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


 

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

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

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

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!

:)