Mystery Hop Stop

Welcome hoppers! Today is my day of the

and i just wanted to take a minute to thank Kimberly Jolly and the crew at Fat Quarter Shop for all the work they do not only to keep customers happy, but also in helping us designers connect with you in new and fun ways...like this!

By now you've probably gotten the hang of how this works, so after lots of rummaging around in my closet — which i admit sent me speeding off to Target® for some closet organizer bins—here is my "Vintage Modern" item:

Incase you are new to the blog hop, what you'll need to do is look long and hard at that image above and try to guess what it is. You have only 24 hours to leave one guess in the comment area of this post. Whoever guesses correctly will then be entered to win this lovely little Good Fortune layer cake complements of Fat Quarter Shop (thank you thank you!):

To help you out a teenie bit, here is a clue...
This item is older than i am.
It was bought here:

photo by Ángel Franco/The New York Times, published December 16, 2010

In this city:

Photo by DSchwen, ©2008

When this guy was President:

PD Photo: The White House

This won the Grammy for song of the year,

and this won the Oscar for best picture:

This item will never wrinkle because of what it's made out of, and you'll never need a belt to hold it/them up. Now it's up to you...put your thinking cap on and let the guessing begin!

If you'd like to sign up for the Block of the Month Club featuring Bonnie and Camille's beautiful Vintage Modern fabric collection, you can do so here.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. The mystery continues tomorrow over at Sandy's blog so be sure to visit her too. Good luck everyone! 

XO

Love has no desire but to fulfill itself.  To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.  To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

~Kahlil Gibran

Happy Valentine's Day (everyday)!

To help spread the love far and wide, Kimberly and the crew at Fat Quarter Shop have a fun treat in store for you. They are hosting the very first ever Designer Mystery Blog Hop! Twelve Moda designers (lucky me included) had the chance to work with Bonnie and Camille's new fabric line called "Vintage Modern". We each designed a block that became part of this gorgeous quilt:

You can sign up for the Block of the Month at Fat Quarter Shop.

For the blog hop, Kimberly asked us all to dig around in our closets and pull out some item that meant "Vintage Modern" to us. What would it be for you? Not so easy, but lots of fun (even though it made me aware of all the spring closet cleaning i'll need to do!). So each day for the next few weeks, you will have to be a detective. Each designer will be posting a tiny close-up image of their "vintage modern" item along with a clue. Leave one guess about what you think the item is, and you could win a layer cake from the designer's most current fabric collection...or maybe the grand prize, which is of course...a mystery!

Get out your spy glass and follow the clues:

Details and Introduction: Jolly Jabber

Today: Bunny Hill Designs

Wednesday 2/15 – Primitive Gatherings

Thursday 2/16 – Me and My Sister Designs

Friday 2/17 – Aneela Hoey

Monday 2/20 – Blackbird Designs

Tuesday 2/21 <--- Me!

Wednesday 2/22 – Sandy Gervais

Thursday 2/23 – Bonnie & Camille

Friday 2/24 – Fig Tree Quilts

Monday 2/27 – Minick & Simpson

Tuesday 2/28 – Cosmo Cricket

Wed 2/29 – Sweetwater

Thurs 3/1 – Fat Quarter Shop – Grand Prize Entry Post

Fri 3/2 – Fat Quarter Shop – Winners Post

In the meantime...

...from me to you!

xo,

kate

Furry Friday

Franny, birdwatching

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo,

kate

Designing In Progress

Shhh...listen carefully...what's that sound? Uh, do you hear it too? I thought so! It's been a while so i'm popping in here to break up the cricket chorus and let you in on a few things that are going on here and elsewhere. I am going to temporarily ignore the lengthy "to do" list that is pulling at my sleeve and staring back at me as i type. Look away! Let's procrastinate together for a little while :)

One morning last week, my Mom and i snuck away to J and L Orchids in Easton, CT. No matter how deep the snow or frigid the chill outdoors, beautiful orchids are grown inside this magical little greenhouse oasis in the middle of the woods. It's impossible to leave without being awed and inspired — especially at this time of year when most everything is in bloom.

Underside of leaves, not sure what plant. Amazing lines and color.

This orchid was from Hawaii and almost came home with me:

This one did come home with me:

Oops, and so did this one:

Now let's hope i can keep them alive long enough

to bloom next year!

Other than that, time is flying! These past few weeks have been a blurry kaleidoscope of creativity and color (perhaps made blurrier from a lack of sleep) that will eventually become my next line of fabric for Moda and for you, i hope! I still have a ways to go, but it's coming together...

In the meantime, while it's quiet on here, there is so much going on that you might want to know about:

Cara is hosting her second annual Basics Charity Challenge with the wonderful and worthwhile mission of helping to provide basic necessities to women's, children's or homeless shelters. I love that Cara is inspiring people to take action, and as some extra motivation to get involved, she's also offerring prizes!

Erin and Ali have put together a superfun Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge that involves my all-time favorite color on the planet: orange. When Pantone announced Tangerine Tango as the 2012 color of the year, i was so excited because well, i seem to have a love affair with this color that has even spread to Pinterest. It might also be true that i have an incredibly hard time designing anything without using orange somewhere. Christmas designs are the hardest for me! But back to the challenge, i was absolutely thrilled and honored when Erin asked me to be a guest judge for this challenge and am already excited to see so many beautiful creations popping up on their Flickr group. This is going to be so hard! If you want to get in on the fun, Fat Quarter Shop has put together a Tango bundle to get you started. Good luck!

Fat Quarterly Issue 8 just landed in my inbox last week and it's packed with some awesome project ideas that involve a variety of paper piecing techniques — i've never tried paper piecing, but am already excited to make this clock. There are also inspiring designs for pillows, blocks, and quilts. I might be just a teenie bit biased, but John made a beautiful quilt out of Good Fortune called Double Happiness (which made me triple happy!), that is also featured in this issue. Thanks always to the team at Fat Quarterly for putting together another dazzler.

Just browsed through the latest issue of Adore Home online magazine and am adoring (couldn't resist) so many of the ideas for incorporating pops of color into your home. Eh hem, page 11 orange wingback chair?? Love it! But i'd settle for the cute yellow pendant lamp on p. 39.

And finally, i saw this on Jan's blog and could not resist sharing it too. At least someone is getting some sleep!

Time to get back to the (other) drawing board!

More soon.

xo,

kate

Perfect Timing

It hardly ever happens that the stars and planets align to bring two new items to stores at the very same time and in the same season. But on a rare occasion, this serendipitous intersection does occur —like now! Fabric and plates. Coincidence or a little Good Fortune? Hmm. Either way, i'm so happy to let you know these colorful Chase porcelain plates are now available at Crate and Barrel online and in stores. Yippee!

photo © Crate and Barrel

They feature the Pagoda pattern from my Good Fortune collection and have been interpreted beautifully in glazes of green, yellow and blue. I thought the green set would look vibrant and spring-ie with a placemat made out of Pagoda in the colorway Waterfall *reaching for my "to do" list and dreaming of spring now!*

As i mentioned in the previous post, Good Fortune yardage has been hitting the stores this week and in addition to here, it recently landed here and here!

And since it is Friday...you know what that means! A little fur to end this post. It's short, but so darned sweet.

Hope you have a great weekend!

xo,

kate

Happy News Will Come To You

I am so excited to share that Good Fortune should be landing on the shelves any day now! If you can't wait...you don't have to! It's already available at Fat Quarter Shop (shameless, i know).

Julie from Cosmo Cricket was so thoughtful to send me this adorable tutorial link she found for making fabric fortune cookies. It's from Staci's crafty blog, and i thought it was so cute. A couple days later, Martha's eNewsletter came in and lo' and behold...another tutorial for making felt fortune cookies for Valentine's Day! Isn't that a great idea? Love it. I read through both tutorials and realized i didn't have felt, floral wire, or glue on-hand — which was pretty much everything you'd need — so with a little resourcefulness, i came up with a hybrid version. This project literally takes about 10 minutes to make.

For materials:

• Two 4" circles of any fabric print (i used...no surprise...Good Fortune)

• One 4" circle of double-sided fusible interfacing (i used Thermoweb Heat'n Bond Heavy®)

• Garbage bag twistie ties

1. Iron Heat'n Bond to wrong side of one fabric circle #1

2. Fold circle #2 in half, then open it back up and place it on work surface with wrong side facing up.

3. Place one twistie tie across the centerline of fabric circle #2 using the folded line as a guide.

4. Peel off paper backing of Heat'n Bond from circle #1 and iron circle #1 to circle #2 (the twistie tie will be sandwiched between the layers).

5. While still somewhat hot (you might need gloves), determine which fabric you would like to appear on the outside of your fortune cookie and fold in half so that fabric is on the outside. Then fold the sides together to form a fortune cookie shape (step 3 of Martha's instructions has a good diagram, and Staci has some good pictures that show this step as well). Here's what it looks like on the underside:

6. Staci pins hers to let it cool, i just held the points together and fanned the cookie in the air for a couple minutes.

7. Write a fortune on a piece of paper, slip it into the cookie and that's it. Need fortune ideas? Here's a fun place to start.

Happy New Year (of the Dragon)!

I hope it's filled with Good Fortune — of all kinds.

It's A Mystery

A little before Christmas, i got an email from Kimberly Jolly at the

Fat Quarter Shop inviting me to be one of the designers for their

2012 Designer Mystery Block of the Month Club. I barely finished reading her note when i replied with an emphatic YES! I'm so honored and excited to be participating — especially to be included among this list of amazing Moda designers who

have also joined the fun:

Aneela Hoey

Blackbird Designs

Bonnie and Camille

Bunny Hill Designs

Cosmo Cricket

Fig Tree Quilts

Me and My Sister Designs

ME!

Minick and Simpson

Pieces from My Heart

Primitive Gatherings

Sweetwater

What this also means is that i've already been lucky enough to work with Bonnie and Camille's beautiful new fabric collection, Vintage Modern. I love Bonnie and Camille and they've done it again with a line you're sure to Swoon over (don't you just love that pattern?!). Vintage Modern ships in May and if it's not yet on your list of fabric to covet, it should be. As i was playing around with some block design ideas, i quickly discovered that no matter which prints/colors you combine, they all look beautiful together. I'm dying to see what the finished quilt looks like, but...it's a mystery!

Kimberly also made us this cutie little button that i've added right over there on the right sidebar. Just click on it if you'd like to learn more or sign up to join the mysterious fun!