Holly Blog

My Favorite Things...126...Portland & Points Beyond!

I've been burning the midnight oil with two new collections, (more on them soon) so I still haven't finished my Quilt Market tales, and our post-market travel log.  So here goes...

My last bit of praise for Portland is about the neon signs.  What you say?  Yes I say...In the days before market that Penny and I spent getting lost in and around Portland, we saw a lot of really great oh-so-retro neon signs.  Like this one...

I poked my head inside this store, and I felt like I had time traveled back to a childhood trip that my family took to Jackson Hole. I just love places that make me nostalgic, and Portland seemed to be one of those towns.

Penny and I also saw at last a half a dozen 1960's looking neon signs for Chinese restaurants...
Here's a couple that I could take from the car window without causing a pile up!  She really thought I had a screw loose, but I just couldn't resist these signs, I felt like I was on a movie set a lot of the time.

When is the last time you saw a sign for a Buffet style restaurant? 

At the Golden Dragon, it looks like you can have a Mai Tai, some Chow Mein, and then go next door to see Exotic Dancers.

On Monday morning, Penny and I switched our ginormous SUV to a cute little PT cruiser, and headed for points north, or so we thought...?

We were making really good time, so we stopped for lunch an hour or so out of Seattle.  Turns out when we got back on the highway, we were pointed in the wrong direction. In fairness to Penny, it was an overcast day...Hard to tell north from south when you can't see the sun.  LOL  ;)

We stayed at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle that night.  It's a cute place right on the water near Pike Street market...It felt more like an Adirondack fish camp than Seattle waterfront...but the room service  brought us the the best Macaroni & Cheese I have EVER had, so it was all good!  Here's a shot of our room's mascot with what was left in the bowl.

I'll be writing Food & Wine Magazine to see if they can get that recipe for us...Seriously!

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...28...A Mid-Summer Night's...Quilt?

Faithful Blog-ettes...here's a little sneak peak at one of my new quilt designs from the La Belle Rose collection.  Make no mistake about it, it's been a long time a comin'...It reminds me of the old fashioned high top shoes with buttons.
    

It took me more than a few late-nights on my laptop propped on pillows in bed, to get this quilt to look like anything. I had designed one small block for the cover of our sales booklet for spring quilt market, and sho-nuf, Beth Hayes of McCall's picked right up on it and wanted me to develop it further...

My ever-diligent, queen-of-all-things-fabric: "QOATF" Cheryl Winslow just dropped off this new quilt...(adorable--if I do say so myself!) Picture this delivery..."QOATF" pulls up on a shiny new retro-style Harley Davidson with a HUGE throughly modern black helmet and large bulging knapsack on her back.  I squealed with delight when I laid this quilt out...promise you this...for those of you who loved Victoria magazine...this quilt will not disappoint.  It's nostalgic and romantic, and yet fresh & new at the same time (she said humbly!)

The piecing is pretty much standard-fare for Cheryl...impeccable! The quilting....sublime. So "up my alley" I can't even tell you!

So here's the scoop on the quilt: It will be in McCall's February '08 issue...newsstand late November early December...And, if you are at all like me, you want it when it comes out...(weeks before it actually hits the newsstand)--get a subscription!

Oh and in case you are wondering (and I am sure many of you are!) why I am not making my own quilts...honestly, the day-to-day demands of this business are just too great, and my eyes frankly are really not great anymore.  I have been severely near-sighted since 2nd grade, (and I have the pictures of me in my brownie uniform and brown coke-bottle-cat's-eye glasses to prove it!) On top of not-so-great eyes, I have been overusing them for 10-12 hours a day for over 30 years...Oh, and most of you know about lasix eye surgery...dozens of my friends have had it with great success...well, let's just say--I'm in that 3% that no one ever really wants to talk about...I am just thankful that I can still see at all.  So I guess what I am saying is, pretty much the last thing I can do for fun & relaxation involves hours of working at a sewing machine! Honestly the best thing I can do for my eyes and to relax is stare into the distance (like across the lake from a deck chair) and focus on something a mile or two away.

That said, I do still love applique and I do think that I will be doing some of that again sometime soon...Also, my excuse for that is that I can take that in a car, and do it while I am waiting for things to happen.  It's generally portable and I I don't have to make a huge fuss to do an applique project.  Megan and I had a lot of fun with the LOVE HOPE FAMILY quilt that we did for Spring 06 market, and it reminded me how much fun applique can be. The pieces in that quilt were ginormous, so I could actually see what I was doing without too much stress!

Meantime, back to my second favorite past-time...eating!  It occurred to me that there were a lot of other people out there in bloggie-ville who also loved to share their recipes and thoughts on food.  I have read some mouth watering descriptions of late...

So I "wrastled up" some fellow quilt-lovers and we are going to do a  "Blog-able Feast"...The fine points of this are not finalized, but it will go something like this:  every day of this event, you'll come to my blog and I will give a little intro about the person, the course that they are doing and something about the recipe, etc. that they will have that day...I will provide a link to them. Then you'll go over to them and have a treat!

I'll have more on this as soon as it's all laid out...so keep checking back and I'll let you know the who, what, when & where within a week or so.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...24

Addison Endpapers...Berkeley, CA...part three of three

Roses, Coral & Flourishes...on lanterns and shadow boxes displays.  Notice the subtle differences in the gold foil corner details...

I think it's positively magical to go into a place and lose yourself.  By that I mean, be in a space that transcends a time and a place...

From the looks of this display, you wouldn't know if you are in Berkeley, Paris, Vienna, Milan or Hong Kong...

I love the feeling of being transported somewhere else...this is something that started on family car trips I took as a child, to places like Williamsburg and Glacier National Park.  It has become even more obvious and pronounced on trips I have taken as an adult overseas.

Here's a little glimpse into the shadow boxes...

Here's an eclectic combination of "ordinary" vintage items mixed in with lovely, diminutive heirloom jewelry pieces...it's a clever way to point out the relative scales and beautiful details of each of the items in each case.

If you are ever in Berkeley, you simply must stop and see what's up at the new Addison Endpapers store...here's the phone number in case their new store front is just as subtle as the last!  510 525 2904

More fun pics from my California trip when we meet again...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...23

Addison Endpapers, Berkeley, CA...part two

When I lived in Sausalito, my neighbor Ernestine, a Cal grad, took me to Berkeley to shop, swim at the old pool on campus, and eat in a lot of great restaurants...It was back then that I first discovered "Tail of the Yak", a shop filled with an amazing array of interesting objects...(more on this little gem soon!) and Addison Endpapers.   I bought my first Addison Endpapers handmade album on one of those trips, and I was hooked...

Here's the surprise...the marvelous paper lanterns!...Julie Addison, the founder and Geneva's mother, is the gal who painstakingly prints all the papers by hand...aren't they transcendent?  Notice the little bird on the paper in the display case, that is one of Julie's signature motifs...

Geneva told me that the Asian designs on these lanterns are from antique images purchased on a buying trip in Europe...I was/am completely smitten with these lanterns!

Apothecary jars and dainty glass vitrines display printed ribbons and vintage "paste" fruit & mushrooms...An unusual combination of objects that make me smile.  I'd like to challenge people to create some sort of an "alter" or still life in their home/office/studio...of cherished objects and favorite things...I think that fabrics sorted by color on shelves is one yummy way to display your goodies, but a small composition of colorful baubles or old printed objects...even things you might think of as ugly take on a certain beauty in a well displayed collection...

More next time...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...22

I am so glad that we were able to find Addison Endpapers in Berkeley, CA during my May trip...We drove by twice and would have missed it a third time, if not for my cell & having their telephone number in my trusty filofax...

Turns out it was one of their last days at the Telegraph Avenue location; they have now moved to 886 Colusa Ave.  With these delicate little scalloped curtains in the window, it was more like a French tailor's shop window than a Berkeley store front...

Their store is a mixture of odd & unusual, old & new...beautiful ephemeral items placed in a setting so simple and spare...I became almost giddy with each new still life laid out on, and in, the glass-topped cases and tables that lined the outer edges of the room.

 

A series of antique and vintage crowns added a delicate touch to the displays...

I love the contrast of the old wooden hat form and the antique hair ornaments...

Geneva, one of the Addison daughters, spoke with my old friend Michelle and me about the many talented artists and designers in her family, (like her Aunt Wendy of "Theater of Dreams" fame)...as I hovered about taking pictures...

She told me of finding this 19th century crown on a recent trip to  France...aaaahhhhh, a kindred spirit!

By now you are probably wondering, what about the endpapers?...Your first clue is the wall paper.
More on their custom-designed hand crafted papers and "objets"...next time.  It will not disappoint!

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...18

Pittsburgh Quilt Market, part two...
One of the reasons I loved Pittsburgh so much was the convention center.  The roof of the building is made from translucent fabric, held up by a series of cables; the quality of light in the entire show was simply amazing.

This Frosted Candy quilt by Gerri Robinson was published in McCall's Quilting magazine in February 2005.

Ric Rac Garden, by M2, is the first project that Megan ever made for us...

This Simple Simon quilt is by the now famous Mark Lipinski...he humored me by adding one of my favorites: fabric covered buttons!  In addition to making a few quilts for our booth, Mark did several Schoolhouse talks for us, and had the women rolling in the aisles with his disarming & self-deprecating sense of humor...Sis, Gerri, Mark and I laughed till our sides hurt at dinner every night, too...

This Candy Machine quilt is actually a whole cloth from our Cotton Candy collection. We used over-sized ric rac (from Cheep Trims) at the edges with our Tiny Ticking stripe as a border.  It's still one of my favorites...On the right is Gerri Robinson's Floral Sampler quilt...the over-sized pink flowers are from our Les Grand Fleurs collection...I have seen a lot of very striking quilts made out of this fabric over the years...another favorite of mine.

The pictures from the back of the booth are MIA!  I can tell you this - we had so many projects to show in Pittsburgh that we tried a custom made swing-arm display system (like you'd see in a rug store)...By the end of market, several of the arms broke off, sending quilts flying and we haven't used it since.

We saved the best for last (apparently)...since we won our one and only booth display award from Quilts Inc for our first booth at Houston Quilt Market 2003.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...17

Pittsburgh market was so much fun...Rachel Shea aka "Sis"  flew in from Montana to make the display designs & help out in the booth...Sis is a savant with anything you can think of that requires incredible eye-hand coordination...beadwork, doll making, origami, ribbon flowers, painting...the woman does it all!  Rachel is also the artist who painted all of the daisies in the DayZ collection, and all of the candies in the Cotton Candy collection shown below.  Over the years we have done a lot of beautiful projects together...her work is truly special.

That's Rachel in the peach T-shirt on the right...

I had an idea for the booth that was based on French food sculpture of the late 1800's that incorporated fabric flowers, fanciful baked goods & a sweet shop idea...Voila...LakeHouse "Les Bon Bons"...Rachel came into town a few days early and we sketched up some ideas and shopped for florist supplies...The tiered milk-glass cake stands are from Martha Stewart...Notice the little petit fours Sis made out of our dot & striped fabrics.  The candy-shaped Fat Quarter favors wrapped in clear acetate and tied with our LakeHouse ribbon have become one of our signature favors that we've sent out to several big Quilt industry events...

The tiered "cakes" are all made out of our LakeHouse fabric (which we stabilized with iron-on interfacing), ready made "silk" flowers, ric rac, batting, pins & lots of floral-supply styrofoam forms.   If I do say so myself, adorable!  Rachel made them all...Those of you who know me, know of my 100% cotton ric rac fetish...these are from my buddy Adam at Cheep Trims (a wholesale source).  We rounded out the pastel bright color scheme with a variety of retro candy...Bubble Gum cigars, BB-Bat taffy suckers & Kits taffy squares, Chiclets gum miniatures, PEZ, etc...We rubber-stamped our logo onto some bright pink paper bags and told people to help themselves to the candy!

More Pittsburgh pictures next time...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...16

OK, so I get that many of you are curious about the animal names, Kitty the deaf dog and all...It turns out there is a method to the madness...Paton has this thing for naming his pets after cars, or race car-related personalities...Kitty the deaf dog is named after Kitty O'Neil, the deaf female stunt car driver and drag racer. The running joke around here is that since she can't hear us calling her (not that it stops us from trying), she won't have an identity crisis over being called Kitty (although growing up surrounded by cats, she's more likely to be sleeping along the top of a sofa than in a doggie bed on the floor)!  How Paton got "Geets" from Kitty, well that's a whole other story.

The newest member of our family, Vickie...aka "Dixie", came to us this winter via the West Milford Animal Shelter.  Pushing a shopping cart out of the local A&P a few months back, I spotted her beautiful little black and white face on an ad that said  "Dixie has spent the last four of her six years with us here at the West Milford Animal Shelter..."  I ripped down the ad and took it out to Paton who was waiting in the car.  He read the ad and said "Well, I guess we need to go and get her."  What's not to love? 

I am happy to report that the former Dixie, now Vickie (short for Victoria, after the black and white Ford Crown Victoria's that the police drive around here ) has been a sweet & comic addition to the family...when she blinks, her eyes disappear into the black part of her face, she honks like a goose instead of a meow, and she moves like a little bull dog...slightly pigeon-toed, stocky torso, with short legs...She's integrated really well with all of the other animals, because the shelter kept her in with the "general population" of other free-range kitties...If you already have cats, and can help out another in need...a cat that has lived this way may be just the ticket.  Oh, and in case you don't already know, it's adult female cats that really have a hard time getting adopted...and they are wonderful studio companions, IMHO quilts and cats go together...

Here's Queen Vic in all of her splendor, keeping me company in my office window...she knows who's won the lottery!

So a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...yikes, this "past-booth-memory-lane-thing" is banging on!  Here are a few more shots from Fall '04...Oh, and you can tell from the (lack of) lanterns and props on counter tops, that these pictures were taken at various stages during our set up...

The pink & green Bubblegum Garden quilt is by Cheryl Winslow...The Lantern quilt is by Linda Naprstek...

The pink & black Chinese Checkers quilt is by The Quilt Branch...That's M2's Fan quilt and the now famous Bento Box quilt is you guessed it...Tracey Brookshier's...

There's wasn't a great way to get a shot of the back gallery space, so it's in pieces above...The two colorful Dazzling Diamonds quilts are by Diane Weber...and in the middle, the Pinwheel Party & Turtle Club quilts quilts are by Linda Kopisch...

Next time, it's our Spring Market 2004 in Pittsburgh...what a beautiful convention center...and I LOVED Pittsburgh, it reminded me a lot of San Francisco!

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...12

Ever since I received these adorable pictures of Aliya (Su's daughter), I have been chomping at the bit to show them to you...She is wrapped in our Garden Lattice quilt from the DayZ Deux Collection (which is in the quilt shops NOW!)  It was her belated birthday present...that little quilt traveled in trunk shows all over the US before it came back to her.

Is it just me or can you tell how much she liked her new quilt?

This quilt was pieced by our quilting buddy Bernadette, then long arm quilted  &  finished by Cheryl Winslow of Starshine Quilting.  Below is Aliya's thank you card to me.

Apparently Su hasn't broken it to Aliya how Aunt Holly's wonderful old Singer machine was stolen out of the trunk of her car in Manhattan, over a year ago...not to mention that I can't see well enough anymore to even thread a needle...It is an amazing resemblance though, don't you think?

Now that you've had yet another dose of adorable...We'll get back in the time machine again and take you back to Fall 2005 Houston market...This was a pretty fateful market for LHDG...I turns out a lot of people never heard of us before the DayZ One Collection!

After DOC, people would refer to us as "you know LakeHouse, they do the brights"...it made me feel as if we never existed before the darn daisies!  What can I say? I am a woman of eclectic tastes.

Anyhooo, when I first imagined this line of fabrics, I thought of the booth with a kick line of steroidal daisies across the top...L--daisy--A--daisy--K--daisy--E...you get the idea...

I first saw the "ginormous" daisies in a jewelry store window in Manhattan in July!...sourcing them after that was no small feat.  Turns out daisies are only sold in the spring at floral supply houses and I was a few months late.  Can you spell tenacity?  Oh, and to give you an idea of the size...think dinner plate!

In addition to the big daisy idea, I also wanted to explore a warm bright palette--yellow, orange, hot pink and a cool bright palette--lime, turq, purple.  I found that the interplay of warm and cool brights was especially exciting.  That's Cheryl Winslow's Driving Miss Daisy quilt on the end display, Tracey Brookshier's  Party Bag quilt accessorized with adorable stuffed animals, Cindy Taylor Oates' tiered skirt and Mickey Beebe's BB bags.  Pretty much all of the other things in the background are by Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated.

Our tiered table displays had the jumbo daisies too...I thought that they'd inspire shop owners as really cute counter-top displays. They are really easy to make...and could easily be morphed into other adorable centerpieces for a holiday table...I'll give you the specifics on how to make these in a later blog...The DayZ Star quilt in the background on the left was really a big hit for Tracey Brookshier.   My Flower Power quilt on the right, was in Quilts & More Winter 2006 issue.

   

The Blooming Beauty quilt (above) was my take on the traditional New York Beauty.  It was the design inspiration that lead me to create the whole DayZ line...Cheryl Winslow pieced and quilted this for us...She's won several awards for this quilt in local shows...her long arming is pretty special.  Below is a detail shot of her craftsmanship...She banged this out in just a day or two...the girl's a monster with any sewing-related machine!

You guessed it, those are  Penny Sturges bags with the Blooming Beauty quilt!

These are some shots from the back of the booth.  It's tough to get a good shot of all the quilts at once.  You may recognize Marvelous Megan's quilts...the last two on the top row, they were both published in magazines...Houston Stars in Quilts & More in the Summer 2006 issue and Pretty In Pink in American Patchwork & Quilting magazine October 2006.  The Pink & Green quilt on the lower right is Cherry Lime Phosphate by The Quilt Branch gals, it was on the cover of McCall's Quilt Quilts March 2006 issue.

With eight colorful quilts on the backside of the booth, this wall was like eye candy for me!  On the top row is Tracey Brookshier's Double Spools quilt, Diane Weber's DayZ SplitZ quilt, and Megan's previously mentioned Houston Stars quilt.  On the bottom is another quilt by Diane Weber named DayZ PawZ, Windsong by the Quilt Branch, and my Noodle's Nine Patch.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...11

As promised, part two of SIS BOOM day at Jennifer's house...

Lots and lots of pretty brightly colored Party Frocks!
Su bought an adorable dress for herself and a skirt for her "it's only a matter of time 'til she's a super-model" daughter Aliya...PM Martha bought oodles of fabric for her art quilts...M2 got the perfect pink & red summer handbag.

Eye catching vignettes were everywhere!

"World's Cutest" comfy chair with SIS BOOM pillows...

While I checked out some of Jennifer's personal bric a brac and collages, (that's right, I'm nosy) I inadvertently captured the hostess herself, in conversation with another guest.

Thanks for the lovely time JP...SIS BOOM BA...RAH!

So it's back in the time travel machine my little blogettes, as we take you to Quilt Market May 2006 in Minneapolis...

Do I need to tell you how much fun we had getting those stars to stay up? (Floral putty and wire...totally jury-rigged!) All through market, I was a wee bit fearful that one of us would be impaled with a star point...they were really sharp on the tips (barn stars made with rusted metal no less!)...And over here Mrs. Jones is a...excuse me, I have this sharp pain...do you see anything back there?...a shooting star, you don't say.  Thankfully, there were no casualties.

In the front were egg baskets from my friend George at the Eclectic Eye in Warwick, NY...
M2 and I collaborated on the LOVE HOPE FAMILY applique quilt; we had a lot of fun with it...You may also have seen my Kitty Cowgirls (yep, they are wearing bandannas!), which was published in McCall's Quilting April 2007 issue...The Prairie Sampler quilt I designed was in (we got really lucky at this market!) McCall's Quilting February 2007 issue...

I had time to take the booth pics before they came around to install the carpet.  Needless to say, these shots look a bit odd, especially with the beige wall behind us...and yes we were on the last row of the show...and nowhere near the bathrooms...ugggh!

My Turning Point quilt was also published in McCall's Quick Quilts  January 2007 issue...That's Cindy Taylor Oates' adorable tiered alphabet skirt on the mannequin...As well as lots of bags by Penny Sturges, Tammy Tadd & Mickey Beebe.

On the back gallery space, we had oodles of Asian-inspired quilts featuring our Little Island and Mikado Collections...Susan Knapp and Mary Jane Mattingly of The Quilt Branch also had their Happiness Squared quilt (second on the upper left) chosen by McCall's Quick Quilts for the March 2007 magazine.

Joe Wood's clever "Uncle Sam Says" quilt says "God Bless America...Land that I Love"
I'm so fond of anything with a star motif, aren't you?

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...10

I am starting to feel a bit like Lois Lane, ace reporter...Have I got a scoop or two for you...and I am NOT talking ice cream!

Scoop 1:  Today is Marvelous Megan (aka M2) Johnson's first blog post ...where as I am writing from my childless, kooky & creative point of view, Megan's new blog "Will Work for Fabric" will be about her life as a quilt teacher, a mother of twin boys and what it's like to be the yin to my yang here at LakeHouse Dry Goods.

Scoop 2:  The exuberant Jennifer Paganelli of SIS BOOM fame held her summer show at her charming house in Wilton Connecticut at the end of last week.  M2, Su and PM Martha all tagged along with me to join in the fun...Since a picture is worth a 1,000 words, here's a few thousand for you:

JP's dining room was filled with goodies galore...Tunics, Banners & Pillows in every shape and size...

Party Hats, Framed Collages & Sun Dresses...

Jennifer's light-filled family room had several vignettes...this one was set up with quilts, pillows, hair bands, and fabric covered storage boxes. It was totally unconventional, and yet everything looked "wunderbar dahlink"...There was magic in the air!

Everywhere I looked, it was a riot of color and spontaneous joy!

There's lots more to show and tell about Jennifer's home and work...so come back for part two of the story in my next post.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, today is a big day...I've completed what I wanted to tell you all about my experiences at Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City, except for one little foodie detail...Just across the street to the north from the SLC convention center was a little sandwhich shop called Toasters...OMG!  I haven't had a sandwhich that good since my days at University of Illinois Champaign, when I used to eat lunch at Eddie's Deli. Turns out it's all in the rolls, which the owner told me were from Vosen's right down the street. If you ever find yourself in SLC don't hesitate!

So that's it for SLC...and I, for one, am relieved.

While in the process of recounting this market's activities, etc., and reading your comments, it dawned on me that most of the people reading this blog have never seen the booths that we have done in the past...I'd love to show you how they've looked over the past few years (we are still a young company, so it's not really that far down memory lane!). It's a bit like planning a theme party each time.

Designing booths for market, (although usually under a HUGE time crunch), is still one of the most rewarding things I do here at LHDG.  The chief cook & bottle washer thing...not so much!

We'll work our way backwards to our first market in the fall of 2003...when we won our one, and only, "1st prize for Best Double Booth"...My how time flies when you are working your butt off!

Without further adieu then, here's a quick peek at our "DayZ Deux" booth (based on the success of our first DayZ Collection...and still available in stores NOW!)  We hope to have swatches from this collection up on our new website in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, you should be able to see this collection at your local stores, or online.

A 3/4 shot of the front of our Fall 2006 booth in Houston...

The wonderful Spring Trees with Ornaments were by the lovely Karina Hittle of Artful Offerings. Below them, the fat quarter bundles were the "presents"... Quilts left to right were:  Ring Around the Flower, by me...DayZ Star by Tracey Brookshier, and Night Flight by Cheryl Winslow.  As has become the norm here at LakeHouse, a majority of the bags were by Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated.

People seemed to really love this Lazy DayZ quilt...It was too long for the space, so we rolled it up at the bottom...Such a simple design, yet to me, a really pleasing quilt to look at.  I find simple a lot harder to do than busy and fussy, so it was a personal coup for me.

M2 and I worked on this together.  I just adore this little star quilt we named "Twinkle"...The message says "twinkle twinkle...little star...how I wonder...what you are...BTW, the alphabet fabric that we used to make the sayings is still available...if fact, it has been so successul that we re-introduced it again at SLC.

Lori Allison of Allison Quilt Designs did an "aisle catching" bright variation on her popular "Color My World" quilt...It was one of my favorites!  Her new website is due any day...will keep you posted.

Zinnia, by Anne Moscicki of Touchwood Quilt Designs was fabulous!   Anne used approximately 50 different fat quarters from our LakeHouse Brights Library. It was like an art quilt and a vibrant bed quilt all rolled into one.

It's been an emotion packed couple of days...visiting Jennifer's house filled me with a rush of memories of fun-filled summer days at my long-lost friend Ron Ryan's house right around the corner in Wilton...Where are you, and what are you up to Ron?...Looking back at booths-gone-by makes me nostalgic for all of the collections I've introduced at previous markets.

More on Jennifer and look back at another LHDG booth next time.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite things...9

Shirley (now Kitty) after we arrived home on her first day with us...I am shameless when it comes to cute animals!  I am adding this a few hours after this blog originally posted, because I am into day 2 of a hormonal migraine, and needed something to cheer me up.  On migraine days, there are NO big thoughts...just distractions.  My older women friends tell me that menopause will fix this...and I say to this, does it really or do you just not remember?

The end of my Salt Lake City "memoirs" is now within reach...whew!  Wiping the sweat off my brow with one hand as I type with the other...Oh, I'm sorry, my mistake...girls don't sweat, we "glow".

Speaking of being shameless, there a here are a few more of my designs that you might not see in your local shop, (one shop rarely takes all of our patterns) so why take that chance? If you are anything like me, you want to see it all, right? Besides, this morning's memo from our LHDG  "shameless promotion department" is quite clear...I am not done yet...close only works with horseshoes and hand grenades.

One thing that I have not yet fully explained to you is how I laid out this collection.  My design intent was to create a (relatively) small line of textiles that would pack a lot of wallop for shop keepers and consumers as well.  I co-mingled enough patterns in enough colorways so that three distinct project color palettes could be achieved via (what my hope is my first of many intros) of the La Belle Rose Collection:  1--"Pastel", 2--Black & White plus color I'll call "Multi" and 3--Black plus color "Black".

To best showcase this idea, I designed three distinct colorways for each of the 3 patterns that LHDG introduced with the La Belle Rose Collection.  The first pattern you'll remember was "Three Wishes", we coordinated it with the 3 different Sweet Retreats Kits...refer to my prior blog Favorite Things...6 

The second pattern is Star Garden.
in "Pastel"...

"Multi"...it was at the center of the front of our booth!

and "Black"...You would be amazed at how rich this color palette looks...The pinks in the flowers get darker and richer when set against the black background.

The third pattern we introduced was Rainbow Chain...
"Pastel"...as shown on the left side of our booth.

"Multi"...one of my favorites, it feel's very fresh to me.

"Black"...again, very rich and dramatic!

In addition to my three patterns, there were lots of other projects by other designers like Tracey Brookshier, Mickey Beebe & Cheryl Winslow, that we offered in our little sales guide.  My goal is to find a manageable way to show them all on the LHDG website.  I'll keep you posted on when this happens...give us a couple of weeks.

Of course, my hope that if the La Belle Rose Collection floats your boat, that you'll ask for it at your local IQS.  In the meantime, if you press LHDG you will go right to the miniature salesman sample cards page of our website.  Then click on any of these miniatures, and the swatches from that card will load right up.

Meantime, with the LBRC fabric due out in August, you'll have a fair amount of time between now and then to design your own quilt top...I'll post as many projects as you send me after that.  I can't wait to see what you all come up with.  Then we'll have the other blog visitors vote for a "viewer's choice award" sometime after that.  In the meantime, I'll have to come up with a really fun prize for our first blog design challenge!

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...5

This photo needs a bit of explanation.  But it's worth it, I think...On the Rue Jacob in the 7th district in Paris is a darling little city square, surrounded by the most precious old buildings.  By day, there are a few small gift & floral shops and some interior design showrooms.  But I saw this bowl in a floral shop window well after dark.  This was one of the most dramatic statements I've ever seen in window display...The bowl was a glowing half orb of light, filled with delicate soft pink and yellow roses floating in about six inches of water.  The flash on my camera revealed the light source to the lower left, which up until that point, was hidden in darkness.  This little display was pure visual magic for me.  I imagine that most of you could find a place in your own home to re-create this simple, beautiful arrangement.

The key to making this work is that they used a bulb that had a silver reflector backing to it, so your eye never sees that it is there in a dimly lit room...Only with the flash of my camera did I learn their secret!

Speaking of pretty pink and yellow roses, our little LakeHouse Dry Goods booth, front & center...

1  Detail Shot of "December's Roses" by Lori Allison of Allison Quilt Designs
2  Close Up of our new LakeHouse Dry Goods La Belle Rose Collection bolts & Sweet Retreats TM Kit boxes
3  " Star Garden" by yours truly in the "Multi" colorway...there are 3 color variations in the pattern...Tammy Tadd's personalized "Girly Girl" purse, Pretty Penny Sturges' "Open City" Tote, Mickey Beebe's "BB" & "Fast & Frilly" Bag
4 "Afternoon Tea" by Sweet Brenda Riddle, Penny's "Charm Party" Bag in Black & White...Penny did 4 fabulous color variations of this bag for us in the La Belle Rose Collection for SLC!

Pink & Black "Ballotin" style French Candy Boxes are the packaging for our Sweet Retreats TM Kits ...

1  "Posh" Patchwork Purse & Wristlet by the Loverly Karina Hittle of Artful Offerings
2  "Charm Party" Bag by Pretty Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated
3  "Shoulder Tote" with Log Cabin Pocket Detail also by Penny Sturges
4  "Sewing Purse & Accessories" also by Karina Hittle

LakeHouse Dry Goods Booth Left & Right Side Views ...

1  "Rainbow Chain" Quilt in the "Pastel" colorway also by me; there are 3 color variations in the pattern...
2  "Three Wishes" Quilt in the "Multi" colorway by me again; there are 3 color variations in the pattern...
This is the quilt that can be made from our Sweet Retreats TM Quilt Kit No. SQ 02 Multi (much more on this in my next blog)

Highlights of the Side Displays ...

1  Best Selling "Bow Tucks" Tote and Mini Charmer Bag by Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated
2  "Robin's Dress" by Cheryl Winslow of Starshine Quilting
3 "Charm Party" Bag in "Black" colorway, also by Penny Sturges...This bag can be made with the Sweet Retreats TM Kit No. CS 03 Black
4  "Girly Girl" Purse & drawstring bag by Tammy Tadd of Tammy Tadd Design, shown with "BB Bags" by Mickey Beebe of Brookshier Design Studio...

A note of gratitude to all the people who come together to help us put the projects together for our market shows...

Even this year with all of his afflictions, Paton came through for all of us in the final days before market. He showed us the "early days on Wall Street" method for collating booklets learned as young buck back at  Salomon Brothers.  He brought food in, ran for supplies and worked into the wee hours with me the night before I left for market.

Marvelous Megan, is of course our unflappable "Jacqueline of all trades"...she slices, she dices, she holds us all together, and she never lets you see her sweat.

Cheryl Winslow is truly a gift from above. She's a savant with fabrics. As far as I can tell she's never met a project that she couldn't handle, and fast?...The girl is fast!

Penny Sturges and her lovely sister in law Jill devote themselves to making tote bags for the booth that really help to give the booth that extra layer of detail that so many of you respond to.  Penny has helped at our booth for so long, it's like we can't remember what market was like without her. 

For the first time at this market, we had Jean Zimmer and Patchwork Maven Martha Hall help in the booth. (Martha also pieced two of our show quilts.)  We couldn't have had better luck with them and our crew at SLC...Jean is as agile as she is strong (she's a rower on our lake!).  Jean was on a ladder for hours at a time during set up and take down.  Martha is a fabric lover and avid quilter, so she thoroughly enjoyed working in the booth with all of the shopowners.

And we haven't even gotten to the Threaded Pear ladies from the back side of the booth yet!

Still more to come about SLC and our blogging & internet dinner...be patient, there is a lot of interesting stuff yet to tell.

Back in two shakes ... H2

My Favorite Things...3

When yearning for Paris, I dress the kitties up in their favorite berets & bake catnip scented Madeleines...

So now that you have a bit of back story on who & where we are, I will fast forward to Quilt Market in Salt Lake City...It may be that by now the Yo-Yo Lamps are old news...Marvelous Megan (aka M2...those of you who followed the DayZ Dozen Blog Hop know her as the "the woman who wears a lot of hats") has told me that word has come back to her is that people have already mentioned these lamps in chat rooms and such online...I haven't actually been into any of these chat rooms, but M2 is well versed in this sort of thing and has LOTS of quilting buddies all over the US.  BTW, If any of you have any good pictures of the lamps (or any from our SLC booth for that matter) please, please, please, let us know about them, as it turns out I have a very shaky hand that produces mostly lousy pictures...

A close up of the Yo-Yo Lamps at our booth...

Sometimes out of desperation comes inspiration...Oh, and that's Sweet Brenda's fabulous quilt in the back right of this photo...

About me and Yo-Yo's...some people collect shoes...think Imelda, some people collect belly button lint...eeeww - think Joey Butafucco, I collect a lot of flea market stuff...ceramics, old metal stuff, old wooden stuff, old graphics...(I love old typography!)...lots of old fabrics, ric rac, buttons, quilts and quilt scraps, and bingo you guessed it...Yo-Yo's!

M2 sent me a link to Heather's Yo-Yo blog a few months back (I must confess that until then I had never even heard of Heather)...it reminded me of how much I love Yo-Yo's and how fun they could be in our booth at SLC.  I started fantasizing about how we could use them... Shortly after that I was introduced to Eva Gines (isn't she gorgeous? see photo below) at Clover Needlecraft. It turns out that they had a new tool that made Yo-Yo's easy and much faster to make.  We quickly made plans to have a small fund raiser with our local Warwick Valley Quilters Guild to give the tool a test run (verdict:  they loved it!) and also make a lot of Yo-Yo's for our SLC booth displays...

Eva & Jasmine Rios from Clover...who knew that we had Hawaiian Tropic Girls working in the quilt industry?

I have to admit, turning Yo-Yo's into lamp-fill was NOT my first inclination...
Just about every other idea I came up with a) took way more Yo-Yo's than we had time to make, and b) was so sourcing & labor intensive that I doubted I could pull the whole thing off in time for May market.  Paton was just recovering from his broken leg (& related DVT blood clot scare), so I would have had to jury-rig the whole thing on my own. (He's a whiz with power tools, while I seem to be only good at getting injured...)  I won't list my other Yo-Yo ideas...as I may still use them for another show...why ruin the surprise, right?

So here's the scoop on our Yo-Yo Lamps: 
1  Two "On Sale" Pottery Barn lamps purchased a couple of years ago for my old office in Manhattan...These hand-blown lamps had no base, so filling them with Yo-Yo's was pretty easy.  If memory serves, Target currently carries something similar to this.
2  Two Large Eight-Sided Shades from Target purchased just before the May show.
3  Two "Shade Slipcovers" in LakeHouse's new La Belle Rose Collection fabrics made by M2...the faceted sides of the shades made this really easy to do...Hint: the seams are straight, because fabric is so forgiving!
4  Twenty Four Yo-Yo's for each shade, hand tacked onto the slipcovers at market by our "Queen of Tote Bags"  Penny Sturges, and "Patchwork Maven" Martha Hall.  Tack one at each seam first, then center two in each facet after that.
5  Approx 400 Yo-Yo's to fill the lamps...Note:  those lamps are bigger than most...probably why they were on sale!

So this brings us to a natural conclusion for today...There are still lots of great people, their stories and many more fun things to show and tell about from the SLC show...I hosted several dinners with (IMHO) some of the industry's most fascinating personalities.  Can't wait to tell you more.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...2

"The Boulders"...aka LakeHouse HQ

I thought I'd give you a quick peek of the "LakeHouse" so that you have some context...for how we are situated here.

The Boulders, aka the "LakeHouse" is actually quite a saga, (as are so many of the projects that I have blithely taken on in my adult life).  Rather than attempt to tell you all about it in one or two big gulps, I'll parse out bits of about the LH intermixed with several topical story lines so that I am not still promising to to tell you about the Salt Lake City booth & show three months from now.

A view from the front gate...circa 1936

My studio (far left window on the first floor in the photo above) is currently located in the main house, since none of the charming little wooden cottages on the property are winterized.  This house was designed by noted architect Grosvenor Atterbury and was commissioned by J P Morgan as a gift to the organist of his church. Naturally, with this sort of pedigree, the house is on the National Register of Historic Places ...but before you think gold plated faucets and crystal chandeliers, bear in mind that this house does not have the grandeur of what one of JP's personal residences would have had back in 1912...remember this house was a gift.

Eight years ago, Paton (my significant other) found this place in one of those real estate magazines at the exit door of the local grocery store, and like the good Scottish Canadian (think "BraveHeart" with a hockey stick) that he is, fell in love with this rustic old stone house overlooking Greenwood Lake.  He bought the house before I had a chance to save him from himself...But I'll tell you more about the history of the house (like why the beds hung on chains) as well of some of the "house restoration stories" later on...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...

Brown paper packages tied up with string...

In addition to my duties as chief cook & bottle washer at LakeHouse Dry Goods, I am a habitual hunter / gatherer. A lover of good food, laughter, travel, design in it's many permutations...the company of furry friends and kindred spirits...For me, things well done and well said are life affirming and a sort of nourishment for the soul.

This blog will be about many things...my hope is that what makes me happy and inspired will resonate with you too.  While I love the "big picture stuff", like planning a line of fabrics, coordinating quilt patterns and the trade show booths that we display them in, I really thrive on the little details that make things unique.  Topics in coming months that I'll explore will be...Paris window shopping for fun and profit...ephemeral / ephemera...flea markets I love......paint, paper, fabric, scissors...5 kitties and a little deaf dog (named Kitty - go figure!)...more perspiration than inspiration...the devil's in the details...Life at the LakeHouse...

Here's a photo sampling of some of my favorite things...of course those of you who know me, know that Paris is at the top of the list.

What’s not to love about a place where there is a pastry shop on every corner?

Because it's all about the food, right?

Notice the lovely French limestone buildings in the window's reflection above...

The original La Duree' tea and patisserie on the Rue Royale is famous for their macarons (meringue & almond paste cookies) in beautiful pastel colors and a lush variety of divine French desserts.  Every day scores of women (and male companions, too) stop in to savor one of the quintessential Parisian experiences:  indulging one's sweet tooth.  The atmosphere is very "old school"...the ceiling in the first floor tea room is painted with clouds and cherubs...waitresses dressed in crisply pressed black uniforms with white half aprons and little white starched hair ornaments, breeze back and forth carrying silver trays...and the world slows down to a delightful pace, as you sip the richest hot chocolate on the planet...

Aren't the colors of the pastry beautiful and unusual?

Something about Paris makes everything more enticing to me....talk about a grand entrance.  Have you ever seen a more inviting button store?  I love the typically Parisian lacquered entry way...Located in the Marais, Paris Boutons sells Liberty fabrics, scads of ribbons, oodles of buttons, and lots of hip sewing and patchwork projects displayed throughout the store.  The shop girls are hip and helpful too.

While taking a few days off in Marin County with my old design school buddy Ric, after the recent Salt Lake City Quilt Market,  it turns out that pictures from our SLCQM booth ...(thanks Pam!) were already posted...So I guess there's a pretty high “been there, done that” hurdle to get over at this point...but I'll put up some of my photos anyway...I’ll also walk you through some of my design development, not only the booth, but the La Belle Rose Collection that we introduced at the show as well...

So why don’t I “start at the very beginning...a very good place to start”  (can you hear Julie Andrews singing in the background?) I digress...As mentioned in Gina's blog a couple weeks back, Paris is the best city I know of for rose garden inspiration...I always start with a story board in my office...of all the little things that remind me of the collection I am working on...Between the photos, a few knick knacks and the packaging (I absolutely L-O-V-E French packaging!) the shopping bags, ribbons, little hang tags, etc...I can re-create a trip to Paris very quickly back home.

FYI, If you can’t afford the time away, there are lots of atmospheric films set in Paris, and all good video rental services have catalogues to help you choose a film by title, topic, or even by a favorite actor.  I highly recommend this!

Since I am passionate about the gardens of Paris, I always knew that one day I would do a rose collection...but with so many good rose fabrics already available in our independent quilt shop community...it had to be unique.  Then one day two and a half years ago...(good things come to those who wait and have patience) I saw a really old scrap of rose fabric at a show in New York. 

It looked like a piece from an old French whole cloth quilt...

   
This pattern was one of the main catalysts for the La Belle Rose Collection...

If you look closely on the lower left side, you can see tears where the double row of diagonal hand quilting was removed from (what I think can safely be assumed) was the original quilt.

It was love at first sight...

Lots more soon about the La Belle Rose Collection, the details from our little booth at SLC Quilt Market and miscellaneous other related subjects...Zillions of other design observations, indulgences and eccentricities after that.

Back in two shakes...H2