I think one of my illustrated characters must have whispered into Julianna’s ear, “I want to be real,” because, I left Julianna sculpting fish, and when I returned to the project area, she was holding Baby Bot’s big sister in the palm of her hand.

Above are the drawings from the Visitors page in the Baby Bot baby book we created for C.R. Gibson. Once Jules created BabyBot’s big sister 3D, she decided to keep on going, because you can’t bring a gal into the world without some friends.

Photos above from top clockwise: (1) Julianna starts sculpting head-first. (2) Jules painting Baby Bot. (3) One of Baby Bot’s buddies tucked into a box across from his 2D-self. (4) Bot Buddies® sunning on a paper plate to make sure they are completely dry before packing them up for their first trade show.

Above, Bot Buddies® are all packed and ready to fly to Atlanta where they are hoping to meet some new friends and enjoy some southern cyber-cuisine.

For those of you who will be in Atlanta for the big gift show, come see us. We will be at AmericasMart, Building 2, West Wing, in the License and Design Showroom, #774. And for those of you who will not be there, we’ll be sure to report back so you will be in the know for gift-giving 2012.

As we prepared for Atlanta last week, you could have literally put a sign on the studio door, “Gone Fishin.’” The MicroFish pattern, (which is one of our favorite designs from the Bot Buddies® fabric collection) was just begging to show up on a variety of product categories. We pulled out our Sculpey box again. All three girls spent some of their home-for-the-holidays time producing fish bodies. Some fish were too fat, some were too flat, (we even had to throw a few back into the sea) … but 10 little fishes were just right to fill our Fishmas Tree.

Above is our inspiration, the Bot Buddies® Big Border panel, which you can buy here.

The Food Network was playing on the television in the background while we worked, which was an odd juxtoposition, because periodically, a tasty fish dish would be featured, and we felt a little uneasy, because, well, our new fish creations were smiling at us … we had bonded.

Photos above from top clockwise: (1) After years of Sculpey play, Margaret makes fish for market. (2) Julianna pulled out the box of CelVinyls (which used to be our medium of choice before Photoshop entered our lives) and starts mixing pots of paint the old-fashioned way.
(3) Jules painting a base-coat on a fine fat fish. (4) A closeup of one of our smiling fishbots.
(5) After painting the fish, we hung them in the trees to dry … if birds could swim and fish could fly …

Just to imagine these busy MicroFish with yet another medium, here they are, below, in thread. We made these mockups to help buyers to visualize these little guys in a powder room at the beach or in a child’s bath upstairs at home. And you can make these, too! (They would be a great “thank you for inviting me to your beach house gift.”) We’ll post the how-to when we return from Atlanta.

And, while all this sculpting and sewing was going on, Margaret had the duty of cutting, and cutting … and cutting our newly received Bot Buddies® flannels for a variety of needs. We now have fat-quarter sets for Atlanta, as well as yardage to go to the members of the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild to cut and sew some fun projects. And although we provided Margaret with a fancy new rotary cutter, Margaret plans on not cutting anything for at least a month.

This week, we will be heading to Atlanta for the International Gift Show at AmericasMart. It has been a busy workshop around here. Thankfully, with lots of Hecklettes home from college for the holiday, we had some extra elf-help for 3-D-ifying our designs.

When we show work to companies, we like to show a few designs in formats that help the art directors imagine the possibilities for their specific items. We thought you might enjoy seeing the way a 2-dimensional painting can be transformed into 3-dimensional critters. First, we started with one of our best-selling collections, Little Pond. We pulled out our beloved Sculpey box, (which has been our go-to-clay for making lots of class projects through the years). This very same box had been pulled out of the craft cabinets many-a-holiday when little on-vacation hands were needing to be busy. And those same hands (now college-sized) jumped right in without missing a beat. Below, Margaret started with the giraffe and then moved right on to the elephants. We discovered that Margaret, who is an animal science major, seems to have a gift for visualizing all sides of an animal, which comes in very handy when one has to imagine what is on the other side of that painting.

Photos above from upper left clockwise: (1) Margaret smooths the giraffe mane with a dentist tool. (Why do we own a dentist’s tool? Don’t ask me, but it really works for sculpey sculpting.) (2) Here is Margaret creating the baby elephant so that he fits on the mama’s back, or it might be a daddy’s back … we didn’t really go into that kind of detail. (3) The white stage … ready for painting. (4) Julianna creates pots of paint for finishing the pond pals.

And, voila! Below is a little group of critters to help one imagine these pond friends as ornaments, or baby banks, or bookends, or bath toys, or game pieces, or, or, or …

Before we head to Atlanta, we’ll send you a couple of other how-to posts, just in case you are having a hankering to start making things pop to life in your house. And, this winter, if you hear some moaning pleas like “mommy, I don’t have anything to do,” I highly recommend Sculpey time. (Or Pluffy™ time, Sculpey’s new clay for little ones.) Who knows, you might have a sculptor in the making … or perhaps, an animal science major!

When the doors opened to the International Quilt Market in Houston, one of the first booths one beheld was that of Newcastle Fabrics. There, our Jumpin’ Monkeys collection was ready to jump onto flannel jammies and blankies and the sweet Emma collection looked as fresh as a pink-and-green bouquet.

On the walls were all the pieces made just days ago by our Austin elves, showing off the DIY possibilities. We were delighted to see our work and our friends at Newcastle. Here we are (photo below) with Dan Weidmuller, chief of everything at Newcastle.

Jumpin’ Monkeys is a new flannel group scheduled to be in the stores in November. Before market, we received a few small pieces of strike-off material to check for color. We decided to try to make a few monkey projects, one of which would be flannel jammies, but we only had enough fabric to make one blue leg and one brown leg, which is the original reason that the pants bottoms (below) became “two-toned.” BUT, after all was said and sewn, we decided these play pants were downright adorable. I guess you could say small strike-offs are the mother of invention!

I also love the matching appliqué monkey that Nancy added to the onesie. This is so easy and packs a great “wow, you did that” factor.

Here is something else that happens when sewing with tiny bits of soft flannel strike-offs: a toddler ragland jacket that is monkey-blue-stripe on the front and monkey-green-stripe on the back. It’s like wearing the whole collection in one tiny jacket!

We can’t leave Jumpin’ Monkeys without showing you the fastest quick quilt you ever did see (made by Deborah Elliott) … all you have to do is follow the outlines of the animals on the panel and it looks like you slaved for weeks piecing and appliquéing this soft quilt. Even the striped border is part of the one yard of fabric that you will buy to make the quilt top! (You may want to add some edging as we did with the palm leaves fabric (see second photo below), but it’s cute even without it. It might depend on what time the baby shower is tomorrow!)

And, if you have questions about anything fun and new at Newcastle, here is the go-to-gal for the answers, Cheryl Jukich. She is new to the Newcastle team and she is just adorable and full of energy … even when we saw her after many hours of trade show standing!

While Jumpin’ Monkeys was hoppin’ off the wall, the Emma collection was displayed nearby and it was shining in its own preppy cute way. Since we already introduced you to lots of Emma in an earlier post, we’ll just share some pictures of her cute self on display at the show. Photo left: Ellen in front of the quilt she made with the Emma strike-offs. (And her very first quilt ever!) Photo right: Cathy and Ellen in front of the sassy Emma dress made by Nancy Keirns. The great thing about Emma is that it can be made into a baby bumper or a tween jumper. It’s for little bitty girls, or their mamas.

While we love to visit with the companies that make our fabric, we double-love to visit with shop owners who sell our fabric! Here we are below with a fellow mother-daughter team, Judy Fenton and Megan Wilson who run Millcreek Sewing & Fabric in Erie, Pennsylvania. While they were gathering samples in balmy Houston, Texas, I believe several inches of snow fell on their shop in Pennsylvania. A nice early reminder of the importance of a warm, snuggly quilt!

Although, we don’t have any weather close to a white winter here in Austin, we definitely caught the quilting bug while we were in Houston. I hope our little adventure in the aisles of Quilt Market have you all quiltified, too. We’ll keep you posted as we learn of the stores that will have Emma and Jumpin’ Monkeys in hand. Enjoy your November, and have fun quilting, whether you are wearing flip-flops or snow boots!

We are just back from Quilt Market in Houston … and it was so much fun. There were so many quilts that I bet if you laid them end to end they would stretch across Texas and beyond!

For us, a market is often the culmination of months of collaborative work, and it is satisfying to see it all come together. Lots of faces are beaming … and bleary. Two of our favorite faces to see were those of sister team, Joanie and Melanie of Tailormade By Design. They were responsible for four quilts made with our fabrics, as well as many quilts for several different companies .. all of which need their quilts ready on exactly the same first-day-of-Quilt-Market! And, every year they make that tough deadline and arrive in Houston with big smiles. We are amazed and in awe. Here we are with them at Blue Hill Fabrics.

Our favorite surprise was the Bot Buddies™ quilt … we had not seen the final cottons, and we were delighted with the colors and the delightful quilt pattern that Joanie and Melanie had designed with them. We created the cottons to be easy for nursery decor, and indeed the super sisters created a quilt to set the theme for a bright and cheery nursery or toddler room. They even created these sweet fat-quarter charm packs (below left) to get a new mama started. Photo below right is a close-up of the darling Bot Buddies quilt, ready for snuggling.

I believe these cottons have just arrived at the warehouse, so as soon as they are in the stores, we will add some links to the blog so you can go bot-shopping. There is a softer than soft flannel group, too. Be sure to send us your Bot Buddies™ projects so we can share them in our up-coming Flickr groups.

Another of our baby collections was also starring at Blue Hill. Zoophabet® is all about personalizing with an alphabet of cute critters. And it comes in both cotton and soft flannel. The group was displayed with lots of one-of-a-kind DIY ideas: personalized pillows, quilts, bags and blocks. The photo below is Cathy visiting with Elaine Sexton, of QUILT Magazine about all the DIY possibilities with alphabets and bots.

Below are more photos from our busy visit in the Blue Hill booth: From upper left clockwise:
1. Zoophabet® display including personalized blocks, bag and pillows made by Deborah Elliott and soft flannel jammies made by Nancy Keirns 2. Ellen and Cathy with Roger Roby of Blue Hill Fabrics 3. Close-up of the quick quilt made by the Tailormade sisters created with the Zoophabet® Pink Panel. This quilt panel is so easy that a mom can make the quilt top during a naptime (unless your baby naps like my middle gal did … which was not at all … maybe a morning while babies are attending Mother’s Day Out is a better quilt-making venue.) 4. Cathy with quilt designer, Robin Jackson, brainstorming about some creative projects she can make with the Zoophabet® collection.

Well, all this talk of fabric and sewing and quilts is making my fingers itch … I‘m off to make some quilt blocks. Of course, first, I will have to learn how … which is next on my empty-nestin’ list of things to do!

Emma is feeling trip proud about her journey to Houston for the International Quilt Market. The Emma collection will be blooming in preppy pinks and greens perfect for DIY projects for girls of all ages. We hope you will visit her at the Newcastle Fabrics booth. Here is our market-bound gal modeling her new Emma dress and ruffled pants, accessorized with her Emma coin clutch … just in case she needs to buy some tasty TexMex.

The minute we received our production yardage, we asked our studio elves to whip up some Emma fun. See more Emma eye candy below.

Here’s an Emma patch quilt hanging in the rose garden. The dot patterns created for this collection make great frames for the appliqué animals toss patterns.

And here’s a favorite around our house o’ girls: A twirly skirt! If you are a girl, I bet you are remembering your own twirly skirt right this minute. So off we go to Houston … twirling all the way. Hope to see you there!’

It all began with an apron and a porcupine. (or maybe it was a hedgehog, on its way to becoming a porcupine.)

So, I thought the cute child’s apron that Deborah made for us to send to Quilt Market would be extra-adorable with some embroidered embellishments … and I said to myself, “Self, you can do this, how hard can it be?” followed by “Self, you actually have done this before when you were a Girl Scout, remember?” And was I ever a Girl Scout … I loved … LOVED … earning badges. In fact, if I were a Girl Scout today, they could create a reality show called, “Girl Scout Badge-Hoarders Gone Wild,” and I would be the star. To earn the needleworks badge, I learned all kinds of stitches, and ALMOST, but never actually completed an embroidered panel, which read, “Waste Not, Want Not.” I still wonder exactly which badge requirement stated, “Girl Scout must complete at least 75% of an embroidered panel.” In fact, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I really earned that needlework badge legally. All the more reason to relearn the craft and redeem myself. So here are the steps I followed to QUICKLY re-teach myself to embroider like a pro:

I was in a bit of a deadline, so I said to myself, “Self, you have 15 minutes to learn some basic stitches.” I found a book I bought a few years ago, when I thought I was going to take up embroidery another time, Sublime Stitches by Jenny Hart. She turned embroidery into something totally hip and edgy. She seamlessly mixed designs featuring teapots and cherries with skulls and margaritas. Under her tutelage, I could be crafty and cool, all at once! And, more importantly, her book had a stitch guide.

Straight stitch: check. Stem Stitch: check. Back Stitch: check. Satin Stitch: later. Cross Stitch: check. Chain Stitch: much later. Then I said, “Self, good enough, you are ready to move on to the real project.” (Here is my prep sampler piece below. See how easy it is … you can do it, too!)

I popped the apron into the embroidery hoop, gave it a little thump … (just because I felt like real embroiderers would give it a little thump to make sure it was tight enough) and then I started stitching away. That deadline was still looming, so I was flying. In, out, in, out. The sound the thread made pulling through the fabric was very satisfying. Zip, zip, zip. I was not only embroidering, I was embroidering fast! Here is how my project was looking:

I kept stitching like a little machine, when I started having a funny feeling that something just didn’t feel quite right, but it didn’t stop me … I just kept going with a furor. Finally, I realized that the extra fabric that was all around my hoop was acting weird, so I turned my project over and this is what I beheld … yep, I had fast and furiously sewn the front of the apron to the back of the apron. Really tightly. Dad-gummit! Now, I really had to return to the deadline at hand, so I tossed the project aside … saying to self, “Tomorrow is another day.”

As you can see, I had to return to Step 1. I should think about stitching a panel that says, “Haste Makes Waste.” Happily, the next day, with a bit more patience, I pulled out all the hastily-stitched thread, and patiently began restitching (frequently checking the back!).

And, ta dah! Here is my first embroidery project since the unfinished Girl Scout badge requirement.

Then, I was feeling so sassy, I decided to outline the bird, AND even attempted a bit of stitched typography … it was very gratifying … now I am a stitchin’ fool. If you have been thinking of taking up embroidery, I hope my little story is not disheartening, but rather inspiring in a “wow, if she can do it, I can do it” sort of way … and please join me on my embroidery journey. I’ll keep you posted, and we can stitch some postcards every now and then. P.S. Tips are greatly appreciated! (I mean tips of stitching advice … not the kind in the money jar.)

When we were in Budapest over the holidays, our friend introduced us to Lost Cities, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I could have geeked-out over that card game all week instead of following our travel guide through the real city – lost in snow.  So when we returned, I thought it would be interesting to design a revised version of the game, both to play and to give to friends and family. It turned out to be a lot fun, and relatively easy:

Step 1: Design what will be the back of all the cards.  This is the side that will be the same for every card in a deck, and sometimes is symmetrical so that you cannot tell which way the cards are facing when the deck is upside down. (These are 3×5, but they can be any size, really.)

Step 2: Get that design printed in bulk on one side of a bunch of postcards. (I like to use GotPrint.net because they are reliable and the cheapest out there – you can order 1000 cards for $22!) As you can see (above), I also ordered mine without rounded corners so that they could feed more easily through an ink jet printer, and then rounded them myself.  You could also order them rounded from the start.

Step 3: Design as many games on the blank fronts of the cards as your little fingers can manage.

Step 4: Play on!

These card fronts were designed in Photoshop and printed on an Epson printer, which worked pretty well.  I was going for a math game, the design inspired part by Jasper Johns’ numbers and part by this calendar on Design Sponge.  It’s probably a good idea to order cards that have no coating at all on the blank side so that your own ink can soak into the paper better – our fingers were blue enough to give a print when we played one game fresh out of the ink jet…

Also, it could work just as well (with kids especially) to use markers or crayons for the card fronts.  Here (left), you can see examples from a modified Go Fish/Uno game drawn directly onto each card.  With 1000 cards to go through, one can design any number of different games, or even Pokemon-style collector cards, or you could use them as postcards, or fake train tickets, or table-scrapers, or card castle building materials, or laminate flooring for a doll house…

…and there will still be more left over…

Happy gaming!

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Recently, I was asked to speak about the career of graphic design and illustration.  While looking for some early work to show my path, I came across one of the first illustrations created when I became a free-lance illustrator in New York. This fine fat turkey came with a coupon so that cooks across America could make many-a gelatin mold to woo the Thanksgiving guests.  As I examined this friendly fellow, I began to remember a favorite Jell-O recipe that a family friend used to make for holiday dinners.  It was lovingly known as “Green Stuff.” But alas, over the years, as our gelatin recipes began to be replaced with more natural farm-to-table offerings, I realized that my own children had missed out on the joy of plopping a big pile of pastel lime-green goodness on their holiday plates.

Well, here it is – before it gets covered in spaghetti sauce – the 2011 “vintage” tea towel design printed on cotton/linen blend at Spoonflower.

I call it “vintage” because the fancy typography is a re-mix of some of Cathy’s calendar designs from the early 90s!  (When you’ve been an amazingly productive artist/mom-ninja for 30 years, you amass quite an archive of artwork.)  Anyway, this was super fun to put together for Spoonflower’s Tea Towel Calendar competition coming up.  I was listening to a really good techno-remix of Beethoven’s 5th at the time (which I can’t find now, sorry) and feeling very DJ-ish.

Anyway, this towel is super easy to make.  One yard of the fabric comes as fat quarters (two tea towel calendars with a coordinating back printed right next to each one), so all you have to do to make a double-sided towel, is cut the fabric down the middle, fold one half in half, and sew up the three sides.  Voila!  You’re feeling crafty.

They also look good next to the label on Mrs. Meyer’s basil dish soap.  It’s nice to have color-coordinated dish washing supplies, right?