Out to Sea Fabrics are here from Sarah Jane!

Arggh matey! We cain't handle the adorbzness!

Sarah Jane's new nautical inspired fabrics have everything--narwhals, pirates, treasure maps, mermaids, tall ships--all the favorites for seafaring kiddos!

We love Sarah Jane's style! Click the cutie-pie photo below to visit her blog and see all sorts of inspiring projects made with Out to Sea fabrics!

Amber's Lecien Tova

Dear Jenny Gordy,

I am in love with your sewing patterns. I just made the Wiksten Tova and I love it just as much as the Wiksten Tank! (Which is a lot, 'cause I made, like, five of them.)

My sweet new top is made with a tiny red rose on black stripes print from Lecien. This is my first Tova, but I love it so much I've already cut fabric to make another one. It's oh-so cute and easy to wear! I can't wait to make a Tova dress for fall that I'll wear with cute boots and tights!!

Jenny, pretty please make more patterns for me to sew. I ♥ you.


Sincerely,
Amber

FibroFibers Nightfall Sock Yarn: Ombre Goodness!

FibroFiber's Nightfall yarn is here and it's aaaamazing!

Nightfall is a superwash merino sock yarn--each skein is hand-dyed by Jen Hintz of FibroFibers in North Carolina. Jen uses a special process that creates one long gradient of color throughout the skein, beginning with a vibrant color that gradually gradates to a deep almost-black.

We love this ombre yarn and think it is fantastic for stunning shawls! Check out Jen's free Simple Shawl for Fancy Yarns pattern to see how lovely Nightfall works up. We also love the popular Hitchhiker shawl in Nightfall!

This yarn also supports a good cause. A portion of the sales of this yarn from FibroFibers is donated to the National Fibromyalgia Research Association.

Thanks Jen for making such an amazing yarn!

Jaime's Echino Beignet

You probably know that I am obessed with Echino fabrics. Each time a new collection arrives I always plan out a million projects. This time I decided I had to have a bright mustard skirt and this parrot circle print was the perfect candidate.

I have never made a Colette skirt so I was excited to give the Beignet a try. The Beignet skirt is a high-waisted, straight skirt made with lots of panels for a perfect fit.

I took my time with the one and worked on it over the course of a couple of Featherweight Fridays, which is a nice break from my usual frenzied sewing pace. The skirt turned out great. It is fully lined and has pockets. I finished it with some bright coral buttons and I love their unique oval shape.

I was able to debut this skirt at the midsummer farm party for our CSA farm, Pastures of Plenty. So beautiful and summery!

Melissa's Iris Shorts with Red Buttons

Hi, Melissa here! I recently made this pair of Colette's Iris shorts out of the strawberry-patterned French General fabric. When these shorts first came out, I knew I wanted to make them. When I saw Jaime's Miz Mozelle dress made out of this fabric, it was like a match made in heaven. I knew shorts would be the perfect thing for me made with the French General.

I decided to make version 2 of the shorts, but since I wanted to have these amazing over sized red buttons I didn't make the pockets with buttonholes. These are the kind of buttons that need to be seen!

I have to admit I am super proud of my finished shorts. I ran into a few issues while I was making these shorts. Mostly my own fault, not reading through all the instructions first and trying to go step by step. This just doesn't seem to work with Colette patterns. Also there was a certain amount of lack of trust on my part. (Trusting that really, this piece that does not look like it will connect to this other piece and fit, will in fact fit and connect just fine.) A few tears were shed, a few "stupid sewing" and other blasphemous phrases were muttered, but then my friends Amber, Betsy and Jessica helped me along and the cuteness you see here was brought into the world.

If you see me strutting in these shorts, know that it is because I was triumphant in the face of sewing strife. Plus they are super comfy, which can't often be said of short shorts. So don't be afraid of sewing these or any other of Colette's amazing patterns, we will be here to hold your hand.

Sebastian Yarn is Here from Anzula!

We fell hard for this yarn when Anzula was here for their trunk show.

Sebastian is a fingering weight blend of superwash Merino and Seacell fiber. A cellulose fiber derived from seaweed, the Seacell lends the yarn a beautiful sheen and drape, plus contains nutrients and vitamin E thought to benefit the skin! Sounds pretty wild, but what we know for sure--Sebastian feels like pure luxury!

The colors are all kettle dyed in small batches in Anzula's Fresno studio. We love the tonal solids and perfectly chosen hues.

I couldn't resist Sebastian and have just about finished my Maenad shawl in the soft grey-brown colors Clay and Chipmunk. I'm loving working with this yarn, it knits up beautifully!

Happy knitting!

Amber's Electric Blue Mizutama Shawl

Mizutama (水玉) is the Japanese word for polka-dots! Olgajazzy's Mizatuma pattern, with its "polka-dot" lace, is a modern take on a classic lace triangle shawl.

I used an electric blue yarn which I picked up on my recent trip to China. This little ball of lace weight yarn caught my eye from a mile away, glowing among the other yarns. I love the so-blue-it-almost-hurts color!

The simple 4 row lace motif was so easy to memorize and a great project for social knitting. This shawl would be the perfect introduction to lace!

Here is my new friend Alfie the sheepdog sporting some hand knit lace. I love my electric blue polka-dot shawl!

New Denyse Schmidt Chicopee Fabrics & Precuts!

Sometimes a fabric collection comes to the shop that is so hot, we have to drop everything and start sewing. That's what happened on Friday when Denyse Schmidt's newest collection for Free Spirit arrived, Chicopee. Here is the queen sized quilt top I made this weekend:

As soon as the boxes were unpacked we googled possible quilt options and found this quilt - Emily and Amber and I fell instantly in love. My queen version took 1/3 yd of each of the 26 prints that make up the Chicopee line (all of which are available here at Fancy Tiger). Stay tuned to see how I finish this and how Emily and Amber's quilts turn out.

Denyse Schmidt is a modern quilting genius and her prints are perfectly suited for amazing quilts - good balance of lights and darks, large and small scale, and a lovely spectrum of both bright and muted colors. Beautiful. We also have in stock pre-cuts which will make quilting with these prints that much easier.

Okay, I have to make a quilt back now!

Field Study Craft Crunch!

As you probably know if you're a blog reader, we just had the amazing Anna Maria Horner visit us here at Fancy Tiger Crafts. Her brand new collection, Field Study arrived a couple of days early so of course Amber and I had to whip up some new outfits.

Anna sent a trunk show for her events full of samples sewn up in her new fabrics. I might have tried on the "Painted Portrait Blouse" she sent that was sewn up as a sleeveless pocketed dress. I knew immediately that I had to make one. This pattern is awesome and I had already made another version of it, a long-sleeved blouse. There are at least 12 different ways you could sew this pattern up so this time I made exactly what she sent with the trunk show. SO CUTE!

I choose one of my favorite prints from this collection, Coordinates in Midnight. Start to finish this dress took about 5 hours - it was serious craft crunch time getting it done in time for Anna's arrival. It turned out beautifully.

 
I love it. It looks great and feels comfortable to wear. The pockets are amazing - not only do they add an interesting visual element, but I can have my lipgloss and phone on me at all times. This dress is going to look great over leggings in cooler months with a cute cardigan thrown over it so I'm looking forward to wearing this one for a while.

Amber used the fantastic "fine feathered" print from Field Study to make this Wiksten Tank "Tee". After already making four Wiksten Tanks, she changed this one up a bit by adding short sleeves and bright blue piping to it. Perfect!

To add these cutie sleeves to her tank she used both the Wiksten Tank and Wiksten Tova patterns--creating a short version of the Tova sleeve pattern piece and substituting the armhole from the Tova, drawing it over the Tank armhole.

Emily, Amber and I all took Anna's Multi-Tasker Tote class over the weekend and we love our new totes! Perfect for an evening of knitting and picnicing in the park with friends and doggies! Next time you are in the shop ask us about our totes, please. We'd love to gush about them to you!

New Minnowknits Yarn by Jil Eaton!

Many customers have asked for easy to care for yarns for kid's knits and we've been on the search for awesome superwash yarns. We are excited to welcome Jil Eaton's Minnowknits Minnow Merino to our line up! Minnow Merino is a beautiful, single-ply worsted yarn with a nice sheen. It comes in a fun bright palette for all your superwash needs. The 50 gram skeins are great for small baby projects so you aren't over-buying yardage.

We rarely see a single-ply superwash wool so we had to put this to the test. We knit up a quick and adorable baby hat using Gudrun Johnston's free pattern, "Little Love Hat" and then threw it in the washing machine and the dryer!

The hat came out of the dryer looking great! We made sure to measure it before and after--it came out perfect. All the stitches have settled into place, but there is no sign of shrinking or pilling. Nice work, Minnow Merino!

Epic Sewing Weekend!

We just had the most epic weekend! We had two amazing sewists visit the shop for tons of funtimes, learning and inspiration.

First up on Friday night, Jacquie Gering, author of "Quilting Modern" was here with millions of quilts! Jacquie displayed tons of quilts from the book as well as new designs. They were amazing. It was like being in a museum where you could touch things.

We loved her attention to detail in everything from thread color to fabric choice. She was amazing to meet and we can't wait to have her back one day to teach.

A surprise treat was that Angela Walters (author of Free Motion Quilting) was also in town and stopped by! We about peed our pants having two such famous quilters in the shop at once!

Angela Walters, Jacquie Gering, Susanne Woods (of Interweave), Jaime and Amber

Saturday night, Anna Maria Horner was here! She has been a huge inspiration to us since the beginning with her amazing colorful,on-trend fabric designs and her smart, fashionable patterns. We were so thrilled to welcome her to Denver and Fancy Tiger! Many people came out to meet her, chat about her new line, "Field Study" and generally just hang out. Funtimes were had by all.

Sunday, we really got down to business with back-to-back classes with Anna. First we learned about strip piecing in her "Feather Quilt Block" class. All of the feather's made were amazing and Amber and I are both looking to make queen-sized feather quilts.

Anna shows Anna some piecing techniques.

Some serious cutting

Amber and Jaime's blocks

On our way to making a quilt!

The second class was her Multi-Tasker Tote. Anna warned us that making this bag in 4 hours was going to be a squeeze, but the Fancy Tiger students rallied and everyone finished their bags!

Amber and Jaime's bags.

This bag comes together in a way that let's you know Anna Maria Horner is a sewing genius! It is awesome with pockets on the inside as well as 4 outside pockets for quick and easy access to keys, phone, etc. Everyone did such a great job and each and every bag looks amazing!

Happy students with a happy Anna.

Thanks so much Jacquie and Anna for making the trek to Fancy Tiger Crafts and sharing your amazing inspiration and knowledge!

Fancy That, Indeed! Fancy Tiger is in Interweave Knits!

We recently had the pleasure of hosting an Interweave Knits photoshoot at the store! We are thrilled to have received our copies of the new Fall 2012 Interweave Knits, which features lovely knit designs and stunning shots of Fancy Tiger.

Emily's dog Branwyn, otherwise known as the shop dog, is now a superstar in the knitting world--she shares a full page shot with a dramatic red coat which is aptly named "Emily's Coat"!

Interweave's talented photo team took shots of loads of cute knitting patterns both inside and outside the shop and titled their story "Fancy That". We love it!

A special surprise, our Heirloom yarn is featured in the yarn review section! Notice the beautiful mustard in the photo? That's our Heirloom, just between other luscious yarns like Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter and Bijou Basin's Bijou Bliss! That's some good company.

Thanks for everything Interweave!

New Tabi Mitten from Olgajazzy + Conductive Yarn!

We are geeking out about Olga Buraya-Kefelian's newest pattern, Tabi Mittens!

These mittens are inspired by traditional Japanese tabi socks, with a separate pointer finger, and have a modern twist--they incorporate conductive yarn in the fingertips so you can use them for touch screens!

Choose any yarn for these mittens and with just a bit of conductive yarn carried along in the fingertip will have you computing on the go while keeping your hands warm and cozy!

We have Olgajazzy's pattern here and all kitted up with the just the right amount of conductive yarn for you to make these mitts included and ready to go.

This super sweet yarn can be used for anything crafty: embroidery, handsewing, crochet, weaving...the geekcraft possibilities are endless! We have it available on it's own for those who have their own special project in mind.

Happy future-crafting!