Its always fun to meet someone who you really admire.  At the Atlanta Gift Market last month, I had the good fortune to meet Mary Engelbreit in the showroom of Katherine’s Collections.  Mary was there for a personal appearance.  I have always been a fan of Mary’s as well as appreciate her as a trail-blazer for art licensing.

The past couple of months have been the most hectic of all.  Preparing for two major trade show events in January required hours and hours of work.  Attending the shows, Atlanta Gift Market and CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) were almost like vacations because while they were technically work, I could lay down my paint brush and ignore my computer for a few days.  Plus, its always such fun to meet up with friends.

The day before the CHA show in Anaheim, Brenda Pinnick and I went to Laguna Beach for some much deserved R&R.  We shopped and had a great lunch while watching the Laguna Beach surf (which was very high due to the recent rains).

Although the shows are over, work continues with work from the shows as well as the work that was still in progress before the shows.

And, I am happy to say that I just finished a new fabric collection and am really excited about it.

I hope you are all staying warm in all this cold and snowy weather.

Phyllis

I love table runners.  I recently received a copy of the book Patchwork Table Runners by House of White Birches of the DRG Network and its filled with wonderful table runners to quilt. And, I’m excited that a table runner that I designed is in the book.

I wanted to design something different, so I created this Four Panel Table Runner that fits across 4 sides of a table, plus it can fit just as well on a round table. Another plus is that it can be used instead of placemats.  Its easy to make and works up pretty fast.

I hope you check out this book - you will love all the great table runners, including some for the holidays.

Happy Quilting,

Phyllis

Cooking and entertaining goes with the holidays, so I designed and sewed this Christmas apron for a festive addition to kitchen chores.

The first step was to hit my fabric stash to find red and green fabrics.  I found the perfect combination of  red, green and red and white stripe fabrics.  I created a simple pattern that can be made in less than 2 hours.  Click for the free pattern and instructions that you can download.

I would love to see pictures of aprons you make using this pattern.  Enjoy and have a fun Christmas as you whiz through the kitchen wearing your new apron!

Happy sewing!

Phyllis

I just attended another spectacular International Quilt Market in Houston and wanted to share some of it with you.  Quilt Market is a trade show filled with fabulous quilts, fabrics, fibers and all sorts of quilting supplies and embellishments as well as being a fusion of colors.  Here is a bird’s eye view of a small part of the show floor.

There are always some great quilt challenges and exhibits at Market and here are some that were spectacular. I just loved this quilt made by Maureen O’Doogan from Tallahassee FL.  Its fun and whimsical and great colors!

There was an exhibit of  kaleidoscope quilts by Paula Nadelstern.   They were simply amazing. Here are a few of them along with a close up.

Another huge and fascinating exhibit was the Fabric Forrest, a German exhibit to represent the Black Forrest. The quilts were tall and slim and were hung to represent trees.  One of the amazing aspects of these quilts was that they were double sided with both the fronts and backs equally as beautiful. My photo’s didn’t do them justice with the colors because of the space and lighting.

Now for a brief pause before I continue.  Not everything about Quilt Market is about Quilts.  I just have to show you the gorgeous red shoes my friend Jill (with Quilting Treasures) was wearing.  Aren’t they awesome! Some serious Shoe Envy here!

Games are really hot right now, especially board games.  I think I could change my middle name to “opoly” because of all the work I’ve done with “opoly’s”.  I designed and made this Monopoly quilt for Quilting Treasures booth.  They debuted the Monopoly fabric line at Market.

The DMC Corporation showcased their Quiltopoly and Stitchopoly games in their booth.  I designed the components of the Quiltopoly board and game last year.  Cilene (with DMC and a friend for many years) and I are posing in front of the game display.

In addition to all the beautiful quilts and colors of Quilt Market, Its always fun to catch up with friends including Brenda Pinnick and Debra Quartermain, and many others.  I’m already looking forward to the Spring Quilt Market!

Aren’t the colors in this quilt fun and make you want to celebrate! And this quilt also helps to celebrate a worthy cause.  I wanted to show you the celebration quilt that I designed in for the recently published quilt book “Think Pink” published by House of White Birches.  Celebrate Each Step is 44″ x 52″ and is made with fabrics from Quilting Treasures.

This book is filled with projects to give comfort to women as they battle breast cancer, plus a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book goes to breast cancer research.  I hope you make this quilt and help a worthy cause at the same time.

Happy Quilting!

Phyllis

I just finished the pattern and instructions for this free apron pattern available for you to download.  I am showing 2 aprons in different color combinations with different accent embellishments.  Both aprons are accented with large dog block pockets on the top part of the apron.  One apron has an additional small pocket and the other is appliqued with a bird and dog bones. The aprons are easy to make and can be completed in 2-3 hours tops.

The fabrics that the aprons are made with are the Its a Dog’s Life collection that I designed for Quilting Treasures by Cranston Printworks.

I just love aprons and am delighted that they are so popular.  I remember when my grandmother and aunts wore aprons daily and seeing all the aprons now brings back wonderful fond memories.

I hope you enjoy the patterns and sew away.  I would love to see a picture of your finished apron.

“Bone” appetit!

Phyllis

Frequently, I am so focused on what I’m doing, I loose track of time - you know, a few hours.  But this week, I lost an entire day.  I have really been focusing on creating new art and designs.  I did not pay attention to the calendar on my computer or any of the other ways I keep track of time such as mentally noting each day.

Yesterday, as I was working, I wondered if it was Tuesday or Wednesday, hoping for Tuesday, but really knowing it was Wednesday.  So this morning when I woke up, I asked my husband if it was Thursday.  To my surprise, he told me it is Friday.  Gee, now I’ve got to go double time as I’m behind where I had planned to be at this point.  My husband insists that I was present and accounted for each day, no alien abduction.

So, back to the “drawing board”.

I wish each of you a great and safe 4th of July!  I do know that its tomorrow, since its on Saturday and today is Friday!

Phyllis

OK all you apron lovers - check out this book “The Best Apron Book Ever“. !  I  received a copy which has an apron that I designed featured in it.  In fact, it made the cover!  The book, filled with 12 wonderful apron patterns, is published by The House of White Birches.  Aprons are so fashionable and so easy and fun to make!  Check back as I have a free apron pattern coming up that I think you will love!

The International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this month was wonderful as usual.  Color was everywhere as new fabrics were displayed (including mine - Its a Dog’s Life with Quiting Treasures).  The mood was upbeat throughout the show and buyers were doing just that - buying.  I took loads of pictures of great vendors as well as my friends   But, if you read my last post, you know that my photo files were corrupted on the disk (the file names are all goofy symbols and Windows doesn’t know what file types they are- so if anyone can tell me what happened, I would love to know).

I am really excited about something that I purchased at the show (actually its being purchased through my local dealer).  I bought Bernina’s digitizing software, “DesignerPlus Version 5″ so that I can turn my art images into machine embroidery.

I plan to start with the motifs from my fabric collections. I also want to create designs to put on some of my projects featured in magazines and books.

Call me a nut, but I actually love learning new software, until I get to a frustration point!  The good thing about this software is that my local shop (Robin’s Sewing Shoppe) will give me lessons on using it, in addition to the demo I received at Quilt Market.  So, any frustration points can be resolved locally!

But the next step is that after getting home, I have decided that I want to upgrade my sewing machine.  That actually means starting new since my machine can’t be “upgraded”.  I’ve been visiting the websites of ALL the sewing machine companies to see which one has the features I want. Boy, now that’s frustration!  Some of the websites have much more information than others and its frustrating looking at one that has very little information on the features of their machines.  Then when I find a feature of one machine that I really like, I look back at all the sites again to see which ones have that feature.  And I love features! Unfortunately, the $$’s go up with each feature so I am going to have to tone it down.

So now, I’m off to visit local dealers to make a decision on which machine I want and to see if I can find one in my budget.

Oh well, wish me luck!

Phyllis

My bags are packed, my Quilt Market projects are finished, my Schoolhouse talk is ready and my boarding passes are printed.  Flying is my period of rest, thinking and reading as things are always so hectic getting ready to leave.  I picked a James Patterson book to read in my flying and airport time.  And I’m looking forward to meeting up with friends who are also going to Market - dinners, lunches and just walking the show together.

I will return energized, inspired and ready to hop back to work on new designs and art.  I will post Quilt Market happenings and celebrity sightings when I return as well as the projects and patterns that I created for market.

If you are attending Quilt Market, I want to invite you to attend my Schoolhouse session “Using Trends to Boost Sales”, Thursday 3:35 in room 325.  And of course, I would love for you to visit the Quilting Treasures booth to see my new fabric “Its a Dog’s Life”.

Until I return,

Phyllis