Anna Maria Horner

One of the best parts about designing fabrics and being a part of fabulous Westminster Fibers is being associated with people like Anna Maria Horner. She's a sweet, funny, crazy talented, divine person... I am not exaggerating, she's lovely. She's superwoman too with more children than most of us and a happy husband. Whewee girly girl how does she do it? Besides designing fabric within the same company, Anna Maria and I share other things in common. She's designing a super cool stationery, she's a mom of course, she's also Greek! I dunno if you know this about me, but even though I was born in Africa, my mother is English and my daddy was born in South Africa into a crazy Greek family. From Cyprus the family immigrated to Central Africa in the 20s. And pops was born in 1940! Long lovely story, one day I will bore you with it. Anyway, I am of course off on a tangent once again. Back to Anna Maria Horner.
Anna has a unique flavor she injects into her design, she is a gypsy at heart I think, very talented and has this bohemian quality she maintains in her color palettes and design. With her new book out, patterns on the way and a very busy schedule, she manages stints with the queen mother - Martha Stewart. My guess is she'll be appearing with her signature giggle on Oprah. We shall see! In the meantime, catch up with Anna on her site and blog.
Oh see her booth here, she won 1st place for booth design..... again!
Rock on Anna!

Embroidery is coming!

Just two of the 12 perfect little images soon to be available in 'embroidery'.... Yes... I am so thrilled about this. Coats and Clark are producing a super package of 12 embroideries on disk for your machine embroidery projects. Motifs include the fabulous Fairy (shown here), plus 2 more Fairies; the perfect ladybug and acqua bee I love so much and featured in Chloe's Imagination fabric collection; Spats Bunny shown above as well as several more children's embroidery projects. I can't wait to get my copy so I can play too. We're still working out the details of color and thread.... and when available I will be sure to inform you!

(Tina's fairies are featured in her new fabric collection 'Fairy Tip-Toes' shown in the Preview Gallery at FreeSpirit - user name and password 'designer').

International Quilt Market: New Fabric Launches

I just returned from a very busy trade show, the International Quilt Market in Houston! Wow, what an energetic week we had. Again we displayed the new fabrics and again I am so overwhelmed with the kind words and super fabric orders we received from all over the world. The UK and Australia, France and Germany, Canada and of course home, USA. We were also excited about the tremendous enthusiasm within the fabric, sewing and quilting industry. What hiccup in the economy? We didn't see any evidence of a slow down in fabric sales which means textiles and sewing are the place to be. And an enormous increase in young and new sewers.... interested in fun and colorful, new and current design and projects for children, the house and clothing! So loads of great news for the industry!
For me personally, I am thrilled to be a part of the Westminster Fibers team... my booth was directly across from my friend and the queen of design, Amy Butler. We shared giggles and smiles the entire show! More on Amy, Anna-Maria Horner, Jane Sassaman, Kaffe Fassett and fabulous Brandon Mabley in a future post!
Anyhow, enjoy a few pics to whet your taste buds and stay tuned for much more on new fabrics, patterns and projects, my book in the works and more....