Pooches & Pickups pet bed and another giveaway!

I was so excited to get an email this morning from Anna over at Noodlehead. I simply adore her blog and was so psyched when she agreed to do a project with Pooches and Pickups and host a giveaway for some fabric. I love, love surprises, so didn't ask much about what she was making. And I was just giddy this am to find this adorable creation (and an adorable pooch) on her blog today.

Lookie!!! How totally fabulous is this dog bed? It's for Anna's parent's pooch Cinder. What a pretty, pretty pooch. And the freezer paper stencil personalization. Genius. What a lucky woof!

images courtesy of Noodlehead

Hop over to Noodlehead, tell Anna hello and enter to win a full FQ set. But don't delay... The giveaway ends tomorrow, Wednesday, May 25th at 10pm (central time). Go on now!

Thanks Anna! I just love the dog bed and hope Cinder (and your parents) love it too. :)

Surtex Wrap Up

I'm back!!! Surtex was really amazing. I'm so happy with how my booth came together and how everything looked. Made some really amazing contacts and am beyond excited about some of the opportunities on the horizon. It was fantastic to be back in NYC and to be back in my old stomping ground. I went up a few days before the show and was able to spend time visiting some of my favorite places (and favorite people!) which was a really wonderful way to kick off the show.

The first morning in the city I grabbed some coffee and breakfast and headed to Central Park to enjoy the glorious weather. In the typical wonderful way things just happen in NY, I stumbled upon a group of maybe 30 high-school aged kids practicing their choral singing and horns in advance of a concert at Carnegie Hall. Nothing like NY I tell you. From there I was able to spend some time at the Museum of Art and Design (my favorite museum in the city) and the Folk Art Museum. I do miss the museums so much!!

My friend Alison (who came to help me work the booth at Surtex) and I were able to catch a Broadway show one night before the show kicked off. We got great seats for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. A.Mazing. Simply phenomenal. A big, splashy, over-the-top, campy musical. And the costumes. Oh, the costumes! If you get a chance to see it, it's a must see. We really, really LOVED it.

The show itself was 3 days. Long days. But really, good days! I felt so much more confident this year and am really pleased with the opportunities I was able to explore and the contacts I was able to make. I've been working non-stop since I got home, working on my follow up with everyone. Loads more to do, but finished off everything (almost!) I had hoped to get accomplished this weekend.

Thanks again to everyone for your good wishes and for the positive vibes you were sending my way!! I'll keep you posted on any exciting news :)
xoxo

My whitebalance on my camera was set to the wrong setting (sigh...grumble...) so the colors are a bit wonky in the pics but you can at least get the idea! Oh, and you can see my new red hair :)

And those of you with eagle eyes will probably notice a few designs that haven't made it to fabric yet. Hoping that a few of them may make it to Spoonflower fabric (and then hopefully Robert Kaufman fabric!) at some point in the future. And the trays...Oh the trays!! They're just mockups that I had made for the show but you never know what the future could bring!

A quillow or a planket from a cuppa and a catch up

What's that you say? Has Laurie finally gone off the deep end. What on earth is a quillow? Or a planket? The ingenious ~nova from a cuppa and a catch up has done it again. I've been following her work for quite some time and she's simply a creative genius. I sent her some Pooches and Pickups so I could see what sort of wonderful creation she'd whip up. And I am simply gobsmacked (yes... I've been itching to use that since everyone was bantering it about with all the royal wedding excitement).

Oh my goodness, right? Is that not the very most adorable thing? It's a quillow! Or a planket! I really, really, really need one of these. Don't you just want to snuggle up under that immediately? And I love how its been embroidered. So sweet...

~nova's planning on posting some process shots and perhaps even writing a tutorial for how to create one of your very own. And to get you started, she's hosting a giveaway for a FQ set of Pooches and Pickups. So skeedadle on over to her blog and leave a comment with what you'd make if you're the winner. She'll be drawing the winner this Saturday May 14 (Aussie time) so off you go! :)

Thanks so much Nova. I have the most gigantic crush on your quillow.
xoxo

Red Pepper Quilts Stacked Coins Quilt from Pooches and Pickups

I'm just having so much fun seeing quilts from Pooches and Pickups starting to come to life. The uber-talented Rita at Red Pepper Quilts created this adorable stacked coins quilt. Oooooo... So pretty!! She's done a really wonderful job mixing the 6 prints in the collection with some really lovely coordinating Kona Cottons from Robert Kaufman. I think I'm especially fond of the single pop of black on the top right side. And the little strips of Pooches just make me smile.

Image from Red Pepper Quilts

Image from Red Pepper Quilts

Hurry over to Red Pepper Quilts where Rita is hosting a giveaway for a full FQ set of Pooches and Pickups. She'll be drawing the winner on Wed 5/11.

Rita, thank you so much for creating something so fantastic from my fabric. Its always so fun to see your creations and I just adore the quilt. It's simply precious!

Mad zipper skills | Nesting Chairs Pouches

I stumbled across this great shot of these little sweet little zippered pouches by applecyder and was completely inspired to conquer my anxiety over sewing with zippers.  Aren't they darling?!

In her post, applecyder shares links to a few tutorials she's used and the one from Kelby Sews really made the whole concept finally click together. It even shows how to make the tidy little tabs that cover up the zipper ends (aha!!!).

A friend of mine's daughter Hailey (Hi Hales!) uses the term 'mad skills'. Which just makes me giggle. But I have to say, when I sewed up these 2 little zipper pouches, I started feeling all 'mad skill-y'. Look at me sewing zippers! And they're not all munged up and my bag doesn't look like a 2 year old made it!

And for the 2nd project in a row, my seam ripper hasn't made an appearance. I think that's why I was feeling all sassy and mad skill-y when they were done...

I even happened to have a yellow and orange zipper in my stash which were a perfect match to my Nesting Chairs fabric. (The fabric is available in my store here.) The finished size is 7.5" x 8" and they're the perfect size to hold my laptop cables and all the miscellaneous purse goodies that are always floating around at the bottom of my bag. I used some mid-weight interfacing so they have some structure and are really light weight but aren't too bulky.

Next on the skills list: If anyone knows of any tutorials for how to use these little flexiframes clasps (from unhandbag) and be able to cover the hinges, would love it if you'd share :)

Pickup Parking Quilt

Jacquie over at Tall Grass Prairie Studio has done it again. I love Jacquie's style and was super excited to see what she'd create with Pooches and Pickups. I sent her some FQs so she could play with them and show off what she's created. And she's got a full FQ set to giveaway to one of her readers! Head over there to register to win. BUT don't go until you read my gushing post over her quilt and what she's doing with it...

Meet Jacquie's Pickup Parking (from Pooches and Pickups) quilt. Gasp, right? Jacquie is not only a supremely talented lady, I'm just so deeply touched with how generous she is. She created this incredibly fun twin sized quilt that any litte boy would love. And she's donating the quilt to Basics in NYC which is a program that collects quilts for homeless families. It simply makes my heart sing to know Jacquie's quilt is going to a little boy who really needs something special.

Is that not simply one of the cutest things you've ever seen? I love everything about it. The parking spots, the license plate, the quilting!!!

So NOW you can scoot over to Tall Grass Prairie Studio to register to win a FQ set of Pooches and Pickups and read how the quilt came to be. It's such a sweet story.

Jacquie: Thank you so much for taking my fabric and turning it into such an amazing creation and truly kind gift. The quilt is so creative, fun and some little boy is just going to squeal with delight when he gets it. You're simply wonderful!

Pooches and Pickups...Perfectly Portable

The moment I received my first cuttings from Pooches and Pickups, I knew I wanted to make one of these Perfectly Portable Cushions. The cushion pattern by Autum of Creative Little Daisy is simply darling and can be found here at Sew Mama Sew. (And don't you love the name? I've got a thing for alliteration and simply could not wait to type Perfectly Portable Pooches and Pickups Cushion. Tee hee....I adjusted the width of the cushion handle a bit so I could use a whole row of Pooches (cute!) and used a simple black piping for the edges since it was a nice compliment to the stripes in the Big Trucks print. The cushion itself is foam so it's super lightweight and I see a bunch of outdoor picnics and music events in its future.

And even I was able to follow the very clear instructions in Autum's tutorial. (I have some sort of brain block with patterns where I invariable end up sewing something right side out when it's supposed to be wrong side out or something. And then a few minutes of seam ripping with teeth gnashing ensues...) The instructions are super clear with great pictures and I really enjoyed making the cushion. And it has a dreaded zipper! And I sewed said zipper into the cushion. And it actually works! I'm hoping to make a matching Cushion once things settle down here a bit.

The Perfectly Portable Pooches and Pickups Cushion is headed to NY with me for Surtex in a week and a half (gulp!), so you'll likely see it reappear in my booth pics. :)

I've heard that Pooches & Pickups has started to arrive at stores so if you're a retailer who's carrying the line, let me know (you can leave a comment on this post) and I'll add your store name to a list I'm compiling to to post here on the blog.

Wish I had time for a quick nap...

Sitting here in my studio/officethis morning and just wrapped up some work I needed to get done. But before I dive into the next thing on my list, I'm sitting here staring out the window enjoying the Texas sunshine. It's already been really hot here and we're experiencing an unusual cold front and it's a delightful 55 degrees here this morning. It's such a treat!

I'm resisting the urge to take a quick cat nap in the sunshine. :) Then realized I've never shown off my favorite floor pillows. At roughly 30"x30" they're a great size for lounging. I made them years ago from a Kaffe Fassett pattern and really love them. A lion's share of the fabrics are Kaffe's designs. Those blue/green and orange/green Ikat checkerboard are still among of my all time favorites and I'm down to the tiniest little scraps of that left. I should probably hunt some more down...

Well since I can't justify a nap and this work isn't going to do itself, I'm diving back in. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Pooches & Pickups - Burp Cloths

I totally forgot to show these to you guys! As I'm sure you're aware, one of modern quilting's favorite gals, Ashley of Film in the Fridge, recently had her first baby. And he's seriously cute as a bug. Ashley has created some amazing quilts for me since we first met via our blogs a few years ago. And although my sewing skills are somewhat limited, I wanted to make her a little something. So I sewed up this set of burp cloths backed with chenile. I wish I had remembered to note the size but I'm pretty sure they're each roughly the size of a fat quarter or maybe a tad bigger. They were easy and fun to sew and I loved getting to send a little surprise to Ashley and Max.

Nearly ready for Surtex...and look at this adorable diaper bag!

Sorry for the repost. Updating with watermarked diaper bag photos.

Surtex, the big surface and textile design licensing show in NYC starts in just over 2 weeks. And this year, there's no last minute scrambling! My boxes with my signs, samples and printed materials are all taped up and ready to be shipped this week. All that's left to do is to do some portfolio organizing and then it's off to New York for the show 5/15-5/17. I'm beyond excited!

Last year was my first time exhibiting and it was a great show. I made some wonderful contacts and my work was licensed by a few great manufacturers. And I'm really feeling great about showing again this year. Loads and loads of new designs to show and I'm really excited to meet with manufacturers again. Hoping to realize my dream of having my designs on home decor, tabletop goods (dishes!!), wallpaper and baby accessories. So keep your fingers crossed for me! I'll be posting if I can and will be loading pictures on my Facebook page.

Part of getting ready for the show this year included having a few samples made from my fabric to show off how my designs could look in sewn goods. So my pal Cressie over at Sew Envious Designs graciously created an AWESOME diaper bag for me. It's got a bazillion pockets and straps and the cutest little key fob from my selvage. I just adore it. She'll gladly sew you one up from any fabric you'd like. When you visit her, make sure you tell her I sent you :) Thanks so much Cressie!