Aubrey came up with! Kim managed to squeeze a fun little dress out of the fat eighths bundle; Katie stitched up a Spiderweb inspired table-topper; Sharon put together the beginnings of a strippy table runner; and Aubrey found the ultimate inspiration in her daughter and stitched up a coordinating outfit for her.

Click on over to each of the blogs to read more about the challenge and their finished project. We're already thinking about the next fabric challenge. Got any suggestions of what kind of challenge you'd like to participate in? (Themed, scrappy bits, larger cuts, all solids, bold prints...)

Waking up with the foxes and 'shrooms

2012-03-02T14:17:50Z

Guess who showed up this morning?

None other than a few foxes and 'shrooms... along with Little Miss Red Riding Hood herself and a cute range of coordinates.

Now how cute are those mushrooms!?!? Definitely stash worthy.

(FYI: bolts are still wrapped in plastic so that's why they look a little shiny.)

Made: Happy Wristlet Clutch

2012-02-13T20:44:24Z

One of the best things about being able to sew is that you can have new accessories like this Happy Wristlet Clutch (Heather Bailey's contribution to Jenny Doh's Signature Styles book) pretty much whenever you want -- AND made out of the exact fabric you choose! (Fabric is Quatrefoil in Orange from Maude Asbury's Kitchy Kitchen.) So springy and fun!

We love this book for its eclectic collection of sewing tutorials -- and ALL of them are completely wearable!

Not So Scrappy Challengers

2012-02-10T14:13:04Z

And the Not So Scrappy Challenge 'challengers' are... {drumroll please}

(We used random.org to randomly select the participants.)

#15 = Sha @ Craizee Corners

#1 = Kim @ Oh, Sweet Joy!

#2 = Aubrey @ Aubrey Plays

#5 = Katie @ Sew Pickle

We'll be mailing these cute little bundles out to you shortly! Just send us an email to hello{at}bloomerie.com with your complete mailing address!

Let the sewing begin!

(By the way... we had a few requests from people who wanted the bundle but didn't want to participate in the challenge. So, we put a few up on the website for you!

Made: Tilly Clutch

2012-02-07T19:48:14Z

I've been working on improving my time management skills lately, which has meant unplugging from the computer and social media and plugging in my sewing machine. (Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest... I love you, but gosh you can be a real time-suck!)

One of the real perks to it all, though, is that I get more time to make cute stuff... like this gathered clutch featuring fabric from Daisy Janie's newest organic collection, Tilly. (Love, love, love the Trellis in Dawn fabric!)

I used Noodlehead's gathered clutch tutorial, with a few modifications like doing the gathers and decorative bands on both sides and adding in a wonderful upcycled fabric flower clip to dress it up a bit more. Just pin the clip on the outside and switch them out with your mood!

The fabric flowers are super easy to make. Grab a stack of 4-5 old scraps pieces from clothes or remnants and cut out a series of irregular circles, ranging from big to small. (Perfection is not the name of the game here!) Arrange them with the largest circle on the botton to the biggest circle on top, put a few stitches through all the layers and voila, you are done! You can even sew a cute button on top for more bling!

Now see... time management can be a good thing!

The 'Not So Scrappy' Fabric Challenge

2012-02-03T23:02:09Z

Once upon a time {okay, really, it was December} we started kicking around an idea for a fabric challenge -- kind of like a miniature Project Runway, but only for sewists. So we started putting together the preliminary details on a scrappy fabric challenge.

But that was December. And timing would have been a little off because of something called Christmas and New Year's and family and celebration and all that kind of stuff. We know... we know...

But, it's February now. And we all magically have more time, right? (Okay, maybe not so much. But maybe just a little?) And we are finally ready to announce the challenge: the 'Not So Scrappy' fabric challenge.

We've got four cute little bundles of fabric (see above picture) ready to send out to 4 lucky people who are prepared to take on this challenge. We're keeping the rules quite simple. Just read on below.

Here are the rules:

Each bundle includes 6 fat eighths, shown above. You must use each fabric in your project, but you do not have to use all of each one.
You can add 1 more solid or blender fabric from your own stash. You can; you don't have to.
We want to see what you make, so you have to blog about it and post pictures of what you make. {Think of this as the runway show, so to speak.}
You'll have until March 3, 2012 to complete your challenge and post about it on your blog.
You must be in the US to participate.

That's it! Go crazy! You can make whatever you want. Home decor, accessories, playthings, etc... And when you're done, you can keep it, gift it, sell it, donate it or whatever. It's yours!

Want to participate? Just leave a comment below letting us know and provide a link to your blog. We'll select 4 people at random and plan to send these cute little fabric bundles out to participants by February 11, 2012.

And if you're selected, be on the lookout for an email from hello{at}bloomerie.com so we can get your mailing address. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook to keep posted about the challenge. We'll definitely be sharing what you all make with everyone!