Y’all have seen the cover now it’s time to take a little peek inside my new book Quilts from the House of Tula Pink! The photos in this book are totally blowing my mind. I have to give a great big huge digital hug to Elizabeth Maxon for scouting, styling and photographing all of this (check out her blog here). She totally got what this work was about. It’s about fun and humor and fantasy and the little details that bring a story to life. Love it! Love her!

I have my advance copy and am seeing this all in print for the very first time. I am so proud of this collection of work that I can barely express it in words except to say that I offer you the very best of me. I have never worked so hard or cared so much. Holding the final copy in my hands makes me excited to do more. Tear, sniffle, pride… sigh. Now back to work!

Available for Pre-Order and shipping very very soon! (February/March)

Amazon

Barns and Noble

Martha Pullen

Tula Pink Pattern Shop

Published by Krause Publications: Thanks guys!

So, um… I haven’t been around a whole lot the last month and for this I am almost really sorry. I wanted to say it’s because I have been writing a book but the truth is that I wrote this last year so that excuse is out the window. Hey, a book! That is a way better topic than where I have been.

So here is my book. Quilts from the House of Tula Pink. I was lobbying for the subtitle “Super Awesome Crafty Crap” but in the end everyone decided that the less offensive “20 Fabric Projects to Make, Use & Love” would go over better with the masses. So here is it: 10 amazing quilts and each with it’s own accessory project, fun for everyone!

The photography totally blew my mind. We are talking some serious quilt porn here. The photos were all taken in this crazy abandoned apartment. I like to call the style post-apocalyptic chic. It’s very cool if I do say so myself. The book should start shipping late February. You can pre-order it directly from me in my shop. All books ordered from me will be signed, I have a lovely signature I think you will like it.

GO TO SHOP

This is that super awkward time of year when I am producing an obscene amount of work that I can’t show you. By the time I can show you I will have moved on to some new top secret project and forgotten all about the stuff I was saving. Here in lies the eternal dilemma of this blog.

I am getting ready to tear down my Parisville booth from last market, which is currently living in my Mom’s Quilt shoppe (that would be The Quilt Shoppe in Stewartsville, Missouri). If you want to see it in all of it’s Parsiville glory then I suggest hauling your cute little butts down there before May 1st. While I was contemplating how I was going to redo the booth for Spring Quilt Market I realized I never really showed y’all what was on the back wall… I spent many hours painting hot pink hair on these vintage photos that I bought at a flea market several years ago. It was a good time.

I hope you enjoyed this little diversion. I promise to come up with good stuff while I am busy working on other things.

I recently spent the weekend on the Gulf Coast with my Dad and Grandma.  Some time was spent playing Black Jack with my Dad’s money, it’s a game we play often. Dad wins, I lose and it all comes up even in the end. He also tried to teach me about football, sorry dad, I still don’t get it. In between all of this family fun I decided to work on my embroidery skills. It’s pretty fun, if you like that whole not moving while poking yourself in the finger over and over sort of thing. I’m sure there is some kind of hand gadget that prevents this sort of fingertip mutilation, Idunno, like a thimble? So that’s what those things are for!

Anywhoo, I am mildly obsessed with stitchery at the moment. My friend Raechelle taught me how to make a french knot and now I am like totally pro. I’ve been going around my house french knotting eyes on everything. Fun! I probably need to get out more.

I know I have been away for a while but I am pretty sure that y’all will forgive me. I have about a thousand irons in the fire at the moment and every single one of them is freaking me out with excitement not to mention depriving me of anything that might resemble sleep. I think I may have forgotten where my bedroom is. Oh well, it’s in here somewhere.

So now on to the topic at hand. I am often asked how I start a fabric collection. Where to begin can be the hardest part. A crucial part of my process is the thumbnail sketch. It’s called a thumbnail because it’s small, I didn’t name it or anything, that’s just what it’s called.  I use a sketch book that’s for animators and film people. It has little boxes printed on the page that are supposed to be little TV screens. It’s super cute and saves me the time of drawing a box. I can draw animals, flowers, people and an infinite number of made up things but the square still escapes my talents, go figure. I suck at stick figures too.

I made a little stocking this year just for me. Even though Christmas is an agonizing two days out of my studio I though I might go ahead and get festive anyway. Anyone who knows me knows that my converse collection is extensive and pretty much the only thing I put on my feet except for my cowboy boot shaped slippers which make frequent appearances in and, unfortunately, out of the studio. I have casual cons and  shiny shiny dress cons. It’s a thing. I would like to point out that my feet aren’t actually that big but I needed the room for all of the wonderful gifts that I am anticipating this year. I haven’t behaved all that well but then again I never do and I always seem to get rewarded anyway so I’m not too worried.

I tried my hand at a bit of embroidery this time… It’s awesome. Look forward to seeing a lot more of that in future posts. I already have about a billion new projects brewing on that little sidetrack.

So on to the point of this holiday interlude… Merry freakin’ Christmas people! Enjoy the Holidays, laugh at dirty uncle whoever he may be, make sure to get pictures of aunt so and so after one too many dips in the party punch, brush up on your smile and nod skills and if you get an ugly Christmas sweater be sure and wear it like you mean it, it makes all the difference.

Hey Kids. Remember when I decided to take November off? Ya, that didn’t work out. We have been shipping out patterns everyday, it’s lovely but totally exhausting. I decided instead to take December off. That didn’t go so well either. So here I sit without my coveted time off, I am thinking about taking 2011 off. I am hopeful that it will work out.

Now on to the point of this post. I have a confession to make… I have never actually made Spiked Punch. I wrote the pattern and had several people test the pattern but I never had a chance to make it myself. I had a few scraps left over from Parisville when I was making my quilts for Quilt Market this fall. So, I finally made it! Yay for me! I used a gray pin dot for the background. It turned out good and now all is right again in Pinkerville. It always bothered me that I never tested that pattern myself. I do suffer from a touch of controleverythinginreach syndrome, I’m not proud of it but I deal with my shortcomings head on.

Angela did an amazing job on the quilting as usual. Now that she is quilting out of my Mom’s Quilt Shoppe I get to abuse her time even more effectively which suits me just fine. I do my best to let her take a break when she starts to turn pale.

What’s a bunch of new fabric without some patterns? It’s like a sandwich without peanut butter, lame. Anywhoo, My new quilt patterns are super rad and are finally available! You can find them here… or shipping out to quilt shops everywhere, all week long! Yay for commerce! It keeps me in ink and paper through the winter.

Parisville is beginning to ship all over this fine planet of ours! Yay, let’s be excited! In the spirit of celebration I bring you another process post… This time just in pictures, like a silent film. Imagine me pantomiming the good parts: You can call me Buster Pinkton if you feel like it.

If me talking about me interests you then we may have a bunch in common, we should get together and go bowling or something. If this is entirely uninteresting to you then I respect your decision to join a different league. We will probably beat you though, I rock the bumper lanes and I love borrowed shoes.

I am open to names for our team if you have any…

Quilt Market is Weird. We all work super hard for three days of “show”. I kinda love it though. Parisville is my 7th fabric collection and this Market was my very first booth. I took it as an opportunity to re design my guest room. I am a multi-tasker at heart so it seemed like the right thing to do. It was like a great big tax write off shopping spree. Isn’t that what life is all about? I think it is. Every item I purchased or made was for the express purpose of that extra bedroom. My future guests will be so pleased.

The idea for the booth, besides just decorating my home, was to make a little Parisian salon. I made a lot of little hair pictures and painted everything this surreal mint clay color. There was stuff everywhere! I loved it and I think other people were into it too. At one point the line to get your picture taken with Ty Pennington wrapped around my booth. It was a good opportunity for me to exercise my entertaining skills. A few jokes and a sassy little tap dance did the trick. Luckily the line wound down before I got saucy enough to start singing.

In the excitement of all that is Quilt Market I may have forgotten to take pictures of my booth. Lame, yes but not a total loss. Luckily other people think a bit more on the practical side than I do. Miss Julie let me borrow her pics. She has a ton more over at her place. The girl is thorough to say the least.