Slow movin’

Post-show and a Monday: recipe to  recover.  But we’ll be in the shop and putting away and planning a sale.  The Northern Star Guild Show was a success in so many ways.  My favorite part is always the surprise encounters that enrich our life beyond selling and sewing.  There were great comments on my work, an unpresidented number of  ”cute”-s  for those darn ducks.  But the kits continue to sell.  Thanks, Mary.  New show friends and some amazing quilts and quilting.  We met the Artgirlz and watched a Sharon Schamber demo on the Gammill.  

 But now back to the grind of  unloading the bins, recreating another Molly Story Quilt for the shop (the auction is this Friday), continuing the latest pattern which still doesn’t have a name(or an in-focus picture to share), uploading some shots of our beautiful booth, which went up easily with the help of some bulletin boards behind our tables and the borrow of Nancy’s beautiful ladders.

Needless to say, we carry  a lot of stuff to shows.  And then we have to put it all back: what does not sell. It’s an opportunity to reorganize, move back into the shop life for the weeks ahead.  

 

Molly’s Story Quilt

That's Kathy, cutting the blocks

With a few adjustments, we will start assembling the quilt today.  This particular quilt will go up for auction at the Mother’s Day Luncheon hosted by the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation in May.  The pattern and images from the book will be available at the Quilter’s Alley as a kit, or separately, if you’d prefer to choose your own fabric.  One of the options will be to personalize your quilt with the child’s name on the backpack.  We’ll keep you posted on when the kits are ready to go.

 

Our Gammill is here!

This is the story…

I won’t bore you with the five hours of training that followed, that is still not all the training involved.

Brian, our guide, was very patient with his trainees, even on only a couple of hours of sleep the night before.  He and Stu had gotten up at 6am to drive an hour west to the freight warehouse.  There was no forklift for our delivery that day.  So they delivered it themselves,  all 1100 pounds of it, pulling pieces of crating wood from its staples to uncover the welded steel beauty of our 14 foot frame, one piece at a time.

Brian is an assembly expert and in no time, it was standing, waiting for the mother ship to land.  I can’t believe after a full day, he proceeded to return to Vermont, five hours away that evening.  He left our heads spinning with instructions, which we are now unraveling at a steady pace.  A hefty thank you to Julie Cowles who orchestrated this in record time from headquarters in Vermont.  You’re the best!

The quilts have started to arrive and we are on it.

If you want hand guided artistry applied to your quilt top, the Quilter’s Alley is the place.

 

Back from Houston Quilt Market

It seems like we’ve spent a lot of travel time in Texas this year with Husqvarna Viking Convention and all.  But, going to Market transports me to the Land of Ideas.  I’ve returned with order slips for over 150 new bolts of fabric from Westminster, Alexander Henry, Lecien, Kokka, Art Gallery Fabrics.  These will make their debut after the New Year.  Sample spree yielded little gems of Lecien, Kokka and Art Gallery Fabrics that will be tied into precious bundles of color and available for sale immediately.
I’ll take some tempting photos this week.

Still Construction but a Beautiful new park this year

 

 

The Brains & Brawn of Art Gallery Fabrics

We were focused this year on bright color, not that I don’t love it all the time.  Our goal was to cheer the economic recession into submission.  We went to the Quilt Exhibit, but I only partially covered the vast hall because of an issue with sore feet.  I took names, so I could check them out online, but only one or two had websites.  Boo Hoo

We spotted Eleanor Burns, Kaffe and Liza, Jay McCarroll, (Project Runway winner), (missed a Marie Osmond sighting),  Amy Butler, Trish & Davis from Attic Heirlooms.

Spoke to Liesl, from Oliver + S. We’ve been buying more and more of her classically adorable children’s patterns as our business turns toward the young crafty mom.  Liesl is so beautiful and real- a Brooklyn girl. Also on the real track is Anna Maria Horner, who we had met in San Antonio in June.  She and I spent quite a while chatting about being creative and business in general.  We plan to stay in touch.  We caught her doing her own photos of her gorgeous booth. So down to earth.  And we may have her coming to the Quilter’s Alley for a book signing in the Spring.  That would be so amazing!

Meanwhile at the Shop:

I promised to bring you the heirloom being quilted by hand.  Go Cindy and Erin!

 

The T-Shirt quilts are done.  Here are photos:

Molly’s Book is in its final revision, I think.  It looks great!  Thanks, Terrie.

All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation.

 

Give Away winner announced:  Sherrym2 will receive the Jennifer Paganelli Fat Quarters and the Times Square Pattern by the Quilter’s Alley

Good News!  There are several more art quilt pattern designs in the works from The Quilter’s Alley, now being prepared for publication.

 

Remember to Breathe

 

This week

What I find most interesting are the events and objects that come in series during a week, even when they’re hiding among my own work.   See the coincidence post . When a customer asked me to make her an altar cloth, I accepted the commission gladly, but had no idea that when I looked back over prior work or work-in-progress, I have several pieces that  work as centerpieces for meditation areas.    I think she had a great idea to use a quilt for this purpose.

More than the sewing project itself, what this customer brought me was something new to explore.  She provided the fabric for this project and talked about the recipient as someone who “drums” and has an interest in Sacred Geometry. I had never heard the term before that I can remember, but when I looked it up, I was surprised to find out that the principles of design (which I use all the time)  are based on Sacred Geometry. 

I get all philosophical when things like this happen. 
I love how ’students’ inspire ‘teachers.’
I love how things just present when I’m just minding my own business.
I love how I find that I’ve been doing something right all along.

  

We are going to San Antonio, TX for the Husqvarna VIKING Convention on Sunday.  The new TOL sewing and embroidery machine will be unveiled on Sunday evening. We return on Thursday.  More…

 

Some things since last things

This time of year it gets really quiet around the shop.  Everybody, including us, have graduations, weddings, wrap-up-school stuff, etc. We even have a business trip to San Antonio –  got heat?  The quiet always gets me thinking, noticing things and celebrating the obvious for lack of alternatives.  It’s an opportunity.  I found this great Japanese print and made a skirt. I only bought a yard & 1/4 so I inserted a cool, coordinating strip which left opportunity for the skirt to fit and a place to do some embroidery.

This is a better view of the cute line drawing print and my handiwork.

Then I was feeling so adventurous, I draped some muslin on myself and drew a pattern for this top.  It even has darts.  The sleeves were a little tight, so I developed a slit detail that gives me room to move my arms. 

The bolt I’m holding is fabric for the matching skirt.  The fabric is cotton, but feels like a breezy linen, which I love to wear in summer.  I’m planning to try a lining this time, now that I’ve made the skirt pattern (Simplicity 4236) a few times.  I think I know how I’ll do it.

I’m in a purple mood, and finding pieces that blend together is my current preoccupation,  I plan to build out from here with either other colors or grays.  It looks better in person.

 

It may be time to move on.

Is this “art quilting?”   Or Stu’s fatal attempt at a modeling career?