Tula Pink

Where have I been? What have I been doing? Don’t I love you anymore? These are all valid questions. I have left the bright lights and big hair of Dallas and made my way to a quieter place. The people of this little town call it Stewartsville but I have renamed it in my honor. Welcome to Pinkerville! I moved into the little farm house down the road from my Mom. This will be the fourth state I have lived in in less than 3 years. Change is obviously not something I fear any longer, that and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

I have done the big city thing, the suburb thing, the college town thing now it’s time to tackle the small town thing. I haven’t been here long but I have learned a lot. I have learned how to drive on ice and consequently fear for my life and the life of others every time I get behind the wheel. I have learned that mice travel in herds and they really like avocados, I have bought more groceries for them than I have for myself. I have learned that there are not enough words in the English language to describe a dramatic drop in temperature, all though the ones that do exist are mostly of the four letter variety. I have learned how to make my own coffee, since the nearest Starbucks is more than 20 miles away. I didn’t even think that was possible, I stand corrected. Most importantly I have learned that two little girls with big blue eyes that call me big sister can get me to do absolutely anything (no matter how uncomfortable crawling on all fours making pony noises can be).

Aside from my on going battle with nature I have been very busy. I am working on some new fabrics and making a ton of stuff that I will be sharing in some upcoming posts including a few projects for magazines that will coincide with the release of Neptune. To keep myself busy I am helping my Mom out at her Quilt Shoppe. So if you need any fabric cut and find yourself in the Northwest Missouri area then stop by and see me, I am there almost every day.

Well kids, I am off to Quilt Market. I leave for Portland in a few hours and I will miss you all terribly. This time I will have some serious arm candy. I bought a bag from DrakaB Design’s Etsy Shop a while back and fell. in. love. She is my new favorite person. The radical pink one in front is for me, of course, and the sassy little green one in the back is a present for my Mom. She has been instructed not to read the blog until after market but I get my lack of patience from her so we’ll see. If you are going to be in Portland and you see this awesome pink bag then say hi to me (I will be the one carrying it). If you see the green bag then say hi to my mom. She will love it and most likely tell you all sorts of embarrassing tid bits about my teenage years. She loves that.

Anywhoo… See you in a week!

Hey Kids. Sorry for the tardiness but there is a really good reason…

Sigh, no there isn’t I’m just lazy. In an effort to make amends I am finally posting the whole group. Yay! Birds are fun! This flock is in the hands of Moda’s able sales reps as we speak, so if you want it you better tell your shop NOW! so they can order it and it can be in your crafty little hands by August. It’s only a couple of months, no big deal right? I knew you could handle it. I got a little ahead of myself with this one, I was excited. You have no idea how painful it is to sit on this kind of information. It’s like having a baby, naming her, dressing her up all cute then hiding her from everyone you know and pretending like she doesn’t exist. That would just be weird and maybe illegal.

The sample yardage is finally here and the Quilt Market quilt makin’ frenzy has begun. It makes all the difference in the world to see real yardage as opposed to the itty bitty swatches I see during the refining process. That pink is HOT! & I don’t mean Paris Hilton hot, I mean sizzlin’ hot, rock star pants on fire hot. It’s good stuff. So yes, you guessed it in the last post, the theme here is birds. We’ve got bird houses, eggs, nests, bird tracks, loose feathers and clouds. The coloring is like Flutterby on steroids. It’s warmer and brighter just like my bubbly personality, except for maybe in the morning or late at night or right before lunch. I would avoid me during those times unless it can’t be helped and even then I wouldn’t make any sudden moves. Enough about me, look at the new fabric! Yay!

Ok kids, since it seems that people like to see what they can’t have I will now commence with the premature posting of  far off fabrics. Think of it as a little glimpse of the future. I have always wanted to be psychic myself but lack the talent. I have a hard enough time seeing what’s going on while it’s happening.

Can anyone guess the theme? I know my wily wit and sleuth-like-clue-leaving  (I am sure there is a word that means all that) skills are unparallelled but I think I left you all with quite enough to guess where I am going with this. I plan to leave a little trail of bird crumbs that leads all the way to Quilt Market where all will be revealed in its entirety. We will see how that works out. I have heard that patience is a virtue, though it is not mine.

Diamonds are forever ladies. I don’t actually have any but I have seen some and they look like they’ve got a real will to survive. So this quilt pattern is now officially available for download. It’s really easy I promise.

Download Me!

I have been crazy busy this week although I can’t exactly remember what it was that was so furiously occupying my time. Instead of some greater insight into the magical world of Tula Pink I present you with a little bit of eye candy. I took these pictures when I first designed Full Moon Forest about a year ago with the intention of using them in some great advertising campaign that was going to shake the quilting nation to it’s core. That did not happen. The collection came and went leaving me in a cloud of pastel dust. Now, as I work through the ideas for my fourth collection while wrapping up production on the third and pour over the fabric from Flutterby, I have stumbled across this forgotten photo that held so much promise. I incurred great injury taking these photos. It was summer in North Carolina and the bugs were determined to eat me alive. I was invading their natural habitat so I really can’t hold it against them. Maybe that is where Flutterby came from…hmmm. Off topic. There is no great point here just a lovely photo that I thought I would share.

Okay here it is. I have been waiting sooooo long to show you this. You know how I hate keeping secrets. It has been absolute agony but the time has finally come. These luscious little ditties are called Flutterby. This was so much fun to do my head almost exploded! The collection doesn’t ship to stores until march but my mom’s shop, The Quilt Shoppe (click on it, it’s a linky thing), will have it up for presale this week. She is a lovely lady and I think she deserves your patronage.

So this group is all about bugs, only the cute ones and definitely not anything gross or slimy. There are bees and ladybugs, dragonflies and butterflies not to mention the cutest little snail shaped paisleys you ever did see. Okay maybe snails are a little bit slimy but these are not I promise. I hope y’all like it because it would totally break my heart if you didn’t.

Sorry it’s been a while but I was busy receiving gifts in between shoving delicious little cookies in my eager little face. Now I feel ill so I thought this might distract me from all of that mirth. Since I have been a little wrapped up in myself and my baby twin sisters (a.k.a. the “Twinkies”) I thought I might take this time to post some of the drawings that went into the making of Full Moon Forest. I have been assured that this will be interesting to others. I am not so sure. Anywhoo, here they are. From drawing to  cotton there isn’t a whole lot that changes. I take the drawings, scan them and drop them into Illustrator where I redraw them digitally so I can play with the line weights, change out colors and adjust the sizing. That’s about it. So, enjoy the drawings maybe next time I will make them more colorful or jazz them up a bit, decoupage on them or something.

I never thought that seeing my work in a bathroom would be so uniquely gratifying. When a person sets out to make something with which they intend to adorn the world as they see fit this is usually not the fantasy shot. Yet, as I sit here wishing that this was the place I parked my toosh at various intervals throughout the day I wonder… could this be it? Is this the ultimate statement of thinking beyond the cotton? Is this the perfect post childhood marriage between Bambi and Thumper reincarnated as bathroom art? My vote is an astounding yes. I approve and will now set out on the hunt for a ceramic dear head of my very own.