Isn't This Cool!

Quilt Trends in Columbus Ohio is doing my pattern, CARTWHEELING CLAUS, as a block of the month. Susan Sandritter, the owner, added 8 additional Santas to my original design and had some fun with Santa's outfits. There is a cowboy Santa, quilter Santa, OSU fan Santa, Uncle Sam Santa, Flower Child Santa, and a ready for Halloween Santa! How much fun is that?

She will send out kits if you're interested in participating. Check out her website at: http://www.quilttrends.com

Quiltmaker September/October issue

This is a link to Quiltmaker magazine's Facebook page which has a post about the new issue of Quiltmaker coming out next month. My quilt called Zanzibars is in this issue and I would love to hear what you think about it.

Thanks!
Sue
http://www.facebook.com/#!/QuiltmakerMag

Marketing Experiment

COUNTRY CLAUS

This is my newest design called Country Claus. It is a small wall quilt that finishes at 29" square. It is paper pieced and each Santa has a 3 dimensional hat and beads for the eyes and nose. There is a jingle bell hanging from each hat tip. All of these embellishments are included with the pattern. This pattern retails for $12.50
I am only able to ship my patterns in the US at this time so the offer is limited to US residents only.


The hardest thing about making a living from designing is getting your product out there, especially if your advertising dollars are very limited. I want to try something new. I am offering to send this pattern free to anyone that gets their local quilt shop to place an order for at least 6 copies.


If there are any quilt shops interested in picking up this pattern, the offer is as follows:
For every 6 copies ordered I will include a free copy of this pattern or any one of my other designs except for A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS.


This is a limited time offer so if you are interested act quickly!


If you'd like more information email me at:
larkspurlanedesigns@yahoo.com

I see a quilt in this!

I spent this past weekend at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Champion, PA with my friend. This was the view we had while we ate dinner last night. Wouldn't it make a great quilt?

I had a class to teach at Sew Special in Uniontown on Saturday but was also invited to spend the weekend at my friend's condo at Seven Springs so we went up on Friday and I drove from her condo to the shop about an hour away, taught all day and then drove back in the afternoon.

Back at the condo, I helped my friend with a quilt for her niece and relaxed a little too, but when we saw this view, we knew we had to have a picture of it. Its so beautiful it almost doesn't look real!

Does anyone know how to remove the dirt from a 10 year old boy from a favorite quilt?

Yesterday was my birthday and I got to do one of my favorite things last night! I got to spend time with a group of ladies that love to quilt and talk about quilting! Usually when I go out somewhere I have to try and turn the conversation towards quilting and see if anyone else is interested but that wasn't the case last night.

I was the speaker at the guild meeting for the Hearts and Hands Guild in Scottdale, PA. Getting up in front of other people and talking about myself is NOT one of my favorite things though so getting started is a little tough for me. But these ladies were so wonderful that once I got going I really enjoyed it this time! I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

During my trunk show, as I was showing my quilts, I opened one up and was a little shocked at first to see a powdery substance on it but after a minute I realized what it was from. My 10 year old son went to skateboard camp in June. It was his first time away from home and he wanted me to be there to drop him off, and I wanted to be there, too, but I had to drive back very early that morning from Columbus, Ohio. I had spent the weekend there with my friend after she had set up an appointment with a quilt shop owner for me to show my designs. It is a 3 hour drive from Columbus to my home in Pittsburgh and the skateboard camp in Woodward, PA is between 3 and 4 hours from Pittsburgh in the opposite direction.  As soon as I reached home, I moved to the passenger seat and let my husband take over the driving and I started looking through the camp information as he drove. My husband tries very hard to take care of things and does pretty well, most of the time. But when I came across the list of things to bring, I asked if he had packed a sleeping bag for Carson. He said he hadn't because it said it was "optional". The brochure said it was "highly suggested" which doesn't sound optional to me but we were only about an half an hour from the camp (and running late) at this point out in the middle of nowhere. Guess what I still had in the back of my car?

I ended up leaving 2 of my quilts at skateboard camp with my 10 year old son. This powdery substance could be from a couple of things. When Carson skateboards he goes all out and when he's finished, he looks like he just got out of the shower. He doesn't like to shower and its a struggle to get him to take one at home, so I have a feeling that if he wasn't made to take a shower at camp he probably didn't. During one phone call home, he tried to tell me they put soap in the water on the water slide so he didn't need to shower! So the powdery marks could be sweat, whatever WAS in the water on the water slide or dirt from the wheels of his skateboard.  The other thing it could be is residue from the wax the skateboarders like to rub on the parts of the park they like to slide their boards on.

This particular quilt was one I had designed for Quilter's Home magazine a few years ago. It is called Night Jewels and can be seen on their website.

http://www.quiltershomemag.com/pdf/quiltershomemag/nightjewelsweb.pdf
The background is black and the rest is all jewel tones. The fabric has never been washed and I am open to ANY suggestions!!!

Thanks!

Back from Chautauqua Institution and missing it already!

It is a different world there. My favorite word to describe Chautauqua Institution is "magical".

This chair sits on the corner of one of the brick streets with an invitation to sit awhile. One of these days I am actually going to sit in this chair and use it for the purpose for which it was intended. I wish I had had my good camera so you could see what the sign says or that my memory was better so I could remember exactly what it says but its something about taking a break to dream. I will be going back in August to teach again and will try to remember to get another picture of it and a close-up of the sign.

Lake Erie Sunset July 2011

My family and I are fortunate enough to own a little cottage on Lake Erie in New York. This is a picture from the bench at the end of our street on the path that goes down to the beach. We had one incredible sunset after another. This past weekend was very busy because of the holiday but we still had a wonderful time. Our cottage is in a nice, little neighborhood, with a lot of year round residents that we only get together with a couple of times a summer, but we never feel like outsiders. We had a potluck supper and Bingo at the pavilion Sunday night. Time seems to stand still here. Someday I hope to spend whole summers there and maybe build a small studio on our lot in which to teach. When I am there I tell people this is my "real life" and, what I do elsewhere, I do to finance my real life.

Do you have a favorite place to be? How often do you get there? Are you fortunate enough to live your "real life"?