So Many Projects...

...So little time! I guess I better get myself more organized!  I really can't believe this month is half way over.  We even get an extra bonus day - but I am the lucky one who has an appointment to have a root canal done that day. Yippee.  The studio has been well used this month.  Lots of wool dying and project days with friends, sleep overs with cute little grand kiddos, and hours of pondering and sketching going on.

 

 

Lisa taught us some fun new embroidery stitches to embellish our wool projects with. 

We are enjoying them so much!

 We sure know how to make a creative mess!

   
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I'm excited to present the latest pillow slips for Needles and Friends! I have enjoyed creating these each month and I am thinking

about putting a little book together with the patterns.
Two more projects to go! 

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"Nesting"

A new woolie project designed for a retreat I am 
teaching for Peace By Piece next month. 

And...if all goes well, we will be having an Spring Open House 

in the studio next month...more info to come.

International Quilt Market 2011, Salt Lake City

Lindsey and I enjoyed a day of classes and getting to know some of the designers better.

So much creativity and inspiration everywhere we went.  Anna Maria Horner gave everyone in class a cupcake. 

Lindsey was smitten with this pillow and everwhere you looked there was handwork and embroidery embellishing quilts and pillows and home dec. items.

We met Sarah Jane, a local designer who is a children's book illustrator and young mom.  How do they do it all? Her work was wonderful!

Paula Prass is a favorite of mine.  She talked to us about the process of designing a line of fabric.  It was very interesting to hear about.  She handpainted a lot of her art work. It was gorgeous.  AND...see that little piece of fabric in the bottom right hand corner of the photo?  I won it! I am in love with this piece called Wing Study from her newest line. Paula is a darling lady.

This is right after sample spree Thursday night. My daughters and I had a blast shopping and looking at all the goods. Emily found an adorable bracelet and cute purse and Lindsey and I stocked up on jelly rolls and fat quarter bundles. We are really happy about some of the new patterns we found.

Friday we spent the morning taking in as many booths as we could.  

Here is Paula's booth. She used my favorite piece of fabric to cover this chair seat. 

We were so very impressed with Edyta Sitar. She is a very warm and genuine person as well as a very talented designer and teacher.  She has a passion for her work and it shows.  She is eager to share everything she has learned with you. She has designed some gorgeous batiks and the way she mixes them with other cotton fabrics is magical.

 Edyta's Booth ~ Laundry Basket Quilts.

 Sandi Henderson

 So many quilts to enjoy and be inspired by.

 This booth was serving sorbet ;)

Looking down into the vendor area...sooo much to see.  It is overwhelming.

One last designer I wanted to touch on is the very talented designer of  Don't Look Now.  I think her name was Kellie and she is from the land down under.  Her booth was incredible to see and I didn't have my camera when I went back to get some of her patterns.  You can visit her blog here and I would highly suggest you take a peek.  One of my favorite pieces was a framed family tree. The background she used was copies of her daughters favorite story book pages as a child.  It is the sweetest idea ever!  Her work is executed meticulously and is so colorful and vibrant! 

The little pocket project is called "25 More Sleeps" and is the cutest little advent calender.

The exciting thing for us was chatting with the Moda reps and deciding to look into getting an account with them so we can order fabric to use in kits with our wool.  Lindsey and I are looking forward to designing some new projects.  Since market I was able to meet with the reps in my home and I have placed my first order.  We are also ordering some silk fabric to try some overdying on that.  Exciting things in the works!

What A Week! Winterfest 2011

Last Tuesday I got to tote some of my wool scraps to our Needles & Friends guild class.  My cute friend Kris (center photo) was teaching.  She found the most beautiful pillow at Anthropologie and worked with the most talented Jessica (bottom left) who drew up the design for her! It was a great class. The pillows everyone was creating will be stunning.  They will be using little scraps of wool as well as scraps of upholstery fabrics.  I am the very happy owner of the cream one Kris is showing in the photo.  It was the best Christmas gift ever!

Winterfest 2011

We enjoyed our time at Winterfest, a quitling retreat attended by over 100 wonderful, happy, and creative ladies.  It was great to observe and  meet some very sweet people.  We learned a lot about the crazy fun industry of quilting.  I loved those girls at the Corn Wagon who were wonderful "neighbors" and my granddaughter Molly's BFFs. Daniels Summit was a beautiful place. 

We were able to work on some projects during our down time.

It's never too early to start working on something for Christmas!

Thursday morning was one of the most beautiful mornings I ever saw!

We left Midway just after 7:00am and the entire valley looked like this. Absolutely spectacular.

 

The girls from Pine Needles

Little Miss Molly, just happy to be with all the ladies toting around her mommy's purse. 

The Lazy Daisy Cottage, all the way from St. George.

 

 I didn't really get any great photos - my camera's battery died

shortly after we arrived and I didn't bring the charger.  Yay for 

the cell phone camera.  This was our corner of the room.

The insides of one of my kits :)

Lesson learned: The ladies to love to buy a kit!