So many pretty quilts! Thank you Angela from Cut to Pieces!!! I love this quilt she designed and made (above) for me to take to Market. I knew whatever she made would be beautiful.
And cindy Luby has come through with another beautiful quilt. It just sparkles. She even put together a PDF for me to share on my blog. Lucky us! I'll get that up next week.
Grant was a little annoyed that I kept taking pictures of the quilts. "Come on mom. Take a picture of me." Well, OK.
Sally J was pulling the lining out of this suitcase for me and look what we found. Isn't that wild? I did recover it, but I made the bottom removable. I don't have the heart to cover it permanently.
Stephanie O. Whipped up some darling flower pillows. Totally her idea. My friends are so clever.
Today Dave and I will try to cram all this stuff in boxes. Dreading that, but it will be such a relief to have the bulk of it on its way to Quilt Market.
11 days to go!!!
I'm taking the plunge and finally doing a booth at Market. It seemed like the year. I have my sister here to watch the kids and so many talented friends willing to pitch in. It really has been amazing.
What would I do without my generous, brilliant friends and family?!? Yesterday Cindy Luby and Pam Matthews sewed for hours with me, making an obscene amount of pillows. Those ladies know how to sew and I love learning from them.
Several ladies from church have pitched in to make the enormous panels for the walls of my booth. It seemed like a simple project, but nothing is simple when it's 10 feet wide!
A friend popped over today to help me line this old suitcase. I'm going to use it to display my prints. It really is coming together!
All shopping pictures:
It's a wonder I go anywhere.
I was so nervous about school starting. I was sure Luke was not ready for all day kindergarten and that he would be so exhausted that he'd be impossible by the time he got home. And I was even more concerned about Grant being on his own with me all day. I just knew he would be miserable...
Turns out, Luke loves school and is only at his usual level of "impossibleness". And Grant is in heaven. The hardest part for him to adjust to was the big kids coming home from school. He loves having me to himself--not to mention his toys.
It's been lovely. I almost feel guilty about how much I'm enjoying it.
The first day of school. Dave was off to school too. This may be my favorite family photo yet. I'm so glad the lovely Colette thought to take it.
Our first day "alone" together. We stopped by the LDS temple on our way to drop half the Melby family at the airport.
I haven't really shown off the panels in my Cosmos Collection. (Which hit stores last week!!!!) I have so many ideas--quilts, pillows, bags, clothes, place mats, and on and on. But I started with a table runner. I used my Painters Canvas in Brown between the panels.
I was really excited about introducing panels of my paintings with this line. When I got the first strike-offs back from Japan I realized that these were not the right paintings. So I started over and painted two new paintings. I chose the simple Cosmos flower as my subject. Luckily, Kathy Miller, patiently allowed me to slow production down to bring in the new artwork. I'm so glad she did because these are exactly what I was going for.
This soft red (a bit on the pink side) is the common color between all three colorways, so the panels will work with any other Cosmos prints.
I'm throwing this in just to show off my table I painted this week AND my new chairs that are quite a bit more kid resistant than my old ones.
I wanted to show you this very sweet article that my dear friend Trenna Travis wrote about me for the STL Magazine blog. I sure miss her. I don't believe that I could have built my little art business without her giving me my first break. And talk about a great artist and designer. She is amazing. In fact, she is coming out with her own line of fabric with Michael Miller--home dec fabric. She's a phenominal interior designer so it's a perfect fit.
You may have seen some of her interior spaces popping up on pinterest. I stumble upon them pretty regularly and I always get a kick out of that because those rooms are so familiar to me. Here's a favorite:
Lovely.
My sister Moe and my nephew Thomas came to town. Moe seems to be able to pack into one day what most people would need two days to accomplish. So I knew we were in for a whirlwind.
Day 1:
Giant family dinner after church at my house. Some people bring a side dish, Evie brought along a new friend for me, Miranda at onelittleminuteblog.com. How awesome is that! (Actually, evie brought most of the food too)
Lots of chatting and catching up.
Day 2:
A metro ride into "The District" with Dave. Dropped him at school and off we went for some SERIOUS sight seeing (while Dave studied).
The National Gallery of Art. There is nothing like seeing a Van Gogh in person.
A tour of the capital.
My first visit to the Library of Congress. Must go back with Dave and take a closer look at those ceilings!
The National Archives--definitely worth taking the kids out of school for!
Left Lily with Moe for the Holocaust Museum while I got Grant from the sitter.
Everyone met at Evie's for chili dogs. Yum!
Day 3
Dropped Grant at Katie's. She volunteered to take him so I could join my sisters and nephew for a bike ride. How nice!
A bike ride around the monuments. This is SOOOOO fun. $7 for a bike and as long as you return it after 30 minutes you can keep checking them out without paying more. A little crazy, but so worth it. (Did I mention it was raining).
Lunch at the food carts at L'Enfant plaza. One of the best places to eat near the monuments.
Picked up Grant and headed to Arlington Cemetery. By then it was POURING down rain. But still a lot of fun.
Day 4:
I stayed home to clean my house and recuperate so I was ready for more Moe Fun.
Day 5:
Our SIL, Wendy, came down from NY. Cousin Carol joined us too.
Mt Vernon. Wendy stayed with boys while I did the tour of the basement. When the tour guide lectured us about how we couldn't touch ANYTHING, including the walls, I knew Wendy had saved me from getting kicked out :)
After Mt Vernon the boys and I were exhausted, so we went back to Ev's to help with dinner. Moe was just getting started and brought Lily along to Old Town.
Day 6:
Moe and Thomas visited the Newseum. I took care of stuff at home
Met for dinner and headed over to Ford's Theatre for a show--Fly. One of the high lights of our week--A beautiful play at a beautiful, historic venue.
Day 7:
Dulles Air and Space Museum. Way bigger and cooler that the one at the National Mall.
Lily discovered that McDonald's followed by the flight simulator ride, followed by a long drive home is a BAD idea.
A visit to some little shops near my house.
Super Chicken at Tyson's Corner. I really love this place.
Monuments by Moonlight with Wendy, Evie, Moe and me--another high light. A must do if you are in DC.
(I should mention that Moe started this day with a 5 mile run.)
Where have I been?!?! Well...My sister moved out here so we've been doing a lot of sight seeing. My new line just released so I've been doing some sewing and planning. I finished the artwork for my NEXT line, so I've been working on the colorways. Wow, I have some very fun excuses for disapearing :-)
This has been too much fun and it has really been tough to pick a favorite. But I'm going to go with the very last submission by Sunny:
"A dyslexic walks into a bra..."
I just keep chuckling over it.
So what do you think of this beautiful quilt by Marinda at Michale Miller. Isn't it cool? I can't stop looking at it. It really looks like a landscape. So clever! It will be available for a free download soon on the Michael Miller website.
