Free Quilt pattern using Spice Cats Fabrics by Loralie

I’m excited to show you the latest quilt that I designed for free download from Quilting Treasures‘ website. Designed with Loralie’s newest fabric collection, Spice Cats, these fun and whimsy cats will completely charm all you cat lovers.  I love the colors of this collection and the way they work together.

Spice Cats Quilt free pattern from Quilting Treasures

The quilt is designed in horizontal rows and is very easy to sew.  The size is 56″ x 72″, a great size for a throw to keep warm on these cold nights.

I designed other quilts with Loralie’s fabrics for free download from Quilting Treasures website. The Sunshine Resort quilt is a fun quilt with flip flops, ice cream, Loralie’s ladies swimming and other summer activities. The Nurse Central quilt is delightful for nurses with Loralie’s nurses and other nursing designs. There are a lot of other quilt patterns for free download, so check them out.

Happy quilting!

Phyllis

Redux – Sew a Christmas Apron

Sew a quick Christmas apron in just a couple of hours and wear it tonight! Aprons are fun and trendy to both sew and wear! I designed this apron pattern to wear for Christmas cooking and entertaining. Designed for an earlier post here on my blog, I wanted to share the apron pattern  again. Its so easy to make, even for a beginner, and can be made in a couple of hours from your fabric stash.

Free Christmas Apron Pattern

This apron pattern and others are available in Etsy WhimsyColor.

Thinking of Christmas aprons brings thoughts of all the wonderful smells of food cooking, cinnamon, and other spices. I also think of the citrus smell of oranges.

Enjoy both sewing and wearing it!

Phyllis

International Quilt Market, More Products and Beautiful Colors (Part 2)

I’m still in awe of all that I saw at the International Quilt Market in Houston and want to share more of the photos I took of products and colors from Market in a continuation from Part 1 of my prior post on Quilt Market.

This gorgeous dress in the Pfaff booth stopped me in my walks. This fuchsia dress has beautiful machine embroidery embellishment by Pfaff sewing machines. It was simply stunning and fit for Cinderella to wear to the ball! And look at the embroidery on the black coat next to the dress.

Dress embroidered by Pfaff sewing machine at Houston Quilt Market

 

Not all products at Quilt Market are sewing and quilt related. Karyn Kozak exhibits with her beautiful FIMO polymer clay products.  Created with different colored pieces of clay in the millefiori technique, Karyn created the beautiful vases and leaves below as well as jewelry, barrettes, and other items. Visit her website to see the ladybug pins and jewelry she created.

Fimo Polymer Clay vases at Quilt Market

and these fabulous teapots…

Fimo Polymer clay teapots at Quilt Market in Houston

 

I showed you some of the new fabric collections by Quilting Treasures in my prior post. Below are more of their fabrics that debuted at market. Simon-Kabuki has a new line out, In the Meadow, in these great, warm colors. I also love the design and applique flowers in this quilt using their fabrics.

Simon Kabuki fabric line In the Meadow at Quilt Market

 

And I also loved this new collection by Studio 8, Fantasia (click to see the individual fabrics) and especially love the color combination of black and white with a lime green.  (See my prior post for free quilt and apron patterns I designed for Quilting Treasures with Studio 8’s Monaco fabric collection).

Studio 8 fabric by Quilting Treasures at Quilt Market

 

I love the play The Phantom of the Opera and this new fabric collection is wonderful. Can’t you hear the music?

Phantom fabric by Quilting Treasures based on Phantom of the Opera

 

Angela Anderson’s Give Thanks, can be used to create a beautiful quilt or kitchen accessories such as a table runner or place mats next fall.

Give thanks fabric by Angela Anderson for Quilting Treasures

 

With quilting and sewing, you need trim. Expo International has all kinds of trim for your every need including home decor. I love the colorful displays of these trims and cords. The center row is button trims, which is fabulous since we all love buttons! I look at this and remember several years ago when I shopped trim, all I could find was dull colors. Its so much more fun sewing with these colors!

Expo Internation colorful trims at Quilt Market

And, there’s these fun feather trims…..

Feather trim by Expo International at Quilt Market

Quilt Market occurred over Halloween so I thought I would also show you Expo’s cute sequin appliques for Halloween.

Halloween applique trim by Expo International at Quilt Market

And the Expo International folks dressed up for Halloween. Debi Schmitz dressed as a witch, but I have to tell you that she’s a sweet  and lovely witch, not at all wicked! I need to find where she got the silver hair.

Debi Schmitz at Quilt Market

 

Walking by Michael Miller Fabric’s booth created a “wow” moment when I spotted this 1950 red MG convertible used in their vintage picnic display. I also like the turquoise cooler. I’ve always thought MG’s were the coolest cars. By the way, this MG was local from Houston and is for sale. It doesn’t run though, but it has a great body and I would just love to have it to look at and sit in (and watch Audrey Hepburn in Two for the Road although her MG was green). Pretend driving would be ok as I would not want to risk getting any kind of ding in it.

Red MG car in Michael Miller Booth at Quilt Market

I thought the Sandi Henderson booth (Michael Miller Fabrics) was beautiful and great merchandizing.

Michael Miller Sandi Henderson booth at Quilt Market

 

The Kaleidoscope Kreator Software booth was beautiful and dramatic with kaldeiscope designs. This software lets you use your own photos and artwork to create kaleidoscope images for quilting, scrapbooking, card making and more. I’ve been eyeing this software and plan to purchase it. Actually, I don’t know why I haven’t already done so, except that when I get home, I get caught up with ongoing work. The software looks easy to use from their booth demo (and the price is great). If you go to their website, check out the paper crafting projects. The quilts are beautiful of course, but the paper stars would be really fun to make.

 

Kaleidoscope Kreator Software at Quilt Market

 

I stopped in Clothworks booth to see my friend Sue Zipkins new fabric collection, Suzette. I love the soft colors of the fabrics.

Sue Zipkin new fabric at Quilt Market

 

 

June Tailor, Inc always has a pretty booth. They have great quilting tools (I use them regularly)!  They have a new program for fleece, Fleece with Flair. The program includes tools for working with fleece, including fringe cutters and various rulers as well as fleece precut flowers. The right half of the booth below shows the new tools and samples made using the tools.

 

June Tailor quilting tools booth at Quilt Market

A closeup of the fleece  flowers….

June Tailor fleece flowers at Quilt Market

 

Tina Givens (Free Spirit Fabrics) won the booth award for best Merchandising.  As you can see from the photos below, it was a beautiful booth in oranges, tans and browns.

 

Tina Givens booth at Quilt Market

Tina Givens booth at Houston Quilt Market

 

I love felt and stopped by Kunin Group’s booth. They have felt in patterns now which makes a wonderful addition to all the solid colors. The patterns below were gorgeous. Kunin’s felt is made from eco-fil which is created with platic water bottles. The felt is so soft, its hard to imagine that it started life as a water bottle.

Kunin Felt new patterns at Quilt Market

You can create such cute critters with felt.

Kunin Felt display at Quilt Market

 

Prym has a new line of sewing products for baby along with a book of patterns for making baby clothing and cloth diapers. In addition, as you can see on the wall to the right below, they have a full line of accessory products and trims, buttons and applique to use with sewing for baby. Really, really cute!!

Prym Dritz booth at Quilt Market

 

 

La Todera had a pretty and colorful booth to showcase their sewing and soft craft patterns. The buttons and flowers below are just a few of their patterns. And the buttons can be customized with your own saying or art.

La Todera sewing patterns at Quilt Market

and aren’t these trees adorable for sewing!

LaTodera sewing and craft patterns at Houston Quilt Market

 

Downtown Houston has changed over the years since I first started attending Quilt Market. Below is a view from my hotel (Hilton) showing the George Brown convention center on the right (designed to resemble a ship) and the Minute Maid Park (aqua building) in the distance, home of the Astros. Discovery Green Park is just a few years old and is a great improvement on the parking lots that were there previously. Its nice to walk through the park for a few outside minutes during the show.

View of downtown Houston from the Hilton

 

I hope you enjoyed my take on Quilt Market. But there’s more to come – pictures of beautiful, unbelievable quilts from the quilt exhibits. The quilts are works of art!  So please check back!

Phyllis

International Quilt Market – Wonderful Products, Beautiful Colors (Part 1)

The International Quilt Market is the most beautiful trade show I attend. It is so visually stimulating with all the wonderful colors of fabrics, quilts and all the related products. I just returned from the fall trade show in Houston and want to share my thoughts, experiences and photos with you. I must warn you, I used my new iPhone  camera and loved it so much, I kept snapping away so I have tons of photos to share with you and will divide them into multi posts.

After arriving on Friday, the first event I attended was a mixer that night, Fabric 2.0, organized by Caroline Devoy of J. Caroline Creative (and sponsored by CHA, Stashbooks, Michael Miller Fabrics, Modkid, JCaroline Creative, and Andover Fabrics). As you can see, it was well attended (and fun).

 

Fabric 2.0 for Houston Quilt Market by J Caroline Creative
I just love colorful furniture and fell in love with this sewing machine cabinet in bright green by Arrow Sewing Cabinets. This will really brighten a sewing room or studio and make sewing and quilting even more fun. The chair cushion raises up for a storage area underneath it. And we all know that there’s no such thing as too much storage. This one also comes in white and the chair comes in bright pink and oak.

Arrow bright green sewing cabinet

Wooly Lady has the most gorgeous artisan wool fabrics, dyed one yard at a time with painterly colors.  They also carry fabulous kits for wool applique and rug hooking with contemporary to classic and elegant to whimsical designs.

Wooly Lady wool fabricsPlease check out Wooly Lady’s website for their line of kits, they are just beautiful to look through.

Wooly Lady booth at Houston Quilt Market

Quilting Treasures‘ booth was filled with new wonderful fabrics.  J Wecker Frisch, a very talented artist, has both a Halloween and a Christmas collection.  I love her snowmen chefs below in her Baker’s Dozen collection. They are so warm and inviting with Christmas cheer!J Wecker Frisch Christmas Fabrics for Quilting Treasures

Her Halloween fabric collection, Creepers Peepers is beautiful and has a wonderful vintage appeal.

J Wecker Frisch Halloween fabrics for Quilting Treasures

Debra Jordan Bryan has a new Christmas fabric for Quilting Treasures as well, Let It Snow, created in her wonderful whimsy style. The blue color really pops with this fabric. All of these holiday fabrics will be out next year in plenty of time for sewing and quilting.

Debra Jordan Bryan new Christmas fabrics for Quilting Treasures

 

Clover Needlecraft, Inc. had a demo in their booth of their needle felting tools using wool roving. This is one technique I haven’t tried yet, due only to my time constraints.  I love wool felting and have it high on my to do list.  Look at the felted items behind the demo on the booth wall – bags, butterfly and hats! They were gorgeous! Clover also had some new Wonder Clips to clip and hold or clip and sew that you can see on their website.

Clover Needlecraft needle felting tools

I  have been a Kaffe Fassett fan for years and have a collection of his books. I started with his beauitful needlepoint books and have continued with his quilt books. His booth is an explosion of the beautiful, wonderful colors of his fabrics for Westminster Fabrics.  Check out the chair!

Kaffe Fassett booth at Houston Quilt Market

Below, Kaffe is sewing on a quilt with his new book on the table in front of him.

Kaffe Fassett at Houston Quilt Market

I love buttons and know a lot of you do too. I don’t know what it is about buttons, but you can’t have too many!  I have big jars, small jars, tins, and drawers of buttons, some vintage and some new, and keep buying more. And I bought more at Market. So you can see why I visited Dusty’s Vintage booth. There were sooooooo many buttons, and these pictures just show a small part of the buttons they have.

Dusty's Vintage buttons at Houston Quilt Market

The Ogier Trading Company booth was beautiful with all the hand-dyed yarns for needle arts, embellishments and doll hair.  The yarn assortments consists of wool, alpaca, cotton, mohair and silk fibers.

Hand Dyed yarns at Houston Quilt Market

Pearl Louise, of Pearl Louise Designs, is a delightful person as well as talented designer of patterns and fabrics (Troy fabrics). I always enjoy visiting with her at Market and seeing her latest designs. Below, Pearl is standing in front of her newest Block of the Month Quilt featuring her fabrics. Pearl is known for her delightful block of the month quilt patterns.

Pearl Louise at Houston Quilt Market

Leilani Arts, has exotic yarns, fibers, textiles and beads. You can see how luscious their silks are.  I love the vest of woven silk strips and can visualize the strips used for quilts as well.

Leilani Arts silk yarns at quilt market
Luscious, luscious………

Leilani Arts silk vest at Quilt Market

Suzanne McNeill of Design Originals (Fox Chapel Publishing) was showing how easy it is to sew Zentangle type designs for quilts with the new book “Zen-Sational, Stitches for Quilting”. Although it looks like it would be hard to sew Zentangles, Suzanne showed how easy it really is. Really easy! I love drawing with the Zentangle technique and can’t wait to try it for sewing.

Suzanne McNeill of Design Originals at Quilt Market in Houston

Meg Hannan’s Fabric Jewels creates the most amazing and beautiful fabric jewelry in her Rag Sky Art Studio.  Yes, the jewelry is really made from fabric with beads and other embellishments.  She uses a special technique to make this unique jewelry.  You can see more of her jewelry as well as galleries that carry her art jewelry on her website – its a beautiful site so check it out. And congratulations on Meg for celebrating 25 years of Fabric Jewels!

Meg Hannan fabric jewelry at Quilt Market

I hope you’ve enjoyed my view of Quilt Market so far.  I still have lots more to show you from market as well as photos from the quilt exhibits. Walking the quilt exhibits is like walking an art museum as they are really works of art. Please check back.

Phyllis

Interview by BluPenny for Sketchbook Story

One of the best things about traveling to trade shows and events is meeting people who I’ve talked with via social media and forums.  At the Surtex show last year, I met Cindy Ann Ganaden in person. She is a fellow artist and author of the BluPenny blog. She publishes a Sketchbook Story series in which she interviews artists on their inspiration, how they use it to create sketches and finalize into art.  The art is then licensed for various products.BluPenny Blog
Cindy Ann just interviewed me and posted the interview for the Sketchbook Story in which I show my inspiration and results. I used my cat for inspiration to create an art collection which was then turned into a fabric collection for Quilting Treasures. Everyone has different techniques and ways they use to create their art.  I hope you will check out mine.

The apron shown in the interview can be downloaded – free half apron pattern.

I’m off to Houston for Quilt Market.  Please check back as I will post pictures of Market next week.

Phyllis

Organization Tips for Sewing and Craft Rooms and Repurposing Thrift Finds!

I love comments you readers post to my blog or email me. Today, I want to feature one of my readers, Dee Fox of Cedar City, UT who had a prior business of helping people organize their homes. She posted a comment on my recent blog post on spray painting my filing cabinets for my studio redecorating.  I emailed her and she mentioned that she loved finding unique thrift items to refinish for her sewing room and  how she had it organized. I asked if she would mind sharing some of her finds and tips with you.

Dee lucked up when she found two filing cabinets in a thrift store for $7 each. What a find!! She immediately spray painted them and added another salvage of an old lid from a fish tank.  The result – a new desk. (Tip from Dee, light a vanilla candle to lesson the temporary smell of spray paint. I just love the smell of vanilla!)  I also love the rack with blue holders for markers and the button jars that she placed on the desk. Dee also keeps a dish of cat food handy for her cats, Fancy and Coco Bear.

Dee Fox painted filing cabinets

Dee found this small cabinet in her father-in-law’s garage and spray painted it blue. His loss, her gain! Its the perfect size for storing her fat quarters.

Old cabinet used to store fat quarters

She found this old cabinet for $40 at a yard sale.  Again, Dee painted it using a cheery red and uses it to store more sewing supplies.

Red storage cabinet for sewing supplies

Dee’s favorite organizing tip for craft or sewing areas is to group like things together. She keeps everything she needs at arm’s reach for her sewing area as well as her cutting table and other areas. Keeping scissors, rotary cutters, rulers and other needed items close by prevents needless interruptions for trips to locate them as well as prevents time lost while searching for them.  A great example of keeping like things together is Dee’s stablizer holder that she sewed to hang close by.

Stabilizer holder made by Dee Fox

You can see from this photo that Dee is well organized and well stocked with her sewing supplies. I doubt she has to stop in the middle of a project and run to the store. You can also see that she makes great use of plastic containers and carts, which are ideal for storing craft and sewing supplies.

Dee Fox's organized sewing room

Dee also recommends that you make your space happy!  Doing so will make you want to spend more time in it.  I love this happy and decorative setting below where she uses little pots to hold fat quarters and a colorful lamp made with terra cotta pots.

Pots to hold fat quarters and lamp made with flower pots

When starting a project, Dee gathers everything for that project and keeps them togehter in a clear container.  She says the way she stays on track is to make lists for everything she needs to do.  She got away from making lists temporarily then realized she was not getting anything done. Being able to mark things off of a list also gives you a feeling of accomplishment.  Another tip is to always straighten your studio or work space at the end of the day so you don’t have to face a mess the next day.

Dee also shows that you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a great craft or sewing space or room. Repurposing old furniture or belongings, found or thrift store items is inexpensive as well as giving them a new life and giving you some unique items.

I love repainting things and am delighted at seeing Dee’s repainted treasures. Paint is inexpensive yet gives you such dynamic results and a quick makeover as well as create a mood. So keep your eyes peeled and imagine what something would look like with a make-over.

Thanks, Dee, for allowing me to feature your amazing and very well organized studio!  I love seeing studios and yours is a real treat!

Phyllis

Redux – Sew a Spider Apron for Halloween

Halloween is rapidly approaching. It always gets here before I’m ready and I have to make a mad dash the day before to stock up on candy for the trick or treaters. Thinking that I would be more prepared this year, I decided to repost my apron pattern for this Spider Halloween apron in advance to give you plenty of time to sew one.

This pattern is available at Etsy WhimsyColor.

Spider Halloween Apron Free Pattern

The body is the spider is a pocket and rick rack is used for the legs. Jumbo orange rick rack embellishes the bottom edge. The apron is easy to make and can be sewn in just a couple of hours (you can even make it Halloween morning or the day before). You can wear it if you are helping your kids with Halloween festivities at school or elsewhere or just as an accent while walking with your own trick or treaters.

Have a creative day!

Phyllis

Free Patterns for Aprons and Quilts

Please note that this apron pattern is no longer available through Quilting Treasures website.  However due to the demand for it, I have recreated another pattern similar to this. It can be found on the Etsy Whimsicolor.  

Note also – The Rails quilt pattern below is also no longer available through Quilting treasures and has been redesigned.  It can also be found on the Etsy WhimsyColor.

I love sewing and quilting with beautiful fabrics, so its fun to design projects for Quilting Treasure’s website with some of their newest fabrics. I have finished several quilt and sewing designs for Quilting Treasures that can be downloaded free from their website and wanted to share them with you. Using the red, white and blue fabrics from Studio 8’s collection Monaco, these aprons can be made in a blue or red color combination. The aprons are sassy with two layers for the skirt to include a little overskirt. The top band of the bodice is ruched for extra detail.

Aprons in red or blue colors

This quilt is easy to sew and is made with the red colors of the collection. The blocks have a random arrangement of fabrics.

Free quilt pattern designed by Phyllis Dobbs for Quilting Treasures

Happy sewing!

Phyllis

Sew a Pumpkin Placemat!

Halloween is almost here – next weekend!  I love pumpkins – they represent Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Plus they are so delicious to eat in great desserts.  You can make this easy Pumpkin placemat in time for Halloween.  This free pattern will serve double duty as you can use it for a Thanksgiving table setting – just leave off the buttons.

Click to download the free pattern and instructions and start sewing.  All you need is the background fabric, orange fabric, green bias tape, baby rick rack, fusible web and if you are making it for Halloween, buttons.

I wish you a fun Halloween! My husband will be handing out our candy since I will be in Houston for the International Quilt Market.

Happy sewing!

Phyllis

Create a fun apron for Halloween

I love sewing aprons and just created this Halloween apron with a spider pocket.

I used orange and black stripe fabric along with orange and black solids. Rick Rack is used for embellishment. The spider is the pocket and has rick rack for the legs and a large button for a head.

This apron pattern and others can be found at Etsy WhimsyColor.

Its so easy to make and you can sew it in a couple of hours or less. I would love to see the aprons that all you creative sewers make using this pattern so please send me pictures or comment!

Happy sewing!

Phyllis