I love this holiday for many reasons, but mostly for gathering friends and family together to enjoy the spirit-lifting nourishment of each other's company. It doesn't happen often enough that we manage to slow down and just "be"…to savor all the moments as they unfold throughout each day. I often think ahead too much and i know that sometimes i miss things that are right in front of me because of it. But i continue to practice coming back to "now" — to the most important moment there is because we are living it. The "now" is abundant with reasons to give thanks, and each day i realize how much i have to be grateful for. I hope you do, too.
My thanks to you for staying connected and sharing your creative spirits with me. Your beautiful handmade creations and kind words have brought so much happiness to my life and if i could hug each one of you, i would!
As a token of my gratitude, i thought it'd be fun to do a "12 Days of Giveaways" tribute to you ... starting this Friday, November 29 through December 10th. We'll be giving away all of these colorful goodies, one day at a time!
Eleven of the prizes will be themed collections of products featuring my designs — aprons, dishtowels, journals, notecards, party sets and more. And one prize will be a gift certificate to our shop — with free shipping to wherever you live.
We'll post one giveaway every day and announce winners the following day. You can enter every day and there are lots of ways to enter multiple times, thanks to Rafflecopter. Should be fun and i hope you'll join us!
But today, just "be" and have a very Happy Thanksgiving from me, Pete and these two:
(i couldn't resist)
All our best to you and your loved ones.
Do you ever have a week where you feel like this by the end of it?
that's me on The Bubble Rock Trail in Maine
You start out thinking, "How am i ever going to finish all the stuff on my to do list?" And then slowly but surely, one-by-one you cross things off and inch closer to the top of the Sisyphean hill until at last everything is done, finito, sewn up (pun intended), and accomplished. Not every week ends like that, but i'm happy to say this one did! Next fabric collection is designed! Phew, i think i'll wipe the sweat off my forehead with these Swankie Hankies (beware, more shameless promotion ahead):
Yes, you can now blow your nose right into my designs! These cute tissues are now available at JoAnn fabric stores.
I'm also thrilled to let you know that these porcelain tea mugs featuring my tart little lemon design have landed on the shelves at Crate and Barrel! They come with a metal brew basket in case you use loose tea, and a lid that keeps your tea really hot.
Of course two seconds after i took the photo above, Franny jumped into the frame!
After testing out the tea mug, i zipped to Crate to buy one for my Mom, but got there just moments after they closed. It was worth the trip though...because when i pulled up, my jaw dropped to see the mugs right there in the brightly lit window!
Close up mug-shot (get it?):
Yesterday i was on twitter briefly and someone mentioned how much they liked the reversible quilt i designed...which made me realize i had neglected to share that with you. It's called "Double the Fun" and lo' and behold, it's on the cover of the Spring issue of Quilts and More magazine!
I love this magazine because it is crammed with so many cute and (like it says) EASY projects. Easy is my favorite word when it comes to sewing. But this issue is also incredibly special to me because it's like being squished into the middle of a happy friend sandwich. Know who else's projects are featured in here? Joanna, Camille, Aneela, Lauren + Jessi, Monica, Sherri, and Vanessa! I feel really lucky to be in such great company and am thankful to the people at Quilts and More for including my quilt in there too. It's available on newsstands now and if you'd like, you can snatch a copy at Fat Quarter Shop.
And about that quilt...it would not have come to be without Sherri's help. She pieced the whole thing and made some very helpful improvements along the way (thank you Sherri!). You can read more about it on her blog. As for the design, i have to come clean about that. I was aiming to design a simple quilt using a jelly roll and liked the idea of separating the colors into warm and cool groups to give people a sense of the possibilities for (in this instance) Terrain. So i designed both quilt tops and then couldn't decide which to feature. Warm, cool, warm cool...it was driving me nutso! I had both up on my computer screen (and i was staring away at them, still indecisive) when Pete walked by. I asked him which he preferred and he said, "Why don't you make it reversible?" Brilliant! Now why didn't i think of that?? So you see, the only name that's missing from the magazine is Pete's :)
What fun to read all of your guesses about the Mystery post from the other day! The comments are closed, but let me say that lots of you guessed correctly *wink*. Don't miss the rest of the tour:
Thurs 3/1 – Fat Quarter Shop – Grand Prize Entry Post
Fri 3/2 – Fat Quarter Shop – Winners Post
And to answer some of your inquiries, *yes* i will, eh hem, be modeling the item just for you (at my expense).
Finally, i've been neglectful about Furry Fridays, so am making up for it by adding a little extra fur to end the week. It's amazing how quickly these two have grown! Remember when they could both stretch out in their kitty hammock side-by-side?
They still do, but it's just a liiiitle how shall i say? Cozier?
And again, an empty box proves to be the most entertaining toy and this game could have gone on all day long! (Sorry for the wobbles, it was not easy to push the box and hold my iphone at the same time!)
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!
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.
It's been a little quiet on here lately and when that happens it can only mean one thing; it's deadline time in my studio...dum de dum dum. And i've been battling a terrible cold — not the best combo for trying to be productive. Luckily, this mug sample arrived in time for bottomless cups of hot tea and soup.
This is a pattern that fell out of my holiday fabric line Flurry, but fell right into the hands of the lovely people at Crate and Barrel. They did such a beautiful job rendering the pattern on to the gently arcing surface of the porcelain, and even extended the print onto the handle. One of the things i have the hardest time with (for any pattern or collection of designs) is coming up with a name, so it's a fun surprise to find out what the team at Crate finally decides on. Someday i would love to be a fly on the wall when they're in the board room discussing it! This one is called "Norwegian Chalet Latte Mug". Chalet Latte just rolls off your tongue like a little tune. So if you would like to have one for yourself or are looking for a nice gift to warm the winter months ahead, this mug is available online and in stores now.
Another something i almost forgot to share with you is that i finally sewed the binding onto my zig-zag quilt! Since so many of you suggested a scrappy binding to pull all the colors from the zigs and zags, that's just what i did. I used 5" x 2 1/2" strips of a few of the prints (heavier on the orange to balance the colors) and it made all the difference. So glad i listened to you. Thank you!
Btw, i have so much respect (awe/amazement//admiration) for those of you who hand sew your bindings on. I thought i would try it for this quilt, but got maybe 10 stitches in and called it quits. Back to the machine for me. How do you do it?!
Finally, some fur. These two continue to find new napping spots around here:
FYI: they had to climb up the ironing board to get all the way up there! I wonder whose idea that was?
First off, i just want to say thank you to everyone who has very thoughtfully weighed-in (haha) on how i should bind my zig zag quilt! Wow, you've given me many ideas that i had not even considered. I'm glad i asked you! If you have not entered the giveaway for some Terrain goodies, you can still do so on this post. Tomorrow (Saturday October 1st — October??) will be the last day to enter.
Today we have a video installment for Furry Friday!
