Pittsburgh Quilt Market

Back in the spring I visited Pittsburgh and vended the Spring Quilt Market there, it was wonderful! I always love visiting Pittsburgh, and this trip was not disappointing: the show itself was fantastic, and we had a great time. I had an awesome response to my new #188 "Christmas Placemats" patterns, this might even overtake my last best-seller in sales, and we are not even into fall yet! And I met the nicest people at market, Sharon Holland who was the assistant editor for Quilt-it Today and Sew-it Today stopped by my booth a couple of times, it was great to finally meet her after working with her for the magazine and we had a great visit! Also had a nice chat with Tula Pink who loved my bunny ears fascinator and was sweet enough to model it for me in the photo shown. I was fortunate enough to meet some of the wonderful folks at Andover Fabrics and am working with them to bring some new styles to market using their incredible line of Downton Abbey fabrics, so exciting!  And of course I couldn't have done it without my good friend Patty (also shown in the photo), she always has such clever and creative ideas for display and is great company too. I'm so looking forward to heading to Houston for fall market in a couple of months!

Laura's Scarf

One of my very talented students was sweet enough to bring in her finished and dried Felted Ruffle Scarf to a class she took last Saturday, didn't it turn out gorgeous? She used a beautiful palette of autumn colors in hand-dyed merino enhanced with coordinating bamboo, silk, and curly fibers in our wet-felting class. Then when she got home and the scarf had dried, she embellished her work of art further by needle-felting soft green vines in the center, adding just the right touch!                        

I love the way this turned out, and thrilled that she brought it to the class so we could see it. I am always inspired and amazed at the special touches my students add to their class projects!

Ruffle Scarf Class

Saturday we had a grand time at our felted ruffle scarf class at The Fibre Studio in Charlotte, what a great group of students we had! This time I grouped together fiber colors rather than make up kits per se, and the girls picked out their own silk prints and embellishments to enhance their scarves. They did an amazing job, too! With the ruffle scarf finishing around 5 ft. long, they had to do almost an 8-ft. layout of hand-dyed merino wool fibers, silk, bamboo, Angelina and other assorted goodies, and then massage and roll the fibers into a felted wool piece...no small feat in this one-day class. The girls worked very hard and their color choices were just gorgeous that they put together. I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures, but here are a couple, and I know they were all very proud of their work, their scarves were just beautiful!

Bunny Ears Fascinator

Made a new fascinator for Easter with removable bunny ears and some faux fur ribbon, this one might be my favorite! I wore it one day at the Savannah quit show and Patty said, oh, you need a little tag that says "I'm late! I'm late!" Maybe next year...anyway here is the hat, after Easter I'll remove the velcro-d in ears and wear it for spring!

Savannah Quilts

What would a quilt show be without quilts? And I could not have done it without my friend Patty, what a blessing she was with her companionship and also creative input. We really saw an amazing variety of talent at the show, here is just a sampling of the beautiful work on display.

 LOVE this quilt with its meandering dimension, at first I thought the little stuffed balls were felted! And then I thought, this would make an awesome felted piece, hmm...

 There was a beautiful exhibit from the Hoffman challenge there too, this was Patty's favorite piece above, the cicada purse! I liked this dimensional set shown below, what an imagination!

 Wow, the detail in this quilting just blew me away, wish I could do that!

At the Savannah Quilt Show

Our "Heavenly Hibiscus" felted flower class in Savannah was so much fun! The girls worked very hard laying out their fibers, tweaking their handiwork with bamboo, silk and sparkly Angelina, and then rolling and shaping them into perfect little posies! Each flower was a work of art in its own right, and I was so very proud of all of my students! My friend Carolyn even demonstrated how to make a bud.

I also ran into a few friends at the show! I was thrilled to see my friend Cathy, and also the lady who inspired me to design my "Miz Cat-titude" pincushion pattern.

Savannah!

When the Mancuso's invited me to teach at the Savannah Quilt Show this year, I was just thrilled! I had never visited Savannah before, even though this Southern belle had stolen away a good friend of mine a few years ago. So I was excited to not only be able to teach at a nice quilt show but to visit my friend as well. I was not disappointed - Savannah is such a beautiful town, set right on the river and so much to do! We stayed at a charming hotel downtown within easy walking distance of River Street, in fact, we had a beautiful view of the river and bridge from our hotel window!

Once we were settled into our room, we called my friend, what a delight it was to see her! She had not changed a bit from her sweet self, and graciously came and picked us up for a little tour of this charming city. What a beautiful place, with lots of historical architecture, big, rambling trees, and hanging moss. We had a great time with our friend, who then took us to her home (formerly known as "The Party House" and had been owned by a prominent political figure!) After showing us her awesome house which had every nook and cranny filled with my friends special creative touches and design work (I'm so jealous!) we had a delicious supper before visiting on her back sunporch overlooking a very picturesque view of the marsh. OK, so now I'm ready to see that movie again, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." And definitely ready for another visit to this quaint town!