Almost TIME!

That little second hand just keeps on tickin' away....and it's JUST about time for Beth and I to be flyin' off to join the fun at the International Quilt Market in Houston...

This could be my very plane!!!  We can't wait to get goin' and see all our friends in the 

industry and most of all SEE WHAT'S NEW!

I whipped up an Amy Butler bag last night...just in case I need a cute "carry all" for all the fun stuff I find!  Yeah, nothin' like whippin' up a last minute bag....

It's a cute little shopper, doncha think?  The pattern is called Birdie Sling,  just click on the 

name if you want to find the pattern.  You've probably all made it a million times before!  

I have to admit, it was pretty fun to make.  I haven't made a handbag in a long time.

We sort of got burned out of bag making after making 100's of samples of OUR bags for 

Sample Spree at Market!

I was flipping thru a magazine yesterday and saw this little handy tool...

I took a pic and shot it off in a text to Beth...wouldn't this be the PERFECT tool for holding PINS??

We're always looking for something to make putting up a trade show booth EASIER...and

we'll tell you what, those little dinky pin cushions for your wrist?  They pop right off!  AND what's worse?  You poke your wrist right through the cushion!!!  

That's why I'm lovin' the idea of this industrial magnetic wristband from Magwear I found 

'em on Amazon if you're interested!

So we've just about crossed EVERYTHING off our to-do list.  WOOT WOOT! 

Got a pile started that has to somehow fit in a suitcase.

Here's one of 'em!  Market goes over Halloween this time....and I have a feeling there are gonna be a LOT of fun ghosts and ghouls!  Keep checkin' back here, 'cuz we're going to be snapping pics like crazy!  And keepin' you all up to date, of course....

And I still have to do a little project with THESE before I board the plane tomorrow.  Can you even GUESS what I've got in mind for these???  Oooooh, we're gettin' CRE8IVE for sure!

Then Beth just added ONE.  MORE.  THING.  to MY list.....

Gotta swing by my local CHOCOLATE shop here in New Hope, PA.

Because, I just found out that yesterday was National Chocolate Day....we got some catchin' UP to do!

I swear, Pierre's chocolates are the BEST!

And that's saying a lot, considering I used to LIVE in France/Switzerland!

No complaints about my newly added task from THIS Lizzie B.

Stay tuned this week for Market updates AND don't forget to check out the Blogger Quilt Festival!  It started TODAY and you should SEE the quilts already....SO FUN!  I'm getting my blog ready to post while we're at market....can't WAIT to read about all the cool quilts in the Festival.....

Cre8in' in the Kitchen....

Fall....leaves....mums....pumpkins....all our friends are either already IN Houston or on their way TO Houston.  Well, since we are going a little later, not having a booth, we can relax (haha, sort of!) another day or two before we leave.  And today, since all the reports comin' in from Houston say it's hot and humid (ick!) I thought I'd enjoy a little more fall here on the East Coast!  Time to be CREATIVE in the KITCHEN.  And it HAD to be something pumpkin...'Tis the season, after all, right???

So I grabbed a can of this...

Mixed it with a bunch of other yummy stuff to make this....

PUMPKIN SQUARES!

Which are really just an excuse to make this....

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING!

And the result???  Is this...

AND...

A friend of my mom's used to make these for us and bring them over ALL the time!  They were a real treat and something to look forward to every Fall season.  

I found THIS recipe here: The Tasty Kitchen

Which is a FABULOUS site for recipes if you haven't found it already!  In this recipe, I cut down the oil and added fat free vanilla yogurt instead, and did the little egg white thingie, cuz 4 eggs???  That's alotta eggs!  I also added nutmeg and cloves....I like my pumpkin spicy.

Now I'm off to share these with a friend.  Don't you wish you lived next door???

Oh the Places we Go....

So yes....it's countdown to Houston for a bunch of us in the biz.  I'm sure you've heard the buzz on blogs, facebook, twitter....you name it!  It's all about the "crunch" time before we step on our flights all blurry-eyed from lack of sleep getting ready and most likely, still binding quilts on the plane.  It's a glamourous life, is it not?  But one of the BEST things about market is meeting up with all your quilty friends again!  And TODAY....a few days before I go...I'm meeting one of these friends here....

Woohoo!!!  I'm goin' to a QUILT SHOP!  

You KNOW it's gonna be a good day when you get to meet a friend at a quilt shop 

and then do lunch! (I've been given STRICT instructions NOT to enter the store until my

friend shows up....now that's just torture.)

This is a shop in Pennington, NJ...which I found out is only 20 MINS from my house.  YEEESSSS!  AND  I only hear great things about this store.  Maybe you've heard it mentioned with Mark and Jodie on Quilt Out Loud? 

They just recently filmed at this shop, and I know it's one of Mark's favorites, so I'm excited to go see it for the first time!  AND....I'm meeting my pal Sherry Cowley....a quilt friend whom we ALSO met because of Mr. Mark Lipinski!  It's kind of a funny story actually.  Sherry lives in NJ...but we MET her in Long Beach, CA!  She came to find our booth at the festival there and meet us because Mark told her she should.  Thanks Mark!  We LOVE Sherry! (She often shows up at quilt shows in the area with LARGE Diet Cokes for us Lizzie b girls....) 

If you watch Quilt Out Loud, you might remember the FIRST episode?  Well, here's Mark and Jodie shooting the first episode and guess where they're sitting?

Sherry's SUNROOM!  

Yep, they shot the first episode all over her house.

And have you listened to Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski yet?

If so, you may have heard BOTH Sherry and I chatting with Mark!

Sherry is the one who talked about guilds, 

since that's where Mark and Sherry met, at their local quilt guild!

By the way....Mark's radio show is on TODAY LIVE from 3pm-5pm EST.  

Click on the link above, and it'll take you right to his show.  You can listen in live, OR

if you're not near a computer at that time, you can catch up via podcast later.

You can be sure I'LL be listening in today because guess who he's got comin' to talk to him???

DYLAN LAUREN!

From Dylan's Candy Bar in NYC.....easily my family's FAVORITE STOP when we're 

in the Big City!

Now that I have my entire day mapped out for me.....friend, quilt shop, lunch, Creative Mojo......I guess I'd better get CRACKIN'!  

Hope you've got something fun planned for the day too.....

Magic Slippers!!!

THEY CAME!!!  Ya gotta just check out my "magic slippers"!  Seriously, I think these have special powers.  If my daughter had a pair, she mentioned that she could definitely run faster.  I'm not sure about that, at least, I don't think I'll be testing THAT theory unless I'm late for my flight to Houston!  I know they're good for dancin', 'cuz I'm doin' the happy dance in them right NOW!  Because they are simply...

FABULOUS!!!

Well???  What do you think?  Does that print look familiar?

(Hint, hint....check out the header on our blog...)

YES!!!  It's one and the same.  And now that you've NOTICED it, let me tell you a secret.  Shhhhhhhh....that's a little sneak peek of our NEW FABRIC LINE coming out in Spring!  Oh yeah!  I'll be wearing these little puppies all over Houston to promote our next line with Henry Glass.  We're callin' the line Hip Happy...'cuz, well....it just makes us HAPPY!  Hence, the dancing....

Here's another thing that makes me happy....if you're a fan of ours on facebook you may have seen me post this little pic...

(and if you're NOT one of fans...get with the program!  "Like" us woulda???)

This is a little happy quilt I whipped up recently.  I feel like I need to be doing SOMETHING, and since I can't be sewing with our OWN fabric (which is in the state of AZ) I took out this little kit I bought from Gina Halladay at her shop Fresh Picked Fabrics in Yorba Linda, CA.

Gina has FANTATIC kits, btw, if you're looking for something fun, ya gotta GO to her shop!

Anyway, this is called Tile Play and it's one of Gina's patterns.  However, I had to, what we like to term, 

"Lizzie B-it".

The pattern is stunning on it's own, because of those beautiful bright poppies on the border.  But it looked like an empty canvas to me...which I just had to "paint"!  

So I added my own poppy raw-edged appliques to the "canvas".  I took my freezer paper and traced around the poppies on the fabric print, because I wanted to make them look the same.  

And I just HAPPENED to find the perfect fabric in my stash to make my poppies, using green gros-grain ribbon for the stems.  Don't you just LOVE your STASH??

You may ask why I love poppies.....well.....first, they're scattered all over my house!

This poppy painting hangs above my bed.  I LOVE that it's bright and bold.

And this....

I painted myself!  It's a watercolor, that I painted as I sat in the poppy fields in France.

And THAT is where my love of these little red beauties began.

In France, in early summer, the countryside would be dotted with red poppies.  It was GORGEOUS! They grew off the sides of roads, in fields with grain....and the grain was green as it was early summer, setting off the red delicate petals of the poppy.

Can you picture it?

Here's a pic of a poppy field in France, just in case...

Sighhhhhhhh!  Oh how I miss the beauty of France!

You can see how 10 years of living in that GORGEOUS country inspires a lot of my art and quilting.

Poppies.  Don't they just make YOU happy?

And you know what ELSE makes me HAPPY?

Beth texted me this photo yesterday afternoon....LIZZIE B LOADED IN THE TRUCK!

YAYYYYYY!

You can BET we were both doing the HAPPY DANCE together.

Now before I go....and dance some more....in my fabulous shoes.....I wanted to make sure that you all listened to Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Radio yesterday.  Did you get the chance?  That's ok, because I've just linked it to her podcast in iTunes where you can download ALL her shows and give a listen (hey, you can even hear her chat with the Lizzie B's!).   I won't give away the whole show, so you can have a listen too, but I DID find out some neat things about blogger Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side. 

I thought Amy was just another quilter that I connected to through LOTS of quilters on Twitter.  But she has an AMAZING blog.  AND....there's a VERY cool thing she started a few years ago....

a Blogger Quilt Festival! 

Check it out!  Hear her talk about it with Pat Sloan and why she started it.

If you have a blog, you may want to participate!

I WILL BE!  So watch for our post sometime next week.  Can't wait to read about lots of other quilters and hear their stories!  Thanks Amy!

Branding BABY!

So here's the thing....you know that the Lizzie B's do NOT live close by each other, right?  Beth is in AZ, and Liz (me!) is in PA.  And when our fabric gets shipped, it gets shipped to Beth.  Mostly, just out of logistics....gotta get samples made and ready to get to Houston, which geographically, is closer to AZ, right???  But this is a BIG bummer in more than one way.  First....I haven't been able to see, touch, feel or work with our new fabric line, and WON'T see it in person until YOU all do in Houston!  Second....poor Beth has the task of making ALL the samples BY HERSELF!  And she's probably SICK of seeing, touching, feeling our fabric already!  (NO! That can't be!)  But let me tell you, she is a CRAZY busy B!  I got this text last night at 10:30....

Yes...she DID folks....she BRANDED that cute little UMBRELLA she made!  

And when Beth opens a bottle of white paint????  Oh boy....

it's like me with the Sharpies.

Can't WAIT to see what else she Lizzie B'd!

This time, we're sharing a truck with some other quilters in the industry and we have a driver swinging by to pick up all our "junk"!  He's supposed to arrive at Beth's house sometime today.

Here's our driver Brian....HI Brian!  Thanks for schleppin' all this stuff to Houston for us!!!

Until then, Beth will be doing last minute sewing, box counting, quilt folding and packaging, pattern loading, and...knowing Beth....painting something fabulous for the booth!

Then after today.....?

Beth will be able to breatheeeeeee.  For a few short days anyway....until we catch our flights.

And I say GOODBYE to THIS...

And HELLO to THIS....

Stay tuned for all the happenings at Market 2010!

FRIDAY FUNDAY!!!

YIPPEE!  It's FRIDAY!  What is it about Friday?  It's honestly just the BEST day of the week, don't you agree?  And since it's going to be SUCH a great day....I can feel it, can't you?....we've FINALLY.  CHOSEN.  OUR.  FABRIC. WINNERS!!!!  WOOOOOHOOOO!  (We used random.org to help us randomly pick the winners....)

Will

 JOHN M. KUBINIEC and MICHELLE PIPELING

COME ON DOWN!

You're the next LIZZIE B WINNERS!  We've got bundles of fat 8ths headin' your way!

Please email us your details at

lizziebgirls@gmail.com!

We are SO excited to finally be giving away our fabric!  Beth had to hole up in her cabin this week just to get it all cut up.  Yay Beth!  And.....look what ELSE that little busy B has been up too....

You may have already seen THIS little cutie that she made with our NEW laminates....

But she LOVED making it SO much she just HAD to make another....

She's ALSO whipping up one of our CUTE Easy-Breezy Backsacks....which I don't have a pic of yet, BUT, look at THIS!

Is that the CUTEST thing or WHAT???  Our VERY CREATIVE Beth has taken ALL the scraps from the laminates and is making these ADORABLE little zipped pouches!

And guess what?  YEP, you guessed it, we'll have 'em at HOUSTON FESTIVAL 

available for purchase!

Are ya doin' the Happy FRIDAY FUNDAY dance yet?

So last night....at late night reading....who doesn't love to snuggle up with a book before bed?  I pulled out a new book I got and started flipping through it.  I just bought this on Amazon, thought this sounded very interesting....

Ok, maybe NOT the best for late night reading, but it DOES have some FANTASTIC pictures...don't ya just LOVE a book with pics?  Anyway, this little pic caught my eye...

And below it was a list of HOW the right brain functions....

And I just HAD to LAUGH!  I mean, I always knew I was right-brained...but THIS definition coulda had my NAME on it!  

Then I turned the page and the title said,

"How Doing Math Made Me a More Happy Productive Artist"

And THAT'S when I decided it was time to CLOSE the book and go to BED!

MATH?

ugh.

Alright, alright....I'll go back and read it.  Sometime.  But I'll tell ya what, my happy right brain really doesn't WANT to!  And can you blame it?  When I could just sit at my desk all day long and stare at 

THIS...

Yeah, I thought you'd agree!

HAVE A FANTASTICAL, FABULOUS, FUN, FRIDAY FUNDAY!!!!  And congrats to our winners....

P.S.  If you're a blogger....leave your blog address in a comment so we can add you to our growing LIST!  AND....don't forget to subscribe to our blog! THANKS Create-a-trons!

READY for the BIG REVEAL???!

So, if you've been following the Lizzie B girls...you know that we are HORRIBLE bloggers!  Ok, maybe not HORRIBLE, but certainly not consistent.  Well that's about to CHANGE!  And that's not all...we have BIG things in store here at Lizzie B and we just can't wait to share them with all our friends!  Are you ready???

....to come DREAM, LAUGH and CREATE with us!  Have you noticed a few changes on our blog?  The header, for instance?  That's our NEW tagline!  And we're SOOO excited about it.  We think these three words pretty much sum up Lizzie B Cre8ive and what we've set out to do.  And what we LOVE about these words is that they are VERBS....ACTION WORDS.  They inspire us to get up and go, DREAM up new things, LAUGH about our pitfalls and mistakes, and CREATE things that brighten up our lives and everyone around us.  Now we want YOU all to be a part of our movement!  And to get you as excited and hyped up about it as WE are, we've provided a few little goodies.  Wanna see?

First....

LIZZIE B T-SHIRTS!  WOOOOHOOO!  

Don't they just make you smile?

And.....

Dream. Laugh. Create. Vinyl project pouches! 

Just IMAGINE all the fun stuff you can put in these babies!

But wait, there's MORE....

LIZZIE B pencils and little notebooks!

Perfect for jotting down all those little ideas that hit wherever you may be.

But that's not all...oh no, that's not all!

(and these are really our fav's!  If you KNOW us, you'll know why....)

 52 oz. LIZZIE B BUBBA'S!!!!  Massive insulated mugs....

are they CUTE or WHAT!?!

Are you excited yet?  'Cuz we're schleppin' ALL this cute stuff to HOUSTON FESTIVAL where you can SHOP to your hearts content!  Just look for BOOTH 662 and THIS....

Only, um, it'll be hanging ACROSS our booth, not on the floor! :)

Not going to Festival?  No worries!  We'll be putting them on our shoplizzieb site as well.  You'll have to be a little more patient for us to get 'em posted to our shop....but they'll be there soon!

Meanwhile, keep checking back!  We're still adding fun stuff to our blog....like a Flickr group, so you can share your dreams, laughs and creations with us,  and other fun links.  And you KNOW we keep you all up to date on the MARKET scene!  This year at market, we're boothless...so we'll be wandering with our cameras in hand, ready to shoot the latest and greatest.  Stay tuned!

And get ready to Dream. Laugh. and Create!  

For the Love of the Game...(by Liz)

Honestly?  I wasn’t always a baseball fanatic.  In fact, I went to Phillies games when I was growing up, but I confess, it was mostly for the cheese-fries!  Then I had kids.  Two boys to be exact.  And they LOVED baseball.  They PLAYED baseball and still do.  Well, as their mom, I had to run them around to games and practices, and then sit…for HOURS on end and watch a game I didn’t have much interest in.  SOOO, I started to bring my QUILTING along.  Boy did I ever get a lot of baseball quilting done!  Nearly all my Lizzie B quilts have been baseball quilts.  In fact, I was watching the World Series last year when I designed our line of fabric due out next Spring!  For me, baseball and quilting are so intertwined now, and I’ll admit to something else….at one point, I started watching the game.  And my quilts didn’t get done quite as fast as before.

My boys were GOOD at the game, they are incredible to watch.  I finally DID do a real baseball quilt for my son Keegan, adding his baseball cards through the years, and newspaper clippings when his team (or his NAME!) made the news. When a game goes bad, I stitch like crazy, when it’s going well, nary a stitch gets done.  Such is the way it was last night watching my family’s favorite team in the first PostSeason game.  No stitching.  Much breath-holding and hand-wringing as we watched Roy Halladay in his first PostSeason game debut pitch a no-hitter. We were watching history in the making.

We are Phillies fans through and through.  We follow their ups and their downs.  This year they nearly hit rock bottom with so many of the starting line-up out with injury’s.  Yet.  They came back, and when they come back, they come back STRONG!  Ending the season as the BEST TEAM in the MLB.  Those are my Fightin’ Phils.  I will confess to something else as well.  I’m pretty sure I know this team better than I do my own family tree!  When I first started listening to games on the radio because I wasn’t at home to watch…even if it was just ME in the car…I knew I was a goner.  I was addicted.  I even downloaded the $16 MLB app so I could check the scores and standings at ALL times!  It’s sick.  I even have a my favorites.  I got an ALL PHILLIES Birthday this year and my family bought me an official Ruiz jersey.  That’s right, number 51, that’s my man!  He’s up there in the pic with Roy Halladay.  Halladay may be the star, but he couldn’t have done it without the catcher Ruiz…this guy is as steady as they come and also has one of the best batting averages on the team.  The catcher!  My son Trevor gave me this little collectors item that sits in my kitchen window…

Now I don’t know if I’ll get much stitching done in the next month or so as I watch my team move closer and closer to the World Series.  I’ll have it on my lap, just in case I need a diversion!  Two years ago we were sitting in Houston where restaurants and bars seem to only have football on TV even though a WORLD SERIES is being played!  We happened to be in a restaurant during what could have possibly been the last game of that series.  The waiter saw me STRAINING to see the TV (which they had kindly switched to baseball!) and asked if we wanted to be moved closer. That game got rained out, so in the end, I got to go home and watch my team WIN the World Series that year!

This year,  I will tell you ONE thing….if the Phillies make it all the way to the World Series and that series falls at the same time I’m in Houston for market and festival….Beth will NOT be a happy camper!  Because I will have to watch….

EVERY. PITCH.