THE SUN IS SHINING

April 5th and it is NOT SNOWING. It has snowed, yes, that cold white stuff 10 out of the last 14 days. A couple more pictures, I think the last of the season. I thought it was funny how the little bulb flowers pushed right through the snow.

It is supposed to be 90 degrees today in Orlando, where Janice lives. Janice is on here way to Ohio, where her oldest daughter will be giving birth to her third child today or tomorrow. It's a boy. Good luck Carolee. I am hoping these are the last of the snow pictures this season, but they were so beautiful, I just had to share.

Nothing could chase away the snow better than a sunny ABBEY BAG. Everytime I find a new fabric collection I love, I make an ABBEY BAG. This one is my favorite yet, made out of Moda's Wonderland.

This has been a busy couple of weeks. We have teamed up with STUDIO E FABRICS, www.studioefabrics.com to do some quilts for Spring Market. Their booth was down the way from ours at Fall Market and we fell in love with their fabrics. Beautiful, sophisticated, and a touch of whimsy, just our style. The first quilt is done, actually, it is a remake of Lady Madonna. Studio E has not one, but TWO black and white fabric collections and we combined those with a bright apple green. This will be hanging in their booth in Pittsburg. We will also be doing one with black and white and red for our booth. They are just stunning. We are doing three more quilts for Studio E. We will keep you updated.

I have been working on and off for several weeks on a new bag design. I started with 3 inch squares from TULA PINK's NEPTUNE collection. I put them together to make a big piece of fabric and then of course, cut it apart again.




Side Note: I have tried to explain "piecing" a quilt before. Think about it. You take big pieces of material, cut them into tiny little pieces, then you sew the little pieces back together to make one big piece of fabric. There are a lot of men who just don't get this concept.


Back to the bag. I put it together, bound it, then didn't like the results, so I took it apart. Finally I have finished it and I love it. It is big and roomy with huge pockets on the inside and the outside. It is 15 inches high and almost 20 inches wide. We have the Abbey Bag, the Bungalow Bag, and now, the


CLARABELLA BAG.















The pattern will be available soon. Tell us what you think and we will let you know when it is ready. Thanks reading.

Janice and Marcea

GLAD ALL OVER

It may have snowed eight more inches yesterday, but it is spring inside with the delivery of our new quilt. Janice worked feverishly to get the quilting done and back to me for the photographs, so without further delay we present: GLAD ALL OVER.




You just can't help but smile when you see this quilt. We used Moda's new fabric line from designer MoMo, called WONDERLAND which delivers into stores this week. It can be made with 77 of your favorite charm squares ( 5" squares) and a background fabric. We feel you just can't go wrong with Ric Rac. Just a hint. We sew it on by machine, outlining both sides, then put in on the quilt machine.



This quilt is fun, fast, and really easy. Choose your favorite method for appliqueing the giant flower petals. I put these on by hand, my favorite method. Janice did a great job on the quilting for these flowers. Check it out.
















This pattern is available for purchase on the website http://www.abbeylanequilts.com/ or give us a call 407-687-8848.

Next is an update on the quilt made from the Anna Maria Horner Fabric. I sewed it together, then didn't like it, so I unpicked the entire thing and put the pieces back together a different way. Now I love it. Janice has it and has started the quilting. There are some really fun techniques used in this quilt and we will tell you more about it when the pattern is done, another week or so.

We would love your comments and suggestions, so let us know what you think. Have a great week.
Janice and Marcea

p.s. if you click on the individual pictures, they will blow up bigger, much easier to see the details.

WE NEED YOUR HELP WITH A NAME

Welll, I can't believe it is already March. Time is speeding by. It did come in like a lamb though, I sure hope it stays that way. A week and a half ago we had another snow storm, 20 new inches on top of 5 or 6 left over from the last storm. I couldn't clean the driveway, because I didn't have anywhere to put the snow. And yes, Janice still sits in Florida complaining because it goes down to 50 degrees at night.

Enough about the weather. LET'S TALK QUILTS. We have pictures to share. Janice has a Christmas Quilt cut out and sitting on the floor. It is missing a couple of peppermint candies and it is going to have some great embellishments on the trees. It is made with Moda's Basic Gray "Figgy Pudding." The fabric will be in stores in June. This will be the only sneak peak. We are debuting this quilt at market. The fabric is beautiful and the design is so festive. We will have completed pattern ready in May.

Next on the floor is the quilt being made out of Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party. I just love this fabric. When it comes to design, you always have to be ready for changes. I started with an idea, I posted pictures a couple of weeks ago for the quilt. I got it all finished this week, and I just wasn't happy with it. I tried all kinds of ideas, and ended up ordering more fabric. I finally decided on the changes and did one block for practice and it still wasn't giving me the look I wanted. So as I have done for the last three weeks, i set it to the side and started working on something else. Then, two nights ago, I was designing on the computer. I had drawn a simple idea that I had had and realized the the Anna Maria quilt would work perfectly. Here is where the fun started. I began unpicking, yes, unpicking the entire quilt and now I am sewing in back together in a different configuration. I basically put the same rows on point and I just love it. It will be finished tomorrow and shipped off to Janice for quilting.

I picked up some beautiful fabric yesterday, Anna Maria Horner again, only from her new home dec line. I grabbed a couple of Kaffe Fassett pieces to go with it. Can we say a new bag. Can't wait to start on that project this week.

Now, for the most important part of this blog. We need help naming a new quilt. I finished it Thursday and it is in transit between Utah and Florida. Janice has the quilting machine ready the minute it gets there. Why the rush. It is out of Moda's MoMo collection "Wonderland" and it will be in the stores this month. It can be made from any collection however. 77 charm squares and a little yardage is all it takes. I took it to one of my local shops before I shipped it and they loved it. Fun, cute and easy. Now, the dilemma, WHAT TO NAME IT.

We would love your imput. Here are the choices:

1- Glad All Over

2 - Clarabella

3 - Mary Jane

4 - Got a Hold on me

So, tell us what you think. We love your opinions. The pattern will be ready to purchase in two weeks.

Have a great week.

Janice and Marcea