Happy Memorial Day!

I hope that you're enjoying your holiday weekend. We sure are. It has been a busy May and I am happy to see it come to an end. Now, I'm looking forward to the end of the school year! Yay!

We enjoyed the opening of the pool and then we headed to NYC. My hubby took Little A to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs and live lizards. Big A and I headed to Kinokuniya for a craft book and manga book fix. I'll have to post photos of some of the books that I saw there. I'm still going through Quilt Market photos.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. I thought I'd show you this lovely Jasper Johns painting of the American flag that was adorning the Christie's window.
xo, L

Quilt Market Snippets - Part One

The night before Quilt Market opens, there's Sample Spree. It is a crazy, frenzied pre-sale of the newest products. There are deals and there's a lot of shop owners who line up several hours early for the wonderful opportunity to preview products. Here are Larry and Scott having some fun and working hard at the Henry Glass booth.

                              

Here are Alex and Davide from Aurifil . They were having a rare relaxing moment because the desire for Aurifil threads soon lead to pandemonium.

                              

The next day, I stopped by their booth. Ooooh, look at the new color card!! I didn't think that things could get any better but they added new colors!!

When I'm at Quilt Market, I get to see a lot of eye candy. I'm not the typical designer who has a booth. Long story for another time. I used to have a booth but now I get to wander around and absorb all that my senses allow me to. I sit down with editors and talk about what we want to work on next and I get to see lots of new things. I thought that I'd show you some snippets of what I see. There's just so much.

Alex Anderson is a funny lady and she gives good advice on dealing with one 6-year old boy who acted up before his mommy left for MN. Have you checked out her new magazine, The Quilt Life ?

Darlene Zimmerman , gave me one of her new rulers. I am excited to used this one because I've always wanted to make a wedding ring quilt and now I can make a small one and I don't have to think!! Can you see the adorable mini wedding ring quilt right beneath the ruler?

P&B Textiles  had an awesome display of its new "Bear Essentials" line! I love all of the colors and I loved the graphic display of all of the fabrics in their booth. Well done!

xo, L

To Market, To Market

Oh, little blog, it has been a while.  I've been busy and playing. I'll have to update you on all of the fun. I just returned from Minneapolis where the Quilt Market was hosted this spring. What a great show! The show is full of inspiration and it is a wee vacation for me. I get to do some business, be inspired by new things and to see or meet friends.

Here's the cool second colorway.

The lovely people at Henry Glass were showing my newest line, Hugs and Kisses, and Bella Flora. I'll tell you about it in the weeks to come. The quilt above is the free pattern for Hugs and Kisses. Speaking of cool folks, here are some Henry Glass designers. Lovely, lovely ladies. From left, Barbara Jones of Quilt Soup, Carrie Nelson, Mary Ellen , me, and Heather Mulder Peterson . I had dinner with Barbara, her sister, Glenda and Karen from Henry Glass. It was at an awesome and funky restaurant, Zelo. We had such a blast and the food was seriously amazing.

The convention center is an interesting place in downtown Minneapolis.

I don't have a booth there so I am lucky because I book appointments or wander around and meet my favorite people. I get to meet with magazine and book editors, fabric people and others. Here's my fave guy, Mark Lipinski. He was very busy with presenting his fabulous new magazines. You're in for a treat this fall when the magazines make their debut.

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I chatted with my friend, Amy Butler. Her booth was awesome as usual. We met a few years ago at a retreat that the terrific folks at American Patchwork and Quilting invited us to. Amy's got tons of new projects going on. Most exciting for many is the debut of her new line of yarns. The colors are very fun and very wearable. She has a new book coming out with Chronicle Books. Wait until you see it! I think that it is the best book yet because the designs are really wonderful.

       

                             

She graciously signed books for her fans.

Here's a glimpse at her newest line of fabrics.

This is an image of the projects from her book.

Onward to other booths. This one from Clothworks, caught my eye. Check out these adorable little "shirts" that are hanging on the lines.

Ok, it seems that my little blog is having a fit and not letting me post my photos properly. Will be back tomorrow. [Keepin' my fingers crossed.]

xo, L

Hugs And Kisses

It's that time of year when everyone in the quilting industry is super busy. Next week,  I'm off to Minneapolis to attend Quilt Market. I love seeing old friends and meeting new ones. 

  

This time around, Henry Glass will present Hugs & Kisses. It's a fun and happy fabric line and I hope that you'll enjoy using.

Enjoy your day. xo, L

Happy Mother's Day!

 Enjoy your day! xo, L

Do I Need More Furniture?

Oh dear me!! I found this in someone's trash on the way to driving the kiddos to school this morning. I really don't have much more room in my place. How could I resist this one? There was a table on the person's lawn too so I promptly called my friend Roopa to convince her that the table would make a nice addition to her home. Together we carried the table to her place. Our husbands are shaking their heads. At least I'm sure hers is. Mine is on his way home from a business trip. I haven't told him about this one yet.

I had some of this upholstery weight fabric and I thought that I could do something funky with this one. I'm not quite sure what color I want to paint the legs. There's white [not crazy about it but if it works I'll consider it], black [same feeling as white], gray-green range, dark gray, dark blue, ... Got any suggestions? 

What do you call this piece of furniture? It's not a chair, stool or ottoman. Hmm. Let me know, will you? Thanks.
Have a great weekend!
xo, L

Thirty-Five Dollars

I do a yearly visit to a local rummage sale and I often end up with a nice piece of furniture for an awesome price. Do you remember my dining room chairs? I love a modern look but I also love mixing antiques in with the decor. My dad used to take us along with him when he went scouring flea markets for great finds. I even have a wooden chair that looks like a royal throne that I inherited when he passed away. So, my friend, Roopa and I headed down there to look for our treasure. I came home with this awesome table and all of those books for just under $35!! Those 40 books, by the way, are those $4 kids chapter books that you buy in Barnes and Noble. Awesome, right?

There are scratches and I'm not sure about what I want to do with the table. On the one hand, I want to do one of those awesome before and after treatments but on the other hand, I rather like the old vintage look. What do you think?

Oh, by the way, don't tell my husband about this table, ok? He doesn't mind but he's starting to wonder where we're going to put everything. Plus, he'll find out about it when he trips over it Friday night when he comes home from his business trip.

Have a great weekend! xo, L

Distractions

When I am working on something for work, I often need to process things in my noggin. I'll usually distract myself with little projects. I originally made these little zippered pouches for my boys but I found myself using them to hold my notions. The pattern is by Connie Woo. Oh so cute. My boys will get their pouches back at some point!

Then my local quilt shop, Kindred Quilts , was offering these little kits to make Friendship Triangles. The idea is to buy some, sew them up and return them to the shop. The shop would swap the triangles around and return the same number that you submitted. I wasn't going to buy any but then Mark Lipinski just had to post about his triangles on Facebook and I saw his finished ones [and others] at the shop. Ok, so I had to get in on the sewing and swapping. It has been a fun and easy sewing exercise [especially since I am not best friends with paper piecing.]

I can't wait to show you the blocks that I received at the end of May. Have a great Monday! xo, L

Lazy Weekend

I'm not really having a lazy weekend. Don't let that title deceived you. It's more like a lazy morning and the rest will be busy but at a slower pace. I have lots of work to do! CraftEdu will be launching it's beta version April 30. Yikes! Are we seriously almost there already? I just signed off on a freebie quilt design for my new fabric line, Hugs and Kisses and am working on the next quilt for the next line, Bella Flora.

It is just nice to run into friends and have a little conversation while you're enjoying the morning sunshine. So relaxing.

Notice anything different? Little A just got glasses. I think that it was just his fate and our genes. Tell him it looks good, will you please?  This little guy wanted a cool looking pair or else he wasn't going to wear them. [Apparently, another classmate came to school wearing glasses the day he had his appointment and some boys had made fun of her. So, Little A was not sold on wearing them.]

I look around for inspiration even while fishing. Look at this beautiful web. I think that you could incorporate these lines in your next quilt while you are quilting.

Enjoy your weekend. xo, L

Have You Ever Received A Gift?

Just because? My friend, Lila, presented me with this fabulous and beautiful gift that her very talented hubby, Drex, made by hand for me! Just for me! Right now, though, instead of holding my rulers, it is holding my new business cards. I'm so lucky.

Thank you, Lila and Drex. 

xo, L

A Snippet ...

is all I'm allowed to show you for now. However, the nice weather and the fact that I am working have me feeling a wee bit rebellious. Here's another sneak peak and, oops, I think that I snuck in another print. Photoshop made me do it, honest. This line will be presented at the Henry Glass booth. Check it out!! I have to stop now or else I may accidently slip and show you another line that I have coming out this summer. 

How about showing some lovely flowers that are on my dining table right now instead? Ahhh! Much better. I don't feel so sneaky now.

Ok, K, I'm going to stop being naughty now. xo, L