Let's MEET and play with Safari SWEET!

Hi all. I have exciting news. My first fabric collection, Safari Sweet, IS NOW IN STORES! Yay! To celebrate, the lovely Nikol from Sewtropolis in Minneapolis, and I are having an embroidery get together on Saturday. We'll be stitching up little embroidered animal brooches like the one above. It's a super fun project and is especially good for kids or if you've never embroidered or sewn before. At Sewtropolis you'll also get to see a whole bunch of fun projects that you can make with Safari Sweet, like the giraffe quilt. I'll also be signing my children's book, No Monster Here. So come by on Saturday, it'll be SUPER FUN!

Saturday, October 1
1:00 - 3:00pm
Sewtropolis
5 West Diamond Lake Road
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55419

Pile'o'gators

Finished making some alligators out of Safari Sweet!

I made a Kitty and Yarn

Sheesh, it's been another long time since a post. I promise you it's because I've been working on some super fun (and time consuming) projects that I'll be able to talk about soon. Just thought I'd share with you some recent fun stuff. I completed a custom kitty of the lovely Chloe. I don't do these very often, but when I do they end up being really fun for me. I love being able to add all the extra details that I don't do with my normal kitties.
And the other little project is...I made yarn! It was my birthday last week (31 eek!) and the hubs and I stopped by the Minnesota Textile Center to check out the gallery. The Textile Center is also the home of the Weaver's Guild of Minnesota and they had their store open when we were there. They had a gorgeous wall full of beautiful yarn on cones just waiting to be woven into fabric. They also had books and some kits. I purchased a Spindle Kit that came with some poofs of wool and a spindle made from an old cd. I've seen people with their spindles online making all sorts of yarn and I've been wanting to give it a try too, so I was just squealing when I saw the kit. When I got home I gave the spindle a try and found that it definitely got some getting used to. You almost need a third hand to man the spinning while your other hands work on putting the wool together. I have a new appreciation for all the spinners out there. It wasn't until I was done that I realized that I had been spinning the yarn way to tightly so when I made it into a ball I had to unwind the yarn a ton. Gah. All in all spinning was fun. Not sure I'll be doing much more of it (it was kind of hard on the wrists) but I got to learn a new thing and I probably won't obsess about it much longer. Now I'll just obsess about the wall of yarn back at the Weaver's Guild.

Quilt Market prep

Hi folks. I've been in Quilt Market preparations for a while now. I'll be off to Salt Lake City on Wednesday to start setting up my trade show booth. Eeek! I'm really excited. Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on everything. Above is a little iphone pic of my studio from about a week and a half ago. I was stitching a new big lion pillow. It's so much fun to stitch these animals at the larger size.

My bunny is in Small Magazine!

I'm a couple of days late with this post, but I'm still super excited. My bunny muff was photographed for small magazine! Small has the BEST photography of kid's fashion and it's worth a look if you haven't checked it out. I'm so happy my little plush friend could be a part of it.

Artist: Myko Bocek Studios

I've been staring at this little puffball owl for weeks now. Isn't he the cutest! All of these wooly pom pom characters are by Myko of Myko Bocek Studios. Check out more of her creations in her etsy store, facebook and blog. She has tons of Easter/Spring cuties in the store right now. How fun!

Gallery Hanahou - Luv-able & Hug-able opening

Hey, NYC peeps. You should all go down and see the Luv-able & Hug-able exhibit at Gallery Hanahou! (from Dec 9 - Jan 14) The popular plush show's theme this year is "Wear-able" meaning that most everything there will be plush that you can wear! There is so much amazing work by some of my fav artists. This is my first year participating and I have three kitty necklaces with braided silk ribbon. And also I think one of my favorite things I've ever made, a bunny muff, EEEEEE! I can't wait to make more of these guys. This one has little stitched snowflakes on it but I can't wait to make one with a bunch of sparkly beads and sequins for all the snow. I can't wait!

Giveaway!!!!! My new patterns

Hi peeps! Man, this has been my busiest holiday season ever, which is awesome, but exhausting. Don't worry I'll be posting more regularly soon. The No Coast Craft-o-Rama went great this weekend. It was super fun hanging out with my crafty friends. I still have to clean up everything still (and from Quilt Market too) but I'll get there.

Thanks to everyone who's stuck with the bloggy blog during my lack of posting. I'm going to do a little giveaway for all y'all! I'll be giving away my 4 new printed patterns to one lucky reader. All of you who guessed alligator here were right, my first sewing pattern is the little alligator in the first two pics. He comes with a fold out template and a booklet of easy to follow instructions. The other 3 patterns are my new puppy embroidery patterns, Boston, Golden and Maltese. Each puppy is sitting in a pretty border. The best part is that the patterns include an iron on transfer, woo hoo!

To enter the giveaway just leave a comment below. I'll pick a name randomly on Monday. Then you'll still get the patterns before Christmas! All the patterns are available as printed patterns and as pdf downloads in my etsy shop. Thanks all! -alyssa

Rejects

Just thought I'd share a quick pic of some muslin rejects from my current project. See my notes all over them? It took way more figuring out then I expected. Can you guess what I'm making? More pics to come.

The Creative Connection Event - Jennifer Murphy class

Yesterday I had the most amazing day. I attended The Creative Connection Event that is currently taking place right now here in Minneapolis. I met the most amazing people who were all incredible and inspiring. But more on that in a bit...right now I have to jump ahead to the class I took with Jennifer Murphy during the event. Jennifer creates the most amazing quirky, vintage inspired stuffed animals and she was gracious enough to share one of her patterns and teach a class how to make her little bunny. You can see my in process and finished bunny above (mine is the one with the big blue bow), some other bunnies people made in the class, and a few of Jennifer's original bears. The last pic is my little bunny getting ready to eat the apple kuchen at the gala dinner. Check out the table cloth made from Amy Butler fabric. She spoke during the dinner btw, eeeeee!

Foxes now for sale! Woot!

Hi peeps! Just thought I'd share with you some final pics of my little foxes. I'm so happy with how they turned out. They are now available exclusively at Schmancy Toys. So if you're over in Seattle you should go check them out. They are also available on the Schmancy website. You can see them all there!

Late night inspiration

There are so many rabbits in our yard! We were talking to the neighbor lady and she told us how one year she hired a bounty hunter to shoot the rabbits at $25 a pop...which is super scary because she's right next door and not out in the woods or anything. I don't need a crazy rifle guy aiming a loaded weapon into or towards our yard. Gah! Luckily the guy only shot one so I think she's ruled the "bounty hunter" approach as ineffective. Anyway, any time I see a rabbit out my window, I immediately want to turn them into a plush. So last night I couldn't take it anymore and I stayed up late to make one. Here it is! I'm super happy with it, mostly because it ended up looking like my drawing on the first try, woo! I think I'll take some cute outside pics of it once it's not so rainy.

Progress

Here are some progress pics of the little foxes. The middle pic is my 3rd (and final) prototype. The last image shows my first 6 ready to be stuffed. I have more cut out and I'm ready to get sewing. Woo hoo!

Artist: Ruth of Miss Bumbles

Eeee, I love these adorable needle felt characters by Ruth of Miss Bumbles. Those little guinea pigs are so fantastic I can hardly stand it. See more of these fun little guys in the Miss Bumbles etsy shop.