Holly Blog

110...My Favorite Things...Making a Pit Stop!

I'll spare you all of my not-so-clever racing metaphors today, but we are zooming towards Portland Quilt Market...Between the weather (think snow, snow and more snow) & the work load (11 weeks to go) it feels like I haven't left the house in weeks.

Coming up the stairs today with a cup of tea, it dawned on me that my desktop told my story better than I could...

I'm working on some colorations for one of the new lines...With 30 drawers full of color chips, the mess on the top of my desk is only the tip of an iceberg.  I'm attempting to blend a new idea and colors with some of our LakeHouse Library favorite patterns and colors...Making no predictions yet...fingers, toes and eyes are crossed...

Meanwhile, we've had a lot of drama with the kitties...Jasmine, my "Rescue Remedy Kitty" disappeared over a week ago off the property. Paton and I searched around-the-clock for days.  It's been absolutely heartbreaking, as she had shown such promising signs of accepting us and being indoors this winter.  After spending every night (and a lot of days) in a basket on my desk for the last three months, and accepting a lot of attention, she vanished.

Vickie-Dixie had to have 4 teeth pulled last week.  My guess is that her teeth got bad when fending for herself and her kittens before she got to the shelter where we adopted her.  She has been a model patient these last few days. Here she is enjoying the radiant heating in the (yet unfinished) bathroom.

So now we are caught up a bit...Lots more to show and tell.

Back in two shakes...H2

One more important thing...I had promised three give aways to the first 3 new people visiting the blog after my recent guest posting on the Jolly Jabber.  The winners are Corey, Erin and Babara from Feb 8th.

It looks like two of the first three have no tag back, so I need emails addresses from you  gals  ;)   

My Favorite Things...109...Pink & Blue!

Knowing how popular our Hydrangea & Raspberry fabric has been (for "pert near" a decade!) We re-released it again last fall in two of my favorite colorations...In a little over a month, we'll have a NEW panel fabric that is a sister design to these latest Hydrangeas.  It's LH 07017 Hydrangea Corsage...I just love it!  There are 6 different "corsage styles" in the panel.  Here's a close up of one of the styles in the two colorways.

Many of you know the colors by now of our Fall 2007 intro'd Hydrangea fabrics...But for the newbies, repeat after me:  "Pink and Blue". 

When I say that to myself, I have to chuckle a little bit...As I take a trip down memory lane...

This time it's all the way back to high school..."Back in the day", I a) was very active in Young Life, b) was an avid skier and c) was totally boy crazy and d) had not only a head-to-toe powder blue ski outfit, but a pink ensemble (that I made for myself) as well.  Without giving you every unflattering detail, let's just say there was a lot of mashing aka "making out" on the Prospect High School & the Young Life Ski Trip buses.  "Pink and Blue"  was the jeer that would be bandied about whenever the bus stopped for gas and a pit stop,( and a couple would unlock their lips for a few minutes)...(Translation:  Get any closer with that guy or gal and you might be needing pink or blue booties in nine months.)

Looking back, it's all really funny to me, especially since pink and blue still remain two of my most favorite colors...What's with that?

With that off of my chest ladies, I am yet again in the horns of dilemma, and need your assistance.

We "needs a name" for this new quilt design, (if I can use your quilt name, you win a prize!)

Here's the Heron Blue colorway...

And the Petal Pink...

Looking forward to reading your suggestions, gals.
Have a relaxing weekend.

Back in two shakes...

H2

My Favorite Things...62...Blue & White

Hello my Lovelies,

Lately, this blog has felt like a bit of a "quilt-tease", or as I sometime call it, "fabric porn"...Forgive me, won't you?  Right now there is so much to do and so many details to follow up on...But I don't want to go into a complete "Quilt-Market-Blog-Free-Dry-Spell"...so I'll just have to give you a peak at some of the design development studies that I am working on...

Do you remember the simple pastel quilt top using some of the new Fall 07 intro fabrics that I showed you recently? If not,click here.  Here's another version of the same quilt:

I am just crazy about blue and white...Blue Willow dishes, ginghams & tea towel plaids, my old VW Beetle convertible in Periwinkle blue with a white rag top.

At present, the working name for this quilt is "A Square in A Square"...as you might have noticed, I am not terrific at this...me trying to be clever with names usually ends me up in the "bad pun zone".

So if you can help me out, and come up with a great name for this quilt top (oh, and it can't be used in our little "quilt community" by anyone else), I'd be most grateful and I'll also send you a Charm Square Pack in this blue & white palette.

Back in two shakes...H2

Oh, and remember, we are still voting on Best Dessert blog and Best Comment during the Dazzling Dozen Delicious Desserts event.  Please remember to cast your ballot here.

 

My Favorite Things...39...Star Garden Quilt

Design Studies Part 2...

I added a bit of a pregnant pause with the announcement about the article that I am due to write...just watch, Aunt Blabby will get writer's block...

Anyhoo, keep your suggestions coming in gals, I am hunting for the best quilting blogs...diversity, creativity and joie de vivre:  that's what my article will be all about. 

Meanwhile, I wanted to finish up the Star Garden studies that I started on Monday...

As I was saying, I study every quilt top that we make.  They all start in photoshop, and then we go to the design wall after that.  Since I work everything out "to scale", there usually aren't too many surprises.

Here's a third version...IMHO, the larger flowers in the border were too overpowering, so this version was put aside.

The Fourth version was interesting to me, but it seemed a little busy, with a few too many places to look, and no resting place for my eyes...the darker green diamonds needed to be toned down too.

This one looked a little bit better...

And here's where I stopped...I liked that the stars stood out the most, since they were the focal points of the quilt. I guess I mostly prefer a quieter border, and the 9 framed roses did the trick for me.  You may have a different opinion...?

More soon on our blog-able feast and a whole host of other little goodies, soon.  Keep those quilt blog suggestions coming in, I want to taste it all!

Back in two shakes...H2

 

My Favorite Things...37...Star Garden Quilt

Hello again Ladies!  A little dose of cute for you, to start off your week with a smile...This is Kammie, aka Kamma-Noodle, aka Noods, & Fattie. She's a sweet, friendly & stubborn little affection junkie.   The best studio mate ever, like my little shadow all day long.  Aren't animals just the best?

Necessity is the mother of invention today.  I seem to be able to go through IMAC's these days like Sherman through Atlanta.  Here at the LHDG studio we have a had a rash of near-misses:  hair-raising, heart pounding & acid refluxing scares with our Apple computers of late...And the Apple telephone and in-store support has been dismal.  My computer guru Jim (we love you Jim!) has told me that in addition to all of my other problems, I have maxed out my storage.  Something like 50% more than what the manufacturer guarantees as safe.  I was warned, "Holly you must start cleaning out some of your old images". To that end, I started going through a lot of files, that in my April pre-market haste were saved in many redundant forms. 

The good news is that I found all sorts of neat things that I had forgotten about...You may remember my  Star Garden Quilt that was front and center in our May '07 booth...(see blog 5 back in early June, darn if I could only figure out how to link that in...(help Mr. Wizard!)

Before I decided on 3 distinct color variations on the quilt for the final printed version of the Star Garden pattern seen above, I did a lot of "studies" on the lightest pastel version to start the ball rolling.

Here are a couple to whet your appetite...

Pastel version "B" above (the "A" version was one of the colorways I put in the final Star Garden pattern)

Pastel version "C" above

I'll have a couple more variations on this quilt next time.  I'll give you my thought process and commentary, too...

Back in two shakes...H2