THE CRISIS HAS PASSED

Just wanted to alliviate any stress you were all still having. The crisis is over. There is no more panic, no more fear, the box with the MODA fabric is HERE. OK, it doesn't sound like much in the face of hurricanes, (I will get to that in a minute), but new fabric from moda was lost in the madness of Hurricane Ike. It was horrible. Janice and I were freaking out. Well, I was freaking out, Janice has a much more positive take on life than I do. She was sure it would come. Anyway, Janice had mailed me a priority box on Wednesday, Sept. 9. It always takes two days, but because of the hurricane, my post office, 20 miles from Galveston, closed on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. No box. Why you ask all the fuss over a box. Chez Moi and Basic Gray fabrics. Yards of Fabric.

After the storm, I made 2 trips to the post office 30 miles away, three phone calls and I stood at the mailbox every day for a week. I left town, no box. 8 days after it should have arrived, the box came. Inside, the fabric to finish this quilt and make two more. Yes, on the floor in this picture is the beginning of one of our Basic Gray quilts. I can't wait to get back home and start sewing.

Back to the Hurricane. This was the sunset after a day of storms. We survived. Some roof tiles blew off the house, tree branches broke, and no power for four days. I went a total of 26 days without power four years ago from hurricanes in Orlando. Back to Hurricane Ike, apparantly it went zooming northward and knocked the power out at Janice's daughters in Columbus, Ohio. Then Janice found out it went through their property in Missouri. Janice left on Thursday for an emergency road trip to Missouri to check out the damage. I left very early Friday morning to drive to Lake Powell in Utah and then to Ogden, Utah for the Utah Quilter's Guild festival. We are working while on the road, and will both be back home this week.

My trip included dropping a boat off at Lake Powell in Southern Utah. I posted a couple of pictures from southern Utah. One on the water and one from a little town called Hanksville. Funny thing, we don't have rocks in Florida. We don't even have stones or pebbles. Have a great week. Thanks for reading.

HURRICANE WOES

I usually try to write on Sundays, but the storm is really coming. Yes, Hurricane Ike is supposed to go right over my house early Saturday Morning. We should have sustained winds over 100 miles an hour for 5 to 8 hours. The power will go out and they have said it may be two weeks before it is back on. Here is a picture of the storm from Thursday.




New fabric was arriving today from Moda. Some of it was to finish up a quilt made with one of their new lines, BASIC GRAY. We actually will have two new designs for the line. There is also fabric for a design using Chez Moi. Unfortunately, because of the pending storm, the mail, ups, fedex and all those other companies decided not to make deliveries. I thought postmen came rain or shine. Hopefully next week. It is also difficult to sew without power. Janice will have to work overtime. The good news, Janice has two quilts ready to go on the long arm quilting machine this week. Here is a picture of my favorite, just the top. We promised sneak peaks.





As always, we would love to hear what you think. Have a great week. Check back often. We have lots of new projects.

NEW STORMS, NEW BAG

Another week, another tropical storm passing by and a hurricane on the way. I figure with Janice in Florida and me in Texas, we got this whole storm thing covered. One or the other of us will be effected. As I am writing this, there is a beautiful quilt top sitting on my floor. I think this one is my favorite so far. It should be ready for quilting tomorrow. It will make it's grand debut here on the blog first.

Speaking of debuts, I am putting on a couple of pictures of our newest creation. The pattern isn't written yet, give us a couple of weeks, but our "Abbey Bag" is going to be a hit.

I almost forgot the BIG NEWS. Janice and I are officially going to Market. Yes, we are having a booth in Houston. We should have 6 to 8 new patterns. Yes, that means we are working like crazy right now. It will get even worse in a couple of weeks, when all the new fabric comes in.







This is the Pin Cushion.

















This is the Bag.

This is the "ABBEY BAG'

That's about it for this week. LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THE ''ABBEY BAG."

the storms

Just in case anyone would like to know, Janice lives in Orlando and I am temporarily in Houston. Janice has only had one tropical storm this summer, but it rained over 30 inches in just a couple of days. She is anxiously awaiting the sun to return to the sunshine state.

I, on the other hand, had one tropical storm go by that barely did anything. I flew my father back to Utah on Friday and returned to Houston tonight, Sunday, in order to prepare for Hurricane Gustav. It looks like it will miss us, best of luck to all those in it's path.

There was a bright side to my short trip to Utah. I visited four of my favorite quilt shops, Pine Needles and Elaine's in Salt Lake City, Quilter's Haven in Bountiful, and Sweet Lavender in Roy. I picked up a few missing pieces of fabric for a new quilt and then got some beautiful new fabric. This week I hope to finish two new quilts and a special surprise.

One more bit of Great News. ABBEY LANE QUILTS will be attending the International Quilt Market in October as EXIBITORS.

Whether Texas or Florida, we are trying to stay dry and sew, sew, sew.

Kits are Flying

August 25

Good News! The kits have been mailed. We waited anxiously for the fabric to arrive. First one box, then the next another, then a third. It was about that time that tropical storm Fay decided to park itself in Janice's back yard. It stayed for 5 days and dropped over 20 inches of rain. School was cancelled, roads were closed. At least it wasn't as hot. Trying to look at the bright side. So, the clouds parted and the sun came back and the kits were mailed. Thanks to those of you who emailed us that you got them. We would love to see the finished products. Send them, we will share them.

We are super busy on new quilts. Janice is working on two, one made from civil war fabrics (her favorite) and another cute baby quilt. Did I tell you that Janice is making a Dear Jane, or at least she was before we started all this.

I have two new designs almost completely sewn. While I was working on them, I came up with a cute new version of an old standby "need to have" item. I will post a picture in the next few days. I leave tomorrow to take my father back to Utah. I am in Houston, Texas with him right now, and i decided to get him out of here before the hurricane gets here, if it does. Look at Utah quilt stores, Abbey Lane is coming to town.

Well, thanks for reading.

Oh Yeah, Here's a picture of us at the quilt market in Portland in May. I am not really that much taller than Janice. four inch high heels.

almost up and running

Now that our website, www.abbeylanequilts.com officially links you here, we are going to have to start letting you know what's going on. Right now, there is a lot. We have finally caught up with all the work from the spring quilt market in Portland, and have found ourselves deep into it getting ready for Houston.

New and Exciting:

We were just featured in two magazines. We have given our families our autographs, they are the only ones who would take them. We are excited though to see our quilts on the pages of a magazine.

Both magazines offer kits for the quilts which you can get on our website. Both quilts use Donna Dewberry's new fabrics which just arrived this week. THOSE KITS ARE ON THE WAY EVERYONE.

We want to thank Quilthome, one of our favorite online quilt stores, www.quilthome.com , for the great article they had in their newsletter and Joel Dewberry fabrics and our quilt patterns.

Look for updates more often, and we will be adding photos too.

Our kids are great at blogging, so, as to not be outdone, we are attempting to blog. Janice and I are in the quilt design business. At least that is what we tell people. We have both quilted since we were kids. I sat under many a quilt frame at my grandma's house and Janice's mom was a quilter. We have been friends for almost 20 years. One of our favorite things to do together was quilt. We were always working on a quilt, the problem was, we changed every pattern. "This would look better," "We should try this instead," and on and on. So one day we decided that we could design quilts.