Wishing you all a wonderful holiday full of family, friends, and all those little projects you’ve been itching to finish for the past few months…  Safe travels, and:

Love, Cathy and Ellen

Here is some background music for today’s post … so that you can sing in the rain, like we are! It rained today in Austin, Texas and it was a real, no-kidding soaker rain. I was in the grocery store when the skies finally opened after months of water rationing and 100+degree days. Everyone came out of the store just to stare at it, as if to collectively say, “what is that?” When I returned home, this is what was waiting for me: our beloved, but possibly dumb, dog standing in the rain … either he loves to be wet, or he just doesn’t have much common sense, as he could have easily waited under the eve. Since I love him so, I’ll vote for “loves to be wet,” but deep down, I think it might be that he is stu_ _ d … hey, look, when you leave the up out of stupid, it spells stud! (Can you tell I love this fella even when he smells like a wet dog!)

And below are pictures of what it looks like outside the studio window, along with two new colorways to emerge from today’s heavenly weather. The first one is called “It’s Rainin’ Rain, Hallelujah,” and the second one is called “Flower Shower.” We hope you are enjoying your weather as much as we are!

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!

I was going to send you some photos of the outdoor gourd display that Jim created in some kind of Mr. Martha mood a few weeks ago to impress and amaze visitors as they walked to the entrance of our home studio … but alas, the gourd decor has rotted in such a creepy, furry, mouldy kind of way, that I cannot share them with anybody. It’s as though we are growing a penicillin garden. In fact, I am so glad that it is finally Halloween, so that we can send them on to gourd heaven after tonight. I just hope they don’t scare our trick-or-treaters away. That would mean that I would have to eat all the candy myself! (… hmmm, on the other hand …)

So, instead of sharing our Do-It-Yourself Gourd Garden/Science Experiment with you, we thought we would wish you and yours a fun Halloween with some happy mold-free studio owls. (Well, that last one isn’t very happy … must have had too much candy.) Have a hoot tonight!

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.)

Z is for the Zoophabet® fabric collection headed to Houston for the International Quilt Market, this weekend with Blue Hill Fabrics. The great thing about Zoophabet® is that you can make personalized, one-of-a-kind gifts for the cute new baby in your life, and your baby shower present will be THE most special, personal, meaningful, amazing present at the party and you will be the BPGW (Best Present-Giver Winner) … not that a baby shower should be a competition … I’m just sayin’.

When our first samples arrived, I tried a swatch, wrapped in a quick bib-like treatment, on our in-house model, Neville. (below) I’m thinking about having a special jacket made for him with an appliquéed “N is for Neville.” I just know he’s going to love it! (Speaking of Nevs, don’t you think the zebra’s expression above sort of looks like Neville’s soulful expression below?

The Zoophabet® collection is printed on velvety soft flannel, as well as a cotton group that is perfect for personalized nursery decor, accessories and gifts. Below are the first strike-offs we received. Even the selvages turned out cute … hm … what can we make with those selvages? Selvage slippers?

Since we received our flannels first, we started our Zoophabet-making extravaganza with some flannel jammies. These would be perfect for your little ones to scramble-into, before jumping into bed, snuggling under a Zoophabet® ABC quilt, and listening to you read Dr. Seuss’ ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! At the end of the story, you can say, “B is for bedtime and S is for Sleepy … you are getting very, veeeery sleepy … ”

When we received our cotton samples, we couldn’t wait to get started because we included two patterns (in two colorways) with the full alphabet. Our magic studio elves dove into a 2-week personalized-project frenzy. Here are a few DIY projects so you can get your creative juices flowing. The first one shown here is the Zoophabet® Quick Quilt … and it really is quick. With just a dash on your sewing machine down the sides of the alphabet squares, it looks like you spent days piecing it. Then, you can buy an extra yard and create coordinating accessories that spell out your special baby’s name or initials on all kinds of cute baby stuff … a pillow, a lampshade, a diaper stacker and, and, and …

And, here are some Zoophabet® pinks: The top photo is a “K is for Katy” Carry All and I’m pretty sure the bottom photos illustrate a “C is for Cathy” Pillow. Hope these ideas get you started on some fun projects … and, be sure to share your creations with us … we will be adding a new Flickr button to the blog after Quilt Market. Sweet dreaming of more personalized one-of-a-kind wonders.

Baby Bot and all his friends will be showing off their softer sides in Houston next week for the International Quilt Market with Blue Hill Fabrics. The Bot Buddies collection will be featured on the softest flannel you ever did touch, as well as cottons that are perfect for decorating the nursery or the playroom. The colorways can be all-boy, as well as a fun look for girl-bots, too. Here is a peek at the flannels. (We won’t see the final cottons until next week at Quilt Market … and, we’ll be sure to share some cotton nursery ideas with you after the show.)

We have discovered two new elves here in Austin to help us take our 2-dimensional fabrics to 3-dimensional creations. Thank you Nancy and Deborah! Here are a few samples made from Bot Buddies flannels just to give you a taste of the possibilities. We only had a few bits and pieces of strike-off material … (which are the fabrics that we check to make sure the colors are just right) … but as soon as we can get our hands on whole yards of fabric, we will be posting some fun DIY projects and give-aways to get you started.

And, here’s something fun … Bot Buddy Toss jammies. Nancy is in the midst of adding some great embroidered touches, but I’m just sending it out unfinished ‘cause it’s already so darn cute. (P.S. I am also re-learning to embroider … part of my new empty-nesting phase … I’ll let you know how that goes!)

If you are already catching the itch to stitch, here are some sneak peeks of some of the patterns in just one of the colorways … these designs come in reds and yellows, too. Have fun dreaming up some great bot projects. And, as soon as we know where you can find all these super soft flannels, we’ll let you know. We are dying to see your flannel fashion!

After reading Ellen’s post about perfume-making, I was wafted back to a happy scented memory from childhood. I had the chicken pox or the measles … something that itched. I scratched and I whined. I had even tired of my favorite “when-sick-at-home” tv program, Leave It To Beaver. I languished on the sofa, pitiful. In an attempt to keep my hands busy and not scratching, my parents presented me with the most perfect get-well-present-ever … my very own official no-kidding “Make Your Own Perfume Kit.” At that moment, through my eyes, mom and dad suddenly became even more wonderful than Ward and June Cleaver.

The box seemed huge. (Although today I’m guessing that it was about the same size as a Candyland box.) Inside were thousands (okay, probably tens) of bottles and dobbers and all things needed to make your very own perfume. It was like a floral candy factory and I was Cathy Wonka!

And, to my parents’ delight, it kept me busy for days. I became a mad scientist of perfumery. I created every blend imaginable, and then some. Labels were provided, so I could design the packaging and name my inventive aroma blends: Geranium Girl, Smell The Daisies, Cathy’s Love Potion. To this day, when I smell certain sweet smells, I am transported to the short time in my life when I was a prolific and successful perfume manufacturer.

When my chicken pox (or measles) finally went away, it was perfect timing. The oils, bottles, cottons and labels provided were all gone. I was ready to share my discoveries with the world. Off I went to third grade … smelling like a garden!

Do you have a memory of a favorite game or present you received as a child? If so, please share it with us. And, you might want to share the link with the person who gave it to you … perhaps he or she will be surprised and delighted that a little something given has remained a part of the fabric of your life all this time.

And, if you need a distraction for a sick little gal, you can buy a kit full of scented surprises here or here. (Caution: You may have to put your little inventor in the backyard to “air out” from time to time.)