Friday, February 28, 2014

Spell it with fabric winner


Thank you all who played along.
How far did you get in the alphabet?
Here's the download on how to make your blocks into a quilt 
I saw quite a few on instagram  if you follow me there you can see a little more behind the scenes of V and Co and the life therein.
Also the Sale ends tonight. Just enter the code MODASPELL at check out and receive 25% off your order. OH AND the THREAD IS BACK IN STOCK! thank you aurifil for their speedy delivery the threads will go out in the next couple of days!
So. Vwinner right?

Congrats to:
Patty

YAY! And for just a minute I'm going to stare at my pictures and PRETEND that its warm outside, and not feeling like I want to behead every snowman I see because it's really not nice to take it out on snowmen how much I detest the cold.
All I have to say is that I should win a medal for how I am controlling myself and making a ton of effort to literally not going berserk on winter.
That is all.
Warm thoughts and happy weekend!




Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Moda Spell it With Fabric blog hop sponsored by the letter V

Hello hello! Welcome to my turn to the spell it with fabric blog hop! I'm Very excited to have you! I'm your host Vanessa Christenson of V and Co.
This post is brought to you by the letter V ;) naturally.

download the letter V here
Of course V is an awesome letter for me to have for all obVious reasons.
I made my "Supa-Star V quilt" to show off my "V" block at last fall market. It's based off of my Lucky Star quilt pattern somehow making it personalized with a big letter V has got it perks, as no one dares to use my quilt so it's always readily available for me when I need it...and this winter, oh man haVe I needed it. Safe to say I use it eVery day.

So aside from having the perfect letter block assigned to me for obVious reasons...I get to answer a few fun questions using the letter V as well...totally sounds fun right?
Oh yeah? Sounds fun till you actually have to do it. I mean HELLO, how many times do you use a descriptiVe word starting with a letter V? NOT OFTEN. But we'll give it a go.

Here are my questions:
What's your letter: V(easy enough)
What is something you don't like: Vomiting (seriously who does? If you do, I don't think we can be friends anymore)
What's something you like: uuuuuhhhhh....NOT Vomiting? No wait...VACATIONS! I like Vacations, but not just any vacations I like warm Vacations. So I guess I like summer Vacation. (Ha this might be easier than I thought!)




 I like quilting because: When I'm quilting I'm in a happy Vortex (oh now I'm just totally showing off)


An object or tool you like to use: hmmmm my Color Me Happy Variegated thread  (actually all my thread but hey had to highlight the V!) that goes awesome with my:
gradient ombre fabric

Last but not least
favorite motto (with the word Virtue in it):
And I truly am grateful for so many things. My family being of course my biggest blessing I'm grateful for, but also just every day that I get to wake up, healthy, happy, and alive. Honestly, everyday I give thanks for what I call my life.


Ahem speaking of blessings one of them also known as my third noisemaker is having a birthday today.
He is obsessed with turtles so of course a little turtle cake was in order. We're celebrating all things him today and I'll get to his own blog post in a couple of days.  :) after the blog hop festivities die down.


Well then, that was WAY easier than I thought it would be to use V in all my answers!  I feel like a Vwinner I mean Winner...

So do you want to feel like a Vwinner too?

Of course part of this is to celebrate my upcoming new line Color Me happy...so I'm offering a great sale
from now till Saturday the whole V and Co store is 25% off when you enter MODASPELL when you check out.
 that includes my Color Me Happy Large Spool threads and the Color Me Happy small box of threads 
(ALL Thread is now BACK ORDERED (that sold out quick!) but I'll grant the sale price if you don't mind a little bit of a wait)...if you order something else it will ship with your thread when it comes in.
to the point quilt pattern
that includes all patterns, new AND old...
that's kind of a big deal! :) And it's all to say thank you for your support. Honestly, thank you. :)


And now for the giveaway part:
Here's what I am giving away to one lucky Vwinner:

1 layer cake and a jellyroll of color me happy, one lucky star pattern to use your jelly roll on, and a new slice cut (which next week I'll be doing a free "how to" on making the banner with the slice cut)

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment telling me what you would do with your prize if you win. (and yes petting it or staring at it is a very good answer too) please include an email address in your comment if your profile does not have an email attached to it.
Friday is the last day to enter then we will announce the winner.
talk to you soon. :)
ps also make sure you visit today's other letters!:
Malka Dubrwaski with the letter W
And Blackbird Design 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Spell it with fabric Blog Hop

I dont know if you already know about this awesomeness that is going on! But it started yesterday, come along with us on this fun blog hop, I'm not blogging about it till the 26 but you should probably get going on A,B,C and then D, E, F...
here's the list. I'm hopefully going to make a few and show off what I've done with mine. :) 

FEBRUARY 17...
American Jane - http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/
Aneela Hoey - http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk
Bunny Hill - http://bunnyhillblog.com/
Cotton Way - http://cottonway.blogspot.com/

FEBRUARY 18...
Piecing Directions - http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/
Deb Strain -  http://debstrain.blogspot.com/
Kathy Schmitz - http://kathyschmitzstudio.blogspot.com/
Fig Tree and Co. - http://figtreequilts.typepad.com/my_weblog/

FEBRUARY 19...
French General - http://frenchgeneral.blogspot.com/
Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/
Basic Grey - http://blog.basicgrey.com/

FEBRUARY 20...
Lauren + Jessi Jung - http://laurenandjessiblog.com/
Kansas Troubles - http://kansastroublesquilters-lynne.blogspot.com/
Laundry Basket Quilts - http://www.laundrybasketquilts.com/blog/index.php
Lily Ashbury - http://lilyashbury.com/blog/

FEBRUARY 21...
Me and My Sister Designs - http://meandmysisterdesigns.com/blog/
Kate Spain - http://katespaindesigns.blogspot.com/
Jan Patek - http://janpatek.blogspot.com/
Pat Sloan - http://blog.patsloan.com/

FEBRUARY 24...
Primitive Gatherings - http://lisabongean.wordpress.com/
Minick and Simpson - http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/
Lissa Alexander - http://modafabrics.blogspot.com

FEBRUARY 25... 
Sweetwater - http://sweetwater.typepad.com/makelifesweet/
Thimbleblossoms - http://www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com/
Sandy Gervais - http://piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com/

FEBRUARY 26...
Vanessa Christenson - http://www.vanessachristenson.com/
Malka Dubrawski - http://stitchindye.blogspot.com/
Blackbird Designs - http://blackbird-designs.blogspot.com/

FEBRUARY 27... 
Barbara Brackman - http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/
Zen Chic - http://www.farbstoff-bridge.blogspot.com
Gina Martin - http://www.patternandhue.com

FEBRUARY 28...
Setting Directions - http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/
Winners Announced on ALL Designer Blogs listed above

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

V and Co.: How to make: a shag pillow (no not that kind of shag)


Welcome to MY TURN on Amy's Creative Side's Pillow collective blog hop.

Today is my day to show off a pillow I've made to beautify our home, and to give you instructions so you can totally beautify your home too...The story behind this pillow is that I saw a shaggy rug and instantly thought "I want to make that into a pillow!" And well I did.And because I tend to be on the clueless side...I totally doe eyed and totally innocently announced the name of the pillow as the "SHAG PILLOW" to which a couple of people snickered and were like "Uh Vanessa, you sure you wanna name it that?"
Me: "Yeah? It's Shaggy, and it's a Pillow...hence the name Shag Pillow." DUH
crickets people.
I'm telling you I was like "WHAT?"
And then I was like:
"OHHHHH, I get it...."


"Shag Pillow"

My bad. But that's totally not what I meant. SO...anyways here's the instructions to my
"The Not that kind of Shag Pillow"
here's what you will need:
*1 yard (to be safe in case of mess ups) of jersey fabric with the width of 60" (jersey comes in a bolt length of anywhere from 42" to 62" or even wider...but the most common i've found is 58" to 60")
*2 squares of cotton fabric close in matching color to your jersey fabric cut to 11" x 15" (if you make a slightly larger pillow you will still be okay because you will have a little extra fabric)

now lets get started:
cutting:


*cut from jersey fabric 19 strips at 1 1/2" each.


*from each of the 19 strips cut 15: 4" length rectangles. (you should be able to get 15, but if your fabric is wonky, and you get less than 15 it's okay because remember you have extra fabric.)
*in the end you will end up with a few extra rectangles (depending on how many you put in each row (you'll see later) but all of my rows had 14 or 15 rectangles total.)
*now take your two cotton rectangles cut to 11" x 15"
*and on 1 of the right sides of your fabric, draw 3/4" lines all the way across your rectangle. (you should get 19 lines)
*now take one of your jersey rectangles, and measure at least 1/4" down from the top of your pillow fabric...
*and sew using your drawn line as your guide your jersey strip onto the pillow fabric.
***** i scrunched the jersey fabrics in the middle, but i didn't make them uniform because i wanted them to be different widths (you really can't mess this up, it's not exact but you will get basically the same look with the little variations that will happen when each individual makes it.)

*you will continue down the line making a small gap in between the jersey strips. i used a total of 14 to 15 jersey strips per drawn line.( i would say a certain measurement...but i just eyeballed it and didn't really measure it looks like around 1/4" or 1/2" in between each like i said, if you don't follow what i did exactly you will come out with the pretty close to the same result.)
*make sure you leave at least 1/4" gap from the edge of your bottom edge of your pillow fabric. (i didn't on the first line and had a little bit of an issue later on trying not to get it caught in my seam.)
*once you have your first line done, push over your jersey strips to make the next line visible.
*and then repeat what you did on the first line.
****note: i did try to stagger the jersey strips in between the gaps of the first line. so it would fill in a little better. (remember this project is REALLY forgiving so it does NOT have to be exact)
*continue doing this for all 19 drawn lines.
you will see the shag appear as you continue to sew on your jersey strips.

*once all your strips are sewn on, we are now ready to make it into a pillow!
*move all the strip ends away from the edge like the picture above.
*place on top and start pinning with right sides together the second cotton 11" x 15" rectangle.

*make sure none of your "tails" of the strips get caught in the pinned seam.
*sew all four sides leaving an opening (at least 4") in the middle of one side (this will be your bottom of the pillow) for stuffing.
*turn your pillow form inside out, stuff, and hand stitch close.
You are so done.
And now you can enjoy a totally cool pillow with a totally shagadelic name.

Thanks for stopping by and make sure you check out all the other ladies doing the pillow collective



The end.
We'll talk soon.

Monday, February 3, 2014

V and Co: how to make: Wool Felt Heart Garland

 Hello February!
I can't believe it's already February but sure enough the date doesn't lie.
I'm not a HUGE decorator for the holidays. I've mentioned that a time or two...but every so often it's nice to do a little project to make the upcoming holiday a little fun.
 Garlands are probably the easiest and quickest way to throw something together and dress up the house a little for whatever the occasion.

 This garland is made from wool felt. (you know the really nice stuff that's kind of expensive)
But you could make it out of just regular crafting felt as well. :)
 This garland can be made in less than an hour. So got kids? Perfect! You will feel accomplished and be able to do this project start to finish at nap time!

Let's get started:
 What you'll need:
BUY THE KIT HERE  add FREESHIP for free shipping (while supplies last)
1 3 1/2" square piece of paper
marking pen
Thread: I used aurifil 50wt white
Fabric Scissors
6 light pink- 3 1/2" wool felt squares
6 medium pink- 3 1/2" wool felt squares
6 red- 3 1/2" squares wool felt squares
 1. Fold in half your paper square and draw half a heart.


2. Cut out your heart and pin on your 3 1/2" wool felt square.
3. Continue to cut out hearts from 4 of your 6 wool felt squares (of each color)

4. From your last 2 wool felt squares cut in half (1 1/2") length wise and then again to create 8 total 1 1/2" squares 




 5. Lay out how you would like to have your garland to hang. I started with three of the squares on point to make them look like diamonds and then added a couple of hearts.
 I laid them out till all of them were lined up in one long line.

6. Stack up the squares and hearts in order (I started from the last one laid down to the first one I put down) 
7. Sew your squares on point down the middle (From corner to corner) not leaving too much space between them. (start your first one with a backstitch)
8. Sew your heart shape close to where the inverted point is on your heart, this will assure that your heart will hang upright.

Continue until you finish sewing through all your shapes.

**To store your garland after you are done for the season, wrap it around an old wooden spool as shown...or if you don't have one don't worry...an paper towel roll or toilet paper roll will work just the same as well...
Mine is hanging on my mantle in the living room, but this would be cute hanging off a mirror, a buffet, on the wall, or hung in windows. Anywhere really. 

If you would like to purchase a kit of the wool felt all cut up into the 3 1/2" squares visit my shop. Limited kits are available. 
And hey! Lets do free shipping with code FREESHIP at the check out cause I love ya. :)


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