Juggling

It has been a real juggling act here trying to meet all of my deadlines.

Spring into early summer is a crazy time of the year for me - many deadlines.

Since we last talked I have...

Designed my Christmas 2013 line of fabric.

Nature's Christmas.

In all of my 17 years of designing I had never done a nature themed Christmas.

Check.

Made Phenomenal Fall

and Monster Bash quilts.

Wrote and proofed the instructions.

Shipped the patterns.

Find them here along with our other new patterns.

Sorted through my Fall Market strikes offs - a tedious job -

trying to get about 80 swatches narrowed down to 40.

The line is named Snap Pop.

Computer generated my Valentines line quilts.

A couple of days after I finished generating I received the actual yardage.

We have a new schedule which allows us more lead time to make the quilts and produce the patterns. WONDERFUL!

So yes, we are already sewing the quilts…

I mean for real.

This will be the Layer Cake™ pattern which is a block of the month.

We have all of the pieced blocks finished - on to the appliqué.

It is titled Spring Sampler.

Think all things spring - birds, flowers blooming, a babbling brook.

Designed my Fall 2013 line of fabric.

Smashing Pumpkins.

We are currently proofing the Everlastings (fabric shown at market) patterns

as they will need to be shipped in mid August.

That's all for now - I must go - I am about to mess up my juggling.

Are any of you out there in the middle of a juggling act?

Happy juggling,

Sandy

Have You Seen This Man

Hello everyone. Today I am asking your help in locating…

this man.

His name is Mr. Brown. Last seen wearing…

a brown shirt, brown pants, brown, socks and brown shoes.

Known to be driving….

A brown box truck….

With this logo. Thought to be carrying brown packages….

with white labels with the words Moda Fabric written in blue.

These packages are thought to contain…

this fabric.

In various prints of colors of bronze, walnut, brick red and teal.

If you know the whereabouts of this man, truck, packages

and or fabric please call 1-800-FINDFAB.

This fabric is scheduled to be shown at International Quilt Market.

We need to locate this fabric as soon as possible

as market is just a little more than a month away.

Yikes!!!

Although we may be waiting for fabric, we certainly are not sitting idle.

We have the Grand Finale patterns to correct, print,

bag and ship out to our quilt shop owners.

Yes the fall fabrics will be shipping in May!

We have been busy making several projects for new market pattern releases.

I had to design the Moda Market School House block.

I am not sure of all of the details of the Moda schoolhouse.

I do know that the Moda designers will all be participating

and each has designed a block. I have heard the word

"freebie hand out" mentioned.

We each had to submit a recipe - so maybe a recipe book??

Food, Fabric and Freebie...what a great combination.

Hope to see all of you shop owners at the Moda Schoolhouse.

The theme for the Moda booth this year is a County Fair.

Since I was a 4-H member for 10 years I am very familiar with County Fairs.

I have been conjuring up all kinds of ideas

for my market booth with a County Fair theme.

Here is hoping you are not waiting for fabric, but using fabric.

If you see Mr. Brown please let us know.

From my heart, Sandy

Happy As A Clam

I am Happy as a clam.

Why am I happy as a clam?
I have just finished computer generating

my quilts using my 2010 Fall fabric.
For me generating quilts is a pain in the neck.
Not because I do not like generating,

I love the challenge of taking forty 5" Charm Squares

and seeing what I can create.
Generating for me is literally a pain in the neck.

The pain in the neck comes from having
to tilt my head back to see the computer screen,
thus causing the pain in my neck.

(Yes, I am of the age of "bifocals required".)

Therefore when my quilts are done - I am happy as a clam.
The solution would be to take a pair of old frames

and have the reading part of my prescription put in the lenses.
I just cannot remember to do this.

Lord knows I have plenty of old frames laying around.
(I have a bit of a glasses fetish.)

Some of your might be wondering - What exactly is computer generating a quilt.
At Moda they like to be able to show the shop owners what patterns will be available using each line of fabric. This enables them to order fabric more efficiently.
Since the sales reps show the fabric on paper - before we actually have cloth to make the quilts - our only option is to "make" them on the computer.

How do you make a quilt on the computer?
Kind of like you make a real quilt.
Moda scans each strike-off (samples of fabric the mill sends us to approve the color and pattern). They then send me a disc of all of the scanned images.

Just like a real quilt the first thing you do is cut the quilt.
The images are usually about 6" X 8". If I am making a Charm Pack™ quilt I have to cut each of the pieces to a size of 5" X 5". How do I do this? I simply crop the picture to 5" X 5". If I am making a Layer Cake™ quilt I have to "piece" the fabric to make a 10" X 10" piece.

After I have "cut" the quilt. I start "piecing", simply by moving the scanned images into the position needed.

The name of the line is Awesome.
What season is more awesome than fall?
In my eyes, by far the prettiest color palette of all the seasons.

Autumn Glow, Pumpkin, Moss, Bark, Yarrow and Red Maple.
Below are the quilts that I generated.

Quilt using the panel.

I did a squirrel and acorns because our yards at home and the lake

are filled with oak trees, acorns and squirrels.

Charm Pack pattern

Jelly Roll pattern

Layer Cake pattern



A pattern called Cosmos.



This one I named Kaleidoscope.
It is easier than it looks.
(Lots of strip piecing.)

If you are a shop owner and you are interested in seeing this line, contact you Moda rep. The reps now have this line in their hands.

If you are not a shop owner you will have to wait until July to see this line.

Sorry to be such a tease...

but arriving in stores now - Frolic.

Did you ever wonder where the saying Happy as a Clam came from?

I assumed it was because a clam always looks like he/she is smiling.

Well I did some research and I found out the original saying was " happy as a clam in high tide". A clam is happy at high tide because you cannot dig for clams at high tide. They therefore as assured of not becoming some one's meal.

Now you know.

From my heart,

Sandy