I’m remembering my lovely Mom today with her favorite flowers! She used to love picking lilacs especially in Maine where we have a hedge in front of our cottage. If you’re lucky enough to be with your Mother today, enjoy celebrating her!
I had a blast making this wall art for my grand nephew Rhys! In the backround I used a piece of my composition notebook texture (from my Bon Vivant fabric collection for Windham) and I blew up and repainted this motif from “Dachshund Day” (from Fine & Dandy)! Used a black Sharpie marker over the gouache and on some citron paper scraps, and trimmed it in some ribbon from M & J! Happy Birthday Rhys!!
Last night we celebrated the upcoming birth of our dear friends’ twins which will be happening any day now.. It was a bit of a housewarming too as they just moved into their new place on Norfolk Street. I had the idea of a balloon shaped flower arrangement with macarons. By the way the macarons at the new Lafayette bakery are my new favorite! I took some over to the florist Adore to help inspire the lively palette of color!
I covered wooden letters with printouts from my new Fine and Dandy print collection for Sarah and Victor – the names of the twins. Rosa’s tomato and mozzarella pops were quite a hit!
I gave Victor a car shaped stuffie that we made from one of my patterns with my Bon Vivant fabrics from Windham. Sarah got a baby quilt made with cloth from my first Windham collection Juliet.
A You Tube video inspired Rosa to make these funny favors – love the baby sock!
The diaper cake they made had all kinds of surprises!
Juan & Rosa live dangerously close to The Doughnut Plant..
and other fun places like Economy Candy (those are marshmallow pops Rosa made)!
When our dear friends the Crandalls invited us for Easter yet again I decided to put a punk spin on the desserts! We’ve all seen coconut cake but have you seen it as a Bowie – esque bunnyhead? Ahhh, Alladin Sane (if you haven’t heard an amazing Bowie show recently opened at the V&A in London)..
For the Couture dessert I chose Jacques Torres white choclate lamb. It struck me as the sort of thing Valentino might be serving.. (BTW this theme is borrowed from the upcoming Met Ball & exhibit “Punk from Chaos to Couture”)
Here the lamb is joined by an egg friend that I found at Sugar & Plumm. My fav is his macaron headphones).. The card you keep seeing is by the fabulous Maira Kalman! Hope you enjoyed your holiday!!
I wanted to make some valentines for my grand nephews Rhys, Henry, and Eben. I whipped these up last night using 3 of my Bon Vivant fabrics from Windham 32164-1 (Red Paris Map) 32169-1 (Red poodle) and 32167-7 (Black Texture), black felt, Strathmore Bristol board, Fiskers pinking shears, acid free Elmer’s Craft Bond adhesive and a Sharpie marker!
Step 1 – draw the smallest heart shape on a heavy paper and cut out your template. Tape the template to one of the fabrics and cut around the edge with pinking shears.
Step 2 – Place your fabric heart down on the next piece of fabric or felt (tape or pin) and cut a slightly larger heart out.
Step 3 – Spray the back of the smallest heart with the spray adhesive and press onto the larger heart
Step 4 – Place the combined hearts onto a piece of bristol board and cut a slightly larger heart out
Step 5 – Spray the back of the combined hearts with adhesive and press onto bristol board.
Flip over and write your message with a Sharpie marker!
P.S. If you prefer to use the grey paisley fabric in the backround it is #32165-4 also from my Bon Vivant collection from Windham fabrics. Enjoy your Valentines Day!
We got to ring in 2013 with our nearest & dearest on Monday evening! Marty and I got inspired by Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus! I made my bold tent-like stripes by just placing 7 strips of black satin ribbon on my white tablecloth.
I made my black & white striped trees by starting with streamers. Pulling a needle and thread through the top edges created the gathered ruffle which I pinned onto styrofoam cones. Turned red ornaments upside down & pushed them into the tops with a bit of wired star trim to finish!
I baked the white snowflake sugar cookie cakes on the left (served with licorice fudge) and made plates of brownie bites and meringues sprinkled with mini snowcaps! Bruno Bakery made us the dangerous Black & White Mousse Cake..
We had fun asking the Magic 8 Ball questions and conjuring up spirits at a glow in the dark Ouija board!
Now that I’ve baked my first batch of cookies, it’s really starting to feel like the holiday season! This recipe called called Double Choclate Peppermint Crunch Cookies is on the Epicurios website but I can tell you that I simplified it slightly. I decided to use all the melted choclate inside the cookies, I also used my Wilton snowflake shaped pans so that each piece didn’t need to get rolled into a ball. Another timesaver is getting crushed candycanes or Peppermint snow at Williams Sonoma! I gave them to one of my best customers this PM – The City Quilter & they were a big hit! Enjoy!
On Small Business Saturday we visited one of our favorite NYC retailers and friends Michael Smith. He staged this fabulous Christmas window and interior at his vintage inspired Adelaide 702 Greenwich St. (at W. 10th) in the west village! Instead of a tree he decided to trim the piano in Santa’s threads..
Marty and I were delighted to find a top hat shaped ice bucket and round playing cards printed on the reverse with a cool black and gold geometric! They’ll be perfect for our magic themed New Year’s Eve party..
It’s always worth stopping by for a truly unique gift selection and starting next week they’ll be new mid century Scandinavian items. Season’s Glamorous Greetings!
Finally I’m getting the chance to blog about our visit to Houston last weekend! As you’ve probably heard downtown New Yorkers like Marty and me only got power back yesterday. Above is a photo I took of my favorite booth by Mary Jane. She’s one of the Moda designers and her theme was Glamping!
I was happy to learn from my fabric licensee Windham that near their booth Susie Seligman was making some fun shirts mixing my Bon Vivant fabrics with some Japanese ones! She also has a Fiber Art Furniture studio in Indiana.
I loved this cozy cabin booth too by Parson Gray (David Butler) for Freespirit! His collection is called Seven Wonders and I think people are going to have a blast with it. David also shared his new CD with us. His band is The Black Owls!
We also enjoyed meeting Sarah Watson – one of the new designers for Art Gallery Fabrics! Congrats to her on her new line and individual booth award!
One of the most amazing quilts displayed was Berne House Quilt. 156 blocks were made by these Swiss designers and in 2010 they were sewn together in this stunning composition – including the Berne clocktower!
We also loved this modern spectrum style quilt! It was a great show and got to meet both Debbie Outlaw from Moda and Nancy Weber from Checkers to talk about my 4 patterns! Will keep you posted..
After market we headed to Hugo’s in the Montrose neighborhood – for authentic and inspired Mexican cuisine & to see their famous Day of the Dead shrine!
Marty and I will be leaving for International Quilt Market tommorrow and we’re taking samples of our fourth home sewing pattern! It started as a display sample in the teal and brown skus of my Bon Vivant collection for Windham Fabrics. That sample was given away by Ryan Walsh after he did a blog post on me. A talented sewist Sharon Tuckey won it and I asked her if she wanted to collaborate on a pattern with me.
Meanwhile back in NYC I was starting to work on special rosettes with my friend Myra Martin. This one ended up being a fun a decorative closure! For a tutorial on making this type Coco Rosette in the search bar. Once Sharon and I worked out the pattern and instructions I asked Jennifer Herrick at Lola Pink Fabrics if they could test it for me.
I was so excited she said “Sure” and worked up a new plan to make the bag on the right with my grey paisley and red floral from Bon Vivant. I sent along some black vintage buttons for her to choose from. Jennifer did such a lovely job and another of Myra’s pin on rosettes makes a cute embellishment! Many thanks to all who helped make this product such a success!
