Well, tomorrow is the first day of October. We all know what that means! Besides preparing for cooler Autumn weather, we need to get busy with our holiday gift preparations. Remember, it does take some time to create gorgeous gifts for our families and loved ones. These gifts are always appreciated, and the time that goes into preparing them is time well spent. I find it very rewarding to create unique or one of a kind special items for gifts. It is always nice to have some new holiday decor too! Plus, beautiful fabrics, yarns, and other supplies do sell out, sadly enough, so ordering or preparing in October is a good plan. If you have a specific project in mind, please order early, don’t wait until it is too late!

I have started creating gifts, and thought I would share a few here. I encourage you to raid your stash for fabric or embellishments, and will also list some fun and beautiful fabrics that would work well if you create any of the placemats in the free placemat pattern we have for you today.

First, I am a sewer and quilter, but I am also a scrapbooker and stamper. I love to incorporate fabric into my projects, regardless of what type of project it is. Yes, I am a fabric-addict, who isn’t? . Using your fabric scraps for other projects such as cards, books, altered art, or other projects not only makes sense dollar wise, it also makes a beautiful project. For those of you that are scrapbookers, you may have heard of the company Basic Grey. I love this company, they have many beautiful designs and products. I was thrilled to pieces when I heard that Moda had picked up the designs for a fabric line based on the Figgy Pudding line by Basic Grey. We have sold out of many of the pieces (and can’t restock them since Moda has sold out as well), but we do still have quite a few pieces in this collection left, as well as the wonderful Jelly Rolls, and other fabric cuts. You can view or order them here. (Remember, quantities are limited.) I used some of the Moda fabric and stitched up a tree for the cover, and used some of the Basic Grey papers from my stash to create this fun little mini book. I used lots of leftover bits of fabric in my book too, it added a nice bit of texture to the project -

I am working on a table runner too (no pattern available for this tablerunner) –

I am also using the fun tree theme with these placemats (pattern linked below)-

I am happy to share the pattern for the tree placemats until December 15, 2009. You can access it here. We will be removing the pattern access after December 15, so make sure you get it before then! The placemats do not use a lot of fabric, and not only are they great holiday decor, they make wonderful gifts too. Stitching them up can be addicting, I am in the process of making over a dozen right now.
Here are a few other fabric suggestions that would work beautifully for the placemat pattern -

Roses De Noel

Once Upon A Christmas

I Believe by Nancy Halvorsen -

Beautiful Balis

Of course there are lots of other gorgeous choices as well. Our Old fashioned prints would be a fun use with this pattern, as well as some of our solids, and other lines. How creative can you be? Don’t forget to raid your stash! Sometimes you only need to order a little bit of fabric and you can “shop” your stash for the rest!

One thing I highly recommend for this project is the Pellon Fusible Fleece (item 95394). It is such a time saver, and gives gorgeous results, no matter what your project is. Plus, one yard will do 6 placemats! That is a steal of a deal any day of the week!

Speaking of Roses De Noel, have you seen this gorgeous fabric pack?

I can’t wait to make this quilt, it is absolutely beautiful. It shouldn’t take too long either, and it will definitely be worth it when it is finished. The faric pack comes with the pattern, so you can get started right away. You can view or order it here. Quantities are limited.

Looking for super cute and quick Christmas projects? Check out Nancy Halvorsen’s I Believe Book and fabric packs here.
I can’t wait to create boatloads of darling gifts using this fun book!

If you are interested in any of the fun and festive prints from this collection, please order soon, as they are selling quickly. Our fabric buyers are doing their best to keep plenty of this fabric in stock, but it is a challenge, as the fabric can be used for so many projects. Plus it is really colorful, cheerful, and fabulous!

Of course we have lots of other beautiful things to create lovely gifts, such as yarn (who doesn’t love a cozy sweater or some warm socks?), crossstitch, hand embroidery, machine embroidery items, beautiful wools and felts, jewelry components, and oodles of different patterns. Just remember to allow your self time to complete your projects, as December will be here before we know it!

So don’t forget, it is time to get out the warm blankets and socks, and also get busy working on some wonderful gifts.

Since wool is such a popular item in our store and on our website, we asked Cathy Mark, one of the buyers for that department, to give us some basics! We carry two types of wool fabrics for applique projects; woven wool, and wool felt. Woven wool is what most people think of when they think of a wool skirt or coat. The fibers are woven into a fabric that can be used for sewn items as well as craft items. Then there is wool felt, which is a felt product (like acrylic felt the kids use) in that the fibers are just randomly layered and pressed together into fabric. The wool felt has a stiffer feel than the woven wool, but because it is a blend (ranges from 20% – 70% wool) it is less expensive. We do also carry 100% Wool felt, but it is priced more like the 100% woven wool fabric. All can be used for the wool applique patterns we sell. Choosing is a matter of look and feel more than anything else – which colors do you want to use, what texture do you like? The woven has a finer texture, so is great for details and smaller pieces, while the felt makes a great base for a project because of its sturdy characteristics.

You can “felt” either of these fabrics. This process is explained on our web site. It involves washing the wool to get the fibers to react and shift. This gives the wool more texture and prevents fraying. When you purchase over-dyed wool, you don’t need to wash it because that was done when it was dyed the second time. You can use wool felt just as it is, or wash it, to give it a thickened, antiqued, bumpy look.
We have a great selection of wool felt which you can purchase in squares, or as yardage as well as a basic selection of woven wool yardage and woven fat quarters. We carry Week’s Dye Works over-dyed wool fat quarters and squares, as well as our Erica’s Exclusive Mini Color Rolls of over-dyed wool. We also have a beautiful selection of wool bundles – color coordinated to make choosing easy. These have already been felted, so they are ready to go!

You also have options when choosing what fiber to use for doing the stitching on your project. DMC Floss is a great all purpose choice as the multiple strands let you decide how much you want the floss to show (one strand for almost invisible to 6 strands for really “there”). If you prefer a single strand, there’s Perle Cotton. Week’s Dye Works Floss and Gentle Art Floss are over-dyed, so each strand gives a range of color and this is a nice effect, especially if you’re using over-dyed wool and its colors vary. The Valdani products are also over-dyed in wonderful shades and are THE preferred floss and pearl these days. And they come in combo boxes or individually, so you can get a great assortment or just what you need.

We have 2 new holiday wool projects we’d like to mention. Both make use of the wool felt that we carry. The “Santa Pillow” (“use Ctrl F” like we showed you last week, to find 40086, and the pack 58169) and “The Stockings Were Hung” (40823, pack 58168) are sure to be popular pieces this holiday season, and they are quick, easy, and fun!

Non-seasonal favorites are several new pincushion patterns – great little projects – (44265, 44266, 44267). Also very popular on that page are the chicks candle mat (29603) and strawberries candle mat (36133).
Another line has wonderful, colorful, modern designs. Some of the new penny rug patterns have precut templates! (45269, 45270)

We hope you’ve found this interesting. You can shop our wool/wool felt department by starting here.

Don’t let “Boo” become “Boo Hoo!” Our Halloween fabric is moving quickly–don’t wait!! Many manufacturers printed less Halloween and fall fabrics and are not reprinting. So if you see it and like it, don’t wait!!

Some of our staff fell in love with Halloween Row, (about a third of the way down the page) a Halloween wallhanging or lap-size throw, and decided they would each make a row. It is a scrappy quilt, so you can drag out all of your Halloween fabrics and your oranges and blacks, or we have conveniently prepared a fabric pak, all ready to go!! And it includes the stuff to make those fuzzy spider legs, too!

A number of the rows are very quick appliqué, and there are a couple of pieced rows.

They’re basic and simple: a log cabin, a star (easy made with flying geese) and a split nine patch. Working it a row at a time makes it seem so much easier to accomplish. Quick as a witch’s wink, you’ll have a great Halloween decoration or quilt to cuddle with as it gets cooler. (Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but you’ll have it for years to come!)

My daughter, Cathy, made a model of another fun Halloween project. It’s an inexpensive Witch Patternlet. (Almost half way down) You use a towel as the witch’s skirt, and her shoes hang down and dangle! For our model, she used one of our black homespun towels with two brown stripes.

Here are a few notes if you want to do the flat version instead of the ruffled version shown in the pattern.

* Start by attaching the cream to the towel as instructed in the pattern.

* Then fold & press lengthwise a 2″ strip of the orange fabric, putting raw edges together. This strip should be 3/4″ wider than your towel, to be able to wrap the ends around the back & stitch them down.

* Sew this to the front of the towel with most of it on the black, just barely overlapping the seam at the edge of the cream. (We show it in this photo with a basting stitch, but you would actually sew this with a regular stitch by machine.)

* Fold the strip down, covering the raw edges, and stitch down the folded edge. A buttonhole stitch would be a nice touch! A perfect finished edge and an easy technique!