New, fun patterns and ideas!

Hi GF's! I am having sew much fun these days with my fabric. I am working on patterns and designs and each time I make one thing another idea pops into my head! I am working on some fun Tea Cozies for the book and had some great ideas that are fun! Here is one of them, tell me what you think! I love to hear your suggestions and comments. Here he is, amidst my mess studio! I have things in the works all over the place.

Randy thinks he needs eyes, I don't, whats your vote?? Leave me a comment with your vote and I will let you know what "eye" decide! LOL

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

Cutting Edge Art Quilts

Another beautiful day that draws me outside into the garden as I try and stay focused on sewing. This last few weeks will be the hardest and most intense. I am also watching as my housework is falling behind and the flurry of cutting and creating and sewing is taking it toll on both my sewing room and other rooms in the house. I will get to the end and then, hopefully, have time reorganize my studio.  My garden is not waiting on me as it bursts into bloom and I am already picking artichokes! Yummy

With so many wonderful things in motion I get deliveries almost daily now! It is like Christmas everyday. They either come in the mail or via email. Yesterday I received word that contributed to will be released this week!!! I will have several of my art quilts in the book and its called "Cutting Edge Art Quilts" by Mary W. Kerr and released by Schiffer Publishing. It is so excited to get those kinds of emails!!

51 quilters share their design secrets with creative tips, encouraging quilts of all skill levels to “think

outside the box”. Beautiful color photographs show different techniques for adding color, textures, and embellishments to quilts.

I can't wait to get my hands on this book and grab a cup of coffee and dream! It is available on Amazon NOW as a preorder!! 

With that excitement in the air to make things even better I got my postcards that I am going to send out as a pre mailer to market. 

Emily Sheeder from eDesign studio,inc designed my card and I just love it!!! She is an amazing graphic artist and will help you put together any type of marketing ads you might need. She did some magazine ads for me also that were wonderful.  Check her out at edesignstudioinc.com

Gotta run but make sure you comment and then comment again on FB for more chances to win my Marvelous May Market Give-away basket! Lots of goodies are on their way to me for the basket and you!! Check it out here!!

Playing with fabric!

For months I have been designing and sewing in anticipation of my fabric arriving. After the exciting two days of fabric deliveries I have been busy sewing and sewing trying to get everything made in my fabric line. There is so much excitement in the air, can you feel it my friends? I have been having such fun creating wonderful patterns for my book but all the while thinking of how I could include each of you! I want you to share in the excitement of Spring Market. I have been contacting some of my very creative and talented colleagues and they are sending some special things for our goodie bag! You will not want to miss out one this giveaway! As things begin to arrive I will be sharing them with you and adding them to our Goodie Basket! Remember to stay tuned and post here or on Facebook and make sure you share this with others so they can be a part of all the excitement! Remember you have to post comments, not just like! We want to hear from you and how excited you are!

Yesterday my good friends at Hillcreek Designs sent me some awesome buttons for my new products! These new pansy buttons are just so stinking cute! I am going to use them on my new Lil Miss Cutie Patootie Apron pattern and I might have to put a few into our goodie basket!! Make sure you visit Hillcreek Designs website and check out all of their wonderful, custom dyed buttons!

A Flurry of Activity and a MARVELOUS MAY MARKET GIVEAWAY!!!

I have been having so much fun getting ready for Spring Market. It has been a flurry of creative activity. We have meetings on Mondays and Randy and I bounce ideas off of each other. It is a Creative Monday for sure and it sets the stage for the weeks activities. It has been crazy busy too! We were so much more organized this year, plotting a course, having a plan and making lists. We were able to get so much more done and I am so proud of us and myself. I am such a procrastinator and I know that without a list and a list with deadlines I will never get everything done since I will push it off. This year, knowing that about myself, made me take action early and we have been doing this for months now with real progress and success arriving daily at my door now! I can't tell you the excitement as I see that UPS man pull up and unload boxes! I have received two shipments of fabric, the first was my new Christmas line, "The Twelve Days of Christmas", delivering now to shops and then the next day I received my Lil Miss Cutie Patootie Line from Quilting Treasures that I will be showing at Spring Market!! I am so thrilled to be designing for Quilting Treasures, the company and people are amazing!

My new Christmas Line called "The Twelve Days of Christmas" shipping to quilts shops now!

Then on Thursday, the girls day, everyone was so excited as the UPS man brought in bolts of Lil Miss Cutie Patootie fabric! Megan loves cutie and wanted her picture taken with the fabric! LOL She didn't even want to wait for me to unwrap it!

 I ordered my new Moo cards and just received them along with my logo I had printed at Spoonflower! Instead of making a quilt for my sign I designed it and had it printed, I am quilting the cheater panel now!

My new Moo cards! I love them, I even did mini moos to make tags with. I am going to tie them onto giveaways! 

Here is my Spoonflower sign that I am quilting now, a cheater panel that I designed in Photoshop and had printed at Spoonflower, fun! 

 I have also designed a whole new website and my brother, who is a computer brainiac, is helping me go live! It will be great to see it all come together soon. I also have been working on a book to go along with my new line of fabric. The patterns are so cute! I love them and hope that it goes well, it has been a huge amount of work and worry. There is always the fear that no one will want it after I have spent so much time and money to put it out there. But, heres to pushing through the fear and throwing caution into the wind, full speed ahead!

A sneek peek at one of my patterns called "Tea Party Table"

There are still more deliveries to come, T-shirts that Randy designed are on order, a sign for our booth pattern rack is on its way, the printer is printing my postcard mailers, Tina delivered all the scarecrow and Fabulous Folded Bag samples for us to photograph and Gurutej designed a Lil Miss Cutie Patootie doll for my book so its all coming together. We are one month away, so much still to finish up, to get ready, to sew. I am finishing up a order now for some charms to give away at market at my schoolhouse talks and I still need to work on my DVD. There is an excitement in the air as we get closer and see our hard work showing up in finished products!!

I am so excited that I want to include all of you in my excitement by spreading it. then you can share it and it will trickle down until everyone is excited! So to get you all excited I am doing a Marvelous May Market Give-Away! I would love to hear that you are excited with me, maybe share what you are excited about, wether its my new fabric, patterns, moo cards books or something you have made! Comment on this post on my blog and/or on my Facebook pages to be entered into the drawing. You can go to either my personal or business page on Facebook, Desiree Habicht and Desiree's Designs Studio, and post a comment on one of the fabric posts to be entered. I will add your name each time you post on my blog or FB pages, one per day. The more you comment, the better your chances to win!! Well, what will I win you might be wondering?? How about a gift basket full of sewing, quilting goodies!? To start off my gift basket you will win a yard of fabric from my " Twelve Days of Christmas" line and maybe some from my Cutie Line. I will be including my newest patterns and my book for starters. I will also add my charm scissor bob to the basket as well. But thats not all!!! I am going to market and I have a lot of very generous friends and I will be gathering lots of fun goodies from them for you!!! I am so excited to see what everyone will pitch into the goodie basket! Follow me as I post next month during market as I gather goodies for you! You can enter everyday starting today until May 31st. On June 1st I will do the drawing and announce the winner by June 2nd. That is 6 weeks in which you can enter! Remember, post comments in multiple places, but only once per day, one per blog post but feel free to post comments on my FB pages too! This is going to be such fun for all of us! I will have a basket in which I am collecting goodies so watch it grow with me! I am going to set up a special Give-away page on this blog with the rules of the Give-away along with information on some of my generous colleagues that will be donating. I will be posting remotely, as I am at market collecting goodies for you too! Share this blog with your quilting friends and have them comment too! If you get 5 friends to join my blog and FB page and mention you sent them I will add your name to the drawing again. So many ways to win!

Spring Market is so close!!

Randy and I have been so busy getting ready for Spring Market! There is so much flurry of activity between designing, sewing, marketing etc. It takes so much planning and execution of those plans to assure that everything goes well. To make sure that it is a success and that we can justify the costs we spend many hours going over these plans and making lists. The best part of lists is being able to cross off of those lists as the tasks are completed! I love the fact that my husband is willing to sit with me and help me outline a strategy at our Monday Morning Power Meetings! Having him home has been awesome, I have found his help priceless. I am so thankful that I have a husband that is supportive and I am fortunate that we get along so well.

A list page in my journal, a sneak peek! Still finding time to journal!

More fun spring journal pages !

I have challenged myself to write this book of patterns for Spring Market. It will be a personal barrier crossed if I get it done and I am determined! The amount of work is scary but I will not make any excuses. This is my personal goal right now and I am sharing it with you so I am accountable for it! I have less than 6 weeks to go! As I am working on my patterns I have my grand daughters try them on for sizing! It is such fun seeing how excited they get when they come over and see all the new things I am working on.

Spring is in the air, it doesn't get much better than this!

Surtex is around the corner

I thank God everyday for this wonderful gift of art. It is amazing to be able to see the world through an artists eye. To see the colors, the shapes the patterns and be able to capture them if just for a moment. I always think to myself that I will never pass this way again so capture it now. Get your idea out and on paper, jot yourself a note, make a thumbnail sketch and then I have these tiny treasures waiting on me to come back to and develop. I have been working on artwork for the Surtex show in New York. It is a huge licensing show and manufactures and companies come in and shop for images for their products for the next year. It is a huge opportunity to get some of my images seen by lots of people. It is also a huge Christmas market, they always want new Christmas stuff so I am painting Snowmen, Santa's etc in March.

 I am feeling so over the holidays but try to remember how excited I get every time it rolls around again, seeing all the new holiday stuff in the stores! When Christmas was here I would sit in bed at night and make Christmas sketches, jot down ideas for themes etc. Now as the crunch is upon me I refer back to these priceless little pieces of art and ideas to jump start my designs. This year I should have some of my snowmen on tins and notepads etc which will be so exciting! Please keep your fingers crossed for me that I have more art picked up this year. I have lots of deadlines this next few months and will probably have little creative blisters on these busy fingers!!! What are you up too??

High Tea at the Lavender Farm- our latest adventure!

Saturday we had an adventure! Marta had arranged for us to have high tea at a lavender farm in San Diego county. Dawn, Marta and myself had tickets for the 2:30 high tea. It had been too long since we had made time to see each other and now we had a scheduled a date thanks to Marta! The tickets were bought and we were all so excited as the day got closer and closer. The weather had been warming up and we knew this would be a wonderful day.

Dawn lived close to the area and was sure she knew where it was, or about where it was. We decided to drive to Dawn's home then let her drive us there. She jumped on the freeway and proceeded miles south before getting off. We had no idea it was even that far away but then started the long windy drive into the valley. We thought we had left plenty of time to get there and now we were worried we would be late! Mile after mile passed and we just continued to get more and more remote, out in the middle of no where! Here we were, three women, in dresses out in the middle of the country, our country anyway, not knowing if we are going the right direction or not. Then, every once in awhile we would see a tiny sign that said Lavender Farm this way. With a renewed hope we made our way farther and just as the doubt and worry would start to creep back in another tiny sign would show up! Each new sign encouraging us to keep going, that the prize was still yet to come! There was a lot of murmuring and doubting happening in the car as we hit the dirt roads and the trip became even more difficult and questionable. Some of us wanting to stop and call, some urging us to just keep going and some of us just enjoying the ride. Finally, as we were almost late, and very concerned I grabbed my phone and said I will call them and see if we are going the right way. At that moment we rounded this curve and on our left was a big sign saying "Lavender Farms"! we had arrived!  We jumped out of the car and made our way to the seating area and took our seats at table number 5.  Our journey getting there was over but our High Tea had just begun! The High Tea was amazing!

The food was wonderful, the tea perfect and the company was the best! After eating, drinking, laughing and visiting we made our way down to the little Lavender store on the property that was full of Lavender stuff, lotions and lip balms, sugar scrubs etc. We then shopped and then walked around the property. After that we made our way back to Dawn's house where we had some snacks and giggled and spent the rest of the afternoon having fun just catching up and having some girl time!

As I thought about how wonderful our day was together I thought about how it seemed to parallel my life of the artist entrepreneur. It was so similar to how I had only a bit of a plan before I set out on my journey. I was not really sure of where I was actually going but I was brave enough to just begin to move out in that general direction, trusting I will find my way. The road I am on in my creative journey is filled with many twists and turns leaving me questioning if I am going in the right direction, if I should stop, if I should call for help and directions etc. Then when the road gets rocky and the pavement stops it shakes me and leaves me wondering if I have made the right decision to make the trip at all. The little signs along the way help to keep me encouraged and inspired enough to keep going in hopes that there is the reward at the end of the road but my doubting self is always questioning my decisions. If I hang in, keep moving forward and hold onto the hope I do arrive at the destination. I may have had to call for help but I wasn't stopped. I am finding by having a clearer plan of where I am going helps me to make better routing plans on how to get there. Recently I did an online business plan summit, it was great. I have enjoyed the resources that Jennifer Lee made available to us during "The Right Brain Business Plan" summit.  I feel renewed in my vision of the reward at the end of my creative journey! It also gave me the tools to help me formulated a much better plan on how to get there now! 

As for our trip to the Lavender Farms, it was a huge success, a wonderful day with my BFF's and we are already making plans to return!

Irish, a memorial portrait

Final painting of Irish

I was asked by a group of dog trainers if I could paint a portrait for their friend as a memorial to Irish, a show Labrador Retriever that died suddenly from surgical complications. It is such a wonderful opportunity to be able to be a part of this gift and an honor to paint such a beautiful dog. I decided to do this painting on suede mat board so it gave it a soft feel, a bit defused. I love portraits, both animal and people on suede mat board. I think it creates a romantic feel to the painting. I started laying in the colored background which is always my favorite part. When painting white or black dogs I love to add a lot of color to help bring them to life. I get the dogs shape in and mark where the eyes, nose and mouth will be. Once I have it roughed in I do the eyes, if the eyes aren't right it won't work no matter how good everything else is. She has something called eyeliner, which is tricky to paint since I don't want it to look like she has two black eyes. I also struggled as the picture was only a 3x5 photo that was a bit overexposed and the right side of her face was in shadow, making that other eye just a black blob. I had to create her other eye and I am waiting to hear from the owner now if she is happy or wants more. Here is Irish, RIP.

The Pastel Journals Top 100 Competition, I made it!

My painting, Cara Cara, was chosen as one of the top 100 Paintings in the Pastel Journals magazine! I never dreamed my painting would ever make it into this prestigious competition! Who would have known that the 25lb bag of oranges that Randy bought last year to share with the plein aire painters, and inspired this painting, would have gone so far! These beautiful oranges are grown locally and are delicious. One morning as I was cutting one up to eat I was compelled to paint it instead. The ruby colors were on fire from the morning sun illuminating them on the cutting board. The challenge for me was to capture the intense colors, the wet juicy inside as well as the textured skin. This may be my 15 minutes of fame and I wanted to share it with all of my friends! The magazine will hit the shelves on March 12 and is available for preorder here! 

Marta Gonzales came out to photograph my painting again as they were considering it for the cover and needed a higher resolution, thanks Marta!

Underwater Fun!

I am working on some fun projects using Coptic markers on fabric! Markers are wonderful for quickly creating some great images for art quilts. This is for a workshop I will be teaching in Rancho Cucamonga in April at the Nite Owl Quilt guild. I hope to see many of you there!

Creative Days with my peeps!

  Sounds so funny, my peeps, but if anyone is a peep it would be my twin granddaughters, Rachel and Megan. They love to be in the studio with me, Megan often says, Nana I love this room the best and that just warms my soul.

Sewing together, this was just after Megan cut her hair!

 I know that they have that creative spirit that loves to be in a place where magic happens, things get messy but fun is a constant.

After picking all their own fabrics we made skirts for them

They now have their own drawer in my studio, a place where they have their stamps, stickers, scissors, markers, crayons, glue sticks and then in the corner sits a giant roll of white butcher paper. It easily unrolls to accommodate any creative whim that comes along.

Making Valentines Cards for everyone, then we crammed them into envelopes and mailed the lumpy cards to everyone

 One day we spent creating dinosaurs and monsters, I drew, they painted. One day we did 6 feet of crazy flowers, I drew, they painted. Chalk on the sidewalk, paintbrushes in the pool painting with water on the concrete is all nourishment for their little creative souls.

Enjoyed the sunshine painting magical, flying horses on the concrete.

Last week,  I traced around their bodies and we made kids holding hands all over the cement.

Some kids were doing tricks!

 Today, with scissors, glue sticks and scraps of fabric I have from working on new quilt patterns they spent hours just glueing everything to their paper. They even managed to find two buttons which were quickly glued to the paper. They tied bows onto their heads and made necklaces by threading strips of fabric through buttons.

Today, playing in the studio with fabric, glue sticks, scissors and our imaginations

 A magical, creative world that allows them to just do whatever comes to their mind and heart. They even sat at the sewing machine, pretending to sew, me reminding them to not touch every button. They are so excited to take their masterpieces home for mom, many are framed for display but all are loved and cherished. These tiny marks not easily forgotten, painting the way for a love affair with art for all time.

Happy Valentines Day!!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day, filled with everyone and everything sweet! I made a Valentines holder for all the Love Notes received on Valentines Day. It is made with cereal boxes and fabric, glue, decorated pins and some sewing. Then I filled these adorable Valentines Mailboxes with goodies for my grandkids. I had one mailbox for each household so they were crammed with goodies, candy, cookies, I made pillowcases, got dresses for the girls, bought matchbox cars for Blake etc. Lots of love crammed into those cute boxes.

Kick off your Heels Challenge!!!

As some of you know I am a part of the "Kick off your Heels" challenge to raise money for the The Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. It is such a good cause and I hope you will join me in creating a pair of shoes that will be judged and then put up for auction to raise money for this amazing organization! Just buy a pair of pumps and let your imagination run wild. I must admit I have never decorated a pair of shoes like this before so it was fun to play with glue and gesso and moss all in one project! Check out my Forest Fairy Shoes and the progression photos and then make a pair yourself, the details are HERE!

What women doesn't love shoes, won't you join me in a good cause and have some fun at the same time creating your own shoe story and design!?

Our retreat

I was able to sneak away for a few days and sew on our art quilt groups annual retreat. I think one of the hardest things to do is decide what projects to take along to try and accomplish. Often I take far to much or something far to big but I think I gaged it just right this time. I had some small projects that I had need to do but never make time for like Megan's Quilt, Nathan's pillowcases, even my SAQA auction piece! Today I go home but hope to finish up the last of my little projects first. Here's Megan's Quilt, not embellished but almost done. She is swimming with her googles on! I will add a fish like I did on Rachel's last year.

Megans new quilt! All it needs is the fish!

Rachels Quilt from last year

A Dandelion Wish

I happened to be taking a walk with my twin granddaughters, they are now already four! Two tiny people that hold a key to my heart. On this particular walk we were enjoying the yard after weeks of very cold weather. Today it was warm and the sun was out. We had decided to go for a walk in the backyard before getting our picnic lunch together and heading to the park. Rachel bolted forward as I said to them, Lets see what we can find on our walk.  Megan slipped her hand into mine and stayed behind to walk with me. I hadn't seen them in a week and that was much longer than normal, I missed them and they missed me!  Rachel came bounding back holding a tiny hair clip she had found, a treasure left from a previous visit I assume, Look Nana, she excitingly exclaimed. I dusted off her treasure and clipped it in her hair and she was off again to search for something else. I could tell Megan was feeling torn between staying with me and joining in on the hunt. What are we looking for Nana? She asked me. Your looking for anything that is special and means something to you. Just then Rachel appeared again with a beautiful flower, one of only a few to survive the weeks of cold weather. She ran up to us to have us both smell it and we both responded as though the flower was the most fragrant one of all. It was then that Megan screamed out, LOOK, Nana,LOOK and she dropped my hand and ran over to the flower bed, I found a wish! About to burst with excitement she bent down to pluck the wish from its stem and in doing so lost many of the fragile seeds waiting to be set free by the wind. She held the dandelion carefully now as she walked it back to me and reached up, handing me her new found treasure she said, Nana, make a wish and blow! 

There's nothing better than finding a wish!

I then added my journaling on vellum and glued it over one side of the sketchbook