desimms clips 4u

I am mid-thigh deep in Quilt Market preparation, layered in with book completion, final new pattern tweaking and what feels like everything else. I am only now getting sample yardage of my newest fabric collection, Field Study , which was suppose to be here in its entirety about 3 weeks ago.  So sewing it up in all that we had planned for booth samples has been interesting to say the least, as we have changed plans about 82.3 times now.  With less than half the time to sew that  I normally have, I've pulled in twice the help and every day there is some new plan about what exactly we are sewing depending which of the 36 total quilting fabrics has arrived.  Because there is such a rush, the mill is sending them piece by piece, sometimes 6, sometimes only 3 prints at a time.  It. Is. Kooky.  But somehow, it is keeping all the creating spontaneously chaotic in an entirely good way.  Like this little skirt might not have come together just like this yester...

I am happy you guys enjoyed some of the foodie love I offered yesterday (and to answer a Q, that table linen is 4 yards of gorgeous fabric that I found in NYC last fall... cannot remember the name of the store, but it was a shop in the garment district that is nothing but linen). I was thinking today about my go-togethers. I have favorite movie genres that I pair with various types of handwork that depend on the focus needed for each.  I should make a chart sometime (it's right there in my head, I just need to write it out). Jeff and I have exhausted almost every single British period piece available in the Netflix instant streaming offerings.  We were so sad to come to the end of all of the Catherine Cookson novel adaptations (where even the low-budget ones are 10x better than most anything on the television).  All the drama.  So entertaining.  The typical British kind.  Wealth.  Poverty. Getting knocked up out of wedlock, etc.  (Why do we rela...

How was your weekend? And the past few weeks? I hope good and happy. I am so excited to finally be able to share these projects with you- they are the Patchwork Prism Quilt & Sham that I designed for Janome. And they're ready to be downloaded , viewed , flickr'd and all! Visit my Janome page or Janome's Anna Maria page - either way you'll find everything you need to make your own. I loved making this project so very much.  I included mostly my own prints + Liberty + some Denyse + Kaffe too. We even have some print by color stacks in the shop for you if you're so inclined. The sham has gotten quite cozy on my bed. It is such a lot of work to get things just the way you want them, especially in the format of video, but I really hope you enjoy watching it.  Mostly I hope that, together with the pattern pdfs, it makes building this quilt easier and more exciting. All the linkies should be working but of course let me know if something isn't doing what...

Whether or not I had the time to make these bags myself, I knew they needed to be made. I love having pals that will take on some sewing for me when I am struck by such a bug. I did take the great personal pleasure however in picking out the materials for her. Then poof. Done. They are a ribbon -y version of the Art Student Tote , and I daresay lurvely. Here's another had-to-happen-happiness in spite of my current workload. Thank you to Pierrette, my little gif fairy for that one. Happy Spring friends, xo, Anna

So they brought me a car load of family handworks to photograph. The best gift. One favorite and very rare example of quilt making in my family is this beauty that my mom put together from her own grandmother's blocks. I asked her to tell me more about, so the following is her description: "My grandmother Hooton made the blocks; they are hand pieced. (She died in 1948, so they were made some time before that.) I found them in the cedar chest in {my mother's} attic when we were cleaning out for the "sale" before she moved to assisted living. I didn't want them to go to waste, so I put them together to use as a baby blanket. I found the "tea colored" flannel that I thought would look more vintage. Unfortunately at the time I didn't know about quality quilter's flannel, so it's the cheap stuff. I did use it for some of the grandchildren when they visited, but after a few washings, I decided I wanted to keep it as more of an heirloom...

When I was teaching one of my workshops in Sacramento, we had several giggles over me trying to adopt methods of getting everyone's attention while they were at their machines. So we eventually went with me saying NEEDLES DOWN as if they were taking a final exam. While most everyone thought it was funny, there were definitely some sad faces at that command every now and then (but that was sorta funny too- I say that out of love). Late last night after a very long day when I could barely keep my eyes open, I had to say out loud to myself, needle down, Anna. Once you find yourself in the process of having several works in progress, as I always do-whether book developing or not- you become aware that picking the needle up is no longer the hard part. Learning new stitches, trying different techniques and materials can be challenging. But stopping before I see a certain flower (or some other fancy) fully realized still proves to be the greater challenge. Okay, needles up. xoAnna

I tend to always come home from anywhere with a pile or ten of new fabric. I often get asked whether I buy fabric since I have so much of my own. Funny. Of course. Lots. I also get asked what I like to buy. I enjoy sewing with my fabric, naturally- it really helps me design actually- but anyone wants to sew with more than one designer. I seem to almost exclusively buy Denyse , Heather , Liberty , and several Japanese prints-usually Kokka . They all tend to be so different from anything that I make that I am quite certain that is what draws me in. There is a smaller scale to most all of them, but also a similar color sensibility to my own fabrics. So both of those aspects typically means they pair really well with my own prints. Plus, I can't help but love the work of dear friends who I admire for so many reasons to begin with. (It's extra fun when you can just trade stacks, as Denyse and I did in Palm Springs). The above curation has been gathered for quilts for th...

(As I wrote this earlier this morning) I am somewhere in the air between Los Angeles and Sacramento right now, and thought I would share my flowery snaps around Beverly Hills. I spent a lot of time in my hotel room watching old movies and working on various embroidery projects. My legs started to go numb so I thought I should walk around. The walk from my hotel to Rodeo Drive seemed a nice distance, and I guess I felt an obligation to see that. Saw it. But I really enjoyed a few stops on the way back - a coffee shop and the Paper Source . I found some sweet Valentine kits to take back for the girls, a stuffed giraffe for Roman, a harmonica for Nicolas, and a mini sound effect machine for Joseph- (the cartoon edition that has like 16 buttons each with a funny cartoony noise, like a bomb exploding, a springy noise + that sound that Bugs Bunny's eyes make as they pop out of his head when he sees a pretty rabbit- those sorta sounds.) I missed the kids so much by the time I got b...

I got out a little yesterday morning to poke around and see what this town looks like a bit before I started my class at Sew Modern. Okay, I just walked to Starbucks and back. But I have already decided that my favorite thing about Beverly Hills is the foliage that takes over (in a very specifically manicured way) all the old apartments and beautifully nestled together stucco houses everywhere. So pretty. My hotel, the Maison140 , served as an actor's hostile in the early 20th century I'm told. It is extremely quaint. Every surface in my little room is some shade of warm red, white or marble black. When you walk into the lobby at night, shown above, there is always some old black and white film being projected on one of the walls. I should try to get a grab of that tonight.... And this is the lovely group of women I got to spend my day with yesterday making the Multi-Tasker Tote- otherwise known as Sara, Amy, Jennifer, Julie, Jennifer, (me), Shay, Liberty, Morgan, Lorrie ...

This is just one of many gorgeous views Jeff snapped from the highest peak of the San Jacinto mountains. It was a dream for him to be able to plan, look forward and climb that summit. The way he talked about it almost had me convinced to overcome my height squeamishness and tram up for a look myself....but in my generosity, I decided to let him keep that joy all to himself. Yesterday my crafty friends made mustaches out of my braids. So clever those two. This is Annabel on the left and Heather on the right. Jeff just took this one with my phone, but Alessandra was also snapping away, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of those. Such sweet girls. Today is the first day on my own, now that Jeff is back home with the kids. Alissa picked me up in Palm Springs this morning and brought me to L.A.- Beverly Hills to be exact- what? I know- so weird. Not a place I ever thought that quilt talks and sewing would ever bring me (our kind are everywhere!), but so far it has been...

I've been writing this blog post in my mind for a few months now. This fall will see the publication of my 3rd book title, Anna Maria's Needleworks Notebook . I've casually mentioned it here and there, mostly in other interviews, in some talks I've given, in some conversations and so forth, but its time to talk about it a bit more officially, I imagine,- especially in the string of what I'm looking forward to this year. Because I am really, really, really thrilled with this upcoming book. It is so different than the other two, I think entirely in a good way. Just like hand work is different than sewing machine work- that sort of difference. This book has come about very slowly, I sort of had half the projects designed before I even knew how I wanted to present them. The idea of a book about 18 months ago, just made me sleepy. Not bored, I was just all too aware of that process and how you live it eat it breathe it until its complete. And I guess I just didn...

Hullo there. I meant to get photos from quilt market uploaded, edited, flickred and blogged yesterday but the heavens opened, shining rays of unspeakable light on my sewing table and told me I should quilt instead. So I obeyed. (Seriously look! I never get those cool sun flare shots.) For real, I did have the house all to myself for a solid 6 hours so I moved my sewing machine downstairs next to the design wall and patched and patched and patched. And as it happens its a new quilt pattern for my Janome projects called Patchwork Prism. Hmm. hope you're having a sunny weekend, xoxoAM

Letting the photos do most of the talking today pals :) The above patchwork blanket is called "Log Mansion" which I'll have a free pattern out for in a few weeks, though it really is just a gianormous log cabin block. This particular piece has no batting, simply backed with voile and hand quilted for a light weight layer.... like a receiving blanket for adults. Why should babies have all the comforts? have a cozy weekend, xoxoAnna

What Shelly Figueroa and Karen LePage got so right with Sewing For Boys is the keen combination of simple but slightly rough around the edges that is so completely perfect when sewing for the young lads in your life. I think you know by now that I don't share anything here that I don't truly adore, and I get shown many, many books. I share only those that I would be purchasing myself anyway, and this one is definitely in that category. I have already set aside cut lengths of my new (soon to be released) Loulou Flannels to make the Goodnight, Sweetheart PJs, plus some bias binding for the adorable piping detail. A long way to go to put a rowdy boy to bed? Not at all. The patterns are so straight forward, doting just enough on the details that make it worth home sewing to begin with. Roman has just outgrown most of the patterns in Handmade Beginnings, so I am happy to have this sweet and inspiring resource as staples for him. Who wants a copy? You will love it, leave me...

Two of our little ones were only glimmers then. Juliana nearly 10. Nicolas 3. Joseph 18 mos. I had 3-wk-old Isabela in a snugly and was headed out the back door for a walk on a gorgeous, sunny day. My sister rang and told me to turn on the television instead. It was only a minute after the first plane had struck. Each of us, of course, remembers where we were. What we were doing. I know for certain what none of us was doing. None of us was waiting for an attack, not expecting the grief and mourning that is still the part of so many of our lives today. I feel like I am finally able to admit, perhaps boldly, even though I did not personally suffer tragedy on 9-11, that we all suffered. I was traumatized. I never felt it fair to feel that or certainly not respectful to say so. I still feel so much grief and sadness when I think back to those raw emotions of watching the story play itself out, changing second by second. I was transfixed nearly 24 hours a day with a baby who bar...

Here is where I explain some stuff. A Janome sewing machine has been on my sewing table for more than 13 years. I don't mean one or another Janome sewing machine, I mean the same one. Until recently. I was approached by the company almost a year ago about the prospect of working together, and was immediately excited and encouraged that selling me on their machines would be no work at all. I was already in love. But they almost laughed when I told them I was still sewing on a Memory Craft 5700. Regardless of having the opportunity to sew with many machines (they just sort of show up here) nothing could ever make me stop sewing on that machine. Honest to goodness. I would always go back to it, ignoring whatever gadgets were suppose to be the latest and greatest. And I think that does say something, it says that my machine has filled a need for me that I didn't need to or want to replace.... it never gave me a reason to look around for anything else, so we have a his...

There are so many different ways that I want to share how to use the fabrics in this upcoming mini launch that it has nearly rendered me verbally paralyzed (should I just say mute there? speechless? stumped?- see I'm messed up). My heart is beating fast right now, because I am afraid that I'll forget to say something obvious or useful about them and you will be denied the glorious everythingness of this fabric. So lets go through this a little at a time from the beginning. These are what I call Loulouthi Needleworks . They are called Loulouthi because the imagery and the color palettes were derived from my Loulouthi collection. In essence they are no different than any printed cotton that I design, however they are a full 58" wide ( wow Anna that's superwide! I know.) But they are called Needleworks , because the artwork printed on the cloth is comprised of tiny little X's. This print is called Crossing Paths and it is essentially a series of borders stret...