chalk cloth---it's back!

After a very long wait we now have chalk cloth back in stock. Order is up while you can!!!

Tips for pinning oilcloth!

Pinning oilcloth together can be tricky.
You can leave puncture marks that may never go away. So here are some tricks of the trade.

Cloths pins can be great for adding a lining into an oilcloth tote. Instead of straight pins you just keep the two pieces together with good old cloths pins
and as you go along you just get take them off. Easy peasy!


I do use straight pins often, I only place them near the stitch line so any holes the pin may leave behind is along with the stitch line. Pinning with straight pins is hard of the hands if you have several layers. I often keep needle nose pliers near for taking the pins out,
this save my nails a bit. If I were smarter I would also use a thimble!


This is good for small projects like the upcoming label tutorial. They come off to easy for thick or large projects so beware in that case!


Binder clips are handy. But they will leave a crease so get to sewing soon. The longer the clip is on the deeper the groove left behind.

Winter 2009 Swatch Sheet

Check out the new swatch sheet! This is what we will be carrying for the first part of 2009. There are a few things in the shop that are not on the sheet. The darker greens oilcloth prints will be closed out. And there is a fun Crayon print that I unearthed when I moved the oilcloth stash to it's new home! They needed to be moved when I realized that I had about 50 bolts scattered though out the studio. No more chaos!

I am so in love with these cherry oilcloth prints. I expect to have them in the
shop by late next week.

This one will be great with so many of the coordinates. Both red dots, the red and the blue ginghams and maybe even the red fruity! FUN STUFF!

This one is going to be great with the Aqua Dot!

Here is a fun little dot to go with the Yellow Poppy and the Red Fruity!
You can never have enough polka dots!

It's orange!

Oh yeah, this is good and we got us some! We have yardage and
fat quarters in this gorgeous Orange Paradise Lace!

Great Ideas, make up bags

Do you all know about TipNut.com? It is a "go to" site, if you are looking for some crafty tips that is the place to go to. Before Christmas Suzanne's Gift Jar Decorations Tut. was listed under the Decorating Ideas for Gift Jar Lids. I was thrilled because the Tip Nut Daily Summery perks up my inbox every day around 5:00 o'clock. You know I am a groupie.

Well today there way a list of 10 of their favorite make up bag tutorials. Perfect for OCA! I have picked out a few that I think would be killer in oilcloth.

While incredibly awesome in what might be a very sweet Japanese import,
I think that the Three Bears Make Up Tutorial would be great in oilcloth.


I really like the shape of this one. This is found on Craftster, it was posted by Queen of DYI!


This one looks nice and roomy, Come and see the Seitz


This one is really cute, I agree with tip nut that they would be perfect for party bags.
This Pyramid Bag tutorial can be found at Live Creatively (cool site!!!) and was designed by Nicole Mallalieu Desings. I am totally in love with her bags! Wow wee!!!

SEWING TIP: Oilcloth can be a bit hard to turn inside out so linings might be a challenge. If you are just starting out with oilcloth you may want to leave it unlined. At least for the first one, give that one to you Mom, she'll never know yours is cuter. ; )

Have fun and be creative today,

Kelly

Open for business!

Happy New Year everyone! OCA is back and ready to get crafty in 2009. We have a long list of tutorials and tips ready for Tuesday fun. We also have a new oilcloth coming in next week! Come back soon to see what is new!

Thanks for a great first year!

Yours in oilcloth, Kelly