I HEART Patterns by Annie + #SewPINK + {GIVEAWAY}

October 14, 2019October 14, 201921 Comments

Hey hey!! I’m the next stop on the #SewPINK blog tour. And honestly, when Annie Unrein asked me to be a part of this #SewPink Initiative, I didn’t hesitate. I said yes because the fact is that I super love Annie and I’d happily do anything for her. And because Annie is one of those people who lets you in, you connect with her instantly, there is no stopping our friendship.

As many of you know, beyond hanging out at Crimson Tate the fabric store, I design fabric for Windham Fabrics. And from the very first collection, Annie volunteered her talents and time to make objects from my designs.

From By Annie’s Catch-All Caddy in Succulents fabric:

To the MJ Tote in Literary fabric:

And now The Out and About Bag made from my latest collection coming in January 2020, Pencil Club:

Here’s a look at the stack of fabric.

I’m so honored to know Annie, and that she makes such wonderful things from my fabrics is a bonus. When she asked me to be a part of her tour, I said yes without really giving it much consideration. But as I sat to reflect on the expectation of this commitment and the amazingness that is Annie Unrein, I was stunned. I am in awe of her commitment to bring awareness to simple acts that can help save people’s lives. And who is doing that in and for our community? And who is doing that for themselves?

Here’s what I know. We are a community of encouragers, creatives, doers, inspiration seekers, sewers, and more. And a lot of that doing and seeking and encouraging often doesn’t leave room or time for the doing of basic needs like taking care of ourselves. When was the last time you went to the doctor? Am I talking to only myself right now? At the core of what ByAnnie Patterns is charging us with is a simple act. Basic awareness of our own bodies, taking the time to have regular check-ups, and a call to recognizing our own worth. How beautiful.

I’m reminded of the beautiful song written by musician India Arie that gets to the core of who we are and encapsulates our worth. Check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ism8dBjxKvc

I am light, I am light

[Verse 1]
I am not the things my family did
I am not the voices in my head
I am not the pieces of the brokenness inside
I am light, I am light (x2)

[Verse 2]
I’m not the mistakes that I have made
Or any of the things that caused me pain
I am not the pieces of the dream I left behind
I am light, I am light (x2)

[Verse 3]
I am not the color of my eyes
I am not the skin on the outside
I am not my age
I am not my race
My soul inside is all light, all light
Oh light, all light

[Verse 4]
I am divinity defined
I am the God on the inside
I am a star, a piece of it all
I am light

Annie’s call is definitely simple.

Keep your wits about you. Recognize your worth. And, get yourself to the doctor, especially if you haven’t been in a while. It’s important. If you need resource and information on understanding how breast cancer effects us, there are great resources on finding screening programs here:

Now onto what I created! I wanted to make something loving and of course I wanted to use my new fabric collection coming early next year, Pencil Club.

Using the sweet Heart Block Tutorial I created, I set my intention to make a pillow using Pencil Club and using ByAnnie’s Soft and Stable for the interfacing. You can find that tutorial here.

Here are my fabric choices including pencils, erasers, and pencil shavings plus a few Artisan [shot] cottons by Windham fabrics.

I cut a host of squares for the heart and for the back ground, and made four half square triangles. I followed the tutorial as written but changed how I squared the HST. I pulled out my Bloc-Loc 2.5″ HST ruler which made it a snap.

I laid out the blocks on my lightweight interfacing, but this time, I laid them out on point which meant I ended up using 57 background squares, 17 heart squares, and four HST to create the top.

Once it was sewn together, I loosely trimmed away the rugged edge. I trimmed just enough so that I could trim again once quilted. I pinned the top to a piece of Soft and Stable, ByAnnie’s foam interfacing, so that I could quilt it.

Once quilted, I sewed a back using an envelope closure method and VOILA — a cute lil’ pillow was born!

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Thanks for following along. It was a lot of information today.

We’d like to give away a selection of our patterns to our ByAnnie readers! Three lucky winners will receive a few patterns, templates, and fabrics from Crimson Tate. How can you win?!

Pledge to take care of yourself.

That’s it. Oh, wait. I guess you have to give us your information in order for a drawing to happen. Three ways to enter.

Leave a comment here that says “I LOVE ANNIE” or something similar.
Find and follow both Crimson Tate and Heather Givans on Instagram, leaving a comment on both #SewPINK posts. Again, emoting your appreciation for Annie Unrein or someone in your life that helps you step back and take stock and take time for yourself will get you two chances to win.
Sign-up for Crimson Tate email newsletter. You’ll find the link to do so here.

We will draw at the end of October and alert the troops to the winner. Thank you for following along and thank you for being in this awesome community.

AMY BUTLER’S BLOG TOUR: 10 STYLISH PROJECTS THAT CELEBRATE PATCHWORK

July 18, 2016July 25, 201682 Comments

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Worlds are about to collide! I’m the seventh stop (and maybe in seventh heaven) on Amy Butler’s Big-Old-Blog-Tour-Celebrating-Her-New-Book Piece Keeping. Even though I’ve got my own Paper Obsessed Blog Tour happening right now, I wanted to take a breather to show you what the Amy Butler has been up to. Have you seen this book?

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It’s ridiculously cute and incredibly inspired. Amy and I discussed Piece Keeping while we were at Quilt Market in Salt Lake City, UT. Remember? We made our Letters from Home quilt from her new fabric Eternal Sunshine for her booth.

We chatted a lot about how the book was filled with all kinds of different fabrics, not just the beauties that Amy herself has designed. As a fellow designer and artist, I agreed that it’s wonderful to pull inspiration from lots of different places. Mixing and matching various substrates that have richness of color and amazing textures found in fabrics like cotton linens can be so rewarding. I’m impressed that Amy’s new book pulls from a huge range of fabrics and textures.

One of my favorite projects in the book is the Stash Pouches project. The book includes instructions and patterns for three sizes of pouches. I landed on the large.

I wanted to incorporate some elements found in her inspiration, namely the leather pull and the metal zipper, so I headed to Diagon Alley to find my supplies. Just kidding. But I did go to a place that is pretty much where Harry Potter gets his supplies for Hogwarts. If you’re remotely close to Indianapolis and have just a slight interest in working with leather, you need to go to Landwerlen Leather at 365 S Illinois Downtown Indy.

The outside is so unassuming with the mailbox numbers glued to the window with its hand lettered and painted sign. But inside…

…it’s a dream world. Established in 1908, you’ll find old cabinets filled full of leather sewing supplies. They are a leather supply and shoe findings warehouse for the leather trades, small manufacturers, and hobbyists. And it smells INCREDIBLE like leather.

I got my goods, felt inspired, and set off to make my Stash Pouch. I chose to use Robert Kaufman’s Metallic Essex Linen with a piece of vintage plaid I’ve had in my stash forever. This also seemed like a good time to pull out a little hunk of Heather Ross’s Far Far Away printed on lightweight cotton linen to use as the lining.

Amy Butler made construction easy to follow and I truly appreciated that each of the pattern pieces told you exactly what to do as well as the book itself. Piece Keeping celebrates patchwork, so of course, the flying goose is the star of this bag. I mean, I love the flying geese. [Check out our Row by Row Experience block as evidence.]

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My most favorite part of this bag, however, is the sweet pleats. They make the entire project.

I added a little bit of my Paper Obsessed stamp fabric to the interior, just a little embellishment. I knew I loved it and I figured Amy would like the succulents hidden inside.

Here’s the view before I sewed it together. Notice there’s a sneaky pocket inside, too.

Want to peek in on a sample of the book with a sample of the instructions? Check it out here.

Amy Butler, Chronicle Books, Free Spirit Fabric, and Renaissance Ribbons are all giving away amazing swag with this blog tour. Each stop provides one winner a copy of the book, a fat quarter bundle of Eternal Sunshine, and a slug of Amy Butler designed ribbons. Leave a comment here and tell me what kind of sneaky treasure do you want to hide inside your Stash Pouch or tell me about the most amazing store you’ve ever been in that was unassuming from the outside but inside, there was total magic. I’ll draw one commenter randomly July 22 at 8:00 AM. Please make sure there is way to contact you (either through your link or by adding your email to the comment). Thanks for playing along. Don’t forget to find me in other avenues or visit me in the store at Crimson Tate!

· July 11 – Chronicle Books

· July 12 – The Root Connection

· July 13 – Suzy Quilts

· July 14 – Rock Paper Scissors

· July 15 – 100 Billion Stars

· July 16 – Carrie Bloomston

· July 17 – Late Night Quilter

· July 18 – Heather Givans of Crimson Tate [Alohamora!]

· July 19 – A Gathering of Stitches

· July 20 – Heather Jones Studio

· July 21 – Make It In Design

And if you’re inclined, hop on the Paper Obsessed Tour, too. We’d be happy to have you.

xoxxo

Heather

CONGRATULATIONS TO MARA!!! SHE’S THE WINNER OF THE RANDOM DRAWING. And thank you to everyone for the fantastic stories. 🙂

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Lotta Jansdotter is my best friend* + GIVEAWAY

December 9, 2015December 9, 201578 Comments

*not really. I’m just kidding.

In another life I worked at a local boss gift shop Silver in the City where I discovered amazing stationery and soft good designers such as Angela Adams, Lotta Jansdotter, and Juila Rothman. Fast forward ten years later and am in disbelief that I design fabric along side two of these women I’ve admired for so long. Windham Fabrics, I love you and thank you. My gratitude is endless. I can remember all the times we all huddled around the Lotta Jansdotter goods and awed over the choice of fabric (mostly linen) and that quintessential Swedish design. In my arsenal of items from that era still exists, I have more leather handled Lotta totebags then I’d care to admit.

I’m honored to present and let you peek in on Lotta Jansdotter’s new book for STC Craft, an imprint of Abrams publishing, Everyday Style.

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I took some time over the past few weeks to thumb through the book and I have to tell you, the images are inspiring. Jenny Hallengren is the photographer who you might remember took the photographs in Heather Jones’s book Quilt Local. Same photographer. Lotta’s style combined with Jenny’s know-how is a powerful combination. Then add pattern designer Alexia Abegg to the mix, and it becomes spectacular. I am particularly impressed with the hand drawn elements included. Look at how sweet this is.

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The book is filled with simple skirts, dresses, bags, and more with a modern Scandinavian elegance. I made a couple of projects from the book starting with the Wilma Bag. It is ginormous. Let’s play Who Wore It Better?? Here’s Lotta with her bag:

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Here I am with my Wilma Bag:

Ok. You don’t have to comment on who wore it better but I did wear every striped piece of clothing I could find that coordinated. I used an organic canvas ticking fabric and am glad I did. It has a great heft and the size of this bag can easily accommodate a sewing machine or more.

I call this photograph “If Lotta Jansdotter, Amy Butler, Heather Ross, and Heather Givans went into a bar…” Actually, that might have happened once. I can’t be sure. I stuffed this bag full of Indiana shaped pillows made from fabrics of some of these lovely ladies. I also created a CUUUUTE hat with simple pompom instructions found in Lotta’s book. It gave me an excuse to shop at Mass Ave Knits in Downtown Indianapolis. It is a yarn lover’s oasis.

I created this big ol’ pompom from a hand-dyed yarn. I know. I’ve probably offended yarn lovers with such a simple use of a beautiful yarn BUT I COULDN’T HELP IT. I was a moth to flame.

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The pattern for this cute hat is by the crazy talented Crafty Gemini. I used Echino jacquard knit instead of fleece and bam. It worked beautifully. The pompom instructions are found in Lotta’s book.

Thanks for reading along. I’m impressed with the visual inspiration found in Everyday Style. I’m certain to create more projects from the book. If you’d like to win a copy of your own, STC Craft, Tattly Tattoos, and Windham Fabrics are offering a prize package to include a copy of the book, a fat quarter bundle of Lotta’s fabric from Windham, Lotta temporary tattoos, and Lotta washi tape. So make sure you follow along on all of the blogs in the series, leaving comments along the way to be entered to win and being inspired. A winner will be chosen at each stop along the tour.

Dec 1 – Lotta

Dec 2 – STC Craft

Dec 3 – Windham

Dec 4 – Noodlehead

Dec 7 – Modern Handcraft

Dec 8 – Sew Scatterbrained

Dec 9 – Crimson Tate [you are here]

Dec 11 – Groovy Baby & Mama

Dec 14 – City Stitching with Christine Haynes

Dec 15 – Craft Sanity

Dec 16 – Aesthetic Nest

Dec 17 – Sew Mama Sew

Dec 18 – Lish Dorset

Dec 19 – Fancy Tiger Crafts

Dec 21 – Generation Q

Dec 22 – Carolyn Friedlander

Dec 23 – Crafty Planner

Winner on my blog will be chosen on December 26. So you’ll have time until then to make comments about your everyday style, Who Wore It Better, or just in general about your love of Lotta Jansdotter. I’ll randomly choose.

Heather Givans

Artist, Designer, Maker, Seeker of Fun and Kindness

Category: New Book + Giveaway

I HEART Patterns by Annie + #SewPINK + {GIVEAWAY}

AMY BUTLER’S BLOG TOUR: 10 STYLISH PROJECTS THAT CELEBRATE PATCHWORK

Lotta Jansdotter is my best friend* + GIVEAWAY