Tula Pink

I never intended to put these up for sale but I received about a million emails so here it is. The store is up! But only for a while. If every one who emailed me actually buys a pair I might take a vacation or maybe buy a years supply of grilled cheese sandwiches, which ever way the wind blows that day.

A few things you should know… First, these are men’s sizes, the woman’s shoes were cute but not my style, just a hair too “Gidget” for me, there is a conversion chart. Second, if I am walking down the street and I see you wearing them I will rush and then proceed to tackle you, just because. Third, if I see you on the street and we are wearing the same exact pair at the same time then we will link arms and possibly skip together, either that or we’ll kick some trash cans over.

Check out the shoes here

In between re-runs of America’s Next Top Model I was able to get some new products up in my store. Yay for me! Yay for you! I received a ton of emails about the quilt labels that I use on all of my quilts so now I offer them up to all of you. I have also used them on the inside of tote bags as pockets. I am pretty excited about them and if I happen to see them everywhere I won’t mind at all.

My little Tula Cans come in 5 colors, Eggplant, Aqua, Sweet Pea, Mustard and Tomato (I couldn’t come up with a cute food related name for Aqua. We all have our short comings). I feel very strongly about labeling projects. I just know that in 100 years or so people are going to be taking my quilts to the Antique Road Show on Mars. They will all be properly labeled and there will be no question about their extraordinary value.

I always label mine with the date, pieced by, quilted by and location is a good thing to have on there too. I also like to add special info like the fabric I used, the pattern or technique I used to piece and any info about why I made it (like if it was for a special occasion, charity, show, quilt market, pattern sample). What really makes a handmade item special is it’s history. You won’t be around to explain forever so leave a clue, ya know?

SHOP NOW

The coordinators of

The Creative Connection Event asked me to guest post on their blog about my “creative process”. So I did. You, my friends, can read it here.  The event sounds like it will be pretty awesome. It will be in Minneapolis on September 16th, 17th and 18th.

Here is what they have to say about it:THE CREATIVE CONNECTION is a 3 day conference, crafting extravaganza, and emporium for creative women and women entrepreneurs. Created by Nancy Soriano, former editor in chief of Country Living, and Jo Packham, the founder and editor in chief of Where Women Create, this event brings together women who are passionate about being creative in their lives as artists, business owners, bloggers, and more.

Before you go rushing over there to leave tons of comments about how much you like me and how inspiring my work is (this is a request to make me seem more popular) I must warn you… They asked for a picture of me. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that this is not an idea that I entertain often. So I may look a little irritated but that is only because I am and please know that it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the taunting that I received from my brother as he took the picture. Totally unfair. I plan on throwing fruit at him during his college graduation.

I have been inundated with emails about Twitter backgrounds so here ya go! It’s sort of a random Tula Pink sampling. If you use one be sure to let me know so I can check it out! Who knows, if y’all like it it could become a regular thing but I’ll never know unless you let me know, ya know?

 Click on the thumbnail of the image you want. This will open the full size image in your browser window. Save the image and drop it into your Twitter settings, check the repeat option and there you go! So easy.

Now for the pesky copyright warning… use them but don’t abuse them. If I see these cropping up on some other wacky thing I will have to sick my team of blood thirsty lawyers on you. I just hate that don’t you?

I love this quilt. The pattern is called Victory Garden but I call mine God Save The Queen. It’s my little tribute to the Sex Pistols. Yes, I went through a minor pseudo punk phase in high school. It involved a whole lot of eyeliner and a pair of over sized boots, nothing major. It happens to the best of us. I used Erin Micheal’s fabric collection called Lush from a couple of years ago. I like the idea of making little Union Jack flags out of pastoral American scenic fabric. There is something sort of wrong about it that just makes me happy. Oh, and the quilting is pretty amazing. Once again Angela is to blame for making me look good. That girl has mad skills. She’s like a quilting ninja.

I have a store! Can you believe it!?!? You can shop on it and everything! So here’s the deal…

The first 10 customers of my new and totally amazing shop will get a free Tula Can quilt label. These little labels are more rare than a UFO sighting, getting struck by lightning and a renegade Ostrich combined (my Twitter peeps know what I’m talkin’ about). Take a moment to look at my super cute button over there (shift eyes slightly to your right). I adore all of you but I really love the first ten customers the most.

Go! Go! Go! 

Since Neptune got the most love I am giving back some o’ that sweet lovin’ with extra prizes. I hope y’all realize that I am just cleaning out my drawers here (not my underwear you dirty little vixens and what ever the male word for vixen would be) my fabric drawers. I am getting ready to embark on a whole new period of the Tula Pink empire, insert wink and sly smile here. But I digress, let’s get down to business.

So the winner(S) are…

!    !    !    A      N      D    !    !    !

Congrats to Jennifer Rossi for the Jellyroll and our Charm Pack winners Tricia and Emily. Give ‘em some love. You know the drill, send me your mailing addresses and I will do my part to get the fabric in your greedy little hands ASAP!

Wow, this is crazy! I never thought this give away would be so huge. Big hugs, kiss kiss to all y’all. Thank you for feeding my ever-growing sense of self entitlement. Since this has exceeded my expectations, of which I had few, I feel that it is only fair to give more stuff away. 1200-ish people divided by only 6 prizes seems like crappy odds to me. So here is the second winner this week! Why not, right? You get my whole Plume pattern collection. There are five of them because five is a super good number.

Email your address to me so I can mail some free stuff to YOU.

jenny at tulapink dot com

or direct message me at:

twitter.com/tulapink

I promised a give away on twitter and I do my best to deliver so here it is. The BIGGEST give away in Tula Pink history, and that’s exactly what it is, the history of Tula Pink!Over the next six weeks I will give away a little piece of me every Friday, in the form of Jellyrolls. I have one JR of every collection I have ever done for Moda Fabrics and they are now up for grabs.

What do I have to do to win these fabulous prizes? you may be asking yourself this very question. All I want to know is what your favorite Tula Pink fabric collection was. Could it be Plume my most recent concoction or are you old school, Full Moon Forest maybe? or Flutterby? Neptune? Nest? Hushabye? They are all my babies so it has no bearing on who wins but still, for my own ego’s sake I would like to know.

As always the winners will be chosen at random. Leave a comment, get an entry, it’s that simple.

The winner will be announced every Friday, chosen from the comments to this post. Every comment will have 6 chances to win so keep checking back every Friday! Oh, and you can enter up until June 3rd, so have at it!

The winners will be announced as follows:
April 30th - Plume
May 7th - Hushabye
May 14th - Neptune
May 21st - Nest
May 28th - Flutterby
June 4th - Full Moon Forest

I love fabric. I love type. I love typographic fabric. So I made some. Here is what I did, it was super fun. It turned out kind of grungy and I like it. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. Suggestions?

Here’s how it all went down:

First, it worked best with a lighter color than a darker color. Darker colors require more saturation and caused the dye to bleed under the letters. I went with gray. I mixed 1 package of gray powdered dye with two cups of water and brought it to a simmer on the stove according to the package directions. (I used RIT, you can get it at any craft supply store) The directions say to use salt but it gummed up my spray bottle. Boo.

I cut 6 inch letters from glossy photo paper. The gloss acts as a water resistant coating. You can use anything that’s disposable and relatively moisture friendly. I put a thin coating of spray adhesive or photo spray mount on the back of the letters and let it dry slightly so it was tacky but not sticky. This prevents the stencil from moving around too much.

I let the dye cool slightly and filled a small spray bottle. Test the spray on something so you can get used to the flow. I liked a wide even spray for coverage.

Keeping the bottle high and directly over the letters, I sprayed light even coats over the whole area. If you come in at an angle the dye could seep under the letters.

Hang that sucker out to dry and then machine wash and dry it to make sure it sets.

Materials:

RIT Dye, Spray bottle, fabric I used a Moda Bella Solid in white, plastic drop cloth, spray adhesive, scissors, water resistant paper or other stencil making material.