Shipshewana Fabric Show

It's that time again. This is the Shipshewana Fabric Show that debuts all of the new fabrics from Quilt Market to the local region.

Coincidentally, I also get the joy of loving on new fabrics and quilts. I even made a couple!

So that's the Moda corner featuring most of the new lines. I think it's much better to look at than the dreary weather outside:

And this is my little section of the room:

Most of these are quilts from my book, Seamingly Scrappy, or from magazines. 

But here's the couple I made for the show:

This is my new version of Coinage featuring Bartholo-meow's Reef by Tim & Beck. The only adjustment I made to work with the bundle of fabric I was given was to make the accent sashing scrappy. I used a mixture of the green prints from the line and I think it turned out well. 

Also, I remade my Spun Sugar pattern on the Moda Bake Shop with the new Mill Book Series from Howard Marcus. It's completely different from the original. I also adjusted the borders on this one just adding a scrappy 6" border instead of the original design. It worked well with the Fat Quarter bundle I had. 

I'm posting from my iPod so I can't link these back to the original posts just yet, but give me a couple days and I'll be sure to do that. Please excuse me while I go love on new goodies. Which is your favorite new line?

Shipshewana Fabric Show

Earlier this week Mom and I traveled over to Shipshewana, IN (one of my favorite places!) to take part in the Shipshewana Fabric Show.

We travel to work this show three times a year, two of which happen to fall almost immediately after Quilt Market. This show serves as a mini-Market for those shops who either couldn't make it out to Quilt Market or made it and couldn't make up their minds on which fabrics to purchase :)

This was my little corner of the room. I had a few of the quilts hanging from my book, Seamingly Scrappy, and a whole bunch of other quilts from my patterns too!

 Each time we set up we try to do it a little different and see what we have on hand for that show. I really like how this section turned out and...

I think the rocking chair was one of my favorite aspects. It honestly just worked it's way out when I was folding up the quilts, they naturally staggered like that. I was trying not to blend similar fabrics and maybe start with bigger quilts, but the rest was just luck!

Next to my corner was the beginning of the new lines from Quilt Market. The hotel has these awesome tall backed benches that work great to show off little quilts like these. 

 Then the larger quilts start (and I apologize for the sun glare in the quilts and the bad lighting, this side of the room has the most windows and doors and depending on what Mother Nature has up her sleeve, the quilts are either lit up or not) Oh, and there's the infamous Moda Mark!

On the other side of Moda Mark was my Mom and Brian both working hard. Mom and I are so lucky to get to work these shows and do demos and whatnot a few times a year. We have a great time helping out shops and we really like helping new shops since we've been in their shoes and can give them some advice or tips.

We got home from New York early this week, then headed to Indiana and we're heading back to New York today too for another little event. And then next week I am finally looking forward to sleeping in one of these days :) I love being able to do this, but I'm starting to wonder how much caffeine one person really can handle...

I'll be back with some machine quilting and some updates from the latest trip to New York!

Shipshewana Fabric Show

We're here in sunny gorgeous Shipshewana taking part in the Fabric Show today. This show is basically like a mini-market for all of the regional shops that weren't able to travel to Portland (or couldn't decide on what lines to bring into their shops just yet). 

I'm spending my day working with the Moda Booth and attempting not to drool on all of the new fabrics :)

Here's a shot of the booth, maybe one or two of these quilts will come home with me, probably not but a girl can dream!!!

Gotta love the panoramic option, it's a bit weird, but this is the whole booth!

Shipshewana Spring

I have to say the trip I look forward to each time is when I get to head over to Shipshewana and be surrounded by all things quilty. It's a neat little town and it just feels like my home away from home.

 We arrived on Tuesday and got the booth all set up. You may notice here a new version of Tiny Bits using Oink A Doodle Moo and a new Aura, both from the book, made out of Honey Honey from Kate Spain with a dark background. (So sorry I don't have better pictures yet, I completely forgot to get good pictures and sent the quilt off to the quilt shop, but I'm heading there later and I'll get pictures I swear!)

 I borrowed this bench from just outside the room and used it for Sonesta and Alphabet Stitchery: Sea Creatures.

 We had all sorts of new fabrics from Moda on display including many Christmas, Fall and Halloween lines. The back wall of quilts had a stained glass effect since it was so sunny outside.

 Also, we had all sorts of projects from the Moda Bake Shop including a version of my Wiggly Whimsy pattern in the new Boo Crew line from Sweetwater. It's so cute! The show was good as usual and as good as it is to get away, it was good to get home and back to work.

 I came home last night to this precious face!

And yes, this is THE face that I just love. This was actually the "you're standing in the kitchen and it's almost time to eat but you're not getting any food in my bowl just yet" face. Love this pup!

Last little note for the day, I just got word my books are on their way so as soon as I get them I will Herby Hancock those and send them out to those of you that preordered copies! How exciting!

Have a great Valentine's Day and I'll be back soon with more exciting news!

New Pattern: Sonesta

So there are designs I have stashed away from my first days of designing quilts that just wait for the perfect opportunity or fabric to showcase them. This is kinda one of those...

 I say kinda because these weren't the fabrics I had in mind when I designed this quilt. I really didn't have any fabrics in mind specifically, but I can tell you these were nowhere in my mind at the time. I'm actually heading to Cottonpickers, my LQS, later today and I'll get a picture of the batik wall that seems to grow every time you look at it. You'll see why I gravitated towards these fabrics, maybe...

When I look at this quilt I see all of the colors from our trip to the Caribbean. I'm hoping that when we have a blizzard this winter I can wrap up in it and feel almost as warm as I did on the beaches we visited... A girl can dream, right?!

 This quilt is so much brighter than most that I've made. It almost scares me a little because of how bright it is. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but this is one of those situations where you didn't know yourself.

The above picture I took at the park by Lake Erie down the street from my house. The lake was the most beautiful color of blue that it is capable of achieving, but the fall leaves weren't having the same feel for me, so these pictures didn't make it on the cover.

 So, my next resort for photos was my backyard fence. Well, really my neighbor's fence, but alas, my fence. It's so hard to make the photos seem appropriate to the fabrics at times when Christmas fabrics come out in Summer and Spring/Summer fabrics come out in Fall/Winter.

This quilt is the medium size with the borders attached. There are three sizes in the pattern ranging from Small to Large. Basically they work from Lap to Full-ish sizes, but is easily made bigger or smaller. The blocks finish at 12" square so with simple piecing and large blocks, this quilt goes together quickly no matter which size you'll make.

I normally use a thread that blends with the quilt top for the quilting, and there really wasn't one color that would work with this blend of gorgeous. Soooo, I used a tie-dye thread that had every color in it. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you can probably see the quilting better.

I also made a flannel version. This is the small size without the borders. Same quilt - completely different feel. Don't ya love it?! If you chose fabrics like this one it'll be great for a guy!

I quilted this one the same way as the other, but the fabrics make it look completely different. These were samples of the Moda Flannel Basics from one of the Moda Salesmen I work with. This quilt will be traveling with him, Mr. Joseph Galza, to the Clare, MI MAAFRA show for quilt shops next week if you're there. The flannels in this quilt felt like butter. It's so soft and I actually curled up in it the one day of the Shipshewana Show I was just at because once the sun went down it got cold, fast! The second morning of the show when we woke up it was only about 22 degrees outside. It's days like that that I appreciate making quilts that much more. If you get cold you have samples to curl up in! It's a win win!

 

So Sonesta is now available to ship and is ready for purchase in my shop. What fabrics would you make this out of? Which version do you like the best? I'm curious to know! I'll be back with more updates later!



Shipshewana 2012 (the duo)/Trunk Show

So, last week Mom and I headed over to Shipshewana to work with Moda at the Regional Fabric Show. We do this a few times a year and this was our second time this year out to Indiana.

 The day started out a bit sunny... as you can see. Poor Mark opted to switch places and sit where the customers normally do so they weren't blind by the time they left...

 This was the beginnings of the Ruby Blue/ Moda area. Doesn't it look cozy?

 We had all sorts of quilt in the booth this time around. More than usual, that's for sue. Most of them were straight from Market.

 We also had a display of the latest Sewline products and Ruby Blue Patterns.

 I got to show off some of the latest Moda Bake Shop quilts and the Alphabet Stitcheries.

 Here's how the back of the booth looked. There's so many good lines this time around (as usual) and some new designers too. I love them all, don't you?

And, Mark had the newest Bella Solids card which now includes 220 colors! 220! That's crazy, but it also makes life so much easier! The greatest part is there's always something to match the Moda lines... Easy Peasy!

Oh, and on a side note, if any of you are planning on attending the Shipshewana Quilt Festival here in another week or so be sure to stop by Yoder's Department Store. Not only are they the hub basically for all things Quilt Festival related (and the fact they expanded the store and it's even bigger now than it was), but - they have some of my quilts and will be doing a trunk show during Quilt Festival!!! I'm so excited and cannot thank Dawn enough for this opportunity!

Let me know if you're going to Quilt Festival, I'd love to hear what you think. Unfortunately I cannot attend this year, but I will be there in spirit.

Shipshewana, IN

So, last Tuesday Mom and I hopped in the car and headed up to Shipshewana, IN for another fabric show!

I love doing these shows - you get to meet awesome people, see all the new goodies, and be around other quilty people and talk quilts all day - how cool is that?

 So I was set up in the corner there, I had my table with the new Stitchery designs...

 I also brought both of my Dueling Personalities quilts (on the bench to the left) which paired nicely with the quilt Joseph brought, made of the same collection. I made two quilts and split the line into neutrals and brights where his quilt combined them all!

Also on the table to the right we were featuring the new line by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts called Over the Rainbow (more on that later).

 Here's a shot of the back of the booth. We were still showing the Christmas and Seasonal collections, I can't wait to start making quilts with these!

 We also featured the new birthday collections found in the Moda Home department. It also happened to be the 15th anniversary of this show, so Mark had wonderful cupcakes there as well! But isn't this bunting adorable?!

 Back to that Over the Rainbow collection... Here's a shot of the Fat 8th bundle... There's 50 batiks in the line including:

 10 Neutrals and...

40 colors! Also Edyta designed a new product called Silhouettes which are laser cut applique pieces with Steam a Seam II already on the back! All you have to do is peel the paper off the back, iron them onto the fabric and stitch them down!

To learn more watch the video where Edyta explains all the details for you by clicking here.

Sorry it's taken me a while to post about Shipshewana, we got home from the show late Wednesday night and immediately turned around and had the vendor's weekend at the Lake Farmpark show. Two shows back to back! Whew! Now to get back to the grind. The show was so busy I wasn't able to take any new photos, but I may try to go out there one last time.

Today I'm off to start a quilting blitz. I have several quilts to work on and I hope to show you pictures of those as I work on them. Off to quilt, be back soon!

Marathon Day 1

So yesterday was the Annual Wildwood Quilt Guild show. The guild did a wonderful job, there were several beautiful quilts hanging, the refreshments looked and smelled awesome (I stuck to my diet, yay me!) and the vendors were all dolls as usual. Here's some pictures I took towards the end of the day.

Then Mom and I packed up her booth and headed up to Shipshewana, IN for the after Market Regional Show (only for shop owners, sorry). We'll be here for two days and we get to spend that time with Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts!!! I'm so excited!!!

If I get a chance tonight I will try to take pictures today and post later. I hope this post turns out alright. It's the maiden post from my iPod on the road!

Be back soon after I love on all the new fabrics!!

Travels

So, on our way home from Shipshewana, Mom and I had nothing on the schedule. We were done with our commitments, had the whole day ahead of us and no rush to get home. So what did we do?

Well, we had to stop at Lolly's in the Davis Mercantiles!

 That building (yes, all of it including the brick parts) is the Davis Mercantile, home of 23 amazingly unique shops. Sorry the pictures kinds blurry, it was raining  and I tried to take it from inside the car...

 All of the shops from the inside have little storefronts and bright colors that make it look so magical. This is a picture from the 3rd floor (there's 3 floors plus a basement!)

 And I got a better picture of the tree inside the building this time with Mom next to it to show scale...it's huge and runs all the way from the basement floor to the rooftop!

 And they have the cutest displays all over the building, not just in each of the shops...

 This is one of the doors for Lolly's from their porch (which I just discovered). I have a funny story - I was going to take a picture of this porch from the inside, but there was a gentleman sleeping in one of the rocking chairs and I thought it would be mean to take the photo...

 But isn't this just the most cozy porch ever?!

 Along with the Quilt Festival is a Shop Hop, so we had to check it out! Our first stop was Caroline's Cottage Cottons in Rome City, IN. It was about a half hour drive from Shipshewana, but look how adorable it is:

 It's the coziest little shop and Caroline, the owner, is such a doll. Mom and I met Caroline at the trade show we participated in a few weeks prior in Shipshewana, but we had no clue this was her shop...

 There's Caroline cutting up a paisley fabric for me I couldn't leave without owning. If you're in the area, you must stop, it's so adorable.

 Then we had to stop at the Door Mouse in Bettsville, OH. I have heard of the Door Mouse for years, but never had the opportunity to visit. Well, there's 2 stories (kinda) in this barn with 17,000 bolts of fabric in this barn. But, it's in the middle of nowhere.

Literally it's in the middle of a cornfield. It was a neat experience and I left with some good buys, but it's almost too much. There's so much fabric in this shop it's everywhere, it's stacked on the floor in front of the shelves so you can't see most of the fabric on the bottom shelf and I wouldn't recommend it for the claustrophobic. But if you're looking for that perfect fabric that you can't seem to find anywhere else, it'll probably be here or something close to it.

So I shopped and bought some more to add to those stacks I showed you earlier, but I have a few other projects in line ahead of that particular growing bundle...I'm hoping to get to it soon.

I have been sewing so much lately and have been enjoying every minute of it. I actually have the next couple days off still and I'm hoping to finish a quilt top in those days. I'll let you know how that goes.

I hope you're having a great holiday weekend and I'm giving it the good ol' college try here... So far it's working! What are your plans for the weekend?