Tula Pink

A while back I showed y’all the process for the feather print in Plume. That was my way of leaking what I was working on. There are rules you know. You can’t sell the cow before it’s been milked… wait that’s not the metaphor. Anywhoo, it’s out now so all secrecy is behind me and I can starting crafting new secrets.

Drawing drawing drawing, la la lala. After I scan the drawing into Adobe Illustrator I start redrawing the “skeleton” of what the final product will look like. Illustrator is the only program I use. I know that there are a lot of programs that structure your repeats for you and have a lot of fancy tools. I guess I am just an elitist or possibly just stubborn or maybe I can’t move past what I know but this is how I like it. I like to draw every line, every step, do all of the math, much like a psychotic control freak (not that I am one, I have documentation on this).

Filling in the skeleton is the first real glimpse of how the fabric will look. At this point I can determine if one section is beginning to look too heavy or if the spacing is weird (in a bad way as opposed to that quirky awkwardness that is so popular these days). By the time I get to color I’m pretty much sitting on the edge of my seat, now I have to start thinking again but it’s still the home stretch. Hmmmm I’ll put green there and blue there, wait, that’s too heavy and I don’t have any lights in this area blah blah blah… That was a sample of my internal dialog.

Once the pinks are dropped in and the background color is established I can take a little break. Then I come back and realize that it all needs to be tweaked.

This is the original color way. In the end I added some golds and turned up the volume a bit on the whole thing. And this is what you get…

Plume is finally in stores! YaY! I have been making tons of stuff. My quilter is pretty much either totally loving me or cursing my name. I’m not sure which. I have a bunch of stuff in the oven and am going to be traveling a bit so if you don’t hear from me as often just know that I am busy making stuff for your benefit. I might also being painting my living room which I have just about had it with.

Once a fabric line ships to stores I feel like I have just released a breath I have been holding for months. I finally have all of my samples made and am now settling into the calm before the creative storm when it all starts up again. I have a bunch of new stuff to show y’all. If only the sun would come out long enough to take a picture. Boo. Who ever thought winter was a good idea anyway? I know I didn’t vote for it.

Miss Holly over at Lakehouse Drygoods has this crazy blog event going. She got a whole bunch of people to make stuff out of her new dolly dresses panel, including me. I’m a total sucker. Mine is going up on December 12th. Check it out, it should be pretty cool to see what all of these different people do with the same panel. Mine will have birds on it. duh.

My 5 new Plume patterns have arrived. They are all glossy and shiny and beautiful. You should make them. The middle one, Le Petite Salon was my show quilt for Quilt Market. Everyone said they loved it, not like they would tell me if they didn’t but still, a compliment is a compliment and I am in no position to refuse one. Plume, arrives in stores in January. The patterns are already available in my mom’s shop and have been flying out the door. I am sure that the rate they are selling has absolutely nothing to do with me standing next to them frantically waving my arms in their direction. No, that’s just a coincidence.

That’s right kids, I speak! I am fluent in both English and Ebonics but I will mostly be sticking to English for this one. Can you imagine, a whole hour of me talking about myself! I will be discussing my glamorous career path to fabric design. I expect it will be enthralling so please come. It will be very sad if my mom is the only attendee (not to mention boring because she already knows all of this stuff). Besides, it’s free! Who doesn’t love free?

If you missed the big pink letters at the top:
Thursday, October 22 at 3 p.m.
University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg
Gallery of Art & Design

‘Tis the season for critters to wander listlessly into the middle of the road. Only Miss Lizzy House can make it adorable. She made the cake for Pam and from what I understand, which is often very little, it was an attempt to satisfy Pam’s need to see an armadillo in Texas. I saw an armadillo in TX once. This one is better and delicious, nothin’ about it tasted like chicken. So I would call this my most interesting market encounter, and everyone knows I love a little surprise critter! I think she should be on Ace of Cakes or something, I mean who really wants a cake in the shape of their car anyway? My Honda would make one lame dessert if you ask me. I am hoping that next year we get a Jackalope.

Market was great as usual, a blur of people and quilts and delicious new fabrics. I feel super weird taking pictures of peoples booths, I am not coy and smooth like other people, I come off a little over excited and stalkerish, so I refrain. You can see oodles of that elsewhere, there is a whole list of people reporting on Quilt Market activity here at Pam’s place of bloggery goodness. To be perfectly honest, which is not to imply that I am usually a liar, I spend my days very isolated with the exception of these two weekends a year. I get very excited to go and then spend the next three days wondering why everything is moving so dang fast. It’s kinda like when you stay home sick and don’t talk for a couple of days and then you open your mouth to speak and it all comes out weird, but I’m working on it.

I am a lady of tradition if not consistency. So here it is folks, my bi-annual off to Quilt Market bag. Ta Da! Jaybird, a bloggy buddy, actually asked if I had made one yet in the last post. She remembered! I was overwhelmed with sentiment and gushy pride. You actually read this stuff? I thought blogs were just giant inter-webbed picture books! I now feel like I should pay more attention to what I write but that has the potential to lack spontaneity and therefore be less fun.

I usually make a bag from some super hip pattern from some some ultra cool designer but this year I had a hard time finding one with enough pockets so I made my own. I need lots of pockets, not to conceal weapons or anything just water and snacks which are prohibited on the market floor. I hear the punishment can be rather severe if you don’t have a man on the inside who owes you a favor. This bag is essentially a giant pocket, way to solve a problem right?  I broke 3 needles making it because I refused to get off my rear and get the heavy duty needle I needed to get through the seams (4 layers of batting and 4 layers of Decor Bond, oops, I like a stiff bag). Laziness can be so tragic and very often involves at least twice the amount of work.

I did get to do a little machine quilting on my own though. My general philosophy is to leave the heavy lifting to the pros but I do dabble from time to time.

SO it’s that time again. It seems like only yesterday…International Quilt Market is in a few weeks which means little hotel shampoos,  the rekindling of bi-annual friendships, tons of fabric envy and some petty theft in the form of mini soaps and plastic shower caps (I love those things). I have been sewing like crazy and I’m pretty excited about my quilt for the Moda booth. My quilter friend, Angela, is going to do some really amazing stuff with it. She’s a genius, an artist, a genius-artist. I am told there will be some artsy stuff going on in there. I let her do what ever she wants because she always comes up with something I never would have considered. I guess that’s why she is the quilter and I’m not.

The first quilt I make with a new line of fabric is always my favorite. The quilt becomes the physical memory of first working the collection. It’s like falling in love, everything seems crucial and dire. I remember every moment, every stitch. When my seams don’t line up it hurts my heart. It’s like getting to “know” the fabric, I discover new combinations that I didn’t see before. If the quilt would bring me flowers and change the oil in my car it would be like the best boyfriend ever. I mean, it does like to cuddle.

This is some of the best random cinder block wall painting I have ever seen. I didn’t do it. I have an idea who did but I’m not sure enough about it to say here. I saw it in Raleigh, NC on the side of a gallery.

It’s actually just a placeholder image so I can tell you about the very amusing and delightfully insightful interview of one Miss Tula Pink on True Up. You can learn all kinds of stuff about me if you are so inclined.

The interview was done by Mary Beth, she has a great blog called Supafine. I think I have a crafty crush on her. She works with stretchy material which I am deathly afraid of and so has earned my highest level of respect. Check it out.

And just when you thought I was done… It seems I can’t stop coming up with new stuff. The 6th installment, that’s right 6th, of the Tula Pink saga is here, in sample form anyway. Hushabye should be shipping to stores anytime now so while you are rushing off to purchase that wonderland of critter joy let me introduce you to what’s driving down the barrel at an alarming pace. I call her Plume. I just received my sample swatches and thought I might commemorate the occasion before I start hacking it to pieces to make my quilt for market. I love this collection almost as much as I love myself. It’s bright and happy and fresh and organic, sort of like a hippy but cleaner. It’s possibly the best drawing I have ever done. To finally see it in living color fills me with such geeker joy that I am even willing to feed all of the stray cats that are milling around my yard. I know that means they will come back, it may cost me a fortune in kitty kibble but I just don’t care. Milk for everyone!

And please, how dang cute is that selvage? A little Fleur De Lis instead of the oh-so-boring standard dot? Will the cuteness ever end? I say no. Cuteness will endure for ever and ever. Amen.