Westfield, New York

I am fortunate to have a cottage on Lake Erie at which I get to spend one week a summer. This is that week. Our cottage is in Westfield, New York. It is a quaint, quiet, pretty, little town, with more than its share of antique shops, wineries and art galleries. I was asked by the local quilt guild to do a trunk show for them while I was here and it just so happens that we are meeting at one of the wineries! I have been there twice already and have found my new favorite wine. The winery is Noble Winery and their most popular wine is called Cat Rouge and I can't wait until my presentation is over so I can have more than a taste.

Vacation?

Why is there so much work involved in going on vacation? I still have to finish the laundry so I have clothes to pack for my kids and myself while we are away at our cottage. Along with all of the clothes, I am packing fabric and quilting tools and all of my quilts since I am scheduled to do a trunk show in the area while we are there. My friend, Kourtney, is coming for a couple of days at the beginning of the week and since there is no such thing as nightlife, as far as I can tell, in Westfield, New York, we should be able to get some quilting done. I am not complaining, mind you. The fact that the town is so peaceful was one of the reasons my husband and I were attracted to it in the first place.

Kourtney and I have big plans, which she calls, "Planning our Divahood", so being in the same place for a couple of days will be a good thing. We have several ideas for books we want to publish, retreats we'd like to hold and shows to prepare for. Meeting Kourtney, in the first place, was a stroke of luck. There are people you just click with the moment you meet them and know that you will know them for the rest of your life. Who knows, maybe we can be the next Fons and Porter, or Alex and Ricky! Well, why not?

Great weekend!!!

What a great weekend! My friend, Kourtney Kenzie, fellow quilter/designer, came to stay with me for a couple of days of sewing, laughing, planning, and wining (not a spelling error)! We had our own mini retreat. Although I still had to go to work and still had to deal with my husband and children, it has been very energizing. We made lots of plans for the future and have lots of new projects to work on! I also got my first order from a catalog company this weekend! I'll tell you more about that later, since I'm a little superstitious and don't want to jinx it! I should also have more pictures to post soon of some of the projects I'm working on, so check back soon! Its a good thing their isn't rationing on exclamation points, because I think I would have used mine up in this post!

Kits available!

Another version of my design, Oh Christmas Tree, appeared in QUILT IT FOR CHRISTMAS 2008. Since that publication, I have redesigned the quilt, and in my opinion, improved it! I am now able to offer the pattern and a kit with the pictured fabrics. The fabric line used is, Moda's Glace. The only picture I have right now is a computer drawing, so the scale of the fabrics isn't correct, but I will have a picture of the actual quilt soon. If anyone is interested in getting a head start on a Christmas project, leave a comment here, including an email address so I can reply, or send me an email at larkspurlanedesigns@yahoo.com and let me know.

3D Quilts

Here is another new design I came up with. I like designs that look 3 dimensional even though my brain knows they are actually flat. How do others feel about that effect? Is it worth the time to find the right fabric to get that effect? If you choose the right fabric line, it isn't difficult. If you happen to have a friend who hand-dyes fabric, it can be downright simple! I would like to know others opinions on this so I can decide whether its worth it to work on designs like this or not. Are there any pattern testers out there who would like to sew out something like this or one of my other designs? So many questions!

Moving on!

I haven't posted in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working! I've got lots of new projects in the works. I think I've finally gotten all the fabrics for my Carson's Star quilt and need to get that finished. I've gotten my first international order. Ok, so its from Canada, which is only about 4 hours away from me, but it counts! I spent last weekend helping my friend move her inventory out of the quilt shop she shared with her business partner. It was a lot of work, but I think it was a good move for her. She worked so hard at the shop, it didn't leave her any time for herself or her own designing. Now she has a lot more time and we can work on the projects we are planning to do together! This is a new design I am working on that I may sew out at some point. Opinions welcome!

T.G.I. Fridays update

Well, it took a week to get a response from the district manager, but he was very apologetic and admitted that we had been mistreated and the situation had been mishandled by the server and the manager. I still can't believe the server tried to blame us for the delay by ordering the "wrong food" (i.e. burgers versus pizza, shrimp, flat iron steak and fajitas) I think that bothers me the most, that it seems like no one wants to take the blame these days when things go wrong.

The DM asked for my address to send me something (he didn't say what) to make up for the bad experience, but having him call and apologize meant the most.

At least I can put this behind me and try to get back to what's important in my life. Its amazing how little things like this can drag you down and keep you from doing what you love to do. I'm thinking about designing a two color quilt...maybe, red and white....oh, and with stripes. What do you think?!

Getting something off my chest

I have had so many things on my mind lately, that its been hard to be creative. A recent disagreement with two of my family members has bothered me to the point that its all I think about. When do you just walk away completely and decide to go it alone? All the other problems then seem magnified and you start to think the whole world is against you. It makes it hard to think about anything else, so in an effort to get at least a little of this off my chest, I decided to blog about one recent event that I'm not happy about.

My birthday was last Tuesday, so on Wednesday, my family took me out to dinner. I got to choose where we would go, which is usually a big hassle, since my husband doesn't like the chain restaurants. He thinks they are too expensive. After our experience, I'd have to agree. I chose T.G.I. Fridays, so that's where we went. The restaurant wasn't very busy, so we were seated right away (one benefit of the economy, I joked to my husband). We gave our order to the server, and 15 minutes later, my husband finally stopped her on one of her many trips past us to ask if his salad was coming soon. She went and got it from the kitchen. My two children and I waited patiently while he ate it, with me telling the kids that ours would be coming soon. I should have checked my watch at that point, but didn't, so I had no idea just how long we had been waiting. It wasn't until the two tables that were seated 20 minutes after us, started having their meals arrive, that it finally occured to me that there was a problem. I walked up to the front counter and demanded to see the manager. He came out from the kitchen and I explained the problem to him. Less than 5 minutes later, our meals arrived. My shrimp was cold, so it was obvious it had been sitting for a little while, but we were so hungry, I didn't complain. Our waitress tried to tell me that the table next to us was served so quickly because they only had burgers. It was not a valid excuse and I told her so. At no point, did the manager come back and check on us or apologize for the problem. We were not compensated in any way, no discount or free dessert to make up for their mistake. Nothing. No response from my complaint to their corporate office. They can't be doing so well in this economy to be able to ignore complaints and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had a bad experience there.

Anyway, at least I've gotten this out of my system and I can try to get back to work on what's really important. And I hope my next post is of a more creative nature!

Carson's Star update

Here are 3 of the blocks for my design Carson's Star. There have been so many things to do since Quilt Market this past May, this had been put on hold for awhile. But now that I see it coming together, I want to keep working on it. There will be 9 blocks total, each one a different color. The hardest part is finding 3 values of the same color to get the 3D effect, but I am very happy with the progress so far.

CONGRATULATIONS TO QUILTESSENTIALS!!!

I just got a phone call from Kourtney Kenzie, co-owner of Quiltessentials in Pittsfield, PA, that her and Melanie Barrett's shop, was voted favorite quilt shop in the Renegade Shop Hop! Now, I'm not surprised by any means, but it is great that they are being recognized for all the work they have done to open such an amazing place. I wish them lots of continued success and when I get there the next time, I promise to take lots of pictures!

New Post for Melanie!

Well....I got in trouble for not posting for a couple of weeks. My friend and quilt shop owner, Melanie Barrett of Quiltessentials in Pittsfield PA, told me she checks my blog all the time and its been the same for a couple of weeks, but I just haven't had anything interesting to talk about!

That changed this weekend. I spent the last 3 days at hers and Kourtney Kenzie's shop helping out with their shop hop. What could be better than spending a weekend in a quilt shop talking with other quilters and fondling fabric! The turnout was amazing, and Kourtney's and Melanie's shop is so wonderful, I know they have gotten a lot of new customers.

Now their shop is about 2.5 hours from my home, so I can't just jump in my car and head up there any time I feel like it, but when I do get to go, I get to stay with my friends, eat well, drink well and talk quilts to my hearts content. When I come back, I am tired but inspired and ready to go on to my next project!

If you are ever in their neck of the woods, it would be well worth your time to stop and check them out. They are located in beautiful "downtown" Pittsfield PA in a 200+ year old building right on Main St. Their phone number is 814-563-9798.

My husband is a packrat

My husband thinks if something comes into this house, it has to stay here. I have tried to throw things away and have found them back in the house somewhere else. For example, I use a tabletop ironing board, and the one I had been using was made of particle board. It was falling apart and turning back into sawdust. I put it out by the curb for the trash collector to pick up and thought it was taken care of, but found it about a week later sitting in the garage. I asked my husband, "why?" and he told me he could make something out of it. My husband can't "make" a bed! His idea of fixing my son's bed frame was to pile books up underneath the box spring instead of taking the mattress and box spring off and screwing the bed frame back together. He lets the kids bring "treasures" back from the cottage. This last trip, my son brought home half of a bowling ball he found on the beach. He has no need for a whole bowling ball, I can't imagine what he thinks he can do with half.

We had an argument just the other day about throwing away things we don't need, and his response to that was, "If we throw everything away that we haven't used in the last two years, we'd have nothing." What he doesn't know, is that 2 days earlier, when he wasn't home, I threw away at least 5 bags of old toys and magazines that had been sitting around for awhile unused. No one has noticed.

I think I need to do the same thing with some of my fabric since my tastes have changed from when I started quilting 8 years ago. The fabrics that I couldn't live without then leave me cold now. I'll probably hang onto then a "little" while longer, but at least, when I say, "I could make something out of it", I'm telling the truth!

Toasters

Does anyone make a decent toaster? You'd think making a piece of toast would be simple. We have had a least 3 toasters since I got married 13 years ago and not one of them has been worth the price we paid! Plus, we each had our own toasters before we got married and they probably didn't work well either. My Mother's Day gift earlier this month was a toaster oven, more of a family gift, but still better than the king size chocolate bar I got last year. I will have to destroy it before my husband will admit defeat and look for something else, but the thing that I have noticed with the toaster oven is that you don't really get toast from it. You get a piece of bread that is still mostly white, but has sort of a biscotti consistency with all of the moisture leeched out of it! If anyone is enjoying a good piece of toast this morning, please let me know what brand toaster you have. I will have to hide it somewhere in the house and will only be able to use it when my husband isn't home, but I don't think a good piece of toast is too much to ask for!

Maybe a toast quilt is in order to justify this silly post!

My Latest

Why do people assume just because you quilt, you can or would want to sew anything? I spent the day yesterday making 5 pierogi costumes for my son's field trip. For those of you that might now know why anyone would want a pierogi costume, here in Pittsburgh, after the 5th inning at the Pittsburgh Pirate games, there is a race called the Great Pierogi Race. Look it up on the internet, if you're curious. My son's class is going to PNC Park for their field trip but afterward they are going to a park close to the school for a picnic and games.

Now it was much simpler than I expected, and I don't mind doing things for my kids, but I would love to know why people think if you quilt, you can sew ANYTHING else! Does anyone else run into this?

BTW, what do you think about my latest design? I really need to quit my day job so I can sew all these designs out! I'm back to trying to design one per day again now that Market it over, so at some point, I will start sewing some of these out and publishing patterns. If anyone has an opinion on which one/s I should start with, I would LOVE to hear it!

Gym or blog--Which would you choose?

You can tell by my posting what my choice was. Tomorrow I have to get back into workout mode, but I'm going to take one more day off from working out to work on all my post-Market stuff .

My "studio"(dining room) is a wreck. And even though I know where everything is, I still have to rearrange everything to get any real work done. I have patterns everywhere. Fabric piled on top of fabric. Works in progress waiting in line.

My friends decided I need to move my whole operation to my living room, which doesn't get used, and give the dining room back to my family. Why can't I have both? The only problem with that is my living room is the only room in the house that looked like it was finished. Before long, my husband and 2 kids will be living in an apartment. I remember the blissful days when I didn't have to share my space, somedays I really miss them.

My comfort lies in the possibility that someday my "hobby turned occupation" may make it possible for me to have a real studio. One with a door that can be closed and locked and where I won't find school papers and insurance bills on top of my ironing board!

Whew!

Spring Market ended here yesterday in Pittsburgh. What an amazing experience! I'm not sure when I'll be able to wear heels again though, as every muscle in my body aches from standing around and walking the length of the exhibit hall in the shoes I chose to wear. I think I'll treat myself to a massage the following Monday after Market next time. Unfortunately, I didn't plan well and have to get back to teaching today at my "regular gig". I hope no one notices my tennis shoes.

I got to meet so many people that I only know via email and Facebook it was like a big party! And since Market was in my hometown, I got to see a lot of people that I already know in real life. In fact, I was talking to a lady in my booth on Saturday and noticed her name tag. I looked at her and said,"That's not your name." She was shocked and said, "How did you know that?" Because I know _______ ________ and you're not her. (Left blank to protect the GUILTY but you know who you are and I'll keep your secret for a fee)

We had a good laugh and I'm expecting an email from the real _______ _______ very soon!

My Booth!

I just got back from setting up my booth at Market and I have to admit it doesn't look as finished as the other booths I looked at, but it will have to do this time.

The coolest thing about Market is getting to see people in person that you've seen a million times before on TV shows, in magazines and on the covers of books. The first famous person I saw today was Eleanor Burns. I am so used to seeing her all over the place, that it didn't even faze me that she was ELEANOR BURNS. I saw a few more familiar faces, but most of the booths stood empty. I guess all the big names will be there tomorrow.

Here's something I found strange today. When I arrived this morning and tried to find my booth, it didn't exist, so I found someone who worked in the convention center to tell them about the mistake. They came to the row where my booth should have been and realized they gave my "neighbor" a whole booth instead of dividing it in half. They could have put a wall in the center of the booth, which would have been really simple, but instead, had to bring the back wall of the booth forward 4' and THEN divide the width in half. So in between the back wall of my booth and the booth behind mine, there is a 4' deep unusable space.

It reminds me of the time my brother went to buy his then girlfriend-now wife roses for Valentine's Day. The clerk asked him if he wanted long stem or short. After asking what the price difference was, my brother decided on short stem, so the clerk took the dozen roses he had in his hand and cut the stems off right in front of my brother. Wouldn't it make more sense to charge more for short stem roses since there is extra work involved?

Spring Market

Well, as soon as my kids are off to school, I will be packing up my car to head to the convention center here in Pittsburgh to set up my booth for Market. This will be my first time vending, so I'm really excited about it, but also a little nervous. I have been designing things all my life, but I only started my pattern company 6 years ago. Six years isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, but if my designs aren't "well received", I think I need to make some tough choices. Unfortunately, I don't have the desire to do anything else, so if this doesn't work out, I don't know what I'll do!

Hopefully, I'll have some really exciting stuff to tell you about next week after this is all over.

Do you dream about Chocolate?

I SHOULD be working on getting ready for Market, but when inspiration strikes, you just can't ignore it! If and when I sew this one out, it will be called Chocolate Raspberry Torte and I'm pretty excited about doing it. I don't usually use brown much, but there is something about brown and pink that makes me think of dessert. In all honesty, a lot of things make me think of dessert, but this color combination in particular does.

Too much?

While I have been busy trying to help my friend with her fabric sale and getting ready for Quilt Market, I haven't been designing too many quilt blocks or quilts, but I came up with this and thought someone might have an opinion they'd like to share. Is the border too much? What do you think about the colors? What do you think about the layout? Do you like quilts on point? Do I ask too many questions?

BTW, my friend's fabric sale went okay. It could have and should have been much better, but I think with the economy the way it is, people are afraid to spend very much money, even when they are getting something at half price.

As soon as Market is over and I decide whether I will vend at Fall Market or not, my friends and I plan to work on a book! I have never done this before, but I figure with the help of good friends, you can do anything, right?