The Quilted Fish

Blog Hop....stop here!

 

Welcome, shop hoppers and regular visitors!  There have been a lot of highlights for me this year so far, and a few still to come, but, out of all of those, one that I am most excited for is Riley Blake’s Fabric Fest!!!  If you haven’t heard of Fabric Fest you can click HERE to find out more about it.  Here is what I will be up to at Fabric Fest:

I will be teaching these slippers….

  

They are called Pigs in a Blanket and they are so fun and so so sew easy!  You will want to make some for you and some for your friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters.

And I will be giving a lecture class called Creative Jump Start.  You might be leary about signing up for a lecture class, but I promise we will have a good time!  I have a lot of great things to share with you and we will even talk about some of the tactics and skills I use to get my creative projects started AND finished!

But most importantly, I will be hanging out with YOU!  I can’t wait to see my friends, old and new. 

Here is what I am looking forward to at Fabric Fest:

-sewing

-playing

-jumping on hotel beds

-eating yummy food

-riding in elevators

-sewing

-having someone clean my room while I am not there

-door bell ditching my friends hotel rooms

-playing

-staying up late sewing

-eating while sewing

-Emceeing

-Fashion show!!!

-showgirls

Okay, so not really the showgirls.  Unless we have some sewing showgirls?  That eat?  That sounds pretty awesome.  Sewing, eating showgirls.  Can you imagine?  I am not sure how many people would go to that show.

This is only one stop on the blog hop, as you may know!  But if not, you can see the earlier posts as well as what is coming up soon. Here is the schedule:

Wednesday, June 5

Jina Barney of Riley Blake Designs

 

Thursday, June 6
Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet

 

 Friday, June 7

Elizabeth and Liz Evans of Simply Simon & Co

 

Saturday, June 8

Nancy Zieman/Deanna Springer of Nancy Zieman.com

 

Monday, June 10

Melissa Mortenson of The Polka Dot Chair 

 

Tuesday, June 11

Carolina Moore of Always Expect Moore

 

Wednesday, June 12

Paige Hill of Riley Blake Designs, Jennifer of Tatertots and Jello,

Becky & Kari of U-Create

 

Thursday, June 13

Amanda Herring of The Quilted Fish

 

Friday, June 14

Kim Christopherson & Kris Thurgood of My Girlfriends Quilt Shoppe

 

Saturday, June 15

Bonnie Bailey on Riley Blake Designs

 

 Monday, June 17

Lila Tueller of Lila Tueller Designs

 

Tuesday, June 18

Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter

 

Wednesday, June 19

Lindsay Wilkes of The Cottage Mama

 

Thursday, June 20

Sue Daley of Sue Daley Designs

 

Friday, June 21

Eleanor Burns/ Sue Bouchard of Quilt in a Day

 

Saturday, June 22

Jenny, Natalie, & Sarah of Missouri Star Quilt Company

 

 Monday, June 24

Andrea Goddard of And I Sew

 

Tuesday, June 25

Becky, Brooke, Jamie, Kirsten, & Nikkala of The Crafting Chicks

 

Wednesday, June 26

Deonn Stott of Quiltscapes 

 

 Thursday, June 27

Sandy Workman of Pine Mountain Designs

 

Friday, June 28

Sydney Haglund of Memory Quilt Maker

 

So, just to finish up, let's do a Fabric Fest Giveaway!  Since pre-cuts of Madhuri are completely unavailable on my end of things, I am going to cut you some yardage from my own personal stash.  How about 1/2 yard of 7 pieces??   I will even let you choose which ones you want.  You can see the whole collection HERE.  To enter, you just need to tell me what your very favorite part of staying in a hotel is.  And while you are commenting, let me know if you are coming to Fabric Fest or not!

Madhuri Minis

Today we are sharing design team magic!  Each person on the team is sharing their mini quilt that they made for my market booth.  You will want to stop by and see them all!  Here are some links for you…

Jana

Brooke

Jackie

Candice

Stephanie (who’s mini has had to be kept under wraps as it will soon be in a magazine publication!!!)

Sally

 

I hope you make one of each!!!

Said and done

Market is over.  It is a bittersweet feeling.  The pressure is off but there is a whole year looming in front of the next one that I will exhibit at.  I love the experience, the fun, the work and especially the people.  I have a bunch of pictures, so I thought I would just show you my booth pictures.  Maybe tomorrow I will post more pictures of the fun we had in Portland. 

Here is the booth prior to them putting down the sea of blue carpet. 

I had initially planned to have a giant elephant in the booth, but then they couldn’t get it to me in time.  I was really happy with the way it turned out in the end, but there were some moments of panic when I was starting from scratch AGAIN in April!

We had Glamps and lanterns hanging at the front of the booth. 

One of my fabulous mannequins from Paris is showing off the new Make It Snappy pattern line.  Isn’t she beautiful?  And get a load of that pink VELVET chair.  I drool.

We had plenty of bench and seating space for our customers to come in, sit down, and make a lovely little trinket to take with them.  One of my favorite things is having the opportunity to get to know my customers and making a project with them is a great way to do that.

Even the supplies for the projects look pretty….

I love these pants.  They are comfortable and flattering.  And they sold REALLY well!

No Quilted Fish booth would be complete without a big bowl of Swedish Fish or, as we call them, Red Herrings.

Everyone wanted to steal our trunks.  And look at the blue carpet.  Wow.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when this happened….

2nd place booth award for double booth.  A dream come true! I was proud….and a little ridiculous.  There are some strange looks going on there…..but that is pretty normal for me.

Oh, and my hands aren’t dirty.  That’s henna.  I will show you more of that tomorrow!

Winner of 10" stacker

Congrats to Cynthia for winning the 10" stacker and thanks again to everyone for voting.  I will have some more pre-market fun going on, so stay tuned!

Tallied!

Wow!  That was a lot of votes in a day and a half!  Here are the totals:

Quilt #1

Image one-12 votes

Image two-34 votes

Image three-45 votes

Quilt #2

Image one- 45 votes

Image two-24 votes

Image three- 22 votes

Good choices!  Here is how they look finished and ready to print...

I am excited to show you more of the new stuff!  I am working on an emag full of pictures to share with you.  It will probably be out about the time of market.

Thanks again for voting!  It was fun to have your help.

Cover Contest

Sometimes it is really hard to make decisions when all of the options are really great.  For example, we had a second photo shoot yesterday for the quilts that we will have patterns for.  The pictures are gorgeous and I can’t decide which to use.  So I am hoping you will help me!  Will you vote for which one you like best?  There are two different quilts/covers, so vote for each one. 

VOTING IS CLOSED!!  THANKS FOR VOTING!

To thank you for voting, I will give away a 10” stacker of Madhuri to one lucky voter.  These are oversold from the factory, so some stores won’t be getting them!  I borrowed this image from Fat Quarter Shop (who I LOVE!!) to show you the collection…

So here we go with the images.

 

Quilt Pattern #1

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

 

Quilt Pattern 2

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

So, to vote, leave a comment with your choice for quilt pattern 1 and quilt pattern 2.  I will keep the contest open until Monday, so vote fast!

Pre-Market Madness!

I am always surprised at how fast Quilt Market rolls around.  It is almost shocking.  Even though it is all so overwhelming, I am so excited to go.  I think this will be our most exciting market ever!  I want to give you a little sneak peak into what we will be showing to stores in about two weeks….

I have to show this pic, mostly because I am in love with my pink velvet chair.  And the Madhuri pillows on it! 

Madhuri is my newest line of fabric that will be hitting stores in the next week or two. It is inspired by my long distance love of India and my deep desire to go there.

I am really excited about a new ruler we will be introducing.  Can you guess what shape it makes?  Every girls favorite…a diamond.  This ruler is crazy cool and fun. 

Check out my fabulous assistant/model.  Isn’t she lovely? Some of the models had henna done on their hands and feet.  It was so beautiful! 

This is a cute little make and take I will be teaching in the Riley Blake Designs booth on Friday during market, so if you are there, come by and make one!

We are going to have some really cool stuff going on in my booth, too.  I hope that you will come and see me if you are there.  I would love to meet you and show you my new line and new patterns. 

I promise to be back soon with more pictures of new and fabulous things that are coming!!

 

Fabric Fest

I am super excited about Fabric Fest!  Have you heard about it?  It is going to be some fun filled days of sewing and playing with some amazing people!  And!  You could spend time with me!  I will be emceeing as well as teaching at the event.  I am so thrilled to be a part of something so wonderful.  There are still a few spots left, so hurry over to check it out!

WEBSITE FOR FABRIC FEST

 

Dreamy Walk in Jewelry Wonderland

As we have been prepping for Find Your Lula (and 500 other things) I have been thinking about how fortunate I am to have such amazing people in my life that I can call on to be teachers for the retreat.  One of the teachers is Missy Stevens.  She is a dear friend and amazing jewelry designer.  She will be teaching us how to make this amazing necklace at the retreat

Each persons necklace will be unique to them.  I love this idea because I love having things that mean something special. 

Missy is so great at putting pretty things together and I thought it would be fun to show you her studio and some of it’s lovely little delights.

Every time I set foot in her studio I instantly feel more feminine…except for the drool that starts dripping off my chin.

She comes up with the most amazing jewelry confections.  I want to wear every single one of them.

Part of what Find Your Lula is is visual stimulation.  We hope to provide our participants with the most stimulating experience possible.  Just like walking through Missy’s dreamy studio….

Oh, and by the way, this is Missy

Talented and pretty!

Exciting News!

Well, if you follow me on facebook or twitter, you will already know, but I am still so excited to share my news!  In fact, I am so excited I want to shout it from the roof tops!  What could be that exciting?  THIS is!!!

Just about a week ago we launched a new website for our fabulous and very unique retreats.  The retreat is called Find Your Lula.  It is a retreat designed to help you find your inner designer, creator, crafter and business person.  We will be teaching adobe illustrator (that is the program I use to design fabric!), my amazing coach Lyn from SoulSalt will be teaching, we are going to have some super fun crafting and creating classes (jewelry making, sewing, etc.)  photography, and some other truly inspiring activities. 

You might be wondering “What is Lula? and why would I want to find mine?” Lula is actually a person…she is my muse.  I am passionate about helping other people find their muses.  Whether it is a person, place or just a feeling inside of you, the Find Your Lula team is anxious to help you find it. 

The retreat will be at a beautiful house in Park City, Utah.  The house has 12 bedrooms, each with it’s own bathroom.  There is plenty of privacy for each person while still allowing for an incredibly intimate environment.  Each of the two retreats will only hold 14 people, so you will have lots of opportunities to get to know your teachers and fellow participants.  And on top of it all, we are going to cook you the most delicious food! 

If you want to know more about this one of a kind retreat, visit the website: www.FindYourLula.com

We would love to be a part of your creative journey.  Don’t put off your dreams, let us help you  make them a reality!

We would love to help you Find Your Lula!!!

She found what she needed to fly….