Oooh, Baby Baby!

Phew! We've been doing lots of secret sewing over the past month and now that these gifts have been given, we can finally let the cat out of the bag and share some pictures.  

When our dear friend Jennie announced she was expecting a baby girl, Laura and I remained completely calm and congratulated her politely. Of course by "completely calm and polite" I mean "jumped up and down and more or less harassed Jennie via text message until we got access to her pinterest boards" - totally normal, right?

Once we had access to the design map (Pinterest boards = creative blueprints) of Baby C's future nursery, we set out to do one of the things we do best... buy fabric! Just like some people stock up on canned goods before snow storms, Laura and I know that the best way to prepare for a baby that isn't your own is to stock up on fabric and start sewing!

Jennie picked out the most beautiful palette of aquas and lavenders to accompany Baby C's 'mermaid' themed nursery. 

                                                                                              

Allow me to interrupt myself for a moment to say - buying fabric for a baby shower is pretty much the best. 

1. The fabric itself is gorgeous. Babies these days have no idea how good they have it... trust me when I say NOTHING in the 80s held a candle to these stunners from Sarah Jane, Amy Butler, etc. Fabric 'roll around' heaven!
2. There is 0 guilt. Typically when 7-8 yards of designer fabric shows up at my door, the first thing I do is quickly hide it in the stash so no one (coughmyhusbandcough) can ask any questions. When Laura brought this bag of treasure over I strutted around my house like a peacock showing it off to anyone (coughmyhusbandagaincough) who would listen and didn't need to explain anything because 'it's for a gift.' Ha!
3. Baby things are flat out adorable. Everything is perfectly tiny, whimsical, and pretty much begging to     be patch-worked. Sign. Me. Up.  

Laura and I made a list of items we thought Jennie and Baby C 'needed,' divided up accordingly, and went to work. Our list included: 

tiny baby booties (ithinksew.com)

diaper clutch (made by marzipan)

patch-worked bib (pattern drafted by Laura)

raggy busy blankie (pattern drafted by Sara)

little geranium dress (made by rae)...

... with matching bloomers (simplicity pattern 1826) 

wet bag (sailboat pattern)

burp cloths (the happy scraps)

glider throw pillow (same sailboat pattern as above)

and a lovely bag to put it all in! (McCall's m6905 bag)

Now comes the hardest part of all... waiting for baby C to arrive! What better way to welcome a baby girl than with love, whimsy, and a mermaid motif <3

Happy Fat (Quarter) Tuesday!

A cup of tea and some beautiful textiles to brighten up this rainy afternoon

Had anyone asked us several months ago what we thought the hardest part of starting Hartford Stitch would be, I'm fairly certain Laura and I would both have answered 'fabric selection.' Setting aside the fact that there are thousands of beautiful textiles to choose from, Laura and I come from two very different schools of thought regarding pattern and color.

Laura has an incredible eye for marrying prints and patterns across various lines and designers and a stash that reflects that, not to mention and equally impressive selection of blenders.

I, on the other hand, wouldn't know what to do with a blender if it magically stitched itself into a dress right before my eyes. Simply put, I am firmly a member of the 'prints match prints' camp and have never met a bright color I didn't like. If some print is good, more print is better!

A snapshot of some fabrics in my stash

While fabric shopping together last summer, Laura held up a more muted pink blender and asked what I thought. 

"Eh, it's too neutral." 

"This? No, it's pink."

"Right... but it's 'just' pink. Solids are neutral." 

At this point Laura stared at me in disbelief, shook her head, and put the plain jane pink fabric back. 

Fast forward to April, 2015 where the two of us needed to pick 15 fabrics from literally 100s of stunning options at Art Gallery Fabrics. Our plan of attack (mission impossible?) was: we will hole up in our separate corners, pick our individual top 10s, cross our fingers that maybe 1 overlapped, and see what happened. Talk about putting a lot of faith in the textile gods!

What ended up happening was nothing short of a fabric miracle: we picked not 1, not 2, but 4 of the same prints, out of 100s of options! To top that off, another one we had picked was the same print, only in different colorways. What. was. going. on? Had all of our time spent rolling around in each others' stashes mutually effected us? Were solids no longer a neutral? We may never know... but after this incredibly long winded back story, I am so excited to share with you 9 of the stunning fabrics we've carefully (and some may say miraculously) cultivated for Hartford Stitch.

Without further ado,

 Don't you just want to dive right in?

top row, from left: sacred seeds, latticework, summit twlight

middle row, from left: limestone feel pitahaya, sweet nostalgic, les points 

bottom row, from left: meadow of gold, stitched road, budquette nightfall 

It was an honor, privilege, and - quite frankly - a dream come true, to spend the afternoon cutting these beauties from the bolt. 

In case you are wondering why I needed to cut a fat quarter of every fabric listed in our shop, stay tuned for an exciting announcement tomorrow. Until then... have fun with fabric, mix and match until everything goes, and, as a talented sewist (Laura!) once told me... sew your "hart" out! 

xx