I love December!

Arizona is fantastic in December! I just love it. I have been out and about in my golf cart, soaking in the sunshine. I tried to wear shoes with socks a couple of days ago and had a huge hot flash. I guess it will have to be a bit cooler than 70 degrees before I try that again. Flip flops till it goes below 65!

Thanksgiving was fantastic. We had 31 guests for dinner, 4 tables outside, and one inside. The picture above is Camille, sister Sandy and Carole enjoying dinner in our 81 degree day. That is a peek at my sewing studio, the cutting table doubled as a desert and salad buffet!

Right this minute I am working on my Dolly Dresses quilt for Dolly Blog the LakeHouse blog event. Dolly Blog event starts tomorrow December 4th with Debbie Taylor from Fat Quarter Shop. This event includes 15 great designer's and their own rendition of the panel from Dolly Dresses, the newest line of fabric from Holly Holderman of LakeHouse Dry Goods. Tune in everyday to see all of the inventive and creative ideas used in these adorable quilts.

Five Days

Garden Party Tote ps028 at left, these are just the sweetest fabrics ever! Lakehouse Teatime Florals, just too chic to be shabby! One of the

best things about Charm Squares is cutting them into 4" squares for this bag. I know it is just an inch, but it makes a HUGE difference in the impact of the print scale. ~Really~

I'm still sewing like a woman on fire! I love the Chubby Charmer bag shown here in Lakehouse Teatime Floral, blue is not my favorite color, but mixed up with the tobacco tans could make a believer out of me. This bag will go into my private inventory, maybe it would make a great kit for the booth at festival in Long Beach?

Best not to worry about July of 2010, and get through this week, so I can skip on over to Texas. I am ready for a steak at the Strip House........cheese fondue.....asperagas.....gin and tonic, not necessarily in that order.

I leave for Houston next Wednesday, and I still have a quilt to finish, and three or four more bags to build and the binding on a table runner....I will be binding the quilt in the hotel!

I will be in the Lakehouse booth as much as possible. If you are at Market, come by and see what is new! Gotta get to work, now.

I know, I know. Long time since last post

I am going to work on posting more often. Really I am. Much has happened since I last posted.


And......I am going to skip all the details.


Right now I am getting ready for Houston. Sewing like a mad woman. Working with lovely LakeHouse fabrics. SO MUCH FUN!



Garden Party is selling well, and is one of my favorite bags, great for all of my sock knitting projects. Our new quilt pattern Random Hearts is so much fun to cut and sew, and will be on display at market along with all it's bag buddies.


We have a new bag design called Vicki's Bag. Really nice smaller version of Camille's Bag. Single strap. Much like a purse?!

I took this picture off the coast of Sitka, AK last month. That is the tail of a humpback whale. So totally amazing, I find it hard to believe I was there in it's company.
I will post some pics of market bags before I leave. I'll post soon.......promise!

2008 Fall Quilt Festival

From left: Sandy (Penny's sister), Penny, and Darci

November 24, 2008

Oahu

Fall quilt market was lovely! The Lakehouse booth design was one of my favorite and Doll Dresses (photo of the bags from this collections, above) was the featured fabric line, and Holly's newest design, Teatime Floral was introduced. Check out everything at http://lakehousedrygoods.com/. Holly, Martha and I had the booth set up in record time and tear down was very smooth too!

With about 12 hours of rest I started set up for the Quiltsillustrated Festival booth. It was small, 6' x 10', but had plenty of room for Sandy, Darci and I to move about and the sample bags and patterns looked great. We were very busy in our booth selling patterns and kits for our tote bags. I was home in Phoenix for three days, and then off to Waikiki for a week of rest! It was my first time to the islands and it was bliss!

The photo above is from the balcony of our hotel.

We arrived back in Phoenix rested and ready to take on the holidays, turkey and a long weekend, I am ready!!

The Twins First School Pictures!

Taylor and Camille started preschool this year and now we have school pictures! This is a big first for us since the girls are four years old and have never been in school/daycare before (thank you Grandma Penny!)

Camille is on the left, Taylor on the right.

It's Friday!!

It's Friday! ! ! I have to work all weekend, but something about Friday's makes me happy. I do get to see Bob all weekend, minus the golfing, but still good quality time. We have the girls tonight, and I have a bag of marshmallows waiting to be roasted. The photo above is our first effort fishing. The girls and Bob threw a line out and immediately caught a small blue gill. They both wanted to touch, Taylor was unhappy when Bob threw it back, she wanted to eat it! We will have to throw a line out again tonight before the roasting begins. We may have fish for breakfast, if Taylor has her way, and she usually does!

The picture above is the wall that divides the mini-kitchen and the sewing area at Pines and Needles. We display our weekends work as we finish projects, this is a sneak preview of the bags I have been making for Market and Festival.

Market is getting much closer, and I am feeling the pinch. I have 12 bags done using the Doll Dresses fabric, got them pressed and photos done last night. Teatime fabric is coming in tomorrow (part of it anyway) so I have many yards to press and pre-cut. I will get the rest of the line next week, and will zip up 4-5 bags, pack many boxes for shipping to the hotel, get manicured, pedicured and cut and colored. I am freaking tired NOW, what am I gonna do for energy...........? Iron supplements, coffee, B-12 tablets and maybe a bit more sleep, thank you Ambien CR!!

Just can't wait for October 22nd, sitting on the plane, sipping that Bloody Mary and being done!!

Market and Festival is just one big picnic after the prep to get there!

I will keep you posted. Let the weekend begin .!.!.!.!.....

Hi, I'm Darci

Hi there! Allow me to introduce myself...I'm Penny's daughter (and newbie quilter!) Darci Wright. I started sewing about a year ago when I began working full-time for Quiltsillustrated. I'm still learning new things every time I turn on my sewing machine (I still need to get out the book to wind a bobbin!)

This was my first time designing, and I thank Holly for letting me give it a go. As a fairly new quilter, this was a bit of a challenge for me, but I enjoyed every minute of it! Holly's fabrics are so cute and inspiring, how could you go wrong? All of the designer blocks for this event are so adorable!

The inspiration for this block came from my 4 year-old twin daughters, Taylor and Camille. I love to play dress up with them and shop for cute outfits. This was a chance to design my own!

Well, I hope to be able to "guest" blog in the future. Right now, I've got little ones to get into bed!

Another Weekend Bites the Dust

Jill, Darci and I spent the weekend in Payson with a group of sewing friends. We went to a peaceful little getaway called Pines and Needles Retreat and had a great time. I worked on bags for FQM (fall quilt market) and had some great help designing and sewing. My huge stack of "hot off the press" fabric from LakeHouse Dry Goods is getting smaller, and making way for the next shipment, Teatime Floral, we can't wait. So exciting. We will be big time busy this next couple of weeks!

My little design for the Doll Dresses quilt was so much fun. I traced the outline and took myself back into childhood, it was a long trip! The little sweater and white collar were from my first sketch, and ended up being my first choice too. I am anxious to see the entire quilt!

Gotta Love Mondays

The sun is determined to rise, and me along with it. The weekend was a short but productive one. I finished four bags and went sewing with my quilting fiends. It almost feels normal around here!

We have completed our one mile move from what we now call the "old" house to the "Lakeview Dr" address. The photo shows my view from our 30 year old mobile home here in the Sun Lakes, AZ retirement community, don't laugh, I am pretty much the youngest person on the block! We are slowly updating this "new house" to fit our needs. I still have a few boxes to unpack and Bob is working like mad to add lighting and wire new outlets for me. The boxes will have to wait, due to "market frenzy".

Holly's newest fabric line "Doll Dresses" has arrived and the rush to complete all my samples for fall market is in full stride. I love this line and it is so much fun to work with.

I will try to post more regularly, my goal is once a week! Next Tuesday on Holly's blog is my featured spot for the Doll Dresses quilt block project. Check it out now to see all the other adorable quilt blocks. Well, it's that time, back to work.