Fresh Figs

Little Sneak Peaks

Well we made it through another night without a puppy accident... which of course doesn't mean that we haven't already had 3 this morning... but this too shall pass. Didn't I swear that I was done having babies in the house? Now my words are coming back to bite me in the you know what.

I promised a quick sneak peak. This is a pattern that we are working on for Market release, made from Patisserie. Its a Layer Cake pattern called Rosettes [thanks to the contest winners from a few posts back].

And if you thought I meant the new fabric collection... well, okay here are  few swatches of that as well. I am loving these colors right now... LOVING them. Of course I am like a fickle lover, I LOVE the newest line more each time and I always promise that this time is really different and I love it more than I will every love another line... I lie! If a line comes out the way I visualized it in my head, then I just can't help but gush...

and so I gush.... I think you are going to like this one, I really do!

this plum print that you see a tiny piece of here below is easily my favorite print in the collection and I think I have it in 5 or more colorways!  I am thinking of making a quilt just out of this print although I know that might get a bit boring to the rest of you... it would make my heart sing!  I might add in something else, just maybe.

Talk so you soon.  I have a little announcement to make tomorrow so stay tuned. Nothing major or earth shattering, just something I have been meaning to do for a few weeks!

The Newest Addition to our Family & some catch up...

While we should be prepping like crazy for Market around here, while we should be sleeping, while we should be blogging... well, instead we have been a little distracted by Lucy!  Introducing the newest member of our family.... Lucy. My oldest son turns 11 on wednesday and has been asking for a puppy who he can interact with for over 2 years now [our beloved Emma is 13 years old, blind and while we love her she is not much for interaction unless it involves scratching her belly :-)]. We have been solidly holding out this whole time but given some friendship mishaps lately we decided that he could really use someone who loved him unconditionally all the time.... aside from us!

Needless to say, we had all forgotten the amount of work it takes to have a 12 week old puppy in the house! Need I say more about that!

Other fun updates:

Our magnolias have been blooming in the most unbelievable way the last couple of weeks and I managed to catch a few shots. If I hadn't just done a magnolia inspired quilt last year, I would surely be working on one now

Magnolias with my own little magnolia... couldn't she just climb up in that tree and be a flower... how I do go on ....

Onto studio updates:

We are busily working away on a bunch of new patterns due out in May. Some with Patisserie and some from the upcoming line that we will be debuting at Spring Market in Pittsburgh. We will post a sneak peak of one of the patterns tomorrow morning.... and maybe even a few swatches of the new line... if we get that far today!

A little while back, Jen tagged me in one of those horrid online games of personal information. I hardly ever join in on those things because I can never think of that many interesting things about me that you don't already know and because I always feel bad about passing it on to people [like me] who don't really want to do it!! Buuuut I thought I would work on being a better "joiner" this time around and play along.

So here goes Jen, Seven Randomly Honest Things About Me... except that I am changing the rules... It is going to be Six Randomly Honest Things About Me and I am only going to tag 5 people to pass it on. If you want to change the rules as well... more power to ya!

1.  I love brussels sprouts. LOVE THEM. In fact at our house, they are considered a #1 kind of treat and my kids cry when I don't share my yummy bowl of brussels sprouts with butter and salt.

2.  When I was in high school, I made a scrapbook of Tom Selleck. I was quite in love with Magnum P.I., what can I tell you?

3.  I don't really wear high heel shoes much because my husband is only 2" taller than me and I really don't like being taller that he is. Sometimes when go out on "date night", he wears his cowboy boots which gives him extra height & I can wear something a bit higher.

4.  I LOVE cheesy 80's tv murder mystery shows like JAG, Murder She Wrote and Remington Steele. I TIVO them with abandon and watch them in bulk when I am working. I love to have them on in the background as I work. I don't think I ever just sit and watch tv.... it is that crazy multi tasking thing...

5.  I was engaged once in a long distance relationship when I was 16. He was 24. I was in America. He was in Poland. It didn't last long.

6.  I make my own pickles. Polish pickles are made with salt and dill, no vinegar, so they taste totally different than American pickles. When I was first married my mom gave me the appropriate crock with the appropriate heavy, flat, smooth rock to put on the top of the pickle crock to keep all the pickles tightly packed  during fermentation and not floating to the top. I only use that crock with that rock. I think maybe I could live on homemade pickles and brussels sprouts... well, maybe not.

Well, there you go. More random facts that you now know about me that you probably wish you could just as quickly "unknow" !

And I tag Lissa, Laurie, Brenda, Camille, and Jackie  Ladies if you have already done this... well...I'm sorry, you gotta do it again because if you don't... well, you'll scar me for life!

Okay, enough games. I tell you its another one of those highly productive Mondays around here today... well except for Lucy & her puppy shenanigans!

Talk to  you later.

 

Name Contest Winners

I know its not that time quite yet, but I just couldn't resist these vintage postcard images...

I was planning on sending you all a Monday morning greeting but I just looked up at the clock & realized that it was Monday afternoon... so Monday Afternoon Greetings!  Mondays seem to be like that around here. All three munchkins are in school, the office is buzzing with weekend orders & the gals are busy packing & labeling [remind me one day to tell you about our office's love for the DYMO label maker... it might only be funny to us... 

 

the studio sewing machines are buzzing on new project samples and I am furiously answering emails, blogging, answering phone calls and other business minutia. If all of our days were as efficient as Mondays around here... well lets just say that we would be in better shape when Market rolled around!

I have been promising winners of the naming contest for over a week now and I have to confess that it has been really hard! I have fallen in love with so many of these names, both French and pastry related alike and I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out which ones I just couldn't live without!  

I have narrowed it down to about.... 35 names that I love and really want to use for something... somewhere! Thank Goodness that I don't have 35 new patterns coming out that need naming! 

So, the names that I know I am going to use for sure so far are listed below. If you are the FIRST PERSON TO HAVE NAME THIS NAME, please email me with your mailing address. Many of these names were suggested multiple times so PLEASE start looking through the list from the beginning to see if yours was the first time it was suggested. I would LOVE to send all of you something but that could get a little crazy so I am going to have to stick with the first person for each name.

Creme Fraiche [or Creme Fresh]:  This was actually a winner on our last naming contest in the fall and although a lot of you submitted that name for this contest, the prize will have to go to the winner from last time.

French Kiss

Bon Appetite

Rosettes

Petite Fleurs

Amelia

I have to tell you that many of my favorites that you suggested like Petite Fours, Chantilly, Fig Parfait, Butterscotch Tart, etc, well we have already used them for other patterns and so can't use them again at the moment but I just wanted you to know that we were definitely on the same wavelength!

Book Update

On another front, many of you have been patiently waiting for me to add a link to purchase our newest book. If you look on the right sidebar, you can now find this link and it will take you straight to our shopping cart.

I have more updates but I have to go get Ella from school!

Talk to you soon.

Introducing "Fresh Vintage Sewing" & Craving Pastries

Monday Afternoon Greetings--

I promised the winners of the naming contest by today... as they say the best laid plans... I have worked through half of the comments and have found over  855 names so far!  Needless to say its going to take me a few more days to sort through all of the names and give them each careful consideration. You certainly went to town with the French and Pastry related items!  If nothing else, I am craving French pastries 24/7 and I have an almost uncontrollable desire to sign up for French classes again.  What a beautiful language! I am finding many names that I love, some that are making me laugh and dozens that make me hungry just to read them!

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While we wait for me to process all the wonderful contributions, I thought I might share with you that my new book, Fresh Vintage Sewing, came out this last week [cover shot above; quilt made by the talented Denise of A Graceful Stitch who contributed 2 wonderful projects to the book, see below for link]. 

For those of you who remember, this was the photo shoot this past summer which seemed to involve every room in my home!  Let's just say that poor Eric had lots of house projects that summer and his "Honey Do" Lists never seemed to get smaller as we prepped for the shoot. We shot in our bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the porch, the studio, the office.... it seemed that as usual the boys room was the only one that escaped untouched. One of these days I am going to schedule a special shoot of just their room just so that I am forced to clean, organize and redecorate it. I think they still have tickets of when they went to see DORA Live on their bulletin board... for a little perspective, they are 11 and 8 respectively and haven't watched DORA for at least 4-5 years!

Anyway, I thought I would share a few of my favorite projects from the book. It is a collaborative project with some of my local sewing friends- Denise, Jackie, Janis & Margaret. These gals have been my students, my friends, and my sewing partners for many years. We all met at our local quilt shop many, many years ago and when it came time to work on this book I thought that it would be so much more of a creative adventure if I worked with them instead of on my own. I think we had the most fun naming all the projects!

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Scattered throughout the book there are many inspiration photos of vignettes from my house and studio. This is one of my favorite pages in the whole book... I had hoped it would be the cover but marketing had another idea...sigh

A fun hanger full of pockets for your treasures....

Easily my favorite pin cushion in the book. Way too pretty to put pins into in my humble opinion...

A round quilt just to change things up a bit. We used it as a tablecloth but I have great summer picnic plans for it as soon as it comes back from its whirlwind trunk show schedule...

The book is divided up into 5 groupings based on a color palette and the fabric collection that we worked around for each set of projects. Each grouping starts off with a shot of all those coordinated projects together and then goes on to show pics and directions for each project in the grouping. This is one of my favorite groupings...

Here are more of Jackie's beautiful pincushions. She has been making these beauties for as long as I have known her and she really out did herself for this book. I think she created a total of 13 different pincushion projects plus a few other sachet goodies...

This is definitely the apron I plan on making for myself soon because the one in the book will be "away from home" for so long and I just can't wait for it to return. To be quite honest, I don't usually love waist aprons because they are not the most flattering thing on me, but this one is actually slimming! Janis & Margaret did such a wonderful job with the sewing projects, adding everything from aprons to journals to porch chair seat cushions and everything but the kitchen sink... come to think of it, maybe we have a kitchen sink too... or at least a picture of one!

I just found this wonderful description of the book over at Crafter's Choice, here below. I tell you, I could use some of the "mojo" this copy editor is spreading about my work :-)!

"Vintage aprons, old postcards, candy-colored vases, anything that’s taken on a beautiful patina, this is what inspires Joanna Figueroa when she’s choosing color palettes for her popular Fig Tree Quilts quilt patterns and fabric lines. In Fig Tree Quilts Fresh Vintage Sewing, she shares a treasure trove of unique sewing projects for anyone who loves all things made better by time. Built around five inviting themes (grandma’s kitchen, spring in the country, summer in Paris, the harvest table, English boudoir romance), each suite of projects has quilt at its anchor. From the cozy front porch blossoms quilt to “a place for all those bedroom tidbits,” these home adornments are sure to be cherished as much as your favorite flea market finds."

By the way, Camille... don't you go buying one of these. I am sending you a copy this week since somehow you managed to post about it's release before I did !!

We will have signed copies with our little sticker available on our website in 3 days so if you are interested please check back here on thursday.  thank you!

Talk to you soon.

Giveaway winners...

Well this is a bit later than I had wanted to post but I was working on the most wonderful ad image that you all will get to see soon and I just finished a few minutes ago...

Anyhow, the winners of the contest are:

Rachel  who commented on 3/6 at 4:48

Amber Johnson who commented on 3/8 at 6:59 pm

Emiko who commented on 3/9 at 7:09 am

Candace who commented on 3/10 at 9:03 am

Jenna Dunagan who commented on 3/10 at 6:10 pm

If you are one of these lucky ladies, then please email me at  joanna@figtreequilts.com with your mailing address and we will get your goodies right off to you.  We will send a pattern along with all of the fabric so you can get started right away if you like!

As for the names... wow.... still digesting all of those  and will surely name some winners this weekend

Thanks so much.

Talk to you soon.

Thank you for the abundance of choices!

Well, its right around midnight in these here parts and I am heading off to bed so I thought I would let everyone know that with over 500 comments for the giveaway and naming contest I have quite a few lists to make and think about before I can name the winners!  

I have read every single comment and am so overwhelmed by your generous comments and the hundreds of name possibilities for my future and upcoming projects!  You certainly are a creative bunch!  Thank you so much for helping out the process of naming and for playing along.  I don't do these giveaways that often, but you all have certainly made it a lot of fun this time around!

I will name the giveaway winners by tomorrow night, thursday, and contest winners a few days later.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. I appreciate each and every comment and each name possibility. I can't wait to start sorting through the choices.... and maybe having a little Patisserie snack while I am doing it, of the pastry kind of course...

talk to you soon.

Patisserie has shipped... & it's time for a giveaway!

I love those words... "has shipped"  or the words " is arriving on store shelves" or the phrase " has hit the streets"... need I say more?  There is something about those words that is exhilarating for me as a designer. It is the moment of truth. I have envisioned & designed it. The design team has executed it. The mills have created it. MODA has marketed and sold it. Stores have bought it. I have gushed about loving it. But until now, you haven't gotten to play with it! Until now....

And so here it is and hopefully at a store near you or if not certainly at an online store near your fingertips! 

Even as I was gushing some more about it here for this wonderful gal, I couldn't help but find myself back on those little criss crossing streets...

So here it is... just in case you don't already have your hands on some of these goodies we are having a little giveaway and a name contest all at once. 

We are giving away 1 Jelly Roll™, 1 Honey Bun™, 2 Turnovers™, a complete set of Patisserie patterns & a surprise gift for the winner[s] of the name contest. 

When you leave your comment, please share with me some possible names for my upcoming projects. I can't share the projects quite yet but you all did such a fabulous job with names last time we did this that I am confident you can come up with some again "project sight unseen". 

Use Patisserie as your inspiration and just go for it! Multiple entries for names are just fine but we will only count 1 towards the contest.

We will choose winners next wednesday...

These below are the gorgeous Patisserie pages from the infamous MODA Playbook given out at Market. Can't  you just feel yourself transported??

Thanks for playing along.

Talk to you soon.

Fresh Vintage & Other Fronts

I know I just wrote about this but many of you have emailed me to ask about the cover quilt on our upcoming issue. It is a fun, simple Layer Cake pattern called "Chocolate Pasties" for the scrappy version seen on the cover [this one is done out of our brand new collection Patisserie that is starting to hit store shelves this week and next]. It can also be easily done from your own stash or from yardage as shown in both a butterscotch and a red version on the back cover and inside the issue.

It just arrived from the printer this morning and is starting to ship this afternoon... so if you have pre ordered or are on auto ship you should have  yours soon!Just wanted to let you know that we have changed up the format a bit: added materials list to the back page for ease of access while you are shopping for supplies, added a BOOK REVIEW column [this issue reviews Kaari Meng's newest book HOMESEWN] and a PRODUCT REVIEW column. We have freshened up a few of our favorite vintage graphics and added some splashes of fabric swatches. We love the new feel and think you will find it as inspiring and informative as usual. Oh yeah, and this time around we have a fun recipe for a JELLY ROLL.... the edible kind! "

On Other Fronts

Besides Fresh Vintage going out, a lot is happening around here that we just can't quite share yet. Let's just say that we are organizing and deep cleaning a bit... well, perhaps a lot. And as many of you might remember, we only do that much organizing around here when there is something special happening....  

Also, coming out next week is the special American Patchwork & Quilting bookazine!  A bookazine is a cross between a magazine and a book resembling the shape and size of a magazine, with lots of fabulous projects put together in a format that is heavier gloss paper, higher quality photography and feels more like a soft cover book. They are wonderful to keep around as design resources and sources of inspiration.

Titled: Bags, Pillows & Pincushions, this fun new publication is chalk full of a great variety of projects, many MODA projects in the pages,  including one of our bags [happily on the cover]. Our "Market Bag" adds some simple twists to a standard bag to make it something special. Shown in the issue in 2 colorways both made from our Gypsy Rose collection of fabrics.

Talk to you soon.