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An Interview with Fabric & Pattern Designers Bonnie & Camille

“A fifth generation quilter.” When I first heard this description of Camille Roskelly, I imagined a tiny little lady in a pillbox hat and gloves… like that precious grandma in the Tweety Bird® cartoons. Stereotype, right? Sorry about that. And, I’ve surely been taken to task, especially after meeting the young (26), lovely (how does she keep her hair so perfect?), and pregnant (baby boy number three) Camille at The Creative Connection conference in Minneapolis this past September. I was lucky enough to take one of her classes to create a sweet set of hot pads in the gorgeous Bliss fabric collection by Bonnie & Camille for Moda. Not a pillbox hat in sight. Then, I learned the ‘Bonnie’ of Bonnie & Camille was her mother, Bonnie Olaveson. Also youthful and lovely, and the very proud grandma to nine (Camille’s new bundle will make it an even ten). So much familial talent and beauty! I just had to find out more about this trendy yet traditional team.

Noel Home: Classic Chair Back Covers

Ah! Pity the naked chair. Everyone comes to the dinner table in their holiday finery and the chair pulls up without a stitch on. An elegant cover not only avoids embarrassment for your mild-mannered chair, it doubles the decorative charm of the entire room. And really… why should the table have all the fun? Our festive cover features an accent ‘collar’ with pretty dangling pom-poms. It’s what all the best-dressed chairs are wearing this season.

Accessories We Love: The Roller Foot For Velvet & More

Roller Foot. It sounds like it could be a malady common to professional skaters. (It may be for all we know.) But the Roller Foot is a presser foot for your sewing machine that allows you to sew sticky or shifty fabrics with ease. We’re talking about materials like vinyl and leather, or chiffon, organza, and especially for the holiday season and our upcoming series of projects: velvet.

Perfect Pillows From Tammy Hensley’s Spoonflower Fabric

Spoonflower allows you… yes YOU… to design your own custom-printed fabric. How enticing is that! As a designer myself, I’m almost afraid to try my hand at textile design for fear I’ll never do anything else. Not only can you design your own fabric, you can buy interesting fabric designed by other people. It’s easy to get caught up looking at the thousands of options. Some of it is truly fabulous, a lot is very good and of course, there are some duds. On the whole, however, I found plenty of fabric that I had to fight the urge to add to my towering stash. We gave Spoonflower a try with a set of simple pillows made from our friend, Tammy Hensley’s Family Forever collection. We’ll take you through the order process, the options, and what we learned.

Creative People We Love: Tammy Hensley

We’re back with another fantastic installment of Sew4Home’s “Creative People We Love” series. A new feature here, and already a favorite of fans, it’s our way of supporting some of the wonderfully clever and inspiring folks we’ve met in our travels. Today’s profile is Tammy Hensley, who we met at The Creative Connection in Minneapolis this past September. While chatting during one of the classes, Tammy demurely mentioned how she had dabbled a little bit in fabric design. She then proceeded to pull out a swatch book with dozens and dozens… and dozens of the most amazing fabric designs she’d produced at Spoonflower. Whoa! We were floored by her creativity and imagination and knew we had to find out more.

Quick Tip: Hanging A Large Picture

Thanksgiving Elegance: Handsome Half Apron

This fabric, from Michel Miller’s Antiquity Collection, is so lovely, you don’t want or need any distractions. We chose to design a classic half apron with clean, simple lines to showcase the stunning motifs with their sparkling gold metallic accents. Kathy Miller, co-owner of Michael Miller Fabrics and the designer of this fabulous collection, described it as ‘Dr. Zhivago meets Anthropologie.’ A perfect image… although now I’m tempted to wear it with one of those giant Russian fur hats. Faux fur, of course.

Italiano Kitchen: Bistro Placemats

Without a spare month to spend learning Italian in Rome from a handsome young man over plates of spaghetti and glasses of wine, perhaps these placemats can serve a starting point. We used the signature Mutli Blocks Italino fabric from the new Michael Miller collection, Alfabeto Italiano Collezione. The fabric features elaborately illustrated 4″ x 4″ alphabet blocks in wonderful vintage colors. Why in just the short time it took to make two placemats, I’ve already learned that “L” is for lanterna (lantern), lepre (rabbit) and libri (books). My impressive vocabulary will undoubtedly come in handy as soon as I step off the plane in Italy and need to locate ‘books on hunting rabbits by lantern light.’

Italiano Kitchen: Bambina Apron

Yesterday we featured our Italiano Kitchen Mama Apron. Today, we have a matching version for Bambina. We’ve switched to the Cream Parole fabric, but kept the same bright red bias binding and the same Cha Cha Stripe for the kick-skirt, ties and tattered flower. The steps for the two aprons are nearly identical, just in a ‘mini-me’ size for a bambina approximately size 8/10 (the waist and neck ties allow for a lot of adjustment so it would go a little smaller or a little bigger). We’ve listed the supplies and tools again as well as the smaller cutting instructions. Once you have everything ready to go, simply click to the previous article for a step-by-step tutorial.

Italiano Kitchen: Mama Apron

We love aprons here at Sew4Home. So we knew our Italiano Kitchen would not be complete without them. In fact, it would not be complete without two of them: one for Mama and one for Bambina (it debuts tomorrow). Inspired by those wonderful 1960s dresses Sophia Loren wore in her movies, our apron design combines a lovely wrapped front with a full, peek-a-book skirt. It looks oh-so sophisticated and rather complex to make. But… no tears, no drama, no throwing of plates. In true S4H-fashion, we keep the sophistication, but lose the complexity. Construction is step-by-step easy.

Italiano Kitchen: Bistro Napkins

My favorite part of Italian cooking is the sauces. Spicy red sauce with lots of chunky vegetables. Rich alfredo sauce with extra garlic and parmesan. They’re all deliciously drippy. And, none can be properly eaten without a nice, big napkin. Our Bistro Napkins are generous at 20″ x 20″ and feature a fun border strip along the bottom of each. Cloth napkins are truly one of the very easiest projects for a beginner, and a great way to ‘go green.’

Italiano Kitchen: Bistro Tablecloth

Benvenuti! I cannot claim a speck of Italian in my ancestry, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wax as rhapsodic as Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love when I describe the wonder that is Italian cooking. My husband tells great stories of the big Sunday Italian dinners of his childhood, with Grandpa Luigi at the head at the table and a heaping platter of spaghetti being passed from cousin to cousin to cousin… I lost count at about 10 cousins. The first of our five Italiano Kitchen projects is this simple, colorful tablecloth. It’s the perfect setting for your own family gathering.

Products We Love: Clover Fabric Folding Pen

Teeny tiny folds, such as those along the edge of patch pockets, seem to me like an accident waiting to happen. Holding the fold with the fingers of one hand, pressing with a hot iron in the other. Ouchie! Plus, maybe it’s just me, but I often struggle to keep the fold consistent, especially on a long piece. We tested the Clover Fabric Folding Pen and found it to be a handy way to create more exact folds for patchwork, hems, cuffs, pockets or anywhere a small exact fold line is required. The pen draws a liquid line, and the special liquid solution ever so slightly weakens the fabric’s fibers along that drawn line. Not enough to damage the fabric; just enough to allow it to easily crease. It doesn’t work on all fabrics, but on the ones it’s appropriate for, it is pretty darn cool.

Creative People We Love: Olive & Ollie

Welcome to a new article series here at Sew4Home, “Creative People We Love.” We’ve been lucky to discover wonderfully clever and inspiring folks on our own journey, and we want you to know about them too. By supporting one another, we keep the handmade banner flying high. Our first profile is Heather Jones of Olive & Ollie, a very charming gal creating custom children’s clothing as well as beautiful blankets and quilts in the heart of Ohio. Her philosophy says it all, “I believe every child deserves something made by hand. ” We do too, Heather!

It’s A Cinch: Fast & Fab Webbing Belts for Kids and Adults

During American Idol this past season, General Larry Platt gained his fifteen minutes of fame with a wild rendition of the song, Pants on the Ground. “Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin’ like a fool, with your pants on the ground.” Proving a) we will watch just about anything, and b) these super fast and easy webbing belts are a must-have to keep you and everyone you know from lookin’ like a fool.

Cheerleader Pony-Os from The Ribbon Retreat

Gimme an L! Gimme an A! Gimme an N! I won’t take the time to spell out Lanae Hale completely. But she does deserve a shout-out for this Cheerleader Pony-Os Project from her must-bookmark website TheRibbonRetreat.com. I absolutely LOVE looking at rolls and rolls of ribbon. It’s the same feeling I get opening a fresh box of crayons or a new jumbo pack of markers. So many colors and ideas just waiting to happen.

S4H Fave #16: Fresh Linens: Restful Rose-Banded Pillowcases with Honey Bun Accents

Early this summer, we presented a series of nine projects, using pre-cuts from Joanna Figueroa’s beautiful Fresh Cottons Collection by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda Fabrics. Her buttery soft vintage colors and endlessly mixable prints are a magical blend of old and new. We knew it was the spot-on fabric choice for a summer guest room make-over. Although every one of the tutorials in our Fresh Linens series got great reviews, this pretty pair of pillowcases was a special favorite, and they easily earned a place on our list at #16. This is a great beginner project. So fast and easy, you can start at noon and be napping by 3:00.

Go to the tutorial.

Back to School: Zippered Pencil & School Supplies Case

I have a wooden pencil box that has been a fixture on my desk since grade school. I believe my sister gave it to me… or perhaps I stole it from her; my memory is a little hazy when it comes to how things once hers came into my possession. A new pencil box instantly sends me back to crisp fall days dressed in even-crisper white shell-button blouses, itchy wool skirts and droopy knee socks. What does all this have to do with our cool little corduroy zippered pencil case with the cute front-buttoned pocket? Nothing really. But it was a sweet story, wasn’t it?

Festive Fall Ruffled Pillows in Three Big Sizes

Kid’s Birthday Party: “Something’s Fishy” Game Curtain

“Here Fishy, Fishy.” Make your own colorful curtain for this classic kid’s party game. Johnny (or Janie) stands in front of the curtain with a pole; mom or dad is on the other side with a bowl of prizes to clip to the end, guaranteeing the day’s friendliest catch. It’s a fun game they’ll fall for, ‘hook, line and sinker.’ As an added benefit, you can use the curtain to cover a real window after the party’s over.

Kid’s Birthday Party: Printable Invite & Thank You

Kick off the birthday festivities by printing your own birthday invitations and thank you cards using our free PDF files. Download, print, trim, fill in the details and pop them in the mail.

Kid’s Birthday Party: Tasseled Fabric Party Banner

Use up your scraps on this festive bit of fun for a special birthday or everyday room décor. Our party banner turned out to be so colorful and cute, I’m tempted to leave it up year ’round. It adds a super splash of color and the extra-long tassels shimmer in the sun.

Summer Fun: Terry Towel Coverup & Matching Beach Pillow

Kid’s Birthday Party: Setting the Scene for Fun

What’s the biggest day of the year for any kid? His or her birthday! It’s the one day of the year to be the center-of-attention… no questions asked. Our summertime birthday celebration has a colorful, Day At The Beach theme and is a perfect choice for either a boy or a girl turning about four, five or even six. It seems everywhere you turn these days, you find those paper and plastic sets of cheesy decorations and party favors with grinning television and movie characters to tempt your little one. Enough already! We found our initial inspiration in the vivid designs of Patty Young’s new Playdate collection from Michael Miller Fabrics. When you create your own decorations and take-home gifts, you throw a party that is more memorable, more unique, and more green, because nearly all the elements are reusable.

Summer Fun: BBQ Apron with Rivet Accents

Fire up the grill and pull out the spatula; it’s barbeque time! Summer Fun means something should be sizzling on the ol’ outdoor grill. This tough canvas BBQ apron is a serious sizzle shield with its handsome rivet accents and extra-large pockets for grill tongs, tools and those giant hot pad mitts.

Fresh Linens: Fig Tree Threads’ Amelia & Me Sun Hat

My husband has freckles, which means my kids have freckles, which means if left out in the sun for any length of time, the whole lot of them looks like a carton of speckled eggs. We have all learned the benefit of good summer head coverings! This adorable floppy sun hat is a pattern from Joanna Figureoa’s Fig Tree Threads collection. It uses very little fabric, and so is a perfect way to use up some of your favorite scraps.

Fresh Linens: Ruffled Lumbar Pillow from Fat Quarters and Layer Cake

A lumbar pillow is the common term for just about any long and narrow bed pillow. It can be large or small, soft or firm. Though we’ve seen them in all shapes and sizes, we’d never seen one with ruffles and covered buttons, like the one we designed for our Fresh Linens guest bedroom. The deep pleat-like ruffles add a romantic touch and soften the geometric edges of the squares and points on the other pillows in our pile. That’s the secret of an effective grouping of throw pillows: mix shapes and sizes and subtly blend textures and styles.

Fresh Linens: Apple Green Panel Curtains with Jelly Roll Accents & Tie-Backs

Pretty curtains softly billowing in the breeze of an open window are a sure sign of summer. You can almost smell the honeysuckle, can’t you? Our guest room curtain panels are made from two simple width-of-fabric cuts with a flange accenting their seam. Long, loopy tie-backs let you pull your curtains off to the side or cinch them in the middle with a generous bow as we did. We also show you a fast and easy way to handle the lining.

Fresh Linens: Restful Rose-Banded Pillowcases with Honey Bun Accents

“She used to say she could taste sleep and that it was as delicious as a BLT on fresh French bread.” I love that quote. It’s from Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. I’m a good sleeper, and I firmly believe there’s nothing better than nodding off on a new, freshly laundered pillowcase. Our pretty pair of pillowcases is a great beginner project. So fast and easy, you can start at noon and be napping by 3:00.

Donna Babylon: Quick Tip – How To Find & Work With Design Repeats

Your project calls for a panel of fabric two or even three times wider than the fabric you bought at the store. No problem. You’re going to sew multiple widths together to get the bigger width you need. But you can’t just start cutting widths of your fabric. The pattern isn’t going to match up and/or your beautiful design motif is going to end up in the wrong place on your project. Instead of wasting expensive fabric through trial and error, you need to figure out your cuts based on the fabric’s design repeat.

Baby Gifts: Pretty Bird Travel Changing Pad

Go, baby, go! Diaper bags are great, but sometimes seem so big and bulky. When you’re on-the-go and need a clean, soft surface for a quick change, this travel pad is perfect. The center panel, where baby’s buns go, is a heavy, quality polar fleece. It resists water (for quick mop up) and is super soft. Works like a charm without being bulky. The entire pad folds and wraps up small enough to pop into a shoulder bag… or keep it in the car for travel emergencies.

Fresh Linens: Layer Cake Round Wedge Pillow

We provide a pattern download that gives you the perfect wedge shape to create the pinwheel design of this pillow. You can easily cut two wedges from each 10″ x 10″ Layer Cake square, which means you’ll use just six Layer Cake squares for this project. Or… spread your creativity around to friends and family, and make SEVEN pretty pillows from the 42 squares in a standard Layer Cake pack. I’d say that’s quite enough for a grand scale pillow fight.

Donna Babylon: Quick Tip – Make A Perfect Match When A Seam Goes Through A Design

‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match,’ the girls sang in Fiddler On The Roof . They wanted husbands. But they could just as well have been singing about matching up both sides of a seam when goes through the middle of a design. Both kinds of matches can be tricky to pull off. And even worse, they’re obvious to everybody when not done correctly.

Fresh Linens: Patchwork Euro Pillow Shams Using Charm Pack Squares

One of the best ways to add both height and drama to your bed linens is with pillow shams. They sit in front and cover up the more ordinary pillows. Just like in real life… the pretty ones are always in the front row! There are two traditional shapes, regular and Euro. A regular full size sham usually measures around 20″ x 26″, a regular king approximately 20″ x 36″, whereas the Euro sham is square, usually about 26″ x 26″. Our Fresh Linens Euro Shams feature an easy yet elegant patchwork center made from a Charm Pack, plus a lovely flange in a coordinating solid.

Whimsy: EZ Pre-Quilted Baby Blanket

Love, love, love this double-faced, pre-quilted fabric from Joanna Figueroa’s Whimsy collection for Moda Fabrics. There are two, reversible patterns to choose from. We selected the option with Whimsy Vintage Flash Cards in Milk on the front and Whimsy Dot in Milk on the back. Then we trimmed the whole thing with coordinating Whimsy Ric Rac Stitching in Multi. I used a fancy decorative stitch to attach my binding, which takes a little longer to stitch, but adds an extra-special touch. Since all you do for the center of the blanket is cut a square, and the binding is a faux-mitered technique, this blanket is SO easy, I even simplified the name to: EZ!

Donna Babylon: Quick Tip – Joining Fabric Widths to Make an Extra Wide Panel

What To Look For In A Quilting Thread

If you ask traditional quilters about quilt finishing or quilting (finishing is the fancy term for creating stitches all over the quilt top to keep the layers together), they will most likely tell you the threads used for finishing should match the fibers used in the quilt itself. So, if your quilt is made of cotton fabric, all of the thread used to hold it together should also be cotton. This is good advice if you’re planning to make a quilt that can stand up to a large amount of wear and tear. There are, however, a wide range of really fun textures and colors of thread available, and part of the fun of sewing is trying new things!

Father’s Day: Pendleton Wool Chinook Stadium Blanket with Canvas Tote

Dad will love this big, warm Pendleton wool blanket with its own handy canvas tote. It’s the perfect compact companion to take to his favorite sporting event. The Chinook pattern is a Pendleton classic, an authentic Indian design adapted from petroglyphs found in the Columbia Gorge. When the weather breaks or the game is over, roll up the blanket, wrap it and latch it, and he’s good to go. Dad could even use it to wave over his head when celebrating a touchdown or goal… in the event he’s left his giant foam finger at home.

Whimsy: Charm Pack Baby Quilt

We’ve had quite a few requests for more quilts and have a number of them planned in the coming weeks. Today’s uses Fig Tree’s nostalgic Whimsy fabric collection by Joanna Figueroa for Moda in a handy pre-cut Charm Pack. Coordinating Whimsy yardage and Bella Solids make up the back, sashing and binding. Even if you’ve never quilted before, you’ll find this to be a very simple design in a very manageable baby size. One tiny disclaimer: quilting is known to be addictive and an adorable baby quilt like this could easily be a ‘gateway project.’ We take no responsibility for turning you or a family member into a wild-eyed quilting maniac with boxes of scraps hidden all over the house.

How To Work With And Select Outdoor-Safe Fabrics

When I was first introduced to outdoor sewing, I have to admit I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. (And, no, I didn’t think it meant taking my sewing machine outside.) Why would I want to put all the time and effort into sewing home décor items and then leave them outside in the weather? I’d seen what happens to cloth items that get left out on the deck overnight. I was missing an important piece of information. There is a whole array of great looking fabric designed to be left outside. They’re called… wait for it… outdoor fabrics. If we can put a man on the moon, we can make great looking fabric that doesn’t mind being outside.

Summer Fun: Babylon Flip Flop Pillows

You can’t welcome the arrival of spring and summer weather without flip flops! Bring the fun inside with one of these super cute flip flop pillows from our friend, Donna Babylon. Ya know, I just gotta say… back in the day, we called this particular type of footwear: ‘thongs.’ I can’t tell you the gales of laughter this brings from my kids when I accidentally slip and still call them this. It’s similar to the reaction I get talking about records and/or rotary dial phones. Read on to learn Donna’s secrets for a smooth, full and fabulous pillow.

Art Journal Super-Stylin’ Appliquéd Burp Cloth – Guest Tutorial by Bari J.

We’re back with the second of Bari J. Ackerman’s two delightful Art Journal projects. We adore the painterly look of this Windham Fabrics line, and were thrilled when Bari offered to put together two projects just for us. This is simply the world’s most stylin’ burp cloth. If I’d had something like this when my kids were babies, I would have ruined a lot fewer shirts and jackets. Okay… raise your hand if you’ve walked around for an entire day at work with a spit-up stain on your back shoulder! Check out the appliqué collage; this is a Bari ‘signature style’ – a wonderful combination of color, texture and pattern.

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