Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A New Tutorial on Ric Rac

Hi Everyone!

I am a little behind right now and will fill you in, in a few days time. Lots of exciting stuff to tell you and some super giveaways too!
For now, go and check out my fun tutorial on how to use Ric Rac in your quilts.  I even show you how to make Ricky and Racky=)




Thursday, May 24, 2012

Quilt Market - Take 3

I am going to show you some fantastic fabric designers that were sweet enough to pose with me.   Above is Carina Gardner, a most amazing designer for Riley Blake Fabrics.

 This is the most beautiful Amy Butler.   What is more wonderful is that she is so down to earth, humble and sincere that it is quite unbelievable.
This is Patty Young.   She was delightful and fun to talk to.   She is such a snappy dresser too!   And she has an accent... I told her that did not come across in her blog posts=)

Now the design team of The Quilted Fish all got matching shoes made in the new line of fabric Amanda was releasing, Apple of My Eye.  On the heel you could pick a word, so I picked Canadian.  The team was so thrilled to have  real life Canuck with them at market, and I never got teased once.  Ya right!


Here is the book Amanda released at market, with patterns from her and the design team (including me=)
 This is the cover and the box pattern Amanda made, inside has 2 more layers of boxes!
This is a sweet quilt made by Brooke.

 Jana made this quilt and on the back is a place for feet warmers.  She is just so clever!
Lastly is my necklace.  Sigh


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Quilt Market - Take 2

I am back with lots of pics of booths at market and some other fun stuff!


IMG_3484
This is Amanda of The Quilted Fish at School House, showing her new line of fabric and holding up a book....  we all wrote patterns for a book that Amanda put together!   And mine is the necklace that was the one taught at market.  Don't even bother to ask how pumped I was about that!


How in the heck did Michael Miller fabrics get those elephants to Kansas City quilt market?

Here is Patti Young in her booth.


Another shot of the Michael Miller booth.

Here is Tula Pink, she has so much energy about her and is genuinely a lovely person.

This is the Art Gallery booth.  I bought a ton of fabric from them at sample spree.

Here are the girls from The Fat Quarter Shop!  They were the sweetest people ever!  How cool that I got to hang with them while they each made a necklace.

 The one above and below are from Riley Blake fabrics.  These people are the best!  They were giving away sunglasses and gave me a pair and even a pair for my kids!  Mine are hot pink=)

Landauer had a little bit of everything in their booth.
Alexander Henry had this huge pile up of chairs covered in their fabric!  It must have been close to 20' tall!



This photo shows how busy Amanda's booth was the entire weekend.   There is me teaching my necklace pattern to some lovely ladies.  (photo by Pink Fig Patterns, with permission)  Do I not just look like I am having a blast being the teacher=)   Trust me, I was!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Quilt Market - Take 1

I was able to be there for both set up and take down of quilt market.  Set up took a day and a half, and take down took 30 minutes, and then a 2 hour wait for the crate to be delivered and 30 minutes of packing it up.   Why don't things ever go back in how they came out?  LOL
Here is Amanda, the uber awesome fabric designer of The Quilted Fish and her bestie Kayce.  They are just about to open the crate that contains everything to set up the booth, well almost everything!

These next pics are of us doing set up.
This is the super hilarious Jana getting stuff ready for School house... a 30 minute session where Amanda shows and discusses her new line of fabric and new patterns and book.


This is Amanda and Robbie.
Look what I found in the crate!   Now couldn't I have fun embellishing with them?

Here are Candice and I prepping the walls.   Candice comes across as really quiet... but wow, can she talk!
This is me arriving at Quilt Market... kind of nice it is blurry so you don't have to think I am a big lame-o for having tears about to spill out.

Here is the booth finished.   This is Kayce and Jana in front of the table where we taught my fabric necklace all weekend long!   Even the Fat Quarter Shop girls blogged and tweeted about it!   It is one of the patterns in Amanda's newly released book.  (not too excited about that!)  She is mailing out our copies, she sold out at market, that is why I have no pictures for you.

These next pictures are of her booth all set up.  Honestly it was one of the best booths there! And that quilt 'Apple of My Eye' is my most favourite quilt pattern.


You can see my fabric necklace in the red frame.


Here is what made the market so memorable.   This is most of the design team!   From left to right is Robbie, me, Jana, Amanda, Kayce, Brooke, Candice and Stephanie.   These girls rocked!

Next post I will show you some other booths and some fabric designers too!  So stay tuned.




Monday, May 21, 2012

QUILT MARKET!!!

Okay, my secret.... and now I am shouting super loud:
I JUST GOT BACK FROM MY VERY FIRST QUILT MARKET AND HAD THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE!

I have a zillion things to tell and show, but after a 15 hour day of travelling am kind of beat.   Over the next few days, will flood my blog with market posts!  

I scratched off a big number of things on my bucket list... it was that amazing!   I finally got to meet The Quilted Fish's design team that I have been a part of since it's conception.  The girls are the best of besties!

And there is no way I can't tell you this.   I finally got to meet Pokey Bolton!   She was the owner/editor of Quilting Arts magazine and is now the Chief Creative Officer of Quilts Inc.   This has been a dream of mine for quite some time... like a decade!  
Here is Pokey on the left and me on the right... yes, if I grinned anymore my mouth would split=)

And one last teaser, here I am with Joel Dewberry.
And he told me that his new line is Notting Hill, to be released this July and that word isn't even out yet!  I think we must have really clicked!   LOL

Ok, I am off to recuperate from the time of my life and then i will post in a day and inundate you with pics from market!



Thursday, May 10, 2012

Pssttt...a little secret

I can't say too much right now.  Well, actually I can't say anything, but the super talented Amanda Herring of The Quilted Fish is saying a few words.   Go check out what she has to say.   It has something to do with me being in a book!!!!  (there goes those exclamation marks again)  Not too much is being said, as Amanda is saving it for Quilt Market.

Twice a year, in the U.S. there is a huge trade show called Quilt Market.  In the fall it is in Houston and in the spring it changes locations.  This spring it is in Kansas City, Missouri.   In case some of you don't know what happens at Quilt Market, I will explain a bit.  

Quilt market is where everyone who is selling something related to quilting goes to show off their new products to store owners/vendors.  The vendors can see what is coming out and place orders.   For example, Riley Blake Fabrics, Moda, Michael Miller etc.  all have booths showcasing their latest lines of fabric coming out.   It is aisles and aisles of booths of great displays and lots of fun.  Their are school house sessions where store owners can listen to particular companies talk about their new products.   It is a closed trade show, which means it is not open to the public.   I see on the website that they have had to add an 'overflow hotel', as so many people have booked rooms to fill up the 3 host hotels.   It sounds like it is gearing up for a grand time.  

It takes place May 18-20, 2012.  Ok, now go and see what Amanda is up to in her market preparations.



Monday, May 7, 2012

I AM IN HERE!

Finally after literally months of waiting and not telling anyone, the day has come!  My quilt is in the latest  McCall's Quilting America Makes Fast Quilts Spring 2012  

I am sooo excited!   (Disclaimer:  There may be excessive amounts of exclamation points used in this post)

Here is the cover.
See that blue and red quilt all rolled up right under the 'Q' in 'Quilts', that is MY QUILT!
They named it 'Stripe Delight'.   How perfect!  

This is the way they displayed it in the magazine.   I don't have a copy yet, but you can bet I will be buying one as soon as I can!
To read all about it online, click here!

I used 'Delighted' fabric by The Quilted Fish of Riley Blake Fabrics

This quilt was created because I just started playing with blocks one day and ended up making a neat pattern with them.   I had never used stripes much and enjoyed seeing them divide up the blocks.   Apparently McCall's Quilting magazine thought so too, as they decided to use my quilt... and the rest they say is history!  

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Part 2: Workshop Quilts

As promised, I have been sent some more quilt pictures from the 3D Flower workshop I taught last weekend.   You would never know they all used the same template!    Enjoy the creativity from these wonderful women.






This little art quilt below is one of the 3D embellishments I taught on the second day.   Can you guess what it is made out of?



Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Back from a Wonderful Workshop

I am back, and have so much to tell.   I taught a 2 day workshop to the Sudbury Quilters Guild.   The first day was a 3D Flower wallhanging.  The second day was 3D embellishing and finishing up, if they wanted, on their flower.   Then the next day I gave a trunk show presentation to over 100 ladies.

Let me say this, I don't know where I have ever seen so much talent and hidden creativity before.   These ladies had so much imagination and spunk, I was overwhelmed.

I have a few pics to show you and will show more as I get them.   I accidentally took some on 'video' mode so that is why I only have about half of them here.

You would never know they were all taught with the same pattern and set of instructions.     Now as for names, I know all but one, I just can't remember it, so for the sake of not hurting that one person's feelings, I won't name any of them.   But these are the ever so talented ladies from the Sudbury Guild in Ontario Canada!