Today it the day! Mini Maker Faire opens today! Lori and I have our booth all set up and ready to go!

Here’s a preview of the bandanas. I can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled I am with the way they turned out!

My dear sweet friend Jonna (@bespokeoutlaw on instagram) hemmed each and everyone for me! She did such a gorgeous job. I was blown away when she offered to sew them but then when I saw how she did them – M I N D B L O W N!

Lori had mentioned how hard it was to find bandanas large enough to tie in her hair so I made sure these were plenty big. Their 27″-ish square.

Getting ready for this show was an amazing experience. Especially with so much encouragement from those all around me. My father in law cut the wood for these boxes.

And my Mother in law put these together.

I painted them and ta DA! This is what a group effort looks like!

I’ll be posting about my garden aprons, chairs and the hot and cold packs tomorrow but for now I’ll leave you with a few shots of the kneeling pads. Made from up-cycled foam, these are covered with 100% cotton sateen washable covers.

If I see you this weekend GREAT! If not, thanks for all the encouragement and I hope you have a LOVELY weekend!

I’m not really sure how to go about this or how to write about it…

I’m still a little in shock.

but I won..

Unbelievably, I won. I won a portfolio review with Elizabeth Olwen for this collection I designed in her latest Skillshare class!

We live in amazing times don’t we! YouTube, E courses! You can connect with people, instructors all over the world and learn anything. ANYTHING. It’s crazy. How did we do it before?

I’ve always loved learning, in fact I easily could become a professional student. My husband says I could have been a doctor if we added up all the time I’ve spent in school!

Last year when I was working on my first fabric collection, I checked out Elizabeth Olwen’s Pattern Design: Creating Inspiring Repeats. Lurked would probably be a better term. It was weird really, I’ve been buying fabric, looking at it, sewing with it forever but when faced with how to design a collection, I was like, huh? I loved Elizabeth’s class, it really filled in the gaps and answered the questions I had.

With The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design finishing at the end of 2015, I have to admit, I panicked a bit. I’m a girl that loves deadlines and schedules. Then early January rolled around and what popped into my inbox, but an invite to another Elizabeth Olwen class, Pattern Design II: A Creative Look at a Full Pattern Collection. Building a collection over two weeks? Hmm… I waffled, do I have time? Then I snapped myself out of it. Make time. Do it now, there will never be a perfect time.

It was a gorgeous class. The lessons were well recorded and well explained. Her information was clear and concise. Plus, uniquely she provided feed back and a Skype Q & A call. From what I understand not every class is hands on like this one. Score!

I posted my mood board from the class a few weeks back. Creating a mood board was a step I’d often brush past and one I don’t think I’ll ever skip again.

In brainstorming for the mood board I realized the story of my collections was this:

When I moved to the west coast my grandfather unexpectedly started sending me letters. Every time I received one I dropped everything and wrote him back. Being a sucker for stationary didn’t hurt, however this routine we created, it allowed me to meet my grandfather in a way I never had before. He was very romantic about the past, something we had in common. I long for my pen-pal, the ritual of putting everything on hold, slowing down, thinking of what to say, answering questions, putting pen to paper and simply writing a letter.

A far contrast to the internet, Youtube, E courses, etc (all things I love). I know I’m a conundrum.

P.S. Elizabeth was very sweet and remembered the project I did her Wildwood Collection back in 2014 (and calender) . She’s awesome like that!

With the feature in Love Patchwork and Quilting, I’ve realized, there is so much so of my work I have never shown. I’m not 100% sure why I haven’t. I think it’s partly because I’m shy (and slightly shy about my work) BUT 2015 is my year to “live fearlessly” right! Here is a little something I’ve been working on for a while:

In late 2009, I started drawing fabric, mostly dresses. In the early part of 2010 I first drew my own fabric stash. By 2012 I had exhausted drawing my fabric stash and couldn’t bear to draw it yet again. I came up with a plan and started asking people I admired if I could draw their stash. Since then I’ve drawn seven different stashes (inadvertently they were all bloggers… or at least were as some point)! I’m really excited that Florence from Flossie Teacakes has accepted my invitation for the next stash to draw!

In the meantime, I’ve compiled all the other drawn stashes under my DRAW button, over there on the right. If you click on Drawing project: Bloggers and their fabric stashes, you can have a sneak peak of what I’m going to post over the next few months. Luckily for me the owners of the stashes are great sports and not only let me draw their stashes, they’ve also answered 5 fun interview questions. The last question is my favourite!

I’ll start start with my stash first. Here are my 5 questions and answers. Sorry the first question is a little redundant of the information above.

How did you end up drawing fabric? When my youngest started grade one and was in school full time I went back to teaching. I taught a figure drawing class using a draped model. I’ve always loved drawing the figure but realized I was enjoying drawing the fabric more than the model! I began to draw dresses and piles of clothing. Then I began to draw my fabric stash, which led to a show in 2010. The following year I focused just on fabric. About this time I was really getting into the Modern Quilting movement. I soon realized there was whole world of stashes to draw! Which I began to do and will continue to do on an ongoing basis.

From right to left: “Lizzy-B” “Molly” Shannon” “Suki”

Drawn December 2009-March 2010

20″ by 30″

 

Who has the largest stash you’ve ever seen? Smallest? I met an art quilter in the summer of 2013. She was from the Ridge Meadow Quilt Guild. I got to have a look at her studio. She has and entire wall, like 30 feet of cabinets, all full of fabric (colour separated, of course.) She also had drawers and drawers of fat quarter. Personally I try to buy per project but will sometimes splurge on, “oh my God I can not live this out this!” fabric. And I love buying fabric, don’t get me wrong. This stash was so HUGE. I don’t know how anyone could sew all that fabric in one life time. Very impressive but HUGE!

However, I’d say the runner up to her would be Cathy from Blueberry patch. She has a pretty big stash, her husband calls it “the store”! The smallest would be Lesley Stenning’s. When she was living in North Vancouver she had a sewing machine in a small corner of her kitchen, with one or two cabinets of fabric. And oh, it was such a lovely collection! It may have been a small stash but the fabric was gorgeous!

“Essentials”

Drawn March 2011

24″high, 48″wide – 1″deep

 

Let’s talk about your stash and colour choices. Do you have a favourite colour? Colour combo’s? Colours you have aversions to? I love yellow but I’m really particular about the hue. My father in law loves yellow too but I don’t think of it as the same colour because the hues are so different . He likes school bus yellow while I like butter, sunshine, wheat yellow (see what I mean, I’m particular about my yellows).

Colour combos: I love pink and orange together and I’ve always loved teal and red.

Colour aversion? Hmm, I used to have an aversion to grey but came around to embracing it. I’ve never been a big fan of purple but I’m starting to embrace it too… mostly because it’s my youngest son’s favourite colour.

“Honeybun“

Drawn March 2011

12″high, 24″wide – 1″deep

(Interesting tid-bit:

Melody Miller tweeted that she thought these were insane! I took that as a good thing and kept going.)

 

 

Where do you keep your fabric stash? Do you have a system for storage and organizing it? The majority of my stash is in my studio work table. Although, when taking photos of my stash for a Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild feature, called “5 things about you”, I realized I’ve spread it around my house as well. Making it a bit bigger than I’m willing to admit. I try not to let it get to big… but sometimes I don’t try very hard.

You’re from the Prairies, the Prairies are prone to tornadoes. Let’s say your visiting and you’ve brought your entire fabric stash with you. Whoosh! A big storm sets in and you’re lifted into the air, Wizard of Oz style. You can only reach three pieces of your stash, which ones do you grab before landing on the wicked witch of the East and take her ruby slippers? I’d find some way to grab my Melody Miller’s Viewmasters, Kitty Yoshida’s City Girl (in the pink) and Suzy Ultman’s Coffee Cups! Oh and I love polka dots and gingham, which is great if I get to wear Dorthy’s dress as I skip down the yellow brick road!

“Criss Cross Apple Sauce”

Drawn March 2011

24″high, 20″wide – 1″deep

(this one I traded with Cynthiaf)