The Long Road Home

Its been a crazy few months with trade shows, classes and then Quilt Market in Houston. Market, as its known, is the wholesale side of Quilt Festival. Basically this is where the shops come to look for new goodies for you and their shops. It is also a venue where the fabric companies can show their newest lines of fabric etc. We try and go every year, we have been doing this for about 12 years. Its just so exciting and we get to go in and look at all the amazing quilts before the public has access and its very crowded.

This year market was a bit more exciting with the tail end of Patricia, the hurricane that hit Mexico, making its way through downtown Houston. Everyone was ordered off the streets and there was lots of flooding since 24" of rain fell in 24 hours! We had the luxury of just watching it all from the comfort of our room. Luckily the hotel has a enclosed walkway to the hotel so we could get Jenn across without having to deal with the wheelchair in the rain. But taking Chloe out to go potty was a bit different. Randy braved the elements and always returned soaked, no umbrella works when the rain and wind drive in horizontally.

Our little table at Sample Spree!

My new fabric Lazy Little Lady Bugs displayed at Quilting Treasures Booth

I had a booth next to Quilting Treasures which is my fabric company. It was great for everyone to be together. Here are some of the pictures from my amazing time at market and with some of the artists that will be involved in The Fiber Art Connection! A new online Fiber Art Community that connects the best of the best to students from around the world. Check it out at www.fiberartconnection.com

Me and Cheryl Sleboda

Me and LesleyRiley

Me and Liz Kettle

Me, Rayna Gilman, Jamie Fingal

Me, Lyric Montgomery Kinard and Sue Bleiweiss a big winner this year with her new book out and a winning quilt at Houston!

Leslie Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Jamie Fingal, Deborah Boschert, Me, Kathy York (another winner) and Sue Bleiweiss

Yeah Morna Golletz

Victoria Wolfe and more

We are all coming together to bring you a totally new and exciting online learning experience!!
Check it out at www. fiberartconnection.com

Celebrating Sue Bleiweiss's new book - Colorful Fabric Collage with prizes for you!

I am honored to be one of the featured artists in Sue Bleiweiss's new book- Colorful Fabric Collage. This wonderful book is about appliqué and how varied and wonderful it can be. Sue has some amazing projects in the book and several guest artists so you can see different styles of work. Sue has done a great job of writing this book and sharing her love of appliqué. She not only gives you tons of ideas for creating, stitching and displaying your work she also has lots of fun projects in the book! I know you will enjoy this book! 

THE SUNBATHER

When Sue asked me to do a small piece for the book I was thrilled and really thought about what I wanted to share with you. I decided that it had to be one of my favorite family's pets. I love to do these wonderfully lit, fun pieces that capture our furry best friends! This is Winston, he is my brothers Frenchie and he is a character. They live in northern CA where it gets cold, in the winter you won't find Winston far from the wall heater. In the Spring you will find him sunning himself in the garden! Make sure you check out Winston on page 57! And make sure you check out Sue's book for more wonderful examples of different methods to use  appliqué. 

If you leave a comment here today you will be entered to win all this;  a prize package that includes a book, a stack of 10" squares of Sue's hand dyed fabric, some spools of Aurifil thread and a package of Mistyfuse.
Click on the book to see more, its an affiliate link to Amazon where you can get your copy! Below is a list of the contributing designers that will be doing the blog hop and offering free prizes!! Don't miss out!

May 4: Sue Bleiweiss: http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/

May 4: Jamie Fingal :http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5: Leslie Tucker Jenison: http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
May 6: Terri Stegmiller : http://stegart.blogspot.com/
May 7: Deborah Boschert : http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
May 8: Desiree Habicht : http://myclothesline.blogspot.com/
May 9: Kathy Sperino : http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/
May 10: Barb Forrister : http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/
May 11 Kathy York : http://www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/
May 12: Lyric Kinard : http://lyrickinard.com/lyric-kinard-blog/

Right NOW!! Blog Hops with tons of giveaways!!!

This week is a crazy week of blog hops for me but that makes for a great week for you and it all starts Today!! Make sure you check back often in the next week and a half and leave a comment for chances to win some amazing prizes from magazines and authors and other creatives!! This is going to be a killer week for everyone!! I am so excited you will be joining me!! First we have the Quiltmaker Blog Hop Tour featuring the 100 Blocks Magazine that is available now!!

  

Check out the designers that are featured today and leave comments on their blogs for chances to win some great prizes! I will be on Thursday so come back and leave a comment here too!!!

Today also starts my good friend, Sue Bleiweiss's Blog Tour to celebrate her newest book called Colorful Fabric Collage! Friday the 8th is my day! I am honored to be one of the featured artists in the book and I will be talking about my little quilt I made for the book and if you leave a comment on that day you will have the chance to win all this prize package that includes a book, a stack of 10" squares of my hand dyed fabric, some spools of Aurifil thread and a package of Mistyfuse.
Click on the book to see more, its a link to Amazon where you can get your copy! Below is a list of the contributing designers that will be doing the blog hop and offering free prizes!! Don't miss out!

May 4: Sue Bleiweiss: http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/

May 4: Jamie Fingal :http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5: Leslie Tucker Jenison: http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
May 6: Terri Stegmiller : http://stegart.blogspot.com/
May 7: Deborah Boschert : http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
May 8: Desiree Habicht : http://myclothesline.blogspot.com/
May 9: Kathy Sperino : http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/
May 10: Barb Forrister : http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/
May 11 Kathy York : http://www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/
May 12: Lyric Kinard : http://lyrickinard.com/lyric-kinard-blog/

Then on to my dear friend Lyric Kinard who just released her amazing DVD called Thermofax 101, which is all about thermofax screen printing and mixed media. I took one of my paintings and had her make me a thermofax screen and I will be showing off my project and offering not only a free give away of Lyrics DVD but also I will be giving away some of my prints of my screen on fabric and paper for you to do what you please with! More on May 12 here on my blog. Here are links and the blogs to visit starting May 1st and check out the Thermofax 101 picture is a link to Amazon!

May 1- Elizabeth and Sue Gibson-http://pgfiber2art.blogspot.com/
May 2- Judy Coates Perez http://www.judycoatesperez.com
May 4- Linda Stokes  www.lindastokes-textileartist.com
May 6-Jane Davia http://janedavila.blogspot.com
May 7- Liz Kettle http://www.textileevolution.com/index.php/our-journey
May 8- Carol Sloan  http://carolbsloan.blogspot.com
May 9 - Kathy York- http://aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com
May 11- Susan Brubaker Knapp http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com
May 12- Desiree Habicht- http://myclothesline.blogspot.com
May 13-Jamie Fingal-http://JamieFingalDesigns.blogspot.com/
May 14- Deborah Boschert- http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com
May 15- Sarah Ann Smith-sarahannsmith.com/weblog

It's time to draw the name of the lucky winner, is it you!!??

TODAY IS THE DAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since returning home I have been busy with orders, unpacking and babysitting for my daughter, I am exhausted. I have been gathering names and preparing to draw for the basket and my sketching class this Saturday. Life is so full sometimes, I am not complaining, I love the excitement, the anticipation and the fun of being able to offer some really amazing gifts to all of you from some very talented artists!

I wanted to take the time to thanks our sponsors Kelly Mueller from Wooden Bear, Lesley Riley and CT Publishing, Terry Degenkolb from Whimsicals, Jamie Fingal, Lyric Montgomery Kinard,Sue Bleiweiss, Hillcreek Design and myself. I have added even more goodies, some of my patterns, a sample Fabulous Folded Bag, scissor bob etc.

I also want to thank all of YOU!! All of you who took the time to visit my blog and FB page and posted comments. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your comments as I read them. It not only inspires me but keeps me wanting to do more!! I loved doing this give away basket and I hope to do another in October so keep tuned and follow me so you will stay informed on when it happens. I hope you will also go to my website and click on the newsletter link so I can send you monthly newsletter which keeps you up to date on all of my new adventures!! You guys are awesome!! Good luck next time!

Watch the video and see my drawing and see who is our grand prize, Marvelous May Market Give-Away, Winner!!  Please email me with your shipping info once you have seen the video lucky winner!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Our First Basket Donation has Arrived for our Give-Away Basket from Sue Bleiweiss!!

I am so excited to get the mail these days! Besides the awesome things that keep arriving for market I am starting to get some goodies from friends and colleagues! One of the best things about this industry is how wonderfully supportive the women are to each other! I am so blessed to know some of these amazing women. The first addition to our goodie bag is from Sue Bleiweiss! Sue is a designer, art quilter, author, organizer, motivator and blog facilitator just to mention a few of her many talents! I was blessed to get to know Sue this last year as she invited me to join in on some great projects she was working on. She started the Artbox last year where she brought together some awesome artists for the Artbox adventure. It was a place where the public could buy boxes of art from a variety of artists for a good price and collect a variety of one of a kind pieces of fiber art. It was a huge project and she facilitated the whole project from designing the website, monitoring the site, sales, clients etc. It was a great success and we really appreciated all she did.

Lil Miss Cutie Patootie is so excited to add these wonderful gifts to your gift basket!! I also own a piece of Sue's amazing fiber artwork shown above, but that is not include, nor is Cutie! ( a new pattern in my new pattern book?) LOL 

She also started the Sketchbook Challenge, an online sketching and journaling blog that I am happy to contribute to that has monthly sketchbook challenges. She also is just finishing up a fund raiser called " Kick off your Shoes" to raise money for the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. These are just a few of the amazing things Sue has done in her spare time this last year. All that and she managed to write a few articles you might have seen in the latest Quilting arts magazine! She is amazing and I am so happy to know her! She has sent us her book called " The Sketchbook Challenge" filled with sketchbook ideas from some wonderful artists! But that's not all! She included a sketchbook so you can start your own sketchbook and fill it with your own art! Please take a few minutes to visit Sue's website and see her art, or visit one of the blogs she is overseeing and thank her for her generosity! She spends all this time so that we might benefit from her generous spirit through knowledge, charity and exposure to the talents of others. thanks so much sue! You can find her on Facebook too! Thanks Sue!
Don't forget to leave comments, here and on FB! Until next time! I have more!!!!

- Desiree