We did see a few celebrities at Fall Quilt Market.

Becky and Jeanne took this picture of Marie Osmond at her fabric booth.

Mark Lipinski came by my booth and stopped to visit.

Market Report

I am home from Fall Quilt Market in Houston and finally rested and ready to go to the next project. My good friend and helper Becky went with me to market to help and I also had help from Paula Ward and Jeanne Kuchelmeister. I showed four new patterns.

Shooting Stars

 which has three sizes (twin, queen and king). Everyone liked it because it has six different stars that make up the center of the quilt.

 Radiant Stars

which has two sizes (wall or baby and throw). It is really fast and easy to make with any style fabric.

I made the cover quilt with Moda Tradition and the wall quilt with Moda  Love is in the Air by Deb Strain.

Post & Beam

which is lap quilt for the contemporary quilter to use the new bold graphic prints like Wonderland by MoMo for Moda.

It is a wonderful fabric with all sorts of designs.

The last pattern is

Abstract Harmony

I designed it to use the beautiful silks by dellaQ.  Della and I have teamed up to encourage quilters and sewers to use silks in their projects. I made two quilts and four table runners for Della to show in her booth. She is making kits that will be available at your local quilt shops. If the shops don’t have what you are looking for you can check out Della’s website to order from her. I will also be stocking the kits for students taking my new workshop The Road to Success With Silk. The workshop will cover many aspects of working with silk like how to prevent raveling, to wash or not to wash, what kind of needles to use, etc. 

This is my booth before we decorated

and this is a picture of the finished booth.

That is Paula in the picture.

I did three School House sessions while there. School House is mini classes on the day before the exhibits open. We show new patterns, new fabrics, new techniques and have fun at the same time. I did two sessions for Dell to show samples made with her silks.

We also gave out information on how to use and handle the silk. We had good attendance at both. I did one session to show my new patterns and had standing room only. All were a great success. We also did some great networking with publishers of books and magazines. There will be numerous new and exciting things happening this year at Calico Carriage Quilt Designs.

Tomorrow I will show you some of the celebrities we saw while in Houston.

It is getting close to Fall Quilt Market in Houston and things are really crazy around here. I have very little free time but want to show you some great fabrics I am working with and tell you about a recipe exchange.

These are fabrics from the Soiree' collection by Lila Tueller for Moda Fabrics

These are fabrics from the Wonderland collection by MoMo for Moda Fabrics

I will show you the finished quilts soon. They are so cute!!

I am participating in a great Halloween recipe swap at TheArmChairChef.com. Tink Board is running it and doing a great job. Check there everyday for a new recipe. The apple pie sounds devine!

I really have to get back to work. Today I am working on two lap quilts and several table runners out of silk.

I recently went to Brenham, Texas to give a lecture and teach a Shining Star class for the Friendship Quilt Guild. In case you don't know, Brenham is the home of BlueBell ice cream. A great time was had by all including me.

 I had great students who worked very hard.

And they served a fabulous pot luck lunch.

This is a quilt made by Mabel Dimick.

 She used the Broken Star pattern from my Simple Stars Beautiful Quilts book.

My hosts were Karen & Mike.

They have a beautiful home in the country with a great lake on the land.

This is the Putter Shed Mike built for Karen. Don't you love it?

They treated me to a wonderful dinner at Volare in Brenham. One of the things I love most about traveling to teach is meeting the wonderful people.

The ladies in Brenham sewed, visited and had a lot of fun.

Just a couple of stars ready to put together.  

 One student brought her Carpenter's Star quilt top to show.

I have to get to work now. I am working on quilts and patterns for Fall Quilt Market.

Tomorrow I will show you some of my progress.

First Market pattern quilts finished!

All but one of my pattern cover quilts is finished. I just got them back from my quilter Jo Lynn O'Neil and would like to share them with you.

They are all made with future groups of fabric from Moda Fabrics.

Please check with your local quilt shops to see if they will have these fabrics and carry my patterns.

The first pattern is called Post & Beam. It is made with 8 fat quarters. It is great for the big bold prints but is also good for flannels.

The flannels used here are Timber Creek Flannels by Holly Taylor.

This one is made with Tranquility fabric designed by Sandy Gervais.

This one is also made with Tranquility fabric but it is scrappy and uses the panel that is part of the line.

This pattern is called Radiant Star made with my No Diamonds/No "Y" Seams technique. The front cover quilt is a large lap quilt made with

Tradition Fabric by Howard Marcus. The proceeds from this fabric will go to UNICEF.

The quilt on the back cover is a wall, baby, table topper made with Love Is In The Air by Deb Strain.

The last pattern is called Shooting Stars. There are twin, queen and king size quilts included. The cover quilt is a queen made with Heritage by Howard Marcus.

The back cover is a king made with Peace On Earth which is now in quilt shops.

Quilt shop owners please email me if you need more information on these patterns or the fabrics used. The patterns will be available soon.

It is still very hot in Texas but I have been working with the softest flannel you could imagine. The following picture is of my new for market pattern called Post & Beam. It is made with fabric from Moda Fabrics that will ship to your local quilt shops in November 2008. The line is called Timber Creek Flannels designed by Holly Taylor. The designs in the line will be great for a masculine quilt or anyone who loves the outdoors. The Post & Beam pattern is the perfect pattern to showcase the prints with it's large pieces. This is also what makes it great for flannel.

August 1! Can you believe it? It is definitely summer in Texas. We have had 100º + weather for days. 

I have been working on new patterns to present at Fall Wholesale Quilt Market in Houston. So far I have three.

The first one is called Post & Beam. It is a great component made lap quilt.

The center is one component done in four fabric combinations using 8 Fat Quarters. With two borders it makes a 60” X 60” quilt.

The fabrics I have been working with are new lines from Moda Fabrics  that will be coming to your local quilt shop this fall.

This example is made with “Tranquility” by Sandy Gervais.  It will ship in November.

 

There is a great panel in this line that I cut up to make sections for a scrappy version of the quilt.

The birds just make me happy.  

I am still working on border selections for these. Don't you just love this fabric? 

 I cut the tiny birds to make the centers of the blocks.

Check back tomorrow to see a very manly version for the guy in your life. Hint: it is flannel.

Be sure to check the website Calico Carriage Quilt Designs for all the patterns and books. We have a section called Specials that has some great deals in it.

Karen Gass from Cotton Spice Quilting Magazine is hosting a Summer Blog Workshop for 14 days, July 21 to August 3. Each day is a different project, each with a different skill level. The projects are different crafts; not all quilting. My project will be posted on July 26. It is a small needlework or jewelry bag that can be made in one afternoon. Be sure to check www.cottonspice.com/CSblog each day for that day's project. Check here on my blog to get the instructions for the needlework bag.

This was a busy Spring as I did a lecture and workshops in Cape May, NJ, a workshop for South Shore Stitchers, NJ, a lecture and two workshops in Tallahassee, FL, attended classes at Empty Spools in Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA, had a booth at the wholesale quilt market in Portland OR and took a little vacation to Charleston, SC.  Here's a couple of pictures from the classes. More later.

Week of June 27, 2008

This is my initial foray into blogging and I hope everyone will find it educational and interesting. My passion is quilting and I love to design, teach and travel. My business is now 6 years old and has provided me with opportunities and experiences I never dreamed of, as well as challenges and deadlines I had never had to deal with. I hope that by sharing some of these experiences, you will learn along with me and be entertained at the same time. I also love to cook, entertain and do needlework and these topics will come up at times in the future. I also plan on passing along quilting tips, information on great shops and shows I visit and provide links to sites that I think you might find interesting.

I refer to my trip to Spring Quilt Market in Portland this year as the good, the bad and the ugly. The good was I had time to visit with shop owners, fabric designers, fabric reps, and guild representatives about teaching and lecture opportunities. The bad was I did not feel the traffic was as heavy as in past markets. The ugly was I had no brochures or books for the first two days due to my printer not following through with their commitments. I believed their promises and wound up missing the normal sales opportunities. It was frustrating, but we slogged through. I was pleased with the way the booth turned out and shops loved the fabrics I used in the quilts I displayed. I am including pictures of the booth. I am spending the summer mailing brochures to shops and working on new quilts in new fabrics for shops to display for the various events they are hosting this summer and in the fall. I also use the new quilts for my lecture/trunk show for guilds. I will be teaching classes in some great areas of the country in the next year. Be sure to check my itinerary on the website to see if I will be in your area. New designs are rolling around in my head and comments on this process will appear in future writings.

There is always the need to spend some time away from the business and June was perfect for cleaning up my flower beds and herb garden and getting new plants set before our typical 100+ degree days set in. I started Yoga classes and find that has helped control stress and free my mind’s creative flows. I think I have a touch of A.D.D. and find myself starting on one project and then wandering off onto another before the first is finished. I do my best thinking in the middle of the night or while driving and decided I need a portable tape recorder to keep track of my “great” ideas before I forget them (safer to use in the car at 70 mph rather than trying to write notes).

Come back to visit. Plans call for weekly updates and photos.

Debbie