New Mother Goose Fabric Items!

Hi there!

Right after the International Quilting Association (IQA) quilt show, I made a trip up to Tyler, Texas, to give a lecture and conduct a workshop. What a FUN bunch of quilters live in and around Tyler! And it is no wonder that the quilters there are so nice; East Texas is beautiful country.

The drive home was long - almost five hours, and half of it was in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic on the north and south sides of Houston. I'm glad I'm home, where I am now busy designing and sewing a new quilt. You will get a sneak peek at it sooner or later, but I resist posting half-finished items.

Here are some finished items, though: I used the Mother Goose & Friends fabric to make a tote bag (with a Mother Goose book in it, of course!)

And here is a hoodie and cargo pants. My friend Denise made the hoodie - it is so cute! The cargo pants are perfect with it -- as soon as I dig out the patterns, I will update this blog with the patternmaker's information.

and... surprise... Christmas stockings! I think that many of us unconsciously categorize fabrics and never think about using them in a different context. I intentionally wanted to use my Mother Goose fabrics in an uncommon context -- who would have thought about using a collection of pastel prints from a juvenile line of fabrics for a Christmas item? Once again, it just shows all of us that we can use fabric in amazing ways and places!

My P&B Textiles Mother Goose fabric will be in stores after the first of the year. It is a fun collection of fabrics to work with. When I designed it, I wanted it to be multi-functional -- that is, I wanted it to be useful for a variety of different purposes: all sorts of different quilts, wearables, home decoration, etc. One of the fabrics is a border print -- it has a "formal" border, along with a "folk art" border in the print. That makes it usable in many different types of quilts. Here are the two different borders in the border fabric; the border print also contains a set of labels that can be used to identify a finished quilt. I intend to cut out several of them and use them in sashings, though -- and friends of a mother-to-be are going to write their best advice on those labels. It is a wonderful way to personalize a baby quilt and share your love with a new mother.

I spent the week before Thanksgiving up in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area with a group of quilters. We were so very fortunate: one of the gals in our group had arranged for some very old and fragile Baltimore Album Quilts to be taken out of storage so that we could see the quilts "up close and personal." I was so inspired and awed by the women who made those quilts long ago; they had special challenges that we do not face today, yet they managed to stitch together the most beautiful quilts of their era. One of my next quilts will definitely be a Baltimore-style album quilt -- I can hardly wait!

That's all for now - I have miles of stitching to do before the day is done!

After the Houston Quilt Show...

The Stars of Mother Goose

(c)2007 Susan H. Garman

The great Houston Quilt Market is over, the great Quilt Show is nearly over, and I am exhausted! If you have never been to Houston during "Festival" (as it is known locally), plan to make the trip someday. There is so much to see - from fabrics and quilts to gadgets and gizmos, to people and classes. And that's without ever leaving the convention center!

At Quilt Market, my Mother Goose fabric was introduced by P&B Textiles. I had two quilts showcasing the fabric on display in the P&B booth, including the one above. Denise Green quilted this quilt, along with the other Mother Goose quilt; her work is absolutely incredible.

I will be making more quilts - as well as other non-quilt items - using the Mother Goose fabric. It is a multi-dimensional fabric, with the ability to move outside of the juvenile genre. Stay tuned - you might be surprised at what shows up on this blog!

Happy stitching!