This blog is two years old! Wow!
The stitching is complete for the first set of elements, hydrogen, oxygen, and helium. The color palette red, yellow, and blue, so I used those colors pretty playfully.
Hydrogen
I love the neat messiness of the wrong side.
The thread is DMC and the fabric is a Kona solid in Snow.
Oxygen
Helium
Cricket Bear!
Thank you again for all the support! This next year we hope to start offering a slow trickle of ready-to-order items off of Etsy.
Happy New Year!
Goodbye 2017 and thank you for the many lessons over the past year!
One of my goals is to be busier and I wanted to make something special for my Aunt, a person I admire greatly from her loving and proactive spirit. After puttering around their website, I found Purl Soho’s “Everyday Tote” pattern.
I made my own binding using Cotton + Steel’s “Fiskers” in lavender.
The pattern calls for some beautiful cotton webbing handles, but I decided to use some of the extra canvas to make handles. I also put binding on one tote’s handles, and really like the look.
The sewing took under an hour for each bag. I used a combo of Aurifil thread and Gutermann.
Cricket loves the camera.
The contrast between the gold corduroy and the blue canvas is one of my favorite parts of each tote.
I ran out of the Cotton + Steel binding and found some of this extra binding, and though why not? I’m pretty happy with the pop of color and how it adds more to the tote’s character.
I highly recommend this, and any pattern, from Purl Soho!
Thanks for stopping by all year. It has been a monumental year for Brambleton Threads. This year we not only became an LLC, had our first gallery showing, but also completed a successful Kickstarter. We are grateful for the continued support on the blogging communties, Twitter, and from Kickstarter.
For any new eyes stopping by, thank you and enjoy!
Have a calm and safe end of the year.
I’m loving making crib quilts right now.
This is the twin to the last quilt I made. I used pink Aurifil thread and some extra grey Cotton + Steel fabric on the backing.
The batting is wool, and I like that. It adds a nice layer of puffiness.
I think this Cotton + Steel print is sweet and perfect for a tiny baby girl.
The quilting here is a bit more random, but I stuck with the basic X and straight lines to create a pretty and consistent movement.
I hope everyone has been well.
This crib size baby quilt is 54″ x 41″ and has a cotton batting. We aren’t sure if our friend’s baby is a boy or a girl, and not knowing that allowed for me to play a lot with color and some prints. I pieced together the top earlier this year, of course using Aurifil thread. The binding are batiks I had left over from another quilt.
This quilt reminds me of watching the sunrise over the Atlantic ocean, something I’ve been able to enjoy pretty often lately. The quilt backing fabrics are both Cotton + Steel. I love the pink’s lushness.
I used a deep gold thread to machine quilt this. In all spots that looked like a square I made an X and filled in the rest of the quilt with lines. The ocean often has pockets of smooth water on the surface and I thought of those spaces while I was making X’s.
A thank you to my husband for holding up the quilts!
I find machine quilting on cotton batting to be a lot smoother and quicker experience than with wool batting. The fibers in wool are much more like a bramble. Cotton typically settles down with itself. What do you like to use for batting?
Thanks for stopping by!
Last week we spent a couple of days pondering over business cards. I wanted something simple and thick enough that I could stitch across the top of the card. These cards are just what I was in the market for. They are lovely!
Where do you order cards from? Let me know if you have a favorite!
This Spring we launched a successful Kickstarter project (thanks again, everyone!) and are now in the process of creating the pieces. I’ve been brainstorming about each element all year and I’m thrilled to start stitching soon.
The fabric is a Kona solid in Snow. I’m pulling thread from 454 colors of DMC floss!
Lately I’ve been using watercolor to sketch out ideas, and the process has been rewarding. Here are some of the ideas I have for the elements I’ll be embroidering.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a wonderful August.
After a trip to the art store I came home with watercolor postcards and a small travel watercolor set. I haven’t used watercolor since I was in high school, but I’m back at it. To shake of the cobwebs I used Creativebug‘s Beginning Watercolor tutorial by Yao Cheng. Her teaching style is welcoming and clear.
This is a travel set offered by Winsor & Newton plus a pencil from Camel Pencil Company. I love the portability, and the affordability.
As some say, this palette is becoming seasoned!
These crescent shapes are something I’ve been playing with in pencil and pastels. The shapes came out nicely with watercolor. Yao Cheng demonstrates in her tutorials how to let colors bleed in to the other, and the effect is stunning to me.
The crescent shape is one that I love, maybe because it is almost a circle.
What have you been getting in to lately? Thanks for stopping by!
I wanted to have a little gift for a couple whose engagement party we were attending, and tea towels were the first thing to come to mind. Tea towels spruce up any kitchen and are a nice way to use up fabric from the stash.
Finished Size: 16″ x 24″ ***As you will see the size of the towel is adjustable. If you have a favorite tea towel, measure that one and add the seam allowances to the measurements. Or if you have a FQ (18″ x 22″) than you can use that after squaring it up, but it’ll be a bit shorter in length.
Materials for Two Tea Towels
Here is the Costco bought towel I based my tea towel on.
First I measured this towel to find the dimensions.
I added a 1/2″ seam allowance on each length and an 1″ on the width. ***Use these seam allowances if you’re using a fat quarter or a custom size.
3. Now that each side of the length is folded over 1/4″ twice, pin each side in place.
4. Sew 1/8″ away from the edge on both lengths. I’m using a 2mm stitch length here.
5. Sew 1/4″ away from the edge of both lengths, creating a parallel line to the first. Now the lengths should be completely sewn.
6. Turn to the width edges. Press and fold each width edge 1/2″, and then fold and press it 1/2″ again, pinning the edge to hold it in place until sewing. Repeat this on the other width.
7. Sew 1/8″ in from the edge on both widths.
8. Sew a 1/4″ from the edge on both widths.
9. Trim up any loose threads. Admire your tea towels!
10. This is a prefect item to embellish. I went for a little spot in each of the bottom right corners. You might want to put your initials or maybe an important date.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you make some awesome towels.
A few months ago a cousin and I made a trip to the fabric store and then by the Goodwill for some pillows. The Goodwill has great deals on pillows, especially for pillows that will receive a lot of good use. I referenced the blog Hey There, Home’s post on How to Make an Envelope Pillow Cover. I really enjoyed the clear instructions shown on Hey There, Home. My method was basically the same.
Here are the pillows pre-covering.
After measuring each pillow, I cut the fabric with a half inch seam added to the overall size.
The pinning.
I marked the corners before sewing and using the serger on the edges.
A covered pillow!
A long pillow covered.
A complete set.
This has been such an exciting month. A big thank you to all of those backers that helped fund our Kickstarter campaign–the support is stunning and I look forward to the stitching! We’ve been super busy with regular life. We are grateful for our good health.
Sending all our best to everyone!
This quilt started last year as two separate pieces from an in-person class at Country Roads Quilt Shoppe and a Carolyn Friedlander paper piecing creativebug tutorial. After combining the two pieces into one I added a border to even out the prints and piecing.
From West Virginia to Las Vegas and then to Virginia, this quilt was snuggled under after becoming only a sandwich! It also had a lot of machine quilting removed and redone; I found this task trying, but necessary.
For the paper piecing I used the scrap stash, with many of the fabrics being from Moda.
Quilting free form lines mesmerizes me because of the movement given to the quilt.
Many of these fabrics are from projects I completed prior to making this blog. It’s wonderful to see those scraps from previous projects, efforts, and little things of love I sent off in the world.
The main border fabric is from “Honeymoon” by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel. It reminds me of James Wright.
Since I’m a Robert Kaufman and Carolyn Friedlander fan this wide backing was perfect. It adds a nice softness.
The sunlight gives the machine quilting great shadows. Aurifil thread was used on this quilt.
One quilt done and another one on the way.
Our Kickstarter is going amazingly well. Thank you to all the supporters and those that have enjoyed the work. We’re really excited to being working on a new series of embroidery projects, and to be expanding Brambleton Threads.
Brambleton Threads 