If you're going to be in Houston for Quilt Market this weekend, I hope you'll come see me! I'll be walking the floor too, so say hi and ask me for a bookmark!

Have a great weekend!

Curiosities Quilt Market Booth

I can't believe it's already been nearly a month since Quilt Market! Time has absolutely flown by since then. I have been preparing to be in Ohio for a week and a half, so a few things fell by the wayside, including posting about my Curiosities booth! Today I want to share some photos! I'll got into detail about the projects later this month.


I had an exterior wall of the large Art Gallery Fabrics booth. It's really nice to be able to decorate a flat wall vs. a three dimensional booth. It was great being able to drive and bring my own furniture without having to worry about going to Ikea or bringing things in my suitcase. I wanted the projects to really pop, so I went with navy for the walls. I kept the projects sweet and simple. I felt that this best represented the cheerful, playful nature of the collection. Plus, with limited time and resources, it made the most sense anyways!

Okay, let's just get to the photos!


This section of the wall had more of the smaller projects, including my new quilted logo, some embroidery hoops, and a "Just Today" print I'll be sharing as a free download soon!


I made this inspiration board out of an old frame and some chicken wire. It was a fun project, and I have it hanging in our hallway now with other photos. For the booth I used it to display some inspiration photos, including the photo of George I used to create his print! You can find a tutorial for it here.


A few more small projects, including a tiny drawstring bag! The pincushions will be a tutorial next month!


A full shot of my new mini pattern, Offset. I quilted it my machine with some straight lines and then finished it up by tying in each square.


George's pillow, and his friend! Also I made a baby version of Geese in Flight!


A couple of fun throw pillows, one using my Mystery Quilted Pillow Pattern, and even one made from knits!


I used some of the knits from the collection for the simple t-shirt (which is a Scout Tee by Grainline Studio done in knit), and some City Gym Shorts. I also made a knit drawstring bag!


A sweet pillow made from a single block from my Florette pattern.


One of my favorite projects I made for the booth was this quilt-as-you-go duffle bag. I used Simplicity 2274. (You can also buy it as a PDF here.) I reviewed the pattern a few years back, here.

If you're a shop interested in carrying Curiosities, it can be ordered through Art Gallery Fabrics.  Find your sales rep here, call toll-free (888) 420-5399, or visit artgalleryfabrics.com.

Hello!

Simplicity #2274 bag made in my Curiosities fabrics.
 
Hello there! Hope you have all been well. Sometimes I am absent from this space because I have nothing of interest to share, but sometimes it is because I am too busy working on other things. This time it was the latter. I showed my new collection, Curiosities, at International Quilt Market in Minneapolis, MN this month. This meant lots of last minute preparations as well as traveling. Thankfully, I was able to drive. It's so nice to drive to these events because I can bring furniture with me, and not have to worry about flying or getting my projects there and back. Minneapolis was a short 4 1/2 hours from Madison, and an easy drive.


Craft studio for APQ and Quilts & More.

After spending 5 days at Quilt Market, I packed up the car and headed to the Meredith Corporation headquarters for a small retreat. Meredith is responsible for publishing many, many magazines including American Patchwork & Quilting, Quilts & More, and Better Homes & Gardens. It was geared towards exploring creativity for the sake of creativity, not for production. We were able to see a behind the scenes look at the facilities, including doing some cupcake testing in the BH&G test kitchen (!!), plus seeing the photo studios and prop rooms used for all their publications. The whole experience really pushed me to consider slowing down more, and creating things simply because. It was really fun, but after traveling for eight days, I was totally exhausted when I got home.


Adorable Quilt Market takeaway from Penguin & Fish.

One of the activities at the retreat was to create a mood board from magazine clippings to describe what we wanted out of the rest of the year. I had a lot of fun making mine, and I hung it up in my sewing room right away. I want to focus on having a relaxing summer and re-evaluating my priorities. As a small business owner, I have the luxury to choose what kind of work I want to do. It can be easy to take on too much, or take on projects that I don't enjoy when I don't know when the next opportunity will come along. I'm not saying I'm in a place where I turn down a lot of things, but I am starting to think more about whether or not something is a great fit for my talents, interests, schedule, and also whether or not it's worth it financially. I want to be more conscious of that, and really listen to my gut when it comes to deciding what to do and what not to do.


Violets in our front yard.

Not sure if that's a particularly interesting conversation for you all, but it's been on my mind a lot this past month. I'd like to change the direction of this space a bit too. I think I'll feel more inclined to post here if I write a little more. When I first started this blog, I wrote in a more journalistic way, and I miss that. Sometimes it feels silly just popping in to share a project or two, but not really saying what's going on in my regular life. We'll see. I'm constantly changing my mind about what to post, so you never know, it might not stick! I do have a decent backlog of projects to share, I will try to post some of those soon. I'll also have a recap of my Quilt Market booth, as well as coordinates for Curiosities (shipping next month already!).


Double Chocolate Banana Bread recipe from SmittenKitchen.com.

I haven't too done much since getting home, primarily putting everything away and getting the apartment back in working order. I've played a decent amount of my favorite app game, Disney Tsum Tsum (Warning: it's addicting!) in between sending and answering emails. I'm hoping to hit the ground running on regular work today. We got lucky and had a perfect day Saturday. It was mid-70s and sunny with a light breeze. We barbequed and generally relaxed, which was great. I'm so glad that summer is here!

Have a great week!

Spring Quilt Market Booth

Happy Monday! I hope you're all ready for a ton photos today! I went through some of my Quilt Market photos this past weekend, yay! This market was a little different for me in that I did not have my own full booth.  The lovely folks at Art Gallery Fabrics put together a great central display and I had a 12' wall to fill to show Geometric Bliss! I think I ended up making about the same amount of projects as I would have anyways, but it was easier to decorate and in the end looked more full.  I think this was my most successful display, personally!

I had a sign printed up this time! I used Spoonflower to have a panel printed and then quilted it iwth Aurifil threads.  I managed to save a piece of each print in the collection for the binding.  I love when an idea turns out exactly as I imagine!


Here is a full shot of the booth! I'm so pleased with how it came together in the end. Don't get me wrong, it was still stressful, but I think knowing I didn't have as much space made it easier!



I drove to Ohio a few days early and got loads of help completing things for the booth.  My Mom and I sewed for three days straight basically! My Dad helped me build this awesome quilt ladder! I am so glad we tackled this project, it was simple and made things a lot easier to display.  Plus I managed to find a place for it in our apartment, so double bonus! It's based on this tutorial by Blair Stocker, we tweaked the measurements so that it would fit in our car!


I had a new postcard pattern to show, made from Geometric Bliss! It's called Fractal, and the design is derived from one of the prints in the collection, Tessellate. I love how this one turned out! I loopy doodle quilted it using my Favorite Things Aurifil thread collection (which I've ordered for my shop!). Will share more about this quilt soon!





It wouldn't be Quilt Market without a million drawstring bags! They show off prints so well, plus they're cute and fun! Will share more about all these projects soon!


My trusty dress form made the trip again, but this time not stuffed into a suitcase! ;)


I recovered the seat of a long folding chair we already had on hand.  I think it turned out so cute1 It was such an easy project, and it was free to boot!


I love how the collections look on the hangers! Geometric Bliss has 20 quilting cottons prints, all shipping in September.


There are two voiles and four knits! So, the Art Gallery knits! I had not felt them until I got there.  They are AWESOME! Seriously, I'm dying to sew with them.  They are a 95% cotton, 5% spandex jersey knits. They have a two-way stretch and are 58"-60" wide.  I think the best way to describe them is like this: if a cotton interlock and a jersey knit had a baby, this would be it! They bounce back really nicely and are so soft.  Cannot wait until they are here! The voiles are awesome too of course! We love our voile pillowcases I made from Art Gallery voiles last year. So soft! I'm going to make all the clothes!

Okay, that's quite enough to be getting on with for now! Have a great day!

If you're a shop interested in carrying Geometric Bliss, it can be ordered through Art Gallery Fabrics.  Find your sales rep here, or call toll-free (888) 420-5399.

Catching Up

Happy Tuesday! Long time no see! We have so much to catch up on, I've had a hard time deciding where to started.  So, today I thought I'd give a quick run-down of the past month, and then this week and next I'll do full posts on some of these things! I've also been for-fun sewing, wooo! I gave myself last week and this past weekend off to recover and relax. It's a good sign that I wanted to be back at the machine right away. I think I managed to do Market without burning myself out! Yippee!

It's SPRING! And I'm very happy about it!


Last month I shipped off some quilt tops to Melissa to be long arm quilted.  They had just been lying around, and I felt like I'd honestly never get to them myself. Two were from early 2013 and the third I just finished.  It was a great relief to check those off my list, and the quilting is beautiful! Looking forward to finishing them up!


Our Dreamin' Vintage Launch Party at The Sewcial Lounge was a great success, thank you to everyone who came out! We had a wonderful time, and it was great seeing familiar faces from class and meeting new people too! I'll post more photos soon!


Lucky me, my parents live between Madison, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, so I was able to go out early, and visit with them before going to rest of the way to Quilt Market.  It was great, and my Mom helped me sew so much.  There is no way I could have finished everything by myself!


A little peek at my Geometric Bliss wall! I'll have lots of photos to share later this week too! I am really pleased with how it came together in the end!


Basically immediately after I got home, I made the drive up to Ardyth's Sew-N-Vac in Baraboo, WI and bought a new sewing machine.  I had been fighting with my Horizon 7700 for a long time and was ready for something different.  I went with the Janome 1600P, because it is a straight stitch only machine.   I've been sewing pretty exclusively on my Singer Featherweight, so I thought this would be a good match for me! We're still getting used to each other, but so far it's exactly what I wanted!


I have a plot in the community gardens again this year! I've been itching to get started and with lots of Michael's help last week, we were able to weed, break up the dirt, put up a fence, and get things planted. I'm excited to watch it grow!


My George bunny was so happy when I got back from my long trip.  I gave him lots of pets and hugs and he has officially forgiven me! :)

Happy Sewing!

To Market, to Market!

Happy Tuesday! Putting the final stitches on a few projects before making my way to International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh tomorrow! I'll be showing my new collection with Art Gallery Fabrics, Geometric Bliss, as well as my Favorite Things thread collection with Aurifil Threads! If you're attending the show, I hope to you'll stop by!


Follow along on Instagram (@jenib320), Twitter, and Facebook! I'll be posting throughout the week!

Have an awesome week!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

As promised, some nice photos of my Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market booth! I picked up a new lens for my camera for the main purpose of getting better wide angle shots in low-light. It also happened to be on my wishlist for years, so it was a win win! I went with the Canon 35mm f/2.  The verdict? Love it! But back to the topic at hand! Welcome to my booth, let's take a look around!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

As I mentioned on Monday, I choose Pure Elements in Lemonade for my walls.  I wanted something really cheerful and fun and I think this color did the job! It's always a struggle to know how everything will look under the convention center lights, so I'm glad it worked out!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

For my booth I was working towards a flea market/craft fair theme, because Dreamin' Vintage would fit right in there.  I didn't get too literal with it, but it helped me make some decisions about the projects to make and some of my props.  A trip to Ikea this past summer sparked some ideas too, like this chalkboard that became the sign for my booth! I also tagged items with pattern information, sort of like price tags!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

I wasn't able to make as many garments as I had hoped, but I'm happy with how the couple I did make turned out! I am itching for my real yardage to arrive in March!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

Most of the projects were displayed on these metal shelves! I'll be back next week to share all the details on the projects and quilts in the booth!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

I brought a few vintage goodies with me too!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

I made some giant tissue paper flower pom poms this time! I think they added a little extra pizazz! Mostly they helped make the booth feel more full!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

I displayed my patterns on one of the walls along with a few small projects and the two larger quilts! I'll be sharing my new patterns next week too!

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

Dreamin' Vintage Quilt Market Booth, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.

One of my last minute projects for the booth was the garland! I ended up using strips of vintage sheets and rope.  I love the way it brought the whole booth together!

Thanks for visiting!