Category Archives: Product Design

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Its a Dog’s Life Teal Tea Towel

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Its a Dog’s Life!  My last post was about cats (along with some embroidery).  I’m equal with cats and dogs in my love of them and have always had one or the other for a pet. For my Spoonflower shop, I chose dogs to give equal time with cats to create this tea towel to celebrate dogs!

Is A Dogs Life Tea Towel

These whimsy dogs are in various stages of a “human” life – gardening, shopping, walking, wrapped in a quilt, playing at the beach, cooking, being a sheriff, and just being an angel. The background is turquoise teal green with a darker teal border. I designed this tea towel based on my fabric collection “Its a Dog’s Life”.

The tea towels are available from Roostery for purchase, while I have coordinating fabrics available from Spoonflower and direct from Phyllis.

Woof!

Phyllis

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Christmas Cheer with Christmas Sewing and Quilting

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December is always such a busy and fun month to enjoy the holiday festivities. I enjoy visits with family and friends throughout the month, the rush of holiday activities, and the Christmas decorations everywhere.

Christmas flower pot for entertaining

I haven’t had a chance to put my tree up yet but it will go up by the weekend. Meanwhile I do have a few decorations out. This pot containing white ornaments is a terra-cotta flower pot that I painted red and white. While I only use it at Christmas, the red color can double up for Valentine to hold goodies for the kids or a kid’s party. It’s very easy to make with a clean flower pot and red and white paints.

With cold weather, its fun to sew or quilt while staying warm inside. This Christmas Wrap Apron is very easy to make in a couple of hours and will dress up your holiday cooking. The pattern is available from Etsy as a download.

Free Christmas Apron Pattern

I have designed several Christmas quilt patterns which are also all available from Etsy. There’s still plenty of time to sew a fun quilt for a Christmas gift, to decorate with or just to snuggle under. This stocking quilt is fun for kids and is created by piecing. You can use your scraps or pre-cuts for this the stocking pieces.

Christmas Stockings Quilt

You will enjoy this Christmas Holly quilt for many years. This pattern is very versatile and can be made as shown below, or by making only the center wreath section for a smaller quilt or table topper. This quilt uses the techniques of appliqué and piecing. The holly pieces can be made from your green scraps or pre-cuts.

Christmas Holly Applique Quilt Pattern

This Christmas Tree and Bow quilt pattern is dimension made with “petals” that are sewn to the quilt and drop down loosely to give the feeling of a tree. The bows in the border are appliquéd, and the bow at the top of the tree is made of ribbon that is stitched on.

Dimensional Christmas Tree Quilt Pattern

I hope that December is filled with joy for each of you and that you are surrounded by the people you love. And that you get in a little Christmas sewing and quilting!

Phyllis

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Enjoy Spring Showers May Flowers With a New Quilt Pattern

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Spring is almost here!  Days are getting longer and the weather much warmer. But the spring showers are necessary to have the beautiful May flowers!  This new quilt pattern, Spring Showers May Flowers will have you ready to enjoy both.

Spring Showers May flowers Quilt Pattern

This quilt pattern includes both patchwork piecing and appliqué and is 52″ wide by 63″ high. The size can be easily adjusted to make it larger or smaller. Spring Showers May Flowers makes a great scrap quilt by using your scraps for the flowers and umbrella appliqué pieces. This pattern uses 2 color combinations for the quilt blocks and alternates the blocks. You can use different colors for all the blocks to give it a scrappy look. Its great also for adding embellishments with buttons or beads for the flower centers, or using rick rack for the umbrella handles instead of appliqué.

This pattern is available from  Etsy I would love to see your quilt that you make with this pattern!

Have a fun day of quilting!

Phyllis

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Kitty Workout Quilt – Work Those Kitties with Yoga and “Purr-fect Balance”

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I just finished a new quilt pattern, Kitty Workout, using my new kitty yoga “Purr-fect Balance” fabrics featuring fun and whimsy kitties in yoga poses. This pattern was designed for the Quilt Dash August 15 – 29, 2014 and is now available through the WhimsyColor online shop.

Kitty Workout Quilt

It’s free to complete the Quilt Dash, where you visit online quilt stores to obtain pieces of the patterns.  While in the stores,  you are sure to find some fabrics or other items that you need for your sewing/quilting habit! For Quilt Shops, there is still time to sign up to get lots of new visitors to your stores.

This “Kitty Workout” quilt is 52″ x 60 1/4″ and is a good size to use for yoga or a lap quilt. It’s easy for an advanced beginner to intermediate quilter.  The “Purr-fect Balance” fabrics are from Quilting Treasures and will be great for sewing or quilting a gift for both someone who loves cats or yoga or both.

Happy Quilting and Meow to you!

Phyllis

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Pantone Radiant Orchid – Beautiful Color!

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A lot of you already know that the Pantone Color of the Year is Radiant Orchid 18-3224. I love this color – its such a beautiful shade and can go with so many other colors including the monochromatic colors that go with it. When I was in Atlanta for the Atlanta Gift Market, I saw this beautiful Color of the Year display in the Loloi Rug showroom.

Pantone Orchid displa in Loloi

As you can see, there are so many beautiful colors in the monochromatic color scheme that can be used in your quilting, art and design that can be used alone, in combination with other shades or with complimentery colors. I love the bluish tint to this color. This display emphazied paint with the paint brushes (top left edge of the photo) and paint chips combined with rugs that go with these colors to give you an idea of all the possibilities of Radiant Orchid. (And I have to add that Loloi has the most beautiful rugs!)

You can see prior Color of the Year selections on the Pantone page by scrolling down.

Have a colorful day!

Phyllis

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Quilt Pattern made with “Wild Flower” for Dashing!

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For autumn splendor I naturally think of the rich colors of yellow and orange. To design a quilt on this theme, I used my new fabric collection “Wild Flower” from Quilting Treasures to create the quilt “Autumn Splendor” for the Quilt Dash October 2013.  This colorful pattern is now available through the WhimsyColor Shop.

Wild Flower quilt pattern autumn splendor

Each person joining the dash will also receive a free 4 month quilt magazine subscription and you will also be entered to win a prize from each quilt shop participating. You will find a lot of great fabric and notions as you dash that  you will love as an addition to your quilting supplies.

The Quilt Dash is going on now through the end of October and is free to enter.

So fall is finally here and cooler weather is approaching with, I hope, low humidity. To all of you, I wish you a “happy fall, y’all” from my southern studio!

Phyllis

 

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ArtBizJam – Interview with artist Lori Siebert

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Lori Siebert, a very successful licensing artist, tells why she is excited about being a part of the artist retreat ArtBizJam next month. Lori, licensing artist Paula Joerling, and product developer Anne Brown and I will be hosting a fun packed and educational artist’s retreat at the beach in Destin, Fl.  It promises to be an unforgettable weekend.

You can find out more at www.Artbizjam.com

Lori Siebert ArtBizJam
In addition to happy hours, a shrimp boil and lots of freebies and surprises we will also be sharing valuable information on running an art-driven business.

We are keeping this gathering small and we are almost at full capacity. Also registration closes on August 10th (Saturday).

For the past month I have been sharing interviews with the “instructors” that will be participating. This weeks interview is with Lori Siebert but be sure to check out interviews with  and Anne and myself.

Why did you want to be involved with ArtBizJam?

One of the wonderful things about creative people is how they love to be together and share ideas and support one another. I truly value my creative friends. This is an opportunity to do just what I love…spend time with fun, interesting people and share what I have learned along the way… while having an incredibly fun time.

What will people get out of attending this particular workshop? 

A lot of camaraderie, fun, bonding and support from other creative people…thought provoking conversation about your dreams and goals, practical classes about the business side of things, good fun, wine, the beach.

What will people get out of attending this particular workshop?

A lot of camaraderie, fun, bonding and support from other creative people…thought provoking conversation about your dreams and goals, practical classes about the business side of things, good fun, wine, the beach.

What makes this workshop/retreat special and different from other workshops?

When we talked about how to make this different,we decided on two things…make it small and intimate so we can really cater to the people who attend…and make it about BOTH side of the brain. We all love to create…that is a given…but,we also have to find ways to be efficient and make money…so we can continue to make a living creatively. This is what we want to share.

How do you reconcile your passion of creating art with the business side of art?

I am really lucky in that my husband is my business partner and we have an agent,CourtneyDavis. I really do get to focus on the creative. But,it is important to have an understanding of our business as a whole and where it is going.

What are you looking forward to fun-wise with ArtBizJam?

Time with really great, creative folks…great food,sharing,learning from one another…an overall re-charge!

You can read more about the classes, schedule, instructors at ArtBizJam.  If you have any questions, please contact me or one of the other instructors.

We hope to see you at ArtBizJam!

Phyllis

 

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Sew Fun and Quilt Art – New Products!

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The International Spring Quilt Market, being held in Portland, OR, is almost here, less than a month away.  So its natural that my thoughts are on sewing and quilting as the show date approaches. In addition to heading to my sewing machine, I’ve been adding sewing art to a variety of products, in addition to the iPhone and iPad cases that I completed a little while back.

Turquoise is my most favorite of all colors but I do love all colors! I’ve been creating the new products in a new turquoise color range to go with the other color choices I created in this “Sew Fun” pattern of all your favorite sewing accessories.

Cases are available for iPhone 4 and 5 and iPads as well as iPad and notebook sleeves.

These products can all be personalized to include your name, business name, monogram or other words and make nice gifts.

I also added a turquoise color range with my Quilt Art products as well. This binder will make a great album for your quilt patterns and notes and is also available in the sewing art pattern as well.

 

And there is still time to stock up on business cards for your quilting business. They are available in multiple styles and colors and are very high quality with printing on both sides.

If you are not a turquoise nut like I am, there are many other color choices so I’m sure you will find a color fave to accent your love of quilting and sewing.

Sew happy,
Phyllis

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New “Bee Yourself” Fabrics are the Buzz!

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Fall International Quilt Market is almost here! I love Quilt Market and am looking forward to the trip to Houston next week. And I’m especially excited because I have a new fabric collection debuting with Quilting Treasures and wanted to give you a sneak peak at them. “Bee Yourself” features 12 blocks of happy “bee-isms” along with coordinating fabrics.

Bee Yourself Fabric Blocks Phyllis Dobbs

When I started designing a fabric collection all about bees, the first thing I thought of after I got past the fuzzy bee itself was “Quilting Bee” and then “Sewing Bee”. After these popped into my head, it formed the whole concept of the collection. I thought of many more bees to incorporate as I created the illustrations for the blocks, including “Honey Bee”, “Worker Bee”, “Spelling Bee”, “Queen Bee”, “Bee in a Bonnet”, “Fashion Bee”, “Just Bee Cause”, “Busy Bee”, “Bee Mine”, and the title bee, “Bee Yourself”. In “beeing” yourself, you can be any bee you want to be.

Bee yourself fabric collection Phyllis Dobbs Quilting Treasures

It was really fun to create all these bees. The ideas just kept coming and I have an almost endless list of more “bees”. My brother and sister-in-law jumped in with suggestions of their favorite bee-isms. I am thrilled with how the collection turned out and am now sewing and quilting several bee projects for Quilt Market.

The fabrics will be ready to ship to the stores in December, a good time to snuggle up with a sewing or quilting bee and become a busy bee during the cold weather. (Ok, I quit with the bee-isms!)

I will be posting some free patterns here shortly with fun ways to use “Bee Yourself”. Quilting Treasures will also have some free project patterns available on their website when the fabrics are out. I will update you when all the patterns are available.

Schoolhouse Houston Quilt Market

If you are attending Quilt Market, which is open to the trade only, I want to invite you to attend my Schoolhouse event on Saturday afternoon at 4:55 in room 362D. I will be presenting some great ideas and there will be a free gift for everyone. I hope to see some of you there.

I will also be in Gutermann of America’s booth (#537) a bunch of the time and would love to meet you so please stop by. Some “Bee Yourself” projects will be in their booth as well as in Quilting Treasures’ booth (#1056).

Have a great day and “bee yourself”!

Phyllis

 

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Flaunt Your Love of Sewing with Your iPhone and iPad Cases.

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I love all things related to sewing and quilting! My mother taught me to sew at a very early age on an old Singer sewing machine (it wasn’t THAT old  with the foot petal operation although my grandmother had one). I have my mother’s tins filled with old buttons, etc, a bunch of vintage fabric scraps and her doll pin cushion, all of which I cherish. I used my love of sewing to create a fabric design using my favorite sewing notions  interpreted with a bit of whimsy that I showed you in my last post.

 

This “Sew Fun” art is now available on iPhone and iPad cases so you can flaunt your love of sewing! I created a lot of other products that are available with this art such as iPad sleeves, pillows, iPad book like cases. I’m working on more daily and will be including products such as stationery, business cards, invitations, Kindle cases and more. “Sew Fun” is available in 4 colors as you can see here.

I will be busy sewing and quilting this weekend, getting ready for Quilt Market with my new fabric collection (sneak peek coming soon), a Schoolhouse event and new patterns that I will be posting here. Enjoy your quilting and sewing and remember how its “Sew Fun”!

Phyllis