ENDLESS SUMMER : : VANS

One of the very best parts of Tofino, other than the beaches and waves, is Tacofino, a parked food truck that serves tacos and my very favourite, Diablo cookies!

So there we were, after a day of attempted surfing (but successful boogie boarding), we thought we’d head into town to Tacofino. As we were driving to it we saw it! The most beautiful van I had ever seen…

The next day we went back to Tacofino for round two, and we also enjoyed ice-cream at Chocolate Tofino. While waiting in line for the ice cream I noticed this chalkboard painting of a van with surfboards stacked extremely high on it (I thought it was funny and took a very fuzzy photo of it). While I didn’t stack my surfboards that high on my vans they definitely influenced mine! Inspiration was everywhere on this trip!

I haven’t even told you about the sunsets yet! They were blazing and reminded me of the Endless Summer movie poster, hence the name for the top left print.

With every collection I love to do a standalone illustration for the name of the collection. While playing with some markers, I came up with the goin’ surfin’ lettering and ended up incorporating it into a tossed goin’ surfin’ van print.

So the moral of the story is, eat Tacofino, it’s good for your health, especially the diablo cookies, as is ice cream at Chocolate Tofino! Oh and yes, inspiration is everywhere… especially in Tofino!

 

PRETTY PLEASED ABOUT PURPLE!

… BEFORE IT USED TO MAKE ME PUKE! Okay well that’s a bit dramatic but it has been on my “No thank you” list for a long time. When I started designing for my Goin’ Surfin’ collection I wanted to push my colour palette and decided now was the time to make friends with purple. I had done it with grey about ten years ago, so I knew it was possible. Have you ever had a colour aversion?

I think A LOT about colour and I’m curious about these aversions. I don’t know what it’s like for you but for me colour is instinctual. I’ve taken all the colour theory courses, but to be honest, I can never remember all the rules. All I know is when I use certain colours or combinations they give me strong feelings that I react to.

I know about the symbolism of colour, which I find surprisingly conflicting for some colours (like yellow which can be both happy and anxious). I know purple is a hard colour to make and that’s why it was reserved for royalty, but that never helped me warm up to it.

Then there’s a psychology to colour but I think it gets muddy with your personal relationship to it. Let’s say a colour was a hot trend when you were a kid, for example avocado green, and you have memories of your mom making you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as you basked in your avocado green kitchen. You might have warm fuzzy feelings whenever you see avocado green but others might have the exact opposite reaction to it.

When it comes down to it, I think the specific hue is the important factor to making friends with a colour. For example, my father in law and I both love yellow. Except, he loves school bus yellow and I love a bright lemon yellow. To me, it’s not the same colour at all! Kind of like growing up with other Lisa’s in my class room. I didn’t think of our names as the same ever, even though they sounded the same!

So in the end, I searched and found a hue of purple I adored and used in Goin’ Surfin’. Not only did I stretch my colour palette, I finally made friends with purple and I LOVE what it did for this collection, especially my Sunshine Floral! Those pops of purple really made it sing!

 

MAKING WAVES FOR SURFERS!

Designing the waves of this intricate surfer print was one of my favourite design challenges in this Goin’ Surfin’ fabric collection!

Once I got my head wrapped around the repeat, and realized I needed to bring each wave to a point (otherwise it looked like toothpaste, ha, ha!) AND then when I put the surfer silhouettes on the waves, it was pure joy!

Then of course I played with ALL the colours (my very favourite thing to do!)! While I didn’t end up using the pink and yellow waves for the surfers I did end using it for the base of the sunshine floral!

In the end we went with the above colourways. ALL of them I’d LOVE to swim in! Or Surf! :D

 

SUNSET (STRIPE)

Just a heads up: if I’m working on a collection, you might end up in it!

…Sometimes collections come out of unexpected places. Last summer I’d been working on a new collection when an opportunity to go camping with some friends in Tofino popped up. We’re hotel-ers not campers, but we went for it anyways. Little did I know, taking this break would become a breakthrough for my collection too!

Tofino had these amazing sunsets on its beaches, and with these beaches came surfers, walkers, dog walkers, bikers and sometimes surfer bikers (he’s my favorite!)… which is how this SUNSET (STRIPE) print came to be!

 
 

GOIN' SURFIN'::A NEW FABRIC COLLECTION MAKING A SPLASH!

I’m very excited to introduce my seventh collection licensed to Paintbrush Studio Fabrics called, Goin’ Surfin’. It’s being sold to stores now, so keep a look out at your local fabric store for it soon!

Sometimes collections come out of unexpected places. Last summer I had been working on a collection when an opportunity to go camping with some friends in Tofino popped up. We’re hotel-ers not campers, but we went for it anyways. Little did I know, taking this break would become a breakthrough for my collection too!

Often when I’ve finished a collection, I realize what it’s really about. Sure this collection is about surfboards, beaches, sand, waves… but to be honest the last two years have been tough on our family. The good news is we all learnt a lot about ourselves, we have all grown and are better for everything that happened. I won’t go into detail but let’s just say, when we were watching, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, I looked at my husband and said, how is it possible they know this is our life! Minus the hot dog fingers of course.

I realized, especially in the making of the wave print, how important it’s been to let go. Let go of the past, to what we perceived as our future. Let go of expectations. Let go of strangling the moment, instead of letting it arrive naturally.

Even though I never fully stood up on a surfboard, I did catch some waves that took off and it was shocking how fast it was. When that happened I was like, “OH… I get it!”… all I had to do was to let go.

I also realized how important it was to find the calm in the chaos. While trying to learn to surf, waves crash into you, or you fall off your board (there’s a reason they call it the drink!). It can be hard to find your footing, on the board and in the sand. Like our last two years, just as we got up again a new wave would come and crash into us. It was hard for us to catch our breath but eventually we found the calm in the chaos and it’s a beautiful view.

So my hope for this fun summer collection: not only does it fill you with endless inspiration for summer sewing projects, I hope it also helps you let go and find calm in the chaos in this thing called life (imaging those last few words being said like Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy intro!)… and speaking of music, as I do with each collection, I create a playlist early in my workflow. You can listened to my Goin’ Surfin’ playlist HERE.

 

DRIVIN' DOWN 9 : : SEWING INSPIRATION

I’ve had an absolute blast seeing projects being made with my Drivin’ Down fabric collection. Feast your eyes on these goodies!

LOVE SEW MODERN : : When I first saw Erin’s Radical Cassette Tape Pattern, I knew one day we had to collaborate!

HOLD MY SEAM RIPPER : : Holly’s work is always outstanding and I LOVE watching her process!

THE RETRO QUILTER : : True story, when I was designing Drivin’ Down 9, I had Maude in the back of my mind! Gah! I LOVE those pillows!

This first quilt on the left, called “FAR OUT” and pattern are featured in the Retro issue of Modish Quilting.

If you’re looking for a quick win of a project, Maude’s groovy 70’s Sun Quilt can be found in her shop!

 

LITTLE LIGHT STITCHERY : : When designing the cassette panel in this collection, I immediately thought of Nicky’s witty embroidery and how great it would be for the labels!

In the photo on the right, she stitched a label that says, “You are unstoppable”. I sewed it into a cassette tape zippy pouch! Stay tuned for more to come! :D

OCTOPURSE : : Daphne also made that flower eye glass snap purse (above right). I couldn’t believe the ALL the awesomeness Daphne made! SO MANY cassettes, eye glasses, and pretty print snap purses! We didn’t preplan the sizes or anything, ‘twas meant to be! Snap purses for EVERYONE!!! Check out her ESTY store!

 

EMBER CRAFT COMPANY : : My heart leapt out of my chest when I saw Mary’s daughter in this first photo! #1. Hello heart sunglasses! #2 I love her attitude! AND that #llkmackinacisland dress! (pattern by @littlelizardking) ! Could we make it in my size?! #3 and I love how snuggly she makes that #roadtrippinquilt feel! I mean, that’s exactly what they’re made for, right!

MARVELOUS AUNTIE M : : So who picked the very most perfect pattern for this fabric?! Maryanna did with @MountianAirHandmade, Sunnies Quilt pattern (20% off in her shop!)!

LAURA : : SLICE OF PI QUILTS : : And the over achiever award goes to… Laura! Not only did she make her Suitcases Quilt! She also made (with the scraps of the suitcase quilt) her MINI Exploding Heart quilt! Look at those bazillion-tee pieces!!!

WHOLE CIRCLE STUDIOS : : And last but not least Sheri’s Dual Directions Quilt pattern mocked up into a desk table runner. My desk is metal and boy would I ever love one of these!

 

Unbelievable right?! All these makers, all these projects have just blown me away!

If you’re a maker, please tag me on Instagram or email me a photo of your makes! I’d LOVE to see! It’s my favorite part of all this!

SEWING INSPIRATION + A GIVEAWAY!

Spring is in the air! Which means time to get out the … Le Mini Golf Fabric! Me and my friends took a whack at playing with the Paintbrush Studio fabric... the results… well they just knocked it out of the park! Wait! Or in this case I should say, got a whole in one! Enjoy the inspiration and the makers below!

Lysa Flower : Um, bags are HARD, lol! I have a much greater appreciation for bag makers. This is a pattern I picked up from Oliver + S, called A Day In the Park Backpack Tote. It’s a little hard to see from these photos but I loved the handles also being backpack straps. So Clever! I had fun with the inside pockets of the bag, a little treat for the user. Plus you know my moto: it must be as pretty on the outside as the inside!

Then of course there’s something so lovely about a nine patch basic baby quilt!

I recreated the above triangle quilt (or flag quilt as I like to call it) using most of the prints from the collection. I LOVE how it turned out and how retro it looks!

Luckily our friends had the perfect model for this new collection. She was adorable! Especially in her large golf ball polka dot See Katie Sew, Infant Gold Collar Dress! We excitedly tucked the Flag quilt into her crib and handed her all the toys: flower golf balls, a putter and a score card. I really got into toy making and added a pencil from the scorecard fabric to the green score card. All the toys were made from the Le Mini Golf panel. A tutorial for the putter can be found HERE.

One of my very favourite parts of this collection was the panel. I wanted to create the easiest baby quilt EVAR! Sandwich, bind, done!

But I also had dreams of …

PILLOWS!!! And I absolutely loved how the quilting turned out! I backed each one with a different print from the collection. I did a snazzy little video of it on Instagram!

Arabesque Scissors : I am so in LOVE with Ali’s Compact Carry Bag! She wrote a Tutorial and a Blog post about it HERE.

Rock Baby Scissors : Kristy has an AH-may-ZING Etsy shop!! While it looks like her Sew Together Bag in the photo below is gone, the booklet pouch is still listed!

Ember Craft Company : This girlie is ready!!! She’s got her Sorrento Bucket Hat, her Ferris Bag and she’s standing in front of her Hexie Pop Quilt ready to go! Side note, I was deeply smitten with Mary’s scrappy binding. It inspired ME to give machine binding a go again! And I’m loving it!

Modern Handcraft: Nicole did her Asterisks Quilt - Le Mini Golf version and wrote a blog post about it HERE. I couldn’t get enough of watching it in progress on Instagram! Then to see it styled all dreamy on a bed… PERFECTION!

Marvelous Auntie M: This quilt has over 300 HSTs!!!!! That’s insane and AWESOME!!! Maryanna’s adorable dog Tank, LOVES it when she unpacks her quilts from her longarmer @hellomynameisquilt. You can watch a video of it HERE. How does he do that so perfectly?! He’s such a good quilt dog!

Holly Clarke: Inspired by Argyle golf pants, this quilt may look like two quilts but it's actually only one! And you can see by the second photo the hand stitching she did. She claims she’s never hand quilted before but I don’t know. I think she already looks like a pro!

Joe June and Mae : I had the pleasure of meeting Ingrid in person this year! Right before she was going to Paris! So when I told her about this collection, she was pretty dang excited! Which I was too when I saw the pattern she create for this fabric! C'est manifique!!!

The Zeyer Show : Tara has the cutest little girls who she makes the loveliest clothes for! I remember my mom making a few things for me when I was little, mostly I remember feeling itchy. These are clearly not itchy, which makes me adore these Peony Pattern dresses even more! AND not only is Tara and amazing maker, she also makes the most amazing videos!

A big thank you to all the makers! And for the heaps of sewing inspiration they’ve left us with! AND thank you for being here and sampling my newsletter! Subscribers get to find out about all the good stuff first AND they get 10% off my patterns!

Enjoy all your sewing fun times! Keep #sewinglikeamothertrucker! But wait! Don’t forget …

the GIVEAWAY!

Joining my good friends, Jenni from Nollie + Bean and Sheri from Whole Circle Studio, we are giving away bundle of PDF quilt patterns to celebrate spring!

Included in this bundle is: my never released before “We Got the Beat” pattern! Jenni ‘s beautiful Avalon Quilt pattern (see more details HERE)! Sheri’s Modern Moth pattern (which isn’t even out yet! It releases April 20th, wanna see a sneak peek? Check it out HERE). The giveaway is open until April 8th at midnight EDT. Good luck!