Thursday, April 28, 2011

Almost ready for Salt Lake City!

There will be 16 new patterns released in a couple weeks...as soon as we get back from Spring International Quilt Market!  The booth has already been set up...taken down...packed into the freight containers...and shipped off to Salt Lake City (Market is held in the convention center called the "Salt Palace"...don't know why I find that humorous, but I do!)  All we have left to do is figure out what clothes to pack!  We're so close by (a full day's drive), we'll be driving down...all four of us....me, Sheila, Jan and Phil (The driver who, by the way, is REALLY looking forward to spending 12 hours or so in a car with three women...that is sarcasm if you didn't recognise it!)  We'll take our Kindles and IPOD's, and try not to talk non-stop the whole way...I promise!  We'll meet Susan in Salt Lake...she's flying in from Jacksonville, FL to help in the booth...can't wait to see her! She's so funny!!!   

ANYWAY!....I've only shown you a few of the patterns that we'll be releasing...only the ones that use MY NEW FARIC LINE FROM LECIEN!!!!  It's called "Whitewash", and is mostly backgrounds in white, ivory, and pale taupe.  There are also redwork reds, a taupe-y gray, charcoal, prints with embroidery images and monograms, and three linens!!!  I love this fabric SO MUCH!!!  It all works perfectly with the new "French Grays" look....old worn galvanized metals, mercury glass, linens...Thank you to Lecien, Nireko, Matt, and their whole design team for making this such a great experience with such a perfect outcome!!! 

 I'll show you the entire line a little bit later... BUT!!!!  These patterns are made with it!  The pillow above is adapted from the front of an old postcard (It has Cosmo's new "Sparkles" floss on it in places...looks like mica or glitter!...the back of the pillow is below.  Yup, kind of two patterns in one!  The front was done on linen, the back on the "Postcard" print.


 Guess I don't have to tell you that these are Christmas stockings!?  They're all done on the linen and lined and trimmed with prints from the line.  The pattern gives you lots of images and options to make these two sizes of stockings as long or short as you want, and to add any of the decorations to them...even two alphabets (upper and lower cases).  The snowflakes on the center stocking were stitched in silver "Sparkles"
floss and embellished with beads and some old lace.
 This quilt is going in my house!!!!!  Hopechest includes monograms for all the letters of the alphabet so you can personalize it.....I'm going to enlarge one of the letters and make a pillow on linen with green floss.  I wish I had a little girl to make things for!!!  I'd make this in all pinks! 
This pattern is called Typeset Ornaments.  I  wanted the lettering/numbers to look like they'd been typed on an old typewriter with worn out keys.  Kind of an imperfect, spotchy look.  Everything I tried turned out looking too perfect.........then I tried just making the outline of the letter (water/air erasable pen) and filling it with little, imperfect xx's...PERFECT!!  They'd be fun to use for signs, banners, tags,.....They're going on our Christmas tree this year!
Well....hope you liked the preview of the fabric line!  I'd better get back to work on the newsletters about the pattern release...and the catalog pages....and the ............OOoooooo!......there's so much to do!!
xox Meg

Friday, April 15, 2011

One More Finished!

 Christmas stockings in April..........weird!!!  I'd love to make a few more while I'm on a roll tho!  I had so much fun with the white one with sparkly, beaded snowflakes!  It's using a new Cosmo floss called Sparkles.....really easy to work with!! And linens from my (ta-da-da-DA!!!) new fabric line called Whitewash. I'll show you the whole line later.....  These stockings are really fun.  The really long skinny one was kind of a challenge though....it took the three of us...a pair of tongs...and some not so nice language to get the lining all the way down into the toe where it belonged!  Cindy, Sheila and I were all laughing so hard we were teary eyed.......possibly would have been easier if we'd been able to see!

This pattern will be realeased with all the rest next month........this weekend we're doing our booth mock-up so we can pack it all up and ship it to Salt Lake City for quilt market.....It's sneaking up on us!!
Later!   Meg

Monday, April 11, 2011

Hurry, Hurry!!! No Time To Talk!


Just a preview!  This is "Hopechest".... released in May with all the other new stuff!!!  WHEW!  xox Meg