Fabric Jewelry is almost here!

Hello,

We are all back from Fall Quilt Market, where I promoted my upcoming book "Fabric Jewery-Wrapped, Braided and Sewn". This book is coming out in January 2010 from Krause publications.

I did a lecture to quilt shop owners on the different ways to market the book as well as other products they should carry and sell with the book. I demonstrated how to make some of the fabric beads at the Blank Quilting Booth, Quick Quilts Magazine and Krause Booth. We got a great response. We are also offering a workshop and lecture on fabric jewelry if you have a guild or shop that you would like us to come and visit. Just send me an email. Also this month I did a fabric jewelry feature in McCall's Quilting Holiday issue on how to make an art deco wool pendent set. We have kits available for all three colorways, shown here. Just head over to the website and they are listed under Fabric Kits.

Summer in Finally Over!!!!

Hello all,

Here in Phoenix, summer is FINALLY over. By that I mean in is 85º out and spring-like. Everyone here is as giddy as school girls. People are finding reasons to be outside again and even our dog just wants to sit outside. Fitting that our latest quilt "Indian Summer" has just come out in the Fall issue of "Fabric Trend" just as the summer heat leaves us for another year. Fabric kits are now available on our website www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com.

It has been a hectic and stressful week around the studio. First it is always a bit crazy right before Houston Quilt Market. We are scrambling to finish last minute quilt projects as well as getting ourselves ready to go and walk the show. If this was not enough to keep me out of trouble, our 7-1/2 year old Great Pyrenees, jumped out of my jeep a week ago and blew her ACL in one leg. This happened on the last hot day of the year and between the stress of the injury and the time it took my family and I to get her off the ground into the car for the trip to the puppy ER, Her temperature jumped and she was at the heat stroke level. So when we got the ER they were not concerned with her leg but getting her temperature down, which involved an overnight stay and lots of IV fluids.

As small fortune later, we had to take her on Monday for a Surgical consult from the ER. Now imagine moving a 140lb dog who cannot walk from one point to the next. I am definitely toning up. The surgeon felt Cleo needed surgery, but she did not do this type of surgery. She recommended we take Cleo to a specialist in Tucson. It happens I was suppose to be in Tucson to set up a show on Wednesday, work the show on Thursday and then head home, so this would work out perfect. Kathy (my assistant) and I took Cleo to the specialist on Wed AM and expected Cleo to have surgery on Wed afternoon and be ready to go back to Phoenix with me on Thursday. Except the surgeon is concerned about her age and weight and wants to wait on the surgery until she loses 30lbs. So I boarded her for the night and rest goes as planned.

Now once we are home, I am watching our in-laws dog while they finish up the Tucson show for me. Their sweet dog is really a goat in diguise. On Friday night, my husband believes he saw her with a needle and by the time he gets to her she has swallowed it. Now we have to call the Puppy ER again to find out what to do with Blaze. Another sleepless night of not watching Cleo but watching Blaze. Turns out Blaze is fine and all is well. Blaze went home on Sunday.

Matthew and I finally think everything is going to be okay and calm down some. But Monday, Cleo does not urinate all day or all night. Tuesday, she again does not urinate or want any water. We call the vet who is very concerned. We pack her up one more time and drag her and ourselves to the vet, unsure of how this will turn out. I am happy to report after an ultrasound and test to make sure she is okay, she promptly returns home and pees a river. What sight, Matthew and I holding her up with a sling, while she pees and we are cheering her on.

Now I find myself leaving for Houston in the morning and not ready to go. I can only hope that Market goes much smoother than the last week. I am ready for a calm and uneventful trip. I also know there is a very tall glass of wine in my future. So to all my fellow pet owners who know how exhausting and expensive this past week was, love your furry friends, they are truly a gift that we only have for a short time! I know I am thankful we still have Cleo with us, even if it means we have to help her get around for awhile! Until next time.....

Welcome Tucson

Hello to all our new visitors from the Tucson Sew and Craft. Please make sure to sign up for our new email newsletters on our website www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com. Our newsletters will have free patterns, specials and discounts along with what is new at the studio. Please check out past newsletters on our website if you have not yet received one via email.

I am excited to tell you my newest line of fabric "Polar Opposites" is now available. I have uploaded a free pattern for this collection on the website under "Free Patterns" and the entire collection in now online for you to order under "Fabrics-Polar Opposites". Here is the photo of the polar bear and penguin version for the free pattern. This line will also be featured in the January McCall's Quick Quilts and the January issue of The Quilter.

Well back to work, it is only five days until Fall Quilt Market in Houston.

Stop and Smell the Roses

Well it is back to work around the studio. Quilt market is two weeks away and we have a few more quilts and projects to finish up. We also have another show "Sewing and Craft Festival" next week in Tucson, AZ if anyone wants to stop by. We have everything on sale, including fabrics on the bolt, patterns and fabric kits.

I have been busy working on designing email newsletters to send to our customers. With the drop in business and rise in printing and postage costs, we have to come up with a better way to reach out to our customers. So I have decided to use technology to keep in touch. If you have signed up for our mailing list in the past, I recommend you do it again. I cannot tell if we got all the emails from our customers from the past or not. But the software we are using is smart enough to kick out any duplicates. Sometimes I think the software is smarter than me.

Well today Kathy and I need to finish our next magazine quilt called "Duck, Duck, Goose", make 400 small flowers to string through garlands for someone's booth and 180 leaves that need to be glued onto the 120 fabric flowers I made for a market booth. Every market we get one strange project and this market was to design and make 3-D flowers. These projects are always both fun and challenging. I have first figure out the quickest and easiest way to create the items and still have them look finished and and neat. I have posted the four flowers I came up with here. I think it will be stunning to see all 120 flowers together at market.

Back Home Again

Hello all. It has been awhile. Welcome to anyone who has just joined us from San Mateo, CA. We have just gotten back from doing a show in beautiful Northern CA. It has been an amazingly busy six weeks, even for me. Here at the studio we have been working on show samples for Fall Quilt Market and designing many exciting projects for upcoming magazine features. I have also been taking a class on wire jewelry from Ann Turpin Thayer who is an amazing wire artist who has been very giving with her knowledge and skills. I will post some photos of the pieces I have made as soon as I take them. Anyone who has an interest in wire jewelry should check her local or online classes.

I have also been working on four wool applique projects for our product line. We unveiled them at the San Mateo show and I am posting the photos here. I created these using hand dyed wool from Wooleyladys and Presensia Pearl Cotton. The patterns and kits are now available on our website, www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com. I have always loved working with wool but if you look at my designs you can see I am not a country or primative girl and had to add my own spin on wool applique.

Until next time......

The Muse is calling

Our business, like the rest of the country has slowed down a bit and I find myself with some extra time on my hands. Not alot of time but just enough to get myself in trouble again. As some of you may already know I have written a new book with Krause publications on creating elegant jewelry and beads using fabrics and fibers. I was lucky enough to work with Nancy Zeiman Productions to also create a how-to CD to go along with the book. I finished the book in March and it is in the editing stage now. It is due to come out in January 2010.

I had to design and make twenty different piece of jewelry for this project. Though most people know me for my work in the quilting world, most of you may not realize making jewelry has slowly become a passion for me. Having written several other books, I have to say writing this one was such a joy. I loved every step and was sad when it ended. But once I was done I cleaned up my studio and put away my jewelry making supplies and got back to business. I would occasionally pull out some beads and think about what I would do with them only to have them end up back in the drawer. This has gone on since April. Now one of my dreams is to make and sell my finished pieces to people. This dream will not happen if I never create the ideas in my head. It is always easier to make excuses than to make progress.

Now if you have read my last Blog "Where did July go?" you can see how it is easy to say I am too busy to sit down and make jewelry. But a funny thing happened last month in the middle of all the craziness, my jewelry muse came a knocking. I tried to ignore the banging but finally I let her in. Since that day I have stolen a few minutes everyday and a few hours on some of those days to please my muse and play with my jewelry. I realized part of my problem was I had to keep cleaning everything up after each time and sometimes it was too much effort to pull everything out just to work for a few minutes. So to solve this problem I set up a table in my spare room and created a work area just for my jewelry making. I can now walk away and leave it out so when I have a few minutes, I can stop by the table and work immediately. The nice thing about jewelry making is it is so small it does not take up much space. Here is a photo of my new workbench and some pieces I have made in the last couple of weeks.

What happened to July????

July went by in a whirlwind. Starting with getting ready for the Denver sew and craft show. I spent the first week of the month getting ready to go and making sure I was caught up in the design department before leaving. We drove to Denver from Phoenix, a 15 hour drive through the lovely state of New Mexico. It was a very long trip. Once we arrived in Denver we spent a day setting up the booth and three days visiting with the very nice people of Denver. On the last day we torn down and packed up the booth and then drove to New Mexico for the night. On Sunday we made the long drive home. If it wasn't for Kathy I think I might have gone mad with boredom in the car. She is always great company on these long trips. I did fell sorry for my father-in-law, Jerry who had to drive the u-haul by himself in front of us.

We got home late Sunday and I had two days to get caught up from being gone for a week before my sister and niece came for a visit from Atlanta. On top of all this my tenet moved out of our rental home and I had to get the house ready to show. Needless to say it was a crazy couple on weeks.

I did have a wonderful visit with my family and got the chance to take my niece to see Santa Clause. Poor Santa was all dressed for winter and sitting in a little shop in Glendale AZ when it was 115º outside. Even he said he was ready to quit and go back to the North Pole. My sister and I also spent every night down in my studio working on little projects and had a blast making things and catching up after Miss Violet went off to dreamland.

Sooo now that July has come to an end, I can look back and say I got to visit two states I have never been to, New Mexico and Colorado. I got to see my sister and niece for a nice long visit. I also got to visit with our cousin Sarah who cam e to visit before going off to her freshman year at college. I have our rental home settled and rented again. Finally I spent the last week of the month catching my breath and looking forward to the full and adventurous Fall.

August has already started out with a bang celebrating Matthew (my Husband's birthday) this weekend and getting ready to go to Sedona this week for a short escape from reality. SO until next time.....