Fabric Archives

Fabric Design Begins Next Week!

1 Comment / Classes, Fabric, Illustrator, Interviews / carina

I’ve been working day and night to finish this new class. I even just updated the syllabus to give you even more details on what we are doing in this class. It is 20% off for this session (because of the Grand Opening sale), and I hope you take advantage so I can see you in class! I’m going to show you how I print fabric from home, create repeats for production, get sketches and painting vectorized, and a whole lot more. I just finished editing the videos with Creative Director Jina Barney, designer Amanda Herring, designer Shari Butler, and designer Deena Rutter. Believe me, it’s going to be fun!!!

I know in future sessions I plan on interviewing more designers. Those who take this first session will also get any interviews I do forever after since I plan on just adding them into the class as we do new sessions.

The best is that the Fabric Design class comes on the heels of Quilt Market. I’m heading out tomorrow and trying to wrap up my schoolhouse and make and takes. We are also taking all the audio and camera equipment to do a CGTV episode! Yes, I know it has been a long time, but whewww! It’s been busy!

Instagramming for QM begins NOW!

Cheers!

Carina

Fabric Design Begins Next Week! Read More »

Introducing Carina Gardner Embroidery Files

2 Comments / Fabric / carina

I’m so excited to announce my partnership with Pickle Pie Designs! They have come up with embroidery designs using my fabric lines. The first is this darling flower from my Dainty Blossoms™ Line. It’s perfectly paired with my newest line Remember™ for Riley Blake. The most fabulous thing is that the entire bag is made from start to finish in the hoop of your embroidery machine!

I’ll be seeing Lisa of Pickle Pie Designs at Quilt Market in just another week and plan on giving you the inside scoop on this little gem.

Quilt Market is in Portland, Oregon this year and I’m so excited. Josh is coming with me with camera in hand so we can get footage of the Riley Blake booth, meet with designers, and more! I am teaching a Schoolhouse (if you are coming, please come see me at 1:55pm, Rm A109 !)

I’ll also be announcing my new sewing patterns….da, da, da…TOMORROW!

Jumping with excitement,

Carina

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Upcoming Events—Come See Me!

Dishes, Fabric / carina

MAY 11, 2013, SATURDAY 11am -1pm
Fort Union Deseret Book
1110 Fort Union Blvd.
Midvale, UT 84047

Come see me at the Fort Union Desert Book where I will be serving treats on my new dishware line! I’ll also have make and takes with my new fabric line Remember, which will be upstairs in Mormon Handicraft. I’ll even be signing my Carina Gardner™ packaging if you are purchasing any of the dishware.

MAY 16, 2013, THURSDAY 1:55pm-2:55pm
Quilt Market Schoolhouse Room A109
Portland, Oregon
How to Use Sewing Patterns to Attract Beginner Sewers
Not for available to the general public.

MAY 17, 2013 FRIDAY 4:00-4:45pm
Make and Takes at the Riley Blake Booth with Carina Gardner
Quilt Market
Portland, Oregon
Not available to the general public.

We will be making the flower pattern from my new 18 inch doll patterns. Fabric and embellishments provided. Come join me!

JUNE 12, 2013 WEDNESDAY 11am-1pm
Desert Book/Mormon Handicraft Shop Hop
Make and Takes with Carina Gardner
Fort Union Desert Book
1110 Fort Union Blvd.
Midvale, UT 84047

We will be making the flower pattern from my new 18 inch doll patterns. Fabric and embellishments provided. Come join me!

JULY 22-25, 2013
Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show
Create-n-Connect
Las Vegas, NV
I will be at the Carta Bella Booth with our mid-year releases!

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 TUESDAY EVENING
Find Your Lula
Park City, Utah
Visit this event’s site
I will be talking about being Carta Bella’s Creative Director and the in’s and out’s of scrapbooking.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013 TUESDAY EVENING
Find Your Lula
Park City, Utah
Visit this event’s site
I will be talking about being Carta Bella’s Creative Director and the in’s and out’s of scrapbooking.

Upcoming Events—Come See Me! Read More »

Remember Fabrics Have Arrived!

Fabric / carina

My new fabric line for Riley Blake—Remember—has officially hit my shop. It is 20% off during the month of April only with the rest of the Grand Opening of my new shop. I’ve been working with the line for a couple of weeks now as we have been sewing samples for the upcoming Quilt Market in Portland (May 2013) and creating new sewing patterns. And yes! There will be new patterns for 18 inch dolls coming in the next month! But more on that later (or check my instagram feed for updates @carinagardner).

I’m also carrying Remember Ribbon, 5″ Stackers, 10″ Stackers, and Fat Quarter Bundles in limited quantities. Lazy me…I’m holding back a couple of 10″ Stackers to make a quick quilt for myself.

I have a big announcement to make on Monday! Oh, and don’t forget about this awesome giveaway that ends on Monday too!

Cheers!

Carina

Remember Fabrics Have Arrived! Read More »

Photoshoot: Take 1

CRAFTS, Fabric, Family / carina

If you have ever wanted to see behind-the-scenes of a CG Photoshoot, look no further than the makeup strewn desk and light cords in the photo above. Things are down to the wire with the new website. We will be spending the coming week trying to finish up photoshoots for all the products. I’m hoping this is the only shoot that involves me and I can be behind the camera for everything else.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for the new site! Fingers crossed we can make it happen. When I look at the week and I see every second filled in, I tell myself to breathe and take it one day at a time.

More pictures to follow!

Carina

PS. Today’s the last day to get entered into the So Noted giveaway on Facebook. Make sure to enter by leaving a comment!

Photoshoot: Take 1 Read More »

Remember

Fabric, Remember Fabric Line / carina

It’s been 6 months since my SongBird™ Fabric line hit quilt shops and I can finally show you the new fabric line! Remember™ will be hitting quilt shops in April. Based off my Beautiful Moments™ line I designed for Carta Bella, this line is a whole lot of yummy reds, pinks, citrons, and grays.

You’ll also see a few of these patterns come out in wallpaper in another month. But more on that soon…

April doesn’t seem that far away right now although the snow here in Salt Lake is suggesting otherwise. The girls and I built a snowman (correction, I built a lame volcano and called it a snowman and the girls ran around in the snow) tonight in celebration of the mass dump of snow that fell on the city. Truthfully, I’m ready for spring to come. It would make the walk to the new office a little less slippery.

Grand Opening of this coming soon.

Carina

Remember Read More »

Carina Gardner Newsletter Issue No. 7

1 Comment / Fabric, Riley Blake, Song Bird Fabric Line / carina

Here it is! Issue No.7 of our newsletter along with some great photos of the studio! It’s a photo-heavy issue so I hope you enjoy!

XOXO—Carina

Carina Gardner Newsletter Issue No. 7 Read More »

Nesting

2 Comments / Fabric, Family, Paris and Company Fabric Line, Riley Blake, Sewing / carina

I begrudgingly decided it was time to get a new computer. Besides running really slow, it turns out my love for the 17″ MacBook Pro is outdated. So I settled on a 15″ that I was assured will make me faster. With baby boy on the way, I knew all the “down time” I currently spend just letting things “run” needed to end. So my “old” Mac and “new” Mac both went to the doctor for a data transfer this weekend.

It’s been a long time since I didn’t have access to a computer. Maybe too long…because I managed to do some much needed nesting over the weekend. I have a major list of things that will absolutely NOT happen before this child arrives in a couple of weeks, but I also have a minor list that (hopefully!), I will on get done.

One of these “to dos” was to get curtains up in my kitchen. I made these ruffle curtains out of the Paris and Company fabric that I designed for Riley Blake (released out this last April (2012)). They are fun and pretty girly (Josh is dealing pretty well with this), and match the light blue chairs I painted for the breakfast nook.

I also managed to spend a good deal of my time catching up with the Olympics and Pinterest. My obsession for white colonial-style houses and lots of bright colors is evident.

In the coming weeks, I may be a little busy with our new adventure which may result in fewer blog posts. But my obsession with Instagram (follow carinagardner) should keep those of you who want to see the Carta Bella-Riley Blake-Jessica Sprague.com-Sewing Pattern-More Licensing(Yikes!)-Gardner Family-adventures in the loop.

XOXO- Carina

Nesting Read More »

Quilt Market 2012 Kansas City

5 Comments / Fabric, Quilt Market, Song Bird Fabric Line / carina

I intended to post the day after Quilt Market, but it’s been almost a week and I’m finally just catching my breath! This was probably the most exciting show I’ve attended simply because it was my first time exhibiting. We had been working on the tradeshow booth for months and this is what we had to show for it:

I was ecstatic with how the booth turned out. Things I learned this time around:
+ There’s a reason you never see pictures of the booths during set up. You don’t have time to pull out your camera because you are so busy just trying to get it all together! After we had most of it set up, I went and grabbed my camera…too late. So I don’t have any pictures of the guys putting it up…which is a shame because it was pretty cool to see it all come together.

+ I couldn’t have done the show without Josh and the Riley Blake team. My booth was SO heavy, and it took some serious manpower to get it up.
+ I already feel sorry for the Echo Park and Carta Bella guys since they will be putting this up in a couple of months…yes, I will be supervising. Best. job. ever.

+ Help is necessary when you only have one week to sew (Thank you to my mom who made that huge quilt in only a couple of days and Lisa in my neighborhood who embroidered the pillow below).

+ Some of my favorite pieces were teeny-tiny and you had to get up close to really see them (like the cubby full of birds that is going into my studio the moment I get my crate back!).

+ That at the end of the day, my favorite thing about Quilt Market was simply getting to connect with sewers and reconnect with all the people I already knew. (The picture below is with the Riley Blake gals).

Hope you enjoyed all the photos! Josh and I had a wonderful time, and we are excited to do it again (especially when I am NOT pregnant:).

Toodles—Carina

Quilt Market 2012 Kansas City Read More »

SongBird Fabric Line—Quilt Market 2012

Fabric, Quilt Market, Riley Blake, Sewing, Song Bird Fabric Line / carina

Quilt Market is a week away and I’m finally getting around to showing you my next line—SongBird™. My booth at Quilt Market will be featuring this line. Most of the sewing is done, and I even have a new pattern I’ll be introducing at Market (Don’t worry, I’ll show it here soon as well!).

Never heard of Quilt Market? It’s a tradeshow for distributors, retailers, manufacturers, and designers to show off what is new in the fabric world. I’ve blogged about the Minneapolis Show 2010 here and the Salt Lake Show 2011 here.

This is my first ever Quilt Market where I’ll have my own booth. I started thinking about it last September and started actual work on it this February. What started out as one crate became two + lots of loading issues. To get the crates from my house to Riley Blake we had two freight trucks arrive (one that was tall enough and one with a liftgate) to get them out to Riley Blake’s warehouse.

The actual loading of the crates wasn’t a picnic either. Poor Josh had to reorganize twice. We packed them pretty full.

Josh is coming with me to Kansas City QM to do the heavy lifting and to help me out in general.

If you are coming to the show, please come visit me in Booth # 1529. If you aren’t coming to the show, send your quilt show owners my way! They (or you) can also visit me in a Schoolhouse presentation at 10:40am in Room 2505A on the new line and how to make the new sewing pattern.

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You can check out all the fabrics in Songbird by clicking on one of the photos in this post. It is all summery-goodness! It hits quilt shops in June (2012).

Happy sewing!

Carina

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Reversible Blouse and Dress Free Download and Video

7 Comments / Fabric, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Paris and Company Fabric Line, Riley Blake / carina

Today you can learn how to make my Reversible Blouse and Dress Pattern that I created especially for beginning clothing sewers! This is such a fun and easy pattern! I’ve created instructions and a 8.5″ x 11″ printable pattern! All you need to do is tape the patterns together. How easy is that?

This pattern comes in both the dress and blouse sizes with my typical sizes of XS-XL. I use the same Child Measurements Chart that I use on all my sewing patterns, which is also laid out in the downloadable instructions for this pattern.

Need more of a visual? You’re in luck! My big news today is that I have done a video on Riley Blake’s Cutting Corners with Cindy Cloward showing the steps for creating this outfit. There are examples in the Paris and Company™ and Dainty Blossoms™ fabric. Check out the video by going here! NOTE: This video has been postponed and will go live May 1st.

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Aren’t these girls darling? Gweny and Mae are two of my good friend Aimee’s children who happily agreed to pose for me! I’ll have samples of this outfit in my booth at Quilt Market in my new line Songbird™ (which I will reveal fully soon!).

Big news to announce tomorrow afternoon (yes, don’t get antsy but I won’t be announcing until the afternoon).

Hope you enjoy the pattern!

Carina

Reversible Blouse and Dress Free Download and Video Read More »

A Double Duty Week

Fabric, Song Bird Fabric Line / carina

We’ve been doing double duty in the studio with the May 1st surprise as well as Quilt Market. I flew my mom into town to help me with all the sewing. We have managed to squeeze into the last 5 days a king size quilt, 2 baby quilts, 9 children’s outfits, 2 slings, and a whole heck of a lot of pillows. It’s been a marathon! I have new-found appreciation for all the hard work folks put into Quilt Market.

We still have a number of items to make before our crates ship out next week, but I’m feeling pretty good about how far we’ve gotten. My mom stayed up until 3am trying to get the quilts done in time. My favorite machine quilter Lina, agreed to help me out with this deadline as well (My mom and my assistant have nicknamed me the slave driver). Susan is the sewing-pattern-cutter-extraordinaire now and my mom is the piping pillow master (try saying that five times fast).

PS You are seeing here some of the first peeks at my fabric line Songbird™!

Speaking of that other thing (you know, that May 1st thing?), I am AMAZINGLY impressed by the resourcefulness of some of you out there. I have been sent forum threads and a number of leaks that have come out and all I can say is, “Good detective work!” Can’t keep a secret from some of you!

Back to the sewing!

Carina

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Quick Trip Down to Christensen Wholesale

1 Comment / Fabric, Paris and Company Fabric Line, Riley Blake, Stuff I Love / carina

I made a quick run down to Christensen Wholesale’s new warehouse last Friday and I had the wits about me to remember my camera! The new warehouse is really great. I love walking in and seeing this (Dainty Blossoms™):

And this (Paris and Company™):

Something about all those bolts of fabric just makes me happy!

I went down to pick up my bolts of Paris and Company™. The line turned out so fun! Thought I would drop by to show you the goodness before I get back to work. Lots of good things happening and only a couple more weeks before the reveal…

Hints and hints,

Carina

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Paris and Company and the Sling Sewing Pattern

1 Comment / Fabric, Paris and Company Fabric Line, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

I was able to get my hands on the first samples of Paris and Company last week, but didn’t have a chance to let the sewing machine whirl until yesterday. I knew the line was going to be awesome for the Sling Pattern, but I was elated with how it turned out!

There are enough simple patterns (like the dots and the damask shown here in the flowers) to help the more complicated patterns (the flowers and written fabrics) pop. I have more material for a Chic Mademoiselle outfit (in the ice cream fabric!) but we’ll see how soon I can get to making that. Paris and Company shops to retail shops in April. Be sure and check it out if you get a chance!

Happy sewing! Carina

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Newsletter Issue No. 6—Free Quilt Pattern, Tutorials and All That Jazz

Fabric, FABRIC & QUILTING, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Quilts, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

You’ve waited patiently for it and now it’s done! Our sixth issue of the newsletter has really become a digital magazine with all the stuff we try to pack into it!

This issue includes a new quilt pattern using Dress Up™, the inside scoop on Designer Workshop, tutorials from the Creative Team, a fabric tutorial on making a camera strap and so much more!

Visit the Carina Gardner Newsletter Issue No. 6 here.

Many of you have requested that we make the newsletter downloadable (which makes sense for those of you needing to print the patterns!). I made sure that this issue and all the previous issues now include the download button for your convenience. I also plan on getting smaller bite-sized downloads of the Dress Up™ Quilt, the Pinfeathers™ Quilt, and the new Dainty Blossoms™ Camera Strap Tutorials available soon.

Some of you saw my early picture of the Dress Up™ Quilt on Instagram (check my sidebar). I usually piece together all my quilts, but my mom helped me on this one. Things have been a bit busy and it’s such a blessing to have a quilting mama! She’s also planning on flying out a couple of weeks before Quilt Market to help me out with the tremendous amount of sewing we will be doing for my booth. The pattern instructions for this quilt are included in the 6th issue, and I hope you get a chance to make it! It’s simple and so sweet!

I’ll be back soon with my favorite way to cut bias strips and all those easy downloads!

Enjoy!

Carina

Newsletter Issue No. 6—Free Quilt Pattern, Tutorials and All That Jazz Read More »

Dainty Blossoms Is Here!

Dainty Blossoms Fabric Line, Fabric / carina

Yesterday I went to Christensen Wholesale’s new beautiful warehouse. First, it’s closer to me (which is always a plus), but the space is so lovely that I would have loved to wander among the racks for hours. I picked up all my cottons a few flannels and laminates for Dainty Blossoms™ to boot. My kids are hoping for pajamas. I think they are going to get their wish. Now to carve out time to sew.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Carina

Dainty Blossoms Is Here! Read More »

Paris and Company Fabric Line

Fabric, Paris and Company Fabric Line / carina

Here it is! A sneak peek at my newest line Paris and Company for Riley Blake! This line has a certain home decor feeling that I love. The colors are soft and oh so fabulous!

This line is currently on presale to quilt shops and will be available to everybody in April 2012. I’m pretty excited about this line since it is so different than any other fabric line I’ve designed so far.

Click on the image to see all three colorways of this line! It comes in 100% cottons and laminates. Yummy!

Hope you enjoy and I’m hoping to be back soon with some amazing projects by my creative team and a whole lot of photos from CHA. I’m flying in on Saturday and just staying the weekend. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to share.

Cheers! Carina

Paris and Company Fabric Line Read More »

Quilted Pillows Using Dainty Blossoms

CRAFTS, Dainty Blossoms Fabric Line, Fabric, Family / carina

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the Cutting Corner, you are really missing out. It’s a blog sponsored by Riley Blake Designs with all sorts of free tutorials and patterns. I just found this darling pillow tutorial using my Dainty Blossoms™ fabric line and had to share.

I myself have yet to make it down to the warehouse to pick up my bolts of this new line. I know that it is currently being shipped to stores. Have you seen it yet?

I know I’ve been a bit MIA this January, but ’tis the season for sickness. My family can’t seem to get healthy. So much has gone to the wayside as Flissa has been fighting a week-long fever that also involves strep. We’ve never seen anything this bad and ended up in the ER one night with her. Turns out she is just a kid that can run high fevers (107 degrees!—ya, we were freaked out.). Hoping that everyone starts feeling better before I head out to CHA this weekend…and here’s to hoping I don’t catch anything either!

Quilted Pillows Using Dainty Blossoms Read More »

Dainty Blossoms Fabric at Riley Blake Studios

1 Comment / Dainty Blossoms Fabric Line, Fabric, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

I spent a little time in Alpine last week with my art directors working on some new concepts for fabric lines. I walked into the office and saw this GORGEOUS quilt Jina Barney had made with the Dainty Blossoms™ line. It totally took me by surprise! And even though I knew the fabric was going to beautiful in a quilt, actually SEEING it in a quilt made me want to make one ASAP.

Seriously, this photo doesn’t do this quilt justice. At. All.

And if you are quilter, you KNOW how difficult it is to photograph a quilt decently (Definitely, not on my list of things that are easy to take pictures of).

I made sure to grab some scraps so that I could put one together over Christmas break with the kids.

I also found out that two more of my lines are on presale so I will be introducing them to you pretty soon here.

Oh ya, and I promise to introduce the final sewing pattern this week (But while you wait you can check out how darling the mermaid doll pattern is with the Dainty Blossoms™ fabric for the tail…Yipp-eek!).

Happy sewing!

Carina

Dainty Blossoms Fabric at Riley Blake Studios Read More »

Pinfeathers Fabric and Sweetwater Frames Giveaway

44 Comments / Fabric, Family, Giveaways, Holiday Projects / carina

Monday morning after a long weekend of fun (tomorrow I’ll post about it). But for now, I wanted to help you win some more fabric and a lovely frame from Sweet Water Frames.

On the giveaway table today is a full fat quarter set of Pinfeathers Peacock Blue fabrics (9 fabrics in all) and Sweet Water Frame’s 3×3 Rasley Ornament in Green apple (shown below). All you have to do is leave a comment on this thread to be entered to win BOTH of these.

I believe I have talked about Sweetwater Frames here before. Last week I finally ordered our family pictures for the custom 24″ x 36″ frame I purchased from them. It looks amazing over my antique piano (See my frame below). I purchased the Powell in antique white, but I’m so in love with the black frames, I can see myself coming back for more!

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That green apple is ADORABLE isn’t it? And my frame isn’t bad either:). Btw, because I know you are going to ask, the family portrait was taken by my lovely assistant Susan.

So leave a comment to get the green frame and some Pinfeathers!

XOXO-Carina

PS. This giveaway ends on Sunday, December 18th!

Pinfeathers Fabric and Sweetwater Frames Giveaway Read More »

Rini Doll and Mermaid Sewing Pattern

9 Comments / Fabric, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

Introducing our second new pattern due out this January—The Rini Doll and Mermaid. Yep, that’s right. At the request my own little mermaid-fanatics, I incorporated a mermaid tail option into this pattern.

And I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with all the other options: 4 different hair styles, 4 different bang styles, an optional mermaid tail, a ruffle dress, skirt, and plenty of accessories!

The face is an easy embroidery project (as is the tail). The dress and skirt are fun accessories that your little sewer could make too. Make multiple clothing items for this little lovey up! Or simply sew a fun fabric into the body as the outfit.

The finished doll is about 22 inches long and the finished mermaid is about 15 inches long.

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I can see myself making a lot more of these in the coming month. I love using scraps of fabric, felt, and fleece for this doll (measurements come in yardage AND scrap fabric sizes).

I’ll be introducing the third sewing pattern in a couple of days…

Rini Doll and Mermaid Sewing Pattern Read More »

Winners of Baby Safari and Giveaway for Dress Up Fabric

17 Comments / Fabric, Family, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Giveaways, Sewing, Stuff I Love / carina

Thank you to everyone who entered the Baby Safari Giveaway! Reading what everyone was doing this holiday season was so inspiring and touched my heart! I had a horrible time deciding, and I implore you to continue to enter the giveaways during this month since I wanted so badly to give every one of you a fat quarter set!

Here are the winners from the blog:

Rosemary says:

This is THE BEST pumpkin pie I’ve ever tasted. It’s the one my family requests to have for Thanksgiving from now on. Happy Baking {Pumpkin Praline Pie Recipe in the comments! I might have to give this one a try! Thanks for sharing Rosemary!}

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April says:

This holiday we are trying to have a homemade Christmas. One of my daughters is helping me make quilts for almost everyone . . . a big project. It is hard to find things to make for men so we are really thinking hard on that one. We have a new baby in the family so I thought your fabrics would be fun to do something with. Have a great holiday and thank you for sharing your creativity with us and all your fun ideas and art work.

That’s a big project April! Men’s fabrics are so DIFFICULT (Believe me as I have been trying to work on a fabric line for “big boys.”) Hopefully, these fabrics help a bit with the “little boys” in your life!

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Vanessa B says:

A few years ago we started a new family tradition in the spirit of giving and the holidays that each one of us would do at least 1 good deed and then speak about it during Christmas Dinner…so Im looking forward to the holiday meal and hearing what each has done out of the kindness of their hearts for someone they know or a complete stranger. Turns out my family is very kind, even to strangers :-) I would luv to win these fabrics, Thanks for the chance!

Vanessa, your family tradition melts my heart! Oh, if we all could just be a little kinder during the hoildays (and throughout the year!). What a sweet tradition!

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Martine says:

Hopefully ithis year it will be a fertile Christmas…Just before Christmas our IVF program will end, maybe next year there will be a small family under the tree!

Martine, I’m wishing you the best of luck in this!!!

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Here are the winners from the Facebook Page:

Jasa Clos says:

We will just be enjoying having Jake home this year, he was in Iraq for Christmas last year and opened gifts over skype. I have a new little neighbor that sure would enjoy a new quilt and the fabrics are just great.

Bless your heart! So happy for you will have Jake back and I hope you enjoy the fabrics!

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Gemma Robillard says

Beautiful – what a nice giveaway!! I would love to give these to my mom since she’s a new quilter and making gorgeous quilts. Hey, that’s a nice Christmas gift! ;).

How sweet are you? I hope you both get to enjoy them!

Winners: Please email me at carina@carinagardner.com with your address and we will have these sent out ASAP!

Thank you again for all of your comments—for sharing how you plan to slow down, your recipes (Meg, I WILL be trying to make that apple crisp!), how you are going to cuddle with the ones you love, travel, and play in the snow! (We are also enjoying the recent downfall here in SLC.)

It was so hard to decide on who to choose for this last giveaway, that the rest of the upcoming freebies will be chosen by the random number generator:). lol. Less pressure on me! Just keep those wonderful, inspiring comments rolling!

This week I’m giving away two FULL sets of Dress Up—yep, that is 11 juicy fat quarter fabrics in each set! This giveaway will end on Friday. (That would be Nov. 25, Black Friday, Sale Day, National Standing-in-Line Day, Left-Over Turkey Day, and any other name you can give it..)

Tell me your favorite Thanksgiving Food in the comments below to be entered!

Winners of Baby Safari and Giveaway for Dress Up Fabric Read More »

Introduction to the New Sewing Pattern—Garden Party Outfit

1 Comment / Fabric, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

I’ve been keeping secrets for months and now it’s time to spill the beans! Here’s the first of my next four sewing patterns! Get ready to check these out at your local quilt shop January 2012.

Ready to pull out your sewing machines? Because you will want to when you see all the pretties I’ll be showing you the next few weeks!

What’s new in these patterns? The best new feature is that the patterns now span 2T to 10. They also feature the European sizing equivalent. As always they have a metric conversion chart and glossary of terms.

Susan’s daughter Paige and my daughter Siri got dolled up to help me photograph My Garden Party Outfit! The front cover is one of my personal favorites since I have a soft spot for these two girls.

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All my new patterns feature my new line for Riley Blake Dainty Blossoms™ (also due out this January!).

The Garden Party Outfit sewing pattern features 2 dresses, a blouse, and skirt. The V-shaped neckline makes this outfit delicate and unique all at once.

Paige is rocking the blouse and skirt while Siri is wearing Dress B—a simple V-necked dress with a sewn-in sash. The third outfit is a V-necked straight dress with a seperate sash you tie on (Dress A).

You can check out the back of this sewing pattern here.

If you are a retailer, you can check out our list of distributors here. This list may be changing in the near future so check back often.

Want the fabric or sewing patterns at your local retailer? Make sure you call them and ask for the lines!

Last thing—make sure you have entered for the fabric giveaway below and watch for the next one!

Happy sewing! Carina

Introduction to the New Sewing Pattern—Garden Party Outfit Read More »

Delicious Fabric

2 Comments / Fabric, Sewing, Stuff I Love / carina

I’m a sucker for fabric all lined up, ironed, and folded pretty (who isn’t?). So I took this picture of some freshly cut fabric my lovely new intern cut up for me to send to my mother. My mom, who is an amazing seamstress and quilter, is (thankfully) testing my next quilt design for our January newsletter. Doesn’t it look pretty all ready to be sent off and happily quilted? Lucky fabric.

And now I’m going to drop a hint. Next week begins a really wonderful, really giving kind of thing on this blog. You are going to want to watch for that post…

Delicious Fabric Read More »

Red Blanky

2 Comments / Fabric, Family / carina

I’ve been working in an amazing mess, but finally the shelving is up so I am no longer walking on fabric. And yes, that sewing machine is sitting in it’s new spot, but no, I cannot show you anything else because the mess around that one spot is in-cred-i-ble. Seriously.

Plus we’re only in phase one of the studio makeover so everything else now gets to come down (one mess at a time!).

So the picture at the top of this post it really to highlight the project I have been working on. I have a new favorite website— Spoonflower. It’s a site that lets you uploaded your own custom designs to be turned into fabric. It has saved my life since Siri wanted me to “recreate” her red blanky.

I’ve mentioned Siri’s red blanky before here. Last year, red blanky was so ragged and beaten (partially because it was my red blanky first before it got passed on to Siri) that my mom cut it up and placed it into a quilt so Siri would still be able to snuggle it.

Apparently, good intentions have turned against me. Siri has been pretty weepy since we “preserved” red blanky.

She can’t understand why I won’t just have one of my manufacturers make me some new red blanky fabric, but as you can see, this is not the, um, prettiest fabric in the world. Okay, I’ll say it—it’s downright hideous. But I love it and she loves it, so forget pretty.

I scanned in the old fabric (now in quilt blocks) and reworked the pattern in Photoshop to make it repeat. I sent it off to Spoonflower and whola! New red blanky! The top photo is the new blanky and you can check it against the “before” photo there with Siri five years ago.

Not a bad match—even if I do say so myself.

Red Blanky Read More »

Issue No. 5 of the Newsletter—Spraguefest and Tutorials

3 Comments / Fabric, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Jessica Sprague, Scrapbooking, Sewing Patterns, Stuff I Love, Tutorials / carina

Wheww! Here it is! Our fifth issue of the newsletter. This thing just gets bigger and bigger! This one is 39 pages long with a huge section on Spraguefest, an introduction to Susan, a quilt pattern, a coupon code for Designer Workshop, and tutorials galore!

Be sure and check out the calendar at the end…it’s a sneak peek into the “big stuff” coming up the next few months here in the studio.

Here’s you link to Newsletter Issue No. 5:

https://carinagardner.com/newsletter/carina-gardner-newsletter-issue-no-5/

Enjoy!

Carina

Issue No. 5 of the Newsletter—Spraguefest and Tutorials Read More »

More To Come…

2 Comments / Fabric, Jessica Sprague, Quilt Market, Quilts, Sewing Patterns / carina

It’s been so busy since I got back from Vegas that I haven’t posted anything (well, much of anything) about Spraguefest. In fact, there was so much to show and write about that we decided to just add it to our newsletter.

In fact, we’ve got a lot of great stuff coming out in this quarter’s newsletter including an introduction to the fabulous Susan (many references, but never a formal introduction). How about a new quilt pattern? Simple and modern…you know me! Keep your eyes out for the 5th issue of our newsletter coming in a couple of days! Never seen our newsletter? You can check them out (and sign up for) them here.

So what’s been keeping me so busy? I just finished Art of Digital Design 2, which was critique-heavy. Everyone did a great job and it is sad to see that class end:(. The other thing I have been working on has kept my sewing machine a-humin’. If you attend Quilt Market, keep an eye out for my goodies in the Riley Blake booth. So what is it you say (the suspense is killing me!)? Four brand-new patterns! They won’t arrive until January, but I’ll give you lots of sneak peeks and Riley Blake will be showing off these new patterns in Dainty Blossoms™ at Quilt Market in Houston.

Lots of good things coming…get ready!

Carina

More To Come… Read More »

Quilting, Er, Napping Cat

1 Comment / CRAFTS, Fabric, Quilts, Sewing / carina

Rosy and I agree about many things.

Sleeping is good. Eating is good. Snuggling is good. Back scratches are really, really good.

Where we disagree is our take on quilting (and oh! the contention!). Rosy believes half-finished blocks are perfect for napping on. I, personally, like to see the quilt get finished before it is napped on.

I guess we have to disagree about something.

Quilt sent to machine quilter…check.

House completely wrecked…check.

Half packed for Vegas…check.

Siri has new glasses right in time for picture day…check (will show off soon!)

Ready to fall into bed…check!

Quilting, Er, Napping Cat Read More »

Quick In and Out

3 Comments / CRAFTS, Fabric, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

Stopping in rather quickly so you get my take on the display I had at Mormon Handicraft Quilting Shop on Saturday night.

-I literally ran around my house 20 minutes before grabbing everything in sight (including the wreath on the door) for the display.
– It took three trips from car to store to haul in all my stuff in.
-I realized I was missing the stand with all my clothing.
– I frantically called Josh
– Who saved the day.
– I was sweating.
– Not from forgetting the stand but because of all the trips from the car into the shop.
– I hope I didn’t stink.
– But everyone was so polite that I doubt they would have told me if I did.
– I’ve never seen so many women in the shop at one time before (See photo below!).
– I had a blast chatting it up with everyone.
-Everyone was in love with the wreath and those darn easy-to-make flags (no there isn’t a tutorial on it, but grab the pattern from the Love Nest™ Flag Quilt if you want!).

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-You are getting a sneak peak here of the doll pattern coming out in January (think mermaids!)
-No, they aren’t coming out before then and
-Yes, the pattern includes removable clothing (should you make the doll rather than the mermaid version).
– I got more oohs and ahhs over the lamp than anything else (And it’s just gathering and hot glue!)
-DeAnna (above left) has convinced me that a trunk show is in order (Maybe January?)
-Elise and Jessica (also above right) were awfully nice to let me take this picture of them.
– I’m not sure if I’ve ever shown my sketches of my designs before they hit fabric (See the paisley from Coquette™ below).
-So there it is:).

_______________________________________________________________________

– And last and very unrelated (but important for those of you who like free fabric), there is a giveaway of Pinfeathers fabric over at the Craft Girls Workshop Facebook page. All you have to do is add your comment to the post! Check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafty-Girls-Workshop/174744046778

Quick In and Out Read More »

Mormon Handicraft

1 Comment / CRAFTS, Fabric, Jessica Sprague, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

The last couple of days I’ve been running around getting ready for Spraguefest and the launch of my new line of sewing patterns. My friends Susan and Ashley spent a couple of nights helping me package up these fat quarters and coupons for the Spraguefest grab bags. Stacks of eye candy!

Speaking of eye candy, I’m going to be hanging out tonight at the Fort Union Mormon Handicraft Quilt Shop for their semi-annual event with lots of samples from my sewing patterns and sneak peeks at my new ones! I’ll be talking about fabric and generally hanging out! Come by if you are in the Salt Lake area from about 5:30pm to 8pm. Mormon Handicraft is located in the Deseret Book at 1110 FORT UNION BLVD, MIDVALE, UT 84047-1804. I’m told that it is a crazy event with lots of giveaways, sales, and general fun for the ladies.

Hope to see you!

XOXO-Carina

Mormon Handicraft Read More »

Pinfeathers Rosetta Wreath- Free Download

5 Comments / Fabric, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Sewing, Tutorials / carina

My sister-in-law walked in as I was making this wreath and said, “Weren’t you just complaining about the number of wreaths you have?” Ummm, yep. I might have too many wreaths. But this one is just SOOO cute! (justification, justification).

So this is definately a time-consuming project but with only a couple of steps. I recommend doing it in front of a really good movie (We were watching Howl’s Moving Castle when I made this one).

The final result is so adorable that I could get a little crazy with this idea—cone shaped trees, ornaments…okay, I’m just going to stop right there.

Download the instructions by clicking on the photo!

Have fun! -Carina

Pinfeathers Rosetta Wreath- Free Download Read More »

Flannel and Oilcloth

2 Comments / Fabric, Sewing Patterns, Workshops / carina

I went to check my strike-offs yesterday at Riley Blake for Dainty Blossoms™ and found out some exciting news! Not only will cottons be available for the line, but oilcloth and flannels! The oilcloth and flannels will be in the large floral (the left-hand corner fabric in the digital magazine) and all the dots. I was practically jumping for joy!

In other news, my little Flissa started preschool this week. With Siri in school and Flissa in morning preschool, it’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to work during the day. It’s pretty exciting as I’ve been hoping to get rid of my late-night design binges! heehee! Fliss has been SO ready to go to school (with big sister out of house and the entire neighborhood in kindergarten, there is only me to entertain her—not the coolest prospect).

So I’m going to happily (and hopefully) finish our new sewing pattern line this coming month (look for all the sneak peeks in the October newsletter) and finish teaching the Art of Digital Design 2 (It’s been a blast!).

We’re also finishing up the final touches of our new workshop this winter! Be sure and check it out! We’ve been so excited about the interest and would love to see you there for this design marathon! Bring your husband along to ski while you hang out with the girls!

Please note that this workshop has a cap of 20 students. Make sure and reserve your spot to attend this event.

XOXO-Carina

Flannel and Oilcloth Read More »

Bike Basket Tutorial

3 Comments / CRAFTS, Fabric, Sewing, Tutorials / carina

Check out my bike basket tutorial on Celebrations blog! I made these for our bikes for the Gardner family reunion/triathlon. A triathlon, you say? Yes, I feel like I should explain that it is not a REAL triathlon. It kind of goes something like this:

Run, Eat, Bike, Eat, Swim (it seems like we should eat after that too)

Really, it’s an amazing extended family event to help us all get in shape. And we do eat between all the event (Run at 10am, Lunch, Bike at 2pm, Dinner, and Swim at 7pm).

Anyway, back to the bike basket. In order to have Siri and Felicity participate, I ordered them bike connectors. Felicity and I did 8 miles. Josh and Siri made it the entire 12 miles. I was pretty proud we made it as far as we did because it was a horribly, hot day and I managed to get sunburned (go figure!).

Thank goodness for the baskets holding our water and goodies!

Fabrics shown here are from my Pinfeathers collection.

Bike Basket Tutorial Read More »

Favorites

3 Comments / Fabric, Sewing, Sewing Patterns, Stuff I Love / carina

Here are some of my favorites taken from the photoshoot with Susan that didn’t make it into the newsletter. I hope you enjoy too!

Getting ready—I was pleased when Susan walked into my house and said it wasn’t as bad as she expected it to be! (We fixed that only moments later).

Years of girls’ camp practice and having three younger sisters finally pays off!

This one just warms my heart.

Secrets, secrets…

Hmmm, could Felicity have jumped into this photo at the last minute to give us a cheesy smile? Yes. Yes, she did.

Someone thinks she is SO funny.

Obviously, bribery is in order. (You can’t see it, but I’m wearing a ring pop to stick in her mouth between photos).

]

Bribery is apparently not working.

Okay, it’s obvious we are going to need to focus on someone else willing model. Meet Sophie. One of next door neighbor’s daughters. She was a perfect angel on this shoot. I MIGHT have started making her dress two hours before the shoot. Ya, it was that kind of day.

This is Paige, Susan’s daughter. I don’t think we got a bad shot out of her.

Speaking of the devil—here’s Susan herself.

My other child (much more willing, but not by much) to let us take pictures.

There’s that ring pop!

I adore this one!

Favorites Read More »

Dainty Blossoms for Riley Blake Designs

1 Comment / CRAFTS, Fabric, Sewing / carina

If you missed it, the fourth issue of the newsletter announced my move to Riley Blake Designs for all my new fabric lines starting with the release of Dainty Blossoms™ in January 2012. I am so excited for you to see the work I have been doing with them! All of it is so beautiful and will make the most amazing sewing patterns!

I don’t think Dainty Blossoms™ is up yet at the Riley Blake website, but it shouldn’t be too long before you see it up for presale (for quilt shops only). So my digital maggie on this is even more of a sneeky, sneeky peek. Check it out!

Today I also started my new Art of Digital Design 2 class. It’s going to be a blast, and I’m so excited about the group of students taking it!

Going to take a break from my computer now to get things going around my house. We just got back from a little family get together at Bear Lake and my house is in need of some TLC.

Happy Monday!

Carina

Dainty Blossoms for Riley Blake Designs Read More »

Carina Gardner Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 4)

2 Comments / CRAFTS, Fabric, Scrapbooking, Sewing, Sewing Patterns, Stuff I Love, Tutorials / carina

FINALLY! We’ve finished our fourth issue of our newsletter! Better late than never, right?

I think this is our best issue so far. First of all, there are a LOT of photos. And tutorials. And photos. And an announcement (which links to ANOTHER digital magazine). And did I mention photos?

It’s seriously delicious!

Susan has already posted a bit on getting ready for this crazy photoshoot (see it here). I can tell you right now that we had so many amazing photos that I’m not going to be able to resist posting them.

But first, click on the newsletter to the left here and take a peek at all the fun we were up to in the studio.

https://carinagardner.com/newsletter/carina-gardner-newsletter-issue-no-4/

More photos to come!

Carina Gardner Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 4) Read More »

Hair Accessories

2 Comments / Fabric, Sewing / carina

These darling flowers were made out my Baby Safari, Dress Up, and Pinfeathers lines by Poppies Pretties. I was completely smitten with them (as I am sure you are too)! You can check out her etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/poppiespretties. I’m sure she’ll have accessories using the fabrics shown here for sale in the near future.

We used a couple of these accessories in our photo shoot yesterday (I’m jumping up and down with anticipation to show you all the results!). I’m almost finished with are newsletter and my new fabric line coming out in January. Oh yes, it’s going to be good!

Now that I am finished writing and taping Art of Digital Design 2, I’ve got a little more time to play with all this great fabric. More to come…

(Baby Safari fabric shown here)

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(Pinfeathers fabric shown above)

(Dress Up fabric shown above)

(Pinfeathers fabric shown above)

Hair Accessories Read More »

Pinfeathers Birdie Lace Up Tutorial

1 Comment / Fabric, Sewing, Sewing Patterns, Tutorials / carina

Get ready for a whole lot of fabric fabulous-ness! It’s been a lot of midnight sew-a-thons around here to show off this fabulous fabric. Susan and I have been hard at work! Here’s the first tutorial from the studio!

This is a really cute skill-building toy for preschoolers as little fingers will work on gaining their fine motor skills by lacing the strings through the holes! It also makes a darling decorative display item in the home or is a great project for a child’s birthday party.

Materials

Carina’s Partridge Bird Pattern-Free Download
1/3 yard heavyweight fast2fuse, thin piece of cardboard, or heavyweight Wonder Under.
1 fat quarter for a single-sided bird or 2 fat quarters (for an alternate fabric) for a double sided bird
Colorful shoelace or cording 1/8′ to 1/4″ diameter. Length will be vary depending on the size of your bird.
Fabric glue
Paper punch

Instructions

1. Your first step is to download the PDF of the partridge from Carina’s Partridge Bird Pattern. At this point you can decide how large you want your lace up project to be. The smaller the child the larger you may want to make the bird so that they will have something substantial to hold in their hand and lace up!

2. Adjust the percent for the size you need and print your bird.

3. If you are using the Fast2Fuse, you will fuse your fabric onto the Fast2Fuse according to the manufacturer’s instructions on the Fast2Fuse packaging.

4. Trace the bird patterns onto the fused fabric and cut them out.

5. Use a good hole punch to punch the holes for the lacing.

6. Knot one end of the the shoelace and lace it through the first hole pulling it to the knot.

Alternate method

You can also make a Pinfeather’s Birdie Lace Up using a very thin piece of cardboard. Tracing the bird onto the cardboard, you cut out the bird’s shape. Then trace the bird pattern onto the fabric. Use spray fabric glue to glue the fabric to the thin cardboard bird. Use a hole punch to punch holes. Finally finish the project with step #6.

Pinfeathers Birdie Lace Up Tutorial Read More »

Deadlines

1 Comment / Fabric, Sewing / carina

I’ve managed to put myself under a number of deadlines in the next couple of weeks, so what do I decide to do? Oh ya, write a blog post. It’s an attempt at procrastination that will only end in a night filled with editing class videos.

Part of my problem is that when I plop myself into my chair, I have a gorgeous view of all my new fabrics—just sitting there, begging to be sewn, cut, cuddled on, worn, quilted, and any other number of things you can do with such glorious amounts of fabric.

It’s killing me.

It would kill you too right?

I’m not just being dramatic am I?

All right, well, enough of the whining and back to business. I get to spend the entire weekend working with that wall o’ wonderfulness.

Hope to be back with some eye candy soon!

Hugs-Carina

Deadlines Read More »

Fabric Arrives

3 Comments / Fabric / carina

And the fabric begins to arrive…

Two collections down, one to go! The sewing has commenced…

Fabric Arrives Read More »

Playhouse to Clubhouse

5 Comments / Fabric, Family, Holiday Projects, Sewing, Stuff I Love / carina

We got a Costco playset in April, which has kept my kids outside most of the summer. I had this idea that I was going to make it more of a “clubhouse” by making curtains for it.

Fast forward to yesterday (aka 4 months later). I picked up Amanda’s red polka dot laminate at Riley Blake’s warehouse. I was so excited that I stayed up late into the night to pound grommets into the curtains (much harder than I anticipated). I’m hoping the laminate holds up okay outside. I’ll probably pull the curtains down before winter and bring them inside for a good washing.

I might have given in and decided it was time to just buy a drill (instead of borrowing the neighbor’s) to install the curtain rods. Maybe I was tired of digging in someone else’s garage. Or maybe I decided that a girl just needs a drill of her own. The three of us headed to Home Depot this afternoon to get some hardware for installing the Tacksam Curtain rod sets from Ikea ($3.99 a rod).

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Now Siri can sell in her “shop” better than ever. Although she has informed me that they will still be making potions down there (but now they can close the curtains so that the non-witches will not steal the recipes).

Playhouse to Clubhouse Read More »

Carina Gardner Sewing Pattern Giveaway at the Boutique Cafe

1 Comment / Fabric, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Interviews, Quilt Market, Sewing, Sewing Patterns / carina

At Quilt Market this last May I had the opportunity to visit with Daria at the Boutique Café. She has the interview up and a giveaway of one my sewing patterns. You’ll notice I make a big announcement about where my fabric is going at the end of the interview (did you catch it?). We will officially announce and show you some yummy samples of the new fabric line in our next newsletter.

Speaking of sewing patterns, I’m in the middle of finishing up two more patterns! I hope to have them finished up by the end of the month (waiting on my Pinfeathers, Dress Up, and Baby Safari to arrive to finish them up!). I can’t wait to show you! So back to the sewing machine for me!

Carina Gardner Sewing Pattern Giveaway at the Boutique Cafe Read More »