This is really going to be fun! I’m working on a design creation to enter for the Fashion Embellishment Challenge sponsored by Expo International Inc. at the Craft and Hobby Show in a couple of week. Yikes, its less than a couple of weeks! As you can see from the pile on my work table, I am just getting started. But, I can tell its going to be fun working with all the wonderful trims – I just love beads! Choosing the trims I wanted to work with from Expo was like walking through a candy store and deciding which piece of chocolate I wanted (all yum!!!).
Well, back to work. As I said in my last post, this is frantic time for the designers attending the CHA show and I’m definitely in that frantic stage!
Craft stores have such a huge assortment of craft supplies available, from supplies for scrapbooking to supplies for painting, needlework, sewing and quilting, floral and gardening, beading and many other types of crafts. The good part is that you don’t have to figure out what to do with these supplies. There are many design projects available in all of these categories in magazines, books and project sheets as well as kits that include both the supplies and instructions.
As someone who has been designing for the crafts industry for many years, 23 to be exact, I thought I would give you a little background on how many designers work in getting their designs there for you.
A lot of craft designers are members of The Craft and Hobby Association (CHA). CHA is hosting their Winter Convention & Trade show in Anaheim, CA in February. This is the premier trade show for anyone involved in the crafts industry and is open only to the trade. Manufacturers present their newest and hottest products to buyers who attend from all over the world. CHA has a Designer Section for the designer members and offers several opportunities for designers to connect with manufacturers, publishers and editors.
Designers can set up a table in the Designer Showcase held one day during the show. Designers/artists create a table display showcasing their designs and portfolios so that editors, publishers and manufacturers can view the designs for use or publication. These are many of the designs that you see and use for creating your craft projects.
Another opportunity for designers is to exhibit in the License and Design Section during the show . The designers have a booth space to show their art and designs that are available for creating new products or in using products.The theme for this year’s show is Fashion Crafting and designers are also showcasing their fashion designs in the Fashion Crafting Display, our version of “Project Runway”.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the designs created by friends as well as myself. The flower at the top is a Gerber Daisy Fabric Sculpture created by Lynne Farris and shown in her newest book “Fresh Felt Flowers” published by C&T Publishing.
The 2 designs embroidered on jeans are from the DenimBroidery embroidery kits I created for Janlynn, a needlework company.
Joan Elliott painted the Jingle Cats Christmas image, which has been licensed on tee shirts, fabrics for hospital scrubs, mugs and cross stitch kits.
Linda Wyszynski designed the embroidered pillowcase for Create and Decorate magazine, using buttons and embroidery to create a floral design for stitching on the pillowcase edge.
Vicki Schreiner painted the sports images which were used to create a scrapbook kit and stickers sold in stores.
I do have some very talented friends!
All the designers that I know who are attending the show, including myself, are now frantically creating new designs to present. So the next time you are using instructions to create a craft or sewing project, it may have come from one of these designers working to create craft projects just for you!
I’m very excited about the Quilter’s Buzz blog article posted today on me and the Sweetheart Ballerina fabrics I designed for Quilting Treasures. Gina Halladay, the author of the blog, is also a partner of Threaded Pear, a pattern company. (Click on Quilter’s Buzz and Threaded Pear in the categories at the right to read my prior posts on Gina). I would love for you to check out this article as well as the blogsite.
This is a quilted tote that I made from the pink color range of the Sweetheart Ballerina fabrics. I just love sewing with these fabrics and have just completed several projects with them that will be published this summer.
I love art and definitely have my favorite artists. While I was walking the International Quilt Market in Houston this past October, I spotted a few pieces of art. But these were not ordinary art prints. They were art quilts based on a Matisse paper cut “The Sadness of the King”, Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, and a Picasso. They were created by Virginia Robertson of Virginia Robertson Designs for Princess Mirah batik fabrics by Bali Fabrics, Inc.
As you can see, these quilts are quite detailed and looked exactly like the fabulous paintings they represent. What a great job Virginia did making these! They were beautiful to look at and another example of the treasures you can make with fabric and thread.
I love decorating for Christmas and enjoy putting up 2 trees. I decorate one tree all white and silver. The other tree is decorated traditionally with all my cherished ornaments that I’ve accumulated over the years, including an ornament given to me by my first grade teacher.
In talking with several freinds throughout the holidays, all have mentioned decorating with ornaments that have special meaning, from ornaments hand made by their children, first ornaments as a married couple, to ornaments that have passed down from ancestors. I have ornaments that hung on my grandmother’s tree when I was a child.
Tradition is such an important part of the holidays and everyone has their own traditions. I want to wish each of you wonderful holidays filled with your own special traditions.
Now that its pretty dreary looking outside with no leaves on the trees, I think back to the beautiful fall we had. This fall was such a surprise because we are in a severe drought area. I thought, after a summer with no rain, that the leaves would turn brown immediately and bypass the colors. I also thought it would be an early fall, with the leaves dropping quickly. But, it turned out to be completely the opposite. We had one of the most beautiful falls that I’ve ever seen. And, it was much later than normal. While we were driving out of town for Thanksgiving, I was so in awe of all the beautiful colors, from deep reds, bright yellows and wonderful oranges. I almost had whiplash from turning my head so much to look at all the gorgeous colors. I had to stop several times to take pictures and wanted to share these with you.
This last picture is a closeup of Crepe Myrtle leaves that were quite colorful.
Although it is Christmas with all the colors of Christmas everywhere, I still think of the fall colors when I look at the bare trees.
An exhibit of art quilts by Barbara Hendrick Dorn is being held at the Lynne Farris Gallery in Atlanta, GA. This gallery is owned by Lynne Farris, designer and author, who I wrote about in my last blog. The exhibit, Thread of Thought, Art Quilts 1996-2007, displays the beautiful quilts created by Barbara. Barbara is inspired in creating her quilts by her love of fabric, color and pattern.
Barbara’s exhibit is being held through December 28, 2007. Lynne Farris Gallery is located at 50 Hurt Plaza, 105 Grand Lobby, Atlanta, GA 30303. Call 404-688-7311 for gallery hours.
I have been wanting to post more about Quilt Market, but my plans didn’t work out due to computer problems. I just hate computers when they don’t work right! Unfortunately, they are a necessity. But there is just so much unproductive time when the computer acts up. new hard drive requires hours and hours of time loading software and files. UGH!!!! My husband believes that no one can have as many computer problems as I have.
Anyway, back to Quilt Market. I want to talk to you about my friend Lynne Farris and her new book, Fresh Felt Flowers. Lynne is shown below with a bouquet of
flowers from her book.
Fresh Felt Flowers, published by C&T Publishing,is a new book that showcases techniques created by Lynne to make three-dimensional flowers from wool felt and then detailed using a sewing machine. You don’t need fancy stitches, just a straight stitch and a zigzag stitch. Lynne makes it so easy to create 17 beautiful textured flowers that you don’t have to keep watered and that don’t die.
Lynne is autographing a copy of her book for me. The smile you see on Lynne’s face is a natural for her. I’ve known her for many years and she has the best sense of humor and is just downright funny. She has entertained many of us at various gatherings with her acting talent in humorous skits. But when it comes to designing, Lynne has a very serious talent.
I just returned from the fall Quilt Market in Houston. Quilt Market is always such a wonderful show, inspirational and full of “eye candy” with all the colorful booths, fabrics and quilts. Another fun aspect of the show is that it is also a time to catch up with old friends as well as make new ones.
A new friend is Gina Halladay, who I met a few months ago at Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City.
Gina is the author of the immensely popular and leading quilt blog, QuiltersBuzz. She took her love of quilting and used it to spread the word throughout the world on fabrics, products, people, quilts, patterns and all kinds of other interesting tidbits. Gina is now considered the voice of the quilting world so be sure to check out Gina’s writings on QuiltersBuzz.
Gina is standing in her beautiful and colorful booth at market. She and Stephanie Goudzwaard pictured below are partners with Threaded Pear, a new pattern company that debuted at Spring Quilt Market. Sewing is very hot and the patterns of Threaded Pear are perfect for the sewing enthusiasts as well as beginners. As you can see from the photo, their booth stayed busy throughout the show, just like it did at the Spring Quilt Market where they were an instant success. Check out their website and see how they got started as well as see the patterns.
The mail was good today. I received copies of a magazine – Designers’ Quartersthat had a feature article on me and my Sweetheart Ballerina fabric line with Quilting Treasures by Cranston. Sweetheart Ballerinas is my debut fabric line with Quilting Treasures, so I was thrilled with this article.
I will show you two pages pages from the 6 page spread.
“Dance with Flowers” is the name that I gave this quilt. Its a twin bed size quilt and is created with the aqua color range.
I wanted the quilt to be a unique design, which I designed around the fabrics. The magazine features the pattern for this quilt.
This page shows swatches of the fabrics that were used in the quilt. Designers’ Quarters is a fabulous magazine for quilters. It contains 10 quilts with patterns, information about the fabric used including the style numbers, and information about the designer and the inspiration for the fabric design. Its published 4 times a year and is available through independent quilt shops as well as online at their website, www.designersquarters.com
After I received the magazine and was intently reviewing the article, my husband Danny looked at it also. With the intent of being complimentary, he said that I “looked younger” in the magazine. Now, as a woman, this is not exactly a compliment. Well, I didn’t let it stop there, but asked him if he meant that I looked older now. He realized his mistake and tried to backpetal. He did get me to concede that I really am 3 months older than the photos. Men, go figure!
Phyllis Dobbs Art & Design Studio
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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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Fashion Embellishment Challenge sponsored by Expo International Inc. at the Craft and Hobby Show in a couple of week. Yikes, its less than a couple of weeks! As you can see from the pile on my work table, I am just getting started. But, I can tell its going to be fun working with all the wonderful trims – I just love beads! Choosing the trims I wanted to work with from Expo was like walking through a candy store and deciding which piece of chocolate I wanted (all yum!!!).
