I had a great day of antiquing lately.  Nan and I hit several quilt shops after my talk to the Comforter’s Quilt Guild.  While on the hunt for another shop, we went around the block a couple of times, couldn’t find the quilt shop, but did see a good looking antique mall.  Sounds of braking! We found ourselves at the Third Street Antique Mall.

It was huge, and I found lots of treasures, including a couple of bags of doll clothes.  I’m not really into doll clothes, but I am into FABRIC–and there were a few in this bag that I just had to have.  Now, even though I’m not into doll clothes, I must admit there were some pretty cute things in here.  In the top row, besides the two calico print dresses, is a darling crocheted cap, and the bath robe in the middle is flannel.  In the bottom row, there is a satin dressing gown in the deepest, darkest purple, an adorable slip and another calico dress.

There were also two pieces of Barbie-sized clothes.  I don’t think she was meant to wear the black velvet cape with the riding jodhpurs!  It does make a rather dashing statement, though.

This little girl’s sunbonnet was too cute to resist.

This Dresden plate block had been backed to be used as a table topper or placemat.  There are some nice fabrics in it.

I was delighted to find this large piece of feedsack!  I actually have a smaller piece with this same design, but I couldn’t pass this up–especially with the orange in there!

This doll quilt is made with a “cheater” fabric with polka-dots.

And this Sunbonnet Sue is on linen–real linen!  It seems like such a contrast, lovely linen and a calico Sunbonnet Sue.

I tried to pass up this lovely piece of Redwork, but it was only $5.00.  $5.00!  It had to come home with me.

Like I keep telling Bob, it’s research!

You know I love designing fabrics–or redesigning fabrics, as the case may be.

Since I work with 1930′s prints, I often start with vintage swatches.  Sometimes–with the help of the graphic design staff at the fabric company I design for-I’ll take a vintage print use the main flower, change the background, make something larger or smaller or closer together.

Sometimes, though, the pattern is just perfect the way it is!  That was the case about five years ago when I was designing my Wash Tub Bears line of fabric.  I always try to combine a dot or a circle in each fabric line.  Well, this piece filled the bill–it was dots inside circles!  It reminded me of speckled eggs, and I named it Speckled Dots!

The original swatch I had was blue.  We also did it in red…

…brown…

…and lavender.

When I first started designing fabric, I was lucky enough to have as a friend and mentor Darlene Zimmerman.  She had been designing Thirties prints for a long time.  She said to me, don’t be surprised someday if we both use the same fabric for a future line.  Yikes, I thought, I don’t want to do that!

But I knew what she meant, because I had seen one particularly adorable duck-in-a-top-hat print produced by three different companies–AND I had an original piece of it in some of my grandma’s scraps.  This is it.

Imagine my surprise when I was in Sisters Quilt Shop recently and spotted what I thought was a bolt of “my” fabric.

I picked it up and discovered it was part of Sandy Klopp’s Punctuation line!

And not only had she done it in red and blue, she had done it in green…

…and black…

…and ORANGE!!

You can bet I bought some of that for my stash!  Thanks, Sandy, for the orange!

Wow!  445 people left comments on my blog for the Giveaway.  I was blown away!

The Random Number Generator picked number 47.  That means our lucky winner is Susan H.  Congratulations.  And thanks to everyone who played along.

I was delighted when Jodi at Pleasant Home emailed me and asked if I wanted to play along in her Scrappy Giveaway.  You bet I did.

More than scraps, I always accumulate bolt ends.  So, I’ve gathered up 3 yards of them, and some lucky winner is going to get them in the mail one of these days!

Just leave me a comment before November 17th.  I’ll add you to my email list, use a random number generator to pick a winner, box up the scraps and send them off to you.

Check out Jodi’s blog for more scrappy giveaways.

Finally, I can tell!

Back in April, I had a crew here from Quilts and More magazine, doing a photo shoot in my studio!  It was incredibly fun.

The crew included Adam and Joe….

…and Elizabeth.

Sometimes Joe was my stand-in.  Imagine having a stand-in!

Sometimes I had to do the work.

It was fun to peek over their shoulders and see how fantastic their photos are.

Now the magazine is finally out.  It’s on newsstands now, or you can order it from me.

It has the Getting to Know Karen Snyder feature written by Linzee  McCray….

…and a table runner that I’ve designed, called Center Piece.  They even asked me to provide kits for it!

There’s more to this story, but I can’t tell yet!

A belated Quilt Market post.  Why? Because I spent the week after Market in Iowa!  Yes, IOWA!  And I loved it.  But more about that in an upcoming post–or two.

The day before Market starts is a crazy day of classes and presentation called Schoolhouse.  I presented two Schoolhouses, one for Fabric Shop Network on a program I’ve written called Stash Pot Pie.  The other was for Timeless Treasures, who manufactures my fabric designs.  My friend, Karen Montgomery, also designs for Timeless.  Her  presentation was right before mine.  We both showed up in the hallway a little early, only to discover we had dressed alike!

My new Dear Dorothy fabrics and quilt looked great in the Timeless Treasures booth.  It’s so fun to see my name up there–almost as much fun as seeing it on the selvage!  The quilt is a free to download pattern on my website, and, of course, kits are available!  The dresses are from patterns by Izzy and Ivy.

I also discovered some of my toile fabrics used by the talented designers from Beach Garden Quilts.

There was a new exhibitor there, Chitter Chatter Designs.  Mom’s the designer, but her daughter and her mother were both there helping her.

This was my favorite new booth, Hemma Designs.

I don’t know what I liked best–the fact the “Hemma” is Swedish for “At Home” or their fresh, new designs.

Make new friends, but keep the old…….

Here I am with Jill Mead, editor of Quilts and More, Elizabeth Stumbo graphic designer for Quilt Sampler, Linzee MacRae, Pam Viera and Monica.  Hmm, I wonder what’s afoot?

You probably already know that my sista friend, Monica, had her first fabric line debut at this market–Holiday Happy.

Her Gnome-A-Claus is so adorable!

I know someone who’d love a green sewing table!

And in the quilt exhibit area, was this quilt, entitled Remembering Sweden by Helena Sheffer.  If you’ve ever been to Stockholm’s Old Town, you’d recognize it immediately.

And, oh, I even had dinner in Hell’s Kitchen!

Our show-and-tell at Redwork recently was Dish Towels.  I especially love the days-of-the-week themes.

I believe this pattern is by Grace Drayton, who also drew the Campbell Soup kids.

I love the expression on the face of this little Dutch girl.

I’m not sure she’s cut out for housekeeping!

Melinda had these.  I think they’re most unusual.  It’s from the rhyme, “This little pig went to market, this little pig stayed home, this little pig ate roast beef, this little pig had none and this little pig cried ‘wee, wee, wee’ all the way home!”  I remember it from my childhood!

Melinda also had these towels made from a 1940′s pattern called “A Sweet Little Miss.”  It’s the basis for my Merry Margaret patterns.

Here’s a set of mine, where I drew Merry Margaret doing her chores.  I call the pattern All Week Long.

Here are some pretty flower pots with matching fabrics from Happy.

Tea pots seem to have been a popular motif.

Some in Redwork.

Some in pretty colors.

Some in Bluework.

Well, you get the idea!

These are cute with the kitty faces.

I loved these canisters.

Melinda made this for me several years ago.

This bluebird is adorable!

But I think the most unusual was these mushrooms!

Wow, I’m in the new Fons and Porter magazine–and I didn’t even know it.

I got suspicious last week when I started getting lots of orders for the Sweet Pea bundles and dress panel.  Then my friend Loretta came for our Redwork Christmas Party, and she had a copy of the magazine!  Jean Nolte designed the quilt, and all the little dresses are embellished with ribbon or rickrack or lace or aprons or pinafores.  It’s just adorable!

I always have fun making samples with my own fabric lines, but it’s so exciting to see what other people do with it.  Thank you, Jean.

Well, I’d like to think so.  I had the sweetest letter from Tamsin Harvey, the proprietor of Berrima Patchwork and Crafts in New South Wales, Australia.

In it, she says that she stocks a range of my fabrics and would love to put a piece on display that’s been signed by me!  She included a piece of my Blue Swallow Print from the Sweet Pea line from Studio Anna Lena.  She also included a Sharpie pen and a return envelope.  Now sweet is that!