This week, Massdrop has posted an amazing opportunity for you to SAVE 33% on my All-Wool-Blend-Felts Pack from the Heather Bailey Store. Included with these 50 designer felt sheets is a FREE copy of my Full Bloom Felt & Fabric Roses pattern.
Take a look. Only FOUR more days to go.
Visit Massdrop.com and type "felt" into the search bar. Please share this news. The more who join in, the lower the price becomes.
That's right, Kerry (aka Kid Giddy) sent me one of her only two copies so I could share the book with you as part of my August HELLO Giveaways celebration. So exciting! Thank you, Kerry.
My first peek at this charming project book was earlier this year
when Kerry asked me to write the book's foreword. Over the course of
several emails back and forth and a couple of phonecalls, I got to know
Kerry and her concept. Each project in the book is tied to a story and
centered on four themes, taking us "from a fairy woodland, to the
coastal waters, to the arctic, and back."
lives in Maine with the ocean as her neighbor. One of my favorite
projects in the book is her Pinchy the Lobster character. Coming from
the land of paisley turtles and floral elephants, there's something about a calico lobster that certainly works for me.
I also love her station wagon and hipster-camping-trailer pattern
above. Not only does it wax nostalgic, but here's one car toy that won't
split your eyebrow open when your toddler attacks. That's a true bonus.
I've had more than one request from my family to design some soft
boy-toys suitable for snuggling. Our Evan likes a big reaction. This often translates into experimental hammering on his siblings and parents—especially at bedtime.
Beyond these great projects, Kerry has also included a dolphin
pattern, an orca whale, a row boat, a hot air balloon, a teddy bear, and
an igloo—to name just a few. A wide variety of projects for one book.
Join me in congratulating Kerry and KP Craft on their lovely new book. Watch for Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love: 18 Toy Patterns for the Storytelling Sewist to reach your local bookstore or fabric shop this fall and go get yourself a copy. Also, keep up with Kerry on her Kid Giddy blog (she's just beginning to post reveals of her gorgeous new sewing studio), and on facebook, twitter, pinterest, and flickr while you're at it.
Today's giveaway winner will receive this early copy of the book—signed by the author and me. Invaluable 🙂 Comment to
enter. One entry per household. Be sure to include your email
address
in the comment form so we can contact you if you win.
Giveaway closes at 11:59pm PST on Sunday 9/1/13. It's
a holiday weekend and the final stretch of my giveaway marathon. As
such, I'm giving you through the weekend to enter so everyone can have a
decent shot—even those who have found time away from the computer with
their families! Watch for the winner to
be announced within the week at the bottom
of the post.
For more info on my August giveaway party, click here. Please
share the word. See you again tomorrow. And Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone.
Good luck!
xo—Heather
How about some luscious felt? Three palette packs of our designer wool-blend felt in Reds/Pinks, Blues and Oranges/Yellows
for today's giveaway—perfect for accessories and embellishments,
embroidery and applique. In my opinion, everone should have a rainbow of
glorious felt at her disposal. Let's get you all set up! A $32 value.
At Quilt Market last May, I met Nathan and Stacy Wiedenmann who were
there introducing a new product to the world. And it was no elementary,
homespun product either, but a multi-function task light of all things.
Now how do you get that made?
The inventor in me can't resist new gadgets. The business owner in me
thrills to see someone tackle manufacturing with success. Isaac has two
pet lighting inventions he wants to patent and market one day, so
meeting small business owners in the lighting trade is extra fun.
Now, I'm going to butcher the Stella Lighting
story, but as I understand it, Nathan was at a meeting at Starbucks
where he and an associate were discussing a prototype of this lamp when a
quilter approached them to find out more about it. After a
demonstration, she insisted that she needed the lamp and she needed it
now. And that other quilters and crafters needed it too. The punchline
is: this godsend matchmaker hooked up a great little lamp with an eager
audience and it was true love.
what makes this light different? The Stella task lamp is stocked with
21 little LED light bulbs, all rated to last for 50,000+ hours—we'll
call that a lifetime of use. You never have to change the bulbs. With
efficient LED technology, the lamp uses 10% of the electricity of a
comparably bright incandescent light. And the light stays cool, so you
can work right under it very comfortably. It is available as a desk lamp or floor lamp.
It also has five brightness levels, so it can be adjusted to the task at hand. You can choose from three different light temperatures, including a warm light (very similar to incandescent light), a very cool light, and a bright, daylight-balanced light.
For me and my purposes, the
daylight-balanced setting is where it's at. Much of my work involves
reviewing colors for accuracy. And having a Stella on hand allows me to
work later into the day, after the sun has set—perfect for evaluating
fabric strike-offs, painting new artwork, or choosing thread colors.
The light is even and bright and the neck of the lamp can be bent in almost any direction. It's streamline shape allows it to peek in quietly over your work or move aside as needed.
Check in with Stella on Twitter and Instagram. Visit StellaLighting.com
for a video introduction and more information about the product and the
company. Art stores, quilt stores, needlework stores and more are all
starting to carry this new light, so watch for the Stella at your local
shop.
Stella Lighting is generously donating one white Stella task lamp for today's giveaway. A $220 value.
Comment to enter. One entry per household. U.S. shipping only on this one. Be sure to include your email
address
so we can contact you if you win. You don't have to type your email
address into the body of the comment if you entered it in the email-address
field on the comment form. Today's giveaway will close at noon PST on Tuesday 8/20/13. Watch for the winner to
be announced within a few days at the bottom
of the post.
For the backstory on my August HELLO Giveaway project, click here. Please
share the word. And check back every day.
Good luck!
xo—Heather
My daughter Charlotte should write a book. I've never seen a more prolific eight-year-old. She is a craft-making machine.
Her favorite stuffed animal is an Airedale Terrier. So, this week,
she decided that all of her arts and crafts would be Airedale-Terrier
themed. Today, she is finishing up this incredible little felt pillow
and then I'm on board to teach her how to cross-stitch—another Airedale
Terrier.
If you follow my feed on Instagram, you'll know I'm trying to be more
organized about my kids' summers this year, and break the time up with a
number of planned projects and activities. We'll see how that goes.
But, as for the down time in between, I have to say that a big bin of
felt, some thread and a needle sure come in handy.
Check out the current issue of Where Women Create magazine—that’s me on the cover below. Included are the first public photos of our company workspace, a.k.a. HB headquarters, as well as photos of my home studio. See our design space, the online store’s fulfillment area, the amazing worktables Isaac completed last spring, and more. The article covers my typical workday, juggling kids, artwork, employees, licensees, etc. I’ve been holding off showing you my new space till this issue hit newstands. I’m glad it’s here!
If you are new to Where Women Create, rush to get your first copy. Seriously. Each issue is more like a book than a magazine, thick with beautiful images and inspiring stories. The cover price is bit higher than other magazines—in order to keep the issues from being bogged down with a gazillion advertisements, and to make space for much more content than other magazines have—completely worth the price. If you’re looking for a signed copy, we have a handful available. Just a handful though.
The magazine’s founder, Jo Packham, has a long history in book publishing. Where Women Create is her first magazine title, sprung from a book by the same name. This year, she has launched her newest project, Where Women Cook, a sister magazine to Where Women Create. Read up on your favorite foodies. Drool over pages of mouth-watering recipes. This new title promises to be just as inspirational—especially if you’re into food—and who isn’t?
Jo, along with Nancy Soriano (love Nancy too!), former Editor-in-Chief of Country Living Magazine and current Publishing Director of Craft for F & W Media, are the founders of The Creative Connection conference held last month in Minneapolis. I attended the conference last year as a Panelist and had intended to be there this year as well. Everyone featured in this month’s Where Women Create magazine was there for an autograph party on Friday night and several participated in classes, forums, panels, and so forth. I was home feeding the newborn.
It’s a fantastic event that I lend my enthusiastic support to. If you have the opportunity to attend next year’s conference, do. Follow the event’s twitter chatter by entering the hashtag #tcce11 over on Twitter. To find out more about next year’s conference, check the Creative Connection website for updates. Also, if you’re in Orlando this weekend, head to the Southern Women’s Show to meet Jo and her team. Where Women Create has a full schedule of events and meet-n-greets planned for the show’s stage.
Thank you, Jo, for the honor of being your cover gal for this issue. It’s been a delight getting to know you this year.
Make a new friend in Henrietta turtle (or skip the flower corsage and
make a Henry turtle). Henrietta will gladly house your pins &
needles or entertain your baby or pet — but not at the same time. She's funny that way.
You may have glimpsed my pokey new sewing buddy in my recent interview
on NBC. This sewing pattern is hot off the press and ready to ship. I'm
in love. Sitting by my sewing machine, Henrietta reminds me to take my
time and enjoy the process.
Fresh from Bingo night, come Edna, Matilda, Eloise, Harriet, Penelope and Gladys. "Shush, dearie. Did that nice young man call B-15?" Six different materials kits available here — pattern sold separately.
A herd of turtles. Or as my dad likes to say, "A terd of hurtles."
Four-year-old Charlotte did this all by herself. I thought I was
embracing disaster by allowing her free access to several bins of beads
while I worked on the computer today. I was entirely wrong.
Not
only did Miss C patiently string together all of these designs without
my oversight, but she made them all symmetrical. Even her most
eclectic necklace doesn't miss a beat
bead. Hours and hours of necklace-making. All I did was add the
clasps. And I bent a loop at the top of her one pendant. That's it.
When I was four years old, my bottom dresser drawer was stocked with
white paper, a stapler and staples. I made all sorts of wild
inventions with white paper that year. And here I thought I had been
tricky-stuff at four, with my paper robots and elephants. Looks like
Charlotte has 4-year-old me mightily whooped.
The moral:
Moms, Grandmas, Aunts and Alligators, let your kids have access to some
of your precious supplies. They may surprise you with tidiness and
ingenuity! I can only imagine what I would have done with real art
supplies at that age.
Of course, they may surprise you with a royal disaster instead. I've been there too — many times.
I'm
in the home-stretch of a many-months' design project. With a name
chosen, a logo and some final print-outs, my next fabric collection
will head off to the mill and my brain will be my own again. I've been
twittering as a welcome distraction. Next I'll need a new phone plan
so I can twitter from anywhere. Then I can get input on whether to buy
the yellow shirt or the blue one, have help choosing a dessert at the
grocery store, or discuss any number of random ponderings while on the
go.
For instance, I've been thinking about Magic Shell
a lot lately — well, more than usual, which is never — probably
because ice cream consumption increases in direct proportion to an
increase in workload. Magic Shell can't be natural. But, it sure
tastes like chocolate and not as much like plastic as I'd expect. I
twitter-tweeted my love of Magic Shell and WhipUp twittered me right back a link to a make-your-own-Magic-Shell recipe here.
For my last 2009 MOT post, I'm singing praises for the Stuffing Fork by Barbara Willis — my favorite tool for stuffing stuff with stuffing : )
— like pincushions, dolls, toys, etc.
This
simple tool is awesome. You can use it to push stuffing into just the
right spot. And for teensy stuffed things, like doll fingers and
noses, the small Stuffing Fork
is great. If you poke the fork into a small tuft of stuffing and give
it a twist, you can maneuver your stuffing bit in place. They really
are great.
We just stocked a handful of each size, large and small, in our store (10% discount here
till April 5th). I have an old-school, wooden-handled Stuffing Fork
that's been well-used and well-loved for the last decade or more. Now
I've upgraded to these new ones which have a molded plastic handle and
are even better — a necessary tool for your sewing arsenal.
And
because April is upon us, I'm going to bullet-list out a few more tools
I love, then call it done for the year. Totally random though. No
rules.
Water-soluble markers. 
Okay, so I'm off to polish up a logo for the fabric collection, then
it's back to a more normal pace — and a movie & a milkshake. Any
movie recommendations?
