Presenting Magic Garden!

Here it is!! It seems like it takes forever to get a collection just how you want it and then there it is! And then I have to wait for yardage! This fabric designing is a good exercise in patience for me. I am so happy with how this one turned out. It is a little smaller collection and I am already so excited to sew with it. Color wise I went in a direction I didn't expect and am happy with how it landed. I love my yard, I love to go outside and see what is growing at any given time of the year. I love to see how it changes one day to the next and one season to the next. It seems like magic to me, all the goings on- that buzz you feel when you are outside. I was stumped on the name so I got my favorite 8 year old intern and daughter to help me out. She came up with "Magic Garden" and it felt good to both of us. She is thrilled and proud that she gets to participate in this with me and I am thrilled and proud too that she enjoys doing this with me. The first colorway is "Petals". I wanted something feminine but not too youthfully girly. I hope I hit that spot. This first print is a little bit bigger scale and it is a panel stripe. The floral stripe with its leafy border runs the length of the fabric , repeating three times over the width. I think it will work so well for little girl skirts, aprons, bags. I can't wait to get my hands on this one.

I call this one tiny flowers.

plaid- I love how the linear feel of this plaid works with the rest of the collection.

Butterflies. I think this would be a great wallpaper too! Couldn't you see a bathroom in it?

wandering vines- because that is pretty much what they are doing...

I took these prints to my sewing group last night. One friend said she thought this one looked like a birds eye view of cupcakes- I think she is on to something.

Spider web. I think this feels like a dew sprinkled web.

One more circle posies because I just couldn't pick one!

This colorway is called Indian Summer. We have amazing Indian Summers here in the Pacific Northwest. It gets hot during the day- dry so everything is a little crunchy and fading but still vibrant and the sun hits an angle that makes everything glowy and magical.

So there it is! It feels good to be able to share! I hope everyone loves it! Blue Hill will be showing and taking orders at Quilt Market in October. I already have a quilt pattern or two worked up for it. You can be sure I will share it with you as soon as I get it together!

Fabric for you!!

The folks at Blue Hill sent me bolts of my fabric and it feels like an embarrasment of riches to have all these bolts for myself so it is time to share! Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite sorts of prints to sew with are. I am mostly curious what sort of scale you like to work with, your favorite colors, florals or geometrics- that sort of thing. In a week or so I will pick out two people and send them each three yards of fabric- a yard each of your choice from Party Dress. Or 6 half yards of your favorites. Or one big 3 yard piece of a cheater print. Your choice! If you want to get an extra entry, go ahead and tweet or blog the giveaway and then pop over and let me know you did. Hopefully by the time I pull the names I will have the ok to finally reveal my next collection!

On a side note, today is the 13th anniversary of our wedding. Lucky 13! I picked a good one so I imagine there will be plenty more where that came from. He really is such a fantastic guy. Here we are on our big day-
We look so young! I have to tell you- we did see each other before the ceremony for picture taking. I came out all dolled up and he came over, held my hands, looked sweetly in my eyes and said, "You look like a synchronized swimmer". Not really the sentimental words of love I was expecting but so totally him to say that. And I did! Oy Vey- that hair was so shellaced that it almost looked the same later that night when I took all the pins out. It is exciting to make it to this point and still really enjoy each other. Plus my kids won the Dad lottery so I am a pretty happy woman.

I love a bargain!

After!
Before...

I bought this chair about a year ago. I think the shape and tufting are just perfect. It was a whopping five bucks and I couldn't pass it up even though the fabric was shredding. It took me about a year to decide what fabric to cover it in and I ended up going with yardage I had so I didn't need to spend anymore cash. I found a fantastic woman on Craig's list who did such a great job covering it. I am in such love with this chair! All those covered buttons! I only wish there were a pair of them but I am happy with this one. The dog must know how much I love it because he stays off it. I love that dog.

Tomorrow is back to school night so I can't go to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting but I have a sewing date during the day with one of my sewing pals so all is not lost. Should be LOTS of fun. And lots of gabbing! Next up is new curtains and new pillows for the livingroom. And two quilts I have in the works.

Do you think I could get my eight year old to wear this?

I'm kidding- I know she won't because it is just so cute and she has moved past so cute even if I haven't! Hawthorne Threads has this great feature where people can upload photos of things they have made out of a particular fabric so shoppers can see what the fabric would look like all made up. I was perusing the site the other day and found this unbelievably cute set made out of my Lady Dot print from the Soiree colorway. I tracked down Tina the maker of these darling pieces and told her I had to show you. Super cute and so nicely sewn.

I have so enjoyed seeing the things going up on the Party Dress flickr group. If you have anything to share I would love to see it! The kids return to school next week- that was fast! I feel like we have hardly had a summer. I will say that I will get back to more regular posting and will be showing a sneak peek of the new collection sometime very soon. Just fine tuning a few things here and there.

Happy sewing!