All Sewn Up!

I know, SEWN is old news by now, right? You're probably already hosting your own SEWN blog party give-away. Well as you know, my new friend Sarah is the Creative Director of the new soon to be launched SEWN website, and you can read all about it here.

I like to be in the thick of things so I have a bloggy give away planned too! Here's a photo in my bathroom photo studio, of one of the many Sew Frilly bags I made. I love this summery looking bag and I know it holds up, Elizabeth carried it around for a couple of weeks!

Here's the give away! A kit for this bag containing the fabrics, pattern, magnetic closure and covered button .. all you need to complete this bag this is some fusible fleece. It comes crammed into this darling bag from Daiso.. which I just can't stop staring at. I know, I'm pitiful.

So check out the whole SEWN story, comment here, and on launch day, June 8, I will draw a name and get this kit on the way to the lucky winner!!!

Back Home!

Hi peeps! Checking in here on a Thursday night to say hey !!! I've been gone longer than I thought, Frankie and I were having such a good time I stayed an extra day! I know you're expecting to hear about a prize winner.. so I better get cracking!

But first... Here's some vacation pictures. I know, cruel. Enlarge this photo, the ride to Frankie's was to begin with some Japanese bookstore goodness. Check out the sign on the door.

Had a nice lunch with Frankie at the Paris Bakery. Yummy. Then we took a long walk around the farmers market.


These strawberries are HUGE and in the sun it almost hurts your eyes to look at them. It looks like an ad, but really, I saw them myself.




Lounging in the cool breezes at the open air mall. We had a nice walk around there in the early evening. Better to be there when the weather at home was scorchin!


More really great luck on Wednesday.


We went to San Luis Obispo for the day. We'd been planning this trip for ages, I love this shop. What?? CLOSED!! Didn't notice that when I looked up the hours online.

Fortunately it doesn't matter when you're having a fun couple of days of vacation with your daughter. We had a blast.



Now for the winner of the Liberty Star Patterns... its mascanlon who writes "I love all the market photos and I clicked on nearly everything link, thanks especially for them Pam." Thanks for clicking away mascanlon. Email me your address and the patterns will fly off to you!

Cosmo

Good morning peoples, how was the long weekend? We had a great time here.. the weather was perfect. Not too hot, cool in the evenings. Good sleeping weather. I still feel like I'm catching up from that long weekend at Quilt Market !!!

Got the machine out at bit last week, although the place is still a premarket jumble. I have stuff piled up everywhere. EVERYWHERE. If I'm not careful I'll need an intervention. I did get a chance to test out some Cosmo embroidery on the spool. You know, everyone is talking about it for handwork, but what about us folk that only do machine work?

Check it out, the 2 strand Cosmo on a spool works just fine! I used a couple of pieces of really lovely scrap fabric and got started. And look how nice it turns out.

I used my Masterpiece in the bobbin (oh my how I love that thread, color Canvas!!) and I think the tension looks as good as it regularly does with blanket stitching. I always want it to pull a bit to the backside so no bobbin thread appears.


I know, too sunny but I wanted to show you the little box of thread Nireko sent me to play with. All very pretty. I even tried some regular decorative stitching, little flowers and some scallops, all turned out wonderful. I feel like this opens up a wonderful door to use pretty threads on the machine. I'm sure tons of people do it, its new to me though, and maybe to you?



Ok peeps, off to Frankie's for a couple of days, see you when I get back!!! xo

P.S. Brenda has moved.. check out her new blog, set up your links and don't miss a word.

More!More!More! Quilt Market!

Ok peoples today is the last day. I'm super enjoying everyone else's posts too and totally know how much time and energy goes into editing photos and the links. OMG the links. So I hope you clicked on a few and if you didn't please don't tell me. I like how we all attend the same show, but somehow we all see different things. Jona is really catching me up on the mod stuff.

I don't know how I can manage to walk the whole show more than once and still miss people. Like Tara. I'm pretty sure she has a force field around her booth that I just can't penetrate. I've missed her every market so far, although this time, I ran into her in the ladies room!!!

You know who else I missed was Amy. I think Amy is one of the most inspiring and prolific contemporary quilters around and she's good at all of it, fabric selection, piecing and quilting. I admire her machine quilting ways and today I lucked out, Alex loaned me a pile of DVDs to watch and they're the same DVDs Amy watches.. so maybe, well someday. Bummed that I didn't see her.

Speaking of cool people I found out about through Amy, here's Sarah and Damian. Seriously, aren't they like Australia's most famous couple?

I had a nice coffee (well it was crappy coffee but the company was good) with Sarah on Saturday. She was practically fresh from her Martha Radio interview and wow, how important does that make me seem????? I can't wait to get my act together and get going on my SEWN stuff. That's the place to be you know! And not to make you all jealous but I have my own personal carried by Sarah across the world copy of Material Obsessions 2. AUTOGRAPHED NO LESS.. and since she missed bringing it to our coffee, it was hand carried to me by Alex. Wow. I know a couple of people who are seriously going to be jealous to hear that.

Look at her smiling. It's like she knew I would make this all about me instead of all about her and Sewn but still she's indulging me. She's like that.

Renee is so cute. I love her booth and I have the photos to prove it. She has the best vignettes and I love vignettes. Which you would have no problem believing if you saw the million pictures I took. Like I am seriously going to need one of those wiry dressforms thankyouverymuch. And then a set of Jaws of Life to get it in here. But oops that's my problem.

And because Renee is super generous I have a pack of her new patterns so leave a comment and I'll pick a name next week! Like Wednesday, how's that?

OH and here's Vicki doing some paper piecing. We gave her some "encouragement" to get back on the blogging train. She's already posted since she arrived home, so possibly we scared her. Its a distinct possibility. I just loved looking at her pretty blocks and really could have taken 40 pictures because I love the digital macro setting on my camera that much.


Saw some wonderful new fabric while we were walking around. Not to mention running into some of our favorite people, like Ann! All three of us loved the Christmas fabric so much, seriously, the most fun Christmas fabric I've seen in ages.

I hope they sold a ton so we'll find it all over the place. We sent so many people over to see them. Fresh fresh colors and style. I would say after Flower Sugar, my most fav fabric of the show.

Here's Gudrun. This is the first time we've meet, although I've been familiar with her designs for a long time. She has a nice offering for this market. She also had some wonderful chocolates from Iceland and I took some to take a photo of and now I can't find them. And seriously, I thought I was being mature and didn't eat them, but maybe after I ate my cute Holly chocolate I couldn't control myself. It's not like that hasn't happened.

ANYWAY... She had her booth set up with a little back room, and said that during the Sunday slowdown she'd be performing a little show.. here's a teaser.

Over at the Windham booth we met Genevieve Gail with her new line of fabric Flower Bucket and ...

the Very Famous Bari J. with her new line of fabric!!! Bari is a local girl to us so we're always thrilled to see her out and about! Congratulations again, Bari.

I'm such a huge fan of Darlene and she's yet to file a restraining order so we cruised over to check out her demo of the new rulers she's got going on with Simplicity Studio Acrylic Tools. There's a Double Wedding Ring Ruler that totally wowed me. Genius. I wish I had a link for you, but they're so new they're not anywhere yet.

I'm thinking it was shortly after this she shooed me away.

Yes our sweet Whitney is going to have a baby so we won't see her in October. I think I'll take this time to remind you, I know the Urban Chiks, in case you'd forgotten. I would have posted a crazy picture I have of Holly, but then I'd be off 'the list' and I couldn't take it. But seriously you couldn't meet a nicer bunch of young women and if that doesn't make me sound like an old lady I don't know what does.

So that's it people. Thanks for indulging me. Hope you enjoyed the photos and the links. If you just come around for market photos thanks for visiting, see you in October!! Who knows what we'll be up to then!!!

See you next week. Elizabeth and I have something up our collective sleeve, I'm on a little road trip with Frankie and just who knows what kind of trouble I could get in!!! See you then!

Quilt Market, Friends, Food and Coffee

Good morning peeps. Another quilt market post, starting with the best cup of coffee that I had the whole trip, and that was at breakfast with some pretty good company over at the Westin. Kudos Westin. Good coffee.

Good friends too. Here are Elizabeth and Brenda getting caught up iphone style. Brenda is a tweeter, so you can catch up with her there, somehow.

Here's a little picture of the embroidery on her quilt in the Lecien booth. Talk about amazing and wonderful. Here's a link to the entry in her blog with more photos. Truly lovely.

And yummy breakfast. I love breakfast.


Here's the wonderful Jocelyn, Marketing Director at The Fat Quarter Shop. We caught her calling in to tell about all the wonderful things she saw!


The ever amazing Miss Tula Pink, fresh from Pinkerton where she's creating lovely things for us.

Market is not complete if we don't see this sweet woman, Jennifer Paganelli. She's the sweetest ever. And I love love love her fabrics for Free Spirit.

We also ran into our friend Celine from Perkins Dry Goods. She's a friend and quilt market neighbor from the past. She had a lot of pretty new things for this market.

Here's the This and That booth. You might remember Sherri from when I messed up her blog a while back. Now I have nothing but cruddy pictures of her booth.



And of her and Paul, her ever so kind (and slightly gullible) husband! Thank goodness she's just too sweet for any kind of retaliation.

Another neighbor from the past, The Stitch Connection. I love how they combine machine embroidery and quilting in a fresh way.


A bit of Sandy Klop's American Jane Booth. I love her new line Happy Camper. Not yet up on the website but will be soon!



More old friends, The Quilt Branch! They have a new book out Six Halves Make a Whole Lot More, I have an early copy and love it.




Our friend Nicole did some stunt sewing recently and here is a nice picture of the fruits of her labors! Joanna said she did a very nice piecing job and that's what stunt sewing professionals need to hear!

More Moda lovelines. I really fell down on the job getting pictures of everything but I'm pretty sure Anne has that covered. (tee hee)

I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing this trim soon.


Our friend Lizzie couldn't be there but here's a nice photo of her Red Letter Day quilt. Missed you Lizzie!!

Here's my only shots of Holly's booth, Lakehouse Dry Goods. I know she has some on her blog and there's tons out there, I was captivated by these little dessert prints and couldn't look away. I would blog her darling matching candy but I ate it. Whoops.

This one will be the one I put on my wall and gaze at. I love it so much. I don't know if its the baskets or the bows or what. I'm captivated by it.

And her salesmans books are wonderful. Really innovative, like Holly always is.

Here's the charming Joanna in her Fig Tree Booth. She has a lot of lovely offerings this time. And its always fun to have a chat with her! We don't see her enough in real life. I'd like to see her at her house again, she has a wonderful home, seriously go to her blog and demand pictures of her scalloped laundry room. DO IT, I'll wait here.

Market isn't market if we don't scare the 'you-know-what' out of Darlene. Sorry Darlene. I'm just crazy that way, but harmless, inspite of what you might have seen here earlier in this quilt market series. This is Darlene's new fabric Traditions. (I think that's the name, none of my photos has a full picture of that sigh. Dang it) She's got a lot more going on, and I'll get on that next time.

More old friends and famous neighbors, you can see our friend Connie here in her booth, but you can also catch her in her Quilt Sampler Top Ten shop!

Here's a quick picture of our friend Cindy's booth. Seriously, the place was crammed every time we walked by. Her new books are Little Sassy Skirts and Baby Cakes.

Anne! It's not a quilt market without Anne! The sun always shines on her.. because she's so sweet! Her booth was darling and always stuffed with people. She really does have a lot of great pictures on her blog so go check them out.

Our friend Tracy couldn't be there at market so I snapped a picture of her stitchery in the wild. Sadly, the little quilt picture turned out awful and the quilt is so cute. Both could be found in the Lecien booth.

Ok peeps. More to come, seriously. There's more people. More stuff. I hope you click on all the links and check them out, there's so much good stuff out there it boggles the mind.


P.S. And now because I cannot contain myself any longer, I'm in a Moda ad and I know it could be just a little lame of me but here it is. In about 2 minutes it will be hanging on my wall. Seriously. Me. Moda Ad. Framed.



Pardon me while I go stare at it. Me. In the ad. In a frame. Thanks to Monica who sized it for me!

Spring Market-Seeing our stuff

I know a lot of people are used to seeing things they made in other people's booths but its just not old yet to me. Here's the very cheerful Lecien booth. You can see my pillowcase and laundry bag on the table there, they were my little free pattern offerings that should be available on the Lecien website here in June. They had some lovely free pattern brochures and OHMYGOSH I just about died over how darling they were. Amy has one. I know Flower Sugar was so popular some of the pieces sold out. I think it's going to be available in a lot of places so keep your eye's open for that. (new pieces are not yet on the website) Anyway starting on the left, hanging from the corner is Elizabeth's Lovely Punch quilt that will also be a free pattern. The Barb's quilt with the darling tea cups. You can get a peek at Monica's quilt there too, its already on the website.

This (not that great) photo shows the darling Forget Me Not quilt from Elizabeth.

More not great photos from me! But below is the very wonderful quilt Candy Carnival by Elizabeth. Seriously nothing makes me happier than that quilt. You can see my little Sew Frilly bags there, man I love that fabric so much.

Purse sighting at the Minnick and Simpson Booth. Again, thank you thank you!

Here's the Always and Forever display at P&B Textiles. The butterflies quilt by Alex and quilted by Diana. Soon to be on their website as a free pattern as well! You can see my bag there, plus the little apron I made from Frankie's Sunny Day Apron with one of Alex's butterflies on it, and a pillowcase.

Here it is again at the United Notions Booth. Told you, I made a lot of bags. A. Lot. of. Bags.

And lastly here's the quilt Hopscotch! I made one in Bubblegum basics and Elizabeth made on with a jelly roll and charm pack.

Ok, I know there was more stuff and more purses, but seriously? Don't remember where. Now I have to get busy editing more pictures. More friends to talk about. More stuff to see. More links. More more more. xo

Spring Quilt Market Part One!

Just like the button says, I am a Quilter. Capital Q. I love it, love the fabric, love the patterns, everything. Mostly, really really love the people. And lets start with some of my favorites.

Here's Elizabeth, Laurie, Carrie and Kathy Schmitz! You couldn't meet four nicer women. Seriously. Don't make me get all weepy here.
That cute box Laurie showed on her blog was chock full of that cute fabric in the top picture. Vintage cherry fabric. Wow, couldn't get better than that!!! There are some wonderful pictures of her booth on her blog, so check it out. And she's so generous, displaying my purse there.

In fact, these ladies from The New Ewe saw it in the Minnick and Simpson booth and wanted to know where to get the pattern. They said they liked that it didn't look like the average quilter's purse, more like something you'd buy. They totally get me. So thank you Laurie and thanks Cathie and Pat!

Here's more favorites, Kaari, Whitney, Holly and Sandy. Kaari's new line of fabric is debuting and its lovely. I'm sure you all know about her story, if not, check her website. I'm lucky to have been to her shop when it was open.

Here's Angela getting setup to show off Fabricmatcher or the Moda Bake Shop. She had the cutest lanyard project on the Moda Bake Shop that I will be making for next market. Very clever Angela!

Here's Carrie. This is the first time we met in person, but we're blog buddies. She brought me those wonderful cherry candies above. She knew they were totally me and they are!!! Her quilts are so wonderful. I love that she's not afraid to make something challenging.

I know there's been some talk on her blog about the binding clips. Lets just say it wasn't an exaggeration.

I love the pincushions. Super cute, and in the jar.. so amazing. There was one in that jar that was blue, I just wanted to snatch that right out. It looked perfect. Well even more perfect.



Speaking of perfect, you can count on the perfectly cute Camille and Bonnie to have some wonderful projects out there.

And now here are the photos of Tammy at the announcement. I really love Tammy and the women who work for her. She is everything you could hope for in a friend. I wish I had better pictures of her and Miss Sherry.

Tammy, Sherry and Mindy are rocking the Hello Kitty (fake) Tattoos in my honor!!! They really know me!!! I have a pack of those tattoos and a pack of HK band aids for next market. Thanks girls!

Ok hope you enjoyed round one. Stay tuned.

This is not coffee

I don't care what any hotel says, this is not coffee. I packed up my own coffee to bring but of course didn't make any coffee bags so was out of luck. So today you'll have to watch some reruns, check out other people's blogs to see what they say and come back tomorrow. I need a lot of coffee to try to catch up.

Season Finale

Co-Starring Anne and Elizabeth. Thanks to you both!

No Bunnies were harmed in the making of this movie.

Very creatively edited by Happy Zombie Studios.

Anne,,,if if you see this

A Gentle Warning

Hopscotch over to Quilter's Inn

Wednesday Elizabeth and I made a little trip over to the Quilter's Inn to do some pre-market shopping and drop off Hopscotch! Here are Marby and Cyndy with Elizabeth. They're so great, and we all got to work pulling the fabrics from this quilt to kit. I just can't thank Jane and her fun staff enough for their enthusiasm for our patterns!!! If you're interested in a kit, give her a call! (925-837-8458 ) Their shelves are chock full of Bubble Gum Basics!

Here are two customers, Jennifer and Susan, who got caught up in our enthusiasm Wednesday!! Jane has the nicest customers. So hi there again Jennifer and Susan. I hope we didn't scare you!


We're at the first day of Quilt Market today!! Well we will be soon! Have a good day peeps!

We Interupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program

In the Bag

Yesterday I was doing some last minute sewing. This little bag is made in the same manner as the little laundry bag that will be on the Lecien website as a free pattern. This one has fusible fleece as there's a little something inside needing protecting. Bret has been looking for WEEKS for a pink and white little netbook for me. Since we went to Fry's in fact. Seriously. And finally Monday he found it. Now it's all customized and ready for me to take with me.

So people's, I popped it in the bag and hopefully you'll find a little something here during Quilt Market.

Ok, Elizabeth will be here before you know it. Gotta run. xo!

How we roll.

Admittedly they aren't the highest quality photos but you can get why I'm excited about it. It's always nice to know one has options when thinking about the future. Seriously, Pam Dedicated. Just in case you can't read it. How could I have been on the road driving for so many years and never seen a Pam Transport truck?
Ok, everybody, back to work. Nothing else to see here. xo

Another Busy Day Ahead

Today involves no sewing, which is a bit of a relief. I've got a pile of stuff I'm thinking about, but I can't make up my mind exactly what to do. And that yellow strawberry Lecien fabric is all I have of that, can't afford to waste it. It's a lovely canvas weight and will make a good bag. It's Minny Muu.. really, it makes me a little bit crazy. (in the happy way) Today I made the eighth version of my bag for the United Notions booth. I'm so excited that it will be in their booth, it's almost like being in the Moda family. Anyway, this is my new bag, Sew Frilly!

I had a lot of fun with this project, it looks cute in any combination of fabrics, I made two out of Wiscasset and the are so elegant by nature of the fabric. I'm not known for making more than one or two of something but I'm pretty sure I made 8 total. That's a lot of ruffling my friend.

So today has me running errands, going to Elizabeth's house and who knows what else.. I can't remember anymore! I'm sure I have a list somewhere. Elizabeth put all her new patterns on the website. Go check those out! She's got some wonderful things this time. Finally you'll be able to see my quilt from the Bubble Gum Basics that Barbara sent me! It's called Hopscotch. Super easy, super fun. I think Jane at Quilter's Inn will be kitting this quilt up, they're on their second order of Bubblegum Basics.

That's about all for me today. Phew, that's a lot of links so get busy people! xo

Catch Up

Peeps, hope you had a good weekend. I had some productive time and some lounge time. Perfect combo. And even better some time with my kid!!! Haven't seen her for what seems like ages so that was a treat.

Some scenes from the weekend, a giant lizard, gecko.. whatever, flying over a park in Marina. And I love this hill in Seaside, there's always some kind of message on it. I wonder, will J.T. say yes?

A while ago Bret caught me looking longingly at a pretty tea cup on Posy's blog. I love her blog and all the pictures. And particularly this little cup.

Not to be smarmy but ohmy I have a pretty swell husband to track down a little cup from England for Mother's Day.

It is true love.

Ok, stop gagging. You see that Wiscasset there, I need to be making a purse for the United Notions booth!!! Wahoo! And how perfectly wonderful is the fabric? Perfectly! Wonderful!

Now I need to get crackin! Man, market is really almost upon us. Happy Monday Peeps!

p.s. how great is my new camera picking up that life size bit of rabbit fur on the bottom of that cup? Nice huh? talk about gag me! Too late to get another shot.!!

Happy Mother's Day

To all you moms out there..

Here's hoping to a sweet hug filled day. xo

Looking

I'm having one of those let down days, you know, where the majority of the work is behind you and suddenly you have a moment to let down. Not that in anyway do I do even a fraction of the work Elizabeth does, or any of the other designers. I think of my pattern, sew it up, turn over some crappy instructions to Elizabeth and she turns it into a pattern that someone might be able to make. So I have it pretty easy. But still, its one of those days.

I am seriously counting my blessings. There are tons of jobs out there that I just wouldn't want. When I feel like this...

I really try and look on the brightside.



So peoples, we're closing in on market. I sent off Laurie's purse yesterday, and I have just one thing left to work on! It involves the embroidery machine, so that might have me in a pickle but I'll work on it. This time next week I'll be meeting and greeting. And taking tons of photos. So have a good weekend my special peeps. xo

It's True

We went to Daiso. It's not that I wasn't going to tell you, I just didn't get on it and who would have thought Elizabeth would have gotten on that post so fast???? Unlike Elizabeth though, I picked up a basket, didn't want to miss out on anything. Unfortunately I missed out on that little stamp pad and I'm only a little embarrassed to admit that I'm thinking about driving to Daiso in Union City to look for one. I don't have time which is probably why I feel so OCD about it. Laurie's purse is going in the mail today. TODAY PEOPLE.

There's my loot. I'm drawn to the colorful goodness of it all. Happiness at $1.50 a slice.

My sweet treasure from the Hello Kitty Gumball machine. Just the one I wanted. Sometimes it does seem like I have a charmed life. xo

Wiscasset

Morning Peeps. Lookie lookie at this! Its my lovely pile of fabrics from the new line by Minnick and Simpson, Wiscasset. It's so rich feeling, with a nice polish on it. And navy, you just don't see good navy very often. It hasn't hit the Moda website but you know it will shortly after quilt market. I've struggled for a few days to get a really good photo, we've had some cloudy days, some light rain. Today we're off and running early, lot of stuff going on, but it's really the last deadline day. Well, hardcore deadline day.

I'm making a purse or two out of this fabric. One for Laurie and one maybe for the United Notions booth, depends on if they can use it or not. But I'm hoping I'll catch sight of Laurie carrying it around. I'm thinking of using lace instead of a ruffle for a vintage feel. Unless she says ruffle, in which case anything she wants!! I'm happy she spared some of her nice yardgoods with me, and also thanks to Ted for shipping the rest out. He's a busy guy. They should have a page devoted to him so all the lucky recipients could link to it and he could see how he is appreciated!

Ok, that's enough rambling. I super love this 'job'. Nothing beats making things for people. I think I love that best. So for now, gotta go.

But hey peoples, thanks so much for reading my blog. I can't tell you how much you all mean to me. xo

Sew what's up?

I'm still sewing away. Maybe the computer croaking was a blessing in disguise? I got a ton of work done in the off days. (thank goodness though, Bret built me a new one! ) But we're heading down to the wire. This little snippet was just a block on Saturday morning a week ago. Since then it's been made into a quilt, sent to Diana's to be quilted and picked back up, bound and dropped off at the photographer's at 8pm Sunday night and it's already been photographed and shipped off to become P&B's free pattern for Alex's new fabric line. It's very cute.

That's not the end of the Always and Forever story.. I've made a very cute version of Frankie's Sunny Day Apron and my new purse. (ok honestly, its at the machine now but will be done shortly). Schoolhouse attendees see it all at Alex's Schoolhouse on Thursday NEXT WEEK.

NEXT WEEK, QUILT MARKET IS NEXT WEEK.

Excuse me. I need to get busy. xo

p.s. Thanks for the blogging book comments yesterday. YOU GUYS MAKE MY DAY!!!

p.p.s Hey my friend Joe has a new blog, check it out!

You Like Me!

Here's a confession.. when I was younger (like you know,yesterday) I always wanted to be part of the in-crowd, the pretty, popular people. I thought I was over it till just the other day I got an email. It felt a little like being Sally Field on Oscar Night.

The email was from Tara Frey. I MADE THE CUT!!! My blog is featured in her new book, Blogging for Bliss. You should go look at the BLOG STARS on the list. HOLY COW PEOPLE.

It seems like ages ago I filled out some forms and crossed my fingers, wondering if I'd be included. You can't take that kind of thing for granted you know. And happily, it turns out I am. Thank you Tara. Hop on over to her blog and read all about it, say hi, tell her I sent you. I can only imagine what it must feel like!!! She has a book!!! And I'm in it!!!!