Gudrun´s World

I'm a cover girl......kind of

I am so excited to be a part of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks from today's top designers, volume 2! The first volume that came out last year sold out really fast so be prepared to grab an issue from the newsstands when you see it next month. Quiltmaker is organizing a blog tour to celebrate the publication so be prepared to hop some more with me next month.

Here is what baffles me though. They put my name on the front cover with all these famous people!! I was speechless!

 Click on the button for more information! 

Crazy Surprises!

Today I am finally able to let some cats out of the bag. Last May I got a surprise visit which is one of my favorite experiences ever!! Mark Lipinski showed up on my doorstep on a Monday morning, the day after Quilt Market wrapped up here in Minneapolis. He was taping his famous "door knock" for the Quilt Out Loud series. The show is up on the QNNon website now so you can watch it!! Now I have to warn you....Mark is loud, funny and crazy....mix that with a crazy Icelandic designer...you know we had some fun!!!

My parents were visiting from Iceland and so they were caught on film. After making the rounds all over the house with Mark, I taped a demo of the Ric Rac Runner from the Fast & Furious Holiday book with Jodi Davis for another segment of the show. 

While we were taping this segment, we had to redo a couple of shots because Mark was being so loud downstairs, chatting up a storm with my parents!! It was hilarious.

We had such a great time together, time went by way too fast. I wish I could have spent a whole day with those two...it was the best and craziest surprise ever. If you are not signed up for QNN online, I highly encourage you to do so. You will have access to multiple quilting shows for a very small yearly fee. It's so worth it. You can watch on demand shows, classics like Fons & Porter, Sewing with Nancy, Kaye Wood, Quilt in a day and other shows like two I taped with Jodi a few years ago. Then they have their Quilt Market updates with all the latest things being introduced at market and the new shows Quilt Out Loud and Quilt It, the longarm quilting show. I just love spending time on there.

 The new issue of Easy Quilts is on the newsstands now and it has one of my quilts in there. Olivia's Puzzle is a quilt made out of the Olivia fabric line. It's super fun because you cut up the panel and piece it back into the design. Fons & Porter is offering kits for the quilt. 

I hope you are having a good week so far, I have been finishing up a lot of things, marking things off the list which always feels good. It has been extremely hot around here lately, feels like Florida with heat in the 90's and extreme humidity!

 

Have a great weekend!!

Radio Interview!!

Hey there.....I know....it's not Saturday anymore.....but I have news!! I hope you all had a Happy Easter weekend with the family....I did....but that's not the news:

 I will be a guest on Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Radio Show on Monday (tomorrow!!) April 5th at 4pm eastern time!!! Can you believe it!! I can't!! (PRESSURE!!!)

Click on the image to go to the radio page and listen LIVE....but you can also listen to it whenever works for you, either straight from your computer or download it to your iPod. That way you can listen while you sew, run, drive or even while you sleep!!

Pat does a great job with the show, it is very entertaining. I just hope I have something to contribute...yikes!! In the same hour, Pat will also be chatting with the fabulous Heidi Kaisand, so if I totally screw things up....I'm sure she will save the day!!

But hey....you can also win a prize!! Go to Pat's Blog and leave a comment this week (until Friday at noon) and you have a chance to win an Olivia fabric bundle and pattern!

I would also love to hear how this turned out. I'm not sure I am going to be able to listen to it myself....do you remember when you were a kid and heard your voice for the first time on tape? Totally different than in your own head!! I was mortified when I heard mine for the first time....I actually argued with my mom: "This is not my voice!! What did you do to it?"

Pat even made this really cool collage.....I hope you tune in!!

 

Time off

Sorry about the blog absence but I have been enjoying some time off from work for the last couple of weeks. We have friends in town from Iceland and I deliberately closed the door to my studio and office last Monday and haven't opened it up until today. This week is also going to be sparse workwise as we have an awesome forecast here in MN and I am definitely going to enjoy the last bits of summer heat here since we didn't get any in July.

I have been getting magazines in the mail that are featuring some of my designs.

First is the new Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts

 

I have a table runner pattern in there called Shooting Stars. It is made from the Journey fabric line that is in stores now.

 

I also have a pattern in the new Fons & Porter's Baby Quilts issue.

 

That quilt is called Nori's Playhouse and was originally designed for my nephew. I made it up in totally different colors for the magazine using a Red Rooster fabric line called Folk Tale Friends out of flannel. It turned out really fun and kind of girly with the pink main fabric.

 

I hope you are all enjoying your summer, I will have a few more easy days and then it is head on back to work next week.

New Fabric Trends

 

I just received my new Fabric Trends magazine in the mail, fall issue. I have a project in there made with my Amma's Garden Fabric line, which is called Amma's Courtyard. It is a square quilt that looks great on a wall or on a table. It is made with the rich purples, golds and reds in the line so it is perfect for this time of year. The Fabric Trends team did a great job with the photography, it looks beautiful and the best part is, they allready sent it back to me so I get to display it here at home and enjoy it. Check out the new issue, it has a great article on antique quilts, interview with Mary Koval and much more.

Easy Quilts Summer issue

Thank you all for commenting on our strip star project, I loved reading all your comments. And I also wanted to thank all my strip stars that sent me blocks for all the wonderful notes and letters they sent me. One even sent me my absolute favorite, Icelandic candy!! That bag disappeared very quickly....before the kids came home from school. (Takk Kolla)

After putting your names on pieces of paper, I stirred them up in a basket, pulled one out and The winner of the new Amma’s Garden fabric is comment number 9, Linda. Her blog is http://www.all-stitched-up.blogspot.com/ So Linda, please send me an e-mail (gudrun@gequiltdesigns.com) with your home address so I can send some fabrics your way. Congratulations!!

The summer issue of Easy Quilts is on the newsstands now and I am very excited to share with you that I have a quilt in there. This is a great issue with 18 different projects in it that are all quick and simple. It has a special section with baby quilts that can be put together in a jiffy. The staff at Fons & Porter are great to work with, I have really enjoyed it. Great job on this issue. Head out to the bookstore and grab an issue before they are gone.

The quilt I have in there is called Rectangles. It is a simple and fun fat quarter quilt, lap size.

I made it out of my first fabric line, Baskets and Blooms which features some folk art baskets and flowers. It can be done in any fabric and color combination and it would still look great.

Right next to my project in the magazine there is a great wall quilt designed by the fabulous Pat Sloan. If you haven't seen her blog, head over there and check it out. She is great about posting every day almost www.patsloan.typepad.com

Be sure to stop by the blog again this weekend to see a preview of the new quilt pattern....Poppy Garden.

Newsletter is out

The March newsletter went out on March 31st, phew. I hope most of you are subscribers to it allready. I introduced a new column in the newsletter that is written by a "Stripper Expert". Her name is Francis T. Ripper or Francie Stripper as I like to call her, and she will be giving some great advice on stripping (quilter style) in every newsletter from now on. She leaked the names of the two new strip quilts coming out in the newsletter....can you believe it, ha ha ha! She is lots of fun and has a fabulous taste in clothes don't you think?

We got 2 new strip quilts done on our little cabin getaway and you have allready seen a sneak peek of one of them. The quilts came back from Rita (my fabulous long arm quilter) on monday and she did an awesome job, as always. So here is a sneak peek of the other one......you will see full photo's soon, they are headed to the photographer tomorrow. This quilt is so fun and the colored fabrics really pop off the backgrounds. This pattern is called STRIP OFF!! But you will have to wait, it won't come out until may.

Winter in Minnesota

I am preparing for a lecture for the Quilt guild in Hudson, Wisconsin. The presentation is tomorrow and it will be about an hour drive for me. Nice travel weather is always nice so what did the weatherman say about tomorrows forecast......yes of course, it will be the coldest day so far this winter....30 below fahrenheit!!! (Which is -35 Celsius) This is Minnesota winter for you in a nutshell. Those of you reading this from warmer climates, I so want to be in your shoes now. I do not like cold weather at all, I wear fuzzy slippers all year and set my thermostat at 72 in the winter. My friends start shedding clothes when they come to visit. And then I always get the phrase...."But you are from Iceland! You should be used to this!" The truth is, Iceland doesn't ever get this cold, not where I come from. And I think I didn't inherit the true icelandic thermostat because when it is 86 and sunny, I am in heaven. It never gets to be 86 degrees in Iceland either. My husband and my two sons like the cooler temperatures, 65 is heavenly temp for my husband.....brrrrrrrr, and if it goes above that, he is inside enjoying the AC. Anyways, it is going to be a gorgeous day tomorrow, sunny and calm, great to be inside looking out. I will just have to sprint from the car to the meeting hall.

I was walking by the magazine stands at the grocery store the other day and I always at least look at the covers of all of the quilt mags. My eye stopped on a magazine called Quilt Almanac because it had a picture on the cover of a block made out of my Mementos fabric. I brought it home and saw that Robin Alexander had designed this wonderful quilt and used my fabric. She used lots of colors out of the line which makes for a great scrappy quilt (my favorite) and she also had some great words about the line: "I love the colors in these fabrics. I decided to make a scrap quilt so I could use as many of them as possible. The large floral border just made it all come together." Thank you so much Robin, I am so glad you liked working with the fabrics.

Also on brand new on the newsstands right now is the offspring magazine from Fons and Porter, Easy  Quilts. It is a great magazine with lots of quilts of different sizes and styles and they are all for easy to intermediate skill level. I have a table runner in there that is called Sassy Blooms. It is done out of my Mementos fabric line and they did a great job with the photography as always. What is also great about the Fons and Porter magazines is that they always offer kits for most of the quilts in their store which you can either call in and order or order online. Look for this great issue on the newsstands this month.

Have a great weekend.