alittlesweetness

Flora and Fawn Blog Tour

Hello!  I'm thrilled to have been asked to take part in the Flora and Fawn Blog Tour!  This fabric is gorgeous in color, detail and design and has the most beautiful deer print that I just adore! My talented friend, Amanda Herring of Amanda Herring Design, is the artist behind this pretty collection.  

I chose to make a dress for my daughter and couldn't be happier with the results.  Best part is that my daughter loves it too!  She thought I probably wished I had a dress like this when I was a little girl.  Yes, I would have!  It's so cute!  Do you feel like it's near impossible to find a cute girls dress at the store lately?  I'm so excited to add this to my daughter's very small dress wardrobe.  The pattern I used is by my talented sister, Talia Puthoff of Honeydew Kisses Boutique, and it's called the Coralie Dress.

   

It was a little cold on the evening we took pictures, so my daughter is trying really hard to look like she's warm!  Thank goodness she really does love the dress and is the best helper!  

Isn't the deer print to die for!?  

I love this darling pink print I used for the sash.

The necklace was a happy surprise.  I happened to get this at a Riley Blake designers event and it couldn't have worked more perfectly!

The gray polka dot knit fabric is a Riley Blake Designs basic that was exactly what I wanted for this dress! 

I added the ruffle onto the bodice on my own.  All I did was create a very simple ruffle, no hemming, and then sewed it directly on top of the bodice before attaching the sleeves.  Sew easy!! 

 And a cute picture of my daughter because I love her!  

Thank you Amanda for letting me do this fun project!!  It made me excited to make another dress!

~Tasha 

Pixie Noel Blog Tour!

This has been such a delightful couple of weeks for me to see some beautiful projects made with my newest line, Pixie Noel.  I'm so beyond grateful for those who have dedicated time to make something for the blog tour! Thank you!  

Today is my turn, along with Christine from stitchingrevival.com and Kerry from kidgiddy.blogspot.com.  I'm so excited to share a few things with you!

I have 3 new embroidery patterns in in the shop that will match the fabric line, and probably a couple more to come along in the coming months before Christmas.

The first pattern is Pixie Boy....I know, my naming is pretty uncreative.  What can I say? He's super cute though! 

This darling mini quilt was made by Corinna of corinna_maycreations on Instagram, who made it for my quilt market display.  

Look at that perfect stitching!  

The next pattern is this sweet Sitting Little Pixie, stitched up and made into this adorable pillow by Heather of vintagegreyhandmade.blogspot.com

I'm in love with the crocheted edge around the pillow! 

Last but not least is thisKissing Bunnies pattern, and made into yet another super adorable pillow.  This one is by Cheri of tinkerwiththis.blogspot.com

I'm loving all the little details here!  

Thank you to each of you ladies for these amazing projects!  :)

Next I'm so excited to finally be in the process of my next quilt pattern.  This quilt was displayed at spring quilt market 2016 and it's called Pixie Socks.  I know they are also essentially "stockings", but I "tried" to make them more long and skinny like the socks the pixie's are wearing in my fabrics.  I made varying sizes for interest and movement and I love how it turned out, especially with the "sweater cables"in between the rows of "socks".  

Ever since I completed my fabric line I knew I wanted to make some kind of stocking quilt!  I worked on revision after revision for months, adjusting sizing, trying different layouts and designs.  I would just go back to it whenever I had the chance, (which in my world isn't always very often at times!) and finally it was the way I wanted it to be!

I love this quilt, it's so fun to make and super cute and whimsical. I hope you love it too! 

Here's a little peek at the backing I used, which is the flannel cheater print from my Country Girls line. Perfect for this quilt!

This pattern will be available soon!  Hopefully within the next few weeks or so.  And yes!  You can use fat quarters to make the quilt!    

The other little quilt pattern you'll be seeing shortly, is the mini snowglobe quilt.  It's such a fun make!

I appreciate your patience as I plug away at my new patterns that were shown in quilt form at quilt market!  There are a few already available in the shop.  This weekend I'm offering everything in my shop at 20% off.  Just enter the coupon code BLOGTOUR25 for an automatic discount!!  

Also, if you've missed out on any of the other blog tour days, go see all the lovely things that were made and I hope you're inspired to make some special items for Christmas or the winter season this year.  Here's the list of participants: 

 

7/18 Ashley of Mommy by Day Crafter by Night

7/18 Cristina of Pretty Little Quilts

7/19 Taunja of Carried Away Quilting

7/20 Angel & Amy of TaDa! Creations

7/20 Sedef of Down Grapevine Lane

7/21 Tina of Emily Ann's Closet

7/21 Ali of Because of Brenna Clothing

7/22 Debbie of Happy Little Cottage

7/22 Megan of Dolly Henry

7/25 Heather of Vintage Grey Handmade

7/25 Amanda of Jedi Craft Girl

7/26 Jemima of Tied with a Ribbon

7/26 Angela of A Little Patchwork

7/27 Andy of A Bright Corner

7/27 Lindsay of The Cottage Mama

7/28 Wynn of Zakka Art

7/28 Kerry of Kid Giddy

7/29 Christine of Stitching Revival

7/29 Tasha of A Little Sweetness

Thank you again to each of the participants for everything you did to make this tour a success!  :)

Tasha


 

Vintage Market featured on Violette Field Threads + fabric giveaway!

I'm so honored and thrilled to have my new fabric collection, Vintage Market, featured over on the beautiful Violette Field Threads blog as part of their Fabric Love series!  I've admired Violette Fields Threads' unique, classy, vintage modern pattern styles for a few years now and absolutely love the little outfits they've created using my Vintage Market fabric collection. 

I'm 100% totally and completely smitten with the Kate dress using my Navy Stripe Border print.

Sigh....

I sincerely want this dress for my daughter, so crossing fingers I can get one made!  Isn't that just the sweetest thing?!  LOVE!

And check out these darling little ruffle shorts.....also a part of the Kate PDF pattern

(to clarify, the tops are not part of the Vintage Market fabric collection...although very adorable!! )

Those pom-poms! 

Loving this sweet little kite too!

Violette Fields Threads is doing a GIVEAWAY for 4 YARDS of Vintage Market fabric on their blog! Please stop by and enter and make something adorable this summer!  I know I can't wait to get a chance to test out some patterns myself.

Thank you Violette Threads for making such beautiful items to feature on your blog!  I love it all so much! 

If you haven't gotten your Vintage Market fabric yet, check out Etsy, Hawthorne Threads, Fat Quarter Shop, Fabric Worm and check your local fabric shops!  If it's not at your local fabric shop, request it and they may just order it!   

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

Tasha

 

Riley Blake Spring Blog Tour!

I'm so excited to be part of the Riley Blake Spring Blog Tour!  As you've noticed, I don't really blog much, but I know a lot of you still do and still enjoy reading blogs, so it's another fun way to be able to connect every once in a while.  If you're interested in keeping up with me on an *almost* daily basis you can follow me on Instagram :)

My new fabric line, Vintage Market, is set to release in June.  It was recently shown at the spring International Quilt Market just last week!

I had fun making a couple of quilts and pillows for the display....when I get everything back, I'll be able to get some better photos to share. (these were taken with my iphone so not the best quality...sorry!) 

This little pillow below was made using my border print, so the stripe and the illustrations are one piece.  I decided to add some trim across the middle for added fun, but even still, super easy. 

The quilt below is a new pattern I'll have available in a couple of months.  There are a lot of little details to the quilt, so it will take more time for me to get it all together.  But such a fun quilt to make!  It has market stands, vintage sewing machines, jam jars, strawberries, blueberries and flowers.

The other quilt, which was made by a few fabulous helpers (my sisters Talia and Trista, and my IG friends Christine and LeAnne) is made using my new pattern called Country Fair.  I'm so excited to finally have this pattern available. 

Here's just a peek of the one made for market.....(photo courtesy of LeAnne...thank you!!)

Here's the pattern made up in my previous lines (The Simple Life, Little Red Riding Hood and Country Girls) before I had made the one for quilt market...

 

 You can purchase the Country Fair quilt pattern in my etsy shop on sale this week for just $5!       (reg. $8)

 This pattern is great for those who have done a little bit of quilting, but you don't need to be super experienced, just a little patience with the smaller star blocks, but very simple piecing and it goes pretty quickly.  A fun way to mix things up and use some scraps!  It's a nice big lap size, approx. 68X68.

Here's a close up of the orange peel quilting....i love it!

Thanks so much for stopping by my little blog!  Don't forget to try my new quilt pattern and remember my new line, Vintage Market will be in shops shortly! Yay!

It's the last day of school here in sunny Arizona, so I'll wish you all a happy summer!  :)

Here's the schedule for the rest of the blog tour!

 

5/15 - Where Women Cook5/18 - Becky Marie Designs8/18 - Pattern Anthology5/19 - Carina Gardner5/21 - Lori Holt5/21 - Tasha Noel5/22 - Lori Whitlock5/22 - Cinderberry Stitches5/23 - Eleanor Dugan5/26 - Simple Simon5/26 - The Quilted Fish5/28 - Melly & Me5/28 - Elea Lutz5/29 - Zoe Pearn5/29 - Doohikey Designs5/30 -Samantha Walker
5/30 – Kelly Panacci

Have fun!

Tasha

Blueberry Bliss ~ my first quilt pattern

This was quite the work in progress for me, being my first attempt and experience creating and putting together a quilt pattern.  Whew!  I go MUCH slower than the average human being of course, but goodness that's a lot of work!  I'm sincerely impressed with these pattern designers that just whip em out like nothing!  Jeepers!  Anyway, super fun and really glad I did it!  I learned a few things in case there is EVER a next time.  But we'll see about that.   :)

So, my new pattern is called Blueberry Bliss because it's just full of blueberry happiness!  I've used my newest fabric collection, Country Girls, using only the blues and greens.  I've also added some Riley Blake Designs basics that coordinate, like the polka dots and ginghams  There's also a couple in there from my previous lines that as well.  I'm in love with navy and aqua these days, so any excuse to use those colors is a perfect one.  ;)  I wanted to combine the blueberries with something totally country and log cabin blocks were exactly that!   There are even little country cabins on the fabric so it was meant to be.  

This really is the easiest quilt to do!  Any beginner can do it!  I've heard my instructions are good, so I hope you give it a try.  :)

You can purchase the PDF downloads in my shop and get it right away.  

Also, I just want to add a big thank you to those that continued to encourage and support me in getting this done!  It took me forever but I'm so glad it finally got done!  This quilting community is wonderful and inspiring as well as patient and forgiving when we just can't do it all just exactly when we want to.  Life pulls all of us in many directions and we need to remember that we can't do everything all the time and we have to let ourselves be ok with that.  So if something takes more time or doesn't get done at all EVER, we need to not get down on ourselves or compare ourselves to the person who looks like they get it all done all the time.  They aren't either.  And its totally OK!!!  I'm so glad when we can support each other in our sucesses and failures....because we all need that!  It keeps me going, I'm sure it keeps you going to!  Do what you can, WHEN you can and let the rest go without the guilt and comparison.  I continue to tell myself this on a regular basis.  With so much inspiration out there, it's easy to want to do everything RIGHT NOW.  My little pattern took me like 4 months to get done....4 months!!  Seriously?!?!?  I know others can do things a million times faster!  But that's the best I could do and I'm ok with that.  I've had to be!  So really, don't get down on yourself if you just can't get something done that fast....it's ok.  Really.  And that's all for my little soap box moment.  :)  Just sayin THANK YOU for waiting.

This week my pattern is just $5 instead of the regular $8.  So, I'd love it if you'd give my first little pattern a try.  If you do give it a try and you have a comment or suggestion or notice an error, please, please let me know!  I'd appreciate a kind email at [email protected] if you have anything to say about it!  :)

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Tasha

Giveaway Winner!

Hello!  Today I'm happy to announce the winner of a Little Red Riding Hood patchwork quilt kit!  Chosen randomly....  It's......

Taryn Hawkins who said...

Oh I would LOVE to win this quilt kit!! I just had my little girl 3 weeks ago and I would love to make this adorable Little Red quilt for her! Little Red Riding Hood was one of the first books that I bought for her when we found out we were expecting a girl!

Taryn, you have no link here, so PLEAAAASE contact me at [email protected] so I can get your address and send this off ASAP! 

Thank you as always for everyone who played along and said the sweetest things ever!  I truly wish I could send a kit to each of you.  I loved hearing a little bit about who's in your life that you would want to make this for!  All these little people we know are such precious little blessings and bring us so much joy!  We could never imagine our lives without them and it makes life exciting!  I love babies and little ones!  Mine are growing up and it's just about the saddest thing ever.  Although I love watching them grow, those babies sure are special.  So we need to enjoy the moments!  

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and stop by again soon!  :)

Tasha

 

a Little Red giveaway + quilt tutorial (giveaway is now closed)

I know this is so long overdue, but I've had a few requests for this recently, so I figured it would be useful for perhaps a couple more of you out there.  

 

This is a quilt I made for Spring Market 2013 for my Little Red Riding Hood line and it's so simple and fun!  The finished quilt is approx. 46.5" x 52.5".  Perfect baby or toddler size.  

  Here's a tutorial for anyone who might be interested:

Needed Materials:

(64) 5" charm squares - (a Little Red charm pack has 24 pieces)  I cut my squares from yardage.  If you like any fussy cut squares, you'll need to get a fat quarter (or 2 or 3 if you want different colors) 

1 yard Little Red Riding Hood border print - I used the red

1/2 yard pink scallops for inner border

1/2 yard white floral for binding

2 3/4 yards backing of your choice

52" x 60" cotton batting 

 

Cutting Instructions: (read all instructions first)

*Take Little Red Border print and cut the LR image portion of the fabric away from the polka dot portion of the fabric on the line that seperates the two areas.  You'll have a polka dot piece and a LR border piece.

  

*Using a ruler, measure 7" down from the top of the image border strip and trim away the bottom exess fabric.  Your border strip should measure 7" wide.  Take notice that there is equal white space above the row of flowers on the top and below the text on the bottom so that it's evenly spaced/centered on the quilt. 

 

The below photos shows a measurement of 7" wide.  

*Take the polka dot piece, (not re-pictured, sorry!) cut (6) 4.5" strips.  You should cut horizontally with the longer side of the fabric.  After removing the border portion of the fabric, one side will be 36" and the other side will be about 33".  Cut so that your strips are 36".  You will have extra polka dot fabric.  You can use this to make more 5" squares.  This is how I got my polka dot squares since I didn't use a charm pack.

*Take inner border fabric (pink scallops) and cut (4) 2.5" WOF (width of fabric) strips

 *Take binding fabric (white floral) and cut (6) 2.5 WOF strips (not pictured either!)

Quilt Assembly:

*Always use a 1/4" seam allowance

*With 5" squares, and RTS, sew together a row of 8.  Make 8 rows. 

*Sew together 6 rows.  Sew together 2 rows.  Keep them seperate so that you have 2 patchwork pieces.

*Now join the sections as shown below:

3 pieces layed out:

3 pieces sewn together:

*Add inner border by adding side borders first, then top and bottom:

Inner borders added:

* Sew together the 6 polka dot border strips to make 4 outer border strips:

 Add top and bottom borders first, then side borders:

 

Your top is now complete!  Make a quilt sandwich with batting and backing.  Quilt as desired. 

*Make a binding by sewing end to end the 6 binding strips so that you have one long continuous strip.  Iron in half lengthwise.  Use your favorite binding method to complete your quilt.  I have a simple tutorial in my sidebar for making a patchwork quilt that will also show the binding.   I also follow Red Pepper Quilts binding tutorial for joining the ends together and it helped me alot!

Here's the finished quilt!

 

*Edit*  THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! Thank you!!

Now, here's the fun part....I'm giving away a kit to make this sweet little quilt!  The only thing you'll need to get is the batting!  

Just leave me a comment telling me who you would make this quilt for!  If you'd like 2 entries, just leave me another sweet comment!  ;)  (2 entries per person please)

*Giveaway will be open for a few days, (about Mar. 27th/28th) then I'll post a winner by Friday, Mar 28th.

Thanks for playing along!

Tasha

Sewing Studio + Country Girls

I was recently asked by Riley Blake if I was interested in being featured in their monthly mailer to share my sewing studio and any Country Girls projects I was working on with their customers.  Yep, of course I was!  So I spiffed up my studio and sent off some photos! 

Wanna see too? 

Well it wasn't quite as easy as it sounds, especially since we haven't been in the house very long and the little sewing space still needed some TLC.  Paint was the first thing on my list!  Thanks to a sweet friend I got it done super fast....except for those darn edges!  ;) 

I had aqua walls in my previous sewing space but didn't remember the name of it, so I found a new color and I love it!  It's called Mystic Sea and it's Valspar Signature.  I always get satin.  

Heres' a few more pics...

With Country Girls hitting the shops as we speak, I'm excited about this new quilt I made....featuring Blueberries and Log Cabin blocks in navy, aqua and green!  It was really fun to make and super easy.   

 

With limited amounts of sample yardage, I had no choice but to do a scrappy binding and I'm so glad because it turned out so cute!

I'm determined to get this into a pattern, but since it'll be my first, I'm sure it'll be a bit before I get everything just right for it.  Hopefully not too long though.  I'll keep you posted.  ;)

I'm really loving sewing with this line and I'll have more to show soon! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Tasha

Country Girls ~ the fabric

I've waited a long time to show you this line!  Country Girls missed going to market by a hair, but it's perfect now and I'm happy it's here!  Well, almost.  It's available in January 2014!  Not sure if that's the beginning, middle or end at this point, but nevertheless....very soon!  Yay! 

This line is really fun because it mixes the red and aqua with the navy, pink and green.  You can get lots of different combinations!

 

This line was inspired my love of all things country.  To be more specific....Little House on the Prairie, Gingham Girls paper dolls and Holly Hobbie.  All of which were childhood favorites of mine.  Ok, and adulthood favorites too.  I still watch Little House.  In one episode, Nellie calls Laura and Mary "Country Girls" in her Nellie way.  Love those Country Girls.  ;)

I hope you love my version of Country Girls!!!  I sure do.  ;)

Tasha

Little Red show and tell

During the summer I had a sweet shop owner in Australia email me some pictures a customer had sent to her, showing what she had made with the Little Red Riding Hood fabrics she purchased from her shop.  The shop owner passed them along to me as well as the link to the blog of the lady that made these adorable outfits.  It truly brightened my day and I'm in love with these cute photographs!  I hope you love them too!

All photographs are from The Toffee Tree blog! 

In LOVE with these gray pants! 

Now how adorable are those?!  I can't stand it.  Love, Love, LOVE!

Thank you so much Clare from Fabric2Go! for letting me know about this!  And Michelle from The Toffee Tree for posting about these adorable little girls wearing these adorable little outfits!  Loved it all!!

Remember my SHOP SALE is still going thru Friday, Dec. 6th.  Just enter coupon code: CYBER20 for 20% off your entire order!  Thank you for all the orders so far!! 

See you soon!

Tasha

thank you sale!

Hello friends!  I know I have been so out of the loop for awhile but I really appreciate visitors, new and old, and I'd love to be able to say THANK YOU!  by offering a little sale in my etsy shop!

Simply enter COUPON CODE:  CYBER20 for 20% off your entire purchase!  The sale will continue thru Friday, Dec. 6th. 

THANK YOU!  :)

Have a wonderful week!

Tasha