Announcing The Happy Flag Project
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Announcing The Happy Flag Project

Oh, dear friends!
I am tremendously excited to share with you a most special project in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s upcoming visit to Birmingham, Alabama in October. Actually, I am rather stunned that we got the green light from the Birmingham Mayor’s office on Monday…but we did. To be honest, this project is so much bigger than me that I have no idea what it actually even is and I am curious to see how it will unfold. 

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April 24, 2014
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Day 8 :: Shelly Figueroa & Bonnie Bobman
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Day 8 :: Shelly Figueroa & Bonnie Bobman

Last day of our PAINT party…sigh. It has been so fun. Thanks for joining us and playing along.

First up–Shelly Figueroa…you know…of Figgy’s? She just has an eye. Her children’s sewing patterns are wildly sophisticated and savvy, yet really friendly to sew. And she is such a warm and lovely woman. Also, you want to learn a thing or two about branding and telling a good and compelling brand story? Look at her website. Her photography, the styling, the models, the patterns, EVERYTHING about her site is spot-on and gorgeous. read more

April 17, 2014
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Day 3 :: Shea Henderson
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Day 3 :: Shea Henderson

The PAINT party is in full swing. Today, I am happy to share one of my dear friends, Shea Henderson. She created this eye-catching bold and graphic quilt using a soon-to-be released Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio pattern, called Parallels. Parallels will be printed as a pattern book, full of six different quilt designs (each in sizes baby to king!) based on parallelograms. It was designed by Elizabeth Ancell.  read more

April 11, 2014
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PAINT PARTY :: DAY 2 :: Julie Goldin and Sally Keller
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PAINT PARTY :: DAY 2 :: Julie Goldin and Sally Keller

Here is the PAINT collection! In stores July 2014.

Day 2 of the PAINT party. Today, I am going to let you in on one aspect of my design process–the complete and total surrendering of control.

I am in recovery from control. I used to be super-controlling…seriously. I was a white-knuckler. I thought that the more stuff I could control, the greater the outcome would be. But life had other plans for me, thank goodness. Control is just a tool we use to treat our anxiety and existential dis-ease. When we don’t have answers to some of the big, profound questions in life, we control the outcome of all the small sh*t. And it becomes addictive. It makes us feel better and soothed. And, at the same time, it is completely exhausting because we run around like this: “I’m good enough, see? See how great I am at all this? Look at how I know what I’m doing. Look at how perfect I am…see?”  We begin to perfect everything in an attempt to show the outside world how completely awesome we are. But on the inside, we are just overwhelmingly uncomfortable with how imperfect we are–how messy, human, changeable, and scared we are–how terrified we are of everything and of life itself. So we control. But we aren’t in control anyway. It is all an illusion. We use control to self-medicate. If we think we are the one in control, then that places us higher than things like: nature, science, serendipity, god, synchronicity, poetry, divinity, wonder and magic. And that sucks. Because then we aren’t open to all of that wonderful stuff.    read more

April 10, 2014
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The Nest Quilt digital PDF pattern now available
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The Nest Quilt digital PDF pattern now available

I am so excited to announce that my newest pattern, The Nest Quilt, is finally available in my shopping cart HERE as a downloadable, printable PDF! Come and get it!!!!

Be wild and free like a bird as your create this quilt…gathering scraps and placing them with a washable school glue stick. You’ll create an art quilt you can cuddle under–or a wonderful wall hanging–in just a few simple steps. Break some rules with this fun, fast, and crazy-raw collage quilt. How many eggs does your nest need? read more

May 30, 2013
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Good Karma GIVEAWAY
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Good Karma GIVEAWAY

We are rather excited about the release of our three newest patterns around here. I wanted to let you know something cool about the Good Karma Quilt pattern: when you purchase the Good Karma pattern, you’ll get good karma! A portion of the proceeds from the sale of every Good Karma pattern goes to benefit one of my favorite local charities, Phoenix Children’s Hospital . Good karma, dudes. Very good karma.



In honor of the release of our new patterns, how about a GIVEAWAY? I’ll send one winner a hot-off-the-presses copy of the Good Karma quilt pattern. Let me know you are here by joining this blog or Facebook as a follower, and if you already have, then just leave a comment here before January 15th at midnight.




…and here is a little quote about karma for us to chew on: read more

January 8, 2012
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Hurrah for Quilt Market
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Hurrah for Quilt Market

A little puppet show in the booth.
Well, Quilt Market was loads of fun. I am feeling rather grateful and very joyful about the warm welcome we received at Quilt Market 2011. The whole thing was crazy humbling. I mean, there I was surrounded by all the designers, fabric houses, writers, bloggers, and shop owners who have been inspiring me along my journey–and they were telling me they liked my work!!! (omg.) So, we have new friends from all over the world. Thanks to my newest and favorite friend, Shea, the booth was set up quickly. And it looked super cute. Shea designs fabulous sewing patterns for her company, Empty Bobbin Sewing. And I was happy to have her calm, steady energy and friendship. See her adorable stuff here.  I can’t wait to share all the new things I found in the few moments that I could steal away from the booth. By far the award for nicest rock star couple goes to Amy and David Butler. I started sewing (for real) when I was pregnant with my little girl and the first thing I made was Amy’s Nappy Bag to use as my diaper bag. So really, her patterns were my beginning. She is so talented and lovely and truly kind. Her fabrics are eternally gorgeous and timeless, yet modern. And her funny rocker husband has just debuted his first line of fabrics, Parson Gray–I can’t wait to sew stuff for my husband with his new line. Check out that palette–muy, muy manly! I must say, I didn’t realize how much the quilting industry needed a big dose of testosterone until I saw it. Yay for Y chromosomes.
David Butler in his man cave.
Parson Gray fabrics by David Butler



New Lark fabrics from Amy Butler



Amy’s beautiful booth



My favorite single thing at the whole show was this incredible bag made with the Nakaniwa line at the Kiyohara booth. Ya’ll know I am a total Japanophile–but look at the scale of this print–huge apples and tiny trees!   
Nakaniwa by Yusuke Yonezu



And I had the chance to meet Marcia Derse. She is as lovely as her painterly fabrics. I used all her fabrics in my two new yoga mat patterns, so it was nice to meet her and show her the mats. I very much relate to her palette and use of tonal marks. 
Marcia Derse for Troy. Look at this lovely Rothko-esque display!
There is so much to share but I will have to do it later…time for a massage!

November 1, 2011
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