alittlesweetness

winner!

Hello my sweet friends!!  Thank you so much for your comments...  You have again made me blush and feel so loved!  It gives me great enthusiasm going into market and I appreciate it so much.  I really wish I could send fabric to each of you!!  THANK YOU!!

And now....

My winner is KATHLEEN O'GRADY!  Who said...

Your fabric is sooo cute! I would love to make some little girl dresses and a quilt, a pillow would be adorable and a tote with some sweet embroidery. Oh, I could go on and on. Thanks for the chance to win! 

Kathleen, Please contact me here on my blog and let me know how to contact you!

In other news....

I've been getting some hexies all ready for market because I get to teach a little mini class at the Riley Blake booth on Friday at 3:00!  It's just 45 min. so please stop by to join me if you happen to be hanging around.  :)  I'm really excited even though this will be my first time ever teaching a sewing related class!  I'd love to see you there! 

I probably won't get a chance to be back here next week since I leave Wednesday for market and won't be back until Sunday night.  I can't wait to have more to share with you after that!

Thanks again for all of the sweet comments and your constant support.  :)

*Remember I'm on instagram as tashanoel1 where you can see more of what I'm up to than what I get a chance to post here on the blog. 

Tasha

countdown...+ a giveaway (giveaway closed)

I've just completed a couple of quilts for market, which is coming up sooner than I can say 'Little Red Riding Hood'.  It's in just 11 days and I leave in an even shorter 9!  eeek and yay!!  I'm very excited and at the same time wondering/hoping if I'll be ready.  Crossing my fingers over here. 

I've made a simple patchwork incorporating my border print, which I'll have a tutorial for on my blog shortly after market.  

I used Little Scallops in aqua for the backing...

And Little Floral in white for the binding....it's so cute!

The chevron quilt is a free project download from the Riley Blake website and I super love this one!

It's the first time I've made something with so many half square triangles and I really enjoyed the process actually!  Simple and fun.   

For my backing I used Little Floral in Gray and for my binding I used Little Scallops in Aqua...

I have to credit a couple talented gals for my nearly perfect borders and bindings.  Taking Camille's fabulous Craftsy Class has helped me get my borders from being wavy.  Time well spent doing it her way....no more wavy's for me!  And Rita, from Red Pepper Quilts has a wonderful binding tutorial that shows how to join the ends/tails with a bias cut.  (If you look closely you can see the bias seam in the photo below.)  My bindings are waaay super better and I love it!!  I LOOOOVE that my borders and bindings are so much prettier thanks to Camille and Rita.  Don't you just love learning new things?!?!  I do.  :)

And on that note, I think I recall saying something in my last post about a little giveaway!  Yep, I just checked and I did. ;)  And it's a good thing, because it's just what I'll need to keep a smile on my face this week. 

So I have a lovely fat quarter bundle I would love to send off to someone!  Just leave me a comment and tell me what you want to make this summer.  I'm already thinking about it and have a couple must's on my mind already!!  Feel free to leave up to 3 comments if you've ever purchased from me and/or left me comments before.  :)

I'll see you back here on Friday morning (May 10th) to announce the winner and I'll send it off before I leave for market.

Meanwhile, this is where I'll be hanging out....and trust me, it doesn't look so pretty right now.

Thank you ALL for everything!  All the support, friendship and encouragement means a lot.

Hugs...

Tasha

simple twin bunting blankets

A few months ago we had the cutest little baby twins join our extended family!  Even better, it's a boy and a girl and they are simply adorable and sweet. 

These fabrics are from my line The Simple Life, with a few others from my stash mixed in. 

Girl bunting baby blanket....

I decided on a simple design, but with just the right amount of extra cuteness added with the patchwork strips between the sections of bunting fabric. 

My extra fabrics included some Pam Kitty Love, Doohikey Designs, Annies Farmstand and Lecien.  ( I think I'm right on those...) ;)

Inside these soft little blankets, I added a piece of white flannel for a bit of added weight and to help stabilize the minky backing.  I love adding binding to blankets and I wanted to quilt it, I just didn't want the stiffness of batting.  Especially with these being small blankets, I wanted them to be cuddly and wrappable.  I did a very large stipple on these as well.  Which was also very quick...each blanket only took about 15 minutes to quilt.   

My daughter really loves helping in any way she can when I sew.  Taking the pins out after I quilted was the perfect little job for her.  She's 4 now and we've talked alot about how to handle the pins. 

If you look closely, she was sorting them into color groups as she went.  Her own idea!  :)

She also likes to be up close and personal.....oh, and silly too. 

She was very excited to get these blankets done with me before the twins got too big!

Me and baby girl...(these were a couple months ago)

Me and baby boy...

They are growing so fast, but they are still tiny since they were preemies.  Doing great though!

Here are some cute pictures Kerri took when they were newborns....

How cute are they?!?!

Cuter than my blankets for sure!!

;)

Thanks for stopping by my loyal readers and friends! Even when I disappear, you seem to re-appear and  I appreciate it very much.  ;)

I feel a giveaway coming on soon....

Tasha

granny

This granny quilt was always intended to be my daughters 'baby quilt'.  I just happened to have started it when she was about 2 and I've finally finished it just after she has turned 4.  At least she has it to keep for forever now.  :)

On purpose I used lots of floral fabrics, little animals and little girls.  :) 

When Ava was a baby, her nursery was red, pink and aqua, so I kept with that same color palette, but adding gray. 

I used Annie's Farm Stand pink circle buds for backing and Lecien basics for the binding. 

I'll give you a hint what else I've almost finished too.....

I can't wait to show you more of that one too!  :)

For now though, I'm going to stay in these pj's and snuggle my daughter up in her new quilt.  We need it.

Happy Monday!

:)

a country picnic party

A few weeks ago we celebrated Ava's 4th Birthday.  As most of you know, she came after 4 boys in our family, so of course I loved the opportunity to do something girly here.  We keep a lot of birthdays simple around here, so it's been since she turned 1 that I put together a party for her.  To be quite honest, I tend to get a little overwhelmed with the party planning process, so I'm generally just fine with the simple option.

However, with Ava being 4, she's very aware and definitley wanted a party.  I totally admit, I did take advantage of the fact that she is still little, and unaware enough that I picked the theme, instead of letting her say she wanted a disney princess party.  I'm sure that will come soon enough and I'll be stuck!  ;)  (Yes, my daughter loooooves the disney princesses and I don't fight it.)

My inspiration for this party was the fact that Ava also looooooves strawberries!  Like a lot.  So that was that.  A country picnic party is was!

Plus, it took some of the overwhelming out of it for me since I already had paper items that I had previously made for customers.  This made it do-able for me... I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  My boys liked giving me a hard time and said things like...."oh you mean your party mom"....assuming I was wanting to do this for myself.  Couldn't be more inaccurate.  I truly was only doing this for Ava.  I tried to explain, they didn't listen.  

Don't get me wrong, I thouroughly enjoyed doing it for her.  What made it better is that she helped with EVERY little thing and she was so excited.  Ava takes "mommy's little helper" to a whole new level.  Not helping is not an option.  Trust me. 

But enough chatting from me....on with some pictures.  :)

The little awning was inspired by a Mandy Lynn party and was super simple to make.  Once we figured how to make it work, it really only took about an hour.

With a vintage dresser as a buffet, it really made the sweetest little set up.  Not to mention the little cutie standing next to it. ;)  

It really was quite simple as far as the food and decoration, but it worked for us. 

Ava helped me make a simple bunting out of my Farmer's Wife blocks, twine, mini clothespins and fabric strips.  Took us like 20 minutes.

I had another bunting I had made for fall market, but never used, so finally it had a purpose....

I lined the table with a vintage sheet, a long piece of gingham and a few baskets and buckets holding paper items and fruit. 

The buckets were at Michael's... I was so happy that I didn't have to order them!

For lunch we had chicken salad crossaints, fruit salad, pasta salad, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and of course the kids could take pears, apples and strawberries from the buckets on the table....which they did.

I made the cake and to my surprise it was really good!

I just used boxed mixes, (devils chocolate and strawberry) but the frosting recipe (down further in the cake post) was from Bakerella!  Yum!

We had a couple different lemondades...

I had little side bowls of lemons, limes and mint leaves....

I got the little signs as a free download a couple years ago, but I don't remember where. (if you know, please let me know!)

I liked this idea I saw on Pinterest for drinks....ball jars, cupcake liners for lids and paper straws...We use ball jars every day for our regular drinking glasses so this was an easy one for me to do.  I got the cupcake liners and straws at Michael's. 

For an activity, the kids painted little flower pots and planted a flower. 

I raided my husbands old t-shirt collection and put those on the kids while they painted.  Worked great.  Unfortunatly I didn't get a lot of pictures of this. oops!  They loved it though!

For treat bags, I used another idea from Pinterest with paper bags, doilies and fabric.  I love any chance to use more fabric!

And of course we had present time...

Which made for one happy birthday girl!

And one exhausted mama....

But hey...if she's happy, I'm happy.

The End. 

Now I better get myself moving today because my parents are coming into town and I just might have some party decorations to put away first.  oops! 

P.S.  I have to say Thank you to my wonderful sister-in-laws, husband and my boys who helped me so much on party day!  I couldn't have done it without each of you!  :)  For reals.

 

a little hello!

Since I'm having a sale in the shop right now, I wanted to stop in and let you know I added a couple more little things. 

I'm so lucky that Amy of Nana Company, made up this adorable potholder featuring my little happy hen...that, yes, I know....looks/is more like a rooster!....*whatever. ;)  It says happy hen on the fabric, so it's staying that way.  But no matter what you choose to call the happy little animal....that pattern is now listed in the shop!  Yay! (gosh, i love that little pothodler!...that's a little pocket at the top, btw!...doesn't amy need to do a pattern for that?!? hint, hint)

(photo courtesty of Amy!) 

Also, I had a request for a Miss Strawberry embroidery pattern, so she's also in the shop!

Remember, she's an illustration too! (gray or aqua backgrounds)

I came across a couple photos I had taken of the market projects that Heather, from Vintage Grey had made....so I thought I'd share them now. 

I loooove this apple pillow!

Heather used the Bustle and Sew e-magazine's September issue to make this pillow.  So cute!

She also did an adorable redwork mini quilt with my new Laundry Day pattern, which is very similar to my my original Laundry Day pattern /illustraion.  The difference is there are flowers instead of mushrooms.  Both versions are in the shop! 

Her hand crocheted edging is perfection!

Kerri had done some beautiful photos of her Simple Patchwork and Stars quilt, but I haven't shown it here yet!  Such an adorable quilt and she came up with her own tutorial! 

Cute! Cute!

Wanted to mention that I noticed on the Riley Blake website that the pink and aqua simple florals are sold out as well as the pink Main....so if you've had your eye on any of those, you might want to consider purchasing soon!

For my little shop sale, I think I'll keep that going for a couple more days since I just added those couple things today.  Remember, HAPPY20 is the coupon code during checkout to save 20% off your entire order!

Thank you SO much for those of you that have ordered already!  I appreciated it very much.  :)

Am I forgetting anything else?  Please tell me if I am....I generally think about 72 million things at once... 

but really I love it!  ;)

Oh, I thought of something already (imagine that!)...

**If you are interested in stitching up an embroidery pattern to help me out with shop examples, please email me at pthorsley@comcast.net.  The one criteria is that you need to be very confident with your ability to stitch very neatly and be able to use colors that coordinate with The Simple Life.  You know, red, pink and aqua.  ;) 

And I think that's about it!  (I think)

Giveaway winner + shop news!

Hello wonderful fabricy friends!!  Thanks so much for playing along in my giveaway!  It's truly so fun for me and I appreciate every single comment!  I've read most of them and I swear I'll finish them up.  Such a treat for me!

I used random.org to find my winner, but it did need a little tweaking.  I'm kind of a stickler on the rules of the game, so I'm very sorry, but rule breakers don't get to win.  As much as I appreciate your desire to win, there are others that do abide by the rules, so most importantly I need to be fair to them! 

And sooooo, the winner is.....

Verena who said...

Oh how I would love to win this!!!!!
Just a couple hours ago, I sat together with my sweet quilter friend Cathy. She wants to make a quilt for the arrival of my surprise baby girl in May. She had asked me if there is any fabric I would like to choose and my instant answer was: The Simple Life by you!!!! I have been eying it since it launched, not knowing that we would expect another baby girl! and I have been following your insta since I discovered you beautiful line. Cathy is an awesomely ( you might know her book: pretty in patchwork, doll quilts) talented quilter and I am sure she would create something magical Thanks for the chance to win!

Please contact me ASAP because you don't have a link or contact info!  If anyone knows Verena, let her know!!  Thanks!  If I can't get a response pretty soon, I'll choose another winner. 

As for SHOP NEWS:

I've added just a couple little things and wanted to share!

My little Reading girl from The Simple Life is now available in an 8X10 print for framing. 

 

I've also added the embroidery pattern for Feeding the Chicks, which you can find here!  I haven't stitched her up, but I had a few requests so there she is! :) 

Here she is below...

I'll continue adding things to the shop that match The Simple Life.  If you're waiting or wanting a particular thing (pattern or artwork!) from that fabric line, let me know and I'll hurry it up on that!  ;) 

Meanwhile, I'm happy to offer 20% off your entire order in my Etsy shop for at least a couple days into next week (Jan 22nd sounds good!) just to say thanks for playing along and making me smile.  Simply enter coupon code HAPPY20 during checkout and it will automatically deduct 20% from your total order.

One tiny last thing...thanks for helping me with the name of that block!  I think I had the most people say it was Shoo Fly!  I'll get a little tutorial done soon!  ;) 

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Tasha

merry christmas!

I did it!  I really did it! Yep, I started a christmas quilt this month and I actually finished it just in the nick of time.  Camille's Vintage Holiday pattern didn't disappoint and I'm in love with the finished product. (Thanks C, for the inspiration)! :)

It was really fun deciding how to do each oranament block...

The pattern calls for one patchwork ornament, but I did two because they were so cute!

(here's one of them...)

The other little alteration I made was doing the pinwheel.  A lot of the blocks centers are made up of half square triangles, so it really just depended on how you arranged them.  I did two pinwheels.

For the backing I found a super snuggly flannel at Joann's and it was absolutely perfect for this quilt!  I love the softness and extra cozyness it brings. 

This quilt is a big size.... 54"X68"....which is one of the largest that I've made.  It took a little longer for what I was used to, but I'm so happy with the result it was totally worth it!

Now we can enjoy it for the rest of the holiday season...I'm sure I'll have it out as looooong as possible!

Thank you SO much to everyone who has supported me this year through my Etsy shop, the beginnings of my fabric designing adventure, your friendship, encouragement, saying hello on my blog....everything!  It really means alot to me and I'm so very thankful! 

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas!  :)

Love,

Tasha Noel

p.s.  all orders have been shipped!  ;)  thanks for your patience!

Holiday Tag-A-Long

It took me about 2 seconds flat to decide to make some cute tags with Amy and Kristyne.  In other words.....they had me at "Tag-A-Long". 

After my market sewing frenzy, it's a nice change of pace for me.  Something small, simple, and carefree.  Just because!

The only thing that held me back ever so slightly was the fact I couldn't find my eyelets and tools from our move, so I had to wait to get to Joann's. 

But these little cuties were worth the extra trip!

Time well spent in my book!

It was just the perfect thing for me....

Thanks for the great idea and inspiration to two of the cutest, sweetest girls ever!  And trust me on that one, they are.  ;)

Now go....go make some tags!

Tasha

quilt market ~ fall 2012

I know, it's about time already!  I've been in some serious recovery mode since I got home and I'm not sure I'm done yet either.  With Halloween and now a few sickies in the house...me being one of them, I barely have my things out of my suitcases!  For reals.  So please forgive me....once again...for my super slow behavior.  And in advance, I apologize for some bad photos too.  Sadly, the Iphone didn't measure up quite like I had hoped.  Next market I'll have to haul the real camera!

I was soooo super glad to have my mom and sister come along with me to market!  I couldn't have done it all without them.  From setting up, to figuring out how to get to where we needed to go, to just having the moral support, friendship and someone to chat with....we had a great time!

I grew up watching my mom sew practically everything...dresses, clothing, dolls, pillows, home accessories and yes, lots of quilts and blankets!  I loved learning new little things from her along the way.  Cross-stitching, making little dolls, stuffing handmade ornaments, doing lots of crafts.  So truly I am so thankful she could be with me!  My sister, Talia, is such a talented sewist herself!  She creates and sews pretty much anything and everything as well!  She always makes her own patterns for clothing (and other things too) for her darling little girls, so I was thrilled that she was willing to create a couple of outfits for my display, which will be available in pattern form for purchase soon!

Here's me and Talia after set up: (super bad lighting!)

My mom and Talia during set up:

One side of the booth:

Kerri's quilt and a Marie Madeline dress!

Talia's dress and a quilt I made:

Amy's Patchwork basket and hexie pincushion!

Talia's overalls.  Pattern will be called 'Seraphina'. 

Talia's dress, Pattern will be called 'Amelie'.  I'll keep you posted on availability for both.

Lambie pillow and Happy Tree pillow

One highlight of my market experience was discovering that an adorable booth, Marie Madeline Studio, had used The Simple Life combined with Lecien's Flower Sugar to make their clothing!  The company, Marie Madeline, is a mother and her 4 daughters.  Just 3 of the sisters were there at market, but they are simply the sweetest and cutest girls you'll ever meet!  I was thrilled to see my fabrics used in such adorable creations.  Their booth won an award at market too!  Thanks Marie Madeline!!

Abigail, Me, Achaia, Apphia

Me and Achaia

Also, I wanted to thank Kerri (lovely little handmades), Amy (nana Company), and Heather (Vintage Grey) for making up some super cute things that helped make my display complete! I couldn't have squeezed in time for even one more teensy-tiny item, I was stitching on the plane!, so truly, I'm so grateful they were all so excited to help.  It ended up just exactly perfect!  Some of my pictures didn't turn out very well and didn't get used, so I hope to do some more photos of each of the items from my booth when I get a chance.  I'm sure they will each do some of their own too when they get their cute things back, so keep an eye on their blogs.  

(Although I'm tempted to see how I could keep all the cutie stuff for myself!) ;)

Check back later this week (hopefully, if I've fully recouperated!) and I'll post more of what I saw and who I met (and who I missed...waaaa!) at quilt market! 

Tasha