Hey there!  I've missed you!  Seriously!

It's been way too long.  I've been itching to get back to my blogging roots for a while now and I'm happy to finally be doing it.  But first, a few highlights from the last few months:

 - Exhibiting at the Spring 2016 International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City

 - Summer, well, Summer completely kicked my butt

- Trip to the Pacific Northwest for my 20-year High School Reunion

- Hiked Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon with friends 

 

- And finally, this isn't so much of a "highlight" but it is a big deal to me: I recently put in my resignation notice at my local quilt shop.  I worked at Just Sew in Highland, UT. for 8 years and I am bummed to say good-bye.  I am, however, looking forward to finding new focus and new opportunities. 

Which brings me back to blogging!

Today I want to finally and officially introduce you to my 6 new patterns, which I call my "Vintage Collection" as they are all based off of vintage quilts.  I love the good ol' classic quilt blocks and vintage-inspired quilts and I hope you do too!

First up is Ruby.

Ruby is not for the faint of heart.  

She's made up of a bazillion half-square triangles 

(which will make you either love her or hate her by the time you're finished!)

My friend, Aniva (on Instagram as @aniva_rose) made about half of the blocks on this as I was going crazy with Market prep when I designed it!  She's amazing and I'm so thankful for sweet friends like Aniva!!!

Ruby was made up with scrappy fabrics from my stash and comes with instructions for 4 size options (throw, twin, queen and king).

Next up is Jack.

Jack combines two of my loves: 9-Patches (a classic for sure) and neutrals.  Black and white never goes out of style but I think it would be wonderful in any colorway.  There's lots of room to get creative with color on this one!  And wait, it also has straight-line quilting on it (which is another favorite of mine) so that's three!  This quilt has found a home in my family room on my husbands recliner.

Jack comes in 3 size options (throw, twin and queen) and was made with scrappy low-volume and black fabrics from my stash.

The third pattern is a little different from the rest.  

It's my Scrappy Strip Block Paper Piecing Patterns.

Each package of Scrappy Strip Block Paper Piecing Patterns comes with 5 copies of 5 different blocks (which make a nice lap size quilt when sewn together).  The size to cut your strips is printed on each strip so you can cut as you go and they were designed so you won't have any itty-bitty triangles in the corners of your blocks.  They can be used on their own to make a scrappy string quilt OR with the companion pattern, Ava (which is the 4th pattern in my Vintage Collection).

Meet Ava:

Ava was quilted by Denae Hansen who lives in American Fork, UT.  I've used Denae a couple of other times since then and she does absolutely beautiful work!  She does both hand-guided and computerized quilting.  This was hand-guided.

Ava comes in 3 size options (crib, twin and queen) and was made with mostly Katie Jump Rope fabrics by Denyse Schmidt plus a few from my stash.  The awesome check fabric on the back is by Maureen Cracknell for Art Gallery.  It was just sitting around it my stash (being awesome) and I knew it was the back for Ava.

Fifth up is Lulu.

Lulu is Jelly Roll friendly and one of the easiest patterns you'll ever make.  She comes in 2 size options (lap and twin).  My friend, Christine Cook (on Instagram as @stitchingrevival) put this together for me.  She did an awesome job and completely saved the day in all my Market prep mayhem!

And last, but not least, is Pearl.  I love Pearl.  

 One of the true classic blocks.  

She's paper pieced and curved pieced 

but really isn't as hard as it looks.

The quilting was again, done by Denae Hansen in this simple, yet beautiful cross-hatching.  I have never had this kind of cross-hatching done before but it is a new favorite for sure!  

Also, I collected some beautiful Liberty of London fabrics for this project and they were a dream to work with!

Oh, and don't worry if you've never done curved or paper piecing before, Pearl comes with 4 size options (mini, crib, twin and queen) and the mini is the perfect place to start!

 It may even add a little sunshine to your life!

Well, that's it for the Vintage Collection!  

Thanks for sticking around through the worlds longest blog post!  

I plan to be around more often so please feel free to leave a comment.  I'd love to hear what you think about my new patterns.  Also, I'm taking ideas on future blog post ideas too!

See you soon!

~ Amber

P.S.  All patterns are available in my Etsy shop! Click HERE.
Use coupon code "VINTAGECOLLECTION" for 20% off 
all items through Sunday (9-18-16).

Market Highlights

Ahhh...It's over. 

Months of preparation, anxiety attacks and giddyness. 

Days of setting up, sleepless nights, meeting new people, seeing some familliar names and faces and meeting a few idols.  Ahhh...it's done.  It was wonderful and a lot of hard work all at the same time.  And now I'm looking forward to getting back on top of things here on the home front.

REGRETS:

Not taking more pictures and

not going to the Riley Blake party like I was planning on

(I was so tired!!  But, I heard I missed out on some craziness and some dancing. And, if you know me, you know I like to let loose on the dance floor!)

HIGHLIGHTS:

Seeing all of my planning and preparation come to fruition. 

Meeting blog authors that I love and some of my followers that I love :)

Here's Vanessa and me. 

I think I told her we should hang out sometime.  Then I realized that she was probably wondering who I was???  She's much cooler than I am (sorry about that, Vanessa!)  But, I still think that would be fun ~ if you don't think I'm too much of a stalker :)  

I was so excited to run into my sweet friends, Rae Ann Nilson, Susann Evans and Sherri from (A Quilting Life). 

Judi from Green Fairy Quilts was SO SWEET and friendly.  And, I really don't think she's that much taller than me!  She was just a mad woman in heels that day!  Can you believe someone so young can be so talented at quilting?  She really is amazing.  Glad we met, Judi!

L to R: me, Amy Ellis (from Amy's Creative Side), Allison Harris (from Cluck, Cluck, Sew), Vanessa Christenson (from V and Co.) and Erin Singleton (from Two More Seconds).  These girls are in a whole other level of blogging than I am, but it was such a treat to meet them.  So friendly and sweet!  

And, thanks to THE Miss Sandy Klop for taking our picture while we bombarded her booth.  Sandy gets the award for being the most down to earth designer.  Such a sweetheart (sending people my way, giving me plants from her booth to put in my garden when it was all over, answering questions for me, playing "catch" together...  She was just chill about the whole thing and it was a joy to be kiddy-corner from her booth!)

(My SIL, Brittany and Sandy: "pretending to be best frineds for a minute", as Sandy put it).

Another fabric and pattern designer extraordinaire that we were excited to meet was Camille (from Thimble Blossoms).  Her and her mom, Bonnie (from Cotton Way) shared a booth and it was darling!  We kind of stalked their booth in our down time.  They were super sweet and I loved being able to trade patterns with them!

See that quilt behind us?  Brittany and I will be making that soon (out of the Ruby fat quarter bundle we made a mad dash for at Sample Spree).  That's the only thing we bought.  We love Ruby (and the pattern, called Swoon)!!! We're going to try to split up the fat quarters in a professional manner, so as to not break up our friendship :)

This picture (above) is just a sliver of what it looks like at the Moda booth during Sample Spree.  And, this one below is just to show how awesome it is to take a picture while you're running into sample spree.  If you're as good of a photographer as I am, this is what you might get: 

Seriously.  I'm a dork.  I was so excited.  I was jumping up and down during the final few minutes before Sample Spree started.  We were at the beginning of one of the lines and then when the guy announced over the speaker that Sample Spree had begun, I ditched my group (it's every man for himself, right?)and started running with my camera in the air, just taking pictures of whatever.  (I lose all rationale when I get excited).  So, you might want to go to other people's blogs, if you want to see some actual pictures of Sample Spree.

Me and my besty, Sabrina.  She's not a quilter, but I dragged her to Market anyways.

Brittany is the only other quilter in my whole family, except for Gigi, so we have a ball together.  She was a HUGE help, setting up and manning the booth with me.  Thanks Britt!  I love ya!  One of my favorite keepsakes - our Moda photo booth pictures (I hope I didn't break your back!)  I told you, I lose all inhibition when I get excited...

Well, that's my take on Market.  Not the best pictures, but they're all I got.

Oh, and if you're wondering where you can get my patterns, young and old, you can stop by my etsy shop here.  Bye-bye!

My stack

Hi.  Remember me?

I can't believe it's been 22 days since I posted last.

I've been a busy girl.

Market is in three weeks.

And no, I'm not ready yet...not even close.

But I do have my stuff stack together.

My quilt stack, that is!

All of these quilts will be accompanying me to Market.
Including these three that will be making their debut real soon:

We'll be hanging out in booth #1142

(right next door to a favorite blogger/quilt designer/fabric designer of mine and kiddy-corner to another amazing designer and right across from my bag-people ["Hi" bag-people!]). 

So, all in all, I'm pretty sure it's going to be an amazing time...

Mary did it. So...so can I!

I think it's time that I can share a little "secret" project that I've been working on.  I'm really excited about it! 

So, remember how I told you that the

2011 International Quilt Market is in Salt Lake City this year?  

[que: freak out] 

Well, that's just a hop, skip and a jump away from my house.

And remember how I told you that I am going to have a booth there?

[O.K.  I'm starting to feel some anxiety up in my throat now.] 

[No, really.  As I figure out how to word this post I'm starting to loose feeling in the upper half portion of my body.  I'm thinking I may not be cut out for this...]

* Focus Amber *

O.K..  So anyways.  There's going to be a really fun "booth hop"

that a bunch of us Utah based designers are hosting.  It's called,

All Dolled Up in Salt Lake City!

Each of us has been asked to design a block based off of a doll template we were given.  All of the blocks will be put into a quilt or two and one or two lucky

"market go-ers" will get a chance to win them!

So...

Wanna see my block?

Here she is: 

Yeah.  That's right.  All hand-appliqued.

[That's why she was a week late.]

Anyways.  It's kind of based off of me [long brown hair and blue eyes],

with some references to my grandmother [Gigi]. 

I had to put a 4-patch on there because that's how my grandmother learned to sew.  When she was a little girl her mother gave her a basket of scraps and taught her how to hand-sew 4-patches.  She "went to town" and made enough blocks to make a small blanket for one of her younger siblings.  She grew up in the 30's, thus, the pinafore.

Two of my great loves are represented ~

Family and sewing.

And, I love the socks.  I use to wear socks like this when I was a little girl.

But I didn't grow up in the 30's.  I grew up in the 80's.

I have to tell you, that I had some help designing this.  I am not an artist, nor a graphic designer.  I am a quilt maker.  I design quilt blocks.  With squares, and triangles, and such.  I am really good at drawing stick people.  But not so much real people.  So.  I had a neighbor friend of mine (who is a great artist) put my ideas on paper.  I told her what I wanted (I even drew out a sketch.  You should see it.  It's hideous!) and she brought me back a presentable (paper) version of what I described.  I felt kind of bad that I needed some help, but trust me when I say you would not want to see my attempt at drawing this up all on my own.   

So the appliqued version is going into the prize quilts and I also get to make one more block to hang in my booth.  I'm going to embroider it since I am a little burned out with applique for now.  As you can see, she's all traced on and ready to go!

I think there will be patterns available of all of the blocks at a later date.  I'll let you know when they're ready.

I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of these blocks around in the next few days/weeks.  I can't wait to see them all.  I know Mary and Lila have both posted about theirs already.  You should check them out!

O.K.  I know.  I do long posts.  I'll go. 

But don't forget to enter my giveaway for my new pattern [Mod Meadow] and a kit.  Click HERE if you haven't entered yet.  Giveaway ends tomorrow night.