Rebel Roses

Happy Monday!  I trust you all had a good Thanksgiving, ate way too much, and enjoyed the day or two off from work.  I’m sure many of you enjoyed Black Friday bargain shopping too, but I steered clear of any malls!  I am too impatient to wait in long lines.  All I can think about, is that I could have had 50 half-square triangles made in the time I’ve been standing here!  I also have trouble getting up at 4:30 to go stand in line (and freeze – I do live in Minnesota, after all).  In addition to all of the Thanksgiving parties and eating, we also had a birthday party to go to this weekend for Joel’s niece Kara.

As you can see, she just turned two.  That’s her Mom with her there in the picture (Joel’s sister)

She needed help blowing out the candle – and with eating those cakes!

This is what I gave her for her birthday – though she doesn’t sit still long enough to get a good picture.  That’s what happens when you feed her cake (sugar) and then give her new and exciting presents!

Here’s a picture of the sweater when it wasn’t moving:

 

Remember the sweater that I made for my niece Addi?

I used that pattern (Helena) and combined it with this pattern (Mr. Greenjeans) (both from www.knitty.com) to come up with the variation that I knit for Kara.  I have to say I love that this pattern uses the top down method.  It’s great because you have no seams to do when you are done.  Seaming is just not my favorite part – when I’m finally done knitting, I want to be done, not spend the next four hours sewing up the side seams.  I am also loving doing these small projects.  I used to only knit sweaters for myself and it would take me all winter to do a couple.  With these smaller projects, I can do one each month and feel like I am getting more done (plus they don’t have to fit me, when I’m done).  For the quilters who are reading this, it’s like doing table runners or small wall hangings, instead of queen size quilts.  I love instant gratification . . . . or almost instant gratification.

 

One of the other things I promised I’d show you is the new fabric line that I have coming out early next year.  It’s called Rebel Roses and I have to clarify that I did this line with my mom.  We each worked on  different prints, each picking what we felt more comfortable doing – For example, I like to paint and she likes to draw.  Here are some photos of the sell cards that the sales rep show to the shops.

Here’s a shot at the first set of strike-offs (once all of the computer work is done in the states, it goes overseas to Korea and they test it on fabric.  This is called a strike-off).  After the first set of strike-offs, I make a list of changes and then they will send over another round of strike-offs. 

After all of the strike-offs are approved, then the fabric gets printed.  After the printing is completed, it gets loaded on a cargo ship for a two month journey across the ocean.  After it arrives in the states, it is then rolled onto bolts and shipped out to stores.  This process takes a while, so they usually send five yards of fabric by airmail, so I can get started sewing and have some completed projects done by the time the stores get it.  I’m supposed to have yardage in the next week or two (happy early Christmas to me!).  I’ll keep you posted on what I make out of it.  In the meantime, here’s what the free project will look like: (it will be available at www.henryglassfabrics.com shortly – see the link on my sidebar).

Henry Glass also put together this nice magazine add for me – Hopefully you will be seeing it soon 🙂

This is all just a teaser, as fabric is expected in Jan/Feb.  I’ll keep you posted on when to find it in your local quilt shop.