Virtual Book Tour

Hello, all! Hope everyone had a very happy Easter! I'm still trying to come down from my chocolate marshmallow high... and that's while still trying to recover from our 9-day trip to FL. Oh, the laundry!

But on the upside, the Sewing MODKID Style Virtual Book Tour is well under way, so I wanted to give you guys a little recap and then let you know what's to come.

• Wiley Craft kicked off the tour last Monday with a little Q&A with yours truly. See it here.
  Then they came back on Wednesday to announce the winner (congrats, Pauline) and share a little behind the scenes peek at what it's like to produce a book, like Sewing MODKID Style. If you've ever wondered, look no further.
  
  
• On Wednesday also, Melanie O'Brien, of A Sewing Journal, did a wonderful review and sewed up a couple of adorable Bloom Dresses. Her contest closes tonight at midnight, so you still have a few hours to enter. HURRY! See it here.
  
  
• On Friday, Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk, shared some wonderful pictures of the book and blogged about her desire to have these pieces made in women's sizes (which I'm seriously considering). She is giving away yet another copy to a lucky winner and will choose her winner today. See it here.
  
  
• And finally, today it was Melanie Dramatic's turn and wow, she's not kidding when she says she wants to sew every project in this book. For the review, she sewed up the Bloom Dress, the Yoga Shorts and the Tie Strap Halter, and then this morning she tweeted a photo of her adorable daughter wearing the Mondrian Shirt and Yoga Shorts. So cute! She will choose her winner on Friday, March 13th. See it here.

Did you miss these chances to win a copy? Don't fret! Here are the rest of the tour dates. Make sure to visit these awesome blogs and leave your comments for a chance to win...

Wed., April 11th, 2012: Stop Staring and Start Sewing

Friday, April 13th, 2012: Generation Q

Monday, April 16th, 2012: Lil Blue Boo

Wed., April 18th, 2012: True Up

Friday, April 20th, 2012: Paige Hill

Monday, April 23rd, 2012: Boutique Café

Wed., April 25th, 2012: The Long Thread

Friday, April 27th, 2012: Sew Pretty Dresses

Monday, April 30th, 2012: Prudent Baby

Wed., May 2nd, 2012: Our Busy Little Bunch

Friday, May 4th, 2012: Fat Quarterly

Monday, May 7th, 2012: Making It Fun

Wed., May 9th, 2012: MODKID blog

Let's see, what else is new? Oh, I started a Sewing MODKID Style Flickr Pool so I invite you all to join and share your creations with us. Based on the looks of the current photo pool, I can confidently say that the Bloom Dress is a fan fave. :)

On FaceBook, we've been seeing a few more entries to the "Show Me Your Book" contest. I realized I never gave a deadline for this, so since a lot of you are just getting the book now or waiting to win a copy during the Virtual Book Tour, I will just wait until the end of the tour to announce a winner. Get those photos uploaded to our Modkid Fan Page, friends! Here's a couple of new ones...

Liz Mouse, one of my pattern testers, showing off her first creation from the book, the Banded Tank Top. She also did a mini-review of the book (I love coming up on these by surprise!). :)


Jenny Fish's adorable daughter showing off her Yoga Pants. Jenny's turn on the Virtual Book Tour is coming up soon!

Show me your Sanctuary

Now that my 5th fabric collection (wow, I actually had to turn around and count them!) for Michael Miller Fabrics, titled Sanctuary, is in stores worldwide, I am starting to see projects popping up left and right in my Flickr pool. If I haven't told you before, the most rewarding part of being a fabric designer is seeing what all you creative minds out there do with my fabric. I could sit at the computer all day and browse through your photos but then I wouldn't get any more fabric designed and that would defeat the purpose. ;)

But anyhow, I wanted to invite all you out there to post your photos in my Sanctuary Flickr Group. From time to time, I pick a few of my favorites and post them here on the blog. Here are my current favorites:

This breathtaking Frida dress by Bailey Girls:



This adorable top by Melanie at Above All Fabric:



This amazing quilt by Red Pepper Quilts:



Here's a full view (love the symmetry!)



This super cool and funky pillow by imalisawork. I just adore the fussy-cutting on this!



This super cute bag by Valerie at Sew Much More:



And let's not forget the KNITS!

Check out this knit version of Kyoko made by the über-talented Jenny at Sew Pretty Dresses:



So let's see those beauties! If you have a project that you've recently completed using my Sanctuary wovens or knits, I invite you to share them with us in my Sanctuary Flickr Pool!

I'm in the mood for... gift-giving!!!

Sanctuary is hitting the stores this week so I have prepared a few goodies for you all in celebration of its arrival. Here's a bad iPhone pic of me standing next to a freshly delivered stack of Sanctuary at my local über cool designer fabric store, Sew Much More. It was such great timing... I got there literally 5 minutes before the UPS man showed up with these!



But, first, believe it or not, we had THREE NO SHOWS, on the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks contest, so, as they say, you snooze, you loose! We've selected 3 new winners and this time we have a way to contact them... you learn something new every day, right?! So, congratulations to the new winners... I guess it was meant to be, ladies!

#20 TaniLove said...

Ok I've probably entered every drawing you've had in the last year and nothing. I love the block and the fabrics, it would be so fun to win since I'm getting ready to embark on trying to make a quilt for my chickies, I'm not so optimistic but I know they will like it no matter what, for a while anyway ;) Would be so nice to learn some techniques and get started with that fabulous fabric!

#202 Quilter Kathy said...

OMG...a new magazine and new fabrics?!? I would think I'd died and gone to heaven! Surely that is what heaven will be! Love the block and expecially love the envelope enclosure on your pillows!

#284 elena said...

Beautiful pillow. Love Flora collection and this color is energizing, great!!!
Would love to win a copy and of course a fabric lot by you :D

TaniLove will receive the magazine AND fabric bundle. The two other winners will receive a copy of the magazine. Please contact us at info@modkidboutique.com with your mailing address and if not... I'm tracking you down! haha

Sooo... back to the Sanctuary freebies. Valerie Haberer, owner of Sew Much More, had come up with this fabulous idea of doing fabric bolt tags with the designer's logo (or that of the actual fabric collection) so her customers could easily identify them, so I brought her these cool Sanctuary tags to put on her bolts (again... bad iPhone pic).



I also brought her some generic Patty Young Designs tags to put onto all her other PY bolts since I didn't have a lot of time to make these up for every collection... plus at the time I didn't know what all she had still in stock, etc. But aren't these fun?!



So... I thought since these were so well-received, I'd share the wealth with all my lovely shop owners out there since you are all so sweet and supportive. I've laid these tags 10-up on a 8.5" x 11" sheet with crop marks, so they are ready to print & cut. I printed mine onto card stock so they would be more durable and cut them out using an X-Acto knife and self-healing mat, but you can easily cut these out with scissors.

For a high-res PDF download click HERE for the Sanctuary tags and HERE for the Patty Young tags. Or...click on the thumbnails below to go directly to the Flickr image in JPG format.





Here's an idea for online shops: print these out onto label sheets, cut them out and use them as stickers to place on fabric packages before you ship them out to your customers.... ding, ding, ding... GENIUS! (and cute!) ;)

I haven't forgotten about all my lovely fans out there.. I wanted to share some great gift-giving ideas for the Holidays, and one of my favorite things to make... PILLOWS!! These pillows were among the most photographed items in my booth this past Quilt Market, so I'll walk you through how to make these quick & easy gifts for your family & friends.



First off, the Dahlia Lama pillows. These are BIG and striking but oh, so easy to make. The Dahlia Lama print has a 24" repeat so we decided to use a 24" pillow form to showcase the full design. Find the repeat on the fabric and mark a perfect 24" square using a water-soluble fabric marker. The flower bunch should be perfectly centered within the square. You can use the tiles on the background as a guide for keeping your lines straight. Cut this square out with your rotary cutter & ruler.



Make the envelope closure by cutting two pieces of fabric at 24" tall by 15" wide. We used Zen Garden for the backing. Hem these back pieces or leave the selvedge edge exposed as we did then layer these onto the front square right sides together, overlapping the back pieces in the middle. We added a strip of bias tape to the edge to give it a touch of flair, but you can do this with piping or just leave it off entirely. Stitch all around. Clip your corners, turn and VOILA!



Here is is in the warm colorway...LOVE IT!





Now, how about this sweet patchwork pillow?



For this 18" pillow form we cut 16 squares of fabric at 6" x 6" each. If you want to make yours just like ours here is the breakdown by fabric design, clockwise from the top left corner:

Geo Bloom Seafoam: two 6" squares
Orchid Feng Shui Ocean: two 6" squares
Orchid Feng Shui Seafoam: two 6" squares
Building Blocks Seafoam: two 6" squares
Glass Tiles Aqua: two 6" squares
Temple Tiles Ocean: two 6" squares
Temple Tiles Seafoam: two 6" squares
Zen Garden Pear: two 6" squares

Sew these right sides together in rows using a 1/4" seam allowance. We inserted piping in between the horizontal rows before stitching them together.

For the envelope closing we cut two pieces of Orchid Feng Shui Ocean at 18" high by 12" wide and sewed them like we did the above pillows. We also inserted piping on the edges for an extra touch of flair.



Last, but not least, this sweet pillow in yummy candy colors was made using my Hummingbird Patch template from my Pillow Trio sewing pattern. Check it out!



HUGE THANKS to the great folks at FAIRFIELD for contributing all these wonderful pillowforms for our Quilt Market display and to Emily and Emalee for sewing up these beauties. :)

I have many more tutorials coming your way on the blog, so please stay tuned. But before I leave, I also wanted to let you all know that I started a Sanctuary Flickr Group so you all can share your awesome creations with each other. Confession: this was a gift from me to me because I *LOVE* seeing what you all make with my fabric. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And sometimes I keep my promises...

I bet you thought I was gonna keep that Halloween post up until Christmas, eh? Well, I fooled you. I've plunged back into full work mode after a few days of r&r following the madness of Quilt Market. Full work mode around here pretty much means very little sleep and infrequent blogging, tweeting or talking. I work late into the night, am crabby every morning until I have my caffeine infusion then I work, work, work till the kiddos come home... and then I work some more. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

But what prompted that silly title up there is all these post-market little flip cam videos of me that keep popping up here & there. I always cringe when these come up because, 1. I hate the way I sound on tape and 2. I never know what kind of crazy things I said or promised on video because it's usually all a blur for me.

Case in point, last Spring Market, Ms. Sandi did a quick little flip cam interview of me in which I apparently promised I would do a pattern or a tutorial or something on that lollipop quilt I had hanging up on my booth. Well, as you all probably know, that never happened. Between designing a new fabric line, a whole new slew of patterns, doing a little remodeling, and taking care of household duties it just got pushed aside. And to be perfectly honest, the pattern needed some major tweaking. I did those pinwheel shapes in a hurry and fudged with them until they were right (on fabric, not on paper) but I never really sat down to polish up the pattern and make it sew up right... so that's that.

So, as you can imagine, when this new flip cam video showed up on Boutique Cafe (shot by the lovely Bari J.) I watched with trepidation to see what kind of crazy things I promised this time. Well, I was so pleasantly surprised when I realized I am actually following through on all these promises!!! Yay me!

Check it out... I mentioned doing a pattern for the Hummingbird Quilt (DONE) and a pattern for a Pillow Trio (DONE) and even a pattern for the Mini-Ava (DONE, and more on that later!) All of these patterns and more are part of my January 2010 release. Most are on the way to the testers this week and I couldn't be more ecstatic!

So, see... sometimes I do keep my promises! ;)



Oh, I have so many new things to share with you! We've added a couple of new members to the MODKID team and I will be doing proper introductions here in the next couple of weeks. We've also added a whole new slew of pattern testers that are eager, willing and able (haha). Things are shaping up great for 2010!

And since I'm here now and don't know when I'll get another break to blog again, I thought I'd share some awesome findings from my MODKID Flickr Pool.

I spotted this adorable Nina set yesterday and the sewist, who happens to live in Malaysia, even blogged about it!



Loving these Frida and Sydney sets from Creative Works By Ann:







I seriously gasped when I saw this breathtaking version of my Kyoko pattern by NanaKidBoutique in Abu Dhabi! Add a ruffle here & there and... VOILA!





Mary Abreu of Flourishes posted this fun, colorful version of the Sydney Hooded Tunic modeled by the sweet Miss L.



And last, but certainly not least, check out this super fun Kyoko made by Melanie of Above All Fabric. LOVE IT!! Check out the pattern review she posted on her blog on this Kyoko and on her Sophie 3-Way Pants.



And there are tons and tons more where these came from. Check them out! And please post your own if you want to share with us. :)

Open for Business!

We finally got all caught up on our wholesale orders and got around to setting up the retail end of our website. So, if you'd like to purchase the MODKID sewing patterns directly through us, click here to go to our shop. Also, if you have a preferred retailer you love to shop with, scroll down to the bottom of that page for the most up-to-date list of retail shops that stock our patterns. :)

For some awesome inspiration, don't forget to check out the MODKID Sewing Patterns Flickr Group. I've been browsing on there today and look what I found!

Fridas, Fridas, FRIDAS!

Clockwise from top left: I have to say... , Wondermommy, MonkeyMooDesigns, *flourishes*

Kyokos, Kyokos, KYOKOS!

Clockwise from top left: AbbyChase, ThomasParkGifts, *flourishes*, Babe-A-Gogo

I just love seeing everyone's interpretation of the patterns... all the different fabric combos, etc. If you have one you'd like to share with us, I invite you to join our Flickr Group.

And speaking of fabric... I'm preparing a full reveal of Mezzanine (my latest fabric collection for Michael Miller Fabrics) for later this week, so stay tuned... it'll be good! :)

Oh, and if you're into FREE stuff, you may want to stop by The Fabric Shopper. They will be giving away 1 MODKID pattern each week for 4 weeks plus some awesome fabric goodies from 4 different fabric stores!!! GO, GO, GO!

MODKID Sewing Patterns In Stores NOW!

Boy, I truly feel like I've just given birth to quadruplets, after a long gestation period complete with sleepless nights, headaches and anticipation followed by intensive labor. But what cute babies I have, wouldn't you agree?!

I named them Frida, Kyoko, Emma and Lil' Chef.





I'm so pleased to announce that the last of the wholesale pre-orders were shipped this past weekend, so most stores should have the patterns IN STOCK and ready to ship (or will very soon!)

Below is a list I've been compiling of all the stores that have placed pre-orders with us. RETAILERS: if you placed an order with a distributor and would like to be added to this list please email me with your store link at info@modkidboutique.com. Or if you are a retailer that prefers to order through Distributors only, please contact me for a list of domestic and international distributors.

USA

Above All Fabric
Allegro Fabrics
A Yarn Outlet
Banberry Place
Cotton Threads
Creative Smocking
Down Shadow Lane
Fabric Closet
Fabric Hound
Fabric Supplies
Fabric Worm
Fabritopia
Fancy Tiger
Fat Quarter Shop
Fashioned By Meg
Fresh Squeezed Fabrics
Hip Fabric
Honey Bee Humble
J Caroline Creative
Material Girl Shoppe
Material Girls Quilt Boutique
New Line Fabric
Pickled Pear Lane
Quilted ThreadQuilters Quarters
Quilt Home
Ruth's Sewing Room
Sew Baby
Sew It Up
Sew Love Fabrics
Sew Mama Sew
Sew Many Diapers
SewUSew
So Fun Fabrics
Sweet Dreams Designs
Sweet Pea Stitches
The Gathering Stitch
The Joy of Sewing
The Top Stitch
Vogue Fabrics
Whipstitch Fabrics
Wondermommy

AUSTRALIA

Bella & Vintage Chic
CraftyMamas
Kelani Fabric Obsession
Quilt Fabric Delights

CANADA

Flair For Fabric
Cozy Canuck
Pink Panda Fabrics

GERMANY

Volksfaden



Our website will open up for consumers in just a few short days. We wanted to give all retailers and distributors a chance to get the patterns in stock and put them up on their own sites first before launching our own retail site. I will announce it here as soon as we're open for business!


Sophie 3-Way Pants
I'm still getting daily inquiries about my Sophie 3-Way Pants pattern and I realize now that I should have launched them together with Kyoko, but since the other 4 patterns were ready and Sophie was still in the development stages, I decided to make it part of my next series of patterns. Of course, now that I see the demand for it, I will push the production forward and hope to be able to offer it very soon. Here's a little sneak peek of it:



For the Sophie 3-way Pants I took my basic pants pattern which has a very nice fit and flattering figure and spiced it up with 3 different pocket options and 3 different hem details. View B is the one Sydney is modeling in the cover of Kyoko. To make it even nicer, this pattern features a flat-fronted waistband with elasticized back, because I was informed by my 7-year old, Sophie (who was also the inspiration and motivation for this pattern,) that full elastic waistbands are too "baby-ish." So, here you go... for all the "big girls" out there, a nice flat-fronted pant with tons of fun details! Wait till you see the samples I'm sewing for the cover of the pattern... contrast stitching, appliques, decorative buttons... boutiquey details galore! I'll explain how to do all of it in the pattern instructions. :)

HAPPY SHOPPING!

P.S. Don't forget to share all your MODKID creations in my brand new Flickr group! I'd love to see what you make!)

P.P.S. Wondermommy is holding a contest for a FREE Lil' Chef pattern, among other sweet goodies, on her blog in celebration of her birthday. Go enter! Good luck, everyone!

Feature Me, Feature You

Had a couple spare minutes to do some blog-surfing and found some sites out there featuring either me or my fabric (I'm SO thankful for the exposure!), so I thought I'd share.

• True Up is doing a 2009 Fabric Forecast and they asked a few designers to share their plans for this year. I'm sharing my plans for Spring Quilt Market, so read here to find out what I'm up to. FunQuilts and Amy Butler are also spilling the beans... as if you cared! ;)
  
• A brand new blog for fabric aficionados just started a few days ago! It's called The Fabric Shopper. Bookmark this site right away if you are one of us! Today they are featuring Andalucia and where to buy it online.
• This quilt shop owner did an amazing display for Valentine's Day using all of the Fire & Petal Andalucia fabrics. I'm so amazed by the creativity in this display.... check it out!
  

So, since I'm feeling all warm & fuzzy inside (those of you who follow me on Twitter already know that my heater at home was broken all day, so feeling warm & fuzzy inside is quite a commodity around here), I feel it's my turn to pay it forward and feature some of your products.

[BTW, thanks to everyone who has added their photos to the Andalucia Flickr Group. I'm amazed every day at the talent that surrounds me!]

How cute is this custom-made ModBlooms Earth pinafore from Etsy seller ThreeYellowStarfish? She also has one in Kiwi Flora and one in ModBlooms Petal. So many choices!!!



This Kiwi Flora shoulder bag from Etsy seller BlackBags is oh, so chic... and looks roomy and comfy too! :)



Heather from thepolkadottotspot has listed a set of 3 Cloth Play Blocks. These would make an excellent baby shower or birthday gift for that sweet baby in your life!



I'm loving this skinny scarf from Megan of Brassy Apple. Get yours here!



And how about this Hostess Apron from Etsy seller SimpleThings? It's so flirty and cool!



For the photography aficionados out there I found a few lens cozies & camera strap covers on Etsy.

This one is from SillyJilly.



This one is from SheaLynn.



And this one is from PriddyCreations.


Finally, if you're a Blythe, Pullip or Dal collector, you'll go nuts over these amazingly detailed dresses!

This one is from EuroTrash... check out the details!!



This one is from DollyMolly... so cute and a bargain at that price, if you ask me!



Wish I could feature all of you, but I'll have to do it a little bit at a time (I do want to keep my day job, ya know?!) But if any of you out there are curious to see more items made with Andalucia, just click on THIS LINK to be taken to these wonderful Etsy sellers. And next week, the eBay world will be flooded with Andalucia items during the launch (Jan. 13 - 20). I'll share a link then!

Thanks again to all of you out there making beautiful things with my fabric. You have no idea how much you inspire me and motivate me to design every day!

Linkety-link-links

1. I'm so happy to announce that I'm official!!. Yep, as of yesterday, Andalucia is on the Michael Miller Fabrics website, along with a fun banner featuring some of my fave pictures & projects from my sample sewers! You have no idea how long I've been waiting to see this page come to fruition. WOOOHOOO!

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2. And speaking of Michael Miller, have you guys checked out Kathy Miller's blog, Making It Fun? She's got a great Quilt Market recap on there right now, even showing some great photos that I failed to capture! I adore the picture of the crew receiving our award for 2nd place on the Multiple Booths category... it was such a fun and proud moment after 2 whole days of painstaking set-up!

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3. My Andalucia ribbons are up for purchase at the J. Caroline Creative website! Wish you could see these in person! They are super soft and the stitching is perfection (and I'm a tough judge!) There are 16 designs total that mix & match beautifully with each other and with the fabric! Go check them out!

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4. And speaking of J. Caroline, they got mentioned on Decor8's blog (thanks to my blog reader, Carole, for pointing this out late last night!!) and I think their exact phrase was: "I’m quite smitten with the Andalucia Ribbons by Patty Young too, I mean how cute for craft projects and little girls dresses!" (**blush**) And kudos to my buddy, Melissa Averinos, for the fabulous mention in the same article! From now until November 21, 2008, you can get 20% off anything in J. Caroline Creative by mentioning code, Decor8. Yes, that includes the ribbons! Happy shopping!!

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5. I'm ON TV! Quilter's TV, that is! Jon just emailed me this link... I actually can't see it on my Mac but he can see it on his PC. (I wonder if it's a Mac thing or a Firefox thing!? UGH!) Please let me know if you can view this video:
Video:
Patty Young, Designer for Michael Miller, has only been in the fabric market for about 6 months and shows us her new collection. Shares her inspiration for this new collection.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid301927734/bclid742939973/bctid1906919326

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6. In case you missed it before, check out my interview in Quilter's Buzz. I met Gina Halladay in person several times at Market and she was such a joy! Hope to see her again at the next show. I also got to meet the sweet Jocelyn from The Fat Quarter Shop's Jolly Jabber blog! Look for a Patty Young interview on there soon! :)

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7. So where can you buy Andalucia? Well, it has not officially arrived in stores yet, and it probably won't for at least 2 - 4 more weeks (or so Ive been told) but I have spotted a few online stores with Andalucia in their "Pre-Order" or "Coming Soon" screens. Here's what I've seen so far:

• Hancocks of Paducah, has 11 of the 24 prints plus a Fat Quarter Bundle up for pre-order, expected ship date 11/21/08.
  
  
• HipFabric has 10 different Andalucia prints in their "Coming Soon" section.

(I know this list is short right now, but if you own a fabric store and have Andalucia in your Pre-Order or Coming Soon screens right now, please email me at info@modkidboutique.com and I'll add you to this list!)

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8. And, where can you find Andalucia goodies? Christmas is fast approaching... ;)

• My mom has a few ready-made bags for sale in her Marieliz Creations etsy shop.
  
  
• Heather Kaeb is getting ready to list a few ready-made fabric balls in her Etsy shop, thepolkadottotspot, so look for those this weekend!
  
  
• I'll be closing my MODGREETINGS store just prior to the Holidays in order to concentrate on other creative endeavors (more on that soon!). All of the greeting cards have been priced at clearance prices (AKA wholesale price!) so stock up for Birthday, Christmas, Valentines, Graduation or any other event you might have coming up! The Variety-10 Packs make great stocking stuffers & teacher gifts! ;)
  
  
• Purchase quilt patterns for Miss Molly and Now & Forever at the Abbey Lane Quilts website
  
  
• Purchase quilt patterns for Spring Up on the Lizzy Anne Originals website.

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8. And, last but not least, if you Flickr and are a fan of Andalucia, please join my Andalucia Flickr group. I'd love to see what kind of goodies you create with it, and you can peruse what others have been creating so far and get some fun ideas!

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9. OK... now for some fun miscellaneous pictures:

I just adore this photo I spotted on Kathy's blog! I didn't get my own version of it so I am snagging it to share with all of you. This was snapped right after we received the award for 2nd place in Best Multiple Booth category.


(L to R: Patty Young, Benjamin Rubin, Christine Osmers, Sandi Henderson, Kathy Miller, Deb Buchanan, Paula Prass, Becky Bennett, Terri Hempfling, Susan Day.)

More from Fabric 2.0 Party: