jcaroline

Fabric 2.0

Kathy Miller of Michael Miller fame and myself threw a party in Portland Thursday night.  I named it Fabric 2.0 (like Web 2.0) and that chick, Jessica, even did a logo for me.  The idea was to get the bloggers, new fabric designers, and anybody else that is doing something cool in the fabric industry together.  It worked.  We had a great turnout and I met a ton of people whose blogs I read or had read about that I would never have found on the exhibit show floor.

On the left is myself and Joel Dewberry.  I met him at last Quilt Market and he is incredibly nice (and talented).  My goal for next Quilt Market is to weigh less than he does.  The picture on the right, from l to r, is Heather Bailey, Beth of Elinor Peace Bailey dolls, Myrinda of Fabric Hound, and Patty Young of ModKidBoutique.  Patty has a collection coming for Michael Miller next fall.

From l to r, Kathy Miller, Paula Prass of Mimi Collection and her husband, Tim.  Paula is doing a collection for Michael Miller Fabrics coming out this summer.   Carolyn Spencer and Valori Wells are on the right.  They have  co-authored a book, Life Style: 20 Projects to Make Your Home Your Own.  I'm ordering a copy-- perused it at the show and it has some fun projects.

The group on the left is from Sew Mama Sew, from l to r, Beth, Kristin and Lauren.  I'm glad Kristin stopped by because she is very pregnant and didn't know if she could make it or not.  She held up well!  With Joel Dewberry is Amelia and Daria from Boutique Cafe.  They will be adding several podcasts from Quilt Market to their site, so check back in the coming weeks.

There's Joel again!  Either he was everywhere or everyone wanted their picture taken with him!  He's with Sandi Henderson, designer of Ginger Blossom fabric and the soon to be available Farmers Market fabric.  I'll show you her booth in another post-- it was gorgeous!  Charlotte Barnard, deputy editor of Country Living magazine is sitting with Jona of Fabritopia (on the right).  (I know, I was impressed with the Country Living connection too-- Kathy invited her.)  Jona sewed some of the samples shown at market, including Heather Bailey's new line, Pop Garden.

I failed to get pictures of lots of people that were there.  Melissa Averinos of Yummy Goods, for example.  She has a line coming out for Free Spirit next fall.  Donna Wilder, of the original Free Spirit, now of Fabric Traditions and Luana from EQuilter.com were there.  Rob Appell was there with his new book "Making Waves... The Adventures of a Surf Quilter".  As you might guess, he is fun.  And I apologize if I didn't mention you-- if you came after I started concentrating on the food, I probably missed you!

Back from Portland

I said I would blog from the road, but I didn't.  I didn't have time.  At the end of each day, I would run back to my hotel room to practice my new quilting techniques.

Really, I was out eating, drinking and carrying on all the time.   Portland is fun, I met up with fun people I already knew, and met many new ones that are fun.  Fun, fun, fun.  All that from Quilt Market.  A friend emailed me while I was gone wanting to know why I had gone to a Quilting Bee!  When, oh when, will they change the name of this show!!!!  Anyway, I digress.

Modern Flora was the star of the show (in my mind anyway).  Despite my concerns, it did very well at the show.  Observe the very interested buyer studying the fabric and taking notes in the pictures above.  (That was not a setup-- actually she thought I wanted a picture of the display so she moved out of the picture!)  And that exact display is on its way to Fabric Depot in Portland, Oregon (about the largest fabric store in the world) to shine for a few more weeks.  Jessica Jones rocks!

I did take more pictures and have more to share, but I'll do it in multiple posts because I don't want to bore you to tears.  I had a great time, but it is nice to be home and a certain little girl is very clingy today!

To Portland I go

Photo by Eric Baetscher.  Reused under Creative Commons License 2.5.

Off I go to Portland, OR this afternoon for Quilt Market.  I have never even gone to Spring Quilt Market (I normally just go to the Fall one in Houston), so this is a big deal.  I'm usually not very excited about it (thus why I haven't gone), but this year a lot of things are happening.  I'll post from the road!

Belated Happy Mother's Day!

If nothing else, Mother's Day gives me an excuse to dig into the picture archives.  Here is my mother in 1960/61 holding my sister, Elizabeth.  I already raved about my mother's talent last year,  so this year, let's just enjoy a new mother who bothers to put on a dress and pearls and have a formal photo taken.

Happy Mother's Day!
 

My Contribution to the World

Some of you may remember the Potty Seat Incident last December.  The short version is my daughter stuck a potty seat over her head and I had to cut it off with a bread knife as it wouldn't come back off.  I called the manufacturer who was very concerned and I sent the seat back to them (at their request).  I got a new seat from them probably in February, but just ignored it, because quite frankly, I didn't want to deal with that seat again.  Well, my husband opened it up this weekend, and I have to say I was so proud.  It now has a warning printed on the bottom.  In French, Spanish and English no less.  So next time you see a warning label on a child's item and you think "What idiot did that?".  My daughter did and I called the manufacturer and told them.

On another child safety note that you would never see coming... you know those cases DVD's come in?  Well, today my safety-tester daughter removed the paper insert and proceeded to put the case over her head with the hard plastic in the back and the clear vinyl (where the insert normally shows through) over her face.  I don't believe she was in danger of suffocating, but seeing your baby's face smooshed behind clear vinyl is not a sight you want to see again.  Just add that to your list of things to worry about.

Dick and Jane Postponed

Yes, I did shoot pictures of the Dick and Jane crib set this weekend.  I successfully stripped Olivia's crib after she woke up and had it put back to its original condition before her nap at one.

Great, you say!  Where are the photos and how-to's on the website?  Well, I didn't get that done.  Instead, we bought a sandbox and spent the afternoon playing.  Sorry, but we had a great time.   Dick and Jane will be done by tomorrow.

Hope you had a great weekend!

My Water Bottle is Trying to Kill Me

Forget cholesterol, lack of exercise, alcohol and the other 8,475 things you worry about killing you.  My sister visited last weekend and announced that water bottles leached a chemical that "imitated female hormones" or some such.  Initially, I was delighted-- I need some additional female hormones.  Apparently, it's a little more than just a shot of estrogen.  According to an article on MSNBC.com, "The chemical has been linked to neurological and behavioral problems in infants and babies, along with certain cancers, diabetes and obesity."   Oh.

Well, never fear, Nalgene and Camelbak have announced they are switching to BPA (bisphenol A)-free bottles.  Camelbak's will be available May 1.  A little fun fact I learned from Camelbak's website:  The 7 with arrows around it is a recycling symbol, but does not necessarily indicate that the bottle was made with polycarbonate (the offensive plastic containing BPA).  All polycarbonate bottles are #7's, but not all #7's are polycarbonate.  I guess you have to check with the manufacturer.  And the manufacturers still say that polycarbonate bottles are safe, but a panel with the National Institute of Health  says “the potential for BPA to impact human health is a concern, and more research is clearly needed.”

Now I have been justified in my practice of drinking Diet Coke and limiting my water intake.

Image from Amazon.com

Works in Progress

I haven't posted anything lately because I haven't finished anything.  Well, yes I did.  I finished my taxes and my year-end financial statements, but I didn't finish anything creative (or interesting).  I have been working on some new chairs.  I really upgraded on these-- they were $15 a piece at Goodwill.

At the risk of grossing you out, you can guess what the spots on the right one are.  They're just about little dog leg height, wouldn't you say?  I didn't realize until I unloaded them out of the car that the spots were fairly recent, i.e. wet.  I took a utility knife and cut off that fabric and padding immediately and gave the wood underneath a good dose of Lysol cleaner.  I'm sure that's more information that most of you wanted to have, but I wanted to share that with you-- well, just because its gross.

A couple of people have commented earlier about worrying about bed bugs and other critters in upholstered furniture.  I'm pretty sure the smell would have killed any creatures that might have been residing in these chairs.  The people expressing concern are probably correct, but I just choose not to think about it.  Besides, you'd see things when you stripped off the fabric, right?

I did finally get these chairs fully stripped after about 18 hours.  There were staples everywhere.  I'm not kidding when I say some places had 12 staples in a one-half inch area.  That's a lot of staple pulling, I'll tell you.

I think the chairs have a nice shape and they are very fluffy and comfortable.  They just suffer from that 90's syndrome of HUGE furniture for HUGE rooms.  Add to that the overstuffing and the nice beige/beige/beige motif and you've got yourself a great everyday furniture store chair!  So, I pulled off a lot of the batting and stuffing to tone them down a bit.  I still plan to do a fan back, but to do welting between the fans instead of gathering the material.  I also think that base/leg design is pretty non-descript, so I plan to add a skirt- maybe even pleated.  And I think the separate seat cushion just adds to the overwhelming stature of the chair, so I am going to attempt to turn it into a "fixed seat" (an upholsterer told me that's what it is called).  I think it will give the chair a more rounded look because now I think the cushion looks like a slice of bread thrown on the chair.

I also broke down and ordered a pneumatic staple gun from DIYupholsterySupply.  My electric staple gun really let me down on my last chair, as I had to hammer the staples down because they wouldn't go all the way into the hard wood.  Plus, the very helpful owner of DIYUpholsterySupply told me that this staple gun would let me get close enough to staple the PlyGrip so that I wouldn't have to tack it down by hand.

And I'm waiting for some new fabric, that I understand hit port this week and the vendor is rushing me a bolt just for these chairs!  So, next week I should be knee deep in a certain fabric by a certain designer and I just hope I can make them turn out the way I see them in my  head!

I'll keep you posted because I might need some encouragement along the way!

New Website Design

Okay, I only planned to have this done by the end of the year (2007 that is) and we still haven't upgraded to the newest version of the shopping cart as planned, but I couldn't stand it anymore and made the cosmetic changes to the old site.  I was tired of looking at it's tired old home spun design (yes, I did it) and I know Miss How About Orange was probably about to have a stroke every time she looked at it.  She designed the lovely banner and left-side menu.  She has made some other suggestions that we'll implement slowly but surely.  And if you come to the blog and see crazy things like this, you'll know I was experimenting with colors again.  So enjoy the new design and test it out by spending some money!

Fellow Clutterers

Photo of William Buckley's home office from Newsweek (March 10, 2008).

Yes, my sister sent me the picture she referred to in an earlier comment.  Apparently, William F. Buckley, Jr. (who died earlier this month) was a clutterer as well.  So I'll consider him a kindred spirit, even though I am not a conservative and I am certainly not intellectual enough to hang out in his circles.  Unless his circles happened to spend some time discussing fabric, ribbon and sewing techniques.  Too bad they didn't- I would love to hear William Buckley's voice discuss the virtues of interfacing.

Okay, so NOW it's out of control

Okay, so I'll admit it.  My office has reached "critical mass" and I do need to spend some time today picking up before I can achieve any real work.  (If you are new to how I keep my workspaces, you can catch up here.)  It seems the books did leap off the bookshelf and have some sort of party of the floor- I can't imagine what they got at Office Depot that they found so much fun.  (Oh goodness, it looks like it might be materials for filing!)  And the couch is no longer interactive- it is just acting as an upholstered work table.  Apparently, my idea of adding the shelf right next to it has not turned out to be the neatening trick I thought it might.  But that clutter isn't on the couch too, right?

I do have a sewing project I want to finish today too that I hope to get on the web this weekend.  So one or the other will get done today-- maybe both.

And again, let me remind you, my mother did not make me this way.  This is in no way a reflection on her or her parenting skills.

Now that I study the pictures and compare them to last fall's, it's not that bad.  I'll pick it up tomorrow.

Jessica Rocks!

I couldn't wait- I had to use my new blog header and color scheme that Jessica Jones (you know, that girl from How About Orange) designed for me.  The jcaroline creative! website will be undergoing a face lift in the next couple of weeks, but that overhaul is a little more major, so we'll have to wait.  Thankfully, Jessica encouraged me to perk up the site that has looked the same for at least four years.  Now I have a cool venue to showcase her fabric!

Jessica posted about her new fabric on her blog Friday and the comments are overwhelming.  She certainly has a fan club and they came out in full force to congratulate her.  She did create an incredible collection and I feel like a proud aunt!

Okay, I will shut up about THE FABRIC until I can give you a date that it will be here.

It's going to be cold...

       

Weather Forecast for Providence, RI

Tuesday         Jan 15                                                                                                                                                                     Mostly           Cloudy                     High:           32°F (0°C)           Low: 19°F (-7°C)                                                                                                                  Wednesday         Jan 16                                                                                                                                                                     Partly           Cloudy                     High:           34°F (1°C)           Low: 15°F (-9°C)                                                                                                                  Thursday         Jan 17                                                                                                                                                                     Mostly           Cloudy                     High:           36°F (2°C)           Low: 31°F (0°C)                                                                                                                  Friday         Jan 18                                                                                                                                                                     Wintry Mix                     High:           39°F (3°C)           Low: 21°F (-6°C)                                                                                                                  Saturday         Jan 19                                                                                                                                                                     Partly           Cloudy                     High:           24°F (-4°C)           Low: 12°F (-11°C)

Why do I care about the weather in Providence?  Because I'm going there tomorrow.  Thankfully, I bought a coat and gloves last week.  Why am I going there?  That's a secret.  Until Wednesday or Thursday and then I'll tell you.  Possibly with pictures.  Maybe it is textile-related.... For those of you thinking this isn't cold, realize it is currently 60 degrees and sunny in Houston.

Tell me what you want to know... within reason

I added a page to the blog yesterday.  It's called "What do you want to know?" and will always be available on the left column somewhere under my mug (which I intend to start rotating through all of my equally awful pictures).  Ask me something you want to know more about in regards to sewing, crafting, home dec, ribbons, fabric-- anything under that general umbrella.  If I can answer it on my own, great.  If I can't, I'll do some research to find out more.  Then I'll do a post on it and give the person who generated the idea a $25 gift certificate to jcaroline creative!

I'll hope you'll use this opportunity to get your questions answered and I'll even help you out by giving you some ideas:

What makes a cotton organic?  (Which I do plan to post about in the next few days, but if you have a specific question, bring it on.)
How are most fabrics colored, dyed, printed or finished?  (Again, specifics help narrow the focus, but if you want a broad overview, I'll do that to.)
Why are some ribbons one-sided or a certain texture, etc.?
Why does my sewing machine misbehave on occasion and what should I do about it?
How do I make a cosmetic bag, small purse, install a zipper, etc.?

I'll look into just about anything as long as someone is interested in it.  I will try to do two "knowledge" posts a month, but if I can do more, I will.

Happy 2008 Again!

I didn't get Christmas cards out this year, but I did make it for New Year's-- well, close enough anyway.  And if you aren't on my Christmas card list, I didn't want you to miss out on yet another picture of the most photographed child in the world.  Feel free to also admire the layout I put together.  Most importantly, have a great 2008!

Happy 2008!

Okay, the holidays are over.  It's time to straighten up and get back to work!  I hope everyone had a great holiday break.  Olivia and I covered approximately 1600 miles by air and 500 by car in six days.  We visited my parents in Arkansas and then John's parents in Missouri and Olivia touched absolutely everything in both houses.  She also saw snow which she didn't think was so great because her hands got cold and I agree with her completely.

The girls above are John's teenage nieces showing off their new quilts.  Last time John's mother visited Houston, she picked up some remnants for the girls who had expressed interest in making quilts.  They pieced them together last summer and I'm sure had long forgotten about them.  John's mother had them quilted and gave the quilts to them for Christmas.  If you've ever made a quilt, you know how dramatic the difference is when it is finished versus when you have just pieced the top.  They were thrilled with their new quilts and matching pillows.  I had great fun naming the Michael Miller and Amy Butler fabrics found in each one.  I was impressed that both girls are basically beginning sewers, but were able to piece together really great looking quilts with just squares of fabric.   They used solid flat sheets for the borders and backing.

 

I thought the quilts were darling and a great way to showcase a fabric stash.  And a way to keep your children entertained during the summer.  And possibly encourage budding creative types!

Sharing the Savings!

Holly at Decor8 did a lovely blog post about jcaroline creative before Christmas.  If you've never visited her blog, it is worth adding to your favorites.  She predominately covers home decor, but she also covers crafts and other handmade items and lots of fabrics. I loved the fabrics she picked to feature in her pictures- these Alexander Henry fabrics shown above are some of my favorites, but have never been the biggest sellers.

Anyway, her readers benefited from a coupon before Christmas and my readers deserve the same if not better! Use coupon code "jcaroline" at checkout to save 25% (yes, that's twenty-five percent) on all fabrics.  Good until January 2.  Stock up for next year!

Goodwill for Sale

Today's virtue available is goodwill.  Not the kind that companies amortize on their balance sheet (sometimes accounting terms escape from the deepest recesses of my head- kind of like an acid flashback- but not as fun or colorful).  No, this is the goodwill that Websters defines as "a kindly feeling of approval and support : benevolent interest or concern".  Nice, yes?  (The virtue itself is nice, but it might also save you some money!)

I'm glad the people in line at Einstein's Bagels felt goodwill Friday.  The person serving me said "I'll meet you at the register".  I took that to mean that I should walk to the register right then.  Au contraire, as I felt the searing of at least 14 eyeballs on the back of my head.  But they showed goodwill-- I was not struck in any way or even verbally reprimanded.  And I politely walked back to my place, trying to explain that I had misunderstood her instructions.  But really, I was kind of mumbling and discombobulated, so then the people in line assumed I was maybe a little nuts.  And, again, they showed goodwill towards me as they let the crazy woman back into her place in line.

Though this incident reminded me how places like that drive me crazy.  You know those restaurants/shops where you are just supposed to know what to order, where to pay, etc. etc.  The menu is on about 6 different boards in various places around the restaurant.  How do you know what to order?  Who do you give your order to?  When do you pay?  Do you sit down and they bring it to you?  Do you pick it up?  Do you clean up your table or do they do it for you?  I used to think it was my job to figure all that out- but now I've decided that really, it should be the shop's job.  So though I may not feel a "kindly feeling of approval and support" for the shop's operations manager, I feel much "benevolent interest and concern" towards the mumbling, confused people you always see in there that have no idea how the place works.  Because I am becoming one of those.

Patience on Sale

Today's virtue for sale is patience.  Sold by the ounce- limit 16 ounces per customer, please.

Perspective on Sale

Over at the "shop", I'm selling A Little Perspective in time for the holidays.  It's available at no charge as part of my "12 Days of Christmas Sale".  Through December 19, I'm going to put random things on sale for a day or two.  Things will come and go as I feel like it.  Some things will be great deals, some will be okay deals, but I assure you it will always be interesting.  Check back daily to see what's new.  I will be adding other virtues that you can purchase throughout the sale.

Olivia and the Potty Seat

Okay, I thought I was pretty good at predicting what my child can get into and preventing it.  Not this morning.  While I was drying my hair, (which I admit, I spend a full three minutes on), she went into her bathroom and placed the potty seat over her head.  (The kind of seat you put on the toilet so children don't fall through.)  She came back into my bathroom and looked a bit perplexed over her potty seat necklace.  "Isn't that cute," I thought to myself.  "These are the moments when you need to have a camera handy."  Except it wouldn't come off over her head.  And that's when the sobbing and screaming started.  Hers.  My sobbing came later.

For ten minutes, I remained very calm, consoling her that "Mother will get it off, just relax."  Twenty minutes later, I'm panicking.  Who do you call?  What could they do, anyway?  The more I pulled, the more she screamed and I had visions of a sprained neck or worse.  At thirty minutes, I started crying.

A few minutes of crying gave me the determination to fix this problem.  Downstairs we go, potty chair still around her neck.  Olivia is somewhat calm-- a little weepy, but not screaming.  I go to the garage looking for any kind of saw I can find, which was a wood saw.  Which was not designed for plastic, vinyl and foam and was a little large for the job anyway.  Now we are forty minutes into the trauma and now I'm just angry.  At myself, at the manufacturer of the seat, at my husband for being out of town, at the wood saw-- I was just angry.  Time to reevaluate.  I considered the Dremel tool briefly.  Too noisy and I don't have that good of control.  I took scissors and cut off the vinyl cover and pulled out all the foam stuffing.  It still wouldn't fit over her head.  I then start removing screws that hold the handles and some other plastic pieces on.  Once I removed enough of the extra plastic, I was down to just a solid black ring of plastic.  I then sacrificed one of my husband's precious expensive knives (sorry dear-- the serrated bread knife to be exact).  I started sawing from the outside until I was halfway through the ring and realized for safety reasons (?!) I should probably saw from the inside out.   So I stick the knife between her neck and the potty seat (yes, that is how desperate I had become) and sawed outward.  Voila!   She was instantly relieved.  I had too much adrenaline pumping at that point to feel relief.

A banana and the ride to the office and she was as good as new.   I was a little shell shocked and when I got to the office, I called the manufacturer of the potty seat to report the incident.  Of course, as I recount the incident to this woman, I come up the other side of this mood swing and become almost hysterical with laughter. I can't stop laughing about the ridiculousness of my child's head being exactly the right size to fit into the seat but too big to get it back out.  And the relief that there was only approximately 45 minutes of suffering and no long term injuries. What are the chances of  this happening?  At my house this morning, about 100%.  So the manufacturer thinks I am a mother that has no problem using kitchen knives around my child's neck and that I might just be insane.

I will say the manufacturer was very concerned and requested that I send the seat back to investigate.  They also offered to replace the seat, but I instead opted for some of their other products. I don't want to trash their potty seat because other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, it was a good one.  I suggested they might want to make the plastic ring two pieces so it could be snapped apart.

That set the tone for the day.  Enjoy your children and never, ever take your eyes off of them.  My morning routine will now be performed with Olivia tied to my leg.  My sister summed it up well-- children that age have great mobility and not one bit of sense.

Turkey Hangover

19 lbs. of domestic turkey goodness.   How could this bird look like nirvana on Thursday and today it reminds me of a dried up buffet dinner?  Fortunately, the bird has been put out of its misery and made into a delicious turkey pot pie.  (This is all thanks to my husband, John.  This definitely earns him one free hunting weekend.  Maybe two if you count the pecan pies.) 

My sister, Cynthia also contributed greatly to the Thanksgiving feast with two types of potatoes and pumpkin pie.  (She claims I never mention her in my blog, so this is her moment to shine.  She even brought real whipped cream.)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend here in Houston.  My parents came down and we enjoyed lots of meals together with lots of food. Our only disappointment was that we couldn't be with all our family members this holiday.  Oh, and that the leftover stuffing fell out of the refrigerator on Friday face down.  If I had been around I would have tried to salvage it from the floor dirt and dog hair, but fortunately for the remainder of the guests, I wasn't.  The stuffing was John's as well and it was the best, moistest stuffing I have ever tasted.  (Sorry, Mother.)

Olivia had a great time with constant attention from her grandparents and trying to figure out why we were at the table eating every four to five hours.  And where the extra two dogs came from (my parent's).  And why I made her dress up Thursday evening in an outfit that didn't fit and actually made her look pretty ridiculous.  I'll have to plan ahead better for the Christmas outfit. 

Hope you also had a wonderful and food-filled holiday.  Now it's on to the frenzy we call Christmas.

PS. Congratulations Missouri Tigers!  I feel a little guilty as I have never paid any attention to them when they weren't doing well, but I'm on the bandwagon now!  Oh well, I'm sure I'm not the only alum that gets interested when the sports program is on the upswing!

What??? Thanksgiving already???

I didn't realize Thanksgiving was this week until last week.  Kind of snuck up on me.  That means year-end is just around the corner and I have a huge to do list between now and then.  (And I'm not even including holiday shopping and preparations!  Okay, so I usually don't do any holiday preparations.)

The Martha Stewart show featuring Anna Maria finally aired here on Friday.  (Apparently our cable provider delays the broadcast by a day.)  She did a great job and here is the project she demonstrated on the show.

Tina Givens fabric from Free Spirit arrived last week.  It is a really interesting collection.  A lot of corals, greens and turquoise.  A very different look than I've seen in a while on fabric.

Jessica Jones of How About Orange has put together an aesthetic update of my website and blog.  She has come up with a great design, which I hope to implement by January.  She is working on some other things for me.  I'll tell you about that as it gets closer to being finished.  (That's called a teaser.)

Check out her post on DIY v. Craft.  It generated a lot of debate on when things are art and when they are junk and how they can all get thrown under the same umbrella of "craft".  Once commenter pointed out that quilting can have the same problem:  "It [quilting] can mean a beautiful work of fabric art or it can be a combination of harvest gold, avocado and orange polyester fabric scraps that even disgusts the fabrics that participate."  Now, that's profound and well written.  Okay, that was my comment.

If I don't get anything else written this week, have a great Thanksgiving weekend.  It is by far my favorite fall/winter holiday because so little is expected of everyone.   Just get together with family and eat a big meal.  Now that's a holiday!

New Goodies from Alexander Henry!

While waiting for my computer to reboot (twice) this morning, it gave me the time to shoot some pics.  Guess whether I use a Mac or a PC?  Okay, that was negative.. my apologies.  There is too much goodness around here for that!

Alexander Henry's new fabric, their "Fashion for Home" collection arrived yesterday.  It is a canvas weight fabric, 45" wide in some older prints and some brand new prints.  I am in love!  I've only wanted a heavier weight Alexander Henry for years and finally it happened.  (Again, they apparently forgot to call me and ask.)  It will get it on the web this afternoon.  That is if I can just stop staring at it and touching it.

And you Joel Dewberry groupies, we got his fabric in last week.  Enjoy!

Set your Tivo for Anna Maria

Anna Maria Horner, designer of Chocolate Lollipop fabric (and several other wonderful things) will appear on the Martha Stewart show November 15.  The "girls" will be doing a craft project with Chocolate Lollipop fabric.  Go to the Martha Stewart website to find the local show schedule in your area.  Or tell your Tivo to find it.

I met Anna Maria at Quilt Market this year and she is as cute and nice in person as you would suspect she is from her blog.  I didn't realize that she is working on a home dec fabric line (The Drawing Room) to be released in January/February and another quilt line (Garden Party) for May.  Plus, she has a sewing book in the works.  So lots of things to look forward to in 2008 from Ms. Horner.

Please, don't

I don't intend to use this blog as a forum for my personal beefs, but after receiving an email from a certain unnamed mega-retailer based in Bentonville, AR, I must ask, please, please don't purchase an upside down Christmas tree. I don't understand them, I don't like them, please make this trend stop.  Fake trees- fine.  Pre-lit trees- fine.  Flocked trees- fine.  No tree- fine.  Upside down tree- no.

Now I feel better.  And if you have already purchased one, don't tell me about it.

Fabric Trade Show aka "Quilt Market"

This past weekend was Quilt Market in Houston, which is held here every year.  (The spring market moves to other cities.)  I do wish they would change the name to better reflect what it is.  It is one of the biggest fabric trade shows in the country, and obviously the quilting industry is a huge part of it, but there is so much other sewing going on that doesn't involve quilting.  Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking quilting.  I just believe it is but one piece of an industry that still has great potential to make itself attractive to new generations of sewers.  I don't quilt and most of my customers don't quilt, but we are all still sewing like crazy and want to see new fabrics and goods oriented to our projects as well.  And I think by broadening the name of a market such as this, you encourage more participants, both buyers and vendors, to think beyond one particular type of sewing.  So when they call me to ask my opinion about the future of the industry, I will include this comment in my report.  Which should be happening any time now...

So, based on the name of the market, you may be surprised to hear that it was very encouraging from a sewer's and a business person's perspective.  There were so many contemporary and interesting fabrics, I had to make choices as to which ones to take on.  Three years ago, I bought everything remotely funky and still didn't think I had enough.  Finally, some manufacturers realize that people like you are producing children's apparel, apparel accessories, and home dec accessories and want sophisticated, interesting prints and will pay for them. Hurrah.

The quick version of my finds at Quilt Market include:

• Michael Miller has three great new printed cotton collections coming out, but my favorite is their neutral collection.  Yes, I have to say I am starting to suffer from color overload and found the tans, caramels, beiges and whites to be soothing.   Coming in December, I believe.  They have also added bias tape and ruffled ric rac from their pin dot and gingham fabrics.
• Michael Miller also introduced their organics collection, which is coming in January.  Seven pieces of organic cotton including a fleece, terry, a mid-weight woven and two lighter cottons.  Also includes a felt from post consumer recycled plastic bottles.  This is a children's apparel and accessories must.
• Joel Dewberry was there in the flesh- met him.  His fabric collections for Westminster came out in May, but for some reason I ignored them until now.  Never fear, I ordered from all collections in all the colors, except the tiny prints.  Coming next month.
• Prints Charming was there with their new collection "Two Young Street" for Marcus Fabrics.  (They had the "Follow Your Imagination " collection with Free Spirit last year.)  Bought it- coming December, I think.
• Tina Givens is a new designer for Free Spirit with a new fabric line.  Lots of green and salmon.  Sorry, can't find a picture of it on the web.  She has previously developed stationery through her company Cid Pear.  Sophisticated art.
• Had already ordered Jennifer Paganelli's Sis Boom Basics.  They should be arriving in November/December.
• Found the distributor for those Japanese prints that I've been seeing all over the web.  They are bold graphic prints on linen and canvas (they remind me of early Marimekko)- coming in January.
• I am most excited about Alexander Henry's launch of fabrics on a heavy cotton oxford.  (The look and feel of canvas, maybe slightly lighter.)  They have some new prints (that are awesome), but they also ran some old favorites like Mocca in Chocolate on the new fabric.  Not only that, but they have already run the fabrics, so the items are available to ship now.  (Alexander Henry usually sold their fabrics from the art and then only produced the items that they sold enough of.)  Whoopee!  Expect them in two to three weeks.

My overview was perhaps a little lengthy, but this way you can save some pennies for the incoming fabrics, buy up the fabrics that are soon to be retired and sew like a mad woman.  And yes, I believe I will soon have an inventory problem.

My apologies, Mother

My mother called me yesterday to say she had read my blog and felt she needed to comment that growing up I was expected to make my bed everyday.  I don't want people to get the wrong idea and think I was raised with no couth and that my mother didn't teach me to be neat and clean.  Every Saturday, my two sisters and my mother and I cleaned the house from top to bottom.  My mother is the only person I know that vacuumed out the air ducts every week.  And yes, I had to make my bed every morning and change the sheets every weekend.  So my mother is not to blame and she is a pillar of neatness and cleanliness. 

When did it all go wrong?  When I went to college, I think.  I discovered that my sheets never "needed" to be changed, jeans could be worn at least five days in a row and that I could save a lot of time for other activities if I didn't clean or pick up.  I have achieved a balance of how much time I'm willing to spend on organization and cleanliness and what my limit for utter chaos is.  Thus why my office and project room are a complete shambles- those are my domains and I don't have to share them with anyone else.  At home, I do have cleaning help, so that other members of the household do not have to suffer from my cleaning and picking up rebellion-- at least not too much.  My husband has asked me on numerous occasions why the dirty clothes only make it "around" the clothes hamper and not in.  The fact that clothes are going to the hamper at all I consider quite an achievement.

You can blame my dad.  He is a bit of a clutterer.

My Studio

In Amy Butler's new book, Midwest Modern, she shows us pictures of her and her husband's design studios.  I was so inspired, I thought you might be inspired by my space as well.

This is a lovely 15 x 8 foot room in our warehouse/office space.  Note the design details only available in buildings of this era (1980's concrete block business park buildings).  Nothing beats the simplicity of a linoleum floor and suspended ceiling with fluorescent lights.  It is a multi-function space, storing various hardware, including the computer type (in that refrigerator-like cabinet in the back corner).  The table is decoratively strewn with works in progress.  Mona is hanging out in the background in a new dress I'm making for her- more on that later.

Another view of the inspiration room. The bookshelf in the back has been meticulously organized with plastic containers with labels.  The grid wall on the right provides a home for a few well-organized patterns. I insist on a neat, clean sewing surface, so Olivia is going to have to move her blue block.

But this isn't the only space I put my special design touch on- there's also my office.

Again, I find organizational containers an absolute necessity and these in cute colors from The Container Store fit the bill.  And once they got filled up, the floor provides easy access. I love the frosted glass doors on the book cases (from Ikea)-- you can close them and it will hide the mess.  I prefer the airiness the open doors provide.  It makes me feel like those books are free to come and go as they please.

In front of my desk, I like to keep my inspirational objects and images.  Apparently, most of my inspiration arrives in cardboard boxes.   The couch is what I like to call "interactive furniture"-- you must clear a spot before you can sit down.  Rearranging its contents really helps you get to "know" the furniture.

I call my design philosophy "cluttered genius" and I hope this inspires you to redo your studio, office or even your home.

Stream of Consciousness

I've got everything I can possibly think of on the web (okay, there are still a handful of items).  That must mean a truck is about to back up to the door and unload some pallets!  We've gotten in American Craft's Gift Wrap which is darling.  I' m not a very good gift wrapper, but it definitely perked up the gifts I gave this weekend. These are from the Celebrations group.

We also got in 84 of the 92 colors of RJR's Cotton Supreme Cotton Solids, which was like getting that huge box of crayons that had the built in sharpener!  I'm thinking of all sorts of crazy ideas for projects with solids.

Speaking of colors, we are working on a way to make it easier to accurately match colors across several product lines on our site, but that is a few weeks away.  Did you know the human eye can see 6 million colors?  And that humans can distinguish more shades of green than red?  Some of the interesting facts I'm discovering in my color research frenzy.  Why do I care?  Because computer monitors have definitely come a long way in displaying colors, but every monitor and video card display colors their own way.  And with the web, photo file sizes are kept small so that they load quickly, which means some of the color data is lost in the compression.  So we are working on a solution to quantify the colors of our fabric scientifically, allowing you to search for and compare them when shopping on the web with something more meaningful than "light blue".

I also ordered a bunch of Simplicity and Burda patterns.  The Simplicity's are here.  I'm working on some ideas for cute tops and jackets.  I've been eyeing Tory Burch's website- she's got beautiful clothes, none of which I can justify in my jeans and T-shirts wardrobe, but inspiring all the same.  I'm envisioning this tunic in Alexander Henry's Mocca in White.  The closest I found in Simplicity was #6086, which I think I can remake the collar and make it work.  I'm also envisioning a jacket out of some of our cotton canvas.  I'll report back.

By the way, I had to look up the title of this post because I couldn't remember if Stream was plural or singular.  I guess it could depend on how good or bad your writing is.  Wikipedia says "Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative (and at times dissociative) leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings."  That pretty much sums it up.

Someone is Turning (4)1!

These darling cupcakes the employees of j. caroline made for my birthday today and decorated with ribbon bows.  Cute and yummy!  They brought in lunch and gave me a spa gift certificate.  I love a good birthday party- especially mine!

Yes, another year has passed and oh! the wisdom I have to share.  But I'll save that for another post.  And I've pretty much goofed around all day today, so I might as well call it quits.  That's what birthdays are for, yes?

Party Recap

The party Saturday was a success and now it's back to real life!  But first, I had to show you what my friend Rhonda did for the party.  She took Polaroids of every one at the party, gave them tags to write a note to Olivia and put together a scrapbook of the evening THAT NIGHT! She had pages and tape at the ready and had already stamped some stickers that she wanted to use, but literally got the book together in about one hour after the party.  I thought it was an awesome idea and such a great momento of a very special event.  Thank you, Rhonda, for sacrificing your party time for us- but hopefully, we made up for it afterwards.  A little after party, if you will.

It was very touching to have so many friends join us in celebrating our new family.  I was thrilled that Olivia's CPS caseworker came and she said this is the first adoption party she has attended!  I hope in the darker days at her job, she can remember that there are some good times!  Anyway, the party was fun, the food was great and the guests were grand!

Thank you also, blog commenters, for the lovely notes you have left.  I always worry about getting too personal (because there is an assumption there that people care!), but I love reading your congratulatory notes and it makes me vow to be a better commenter!

Okay, play time is over.  It's Monday and it's time to get serious again!