After many requests, I have decided to regularly start offering Jelly Bean Quilts Gift Certificates!
This allows you to purchase a quilt for someone as a gift, without having to coordinate getting their clothing, etc.
You simply select which size & what options you would like and I will create a gift certificate for you. I am including a gorgeous handmade certificate, along with some information with pictures of my work, all in beautiful gift wrapping. Your loved one simply needs to send in her certificate with the order form & I will send her back a gorgeous quilt wrapped in a satin ribbon.
If she wants any additional options or a larger size, she can simply select those upon ordering & include a check for the upgraded amount.
If you would also like to include the cost of shipping the clothes to me with your gift (typically around $20-$30, depending on the size) just let me know what size you will be ordering and we can add that to your gift certificate total. I will then include a pre-addressed UPS mailing label that will charge my UPS account – she just needs put the label on her box & drop off the package at any UPS location!
Contact me to order your gift certificate! I will be posting pictures of the whole package soon!
I just had to post a picture of this adorable tooth fairy pillow I finished yesterday:
How cute is this pillow!?!?!
I really am in love with it! It’s all made out of baby clothes, of course – it’s for a customer who had also ordered a throw quilt, so this matches. I used a little shirt pocket for the tooth pocket, and made a 1-inch flange around the edges. The pillow is actually both a little pillow sewn out of flannel and then a (tiny) quilted sham, so that it can be removed & washed easily, and because I just think it makes a more professional finished product.
I just added these pillows as a new item on my site a few weeks ago – my son lost his first 2 teeth in the past few months and I remembered my grandma making me a little tooth fairy pillow with a little pocket for the tooth. Immediately I thought of all the tiny pockets I work with every day when I make my baby clothes quilts, and the idea was born. I whipped up a few prototypes (now my 9-month-old has a tooth fairy pillow for each individual tooth!) and I am super pleased with the result!
I got my birthday present a couple days early this year, and it couldn’t have come at a better time!
Meet my new Husqvarna Viking Mega Quilter! (stock photo)
my new best friend
Business has been absolutely fabulous lately (thank you, JBQ customers!), and I’ve been quilting like a mad woman. Up until now, I’ve been crafting all my quilts (and everything else) on my trusty-but-basic Janome. The Janome was my Christmas present back in 2002, and has probably sewn itself around the world a few times with the amount of sewing I’ve done in the past 7 years (has it really been 7 years?)
Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE my Janome machine, and will absolutely still use it for fancy stitches and whenever I need the free arm, but the HV Mega Quilter is something else entirely. I have only used it for a day – albeit a day in which I constructed an entire quilt top – but it’s safe to say I’m in love.
It sews like buttah. Honestly! It is just so (sew) smooth and even and fast… I don’t know how I lived without it for so long!
But not only can I sew better & faster, I can also do things I never could do with my standard-sized Janome – I can make full, queen and even king quilts! There is just so much more room in the arm/throat/whatever you refer to it as. I’ve had so many requests over the years for full sized quilts, and I am thrilled to say that I can now do it.
Needless to say, it’s been a great birthday – and it’s not even my birthday yet!
Like any avid sewer, I have an ever growing collection of thread. Some of this thread is thread that I use everyday to make my memory quilts. Some of it is retro thread (note the super-70s rust colored thread in the bottom of the picture) from my mom’s collection, given to me when she realized that she never has the time to sew anymore. And some of it is for myriad other projects that have happened or might happen in the future.
Instead of tucking it away in plastic organizers, I love having my thread openly displayed in my studio, on a shelf right behind my sewing machine.
A small glimpse of my thread collection.
The way the colors line up is really inspiring to me – almost like a giant color wheel that’s always changing as I use a spool and put it back in a different spot, or buy a new color and have to find a home for it.
One of the really fun things about creating my memory quilts is that I don’t have any “standard” fabrics that I use for the backings and bindings. I always use 100% cotton for the binding, and I usually use flannel for the backing unless someone has a different request or orders the minky upgrade, but I don’t actually stock any fabrics.
This means I take each individual quilt top to the store once it’s finished to pick out a backing and binding that complement it perfectly. Sometimes I end up going to 3 or 4 stores before I find just the right backing pattern that reflects the style of clothing in the memory quilt, or just the right shade of purple to bring out a little girl’s favorite shirt.
This also means that I’ve accumulated a TON of thread. No 2 shades of pink are the same, and I hate compromising on details.
Luckily I love thread!
A few days ago I added some new things to my order form. I haven’t had a lot of time lately to elaborate on those, or to add pictures of my new pillows & tooth fairy pillows, but I will be doing that in some following posts. Most of these were things that had been requested by customers, and I finally just added them to the order form!
Here’s what’s new:
Pillows – Standard Shams & Throw Pillows to match your baby clothes, memory or t-shirt quilt. (pictures soon to come!)
Tooth Fairy Pillows – Adorable tooth fairy pillows made from your baby clothes. (pictures soon to come – this is just the cutest thing ever!)
New sizes – We now have the capability to do full & queen sized memory & baby clothes quilts! (King available on request!)
Minky backing – We’ve added minky fabric (you know, the super soft, plush baby fabric with the raised dots) as a backing upgrade for our baby clothes quilts.
Pictures – Add pictures to your memorial, memory or baby clothes quilt. Send us the digital images, or we’ll scan your pictures!
I will be adding more details in the days to come, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up!
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