Finishing Up 2008

Ok admit it, this is the cutest picture so far! Nathan trying to hold his twin sisters on Christmas! Sorry I had to share it.

As the year is winding down I was glad to have finished some old UFO projects. I am going to start 2009 without all this extra baggage. I finished Nathan's pirate quilt which I have been working on for TWO years! I wrapped it again and gave it too him, unfortunately I forgot to photograph it so picture will come later. I also made that fleece blanket I have had the fabric for all year. I have so many art quilts in different stages of completion and although I am working on them I doubt I will make my Jan 1 deadline.

I am busy finishing up a quilt for the "Edges" challenge for the July IQA show in Long Beach, deadline is Jan 14th. There are a few of us in the art quilt group I belong to that are going to enter it. The challenge was to come up with our interpertation of what "edges" means to us. I thought it was going to be a really tough challenge but I love what I came up with. Shhh, its still a secret until I am finished. I will give you a peek then. The thing about challenges is that they make us think outside of the box and stretch. Monday I also received a two year contract to design fabric for Red Rooster Fabrics in NY, I am really excited about that! We are reading it over and checking all that fine print. How exciting to think that "Desiree's Designs" will be printed on the side of every yard of fabric they produce with my designs. Wow, another 15 minutes of fame! LOL I need to now work on the coordinating fabrics to go along with my panel I submitted to them. And then finally, my patterns got picked up by a big distributor and possibly a catalog company. These latest opportunities are directly related to our trip to Houston. THANKS HOUSTON!

It is turning out to be a busy end of 2008, a good time to clean up the old and welcome the new! I am hoping for many new and exciting opportunities for 2009!

Houston Quilt Market 2008

Randy and I had the opportunity to have a booth at Quilt Market. I brought all my quilt patterns and at first the show seemed slow but as the days passed the wonderful opportunitys kept happening to us. I was approached by 4 magazines about submitting ideas and drawing for publication. I was picked up by distributors and catalogs. The most exciting thing for me was that a woman by the name of Nancy from Checkers introduced herself and told me she had seen my website and thought I should think about designing fabric. I have always wanted to do that, it seems like it would be a great fit for me. She then brought over Ann, who runs Red Roster fabrics out of NY and she asked me if I would be interested in signing a 2 year contract and I needed to get home and start designing! She wants my first line to release next year at Houston! WOW!!!! So exciting, if just a few of these things break open life would become even more exciting! What a great show we had even though I heard that the show was down about 50%.

We also went to Bernina's fashion show, it was incredible. The fashions were so exciting. Jay from Project Runway was there also, he was releasing his new line of fabric! Here are some pictures of our fun weekend.

The dresses are as follows, Galatea Adorned by Charlotte Warr Andersen, Midnight Waltz by Ludmila Aristova, Celestial Rendezvous by Janice Ellertson, The Body of work by Yvonne Porcella, Midnight Dance by Sandy Snowden. These were only a few of the many wonderful creations at the fashion show.