Jennifer Sampou Fabric Designer, Author, Speaker
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Your Stash + SKY = WOW. New youtube videos.

10/14/2022

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NEW YouTube videos out now! 

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SKY ombrés work magically with your stash. True statement, I promise. You may shake your head and say "That's crazy- She has never seen my stash....how the heck does she know?"  Go ahead, watch the video below My Ombre Color Teacher and see for yourself. Just a 1/2 yard of one SKY fabric blends with over 80 pieces in my own stash. My stash is wide and deep: Modern, vintage, antique, traditional and quirky as it represents 40 years of collecting...so this was eye opening and a bunch of fun.
Can you imagine if I did 45 more videos highlighting every SKY fabric? I don't think there would be much left in my stash that wasn't used! Going out on a limb here, but as a betting woman, I believe if you pick one or more of your favorite SKY Ombrés, you will be amazed at how much of your stash shines when placed next my ombré. A whole new lease on the "I'm a desirable and pretty fabric you've had shoved in the back of the cabinet for 10 years!" kind of thing. Also, utilizing fabric that you have been saving is great way to ensure that we are quilting with little to no waste! The sum of these matches made in heaven is nothing short of a BIG WOWZA! And maybe even get you to use some of that stash up ;)
We have made two YouTube videos dedicated to how to use your stash with SKY in building a quilt. We picked Octagon Shimmer Quilt (OSQ) to demonstrate this concept. Of course you can use any quilt pattern. The nice thing about OSQ is that it uses big pieces as well as narrow strips, which gives variety of how the fabrics play together. Note that we use everything from small prints, solids, bold florals, stripes, reproductions, hand dyes, batiks, marbled and more. All styles work and provide a variety of interest. 
Begin making a quilt with SKY Ombré and your stash. Jennifer shows how to use the Evening SKY fabric as your color teacher. This exercise uses the Octagon Shimmer Quilt Pattern and the Jumbo Octagon Shimmer Templates, both can be purchased at jennifersampou.com. The above quilt in the making is still up on my design wall and I will have the top finished by November 28, when I have to bring it to Tanque Verde to share with my students. I will definitely make a few more YouTube videos to share my process. So stay tuned! 
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If you love color and octagons, plus the idea of taking a quilt-cation, please check out my retreat at Tanque Verde next month. I would love to have you. It's going to be amazing and a once in a lifetime creative jaunt filled with desert skies, horses, spa, pool, amazing food, cowboys and yes, quilting too :)

Learn More about the retreat
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It's been a busy fall and I look forward to being in the quiet yet expansive beauty of Tucson at the ranch. If you are home in your studio, keep the iron hot and the sewing maching humming :)
xo

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I almost passed out....

5/6/2022

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Holding my breath... SKY Reflections is finally shipping!  

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It's Friday and I am boppin' over here. Over a thousand colors at your fingertips SKY ombrés make you feel like a color pro. Just found out this morning....New colors are shipping NOW! 
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We've waited since October 2021...And the time has come! Add these luscious 16 new, painterly fabrics to the original 30 and you've got 46 Ombrés that cover all your bases. They are amazing on their own or coordinated with your favorite fabrics. 
Here are the differences between the NEW and ORIGINAL: You'll use them all.
1. New SKY REFLECTIONS are based on how colors of the earth reflect into the sky, once you read the color names, you'll catch my drift. 
2. Speaking of color names: I am thrilled to inform y'all that each name is listed on the selvage every 20'" so you won't have to sharpie the name on the side! WOOT WOOT :)
3. You can easily tell the difference between the OG and NEW based on selvage color: White & Black. 
4. Every color is it's own unique pattern. I made 16 pieces of art using pastels. The ORIGINAL is one design colored 30 different ways. 
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sky lookbook link here...You must check it out to see our hard work come to life :)

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New colors blend in perfectly with Originals.
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New selvages are black and have color names.
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You can find me and my quilts on Treasure Island on any windy day :)
We created a 34 page glossy SKY OMBRE lookbook which you get for FREE if you order $150 or more from my shop. You can also get the downloadable PDF version for free here or purchase a hard copy to plan your next projects. It was a total labor of love and the work of many makers. If you are a shop and want to purchase wholesale, write Colette .

Every Wednesday starting May 11th I will be doing a LIVE INSTAGRAM Makers Chat with all the talented women who made things for the lookbook. They are pattern designers, friends and students. Please follow along to be inspired and get an inside peek at what goes on in makers' minds and how we get a lookbook into production. The cover of the book features SKY LOG CABIN which is updated with ombré, thin strips and a secondary star pattern. It's a new pattern of mine and I am teaching it at the wonderful art school,  MISA Madeline Island Sept 19th-23rd. 
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Makers love talking about color and construction
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Makers also love hanging out and having a good time

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Look how delicious the new colors are in Ombré Table Runner! Pistachio, Desert Green and Aloe.
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Super yummy colors!
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10 colors that coordinate with new SKY by Aurifil.
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HAVE A BEAUTIFUL MOTHER'S DAY
That is a wrap for today. I am headed downtown Orinda to set up for our first Makers Popup that a bunch of creative women are setting up for today. These people understand the importance of spreading beauty and inviting community to come together to inspire one another, help eachother through difficult times and splash color into our scope of vision. I am hanging a bunch of SKY banners in a small alley to create a canopy of color. Have a wonderful Mother's Day to all. I wish I was closer to my mom to give her a hug this weekend. Coffee date and Facetime will have to suffice until our summer trip to the Cape. But I will be with my boys and soaking it all up. Peace to you and yours. 
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Ombré and Big Floral Mash Up!

9/30/2021

10 Comments

 

Friends help Friends 

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​Patty Murphy makes a super quilt with a few tossed in recos from an ombré nut (me!) who can't keep her mouth shut...Yup, this post is about Patty Murphy's Aether Quilt which will dazzle the honey bees and make rainbows jealous! She is a gem of a human and a color maven- once you study this quilt, you'll see why! 
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Patty working out the Orange Peels on the wall to ombre the florals.
Patty and I are cofounders of Create and Sustain. We talk a lot via Zoom about the environment, how to help our industry be greener, be more conscious about our impact on the earth and important issues like that. So she had this WIP Orange Peel quilt in the background for a few of our sessions that kept morphing around as WIPs do.  One day, I asked her, "Hey Patty, are you putting white in the background or doing something different?" I waited for a reply as my mind was dancing seeing those big bold florals of  Kaffe Fasset/Anna Maria Horner types.
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Watch our recent IGTV on Instagram. The Q&A where she tells us the story of her process. The Batik she was pondering before I dropped the SKY bomb!
She says, "I am not doing a traditional white background, but pondering a batik" I say, "What batik?" and she shows me. "Oh" I squeaked. I was literally sitting on my hands and biting my tongue until I couldn't take it anymore...My mind was swirling in SKY ombre (shocker). I had to restrain myself from just blurting out SKYYYYYY: So I took a pause and said, "Hey Patty, remember those 30 half yard cuts of my SKY Ombrès I sent you, have you thought about using those? They may be really something mixed with those florals". I had been wondering for months when someone out there might start mixing big bold prints with my SKY and here it was right on Patty's design wall. She had something else planned and confessed that opening up the special bundles was a big deal. But we now know she did and the results are much more than the sum of two parts. My jaw dropped to the floor next time I saw her design wall. Seriously...
The M A G I C is real! 
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Off and running Patty is slicing and dicing and designing!
Watch this cute clip of Patty and Kermit moving around the pieces to get it just right. Watch the IGTV interview to hear about her process, get her pattern on Etsy and the fabric from my shop (Sunrise and Sunset HTHI towers)
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close up of floral and ombres
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She uses various Aurifil threads to do her topstitching of raw appliqué onto the SKY background
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She started with hand appliqué and wanted to finish it before she turned 97 so opted for alternate method of machine appliqué.
So that is how the story goes and from there, she was like a wildfire with the cutting up of ombre, playing and placing and having a grand ole time being so so creative. It's all about that juice! 
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get your peels figured out and then your background after.
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The top is done. 70x70 We are all wondering how she's going to quilt it! Stay tuned :)
There you have it. It's stunning and has had a HUGE response on Instagram so if you are just on my email list and don't give a mice's butt about that stuff, don't feel like you're missing out (except the videos, they are fun)
Finally, drum roll please: I have very exciting news that also makes me bite my tongue and sit on my hands because OCTOBER 8th MY NEW 16 SKY OMBRES LAUNCH with Robert Kaufman! I have a few videos and a 34 page lookbook that is dropping and it's drop dead gorgeous! Lots of very special makers showing their talents with new SKY. Can't wait to share. I will be posting about that next week! Off to Madeline Island to teach next week, you'll hear from me via IG. Be well and keep the ombre fire sparkling.
​xo 
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The Better Sweater for Berkeley

9/24/2021

1 Comment

 
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Look at those elbows :) I love it more since the mend!
.The holes got so bad at the elbows that I could no longer put my arm into my studio sweater without catching my hand. You could push a melon through it, it was so cavernous. After years of love, service and being run over by my studio chair wheels a thousand times; the soft, whisper light cashmere cardigan desperate pleas for  help were finally answered. I love this sweater. It was perfect for all weather. I would not dispose of it. I am trying to do a whole lot less of that! Plus I was about to guest teach on behalf of Create and Sustain at University of Berkeley to a class called Politics of What We Wear and I wanted more samples of mending to share with the class. Deadlines always get me going. So....who in your closet is crying for attention? Asking for a some snappy mends and bright yarns to spice up the party? No one wants to land in the dump. Just ask your clothes. 
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Wow, that is a big hole. And there is two of them!
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Mended with lightweight thread before stitching rectangle with ombre wool yarn for rustic elbow patch effect.
I am sharing this rustic and imperfect process to let you know anyone can do it....We look at our clothes differently when we really care for them. CAL students were asked by their professor to bring clothes they love and needed to repair into class...Something they would fix themselves. We mended pants, t-shirts, camisoles, stitched designs and sewed on missing buttons and fixed runs. I think they enjoyed the mindfulness of just sitting, stitching and showing a little love and attention to what they wear. Their class discusses issues of fast fashion, the politics of the clothing industry and how can we be more sustainable. A broad topic I was thrilled to offer a small bit about a maker's take on the clothing we wear. 
Shows the simple and imperfect way to make the hole smaller. Using 50wt Aurifil and quilting needle, I pull the hole tighter but not too tight. Second step is choosing a yarn (mine was a ombre hand dye from Australia) with a chunky hand. I needed a bigger needle and took length long pieces and just started stitching up and down, then left to right to create an integral patch. All part of the sweater. I did a few rounds to beef up the elbows and make sure my patch area was beyond the mended hole. Sorry I was so engrossed in making that I forgot to film! 
This is what it looked like before I tied off the loose ends. Below shows detail of the yarn. So pretty right? 
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Instagram post detail of first layer of stitch. Over and under, back and forth to fill the area.
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Respect your well loved clothes! Mend the holes!
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Thread ✔️ Needles ✔️ Pins ✔️ Enthusiasm ✔️ Smart Discussion ✔️
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This image makes me so happy. Rock on Dr. Jennifer Bussell for making this happen!
Create and Sustain non profit was thrilled to be asked to share our vision about what that means in the quilting and sewing industry. How are we accountable? What can we do better? How do we spread the word and inspire others? How to we get our suppliers to do better? Be more transparent and accountable? By presenting to a college class majoring in political science is one of the ways. We were delighted to share what we know, dive deeper into what we don't and keep on teaching and doing. The students were engaged, inquisitive and even if they had never even threaded a needle, the jumped in and started sewing. It was thrilling....or at least I was thrilled ;)
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PoliSci students at CAL are sharp and so are needles...they mended well. We talked about the clothes and politics of what we wear. So much more to discuss.
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Patty Murphy and Kristy McDonough with Dr. Jennifer Bussell discuss mission of Create and Sustain to share with students
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More mending examples of 15 yr old favorite jeans.
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Mending the embroidery
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Close up of A&& rip! Looks OK right?
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Dr. Bussell's books for her class curriculum. She's incredible. Follow their Instagram account to learn more about this necessary topic.
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Their future is in our hands. We cannot continue to support unsustainable fast fashion and it's role in the demise of our planet's health.
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Erica began with her name and will continue to embellish. And a little NorCal vs. SoCal rivalry is a must.
Have a great weekend everyone. Stay balanced, laugh and breath deep! And promise me you'll mend something in your closet or goodwill pile to give it new life. Below are a couple of links I like and there are hundreds more! Find one to suit your style. 
Creatively yours,
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https://www.katrinarodabaugh.com/classes
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/436989970095625692/  Shows so many samples! 
​https://wrenbirdarts.com/products/sashiko-mending-supplies 
​
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  • Home
  • Store
    • Bundles/Kits
    • Patterns
    • Precuts
    • SKY Yardage
    • Quilting Accessories
  • SKY OMBRES
  • Learning
    • Want to Hire Jen to Teach?
  • Going Green
  • My Blog
  • About
  • Fabric
    • SKY
    • Chalk & Charcoal Basics
    • Chalk & Charcoal
    • Spring Shimmer
    • Winter Shimmer
    • Winter Shimmer 2
    • Shimmer On
    • black&white 2
    • Studio Stash 3 Cool Story prints and yarn dyes
    • Studio Stash 3 Warm Story prints and yarn dyes
    • Shimmer 2014
    • Shimmer II - 2015
    • black&white 2015
    • Studio Stash II - 2014
    • color:FULL 2014
    • Studio Stash Yarn Dyes 2014
    • Daisy Love Flannel Collection 2014
    • Studio Stash Fabric Collection 2013
    • Continuum Fabric Collection 2012
    • Fiesta Collection 2011