A Bundle of Baby Things: Wholecloth Quilts & Handknitted Toys

--Amber

Both Jaime and I have friends and family welcoming new babies into their lives. What can a Fancy Tiger do but craft up something by hand to celebrate these precious little folks coming into the world?

I've made my share of pieced quilts, but after visiting Folk Fibers' studio and seeing her amazing handstiched quilts I was inspired to try my hand at making whole-cloth baby quilts quilted by hand. Even with the hand stitching, these two simple, turned quilts were quick to make--faster, I found, than a baby quilt that is pieced and bound.

The first I made for a friend's first baby, with a Nani Iro soft cotton double-gauze on one side and backed with a bright, sunny brushed cotton plaid. I quilted it by stitching circles in bright pink perle cotton around random colorful polka dots à la Purl Bee's quilted play mat.

The second quilt was made for my newest niece, and, Eddie and I together, stitched away on it to finish it. It was made with the fantastic crane print from Rashida Colman-Hale's Tsuru collection for Cloud 9 Organics. I love the pop of the vermillion suns against the turquoise background, and we chose a hot red-orange brushed cotton plaid to back the quilt with. The hand quilting was done in turquoise floss, in straight lines echoing the lines in the plaid.

I love that with these quilts most of the time is spent--not at your sewing machine--but sitting and meditatively hand quilting. Even better, it can be done together with a friend. Each quilt was personalized by embroidering the year onto the corner.

For a dear friend's new baby, Jaime knit Sophie the bunny, a pattern by Ysolda. She used Spud & Chloe's Sweater, a perfect yarn for baby things, made with easy-to-care-for washable wool and organic cotton. A handknit toy is perfect for a summertime Texas baby when garments and blankets can be too heavy. This foot tall bunny will be a constant friend for the new baby and for years to come.

My other little niece just turned two, can you believe it? I know she loves animals so I made her a sweet grey kitten with our Minikitti knitting pattern. When I gave it to her she hugged it and said "I love you!" to her new minikitti. Talk about adorable!

So many cute babies and so many cute things to make for them!

Liberty Pillows for Fancy Folks!

Every year, Amber and I make a special gift for our hardworking staff here at Fancy Tiger Crafts. This year we again decided to use Liberty of London fabric - a staff favorite, but also a splurge. We created patchwork pillows for everyone out of Liberty of London fabric and they turned out great!

We used 5" strips of every Liberty print we currently carry (that's 20 different prints!). We cut these into 5" squares and sewed them together in strips of 4 using a 1/2" seam allowance. The fun part was putting these strips together so that each pillow is unique with all different prints.

We used the Essex linen in natural and charcoal to back these lux pillows. Ta da! Sweet gifts from us to all our our lovely staff. Merry Christmas!

Holiday Gift Guide - Under $25

We have so much amazing stuff in the shop right now--we thought we'd help you out with several holiday gift guides. Stay tuned for gift guides with ideas for everyone on your list arranged by price as well as picks from all of our staff. Today we are featuring our favorite items for under $25 - what a bargain!

(1) Fancy Tiger t-shirt, $20
(2) Fancy Blend and Tiger Blend natural wool wash, $10
(3) Zing String, $22
(4) Fancy Tiger Stitchin' Kits, $12
(5) Gold 9" Shears, $20
(6) Craft-In craft night project booklet set, $14.95
(7) Dino Stitch Markers, $12
(8) Gingher Embroidery Scissors, $20.95
(9) Assorted Buttons, $1.50 - $6/each

Tomorrow we will share our favorite gifts under $50!

Holiday Handmade Craft Fair this Friday & Saturday!

We are giddy with anticipation as our Holiday Handmade Craft Fair draws near! Hooray!

Friday, December 3rd, 5 - 9pm

Saturday, December 4th, 10am - 4pm

at the
Sherman Street Events Center
1770 Sherman Street
(on the southeast corner of 18th and Sherman)

Fancy Tiger's Holiday Handmade is the perfect venue to support local and buy handmade!

Holiday Handmade will be held at the beautiful Sherman Street Event Center located downtown on the corner of Sherman and and 18th Street.

With 75 local vendors this year there will be something for everyone on your holiday shopping list.


Choose from locally handmade items such as needlefelted ornaments, handbound journals, jewelry, handspun yarn, hand stitched toys, one-of-a-kind ceramics, nuno felt scarves, kids clothing and lots more crafty things!


The Denver Handmade Alliance is sponsoring Fancy Tiger's Holiday Handmade again this year by putting together 100 swag bags. The first 50 lucky people through the door each day will receive a tote bag full of goodies from local designers!


Sugar Bakeshop will be providing sweet treats and warm beverages again this year and food trucks will be providing attendees with savory items right outside the venue.

See you there!

xoxo
Fancy Tiger Crafts

Holiday Gift Guide part 3 - Gifts For Folks Who Knit

Today, some holiday gift ideas for the knitter on your list.

Always a great gift for any knitter is super special yarn. Some of our favorites right now are: (clockwise in the photo from top left)

• Zealana Possum Yarn--New Zealand possum naturally hand dyed in Colorado!
• Twinkle Soft Chunky--100% merino super duper bulky lusciousness
• Malabrigo--super soft kettle dyed yarn
• Pinon Woods Handspun--beaded "single origin" alpaca yarn from Norwood, Colorado, each skein of which includes a picture of the little alpaca it came from (Elana is shown here)
• Ohsuzanna's Handspun Mohair--so soft and fluffy with cute curls of mohair locks spun in

We've got lots of great kits for the all in one, easy-peasy kind of gift giving. For the knitter who wants to dabble in dyeing--the hand dyeing kit includes three skeins of yarn, dyes, woolwash, and instructions for dyeing and knitting your own one-of-a-kind scarf. The sock knitting kit is a great gift to for those ready to take on socks. It includes sock yarn--enough for one pair of socks--a set of needles and six different style of sock instructions for to choose from.

Some fun knitting accessories which make great little gifts or stocking stuffers--how about locally made fancy stitch markers with cute sheep on them, a pom-pom maker for fun embellishment of handknits or a festive peppermint twist measuring tape.

Holiday Gift Guide part 2 - Gifts For Folks Who Sew

We've got lots of great holiday gift ideas for the sewing addict in your life.

Just in--the newest Amy Butler, Heather Bailey and Portabellopixie sewing patterns! We've got great new patterns for aprons, handbags, pincushions, cute baby toys and more.



Does your favorite stitcher have a pair of Gingher fabric shears or thread snippers yet? These are the crème de la crème of sewing scissors--an essential for every sewing studio! Also for the sewing room, some really cute accessories, are our cupcake pincushions and cake tape measures.

As always, we have great fabrics to choose from--a yard or two makes a great gift--and we have cute fat quarter bundles that are great for small projects or quilters.

Holiday Gift Guide part 1 - Books!

This is part one of our Holiday Gift Guides featuring awesome books for crafty types.

For General Crafters: Switch Craft - an awesome new book all about incorporating electronics into your crafts. Handmade Nation - all about crafty people who are heading the craft revolution in America, a gorgeous and inspiring book. Stitched in Time - various projects for machine and hand sewing that are all adorable and old-timey.

For the Seamster: French General Home Sewn - sewing projects for the home, inspired by Provencal French living! Zakka Sewing - a cute Japanese sewing book translated into English! Seams to Me - by fabric designer Anna Maria Horner this book features awesome patterns from skirts to bags to sewing organizers!For the Knitter: Picture Perfect Knits - super sweet designs and instructions for intarsia knitting. Knitting America - a coffee table book that celebrates the history of knitting. Continuous Cables - the new book from the authors of Cables Untangled featuring all new patterns!

For the Felter or Spinner: A Fine Fleece: lots of patterns to knit with your handspun yarn. Beautiful Sheep - stunning photographs of tons of different breeds of sheep (cute!!) Wool Pets - our favorite book for felting!

Holiday Gift Series

Of course, we're all about handmade gifts here at Fancy Tiger. We know that can be a lot, especially if you have a large family or a lot of friends to account for. That's why we've created the Holiday Gift Series - this series has you complete a handmade gift in an hour, for minimal cost. This year choose from Herbal Sugar Scrubs, Melt and Pour Soap, Patchwork Scarves from felted sweaters, Needle Felt Jellyfish Ornaments and Scrap Fabric Pin Cushions. Each class is $20 and includes all materials! Check the schedule here.

Holiday Ornament Needle Felting kits!

We have a new series of needle felting kits for the holidays! Ornaments! Needle felted friends make great ornaments that you can finish quickly - the perfect handmade holiday gift! All 10 holiday ornament kits are available to purchase at Fancy Tiger, or if you live out of state, get them online here.