Holly Blog

My Favorite Things...220...More Fun with Tammy & A Giveaway Too!

WELCOME TO DAY TWO OF OUR BROWNIE POINTS BLOG-ALONG-ATHON!

Tammy is selling the Fast Flowers Quilt Kit from her website, click here for the details.

You'll be able to get the FREE Fast Flowers Quilt Pattern by clicking here.

My Fast Flowers Tip Sheets will be available as a FREE download on the side bar by TOMORROW.

We're having a second day with Tammy, so that you make sure to see her blog A Tadd More, and her bright and friendly website as well.  I'm hoping she'll have some more pictures of her fabuloso store as well...check out her online store here.

Rumor has it Tammy's got some goodies to give away today, so check her out!

From the first time I saw her, Tammy has always loved bright jewelry, clothing & accessories, it's no wonder that she loves our Fun Flowers Fabric line.  She's done oodles of nifty bag patterns, and probably hundreds of quilt designs with her mom Velda at her side.

I wanted to share some fond memories from a trip that Tammy took with friends & family to visit me in New York City.

A few years ago Tammy, Velda, Tammy's daughter and a gaggle of friends all convened in New York.  With me as their gourmand guide, we walked for hours & hours in Manhattan's SOHO, Nolita, Greenwich Village & Gramercy Park.  We ate French pastries at a teeny bakery called Ceci Cela (try the Napoleans with Fresh Raspberries). We shopped till we almost dropped and ended up at Les Halles (Anthony Bourdain's old restaurant) at the end of the day for some yummy "Steak Frites". 

Here's Tammy & her Mom below...(see what I mean with the bright accessories?!!)

 

Recently Velda's been battling cancer, and I know you'll all want to wish her the best in health and a speedy recovery, so that she can ride shot gun with Tammy & her posse' on another trip again very soon. 

WE LOVE YOU VELDA!

For Every 10 people who leave a message of LOVE & SUPPORT FOR VELDA, I'll give away a free ribbon-tied fat quarter bundle from my personal stash. 

So let's get to it girls...Let's feel the love & send out our best wishes to VELDA! 

Please, only one get well wish for Velda per person.

When you leave Velda your wish doesn't matter, as we'll be drawing your names from a hat (collected from this blog post) at the end of this event.

I'm guessing this will be in the new year, so keep checking back for the names of the prize winners.

Lots more to show & tell & give away!

Y'all come back now...

;o)  H2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Favorite Things...219...Old Friends with New Projects

WELCOME TO DAY ONE OF OUR BROWNIE POINTS BLOG-ALONG-ATHON!

As promised, the Fast Flowers Quilt Kits, are ready in time for Christmas, for your little angel...see more below!

I'm excited to introduce you to Tammy Tadd Designs.  Tammy & first met when our booths were near each other at our first Fall Quilt Market in Houston.  I've seen her evolve from a quilt & pattern designer into a shop owner, blogger & all around bon vivant.  Tammy's got the most colorful little quilt shop in Sycamore Illinois. 

Here's a close up of some of the beautiful Christmas tree ornaments that Tammy has made with our Fun Flowers fabrics.  Leave it to Tammy to kick off the holidays with this charming assortment of hand made & store bought ornaments.  Notice the jumbo ric rac she's using in her tree as a garland...a girl after my heart!

For more pics of Tammy's shop and clever designs, see Tammy's Blog--A Tadd More.

  

 

Tammy will be offering the Fast Flowers Quilt Kit for sale on her website, along with lots more projects that use LakeHouse fabrics.  As mentioned, I'll be donating $5.00 for every Fast Flowers Quilt Kit she sells to her favorite charity:  Tails Humane Society.

Just remember, the FREE Fast Flowers quilt pattern is available online at the Quilts & More website, so click here to see more pictures of the Fast Flowers quilt, and download your free pattern.

I'll be offering a FREE downloadable HOLLYTIPS TIP SHEET in addition to the FREE PATTERN later this week on the sidebar...(because you know how picky I am about quilt construction).

Come back tomorrow for more on Tammy and some of the fabulous freebies & special offers she'll be offering during our Brownie Points event...

So many of you write to us, wanting information on where to purchase LakeHouse fabrics.   So now's the time to see some of the wonderful independent shops all over the US who carry our fabrics.

Join us won't you?

;o-   H2

 

 

My Favorite Things...215...Little Tykes

I just thought I'd share a little fun news with you all...Paton's nephew Simon Hillis who's now 9 years old, is on the front of SKI magazine this month.

I can remember Simon up at the family cottage in the Muskoka's when he was just a baby.  He wasn't old enough to walk, but he could swim like a fish.

Simon has been on skis since he was 2...how cute is that?

:o)

H2

 

My Favorite Things...212...Pretty Packages!

Do you know what this is?  This little bundle of joy is a new design that we are calling totes on bolts* -- Let me explain...

This is a picture taken by Penny Sturges at her QuiltsIllustrated studio.  We've been keeping a secret...

Penny has a new tote pattern called Veranda PS021, it's uber-cute --self ruffles, fabric covered buttons, pockets galore, just adorable.  For years Pen's been talking about doing panels with LakeHouse designs on them to make her tote bags out of.  But it wasn't until perilously close to Spring Quilt Market, that she gave me the info on the pieces to make her new tote. Then it was my job to see how to fit all of the pieces for a tote bag on a few panels...That's how we got the name totes on bolts*, get it?

I don't mind telling you, it was a lot more challenging that I thought it would be. 

The first reason for the difficulty is that tote bags use up a lot more fabric than you'd think.  Also, we wanted to figure out a way to build in some options for the way you put the fabric together on the bag so that the finished products wouldn't all look alike...In the end we came up with over a dozen different ways to put the different designs together on a bag!

Penny was also working on her new Vera apron PS005 at the same time and miraculously, she got that pattern to work with the same 3 totes on bolts* panels!  Even better, the 3 new Veranda panels make her best selling PS026 Mini Bow Tucks bag, too...believe it or not.

Here is a few shot of Penny's new Veranda bag in our booth at Spring Quilt Market made up in the new Veranda Style Panel--Fun Flowers Design:

 
Shown above are three variations of the bag made with the Veranda Panel.  We had 12 different variations on the bags shown on our display wall.  You'll notice that this new panel grouping comes in two different bright colorways -- on white called "WOW" & on black called "BOB".

More shots of our Spring Market booth...know that I am long overdue, since we've been scooped by several of my quilting buddies & shop owners who attended the show -- Jen & Julie to name a couple... I'm fairly confident that they didn't tell you the whole story behind the projects in the booth though...

The 12 Veranda bags on our feature wall at SQM are all different from each other...

The quilt on the left was designed by me for Beth Hayes at McCall's Quilting.  It will be in the February 2011 issue, newsstand November.  The middle quilt is by my friend Rachel Griffith of psIquilt, it will be in McCall's Quick Quilts in the January 2011 issue, newsstand October.  The Pinwheel Party Panel quilt on the right is made with another new panel that I designed with our new Pinwheel Party panel -- LH10027 that made it specifically for your LQS to see this fun new quilt at Spring Market (sort of a "thank you note" for the success of the Fun Flowers line!) it will be in stores in early December.  You'll be able to download the FREE pattern for this quilt by following links from the side column of my blog...We'll have this up within the next two weeks.

 
The table skirts were made from shipping samples of the Fun Flowers fabrics we received only 5 days before we left for SQM...The scalloped edging was made from an extra long row of the Fun Flowers Charmers fabric -- LH10004, tops were made from the BG dot pullout -- LH09031 (of the scallop edging) and the "tucked in place pleated skirt" (so easy), was made from favorite Ric Rac fabric -- LH10007

Many thanks to Darla Padilla of Wildflower Quilting for her talent & diligence with our quilts in the last 10 days before market.  It was about as tight as it's ever been, sample-fabric-wise, but we made it with time to spare.

I've so much to do post-market, that I've not yet taken so much as a day off, thank goodness it's a holiday weekend.

Lots more to show and tell you...

back in two shakes...H2

PS  You can see more about the NEW Veranda panel sets and the NEW Pinwheel Party panel on our website within two weeks, they will be noted as "Fun Flowers 4 December 2010 delivery".

PPS * means made with love & other good stuff

My Favorite Things...208...Excessively Excessive!

Good morning from Minneapolis ladies...

My first quilting starlet sighting at the hotel on Tuesday afternoon were the Me & My Sister ladies -- Mary & Barbara...they were chipper and adorable as usual, but looked a little "rode hard"...said that they had to get up at 2 am Arizona time to get to the hotel by mid afternoon. Talk about dedication...my stomach does flip flops just thinking about what that kind of loss of sleep would do to it!

Next was my old buddy & our tote bag queen Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated. Looking perfectly put together, dragging oodles of bags, suitcases & boxes, she showed up on our doorstep. We had to get a bigger room to acommodate all of our stuff.

Yesterday the always entertaining Pam Kitty showed up snapping photos of our booth with one hand and twittering on her phone with the other...

I already have lots of photos taken at the Walker Art museum (social commentary & criticism on this later) and the Nicolett Mall area around the convention center & our hotel (but alas no card reader to upload them to my laptop with) so I'll get you those shots asap...

Here's another little sneak peek at another of our inspiration pages from the NEW Penelope collection...

 

Penelope is such an exciting fabric grouping for me, because there are so many possibilities for color palettes.  This page is dedicated to Freddy Moran, her book with Gwen Marston "Collaborative Quilting"-- Is (I think?) where she said that red was her neutral...I have been absolutely smitten with the use of red in my quilts and fabric collections, ever since.  Kudos to you Freddy!  For me, red is the new black!  LOL...

Anyhoo, that's all for today gals, it's time for booth set up today.

back in two shakes...

H2

My Favorite Things...202...The Honor Roll

Dolly Blog Post Script

Here's a quick list of the Dolly Blog Event...it's the fastest way to review the Dolly Dress Up quilt projects...

Day 1  Debbie Taylor  of the Fat Quarter Shop

Day 2  Jennifer Bosworth of Shabby Fabrics

Day 3  Lynda Milligan & Friends at the Great Amercian Quilt Shop

Day 4  Jere'e McDade  & "Gidget" of Quilted Quickies

Day 5  Taffy McLaughlin &  Sarch Phillips of Intown Quilters

Day 6  Gina Halladay  & Friends at The Quilted Pear

Day 7  Julie Herman* of Jaybird Quilts

Day 8  Monica Solorio Snow at The Happy Zombie

Day 9  Jenny McLean aka Tula Pink

Day 10  Rachel Griffith of PS I Quilt

Day 11  Sheri Bignell of Freckleberry Farm

Day 12  Tricia Cribbs of FriendFolks

Day 13  Elizabeth Scott at The Late Bloomer

Day 14  Penny Sturges  & Family at Quilts Illustrated

Day 15  Holly Holderman of LakeHouse Dry Goods

You can click on the Dolly Blog Icon in the left sidebar of my blog, to go to the first day of the Dolly Blog-A-Long, and then work your way through the event, project by project.  This also works for any of the other event icons that you see on the left sidebar as well.  X;)

Thanks to all who participated, and all of the visitors that came by to share in the holiday cheer...we do it all for you!

In the words of our little Jaybird*..."make life better with fabric"...in 2010.

Happy Holidays to all...

Peace.

H2

My Favorite Things...198...Late Bloomers!

Day 13 of 16

I'm happy to say that today's guest Elizabeth Scott is one of my favorite quilting buddies.  I am trying to remember how we met, since we haven't been across the aisle at quilt market...I think it was the blogging connection. It might have been through Pam Kitty, who as most of you know is her BFF.

Rumor has it that Elizabeth is doing something very special with her quilt...She is going to auction it off for Irish Flood Relief...SO YOU MUST go on over to see what's up at the The Late Bloomer, and bid on Elizabeth's adorable quilt!

Let's see if I can make a guinea pig face with a few quick key strokes...?

:x>

That's all I got...a guinea pig with a goatee?

H2

My Favorite Things...197...Me "FriendFolks"!

Day 12 of 16

Tricia Cribbs of FriendFolks was across the aisle from us at Fall Quilt Market in 2008...noticing a trend?  Since it was the slowest market that I'd ever experienced, (right after all the banks fell out of bed) we actually got a chance to chat...turns out she is the woman behind the best selling "Turning Twenty" books...Isn't that catchiest name?  Tricia's first love is applique' and boy is she good at it...Since we first met, she has made some amazing appliqued quilts with our Teatime Floral fabrics, too.

Here's a little looky-loo at what Tricia's done with the Dolly Dress Panel...

 

I can't wait to see what this project looks like...I'm guessing that Tricia has gone off the grid completely!

click here to see Tricia's latest masterpiece!

":ºO

H2

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

Day 9 of 16

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

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

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

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

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

Take it away Tula!

;ø}

H2

My Favorite Things...193...Oh Happy Day!

Day 8 of 16

Without a doubt, one of the most entertaining quilting bloggers is none other than Monica "the Happy Zombie" Solorio-Snow.  I've been asking her to join the party for a couple of years now.  So glad to have you with us finally dawl...

Rumor has it that Monica will be doing a project for one of her favorite magazines with the Dolly Dress Up Panels...

I'm sure that "HZ" as I like to call her, will have a lot to show and tell...Like what her graphic symbolizes...?

click here for the pagentry, the extravangaza, dahlink...

Do tell Miss Thing.

:O+

H2