Quilt Market in Houston was a great show, inspiring, full of opportunities and reconnecting with good friends makes for an all around successful show! My demos went over well, the women retailers who attended were enthusiastic and I thank them for being so warm and welcoming! Many came by the Homearts booth to tell me how much they enjoyed the presentations. I was promoting my new book Sweatshirt Remix. The F+W people are always so supportive and wonderful to work with! In the picture I am wearing one of the tunics from the book and holding up another. One of the ladies attending took pictures for me, I had my mouth open in most of them!

I hadn't been to Houston for several years, everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I stayed at three hotels in the five nights there and all the staff were very helpful.

The show was full of gorgeous fabrics, many so light and bright it was like displays of sunshine gardens. Heather Bailey's booth just gorgeous, a living room setting reflecting her very fresh and feminine look, a lifestyle. It was a trend to see booths reflecting not only fabrics, patterns but a whole vignette of a feminine, vibrant life captured in the booth. It made walking the show truly inspiring.   Follow the JOY! Keep Creating! Debra, CEO!

Fall brings an energy that crackles with anticipation as the vibrant leaves swirl through the air. Sunshine rays illuminate each glorious tree like a treasured masterpiece. Bushy squirrels run marathons through the bountiful branches and the garden becomes a rich explosion of damp earth as they bury their winter sustenance. I love the fall, it is a paradise of luscious color, scents and activity. It is a time to give thanks, of gratitude for all the gifts life has to offer. It has been a year of change, of loss and moving on, of new adventures and new friends. I sit in the warmth of the autumn sun illuminating the room and reflect on the bounty of my life. The richness of cherished family and friends bring joy each day. I will be away in Houston at Quilt Market for our Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend but I will be giving thanks as I join with several dear friends celebrating our connection and our creativity!

Here is what I am up to! Friday October 9th, Schoolhouse Presentation for my book Sweatshirt Remix. Saturday 10th, Sunday 11th demoing Needle Felting in the Homearts booth. Sunday afternoon Book Signing in F+W booth. Then there are the appointments, the reviewing the show to line up new columns, it is a full schedule and the days just fly by. The evenings are catching up with dear friends for dinner.

Did I mention one of my favorite colors is pink? probably quite obvious so to my delight this burning bush is on the corner of my house. It is gloriously pink and delightful to walk by everyday. Follow the JOY! Keep creating! Debra, CEO!

Its Fowl Friday with Fran & Freda! Fran here, well in Canada where harvest comes earlier it is almost Thanksgiving, next weekend. Debra is busy adding touches of harvest finery around the house which involves lots of leaves, pumpkins and candles. Always ready to pitch in we decided to design and make a needle felt pumpkin plus! we got to put up the fall message. We are sharing our how-tos for the pumpkin, super easy! This is our first Thanksgiving so we are very excited, not sure what it all means and Debra keeps avoiding the menu subject for some reason. She gave us a bunch of block letters to put with our pumpkin. Her directions were to spell out the message and add our needle felted pumpkin. Seems easy enough even Freda was clear about what we were doing, ( a huge reason to be thankful right there!) We were quite proud when we were finished and finished our display, Debra's reaction to burst out laughing, ruffled our feathers a little I must admit. Apparently it was not "Gave Thinks" but rather "Give Thanks" was the correct message. Personally "Gave Thinks" worked for us, we think there is a big demand for getting thinks, you can never be too smart or thinking too much! All is well, sign has been changed but not till after our photo. Enjoy and make yourself a fuzzy pumpkin patch!  Follow the Fowl, Fran & Freda!

Needle Felt Pumpkin

You will need:
STYROFOAM TM Ball 2"-4" (depending on pumpkin size you want)
Wool Wisps (National Nonwovens) Orange Poppy, Ivy, Cinnamon
Clover Needle Felt Tool
Bone Folder

How to:
1. Press foam ball on counter to flatten opposite ends.
2. Cover foam ball with orange. Needle felt, add more wool if needed.
3. Use bone folder to score ball evenly.
4. Add thin strips of cinnamon wool into scored seams and needle felt.
5. Add 1" circle of ivy to top of pumpkin and needle felt.
6. Roll ivy into small cylinder and needle felt into stem shape approximately 2".
7. Hold stem in center of top of pumpkin. Needle felt stem into place.

Make several pumpkins in different sizes for a harvest display then "carve" spooky faces with black wool and use them to decorate for Halloween! We are just a couple of crafty chicks! Fran & Freda

It has been six months since my Mom passed away, it seems so long ago and yet like yesterday at times. The early grief has with the passing days given away to sometimes still forgetting and reaching to call her with good news or to talk, to just be a daughter wanting to talk to her Mom. This past week my brother and I took Mom's two best friends, ages 82 and 84 out for lunch. We have known them all of our lives. My Godmother, she and Mom had been friends since school. They are so sweet, when I was getting in the car, one remarked I was getting taller, could have been the 3" heels but more so both of them are shrinking as happens with age. They are older, tinier and with some health issues but they still are just the same as I always remember, happy and engaged in life. Both miss my Mom very much and we shared many stories and good memories. It was a lovely lunch and we toasted my Mom.

When someone leaves it is sad but so much of them remains in our hearts. We carry those memories with us, a part of them. In the passing and in the reflection their value, their footprint left on this life keeps unfolding. In the past six months the letters, the cards some even from people Mom taught in kindergarten forty years ago still arrive in the mail. What I knew of my Mom in her last few years was only a small part of who she was. Through reading her old journals, seeing pictures and hearing stories I see the vibrant remarkable woman she was. A school friend called and spoke of my Mom at eighteen like it was yesterday, how fun loving and amazing she was. Sometimes I wonder do our children ever see us as the extraordinary people we are? I do not know for sure but what I do know is in the last six months I have had the wonderful gift of learning who my Mother really was , to the wonderful, amazing woman I was so blessed to have as my Mom!

Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

I was away last week and upon my return have been thoroughly chastised by Fran & Freda for missing Fowl Friday! Still working on getting them computer literate and sometimes any kind of literate but please don't let them know I said that!

In just over a week I am off to Quilt Market in Houston to promote my latest book Sweatshirt Remix with demos and a book signing. I really enjoy the promotion side and getting to meet the retailers who are so passionate about quilting and sewing. It is an industry where the shop owners are avid quilters and love fabric! To celebrate I will be giving away every week one of my last book Sweatshirts which has 18 jacket, coat and tunic designs. Just leave a comment or email me. I will draw a name every Monday in October!  Here is one of my favorites from the book modelled by my lovely daughter Kate! She is a very patient and mostly willing model. I have only pricked her once with a pin but will never live it down!

I am busy finishing up some deadlines and getting ready for Quilt Market! I always return inspired!

Have a Marvellous Monday! Keep creating! Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

Today I opened my email to a message from the local cat club with a story I am meant to share. I live in Atlantic Canada in New Brunswick, part of three very small provinces beyond Ontario. Nestea like many companies, which are encouraging and rewarding worthwhile causes and people  is running a contest "Release the Goodness". The finalist stories receive a prize of $5000. There is a story from Atlantic Canada that has made the finalists. If it wins Karen, it is her story "Helping Elderly Gentleman" is giving the money to our local animal shelter, the Fredericton SPCA which like every shelter could greatly use this gift.

Karen's story touched me deeply and raised questions to really think about. Her story took place in the US while travelling. You can read in full on the site and only takes a few seconds to register to vote. She and her husband were on a flight and an elderly gentleman had an embarrassing situation. Noone else including the attendants offered to help. Karen offered assistance and took the gentleman, aged 94 to the Executive washroom and cared for him. I was reminded of my mother and this type of situation was one of her biggest fears to have happen to be embarrassed in that way. This was a stranger reaching out in a situation that was not easy. I asked myself the question, would I respond as Karen did or as the rest of the passengers did? How would you respond?

I am comfortable with seniors and different situations, I have had kids and pets. I believe I am the kind of friend and person that can be counted on in any situation. I believe in that moment my answer would have been yes and say I would have helped him as well. Karen truly knows the kind of person she is, she made a difference in someone's life and  in many others with her one act of true kindness. Please vote and enable this act of kindness to continue.

Bernie Berlin is another person I know who puts herself above and beyond in her caring for animals in her shelter, A Place to Bark." Her main help Jeff suffered a serious car accident recently and is going to be awhile recovering.

To live in a world where there are many people who care and act to make a difference is both inspiring and humbling. We walk this way but once, each footprint matters. Who we touch in each day ripples outwards. I choose JOY for I see the innate goodness of the world around me. Each of us has a gift to share lovingly in this life and to pass it on.

Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

Our past influences each present day, I was reminded of this in my world when looking through some pictures of my pattern line I had in the 90's when country bears and dolls were huge. Each bear had a story and a friend, I designed them for Crafts, Teddycrafts and Butterick and it was my main design focus for several years. I found pictures on the weekend for several of my favorites. In the recent report of our CHA Designer Section Trend Team of which I am a member, teddy bears are on the rise in popularity again. Plushies and softies, quirky and whimsical have been embraced by the younger sewers and designers, I am embracing the quirky attempting to go past my two eyes need to be the same size or even if a cuddly creature needs two eyes! I will have to really stretch before I can envision a third eye on one of my characters but you have to move on with the times. Creativity without traditional boundaries is a whole exciting adventure and endless inspired territory beckons. So I give you a view of my past and Benjamin was inspired by my childhood memories of the little yellow rail car box which contained a favorite cookie treat, Animal Crackers!

And in the present I am working on all kinds of projects for three different seasons, needle felting, sewing but they are all for future publications and cannot be revealed!

Follow the JOY! Keep creating! Debra, CEO!

Well it is Fowl Friday and it is supposed to be Fran & Freda but Freda is unavailable at the moment. If you follow us at all on Fowl Fridays well while Debra was away in Vancouver we were at home behaving. Behaving well not according to Debra, we killed her plants and Freda was slightly tipsy dancing around singing "Oh what a night!" The rooster she met on Hatch.com kind of stayed over too long and Freda enjoyed his company, I will just leave it at that!

Today Debra is like usual working on a couple deadlines in her studio, that requires her use of important spaces and equipment like her sewing table and fabric stash. Freda was found in the "family way" and chose both the sewing table and fabric stash to nest in. Impressed not! Debra is now constructing a nesting box for Fran in the garage after putting a load of pink fabric in the washer. Freda does like her pink! She is washing down her sewing table after and Freda will be comfortably nesting in the garage. Soon there will be little Freds & Fredas running around not sure how they will fit in with the four cats! There maybe a chicken coop in the backyard or we maybe sent off to some farm, city bylaws have to be investigated. Oh Freda, two glasses of wine and she is dancing on the tables and more! The rooster from Cape Breton long gone, he was a party animal, not a family guy. His profile read no kids, no way and child support well chicken feed does not come cheap! Anyway next Friday could be just Fran again, I may need a new sidekick, Freda will be busy after the chicks and wants to gain her figure back before appearing. Her feathers are getting a bit straggly looking.

Updates on delivery day will follow! For now Fowl Friday with Fran!

In a few short weeks I am off to Quilt Market , international tradeshow to promote my new book Sweatshirt Remix. That involves my one woman show of stripping garments off and on while I talk and walk. The sweatshirt is a comfortable garment no question but as far as flattering to a woman's shape not at all. Dropped shoulders, excess fabric through the middle and a band that usually cuts the body in a place where no cut should be allowed. However it has much potential for being reborn as both comfortable and fun or stylish to wear. I was interested in embellishing the sweatshirt but much more about structure techniques for better fit. Both books SWEATSHIRTS and Sweatshirt Remix include techniques and guides to create seaming details to the body and shoulders of the sweatshirt. Today being Thrifty Thursday and restyling a sweatshirt is a thrifty project I am showcasing a design from the book, Daisy Crop Jacket which used some wool felt scraps and a couple tea towels for the collar and trim. If you do not sew Beacon's Fabri-tac glue will allow you to create the same look.

Page from Sweatshirt Remix F+W Media Inc.

Follow the JOY! Keep Creating! Debra, CEO!