Portland Oregon

First let me start with a little peek at one of the new quilts debuting at the International Quilt Market in Portland in just a few days. And oh, Henry sitting on the quilt, as usual... "Where's your ball, Henry?"

Ok, so we left lovely weather in Raleigh North Carolina on a 6:15am flight, and arrived in Portland Oregon this afternoon... rainy and a little cool, but pleasant! The perfect crate of goodies, walls, furniture and props left Raleigh last week.... I have suitcases of finished sewn items in the lastest fabrics, and of course boxes too are expected to arrive at the hotel tomorrow and Thursday. So a little quiet before the storm, Kevin and I checked in to the hotel, answered email and a few calls, and wondered out for a late lunch. 2:30pm here in Portland. And we found MILO'S CITY CAFE (on Broadway and 14th) Oh what a wonderful lunch we had. It's a local joint, a place I can see my lovely friend Susan Walters in. Casual, relaxed, local patrons and fabulous food.
Then we wondered off and found, yes, two of my most favorite types of stores.... are you ready? Stationery/Papery and a Shoe shop. Oh joy! What more can I ask for....

THE PAPER GARDEN
On NE 15th street
sweet tiny little shop with the usual 'good' suspects, but sadly no Cid Pear stationery.... sweet little gifts of stationery, gift wrap, soaps, journals, stamps, paper accessories, desk necessities; and in the back a little corner dedicated to kids stuff including those lovely little dish sets you see in high-end stores... I had a set for each of the twins. Bibs etc; and some soft kimonos and cotton pyjamas for us grown up girls.... very cute place.

and

HALO SHOES
Fantastic little rustic shop filled chocolablock with unusual and fabulous shoes shoes shoes for both men and women, a few belts and bags. I made a purchase OF COURSE I did! spoke with lovely Jean who recommended a few restaurants (listed below)...
Anyway this super shoe shop offers online service so check out WWW.HALOSHOES.COM

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And to top of off all this glory, we stopped by PEETS COFFEE & TEA on NE Broadway & 15th for Kevin's coffee and my tea.... and a fresh oatmeal raisin cookie.... G l o r i o u s. Great place and I highly recommend....
and back to the hotel for a nap. Oh lovely stuff. We also received a call from the kids, and the baseball went well. They won and apparently Junior who can't even swing the bat actually hit the ball (without the T). Jonty was so delighted for him. Amelia was discussing what a 'caper' was, Alex was studying, and Grammy managed to get them all the places they needed to get to today! What would we do without the woman?

A great first day, thank goodness we didn't have to set up the booth today. We made an extensive to-do list for tomorrow, which is the start of set-up. stay tuned for more on Portland, restaurant list to follow, and have a fab week.

Happy birthday Lola! (More on my childhood friend, Lola who I may actually get to see on Friday!)

T

Pre-show prep.... update

Quilt show debuting new collection CHLOE'S IMAGINATION and new colors or ANNABELLA is next week. I have been working together with Nancy and her daughters from QUILTS LIKE CRAZY right here in North Carolina. These ladies are talented quilters, seamstresses and knitters. Nancy's shop is half quilting and half knitting and the stuff they do is truly amazing.
Anyway, they called today and said "Your quilts are almost done!" I can't wait to see them and show them off at Market. For those of you who don't see my booth and display at the trade show it's quite an amazing event. Again, we're all making many arrangements to have items sewn and created for display all in our new fabrics. I am in the middle of all that chaos. Fabrics come in in bolt-loads... haha... and surrounded with them always alters the production 'plans' slightly. Once I have them and see them I make the adjustments, last minute revisions and of course I get productive myself. I design all the clothes I show for both kids and adults. I am one of those designers who designs as I cut the fabric. The patterns then get cut from my fabric cuttings believe it or not. Adjustments to those patterns are made as I create the garments. It's a crazy method but works well for me. I have the perfect clothing collection for little ones... We'll share loads of pics when they're available. And they show well in the new collections. I can't wait for you to see.
We slipcovered a few items for the booth this year. One of my favorites is a tiny arm chair belonging to my twins... actually Amelia now has the chair in her room. When she gets it back I am going to have to redo her whole room to fit the chair. It's that cute!
Well, tired me is off to relax. Kids are in bed, and I am tired, tomorrow is a new day and more preparations to attend to.
Thanks to all who read my blog.
Best
Tina

WWW.QUILTHOME.COM

Oh my goodness...
I just received the lastest email newsletter from quilthome.com and I just can't believe how wonderful these folks are. This is the greatest website... I have ordered from them a few times myself.... yes I do buy things to sew with.... they have awesome customer service, and best news... they carry ALL my fabrics, and yes will carry my patterns too... coming soon. Anyway, check them out HERE, and you can see every collection I have done! WOW.
Shown left is BUTTERFLY TG13 in coral... I love this one!

And for all you guys who are looking for ANNABELLA, guess what QUILTHOME.COM carries the first released color. New ones are coming, but the orginal acqua one is lovely.

All for now, TINA

An update of show prep

As you know I am prepping for the upcoming spring QUILT MARKET in Portland Oregon, May 08. And the countdown is on. As a designer for WESTMINSTER FREE SPIRIT, fellow designers like Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler have set the standard for lovely award winning booths, displays and more importantly their quilts and sewn finished pieces... How does one compete with astounding Kaffe Fassett quilts? Last year the very talented newcomer, Joel Dewberry was awarded Best New Booth, and I must be immodest and tell you with pride, our lovely booth, Tina Givens, won Best New Exhibitor in Fall of last year. This year, fellow designers including Anna Maria Horner are prepping perfect and colorful and creative displays for their fabric collections... so we're all in this lovely competitive environment vying for shop buyers', licensees, and publishers' attentions. Eeeek. It's all very exciting. Set-up is fun but every one is quietly peeking at each others incoming walls, floor coverings, accessories and of course the quilts and sewn projects... What is truly amazing and to the credit of the big guns at Westminster Fiber, is the fact that we, the designers are all so different. So although we stand with a smile side by side there in some degree of competition, and in the end we smile broadly because we know we are all so different and so uniquely gifted with different ideas and designs and flavor. So one shop can easily buy fabrics from each of us knowing that each will have it's very own personality, none look alike. Publishers can interview and have very unique stories and images for each of us... Friendly competition is a lovely thing! It keeps us on our toes and it serves for a friendly and social environment, because it's also the time we all get together from all parts of the globe and share a drink, a laugh and a sigh of thanks to be together!
Shown above is a small section of a quilt top made for the show in Chloe's Imagination (in Pink Veranda colors).

Gifts & Do What You Love to Do!

So yesterday, late afternoon the kids were playing with their neighborhood pals and I'm sitting pondering new colorways for new collections, and the door bursts open and in come scurrying little feet. My home office is off a hallway between the backdoor and the kitchen. I hear water running, and cupboards opening and closing. Then all is quiet for a moment and then I hear my little boy's voice behind me "Look what I have for you, mom." And he's standing there with a teacup holding his green bouquet for me. What a gift! And how precious, I am so very blessed with these little human beings filled with love and kisses and hugs for their momma. And what's more, they bring me gifts! Now, the bouquet was 'pulled/yanked' from the neighbor's 'about-to-bloom' hydrangea bushes.... but all the same, he brought me flowers....
I thought I'd share....
Actually, of course there's more to this than the gift... I have been wide eyed and a little overwhelmed with the bolts of fabrics surrounding me, my new paper collection with C.R. Gibson about to launch at the National Stationery Show, and me sewing, designing and creating clothing with my own fabrics.... what a pleasure. DOING WHAT I LOVE! Which brings me to something I have been itching to do for a while. I am surrounded by people who tell me, how lucky I am to do what I love. And I thought, well they can do it too. It's a matter of determining what they love, and well, doing it. Taking step by step to make it happen. It may become something in the end they didn't expect to do, but I guarantee they'll be LOVING it. So I have started the outline of a 'how-to-do-what-you-love' diatribe of YOU SHOULD DO IT IF YOU WANT TO. Stay tuned... who knows where the 'diatribe' may go. It's all a journey right?

Annabella's new colors

Annabella in the 'Rachael' colorway was the first, see below in an older post. These 3 are the new colorways, 1st is called Gabriel, middle one is called Mink and the 3rd is Charleston. Fun and crazy are they not? These are debuting at Spring Market, so when available in shops and online I'll be sure to let you know. And if you're a store... better get em while they're hot! Call your fabulous rep right away!

Chloe Madness!

Last Thursday I was out and about with the kids when the studio called to tell me two large boxes had arrived loaded with fabric... We dropped everything, and scrambled off to see the finished bolts....
"It's CHLOE's IMAGINATION"... I screeched...

Going through the design process, from inception, through reviews of swatches we call 'strike-offs', final approvals and then into production has taken almost 5 months... It was a smooth one too, just 3 rounds... I am never quite sure about when the final bolts will arrive (I know within a week or two or so when they call) so when they do it's a surprise. Anxious, because I know that's when all heck breaks lose and the extreme madness of production begins... All prep work has been basically done ( I am never finished, always a new idea lurking in my sleepless head)... so now we have the fabric... and just 6 weeks to show time! Ahhhh...
Then I had to decide which I'd take home to the home based studio where we can start chopping and cutting and sort into quilt, apparel, toys, home products and other crazy miscellaneous stuff I love to prepare for market.... each gets bins for project work and then shuttled off to miscellaneous and talented cutters, sewers and quilters. Me being the designer, chief cutter, pattern grader and head seamstress.... oh and iron-mistress.
Are you getting the idea? My home and home studio are filled with fabric, people, children... and me! I take up a lot of space emotionally, creatively and well in every way! So my children and Kevin are so very involved in putting up with me. I run around like a mad woman with some piece of fabric, pattern or tool in my hand. I bathe the kids with the blackberry in one hand... well I'm not that bad, but almost. Kevin has been cook this weekend... Mellie models for me... she loves it. She sits with me at the machines and passes me scissors, pins and drives me batty most of the time, and I love it.
It has truly been a nutty weekend. We're talking about 40 x twenty yard bolts...

Well so far, the quilts are well underway... wait till you see them. I have seen one completed top in the lavender and chocolate colorway (Fairyland Coco) in a quilt called THE PLACE SETTING... Patterns will be available at market and through your local stores... Keep posted for where to purchase them. On the blog find the posted quilt pattern called SLEEPY AFTERNOON to give you a small taste.... We'll have this quilt on display at the Free Spirit Booth. It's a beaut! We used the gold and tangerine color way I called 'Marigold Palace'. Check it out.

This show I have many more quilts... I'm calling them the QUINTESSENTIAL QUILTS. They are accessible, moderately easy, and striking quilt patterns. For a start in the actual quilting world (which I am new to) I wanted to start simple, easy but catchy... so they mischieviously don't look easy but, believe me, they are! You may watch me grow as a quilt pattern designer over time, but for once in my life I am taking that slow. I am completely in awe of quilt designers... and quilters. Ahh, Kaffe Fassett & Lisa Prior Lucy - unbelievable, Denyse Schmidt is a goddess (www.dsquilts.com), and what about Carol Taylor (www.caroltaylorquilts.com)... she's a genius... I digress...

So quilts are underway.... patterns are in motion (print production), clothing, hats and toys are in production... and wowee... I had time to play. So I started with an old love of mine... MILLINERY. I love hat making! While in Cleveland I took classes from an eccentric and lovely man called Dennis... who was with Balenciaga in NY in his early years... A fabulous personality who inspired me at a time of soul searching...
It's funny how things we do in past lives (within our life) come back to us.... So breaking out the millinery bits and pieces, my old patterns, a block (to look at for inspiration)... I crafted a few fabric hats. Kevin, who has seen press and the fabulous picture of the perfect Amy Butler in her sun hat laughed at me. He said it's ahhh, not quite like Amy is it Tina? Here's my version!
Oh and Mellie had to join in! Here she is in a fab top hat I call Metro-Topper. Mellie is a ham, just like her ma! The hat I am wearing is called TRILBY... I used 'Cade's Garden', lined and under brim in 'Fortiny'. Mel's topper is in same Fortiny but lined in Heaven - all from Marigold Palace colors... Divine! Don't know if they will make the cut but they were awesome to make... I also created a sweet little bird cage and crazy bird inside (all out of the fabrics), and an owl who is simply just charming... Take a look! I am having way too much fun... The owl's fat belly is in a fabric from the collection called TRELLIS and it's gorgeous... when you see it's vine-ey pattern weaving its way through a quilt block it's truly something... Well, just a few items for you to see... more hats and clothing are underway. And all fodder for the book I am about to begin... so enjoy and let me know what else you'd like to see! MY best, T

Don't Just Put Flowers in the Vase!

"Oh, nice flowers, but why is there an artichoke in the vase? Oh, wait there's two... no, three!" Gasped my dear husband looking at our luncheon table this morning.
"Yes, darling you are so observant, there are 3 artichokes in the flower arrangement." I respond, while I rush around preparing the appetizers, Henry underfoot, my oldest son rolling his eyes, like 'why ask dad,' and the twins speaking in loud squeaky voices in excitement and sugar overload on chocolate and sugary marshmellow! Tugging on my apron all at the same time! I think it's normal for artichokes in the flowers to be frank. Once I had a whole bushell of carrots upside down with their greenery flowing over the top of the vase. How 'appropo' for Easter ... ah, bunnies and all. I so believe in expanding ones world, and,

"...don't just put flowers in the flower vase."

is a metaphor to live with, don't you? I mean what else can we do? How about placing garden furniture inside and crystal chandeliers outside hanging from the large old oak tree. What about live, yes, swimming fish as a dinner center piece and napkins torn from scraps of linen... Oh yes... So I went on a hunt for some simple oversized placemats so I didn't cover my lovely wood table with a tablecloth... and of course I didn't find the placemats so this morning I opened my fabric stock closets and found lovely linens in a few appropriate colors and 'whalah' instant napkins. I didn't bother stitching the edges, and of course I went further and ripped large pieces of linen; sandwiched cotton batting inbetween the layers and oh-me-gawsh, I have my placemats. Not finished of course, and just lovely. I folded and ironed them and tied chocolate (what else) color satin ribbon bows....
I somehow favor raw sticks, ivy, green moss, birds and all things with a natural twist. In that flower arrangement, along with those artichokes, are bunches of willow sticks... all curvy and wrapped into the flowers. Oh and of course I came across natural sticks of cinnamon, I think on my hunt for the peppercorns... and naturally stuck them into the flowers too!
A lovely concoction I dare say... Well, it all worked, what with those frayed linen edges, bits of sticks and raw cinnamon, oh and the artichokes!

MJ Booties

When my twins were babies they were tiny. I mean Amelia was 2 lbs 12 oz and Jonty was a big boy at 4 lbs... They were preemies and there were very few oneseys or booties to fit. I did find some soft cuddlies at The Gap, but other than that I made their little hats and booties and blankees... Oh and we had to have many burp cloths around with little man Jonty. A little reflux action had us walking around everywhere with one attached to our shoulders!!! They're now 5 and tall (they are both going to be tall people and tower over little me)... and when ever I see little booties I go crazy. Now I create lovely patterns for babies everywhere, not just for mine! I even have a series of Bootie stationery... very popular booties for birth announcements and notecards... The pink booties are called Baby Oxfords and the green and pink are called PinkBooties... see them both on www.cidpear.com.

The fabric booties shown up top, are called MJ Booties (Ahhh that would be Mary-Jane Booties)... The pattern is easy and my objective was to make them without looking home-made... they are soft and even have a foundation in the sole for shape. The fabric here is from new Annabella in Rachael colorways, the black and white fabric is called VENICE. I love it with the Bliss in its pinks and dark chocolates (used as the lining), and the sole (which you unfortunately can't see, is an acqua blue colorway for a new fabric called Mila. This pattern is going to be available for sale shortly. Debuting in Portland Oregon in May. Wait 'til you see the matching, adorable brimmed sun hat for babies. This aint your average hat people....
Sorry the pattern is not a freeby... But have a peek and let me know if you're interested.
All my best, this sunny day in North Carolina... a mere 74 degrees F or about 20 C. Yeahhhh... I love it here in the Spring!

Sleepy Afternoon Quilt Pattern

Especially for Chloe!
I am chomping at the bit for my sample yardage from the mill... Chloe's Imagination is on its way in final form and I just can't wait. So, today I literally ran into my favorite local quilt shop, (between my 5 year olds gymnastics, checking in at the Cid Pear studios, and of course saturdays are meant for shoe shopping) Quilts Like Crazy (Wake Forest NC) where I thoroughly enjoy chatting with shop owner, Nancy and her lovely daughters; and of course, again, I was wowed by the amazing quilts hanging around the shop.
The dilemma for me as a fabric artist is basically, how to show off the fabrics in quilt form without cutting too deeply into the fabrics. The truth is, I want to show off the art and design, but also their glorious pattern and color combinations in delicious patchwork. It's sort of ironic, no?

Anyhoo, with all of that in mind, and CHLOE'S IMAGINATION due in shortly, I have been working on a series of quilt designs for the show, and thought I'd share with you. I created this design especially for Chloe's Imagination, and I chose the Marigold Palace colorway. I love it so much, I can't wait to try it in the lavender and browns too; and oh, the Pink Veranda colors are vibrant in girly pink, chartreuse gold and luscious swimming pool blue... just you wait! So, here's an image of the quilt I called "Sleepy Afternoon". It reminds me of a hammock and a shady spot, with the bees and the birds fluttering about. It's a simple quilt using a very easy 3 part block, and a plain square. And a lovely accent for the border and that tiny square... So here it is, tell me what you think... feel free to down load the pattern HERE.