Back from Spring Quilt Market

This year Quilt Market was located in Portland, OR and Paul and I had a terrific time visiting with our customers and meeting new people. There is a lot of work that goes into preparing for market and I’m never quite sure how it will all fit together until we are there. This year went especially well. Our Schoolhouse session was in the morning; we got the booth set up in the afternoon and met my sister for dinner in the evening. The day of set up doesn’t usually run so smoothly. Anyway here is the booth.

Starting on the left side of the booth, hangs the new O’ Christmas Tree Quilt constructed in a brighter color palette with plain borders and next to that is the scrappy version of the same quilt.

Moving to the center back of the booth is the Holiday Chorus quilt that is part of the HoneyBee Club program. A list of participating shops is on our website www.beecreativestudio.com in the HoneyBee Club section if you are interested in purchasing a kit for this quilt. I also designed all the fabrics for this project with Andover Fabrics. The bird blocks are part of a printed panel and I found lots of inspiration at the bird feeders out the studio windows.

Working around to the right side of the booth are three small holiday wall quilts and the 5 Golden Sunflower project. On the last wall of the booth are the three projects included in the Holiday Dressings pattern. The tree skirt and table runner can be made with a pieced quilt block (on the wall) or the bird blocks from the panel (over table and under tree). For a slight twist, I made stocking hats instead of the traditional toe stocking – very fun and easy to make.

For the past several years we have had the same booth neighbors however this year several new businesses were located near us. It was nice to meet new people.

I’m always looking for something fun to give out at market and this year Toni Foster found chocolate bees. The chocolate bees were a chocolate egg covered in foil to look like a bumble bee. I’m sad to report that on the journey to Portland a couple of bees got naked and Paul was forced to eat them.

Hope you all have a great day!

TV Time

Last night I found myself wanting a hand project to work on while watching a movie with my husband, Paul. Ever get the urge to do something that is fast, easy and fun to do? That’s what I was looking for. I had recently picked up a copy of Cloth-Paper-Scissors’ special publication “Studios” at the local bookstore and remembered there was a yo yo pincushion project I liked. The pattern called for three different size circles made into yo yos with two yo yos left flat and the third stuffed. This is it!! A quick, easy and fun project that would give me a little boost. I cut out my three circles, grabbed my needle, thread and scissors and headed off to watch a Harry Potter movie.

The larger pin cushion is made following the circle sizes given in the article. I like to have a little smaller pin cushion next to the machine to hold just a few pins that I use as I am machine piecing – so I decided to reduce the size of the circles and try a smaller version. The smaller pin cushion fits my needs much better but both were fun to make.

It's Here! It's Here!

Excitement is in the air here at Bee Creative Studio as we are having fun paging through the new issue of Quilters Newsletter’s “Quilt It for Kids” magazine that just arrived. I designed a quilt project called Snips and Snails especially for this issue and is one of 19 projects in a publication with projects geared towards ‘tweens, kids and babies. It’s been hard sitting on this news but I didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag before I was supposed to. You can click on the image for a larger view.

To get your copy of “Quilt It For Kids”, visit the Quilters Newsletter website at http://www.villagequiltshoppe.com/ or your local bookstore's magazine section.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I’ve been buzzing around the studio for the last couple of weeks filling in for Mary and Toni as they have been out on vacation. Toni took a wonderful trip to Hawaii for a week and Mary made a trip to Panama but both are back and that means I get to get back to creating again. In addition to filling in for them over the last couple of weeks I’ve been sewing together a new quilt call “Songs of the Season” that will be featured in a special publication to be released in August of this year. I will post more on that later but thought I’d post a couple of pictures before it gets sent off for photography.

On Saturday Paul and I went over to Braddock Bay along Lake Ontario for their birds of prey migration and banding days. We got to see a Sharp Shinned hawk that had been caught and then banded as well as a Northern Harrier. I snapped a picture as they released the Harrier. It was a bitterly cold and windy day unlike the beautiful sunny day we are having today. In addition to the hawks we saw a Bald Eagle, about 200 Turkey Vultures as they migrated overhead and several swans in the marshes.

I started some nasturtium seeds a couple of weeks ago and most of the seeds are up and getting their second set of leaves. All of this puts me in the mood of spring and if you were here you’d see my “it’s spring! It’s Spring!! IT’S SPRING!!! dance around the studio. Have a great day.

One Sure Sign of Spring

We have had an unusually warm day today, reaching 67 degrees and that has released the peepers from their winter freeze to sing their songs of spring. Hearing their song always makes me smile and think of the warmer weather to come.

Growing up we counted the number of time the peepers came up and went back down into the mud as the temperatures fluctuated between warm and cold. After three times up and down spring was here to stay. Living in the northeastern part of the United States, winter and the cold weather always seems to stay around a month too long.

Now starts the trips out the door each night to listen for the peepers and count the number of times they come up and go down. Happy spring to each of you!

You can see what they look like and hear their song at the following website: http://www.naturesound.com/frogs/pages/peeper.html

Happy Anniversary to Ivy Thimble!

One of the local quilt shops in the area, Ivy Thimble in Victor, NY, is celebrating their 5th anniversary. Trish, the shop owner, asked if I would design a project for them to help with the celebration. During the conversation she mentioned her favorite flower is the sunflower and she wanted a smaller sized project. This is the final design that she and I settled on – 5 golden sunflowers for 5 terrific years.

This is my version of the project but they have made up a very cute quilt in the shop and have both fabric kits and patterns available. If you are in the area, stop by and check out the sales they have this coming weekend or visit Ivy Thimble’s website at http://www.ivythimble.com/

What a Week!

All the fabric arrived – 4.2 miles of it. You can thank my mother for the mileage figure, she’s one of those people that likes to count things. She asked me how many yard there was and my answer was “A lot”. The studio is turned upside down at the moment and will be for the next several weeks as we cut and ship the kits for the Block-of-the-Season program. I snapped a picture of Paul and Mom doubling and rolling the yardage in preparation for cutting. I am so blessed with a wonderful family and friends – my parents came out and helped unload all the fabric and stayed to get started on the cutting. My Dad figured out the mechanics and built the equipment to make it possible. Toni and Mary were real troopers as they also helped unload and carry.

In addition to the fabrics arrival, I've also been working on artwork for the new childrens fabric line for Andover Fabrics. I hope to have something scanned in and ready to show you this next week or two.

The program guides have arrived from the printer and we will begin shipping those out on Monday.

I finished up a quilt for the upcoming issue of “Quilt It for Christmas” published by Quilters Newsletter. I have a few embellishments to add to the surface and then I’ll be ready to send that off as well.

As you can tell there is a lot going on right now and I’m not getting much time to paint and create but just you wait - when this is all behind me I’m going to be creating like mad.

Have a great day.
- Nancy