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.

Here are some of the pictures from the Memories / Chick N' Stars class in Benton, Arkansas.

Great group of ladies!

I am back home from my teaching trip to Arkansas.

 I did a Lecture/Trunk Show and two workshops for the Saline County Quilt Guild in Benton, Arkansas.

If you get a chance to go there it is delightful. The ladies are warm and friendly and very accommodating. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.

These are the pictures of the Carpenter's Star Workshop on the first day.

I can’t believe the weather. Yesterday it was 103º and today it is only 69 º so far. I sure hope it stays this way for a while.

I am still working on my new patterns for market. This is the center of the queen size version of “Shooting Stars”.

No Diamonds and No "Y" Seams"

The fabric is “Heritage” by Howard Marcus for Moda Fabrics. This is a new group. Ask for it at your local quilt shops in September.

The proceeds from this fabric go to Gilda’s Club.

This is Miss Kitty. She loves fabric as much as we all do.

Check out these great fabrics.

I am working on a project ( I can't show or tell you what it is now ) using these fabrics and it is a pleasure to work with such happy designs.

This is a future group by Lila Tueller for Moda Fabrics. Check out Lila's blog. She is holding a great contest. You can win patterns and great bags. Be sure to keep checking back here because we will have a drawing soon.

Several Ladies are having a problem with the little bag from my summer workshop project with Cotton Spice quilting magazine on July 26. The fabric needs to be soft and not real heavy. Another thing that may help is to make the channels for the ribbon wider. About 3/4" to maybe 1". I hope this helps. There will be a small opening at the center but it should not be huge.

I have pictures of tops pieced with two of the my new patterns. The patterns will be on my website soon.

The quilt tops are at the quilter's now. All of these quilt tops are made with future groups of fabric from Moda Fabrics.

The first one is the Post & Beam Pattern done scrappy using Tranquility fabric by Sandy Gervais.  

This is a future line that will ship to your local quilt shops in November 2008.

The second picture is also Post & Beam in Tranquility using a different colorway.

This quilt top is made with Timber Creek Flannels by Holly Taylor.

I made this sample with Tradition fabric by Howard Marcus from the Collections with a Cause. The proceeds form the sale of this fabric will go to UNICEF.

Needlework or Jewelry Bag

My hostess at a workshop in Angleton, Texas taught me the basics for this little bag.

Please read all directions before starting this project.

Supplies:

Fabric ~ 2 coordinating fat quarters

2 yards of ¼ inch ribbon or cord

Disappearing marking pen or chalk

Sewing machine

Basic sewing supplies

Yarn needle or safety pin

Cut a 14” and 7” square from each fat quarter. Place the two 14” squares right sides together. Sew ¼” from outside edge on both leaving about 3” open on one side.

Clip corners and turn right side out. Turn the open edge in ¼” and press all edges flat. Stitch close to the edges around the whole block. If you have an edge stitch foot it helps to keep the stitching straight.

The top stitching will close the openings. Repeat for the 7” squares. Use a chalk wheel or disappearing marking pen to mark a line corner to corner in both directions on the top side of the small square. Fold the large square in half and finger press in both directions to find the center. Place the small square in the center of the large square. The fabric that will be the inside of the bag should be facing up with the contrasting side of the small square facing up.

Sew on the marked lines in both directions, backstitching at the corners. Turn the squares over and measure 5” in from each corner. Fold the corners back.

Mark a line ½” from the corner edges and stitch on the lines backstitching at the beginning and ending.

Cut the ribbon into two pieces. Thread ribbon into yarn needle or safety pin and weave it through the channels created by the stitching.

 Leave tails of ribbon on one side and tie the ends together with a knot. Run the other ribbon through leaving tails on the opposite side.

 Pull the knots on both sides to draw up the square to form a small bag. The square inside will make small pockets to organize contents.

The little pouch looks like a flower when viewed from the top.