Show & Tell

Where has May gone? Wow! I have been a little more than busy and haven't had time to post. A week after I got back from my first Quilt Show, my husband and I drove up to CT to see my parents for a few days. Now, we are in the process of having our kitchen remodeled. We spent last weekend cleaning out all of the cabinets and trying to find a place for everything. My living room is full of my new cabinets in the boxes and my dining room and family room are full of everything else. We will be without a sink for close to 4 weeks, so trying to do anything in the kitchen is out of the question.

Saturday, our son, Dan, graduated from Univ. of NC School of the Arts, with a degree in Fine Arts. His specialty is Technical Direction. We are so excited for him as his first job will be an Automation Director for the entertainment on a Carnival Cruise Ship. I'm seeing a cruise in my future.


On to the Show & Tell part of this post. I have received so many wonderful pictures of the Professional Totes that you have made. It is so much fun for me to see all of your creativity and excitement making my totes. I love the fabrics and it makes me want to make one more just like it.

I bought the Professional Tote pattern at my local quilt shop, and I LOVE it!  So far I have made six of them, and each one is my new favorite.  The latest is my jungle bag, with machine embroidered designs on both sides.  I've given three bags away as gifts, and have plans for more. 
...Phyllis in Colorado

Hi Laura,
Please find attached photos of my first Professional Tote.  What a great pattern.  Yes it does have lots of pieces but you instructions are perfect and clear to follow.  What I liked the most was no seam was to hard for my fussy Pfaff.  And that's saying something.
Thanks Again
Merilyn Stewart from Croydon Australia

Betty made this blue paisley tote with patio cloth. The cloth is weather proof, and fade proof, etc. What a great idea! Betty made this one for her sister-in-law who lives in FL.

 

I made this for a teacher who must carry her things back and forth from building to building.  Hope you like it, as I

love, love, love this pattern. Deb Tuck.  

Make sure you check out the fussy cut dots at the top of all the pockets. Great job!

.

Hi Laura!

 I just wanted to tell you I love this pattern sew very much.  I have made many gifts out of this pattern.  It is very popular in our area and I just wanted to pass that on to you and show you a few that I have done. 

Thank you for wonderful instructions and PICTURES!!!!  I love your patterns.

Sincerely,

Kathi Fahrbach

Jefferson City, TN

This pattern makes the greatest school bag, diaper bag and travel bag and it's just the best!!!!

Kathi has done a beautiful job embroidering all of the front pockets of each of her totes. 

Good morning Laura
Attached are photos of my "Diaper Bag" Professional Bag. It was fun AND a challenge, but well worth it. Love the end result.

Colleen French

Judy Clay from Montrose, CO sent me this great picture of her "Easy Stripper" group posing with all of the Professional Totes they have made. Her friend Ludene has made 13 or14 Professional Totes. 

There are 8 ladies in this picture and I have been able to count as least 16 totes in the picture. You "strippers" are very busy!!

 

Thank you so much for sharing all your wonderful pictures! I love them all!!

My First Quilt Show Booth

I just returned from having a booth at my first quilt show. Now, "just" is a relative term. Today is Thursday and I actually returned Sunday night, but it has taken me this long to recover and I'm still not completely unpacked. I think I'm doing something wrong!
I am familiar with having a booth at a show because I used to go to lots of craft shows in the early 90's. That was when I made all the bags and sold the completed bags. BUT, that was almost 20 years ago when I was that much younger! My mother was right, "Growing Old is Pigeon Poop"!  Many years ago, she came up with that saying, and we have been saying it ever since; now I know how true it really is.  Do you think all this age talk has anything to do with the fact that I will turn 55 (senior citizen) this month and that I am letting my gray hair grow in (maybe a temporary thing)?  I'm having a little pity party.
Anyway, the show was a good learning experience. It was the first year for this show in Hickory, NC. The Bernina dealers did a great job putting it together and had  65 vendors and a wonderful quilt show. I'm sure the people that attended the show were impressed. The only problem was that there wasn't that many people that attended so it made for a slow show for the vendors. After talking to other vendors, I was reassured that this was not a typical show for sales. I'm not complaining because I needed a show to get my feet wet and if it had been busy we would have crumbled. My husband and daughter came with me for moral support and physical help. By the 3rd day, I think we had everything under control. The 3 of us had fun spending time together and on 3 occasions people poked there heads around to our booth and told us we were having way too much fun! There was a lot of laughing involved.

Here is a picture of our booth. 

Quilt & Fiber Art Emporium

I have been so busy getting ready to have a booth at my first quilt show that I haven't had time to post. I figured that I better get a post out and tell you about the show so maybe you can come. If you live in the North Carolina area and have this weekend free, you should stop by and say hello, I would love to see you.

The show is called The Quilt & Fiber Art Emporium 2010 . It will be at the Hickory Metro Convention Center in Hickory, North Carolina. The show starts this Friday, April 30 and runs through Sunday, May 2nd. Marianne Fons will be there on Saturday to give a lecture on the motivations of American quilters from 1776 to the present day.
Did you know that Marianne Fons and Liz Porter, founding editors of Love of Quilting magazine have a paid circulation of over 320,000? This makes it the most widely-circulated magazine in the world. Wow! I think that is amazing. We quilters ROCK! (That's me trying to sound young!)

Come on down and see me, my daughter Carol and my DH, Mike at the show!

...and the winner is!!

Drumroll please!!

Patty from Momloves2quilt is my very first winner of a giveaway. Congratulations, Patty.

My random drawing was performed by my husband Mike. He works at home in the room right next to mine. I hollered to him from my office and said, "Mike, please pick a random number between 1-45"  He hollered back  "23". There you go, I think that's pretty random.

As soon as I hear from Patty, she will receive a new Kangaroo Tote and pattern.
Thanks to everyone who played.

Giveaway reminder

Just a quick reminder that I will draw a winner for a Kangaroo tote and pattern tomorrow morning at 9:00am EST.  If you would like to win, add a comment to the April 6th post.
Check back tomorrow to see if you won!

Meeting a customer

Donna from Northern Virginia was in town near Raleigh for Easter and asked me if I had a store because she would like to visit it. I told her that I didn't have a store, but I used to work at the local Bernina dealer and they are a great quilt shop with thousands of bolts of fabric and maybe we could meet there.

Last Wednesday I met up with Donna and she showed me her Professional Tote and Raleigh purse that she had made. She also showed me the wonderful addition she had made to the Raleigh purse. She added a center pocket just like in the professional tote.

Here is a picture of the Raleigh purse with the center pocket.

We had a great visit at Bernina World of Sewing and I want to thank Donna for bringing her bags for me to see. I love the new idea of the center pocket.in the Raleigh Purse. Great job!

Leather Purse

Thank you for signing up for the Kangaroo Tote giveaway! I can't wait to have my first drawing. There is still time to enter, just scoll down or find the April 6th post, leave me a comment or two to enter.

I just finished making a leather Carol's Convertible Purse for my daughter Carol. This is a belated Christmas gift. You know the poor Cobblers family story that have no shoes, well Carol had been carrying one of the first Carol's Convertible purse that I had made. I even forgot to sew up the pocket lining and she couldn't figure out why her purse was getting so heavy. All of her loose change was dropping inside the purse between the lining and the fabric.
She really deserves to have a nice purse after all this time. Her favorite color is purple! This purple leather showed the color better on the sueded side so I decided to reverse some of the pieces so the purse would appear more purple.

Start with one pile of leather cut into pieces

Sew the front sections together

Sew the back sections together

Make and opening for a back zipper

Tape the lining facing down so it's easier to sew in the zipper

Sew the zipper in place

Clothespin the side panels to the front section for sewing, etc, etc.

Continue until you have a finished purse.

Carol loves her new Carol's Convertible Purse. Guess who the pattern is named after?