giveaway day!

It's time for Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day once again, and I'm so excited to be participating. If it's your first time here, welcome! Just to get you up to speed, I'm Caitlin, and in addition to posting recent projects here on the blog, I make quilts, sell hand-printed fabrics by amazing designers in my online shop, and work at the digital fabric-printing company Spoonflower.

This year, I'm giving away your choice of one fat quarter or fabric panel from my Etsy fabric shop. To enter, simply leave a comment below telling me your favorite design in the shop. I stock a rainbow of modern fabrics by Maze and Vale, Umbrella Prints, and Sarah Waterhouse. For an additional entry, follow Salty Oat on Instagram and leave a comment saying you're an Instagram follower.

The giveaway will remain open until 11:59 pm EST on Friday, December 12, and a winner will be announced by Sunday, December 14. Please be sure to enter your email address in the space above the comment form, so that I have a way to contact you if you win. 

And! As a bonus, now through December 12, use the code SEWMAMASEW at checkout and receive 10% off anything in the shop!

>>> This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Commenter #70, Sandi Timmons, for winning the fat quarter of her choice. Thanks to all for entering! <<<

happy weekend!

Have any fun plans this weekend? I'm off to spend time with family and friends in New Hampshire, and will be dreaming up a project for the fabric pictured above for my stop on the Sweet as Honey Blog Tour later this month. In the meantime, here are some interesting fabric-related posts I've come across recently and wanted to share:

Happy to see the return of sewing jobs to the US. I hope this is just the beginning!

Fascinating to see all of the steps that go into producing a t-shirt.

This year's Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition has been announced! Are you going to enter?

Liberty fabrics were originally hand-printed with wooden blocks.

Love this photo essay on US textile mills.

Have you seen this video featuring the very talented quilter, Lindsay Stead? Her hand quilting is beautiful!

I hope you have a great weekend!

recent inspiration

As I continue to grow my little fabric shop and prepare to add new designers to its shelves, I'm constantly searching for inspiring fabric makers, projects that feature hand-printed fabrics, and tutorials that show you how to print your own designs. Here are a few of my latest and favorite finds:

1. Kate's step-by-step tutorial for how to screenprint on fabric at home is super thorough.

2. Great way to use a fat quarter: Anna's invisible zipper pillows made from gorgeous Skinny Laminx fabrics.

3. Love this interview with Australian fabric designer Leslie of Maze and Vale.

4. Two projects featuring Umbrella Prints Trimmings Packs (there are still a few left in the shop!): wide-mouth zipper pouch by Anna and a gorgeous wall quilt by Ashley.

5. Design Sponge's silkscreen tutorial (They make it look so simple---I want to try this method!)

giveaway day!

 

For everyone that's visiting today as part of Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day, welcome! My name is Caitlin, and I'm a quilter and owner of a small fabric shop specializing in fabrics from independent designers from around the world. A few random things about me:

• I love working on English paper-piecing, especially when I travel, and am excited about an improv hexagon project I started while visiting the Outer Banks over Thanksgiving.
• I recently started designing a few simple embroidery patterns---Joy and Hello---which are available through Spoonflower.
• I'm a member of the Wish Circle of do. Good Stitches, and this Arkansas Traveler quilt we made is one of my favorites.

For today's giveaway, I am offering up a Cherry Blossom Hearts fat quarter by the Australian fabric company Umbrella Prints! This pretty organic cotton fat quarter measures 19" x 27" and is perfect for quilts and crafts projects.

To enter, please visit my Etsy shop, and then leave a comment here telling me your favorite item or the name of an independent fabric designer you'd like to see added to my virtual shelves.

This giveaway is open to everyone and closes December 13 at 8:00 pm EST. A winner will be drawn at random and announced Sunday, December 15th. Good luck!

>>> Giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! <<<

honeycombs wall quilt

For a dear friend's birthday this month, I stitched up a small wall quilt, using prints by Umbrella Prints from my fabric shop and some scraps of chambray.

Inspired by Betsy's honeycombs, I stitched up my own by hand, using an English paper-piecing technique.

I then machine-appliqued the honeycombs to my quilt top and did echo quilting around the edges.

I stuck with my now-favorite rounded corners, and used up the rest of the binding I had made for this quilt. I used a coordinating vintage blue print for the backing, and I added both a label and a hanging sleeve.

I loved having the chance to work with these prints (they're among my favorites) and I'm happy to report that the birthday girl loved her gift.

salty oat: the fabric shop!

Today, I'm so excited to announce the next phase of Salty Oat: an online fabric shop! I've always loved screen-printed fabrics (both their modern aesthetic and their handmade, earth-friendly nature), but have often been unable to find the designers I love in shops in the U.S. So, I decided to do something about it, and am so excited to add the first batch of screen-printed fat quarters to my virtual shelves.

You can now purchase prints by Umbrella Prints in the shop, including a few from their newest collection, Floating World, which launched just last week. Umbrella Prints makes beautiful, organic fabrics and is run by two talented women, Amy and Carly. I've loved working with their fabrics, and competing in their annual Trimmings Competition (you can see my past entries here and here). 

I have a few other designers lined up for the shop, which I'll be adding in the coming months. If you have any favorite independent designers you'd love to see in the shop, please let me know!

2013 umbrella prints trimmings competition

These days, I'm pretty much smitten with screen-printed fabrics. I love the look of one and two-color prints and I love being able to support independent designers who produce their work by hand. One of my goals for the year is to incorporate more screen-printed fabric into my work, so when I saw the posting for this year's Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition, I decided to enter for the second year in a row (you can see my entry from last year here). I love Umbrella Prints' screen-printed fabric, and this competition is such a great motivator for me to cut into fabric I typically hoard.

I mulled over my options of what to do for weeks, and this past weekend I finally decided to make something from my growing to-make list: a drawstring bag using Jeni's tutorial.

For the front, I scaled down Faith's Greek Cross block from the Summer Sampler series and made a mini quilt block.

I sewed the remaining scraps together at random to create a panel for the back, and used chambray for the remaining panels.

I lined it with a Denyse Schmidt print that complemented the Umbrella Prints' fabric in both style and color, and used up some leftover Kei Honeycomb Dot binding (originally made for this quilt) for the drawstrings.

Voting for the competition starts Saturday and runs through June 5. To vote, simply pin all of your favorite entries over here.

Will you be entering the contest this year? If so, please share a link to your entry in the comments; I'd love to see!

P.S. You can see some of my photos from the recent Portland Quilt Market over on Instagram! You can find me there under the username @saltyoat.