Fresh Figs

The Quilt Show

Well, I'm on the road again. At the moment I am in the Antlers Hilton
in Colorado Springs with the most beautiful view out of my window of all of downtown Colorado Springs.... In fact the scenery around here is just breathtaking!

And why am I here you might ask? Well, I am actually on my way home from a little town in Southern Colorado, called La Veta [my husband has been calling it Velveeta for days now, so I can't even write the name of the town without chuckling]
What was I doing in the desert of Southern Colorado you might ask? Well, I had the privilege of taping an episode of The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims! It was a wonderful experience and I have many more pictures & info to share.... as soon as I get home and download the camera. Until then, here is a little shot of the front of Ricky Tim's studio & The Quilt Show logos. Back soon with much more exciting shots.... some fun pics with Alex herself and the crazy Miss Gina...


Talk to you all soon.

Aloutte

[This little shot is one of my current favorites studio nooks & crannies. I was sending a few shots over to some clients and I thought I would share this little corner with you all... isn't she sweet?]

Well its Spring Break.... a whole week of it! You know I remember when Spring Break used to be this glorious thing that we looked forward to with baited breath... well, I have to admit that it feels a bit different on this side of it all. Its hard not to look at that week and find yourself thinking... what on earth are we going to do with them all home this week with all of the deadlines that I have that just won't seem to go away??

Now don't get me wrong, I really love spending time with my munchkins. They are the brightness of each of my days. And yet somehow the thought of having them all on my head and crawling around my studio all week saying things like "what can I do now?", "I'm bored", "Mama, he hit me again!", "Can I play the DS?", "Make Ella leave me alone,"... should I go on? You get the picture... God bless each and every one of them.

And so to forestall this situation, we have farmed out the boys to my parents for a few days... on their own, on a plane, to Southern California... Tearful to let them go, but a great idea nonetheless. They were so excited, they could barely sit still. No second thoughts, not really. We'll see what the report is when they return... So far so good!

On the design front, I have a few shots of a quilt I just sent off to an Australion magazine. I love the way the simple, fresh way that it turned out. They had fallen in love with BirdSong and that made me think Spring feeling, French feeling, soft & creamy. After a sketchbook full of drawings, Aloutte was born. Lately, I haven't been feeling that attached to many of my projects and have been ready to send them off when finished. But it was hard to send Aloutte off all the way to the other end of the world... I had really grown attached to her. I pictured exactly where she could go with all of my other bird, nest and Spring goodies. Oh well, I guess it will have to join that little vignette next Spring!

I think I am going to use some of these images, especially the fleur de lis, in my next applique quilt... in fact that one is already on its way to being worked on so stay tuned... Think French. Think Paris. Think Fresh Vintage.

Talk to you soon.

Country Living Inspirations

Happy Monday morning Ladies-

I am just back from a late night flight from Chicago where I was priviledged to be a part of something really inspiring, the Country Living Women's Entrepreneur's Event. I just have to share with you that there is something electric about having 600 women entrepreneurs in one ballroom together at the same time! There is something so powerful about that much creative, female drive and energy. I don't know how else to describe it but AMAZING!

Our main speaker was Anna Griffin, a designer who is now licensed in 26 different mediums including our personal favorite, fabric, scrapbooking papers, stationary, home office, gift items, Lenox china and more. She shared with us wonderful stories of how she started out, challenges and sacrifices she has had to make along the way and insights that she has learned along her journey. She was genuine and real, in fact nervous to talk in front of all of us, which only made her that much more accessible. Other panelists included many women with a variety of inspiring stories of their own, you can go see all of them here... I was particularly inspired by the work of a few of the women, Mia Galeson of eeboo, Whitney English and Polly Wilson of Barn Dandy's. Here are a few shots of some of their wonderful products...

On a more personal note, I had the fortuitous opportunity to hook up with and get to know a group of wonderful women on a more personal level. We enjoyed lunch, shopping, chocolate and a lot of industry talk- what more could a gal ask for! Thank you ladies for a wonderful day that was equally as inspiring as the previous day full of speakers. I found all of your honesty and openness a wonderful treat and a gift for me. I think as designers we often live a pretty solitary life in our studios, surrounded by our art which does speak to us but not quite in the same human way as the company of other creative women, Heather Jennifer, Paula Bari and Anita.

A special thank you to Heather [we of course all know this wonderful designer from her charming and beautiful blog ] and Paula & Jennifer [talented stationary & gift designers with a wonderful design aesthetic of their own] for sharing yourselves, your insights and your advice. I was really blessed by each of you, your work and your businesses.

Talk to you soon.

Rhythms of Life

Well I apologize for the absence... Life has taken over. The Piles have taken over. The Patterns have taken over.

I wanted to thank all of you emailed your concerns and prayers for our family. My mother-in-law is doing much better and even though she is still in the hospital going on week 4 now, things are slowly starting to look better. Unfortunately, I know way more about acute leukemia than I ever hoped I would.

In the midst of all this personal stuff, I managed to send off my newest line of fabric, Fig & Plum. I am going to totally sneak in a little piece of one of my favorites here.... although it is still so totally in production, we don't even have final strikeoffs yet. I am sure that MODA will pull off a miracle as they always do and everything will be ready and gorgeous and where it needs to be on time! I really love working with such an amazing company- thanks ladies if any of you are reading!!

Oh... and 3 days ago I finally sent off the manuscript and the projects for our next book with That Patchwork Place. I am very excited about the goodies that are in this book and hope to share some sneaks with you soon.... can't yet though.

In the midst of all of this personal and business stuff crashing down all at once, we started to realize that we had lost many of the rhythms of our lives. Those seemingly insignificant rituals and routines that make up our days and our weeks... they had just dissapeared somewhere in the activity of it all. That's not good. We need them back even if just some of them...

So this week has been about trying to start re establishing those routines, even one by one. Eric and I took a walk around the neighborhood in the middle of the day. I don't think we had done that since Ella was an infant! Zachary and I are reading together. In fact, Zachary is reading to everybody, mostly to Ella... now that is the cutest thing you have ever seen. Ella and I are picking flowers together again. You know, those little mixed bouquets of whatever you can find in a garden that has not been tended for at least a year. The jasmine is in full bloom on our country fence and the scent day and night is intoxicating. Each bouquet is filled with jasmine... We have started eating our lunch outside in the garden. It does a soul good to be out in the freshness of Spring. My Magnolia trees are in full bloom and they are magnificent. They have already inspired 2 different quilts as the new line has a beautiful magnolia violet color in it! Oh,the very thought of it makes me want to applique magnolias....

On a different note, I have fallen in love with the new Bari J. bags. I find myself dreaming up fabric combinations for that new Mille Fleur bag with velvets mixed with Fig Tree fabrics.... oh, good enough to eat.

Talk to you soon. Remember, now that I'm back, I have more Paris shots to share. I am working on a line inspired by them in fact.... stay tuned....