This E-Thing Is A Growing Thing & Winners

I've got great news for those of you who knit! Leisure Arts has just notified me that iKnit will be available in an e-book format very soon! If you don't have a copy, here's a chance to download a copy!

It was a fun book for me to design. There are lots of easy and quick but stylish projects for the beginner to intermediate knitter. There are purses, scarves, and even a cable pillow. Look for it very soon at Leisure Arts.

Things have changed in the publishing industry and as a designer, this is one thing that I embrace yet struggle with because I started out publishing my patterns as print patterns. Let me know what you think!

Also on the internet front, I have gotten to know many of you via this blog or mostly through Facebook. If you haven't become a friend on Facebook, please do! I get a larger response to my posts there and it is so much fun.

I met Alex from Aurifil on Facebook and he gave me the opportunity to be Miss February on their Designer of the Month Event. Have you made a pillow or card holder yet? Remember to post it on their Flickr site to be eligible to win the thread. I look forward to seeing your finished products.

Thank you for everyone who posted comments here and on Facebook. The winners of my drawing are:

Hugs & Kisses Fabric - Quilter In The Gap

Aurifil Thread - Barbara Dekruyf Sindlinger [drawn from Facebook]

Aurifil Thread - Colleengonemad

E-mail me your information and I will send the goods to you! Congratulations! If I do not hear from you by Friday, Feb. 18, consider your winnings void and I will pass the prize on at another time!

xo, L

Awesome, Amazing, Wonderful, and Fabulous

Congratulations to all of the winners! Wasn't it a fun blog hop? Thanks for hopping along. What should we celebrate at the next designer blog hop? Spring? Summer? Christmas again?

This week, a lot of people inspired me. I don't want to sound sappy but it all warmed my heart and inspired me to do better and to live and work better. As a designer, reading the hundreds of fantastic comments was a great boost. Thank you for that. Others inspired me by their passion, strength and generosity.

McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India

Copyright 2010 Umesh Bhatt

My friend, Umesh, came back from a trip to India. It was an awesome trip. He took a trip to take photographs of the Himalayas. Wow. I'm not sure his latest photos from the Himalayas are up yet but do check out his people gallery. Awesome. I'm sure that he'll update more on his website soon. Afterall, he just got back! I admire his passion for photography and I always enjoy seeing his perspective in the things that he photographs.  He also brought back this lovely little quilt that was made in Dharamshala, a city in northern India. McLeod Ganj, pictured above, is a village within the municipality of Dharamshala and is the home of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government.  Thanks, Umesh! For those of you who missed it, his wife Roopa had her Dad come to the US with this quilt for me two years ago. Lovely.

On to a bit of sad news. My friend Justine, owner of Angelfirestudios, is going through a tough time. Her husband was fixing a car and it fell on top of him. She's been at his bedside for a week and a half now and she's had amazing help from friends to keep the store going. She has an inspiring store and her enthusiasm is contagious. She's one creative entrepreneur, wife and mom. Her strength in this time of difficulty has been amazing.

Another friend summed it up best on Ravelry:

"Many of you may not know, but Justine’s beloved husband Ted has been in a terrible accident.All her time is now being spent at his bedside in an ICU. We all love knitting and we all love Justine. Here is how we can help:

“One Project Please”

The purchase of just one project from Angel Fire Studios can put food on her table and buy diapers for her son. Another purchase could buy the gas to get her back and forth from the hospital.

As a customer and friend of Angel Fire Studios and Justine I am hoping that along with your thoughts and prayers for her and her family each of you might consider One Project …Please. Just drop by her store or log onto the online store, www.angelfirestudios.com"

The ladies at the store, including designer, Kristen Kapur of Through The Loops, are planning on releasing an e-book where all proceeds will go to benefit Justine and her young family.

Also, my wonderful friend, Amy Butler, is so fabulous. Did I say fabulous? She didn't hesitate to help out when I asked her last week. She is donating some fantastic items that will be used at a future fundraising event at the store. Thank you, Amy!! Love you!

Thank YOU from the bottom of my heart.

xo, L

Summer Days Going Fast And A Giveaway Too!

I have heard that some of you have sent your kids back to school already. Yikes! Is it that time for us? We were just enjoying hockey and hanging out with our cousins in Toronto. Now it's time to buckle down. Oh, don't worry, we'll still have fun. It's the back-to-school paperwork that Mommy dreads.

Notice we have mostly all boy cousins except Miss Taylor. So the daddies took all of the boys out for some hockey time while the ladies stayed in, played cards and chatted. So relaxing but we are a competitive bunch when we play cards. So fun.

Now that we are getting back to school mode, what are we mommies going to do? I got to read this terrific book on professional knitwear design, The KNITGRRL Guide To Professional Knitwear Design. I love reading interviews. That was my very favorite part of the book. Some of the designers who were interviewed were quite frank and I appreciate that. The other parts of the book were good too! There's information on how to start your own designing business and how to use social media to benefit your business. Terrific read even if you are not in the industry. I have a copy for you to win. All you have to do is tell me what you'll be sewing, knitting, scrapbooking or crafting as soon as the kids are back in school. Drop me a note here or on Facebook. Contest closes this Sunday at midnight.

I can't wait to see what you're going to busy yourselves with this fall! xo, L

p.s. The giveaway is not just for mommies. All entries are welcome!

End Of School, Start Of Summer

Prince And The Pea. We are officially in summer holiday mode. There are days of reading and napping after spending time at the pool. Apparently, some little princes think that it is fun to stack up my sofa cushions and sleep on top of them. 

School's out but work still goes on. I've been doing work behind the scenes but I can show you the strike offs from the fabric plant. At this point I decide on the final colors. Luckily there wasn't much to change on these. I made a block for a magazine from these pieces and I'm going to make something small with what I've got left.

The folks at Leisure Arts just posted the front and back covers of Knit Prayer Shawls. They asked me to contribute a design for this book last year. I designed and knit the green shawl below on the right. It turned out so pretty and I loved using the Lion Brand Organic Wool.

See you next week. xo, L

Knitted Chairs

UFOs and NUFOs

It has been an odd week. A week of new stuff and a week of old stuff. I've been invited on the faculty of CraftEdu.  You will have to check it out. We're working on some fun stuff and it will be a fun and inspiring place to hang out. If you are on Facebook, please become a fan on our page. Otherwise, you can sign up for updates.

One of my "resolutions" this year has been to try to go through my stash and either finish projects or discard if possible. I was cleaning out a few things the other day and found some quilt tops. The design above, Byzantium, is one of my favorite designs. I loved art history in university and I loved the Byzantine period. This design was inspired by the tiles of that era.

These two tops were really quick tops that I did when I first started quilting. I wanted to practice piecing and this was a really simple pattern. 

Now, with UFOs, there has to be NUFOs [new UFOs]. I got this lovely book from Kim Hargreaves and I was crazy enough to start a sweater with Kidsilk Haze. Super fine yarn and super tiny needles. Yikes!

In other miscellaneous news, I don't normally have a lot of gadgets and tools but I bought this guillotine recently. I am in love.  I love my tonic scissors so I had no problem investing in their cutter. Love it.

See you soon! xo, L

On The Shelves Now!

Busy, busy, little bee. So much work, yet so little time. Who said that I'd have so much free time since Little A would be at school all day now? FYI, not true!

I can't believe that summer is nearly over and that fall is upon us. The kids are back at school and we are adjusting to the new schedule.  I've been so busy these past few weeks with school, birthdays, activities and deadlines. How do we get some more time in the day? 

The new season also means that Quilt Market is around the corner and that my fabric line, Inspiration, for Henry Glass Fabrics, should start hitting the quilt shop shelves any minute now. I'm excited about this line because the colors are upbeat and the message is good. Let me know what you think and of course, if you make something from the line, send a photo! I'd love to see!

Next month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many, if not all of us, have been touched by someone's story in her fight against breast cancer. I've designed a few projects for you to make as gifts for your loved ones in support of breast cancer awareness. There will be a lap quilt or two and a tote bag. Here's a sneak peak of the first design, Twinkle. I'm just tweaking the patterns right now. Drop by early next week for the patterns and to share your stories. 

Super exciting news! You'll see Inspiration in a design for American Patchwork and Quilting this winter. The design will accompany my profile in their February 2010 issue! So awesome!

I think that my work of late has had a sense of "purpose" beyond making a beautiful quilt. I'm just about finished a knitting design for a prayer wrap. I'm giddy with excitement because it came out so beautifully. Be patient! You'll get to have a peak in time. xo, L

Lucky Me!

I am almost finished his hat. I used the Spud and Chloe Flap Happy Hat pattern until I got to the crown shaping. Then the pattern lost me or I perhaps I just felt the need to do it differently. I still need to add a pom-pom. Isn't it darling? I had fun with the the three colors. Now I am starting one for Big A and I was told that I needn't put so much green in his toque. So funny, I don't even think that anyone around here knows what a toque is and I think that the earflaps might disqualify it from being an actual toque.

When I woke up this morning, I discovered that I had won a copy of Photoshop CS4 over at the Pioneer Woman. [Thanks, Ree!] She's so funny and generous. Her new lodge is beautiful. She should have a quilt retreat there! I'll teach! Now I have no excuse to laze about and not design, right? 

I think that this contest hit closer to home and it humbled me to read about what everyone else fights against in their lives. Her topic opened up a lot of thoughts and though I've always been an optimistic person, I must say that it felt good to say my battle out loud. Big A is a super bright kid who happens to be impulsive. Lots of effort to get things together and I don't regret it one bit. Now that Little A will be going to school all day in the fall, I'll get a bit of free time. So here's to more design and more fun. I thank you guys too for loving my stuff! Thanks again to The Pioneer Woman! You rock! Go over read about her awesome readers' thoughts and about The Fat Cyclist and his family.

 I think that Little A was secretly helping me out and he didn't even know it!

xo, L

Phew, It's The Weekend.

This week has been insane. Lots of things, lots of little things that added up to lots of running around. Lots of fabric work that I can't show you just yet. Also, one of the biggest things was dealing with the fact that my neighbor's car rolled backwards in a semi-circle down two doors and hit ours. Yep, unbelievable! Oh well, it's just a car and we can fix it. Luckily no one was injured.

So, I tried to focus on good little things. The boys and I read a lot, played board games, did some homework and I started to knit a hat for Little A. If you have kids around the house, get a copy of Eric Wight's Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom. I met the author and had him autograph the book for Big A but Little A devoured the comic book type pages the second I got home.

I'll be back sometime next week. Enjoy your weekend! xo, L

Day Out In New York

I had a terrific Mother's Day. We went to NYC for the day and the weather was fantastic. I made a little stop along the way. I love Habu Textiles and I bought a few little things there. More on this later this week.

Here in the city everyday little things provide inspiration. One thing that I did notice was the color yellow. Of course, the taxi cabs are yellow but so are the sports cars and the dancers just across the street from The Plaza!

Banners, and window displays were yellow and there were many "bee" inspired images around. Do you think that there's a trend here?

I did love this blue dress though.

And this blue? Oh so calm but fresh. Notice the yellow again.

Nintendo is onto this "blue" trend too. My kids were mesmerized by this Lego version of the new Nintendo dsi in the window at Nintendo World.

Hello, Mr. Horse. I love the red flower on your head. There's another carriage painted with the same beautiful red color.

The red, cherry-flavored ice cream dip is yummy!!

I got to spend the day with my guys!

xo, L

p.s. Happy birthday to my big guy, Reno.