I have been waiting and waiting to show you something I am really excited about. It is our very newest fabric collection for Henry Glass.

My sister is expecting her first grandchild and the baby is a girl. I LOVE happy and fun fabrics for babies, toddlers and little kids so decided to do a line for our new baby and, I hope, your new babies too. The collection is called Doll Babies and features those little girls from our pattern of the same name.

We have a really cute floral in black, pink and watermelon. I made bottles and rattles inside the paisley shapes, and did diaper pins for those of us who remember them!

Here are those cute babies in their buggies and we thought they wouldn't go far without their binkies!

I don't want to operate without a polka dot or two so we did our signature "double dots", a stripe and a windowpane to round out the line. I can just see the nursery, the diaper bag, the crib, the baby and her blanket, her clothes, etc all done from this line. The list is never-ending! Bet you have some great ideas for this too!

Let me introduce you to Esther and Nancy. They belong to a charity quilting group that makes quilts and baby items for folks who are in need. They turn anything I send them into gold. And believe me, I have sent them some dogs.

They recently went on a quilt run in Georgia and visited several wonderful shops and got to know a little bit about each one. They "take me with them" on their trips via phone calls, emails and pictures. We thought you might like to visit a couple of wonderful shops in Georgia as well.
The first is the Scarlett Letter which is owned by Karen. This shop definitely looks like my kind of place. So lovely and a great way to stack bolts...

This is Melissa and she works at the shop.

Then it was on the Sweet Home Quilt Co. Isn't this building fabulous? They used our Hip Holiday Line to make a quick and easy throw from different sized squares. Love it!

The next shop was the Patchwork Cottage. They really seem to know who to display a thing or two at this shop.That's the owner mugging for the girls! I think she might have been a little embarrassed by all the fuss!

We visited the restored log cabin where Olive Osmond grew up. Luke Waldron headed up the restoration. There were, of course, old quilts on the bed inside. One was autographed by all the Osmonds and was being raffled as a fundraiser. I thought of Nadine and Donny!
Next it was on to the Blue Goose, a 100 year old building with a checkered past. Mr. Hughes is an herbalist of sorts and volunteers at the shop 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. He makes his own skin cream called St. David's oinment. He gave us samples and we think the cream is very nice.

We attended a lecture by Jean Schoell on Welsh quilting. Who knew the Welsh were big quilters? It seems they made wool quilts (cause they raised sheep) to keep them warm (in cold old Wales). They settled in Pennsylvania when they came to the states. They also made many medallion quilts and there was scuttlebutt that they taught the Amish to quilt!


Went for a ride around the block. Thought you might like to see my vehicle. Mary and I had walked the runway the night before to see whether we could land at this little airport. We thought we would all survive so she gave the thumbs up to our transportation crew. Our pilot said we should put my logo on the side of the plane and I am thinking about that. My husband, me, Mary and our co-pilot. My corporate jet?.......

Lastly is transportation from another time. This milk truck was in the July 4th parade as was a manure spreader. Its not everyday you see something like this! We were so busy attending all the events this year that we missed the bed races, the melodrama at the playhouse and who knows what else. Good reason to try it again next year.

Here are a few more vintage quilts from the Welsh Days quilt show:

Scrappy spider web block:



I love how this maker used everything she had. Gives the quilt such interest.


Next it was on to the museum....


where treasure like these are housed...




The cushion in the the antique weathered rocking chair is made from what looked like an old velveteen but I couldn't really tell how the chenille flowers were made.

There are few more things I want to show and tell you about Welsh days later this week. Have a great day.

I went to the Welsh Festival last weekend. They had a quilt show of vintage quilts amongst other things. My heritage is Welsh and I love attending this festival. I will have to share my pics with you over a few days cause there was so much stuff to see.

Mary and I arrived in town just in time for the community cookout luncheon where homemade fried chicken, dutch oven potatoes, baked beans, rolls and brownies were on the menu. Not hardly low calorie but totally delicious. Then it was on to the quilt show where we first saw Welsh proverbs taped to the walls. I thought these two would be good reminders for me...



This is Mary and the tulip quilt.....


A scrappy log cabin tied with yarn...


A half square triangle quilt that was much loved and much worn....


Two quilts by the same maker using 30's prints on muslin...


More next week! Have a safe and fun holiday.

I was just wondering what I had to tell you that was new. I am starting work on another booklet for KC Star quilts...that's new. Then it occurred to me that in all the market hoopla I forgot to tell you about our latest book here on the blog! We ran this quilt as a block of month mystery quilt over at QuiltSoup. We held the pattern back until our "mystery mavens" had received their last block patterns and instructions. This is the front cover and the publisher's description (right now I am wondering how to put a color frame around this picture)......


Backyard Blooms: A Month by Month Garden Sampler by Barbara Jones

Quilt artist Barbara Jones of QuiltSoup presents this new six-month appliqué sampler quilt that takes you through the joys of flower gardening. It’s made up in fresh, lovely fabrics from Barbara’s Simply Sweet line by Henry Glass & Co.


I designed this quilt to please only me (it was during a rough patch) and had a good time making it! I think there might be some kits for this quilt left at QuiltSoup if that is what you are wondering!

We released a new line of fabric at market called "Summertime". Thought you might like to see what is coming soon to a quilt shop near you. I wished you could see the colors in person. The red is somewhere between coral and scarlet, the blue is a soft shade somewhere between aqua and teal, the green is lime, the orange is a soft peach and I mixed it all with black, white and gray.

The fabric is shown on a great big card that folds out. Here's the front cover designed by the graphics guru at Henry Glass. Cute, huh?



Here is the first page with the baskets and blooms print in black, a subtle texture and colored hand drawn squares on a light background.....



This is the second page with a floral lattice, colored squares and big, multi-colored dots.....



Next is baskets and blooms on a light background, little tiny micro dots on colored backgrounds and that great subway stripe. I call this a subway stripe because it reminded me of the windows in subway cars when I drew it. You probably noticed it in the black colorway above....



And the final pattern is a large floral line work print on a variety of background colors.



This is the quilt I designed and made from Summertime to take to quilt market. I used the floral print as part of a border in "Single Stems". The pattern will be released on June 15, 2010. I just love my job!

I dutifully haul the camera to market with me every time I go. I put it in my purse so it won't get stolen. Then I usually leave it in my purse the entire time and end up with no pictures! Minneapolis was really no exception. We only have three pictures this time that are worth showing.

This is our new quilt "Social Networking" behind Michelle D'Amore and I. She designed this wonderful fabric collection entitled "Wordplay" for Benartex and I chose to make this quilt from her line. She had been a textile designer for about 25 years and knocks it out of the park with every collection she does.

The funnest part about market is seeing old friends and making new ones. That's probably why I take no pictures. I like to catch up and hear what's new with everyone. One of my favorite people is Cindy Lammon. She makes the MOST beautiful quilts that I always love. She has a new book out called Flowers All Around for That Patchwork Place. Can you see how lovely her quilts are?




I am truly embarrassed and I will tell you why. I got to have my picture taken with a great group of women who design fabrics for Henry Glass. I stood next to this friendly and funny lady, whom I didn't know but liked immediately. It turns out that she was non other than Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. I could have died! I sent her a note with egg all over my face. I was pretty surprised to find out who she was and had to read it on Linda Lum DeBono's blog! Left to right we are me, Carrie, Mary Ellen of Little Quilts, Linda and Heather Mulder-Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures. I was honored to be included with these talented women. Speaking of Linda, she was one of the brightest spots for me at market. We had a chance to go to dinner with her and she is just delightful and way too funny!


We flew home on Monday and there was tons of weather that day. We were re-routed from Denver to Chicago (makes sense doesn't it?)! All I knew about Chicago is that it is in the United States and Oprah thinks its fine there. Here is Glenda (my sister) posing with Jake and Elwood at the airport in Chicago. She just kept saying "Hurry up and take the picture! People are looking at me!" We are happy to have been in Minneapolis and happy to be back home. I have a few new things to show you next time.

The next thing you need to make the Hip Holidays quilt is fabric requirements and paper piecing patterns. You can find both in the free pattern download at QuiltSoup. The fabric has just barely arrived and it way cute if I don't say so myself! All the fabrics are posted at QuiltSoup too. Just click on the Hip Holidays link. The pattern is full of detailed photos and is quite long. My hope is that the photos will help you see what is going on the paper piecing part of this adventure.

I will meet you back here on Monday and we will continue with the quilt. I also got something else from the UPS guy this week that I will show you then!

The new winners for tickets to the HMQS show are Kristen Kimber and the Wallins. You have each won 2 tickets so you and a friend can enjoy the show together. Please email your name and the name of your guest and I will have the tickets ready and waiting for you.

I haven't heard from all the winners of the Home Machine Quilting Show tickets and I hate to see any of them go to waste. If you won, please send me your name and the name of your guest by midnight, Tuesday, May 4th (tomorrow)! I will be drawing winners for any unclaimed tickets and posting the winners on Wednesday. So....if you snooze, you lose! And if you didn't win yet, there is still hope!

One of the perks of working in the quilt industry is that you meet the nicest people. For example, we struck up an online friendship with Liz Johnson over at Sew4Home. They have a beautiful website with outstanding photography. They do just what they say they do...Sew4Home. They have the cutest and most creative quick projects I have seen in awhile.We were lucky enough for them to use our "Simply Sweet" line of fabric in a post they were doing about retro fabrics. They made this darling table cloth with flounced corners. Check out all the cute stuff they do. It will take you awhile!!!

It was snowing here today. I heard some grumbling about it being the end of April and snow and such. I thought it was fabulous because I wanted to take a picture of the quilt we are making while it was in a snowy setting.

Here's how the day looked:


Here's my thinking...hurry and run outside with quilt! Slap it over the garbage can so you can see the snow and the quilt together! This is soooo against everything I was taught when I was growing up that I just about couldn't do it!


Try laying the quilt over the lemon thyme bush! That will never do. Too Lumpy!


Get back inside with the quilt that now has snow (and probably dirt) all over it.

Dry it out by a roaring fire. I tried to get a picture of the flames but it didn't work out. The flames would flare up and I would snap. By the time that happened, the flame was long gone. I did this over and over and my reflexes never did improve. Hope you have a good idea what we are making even if the photography leaves a little to be desired! The next step will be fabric requirements and cutting and piecing.

Here are the lucky winners for tickets to the HMQS show...Tressa, Gayle, Jana and Jolene.

Each one of you has won 2 tickets so you can bring a friend. You need to email your first and last name to me by Friday April 30th, along with name of your guest. If you aren't going to bring a friend with you, please let me know so someone else can use the ticket. I look forward to seeing all of you at the show.

Hip Holidays is coming to the blog tomorrow (don't say liar, liar, pants on fire!) I am buffing and polishing the instructions right this very minute!

We are vending at the Home Machine Quilting show (aka HMQS) on May 6-8. This a a great event with a very large quilt show, top notch classes, vendor booths and a great awards evening. There are lots of make and take demos and it is THE place to be if you are thinking about buying a home quilting machine.

We are delighted to be able to give away some tickets for free admission to the show. Toss your name into the hat and we will announce the winners in a few days.

I am going to help you make Hip Holidays quilt here on the blog so I took about a zillion pictures last week. Gather up your rotary cutters, rulers and mat and your Hip Holidays fabric (of course) and join me here on Monday.If you haven't seen that fabric yet, don't worry. I will show you on Monday. See you then.

One of a gazillion.