In only a few more weeks, Emma yardage by Newcastle is scheduled to arrive at independent quilt shops!  Here’s a perky pinwheel quilt made from some early strike-offs for inspiration.  The hand-quilting was so much fun, and a great way to be semi-productive while catching up on the Lying Game…

And below, here is the quilt in its entirety.  It’s pretty large (70″ x 90″), but being approximately 70″ myself, I like to be able to do the under-toe flip, which this puppy can definitely accommodate.  If you’d like to download a free template for the 18″ pinwheel squares, then this is for you.

Strike-offs for the new Emma collection on cotton have arrived!  Here are some of the printer’s color testing strips pasted into my “Cathy Heck Studio scrapbook of repeatable patterns in progress.”  It’s so exciting!  Everything is looking cheerful and crisp.  Don’t worry, more Emma previews coming soon…  Have a great weekend!

The lucky, randomly-selected commenter who has won an Alex Collection baby book, calendar with stickers, and brag book is #10.  Congratulations, Amber!  We’d like to thank everyone who participated for all of your great comments.  Please stay tuned for more giveaways, and have a wonderful weekend.

Emma’s brother collection, Alex, just arrived in the studio, and it is such a handsome group … perfect for the little man.  We are so pleased with the final outcome that we are giving away a group of three Alex keepsake products to one lucky winner at the end of this post.

Just as planned, the soft blues blend perfectly with the muted khakis. The navy accents are spot on.  We are imagining that someday, the recipient of this group will be pictured inside his baby book wearing his first navy blazer and khaki pants … and we’re pretty sure there will be some snips and snails in the pockets, so be sure to check before you throw them in the laundry.

Above is one of the illustrations from inside the baby book … This dapper gator cracks me up with his little top hat perched on his knobby noggin.  He’s all dressed up for the Alex Collection debut.  (Well, really he is dressed up for the Baby’s Celebrations page, but he’s multi-tasking today.)

Below are some of our favorite embellishments. From top left clockwise: 1. We are loving this embroidered argyle elephant on the brag book.  2. Another favorite is the embroidered zebra on the cloth frame, especially his broomstick tail.  3. The striped gros-grain ribbon and the herringbone giraffe dress up one of the photo albums. 4. The lettering for the baby books turned out great.  We always hold our breath about embroidered lettering until we see the samples … so now we can breathe … it’s readable and it feels great to the touch.

A favorite of mine is the First Year Calendar with Stickers.  It’s the best way to keep up with important milestones while juggling the little ones making the milestones.  I found that I could at least fill in one little square a day, and then record them later in the baby book.  And sometimes, when you don’t have time to write, just pop on one of these cool stickers.

So there you go … the Alex Collection!  We think it is appealing to two different kinds of parents … those who like to surround themselves with classic and traditional design and those who prefer modern and contemporary fashion.  Or if you are like me, a little bit of both!  You can find the Alex and Emma collections at specialty retailers around the US, as well as right here from our friends at C.R. Gibson.

This week, to celebrate the exciting debut of Alex, we are giving away the three handsome pieces above: a Keepsake Baby Book (and you can choose whether you prefer the tightbound or 3-ring version), a First Year Calendar with Stickers and a Brag Book.  Just add your comment in the comment-box below and we will pick a lucky winner randomly on Friday, March 18.   Good luck!

Roborapture!  Our Baby Bot samples have arrived … and the studio is full of beautiful new products manufactured by the wonderful folks at C.R. Gibson.  We are celebrating with a giveaway of three hot-off-the-press pieces to one lucky winner next Friday.  (See photos and learn more at the end of the post.)  This collection is for a hip new baby boy (and his cool parents!)  The color palette hints of primary colors, but we’ve added a retro twist, so, it will be as comfortable on the shelf with classic Tinker Toys as with modern LEGO blocks.

All of the pieces are printed on a soft matte paper that has a smooth feel to the touch and the embellishments turned out perfectly.  Fun square buttons and gros-grain ribbons add to the keepsake quality of the photo albums.  And the baby books include muted turquoise metal name-plates which can be customized with baby’s own name.

We fell in love with the baby bot bank at the trade shows, but it was reassuring to actually receive our sample with nary a broken limb because of his sturdy, protective (and attractive) packaging.  It almost looks like he is beaming down into our world. Star Trek with a bow.

If you like the cyber cute covers of the baby books, wait until you see the interior pages.  You will want to start filling in the nesting news right away.  We like to illustrate every page, so that it’s not just a record book, it’s a storybook.  And, each baby is the main character.

And, surprise!  We were able to have a coupon tucked inside the box of every single baby book, for 20% off an entire set of nursery art from our fun new “Create Your Own Personalized Nursery Art” website.  You can spell your child’s name with individual letters or all together, AND, you can choose from your favorite little robot borders. Your little fella will be able to spell his name before he starts walking!

So, this week, to celebrate the exciting first steps of Baby Bot and all of his bot buddies, we are giving away a gift bag filled with three new Baby Bots products.  The winner will receive a tightbound baby book signed by the artist (me), a first-year calendar with stickers, and a brag book titled “Just Braggin,” because, as you know, you will have some braggin’ to do.  Just add your comment to the comment box below, and we will pick a lucky winner randomly on Friday, March 4.  And, as robots say, “Pito loki wikute tuji!”  (which actually means “I like fruit,” … I couldn’t find the robot words for what I really wanted to say, which is “Good luck and have a very nice day.”

p.s. Don’t worry if your comment does not show up right away.  We will be checking the comment inbox throughout the day.

It’s not 100% complete, but the quilt top for what will be called the “Windfarm Quilt” was almost-there-enough to be taken out into the California sun for a glamor shot today.  I can’t wait until we get our cotton samples from Blue Hill for the Bot Buddies and Bouquet Garden collections to make the other side.  Should it be greens and yellows like the front:

or one of the complementary colors?  I can’t decide…

Any thoughts?

Cathy and Ellen and all the critters and critterbots at Cathy Heck Studio hope that you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.  Merry Merry!

And, if you would like to enjoy a replay of last year’s performance by Neville and his Christmas croon, click HERE. (We tried to capture him singing a new song, but he seems to be a one-song wonder … We’re waiting to hear the results from his DNA test to find out if he is genetically predisposed to singing before continuing his voice lessons. We’ll keep you posted.)

…to craft some fresh quilts.

Yes!  We are back from Quilt Market, where we were able to meet with our new friends at Blue Hill fabrics.  They will be producing two new collections by Cathy Heck Studio scheduled to ship to specialty quilt shops in late Spring.

For girls of all ages, the retro-mod Bouquet Garden features bold and funky flowers, garlands, and bouquets with colorways in light pinks, chocolaty browns, and avocado greens.  This collection will be printed on Blue Hill’s amazingly soft, high-quality cotton and will be perfect for lively quilts, and garments with attitude.

And below, you’ll find some sneak peaks of our second collection for boys called, Bot Buddies, based on the Baby Bots collection that is coming out on melamine, memory books, and photo albums with C.R. Gibson in January.  There will be a complete suite of snuggly flannels that scream PJ pants and super-soft quilts for the little man in your family.  Some of our favorite patterns are “Turtle Bots in Orbit” and “Little Robot’s Busy Day.”  There will also be a coordinating home-dec cotton line perfect for outfitting the nursery or bedroom, a quilt panel, and a border pattern with stripes of wind-up fishies and baby bot turtles.

Here’s a photo of us with Dan Weidmuller from Blue Hill, right before they won 2nd place for best booth.  Congratulations, Dan!

As far as trade shows go, Quilt Market was laid-back, full of eye-candy, busy and bustling and and everyone there was just downright nice.  Mom and I enjoyed just strolling the aisles and being inspired to make new things.  Here are some cozy little acorns and baby blossoms by HandBEHG Felts, and a rustic rainbow wall by Mary Flanagan Woolens.

We were also pleased to meet a few of our favorite designers who we have been following for a few years now.  Tula Pink had a gorgeous alphabet quilt in her booth, and Anna Maria Horner was as warm and friendly in person as she is on her amazing blog.  (Of course, we were so star-struck, that we didn’t think to take out the camera!)

We love working with Blue Hill and can’t wait until we can give you some sneak peaks of these super fun patterns on the actual cotton!

Here’s the studio’s July contribution to Anna Maria Horner’s Rainbow Around the Block flood relief effort.  This square is made from some samples that we had left over from the Noah Two of a Kind fabric collection that I still sometimes see in stores (here, here, and here, for example).  It was a lot of fun.

I couldn’t decide between the elephants or the giraffes for the center square – because those two have always been my favorite, but as you can see the elephants won out.  I heard somewhere that elephants with raised trunks are good luck, so I’m hoping they’ll use their gifts to make this block fit well with the other contributions coming in from all over the country.

Here’s the flickr pool of some other quilt blocks that people have donated.  Sometimes during lunch I’ll watch one of these pools as a slide show to get inspiration – it’s very satisfying.

We love getting to see the adorable things people are able to do with the materials and fabrics that we have made.  Here are two cute finds that are currently on Etsy.

This is a sweet Noah’s Ark Two of a Kind quilt by My Cute Idea from Salt Lake City (top and left).  (It looks great hanging on your fence, by the way.)

And here (top and right) is a clever Little Pond soft-book-turned-rag-quilt with a burp cloth and toy clip by Diana of Crafts by Diana.

Lovely pieces, Ladies!

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