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.

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.

Batik Stars, Abilene trip & a Wind Farm on the way

It is a glorious Saturday morning here in north Texas. It is only 73º so far. Can you tell I am ready for fall? Yesterday was a very full day for us. In the morning I worked on some batik stars for a new twin size quilt. The batiks are Dreaming in Color by Laundry Basket Quilts for Moda fabric. I really like the cheery blues and yellows.

In the afternoon we went to Abilene, Texas for some business but then we had to have some fun. We drove to the small town of Buffalo Gap, Texas

 where the famous Perini Ranch Steakhouse is.

The grounds are peaceful.

The decor inside is very eclectic. This is 7 foot rattlesnake ski tanned on a board.

Have you ever seen a jackalope?

This bison head was watching us eat.

Our appetizer was Jalapeño Poppers. Jalapeño peppers stuffed with cream cheese wrapped in smoky bacon and grilled. Second course was a blue cheese salad with roasted pecans. We split a 16oz rib eye steak with ranch potatoes and still brought some home to enjoy today. We did save room for desert by bringing home some of our steak. Strawberries with sugar biscuits and real heavy cream poured over it all. This was not a heart healthy meals but it was wonderful! They also raise a few pump jacks on the property.

There were some very interesting buildings in Buffalo Gap

I took pictures of the wind farms on the way home.

These windmills are huge!!! It is kind of freaky when you first see them.  

This shows the wind farm with the sun setting behind.    

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.