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

Holiday Princess Flower Crowns : :

I took some time this week to design a pretty new Holiday Flower Crown to offer a limited amount of in one last special sale here and on Instagram this weekend! These colors are some of my very favorites -- sweet peachy pink, garnet, dusty rose, teal, blues and buttery yellows to name a few!



Slightly different than the made-to-order personalized themed crowns you can find year-round in my Etsy shop, I've created a limited amount of this style that can be customized with a full name or initial of your choosing!



All crowns ordered today will ship next Friday, December 15th. They are $26 a piece plus shipping. International friends are welcome to these crowns, as well, shipping price will be $10 for a first class international envelope. You can visit me on my Instagram, email me at maureencracknell@hotmail.com or order right here by leaving a comment with your Paypal email address to claim, along with the name or the initial you'd like added to the crown. These crowns are such a wonderful handmade, personalized/custom, special gift/stocking stuffer for the little princesses in your life!! They are very adjustable and fit ages newborn to 9/10 years old so they can be worn year after year for dress-up play and birthdays. If you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment!



♥ Maureen

Little Town + Les Petits Stockings : :

When it came time to begin my holiday sewing I had to include my friend Amy Sinibaldi's beautiful winter themed collection for Art Gallery Fabrics, Little Town, an adorable collection that captures so perfectly the joy and beauty of the season!



Isn't this such a sweet collection for holiday sewing?! Right when these fabrics arrived I envisioned using Little Town & Amy's Les Petits collection of blenders that she designed to coordinate effortlessly with her lines, to make a set of new stockings and I'm so glad that I made time to stitch a few up!



I couple of years ago I created my go-to stocking pattern by tracing an x-large stocking that I had purchased before I began sewing. The shape and generous size of this style of stocking is by far my favorite that I've seen. I don't mind one bit using the same pattern over and over again, year after year because the fun comes from the different patchwork that I use for each. For these Little Town stockings I used the new Friendship Braid qayg that I've been experimenting with lately. I really love how these turned out!



For each stocking I made one of my flower cluster ornaments using Amy's fabrics, wool blend felt, AGF linen, ric rac and handmade fabric twine. These extra embellishments take some time to make, but I love the way the look hanging from each stocking loop!





I ended up making four more of these Little Town + Les Petits stockings and this morning added them to my Etsy shop. I'm so glad I wasted no time to begin my holiday sewing this year, because now I have time to make lots more of these pretty stockings!



Now through December 5th I'm offering free shipping on all domestic orders in my Etsy shop with coupon code: FREESHIP! This includes these new holiday stockings, handmade pillows & quilts, 1yd scrap bundles, birthday crowns, etc.. I plan to add new items daily throughout the sale, I hope you'll stop by!

xo Maureen 

Drawstring Backpacks : :

In between all the quilt top making, and the birthday crown making, and the just generally sitting around admiring all the beautiful fabrics that keep arriving from Art Gallery Fabrics, I've been sewing up a few new Quick Quilt As You Go drawstring backpacks. I can't tell you how much I love my own drawstring backpack, I take it everywhere! They're such fun to make, and have the potential to be a great stash-buster! I keep thinking I'll use up as much of the stash as possible whenever I decide to make more, but these new collections just pull me right in! And, then at least I don't have to refold and refuss with trying to stack and keep my stash all color-coded and pretty, right!?



This first one features prints from both my Nightfall and Fleet & Flourish collections, with a few added coordinating AGF prints, denim, and vintage lace embellishments. I've been using these sweet colors so much lately, in both my recent Reverie and Nightland quilt tops. This color combination will always be one of my favorites!







Then yesterday I made this Observer fabrics & denim drawstring backpack and I completely fell in love! It's so prefect for Fall! These prints and colors work so well for this style of bag.









I'll have to make another for sure! But first, I had started a second Observer fabric quilt immediately after finishing my first one, but shelved it when it was feeling a bit too much like the one I had just made. The excitement over this backpack, with a few weeks break, and a new quilt pattern plan has me ready to finish it up. It should hopefully come together quick, be back soon!

♡ Maureen  

Red & Blue & Something New : :

My Diamond Weave quilt top is done! It was such a fun project and block, one I know I'll want to use again to create one of the alternate patterns I shared. You can look back through my posts about this project by clicking  HERE. I tried my best to share all the details for those of you who'd like to make one of your own! Yesterday I did some last minute shifting to balance out the darkest shades of blue & coral red, before sewing all thirty-six blocks together, and I'm really happy with how it came together!



While I worked on this quilt throughout the last week or so, sewing with shades of red and blue became quite the theme. These recent Fox Pillows are the first I finished using Fleet & Flourish and should be arriving to their new homes any day!









Now I'm ready to start something new! This time I'll be using my Fleet & Flourish purples with AGF Pure Element solids in Cabernet, Verve Violet, Mauvelous, Empire Yellow plus some newer colors I'm really excited to add in -- Turmeric and Aurora Red.





I'm sure more prints from my stash will join the mix, while I work on my plan. There's nothing quite like the excitement of starting something new!

What do you think of this color combo?

An Extra One : :

Yesterday our beautiful baby girl turned NINE! It was a busy weekday night, so we celebrated simply with a nice family dinner of her request - spicy chili, cheddar biscuits, and old fashion apple crisp! Almost every time we go out to eat she orders a side salad and a cup of chili, it's the funniest thing! There was a little bit of sewing for her birthday - a crown, of course! This year I had offered a new special Holiday Crown design and sale, and when Haila saw me sewing them up last week she asked if I could make an extra one for her birthday. Absolutely!



I love this shade of spice berry red! It's pretty and festive and is one of those colors that just looks good on everyone, don't you think? Adding in bright corals and red, dusty pink, and aqua blue made such a great color combination!



Our birthday girl loved hers and looked so beautiful!







My hope is that each of the little girls who will be receiving one of these crowns this year lights up like my girl!

♡ Maureen

Sewing Room Snapshots : :

Lately in the sewing room...















there's been a mess of Etsy crown and pillow making, Christmas music playing, felt and fabric flying, lots of coffee drinking, and so much more! Many little moments both good and bad and fun and hard, as this time of year has a way of overwhelming me every single year as I prepare for the holidays, both Kaiden and Haila's birthdays, work on my Spring fabric collection (a first for me), all while taking on as many orders as I possibly can! But I'm feeling so grateful this morning for taking the time to sew with my birthday girl this past weekend. She's NINE today!! While we both don't get as much time to sew together as we'd like, when we do we LOVE it! So today, on her birthday, I'm extra grateful for my sweet, creative girl and my overwhelming feelings of love and pride for her that fills my heart and the gaps of what I sometimes forget!

Happy Birthday Haila Grace!

♡  ♡  ♡