Holly Blog

My Favorite Things...200...The Big Two Oh-Oh!

Day 15 of 16

 

The ric rac & ribbon is from my buddy Adam...(quilt shop owners take note!) The Forget-Me-Not millinery flowers are from my personal stash...but I have seen something very similar recently at Michaels.

Well Ladies, it's my day today, and a bit of a coincidence, actually...It's my 200th blog post. I have to laugh, when I think of what my webmaster said about blogging a couple of years ago, when I wanted to add a blog onto my website.  Something to the effect of "be careful with that and make sure you really want to do it and that you won't run out of things to say".  LOL...

Actually, I only run out of time, not things to show & tell.  I have pictures from trips and projects and things that inspire me waiting in files to show you...

Anyhoo, I designed the panel to expand the "circle of friends"...that is, people who liked the Dolly Dresses quilt from last fall & who would like to work with the Dolly Dresses fabrics, but like me, don't have the time to do all of the applique'.  Tick-tock, I say.

So before I even was finished with the dolly dresses panel fabric, I called the Beth "the Beauty Queen" Hayes (it's the cheekbones) at McCall's Quilting.  What I love about working with Beth is that she has even less time to waste than I do.  I send her a picture, she loves it, she hates it...I get instant feed back...Tick Tock.

So the embellished Dolly Dress Up panel quilt that was shown in the LakeHouse booth at Fall Quilt market, (which I showed in a previous blog back in October)...Is going to be in the McCall's Quilting April 2010 issue that hits the newsstands in February.  The timing is perfect, because the Dolly Dresses 2 fabrics will be getting to the stores in early April...For those of you with scraps left over from Doll Dresses 1, I used a lot of scraps from that collection in my quilt...Not to worry though, DD 1, 2 & 3...they all go together, it's a mix & match thing...like Garanimals...LOL

Meantime, it's time for you to give it your best shot...Remember the scene in the movie "Notting Hill"...Hugh Grant's character is sitting around the dinner table with friends?  Each of them had to tell a story about why they deserved the last brownie...Well now's the time...Give it your best shot & tell me why you deserve to win the Dolly Dress Up panels (months earlier than anyone else) from our secret stash here at the studio. 

Leave your story below and I'll announce the winners of the Dolly Dress Up panels tomorrow.

Make Me Laugh!...Back in a Flash,

H2

My Favorite Things...194...We're In the Pink!

Day 9 of 16

I met our next guest Miss Tula Pink at Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh.  It was a mutual admiration society...Tula was with her mom Kathy Runyan.  Kathy owns Country Expressions Quilt Shoppe in Stewartsville Missouri.  It didn't hurt that our conversation started with Kathy telling me how they "sell a ton of LakeHouse fabric" in her shop.  As you can imagine, nothing makes me happier!  In turn, I waas absolutely smitten with the tote bag that Tula was carrying made of the fabric that she designs for Moda.

So here's some close ups of Miss Tula's newest project...

Tula calls this her "Hogwarts" version of the Dolly Dress Ups...

It's such a fresh look, don't you think?

click here to see Tula's entire Dolly Dress Up Panel project...

Take it away Tula!

;ø}

H2

My Favorite Things...184...More Dress Up

With references like this so easy to download off the internet, it wasn't difficult to be inspired...

We started with Ric's version of Le Roi de Soleil (the Sun King). He came up with this fabulous wig based on pictures of hairstyles from that era.  There are over sized disposable plastic beer cups taped to the skull cap part of his wig under all of the paper curls...

Ric's daughter Erica is responsible for all of the make up. The "neck injury" is a reference to the guillotine's effect during the French Revolution...Ric's cape is a combination of a scalloped collar cut with piking shears, and dozens of ruched paper strips on the front of the cape. The little epaulets on the shoulder area of the cape were placed there to make his movement easier.

Next is Patrick, vogueing for the camera just after his make up was applied.

We made his breasts the same way as the skull cap for the wigs..."a la Martha".  Then we taped them to his Haz Mat suit.  You can see that his cumberbund is missing, but this gives you a good idea of how his garment was draped.  Believe it or not, this would have been much more difficult to pull off in fabric.  Newsprint has so much more body than most fabrics...we "pre-scrunched" the paper so that it was more pliable to work with as we did the draping.

Here's me just before the party, getting cinched into my party dress, by now you all know how much I love scalloped edges...

There are only a few pieces to my dress--the skirt with left & right over drapes in the front, the waistband that hid most of the unsightly details, the shawl collar & two paper rosettes to adorn the bottom of the shawl where it is taped together.  We scalloped the edges of my Haz Mat sleeves and created a cute little fold back cuff with rubber bands.

I'm so glad that Ric insisted that we all get into the spirit of Halloween this year and go "all out" with our costumes.  While I love Halloween, I have never been really big on actually participating in the spectacle of it all...It was a laugh riot from beginning to end.

Hope you all were as inspired by all of this as much as I was.

Back in two shakes...

;º)  H2

PS A new blog-a-thon is coming soon!

My Favorite Things...179...A Little Birdie Told Me

Without further ado, here are some close up shots of "me little birdies"...

Here's a shot of the tree, and the little goody basket we had the little bird-stickered-favors in...

I got all of the little German gold foil die cuts (even the crown on the back shelf) at a wonderful place in Berkeley, during my last trip to CA...More on this shop soon, when I get back over there.

Here's a little close up of the marvelous garlands that I bought in the flower district (28th & 7th Ave) in Manhattan...I also got the little eggs and many of the birds that I used in our booth at Bill's Flower Market which has been there as long as I have lived in New York. 

I'll be back again tomorrow for more show & tell.

X;º)   H2

My Favorite Things...178...When the Day is Done

I have had so many things to show & tell between my trip to California in early September and now.  But I have had to keep my nose to the grindstone in preparation for Fall Quilt Market.  We ran into a lot of snags along the way.  It was like a comedy of errors a lot of the time...(things just kept running amok!) Big thanks to Martha Hall for making the 3 new quilts shown below.

We featured our new Teatime Floral III grouping "front & center" in our booth at market.  A new panel fabric that I designed featuring North American Song Birds prompted our decorations...We had great fun with all of the little "do dahs" -- eggs, nests, lots of little birdies, some old fashioned feather trees...

 

The urns in the center are from the Clignancourt flea market in Paris.  I bought them almost twenty years ago for my own studio (w-ayyy before French General), when I was there working on an interior design project.  (So I really have to laugh when I hear back from sales reps that "this collection doesn't look like something Holly would do"--when in reality what I have done in the last year is actually inspired by some of my most treasured things). 

Believe it or not, the peeling paint and rust on these antique urns is practically the same color palette as the blues and browns in TTF 3...click here for a closer comparison!  The LOVE pillow is by pal Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated.  My new Whirlwind quilt in the background features the "Song Bird I" panel fabric LH 09024.  I'll be making inspiration sheets for this quilt available on line very soon.

Here's a close up of my peeling, rusty, iron garden urns...I know, I know, one person's trash is another's treasure!

 

Lots more soon after a little R&R. 

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...177...Good Food & Friends

Decided to take a little business trip to California, before the onslaught of market preparations.  Much to my delight, I was able to have a delicious lunch with two of the funniest blogging quilters I know...

I call them "Elizapam".  We met in Mill Valley, which IMHO is pretty much the cutest town in Marin.  With it's little parks, turn-of-the-century shingle style cottages, and a storybook downtown, a girl could fall for the place...

It's too bad we had to "pinkie swear" about some of our next up-and-coming projects (lots more soon).  We gabbed for several hours, only to call it short when East Bay traffic patterns caused them concern.  (They graciously offered to come to my side of the bay, as I am again staying in Marin county with my old buddy Ric, who I have mentioned before).  It was great seeing you girls!

Over this past weekend, I saw a really fun arts & crafts exhibit called "The Box Show" in Point Reyes Station.  The show has become so popular, that they have to hold a lottery for open spots. It was so much fun.  Each artist got a box to do anything they want with. Here's a few examples of some of the projects they showed...

This soft sculpture was made by Mollie Lounibos.  I just loved her birds, and wherever did she get that wood textured fabric?

Don't you all want a box made of Blue Willow china?  It's by Pattie Grey.

Simon Jeremiah did this homage to Joseph Cornell, one of my favorite 3 dimensional collage artists.

It's magazine quilt season right now, so I'll have lots more to show and tell when I get back to the studio.

Back in two shakes...H2 @:º)

My Favorite Things...163...More Holiday Windows

Continuing at Bergdorf's...

The shell details on the sides of the windows were just exquisite!

I've seen windows in some pretty impressive places...but nothing like this, ever.

More Soon...H2

My Favorite Things...162...Christmas in New York!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will be brief...Last night Paton, the girls & I walked to see the holiday shop windows...My favorite windows BY FAR, were at Bergdorf Goodman...

The entire moon was decoupaged with small bits of newspaper.  The craftsmanship of this series of vignettes was spectacular.  Each window looked like it took hundreds of hours of work to make all of the intricate "3-d collage" pieces, and seemingly days to actually install each piece into place.  I had to remember to not drool on the glass as I got close enough for some of these shots!

No details were spared...

This is just one of almost a dozen fabulous large and small windows at BG.  I took almost 200 pictures last night, and I hope to be back with more holiday magic as soon as time permits.

IMHO, Christmas is the most inspirational time to be in New York.  I highly recommend it.

Happy Holidays...H2

 

My Favorite Things...158...Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods!

For years I have been drooling over Susan Gowers delicious trims and notions booth at antique and quilt shows on the east coast.  What a pleasant surprise to see her at Fall Quilt Market in Houston.  Some of the antique buttons that I used in my blog banner were bought from Susan.

Here she is with Ric & Rac...

Susan graciously allowed me to capture many of the displays that she had in her booth. I took so many pictures of her beautiful things that it made better sense to put them all in a new flickr photo album!  You can see them by clicking on my right side bar titled Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods...

Meanwhile, if you are ever in Providence Rhode Island you can find her things at "REFIND" a store at 436 Wickenden Street.

Hope you find the photos of her displays as inspiring as I do, I just love things done by color palette, and I am endlessly fascinated with trims, buttons & ric rac.  Imagine the possibilities girls!

Back in two shakes...H2

PS on an inspiring and hopeful note, Gretchen one of our recent blog commenters has told me that there is an online petition forming in support of the Obama's adopting a rescue dog at the Best Friends Network.  See what they are up to and support homeless animals across the country...And if you haven't taken 5 minutes to email Oprah a suggestion...What's keeping you ???  X;º)

My Favorite Things...148...A Designer's Dozen

Our lucky 13th guest is none other than Penny Haren.  She's the one woman dynamo behind a new pieced applique' technique that has revolutionized the world of miniature block quilts. This is Penny's dolly dress, adorned in a zillion little applique'd strips...How did you do this Penny?

If you are interested in miniature block quilts, you must check out what Penny is up to on her website and her new blog.  If you are lucky enough to get a chance to watch one of her demonstrations, you'll be amazed with Penny's thought process. 

Penny is currently teaching at the AQS show in Des Moines, and she is booked to teach well into next year.  (Her schedule is also on her website.)

The "piece de resistance" will be ready very soon...so don't turn that dial!

Back in two shakes...H2