Its been a few days since I’ve posted, but I’m happy to say that I have been busy working on my next fabric collection for Quilting Treasures.  I can’t go into details at this time, but its a fun collection that I think you will just love!

Time flies quickly and Halloween is only a couple of months away (yes, really, it is - I counted the months using 2 fingers).  My talented friend Brenda Pinnick has a new Halloween die collection with Sizzix and its simply to “die” for.  I saw the collection at the recent trade show for the Craft and Hobby Associataion. The are just adorable - the entire collection of spooky Halloween scary stuff!  (I borrowed the photo from Brenda.) They are perfect for the hand made cards, bags and your other Halloween scrapbook projects. Check out Brenda’s blog for additional ideas and because its just a great blog.

In addition to fabric designs, I’m working on some freebies to post here, so check back soon. 

New sewing projects on the horizon!  I just completed a sewing project that I designed for a publication due out in a few months.  I can’t give any details but thought I would give a sneak peak of the fabrics I used.  I am a fabric junkie and just love bright colored fabrics. Its inspirational just looking at my fabric stash because of all the colors.  This is just a small part of my fabric stash.

I’m leaving Thursday for the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) trade show in Chicago.  I just read a comparison somewhere that its like the World Fair of craft shows.  I agree and wish I could remember where I saw that, but my brain is in overload right now.  I am displaying in the Designer Showcase at the show and am working on last minute preparations.  The show is so exciting to attend and check out all the new products available to the crafters of the world

Best wishes for a happy day to each of you! 

Its been a few days since I returned from a whirlwind several days to the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) trade show in Anaheim, CA where I exhibited in the License and Design section. It took a day or two just to recover from taking the red eye and unpacking. 

The show was fabulous, loaded with new products and a real inspiration for the designers attending the show. In addition, its fun catching up with old friends as well as making new ones. And on top of that, the weather was perfect, warm and sunny.

I took three seminars while at the show - How to Create a Strategic Licensing Plan and How to Forecast Trends, both by Joanne Fink (pictured below) of Lakeside Design. In addition, I took the seminar Liensing Your Creative Content on All Kinds of Products by Cheryl Phelps. All 3 seminars were excellent and really loaded with top notch information. This is Cheryl (long hair) with me in my booth. Any time either of these women give a talk, its definitely worth attending. 

I didn’t take many photos at the show since I was in my booth most of the time.  However, I did take a break to see Jane Seymour at a booksigning of her book at the show. She’s just as beautiful in person as she is on TV. Now its time to get my feet back on the ground from the show high and dive back into work. I have been getting updates on the progress of my next fabric collection and its coming along fabulously. I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

This is really going to be fun!  I’m working on a design creation to enter for the  Fashion Embellishment Challenge sponsored by Expo International Inc. at the Craft and Hobby Show in a couple of week.  Yikes, its less than a couple of weeks! As you can see from the pile on my work table, I am just getting started. But, I can tell its going to be fun working with all the wonderful trims - I just love beads! Choosing the trims I wanted to work with from Expo was like walking through a candy store and deciding which piece of chocolate I wanted (all yum!!!). 

Well, back to work. As I said in my last post, this is frantic time for the designers attending the CHA show and I’m definitely in that frantic stage! 

Craft stores have such a huge assortment of craft supplies available, from supplies for scrapbooking to supplies for painting, needlework, sewing and quilting, floral and gardening, beading and many other types of crafts. The good part is that you don’t have to figure out what to do with these supplies. There are many design projects available in all of these categories in magazines, books and project sheets as well as kits that include both the supplies and instructions. 

As someone who has been designing for the crafts industry for many years, 23 to be exact, I thought I would give you a little background on how many designers work in getting their designs there for you. 

A lot of craft designers are members of The Craft and Hobby Association  (CHA). CHA is hosting their Winter Convention & Trade show in Anaheim, CA in February. This is the premier trade show for anyone involved in the crafts industry and is open only to the trade.  Manufacturers present their newest and hottest products to buyers who attend from all over the world.  CHA has a Designer Section for the designer members and offers several opportunities for designers to connect with manufacturers, publishers and editors. 

Designers can set up a table in the Designer Showcase held one day during the show.  Designers/artists create a table display showcasing their designs and portfolios so that editors, publishers and manufacturers can view the designs for use or publication.  These are many of the designs that you see and use for creating your craft projects.  

Another opportunity for designers is to exhibit in the License and Design Section during the show .  The designers have a booth space to show their art and designs that are available for creating new products or in using products.The theme for this year’s show is Fashion Crafting and designers are also showcasing their fashion designs in the Fashion Crafting Display, our version of “Project Runway”. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the designs created by friends as well as myself.  The flower at the top is a Gerber Daisy Fabric Sculpture created by Lynne Farris and shown in her newest book “Fresh Felt Flowers” published by C&T Publishing. 

The 2 designs embroidered on jeans are from the DenimBroidery embroidery kits I created for Janlynn, a needlework company. 

Joan Elliott painted the Jingle Cats Christmas image, which has been licensed on tee shirts, fabrics for hospital scrubs, mugs and cross stitch kits. 

Linda Wyszynski designed the embroidered pillowcase for Create and Decorate magazine, using buttons and embroidery to create a floral design for stitching on the pillowcase edge.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts painted “My Heart’s Garden” as part of a digital scrapbook kit for Daisie Company.

Vicki Schreiner painted the sports images which were used to create a scrapbook kit and stickers sold in stores.

I do have some very talented friends! 

All the designers that I know who are attending the show, including myself, are now frantically creating new designs to present. So the next time you are using instructions to create a craft or sewing project, it may have come from one of these designers working to create craft projects just for you!