Holly Blog

My Favorite Things...206...Small Victories

This is the rear cover for the new Penelope collection...I am JUST LOVING how the NEW COLOR PALETTE...from soft to light and jewel toned, rich & dark...YUMMMMMMY!

Part Two...How I found the inspirational fabric for the Penelope line...

Can't exactly remember how things transpired verbally after that.   All I know is how fascinated I was with "the very odd artsy woman" that was now at the other end of my scraps of fabric.  I just wanted to stare at her and figure out what her story was, but I didn't want to lose my "prized fabric" to her.

I walked up to the attendant and inquired about the price.  Basia, (I found out her name later) followed closely.  In the end we vaguely discussed what we each wanted it for, and decided that I would split up the scraps with her, since all I needed was enough to see the whole repeat.

Thought that I would never see anything like Basia again in my lifetime...Boy was I wrong.  It turned out that on that particular trip to Paris, I had also planned on going to London for a few days before returning to Paris and taking my flight home.

There are a dozen or more interesting little shopping districts/neighborhoods in London that have wonderful idiosyncratic "independent" shops.  One day when I went to Sloane Square (a chi-chi little enclave made popular by Lady Di) I spotted a little jewel of a spot with luscious window displays...I went in.  It was an odd little place...one HUGE table running down the middle with all sorts of eccentricities displayed in a beautiful still life.  There before me was a pair of 18th century-inspired mules (think Marie Antoinette before the guillotine!)  It was covered in "my" fabric from the flea market in Paris. 

To make a long story even longer, apparently I didn't see the sign "DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING" right next to the shoes, and as if they had a laser system in place to catch the likes of me, a little bell went off and who rushed out of the back room, but the "artsy lady"!

Apparently I am so nondescript that she didn't recognize me from the week prior, as she scolded me and shooed me out of her museum store onto the street.

The unusual woman's name is Basia Zarzycka.  She is known for her couture "bling - cha - ching" wedding dresses and custom finery.  Her store is still in the same place just off Sloane Square. 

Here are a few pics of Basia & her "stuff"...

Trust me ladies, the above picture of Basia with her "headdress", while eccentric and "over - the - top" IMHO, is light years away from the kabuki-faced goth get up that I first saw Basia in at Cligancourt!

 

I got these pics off Basia's website.  The eerily real poodle handbag can be yours for 10,000 pounds (that's $15,098.10 to you and me at today's exchange rate, plus of course an almost 20% VAT tax and a 5% exchange loss, of course). LMAO!!!

Guessing this is one of her wedding gowns...check out the detailing on the sleeves...part fairy princess and court jester.

Hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane today.  I'll be previewing more of the Penelope collection in the next week or so...so much to show & tell you...

Back in two shakes...

X;O)

My Favorite Things...205...Encore Paris!

The new Penelope sales booklet front cover.  This new collection is due out in about two weeks at Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis. . .

Hello Ladies,

I have been in a "Paris state of mind" lately...Missing the flea markets, the patisserie, the confisserie...I could go on, but to those of you who know me, I'm a bit of a broke record when it comes to Paris.

I've named my new "Penelope en Paris"  It's the fourth intro we've done of the Teatime Floral series...The color palette is slightly muted.  It looks great in with "tea stained" fabrics. 

It all started with the piece of a slipcover that I found at a little stall at the now famous Cligancourt flea market just outside of Paris. I'll never forget the experience I had buying that scrap of fabric...

So there I am in this little lean-to fabric shop in one of the alleys in Cligancourt.  It's one of the little shanties that seem like they have been there forever.  There are all sorts of tassels, shawls & embroideries hanging in fragments from the ceiling, with piles of large fabric scraps of every description:  huge drapery panels, parts of old quilts, you name it..all over the floor.  The aisles are tight and the people, and as you might expect, are as eccentric as the day is long. 

I spotted a lovely 19th century floral scrap of cotton out of the corner of my eye.  I moved over to it and began examining it for the quality of the printing, the repeat sizes, the motifs.  I loved it, but I stood around with it in my hand, thinking about what to do with it...it seemed a little sophisticated back then.  I closed my eyes and the next thing I know I feel a tug on the fabric that I was holding.  Opening my eyes a woman in a "get up" that was a cross between Vampira & a Nicholas Nickleby character, had her paws on the fabric I had not yet relinquished.

She clearly wanted the fabric that I had in my hand, and she wasn't giving up until she had it...

I'll finish this little tome in my next blog, when I tell you the rest of the story and show you the other cover from our new sales presentation booklet....it has some unexpected twists & turns and a trip in the Chunnel...so stay tuned.

Back in two shakes...

H2

My Favorite Things...177...Good Food & Friends

Decided to take a little business trip to California, before the onslaught of market preparations.  Much to my delight, I was able to have a delicious lunch with two of the funniest blogging quilters I know...

I call them "Elizapam".  We met in Mill Valley, which IMHO is pretty much the cutest town in Marin.  With it's little parks, turn-of-the-century shingle style cottages, and a storybook downtown, a girl could fall for the place...

It's too bad we had to "pinkie swear" about some of our next up-and-coming projects (lots more soon).  We gabbed for several hours, only to call it short when East Bay traffic patterns caused them concern.  (They graciously offered to come to my side of the bay, as I am again staying in Marin county with my old buddy Ric, who I have mentioned before).  It was great seeing you girls!

Over this past weekend, I saw a really fun arts & crafts exhibit called "The Box Show" in Point Reyes Station.  The show has become so popular, that they have to hold a lottery for open spots. It was so much fun.  Each artist got a box to do anything they want with. Here's a few examples of some of the projects they showed...

This soft sculpture was made by Mollie Lounibos.  I just loved her birds, and wherever did she get that wood textured fabric?

Don't you all want a box made of Blue Willow china?  It's by Pattie Grey.

Simon Jeremiah did this homage to Joseph Cornell, one of my favorite 3 dimensional collage artists.

It's magazine quilt season right now, so I'll have lots more to show and tell when I get back to the studio.

Back in two shakes...H2 @:º)

My Favorite Things...127...Seattle and More

I'm just about to run out of pictures from my trip...Thank goodness Penny bought a Canon G9  on the advice of our buddy Gina.  It's amazing to me how much better her pictures are with that camera.   I am having nothing but troubles with mine.  Penny's camera has an anti-blur feature,(and mine doesn't) and my hand is really shaky, so taking a clear picture for me is TOTAL FRUSTRATION!  Following are a couple of examples of her camera's abilities...

Remember the picture of the bear with the bowl of macaroni & cheese, from my last blog?  There is no way I could have taken this picture with my camera, it would have been a huge blur.  BTW, I have written the editors at Food & Wine magazine to see if we can get that recipe...and I'll keep you posted.

Here's my shot taken from our hotel room the evening we arrived...

The same vantage point taken with Penny's camera, which has so much more capacity...YIKES!

After Seattle we drove on to Canada.  On the advice of Paton's cousin Peter, we took the ferry to Salt Spring Island.  Here's a picture from the boat as we neared the port...(The snow capped mountains were on Victoria Island in the distance.)

This is an example of the beautiful countryside is on Salt Spring Island...rolling hills, lush greenery, pastoral farms...

It's no wonder that the price of land and housing has sky-rocketed there, it's has become Canada's version of the Hamptons, with vineyards, cheese makers and artists galore...

Just after I took these pictures, I really started having troubles with my camera...pretty much gave up the tourist thing for a few days, so Victoria island and our trip back to Seattle to catch our plane wasn't captured by my camera...I did manage to get a few good shots on Bainbridge Island.  Here are pics from some of the cute shops in the town near the ferry...

A sweet little "paperie" called Grace & Company...

A lush floral boutique called Flowering Around...

And the cutest little quilt shop, called Esther's Fabrics...(LakeHouse spotting at 9-o'clock!)  I just love to collect fun shopping bags from my travels...

And on that note, it's a wrap! 

Next time, it's show and tell:  New fabrics and projects, our Spring Market offerings are about to hit the stores any day.   ;) 

Back in two shakes...H2

 

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...107...Raising Arizona

Ladies,

It's been a l-o-n-g time since my last post.  So much to do and tell, but so little time to do it in...

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite pics from my recent Arizona trip...

Here's Cindy Taylor Oates at her lovely home, in front of her display cabinets.  We both have an affinity for "old stuff", like  group photos, unusual sewing machines, neat things with original typography and the like...my mouth watered at some of her juicy tidbits...

Loved her little pink chairs too, oh-so girly!

Cindy had Precious Penny and I over for a delicious lunch...yummy southwestern style chicken soup, avocado and orange salad, a delicious sweet corn souffle, and some ab fab smoked ribs made by her sweetie-pie husband William. I've asked CTO to post some of her recipes...but haven't had the time to go blog reading in weeks...So we must all make sure to check in and see what's she's put up on her new blog.

Here's a couple of close-ups of Cindy's vignettes...

Simply Cindy!

Alas, I spent 3 days and 3 of the most comfortable nights in recent memory (on the world's best bed ever!) with Precious Penny & her also-sweetie-pie husband, Bob while I was in Arizona.  We also went model house hunting with Jill, who is Penny's wonderful friend & sister-in-law.  My favorite models were at Fulton Ranch in Chandler, AZ...right up until I realized that the neighborhood that these almost million dollar houses (don't believe the prices on their website!) were back-to-back with the loading dock of the local Loew's!  That really bothered me...am I nuts, or what?
It was great to spend time with them, soaking up the sunshine and the local color.  I was so happy, well fed, relaxed and "at home" with B&P&J that I completely forgot that I needed to document my trip...the shameless-blogger-in-me forgot to take pictures! I will tell you this, Penny has her house decorated in a cozy & comfy way.  Lots of quilts, yummy paint colors on the walls, really nice overstuffed furniture and an adorable new kitchen that the also-very-handy-Bob just remodeled for her.

I took a little side trip to visit of my favorite quilters down Tucson way...Brenda the "big nut" from Little Acorns and her now famous side kick Bailey...

I've got two words to describe Mr B:  "love monster".

Thanks so much to everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules (and bustling pattern businesses) when I came-a-calling in AZ...

Lots more exciting news when I return (finger's crossed)...meantime, this lil' pardner is back on the "designing ranch", what with Spring Quilt Market right around the corner!

Back in two shakes...

H2