Quilt Market Houston

Finally... photos from my Michael Miller booth space at Quilt Market! I truly am ready to drop into bed and catch up on about three weeks of sleep in one night before I head back to work and reality tomorrow, but here are some photos of my little corner of Market.

There's definitely lots more to post about when I'm more coherent and my brain's not mush!

(update: click here to read More on Quilt Market 2011)

Ta da!

Setting up

Itty bitty fish in a big, big sea 

and some close ups....

Busy Weekend

Well, another weekend is almost over and I made a lot of progress preparing for market (including 5 hours of just ironing fabric, no exaggeration). Thank goodness I have family coming into town next week when my boy's collection fabrics come in so they can help iron while I'm at work!

I had so much fun sewing up some cute little girl's dresses from a PinkPoodleBows pattern with ruffles, which totally inspired me to make a bunch of other stuff with ruffles including some sweet girly pillows.

I'm dying to show you more, but this will have to do for now... :)

So much to do, so little time...

With Quilt Market two weeks away and a brand new delivery of my first batch of fabrics just yesterday, I'm feeling very blessed, but oh so stressed! I can hardly contain my excitement as I prepare my samples for my booth space. A big thanks to Michael Miller for giving me the creative freedom to do so, and to Spoonflower for providing the initial inspiration and opportunity as well as behind the scenes support. I feel like a lucky girl indeed.

I had hoped to publish more posts on all the Halloween ideas rattling around in my head, but you will have to settle for me rambling about my preparations and experience leading up to and of Quilt Market. I hope it's half as interesting to you as it is exciting for me! :)

I'm exhausted tonight, but I leave you with one of the most rewarding parts of this experience so far... designing my very own selvage logos.

Halloween Part 2 - Fun Spoonflower Fabrics

I thought I would highlight some really great Halloween fabrics from Spoonflower, these are a few of my favorites!

Clock-wise from top left:

1. Halloween Mixer 2 by Heidi Kenney, the master of cut paper designs.
2. Spooky Balloons by Puncezilla, spooky but sweet
3. Mummy Fabric by Bora, queen of cuteness
4. Spidery Web - Halloween by Voodoorabbit, spiderwebs are a gotta' have
5. Lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely by Vo (Virginia Odien), one of my all time faves!
6. Vampies by Jadegordon, these little guys crack me up.

Tutorial - Sweet Owlie Softie

I'd been getting requests for my owl pattern after posting pics on Flickr, and I thought, well why not? So after starting and then putting it aside for a few months, I finally finished this pattern & tutorial pdf. He really is a cutie, and not very difficult at all to make. I think he's best with a super soft cuddly belly and wings, but really, you can use any kind of fabric you prefer.... Enjoy!

Downloadable pdf here.   (This link will take you to Google Docs, simply click on the word "file" in the top left corner, then choose "download" from the drop down menu. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions! :)

Pattern Review - New Look 6913

This past weekend, instead of working on my new calendar designs and about a million other things I actually needed to do, I decided to try my hand at sewing something from an actual pattern. I've been collecting them for awhile now, but finally realized they were just going to continue to pile up until I just jumped in and made one... so I did!

I thought this shirt was a super cute pattern (I'm such a sucker for cap sleeves), and I had some silky fabric in my stash already, so I went for it.

http://www.simplicity.com/p-3099-misses-tops.aspx

It was a bit more difficult than I'd thought, what with the slippery fabric that pressing had no effect on whatsoever!! But I learned a lot of basic stuff, like the difference between easing and gathering, what stay stitching is and how important it is to cut out all the alignment notches. I also ended up bringing the side seams in a bit, it's quite empowering to stray from the pattern and still have it come out alright. And I must say, I'm quite proud of the finished neckline, that quarter inch binding caused me more than a few gray hairs, I honestly don't know how it came out so even!

I'd love to make this shirt again with fabric that isn't quite as shiny, and with a more subtle print. Or maybe a solid, I think the stitching and construction is interesting enough to hold it's own. But all in all, I'm not only happy with how it came out but ecstatic that I finished a project! That's one less "half-done" to feel guilty about not finishing, and totally gives me the confidence to start a new pattern! 

Like one of these three amazing dresses:

classy and sweet

edgy and cool

Macaron dress by Colette Patterns.
Sample shown here was sewn by persephassa.

It's a tough choice, which do you think?