Holly Blog

My Favorite Things...180...When My "Dogs" are on the Coffee Table

Don't freak out, I don't let my dogs on the coffee table, that's just an expression for when I put my feet up on the furniture.  Yes, I have that kind of house.  It's been shabby and not-so-chic since before I'd ever even heard of Rachel Ashwell.

Right now though, I'm in CA, with the intent of working on several fun projects here (as soon as I get my brain back)...so I'm sitting cross legged on my friend Ric's sofa with my laptop on a pillow.  It's the most comfortable way I know to work.

We had an AMAZING market.  With the economy the way it is, I set my sights low (to avoid disappointment), but this market I was in the booth meeting new customers and writing up multi paged orders -- pretty much the entire time.  I did not get out to see Brenda Riddle (but she did drop by to say hello), Anne Sutton, or the "Moda Mob" (I must admit, I am a reduced to a syrupy mess around a lot of my design faves).  I did have some visitors come by though (a couple that I actually remembered to have a picture taken with). 

Pam Kitty & Elizabeth came by (all bright eyed and bushy tailed), and took this shot with me (looking "rode hard and put away wet") and Penny (the photogenic one on my left). We had a fun "chicken-fried-chicken" dinner that night with them and Penny's daughter Darci at the House of Blues.

I was also thrilled to see Tula Pink and her mom come by, (the two of them are so much fun), Rosalie from Melly & Me, (who is also a delight), Lynda Milligan of the Great American Quilt Factory, Cyndi Walker of Stitch Studios, Tricia Cribbs of Friend Folks, Gina Halladay & her quilting sidekick Kay, and Sheri Bignell of Freckleberry Farm...forgive me if I have left anyone out...I think it was the new Dolly Dresses 2 "Dolly Dress Up quilt" that made a lot of people who like bright fabric stop by. (Then I swooped in like a spider in her web to meet people who I am a fan of.)

Here's a picture of the "bright side of the booth"...

 

The red bordered "Dolly Dress Up" quilt will be in McCall's Quilting magazine in the April 2010 issue (newsstand February).  It's a panel that is made to look like it's all applique'd.  People seemed to really like it. All of the dresses are in place, so it's the perfect on it's own or with lots of fun embellishments, I designed the panel and the applique' embellishments and our quilting maven Cheryl Winslow of Starshine Quilting whipped up for the booth a few days before market, (and those are her hugley popular & adorable little dresses all over our booth).

I'm planning another Dolly Dresses holiday event in December with some quilting buddies...more on this very soon. 

Lots more to show and tell tomorrow ladies...

Back in two shakes...H2

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...156...When Market is Over!

"Queen of Totes" Penny and I met a day early in Houston so that we could shop for some last minute touches for our (LakeHouse) booth. After the cook's tour of Houston in torrential rain (flooding up to people's doorways & stalled cars everywhere!), we ended up at Target where we adopted two new additions to the family.  I give you "Ric & Rac"...

We made the Jacobean style collars in our room at the Hilton that night.  I sewed the red ric rac trim to the outer edge of Ric's red collar, and Penny added the ric rac to just under the collar, for a more subtle effect on one side of Rac's collar.  The ric rac spool give-aways are from our buddy Adam at Cheep Trims. The little zipper bags are from Penny's Zip n Go pattern.

I am just getting my feet back on the ground after a grueling couple of months. Lots more to show and tell about Fall Quilt Market, quilt market personalities, the Darling Dozen Designer Dolly Dresses Quilt and our new Teatime Floral collection coming soon.

Back in two shakes...H2  X;º)

My Favorite Things...155...Showtime!

I know, I know, we still have lots to finish & catch up on after market...
Back before you know it!

x';º)  H2

My Favorite Things...125...Coffee and Donuts!

I can't believe I am still reliving Quilt Market.  If I didn't have my hands in (just about) everything here at the office, I could have been finished a long time ago.  (And in this little saga, Penny and I haven't even left Portland yet, let alone crossed over the border into Canada.)

VooDoo Donuts is yet another must visit Portland place that I found on roadfood.com...they are without a doubt the best donuts I have had since leaving Sausalito, and they are only a few blocks away from the best coffee I have had in YEARS.  I learned about Stumptown Coffee from the waiter at Mother's (it's what they serve). It's smooth, not too acidic, and it's not over-roasted and burnt-tasting like some coffees we all know...(who shall remain nameless)  Bonus Points:  Stumptown has a mail order coffee business!

Lots more to show and tell my little quilties...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...123...Tater Tots & What Nots

Gourmet, gourmand...tomato, tomahto, you decide!

I whole heartedly recommend a terrific site started by Jane and Michael Stern called roadfood.com...I used this site to find local eateries in Portland.  Whenever I go to a new city, I plan ahead, so that I can find out where the natives like to eat...

One of the places we really enjoyed was Jake's Famous Crawfish in the downtown historic area of Portland.  Penny and I shared the Macadamia Nut encrusted Halibut (which was in season when we were there)...it was de-lish.  They also had a desert that was really yummy...if a picture is worth a thousand words, drool along with me.

I'm thinking that this looks like a dessert I'd like to try to make at home...you can see that the chocolate "box" was made by pouring chocolate into a paper bag.  Inside was a white chocolate mousse and there were oodles of berries and a berry coulis too.  For me, this was a perfect dessert...the strong and rich taste of the dark chocolate, the creamy softness of the mousse, and the not too-sweet berries...Plus it was HUGE, so we all had our fill.

Here's a picture of a couple of the adjoining rooms at Jake's, you could tell that the restaurant had grown from one room to another over the years; the place was ginormous (and packed!). There were nostalgic landscape canvases painted on the upper walls of one room, and antique oyster platters displayed over the doors in the next...

There's lots more to show and tell of course...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...122..."Renee Wear"

Before I get to the tater tots...I must show you the cutest lady who waltzed into our booth on Friday, the morning we opened the show.  She's Renee Savage of Renee's House of Quilting in Williamsburg Michigan...

She had on a jacket made out of a bunch of our Fall 2007 intro'd fabrics...the most prominent was the Cherry Squares fabric that had all been cut up and patched into different places on the body of her garment.

Love the little pocket detail above, below is a close up of the beautiful quilting...

Thanks Renee for coming by and showing us your handiwork, it's absolutely fabrilicious!

After the show that day, the ladies in black and I got together for dinner with Nancy Singh from American Patchwork & Quilting...She's definitely one of the most interesting people I've ever had dinner with in a long time, she had us in stitches (sorry).  The actual food, not so much...

Here's the story...one of my friends who lives in the Portland area recommended McMenamins Kennedy School Restaurant.  After going in the opposite direction (thanks to the concierge at our hotel), we arrived a good half hour late at a most charming old elementary school building (I'm guessing it was built in the 1920's)...This is a really clever restaurant idea...gone tragically wrong.  The minute my nose caught the knock-you-over smell of cigars just inside the front door, I knew that things were not as I'd hoped.  Call me a food snob, but any restaurant who let's people smoke cigars anywhere (and seemingly everywhere), isn't really serious about their food.  Turns out my instincts were right...the old building oozed charm and a "sense of place", but in addition to the cigar smell that seemed to follow us everywhere, the private dining room we'd reserved smelled like a musty old wardrobe.  Things got even more comical when I asked our waiter "What food do people come here for?" and she said without missing a beat..."the tater tots".  We all burst out laughing!  She was right though...the tater tots were the best thing on the menu.

Still more to tell, and the meals got LOTS better as the trip wore on, MKSR was our one and only "culinary bummer" (a nod to Top Chef fans out there)...  ;)

Back in two shakes...H2

 

My Favorite Things...121...More Quilt Market Pics

As promised, I've got lots more pics...

In addition to the "girl's in black"...Penny writing and Sandy (Penny's sister) on the right, the Ballet Slippers quilt on the top is by Cyndi Walker of Stitch Studios...The Mixing Bowl Beauty quilt on the bottom is from Gina & Stephanie at the Threaded Pear...

The cupcake quilt on the left called Holly's Bakery is by the laugh-a-minute Elizabeth Scott.

We mixed and matched some quilts made from our new Little Lady collection with the DayZ collections, to show how the past and present fabrics could merchandise together in a quilt shop.  I took great pains in crafting our Spring intros to make sure that all of the clean, intense pinks from our earlier bright collections went with our softer, peachy-pastel pinks that we have been working with lately...That's Diane Weber's bright and festive DayZ BloomZ on the left bench and on the right is Barbara Jone's (aka the Quilt Soup lady) Corner Flower Shop quilt that was on the cover of Quilts & More...

That's my Circle of Friends quilt (subtitled "Gypsy Rose") done in fabrics from La Belle Rose I,II & III...with some of Penny's (aka Madame Tote Bag) best selling totes.  My Pinwheels and Polka Dots is in the rear right, just peaking out from behind Michelle, an old friend of Penny's, who helped in the booth.

Still more pics and lots of laughs...the next chapter in our little Portland diary is called..."Tater Tots?"

Back in two shakes...H2

 

My Favorite Things...119...Cupcakes!

When it comes to cupcakes I think of grade school bake sales, girl scout get-togethers, and two very special bakeries in New York City.  A friend who lives in Greenwich Village took me to Magnolia Bakery at least ten years ago, and I have been a rabid fan of their powdered-sugary butter cream frosting ever since.  Many people think that it was Magnolia Bakery that started the "Cupcake Craze" back in the late nineties, but IMHO, the grandmother of this retro addiction is really the Cupcake Cafe.  They had a tiny bakery on Ninth Avenue near the Port Authority almost ten years before Magnolia opened their doors.  The decorations on the cupcakes at the Cupcake Cafe are so beautiful, I almost hate to eat them.  Ann Warren has made quite a name for herself with her handmade flower decorations.  Ann's frosting is totally different than Magnolia's (from what I can tell, it's made mostly of butter, so they don't last long out of the refrigerator, but more on this later)...BTW, see the flower shaped table topper?  It's an adorable new design called Daisy Dew from Gina Halladay of Quilter's Buzz fame, & aka the Threaded Pear.

You might have heard that we introduced our Little Cupcakes fabric at Spring Quilt Market...So what better way to celebrate this, than with some delicious cupcake giveaways at our booth...Or so you'd think!  It started months before, with me asking my "Girl-in-Portland" the little cheese sandwich herself, Monica Solorio-Snow about who she'd recommend for cupcakes in the Portland area...Monica gave me a list and we started a hunt for a-good-but-affordable-cupcake (it became a bit of an odyssey)...

We started with Saint Cupcake which sounded great: except for the price!  They wanted over $3.00 a piece with custom colored frosting, that's a little pricey even by my ridiculous New York standards.  After contacting several more bakeries, we found the Helen Bernhard Bakery:  real butter cream frosting, and a bargain at just under a dollar each...this seemed the perfect solution...Or so we thought.

We ordered cupcakes in advance, to be delivered each morning of the show.  We planned on putting the cupcakes in a little acetate bag (tied with our LakeHouse ribbon of course) so that the show management wouldn't jump all over us for handing out messy food.  Here's where things went tragically wrong...Let me state clearly: Helen's cupcakes were delicious...problem was that they were frosted with real butter cream alright, but they were the buttery gets soft & unmanageable in 10 minutes out of the fridge type (like Cupcake Cafe), not the travels well, (loaded with sugar) butter cream frosting that Magnolia makes.

Suffice it to say, we had a "pack-o-trouble" getting our little pink cupcakes into their little bags...as the frosting started to get soft and they became increasingly difficult to handle...

All I can say is that it was a bit of a "Lucy & Ethel moment"!

Still lots more to show and tell, so, I'll be...

Back in two shakes...H2