Scrap Pack Giveaway

When Amy at 13 Spools approached me about being a part of her Up & Coming Designer Program this year, I was beyond honored. She introduced me over at Craft Buds about two weeks ago, and today she is talking about one of my new fabrics designs: Pistachios. If you've arrived at my website from her post, welcome! Stay a while. Click through the archives or scroll down the blog roll. If you started here, hop over to Amy's blog to read her review of the dark grey pistachios. And lastly, what you've all been waiting for, the giveaway!

I am giving away a scrap pack full to bursting with different prints and test prints in mint and citron, some that are available in my shop and some that are not! Plus, it includes a piece of the famous dark grey pistachios that caught Amy's eye. This special limited edition bundle is perfect for a myriad of things from English-paper piecing projects and scrappy quilt blocks to mini wall quilts and strands of quilty bunting. It's 50+ grams of hand-printed goodness and could be flying to you next week.

Just answer one or both of the questions below or let me know how you follow me, then enter the Raffelcopter giveaway. (Note: if you don't enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to tell me you commented, you won't be entered. Don't accidentally miss out!) The giveaway is open until midnight EST Sunday, April 19. I will announce the winner on Monday morning. Good luck!

NOW CLOSED Thank you to all who entered and left such lovely comments and ideas.

1) What is your favorite fabric from the Lovely and Enough Etsy Shop or elsewhere on the blog?

2) What is your favorite colorway of those available or what would you love to see?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Uniola and the Price Lowering Party

You may know Chelsea over at Patch the Giraffe. She is pretty amazing when it comes to juggling teaching and quilting and taking amazing photos and making friends and being encouraging. The list goes on. So, when she purchased a bundle of fabrics from my Etsy shop, I was over the moon! You can see the bundle she picked out over on her blog today. It's gorgeous, and I am beyond excited to see what she does with it.

That got me thinking. I want to do more projects with my fabrics, but not only that, I want more people to be able to as well! However, with the expensive and time-consuming process of screen printing, prices felt high. So, last night, I lowered them. I had a price lowering party complete with hot chocolate and comfy pillows, and I finagled with numbers until I was happy. Go check it out! You can now get fat quarters! And because I don't want to gyp those of you who supported my endeavor from the start, just message me on Etsy with which fabric you would like, and I'll send you an extra little panel free of charge.

And while we're talking about fabrics, I want to officially introduce my newest pattern: Uniola.

Inspired by electron scanning microscope images of plant seeds, the base of the pattern is printed in white. It is then overprinted with beach dune fences. The pattern draws its name from uniola paniculata, a dune grass that grows along the coasts of the southeastern United States and helps to prevent the erosion of its sandy habitat. I experimented with lots of color combinations and was geeked when I found this one last July. I can't believe it's taken me this long to share about it on my blog, but I guess that's what starting grad school will do to you.

What would you make with this fabric?

Bunting on Words

A week ago last Friday was my last day printing in the studio at school. I thought it would be Thursday and shed a tear for the fabrics I hadn't had a chance to print, but a happy accident occurred among the administrative staff, and my commencement rehearsal was actually at eleven instead of the previously stated nine! I woke up early, grabbed my last breakfast at Saga, and made a beeline for Adams Hall to print my last Wheaton fabric. And I'm so excited about it!

The words alone are cute and so is the bunting, but the bunting and words together have a new life to them. It's subtle but fun and fills the field nicely. I feel it would be a lovely backing to a baby quilt or an adorable square on the front, and I haven't decided yet if I should print more or what project they should become. What would you make with this fabric?

Yep, I did say that: print more. I may or may not have borrowed a couple of screens from the school so that I could print this week if I so chose. I'll be driving right back to Wheaton next week for a dear friend's wedding and will return the screens then. But until then, I am off to print!

The designs are printed on Pat Bravo solid Icy Mint and Robert Kaufman solid Ice Peach.

Good Friday

Some days are just great. Good Friday was one of them. I woke up to sunshine, rolled out of bed to a quiet and warm campus, and hied to the printing studio for a day away from assignments and dance rehearsals. This time around I decided I should prewash, so I threw them in the night before and pulled from the dryer...a crinkled mess of fabrics. No amount of ironing or steam would remove the wrinkles, but as always, mother came to the rescue. She said that Grandma used to spritz her wrinkled fabrics with water and then roll them into logs before spreading them out to iron. It works like a charm! An hour or so later, with a little company from Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, I had a fresh stack of fabrics ready to print.

I printed three colorways from my artist statement screen from my show. It is the first color-on-white fabric that I have printed and liked. I can't wait to print a bunch more yardage experimenting with overlaying colors. For now, I have coral and coral over mint. The mint is quite subtle but adds texture and interest. You can just see it in the picture if you look closely on the right side. Next came the peach and mint colorways, pretty simple tone-on-tone. I have plans to print a panel or two of solid-colored bunting over these fabrics in white on the mint and coral on the peach.

Recently I had been struggling with my screens clogging up and needing to wash them after only a couple of pulls, but I called the helpline at BuyPermasetInks.com, and he suggested spritzing the screen with water in between pulls. This also worked like a charm. Yay for spritzing, and I only had to wash the screen when I got too distracted watching the movie or talking to my mom and didn't pull the next panel fast enough.



With new tips and tricks under my belt and a new fabric design, I am so pumped for designing a new line of quilts this summer. The fabric collection is growing, and I can't wait to dive into it!

A Small Interlude

After the huge every-minute-of-every-day push to get the show finished and hung and opened, I've taken a small break, not from life or school, just from sewing. It's been relaxing to enjoy the quilt blocks taped to my walls without feeling pressure to get up early to sew and run back from dinner dates to sew some more.

Sundays are my art days, a sabbath devoted to creativity and allowing my right-brain out to play. Typically, that means sewing, but last Sunday, my friend Emma had the best idea. We spent an art sabbath afternoon chatting and painting at a paint-your-plate, surrounded by parents and small children quietly and carefully contemplating their designs and colors. It was lovely, so freeing and restful. Admittedly, I couldn't keep the quilts out of it, and I painted myself a Swoon mug to use when I'm quilting. Emma surprised me by picking it up and filling it with mints and encouraging notes and hiding it in the refrigerator at work where I store my lunch. Now I'm drinking my new Magic Moment TWG tea out of it. What wonderful blessings I have in my life.

My plan for the last weeks of the semester is to print fabrics so that I will have supplies for the summer. The orders of raw materials came in, and it's exciting to dream what the new sherbet and thundercloud fabrics will be transformed into this summer. I also ordered my own set of screens today. Eek! I will be able to overprint my own quilts this summer in my own studio. Just that sentence make my heart swell. Graduating really does feel like growing up, but instead of scary, it is ever so exciting.

Fabrika

I had the lovely opportunity while on Spring Break in Georgia last week to take a day trip to Savannah. Described as somewhere that just shouts "Kelsey!" I couldn't wait to see what the day might hold. With lots of suggestions and a SCAD student as our tour guide, we began with a trip to Back in the Day Bakery. Cute and charming and artsy, just like I was hoping. Next up was a wander through the beautiful tree-lined streets and several of the twenty-two parks that can be found in Savannah. Talk about gorgeous. Before heading down to the river, I asked if we could stop in a fabric store that had been suggested to me by the studio associate back at school. Fabrika. It was right on the way, and as soon as I walked in, I knew why he'd sent me here. It was me.

Beautiful white walls. Tall ceilings. Bright windows and fresh displays. A gorgeous wall of solids and a delicious wall of prints with bolts of neutrals hung between. Simply perfect.

Do you have a favorite fabric store near you?

Here's to New Starts

It may not be New Year's Eve yet, but I'm toasting to new starts.

New traditions, like burgers and a beer at Sidetrack on Mondays with my best friend from birth.
New directions, heading off to grad schools and unknown cities.
New joys, such as the awesome filters on Snapchat (they may be small new joys).
New things to be thankful for, such as picking up Dad at the airport and watching my little sister decorate the tree.



And most of all new ideas and new fabric! I have been hung up on coral and navy for some weeks now, maybe months. It began when my sister bought a bundle of fat quarters from Pink Castle at the end of the summer, brimming with cool blueberry navies and warm peachy corals. I just wanted to eat it up and cut it up and sew it up, but alas, it was not mine. Then I got the idea stuck in my head that I wanted to quilt a navy blue and white plus quilt with one plus of my coral hydrangeas, but that is a large task and not one befitting a girl supposed to be beginning her senior show. (I even bought backing for this glorious brainchild quilt. How can you resist silky soft vintage peach at $4/yd??) So, as I was sitting trying to hitch my brain out of the coral-navy rut and get into senior show mode, I realized that I need not move at all. Coral and navy is not something I've explored the heck out of or even quilted at all before. It's not a tired idea, nor is it boring. I can do a navy and coral show. I can do this!

With my trusty sidekick, the Mothership (aka mom), I jetted out to Pink Castle to pick some modern solids and patterned binding fabrics to go with my coral hydrangeas. I was tickled when the women in the store complimented my base print and asked me what collection it was from. Mine :) Maybe someday I'll sell fabric in the local store! The plan for now is to experiment with some 2'x2' blocks in these colors and then over print them with grey or navy or maybe even coral, then stitch 'em up and bind 'em up and (throw 'em out of Babylon, hehe VeggieTale reference) see where that takes me! I am so pumped. That navy and coral plus quilt is still stuck in my head. Wouldn't the DearStella floral fabric down there be such a cute binding for said imaginary quilt? Nevertheless, I have begun sketching out some blocks, and I'm ready to dive in. For the next eleven weeks, it's senior show time!! And in honor, the "Farmer's Wife Block Countdown" is going to be temporarily suspended in favor of a "Weeks Until Senior Show Countdown."

Here we go!

Giant Starburst Colors

I picked the fabric! After eating lunch with my favorite little sister (and my only one), we swung by Pink Castle to check out their solids. She supported me through my indecision when faced with a big intimidating wall of Modas and Michael Millers and Monalunas and stalwartly held heaping piles of bolts. She even stuck it out when I accidentally conked her in the nose with a particularly heavy bolt. What did I say, she's my favorite :) We picked out a set of eight golds and mints and greens, but when I got home I started pulling out a couple at a time and putting them together. Simpler seemed better, so I picked a modern four. Two darks and two lights. The darks will be the flying geese blocks on the sides and the lights will be the arrows in the corners of the giant starburst. Then the background will be Michael Miller off-white.

The next day I hung out with my mom in the studio cutting out squares while she planned out the exact construction of the plus quilt she's making me. I'm so excited for the quilt it's insane. It will be made from the most luxurious citron cotton that I picked up for £18/meter at Bacci Tessuti in Florence this past summer with a single plus of my citron hortensia fabric that I also printed in Florence this summer. I cannot wait for it to be done. We finished the afternoon laying out the most adorable twin-size quilt of green, red, aqua, and grey plusses on a grey background. It was spontaneous and fun, made out of leftover pre-cut squares from a quilt my grandma made. I am very jealous of the family that will receive it at the Safe House down the road. I guess this just means I may have to make one for myself, so I should probably get to work piecing this giant starburst first!

Modern Mint and Red

Here it is! My first yardage of the year. With the help of our studio associate, I wrestled my makeshift printing table into position and went to town. Two yards later and another win for the Michigan Wolverines and it is accomplished. A bunting fabric design in modern mint and red. It is slightly more minimalist than I was aiming for for the whole fabric line, so it may become a one-off that I enjoy separately from the rest. I do love it, though. For its "freshness," as my housemate Brie described it, and for its whimsical geometric imperfection. I may have gotten a bit over-excited with how many photos I took, but who could resist an outdoor photo shoot on one of the first beautiful days of autumn?

{Vote on what colorway I should print my bunting in next over here} 

Colorways Galore

Another day of test prints. I faired better this time. Less grumping, more singing. I'm thinking if Saturdays turn into test print days, I may need to set up some incentives to keep me going. Football on the overhead projector. Chai tea lattes. Fun evening plans. Even the mere prospect of those three things makes Saturdays sound more like adventure days and less like torturous confinement.

Before you start asking if all I do is test print, pause. I did print two yards of fabric on Tuesday with which I'm quite pleased. I'll post pictures this week. For today, I'm enlisting your help. Here are the eight, yes eight, colorways that I printed yesterday, and I'm deciding which to print this coming week. I have some leanings. The problem is that if I stand up to pour more hot water in my tea, then when I sit back down my favorites have all switched. So, my dear unbiased, diverse, and lovely readers: which is your favorite? {for a larger picture, just click}

Which colorway is your favorite?

A- aqua, grey, and red

B- aqua and greys

C- greys

D- aqua, citron, and red

E- aqua and citrons

F- turquoise and citrons

G- coral and citrons

H- citrons

www.poll-maker.com

My apologies: it's been brought to my attention that the poll is not functioning for everyone. If this is the case for you, please leave a comment about which colorway is your favorite. I still value your input even if my html does not.

Update: I think the poll only works in Chrome and Firefox but not in Safari, so if you're receiving an error, switching your browser might alleviate the issue.

Favorite Floral

Last but certainly not least: my mint and lemon hydrangeas. I love them. They are peppy and springy and lovely. I want to print them on bags and skirt fabric and dress fabric and huge pieces of quilt fabric rather than just on my mint remnants. This was a rather perfect end to a whirlwind class. Although it is sad to leave the Fuji Studio and long, rewarding days of designing and printing, I am excited to see what the next two weeks of sewing and a fall of textile independent study will bring!

Hortensia

This summer I've found myself more and more fond of hydrangeas as I arrange them for grad parties, steal them for bouquets on the dining room table, and plan to plant them in front of my house in the fall. The blue ones, the white ones, the green ones. They spill over their boundaries and happily improve the mood of whichever garden or table they are inhabiting. With that in mind (and after scrapping a poppy idea), I set about to create a hydrangea print that made use of overlapping colors and generally filled the fabric more like a Liberty floral. And here is the result!

After an unusual experience with ink bleeding to the edges of the screens...probably because I was lazy and didn't send the fabric through the wash first...I struck upon a collection of blues and greens on grey that I think would make a lovely back to a quilt if I do say so myself.

After the first big piece was done, I experimented with green-yellow hydrangeas with white centers, and I'm quite pleased with them as well. These create the third tone I was rather hoping for with the overlapping colors in the blooms.

Minty and Long-legged

The last of the printing has occurred, and I have nostalgically tucked my flamingo screens onto the shelf. I am happy with each of the colorways and sad to set aside this pattern. However, it is time for a new adventure in patterns and designs. Perhaps I will sneak into the studio and print some flamingos onto one of my bummy shirts, but shh don't tell Kathy, the studio director ;)

Next up is a stripe! I'm currently tracing a fun bowl stripe design onto acetates for printing next week. With class everyday, I hope to print two more fabric designs. This may be a tad ambitious, but since when do I not bite off more than I can chew? I hope you're enjoying my fabric designs at least half as much as I am because I am having a ball.

Grey Flamingos

With the test print done and a whole long weekend to wait antsily to get back into the studio, I burst in at ten in the morning on Monday and set to work. What I thought might take me two hours actually took close to five or six. When I finally finished my one yard of gray flamingo fabric in the afternoon, I began to truly appreciate the time-consuming process of hand-printing fabric. I suppose I realized this with the drunken circles at midnight, but I must have forgotten along my excited path. Nevertheless, I am still in love with printing. And I am faster.

Mid-afternoon a student from last month came in with three huge stacks of what she had printed in her time at the Fuji Studio. My teacher, Kathy, told me that this student was a speed demon when it came to printing. That she could print an entire huge piece of fabric in two hours. Challenge accepted. This student gave me some pointers for going faster, such as piling my clamps on the corners of my screens instead of actually clamping them down, and pulling the ink across the screen several extra times to extend the pulls between washings. With this and the discovery that clogged spots on screens can quickly be remedied with some concentrated finger scrubbing to avoid the dreaded wash-power rinse-dry cycle, I quickly got to work on the top half of my gray fabric and a new yard of mint.

However, by 7:30, with almost ten hours of printing under my belt, I was exhausted. Sweaty and close to burnt out, I picked up and folded my precious new fabrics, postponing the rest of the mint printing till the next class period, and headed home. More Wednesday!!

Crosses

Several weeks ago in the middle of the haze of final projects, I stumbled upon a beautiful quilt by Adrianne over at little bluebell. She referenced a book called Modern Log Cabin Quilting by Susan Beal, so I quickly hastened to use my college's library in the only way I care to: ordering quilting and fabric printing and cooking books through inter-library loan. It arrived, and I joyfully walked through the now summer haze to pick it up. Laying on the grass, I decided that I too would tackle some modern cross blocks and see if it suited my fancy for a larger quilt. I was going to begin with all lime green crosses but accidentally looked at my corals and turquoises  It's a dangerous business, picking fabric. Never put more fabrics that you love on the table than you're willing to incorporate. I ended up with one cross of each color and now I have to decide. Green and coral? Coral and blue? Blue and green? What do you think?

The Printing Process

Drunken Circles

My chemistry classes have engulfed me. I am officially drowning in lab reports and exams. Luckily my lovely mother was there for me this weekend with a PFD. No, it was not a personal flotation device. Instead, it was prepared-for-dying fabric! Home for Easter, I had the use of her beautiful and well-stocked studio, which includes a brayer, a large cushioned printing board, and many other wonderful supplies to come to my aid in finishing up printing my fabric for Maze and Vale's hand-printed fabric swap. I'm a couple days late but happy with my final results.

This is the third incarnation of the drunken circles in the form of a foam stamp on plexi-glass. The paper stencil proved too time consuming for its disposable nature, and the acetate stencil proved too thick for efficient screen-printing. However, I am very happy with the stamp. If I use this design more, I may send away to have a permanent screen made up that I can use forever and forever. The drunken circles will live on!

Hand-Printed Fabric Swap

If you look to the right of the screen, you will find the short list of the blogs I like to read. This week I was so excited to read Leslie Keating's blog Maze and Vale and discover that she is hosting a hand-printed fabric swap. I have been wanting to try my hand at fabric printing for awhile now, and this is the perfect opportunity. You simply sign up next weekend, print four quarter-yards of fabric, and send them out to the other four people in your group. Then they print four quarter-yards of fabric, and each sends one to you. I now have encouragement, camaraderie, links to many tutorials, a fun Pinterest board, and a deadline to motivate me towards printing my own fabric. I am so excited!

Fabric Overload

This Sunday, my mom and I ventured into Mega Fabrics downtown Chicago. It's wall to wall bolts of fabric. Suiting, shirting, stretch taffeta, upholstery fabric, raincoat material, tweed, cotton, tulle, satin. They have everything. We meandered through the maze of the first floor, blown away by the sheer number of bolts on all the neat racks. Then ascending to the attic, we wound our way past piles and fabric landslides. Unorganized mountains of fabric filled the basement. The experience was overwhelming and, in the end, unfruitful but a fun adventure for a Sunday afternoon.