Happy Halloween

Meet my Zombie Avatar, Lucretia. Visit this website, make your own zombie, see the latest zombie fashions, and watch entertaining zombie videos, it is quite amusing. Happy Halloween.....

Sample Spree Night & More New Patterns

Tonight is Sample Spree- a truly crazy and insane time of shopping! I don't think anyone has ever been trampled, but, you know, it looks like one of those commercials or movies with the stampede of anxious and frenzied shoppers storming the front doors of the store on Black Friday- I kid you not. I will have a table to "peddle my wares" for the first time tonight. I am excited and anxious. I hope I brought the right stuff in the right amounts (don't want to run out, but don't want to pack it all up and ship it back home either.)

Here are a couple more of my new pattern releases:
I love the colors in this- definitely not boring! They are almost like "wild Amish" colors, don't you think?? You may recognize it from a sneak peek post I did a couple of weeks ago. It's called Mad About You, because I thought the design looks maddening but it's really really easy. And, the pattern has 3 different options for making the blocks- you can do curved piecing, or hand applique or machine applique them and do no piecing at all.(And for those of you who don't like applique- you can do just the piecing- no applique involved). The flowers are dimensional and stitched on just in the center of the flower, so they seem to "pop" out from the quilt. Oh, and it features covered buttons- I just love covered buttons! I have been using them quite a bit lately. It is available on the website here.

And speaking of covered buttons, this pattern has them too. It is called the Sew Cute Tote and Flower Pin. It has directions for 3 different totes, plus a flower pin that you can decorate the tote with or pin to your favorite jacket. Available here.

 (Thank goodness I have daughters to model for me!)
(And of course you know by now that all of the projects were made from my Sewing Room Social fabric line.)

Happy Friday everyone. Oh and have a fun Halloween- since I will still be at Market on Sunday the 31st, you'll have to save some candy for me.
P.S. I like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

To Market We Go

Flight 8 a.m. tomorrow to Houston. Leaving house at 5:30 a.m. Suitcases are very heavy- full of quilts and catalogs and patterns that weren't ready yet when I shipped the rest of my stuff last week. My wardrobe will be very limited because there is literally no room for clothes in my suitcase! For those of you going, you will probably see me in the same clothes a few days in a row...

I will be releasing 6 new patterns which I designed for my Sewing Room Social fabric line. It has taken some doing to get them all done, but somehow, they got done. I had several more ideas, but there wasn't enough time for them, too, and they are still sitting in my sketchpad. Oh well, I am pretty happy with I did manage to complete. Here is one of the quilt patterns I finished:

It is called Peace and Plenty, and it has a matching pillow pattern- I love the long, narrow bolster-type pillow, I think they are so interesting. I think this is really pretty- the blue scallops on the edges are not sewn down, they are "dimensional", which adds some extra interest (I did have to tack them down for hanging, but if this is going on a bed, the scallops are just fine being "floppy" the way they are...). I am thinking of redecorating my bedroom to showcase it.  I love traditional quilt patterns and applique motifs, this is my interpretation done with modern colors. It is on my website here. And didn't my machine quilter, Tammy, do a great job echo-ing the applique at the top of the quilt! Also, thanks to Alison who did a lot of my piecing and quilting for me this time around- I couldn't have gotten everything done without her! She was truly a God-send.

I will have more patterns posted here while I am away, and of course when I come back there will be tons of photo from the show. Have a really great week.

Dress Your Nest

With just a few days left till I leave for International Quilt Market in Houston, things around here are getting interesting. And messy. And very dusty. And there will be no housework done until I get back. I have a pile of magazines that I have been collecting for the plane ride. Oh, I look forward to that plane ride. For the first time in weeks, I will sit and do nothing and be absolutely fine with that....
So, I know how I keep saying how busy busy busy I am getting ready. It's extremely stressful- will I get everything done? Will I remember to bring everything? Will anyone bother to stop in my booth when I finally get there and get it set up???  But once I get there, and the booth is done, I get to meet up with some old friends and the energy starts circulating around the convention center- Boy, is it fun! I imagine it's kind of like opening night at the theater. And after I get home, and get my suitcases unpacked, I will take a few days off to get the house back in order, maybe treat myself to a day or 2 of shopping- and then it's back to work. But oh how I look forward to those couple of days off. It is what keeps me going during the month before Market when everything is crazy, I just think about sitting in a coffee shop, relaxing, lazily wandering through some cute little shops with no schedule or agenda.... aahhhh.

I think it's about time for you to see some of what I have been working on. First, remember I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a project that could be one of my favorites ever and it's not even a quilt? Well, here it is- It is called the Dress Your Nest Collection. It is a collection of cute little crafty sewing projects to decorate your home- I think these would be so cute in a little girl's room, or a sewing room, or a sun room or parlor. It includes instructions for 2 different pillows, a couple different pieces of wall art, and lamp shade. The pillows could also be easily made into quilted wall hangings.

And let me tell you, the photography for this was not fun. After 3 days of clouds and rain, the sun finally came out- and so did the 50mph wind gusts! Thank goodness oldest daughter was here to help- she held everything down, then let go and jumped back and I quickly snapped a photo or 2 before everything blew over. And then we did it again. And again. And again.

The pattern for this is on the website, if you'd like to hop on over.
Happy Monday! More new projects to follow.....

Fall Fun!

Oh goodness, has it really been 2 whole weeks since I last checked in?? Time does get away from me sometimes!
The weekend before last, younger daughter had a sleepover with 6 of her friends. It happened to be older daughter's fall break from college, so she was home and she and her boyfriend were kind enough to do some decorating for me before all of the girls got here. They went to the market and spent way too much on pumpkins and mums- but I have to say, I do love pumpkins! So I didn't mind too much.

They put out some of my favorite fall decorations inside the house for me too.

We had pizza for dinner (I bought the fresh ready to bake pizzas from the deli department at our local grocery store- on sale for $6 each- I sure saved a lot by not getting them at the pizzeria like I had originally planned!) In addition to chips and candy and cookies, we made sure the girls had salad and fresh fruit and veggies to nibble on too (yeah, I'm one of THOSE moms).

 We had a campfire and roasted marshmallows (actually, I think more marshmallows ended up on the ground than in their mouths...)

The next morning I made a breakfast casserole. It went something like this...
Cube up a loaf of Italian bread and put it in a casserole that has been sprayed with Pam.

Beat up 10-12 eggs with 1 cup milk. Add one pound cooked crumbled bacon (well, 1 pound minus a few slices that just begged to be eaten off the plate...). Then add seasoning. And a good amount of onions fried in some of the bacon fat. Then add a bag of preshredded cheese. (I never promised you a lowfat recipe).

Pour the whole thing over the cubed bread, smoosh it down with the back of a large spoon, and bake for about 30 minutes covered at 350 degrees, then uncover and bake about 15 more minutes until browned and center is cooked. Then stand back while teenagers devour it like a plague of locusts.

By the way, I love my casserole dish- it's by Bobby Flay at Kohl's.

Thanks to those of you who sent nice emails wondering if I was still here! Yes, it's just a little crazy now. I am working on new projects for Market- it seems that the very best ideas come at the last minute!!! I guess it's just all of that creative adrenaline flowing. The project I am working now may be one of my very favorite projects ever- and guess what- it's not a quilt! It's almost done, I have a few finishing touches, then I have to take photos and finish writing the pattern and I will post it here. Promise! I have 3 quilts still out at the machine quilter's, due back tomorrow, so I will get the binding on those and photograph them also. Then everything will get posted here on the blog and on the website.
In the meantime, even though I haven't blogged lately, I occasionally still find time for Twitter, so you can follow me there.

Happy Fall, Y'All!

Do NOT Go In There...

It is Tminus 3 1/2 weeks until Quilt Market in Houston, TX. And this is what we are living with (caution: these are actual unretouched photos):

The Fabric Collection (notice the precision, orderliness, and perfect organization... everything at my fingertips- What. You don't keep your fabric on the floor? I suppose you have a better system, like shelves or baskets or a closet or something???)

The Desk A rainbow colored collection of Post-It notes, my personal favorite filing and accounting system.I think I need a list to keep track of my lists.

The Cutting Table (No snappy descriptions here- It's just a mess. Period.)

 The Kitchen Table This is where I would sit to eat. If I actually sat down to eat. Right now, serving as a depository for unopened mail, catalogs, and school papers.

My Pile The only neat thing in the house, my little pile of projects waiting to go to the seamstress.

A Sneak Peek The reason the place looks the way it does.