Fresh Figs

The Pastry Shoppe

For all those of you who have been waiting patiently, it's finally here and ready to ship......In Houston a few months ago we introduced a new product at market... The Pastry Shoppe. We were a bit surprised at how well received it was, after all its just a regular booklet of patterns. However, it happens to feature 6 new patterns for the incredibly popular new cut good from MODA... the Turnover™.

What on earth is a Turnover™ you might ask, come to think of it, do those wonderful folks at MODA ever name anything a non-food item?  Is a Turnover™ a breakfast yummy or a fabric goodie? Well for our purposes, it is definitely a delight of the fabric variety. Turnovers™ are the newest cut good from MODA, a 6" square that has been cut in half on the diagonal... mind you, all by laser so the results are perfect every time! The result is a wonderful little pack of (80) triangles, 2 of each color from the 40 prints in a collection.  And working with them is so much fun I can't even tell you!

Each pattern in the booklet uses either one set of Turnovers™ or two and some extra yardage for the background, borders or sashings. Each pattern is made out on not only our newest upcoming collection, Patisserie, but also the new upcoming Three Sisters line, Aviary. 

Here's a little peak for you of what's inside this tasty Pastry Shoppe.

Cherry Turnovers....

Butterscotch Swirls...

French Vanilla Rounds...

Apricot Morning Bars...

Summer Fruit Squares...

Baker's Sugar Squares...

Next time we'll give you a peak at the Aviary versions....

Talk to you soon.

Gypsy Rose continued....

Speaking of other Gypsy Rose patterns, this is probably the one whose arrival back home [after trunk shows] I am longing for the most....

Inspired by a small wall hanging I saw in one of my favorite Japanese quilting magazines,appliqued by my friend Wilma, this quilt has a soft elegance to it that is exactly what I was hoping to capture when I saw it in my head [we all know that that is not always the case.... many things can go wrong from head to fabric...]

It uses all the pinks, reds, creams and greens from the line [leaving out the lavenders and browns] and to add to the vintage feel of this combination, I used an aged linen as the background. I love the effect that a beautiful grey can add to a collection and wanted to try it with this grouping even though there is no grey in the line itself.

I purchased  regular linen yardage from my local quilt shop but when I got it home it looked a bit too blue/ too cool against the warmth of the colors in Gypsy Rose. So I threw it in a large soup pot filled with hot instant coffee. Over the years of trying to warm up fabrics and bleach out ones that were too bright [this was before I had the privelege of designing my own], I found that I liked the effect and ease of instant coffee better than tea and better than tan RIT dye. Instant coffee holds well, smells good in the kitchen and always has a warm overtone to it. So after a few minutes in a soup pot of very hot coffee, I removed my linen yardage, rinsed it slightly in the sink and placed it in a pot of water mixed with some vinegar [doesn't smell nearly as good as the coffee but helps to set the dye]. I left it in for 15 minutes and then rinsed out the vinegar smell out with warm water. I dipped it back into the coffee mix- this time not for color but for the scent... mostly because I hate even the slight leftover smell of vinegar. I dried the linen in the dryer and was so happy with the slightly warmer, more taupe appearance of the fabric. It was now a perfect match for the soft, light colors of Gypsy Rose. Here are the results. Fun to make with or without the applique. I've even had some customers change the applique altogether or make only 2 vines.... many possibilities....

 

Talk to you soon.

Gypsy Rose Love

Working on this fun little item with my daughter last week made me remember Gypsy Rose....

Gypsy Rose..... I realized the other day amidst a flurry of emails from my customers, that I haven't really talked about the fact that our latest collection hit the shelves in December and is available in quilt shops and online stores everyhere!
Because I designed this during a different season, I never thought of it as a Valentine's line but it feels absolutely perfect for that purpose these days. During the Christmas season, it genuinely felt like it had wonderful holiday potential and after February, I have a feeling you will love it as a fresh, spring time line. Depending on which colors you pair together, it is turning out to be one of my most versatile collections yet.  I can't believe that I haven't doted on it like I have on the others... after all it is my baby just like the rest....

In fact, can I share with you that someone reminded me the other day that this is collection #12 for me! As I was reflecting on the year that has passed and on the things I really want to accomplish and focus on in the upcoming one, a friend encouraged me to remember all that I had already done and to sit in the wonder of it all.
Now if you know me, this is not something that I do very often because I am always working to accomplish the next thing before me. Sitting back and enjoying what I have finished is really hard for me... moment of truth..
So that is when I actually counted the collections... and then I had to recount them because it just didn't make any sense to me that I had already designed that number. It almost felt overwhelming. Now I know of many designers that have come before me for whom that number passed many years ago, but for me it felt largely surreal. And I just wanted to thank you all for journeying with me during those collections, for encouraging me and for supporting me with your compliments and your purchases!  Thank you for coming along on the ride that is my work. I appreciate each and every one of you!  Okay enough deep revelations already, I know  you all would just rather look at pictures....

My favorite little strawberries here,

  

Good enough to eat, or drink as the case might be here....

 A few little stacks of creamy wonder...

 

One of my favorite patterns from this grouping is Chantilly, one pattern with 3 variations on the pattern cover and 3 more  color variations inside. I could have easily made 5 more as it was so hard to narrow it down to just hte 6 that made the pattern. Every color grouping looks good with this design and depending on where you put the lights and darks, completely different quilts emerge each and every time... jsut see for yourself.

                                      

my favorite chartreuse and soft pink version.... quintessential cottage style

 
and the chocolate and roses version... soft and sophisticated



and the perfect quilt for the romantic or the little girl in your life...



there is more Gypsy Rose love... maybe tomorrow.

Talk to you soon.

Happy 2009

Well I know that it is a few days late and that the New Year has technically come and gone but Happy New Year nonetheless!   

Here in the Figueroa neck of the woods, the munchkins have just gone back to school, work has restarted full speed ahead and today is really the first routine day we've had since the second week in December. Mind you, I am not sure exactly how I managed to plan this, but somehow we had concurrent houseguests starting Dec 16 to 3 days ago. Now don't get me wrong, we enjoyed each of them from my sister and her family to my parents to some of our dearest friends, but I am DEFINITELY ready for some organizing, cleaning, planning and throwing out as much as I can find in order to create some ORDER around these here parts! 

Now for those of you who know me a bit better or have listened to my New Year's rantings before, you'll remember how this time of the year makes me yearn for, yes yearn for CREATING ORDER OUT OF CHAOS... very Biblical of me I know, but there is definitely something to that for me!

Now I must admit that I haven't done a lot of actual organizing quite yet, but today I started making LISTS!  I don't know how many of you out there are list makers, but I love making lists, I love crossing things off of lists and I love making new clean lists as things get done on the old lists. There is just something cathartic for me about lists, about neatly printing it all on one clean cream [of course its cream.... :-)] sheet of paper with one of my favorite pens... Okay so now you know that I am secretly, or maybe not so secretly, an obsessive compulsive, neurotic organizer!!  The cat is out of the bag!  I never did understand that idiom by the way....  poor cat...

Anyhow, as a result of some of the first parts of this year's organization around here... WE ARE HAVING A PATTERN INVENTORY SALE. 25% OFF ALL OF OUR CURRENT PATTERNS, FRESH VINTAGE ISSUES, FIG TREE THREADS AND EVEN A FEW OF THE CELL PHONE CUTIES KITS WE HAVE LEFT OVER FROM THE HOLIDAYS GIFT GIVING BONANZA!

The sale is only good through our website www.figtreequilts.com                                                                     

When you have placed your items in the cart, put the promotional code:  figtree into the box and click enter. All of your pattern prices should then change to reflect the discounted price. If your prices don’t change, then you haven’t entered something correctly so don’t continue because your patterns will not be discounted!

**Sale does not include leather handles, books or any patterns still in production like The Pastry Shoppe and Fresh Vintage #11.

***ADD:  THE SALE WAS FOR ONE WEEK [JAN 7-12] AND IS NOW DONE. I HOPE YOU ARE ALL ENJOYING YOUR MULTITUDES OF PATTERNS. ***

On another front, if you are a member of The Quilt Show with Alex and Ricky, come join me as the featured guest in their chat room tonite at 5:00 Pacific Time. Who knows what we will end up "chatting" about...

And here are a few more Paris shots... just because I'm not quite done yet....

Talk to you soon.