I had a date with Mark Lipinski recently. Well, it was a phone conversation, but in my little world I consider that a date. An hour with Mark is something special. We had met before at Quilt Market, but this was a chance for some one-on-one time with him.

MarkLipinski

Fabric Trends Winter 2011

So what was the occasion? Are you ready for this? I am featured in the Winter 2011 issue of Mark Lipinski’s Fabric Trends! Included is Mark’s interview with me, my Florentine Fancy fabric line for Blank Quilting due out in the Spring, plus a pattern. OMG!!!

Florentine Fancy

Florentine Fancy - White Focus

Florentine Fancy - Black Vine

How does a conversation with Mark go? It was quite enjoyable! We spent an hour talking and touched on more than my upcoming fabric line (which he called “adorable” by the way). I was amazed at how much we have in common. We both have adopted children, love watercolors, do cross stitch, and of course quilting.

Mark’s questions regarding creative mental blocks and creative outlets and creative explorations made me think about all these aspects of my journey. It was a form of self exploration which I found interesting because we don’t often spend time exploring ourselves. It was more than an interview to me. It was a sharing of similarities. For the details, you will have to read the article in the magazine, available now!  I’m shouting it from the roof tops!

The frogs are jumping in Sackel Park. It is official. My Froggle fabric line for Blank Quilting is out and hopping off the shelves. There are quilts, placemats and bags that are letting the little critters play on them. It has been so much fun to watch all the excitement.

Froggles

The Froggles were even showcased in Quilt Magazine.

Quilt Magazine - Dec 2010/Jan 2011

The Froggles were featured on Page 64 as one of the “12 New Collections Designed just for you.” Just follow the red arrow!

Inside Quilt Magazine - See the Froggles!

The Froggles has been so well received that I have created a second line called, “Summer in FroggleLand.” It has a panel that has the little guys building sand castles, playing with beach balls, sleeping under mushrooms and even playing golf. I can’t show it to you yet, but take my work, it is just adorable.

Here is a quilt that I made using the Froggles and a pattern from Blank. I enlarged the pattern into a quilt that is 55” x 67”. The kit to make this great quilt is available on my website so you too can live in the land of the Froggles!

Froggles Quilt Kit

Have a Hoppy Thanksgiving everyone! (Sorry, couldn’t resist!).

Yesterday was a good day for me. Well, they are all good days, but this was a really good day.

I started the day out by making spaghetti sauce in my crock pot while pondering how to get that blasted woodpecker to stop pecking at the house. Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat!! Maybe he was asking to be invited to dinner?

Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs

Then my web goddess came over to brainstorm some changes to my website. During the visit, we heard the UPS truck arriving. Murphy the Wonder Dog is my UPS alert system. Note that he has his own quilt at his look-out post!

Murphy on guard!

I received not one, but two packages!!! Yippee! My web goddess grabbed my camera and we headed outside.

The UPS Dude was here!

The first package was from my son, Chris. He and his wife are expecting a baby in a month, but they are currently living overseas. Since holding a shower for them here was impossible, I arranged for a “Shower in a Box”.  We packed up some easy to ship items and send them over the ocean.
Chris and Susan were very surprised, delighted, overwhelmed, etc. Mission accomplished! Chris, being the thoughtful son that he is, sent me a thank you gift. And here it is! A great gift basket full of all sort of goodies. Thanks Chris!

Then it was on to the next box. I had a pretty good idea of what was in this one. I am sure the neighbors heard my squeals of delight as I unboxed my shipment of Froggles, my new fabric line for Blank Quilting. YES!!! I had been waiting for this to show up!

The Froggles are here!

So now I have to find room to store these bolts. They will join the bolts of my other fabric lines (and a few bolts of blenders) in this cabinet in my dining room. Hey, doesn’t everyone keep fabric in their dining room? If you are quilter you do!

My fabric...a lovely sight.

The day ended with spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Unfortunately, my dear husband Grant will argue with the “Good Day” assessment. During dinner….CRACK! My husband’s front tooth completely broke in half under the gum line. He had a root canal when he was young because of a sports injury. So now he’s off to the dentist. I swear it was not my meatballs!!!

Things are happening in Barb-land these days. I can’t reveal all I’ve got going on just yet. Patience! (Mostly on my part.) But I will share this with you!

I do enjoy painting. There is something so soothing and relaxing about it. The house is quiet…mostly quiet anyway, until Murphy the Wonder Dog imagines he sees something outside that I need protecting from. I sit at my painting table right under a west facing window and I create. I enjoy it even more when there is the promise of it turning into a fabric line!
I don’t know if you frequent the Blank Quilting website. I do…and I am pleased to say that my latest contribution to their line of fabrics is right there on their home page under “Newest Collections”. May I introduce you to Froggles!

Meet the Froggles!

I spent last Fall working on these little guys. It was a lot of fun creating each one and giving them some personality.

Picking up on all the flowers surrounding my new BFF’s, I created this floral.

Floral Print for Froggles

Next was the stripe. My mind was racing with possibilities for using this stripe. Fortunately, it is NOT named “Racing Stripe.” (Sorry…couldn’t resist the pun.)

Froggles Stripe

Finally, I have four muted solids. I just love them!

This fabric line will be in stores the summer of 2010.  And, of course, I’ll have some patterns coming that will highlight this fabric!

On that note, it’s back to my home office. I just spent 8 hours working on some projects in EQ7. That length of time on a computer is insane for me! But it’s a hint of what’s coming……

Now that I have had my new fabric line “And Sew It Goes” for Blank Quilting on hand for a few days, I’ve been working on three quilts using the fabric. I’ve had the designs in my head for a while, so when the fabric came I was ready to start cutting and sewing.

I took the three quilt designs I stitched up over to Betty’s Quilting etc., my home quilt shop, and showed them off. My web goddess grabbed a camera and shot these pictures. It was suddenly mini-trunk show time!

Here’s the first quilt. I just knew I had to pull the sewing theme into at least one of my quilt designs. Spools seemed the obvious choice! Click on any of the images to see it bigger!

And Sew It Goes #1

Here’s #2. I just love the way the pseudo-log-cabin-blocks really POP with this fabric.

And Sew It Goes #2

And here is #3. Can you tell I am really enjoying myself?

And Sew It Goes #3

In all the quilts, I used the 4 designs from my “And Sew It Goes” fabric line (see the fabrics up close in this blog post) and supplemented them with Fusion Illusion, also from Blank Quilting.

Here’s quilt #1 again…you can get a better of idea of what the fabric looks like “up close and personal.”

And Sew It Goes #1 up close

All these designs are now with the Graphics Art department at QuiltWoman.com being turned into patterns as
we speak. I’m trying to refrain from bugging them everyday, but I can hardly wait!!! “Holler” to Judy and
Sarah!

I hope you enjoyed this little trunk show as much as I enjoyed presenting it! You can just bet I’ll let you all know when the fabric starts hitting the quilt shops and the patterns are available! Yippee!!!