For the Love of Shibori!

Last week I finished up my newest small batch gift set, Shibori LOVE!

I had pulled fabrics and carefully sourced coordinating supplies to begin making these weeks ago, just before I got sick again, so it feels extra good to have finished up this project!

Last week I shared a quick sale on my Instagram feed and this morning I added the few I have left to my Etsy Shop and I'm excited to share all the details here on the blog!





I have always loved the way Shibori looks, whether on clothing, home décor or accessories. The mix of white and indigo dye is always so beautiful!



To date, I've made two quilt tops using April Rhodes Observer fabrics for Art Gallery Fabrics. The main print, Indigo Window Crystal is a favorite of mine and has all the beauty of a hand dyed shibori textile without the work. Love that!



It was this print from Observer that inspired this gift set collection, and I was so thrilled to have found the perfect handcrafted sketchbook journal to include, with sixty blank pages perfect for writing and doodling with a beautiful Shibori dyed cover!







Along with each patchwork quilted bag and handcrafted sketchbook, I'm including a lovely indigo & white zipper pull, Fanned Tassel Charm that I picked up from my favorite store, Anthropolgie! These retail for $18 a piece but I was lucky to snag just enough during a recent sale for this Shibori Love collection!





Zipper colors include black, light blue and grey. Each bag is finished with a flat bottom making these perfect for cosmetics, craft projects and travel. These measure big, around 11"x12" and both sides are made of a similar patchwork pattern of flying geese and stripes. Some are lined with the Observer cotton canvas and others with AGF's heavy duty denim, making each bag sturdy and durable!



Follow this link to find them in my Etsy Shop -- Shibori Patchwork Gift Set

For those ordering today, I'll include one Fat Quarter cut of ANY of my Art Gallery Fabrics! Just add in the comment section of the order the name of the print you'd like to receive and I will be happy to include that as my gift to you for supporting my handmade work!

xo Maureen

Loved to Pieces Blog Party!

Busy, busy, July was quite the month! In my last blog post I shared how happy I was to be back in this space and I had a major backlog of news and projects that I was planning to share. But the day after that last post, my husband woke up early and knew right away that things weren't right after not feeling well with flu-like symptoms for several weeks. He had Bell's Palsy, temporary face paralysis on the right side of his face and we learned shortly after that, that he had two tick-borne diseases, Lyme and Babesiosis. He's been taking the appropriate medications and today he's doing much better and is back to work. So here I am, excited to share my project for my talented friend, Mathew Boudreaux aka Mister Domestic's Loved to Pieces Blog Party!





This year Mathew joined the Art Gallery Fabrics family as an Angles by AGF designer and released his very first fabric collection, Loved to Pieces. Inspired by his daughter Helena's love for flowers and his love for paper piecing, Loved to Pieces is florals meet EPP geometrics in an array of blues with touches of vibrant pinks and subtle greens. It was an absolute joy to sew with! So much so that I couldn't stop. With everything that had been going on in my life I didn't want to commit to a big project that I couldn't finish in time to share as part of this blog tour, so I started by making one of my favorite go-to makes -- one quilt as you go flat bottom lined zipper pouch, and then I made nineteen more!





The front side of each bag is made with 2" strips of Loved to Pieces and the friendship braid Quick Quilt As You Go pattern that I've been experimenting with more recently, that I hope to share a tutorial for soon. Each bag has a cushiony layer of Hobbs cotton batting, a colorful zipper, a fuchsia faux suede zipper pull and is lined with a Loved to Pieces print or coordinating solid for a really nice finish!





Each bag measures a generous 9"x 9" and reverses to a striping of  Loved to Pieces prints. I made sure that both colorways of this new collection are used for each bag. This collection is so good for 
scrappy patchwork!





The zipper colors I chose were inspired by the blues and greens in this pretty collection. I added a silk tiered tassel charm to this one and I love it!





One bag has been filled with goodies and will be offered in a special Giveaway today on my Instagram, one I'll be sending to Mathew as a thank you/congratulatory gift, and the remaining eighteen bags will be available for purchase in my Etsy shop! Each bag in my shop will come with a surprise freebee gift and a small scrap pack of leftover Loved to Pieces 2" strips! I also have ten silk tassel charms available if you'd like to add one to your bag purchase, just be sure to let me know on Etsy when you order!



For today's special Giveaway prize I'm offering everything shown below -- a Loved to Pieces flat bottom zipper pouch bag with a silk tiered tassel charm, a six-piece bundle of Loved to Pieces prints, a spool of fuchsia Aurifil 40 wt perfect for hand piecing, an Omnigrid ruler, Dritz seam ripper, vintage needlecase kit, fabric quilt labels, a variety of EPP papers from Love, Patchwork & Quilting magazine and Dritz, plus a notepad, quilters graph paper notebook and sticker set from Art Gallery Fabrics!



Can you believe that everything shown here fits inside one of my bags!



I hope you've enjoyed my stop on Mister Domestic's Loved to Pieces Blog Tour! It's such an honor to be amongst this amazing line up of designers:

• Monday July 16: Amanda Woodruff of A Crafty Fox
• Tuesday July 17: Sharon Holland of Sharon Holland Designs
• Wednesday July 18: Angela Wolf of Angela Wolf Pattern Collection
• Thursday July 19: Brittany Jones of Brittany Jones
• Friday July 20: Sharon McConnell of Color Girl Quilts
• Saturday July 21: Elina Temmes of Elina Temmes
• Monday July 23: Meghan Buchanan of Then Came June
• Tuesday July 24: Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft
• Wednesday July 25: Cristy Stuhldreher of I Love You Sew
• Thursday July 26: Kate Basti of Quilt with Kate
• Friday July 27: Courtney Davis posting at Melly Sews
• Sunday July 29: Mimi Goodwin of Mimi G Style
• Monday July 30: Kim Niedzwiecki of Go Go Kim
• Tuesday July 31: Tara Curtis of Wefty Needle
• Wednesday August 1: Saija Kiiskinen of Saija Kiiskinen
• Thursday August 2: Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth
• Sunday August 5: Brett Lewis of Natural Born Quilter
• Monday August 6: Karen Tripp of The DIY Addict
• Tuesday August 7: Tracy Martin of Tracy Bug Creative
• Wednesday August 8: Sharon Burgess of Lilabelle Lane Creations
• Thursday August 9: Maureen Cracknell of Maureen Cracknell Handmade
• Friday August 10: Kylie Gersekowski of Little Moo Designs

I hope that we all inspire you to sew with Loved to Pieces!

Be sure to visit my Etsy Shop if you're interesting in ordering one of my Loved to Pieces Bags and be sure to visit my Instagram today at noon EST to enter my special Loved to Pieces GIVEAWAY!



xo Maureen

Boho Gift Sets : :

I'm so excited to share this new batch of Boho Clutch Gift Sets!





Have you seen the brand new Splendid and Printemps Fusions for Art Gallery Fabrics? These ten-piece quilting cotton collections are new colorings of favorite prints by AGF designers, grouped together in conceptual themes that make these prints feel brand new! I love these Fusions collections and I think these two new ones are so beautiful together!



Before I knew what project I'd be making with these Fusions, I cut into this stack of prints and made a pile of flying geese units. You can never go wrong with flying geese, right?! It wasn't until the end of my geese-making session that I decided to make them into these colorful, boho bags and I love them so much, I'm even keeping one for myself and I never do that!



For the limited edition gift sets that I make, I source out special items to include that make them extra special. For these Boho Gift Sets I attached to a sturdy denim side loop a Tiered Tassel Decorative Charm from Anthropologie and inside each clutch is a Rattan Floral Covered Journal that goes so perfectly in both color and style. I love how each piece of this new batch of gift sets coordinate together!



The exterior of each clutch is made of the flying geese units and Quick Quilt As You Go in Splendid, Printemps, and my new Flower Child fabrics. The interior is made in my Garden Dreamer Canvas for extra added durability and sturdiness.



I made ten large bags in total, half with these happy yellow zippers and half with bright fuchsia zippers, that come with a pretty blue suede zipper pull. Each bag measures about 11"x12" with a 2" boxy bottom. They're the biggest zipper pouch bags that I've made yet and I've decided I prefer my bags big like this. I think these will actually fit all of my makeup, perfume, hairbrush, sun glasses, etc.. so it will be perfect to carry in my purse to keep those things organized.



Can you believe I bought these Anthro tassels before I planned to use these fabrics to make these bags? How perfectly everything came together made me giddy! And I'm all about tassels these days, how about you?





I hope these bags inspire you to sew something fun with these new AGF Fusions and my Flower Child fabrics! I've added the six Boho Gift Sets that I have left to my Etsy Shop, incase you're in need of a gift or feel like treating yourself to something handmade by me! :) I have some new scrap bundles in the shop that include some pieces of these pretty fabrics, as well!





Thanks so much for stopping by! xo Maureen

Campsite Gift Sets : :

Last month I shared this post gushing over Art Gallery Fabrics brand new capsules collection, Campsite. Full of foxes, feathers, wildflowers, stars and so many more adorable motifs made this ten piece collection perfect for creating something special for anyone that loves woodland themed prints just as much as I do! Right away I got to work on a new small run, limited edition gift set inspired by this adorable collection!





Keeping with the outdoors adventure theme of Campsite I ordered supplies to include with these zipper pouch bags that would set the mood for some adventurous sketching -- a Rustic Branch Pencil and Handcrafted Journal were the perfect gift items to include tucked inside each cute bag!





Each Campsite Zipper Pouch Bag has a side loop perfect for adding a fun tassel, like this handmade wool felt tassel that I made as a quick experiment, or to hook on a handy wristlet strap to make these easy to carry on your wrist or shoulder while out adventuring.



For the zipper pull on each bag I added a length of genuine suede cording in a pretty light blue shade that coordinates perfect with the orange zipper and the colors of Campsite. I love getting creative and adding all of the little special details to each of these small run gift sets!



One side of these zipper pouch bags are a version of my herringbone quilt as you go that includes some larger fussy cut patches so I could feature Campsite's Sneaky Little Fox print The reverse side of each bag was designed to feature Fireflies Glow, a print with sparkling metallic painted fireflies circling a jelly jar with some captured fireflies. So cute!



I can't tell you how much I love making these gift sets! Since I moved out of my home studio into a much larger space, it has been so wonderful to think bigger when it comes to the things I can make. In the past I would typically make just one or sometimes two of each new idea I that had. These days I'm really enjoying having the option to make as many as I can of whatever new idea I have. My only restriction now that limits how many I'll make of something is the amount of supplies that I have on hand. It's so wonderful!



I hope you all love these new gift sets just as much as I do and that this project idea inspires your own sewing! If you're interested in purchasing one of my handmade items, you're welcome to visit my Etsy shop anytime to find most of the things that I make to share here on the blog. Mostly my hope is to excite those of you who stop by to sew with the collections that I love, as well as the collections that I design!

I'll have a new fabric collection to share with all of you later this week on my Instagram, so be sure to visit me there!



Happy Monday and happy sewing!  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