Dressed to the nines... or the twelves?

Now we all know that Holly over at Lakehouse Dry Goods is just about as creative a person as you can imagine - and look what she's come up with this time! To celebrate the release of her newest collection "Doll Dresses" she has organized a wonderful blog-a-thon event appropriately named "A Dozen Designer Dolly Dresses". And better yet - it's all for charity. How can a girl pass up an opportunity like that I ask you. Well, she can't!

When I took one look at the pattern, "Playing Dress Up" pattern by Rene'e Plains at Liberty Star, I instantly thought the dress needed some "dressing up" with a peter pan collar and big blue sash and bow. Then of course, being myself and fairly predicible, I felt the need to give the dress some zip with a dash of cherries. I say heck with the poodle skirts and up with yo-yo cherries! Frankly, I wasn't all that thrilled about appliqueing those itsy bitsy circles and found that the extra small Clover yo-yo maker did just the trick. Then the stems - what to do for the stems? A little embroidery floss, a stem stich and a few minutes later the cherries took shape. After that I decided a button would work nicely for the center of the bow to add some extra cuteness... ;)

Join in the fun!

So that everyone can play, I am offering a click-n-print pattern so that everyone can join in.

Download Your Free Pattern

In the hopper...

By the grace of the powers that be, I will have six new patterns coming out this market and I thought I would share some of them with you. Here's a little sneak peak...

JUMPING JACKS - A fun and easy Jelly Roll Quilt

SEA BREEZE

GARDEN GATE

BLOSSOM BAG- A jelly roll friendly tote, plus a flower for fun!

Plus a few more - still in progress of course. What's October without quilting at the last minute, hm? Hope to see some of you at Market and be sure to bring along those dress blocks I know all of you are eager to make, right? I'd love to see them!

There goes another jelly roll...

As it always seems to go, the closer I get to market, the more new ideas for patterns I have. This means that my best laid plans always get tossed to the side for the design d'jour! It makes for exciting (read stressful) times but I must just be one of those better under tight deadlines sort of people. So, when I saw the new Fig Tree "Gypsy Rose" line I tagged it for an appliqued jelly roll bag that has been fluttering around in my design flooded brain for a bit!

I always have a hard time unwrapping jelly rolls. They are just lovely circles of fabric all neat and tidy (unlike everything else in my studio). But alas I tore this one striaight open - well okay, I took a picture first... :)  I can't wait to make this bag and look at that lovely ric-rac! Peach or cream, peach or cream?  I think the peach, but I always end up making changes at the last minute anyway, so why decide now!

It's a newsy sort of day

Well, there's plenty going on that just hasn't seemed to make it into my blog as of late so here's a quick newsy sort of blog posting.

New distributor - I've just been picked up by Checker Distributors and boy am I excited! They are one of the big kahunas in the ol' business of quilting so it's a bit of a milestone for me.

I'm a cover girl! - In the mail a couple of weeks ago I got a lovely package from my publisher, Martingale, with their new 2009 calendar in it. My quilt is on the cover (yes, I know - old news) and so exciting to see it in person. At EE Schenck this weekend I went to seek it out on the shelf, just for the thrill, and lo and behold it was sold out. I was pretty close to doing the snoopy dance in the aisle but managed to regain my composure before that humiliating experience took place.

In other fronts, I just put the last little tinsy stitch on the Sea Breeze applique border, which I ended up sewing by hand. For some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to machine applique it. Most of the time my applique projects speak to me... "Machine for me!" or "Just sit and sew me by hand please!" and this time the handwork won out. It was great for traveling this last weekend and am ready to sew on this last border panel tonight. Woo-hoo! Another pattern just about ready - okay, minus quilting and binding the thing - but I won't dwell on that right now... :)

All dolled up...

WHEW! What a weekend! I spent the weekend at the E.E. Schenck trends show where I was invited to teach a class using my new Blossom Bag pattern. We had a great time - got a little rowdy even - and spend the weekend helping out at the demo booth showing people some applique tips and tricks.

Here is a sneak peak at another new Jelly Roll pattern called "Jumping Jacks" using the beautiful new Moda fabric from Fig Tree Quilts - Fig & Plum. As you can see, it's all quilted up and ready to bind! Finally some progress towards pattern completion (insert a huge *SIGH* of relief).

{ Jumping Jacks }

In other sneak peaks you'll notice the pretty icon in the right column over there - we have lots of treats coming up for a special blog event being hosted by Holly over at Lakehouse Dry Goods to celebrate the launch of her new Doll Dresses collection. Keep an eye out for some fun and fabulous desinger projects in the next couple of weeks!

Starch and press, starch and press

Here's another sneak peak for you! This is a new pattern in progress called Sea Breeze. Some of you may remember a similar quilt from my newsletter - I promise it's coming back soon! - well this is a variation on the design with more bells and whistles!

{ Sea Breeze }

As you can see, I've taken hold of this whole freezer paper and starch applique method and will be attempting to stitch this by machine tonight. Truth be told I would love to sit down with this and stitch it all up by hand but there just aren't enough hours between now and market to make it work. So unless my sewing machine and I have a major falling out it's machine stitching for me!