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!

Thanks again for you patience!  Have a great holiday!

Barb

While at the show, I was thrilled to see a couple quilts there that either used one of my fabric lines or one of my patterns.

The first is a Stack and Whack Quilt called Perennial Garden by Mary Christopher. It uses The Ibiza Collection fabric line that I designed for Blank Quilting. I had no idea Mary had created this masterpiece. I just wish my photo did the quilt justice. But I think you get the idea.

Perennial Garden by Mary Christopher

Next I happened upon a sampler quilt by Shellee Williams-Allen. Hey, it’s my Introduction to Intermediate Quilting pattern! I love the color pallet she chose!

"My Sampler Quilt" by Shellee Williams-Allen

The final surprise was seeing my Batik Squares pattern done in these lovely green shades. It’s called “Kort’s Frogs” and was done by Sue Conge.

Kort's Frogs by Sue Conge

Thanks to all the ladies for letting me show off their handiwork. It’s always such a joy to see my designs being lovingly executed by others.

And I finish off with the photo of the featured quilter, Ann Dudek, The Scrapbook Quilter. Ann was present for the whole show and had a number of quilts on display, including her famous Scrapbook Quilt. This quilt was such a hit in our local quilting circles that Ann wrote a book around it, The Scrapbook Calendar Quilt.  Ann is a blast to hang with.

Ann Dudek, The Scrapbook Quilter

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!).

Our Summer Living Room

I know what you are thinking….”Where is Barb and what is she doing?” In the summer we clear the vehicles out of the garage and create our Summer Living Room. We have some extra comfy chairs and a swing. And these we arrange around a double mattress that servers as an ottoman/coffee table. With the double wide garage door open, it provides us a great view of the yard, lets in the summer breezes, and basically gives us a place to chill out. It doesn’t take much to make us happy.

So let’s fast forward to this week. There is frost on the ground this morning, we had graupel coming down on Sunday on the poor trick or treaters; Winter is rearing its ugly head. So this is what I look like now.

Custom Rag Quilt

This is a rag quilt I stitched together for myself with a couple of twists. It has a built in hood to keep my head warm, the sides flip over my arms to hold in the heat from the side, and the bottom is actually a pouch to slip my chilly toes into. It has an optional lap heater named “Murphy”. This is how you will find me on cold evenings. My hands are free to work on the binding of my latest project and I stay plenty warm. Take that Snuggie!!! I hope you are staying warm where ever you are!

Top of the list is Disney World in Florida. Now that is a happy place. We also get the peaceful feeling when we travel to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania where the Amish live. But this summer we decided to go to the Adirondack Mountains in New York. There is just something about going to the mountains to rejuvenate one self.

So what did we see? Well the Adirondacks are noted for Moose….but this was a little weird!

It's a Moose!

The Adirondacks are also noted for black bears. They are everywhere, real and fake.

These bears are friendly!

Here we ate at a little outdoor BBQ. They had a live band and served plenty of lobster of all things.

"Hey Honey, do they grow lobsters in the mountains?"

We rented a pontoon boat and cruised Raquette Lake. It was just so beautiful and peaceful.

But the weirdest thing we saw….yes it is a polar bear!

"...and bears, Oh My!!"

We stayed in a cute little B&B and lo and behold, this guy was on the wall over our bed.

We did plenty of swimming in the clear lakes and sat and read our books. Yes, summer vacation was quite nice! I hope you too had a great summer vacation these past couple of months. If you’d like, share with me your favorite destination for peace and serenity!

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!!!

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……

So here are some pictures of my gardens….weeds and all. Who can deny the growth of weeds when in the end they bloom into flowers as well?

I had some photos from this Spring when I was working in the beds. And I just took some new photos so you can see what the beds look like now.  It’s amazing what water and sun can do!

Click on any of the images to see them bigger.

This garden bed is in my front yard.

Front yard this Spring, this is the "real" me!

Front Garden as it looks now!

Check out the front of the house, this is another “before and after.”

Front of the house in April

Front of the house now!

And here is the back yard.

Our backyard in all its summer glory.

Isn’t this rock in the picture below beautiful? That was my Mother’s Day present from Marie and Rich…..I love rocks….and I got another one for my birthday. Rich could hardly lift it!!! Keep them coming kids!!!

My Mother's Day present...a rock!

Bird Diner

My diner for the birds is coming along well. The deer keep coming up from the woods and cleaning me out of seed….but then again…what am I to do???

This is what my “diner” looked like in the Spring.

My "Bird Diner" in the early Spring

And here is the new and improved diner under construction. We decided to put pavers around it to keep the bird seed from sprouting in the lawn!

Removing the sod.

Adding the sand.

Laying the stones.

Hey birds, come and get it!

Barrett checking out the workmanship.

The Diner at Sackel Park is now open for business!

Yup, I bought a coconut. I got a boat load of suggestions on how to get into it, but finally settled on what my Facebook buddy Jen Eskridge had to say:

“My parents always used a drill, then a hammer.”

Got it…a drill and a hammer. There’s one slight problem…I not that handy with non-sewing type tools. So I called in my team. My husband Grant and my Dad were the surgeons. My Mom and I assisted.

The surgical team assembled in the operating room...Grant, Mom & Dad

We got the patient comfortable on the operating table.

The patient on the operating table.

Let the operation begin. You never knew DeWalt made surgical equipment, did you?

Drilling into the patient. No anesthesia required!

Now it was time to, um, drain the patient. Ewwwww….now that sounds just icky when you think of the coconut as a patient. It makes me sound like a vampire or something.

Draining the um, nectar from the patient.

Time to taste! I was voted the “tasting technician.” It was a little shocking at first, a bit oily with a nutty aftertaste (I make it sound like a fine, wine, don’t I?). I’m wondering how Gilligan and mates survived so long on that island with coconut juice as a mainstay.

Interesting taste…..

Enough tasting, it was time to finish the procedure. Dr. Dad secured the patient in a vise.

Applying persuasive pressure on the patient.

Not a bad job Dr. Dad! The patient was now ready for the final part of the procedure, the HAMMER!!!

“Dr. Dad took the hammer and gave the coconut 40 whammers.” (Apologies to Lizzy Borden)

The patient is, ah, cured! Yeah, that’s it! Cured!

Cured!

So, that’s how this surgical team cracked the coconut and” saved” the patient! Now the next question is, what the heck do I do with it??? Macaroons anyone?

The final result!