jcaroline's blog

March of Tools- Cutting

It's the last day of March of Tools, so I'll finish up with my cutting tools. First, I love my Fairgate Rulers available from Southstar Supply, which I use constantly with the Fairgate L-square for cutting fabric square.  I have the 36", 60" and 72".  I use the 36" and 60" the most.  I have purchased a metal L-square at Home Depot.  My complaint with it is that it is steel, so it is heavier than heck and my magnetic pin cushion gets attracted to it constantly.  The Fairgate rulers are aluminum, so nice and light.

I've had people comment on my cutting mat and yes, I love it as well.  But, I just noticed they only carry the 12" x 18" and 18" x 24" now.  Oh no!  Must hunt for big cutting mats (mine is 70" x 48").

I also love my Omnigrid Ruler.  It is light, easy to handle and see-through.  I use it a lot in conjunction with my Fairgate rulers or alone when cutting small shapes.

And finally, what did I do before I discovered Olfa's rotary cutter?  Used a lot of dull scissors, I'm sure.  The 45mm with the ergonomic handle is my favorite.  I've tried a much more expensive rotary cutter and I didn't like it.  When the blade is dull, you just pop in a new one.  And since the blade retracts when you let go of the handle, I don't nick myself as much.

And I couldn't let March of Tools end without reminding you that we always offer a 50% discount on tools (up to $20) on jcaroline creative! if your order is at least $50.  Enter coupon code "tools" at checkout to receive your discount.  Makes some of those tools that are a little expensive, perfectly reasonable!

March of the Tools- Mechanical Fabric Pencil

Yes, you read correctly.  My exciting tool today is a pencil.  But not just any pencil, mind you.  A mechanical pencil, so it never needs sharpening.  Plus, it is designed to be used on fabric, so the leads are strong.  Plus, the leads come in white and black.  Plus, it has an eraser on the end.  Plus, refills are available for both leads AND the eraser.  Seriously, I just got this and I think I'm going to enjoy it very much.  By Collins (a division of Dritz) and it is about $12 at your fabric store.

April 6, 2009 Update:  Just added them to our store here!

New Fabrics Just In!

The Proud collection from Keri Beyer came in Friday and is up on the web today.  It comes in a turquoise/orange, blue, and purple colorway.  Some of the pieces are simple graphics, while others are very complicated layers of sketched items.  I love the peacocks and feather detail, myself.

The other new fabric that I am really digging are these two-tone graphic prints from Robert Kaufman called Olive Trees. 

Also from Robert Kaufman are Punchy Piques in great bright prints for spring.  Great for children's clothes, pique has a woven texture, similar to corduroy.  It gives the cotton more body and helps resist wrinkles.

Enjoy!

More Decorating Ideas from BH&G

I just received a copy of Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection: 100 decorating ideas under $100 (Spring 2009).  Pamela Porter, whose work I've shown you here and here, has done some more great features in this edition (with our fabric and ribbon).  The chair above she repainted, added some grosgrain flower ribbons and new cute cushion covered in Heather Bailey fabric.

 

This room is a profusion of orange and pink using fabrics from Amy Butler, Dena Fishbein and Sandi Henderson.  I think Jennifer Paganelli's new Flower Power would also work great with this look.

 

My favorite project from this issue has got to be in the "Chairs with Flair" section by designer Becky Mollenkamp.  She glued chipboard letters to the chair and then spray-painted it.  I just adore this. If I did this project, I might want to finish with a clear sealer.  I'm afraid water could seep into and under the chipboard without some protection.  I can so see this concept on a child's (or an adult's for that matter) dresser or armoire.

How-tos and lots more inspiration in this issue, available on newstands.  I do like BH&G's Creative Series-- they do have some great attainable ideas.  And can you think of a better time to decorate under $100?

And then they suck you back in...

"I will never do anything with my accounting degree again!" I'm pretty sure I made that declaration at least once in the last eight years.  Okay, it's time to just admit it-- I'm an accountant at heart and I actually find tax code kind of fun.  It's like a Sudoku puzzle on steroids.

So, when I discovered Jena (of Modish fame) had created a Modish Biz Tips blog, I asked her if she wanted someone to provide tax and accounting advice.  Fortunately, out of the thousands of people wanting to write about accounting, she picked me!

So my first post is up today about getting your 2008 taxes ready.  We are getting dangerously close to the end, folks!

I'll be providing my tax and accounting advice twice on month for her blog.  The blog focuses on people starting or running a creative business, which I know includes a lot of you!  It looks like it is going to be a great mix of marketing advice, ideas to keep your creativity alive and that darn accounting stuff.

The photo is courtesy of our friends at the IRS, which does have a great website for their forms and publications.  I could sit and read it for hours...

Proud Grosgrain Ribbons by Keri Beyer

New grosgrain ribbons from Keri Beyer.  She has a fabric collection with In The Beginning Fabrics called Proud, and we teamed up with Keri to produce these ribbons based on the turquoise colorway of that group.  The design detail in these is stunning and I love her color combinations.  These are truly unlike any grosgrain ribbons I've seen before.  Go Keri!

We are selling these ribbons by the yard and by the 25-yard spool.  We will be getting her fabric collection by early next week.

March of the Tools- Mac Users might even be jealous...

Mac users, this isn't for you.  (Finally- I feel they get all the neat stuff, don't they?)  Anyway, as I long time PC-user and long-time lug-a-10-lb.-17-inch-laptop around, I decided I couldn't stand it any longer.  I wanted something compact to check and send emails, Twitter, read blogs and general web activities (which encompasses virtually everything I do on the computer these days).  Yes, the IPhone helps, but apparently my thumbs are unusually large and typing an email on it is quite a challenge.  Leads me to reply with expressive emails like "Sure", "Sounds Great", "Ok", which actually get 'auto-corrected' to "Sue", "Sounds grrr", "Or".

Voila!  Dell now has a Mini-Laptop that is 9" x 6".  That is smaller than my Filofax, my friends.  It also weighs about 2 lbs.  It fits in my purse.  And I. LOVE. IT.  Did I mention the price?  This baby starts at $249.  I loaded mine up for a whopping $349.  I got mine in red, but it comes in pink, white, black and some other designs.

I also got mine with the Ubuntu Linux operating system instead of Windows XP home, which I credit with making it boot up super fast.  However, if you are not technically inclined, stick with the Windows operating system.  It is more difficult to install things like Flash Player and Acrobat Reader on Ubuntu versus Windows.  And it is easier to find help for Windows issues.  But if you love typing at the command line, go for it!

Dell basically stripped out the accessories that add weight and cost to a laptop- most notably a CD-Rom drive.  It does have 3 USB ports (so you can add external anything), a video port, an Ethernet (LAN) port and a headphone jack.  The keyboard keys are full size- they are just closer together.  And several of the ancillary keys (parentheses, apostrophes and such) are in odd places and/or require use of the "Fn" key.  I am having to learn to stop hitting Enter when I mean to use the apostrophe.  Makes for some bizarre tweets.

And unfortunately, I introduced my daughter to www.pbskids.org games on it, so I'm finding my time on it being jeopardized.  But for the money, it doesn't make me nearly as nervous as when she is banging on our other computers.  I think I would rather buy her a mini than a Nintendo. Hummm....

So snatch yourself up a Mini, find free Wi-Fi and any place is your office.

March of the Tools- I Spy an Eye-Fi

My husband bought Eye-Fi cards as stocking stuffers for various family members last Christmas and the cards are awesome.  The Eye-Fi is an SD card with a Wi-fi transmitter for your digital camera.  So when you shoot pics on your digital camera, you can wirelessly transmit them to your computer or your favorite web site (www.flickr.com, www.picasaweb.com, etc.)  No more taking out the card, finding the card reader (wherever that thing might have landed), going through Windows Explorer, moving the files, etc. etc. etc.  Seriously-- you just turn on your camera within range of your internet router and it moves the files to wherever you specified in setup.  No more wandering around with 400 pictures on your camera that no one has ever seen.  You could be uploading new products to your flickr site as quickly as you take the pictures!  You can choose from 3 different types of cards, depending on what you want to do.  The Eye-Fi Home uploads to your home computer, the Eye-Fi Share will upload to your home computer AND favorite photo site (that's what I've got), and the Eye-Fi Explore lets you upload through various Wi-Fi Hotspots and Geo-tags your photos.

You can get the Eye-Fi cards at retail stores and online.  Now I'm just waiting for the Compact Flash version so I can inundate the world with photos constantly!

March of Tools- Part I

Heather Bailey did a feature last year called the March of Tools, oddly enough, in March.  In this feature, she paraded out her favorite sewing and designing tools, complete with pictures and why she liked them so much.  This year, she invited other people to join in.  So here is my first contribution to the parade:  my steam iron.

I'm not going to get any awards for photo styling, but how much can you do for this ugly thing?  It is the Hi Steam MVP-35 and I love it.  It is a workhorse-- we have two here-- one is about 8 years old and the other is a much more sprightly 5 years old.

It gets very hot, produces an incredible amount of steam and will ruin you for those "over-the-counter" irons forever.  Now, it is not inexpensive, but if you are sewing every day and you go through one to two irons a year, this doesn't take long to pay for itself.  And unlike some of the plastic retail versions, there is nothing on this that can be melted-- trust me, I've tried.

If you are lucky enough to have an industrial sewing machine supplier in your area, they should have this or a similar item.  Otherwise, an online search will uncover several vendors.  The advantage of a local supplier is, of course, repair.  I have had to take mine in occasionally (like every three years) for various things, but they have always been fixable.  The steam iron is heavy, but a piece of PVC pipe or fabric tube will prop up the iron holder on your ironing board. 

In this system, a boiler actually creates steam under pressure (like a dry-cleaner uses), so the steam is not dependent on the heat of the iron.  So don't ever refill the iron after it has been hot-- it spews like Old Faithful.  The rule here is to fill it in the morning before it has ever been turned on.  And the only time you will get water instead of steam is if water cools in the line from the boiler to the iron.  To prevent this, I usually shoot a little steam away from my articles before I begin pressing.  And water WILL NOT drip out of the iron as you iron.

Again, this tool is not for the every now-and-then sewer, but if you sew for a living, I don't think you will regret this purchase.

I've been keeping something from you...

Hard to believe, I'm sure, since I tell you everything I know and beyond, but...
 

Jessica Jones, aka "rock star", has expanded on her Fireworks and Calliope designs and created a 12 piece collection (four designs, three colorways) for Braemore Fabrics.  So now there is even more Jessica Jones goodness to go around and go around it will!  Braemore is one of the largest home decor manufacturers in the U.S., so you should see this fabric hitting lots of local stores.  And of course, jcaroline creative! will carry it as well.  In fact, we are accepting preorders now- should be in our hands in the next two to three weeks.

For those of you that purchased Fireworks and Calliope and the previous designs wholesale through Michael Miller Fabrics, they will continue to have those available until early May.  Some of the earlier collections may not be re-printed at this time, so stock up!  In May, I'll work up a strategy for those shops that are not Braemore customers that want to carry her collections. 

First, let me say how proud I am of Jessica, because I've always thought her designs rock and it is awesome to see that other people do to!  Secondly, a huge thank you to Michael and Kathy at Michael Miller Fabrics, who enthusiastically took a chance on fabric that didn't fit that well with their core products and gave it a try!  Amusement Park and Sunflower & Stripes would never have happened without their help and I feel fairly confident this opportunity would not have presented itself either.  From their fabric, I always suspected they were an innovative group and to my advantage, they are!

The picture above shows the "color plates" which is a really fancy name for an ink jet printout of the actual scale and color.  The mill then uses the colors from these printouts to match the ink.

The fabric should be here in about two weeks and I promise you'll see pictures immediately.  In the meantime, we are accepting preorders which will ship as soon as the fabric comes in!