Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

I hope you are all having a great week! Me, things are super super crazy, even more so than usual! Yikes!

2 days after I got home from the H&H trade show, the contractor called. Finally!

After years of wanting and waiting, my family is finally getting some work done on the house. Our cute little single story ranch home over a full basement/garage (my sewing dungeon) is over 50 years old now and needs a little bit of love and updating. We are getting the bathroom completely redone and made safe and accessible with a walk in shower. We are also closing in the 2 garage doors at the end of the basement/garage, which will be the beginning of another project down the road to expand my studio. And hopefully, with a little luck, we will get a laundry hook up in the master bedroom closet. The laundry has always been downstairs in the basement/garage so having one upstairs on the main living level will help save steps and possible accidents on the stairs.

These things are all good, but we’ve been going nuts trying to clean up and prep the spaces for the work this past week because you know when it rains, it really pours. The contractor called early last week and said they would be starting the following week (this week), but they were not very specific as to which day they plan to start. The work won’t take all that long, but things are going to be dusty, messy, and even more crazy than usual. Oh my……Add a super hyper dog and 2 skittish cats to the mix and I am already wishing for a vacation.

I am really excited about the remodeling. And I believe it’s going to jumpstart more updating projects down the road, too. This is the house I’ve lived in my whole life in and I hope to be here for the rest of my life. Updating and making it safer will not only help me but also my parents, who are aging here in place.

They came on Tuesday and demoed the bathroom except for the commode. Wow! It’s exciting that these long-awaited-for projects are now really going to happen.

Well, that’s what’s new with me. What’s going on in your life???

Now let me show you some fun stuff I found at the H&H Fall Edition trade show.

Fun Finds at H&H Fall Edition

I’m excited to show you some of the cool and fun things I discovered at H&H. Some of them even followed me home. I’ve provided links where I could for additional info/shopping. Ask for them at your favorite quilt shop!

Here they are in no particular order:

Pink

I don’t know if you all are aware, but I have come to love the color PINK. It’s such a versatile color that can go cool or warm and there’s a shade for every mood. Anyway, YAY PINK.

At H&H, one of the fabric designer booths for Moda stopped me right in my tracks – oh my goodness – a pink Christmas collection coming to a shop near you in 2027 called December Darling. The booth was decorated in the most charming way. I even got the chance to meet the designer, Heather Briggs of My Sew Quilty Life! What fun! You can bet I’m gonna get me some December Darling fabric for Christmas 2027.

A NEW Quilt Book I’ve Gotta Have!

My friends at Schiffer Publishing just released this very exciting quilt book, Old Quilts Made New, by Teresa Duryea Wong. I am very excited to add this book to my quilt library. Using vintage quilt blocks in new projects was the topic of my very first quilt book, Orphan Block Quilts, back in 2010 so you know this book totally spoke to me when I saw it at the show. And the cover is really eye-catching!

As I mentioned last week, vintage is trending right now. Possibly because of our USA 250th birthday this year. Reusing, repurposing, and recycling are definitely activities you can do with vintage textiles for sure! And this book would be a great addition to your quilting library.

My Dream Studio

I was thrilled to see Dream Box at the show. Have you seen their amazing studio furniture??? Man, I would absolutely love love love to have a Dream Box setup for quilting. I’d never even close the doors because I wouldn’t want to stop looking at all the amazing storage and how I could hide – er, organize – all my stuff in one place. What a dream come true that would be. So if you know anyone at Dreambox…….tell them I’d love to find one of their quilting setups under my Christmas tree this year. I promise, I’ve been very nice (never naughty)…….

I also spied this awesome new sewing machine from Janome. It’s a Continental M6 and features Laundry Basket Quilts. Don’t you just love the turquoise?????? Now don’t get me wrong, I love my Janome 8900, but it’s not quite as pretty as this machine. Sigh……wouldn’t this look incredible in my Dream Box studio???? Just keep dreamin’……….

Sewing Kits for Moms and Kids

This next find wasn’t a quilty find at all, but rather a hand-sewing find. How many of you are always looking for fun and useful sewing projects you can actually do with your kids/grandkids? I see some hands raised out there. LOL!

Check out these adorable 18″ doll clothes outfit kits by Sew It! Workshop. The kits come with everything you need except for your basic sewing supplies like scissors and pins. The pieces are even precut so you can get right to the fun of sewing with your kiddo. What a great way to make something fun and enjoy some screen free time together.

Not into dolls? Then there are some other great kits, too.

I had the pleasure of meeting the owner, Ellen Lumpkin Brown, and she was a delight to chat with. I was really excited to see her doll clothes kits, especially because the outfits themselves are attractive and trendy for today’s 18″ dolls – you’ve got to check out the adorable overalls and t-shirt!

Must Have Fabric

Our quilting partner, Hoffman Fabrics of California, wasn’t too far from us at the show – only around the corner. One of my absolute favorite fabric finds is Hoffman’s upcoming gnome collection called Gnome Sweet Gnome and it is a huge collection – 12 seasonal panels, mini quilt panel, and tons of coordinates for each of the 12 seasonal panels. Oh! Be still my heart! There’s nothing I love more than seasonal stuff. And gnomes. Then Hoffman goes and puts the 2 together –swoonworthy!

I had some fun before the show making a sample quilt for Hoffman’s display. My sample is the blue and gold one folded over the quilt rack (it’s the January panel and coordinates). I used our VRD Homecoming pattern.

Shhhhh! My quilt has a secret – it is a 2 sided quilt. On the front you see the January panel, but on the back is the February panel also in the Homecoming pattern. Let me tell you, I sure was nervous about machine quilting it as it was my first 2 sided quilt project. And then the binding – I was scratching my head over which method to use and how to choose a fabric that looked good on both sides (I did not want to even attempt a 2 sided binding). With Robin’s help (Hi Robin!), I chose the gold because it definitely matched the January side and there was just enough gold on the February side to make it work. And I chose to do a machine-stitched binding with a gold thread. I can say I was very pleased with the result – and there it was on display at the H&H Trade Show. Nice!

Here are my digital mockups of the January and February Gnome Sweet Gnome panels in our Homecoming pattern so you can see how adorable the panels are and how great they look in Homecoming!

Aren’t these really fun??? Well, stay tuned until next year for a whole year of Gnome Sweet Gnome coming in 2027 – the fabrics will be available at your favorite quilt shop January 2027.

Fabric Pressing Mats

Right across from our VRD booth was the Benson Marketing Group. If you are a shop owner, you are probably already familiar with them as they can print your shop logo on your bags, pens, and other promotional items. Anyway, my attention was really caught by their brand new product – silicone pressing mats that can withstand up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Wowzer! But what really got me excited (a lot more than a boring grey wool pressing mat) was that they are actually embedding quilting fabric in the silicone. How cool is that? Or should I say hot???

Of course, a few of them followed me home……….

Here is the 8″ x 12″ mini mat you can put right beside your sewing machine. I chose this great cat one because it’s a favorite Hoffman print of mine from their not-too-long-ago digital collection called Crafty Cats. You might remember I did a tutorial of my VRD Charlie pattern for the blog a short while back. You can find the Charlie pattern HERE and the Charlie tutorial HERE.

This is the large size at a nice 18″ x 18″, perfect for my pressing station. Yes, I chose another cat fabric, but I really loved the bright sewing machines along with the cute cats. It was seriously difficult to pick out the fabric designs because I loved them all – they had fabrics from all the top designers plus lots of fun and novelty designs. I’m excited that these mats will not only make me smile while I’m pressing but they will also brighten up my Mount Cluttermore sewing dungeon.

These mats were flying off the shelves at the show, so I am thinking these are going to be HOT sellers at your local quilt shops.

Colorful Studio Storage

I’m always on the lookout for storage options for my Mount Cluttermore studio – the name says it all, doesn’t it??? LOL! At the trade show, I found these awesome felted wool bowls. They came in different sizes and so many beautiful colors. Fibres of Life is a free trade company working with Nepalese artisans.

They had A LOT of other items besides bowls, but that’s what caught my eye and what I brought home. I also grabbed some “waste wool” pet items for my fur kids – 3 felted wool mousies and a felted wool bone. I had to get the extra mousie for Bailly (my Shih Tzu) because if there was only 2, she’d steal one from the kitties and we can’t have that, can we? So little Miss Bailly got a bone and a mousie. Nope, she’s not spoiled…….

Aren’t these bowls awesome??? I actually grabbed 3 large and 3 small bowls. They will look fab on open shelves someday in my studio (or maybe on shelves in my future Dream Box???) with buttons or ribbon or other fun sewing stuff in them…..

I really want to get one of their pods and tray sets, too. But they only had them for display, not for sale at the show. Bummer…….guess I’ll just have to order a set…..or 2.

Well, these are the top things that really excited me at the show, although there really was a lot of great collections, fabrics, quilts, precuts, notions, and more to inspire me. I’ll be watching my local shops for new stuff coming soon and I hope you will do the same.

Have a great week. And wish me luck getting any time in the bathroom this week while the contractors work their magic on a 50+ year old space.

Catch you later, alligator!

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD