NYC series-4-The Show

I almost forgot why I went to NYC to begin with. Of course. The show. Work, right. I explained a little about my process of developing product before I left. This is the fourth year that I've exhibited my design work here. The first year or two it was extremely instrumental in gaining my first clients. This is where Donna found me too, and expressed interest in me developing my first line of fabric with them. I remember thinking,' yea, fabric, always wanted to do that'.



So this booth is a little 10'x10' piece of me and what I'm about as far as design goes. Unlike Quilt Market, most of what is up on the wall are the very latest designs that aren't even on product yet. So its more like an idea bank, or your copyright vault. I do always have examples of my already produced items up to show a range of ideas and forms.



So that I don't let any big cats out of the bag, I only get to show you the one wall with mostly finished product. Is that so annoying!? Image piracy is rampant in this industry and its no fun to see your designs hit someone else's portfolio (trust me) and product before you even have a chance to get it out there. Just part of it though. There are a couple of finished product surprises up there, and maybe if I don't talk about them yet, it won't be like I'm really showing them to you. Snicker.



And speaking of securing things, I tacked the heck out of that quilt front to back to discourage anyone trying to lift it once my booth was set up and I was away. It's a drag to think about, but it certainly does happen if you have something valuable displayed. Having the quilt, one of my dining room benches, tons of my fabric and such felt very cozy. That backdrop you see is one single 30ft x 8ft handpainted piece of canvas covered in my signature pattern. Yes, that took a while, but I've used it for 3 years now, so it was very worth it.



Oh look its me again. Another logo sign for the passersby to spot me down the long aisle. And when they turned the corner they could see me standing in the midst of me. And when we started a conversation it was about me. When we looked at stuff it was all mine. I spent a lot of time talking about me and my ideas and my art. I did it lots of times for three days in a row. It was a relief to see and talk to people who already know me, and I could save the story of me for the next poor soul. Me. Me. Me. I got so sick of me.



However. I got to gaze over at someone other than me in between chats. Pretty sure he was kinda sick of me too. But that's one of his jobs. He's been subjected to me-ness for more than 16 years now. Lucky me. Yowza.



The most enjoyable part of my trip was spending it with two of the best people in existence. My mother for the first few days and my sweet husband for the final four days. The show was great, and successful. I am passionate about my work, but it is work. When 6 o'clock hit each day, Jeff and I were out of there like high-school seniors at dismissal. We just walked and walked and ate and drank and laughed and taxied and trained and everything else we forget is possible when we are raising five children together.

He did manage to snap a sliver of me in my birthday dress. I guess he wasn't entirely sick of me.

xoAM

NYC series-3-Mock Birthday

I hope you're having fun going through my NYC photos at a meaningful and focused pace. I'm trying to instill that type of process to every aspect of my life these days. Focused, not rushed. Huge challenge.Anyway, you've seen some color on the streets and some gorgeous windows. Now let's go in to one destination.

I'm fortunate enough to have a mom who has always appreciated my taste even if she didn't employ it for herself. We both looked forward to getting on the other side of these windows, as much for the delightful experience of it as for the contents of the shopping bags as we exited.



Now that they've opened a few more shops in the Manhattan area and everyone has calmed down a little bit about this store, the dressing room lines are less obnoxious. I am just as happy looking at the quirk and glee tucked into every corner with their clever merchandising tricks as I am to buy things. I'm certain that's the way we all feel and why we all regard this retail collection with such affection. It's just plain cozy-cheerful-casual-clever perfection. But randomly perfect, not perfectly perfect. There. Maybe I touched on it just a bit.




Anyway. Mom was all too happy to treat me to a birthday dress. Was it my birthday? Nope. Not by a long shot. Still a few months to go. But that didn't matter. I wanted a gorgeous blue dress and it didn't make any sense whatsoever for me to indulge. Mom and I have this knack, however, at attaching perfectly logical decisions to really meaningless situations. Like saying this is my birthday present early and that it makes good sense to do that now because we won't be together on my birthday anyway, and it would be easier for us to just let this be the present since we're both there enjoying it and it's exactly what I want and it fits and everything. Then there's all those balloons in the front window too. Oh and our connecting flight on the way up had us in Chicago which is my birthplace. Thats got to be enough reasons.



We were pleased. I was thrilled. Mom treated herself as well to a little sale sweater. And me a few little ceramic thingies. To further drive home the concept of this being a birthday celebration though, we thought it best to attach a piece of cake to the afternoon. Not a problem. A glance across the street had us in a Russian cafe enjoying afternoon coffee, tiramisu, and the most amazing warm cheese and cherry pastry ever. Mission accomplished.



It was pretty rainy and chilly that day. It was dark and warm inside that little cave of a cafe. Everything outside was loud, honking, sloshing and really just a mess of a day. But exciting and beckoning nonetheless. It was such a rare occurrence for just the two of us chatting away with no time constraints. We decided to give up our warm spot to the next customers in line and brave the outside together to see what would happen next. Really not unlike an actual birth-day. Thanks Mom. For the real one and the pretend one and all those in between. xo, AM

NYC series-2-Color

Pure color. Enjoy. xo~Anna

NYC series-1-Window Shopping

Remember me? What a week I had! Good in so many ways that my New York posts will come to you in a series. This may go on for a week or more! And in each series its so hard to narrow down the photos as I was incredibly snap-happy!

Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when we think NYC is the shopping and no doubt, we did plenty. The window shopping is like no other, so today I wanted to show you some of my favorite windows.

Most are just what you would expect, an artistic staging of what you see in your malls and catalogs like the JCrew window above. But the oversize wonderfulness of it all just about knocks you over and beckons you to enter even when you've flipped every page of their catalog twice already. I was suddenly mad for madras all over again as I have been for a while.



I desperately tried to think of a reason (and a way) to purchase those red silk ballet slippers that were priced in the several hundreds. But instead I just came home with a picture and the dream that owning them would make perfect sense.



Craftiness has not been lost on designers or window display experts. Everywhere I turned there were either items or displays that evoked the colorful and playful handmade world you and I all love and live in.



The blanket stitches, the paper crafting, the sculpted fabric flowers, the odes to clothing design, the menageries of vintage throw aways given a second chance... I saw them everywhere.



Some where tiny details in shops and on clothing and others where grand like these giant paper flowers. It had me feeling a sense of home-i-ness that one usually doesn't expect when walking these streets. I love it more here every time I come. Really, its a stunning place to be.

More soon! xo~AM

Painted Garden

Its showtime for me again. Headed to New York tomorrow for my design show where I'll meet with clients to go over new ideas and product concepts. Not just quilts and fabrics this time, pals. It's hardcore product pitch time in many categories and normally I work on this show for a few months. I didn't quite have that much prep time this go-round. We'll just let the art speak for itself.



Anyway, for visual aides today we have my "Painted Garden" series. Above you see the first painting in the group called "floral frenzy".



And here you see some melamine dinnerware, that was created from it. Cute huh? And perfect for the patio and slippery fingered children (and adults).



The next painting in the group is called "Beautiflies".



And these are the cute little giftbags that were created for that collection. Fun. I never quite get over what a thrill it all is. Work? Yep it's work. But getting my product samples in is like Christmas, every few weeks. Especially when you are working with very good companies who are masters at replicating your art. All those butterfly goody bags have Isabela set on a butterfly party for her august birthday. Easy enough.

This art was done about 18 months ago and its all just now hitting store shelves, if I find which shelves exactly I'll pass along (do I have a person for that? I need one). I've been busy working on needlepoint pillows, rugs, more table linens, aprons, greetings and so forth too. Ya know, cause I get bored and I have nothing but spare time. Can't wait to show you though! Oh and I found an online retailer that has their first shipments of those linens I was bragging about a ways back in case yer lookin.

Now you can see the loopy life I live balancing fifteen pieces of fruit on my nose, paint brush in one hand, phone in the other as I unicycle around piles of laundry with children chasing me. If I don't actually do just that, it certainly feels like I do that.

Just when you had me figured as a fabric designer. Which I totally am of course! I have two new lines in the pipes! OH and the book. I need to go lay down.

I will be back from NYC in a week with pictures. This time I promise, I barely took any at Quilt market. I will do better, peeps, I wanna take you with me.

Have a great week! xo,AM

Mommy-ness

Just a few images of mamas. Isn't my mom beautiful!? I love this picture of her taken her senior year of high school. Happy Mother's Day mom! One day late. Appropriate since I was two weeks late, I guess. She is such a wonderful mom. I've learned so many things from her, but most important, I think, are the things that just rubbed off on me. Patience, cheerfulness and a spirit of adventure.



This was taken on my first Mother's Day. 19 year old me and 3 month old Juliana. I had never babysat a day in my life. But I practiced patience learning how to be a mom. I stayed cheerful when I wanted to cry. And it definitely felt like Jeff and I were on a grand adventure. Still does.

Lately I feel like I've barely even been a mom between my work and traveling. All the same I was still startled into wakefulness yesterday morning by a loud group "Happy Mother's Day!" followed by lots of elbows, knees, and giggles piling onto me in bed. Then came taking turns at showering me with homemade cards, school-made art and very thoughtful letters and scribbles from each of them. Of course Juliana was still in bed herself being in a different wake up bracket than her little brothers and sisters. She had already plushed me with a new CD the day before. Which I'm pretty sure has migrated into her CD player.



I was so amused by Isabela and Leo this morning on the patio. Those two cuddle together a lot while she says the funniest little love words to him.
"who is the best dog?"
"you are!"
"you are such a sweetie, yes you are!"
Jeff and I were cracking up at how she mothers him, and even more at how Leo nestles up right next to her and always has a paw around her or on her, hugging back. Such a little nurturer. Apparently some things are just instinct, which is very comforting. But maybe a little mommy-ness is rubbing off on her, I suppose. xo,AM

Making a Splash

As I had mentioned last week, while at quilt market I was able to give a short talk about my new line and talk a little bit about the new generation of sewers and why are there so many more of us than there used to be. I paraphrased a lot of this article which makes such great (and funny) points about the addictive nature of sewing whether you're new to it or not. I also had some visual aids, of course, showing a range of projects for all different skill levels. I thought I would share a few of those with you.

I ofcourse showed both of the quilts. You've already seen some of the shots of Juliana in the taffy tunic, and above is Eleni wearing some fun no-sew party items. Her little crown was lots of fun to make and her wristlet doubles as a napkin ring. The wand she is holding started out as one flower in a potted bouquet of wands. And since my attendees were mostly fabric store owners, the point I was making is that it doesn't matter if people are quilting with the fabric or not, what matters is they want to use fabric for various projects. Many wouldn't even involve sewing.



But more importantly, what did I wear!? I could not pass up the opportunity to wear my Chocolate Lollipop skirt. People kept stopping me to see just how I put that thing together. Remember how it started? It was very fun to parade around in, I must say. I'm such a peacock.

And speaking of making a splash!!!! This is what happens when you are giddily chatting away in a hotel room and trying to paint your nails at the same time. I knocked that polish at the most perfect angle possible to spray it all over my leg, just missing the skirt. I could not have made a bigger mess if I tried. Right after Heather knee-jerked-reactively took photos of my polish peril, she giggled all the way down to the hotel lobby barefoot with her pant legs rolled up and only one set of toes painted to buy me some remover. Although, as I stood with one leg hiked in the sink, she was sure to finish polishing the one foot before she went down. Otherwise she would have looked silly.

So I got all cleaned up, smelled a little acidic and we sashayed into the Westminster cocktails and designers meeting like the professionals that we are.

Good times. xoxo, AM

Dechox program

Home again. What a supercharged and dreamy market that was! I am so so so tired. All for good reasons. Let's run down a few....

Chocolate lollipop is selling like ...chocolate * My Schoolhouse class was a packed 15 minutes of babbling fun (I was the one babbling everyone else was perfect)* I made fast friends handing out these * Westminster's adoption process of Free Spirit Fabric is now complete and we couldn't be in a happier home since the buy * Having days to chat on and off about work and life with the likes of Amy and David, Denise, Robyn, Valori, Joel, Tina, Kaffe, Jennifer, Erin, Tanya...and so many more.



With dear Heather, of course chatting simply wasn't enough. Overtalking each other with bubbly energy and excitement practically around the clock made for a little extra time in front of the makeup mirror each morning to try and erase the damage from lack of sleep. Things like sleep and meals just started feeling overrated. Things like cookies and cokes during a thouroughly modern outing seemed a better idea.

The trip was not without good meals though. We had a lovely evening on Friday with our purlfriends, Jennifer and Joelle. Two very beautiful, warm and wise girls who appreciate a good steak like me!

On saturday we sat at a giant table that was surrounded by some wonderful women in the industry and hosted by Holly. It was a delicious dinner that felt more like a quilting bee where we all shared our stories and experiences, successes and goals. Gina was kind enough to drive us to the hotel afterward, but we stayed in her car and talked to her for at least an hour whether she liked it or not.

After 5 days wrapped up in what seemed like one it was time to pack up and head eastward to my green Tennessee. I also had to pack all the excitement, inspiration, and ideas into a part of my brain where once home they could be unpacked as meaningful thoughts on how to move forward in my design path. I am thrilled with the new opportunities that are popping up. Thrilled I have you to share them with. SO many pals came up to me to say they read me here so HI ALL YOU GUYS!

Walking through the airport and looking for a little gift for my sweeties I felt like I was being followed by chocolate and lollipops!


The kids had tried so hard not to beg as I was wrapping up all the choc-pops to hand out at the show. And no matter how delicious and fun the fabric and the real chocolate have been, I think a little dechoxing is in order. I picked out a palette of palette cleansers for them. They sort of remind me of the greeting the kids put out for me after the last quilt market. This time it was almost midnight when I got home and they were all tucked in. I kissed and cuddled each of them just hard enough to wake them for a little in return. A few of them gave smiles in their sleep like they were dreaming about seeing me for the first time in five days. Nothing sweeter than that.

xo,AM