Quilt Market Preview and New Product (I'm super excited!!!)

I wanted to share with you some things I will showing in my booth at Quilt Market this weekend. I have 2 new fabric lines for Henry Glass Fabrics, Apple Blossom Acres which will be in stores any day now:

and I will also be showing A Beautiful Day which will be in stores in November (the panel comes in blue AND Pink):

 Some patterns that I designed to coordinate with Apple Blossom Acres:

Amelia looks complicated but it isn't- instead of pesky curved piecing, blocks are appliqued by machine or by hand.

Apple Basket is a pattern for both a quilt and a large tote bag- perfect for your next picnic or hayride.

Little French Hen has a quilt pattern in 2 color ways, plus a really cute appliqued wall hanging.



















 Summer Breeze looks way more complicated than it is- super easy half-square-triangle construction! In 2 color ways. Isn't it "beachy"?

A new pattern to coordinate with the A Beautiful Day fabric line:

 The A Beautiful Day quilt comes in 2 color ways. There are 10 patterns for simple hand embroidery- you choose the 5 that you want to use in the blocks. The blocks are big and made of half-square-triangles- so it is super easy and quick (and baby quilts always seem to get done at the last minute!)

Bonus which I am so excited about- We have digitized the embroidery patterns, so if you have an embroidery machine you can embroider the blocks oh-so-quickly on your machine!!!
The CD for the embroidery patterns will be available probably around mid-November.

All of the patterns are now available on my website.
So that is what is "brand-new." Of course, I will be promoting my book, Fruitful Hands, at the show:

Come back next week for photos and news from the show!

To Market We Go!

So for a couple of months you've been reading "Market this" and "Market that"... It's finally here! I will be leaving in a day or so and the trade show runs from Saturday through Monday in Houston, Texas. there are piles of stuff in my studio, in the family room, all waiting to be packed up in suitcases (normally I ship all of the stuff for my booth ahead of time, but this time I didn't have anything ready early enough.... so we will be lugging lots of suitcases from the airport to the convention center). 

This Quilt Market is going to be especially exciting for me- I will be doing 2 School House sessions (School House sessions run on Friday, the day before the show opens). In the first, I will be talking about my book, Fruitful Hands, for Kansas City Star publishers, and for my second, I and four other Henry Glass Fabrics designers will be talking about our upcoming fabric lines. I am bringing some of my original watercolor paintings to both School House presentations, to show how art gets translated to the printed page and to fabric.

Also, I am going to be part of the Aurifil Booth Hop! This is going to be a lot of fun- show attendees can get a passport from the Aurifil booth (#1356) or my booth (#237) or any of the participating booths, visit all of the booths and get their passport stamped, and then be entered to win a veritable suitcase full of Aurifil Thread! Oh that is a stupendous prize! Have you seen Aurifil thread- the colors are simply gorgeous, and the thread is so easy to work with.

I know many of you don't get to go to Quilt Market, so Thursday I will do a little Market preview for you here on my blog. And of course, there will be lots of photos when I get back. I will try to make you feel like you were there (without the sore feet, of course!) Have a Happy Tuesday.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Giveaway- Did you guess correctly??

The answer is.....
No! I don't think anyone guessed correctly! (and sorry that cover photo was so small- I don't have the actual magazine yet and that photo was all I had.)
A lot of people chose applique blocks, because I do a lot of applique. Maybe I should have given a hint that my block doesn't look like something I typically do.... But I really, really like this block, maybe because it is kind of different from my usual style..... the name of my block is "Neapolitan." Can you guess now??

Stop back on November 8- I will be giving away a free copy (or 2) of the magazine, and showing nifty ways to use this block.
Since no one chose correctly, I chose randomly from all the entries and the winner was..... James-Linda.
She will receive a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 1 (The Original- I also had a block in that issue), plus a copy of Country Threads, which also contains one of my designs.

OK- so moving along..... The November Newsletter will go out next week (no, you didn't miss the October issue- I totally missed the entire month. Somehow it just flew right by.)  This issue will feature 2 delicious recipes (Ham and Corn Chowder and Apple Upside Cake), plus free place cards for you to print out and use on your Thanksgiving table, a free stitchery pattern (see sneak peek below,) plus a Quilt Market Preview. If you're not signed up yet, you can subscribe in the upper right bar of my blog.

 (I just realized that this is my 500th post. Guess I should throw a party or something???)

Visit to the Apple Orchard

NOTE- This post was supposed to publish way back on the 12th, but for some reason it never posted, and I didn't realize it....... So here it is, a whole week late. Yep, that's kind of lame.

Saturday was a beautiful day. I worked all morning on a sample quilt for Quilt Market (I'm leaving in 2 weeks!) and by the afternoon I needed to get out. So the family hopped in the car and went to a local orchard. (Unfortunately- the farm was NOT called Apple Blossom Acres.... that would have been too perfect.) It was really fun- the perfect, perfect thing to do on a gorgeous October day. We picked a couple of baskets of apples, then when we got home, daughter made an apple crisp.

 (I'm not in love with this photo- my eyes are all squinty because I was looking into the sun)

(They have pumpkins at the apple orchard too!)

So, the quilt sample that I mentioned at the top of the post..... I shouldn't have had to make it. When I was designing it, I made a couple of sample blocks, with different measurements, to see which worked best. When I wrote out the pattern, apparently I put in one wrong measurement- it was off by 1/8". But because a Yseam was involved, it didn't work for my sample maker. By the time we figured out the problem, she didn't have time to re-make the sample (she also has a real full-time job- I know, the nerve!) So I spent the last several days working non-stop making the sample myself- kicking myself the whole time because if only I'd have had that measurement correct- the whole thing could have been done by now! So, now you have a glimpse into the glamorous life of professional quilting. Exciting, isn't it????

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks!! (and maybe a giveaway or 2...)

I just got a peek at the latest issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks....

So why do I mention this? Because not only do I have a block featured in the magazine, but it's also on the cover- WooHoo!!! Can you guess which one it is???? And there will be a blog tour November 7-11, so be sure to check back, I will be giving a way a free issue of the magazine.  The issue will be on news stands in November. Just think of all the projects you could make with 100 original blocks.

 (As a little "aside"- My block made the cover, but not my name... maybe I should I change my name to "And More", ha ha!)

I actually have 3 blog hops coming up in November, so it will be a busy month here on my blog. And of course, that means lots of opportunities to win prizes and giveaways. I'm just sayin' you might wanna make sure you hang out here next month.

OK, so, really- try to guess which one is my block- I am curious to see if anyone can figure it out. Maybe I will even send a little prize the person who can guess correctly (if a lot of people guess correctly, I'll do a drawing.) Comment with your guess by noon this Friday October 21 EDT. (I must be able to contact you via email- if your address is not included in your profile and you don't want to include your email in your comment, you can email me directly with your address).

Happy HollyDays

I know it's a bit early to be wishing Happy Holidays, but I wanted to show you a project that I did for the latest issue of Create and Decorate Magazine. It's the Holiday 2011 issue and it will be on news stands any time now.  I got my copy last week and it is chock-full of great projects (does anyone know what chock-full means, anyway????). My project is called the Happy Hollydays Table Runner:

It has super simple squares pieced together and a wool applique design in the center. So easy and so cute- You can easily get this done before the holiday season, maybe even make a couple for gifts. (And of course, the fabric is from my Joy, Love, Peace, Noel line.)

I am also working on my free project for the Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Blog Hop. Yes, we are doing it again this year and there will be lots of fun and tons of prizes, so stay tuned. This was really fun last year, and I am glad we are doing it again.

It's hard to believe we are talking about holiday projects already- I'll bet some of you have already been working on some projects, haven't you??? What are they? What do you have planned for this year? Will you start on your projects early, or save everything for the last minute?
(I think I will, despite my best intentions, probably end up doing everything at the last minute. Sigh.)

Quick Post!!!!

Super Quick Post-
I spent Saturday at the Quilts on High Show in Burlington, NJ. It was supposed to be an outdoor show, but alas, the forecast called for rain and gusty wind, so the show was moved indoors. It was still a great show! I met so many wonderful quilters- Shout Out to all of you I met on Saturday!! Woot! Woot!
Some photos of my booth, taken with my phone (in other words- not fabulous quality photos....)

Also got a few packages on my doorstep last week- including some preliminary print outs for my next fabric line with Henry Glass Fabrics, and some Aurifil Thread (scrumptious!)


It is so chilly here today- I tried not to put the heat on but my fingers were too cold to type so I finally gave in... Yay Autumn is here!

So that's it- TTFN- Tata for now!!