My final day in Manhattan started with a trip to the fabulous quilt shop

The City Quilter

It is located at 133 West 25th Street  between 6th and 7th Ave.

When you enter the shop you see a great floor cloth with New York images.

The wonderful owners of the shop are Cathy Izzo

and her husband Dale.

They have owned the shop since February 1997. The shop is absolutely jam packed with goodies.

Everywhere you look there is something to catch your eye and interest.

This is just one of the samples on the wall.

Cathy and Dale have numerous fabrics that are exclusive to their shop.

Below is Statue of Liberty exclusive to them by Hoffman Fabrics.

I love this black and white!

Fashion District retro New York.

This is subway maps in three color ways. 

They also have projects pertaining to Manhattan.

This is a perfect trip memory quilt.

I was told that almost all of the employees are multi talented.

One is an artist, one a costume designer,  and one is a model.

Think of all that creativity! 

These beautiful ladies are two of their employees.

This is an example of a wool project that is a kit. 

Little wool creatures.

Wool cake and cookies.

A pillow kit and a sample of another quilt to make.

Cute quilt with bicycle embroidery. 

This is more of Cathy and Dale’s exclusive fabrics.    

It has vintage New York postcards on it.

This is a quilt made with the post card fabric.

What a great memory of a trip to New York.

Another quilt example to use Photos or photo style fabric.

A great little pincushion book and sample. What do you think about the bacon and egg?

Cathy stocks unusual ribbons for embellishing.

And a stash of silk fabric to make scrumptious quilts and table runners.

They will be carrying my Fine Dining pattern that is great done in silk with ribbon embellishment.

This is the classroom.

They even supply the sewing machines so you can take a class while visiting the city  Cathy and and another employee in front of a wall of fabrics.

Check out the classes they are offering for this spring.

Paula Nadelstern will be teaching as well as Kaffe Fassett and Liza Lucy.

     Below are some class samples.

A wall of books and patterns.

This quilt is going to be a pattern someday. I love it.Another little niche of patterns and samples.  

More wool. The colors look good enough to eat.  I simply adored these story book panels. Kaffe Fassett fabrics to drool over.

Cathy and Dale are now Bernina dealers.

Cathy also cuts 2 1/2” strips for their City Strippers kits.

While I was in the shop taking pictures and talking to Cathy and Dale,

Three couples came into the shop.

This is Brian and Susanne from Denmark.

   Maria and Elmer from Brazil.

I was unable to get names for this couple from Japan.

This is definitely an international store!

I loved this quilt that looks like a kaleidoscope of the Empire State building.

One section of the store is dedicated to fabrics from Japan.

I love it when the employees are happy and smiling even first thing in the morning.     

Dale took me to the basement to show me what was down there.

One thing was his desk with the first quilt he ever made. I think he did a great job. 

They have a long arm quilting machine and offer custom quilting.

More fabrics!

There is storage that goes all the way under the store.     There is also an appliqué group called the Appliqué Support group that meets in the basement.

All of the New York fabrics can be purchased online at The City Quilter.

I has so much fun at The City Quilter, I wanted to stay all day.

I did have to leave to go to Timeless Treasures Fabrics to see Emily Cohen.

She gave me a tour of their new space and I got to see what is new for spring

and a hint of what will be new for fall.

July 9, 2009

I hope everyone is having a great summer.

We are enjoying 100º+ days that are typical for July in Texas.

We just returned from 10 glorious days in Seattle, WA and Victoria, Canada.

The days were in the high 70s and the nights were in the high 50s.

It was perfect and very hard to come home.

I am leaving again next week to go to Jonesboro, Tennessee to teach three days at Tennessee Quilts Quiltfest.

If you are in the area it is a three day extravaganza.

Check out the website Tennessee Quilts.

On July 16 I will teach the Shooting Stars class.

This quilt has six different stars on a field to make a twin, queen or king quilt.

'No Diamonds / No "Y" Seams' ~ just half square triangles.

Easy but beautiful. You could do one star for a wall quilt also.

The Carpenter's Star is the class for July 17.

It is a timeless quilt that is beautiful in any style fabric from reproductions, batiks, brights, holiday, to juvenile prints.

The 'No Diamonds / No "Y" Seams' technique makes it a

good class for beginners to advanced quilters.

The Road to Success with Silk is scheduled for Saturday July 18th.

This is not an art quilt class but a guide to using silk in your quilts.

We will cover all aspects from what size needle to use to how to stop raveling.

The class project is a Table Art table runner or vertical wall quilt.

If you will be in the area I would love for you to join me in one or more of the classes.

Be sure to check out the Tennessee Quilts website to see the other great teachers listed.

Also check out the Spring/Summer issue of Quilt Sampler Magazine.

The Quilted Hill Quilt Shop in Yamhill, Oregon

showcased my Bali Sky pattern with a sample on their wall.

They also have a kit for sale in the kit section of their on-line catalog.

I hope to meet some of my readers in the near future.

Debbie

     Sightseeing in Savannah was so much fun. 

Savannah is full of beautiful old churches with wonderful stained glass windows.     

 The inside of this church was absolutely beautiful.

We drove over to Tybee Island to see the water.

It was a little chilly that day but people were still swimming and fishing.

That night we went to The Olde Pink House for dinner.

True to southern cooking, I had fried lobster.

Wonderful!!

Bread Pudding for dessert for me.

Chocolate torte for Barbara.

We started our trip home.

We traveled through Georgia,

Alabama,

Mississippi,

We stopped for the night in Vicksburg.

The river was covered in fog the next morning.

Louisiana and

finally back to Texas.

I am going back to Florida next January to teach at a retreat in Panama City.

It is being put on by Quilting By The Bay.

I plan to do another road trip to see some more of the country.

Maybe I will see some of you on my travels, or better yet in my classes.

Check out the itinerary on my website to see if I will be in your area.

On day three of our road trip we went to The Villages, Florida.

Located close to Orlando, The Villages is a community of mostly retired people with 65,000 residents.

They drive golf carts for most of their daily activities.

The community is surrounded by restaurants, shopping, and medical facilities.

You would not have to travel far for any of your needs.

I did a lecture trunk show for the Quilting Guild of the Villages that night.

The next day I taught a workshop for Sew Cherished Quilt Shop of Fruitland, Florida.

We had a great time working on the Shooting Stars pattern.

There were 18 lovely ladies sewing and eating lunch together.

Here are some of their projects in different stages.

That night we were treated to a fabulous dinner at the home of my hostess Christine Brant.

She prepared an Italian feast for nine.

We spent the night with Christine’s mother Klementyne who told us wonderful and

sad stories of growing up in Poland and being sent to Siberia then immigrating to the United States. 

She was a very sweet and interesting lady.

The next day I did a lecture trunk show for The Quilting Sisters Quilt Guild of Leesburg, Florida.

After a lunch in quaint downtown Leesburg, we left to go to St. Augustine, Florida.

      Don’t forget to tell your guild program people and shop owners to check out Ami Sims’ new website.

Find A Quilt Teacher .com

It is a great resource for finding teachers and lecturers for your meetings and classes.

I recently taught at a retreat held at

"The Ranch at Possum Kingdom Lake".

There were eight ladies from the McKinney area and we had a great day.

They were a lot of fun to be with and I enjoyed teaching in such a beautiful venue.

The Ranch is a gated community on the Brazos river with gorgeous views of the river and ranch land.

 This is the entrance gate. 

 The home where the retreat was held was a stone structure decorated with a Texas theme.

This is the the living room

and the staircase to the bedrooms.

The upstairs bedrooms were all decorated around a theme.

The bluebonnet room was blue and white. 

Notice the headboard made out of a door and crown molding.

The blue and white quilt was perfect.

The fish room had a fish over the bed and a great bookcase made out of a canoe. 

The cowboy room had rustic bunk beds.

The western room had an Indian to guard everything.

The master bedroom had a rock fireplace with boots and a great rabbit on the mantel.

Take a look at this bath tub!

This ironing station was one of a kind.

The ladies worked hard and made great progress on their

Evening Star or Shining Star quilt tops.

 I love looking at the different fabric choices everyone makes.

The fellowship with such wonderful people is what really makes my job fun.

I also want to announce the winners of two contests.

The contest on my blog as a guest blogger for The Quilting Gallery was won by Sandra Keesee.

  The winner of the contest on dellaQ Textiles was Christi Scheffel.

Congratulations to both of you.  

I am a guest blogger on The Quilting Gallery.

I am certainly honored to be blogging with the others in the group.

Visit the site to read all the great blogs.

There are some fabulous giveaways going on so be sure to read about those.

This is what I will be giving away.

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.

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!

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.

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.