Monday 11 April 2016

Spring Market - 5 weeks to go

So I am one week in and all going pretty well. Things are getting ticked of the list, the sewing machine has been humming along nicely, my back is being looked after by a team of very handy professionals, all is well with daughter number 1 in France (in fact, so well I don't think she is missing me at all which is a tiny bit upsetting!!) I have fabric arriving every day & team of enthusiastic sewing helpers all lined up and raring to go.

I had a plan of what I was going to take to Market. I have been sitting on a pile of new designs for a while and have been waiting for just the right fabric to come along and inspire me to take the designs from paper to actually being something real and then this happened . . .


Liberty fabrics new Garden of Dreams print fell into my lap!

Sometimes something sparks an idea and you just have to run with it. I raided my Liberty stash and found a 'few' prints that worked well with it & an idea was born! . . . Hens!


I worked on a couple of cushion ideas, then it turned into a mini quilt and then morphed into a huge quilt. I currently have 26 stitched hens up on my design wall with a few more details to be added before you get to see it. I love it. . . it makes me smile!

Here's a sneak peak . . .


There is of course a very magnificent rooster which daughter number 3 helped with - you know, the kind of help that is not very helpful!!!


Things are also getting a bit posh - fancy new labels arrived!


There has also been a bit of planning and sewing for Sew-Along, the collaborative venture I do with Jemima of Tied with a Ribbon. New designs for christmas working with Leciens really lovely Sugar Flower Holday as well as some revamping of some existing patterns ready for market.


A little bit more Liberty fabric crept into my stash! Then there is a whole load of other stuff but its top secret & I cant share . . . yet!

. . . off to fill in the forms for my visa.

Au revoir for now

Monday 4 April 2016

SPRING MARKET COUNT DOWN - SIX WEEKS TO GO!



It is precisely six weeks until Spring Market in Salt Lake City, Utah. My flight is booked so I have just six weeks to get my self organised and ready. I would have had a lot longer had I not 'fip-flopped' on the decision to go but there again the decision would have been easier to make had I not had overseas visitors staying with me for seven weeks (it's OK, it was my folks so plenty of coffee and procrastinating occurred) as well as crappy pain in my lower back from a bulging disc leaving me in a state of hideously constant pain. Also there has been the looming departure of my 16 year old daughter heading to France and the UK on an exchange visit for a month.

The visitors have now gone, I have had a big fat needle in my lower back so my machine pedal foot is back in working order & Lucy has safely arrived with a very lovely French family so, I am now America bound.

Arghhhhh!

I have an awful lot to do!

Fortunately, I thrive on short deadlines so, not unlike an army of other designers heading to market, I am going to be sewing my little butt off!

. . . . So the dream is I am going to exhibit at the worlds biggest trade fair in a booth space of my own, I will have an astonishing amount of awesome new quilts, I'll get to meet or at least stalk some of my uber favourite and inspiring designers, I'll get to hang out with the creative talent on the Creative Abundance stand space & I'll be well, rested and calm and totally living in the moment of pure bliss.

. . . . The reality is more likely to be that I arrive knackered, with maybe one new quilt & I'll be totally overwhelmed by the the whole experience.

Either way, I have decided that I have nothing to loose and only lots to gain.

So here goes . . . . this is my list of what needs to be done


IN A PERFECT WORLD TO-DO-LIST!

1.  Make a time plan of the next month (taking into account it is school holidays for two of them!)

2.  Make quilts! . . . obviously!!! I have four, actually no five designed and ready to go (hahahahaha)

3. Chase fabric for quilts as that would be helpful!!

4.  Plan stand space and how I am going to hang the quilts (In my previously life I was an exhibition stand designer so you'd think that this one would be a cinch)

5.  Get made quilts photographed.

6.  Write patterns and get them checked by at least three good peeps

7.  Drop five kilos (again, hahahahahaha)

8.  Confirm hotels

9. Organise Visa, and money

10. Keep on top of house work, feed family nutritious food and stay a nice person


Hang on to your hats people . . . the next six weeks might be a bumpy ride x x