Yipee!!

Ok, so I have SO MANY POSTS TO WRITE, like, a million, about market and about fabric and my birthday and painting the dining room and awesome quilts other people have made with my fabric, but I have been supa-busy and, let's face, it, fairly lazy, but I wanted to pop in to show you something awesome.
Jenny Rinzler of this humble abode (formerly ciuccio) has been awesome on etsy for FOREVA, but recently switched her focus to making excellent ties, some of which are made EVEN MORE EXCELLENTER (biased opinion here) because they are made of my fabric! Anyway, Jenny was recently featured by the San Francisco Chronicle! (Does Jake Gyllenhall still work there? It was only a movie? Whatever.) Take a looksie at the article and the fabulous drool-worthy ties she makes, and then stop over to marvel at this little post, which warms my heart's cockles immensely.
Check out her shop, and buy your loved ones some awesome ties that are a million times cooler than anything you will ever find at the mall. Make your dad a little cooler this holiday season!

(Photos stolen from Jenny's etsy. Please don't sue me?)

Quilt Market in Small Bits #3

Cloud 9 my friends. It smells and tastes and feels as good as it looks. Which, I think, should be their new slogan. I'm sure everyone has already heard about their Designer Series, but HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THEIR DESIGNER SERIES? Julia Rothman, Heather Moore of Skinny LaMinx, and Geninne Zlatkis are all doing collections on Cloud 9's organic fabric! Also, It's going to be another price sensitive collection, so great organic fabric for under $12/yard, so that's awesome. I personally am really excited for the Nature Walk collection, which I am going to try and get at Harpers. KC folk, you would buy sweet organic fabric from us if it were under $12/yd, right? RIGHT? H'Anyways, Michelle was really, really nice, and the booth was beautiful, one of my favorites at market. The owl tote bag? I had seen it on interwebs, but it is even cuter in person. I briefly considered stealing it, but I already had enough to shove in my suitcase, and also stealing is bad? NEXT!Daisy Janie, another fabulous organic company! Jan was really awesome, and her booth won an award, which makes sense because it was great. There were a ton of really cute bags, as well as the Square Dance quilt, and a couple of adorable fabric boxes from Smidgebox. Their new Shades of Gray collection is pretty brilliant, because who doesn't love gray prints? And, ps locals, Bon Bon Atelier just got some sweet Geo Grand bolts in the other day. I am oogling the ogee print for another Birdie Sling.
Delicious market morsels, there are so many more of them to share!

Quilt Market in Small Bits #2

Alexander Henry makes me die. Like, I want to live in their fabric. Look at these pictures and tell me you don't want to live there too.I breifly discussed Halloween costumes with one of thir friendly sales-folk. He had planned on being Vincent Price, but forgot his costume, and so he just waxed his mustache, which was pretty fabulous. I told him I had wanted to be Rachel Zoe but was afraid no one would get it. (Also? Why? Because I love her, a little.) Then he told me that before he realized Market was on Halloween, he and a friend had planned on going as Rachel and Brad! Anyway, fairly boring story, but it was nice to know that one person would have appreciated my Zoe-ness. If I had done it, that is.
Anna Maria Horner, anyone? (Have you picked up on my super-secret system of organizing these by alphabetical order by initials? I'm fancy.) So, her booth was really fabulous, and she was very funny, although I don't think I ever spoke to her directly, because I was scurred. BUT, also present in her booth was her assistant/seamstress/rockstar, Alexia Abegg. Meeting Alexia? HUGE deal for me. I was almost more dorky with her than with Amy Butler. The first quilt I ever made was based on one of Alexia's, and her blog was just a GIANT part of me getting really into fabric. It's a small world, this quilty one, and I really love it.
That's all for tonight, kiddies. Mama is going to go microwave her sammich.

Market! In Small Bits.

The idea of writing one big Quilt Market post has been looming over me for the past, oh, week and a half, and it is INTIMIDATING. Because market is LONG and AWESOME and TIRING and OVERWHELMING and INSPIRING and TIRING AGAIN. I just finished editing my pictures today, which is ridiculous, but I took 500 photos, and now that I look at them, I keep thinking of things I DIDN'T get pictures of. There's just that much stuff. It's insane. And the people! I met so many amazing people, some who I "knew" from the interwebs, and then about a million more that I didn't, and the people at Quilt Market? They tend to be awesome. I'll try to remember all of them an give credit to their particular awesomes, but I will probably fail. Also, I don't really take pictures of people, (They MOVE! It is frust-er-ating!), so you will have to imagine what they look like, or google them. But the people are a big deal, and one of my very favorite people, ever? Kim Kight. Of Trueup.net. Who is awesome, so much so that I actually thought to take a photo of her awesomehood. I mention her first because I was lucky enough to be her market buddy, and because she was suuuuper nice and let me hang around her when she was meeting with fancy people, and she didn't mind when I followed her around like a lost puppy. Because for the first, say, hour and a half? I was a lost puppy. Thursday was the Schoolhouse sessions, where designers give little presentations about their lines, and other people give presentations about quilts and such, and for the first few sessions, I was walking around alone, feeling like the opening sequence of a teen movie about a new kid in town. It was a bit pathetic, and I started to think I would never meet anyone, and would spend all of Market alone in my crazyness, walking around with my head down like the kid who keeps Magic the Gathering cards in their pocket. (Sorry, people who like Magic the Gathering. Do you still exist? I'm feeling very high-schooly at the mention.) BUT THEN, I am standing waiting to go into Bill Kerr's schoolhouse, and I look over and see the most beautiful nametag ever! Kim Kight! And so, like most freaks, I say Oh! and hug her. Before introductions. Because that is how I roll. And then I intriduced myself, and we hugged again. And she's SO CUTE! And funny! And really, I should end this section, because it's making me sound all freaky-deaky, but it was just the BIGGEST relief to be market-buddied, and know I would not roam the red-carpeted halls all on my lonesome. But anyways. ON TO THE FABRIC!Of course, first has to be Amy Butler, because she's Amy Butler, and that's all there is to it. I met her when Kim and I were going to her Schoolhouse, and she was totally as nice as everyone says. And as tall as they say. She asked me if I knitted my vest, which I didn't knit, and then, like the dork that I am, I told her I got it at Marshall's, because Amy Butler TOTALLY CARES where I got my vest. BUT she said she liked my birdie sling! And then I gushed about how great the pattern was, and eventually she had to turn away from my gushing and go present her schoolhouse, which was great. Because the new stuff (Soul Blossoms) is pretty great. We ordered all of it at the store, so expect it in KC in December, my friends. And now, gratuitous booth shots.Is that enough to make your head spin? This is only post one, my friends, there is still SO MUCH MORE.

I'm Goin' Places. How INCREDIBLY cheesy.

Oh, my. So. A LOT OF STUFF IS GOING ON! Not like, earth-shattering stuff, but all the little stuff that accumulates on the carpet of your brain-floor and then suddenly you can't walk around without stepping on a plastic dinosaur and WHY are there plastic dinosaurs on my brain floor? This metaphor got lost. I must consult my mind grapes. Is anyone reading this anymore?
Here's whats on the carpet.1) I got a new job, at a QUILT STORE! This means I get paid to cut, fold, fondle, and recommend fabric. Obviously, it's a big stretch for me. I wish I had pictures, but I keep forgetting to take my camera in, and also because I fear I will be mocked for takin pictures of my workplace for my blaaaaag. If you live in the KC area, though, you should totally stop by Harper's sometime, because I might be there, and I would probably creep you out with my fabric lust. Funzers? It's great because the people I work with are amazing, and I LOOK FORWARD to going in to work! Also, I get to take the store's classes, so I am going to begin to refine my "technique". It is in quotes because I have none, I am definitely of the SLAP IT TOGETHAH! WITH LOTSA THREAD! school of quilting. But skillz, I will soon have you!2) Cherri House came to Kansas City, and it was So Very Awesome. I was lucky enough to get to have dinner with her on the fist night, see her guild presentation, and then take her workshop the next day. She gave an amazing presentation to the KCMQG, and is just so so so nice, and her work is totally inspirational. The City News workshop was great, the block is really fun and pretty easy to do, now I just have to finish putting it together...3) I am having a little sale in the etsy shop, some totes marked down to $16, which is le cheap. Also, I am super close to 700 sales, so number 700 will get a little something extra!
4) And this is the biggie... I'm leaving for Fall Quilt Market on Thursday! I am super super super excited to hobnob with all of the fabric folks who are my idols, soak in the quilty atmosphere, and, of course, GO TO SAMPLE SPREE. (Hence the etsy sale, frinds.) Drooling about sample spree, and also drooling about CAKE PARTY! I have decided that I will force Lizzy House to be my friend, that's not creepy at all, is it? (Answer: it is.) I'm not sure I've ever been so excited about a trip as I am about this one. (Ok, my honeymoon probably, whatevs.) Who else will be there? WHO? Wanna hang out?5) I'm going to market, so I HAD to make a new bag, right? And what's better than a little blatant self-promotion? I made this bag (Amy Butler's Birdie Sling) in 3 hours, which was highly impressive to me. Of course, I cheated because I used upholstery fabric and so I didn't have to interface anything. The boat fabric is printed on Spoonflower's upholstery weight twill, which is pretty much pure heaven. And the pattern is so easy and fun that even I, the total pattern-fail, could do it, with NO MAJOR TEAR-INDUCING mistakes, AND I started the project after 10:00 pm! Things started at that time of night RARELY end well, but this one was a snap. Oh, the hubris, I am sure the next thing I sew will be an absolute disaster after this paragraph, look forward to my next post being whiny and sad. But for now, I am triumphant! Victoire!
6) A random girl at the city market yesterday told me that my hair was pretty. This has NEVER in my LIFE happened. I am sorry haircut, that I so wronged you. I miss the ponytail, but you have served me well. I am a whiny whiny jerk for crying so long. I'm sorry. Forgive me, follicles, for my sins against you.
7) These quilt blocks? I am in love. I might be biased, but I think they're like the best ones ever. Also, look how nicely bikes play with castle peeps? Another reason why Lizzy and I should be friends. Just sayin'.

I Think I Actually Sewed Something?

Like, something that was not a tote bag or a kleenex holder or whatever other stuff I sew so often that it no longer feels like sewing. Or, well, no, it still feels like SEWING when I am making 20 tote bags, but it feels like I am sewing in my robot-body. My robot-body can make totes all afternoon, and never have to think a bit. What was the point? Oh, I sewed something! Act impressed, and try and forget that the point of this blog was supposed to be about me sewing things frequently. Ahem.This was just a little sew-as-you-go project I made with some of ye olde scraps. It ended up feeling rather fallish, and functions beautifully as a mouse pad. A mouse pad large enough to be used as a coaster at the same time. Nothing could ever go wrong in the scenario where you keep you giant plastic tea sippy cup on your mouse pad, right? Right.
Tomorrow the fabulous Cherri House (mother of Lizzy House) comes into town to speak at the KC Modern Quilt Guild and then give a workshop, and I will be in attendance at both, so that is super exciting, and if you live around the KC area you might consider checking it out. Tomorrow's guild meeting is from 7-9 at the Roeland Park Community Center, and costs $5 for non-guild members, email me with any questions! And here is a stack of fabric for my Castle Peeps Quilt (in progress) in honor of the House laydeez. Holla.

You Are THE BEST.

Ok, everyone with a hair story, you are the best. I should explain that on the day of my hair tragedy, I hadn't bothered to eat yet, (It was about 3:00 when it happened,) and that might have contributed to the meltdown. Also, styling products can be used for good or evil, but most every salon I've ever been to has used them for evil. I guess I just like my hair exceptionally flat and unpoofed, and that is at odds with the salon worldview. THE POINT BEING, the haircut, it turns out, is not all THAT bad. It's just not what I wanted. And man, letting go of that hard-won ponytail... Well, I can think of it without tearing up now, but I'd rather not dwell on it.
The stories though? They made my day. And my week. And maybe my month, because they are HILARIOUS. Have you ever wondered, gee, is Lauren a person who likes to laugh at other's pain? (You've SO never wondered that.) But the answer is a resounding YES. I live to laugh at other's pain, as long as they are laughing too, an it's not pain from, like, cancer. So the stories were just what I needed. Along with a bowl of Spaghetti-o's (yeah, judge me.), and a Hershey's Cookie's and Creme bar, and later that evening, tea with Alex. Do you know Alex, interweb friends? She is a million times the quilty-person I will ever be, and she makes awesome tutorials so you can be cool like her, too. Also, she is good to have tea with and knows lots about books. But I have gotten distracted.
So, as a token of my appreciation for your hair-pain, and your sharing of that pain, I am going to pick someone from the hair comments and they will receive a fat quarter of...The HAIR-RAISING (ha! I segue!) new HALLOWEEN BIRDIES! This is just a little side-project I've been working on, and I'm so happy to have it out there for any Halloween projects you might have! (Seriously, waiting on the proofs for this just about killed me!) This fabric is ONLY available through my shop on Spoonflower, and comes in 5 colors, Ghoulish Gray, Ghastly Green, Boo Blue, Scary Berry, and Perfect Pumpkin. I just made those color names up, and it was fun. And now, GRATUITOUS BIRDIE PICS!
I printed swatches to test out the colors- the actual design has many more birdies than are shown on these pieces, like...Wizard birdie!Flapper birdie hearts football birdie...Ooh-la-la birdie.Groucho birdie, one of my favorites.Cat bird, Freddie Kruger of the bird-costume world.And the winner is... Jen Peterson! Your pain has made you one fat quarter richer! Please send me an email with your address and your color choice and I will send it out to you!