Gudrun´s World

Designer Bus Tour

I was a part of a "Meet the designers" bus tour on March 2nd that a few shops in Minnesota organized. They each had a designer in their shop for the day and then four buses went from shop to shop. We did a little introductory lecture for each bus and signed books & patterns. This was a great event and fun to be a part of with some of my favorite designer people in the industry, although we didn't get to hang out together. Linda Hohag from Brandywine Designs, Heather Mulder from Anka's Treasures, Sherri Falls from This & That and more great designers.

I spent the day in DeAnn's Country Village in Litchfield MN. Litchfield is a small town about an hour and a half drive west of the Twin Cities, with a great old fashioned main street with little shops, restaurants, coffee shops and such. The store is owned by Jiggs and DeAnn Rothstein, great people that have done a fabulous job in the gift business for 17 years. The quilt shop part of the store has been  open for 6 years and is growing every year. The store is so much fun to roam in, lots of nooks and corners filled with inspiring gift displays and such. Of course I didn't go home empty handed after spending a whole day there, can you just imagine. I wouldn't be able to work in a store like that......I would never get paid. I took some pictures to show you guys what I was faced with all day. 

I love this little garden inspired display, makes me want to get out to the garden....reality is I live in Minnesota so it will be a while.

A great country corner with very fun items, I found something there to take home!!

Love these colorful plates, wouldn't this be a great color combination for a quilt?

I loved these little chocolate bunnies, they almost made it home but then I found other bunnies that I can display longer, not only for easter and those came home with me. I put them on my mantel along with these great chocolate eggs that I got too and made an instant easter decoration. Happy easter everybody.

Signing Blocks

I have gotten a couple of e-mails from my "Strip Stars" asking about signing the star blocks. I thought  that was a perfect opportunity to give a tiny little tutorial on signing blocks or fabrics.

What you will need first and foremost is a good permanent pen with a fine point. It needs to be perfectly waterproof and it also can't bleed into the fabric as you are writing. I have a couple of different pens myself, a Sakura pigma pen, a Faber Castell pen. Some people have even used a fine tip sharpie with good results. One of the challenges with writing on fabric is that it tends to pucker and move too much and the writing doesn't look all that good. A great tip for that problem is to take a piece of Freezer paper and iron on to the back side of the fabric you want to write on. That stabilizes the fabric and makes it very easy to write on. Then you can easily peel the freezer paper off once you are done.

For those of you making the star blocks for me, I would love for you to write your name in the center rectangle and then your state and/or Country below your name. It is so neat to see all the different parts of the world this quilt will come together from. I was so excited, I got the first block from one of my strip stars yesterday in the mail. Thanks so much.

  The sewing trip to the cabin was great and very productive. I finished my large queen size quilt which will be my new full color pattern for spring market and that will go to the longarm quilter tomorrow. We also got two new strip quilts done!! I promised a sneak peek.....here it is.....more details later.

Favorite Things

It is friday again! This week has just whizzed by, too fast. I am headed up north, to a cabin on sunday to do some sewing for a couple of days. We are planning to stay in our pajamas and work on new patterns for quilt market before spring break hits. I can't wait, I can get so much done when I am not interrupted by "MOM" "MOM" "MOM!!!" It is going to be great, I will give you some sneak peeks when I get back.

Just for fun I wanted to do a list of 5 favorite things. I get those e-mails all the time to list my favorite things, but that list changes with the wind for me. So I decided to do a list of the first 5 things that popped into my head.....of my favorite things.....today!! (It will probably change tomorrow!)

1. Cadbury's Mini Eggs: Oh, my, these are so good and I am totally addicted. It is very fortunate that these eggs are only available for a short time every year (kind of like girl scout cookies) because I would have such a hard time staying away! Whenever I open a bag, it is gone in a flash!

2. My Ugg slippers: I got these for christmas and absolutely love them. I wear them all the time in the house. The only problem is that they get bigger, the longer you wear them, so now they sometimes go flying off my feet if I am in a hurry.

3. Cashmere Mafia: This is the new show on ABC and it is hilariously funny. It is kind of like Sex and the City mixed with a little bit of Desperate Housewives, very funny. It totally has some great laugh out loud moments.

  4. Tivo: I don't know how I lived without this thing called Tivo. It is the the best gadget my husband has ever bought (he bought the super slicer from an infomercial). Now I have all of my TV shows programmed and watch then whenever I have the time....and I can pause live TV!! Unbelievable.

5. Shape Cut Plus: If you don't have this June Tailor ruler, go and get one. I have been doing a lot of cutting lately for this new pattern I am working on and this ruler is just the greatest. It saves you so much time when you are cutting. I use it every time I am working on a quilt, it's the best.

Tell me your favorite things in the comments. Have a great weekend.