Fresh Vintage is here again!

 

I'm popping out of my little hole [sounds kinda like GroundHog day, doesn't it?] to let you know that our latest Fresh Vintage issue has started to ship out! Finally. Its a great issue chalk full of fun stuff. All auto shipments have gone out already [along with your free pattern!] so expect yours anytime. 

The main project is such a great, simple quilt and although I know my friend Camille makes fun of me every time I say that something is simple, this really is! All you need is 2 charm packs of your favorite collection [hint, hint: Breakfast at Tiffany's has just hit the stores and is available everywhere right not!], some cream background and an alternate fabric.... That's it! Now how can you go wrong I ask you?

 

October Ties

And if that doesn't suit your fancy, we have added in this fun, quick Halloween Wall Hanging or in our case, a door hanger. AT 18" x 18", you can finish it in an afternoon and have something for the rest of the fall. Over the last couple of years I have completely fallen in love with silhouette art, in every form. I have jewelry with it, small artwork, I collect vintage pieces of it, love the children's silhouettes, cutouts.... you name it, I love it! I think it is especially appropriate in October as the black silhouette stands out so strongly and makes you think of Halloween and fall decorating. Don't you think? 

If you are local and joining us for PIQF next week, we have kitting this little guy up so you can come and get your own exactly like this one. Oh, we also have October Ties kitted, along with a hundred other things. But that's for another post that I will get done this weekend. 

If you want your own copy of this Fresh Vintage #17, go here.

Hope you are all enjoying your fall. I am trying to finish up all of my design deadlines so I can start sharing all the newest lovelies with you all. Stay tuned as I am nearing the finish line!

 

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.

Happy Easter to All

I could have loaded in about a hundred of these vintage images but I thought that perhaps your fingers might get tired of scrolling. There is just something that makes me smile about these vintage Easter postcards every time. The illustrations, the humor, the creaivity... I wonder why we don't work like this today?

    

Every single one of them inspires me to go and sew and to design. Not sure I will get a chance to do that in the midst of tomorrow's festivities. But...

I will definitely eat eggs. 

Have an egg hunt. 

Dress kids in their finest. 

Go to church. 

Have ham... or rather in our Polish tradition, have a delicious pork loin. 

Reflect on why we celebrate Easter & be very grateful for my life.

Sneak chocolate eggs. Even though I am supposed to be "eating healthy"

Make traditional Polish potato salad for hours. What am i saying, we have already been cutting & chopping veggies for that since yesterday. 

Take pictures of my kids. Lots and lots of pictures.

Pray for sun instead of the rain that is forecasted.

Start the Easter meal with the small bits of food items that we took to the Polish church today to have blessed. See this post for the description of this long passed down tradition in our family.

Make Easter crafts with Ella. More crafts that is. We have enough to hand out to the whole neighborhood already. I have a feeling we will be making more. Just a guess!

 

 

Wishing you all the best of days and happiest of Easters.

Talk to you soon.
  

Fun Stuff

We have had lots of fun things going on lately and I keep forgetting to share them. I don't know, sometimes it just feels a little too much about me, me , me. Oh yeah, this is a blog about me :-).... so here goes with a warning: there's a lot about me coming up, read at your own risk!

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Where Women Create: Book of Inspiration

 

Several of you have already mentioned the early release of this latest wonder by the great Jo Packham [of Where Women Create magazine and book fame] and Jenny Doh [former editor of the Stampington family of magazines and bookazines]. This is a wonderful addition to any creative woman's book library [I just did a book review on it in my latest issue of Fresh Vintage #15 which will be up on our site any day now].

 

 

 

I would be gushing about this book whether or not I was involved in it. It just feels like icing on the cake that I got to be one of the features. Artists featured are of every type and variety from jewelry, to textile to paper to collage to photography, each offering a bit of insight about their own journey, what inspires them and various tips along the way. Available now all over I think, but for sure at Amazon.

 

 

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Interview

 

Did a really fun interview with the folks at EQ. I love that program and the more I learn about it, the more I enjoy using it. Many times the deadlines come so fast that being able to electronically create a quilt ahead of time is the only way to go around here. EQ makes that possible. But beware... it can get a little addicting.

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

The Quiltmakers

 

Now there is a title for you, huh? I was happy to be asked to be a part of this compilation book by the wonderful British publishing house, David & Charles. When I saw that I was profiled alongside Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries and Marsha McCloskey, I was even more honored. This is definitely more of a traditional quilting book with 8 chapters based around the work and style of 8 different worldwide quilting personalities. Joining the US designers are several from England, Australia and Europe. There is a little something in it for everyone I think since the styles of artists shown are so very different.

 

Just a few shots of our project for the book. My favorite thing about this pattern.... the secondary brown stars that are created around the outer borders of the quilt. A great way to make a standard hexagon pattern, something a bit more interesting.

 

 

 

   

Okay, enough about me. Seriously.

Talk to you soon.

 

Love me some vintage....

As many of you are quite aware I'm sure, I love, love vintage images. Did I mention that I love them? The character of them, the saturated colors of the old advertising posters, the canning labels, the postcards. I just can't get enough of the fact that back then, not much was pastel or muted or dark. Most art or I guess advertising to be more precise, was bright and colorful and had a certain personality. I just love the imagination of it all! 

Well we try to bring those images into our work whenever possible so when it came time to do a little freshening up on our website, I started playing with vintage images. And I played for a long time. I must admit I get a bit lost when I go looking through those I have physically in my studio, those I have in electronic files and then don't even get me started on those that i go trolling for on the web.... talk about a world that I could get lost in!

I had to pick just a few favorites because, well I did want to feature some of my own stuff here and there LOL....

Just look at those colors...

And those sweet little birds....

 

And who could resist buying whatever on earth these three little girls were selling. I mean, come on!

Well after playing for much longer than i will ever admit to, I finally came up with a few new pages that will be going up on our site in the next couple of days...

 

  

And

 

They're not quite linked to anything yet.. just goodies to look at.

You'll also notice a few swatches here and there [ a couple in the new blog header, what do you think?] that you might not recognize. Not saying yet, but I am sure you can guess where those are coming from...

Talk to you soon.

Oh, and look I am starting to use categories. I know, so very novel of me. does anyone know if I can/should go back and start attaching categories to old posts or just start from here?  Any help would be appreciated as we have all established that I do all of this electronic stuff totally by the seat of my pants!!