FALL ORNAMENTS





Oh man! It's already quite cold outside and around 4 pm totally dark, but what can I say...I love fall here! I really love seeing all the wooden houses with the lights on and with lots of lighted candles placed on every window, it's so cozy!

We are spending a lot of time indoors these days, our afternoons are basically coffee, music, candles and blankets. Yesterday I spent some time hand sewing some cute fall ornaments to hang around the house! The two leaves are made from an Ikea fabric I bought some time ago (which I also used to make this cactus pincushion), unfortunately I just had enough to make a couple of them, wish I had bought more! The two little chestnuts are super simple and easy and I love how they turned out! I think I might sew some more today.

We don't celebrate Halloween, well we did last year but just because we were in the US and it felt natural, but this year we will celebrate La Castanyada, which is the All Saints festivity of our home country, Catalunya. It consists basically on eating chestnuts, sweet potatoes and panellets (delicious small cakes) with the loved ones. We are very excited cause Albert's parents are coming tomorrow from Barcelona, so I think it will be a great weekend!

I'm still deciding where to hang up the ornaments, I keep changing them from one place to another, but probably the window is my favorite spot. What do you think?

Hope you guys have a great weekend, specially those who celebrate something, whether it's Halloween or not!

Hugs!

Ingrid



LITTLE MOUSE BABY QUILT PATTERN




Finally this year we are having a real fall! Although I miss California a lot, now I realize how much I missed having seasons! It's fun to see how everything around us changes so much each day, the colors, the weather, our clothes and also the light. We are approaching to the dark season here in Norway, the days are shorter each day and even though it scares me a bit, I know I will handle it. I mean, I'm a homey person and if all this cold and darkness have something good, it must be spending quality time at home.

I've been working a lot these days, I have some pretty things to show you and also good news to tell you, but it will have to wait a bit!



Meanwhile I wanted to let you know that I've finished the pattern/tutorial for my Little Mouse baby quilt! Some of you asked me about it and I know it's been a while, but it's finally available! I've put so much love into it, specially in all the illustrations! The pattern is meant to guide you along the whole quilt making process and it also includes templates and directions to make a matching mouse softy for your little one. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

You can find the pattern either on my etsy shop or on Craftsy.

The main fabrics I used to make this projects were from the fabric line Fort Firefly by Teagan White. I'm sure you can still find some of the prints, but if not, Teagan's new collection called Acorn Trail would be perfect too! I really love her work! ;)

Hope you all have a great week!

Ingrid






AROUND THE WORLD BLOG HOP

Hello there! Today I'm participating in the Around the World Blog Hop! I'll be answering four questions and then, I'll ask three other bloggers to do the same. I've enjoyed reading the answers of many bloggers I follow and today I'm quite thrilled, as it happens to be my turn!

I was invited by Maryse from Maryse Makes Things, she's such a talented lady, so go and check her work! I'm quite in love with the two quilts she's working on!

For those who are new here, first off welcome to Sewing Lab! I'm Ingrid! Fabric is my big passion and I love to experiment with it! I started Sewing Lab as a creative journey in order to share my projects, learn and connect with other people! I'm from Barcelona but I moved to Norway few months ago. Before of that, I lived in California for nearly two years, so as you can tell, it's been a huge change, but I'm loving the experience!

What am I working on? 




I recently finished a quilt top that now needs to be quilted. I love this quilt so much! It has so many special fabrics and different textures. I've been contemplating it for a couple of weeks, while deciding the perfect backing for it and now I'm totally ready to start the quilting fun. I'm planning to make a matching bolster cushion cover, but I want to see the finished quilt first!


I'm also working on a baby quilt! I had on hand a fat quarter bundle of the fabric line Storybook, in the pink colorway that was calling for my attention. As the line is clearly girly and infantile, I decided to start a quilt for a baby girl. I have almost all the stars done and I just need to sew some borders to separate the star blocks from each other a little bit. I think this one is gonna be quite cute with its castles, air balloons and clouds, can't wait to see it finished! :)


I'm almost done with the pattern/tutorial for my Little Mouse baby quilt! I've spent lots of hours working on it, drawing, testing and writing, so hopefully it will be available by the end of the week! I've also included templates and instructions for the little guy above, cause I adore it!

I'm slowly preparing a tiny room in our new apartment to be my studio. Lately I'm obsessed with the idea of hand printing fabric, sewing with my own fabric designs has been a long time dream of mine and now it seems to be a bit closer. These days I'm spending time just figuring out all the materials I need, the cost of it all and how to fit everything in the tiny room. I think it's gonna take a while, but I'm so excited about it!

How does my work differ from others of its genre?



I like to think that everyone's work is special in some way. Sometimes maybe we aren't even conscious, but in every decision and stitch we make, we create something that is unique and that we love. In my case, I think my work is constantly evolving and it feels good, because it means I'm learning and trying new things every day. I love to make sweet and warm quilts and also other fun sewing projects! It always makes me smile when I think that all the things I do are made out of just two ingredients: fabric and love! :)

Why do I write/create what I do?

Well, I think my head would explode if I didn't! It's really important to make what makes one happy and for me, this means spending time surrounded by fabric. I do all the projects I do because it means the world to me, I'm the happiest when I'm planing and working on something new.

How does my writing/creative process work?

Normally I have way too many ideas in my mind, I write to do lists everywhere and actually sometimes I feel bad because the work I get done is just a little fraction of the things I want to do. I wish the day had more hours! Normally I work in two or three projects at the same time and when I get stuck in one of them, I leave it for a while and move on to the others. Apart from to do lists, my creative process also involves a lot of crazy drawings, until I decide to finally go for it. And then, I normally change everything up again in the last minute!

Choosing fabrics is quite an instinctive (not random) process for me. Normally I don't make projects where the fabrics are sewn together randomly, I need to carefully decide where each fabric goes. I think that even if I really wanted to make a totally random project, it wouldn't work out! (I really need to try it someday though!)

I find inspiration everywhere, in every quotidian moment. I love to make things that will add beauty to those moments and that will make us feel better in our everyday.

Now I'm gonna keep the ball rolling! The there bloggers I've tagged are: Ann from anniemac original, Manu from i ManuFatti and Kimberly from Robot Mom sews! They will be posting next week, so make sure to stop by their blogs!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Ingrid

HAND PRINTED PLACE MATS




Hello!I've been wanting to try my hand at hand printing fabric since quite a long time now. I really wanted to start very simple, making a quick and fun weekend project. I went to my local craft store and bought a set of fabric paint and brushes! It's the only I had to buy, so, apart from easy, this project turned out very affordable too!

We are taco lovers at home, specially if they are fish tacos! taco Tuesdays became a tradition in California and we are keeping it here in Norway as well, which is a must because we find really good fish here. We can't find tomatillo though, so no more tomatillo sauce! :( instead we prepare a lime sauce now which is super delicious too! Why I talk about all this? well, because I made a couple of hand printed fabric place mats for our taco Tuesday nights! I thought that hand printing "limes" on them would be really cool!

I'm using them as place mats, but they could be used also as tea towels or napkins!

Wanna know how I did it? I'll explain it in a second, but first let me also tell you that this is the perfect project for doing with kids! It's so fun!

Ok, what we need?

Materials

- water-based fabric paint. I used green, yellow and white!
- bowl or plate to mix the paint 
- fabric 
- scissors (or rotary cutter and mat)
- carrot (oh yes, a carrot!)
- knife
- brushes 
- water to clean the brushes 
- iron
- Basic sewing supplies

As always, let's first see a quick overview of the whole process. Detailed instructions below!



1. First off, get your fabric ready! I used white cotton. Wash and dry your fabric before painting. Then, iron it and cut it to the desired size. I cut two fabric pieces of 21" x 19", but you may want another size. If you go for another size, just remember to add two extra inches on each side for the hems. 

2. Cover with plastic or newspapers the surface where you're gonna work and put all the materials on it before starting the project (you might prefer to leave the carrot and the knife in the kitchen). This is very important if you don't want to create a huge mess! I worked on the floor and covered it with a big plastic I had on hand.


3. Prepare the paint. I was looking for a lime color, so I mixed green, white and yellow until I got what I expected. I can't tell the exact quantities because it was a really random process. I even picked up some limes to see well the color! I can't say I achieved the same exact color but just one I liked enough! 



4. Now it's time to shape our carrot stamp! (I did this step in the kitchen). Cut your carrot in segments of about 1 1/2 - 2 " long and shape as shown above (it's supposed to be a lime wedge cut in half). Shape all the carrot segments in order to have different stamp sizes, this will add variability to your pattern. You can use other vegetables and fruits here, potatoes, apples, etc. (It's better not use the juicy ones like limes for example, believe me I tried!).



5. Now comes the fun part! With the help of a brush, paint your carrot stamp! It just needs to be slightly covered, so don't put to much paint on it. Press it down onto your fabric and remove.

I stamped "half limes" all around the borders of my piece of fabric, leaving the center unpainted. In some of them, I used just yellow paint to add more variability. As you can tell from the pictures, I didn't push enough in some of them and I think it would have worked better with less paint, but I really don't' care! I didn't want to be perfectionist, it's a project to have fun and at the end I love all its imperfections! 

6. Once you're happy with your design, let the fabric dry for at least 24 hours.



7. Iron 5 minutes without steam to set the paint.


6. Finish your place mats with 1/2 " hems. To make a hem, fold 1/2" of the fabric over and 1/2" over again. Iron, pin in place and stitch it! I used yellow thread to make mines.


I really loved making this fun project and I can't wait to hand print fabric again using other methods. Hope you give it a try! There's endless possibilities to make! Have fun! :)

Happy Wednesday!


Ingrid