The Quilted Fish

New Products!

Hello! I am back from International Quilt Market and completely exhausted!!! We had a great time. It was so much fun to see so many of my friends and spend some great time with some of my creative team. I am excited to share all of my pictures with you, but for now, I am just going to share a little video of the new products as well as new pictures of some of my best sellers. This is the video I showed at my School House session. I hope you enjoy it!!

 

 

We will have the new products up this week, except for the doll house which will be finished printing in about 10 days.  It will go up as soon as it arrives.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attention shop owners!!!

International Quilt Market is only days away!  I am SOOOO excited for this market!!!  I have some really big plans and some incredibly fun patterns and books to share.  But, I am going to keep almost all of it under wraps until after market.  I like to do that so that the people that are paying to go to market get the first look.  But, I am going to share one little picture….

 

This is a project from a new book my team and I put together called An Apple a Day.  This particular project was designed by Jackie White.  I LOVE this project SO much that we are teaching a class every half hour IN OUR BOOTH on how to make this.  We have free kits for the class participants (one per store)!  I am sure we will also be making kits to put on my website so that if you aren’t a shop owner/buyer at market you can still join in the fun!  So, if you are coming to market with a store and you would like to join in the fun, you can contact me at TheQuiltedFish@gmail.com to sign up for a time to join us.  I forgot!  The best part!!  You get to SIT DOWN to make them!!!!!  How fantastic is that?  We will NOT be giving out foot rubs.  Let’s not be ridiculous. 

Stay tuned for more info about the book (9 projects!!!), my new patterns and lots of pictures of market fun. 

100 Blocks!

I am so excited to have been selected to participate in this years 100 blocks publication!  I loved being a part of it last year.  And, I am so excited to participate in the blog tour as well.  So welcome if you are here via the tour!!  Be sure to read on to find out how you can win your own copy of this great mag!

I am on page 41, block number 435.  Here is a look at my block:

It is so fun to do a block for this magazine because you are putting all of your thought into one block as opposed to an entire quilt or project.  I love the way this block turned out and I love these flowers!  They can be used in so many ways.  I think it would be darling to make a block into a pillow or just sew one of those darling flowers on a bag.  I would also love to make a basic quilt and enlarge these flowers as an accent on the quilt.  All of these ideas have me itching to sew!!!

I have a little funny story to tell you.  One of the cool things that Quiltmaker does when you participate in this magazine is that they send you a mug and a GIANT button!  My office is situated at the front of my house and I have a big window that looks out at our front stairs. I can see when deliveries are coming and often times meet the delivery man at the door.  Well.  One day I was gone, but my assistant was working.  She sits in the same room and looks out the same window, but is less visible from outside because of a curtain.  She saw the mailman coming to deliver a package, so she got up to open the door.  The mailman didn’t see her until after he had LAUNCHED the package up the stairs and at my door.  My assistant opened the door just in time to be nearly hit in the face with a box.  The mailman was embarrassed and ran up the stairs to pick up the package.  But it was too late.  What he didn’t know was that he had launched MY MUG at my front door.  When my assistant took the package she could hear the broken bits of porcelain in the package. 

(I really should have cleaned off more of my desk for this picture, but hey, it is market prep time.  Nothing in my house is clean.) So this is my sad mug.  I will use it anyway, and laugh about the funny story and be sad about how I wasn’t hear to witness the faux pas.  I saved all of the pieces, so I can “piece” it back together.  Okay, that was a great pun for a quilting post. I am laughing at myself for that one.

So would you like your own FREE copy?  Leave me a comment here and you will be entered to win one from Quiltmaker and one from me!  That’s TWO FREE copies!  Woot!  I will draw the winners on May 8th.

Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to visit Quiltmaker to see the other people that are blogging in the tour.

The big day

April 10th has been looming on my horizon for some time now.  It is a day LOADED with deadlines.  For a long time I have been feeling a sense of dread about the approaching  day.  BUT, yesterday I finished everything!  What a relief!  I have met my deadlines for three separate organizations.  They were all big and daunting.  So, last night, I took some time out and played!

I will be honest when I say I am not a sports fan.  Neither is Mr. Fish, except when it comes to the Packers.  So when my brother invited us to a Utah Jazz game I said yes because of the chance to be with him and his family.  He told me that the seats would be good and that we would have a nice dinner before hand.  Well.  The seats?  Front row!  The dinner? Amazing!  I felt so spoiled!  And….I cheered for the Jazz.  I cheered loudly.  It was a fun game, tight in the fourth quarter and the crowd was very energetic.

 

This is the view from the 100 Club where we had dinner….

 

And the awesome view from our seats!

and me and Mr. Fish, having a fantastic time. 

So I am thinking about the crowd last night.  They were so excited.  It was tight.  It was tense.  The Jazz were working hard up against the clock. But in the very end, the Jazz pulled out a win. The crowd went wild! Just like the crowd (yes, there is are too many) in my head are all applauding my win of finishing my deadlines this morning!  YAY for me!!!

Creative Tackle

I have been in quite the flutter of creative activity for the last month or so.  Between market preparations, new pattern design and designing new scrapbook “things” it has been a constant push for new creative ideas.   Yesterday I was teaching someone how to do a crafty project and I had to get out my tool box of scrappy goodness.  It is this cute box that I bought at a local thrift store. 

It is actually a fishing tackle box.  I freaked out when I saw it.  It was $3.  $3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It had never even been used.  I found another one at an antique store that was very used and $20.  I totally got a steal of a deal!

So I used this tackle box to put all of my fancy little bits in that I get from Bazzill Basics Paper.  Don’t they have the most fabulous stuff?  I am dying over all of the sparkle in this box.

So I was thinking about this box (I think too much sometimes) and about tackle.  I looked up the word tackle and this is the meaning:

Tackle (noun)

1. a set of equipment used in a particular activity, gear <fishing tackle>

So I wonder why we don’t call our sewing, scrapping and crafty little boxes tackle boxes.  Why is it specific to fishing?  But on a deeper level (here is the thinking too much) it got me thinking about my mental tackle box.  It is so cool that we all have a set of “gear” or skills that we can open up when we work on a project.  The coolest part?  It is never empty.  There is a constant source of supplies.  So cool.

I hope you are having a great day full of the perfect tackle for the job!

 

The last day of winter….

I feel like I have been hibernating.  Minus the sleeping!  Today I was running an errand and there was a tree in full bloom.  It was amazing and beautiful.  And….surprising!  The only thing with even a hint of green in my yard are the weeds.  The most ironic part?  The biggest weed is growing underneath a bag of Preen (weed killer)  that I bought last season.  It is as if it is mocking me. 

Inside it is just like spring.  I have had so much fun playing with sample yardage from my new line of fabric Apple of My Eye for Riley Blake Designs. 

Springy, bright and colorful.  It has been absolutely wonderful.  I can’t wait to show you some of the fun things I have made.  I think you will like them!  The funny thing about working with sample yardage is that you never know when you will be able to get more.  I feel like a hoarder.  I can’t stand to cut into it.  AND when I do and then make a mistake?  GASP!!!!  It is awful to throw away the little bit that I have! 

Now.  Someone better do something about those weeds.  I know I won’t!

 

Valentines Discount!

Hello!  I know it is a day past Valentines, but I think the whole month is LOVE month!  I wanted to share some news with you about a discount on my website.

Here is a LINK TO THE SITE.

It is also my birthday this week, so I love to celebrate all week.  All of the pink and red, hearts, balloons and birthday cake always put me in a spectacular mood.  I hope your February is going as lovely as mine!

 

Get your crafty skills ready!

I just got word of this fun event from Bazzill Basics Paper!  You can make fabulous cards using the Divinely Sweet paper line I designed with Bazzill.  You will have a divine time!

Divinely Sweet - General Theme Card Swap

Create ten, hand-crafted cards using Bazzill's Divinely Sweet printed paper and cardstock.  You only need to design one card and reproduce it until you have ten of the exact same cards.  After the swap, you will have one of your original creations and nine other cards crafted by your fellow swappers in the same quantity you submitted.  Envelopes are required! 
Divinely Sweet - General Theme Card Swap
Product/Color Scheme: Bazzill Divinely Sweet printed paper and Bazzill Cardstock
Quantity: 10 cards + envelopes
Size: This swap if for full cards (4 1/4 x 5 1/2) or larger, not just the card fronts.
Special Instructions: You must individually package your cards, and include a label with your full name.  Ten Zip lock baggies labeled with your name will be perfect!
Mailing Address:
Bazzill Basics Paper
ATTN:  Swap Coordinator
7001 West Erie Street - Suite 2
Chandler, AZ 85226
Your swaps must arrive at this address by: March 16, 2012.
Bazzill will swap out the cards and send them back to you during the week of March 23.

Here is a link for more information: http://swaps.bazzillbasics.com/

And you can always visit the home of Bazzill!

If you make something, you simply must show me!!!

Bazzill Release Party!

I am so excited that today I get to share with you a sneak peak of my  new paper line, Avalon.  It is a bit of a mash up between my upcoming fabric line Apple of my Eye and my current fabric line Delighted!.  Since today is the first day of CHA, Bazzill has decided to share a little bit of it with you.  You can see it here.  And if you want to win some from Bazzill, you can go here.  AND, if you want to see the other lines that they are releasing, you can see them here.  I will say it again, because I have said it before, I love love LOVE Bazzill.  They are an amazing company with amazing people.  I am so honored that I get to work with them.

Shock and Awwwww….

Hi!  Remember me?  I know.  It’s been a while!  Shocking, isn’t it???  (okay, there is the shock part.)

We are quickly approaching February, my favorite month of the year.  Why?  Well, three reasons.  #1 There is a lot of pink and hearts are oh-so-stylish.  #2 It is Valentines day!!! #3  It is my birthday!  So bring on the pink, the love and the cake.  I love it all.  We have a table in our entry that I use to set up vignettes to reflect the season or holiday or complete lack of motivation (those are the months that it is empty).  My desk faces this little table and I get to see the cute things on it for part or sometimes most of the day.  Here is what it looks like for Valentines day:

I love that framed word art.  You can find it here at the Bonjour! Blog.  She even has it in different colors!

Here is a little close up shot of what I did with it….

An IKEA frame, some heart doilies, so handmade flowers, yo-yo’s, buttons and a glue gun.  Super simple and oh-so-PINK!!!!!!!!!! (that’s the awwwww part!)

I must admit that I enjoy months like these when I have a bit of free time to do little projects like these.  It seems like so much of the year and many of the holidays fly by without so much as a nod from me.  I am going to make this year different!  In fact, we are already working on Valentines for the kids to hand out and Valentine boxes to receive all of their love notes.  Usually this is a night before gig for us, but not this time!  We don’t have any Valentine’s traditions at our house, but I would love to start some.  Do you have any that you could share?