Shopping in the Big Apple!

A couple of weeks ago, I was in NYC with my son for a few days.  We share a birthday, so it's the perfect excuse to do something BIG to celebrate together. (Thank goodness that, now that he is 22, we've outgrown the Chuck E. Cheese birthday parties!)  

Liz and I were exhibiting at the QuiltFest of NJ that same weekend...so it was pretty darn easy to talk Ben into heading over to the east coast for a quilt show, with the enticement of spending a couple of days in the big city.

We spent MOST of the time seeing the sights. Walking. Walking. And more walking.

And while we were walking through the fabric district...I made Ben go into M&J Trims, just to see the huge array of buttons, trims, ribbons, etc, etc, etc...floor to ceiling!

He was very, very impressed.  As you can see.

He also went with me to visit Henry Glass Fabrics, to talk about our latest fabric designs.

Every other 22 year old guy would be very envious, I am sure.

I must admit, even though we were in the city, and strolling down Fifth Avenue with it's amazing array of shops...I am just not a huge shopper.  So Ben lucked out.  We went into Bloomies just to use the bathrooms.  Up the elevators, down the elevators.  Hit the very cool Apple store.  (No complaining from the boy there!)  And the only bags I ended up toting around were from the Lindt store and from Dylan's Candy Bar.  I know.  I am sick.

But on our last morning there, we were in the SoHo neighborhood, just wandering around.  As we passed by THIS window, though.... I stopped in my tracks!

A whole storefront window of...vintage sewing machines?  I just had to go inside!

I couldn't even begin to count how many machines there were, just lining the walls of this very cool store.  (I think I must have been dreaming of taking home a few for my studio...)

Turns out this store is a clothing store called AllSaints.  I know they must have had clothing in there, but I was looking at all the cool vintage machines, and other industrial sewing stuff that they were using for their displays!

And look at these old spools...!

And... I just loved how they used these antique shoe cobbler molds for the shoe display.

I just love window displays.  The Anthropologie store always inspires me with their creativity. I wish I would have taken some pics of their windows...it was all dressmaking supplies and sewing stuff.  (I see a theme here!)

Now THAT's fun shopping!  And cheap, too.

And, did you know?  Hot dogs and roasted nuts are not the ONLY things you can buy on the street corners of NYC....

Yep, cupcakes too!  

And yes.  We bought some.  And they were NOT cheap.

But it was our birthday trip, so we splurged!

It's a Hip Happy Day!

It's here!  It's HERE!

It's always fun to get a package in the mail, right? 

But the ginormous box that was left on my porch today was super exciting!

I was on the phone with Liz when I happened to walk past my front door, and spied a HUGE box. One that had cleared through CUSTOMS! I knew what that meant....our sample fabric had arrived from the factory! Wooo! And though Liz wasn't there in person--- well, she kinda was.... 

Gotta love one of the features of the new iPhone... face-time!  We can see each other and chat at the same time.  Only this time it allowed Liz to see me open up the big ol' box and we oooooh-d and aaaahhhh-d over each bolt together. It's really fun to see our fabric come to life! Up til this point we have only seen it on the computer, on paper, and on teeny-tiny (I mean microscopic!) swatches of fabric.

So, my studio is graced with about 230 yards of bright, fun, happy FABRIC!

I've been waiting for it, so I can cut it up to make sample quilts for Spring Market.

Only, it's kind of hard to 

Cut. It. Up.

I think I need to just look at it for awhile.

(btw, if you need to make these cute lil' 

crocheted scissors, the instruction are here.)

Have a happy weekend!

It's all about Red and White

So maybe you've noticed a bit of hype in blog and news-land recently about a big exhibit happening in New York City this month?  

I was recently in the city and noticed "Quilt" signs posted everywhere around the city to advertise this event.  I pointed it out to my husband saying, "Look, a quilt!" 

Well, he's used to this sort of thing, but mostly, I "see" quilts, or rather quilt designs,  in the way the sunlight hits a building, or patterns in a window, even textures in the gritty sidewalk.  So when he hears this sort of declaration, I think my dear hubby usually nods his head and mumbles, "uh-huh that's nice..." instead of trying to figure out the complexity of just WHAT I'm seeing and HOW it makes sense to him!  But this time, when I heard the usual mumble, I grabbed his arm, got his attention and made him LOOK at the sign!  "It's a REAL quilt this time!" I said.  Then I told him about the upcoming exhibit, and he was impressed.

If you haven't already heard....here's what's going on.  The American Folk Art Museum is sponsoring an EPIC quilt show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City March 25-30.

What make's it so EPIC?  Well....

That's right....650 quilts all in Red and White, no two quilts are alike,  and they all belong to ONE collector, Ms. Joanna S. Rose.  Not to mention, just LOOK at how they've been arranged at the Armory!  It's going to be a fantastic site to behold.  The show was hung by a design firm called Thinc.  It looks amazing, and I for one, can't wait to see it!  

Raise your hand if you're going?! Will I see you there??? 

Am I a lover of red and white quilts?  Not necessarily.  But I'm a quilter, and I'm curious.  I LOVE the way Joanna describes her collection in an interview with Meg Cox (found in Quilter's Home Magazine Feb/March issue).  She said:

"I thought of having all these quilts--none of them priceless, none of them rare, all of them made at home by women raising children, keeping house while the world expanded around them..."

I wanted to raise my hand and say, HEY, THAT'S ME she's describing!  And I wanted to hug her at the same time for understanding just who we are.  

So thank you, Ms. Joanna Rose, for taking an interest in our art.  For understanding the heart of a quilter, for keeping and caring for your collection of quilts, but most of all, for sharing them with all of us.  

See you in NYC!

Happy St. Paddy's Day...MORE WINNER'S ANNOUNCED!

'Tis St. Paddy's Day and time to announce the Aurifil WINNERS 

from our Premier Issue of Dream, Laugh, Create, the eMagazine!!!

QUICK! Look thru here and see if you can pick yourself a lucky four leaf clover!

The response to our first eMag issue was SO overwhelmingly WONDERFUL, we've been THRILLED by all of your comments and for cheering us on for more.  Since the 14th of February when the issue came out, we've had almost 17,000 readers!!!!  How fabulous is that?  In fact, it makes me want to jig....

But since we did that the LAST time we blogged our Aurifil winners, I won't  bore you with another!

So are ya READY?  Winners were randomly drawn from both the eMag page AND comments left on facebook.

So, without further ado....the winners of the sample packs of 5 different Aurfil threads:

(we THINK we have your email addies, but shoot us an email with your addresses just in case!)

SewCal Gal

Congratulations on the new ezine! It was full of fun and ideas.Like the variety

Sherry Redowl

Loved your new magazine and like the projects. I love the whole lay-out and articles. Well-balanced.

Ellen Krane

oooh so fun, so excited I stumbled on your new mag today, I love it.

Frances Misquez Quigley

Love this emag. Love that I can read o my iPad!!

Sherry Dawn

I really liked your on-line magazine. It had the right balance between projects, stories and information. I'm going to try Pat Sloan's mug hug.

Happy Cottage Quilter

Wow! How fun its that! Great look, and so many creative ideas. Thanks!

Livy

You. guys. are. hilarious! I love the emag! Very fun, cute, and great ideas! Keep it up!

Deb McHugh

Awesome emag Ladies! I loved every page. Nice variety of articles and projects. I love that you can link to the contributors directly from the pages. I will definitely be watching for the next one.

Tracy (fiberbabble)

Thanks for the pdf version. I'm addicted to my iPod! I'll be reading it again and again!

Jen (quiltyjen)

I love it! I really do. I loved the story, the interview, the projects and the giveaway! Cheers! Awesome job!

And the winner of the Mark Lipinski Collection

12 AMAZING SPOOLS is....

CHERYL JACAMAN!!!

First e-zine that I enjoyed looking through! Loved the article on Aurifil! Think I will try some just because of reading that! Looking forward to the next issue. Thanks so much for all your time and efforts!

CONGRATS to the winners!  You found the pot-o-gold!

Of Aurifil thread that is.

We'd like to thank you ALL for making our first issue such a success.

If you didn't win this time around, not to worry....we already have another AWESOME giveaway for our April issue, so stay tuned....you'll want to get in on THIS one for sure!

We'll tell you this much...our fabric company, Henry Glass, will be sponsoring the next issue...so let your imaginations run wild while you try to guess what we'll be giving away. 

Meanwhile, hope you're all decked out in green today and enjoying St. Paddy's Day.  I'm going to leave you with my FAV Irish band SOLAS...they ROCK! (or reel, or jig, or...whatever those Irish do!)

BTW...this clip was filmed in Philly for their 10th anniversary and guess who was in the audience???  Yep!  Yours truly!  

Aurifil Winners ANNOUNCED!

We're soooo excited to be announcing the winner's of last week's Aurifil Blog Hop!

In fact....it made us want to DANCE!

ROFL!!!  And....it's never too early to start wishing everyone a Happy St. Paddy's day right?

AND NOW....THE WINNERS....!

First up, OUR blog winners:

LISA!!!  Who commented:

First, thanks for participating in the hop. Next, the story was great and the block you designed was even better. But the most fun were the u words:

U-turn
Unstoppable
Unmarked
Umbrella
Ugly
Unmarked
Unbreakable
Unbelievable
Understand 

Second winner from OUR blog:

Miss JEAN !!!! Who commented:

I've already got mine started! It's green!!!

And ONE more:

LADYBUG!!!  Who commented:

Seriously - write a novel already!

And now...THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER! Who was chosen out of ALL the blog hoppers to win Pat's Aurifil collection:

LAURA from Child's Play Design!!!!

A BIG CONGRATS to all the winners of the blog hop!  

Remember, we've still got an Aurifil giveaway going on for our new eMagazine.  Winner's will be chosen on March 15th, so don't forget to leave us a comment!  Click HERE to check out the eMag and flip to the last page for details on our Aurifil giveaway.

Plus, you're going to NEED to be making one of these to wear when you do your OWN Irish step dance!

(how-to in the eMag!)

P.S. Can you name all the Irish Dancers we had in our fun little video???