I am getting ready for a very busy travel schedule again.

First in line is a trip to San Antonio this next week.

Seventh Heaven Quilt shop is on my schedule.

The Labyrinth class is scheduled for Monday the 23rd.

Call Dixie if you want to sign up.

I also just added some terrific ribbons to my website.

Be sure to check them out for embellishing all your quilts, table runners, bed scarves.

The final planning for the Alaskan cruise for June 2012 with Stitchin Heaven Quilt shop

is almost finished. It is going to be a very fun quilting and sight seeing cruise.

Keep watching for other trip details.

Too many things to count but so much fun.

Have to get to work now.

Debbie

Calico Carriage Quilt Designs

     February came to Texas with a vengeance. We have more snow 

and colder temperatures than we have seen in years. That means

stay inside and sew.

     I have some important news about a correction and I need everyone to spread the

word for me. As many of you know I have a new pattern out called

              Labyrinth.

It is a very beautiful quilt that appeals to a great many quilters. It is

especially appealing to men. Men quilters love making it and men in general are

drawn to its maze like quality.  When I designed it I made each size

build on the previous size with the king size having two full rings to

the maze. I received numerous calls wanting the queen size version to

also include the full two rings. I felt I needed to get this out to the quilters

and did the original corrections without testing it as I always do by cutting

and sewing each and every size. Needless to say, I made mistakes. I have

corrected these mistakes and have posted a pdf on my website with the
CORRECTED QUEEN instructions. Look on the upper right area of my

website (www.calicocarriage.com) for Pattern Corrections.

The last 2,000 of these patterns have been printed with the corrections.

If you are in doubt, please go to the website…download the PDF…then

compare your pattern with the corrected pages. I sincerely apologize

for any problems or inconvenience you have encountered.

Please tell your friends and customers to check out the web page.

     I have added some beautiful new and unusual ribbons to my website.

I only stock these ribbons because I love them and they are hard to find.

Two of the newest ones are brand new Kaffe Fassett ribbons based on his

new Kite Tails fabric.

It comes in pink, yellow and black

and in red and orange.

There is an allium ribbon that looks like fireworks exploding,

gorgeous fall leaves on a gold background and a

fun granny square type design.

The Simple Stars Beautiful Quilts book has been very popular and we have reprinted
yet another time. This printing has an updated cover and is full color throughout.

The new cover quilt is made with Civil War Reunion from Moda fabrics.

I have been traveling a lot to teach and have met some wonderful ladies and men. I will continue to travel extensively this year and do hope you will check out my itinerary to see if I will be teaching close to you.As always I love to add new venues that are close to already booked sites to save travel expenses for everyone. My next trip is to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas and on to Little Rock. I will be catching up with great friends I made when I taught on Stitchin Heaven's quilt cruise last year.

By the way, be sure to keep checking on that itinerary because I will be
teaching on another Stitchin Heaven cruise in January 2012 with great ladies
from Moda fabrics.

I am home from fall quilt market and I have two new patterns that are ready for you to see.

The first one is called  "Lyra’ and it has large lap (72”X 72”),

queen (95” X 111”) and king (119” X 119”) versions.

The piecing is so simple to do in sections, even new quilters can piece it.

This is a sample done in new Timeless Treasures

Tonga Batiks ~ Park Slope & Cobble Hill collections.

This version is made with Moda’s Sunkissed and Central Park

I also have a new Block of the Month called Star Gazing.

It is a collection of eight unique stars and finishing kit instructions for

a queen size and king size version. I made samples using three new fabric lines.

Fresh Flowers by Moda

Tonga Batiks Park Slope & Cobble Hill by Timeless Treasures

Montego Batiks by Moda

Check with your local quilt shop to see if they have these new patterns or plan to do this “Block of the Month”

Shop owners please let us know if you need these new patterns for your store.

These great new fabrics from Moda/United Notions have been a wonderful inspiration for my new block of the month project.

These are Montego Batiks and my Block of the Month will be named “Star Gazing”

This is a sneak peak at the queen size quilt top.

I will be showing the new pattern at International Quilt Market in Houston ~ Booth # 819.

As many of you know, I am a team member with  Enchanted Makeovers which is a

nonprofit organization bringing awareness to the needs of women and children in abusive situations.

If you have the current American Patchwork & Quilting magazine

you can read about Terry and her journey on page one.

Terry Grahl has dedicated her life to making the shelters a better place

for these women and children so they can have hope and love in their lives.

This year EM has been on a nationwide tour to spread the word.

The final event for the year will be in New Jersey on October 16.

 We need help from all you quilters and embroiderers for this event.

The ladies are going to be learning about yoga and we need 30 handmade mats for this activity. The mats will be used as

lap quilts after the event and will be very simple but very bright.

We want encouraging words embroidered around the borders.

I will have a very simple pattern to follow and a list of words to be embroidered. If you can only do some

embroidery (hand or machine) or only sew the quilt – that is fine, we can tag team the process.

If you need fabric, we can take care of that also.

There is a time constraint. I will need the finished mats by October 1.

For more information on Enchanted Makeovers go to the website.

Enchanted Makeovers website

Check out Terry’s facebook page

Enchanted Makeovers Facebook Facebook link

Check out Enchanted Makeovers and Terry Grahl on

the Martha Stewart Dreamers Into Doers site.

Terry was recently honored as one

of People Magazines 30 All-stars Among Us

I do hope some of you have the time to open your heart to this cause.

I have been blessed beyond words by working with Terry and all the other volunteers.

Please let me know that you can help to make this

event very special for these ladies by leaving a comment with your email address

or email me direct info@calicocarriage.com and

I will contact you ASAP on how to get started.

I am a little behind on posting to my blog so I am going to start

with my most recent trip and go backwards in the next few posts.

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

I was doing a lecture/trunk show and class for the Delectable Mountain Quilters Guild.

Let me tell you they are a fun bunch of ladies! If you live in the area you need to join them.

Their quilt show was going on at the same time we were there so we got to view that.

It was held at a local gallery and this piece of sculpture was out front.

I do believe this is the epitome of embellishing!! 

These are some of the quilts from the show. I tried to get names for all the quilts but I missed a couple.

I apologize to the quilt makers.

Moulin Rouge

Jackie Grimaldi – quilt maker

Carol Wylie - quilter

Flora & Fauna

Sue Leeson – quilt maker

Madeleine Vail - quilter

This is Jean Spring our hostess/ tour guide with

her quilt from a picture she took in Italy.

They are both lovely.

Jean pieced and quilted this quilt.

Snow Buddies

Peggy Hoft – quilt maker & quilter

Such a fun calendar quilt.

Sorry – no info on these, but aren’t they great?.

Squares

Holly Rogers– quilt maker

Jo Stack – quilter

I really like this quilt.

If the Hat Fits

Jean Spring – quilt maker and quilter

Bear Hollow

Madeleine Vail – quilt maker and quilter

Koma Mai

Tami Buskirk – quiltmaker & quilter

Sunday Stroll

Jackie Grimaldi – quilt maker

Ginney Dominquez - quilter

Rocky Mountain High

Jackie Grimaldi – quilt maker

Madeleine Vail - quilter

I Spy

Gail Nelson– quilt maker

Jane Adams - quilter

Tuscan Cobblestones

Peggy Holt– quilt maker & quilter

 Mom’s Flowers

Linda Pinnt quilt maker

Ramblin Rose Meets Jamestown

Cheryl Spahr – quilt maker

Judy Kendall – quilter

Egg Money

Marci Spitelli quilt maker

Jo Stack – quilter

I justEgg Money love this quilt. The red background just makes the blocks pop.

The cross hatching is one of my favorite quilting designs.

Yampa Valley Memories

Annabeth Lockhart – quilt maker

Madeleine Vail - quilter

Light Houses

Rita Greenburg – quilt maker

Madeleine Vail - quilter

This is one that I did not get the information on.

Summer Serenity

Sue Leeson – quilt maker and quilter

Quilt Diva

Rita Greensburg

I just can't tell you how great this show was.

It was hung like a true art show and the

quilts were certainly pieces of art. 

Tomorrow I will show the sights around Steamboat Springs as we saw them.

My final day in Manhattan started with a trip to the fabulous quilt shop

The City Quilter

It is located at 133 West 25th Street  between 6th and 7th Ave.

When you enter the shop you see a great floor cloth with New York images.

The wonderful owners of the shop are Cathy Izzo

and her husband Dale.

They have owned the shop since February 1997. The shop is absolutely jam packed with goodies.

Everywhere you look there is something to catch your eye and interest.

This is just one of the samples on the wall.

Cathy and Dale have numerous fabrics that are exclusive to their shop.

Below is Statue of Liberty exclusive to them by Hoffman Fabrics.

I love this black and white!

Fashion District retro New York.

This is subway maps in three color ways. 

They also have projects pertaining to Manhattan.

This is a perfect trip memory quilt.

I was told that almost all of the employees are multi talented.

One is an artist, one a costume designer,  and one is a model.

Think of all that creativity! 

These beautiful ladies are two of their employees.

This is an example of a wool project that is a kit. 

Little wool creatures.

Wool cake and cookies.

A pillow kit and a sample of another quilt to make.

Cute quilt with bicycle embroidery. 

This is more of Cathy and Dale’s exclusive fabrics.    

It has vintage New York postcards on it.

This is a quilt made with the post card fabric.

What a great memory of a trip to New York.

Another quilt example to use Photos or photo style fabric.

A great little pincushion book and sample. What do you think about the bacon and egg?

Cathy stocks unusual ribbons for embellishing.

And a stash of silk fabric to make scrumptious quilts and table runners.

They will be carrying my Fine Dining pattern that is great done in silk with ribbon embellishment.

This is the classroom.

They even supply the sewing machines so you can take a class while visiting the city  Cathy and and another employee in front of a wall of fabrics.

Check out the classes they are offering for this spring.

Paula Nadelstern will be teaching as well as Kaffe Fassett and Liza Lucy.

     Below are some class samples.

A wall of books and patterns.

This quilt is going to be a pattern someday. I love it.Another little niche of patterns and samples.  

More wool. The colors look good enough to eat.  I simply adored these story book panels. Kaffe Fassett fabrics to drool over.

Cathy and Dale are now Bernina dealers.

Cathy also cuts 2 1/2” strips for their City Strippers kits.

While I was in the shop taking pictures and talking to Cathy and Dale,

Three couples came into the shop.

This is Brian and Susanne from Denmark.

   Maria and Elmer from Brazil.

I was unable to get names for this couple from Japan.

This is definitely an international store!

I loved this quilt that looks like a kaleidoscope of the Empire State building.

One section of the store is dedicated to fabrics from Japan.

I love it when the employees are happy and smiling even first thing in the morning.     

Dale took me to the basement to show me what was down there.

One thing was his desk with the first quilt he ever made. I think he did a great job. 

They have a long arm quilting machine and offer custom quilting.

More fabrics!

There is storage that goes all the way under the store.     There is also an appliqué group called the Appliqué Support group that meets in the basement.

All of the New York fabrics can be purchased online at The City Quilter.

I has so much fun at The City Quilter, I wanted to stay all day.

I did have to leave to go to Timeless Treasures Fabrics to see Emily Cohen.

She gave me a tour of their new space and I got to see what is new for spring

and a hint of what will be new for fall.

Great expectations of what the offices would be like comes to fruition.

This morning was more fun than I could have imagined.

Group B met at the reception area to sign in and wait for our tour guide.

This is me in front of the official door once again.

Do I look happy or what 

Here is that famous logo once again with guess who is beside it.     The entire wall is covered with quotes and inspirational words.   Group B really hit the jackpot with our tour guide Hannah Milman.

Hannah is the Editorial Director of Crafts and is very passionate about her work. She took us to her office to store our coats and purses.

While we were there she shared some of her recent projects.

This is a wreath made from glittered acorns and leaves that she made to hang in

the Blair House in Washington, D. C. for Christmas.This bird is a decoration made using a copy of a bird in the wallpaper that was blown up,

glued to stiff paper board, and then glitter and gold paint was added. 

It was beautiful to see in person.

Hannah loves working with and glittering shells. (Actually I think she would glitter anything.)

This shell was glittered to make an ornament.

As we started our tour we met Lucinda Scala Quinn and Sarah Carey in the hallway.

Lucinda is the Editorial Director, Food & Entertaining

Sarah is Deputy Food Editor Martha Stewart Living. 

If you watch Everyday Food on PBS you know them very well already.

They were so kind to us, just talked to us like we were neighbors.

Lucinda has a great blog called Mad Hungry Feeding Men and Boys.   From there we went to the test kitchens. In this kitchen they were testing recipes for Everyday Food.Some of the things they were testing were - Feed your family of four for $10, healthy snacks, etc. 

      From the test kitchen went to a room called the cake room.

If you read Martha Stewart Living, Weddings, or the Wedding Cakes book, then you have seen these cakes. This  is another huge test kitchen. Wouldn’t you love to cook here? 

I am not sure what they were testing here but you can be sure it was good. These are cabinets in the hallway full of cookbooks. 

We then went to the Prop Room or ROOMS!

The beautiful ladies below run the prop room, and what a job it must be.

Please bear with me on the amount of pictures. You just can not imagine how much stuff is here.

 

   Stools & Chairs

  Candlesticks

Tables, stools, chandeliers 

Dishes and more dishes!!

Cutting boards

Linens

More dishes

Cake stands

Vases

Wall boards and floor tiles.  They sometimes create a whole room.

This is Fritz Karch. He is the editorial director of collecting.

He told us his office is Martha’s nightmare!  

This is the view of the river out of one of the windows.

We also got to meet Emeril Lagasse    He has a new television show starting in March.

Half of our tour was on the side of the offices housing the magazines where we met

Gael Towey.

Gael is the Creative Chief Officer. She was very friendly also and talked with us for a long time.

She talked about helping with the first Martha Stewart Living magazine. She has been with Martha for 20 years.

Gael also told us they are anticipating the arrival of the new Apple Notebook or iPad as we now know it.

All magazines are checking out alternative delivery methods.

Maybe someday we will be reading Martha Stewart Living on our iPad.

By the way Gael’s husband is Stephen Doyle. He designed the logo we love so much.

When you have a little time check out this video about Gael and Stephen’s collaboration on logos for Martha.

We could not take any pictures while we were in this area because they were working on future magazines.

The April issue of Living was spread out on boards. I was great fun to see what no one else has seen yet.

Hannah then took us to see the marketing area for furniture, out door items, linens, all things Martha.

On to the craft supply area. Oh my gosh!!

Glitter of every kind, color and size. Punches, punches, punches and more punches. Paper goods and tools.

I have never seen so many wonderful craft items.

We also got to see the corporate offices but those are private sanctuaries and so no pictures here.

Alas, after 1 1/2 wonderful hours we had to leave to go to the studios for the taping of a show.

It was a great joy to tour offices and meet wonderful, friendly and happy people.

Everyone seemed to love their job.

THANK YOU HANNAH!!!!!!

Check back tomorrow to read about the taping of the show.