Poking my head out... or in....

Yes, its that time of the year again. The time when all us designer type folks seem to disappear into our caves and come out only for food and water!, or maybe coffee or soda! I realized the other day that I hadn't been on twitter or the web, a place that is sometimes my only interaction with the outside world other than my family, for 5 days! Not a good sign for keeping up with the world, good sign for getting work done and meeting all my deadlines.

We are almost done designing over here in this particular Northern California cave although we are still waiting for our advance yardage to arrive so the sewing insanity is yet to start! We are hoping for sometime next week. As usual, we're cutting it pretty close but that's just how we roll around here!

BTW, Total Tangent....

Speaking of how we roll, that is a phrase our kids like to use with their friends on a regular basis. When I walked into Old Navy the other day and saw this t-shirt,

I thought I was going to die laughing! Our middle son.... well, let's just say that he really enjoys his bathroom time with his latest copy of Ranger Rick magazine and leave it at that. There was no way I could pass up on the shirt and got 2 just in case! Couldn't help but share that with you all. Hope its not TMI!!

 

Anyway..... since we don't have our new yardage yet, we decided that some of the projects would just have to be made with what we had. Really that is my favorite way to go anyway- working with as many different colors from different collections. It reminds me how much I like to mix and match fabrics! For me it is so much more fun than working with just one.

When we laid out the fabrics for one scrappy project on the floor.... it just looked too yummy not to photo. So here's the little rainbow of Fig Tree yummies going into one of the new quilts for Market.

 

 

 

Now if that doesn't make you want to sew... I don't know what will! 

 

On other fronts:

Strawberry Fields

For all those of you who have been patiently waiting for the Strawberry Fields fabrics to arrive, precuts are in stores now and yardage is coming soon in May! So you don't have too much longer to wait! We will have a limited quantity of several of the items so let us know if you can't find something in all those great stores out there.

Unfortunately, our red and white "Kiss Me" kits sold out in one day! We figured with the amount that we made it would have lasted at least a couple of weeks but we clearly underestimated you guys!

We will also have a very small kit quantity available for both the multicolored jelly roll version of "Kiss Me" and the "Chintz" quilt. We have already started a pre order list for both of those those so email us if you are interested.

 

Contracts

I have signed a fabulous contract that I am very excited to share with you! As soon as I get the green light to do so, I will. It will mean that I will be in that design cave ALOT more in the upcoming months. But, oh well, its a good thing I like my coffee.

 

Talk to you as soon as I have more to share.

 

 

 

I love Spring

I have lots of things to share this week but at the moment all I can muster is to show you the happiness on my dining room table.

Love Spring.

I'll be back soon.

 

 

Houston Here We Come

I'm sitting at the airport right now waiting for a delayed flight to Houston. Quilt Market will be underway within days and then before you know it- all this waiting and working and sewing and tweeting and formatting and drawing and photoshopping and designing will all be over and we'll be home again.

I never feel quite ready when it all starts and I can never believe that its all over when it is. And this is easily the 14th or 15th time I am doing this. You'd think I would be "in the groove" of things more after all that practice. But... NO!

 

Anyway, in the coming days I will be showing you our newest goodies, one by one and also sharing a few extra special kits that we have available from our show last week at Pacific International Quilt Festival. We will only have a few of each and shipping will be free if ordered the first day, regular shipping any day after that [if there are any kits left on the second day]. So stayed tuned both for our fun sneak peeks as well as our limited kit offers..

Before I get on my flight, I thought I might share a few swatches of the new collection with you. It is called.... BUTTERCUP. It is our new Spring line that we will be showing in Houston and will be out in stores in February, 2011. 

More later.....

Talk to you soon.

Junk Bonanza... could have moved in!

  

Besides teaching and meeting up with all the wonderful women from the previous post, the thing I was most excited to do while teaching at the Creative Connection was to attend the Junk Bonanza. It was a fair that I had heard about in the pages of the Country Living magazine for years and it surely did not disappoint. The vendors brought a wonderful mix of flea market finds and accessories/art made with "junk" and old stuff. I really could have moved right in. Really. And was seriously mourning the fact that I didn't have a truck to transport all the treasures I would have acquired had I driven one!

... Bingo cards seem to be really in. I even got some ideas from them and purchased a few fun ones.

... the largest onions I have ever encountered were available for sale in the outside farm stand.

... I am a sucker for old books, typography or anything related to old books. Loved this display!

... loved the texture of these.

      

... and this was my piece de resistance! I wanted this cubby table so badly. I came back to look at it like 17 1/2 times! I could visualize where it would go, what I would put in it, what I would put on top it & how I would decorate it. Sadly, it would not fit into my luggage. Isn't it just so beautiful?

More goodies later. Talk to you soon.

Let the Games Begin

All I can say is Oh My Goodness! That was quite a nice little group of you all who commented on the giveaway. As of this morning I am officially closing it down for comments because, you know, well, enough is enough already don't you think? I guess I will have to do these more often than I normally do!

I will post the winner... or I think winners :-) on Monday morning. Mostly I need until then to finish reading all of the comments. You guys are much faster at writing them than I am at reading them and I really do want to read each and every single one. 

... a shot from the office re org mentioned below 

I have to tell you that reading these so far has made me laugh, chuckle, cry and fall deep into thought. I am SO envious of all of you who wrote that you are canning! I want to be canning right now in the biggest way. My biggest problem... nothing to can since we didn't do much in the garden this year and perhaps more importantly, little to no skill in canning. So for all of you canners out there... if you have any that you are just dieing to get rid of, well I could definitely find a home for them right here in the Fig kitchen. Really, I could... LOL!

I have cried with those of you who have experienced such loss and sadness this year, prayed with those of you who are waiting for loved ones to return from war, jumped for joy with those of you who are expecting, have new ones or are about to get married in the coming weeks and days! I have wanted to see your remodels and re orgs this summer, wanted to visit your overflowing gardens, sew with the grandmas, tickle the toes of the new ones. Oh my goodness, I am feeling sappy now!

I just want to thank you all so much for sharing a little snippet of your lives with me, whether joyful or sad, wistful or full of activity. It helped me to process our own days around here as everyone left for school and fall routines started. 

 

... do you all remember these shots from last year? Look at how much older they look this time around? How did that happen exactly?

You motivated me to finish up my office clean up as the guest bed left and we made room for another desk from downstairs. 

 

 

 
 ... As you can see, my favorite things to organize with are pretty folders, inspiration boards and trays with cubbies. Vintage and functional at the same time. My other favorite tip: Remember to give your desk a little height with something so that you can organize more things and give the whole desk more dimension.

Organizing is one of my absolute favorite things to do, especially while I am thinking and all of your comments, if nothing else, definitely made me think. A lot.  

Thank you for sharing your lives with me just a bit. So grateful to be doing what I am doing and that it brightens some of your lives and brings a little color into all of our days!

 

Talk to you soon.

Paris: are we done yet?

When I daydream of France, I think of little window scenes like this one here below. I really can't put my finger on what it is about this that is so "French" feeling for me, but it just is. I don't know why. 

Whereas some of my favorite pictures of Paris are grey and neutral and soft and old and vintage looking, Paris is also all about color. Its everywhere you look really, in every nook and cranny as they say.

 

... like in the windows

 

... or in the scarves in a store

 

... or in the jam jars at the Bon Marche department and grocery store

 

... or in the flower market

 

 

... even at night, the streets and cafes of Paris seem to be aglow in color

 

 

... the store shelves are lined with wonderful colors. This one happens to be one of my favorite French reproduction stores, Comptoir de Famille

 

... boutiques filled with colorful prints.

 

... and of course, it wouldn't be complete without the amazing color of the Patisseries [for those of you who are recent followers of my blog, after one of my first trips to Paris, I was inspired to design an entire fabric collection based on the colors that I saw in the Parisian Patisseries, bakeries. It was called Patisserie. The blog posts about that trip are here.

 

 

 

... more scarves twisted up into rolls. Parisian women are really, really into scarves of every kind and variety!

 

And so my head is spinning with colors and with neutrals and I couldn't possibly ever get them all onto fabric. That's a shame I think. Wouldn't Paris be wonderful as a fabric collection? I mean the real colors and feel of Paris. Maybe one day I will capture it.

 

Talk to you soon.