I love hearing from readers of my blog with projects they have made with my fabrics or designs. Its always fun to see the projects! I just have to show you the adorable dress Jessica made for her equally adorable daughter Raelyn. In this case, it was a special honor for me, as Jessica made the dress for Raelyn’s birthday dress for her 2nd birthday.
Jessica chose the pink cow print fabric from the Sweetheart Ballerina fabric line that I designed for Quilting Treasures. Raelyn loves cows and also had a pair of new pink cowgirl boots (aren’t they just too cute!). Jessica made the dress to match the boots but also made it reversible as well. She used the green ballerina fabric for the reverse side.
It looks like Raelyn had a wonderful birthday and is a fabulous model as well! Thanks to Jessica for sharing the pictures.
Have a wonderful day and many more happy birthday’s to Raelyn!
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!
Enchant your kids with a whimsy locker caddy to hold their “stuff” or a whimsy notebook cover with a large pocket on the cover. You can easily sew both of these using the free patterns on the Today’s Creative Home Arts website.
Think how fun it will be for kids to have this completely useful locker caddy hanging in their locker. I designed it with various size pockets to hold their school supplies and other treasures. Plus, think how neat and organized their lockers will be – oh well, one can only hope!
The locker caddy and notebook cover are more projects that I designed using the “It’s A Dog’s Life” fabric collection I designed for Quilting Treasures. I love sewing with these fabrics and seeing the projects come to life with personality plus! Of course, you might say I’m a little prejudiced toward the fabrics, but they still make me smile.
Using this free pattern for a notebook cover, you can cover a drab notebook. The large pocket on the front will hold those little extra items that might be needed for class. Again, another little step to keep them organized
I hope that you enjoy these patterns. I would love to see a picture of your project made with them, along with the smile of the lucky recipient!
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.
For products to coordinate with “It’s A Dog’s Life fabrics, please visit my Zazzle store.
I hope you enjoy the patterns and sew away. I would love to see a picture of your finished apron.
I have created a free pattern for you to make this tote bag. I designed it with my fabric collection “It’s a Dog’s Life” for Quilting Treasures by Cranston Printworks. As you can see, the fabric collection features very whimsical dogs and will generate plenty of smiles. The tote is easy to make and can be finished in a couple of hours. The tote has large pockets on each side made with different dog blocks. The bag is lightly quilted with stipple quilting.
Enjoy! And I would love to see a photo of any totes that you make with this pattern.
I just received the August issue of Quilter’s World magazine and am excited to share it with you. I designed one of the quilts in this issue – Daisy Pocket Quilt. Its an easy-to-make quilt that would be perfect for kids and teens because it has pockets to hold their “stuff”. I designed it in the bright colors of “Kids Go Green” fabrics from Quilting Treasures to add a dramatic accent for a wall.
I stipple quilted this quilt in an all-over pattern, a technique that I love, but outline or echo quilting would also work well with this quilt. It would also be a great project for a new sewer or quilter in your family.
Thanks for stopping by and and stay tuned – I have lots more to show you!
My life has been going to the dogs recently, but in a good way. I’ve been sewing and quilting with the whimsical dog fabrics that I designed. The collection, It’s a Dog’s Life, is available from VIP by Cranston Printworks. I recently designed and made this quilt, which will be featured on a segment of Martha Pullen’s Sewing Room on PBS.
The pattern is available on Quilting Treasures website for downloading the free pattern in PDF format.
I taped two segments for the Martha Pullen’s Sewing Room yesterday for the Warm Company ( they make the fabulous batting and fusible web that I use in all my quilting and applique projects). The taping was exciting and Martha is such a warm and nice person. Well, not just her, everyone who works for her is the same way, so it was a very enjoyable day. Of course, I carried my camera and took photos during the day. The project featured on one segment was a quilt, which I made using the fabrics that I designed, “Its a Dog’s Life” for Quilting Treasures on which I demonstrated a stipple quilting technique. Martha’s assistants, who are great at setting up the sets, are arranging the quilt.
For the second segment, I designed this apron shown here with Martha. It also is made with “Its a Dog’s Life” fabrics and features applique. The fuchsia fabric used for the main part of the apron features dog bones, so I appliqued dog bones around the bottom. Since the block and yellow fabric also feature birds, I appliqued a bird at the top above the pocket. I know I’m short, but standing next to the apron which was raised for viewing by the camera, I look even shorter.
The segments will be shown this fall and winter (2009-2010), so please watch for it on your local stations. I am working up instructions for the quilt and apron and will post the free patterns here shortly.
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
Phyllis Dobbs Art & Design Studio
Thanks for visiting!. My art is licensed for gift, garden and home products. I also design quilt and sewing patterns available in my Etsy store.
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ArtBizJam 2020- Art Business Conference Virtual, Sept 23- 26, 2020
UNIQUE ART BUSINESS CONFERENCE - Learn more to expand your art business and network with other artists. The 8th annual ArtBizJam conference will be held virtually 2020 with live sessions with product developers Sept 23-26 and other sessions available for viewing at your own time on a variety of topics. The live sessions will have a lineup of experienced speakers for product development from top gift and home companies. For more details, please visit the ArtBizJam website and join the
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