Poinsettias I could never kill, no matter what - Christmas Quilt Show 2011

It's time again for SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2011/11/2011-christmas-quilt-show-welcome.html- . I love seeing all the fantastic creations and being able to share a little Christmas cheer with quilters everywhere. It makes the internet feel small and cozy this time of year.

Okay, the sappy part is over. Here's my entry for this year!

One of my favorite parts of being a quilt designer is being able to play God and create flowers which will never die, because in real life I am a nightmare when it comes to keeping them alive. For no flower is this more true than the seasonal poinsettia. I have many memories of pots of poinsettias, lush and dewy, gracing the mantle of my mother's living room and the sideboard of the dining room throughout the Christmas season and into Lent most years, finally to be thrown into the woods by Good Friday.

Sadly, I did not inherit the poinsettia nurturing gene. When I buy a poinsettia, it is lucky to make it one week in my home before it starts to wither, drop leaves and petals, and start whimpering "Help...help...get me out of this house of torture and let me warn all my friends to hide when they see a redheaded lady in a Rendezvous pull up to the garden center."

My only hope was to create some out of fabric, and several years ago I did just that. Behold my "Winter Whites" wall hanging pattern by EvaPaige Quilt Designs, designed for the black thumb quilters we all know and love.


In this design, I used one of my favorite modified stack and slash piecing techniques with several fabrics of similar tone and value in a rich maroon for the background, then added white and cream petals via machine applique. My petal templates are big and loopy and easy for beginners while still looking enough like a real poinsettia petal to keep the garden club satisfied. For this particular sample, I machine appliqued using gold metallic thread, probably swore up a storm while doing so because metallic thread hates me although it was years ago so I can't be exactly sure, and beaded the centers with pink beads as shown in the next photo.

Three guesses as to what I used to attach the beads. If you don't know, welcome to my blog! You are clearly a new reader and I am delighted to have you! (It's Jewel-It, of which I am an obnoxious supporter.)

This fall I was introduced to the joys of making this quilt in silks when a silk vendor at my guild's show asked if I might make them a sample for their vending purposes. They picked out the silks they wanted me to use, and I will admit I was a little skeptical at first when I saw how different it was going to look from the original since the tones and values were much more disparate. However, in the end, it's different - in a harlequin-esque kind of way - but really quite gorgeous in it's own way.

My apologies for the weird angle of the photo. I hope you can get the idea.

This is one of my favorite patterns, and I would love to give one to a lucky commenter below. I'd also love to have you vote for "Winter Whites" if you love it like I do in SewCalGal's Viewers Choice contest this weekend.

Thank you for stopping by Quilting Hottie Haven. I hope you come back frequently for more fun and inspiration!

Small Business Saturday offers

I've wanted to participate in SBS, but since I'm not an actual store I wasn't sure how. So I came up with these offers and I hope you'll find one interesting no matter what category you fall into in this crazy quilting hobby of ours!

Shop Owners:
Take 25% off any wholesale order of 12 patterns or more. Sample Trunk Shows available on a first come first served basis. You know samples sell quilts, after all. Ask about borrowing some of mine!

Retail Consumers and Hobbyist Quilters:
Several of my patterns are available for download on www.patternspot.com/users/127. No shipping, no waiting. Several of my patterns are available for download or purchase on http://www.quiltwoman.com/ - and they are having free shipping from Saturday to Monday. If you don't find something of mine you like at either of these sites, you're sure to find something else you like - there's just so much to choose from!

Also, I've re-opened my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/evapaigequilts, and am featuring my "What's for Dinner?" tablemats, made to order, just like dinner! Choose from six different oilcloth patterns and get the perfect gift for everyone under age 10 on your list. Free shipping from 11/24 - 12/10: Enter SBS2011 at checkout.

Guilds:
If you are looking to fill out your program schedule for this year or next, you know I'd love to help. Contact me between 11/24/11 and 12/10/11 to schedule a trunk show lecture or workshop and receive 25% off the cost of the workshop or lecture if it is on the books for 2012 or 2013 by 12/31/11. That's a $75 or $87.50 savings, and your treasurer will thank you! (Domestic guilds only.)

No matter how you choose to shop small this season, I hope you find some really cool new vendors and great opportunities to support them. Happy Holiday season!

The lost art of language

This weekend, I became temporary possessor of a scrapbook of family history that my dad and his wife brought out when they came to visit. In among the photos and cards and clippings I found this fabulous wedding announcement from the Marlboro NH paper back in 1903, detailing my great-grandparents wedding. It is far superior to any the Boston Globe publishes these days, so I had to share it. (Spellings and grammar copied exactly from newspaper. Perhaps not what I would do today.)

"Page - McRoy.

A very inviting wedding occurred in Marlboro the 29th instant at the country home of Mr. Weston McRoy, known as "Point Comfort." It is beautifully situated among the maples, fronting the south, having an equisite outlook upon woody hills and evergreen vales, and just above the buildings is one of the finest and most extended landscapes anywhere to be enjoyed.

Here at mid-day were joined in holy matrimony Ray H. Page and Grace E. McRoy, both of Marlboro, by Dr. S. H. McCollister, using the ring service. Both bridegroom and bride, as they stood under the flowing arch with a bell of flowers over their heads, and the fairest of all, being the centre of attraction and causing all present to rejoice and be thankful for such a happy union of hands and hearts to make a blissful home. The attire of the bride was cream colored silk with silk lace trimmings. She held in her hand a large bauquet of bride's roses.

At the close of the ceremony there was a season of greeting the new husband and wife, and then all present sat down to a table of bountiful and most palatable refreshments, according all partakers a delightful experience, making all feel that such a dinner is not to be surpassed.

As the carriage was driven out to take the wedded twain to the station the wheels were richly adorned with shoes, the top with flags, with many other attachments to add grotesqueness to the polished vehicle as it drove to the door and especially as the honored pair ascended into it under showers of rice, good cheer, and well wishes.

They will be home after August first on Church Street."

How fantastic is that? Don't you feel like you were there? Why do we no longer name our homes? Can you imagine the reeming out a reporter would get today if they tried to include the word "grotesqueness" in a wedding annoucement? How much pressure does this put on you to make the big meal later this week "a dinner which is not to be surpassed"?

Take that, texting.

An animated morning with Herring Run Quilt Guild

A little over a month ago I had the pleasure of visiting Herring Run Quilt Guild in Norwell MA and giving them my song, dance, and general floorshow. As much as I love the lecture part of my business and audiences really seem to enjoy it, I always have a moment or two of panic beforehand that no one will show up; this particular booking I had an even bigger panic attack because I knew I was competing with Mark Lipinski being at the quilting mecca of New England, Keepsake Quilting, at the exact same time on the exact same day. Clearly his people did not call my people.

Imagine my surprise when the hall was filled on that rainy Saturday morning. Hey, maybe the rain kept people from driving the 2.5 hours to Keepsake, but I'll take it. Herring Run was an awesome group of quilters and I had so much fun with them. One of their members took a bunch of photos and sent them to me on a CD (so sweet) and have to say I had an hysterical laughing fit looking at them, so I thought "What the heck. Let's share my dorkiness with the world." So prepare to be amused/disgusted by the montage of bizarre facial expressions I exhibited to Herring Run.
I love this photo. Standing where I am and lining my head up with that doorframe, it looks like I have a mohawk. Awesome. It also shows that I have not gotten over the pigeon-toedness that gave my pediatrician fits at age 4. While you are looking at my feet though, be sure to admire my beaded shoes.

These lovely ladies got quite a workout during the lecture. They were amazing quilt holders and probably only held a quilt upside down once or twice, which is fabulous. I love showing how color and fabric choices can really change the look of a pattern, and I always bring as many colorways of my quilts as I can.

Yeah, I like to talk with my hands. And apparently also with my eyes closed.

People always love the back of this quilt. It really is an adorable panel fabric from the "Life's a Hoot" line by Adorn-it Fabrics.

I promise I don't THINK I usually yell at my audiences. My apologies to Herring Run.

Air quotes are so awesome. Was I suggesting all self proclaimed "Quilt Police" leave the room? Did I use the word "embellishmenty" properly? Was I mocking the idea of "perfection" in quilting? I guess we will never know.

Cardinal rule of public speaking -YOU be the one to grimace rather than your audience members.

This just kills me. I have a look on my face like "These people are hopeless." Nothing could have been further from the truth. This was a hugely talented group who were unbelievably welcoming and fabulous in all ways.

Want to see what amazing faces I can make for your guild? Be sure to contact me for a lecture booking and I'll be sure to give it my best shot. While wearing some fabulous beaded shoes, of course.

Tour De Clean Studio

Strike while the iron is hot, hotties. You know it can't stay this clean and organized very long. I give it until Thanksgiving, tops. Many, many thanks to my friend Jennifer Hannon, who uploaded 18 months of my photos off my camera onto her computer so that she could email me these few photos and I could share them here. Let's all say a little prayer that my laptop is actually fixed this week, shall we?

When I returned from Market, I had no choice but to follow through on the threat I had made to my family before I left that I was going to lock myself in the studio and not come out until it was workable again. I considered "before" photos, and truly you would have benefitted from seeing how horrific it was pre-massive cleanout, but in all honesty, you also would have never respected me as a person, if you do at all now. It was that bad. So as you are taking my virtual studio tour, I want you to just picture in your mind every item you are seeing in the photos thrown in the air into a massive wind machine creating a artificial cyclone in the room and landing whereever it wanted. My husband says that is a completely accurate description.

So here we go!

This is what you would see first if you came to visit me while I was working. If you were here to actually help me work, I would be thrilled to see you. If you were under 9 and here to ask if you could play on the computer while fighting with your sisters over the mouse, I would not be so much thrilled. But either way, your first view is of this ladder displaying some completed quilts. This is actually only 1/3 of a 20 foot apple ladder I got off of Freecycle several years ago and I love it. You'll see another 1/3 later. The final 1/3 is in my living room holding quilts we use on a daily basis. Don't you love being a party to my cheap decorating secrets?

As for the door, that's just our utility closet. It's also where I deposited a ton of crap during my redo. In the words of Jim Carrey/Ace Ventura, "Do NOT go in there!" Trust me.

Immediately to your right as you turn into the room you will now find this cozy little nook where you can sit down and chat with me. This couch used to be against the wall with my Syncopated Ribbons quilt on it, and also used to be a depository for armloads and armloads of general stuff brought down to the basement and not put away. It also cut off my floor space, so I'm trying this arrangement for a while. I also have a basket of UFOs right there on the floor next to it in plain sight so I can be inspired to finish them. Pause for hysterical laughter.

Right around the corner of that wall the quilt was hanging on in the last photo is my favorite part of my redo. My "scrap central" bookshelf, where I have organized all my scraps, which for purposes of redo were defined as "anything less than 1/4 yard in size that I think I might use again at some point for a scrap quilt before I die even if I truly have no idea what possessed me to buy the fabric in the first place". Each little tub is labeled with the color family within, so I can't get lazy and just throw them anywhere. Here you will also see some bolts and rolls and NQFs (non quilting fabrics) that I just know someday I will use, if only to annoy my children with their very presence when said children have to clean out my studio after they move me into a nursing home. This bookshelf used to contain my books (imagine that), some UFOs, some completed quilts, and I even found a quilt on it while cleaning out that I honestly thought was lost forever about two years ago. Total score.

Here's my new and improved cutting corner. I used to have that little dresser at the front end of my awesome cutting table, which again messed with my floor space and ended up being another repository for random bits of stuff, and my pressing station was on top of the cutting table and took up way too much space. In a brilliant HGTV-esque space saving move, I relocated the dresser (which contains lots of tools like Mystifuse and pressing cloths as well as kit fabrics) over in the corner, stuck the iron on top of it, and gained a pressing corner and more room for projects on my table. My books are now on the little built-in shelf, and that half-open tub contains the remainder of my kit fabrics, conveniently located close to the cutting table for kitting. I used to keep all my fabrics in bins on the shelf under the table, which was truly a disaster at all times. I took them all out and redistributed them around the room, and am now using the shelf as a flat storage area for my quilts. One my daughter's friends saw it a few nights ago and asked if it was a little bed. I hadn't considered that I had added napping space to my studio, but hey, from the mouths of babes.

Here's where the magic happens. Machine, thread racks, design wall (created from a leftover piece of foam insulation from when we finished off this side of the basement covered with batting), and another ladder part, this one containing mostly quilts that are ready for a binding or quilting. I don't ever think about what might happen if that wastewater pipe ever burst.

All of my "Bigger than a fat quarter but still probably not much bigger than a yard because I am the cheapest quilter on earth" fabrics are out of their bins and into these racks now and I love being able to actually see them. Each little cube space is big enough for four stacks of fabrics, and I tried to color coordinate as much as possible. In the process I discovered I own NO red fabrics. Apparently I hate red. Who knew? My fat quarters in this photo are in that blue crate; since this photo was taken I have removed them to a much more attractive organizer thing I bought at Target. But I'm too lazy to rephotograph.

Pegboard full of random bits and bites. Had to share because I truly cannot look at this giraffe picture Paige drew in art class in Kindergarten without cracking up, which is why I keep it there. Frued would have a field day.

Our final stop in the tour, because you don't get to see my computer area to the left of this wall due to a file stack that is still unorganized, is my little wall of fame. Operative word is little, but it keeps me going when I get discouraged and need to remember that yeah, I've done some cool things so far in my career as EPQD and will do more in the future.

Many thanks for stopping by! I'd love to know some of your studio organizing tips, so sound off in comments if you like!

E-commerce and me, a love story

I hate shopping. I truly do. Shopping in actual stores, that is. The hassle of driving 12 miles to even find civilization in the form of row upon row of box store, the fact that I hate box stores, and the fact that it is taking up valuable quilting time to do it all combine to make me avoid most real live shopping at all costs.

Now, internet shopping is another thing entirely. You don't have to drive anywhere. You don't have to risk life and limb in a mall parking lot, and you don't have to stand in a line waiting 6 hours at the cutting table of JoAnn's or waiting on a price check at Target. You don't even have to be wearing clothes if you don't want to, although in general I don't take it quite that far.

I love that not only can I do almost all of my Christmas shopping on line now (http://www.americangirl.com/ has 25% off Marie Grace and Cecile stuff until Sunday, just letting you know!) but now I can even do a lot of my quilting supply shopping online too. Allow me to tell you of two of my favorite sites, both of which feature some of my patterns. I'd enjoy them regardless, but that does make them all that much sweeter.

http://www.patternspot.com/ is now featuring five of my designs, the latest upload being "Diamond Dazzle". The 16 page booklet-style pattern costs $12.50, and can be downloaded instantly to allow you to start quilting immediately. No waiting for the mail. No driving to the quilt shop. Just click, print, and sew. Lots of designers on there even have free patterns to download. It's for sure a "make a cup of tea before you open the homepage" kind of site - you are going to be there a while.

http://www.purplemoosedesigns.com/ is my friend Terri's online shop, which is awesome in that it always has cool gadgets and great prices, but is now featuring several of my patterns, including "Funky Tree Farm" and "Blizzard Buddies" just in time for the Christmas season. Check her site out and I know you will find some fabulous item you can't live without.

Happy Jammie Shopping!

Market = Awesome. Reality = Bites.

So I'm back now from International Quilt Market in Houston, and my head is spinning for about 19 different reasons. I'll only bore you with a few:

1. Fall market really is way huger than spring market. Plus maybe more quilt shop owners have just said "Screw the bad economy, I'm off to spend some money!" or something, but especially during Schoolhouse, you could barely walk between classrooms for all the people. Quilting is alive and well, hotties. But you knew that.

2. Houston is hot. And the cabbies clearly have never seen women before.

3. During my own Schoolhouse presentation, which was way better attended than my last one a couple of years ago so yay!, I actually recognized a couple of shop owners who attended the last one. I still can't figure out if they wanted to see me again or accidentally came in the room, saw it was me and said "Crap. Her again." but were too polite to leave, but I had a great time and I think the audience did too. It's what I do, after all.

4. Sample spree is crazy, but crazy fun too.

5. Learned that my website home page does, as I have known and feared and not known what to do about it, indeed suck. But hey, now I have confirmation of this from a professional. Yip-de-do. Now to find time and the smarts to fix it. Or $600 extra bucks to pay someone else to fix it.

6. I want to be BFFs with Debbie Gabel. Among other things, she created a Quilt Police voodoo doll and I bought a bunch to sell at my lectures because they could not be more perfect or less overrated.

7. It was fun to hang out in Jen Eskridge's awesome booth a bit - if you don't know her stuff, check her out at www.reannalilydesigns.com because she is amazing - and pick the brains of Carol Dockery and Kristine Poor to try to figure out if I am ready to take the plunge for a booth of my own next fall. I still have absolutely no idea of the answer to this question that was my main purpose in attending market to solve.

8. My "Night Owl" quilt looked adorable in Adorn-it's booth. Which was way adorable itself. (Photo to be added if I can figure out how - see reality bites section for more details.)

9. I may be a northerner through and through, but you do have to love a good southern gentleman, such as the one who overheard me say to my colleague and travel companion Cary Flanagan that I was bummed the airport gift shop didn't sell blank notebooks because I was teeming with ideas to work through on the plane home. Random nice man came up to me and offered me several sheets from a steno notebook, which made me happy for two reasons - a. I now had paper, and b. OMG I am NOT the only person in America who does not do everything on a computer!

By the time I reached Manchester NH, I had filled all the pages and outlined so many projects I shocked even myself, and I cannot wait to get started. "Woo hoo!" said me. "I will land, say hello to the fam, then immediately start sewing."

Enter reality. Have I mentioned reality bites? No? Have you not been listening? 13" of wet heavy snow on top of leafy trees while I was gone made a complete disaster of my town. Thankfully we have power, but there are still those without, and with power I should ostensibly be able to use my machine, right? But I have this little problem called three daughters home from school for October and November snow days.

And another little problem called my studio looks like a bomb went off due to all the last minute sewing I was doing for my Schoolhouse.

And another little issue called my laptop got zapped by the xray machine and died. AGAIN! Just when I was ready to give EQ a run for it's money.

But I soldier on. Make it do or do without. I'm using my laptop-free time to organize the sewing studio, and using my children as babysitters for each other. That's why one should have more than one kid anyway, isn't it?

Ah, but the memories of the fun and joy will remain.