Day 4: Guest Ellen Luckett Baker

Great visit with Pat Sloan yesterday! Love her! She gets you to show things like a messy studio desk! She has a way with people you know!

Today I have a special guest. I have never met Ellen Luckett Baker but I have admired her website, fabric and her book! Her first line, Quilt Blocks, was lovely! I saw a display of the range at Rock, Paper, Scissors a little while ago. I love the colors and the geometric shapes!

Ellen writes all about handmade and she curates with a sharp and discerning eye for the beautifully goods that artists show on their own blogs. I love to see what inspires her to put into her collections.

I thought that I'd share a few of my past freebies with you. There are links on the right sidebar or below under the photos.

Aurifil holiday project.

 Crafter's gift tags.

Funky gift tags.

Enjoy!
xo, L

Merry Christmas!

Joyeux Noel! Happy Christmas in July! Today is the start of my Sew Merry and Bright book tour! I've invited my awesome friend, Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co., to be the first guest. Thank you!

Carrie designs very beautiful scrap quilts and I love her books. Her another Bite of Schnibbles is one of my favorites. For a working mom like me who [confession here] does not like to design pieced quilts, her designs inspire me to make lovely quilts that are easily achievable! 

She's got her review of the book over on her blog. The one thing that I adore about Carrie is her sense of humor! She's a funny, witty girl in both written and verbal form. Go over to her blog to check it out. 

These are two of my favorite Schnibbles designs. They're in her shop.

Do come back to visit with all of the other guests on my book tour. It's going to be fun!

xo, L

Whoo! Hoo! I Can't Wait For Christmas!

The awesome folks at Martingale & Co. just sent over the cover for my new book, "Sew Merry and Bright." I love it!

With each publication, there's a lot of people in the background who provide support or wonderful products that inspire me to design these projects and to write these books. Fabric companies like Henry Glass Fabrics, Robert Kaufman Fabrics, Michael Miller Fabrics, Moda Fabrics and Adornit are make beautiful products. Aurifil makes equally lovely threads and Kindred Quilts provides me with much great friendship and support. 

Thanks to all.

You deserve it.

Really, really love all that you do.

xo,  L

Stuff and Giveaway Winner

Hello! The week just got away from me. Wow. It goes so fast. I am working on a few little patterns that I'm going to offer through my local quilt shop. Almost done. [big sigh of relief heard in town]

I'm excited to announce the winner of the Sew The Perfect Gift book. Sorry it was a bit messy. I was trying something new and it flopped! I hope that you run out and buy the book though because it is a beauty.

The winner posted on Friday, September 30:

katie said...

Very nice, like it lots.

8:43 AM  

Katie, send me your details through the e-mail link on the right sidebar.

My friend, Marianne Byrne-Goarin is up next in the Aurifil Designer of the Month Event. Check out Pat's interview with Marianne and remember to make a project and to post it on our Flickr site. You could win great prizes.

I've got a post on repeats and selvages. Check it out.

Talk soon. Wedding to go to this weekend.

xo, L

Sometimes I Like Basic And Old

I couldn't take it anymore. It made me crazy looking at it. Although I like the aesthetic of the new Dynamic templates, I missed the basic and old blog with of its sidebar information. So, thanks for your advice and just offer up a comment to say hi or even to thank me for changing it back. Leave it here, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Apologies to all who couldn't comment. I didn't realize that I had left the comments OFF. Duh, me. I was testing the commenting for the upcoming blog hop and left it off.

Have a great weekend.

xo, L

http://twitter.com/#!/lindalumdebono

Current Reads & A Book Giveaway Too!

Notice anything? I have been doing some behind the scenes techie stuff. I am working on updating my poor blog and website. Hello momma, where have you been!

First, I want to let you in a blog hop in November!! The Henry Glass designers are getting together again. It will be fun. Join us won't you? Details to come.

I have been doing some fun reading! Would you like to see? I just got the latest issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. Sue Spargo's ornaments are cute. I think that they'd make great gifts for my sewing friends.

Next, we have this special edition of Knit.Wear. Gorgeous photography and a couple of interesting things that I might make one day!

Oh, I didn't forget the book giveaway. There has been so much craziness around here that if I told you you wouldn't believe me! I won't bore you with the details. So, back to the giveaway of this lovely book. I contributed the pincushion project on the cover of this beauty.  There are lots of great projects that should get you motivated to start sewing for the holidays. As you may have noticed, I loaded up Blogger's new Dynamic blog template. Click on each of those themes up there at the top. Fun! The only problem is the lack of a sidebar and other things. All gone. My question is, do you like the old traditional blog or do you like this? Let me know! I'll probably have to switch back until they offer something better but for now it looks cool. You have until Monday night 8 p.m. I will announce next week.

Have a great weekend!

xo, L

Blog Tour: Strip-Smart Quilts

Something's brewing! A new blog tour tomorrow. Won't you join us? C'mon. It'll be fun! Kathy Brown of The Teacher's Pet has a new book out with Martingale & Co. and it looks wonderful. She invited me to be part of this blog tour a while back and it's going to start tomorrow! She's invited some stellar bloggers and designers to participate in this event. Here's the line-up:

Friday, June 10 PamKittyMorning!
Saturday, June 11 Laurie Simpson
Sunday, June 12 Tara Darr
Monday, June 13 Joan Ford
Tuesday, June 14 ME!
Wednesday, June 15 Elizabeth Scott
Thursday, June 16 Lissa Alexander
Friday, June 17 Vickie Eapen
Saturday, June 18 Camille Roskelley
Sunday, June 19 Debbie Field

See? I didn't lie to you. Awesome group of ladies. Check in tomorrow!

xo, L

Mesmerized

I have always had the dream of visiting Turkey. Someday I will. For now, I love to devour the luscious photographs in this beautiful book about the patchwork of Turkey.  I bought this book from Quiltmania when I was at Quilt Market in Houston. This book is a visual delight.

Enjoy! xo, L

Skinny Quilts

Awhile back, Eleanor Levie asked me to contribute to her book. She had written a Skinny Quilts & Table Runners and this was to be volume II. I just received the project back from her this morning. After I opened it, I thought, how fitting the runner is for the season. The project is wonderful and all of the contributors did a fabulous job with his or her contribution. Congratulations, Eleanor!

I took a photo of a few of the designs from the book. Oooooh, aren't they lovely? Let me know what you think! xo, L

Cool Girls Quilt!

Look here! Sarah wrote a wonderful review of my book. Thank you! The review is thoughtful and she is spot on about how I would want anyone who wants to learn how to sew to use this book. Take a look here! [*Note: I updated to link to her review.L]

Let me know if you've made anything from my books. I'd love to see!! I'm like a kid in a candy shop! Wheee!

xo, L

Dinosaurs Rule!

This is one of our favorite books at the moment. We love the artistry of Robert Sabuda. Before I started quilting and before the explosion of the number of paper artists into the greeting card industry, I designed handmade greeting cards. I must admit that paper was my first love and it was an even more passionate love affair than the one that I have with fabric.

You have to watch out for the hungry T-rex. He'll jump right out at you and eat you!

The triceratops love to fight and we get such a kick out of the fiery personalities that pop out of this book.

The mastery of the pop-up object is phenomenal and one little dinosaur lover is entertained immensely. xo, L

3, 2, 1

... ready for landing. The Space Quilt is officially up on the wall. I loved the applique on this one. The pattern comes from Make Believe. There's even a pillow that coordinates with the quilt.

 

I am giddy over his love for this quilt ["Mom, can you write that I love your quilt?"]. I make/design a lot of things and they do love what I do. However, there were times when Nintendo and Thomas the Tank Engine were much preferred over my softies or handknit hats and scarves. Things are turning around. I now get their opinions on which fabrics I should buy at the quilt shop and they will pull out balls of  yarn that they want me to buy for them at the yarn shop. They both want to help me make a quilt for them. What more can I ask for?

New and Old

I am starting work on my next book. The deadline is a tight one and I have to get cracking. Funny thing though. I just received two boxes of my samples back from the publisher. It has been a year or so. Whenever I do get samples back, it is like Christmas because I don't know what I will be getting back. I usually design, sew, write and send the samples out. Though I take photos of the pieces for myself, there's nothing like touching the real thing. I often forget how the project looks and feels until the book is published. When I get the actual samples back though, it is even more fun because I get re-acquainted with the designs. Adam has been asking about "his" Space Quilt for a long while now. Well, we are just going to have to have a little welcome home hanging ceremony tomorrow after I take the quilt out of box and press it. 

This little pillow came  from The Modern Crafter - Home Stuff. I had so much fun designing the projects for this book. The ideas are simple yet cool. I hope that you check the book out.

xo, L

Things To Do In This Cold Spell

We've been experiencing a cold spell and my crazy little one loves to play outside with his best buddy right after dismissal. Brrr!!!

My ideal morning and better way to deal with the bitter cold is to snuggle under the covers and read. I've been enjoying this little read. The Coraline website is cute too. If you want to explore the site, there's a knitting pattern hidden in the web site. Suddenly, there's a lot of buzz about Coraline. There's a Nintendo DS game for it coming out in the next few weeks and then the movie will debut in February. Right now, I simply want to enjoy the book.  xo, L

So much to do yet so little time

I do have a confession. I have SIX posts in draft mode awaiting publication but life has gotten the better of me so I will have to re-write my posts so that they are more time appropriate.

I just returned from Portland. It was a fun and inspiring trip. Portland is such a terrific city. I didn't take a lot of photos this time around but I will post a couple of pics of some goodies that I did bring home later this week. I got a couple of cool patterns from my friend, Amy Butler and some cute kits from Olympus [Japanese softies].

I caught a cold on the flight back and have been battling that for the last little while. I have been doing some behind the scenes design work that I can't post at this time. I can, however, introduce you to my latest book, Home Stuff. I am so in love with the styling and look of this one. Let me know what you think.

I'll be back later this week. xo, L