A really, really special (to me) quilt - and a store update!

It's nearly time for Thanksgiving! For me, in addition to celebrating with loved ones, its a time of the year to reflect on all of the wonderful things that have happened and to give thanks for all the experiences I've had and for the amazing people I am blessed to have in my life.

When I started designing fabric in 2008, I had no idea where my path would take me. And that felt uncertain and scary. As someone who has always followed a plan, jumping in and just seeing what path I could create was a real struggle. It was hard to just let go a bit and see what would happen. Since I began licensing some of my designs to Robert Kaufman in 2009, I have been fortunate enough to license 19 collections between 2010 and 2013. Absolutely blows my mind when I think about it. I still can't really believe I've been given that opportunity.

I still earn a lion's share of my income from marketing consulting (which is my professional background) but fabric design continues to be a wonderful creative outlet for me that I'm incredibly thankful for. I wasn't quite as prolific with my designs this last year but still worked on new collections whenever my creative juices started flowing and kept submitting designs for approval. Many were rejected (just the way the cookie crumbles). But I'm delighted to share that one collection that's very special to me was accepted and Robert Kaufman plans on releasing it in April '15. (YAY!!! I'll post sneak peeks early next year as things solidify.)

One of the things I wanted to do for myself to commemorate an amazing first few years in fabric design, was to make myself a quilt that featured every single one of the fabrics I designed for RK. After much hunting for the perfect pattern to use, I came across the Ring Toss pattern by Sew Crafty Jess. Each of the 19 colored rings  includes fabrics from one of my collections. And the low volume prints around the rings are from other favorite collections by other designers.

 
You'll notice that there's one ghost block with a white ring? I decided that instead of waiting to make the quilt until my 20th collection released, I would leave that one blank as a reminder to myself that even in times of low creativity, that a blank canvas (or computer screen in my case) doesn't have to be scary. It can simply be a starting place for a new ideas and a placeholder to continue to inspire me to keep designing and keep dreaming.

I printed a special label (which I pieced into the back) and made a block with selvages from my collections. 

 

I hope I didn't bore you to death with the loooong story about my quilt but I wanted to share it with you. :) Happiest of holidays everyone!

p.s. In other design news, you may remember the new panels I added to the store a while ago? Among the new holiday pillow panels, I also released the Make it Sew (Star Trek inspired) designs. This morning I just added 2 new small panels to the store. Perfectly sized to make zippered pouches or to frame in a 10" embroidery hoop.

Make it Sew and Holiday Pillow Panels - NEW

This year has been an absolute whirlwind (in a really good way), but how can it already be October!?
And its been so very long since I've designed anything new for the store, but that's been rectified!

There are 6 new panels in the store, (YAY!!) and I hope you really love them. I know a few folks have been buying the holiday panels every year and its so much fun for me to see your pictures of your collections growing. (Speaking of pictures, I've been lousy about posting on my blog, but am fairly active on IG, so come find me there - lauriewis).

All of the panels are listed in my store and the first orders will begin shipping early in the 2nd week of October.

Moose

Giraffe 

My Holiday Llama got a new polka dot scarf

And 3 more everyday panels which just make me smile. Hope they bring you a giggle too.

Raccoon

And for my fellow Star Trek fans, a "Make it Sew" dog and cat

 

One note: When I printed the test panels for the Make It Sew panels, I put the text too close to the top so once you put the pillow form in the cover, the text is kind of hard to see. So I've moved the text down about an inch and a half for readability. So glad I only printed 1 for the sample covers and the rest are being printed (with the corrected placement!) as we speak. So yours will be perfect :)

In other sewing news, I've finished off a few quilts this year that I would love to post about. And I've been dabbling with a few pieces of apparel which has been really fun. Just need to carve out some time for a few pictures. And hopefully it wont be months before my next post! Hope you are all doing well and that you had a wonderful summer and that your fall is off to a great start.

Happy pillow panel shopping!
xo
--laurie

Winner winner chicken dinner

Thanks so much for all of your sweet comments about my quilt. It was a fun one to make and I love the way it turned out. Sounds like everyone has some great summer sewing projects under way. Can't wait to get started on my next quilt here as well!

Via random number generator, the winner was #113 - GranChris. Hope you love 10 square of Botanics Chris and that you love sewing with Carolyn's lovely fabrics as much as I did!

I promise to try not to be such a stranger here! Happy summer sewing everyone~

For the love of Architextures and Botanics - And a giveaway!

I know everyone has a design crush. And I have one on Carolyn Friedlander. I've been hoarding my stash of Architextures and Botanics, as well as a healthy bunch of Robert Kaufman's Yard Dyed Essex Linen and waiting for the perfect quilt design to come to me. And it finally did.

Made this lovely a few weeks ago for a special someone and am absolutely delighted with how it turned out. And the stripey bottom of the quilt just seemed like the perfect finish.

Pre-quilting

The lovely ladies at Over the Top Quilting quilted it for me with big loops and I have to say I am simply in love with the way it turned out.

I love Carolyn's color choices and her designs are simply just so delicious, aren't they? And to top it off, she's simply a genuinely really nice lady that I really admire. It's been such a treat to get to work with her designs. And she has a new book coming in a few short weeks, Savor Each Stitch, that I can't wait to get my hands on!

I can hardly believe that its been so many months since I've posted here!! Been busy with other projects, but have been working to make more time to design new fabric patterns of my own and to find time to enjoy some sewing. There just never seem to be enough hours in the day and I'm finding that the creative side of my brain has been slow to turn on these days. That means it can be hard to design some days, so am finding that for me, its just better to wait until inspiration strikes. Lately my mind has just been on other wonderful things!! But I have been able to sit down and design a few new fabric designs lately that I'm pretty excited about. And that feels really great! Hopefully I'll have some new collections soon. Cross your fingers for me? :)

Back to my design crush!! My fabulous family at Robert Kaufman provided me with a 10 square of Botanics to share with you! Just leave me a comment here before EOD next Wednesday 6/4. Would love to hear what's inspiring you these days or what your summer sewing plans are!

Oh, and a little birdie at Robert Kaufman let me in on the news that they are reprinting a few of the prints from Architextures, so get ready to stock up on ledger (AFR13501-2 and (AFR13501-184) and the text (AFR-13502-15  and AFR-13502-12). They start shipping next month!! Make some room in your stash :)

Fiona admiring the quilting and perfecting her photo bomb techniques

Book and fabric giveaway at Spoonflower!

First...How can it be that two months have passed since my last post?!? I think I've been using Instagram a bunch! (I'm lauriewis over there...)

And second and more importantly, the team over at Spoonflower is giving away a copy of my first book, Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design! Hop over there to enter to win.

As part of their giveaway, they asked me to curate a bundle of 10 fabrics and they're including the bundle along with my book. Needless to say, it took me hours of pleasurably spent time to narrow my selection to just 10. So many amazing designs from so many talented designers to choose from!

Oh, and the bundle will also available for purchase in the Spoonflower Marketplace. Can't wait to order this bundle of loveliness!

I've been working on some new fabric designs here (yay!) and trying to squeeze in more time for sewing. I'll have to find the perfect project for these 10 lovely fat quarters. The Spoonflower giveaway goes through February 18, so make sure you visit their blog and enter to win. 

Wishing everyone a love-filled Valentine's day!