Holly Blog

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

My Favorite Things...118...Display Design

I have many photos and stories from Spring Quilt market this year, so I'll try to intermix them with pictures from our booth, in my next few blogs...

Let me cop to this right upfront...I took a big risk and made the decision to try a new booth layout for this market.  There were some really neat things about what we did this time, but this was not my finest hour, design-wise...With all of the challenges that we've had in the past six months, I am just glad that the booth came out as good as it did.  You will be able to see for yourself...and I'll give you my self-critique, too.

Here's a view from our front aisle...I just loved the off white tables and benches we bought at IKEA ...they were really comfy, & were a great way to show extra quilts and tote bags...The chain quilt called Black Cherry on the middle bench was in McCall's Quilting May/June issue, the kit is being sold by Fat Quarter Shop...I just love it, (if I do say so myself). The pink bordered quilt on the left is made with our new Little Lady collection.  It's my Jill version of my new Jack & Jill Quilt due out at the end of July.  The cute-as-a-button Cherry Preserves quilt on the back right is by Elizabeth Scott.

My biggest design mistake overall, was the openings at the corners...

It was great that people could walk up from behind and see our fanciful tiered display tables...

But the exposed poles were an eyesore...

And because of these openings at the corners, the products in the other booths to the back and sides of us became part of our display...If I had thought to use something like scrim, that would have done a world of good to "tone down" the visual distractions from other exhibitors...But then again, people wouldn't have been able to enter our booth from the back corners...to grab a cupcake, or touch the samples...

I've still got lots more pictures, so I'll be...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...116...Road Trip!

Hum along with me..."Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start."
"Captain's Log"--Monday May 12th 2008

I had decided that this market we'd do something different with the booth display, and that meant a lot more shopping in the Portland area in the days before Spring Quilt Market opened on Friday May 16th.

Penny and I synchronized our schedule to arrive within a few minutes of each other at the Portland airport.  We rented a jumbo-sized SUV and headed straight to IKEA, which was spitting distance from the rental car parking lot.

With list in hand, Penny and I went in the returns exit (the only way to shop at IKEA and leave with your brain cells fully intact!) and sped through our list of must-have-items.  We then drove to the hotel near the Lloyd center.  It was time for a late lunch...Heck we'd been on the ground for almost an hour.  We hopped the free in-town-light-rail in search of Mother's Bistro, which was recommended to us by none other than the little Happy Zombie herself, Monica Solorio-Snow...Drats, closed on Monday!

We made it on Tuesday morning instead...

They serve Stumptown coffee at Mother's...one of the best latte's I've ever had.

Here's Penny, multi-tasking with her Blackberry as we wait for breakfast.

The pancakes and the cornflake-crusted-french-toast were uber-delish...(my mouth is watering as I type).  Sorry, but we gobbled our food up before remembering to take pictures.

Lots more to show and tell, back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...115...Little Doll Babies!

Hello Ladies,
There is so much to tell, yet so much to do after returning from Spring Quilt Market in Portland.  I have been almost the "Unknown Blogger" since flu season kicked in for us here in January, so we've got a lot of catching up to do. 

Here's a few topics of what is to come in the days ahead...
1. The Portland "Show & Tell"...including the culinary highlights
2. Tons of LakeHouse booth pictures..."and now for something completely different"
3. My post-market trip with Penny Sturges "the Charm Party Lady" of Quilts Illustrated...Seattle and the Channel Islands in British Columbia.
4. Quilts, Quilts and more Quilts!

But first, a little doll baby came our way on the last day of Spring Quilt market...It was a if I had art directed this little dumpling to color coordinate with our booth.  Isn't she a little slice of heaven with her blue eyes, soft creamy skin and peachy pink head-to-toe ensemble? Sorry, but I lost my notes on their names...if you know them, let me know!

Still unpacking and doing the laundry, so I'll be...

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...80...Little Acorns!

While I anxiously await delivery of my new McCall's Quilting magazine, I thought I'd add a bit of "Willy Wonka" to our wait...First person who spots a McCall's February 2008 Quilting magazine and sends me a picture of themselves holding it, wins a prize!

In the meantime, let's get back to more pictures from FQM, shall we?  I just can't say enough nice things about Brenda...or as I like to say, "the big ideas behind Little Acorns"...Here's a few pictures of the utterly delicious new quilts she did for our booth.

Next to her Cuddle's quilt on the end, is Brenda's Baby Picnic Quilt. The blue and white hydrangea quilt called Piccadilly is made out of the NEW LH 03007:  Heron ...

Dover Gardens is the name of the pink & green rose quilt in the middle, made with our NEW LH 06052:  Pearl fabric...These pictures just don't do her quilts any justice.  The huge stadium lighting overhead made the quilts and the fabrics look a lot more washed out in these photos than they looked in real life...

That's Brenda's adult sized Picnic quilt on the bench, made with a whole cloth in the middle and a combination of our best-selling blue and yellow Hydrangea LH 03007:  Heather fabric that has been freshened up with a pretty new assortment of new Hydrangea coordinates and some new Library fabrics too...isn't that the cutest border ever? 

The darker pink & green quilt on the right is called Notting Hill.  Peeking out on the right is a new version of Brenda's adorable Emma quilt that uses the NEW Petal Cherry Baby collection.

Oh, and if you haven't heard by now, all of these quilts will be in Brenda's new book "Simple Things & Small Joys" which is due out in December.

I still have LOTS more pictures from market and some really fun new Xmas projects are coming too.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...79...More from Fall Quilt Market

Remember the sketch of the blue & white quilt that I put up way back in September?  If not, take a peak  here.  Remember, I asked for your help naming it?...And Becky came up with "Around the Block"...Becky, you wrote to claim your prize, but when I tried to email you back for your mailing address, your email came back as "unknown"...Becky please contact me again before the Charm Squares are ALL GONE!

Anyhoo, here's the "quilt in question"...didn't Cheryl  do a lovely job with the quilting?  I just love the border, it reminds me of so many garden-like things...the detail on an English Garden Folly, the wire trim work at a garden's edge...and I Just adore circles quilted over squares, too.

From the left, that's Pam Kitty's "A Little Purse", Penny's Charm Party Bag, and some of Tammy Tadd's  "Etc., Etc." traveller's accessories.  That's another bag by Pam called "Market Bag", Jan Lutz's  Flirty Skirty Half Apron & Tammy's Girly Girl Bag.

Here's my vote for the cutest darn "Pinwheel Anything" at the show! It's "Our Fair Brenda's" Cuddles Quilt!  Is it just me, or is it just PRECIOUS?

Also in this shot, another one of Jan Lutz's aprons on the wire form done in the Hydrangea Petals, Elizabeth Scott's Simple Spring Rosebuds Quilt, Penny's Charm Party bag in all yellow patches, Pooh Bandit, Penny's Pocket Parade & Desk Deli in the new Cherry Baby Petal fabrics, and another one of Penny's Sweet Dreams Pillowcases for her granddaughter Taylor.

That's all for today gals...there is so much more to show and tell, at this rate we won't be finished until 2008!

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...77...Pretty Pictures!

So many pictures, so little time! 
Post-market continues to be as demanding as pre-market.

First, our LakeHouse Dry Goods  website is now displaying the new Fall 2007 fabric swatches, whoopee!  We are still tweaking the small details (this has been A PAIN with every new project), because on my MAC screen, I see something completely different than my PC based web designer.  So if you see things that are out of wack...we're working on it!  Sharon, get your paper & pencil ready!

And, before the scent of market runs cold, here are a few more pictures...

That's Tammy Tadd's  "To Market,To Market Apron" on the Left, the Threaded Pear's Bull's Eye Quilt in Pink and Yellow, My Cherry Squares (Hint:  that's one piece of the LH 07005: Robin colored fabric in the center an inner & outer border, a few covered buttons & some ric rac).  The bags are from Penny, Pam Kitty & Tammy.  The tiered apron is by Jan Lutz "The Apron Lady" of Threaded Pear.  The bears Lenya, Alex and Kara are bringing you the letters L, A & K!

Tammy's Girlie Girl bag again, with Penny's bags, little Boo & Honey Bear in the blue chairs, that darn "Alphabet Soup" quilt again and Erin, Heidi, Oona & Uma bringing you the letters E, H, O & U...

Sugar & Emmie round out the right end of the display with S & E, oh and that's Pudge on the lower left, with more bags by Penny, Tammy & Pam Kitty. The pillowcase was made for Penny's granddaughter Camille. My Cherry Quilt made with JUMBO covered buttons (so easy to make!) was pretty much the hit of the show for us... seriously, we got more compliments on that quilt than anything else.  I could have sold it to several different magazines too...We had great luck with some of the "Quilt World's" most tasty magazines...much more on that later.  On the right is Elizabeth Scott's Simple Spring Rosebuds quilt, another version of Tammy's new apron, and another cute child's apron done in the new LH 07015: Petal fabric from Jan Lutz!

We've just scratched the surface of my Fall 2007 Quilt Market Photo Album, so come back soon, y'all!

Tomorrow's my day to visit all of the quilt blogs I love and return my correspondence...Thanks so much for all of the kind thoughts and compliments on the booth...most of you know by now that it's the most fun thing I do of all of the tasks at hand here at LHDG!

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...76...Let the Show Begin!

And without further ado...Our first baby line.  I'm not sure what was more fun, the fabric or the reactions to it!  It seemed that something about this line touched the little girl in all of us.

With all of the comings & goings, packing & unpacking, I managed to misplace the little kitty bibs that I made for Kammie and Vickie...(you remember..."who wants to lick the beaters?") that was going to be my little inside joke with all of you. Thankfully, M2 loaned us her lightweight Janome, and Penny (yep! those are all her tote bags) helped me stitch up some new bibs for our two little mascots...Boo & Honey.  The little E-M-M-A garland was made for Kimberly Jolly's little girl...The Alphabet Soup quilt was pieced by Patchwork Maven Martha Hall and quilted by Cheryl Winslow...they were a huge help to me getting ready for market...thanks girls!

Here's a view of the booth taken from the left...too bad about the patriotic color scheme at the George Brown Convention Center, eh?  Also, the color in these photos is more "washed out" than the colors are in reality...I'll make sure to show you some fabric swatches sometime soon that gives you a much better representation...(Meanwhile, if anyone out there has better pictures...do not hesitate...I seem to go through this every market!)

And another view from the right...

The kitties in bibs inspired the Bears...they spelled out L-A-K-E-H-O-U-S-E

I invited some of my favorite designers to make a bib...more on them and the Bears & Bibs project next time.

Still napping every day trying to catch up on lost sleep....lots of pictures & lots more to tell!
Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...75...Talented Designers & Beautiful Quilts

We're back from Fall Quilt Market, and things went very well...(more on this soon) We're waiting for booth photos from our photographer, Gregory Case  (hurry please!)... In the meanwhile, some photos that I took at some of my favorite designer's booths...

Here's Barbara Jones of Quilt Soup with just about the most adorable applique quilt I've ever seen...made up in our La Belle Rose fabrics from Spring Quilt Market...(forgive me Barbara, your eyes were shut in all of my photos!)

Here are some close ups...so clean, so clever, so Quilt Soup!

I just love her use of fabrics in this quilt...the daffodils, the pink & black stripe for the flower pots, inner border & bindings, the thin stripes for the leaves...(I could go on and on)

Thank you so much Barbara for thinking "outside the box" and coming up with this really joyful, pretty quilt!

More soon...just getting my feet back on the ground.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...73...New Quilt Designs!

Today went like this...Up at 8...big deal, you say? (got to sleep at about 3)...I am from a long line of "big sleepers", so 5 hours just doesn't cut it...unlike Martha Stewart who sleeps 2 to 4 hours a night...people who sleep that little, that would be something called "mania" right?, I'm just saying...

I waited for traffic to clear and then it was off to the printer to proof the project booklet (it supports the salesman sample cards at market).  I got finished there at around 1 or so.  Then, since I was closer to civilization (it doesn't take much since we live on what I like to call "Lake Budweiser")...I treated myself to lunch at Bean Curd...tofu & vegetables with black bean sauce...the Hot and Sour soup was so freaking HOT (as in overly spicy) I could barely eat it...(and I am from a family of "clean-plate-club-types", so you know it was H-O-T).  After that I was in a bit of a holding pattern, because I needed to return to the printers at 4 pm to pick up some things before returning to the studio...so I then I went for a manicure and a pedicure...(this is ultra-decadence for me)...one must not have ragged fingers and toes at market, right?

On the east coast where I live, nail salons are ubiquitous. This particular one I've been going to since I met Paton, has the chairs with magic hands that kneads you from your neck all the way down your legs...(I'm probably all bruised now, it really worked me over!)

After that I checked back in with my printer, dropped off the necessary things at FEDEX and avoided rush hour traffic on the way home, by stopping at Short Hills Mall. I made the grand tour, scouring for interesting new things...I saw a few quirky accessories (like a large round cherry bark mirror)...the longer "CASA GOD AWFUL" takes to finish, the more I get the itch to decorate!

I picked up a couple of large bowls of that delicious Broccoli & Cheddar soup for dinner (it's the most heavenly nectar) and some chewy, buttery oatmeal cookies (for Paton) at Au Bon Pain...(it doesn't take much to make my day!)

Here's a little sneak peak at a design sketch (a la Photoshop) for my new Alphabet quilt...Some of you will remember the Alphabet quilt that I did for the Spring 2006 quilt show in Minneapolis...this one is a variation on that theme, only made with "SURPRISE" a new alphabet...

Those of you who know me, know how much I am fascinated with typography and fonts...this new fabric is 4 " high letters in a 6" block...The background of the letters is a combination of different fabric designs from existing and new LakeHouse fabrics...The quilt is already on it's way to FQM in our crates, so I will show you pics of the real thing upon my return...it is just precious (if I do say so myself)!  Can't wait to show you some close ups of the work...Martha and Cheryl did an amazing job on it.

Now to bed, hopefully for a longer night's sleep.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...52...Another Beautiful Day

Day 5 of 13 A Dazzling Dozen Delicious Desserts

What a beautiful day for a LHDG lunch meeting out on the terrace.

That's Jean, Su, my new assistant Donna (finally someone in-office to watch over me!), and M2...we were gathered to have the first of our pre-market planning meetings.  They are actually quite scripted by now. We all jog of our respective memories by referring to notes & lists saved from the season or year before.

Of course that's our little mascot, "Kam-burgler" waiting for good fortune to come her way.  Paton's hiding off camera waiting for the shots to be over with...feeling a mite peckish.

The salad is my ab-fab favorite BLT Salad, that I mentioned back in July, along with some grilled chicken paillard (really thin cutlets) deftly prepared for the ladies by his lordship...Can you tell we were being good and saving ourselves for dessert? 

Today, we're bringing you a two-part entry from the creator of Grand Revival Designs...Tanya Wendelken.  First, the perfect early-fall recipe...and then Tanya promises to share a bit of her latest creations in an adjunct post.

I always LOVE Tanya's photos...she's a natural with a camera, so I'll be eagerly awaiting whatever it is she has to show.

Back in two shakes...H2

Next time it's a "diva of domesticity", who quilts in her spare time...any guesses?

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My Favorite Things...20

And the winner is...LakeHouse!

October 2003...You could have knocked me over with a feather when Karey Bresnehan buzzed over on her Little Rascal and presented me with the 1st place blue ribbon at our booth. I was pretty much in the ozone layer (spacier than my normal "can barely form sentences") the entire 5 days we were in Houston. None the less, looking back I can see why we stood out.  The look was unique because it was relatively uncluttered...we've since solved all that! The cabinets and props were designed to look a bit like the back wall of a 1930's era general store (like in the movie "Paper Moon")...Plus, the booth was designed for "sample size" quilts, so we also had room to show smaller projects and merchandising ideas too.

The off white cabinets and the vented natural canvas tablecloths really helped to make a crisp & tailored presentation. I liked the idea of the benches that we found at IKEA, since many shopowners travel in small groups.

On the left is a quilt that Pat Brown made for our booth.  She is an impeccable sewer/quilter/long arm quilter from New Jersey.  The middle quilt is by a talented & prolific quilter from Australia named Joy White.  Paton's Aunt Jean Hillis made the Square in a Square quilt.  Since this was our first show and I was in a state of total panic about getting quilts made to display, I was really thankful to have so many people jump at the chance to help out. We didn't really get into the full swing of selling patterns on the backs of the fabric cards for another couple of markets...that was a huge coup for us, since it made sure that project patterns were right there to be viewed with the fabric swatches.

Paton's mom gave me some really great old preserve jars and I filled them with colored embroidery flosses...On the left is Big Blossom Trio by Diane Weber that used our Hydrangea fabric.  On the right is Kathy Love's Dragonfly Flurry quilt. There are a bunch of table runners and smaller projects in these shots as well, but I can't remember their names and who did them...if any of you know who they belong to...pls make a comment and I will mention them.

So, whew...we are done with our trip down memory lane.  From now on, let's go forward, shall we?

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...15

Speaking of my favorites...this is a picture taken at the first lake house when our fair Kitty was just a tiny pup. It will have to suffice for now...I was all set to show you a picture (on a table set with some of the new fabrics!) of some yummy Corn Salad I just whipped up and poof, my digital camera is fried!  Since we're all about the food...take my word for it...try it, you'll LOVE IT!   It's colorful and is total heaven on the tongue!

5 ears of sweet corn, boiled for 5 minutes NO LONGER!
Let them cool, then cut all the kernels off with a sharp knife.

Carefully fold in the next five ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes cored, and chopped into 1/4 pieces

4 T fresh cilantro (stems and all) finely chopped
(if you hate cilantro, fresh basil will be great too!)

1/4 cup of Olive Oil
(I use FIRST COLD PRESS, the greenest, most flavorful I can find!)

4 capfuls of white vinegar 
(this is just enough to cut some of the sweetness of the corn, adjust to your palate!)

Seat Salt  (adjust to your taste!)

Small ball of fresh mozzarella--cut into small cubes
Gently toss in at the last minute...

This is best eaten on the day you make it.

ENJOY!

Meanwhile, we have only three more booth displays to go and then I have some incredible pictures from my recent California trip (design inspiration galore!), etc.  This next booth was from Houston QM Fall '04.  It was so much fun to dream up...(the set up, not so much!)  My description of this booth and collection was "Lilly Pullitzer goes Asian"...

This was a lot of fun to play with, until they turned on the air conditioning, and all of the lanterns started blowing off the display!

I went a little over the top with paper lanterns and parasols, it was a riot of color...

This was also the beginning of me "going off the deep end" with the dots, stripes and striped dots!  It was one of the most joyful collections I've ever worked on.

I don't exactly know what I'd call these little table displays...follies?  In any event, people loved them...We lent them out to Carolyn & Kathy of The Fabric Patch for their vendor booth at Road to California.

Lots more colorful pics of our Fall '04 booth next time.

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...14

Part two of Kansas City Quilt Market 2005...

Top rear left...Marvelous Megan's Island View quilt...Barb Sawyer's Hydrangea Lattice quilt...Jill Setchell's  Diamond Path quilt...LInda Kopisch's Simply Stars quilt...Bottom rear left...Janet Locey's Pecking Order quilt...Tracey Brookshier's  Archipelago quilt...Tammy Tadd's Bohemian Granny quilt...The Quilt Branch's Windsong quilt

We shared an island with Needlecraft, and with so many quilts to show, we spilled over into their space.  The pink & green quilts are from our Garden Party collection, and the purple & pink fabrics are from the Flora Garden collection...

We introduced a small non-traditional Halloween collection that people really seemed to like...M2's Candy Corn quilt was a favorite of mine.

I'll close with the how-to details on the chandeliers...as I mentioned before...they were from Target, but you can find similar ones all over, try garage sales and second hand stores too...We sprayed ours with cream colored paint, and added the LHDG fabric leaves. We made the leaves with double sided iron-on glue sheets set between two back-to-back pieces of our fabric.  Before ironing together, we inserted a piece of white fabric-coated heavy duty floral wire running straight down the middle of the leaf fabric and glue sheet "sandwich", with enough for a stem hanging out the bottom.  Allow a good 12" of wire to play with.  Make up a template of your leaf shape and hold it to this set up as you cut your leaf shape out.  We wound the wire around the arms of the chandelier, and bent curves into the leaves by hand.  The self-adhesive shades are from Wisconsin Lighting ...we bought a bunch of them at Michael's.  One important thing that we did was to iron on a pellon backing to the fabric before we adhered it to the shades.  That way it could be neatly turned under (no fraying) at the edges. We sandwiched ric rac between the bottom edge of the fabric and the self-adhesive shade.  Handling instructions and a paper pattern come with each shade, so it's not a difficult thing.  When I described our booth back then, it was sort of Gypsy Wagon or Barnyard chic...something about those little chandeliers reminded me of Green Acres & Eva Gabor...oh Olivaaaaarrr! If I do say so myself, aren't they adorable?

Back in two shakes...H2

My Favorite Things...13

By the time I graduated from college, I was already living in Manhattan.  My first apartment was on west 74th street.  One of my neighbors (an artist) told me that there was a cute young architect subletting an apartment from my neighbor's friend down the block and that I should go to meet him under the guise of photographing an Indian elephant god that she had painted on the terrace wall outside his apartment.  That's how I met my one of my first real friends in Manhattan...Donnie.  He quickly introduced me to a gaggle of adorable fraternity brothers who had settled in the New York area after graduating from MIT.  To make a long story longer, "the Maxes" as they called themselves, had a motto..."anything worth doing, is worth doing to excess"...As you might imagine, those were some of the best years of my life.

How does that relate to today's diatribe you ask?  Well all I can say is "bless your heart Barbara Brandeburg"...Turns out that my posts are pretty long and pretty difficult to load up on the high powered computer that she had...so she thought that she'd tell me to a) archive most of my previous posts...(I had no idea) and keep the number of pictures down to a dull roar, instead of the 5 or 6 or 10 that I have been doing.

That's pretty much me...more is better.  So from now on, I will try to keep my posts a more manageable length...

On that note, it's back into the time machine...May 2005...wait, I hear clucking...bawk,bawk,bawk?  We were in Kansas, after all...

The star of any show is of course the "animal act"...Susa Glenn made her adorable stuffed chickens in two sizes...some for the the tiered "roosts" on the front tables and others were on the back display wall.  We all got a real chuckle out of them...The three quilts on the front display wall were "Double Spools" by Tracey Brookshier, Delaware Diamonds by Kathy Davenport  & Chinatown Tic Tac Toe by Janet Locey, respectively.

Janet of Hen Scratch Quilting aka "Head Chick" is known for her love of all things chicken and a Featherweight sewing machine business that her husband John, aka "Ruler of the Roost", runs...In addition to her wonderful quilts, she made us the flat hen needle keepers, and the adorable sand filled chicken pin cushions to round out our "bohemian hen house"...

We had so many beautiful quilts for this market...yikes, it's hard to list them all!  That's Tracey's "Spice  Baskets" on the left, with Ann Anderson's Kwilt Kakes and a couple of "our Penny's" tote bags...That's my Gypsy Star on the right, with Susa's big hen and Janet's chicken pin cushions all in a row.

The little chandeliers were a real coup for me...where did I get them?  Target of course.  They were pink with plastic rhinestones when I found them (think little princess's bedroom)...Our crafty friend of LHDG, Kathleen Nitzsche, sprayed them cream to match the booth. Then she wired two-sided fabric leaves to the metal arms to make them look like the LakeHouse version of the metal chandeliers that you see all over the place these days...Oh and the little shades are covered in our fabric too...I'll have a tricks & tips post on how to do this yourself in a blog coming soon...Oh, and part two (LOTS more quilts) at Kansas City 2005 market coming up next.

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