I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day.

I received a beautiful card and we had a quiet dinner at home.

I am going to Florida in March to lecture for two guilds and teach at one shop.

The first lecture is on Tuesday March 3 at The Quilting Guild of The Villages.

Then on Wednesday March 4, I will teach my

Shooting Stars pattern 

at Sew Cherished Quilt Shop in Fruitland Park.

On Thursday March 5, I will give a lecture for the

Quilting Sisters Quilt Guild in Leesburg, Florida.

I am going to drive and a friend is going with me.

After my work is over we plan to go to St. Augustine, Florida and

Savannah, Georgia. We will then head for home.

My mission for you is to tell me about your

favorite quilt shops and great places to eat in these areas

or on the road there or back from Texas.

We will be going through Vicksburg, Jackson, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi to get to Florida. 

On our way home we will be going through more of Georgia and Alabama. 

Leave me a comment about any spots on the route or even off the beaten path. 

Also, dont forget the contest to win six fat quarter bundles which equals 9 yards of silk.

All you have to do is go to dellaQ.com and sign up for her newsletter.

She will draw for the lucky winner on March 1, 2009.

Infatuation 

I know you fondle it when you wander through your favorite quilt or fabric store. 

You run your hands over pillowcases in the department store.

What fabric can make you consider giving up chocolate or wine? 

For me, it’s silk.  How about you?  

Admit it, you want to wrap yourself in it!

Hello there!  I’m Della Quimby, owner of della Q. 

That’s my boyfriend’s dog, Lucky.  She is as sweet as she looks. 

I’m basically her butler; I open the door to let her in and out all day long.

Are you participating in Debbie’s latest contest? 

Be sure you join in to win a bundle of della Q’s taffeta silk.

All you have to do is go to my website della Q and sign up to receive my newsletter. 

Our fabric is made in Vietnam. 

We have been using our fabric in the manufacture of our

knitting needle cases and bags. 

Have you seen them? 

This is our most popular needle case, The Que™ for circular needles.

Many of my customers were starting to ask about just buying my silk. 

At first, I said, “I don’t sell just the silk”. 

Stupid!  I quickly realized that if I spend time in Vietnam

selecting fabric and designing our pieces,

why couldn’t I just have the fabric manufactured for quilters and sewers? 

TaDa! della Q Textiles!  Ok, it wasn’t that easy, but let’s pretend it was. 

Check out our silk collection, including kits with Debbie’s patterns.

I spend about three to four weeks a year in Vietnam

working with our production process. 

Have you been?  You should go. 

The food is great, the people are amazing and the textiles are luscious. 

The currency is the “Dong”; my boyfriend thinks that is really funny. 

I know, immature.  Check out all the vibrant colors.

Blah, blah, blah.  Enough about me, let’s talk silk. 

What’s the secret to working with it?  Fusible interfacing.  That’s it. 

Fuse it before you cut it with an ultra lightweight interfacing

so you don’t change the hand. 

I’ll share another secret with you about della Q silk. 

It’s washable. 

It does take on a bit of a vintage look, but frankly, I quite like it. 

The piece below was washed in a front loader with a mild detergent and then air-dried. 

It also tends to come out a bit brighter. 

There are only eight days left to enter the contest to win a big fat quarter bundle of

Soiree fabric by Lila Tueller & Moda Fabrics.

Hello!

My name is Lila Tueller, and I'm really happy to be featured on the Calico Carriage Quilt Designs Blog!

To introduce myself, I am a stay at home mother of seven children and grandmother to one darling little granddaughter. 

I have five of my children living at home, so I can relate to all of you young moms, and you grandma's too!

I am an avid lover of fabric, and have been sewing since I was a young girl. I have a huge collection of fabrics, which is in a constant state of flux.  I have been designing things for myself my children and my friends forever, and just recently decided to take it all a step further and landed myself a partnership with Moda fabrics and United Notions doing fabric collections twice annually, as well as patterns to feature those fabrics.

So far it has been more fun than I could have ever imagined!

Although I wouldn't consider myself a traditional quilter, I do enjoy making quilts, which are usually a little on the funky/nontraditional/out of the ordinary side of the spectrum. So far I have only two quilt patterns out, but I plan on making more!

I think what I really love doing is making bags, all sorts of bags. I used to make and sell them at specialty boutiques, and on Ebay. I soon learned that there weren't enough hours in the day to sew for all the people that wanted them; hence the turn to pattern designing.

Of course I still sew them for gifts and special requests, and for myself! But I love coming up with new bag ideas, and I'm sure I will continue doing that for a long time!

I hope you will enjoy sewing with my new line of fabric coming out in February:

 "Soire'e"

 It is a fun and fllrty mix of spring brights and pastels, and will be great for many of your spring and summer sewing projects. Here's a little sneak peek!

Thanks for reading, and keep sewing!

All my best,

Lila

Thank you Lila for sharing your journey with us.

Be sure to visit Lila's Blog.

The contest is still going on.

Visit the January 9 posting to see all the rules.

 (click on the 9 in the calender on the right)

We have new entries everyday and everyone is having a good time.

The Moda Fabric Matcher site is a lot of fun the play with.

We had one person do four projects!

We are in the process of updating the contest entries.

 Debbie has been under the weather this week and when she is feeling better we will get the blog updated with additional details.

Hi Everyone

Well, I am a little late posting these names but it has been difficult. I have a list now of everyone who has used my patterns to do a project using Moda's Fabric Matcher tool, but I do not have a current list of who did a project for this contest.

You have to give me the name you used to sign in.

If you have not done that, please leave a comment with that information so we can give you credit in the contest.

Also be sure Lila knows what your email is so she can give it to me. We want everyone to have a fair chance.

Remember what the prize is: Fat Quarter pack of Lila Tueller's Soiree fabric by Moda.  

 If you have not entered go to the January 9th post to see all the rules.

(Click on the 9 in the calendar to the right)

Here are the names on the Fabric Matcher that I have now:

acecraig100, Alybrooke, BethyBug59, Carter3682, chicklet@netins.net, Chikidee17, eamylove,

fabric queen, frankum24, gardengnat, grandmabell06, Islandtraveler, jjmom04, jkozole77, Joan

KarenS, Kseafert, ksimenson, LJezak, lotrhalek, manoucarre, meg99, Mrs.Hunter, mykwmca,

nanabarb, peganhouse, quilt118, quiltmama, quiltsmiles, rellbaguley, Robin, sarahb, sarahfroggy, sewpam63,

SimplyThisandThat, snflwr_29, spoildrotten, Strandz, straynotions, tinytoes, weaver49,zegi

Go to the Fabric Matcher and click on Show and Tell - projects-the name listed here then whan their stash comes up click projects.

There are some beautiful quilts. This is so much fun.

Lila Tueller is going to do a guest blog on my blog soon so be looking for it.

Good Luck everyone!

Thursday January 8, 2009

I met a new quilting friend Reygan and her grandmother Kim for dinner recently.

We met at the Macaroni Grill and had so much fun.

She is definitely a quilter.

This is a picture of her latest quilt made with my Sassy Lap Quilt Pattern.

Market Report

I am home from Fall Quilt Market in Houston and finally rested and ready to go to the next project. My good friend and helper Becky went with me to market to help and I also had help from Paula Ward and Jeanne Kuchelmeister. I showed four new patterns.

Shooting Stars

 which has three sizes (twin, queen and king). Everyone liked it because it has six different stars that make up the center of the quilt.

 Radiant Stars

which has two sizes (wall or baby and throw). It is really fast and easy to make with any style fabric.

I made the cover quilt with Moda Tradition and the wall quilt with Moda  Love is in the Air by Deb Strain.

Post & Beam

which is lap quilt for the contemporary quilter to use the new bold graphic prints like Wonderland by MoMo for Moda.

It is a wonderful fabric with all sorts of designs.

The last pattern is

Abstract Harmony

I designed it to use the beautiful silks by dellaQ.  Della and I have teamed up to encourage quilters and sewers to use silks in their projects. I made two quilts and four table runners for Della to show in her booth. She is making kits that will be available at your local quilt shops. If the shops don’t have what you are looking for you can check out Della’s website to order from her. I will also be stocking the kits for students taking my new workshop The Road to Success With Silk. The workshop will cover many aspects of working with silk like how to prevent raveling, to wash or not to wash, what kind of needles to use, etc. 

This is my booth before we decorated

and this is a picture of the finished booth.

That is Paula in the picture.

I did three School House sessions while there. School House is mini classes on the day before the exhibits open. We show new patterns, new fabrics, new techniques and have fun at the same time. I did two sessions for Dell to show samples made with her silks.

We also gave out information on how to use and handle the silk. We had good attendance at both. I did one session to show my new patterns and had standing room only. All were a great success. We also did some great networking with publishers of books and magazines. There will be numerous new and exciting things happening this year at Calico Carriage Quilt Designs.

Tomorrow I will show you some of the celebrities we saw while in Houston.

It is getting close to Fall Quilt Market in Houston and things are really crazy around here. I have very little free time but want to show you some great fabrics I am working with and tell you about a recipe exchange.

These are fabrics from the Soiree' collection by Lila Tueller for Moda Fabrics

These are fabrics from the Wonderland collection by MoMo for Moda Fabrics

I will show you the finished quilts soon. They are so cute!!

I am participating in a great Halloween recipe swap at TheArmChairChef.com. Tink Board is running it and doing a great job. Check there everyday for a new recipe. The apple pie sounds devine!

I really have to get back to work. Today I am working on two lap quilts and several table runners out of silk.

I recently went to Brenham, Texas to give a lecture and teach a Shining Star class for the Friendship Quilt Guild. In case you don't know, Brenham is the home of BlueBell ice cream. A great time was had by all including me.

 I had great students who worked very hard.

And they served a fabulous pot luck lunch.

This is a quilt made by Mabel Dimick.

 She used the Broken Star pattern from my Simple Stars Beautiful Quilts book.

My hosts were Karen & Mike.

They have a beautiful home in the country with a great lake on the land.

This is the Putter Shed Mike built for Karen. Don't you love it?

They treated me to a wonderful dinner at Volare in Brenham. One of the things I love most about traveling to teach is meeting the wonderful people.

The ladies in Brenham sewed, visited and had a lot of fun.

Just a couple of stars ready to put together.  

 One student brought her Carpenter's Star quilt top to show.

I have to get to work now. I am working on quilts and patterns for Fall Quilt Market.

Tomorrow I will show you some of my progress.