Gratitude

Lots of you are probably busy getting ready for the big day. I am busy getting ready for the annual sojourn to Key West. It's a drive that I dread, but oh so worth it. I am vending at 3 big national quilt shows on the way home, teaching 3 classes at one of the shows and visiting a guild. I plan on launching a new pattern and a new product at these shows. I think most of my time will be spent prepping for the launch. However, I always make time to rejeuvanate and feed my creative spirit.

The Studios of Key West is a wonderful place that offers all kinds of classes, concerts and art exhibits. I plan on signing up for Painting Bootcamp with Rick Worth. I've wanted to take a class with this iconic Key West painter for years. I'm finally planning ahead and there's still room. I will also work there as a volunteer doing everything from bar tending to decorating for special event dinners to working at the front desk. I could be an usher at concerts, if I could only stay awake until 11:00PM!

There's nothing better than gifting with quilting friends. I had so much fun making these Kismet Trinket Boxes. The pattern is available HERE. It's from Sew Sweetness. I have never made anything like this, but the directions were pretty clear and I was so happy how they turned out.

I spent a bunch of time in my basement spray painting these magnetic pin holders.

This was one of my favorite gifts to give.

If you're on Instagram, these sweater quilts are all the rage from Kid Giddy. Most of them are Christmas themed. I love this one made for me by Pinkadotquilts. It will look perfect in my place in Key West. (If you want to make one you can buy the pattern from the Craftsy website Here.)

And so will this pin cushion, made by my friend Stephanie. It's a mini tuffet! So cute, with Allison Glass fabric.

It's nice to give and get gifts, but this year, the gift of friendship has meant the most to me. It has been both a wonderful year and a crappy year. With friends by my side I have been able to weather it all. From friends who helped me with my sweet Curvalicious business to those who leant an ear and sometimes a shoulder.

And family! Having my husband and best friend taking over the shipping, and accounting, and other bureaucratic' stuff has freed me up to focus on the creative side. And I love that my family is so proud of what I have accomplished.

And to all my fellow quilters, old customers and new customers, your support has kept me going through it all. Visiting guilds and quilt shows, sharing my stuff, brings me such joy. You've let me know that you like what I'm creating and offering and that means so much to me. Even when I am exhausted at the end of the day, my heart is singing!

So thank you to everyone. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for friendship. If I haven't met you yet, I hope to meet you one day. You all mean so much to me.

Don't forget to sign up for my monthly newsletter to get quilting inspiration, road trips, free DIY videos and great recipes. You'll like it. Click HERE.

 

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Gift Bag Recycling

 

I accumulate gift bags. They are either bags that I buy, bags that I receive or bags from purchases at stores. I just hate to throw them away. I have even come p with a way to store them so they aren't overflowing out of my cabinets.

It's a rack made for baking sheets. It works great to store the multi sized bags and tissue paper.

I had 2 gifts that I needed to package and I just happened to have 2 kraft paper bags in my bag stash.

After cutting up a bunch of strips from green fabric

And ironed fusible web to the back side, to the count of 10.

 

I cut them and played with the strips to make a tree. Then ironed them to the bag.

I added some bling in the form of sequins and seed bees .

Added my gift and some tissue for a great presentation.

Sometimes it's as much fun to make the wrapping as it is to make the gift.

 

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Field Trip!

Who would have thought there would be such an amazing exhibit of Chihuly glass in Reading, PA? I should not have been surprised. Reading is the fifth largest city in PA and also home to GoggleWorks, a factory building turned into artists' studios.

The Reading Public Museum is host to the Chihuly: Venetians Exhibit until January 8, 2017. The glass works came from the George Stroemple collection in Oswego, Oregon. There are 60 pieces of blown glass which were done in collaboration with Murano Italian glass artists Lino Tagliapietra and Pino Signoretto that were created in the late '90s. There was a wonderful video showing these Masters turning glass into liquid taffy at the entrance to the exhibit. Here's a snippet of a video:

Many of them were large amazing pieces of art. My favorite ones, however, in this exhibit were his piccolo, smaller series.

 

 

 

It's just amazing how they coil the glass. You have to watcmake h the video.

Here's one of the flatter pieces that I liked. The color is so rich and deep.

There were other galleries in the museum. I am a big fan of religious art. It's usually about the shape of the frame.

 

This one is Russian and is a combo of a metal repousse and a painting.

I also loved the gift shop. I found lots of beautiful items made by local artists that were very reasonably priced as well as other items. I did some damage and got a great tip from the gift shop manager for a restaurant for lunch - Say Cheese. It was in West Reading with lots of cute shops.

It was indeed yummy. I love topping off a cultural visit with food.

And this was my favorite window eye candy. Wouldn't that be a great view outside your window?

 

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Recharge, Reorganize and Rejeuvanate

My last commitment of the year was last week. It's been a wonderful year for Curvalicious and 2017 is going to be even more amazing. I just received my first order from the distributor that I signed with, plus I am vending at 5 major shows next year. They include Quiltcon and 2 other shows in Feb/March and I just found out I will also be vending at Paducah! This is along with my visits to quilt guilds and conferences.

So this is the time of year where I recharge, reorganize and rejeuvanate. I always look forward to working on new projects, exploring new ideas and just doing some fun sewing.

I made a bunch of these gift card holders for the December meeting of my quilt guild, Calico Cutters. We're having a fun December meeting, playing Quilto with gift cards as the prizes. The gift cards are for local quilt shops and some on line shops as well. We will be giving away 10! As Program Chair, I appointed myself as "The Caller". I am so excited.

For the gift card holders, I used a coordinating fabric for the linings. These make a gift card super special. I'm going to include a video tutorial in my next newsletter, that I'll be sending out right after Thanksgiving. (First, I need to get my hair done before I shoot the video!) If you're not on my mailing list, you can sign up by clicking HERE.

I've been experimenting more with a new fabric line by Tula Pink called Tabby Road,that's shipping in March. I was lucky enough to pick some up from Market. I'm not a big fan of cats, but I am smitten with this fabric that I showed in my last post. The colors really speak to me too. I came across a photo of Tula with me and Stephanie.

 

This is a work in progress. It's a jump off from my Moder Quilt Guild swap quilt.

 

Here's a block that is fused and ready for blanket stitching. I have 16 blocks. It will be a great project to bring up to the lake house for Thanksgiving. (I'm not involved with the cooking. Yay!)

My friend Hattie starting making pillowcases for her first granddaughter when she went away to college. She made pillowcases to celebrate the seasons and various holidays like Halloween, Valentines Day, Easter and Christmas. She is continuing the tradition with her youngest granddaughter. She also makes the. For the girls' friends! The newest pillowcases have a Curvalicious scalloped hem. So adorable!

I'll have links for these in my next newsletter too.

While I'm in my happy place, sewing, I hope you are in your happy place too.

Wishing you and your family a most wonderful Thanksgiving.

 

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An Awesome Quilt, Podcast and a Winner!

Read on to learn more about this quilt top that I made from fabric I bought at Quilt Market.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe was the speaker at my quilt guild this week. She was inspiring and entertaining and very warm and genuine. Her quilts are an amalgamation of traditional and modern, altered in only a way that Victoria can. I highly recommend that if you have the opportunity to hear her, do it.

I am finally returning to normal after my trip to Houston. There's lots of packing going on, printing of patterns that we ran out of and now I'm learning about bar codes. It's good to keep learning new things, but it's also exhausting, when all I want to do is sew in my studio.

I have been playing with a stack of fat quarters that I bought at Sample Spree. It's called Tabby Road, designed by Tula Pink and sold by Free Spirit.

I am far from a cat lover, but this fabric is just so interesting and I love the colors.

Cat's eyes

Cat food cans

And Very cool cats both striped and polka dotted.

This is the Curvalicious 4 patch I made using Tabby Road. I just love it. It measures 36" x 36". There's going to be a bunch of solids to go along with the prints. I can't wait to get my hands on some. I know just what I am going to make with it.

This week I was also a guest on American Patchwork and Quilting Podcast with Pat Sloan along with 3 other amazing women. We talk about perfection, Curvalicious and silk. Pat has done a bunch of very interesting Podcasts that I find very interesting. Click on this LINK to listen to mine.

I've also chosen the winner for my Market giveaway. Jaymi Horne, get ready for a bit of sunshine and fun in your mailbox. Email me with your address and I'll ship these goodies out.

 

Happy Quilting and click HERE to sign up for my monthly newsletter.

 

Happy Quilting!

 

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The Results

So many of you have been following my blog or FB posts as I experienced Quilt Market. I've hear that you enjoyed the behind the scenes tour and many of you have cheered me on. I appreciate all of the support. It really means so much to me.

First I want to share 3 quilts that were on exhibit that made me think of Curvalicious. One is old:

One was from Japan

And one was contemporary

Now about Market:

Friday was Schoolhouse and Sample Spree. Market officially started on Saturday and ran through Monday. There were lots of fabric company booths, pattern companies, sewing machine companies, notion companies, distributors, jewelry and clothing booths and die cut companies. I know I'm missing some. Pins and candy were abundant. It was easy to walk down an aisle and snag one or the other. Lots of attendees wore the collected pins on their lanyards.

It was such a happy feeling walking the floor, as they say. Seeing all the new fabric and quilting supplies and feeling the excitement and energy was wonderful. The biggest trend that I noticed was the amount of young women, both vending as designers and shopping. They are our future and it's great to see that quilting will not only survive, but it will thrive.

Lots of quilting celebrities were there too. Some of them I have met before, but I was star struck. I chatted with Pat Sloan who had visited our guild in July. I'll be on her radio show on Monday. It was booked a while ago. It airs live at 4:00 EST. Here's the LINK. Also Victoria Findley Wolfe, who will be visiting my guild on Wednesday, stopped at my booth to watch a demo!

So how did I do? Market exceeded even my wildest dreams. Curvalicious and patterns are on their way to Austria, shops in France and lots more shops in the States, even Hawaii. My quilts will be heading to Louisiana, Florida and California at the beginning of 2017.

I learned about distributors. They are companies that sell quilting supplies to shops. They have a huge variety of items and it's one stop shopping for shops, instead of having to contact many individual companies. 95% of the shops that stopped by my booth, asked if I sold through a distributor. The issue with being represented by a distributor is that they take a cut out of my pocket. I have come to learn that many designers/manufacturers price their items to take into account this deduction! Who knew?

It became evident to me that I needed to consider this option. The good news is that I was approached by a whole bunch of distributors, both stateside, Canada, England, Australia and South Africa. How cool is that? It's expensive to ship a single Curvalicious to a customer outside of the US, so a foreign distributor would be a good thing. I'm still considering my options. There are lots of "pros" and that one major "con".

There were offers of video/reviews/ interviews about Curvalicious, both here and abroad.

And finally, merchandise! Several fabric companies offered me fabric! All I have to do is send an email with which fabric I want and how much. The fabric at the show is not yet available in the shops. Most of it will arrive in a few months. There is a limited amount available to make samples. Since I'll be doing retail quilt shows, if they have enough, it's mine. The same with thread and I was handed a roll of the newest paper backed fusible web to try.

To celebrate my awesome fortune, I'm doing a giveaway, open to everyone. It's some of my goodies and I want to share. There's a foldaway tote bag, lots of pins magnets, Tula Pink hexagons, Grunge squares, Crimson Tate sticker and a few other things. Leave a comment either on my blog or like my Facebook page AND sign up for my monthly newsletter HERE. The more you do, the more entries you'll have. If you share my FB post, I'll give you another chance. That would be 3 all together. I'll choose the winner on Wednesday, after VFW's lecture at my guild. (www.CalicoCutters.com)

There is another giveaway on Instagram. To participate, visit: @oyveyquilts

And there is yet another exciting quilty bit of news that was publicized at the show. IQA is doing a fundraising cruise after Quilt Festival in 2017. I am one if the teachers! Click on this link for more info. This would be a perfect excuse to go to Festival and then come cruise and quilt with me!

 

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Quilts, Quilts and More Quilts

As vendors at Quilt Market, not only were we able to see lots of quilts that were created to sell patterns, fabric and other supplies, we were also able to see the competition quilts. These are some of the best quilts created in the world, I think in the last 3 years. The style ranges from traditional to contemporary, made all by hand and made all by sewing machine. I'll share some photos I took and then you can check out this link to see the quilts that were judged the BEST in various categories. WINNERS

I love this quilt by Cynthia England. Her booth was next to us during Market. I'm so happy she won Best of Show! The first person to ever win 3 Best of Shows!

Leafy Appliqué by Kaffe Fassett, Liza Lucy, Rebekah Lynch, Sylvi Sealy, Anita Brady. Quilted by Barb Persing.

Sunflowers and Flying Geese by Arlene Heinz

Country Garden by Brigitte Mesecke

 

Waiting for Kelly by Martha Wolfe

There were lots of special exhibits. This one had a Lion King theme.

This special exhibit's theme was the Pantone color, Highlight.

Coco by Neroli Henderson

Tickled Pink by Susan Carlson

Lazy Afternoon by Hiroko Miyama

The Venetian by Jan Soules

This is a group quilt by the Pittsburg Modern Quilt Guild. I really love it.

Leather!

Marilyn Badger and Cindy Oates. They often make quilts together.

Such a heart wrenching quilt by Cindy Garcia entitled Love Beareth All Things.

This was one of my favorites. There's lots of embellishing with beads. Free Tibet by Meri Henrique Vahl

Close Up.

Millefiori Quilt

 

On The Same Page by Linda Anderson

Of course I love any dog quilts.

Janet Stone makes amazing quilts that all have an alphabet theme.

There's also an auction. Previous winners are invited to donate a small quilt that is auctioned to raise money for the International Quilt Association. It's a chance to own a piece of art from some amazing quilters.

Kathy York is one of my favorite quilt artists. I love how she uses clear and vibrant colors. There was an exhibit of her quilts.

 

Can you tell the buildings rise off of the quilt?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The number of quilts is just mind blowing. My brain seems like it is going to explode from the beauty and inspiration. It does make me want to go home and sew and sew and sew.

 

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