Meet Susan Knapp & Mary Jane Mattingly, aka

The Quilt Branch.

Aren't they adorable? Don't let their size fool you...these two have personalities and hearts larger than life! It was a real pleasure getting to know them better and see their work in person. Here their booth displays beautiful quilts from their new book in the "Six Halves Make a Whole" series along with a new ruler. Below is the sweet signage that hung from either corner of their booth. I know this is mischievous but I really wanted to push that mini quilt every time I looked at it so it would appear to sway in the breeze:)
This last picture shows the booth neighbors and workers: (left to right) The Quilt Branch, Suzn Quilts, and Perkins Dry Goods.

Susan and Celine's helper, Molly

Not only were the women of these 3 posts booth neighbors but we were all living together for 5 days and oh the laughs we had. It says a lot about the character of all that not a rough patch was had in that time. We were there to support and take care of each other and we did! I was even able to lend a hand because the coffee was made in time for me to be human:) Thank you!

Market always amazes me and whether you like art quilts or traditional quilts, there is something to spark your interest. We laughed about being surrounded by all this beauty for 3-4 days and once they announce it is over the whole room changes in a matter of minutes just like Cinderella when the clock strikes midnight. It is a sight to behold and all that hard work is bearable (dare I say fun) when you are surrounded by caring people there to help one another.

Meet Susan Marth

Since I left St. Louis in 2007 I have been fortunate enough to attend Houston to assist Susan of Suzn Quilts in her booth. I must admit to my alterior motive of using business as excuse to get to see her. Being a military spouse for 20+ years has it's challenges and leaving loved ones is by far the biggest. Working hard and playing hard should go hand in hand and Market offers both. This year we added Spring Market to our list so I could selfishly see friends twice this year.
Susan displayed her book, "Best Friends", in beautiful Moda Christmas fabrics by Holly Taylor. She also unveiled her newest pattern, "Ginger Bliss"....aren't they the cutest? It always feels strange to me to be surrounded by Christmas off season but it also makes me itch to get busy doing something new and fun to have for this next season.

Her new "Celebrate" pattern is so cute and versatile as well. Can you tell I am a fan?

Being a fan goes beyond her adorably original designs though. We met via a quilt guild meeting that she was lecturing at. I asked her to lunch so I could pick her brain about the design/pattern world. Honestly if we talked business for 30-45 minutes out of the 3+ hours we spent together, that would be a lot. It was just one of those meetings where you start talking with ease and before you know it you are regretably pulling yourself away because your family will expect you to come home eventually:)

This booth reflects the comfort of my friendship with Susan. You walk in and want to sit and sew and chat for hours. We should all be so fortunate to find that in a lifetime.

Meet Celine Perkins

This is the talented Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods and I am proud to call her my friend. Here she happily stands at her booth prepared to laugh with you or teach you how to use her wonderful Perfect Piecing Seam Guide.

"Twelve Oaks"

Tradition along with beautiful salmons, browns, and blues decorated her booth at Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis, MN this year.

And you will notice in the next photo a poster for PASSPORT to Minneapolis. This smart group of business owners found a way to meet as many attendees as possible because who doesn't like a good treasure hunt?? We all know that every booth contains treasure and this guaranteed that shop owners would search a bit harder for just the right treasure to take home to their shops.

Celine is a Minneapolis native and graciously invited 4 of us to stay with her during market. Work is so much nicer when there is an evening gathering of brilliant minds to look forward to at the end of the day. Good food and Great friends-mixed in with a little rum have always made me smile and on this trip I was fortunate enough to add a few more names to my heart.

This is one of the quilts from Celine's new book, "Abundance". The queen size version is in the previous photo with the poster on it. This is Celine's 3rd book and her patterns contain something for everyone.

I was fortunate enough to stay an extra evening before I flew out and I had her all to myself. She took me to a Macys for dinner where we were served a popover that is considered a tradition there. I have never had anything like it! It was fluffy and eggy and crunchy on the outside....YUMMMM! Thank you, Celine! It was an extraordinary treat getting to know you better.

May Craziness

Just as I was gearing up to vend at my local quilt show this year, strep throat reared it's ugly head and took out me and my husband. I honestly can't remember when I have felt so awful since I am the healthy one around here. Being our first year as empty nesters this was a challenge and we were pitiful, each on our own couch and covered in quilts. Whoever got up to go to the bathroom was tagged as the caretaker. The strep went straight to my voice and straight to my husband's ears. One day I squeaked at him "Well aren't we a pair? I can't talk and you can't hear." To this he replied, (can you see the punchline coming???) "Doesn't that make for a perfect marriage?" HA HA HA!
I have declared that we can't both be sick at the same time in the future!

Through it all I was able to get my work done, be reasonably prepared for my show, and speak with a very lovely Marge Simpson voice. My reward was a second place ribbon on a work I can't show yet and an Honorable Mention for another piece that was quite the challenge to figure out as it went along.

"Stingray Swirls"

This piece was computer designed, hand appliqued, machine quilted, faced and beaded.

The next 4 shots are of my booth from left to right. So above is the left wall where I realized that I do have a style in the pattern side of the house....yay! Below is the back wall featuring my logo quilt "Las Flores de Amigas". I am so proud of this quilt. This year was the second time that it was chosen to be a part of a guild raffle quilt and thankfully a member of our guild won it.

This next photo shows the right wall of my booth where lots of fun items were available. A lot of these items will soon be available on my website gift store for sale. I had brought some of my art along with handmade beads, ornaments, and hand-beaded scarves.

The backside of the right wall was open to the demo area and I didn't want to waste the space so I displayed alternate colorways of my designs there.

There were so many beautiful quilts at our show and I can't possibly put them all into one post. To start us off though, is Patti Brown's Storm at Sea. Patti is meticulous about her piecing and this quilt is no exception. Her patience to do those mariner's compass blocks deserved the ribbon even without all the other work:)

The quilt is approximately queen size and won 2nd place in the group category due the added talent of Laurie Mayo's quilting. After letting the quilt speak to her, many adorable details were added through quilting. The pic below shows these great turtles she added. There were also seahorses, starfish, and regular fish.

In our art category, Eileen Williams won the Arts Council sponsored Merit Award for Art and Innovation for the 3rd year in a row.

Here we are in front of her beautiful quilt, "Grazing in the Grass". I would love to say she is the competition to beat but there is no competition anywhere near her level of work....and sweetness:) I am so proud of her.

Lastly are the guild challenge quilts. Unfortunately only half of them are pictured below but you get the big winners in this pic. Our theme this year was Fresh Picked in NC.

I am the grapes in the upper right. The picture doesn't show it but the pear below my piece is 3D with a zipper in it so it is like a purse...too cute!

The piece below is the big winner in the challenge category by Carol Stens. The bird and all the fruit is 3D and we all know the extra work that takes.

Congratulations to all the winners at the Crystal Coast Quilt Guild show 2010. I know our judge had her work cut out for her because there were so many quilts that deserved ribbons. Our members are very talented!!

SAQA event

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting an extremely talented group of women when the SAQA regional meeting was held in Rocky Mount, NC. Although not the best pic, here they are in order from left to right: Annette Rogers, Linda Black, Lois Griffith, Mary Miller, Pat Hansen, Judy Busby, Patti Powers, Judith Glover, Sandi Goldman, Mary Jane Harper, and Lorri Chambers. I have found as many of their links as possible so you can be as impressed as I am. ***If I missed anyone, please let me know***. Judy Glover did a wonderful job of being the town hostess by organizing dinner friday night at Outback and then a trip to the Ann Harwell exhibit at the Dunn Center. Viewing an exhibit of that magnitude with fellow artists is quite a treat. But wait there's more:) Saturday we met for show and tell and to learn a new technique. I cannot fully explain how great it was to meet these women, see their work, ask questions about various techniques, and just share share share. I spend a lot of time alone and had forgotten how invigorating meeting with like-minded people can be.
In the afternoon, Judy had organized a lunch for us at the Imperial Center, a not to miss destination if you are ever in the Rocky Mount, NC area. It is an old tobacco warehouse that has been turned into gallery spaces. The above pic shows some of the lovely brickwork leading into a fountain room. The pic below shows a gorgeous old loom that is one of their display pieces. I don't ever want to loom but I am fascinated by them.

We also saw a phenomenal exhibit by Keiji Shinohara who is a block printer. I will be writing a separate post about him.
Thank you to all of these women for being so sharing with their knowledge and making the trip to meet.

Thank you to Judy Glover for being such an amazing hostess, not only to the group, but to me as well.

Last but not least, Thank you to Lorri Chambers for sharing your technique with us...the possibilities are endless.

Keep learning. You never know when something new will solve a design dilemma.

Paper Cloth-How Fun!

A friend of mine, Kathy Sands, talked about making paper cloth one day on her blog. I was very intrigued and went to her site to find her tutorial. Pulling out some of the papers I had been collecting for 'just the right thing', I began following the directions not sure of where it would take me.

This is a simple and fun process. The hardest part of all of it was having the patience to wait for it to dry. Not sure if I used too much glue but overnight was not enough time. Thankfully I had chosen right before I was leaving on a trip to attempt this so I left it wet and came home to it being dry....you know that whole "a watched pot doesn't boil" thing. It was so fun to see the colors from other papers peek through on this little shrimp. Who knows what I will do to him next:)

This piece was actually done first and in purples and blues since I decided that if I didn't really like it, I could make something for my mother in her favorite colors. Once I did some stamping and writing inspirational phrases on it, I really liked it. I have been collecting ideas for what to do with my wonderful new hand made paper...or is it cloth?

I have also started looking at all the paper I have in a new way. Now if I could only find the time. The great thing about this type of project is that it is relatively inexpensive, quick, and easy. It is the perfect project to jumpstart your creativity if you are in a lull and if you don't like it, you aren't out much. The paper designs add so much depth and you can just write on it to add to it.

Take a look at the tutorial and try your hand at surface design for dummies:)

How to start Blossoming

Working for yourself with yourself all day everyday creates some challenges when it is time to talk to other people about what you do. As artists and business professionals, one of the best ways to grow your business is to learn to speak about what, why, and how you do what you love to do in an intelligent and coherent way.

Now don't take me as an expert since I am still learning, but practice makes perfect and I live by the motto 'fake it 'til you make it'. This week I had an opportunity to be radio interviewed. Radio is so much scarier than print...now I will hear every 'um', 'and so', and 'like' that I hate knowing I say. Preparation is key!

A week or two before the interview, I asked Jaynine what she would like to know about my business. She very promptly sent me a list of 8 or so questions that I reviewed and stewed over. This was vital to the success of the interview for me since I was able to respond in writing to the questions and then edit them (more than once) before writing a script for myself...now ask me if I stuck to it:)

I am ok with the knowledge that I didn't stick exactly to the script and that I rambled a bit here and there because for the most part I accomplished what I wanted: Talk about my art, my business, let people get to know me a bit, and get my name out there more in a mostly intelligent manner. And as I said before, practice makes perfect so the more I talk the easier it will be for the words to roll off my tongue when the next question comes at me. I am still learning so the experience was great and I feel that I am slowly blossoming every day with every new opportunity.

If you don't have the immediate opportunity to be interviewed, Interview Yourself! Write out the questions you have been asked or that you would like to know about someone else and refer them back to yourself. Answer them with some thought and then practice answering them in a composed manner. You will be amazed how much easier it gets as you practice. You will be even more amazed when someone asks you a question and the answer just jumps out of your mouth without any thought and a conversation is started. You will sound like the complete professional we all know you are when you are at home all alone working hard:)

If you have 30 minutes to have a listen, my interview was done with Coach Jaynine the DreamCatcher via talk shoe.