As I think all quilters know, Quilt Market and Quilt Festival were just held in Houston the end of October through early November. I attended Quilt Market, which is open to the trade only, although I wish I had the time to stay over for Festival. I will give you some of Market from from my viewpoint now and will show some of the gorgeous and spectacular quilts exhibited in Part 2.

I was really excited at market at the debut of my new fabric collection with Quilting Treasures, “Bee Yourself” (you can see pictures of the fabrics in my earlier post). This “Bee Yourself” Quilt and Tablerunner were displayed in Quilting Treasures booth. (The fabrics will be available December 2012).

In addition, a preview of my next fabric collection “Tricks and Treats” was also shown in Quilting Treasures’ booth.  I know we just had fun with Halloween since Market, but its never too soon to start planning for the next one. This fabric will ship early next year so that it can be in the stores in time for your Halloween sewing.

Market started for me with a Schoolhouse presentation held Friday before Market opened. I discussed and showed wonderful projects that you can create with printed fabric blocks, whether they are “leftover” from your quilt project or bought just to make some of these projects. They all make great gifts. Since “Bee Yourself” has 12 blocks, I created several models using them.

Andrea Rekrut of Quilting Treasures was my lovely assistant in helping show the models. This project is a tablerunner using 4 blocks.

A placemat uses 2 blocks.

A pillowcase uses fabric and blocks from Quilting Treasures’ Dinosaur Train fabric, which is in fabulous colors.

The patterns for all of these projects, including the quilt, will be available on either Quilting Treasures website or here on my blog sometime in December when the fabric ships to stores. I will announce when they are available and will provide links.

I was in Gutermann of America’s booth during part of the show. Some of my Schoolhouse projects decorated the booth walls.  In addition, other quilts and projects I made were also on the walls. The quilt above the thread cabinet is from the “Celebrate” fabrics that I also designed for Quilting Treasures that debuted in May. They are great to create projects for birthday celebrations for both boys and girls, young and mature (I don’t like the word old).

After Schoolhouse, I attended a meet and greet, Fabric 2.0.  It was packed. I was standing in the middle and this is the view from one direction. Melissa Schulz of Kathy Davis Studios is standing at the front of the picture in the orange dress.

As I walked the show, I saw some fabulous new products that I want to share with you.

I can always count on June Tailor to have some great new products and that held true again this year. The Creative Covers come in 3 style shapes and can be used to create stand along blocks or use for applique.  I love the look of an open block quilt like these.

Another new cutting ruler from June Tailor is great for centering designs for cutting for tee shirt quilts. I have a bunch of tee shirts that I want to make into an quilt and this ruler will be a great aid. Also, a lot of fabrics have designs that you may want to center when cutting. I do.

Gutermann of America has some wonderful new treads, recycled polyester from water bottles.  It amazes me how you can take a water bottle and recycle it into something wonderful. It’s really treasures from trash and a great way to recycle and eliminate all the water bottle waste. 10 spools of thread can be created from one water bottle. I sewed with it and love the way it sews.

Expo International is always a fun and fabulous booth to visit with all their trims and embellishments. It would be so boring if we didn’t have trims to embellish our projects with. I was extra happy this year as they used some of my quilts to decorate their booth.

Before I leave you, I want to show off another fabric collection that will be out early 2013. “Letters to Santa” is by Janet Wecker Frisch of Tidings of Great Joy for Quilting Treasures. Its pure vintage Santa and is beautiful!

Quilt Market is always such an inspirational show and this year was no exception. As you can see, exciting colors of fabrics, threads, buttons, trim, etc were everywhere. Check back as I’m working on another post to show you some really beautiful and amazing quilts in the exhibits.  They were just spectacular!!

And, there will be a “Bee Yourself” fat quarter giveaway shortly, so be sure to check back and enter!

Have a colorful day!

Phyllis

I love fabrics and I love designing fabrics almost as much as I enjoy eating. That says a lot as I love all food groups! This has been a busy year with fabric design for me. My “Celebrate” fabric collection by Quilting Treasures will help create a cheerful birthday celebration. My newest collection will debut at Quilt Market at the end of the month that will be quite the “buzz”! A sneak preview will be coming very shortly.

In addition, I have fabrics in the Cranston Village V.I.P. line this year with more coming for this line as well with some really great colors.

“Sewing Notions” is a fun design for anyone who loves to sew or quilt. I thought of all the handy items that I frequently use while sewing and threw them into this fabric design. I took a little liberty when designing – my sewing machine does not really have polka dots.

The other 3 fabrics in V.I.P.’s line are “Bird Patch“, “Coffee Cups” and “Texting Lingo”.

Back to work – this is a busy month in preparing for the International Quilt Market in Houston in 3 weeks where I will also be conducting a Schoolhouse event.  More to come shortly on that.

Phyllis

Its been fun designing and sewing with my new Celebrate fabrics from Quilting Treasures.  I have created this free sewing and quilt pattern (quilting optional) that you can use for sewing a Happy Birthday banner. The banner is 25″ x 35 1/2″ and can be hung on a wall, in a doorway or for a multitude of other uses.  Use it year after year for birthday celebrations. The colors of my Celebrate fabrics are bright and cheerful to add to the festivity and use birthday cakes and cupcakes for design motifs.

Click away to the download page for the quilt birthday banner free pattern.

The fabrics are available through independent quilt shop and stores. While the weather is so hot, its perfect for staying inside and working on new sewing or quilt projects. Other free quilt and sewing patterns created for the Celebrate fabric collection can be found on Quilting Treasures website for download.

Stay cool and keep sewing and quilting!

Phyllis

I know its May and the weather is getting hot, but its not too early to start thinking about your Christmas quilting with this free quilt pattern that I designed!  Think “Let it Snow” to cool down with this adorable fabric collection from Quilting Treasures based on the art of Debra Jordan Bryan.

It was a treat to design this quilt with the fun, colorful fabric.  At 43 1/2″ x 48 1/4″, its a perfect size for a wall hanging, a lap quilt or for a little one to cuddle with. The quilt is pieced and is topped with appliqued green and red mittens in the wide border area. Buttons are used for accents on the mittens. The quilt center is a snowman panel with other snowman pieces in the corners. Its easy to piece and is a great project for beginners as well as all skill levels.

When you check out this pattern, look through all the other free quilt patterns from Quilting Treasures. I’m sure you will find several that you will love!

Happy quilting and stay cool!

Phyllis

If you are like me, you have a lot of clothing hanging in your closet that you no longer wear. But there is something you still love about these pieces – the color, fabric design, etc. Repurpose or upcycle it to give it a new life. I repurposed a pair of capri pants made with fabric that I loved into a decorative pillow for a guest blog post on FaveCrafts for Earth Week. I had never worn these pants and think that I bought them just for the fabric.

Although I chose to make a decorative pillow, you can make many different type projects using this technique. I added detail to the pillow top by sewing multiple wavy lines of both non-metallic and metallic Gutermann threads vertically to quilt the fabric to a piece of cotton batting.  I used different shades of both turquoise and coral threads in addition to a black thread. I also sewed turquoise, red and yellow beads randomly and to the flowers. Please visit the FaveCrafts blog post for full tutorial instructions as well as additional photos.

In addition to your closet, you can locate fabulous finds at thrift stores or yard sales to repurpose. I’m a fabric junkie so I always keep my eyes peeled for fabrics, as well as sweaters and other items I can sew into something else or use in other type of crafts.

Phyllis

During the photography session for my new quilt book Asymmetrical Quilts, I also took pictures of the session, photographing the photographer. Sometimes a photography session can be a little boring during the actual photography, but not with Becky Stayner of Sunny House Studio.  She is a fantastic photographer and has an amazing studio in the most charming house as you will see from some of the pictures I took and from the photographs in the book. All of the quilts were photographed flat, then were shot throughout the studio.

This photograph was in the main living room.  I fell in love with the fireplace as well as the bottles on the mantle!

The kitchen was filled with so many wonderful pieces of antique class and ceramics, some in turquoise and greens.

And as you can see, the kitchen was a perfect area for photographing this quilt. The turquoise chairs were a perfect accent.

In addition to the wonderful interior, the outside decks were a great location for several of the quilts. The back deck has a jasmine covered arbor.

Looking up at the jasmine arbor…..

I loved the table setting under the arbor which also made for a perfect location for a photo.

This shot was taken at the side edge of the wrap around deck.

Becky is setting up for this photo on a picnic table on the side porch. Another turquoise chair adds a great accent. (I was delighted that Becky shares a love of the color turquoise!)

Who says photography can’t be hazardous?? Becky stood on the top of a ladder to get the flat shots of each quilt.

The quilts are all stacked ready for each shot.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of Becky’s studio and the photography session.  She’s fantastic and I look forward to working with her again.

Phyllis

Its so exciting that my new quilt book Asymmetrical Quilts from Leisure Arts has been published and is ready for shipping. Instructions and patterns for 9 quilts are included in this book, all with an off-centered design. I created each quilt to be unique and all are made with wonderful fabrics. The designs use a combination of traditional and nontraditional blocks in nontraditional arrangements, with several of the quilts adorned with whimsy applique.

My copies are on the way to me and I can’t wait to get them. It was a lot of work putting this book together, but I enjoyed every second of it. The photographs were all taken in the wonderful studio of Becky Stayner.  I will be showing some of the photos I took of the photography sessions so check back to see these and her studio (hint – its in a really quaint house).

I owe a special thanks also to Lisa Mullins of  Wandering Stitches Quilting Studio for an amazing job in quilting the quilts. She added the touch of whimsy where needed to keep the theme of each quilt.

I hope you will check out the book and find that you can’t live without it!

Phyllis

The Olympic themed fabric collection Go for the Gold is one of Quilting Treasures latest fabric collections and is in time for the Summer 2012 Olympic Games in London. I  enjoyed designing several sewing and quilting patterns for free download from Quilting Treasures website. The fabric features the most popular summer games and is perfect for all sports lovers!

The tote bag is extra large and is roomy enough to carry all your gym or workout clothes and accessories at 24″ wide and 20″ high. The tote is lined inside with the beautiful flag fabric showing the flags of all the countries. The roll up yoga or exercise mat cover is available in two colorways.  The yoga mat carry bag has a carry sling strap so that you can easily carry your rolled up mat and cover hands free.

You can follow the preparations for the London 2012 summer games that will be held in July and August – its actually not that far off. Start sewing and you will be all set to help celebrate the games!

Phyllis

I just received a copy of a beautiful new quilt book Bed Runners & More and am trilled that I have 2 quilts featured in this book. Bed runners add such a dramatic decorative touch to a bed and bedroom! Published by House of White Birches and edited by Carolyn S. Vagts, this book has instructions and patterns for 9 bed runners with some coordinating shams for different looks for the bedroom. The theme of the book is seasonal, with bed runners for the different seasons of the year.

I designed Summer Blossoms runner with 2 pillow shams. I adore and love these hot and spicy colors in the Penny Lane fabric collection from Quilting Treasures. They definitely say “summer time”! This runner is 81″ x 27″ and the shams fit regular size pillows. The fuchsia flowers are appliqued.

My other quilt is Warm Splendor made with the beautiful warm and cozy fall colors in the Cornucopia fabric collection by Quilting Treasures. The size of this bed runner is 77 1/2″ x 30″ plus the prairie points on each end. Both of these quilt runners are easy to make and make great projects for a beginner quilter as well as the experienced quilter.

I hope you look for this book for the other fabulous projects included. It was fun designing my projects as well as sewing and quilting them, so I hope you will give them a try!

Happy Quilting!

Phyllis

I just received a copy of Quilted Gifts from your Scraps & Stash, by House of White Birches.  Its a book filled with all types and sizes of quilted projects, from quilts, backpacks, pot holders to pillows and much more for 40 great projects for you to make. I’m delighted that one of my quilt designs is included in this book.

Daisy Pocket Quilt is the perfect size to use as either a wall hanging or bed quilt. The diagonal striped blocks are pockets so that kids can store their favorite items while adding a splash of color to their room. I used the bright, colorful fabric “Kids go Green” by Kari Pearson from Quilting Treasures to compete the quilt. The quilt is pieced with the large daisies fused and appliqued. I hope you will make one for the kid in your life – its an easy and fun quilt to make.

Happy Quilting

Phyllis