Indigo Blue : :

These rainy days have inspired my next small batch collection, Indigo Blue!

I'm such a fan of Japanese Shibori dyeing, but haven't yet found the time to try it like I had hoped to over the Summer. Thankfully for folks like me, who love the look but don't have time to dye my own fabrics, April Rhodes created the Observer collection for Art Gallery Fabrics that is full of beautiful blue patterns!



I love the fresh color palette of calm to deep blues and this fabric pull inspired me to do a little reading up on Indigo.



Indigo is the color of wisdom and intuition. It represents an inner awareness of spirituality, gives an ability for planning the future, and brings about a love of rituals. Those who feel connected to indigo are faithful, idealistic, and intuitive. They are truthful by nature and have sincere personalities.

Learning these things about Indigo inspired me to seek out these Shibori Tie-Dye Journals to pair with the quilted zipper pouch bags I plan to make with these fabrics. How special it will be to include one of these beautiful handcrafted journals as part of each Indigo Blue gift set, perfect for fellow Indigo lovers' writing, sketching and doodling!





To complete this set, I sourced out the perfect Indigo cotton and mirrored glass Fanned Tassel Charm to add to the zippers on each bag!



My hope is to start working on these tonight or tomorrow to have ready for sale next week!



xo Maureen  

Journal LOVE!

I have more Whole Cloth Quilted Journal goodness to share with you today! I had a blast last month, pulling from new and old favorite fabrics to make more of these pretty and useful quilted journals!



Making each of these Quilted Journals has been such a joy. The process allows me to showcase the fabrics that I design for Art Gallery, while bringing new goods into the world and into your hands that are useful, beautiful and well-made. I'm so excited to share these with you!

Crystal Awakening is a favorite and one of the first rolls of fabric I reached for when I set out to make this batch of journals.





Sprinkled Peonies and From Within Sparkler are two recolored prints of mine that are both brand new to stores and to my studio. Sparkler Fusion is one of my favorite Fusion collections to date. These prints in soft sweet blush, creamy white, cinder grey and touches of metallic shimmer, made the prettiest set of journals!







Of course I had to make several new journals with Autumn Vibes. These are perfect for our family, teachers and friends heading back to school and the season that is upon us! I only wish I would have had the time to make one in each of the twenty Autumn Vibes quilting cottons.



Here we have,

Autumn Nectar Honey



Pressed Ablossom Royal





Floral Glow Twilit



Foxes In Fall



Cozy Ditzy Plum



and Acorns & Pinecones Mint



I'd love to know which of these new journals is your favorite? I always look forward to feedback from fellow fabric lovers!





Thank you, as always, for visiting me today and for your support and interest in the things I make and sell! I'm incredibly grateful for it! Next I'll be sharing a peek of the Autumn Vibes quilt top that I just finished for my LookBook due out later this month. Stay tuned!

xo, Maureen

Flower Child Journal Covers : :

I have a new Summer sewing obsession: Flower Child Journal Covers!





While brainstorming Flower Child LookBook projects that would showoff each pretty Flower Child print, fabric journal or notebook covers were at the top of my to-make list! For my LookBook projects, I like to recreate and use a combination of my own tutorials with those created by other makers in our community to share and link up to. A quick Pinterest search landed me on my friend Svetlana's blog: s.o.t.a.k handmade! Svetlana is incredibly talented and I was confident that I could trust her tutorial to be well written and easy to execute, so I gave it a go and I was hooked! Recognize this project from the LookBook?



Since this first one, I've been experimenting with my own ideas for making these journal covers and as a result my stack keeps growing! These covers are all designed to fit the standard composition notebook that are widely available, although I think I've cleaned out every store that carries them in this little town!



To add a bit of the boho flair that I love so much, I added a length of my handmade Flower Child Twine tied around a few of them. This twine is another addictive project that I shared in the LookBook! It's a wonderful, simple project perfect for keeping your hands busy when you're not able to sew. I definitely recommend that you give making fabric twine a try!




For the Journals that feature my Sisterhood print, I created a quilted patchwork panel, similar to the Journal Cover free pattern that Sharon Holland shares on her blog. The main difference in the covers that I made verses those that both Svetlana and Sharon have shared is that I quilt mine to a layer of Hobbs cotton batting and my measurements and instructions differ slightly. Below you can see all the variations I have tried so far. The options are endless!

For these two I used a modified version of Svetlana's tutorial that include a feature fabrics, a contrasting fabric for the spine of the notebook, and a lining fabric. Such a great way to show off my Flower Child Meadow print!

These Quilted Whole Cloth Journal Covers are my favorites yet! I'll be sharing a tutorial for making these on the Janome blog later this month or early next month, as part of the 2018 Sewing Camp with Janome happening ALL Summer long, where we'll share fun, skill-building projects each week that are designed specifically for children in mind. I think these journals are perfect!









And, since I already have several finished and I'm totally obsessed, I've decided to offer them FOR SALE for just $22 each! I'll be adding them to my Etsy Shop or you can leave me a comment here or email me anytime at maureencracknell@hotmail.com if you're interested!

Thanks in advance for your support and for stopping by! xo Maureen

Boho LOVE!

Happy Monday, friends! In addition to blogging about the Community Sampler sew-along, I'm going to try my best to keep up with sharing here all the other things that get made each week!



Last week I finished up several new projects, more zipper pouch bags and a special dreamcatcher for my Goddaughter Sylvia, all made using my favorite boho fabric combo -- Love Story & Indie Folk!



A few months back when Love Story and Indie Folk both arrived, the first thing I did was cut a half yard bundle of each into a variety of strips measuring one to two inches by the width of the fabrics, and I piled them high into a larger woven basket in my studio. From this basket I have made dozens and dozens of these boho zipper pouch bags. It's amazing how far these strips have stretched!

Three of the zipper pouch bags from last week's new batch got a fun, red, wooly pompom zipper pull and I love this new added decoration! The front side of each bag is my herringbone qayg that will be my go-to pattern for making the bags I sell. It's by far my favorite pattern to use for these kind of projects.



The reverse side is a simple stripe including several Love Story prints from the Enamored colorway, full of pretty peaches and coral, aqua and teal, and white and black!



A couple of the bags were finished with a red or baby blue suede zipper pull instead of the pompoms, which I love just as much. In additional to the new zipper pull options, I also added a side loop of an Anna Maria Horner Renaissance Ribbon!



The colors and pattern of this Postage Due Ribbon go perfectly with the boho style of these new bags!



A few weeks back, my super creative little niece/Goddaughter Sylvia told me over the phone about a terrible dream she kept having about vampires. She asked if I could make her a special dreamcatcher using fabrics to match the other things I've made for her that decorate her room. Today this dreamcatcher should be arriving to her in Hawaii and I can't wait to hear how she likes it!



I ordered enough dreamcatcher supplies to make a few more that will likely end up in my Etsy shop! I'll be back later this week to share which fabrics I'm using for my next set of zipper pouch bags and how those are coming along, so be sure to stop back!

xo Maureen

Swan Journal Clutch Gift Sets!

I'm so thrilled with today's finish, a small batch collection of Swan Journal Clutch Gift Sets! It's taken me way longer than expected to get photos of these beauties, so I'm extra excited about today's blog.

A few weeks back I wrote how much I've been enjoying creating in my new studio space. After working there for just a couple of weeks, I knew more than anything that I just wanted to make all the things! For the first time I have a big studio to work in and a great space to keep organized and on display an endless amount of finished projects. It took a short time for me to decide that I would spend this year making small batches of unique handmade items to sell in My Shop.

So far my small batch project has included a variety of  boho zipper pouch bags that work wonderfully for carrying everything from EPP projects to make-up. But for this next collection I wanted to create something a bit more special, and these swan fabrics were the perfect inspiration!

Dabbling Swan Plum  *  Mystical Woods Solar  *  Flower Dancer  *  Luminaries Silver  *  Swanlings Bevy Nightfall  * Swanlings Bevy Peach  *  Petit Checks Midnight  *  Baltic Swans Sky  *  Splendid Oath Rain  *  Scatter Apricot  *  Tomahawk Stripe Cloud  *  Subtle Journey East  *  Dabbling Swan Sage  *  Your Heart Pink Metallic  *  Terra Firma Humid

It was pure luck that I stumbled upon these beautiful swan soft cover journals that go so beautiful with my fabric pull. Add in some fun fuzzy poof keychains and I had the makings of something really special!

My Swan Journal Clutch fronts are made using my Quick Quilt As You Go herringbone pattern, with pretty narrow strips sewn to a layer of soft cotton batting.

The reverse side features one of Bonnie Christine's beautiful swans from her Hello, Ollie collection surrounded by pretty patchwork made with the same prints that I used for these Swan Clutch fronts, all quilted with Aurifil 50wt cotton thread. 

Each bag has a soft sand linen side loop that's perfect for hanging these giant poof keychains and a baby blue suede zipper pull.

I love these bags so much, they're high up there with my favorite makes, ever!



These pretty swan journals are a great size, they each have 384 pages and measure 6.5" x 8.5" and are 1" thick! To ensure that the journals fit perfectly inside each swan clutches, I used these 12" zippers (affiliate link) to finish as the largest size zipper style bag that I've made yet!






This photo of the fuzzy poof keychain is definitely my favorite shot of the day! I was a little bummed that my photos look a little overcast, but still I love how these turned out and I just couldn't wait any long to share them with you all!



I'd love to know what you think of this small batch gift set idea?

So far I've received a wonderful response, these are selling fast! I have just three left, one of each of the fuzzy poof keychain colors -- cream, pink and grey. I've added what remains of these Swan Journal Clutch Gift Sets to My Shop if you're interested in taking a look.

I hope you're inspired by this swan themed set! Next up I'm using AGF's new Capsules collection, Campsite. I'll be back next week to share those, but in the meantime ne sure to stop back tomorrow for details on how to enter this week's Community Sampler Giveaway! As always, ALL are welcome to enter!



xo Maureen