WOW, has it ever been an eventful and busy Spring!! So many changes have happened here there hasn't been time to THINK, let alone post!! We've been Spring cleaning..........Out with the old...in with the new!
Lots of patterns are being discontinued.... gone for good in July! We're going to flag the ones that are going on the website. I always hate to discontinue things... but there's just not enough room for everything FOREVER!!
Change is an inevitable part of life, I know, but that doesn't mean that it's always easy!! This winter we lost two employees.......and gained four! That meant TRAINING!!!!.... and mistakes.... and fixing mistakes... and delays....and finally, "WHEW", things running more smoothly than ever before! We also have some new machinery which meant things had to be moved around and built...... I just had to put a lot of things (designing) on hold until we got all of our little ducks in a row!! Now I can get back up to speed.
and................................................
I thought I'd give you a little peek into some of the new things coming out in May and later this summer. The quilt above (I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT IT!!) is my first "MAN" quilt.... Let me give you a little back story..............This Spring I was finally able to talk our son Jon into joining us here in "Girly Land"!! He's come on board as manager of the studio, and BOY!!! has there ever been a shake-up...shake-down.... shake, rattle & roll????? Within a few days he had us all super re-organized and un-fussied, running smoothly and up to code! We've even had our first safety meeting! A man's perspective has done us a lot of good I think.... so..... time for a man's quilt! This is called Vintage Tin. That means vintage car parts/body parts or something in car nut manly testosterone soaked talk..............Jon collaborated with me on this so I'm pretty sure we can say it has the "Man Stamp of Approval"! Don't laugh at the way it's set up. The blocks were just "stuck" in the image to figure out where to put the fabric... it's not the final image.. YIKES!! I'm planning on having it ready to release in July. I don't have the fabric to stitch it on yet or I'd be working on it NOW!!!!
The next picture shows the Halloween Thimble Bouquet. It will be released in May for International Quilt Market. We're not going to Spring Market, but the patterns will be released as if we were! I had planned on going but my fabric line is delayed a little... and I wouldn't have had any new samples to put in my booth.... all that way for a bare booth???? No! I decided to stay home and enjoy my lilacs for once! We always seem to leave for market just as the lilacs are coming to their peak. Not this year! YAY!!!!
The next is Janette Needlebook and Pincushion. It's a tri-fold needlebook with a wool cover and fabric lining. The elongated strawberry-ish cone pincushions are really fun. I want to make a bunch of them to hang on one of my Halloween trees! We made this pattern for one of the retreats....the Thimble bouquet too, for that matter!....... I did the linings in plain linen and everybody stamped them (and the ties) with permanent ink. REALLY fun!!
I have more... a few Christmas things (tea towels, stitchery, Snow Flurries quilt with tons of snowflakes/beads/crystals) and some Halloween tea towels....OH! And another Halloween quilt ala Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage, with an unrolled scroll with spells on it... and a box of the newest taste treat on the witch's snack food market....Guano Puffs!! But first I need to take photos of the ones that will be released in May.........I'll show them to you later! As for some of the other ones...I don't have FABRIC to make them with yet!!!! AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
Take a few deep breaths and count to 10......
On another subject COMPLETELY............ I'm having the website re-done. Not just a different "look", but totally re-done. I'd really like to know if you have any suggestions or observations about the site now or things in other websites that really work well that you'd like to share??? Links to other websites that are easy to use, have all the bells & whistles, look really good.......etc.... would really be appreciated. I can forward them to my website guy and maybe we can build something that will be GREAT!! Just email info@crabapplehillstudio.com and put "website" in the subject line so we can sift through them a little more easily. I really do want your input!!
xo
