Portabellopixie

Six Dublin Stinky Sisters Book

Shall I break that down a bit for ya?

OKAY, wait.

First off, thank you all so much for the croup suggestions and virtual shoulders to cry on. I truly thought that we were the only ones dealing with this. Shows how much I know, huh? I am taking every suggestion (that we haven't already tried) to heart and will let you know how it works out.

My little girl is SIX. As is, years OLD. I can't believe it.

She woke me up on her birthday and we had a short conversation that went something like this:

ME: "oh!! my little baby is six now! whaa!!!"

HER: "No I'm not. We haven't had my cake yet. You need to get up and make my cake."

ME: "I'm pretty sure you're six."

HER: "Nope, I need a cake. Can you get up now please?"

ME: "Oh.. well.. okay"

Later on in the morning..

HER: "Guess what?"

ME: "What?"

HER: "I'm not a little girl anymore, so it's okay for me to call you MOM instead of MOMMY."

ME: (crickets)

Yep. Anyhow-

 

Eliza has an interesting mix of likes.  She loves pink and girly things, but there needs to be a bit of non girly in there too.  For the LONGEST time she has been over the moon about dinosaurs.  It used to kinda make me scratch my head, but now I think it is fabulous.  No matter how many of her buddies like Barbie best (which she does like) she will not be swayed from dinosaurs being her thing.  I hope she keeps it up when all the other girls tell her it's time to kiss boys.  I have to say the "How to Train Your Dragon" has definintely thrown dragons into the mix, but that's just fine by us.

So when it came time for birthday planning, she told me she wanted a Barbie / Dragon / Dinosaur cake.  ???  Maybe Dinosaur excavation barbie who trots the globe on her Night Fury?  Don't know, but I certainly didn't feel up to it, so this is what we came up with:

 

Dublin- my little sister landed in Dublin this morning for a MONTH long tour of Europe.  Harumph.  My littler sister spent spring break in New York.  Double harumph.  I have never been to either places nor have I even been out of the country!  So I've decided I can't let my little sister's stand me up and I am going to just plan a trip to Europe and design some fabric while I'm there.  Anyone have any good resources for European travel?

I got a few emails from people today saying that they got my book delivered to them!  I don't even have a copy of it myself!  So anyway, it is starting to ship, so look for it if you have it preordered!

I will be signing copies of it in my booth at Quilt market if you happen to be coming!  I'll be around the majority of the time, so stop by.  The show is wholesale only and not open to the public, but if you are in the Minneapolis area, I will also be doing a signing at Quilted Treasure on May 19th from 6-8.  If you are interested in coming, here are the specifics.

Also, we will be taking a trip this summer to the Seattle / Portland areas and in-between.  If you would like to sponsor an event, signing, or class with moi, please let me know.  We are planning for the end of July, early August.

And just a parting question for you- is it fair that roses seem to be able to pull off amazing beauty even when they are on the way out?  Just wonderin.

 

xo-

Sandi

So Was' up?

Hullo everyone. (I am loopy on dayquil and grammar is not going to be a part of this post. You have been forewarned.)

I'm miss you all!  I love the interaction we have on this little blog here.  It makes me sad when things get so busy around here that I don't get to keep up my end of the interaction often enough. 

So let me catch you up-

I'm sick.  Have been for about a week.  Can NOT kick this bug, but I'm keeping up my spirits by allowing myself chocolate.  Really good chocolate.  

Ethan & Eliza are sick too.  Last week we ended up in the ER with Ethan again.  Have I mentioned his ongoing battle with croup here before?  People tend to talk about croup as if it is a minor inconvenient cough.  Maybe for some, but when he gets it, it shakes his poor little body to even get in a tiny breath.  It always happens in the middle of the night and it is the scariest thing imaginable.  When I had Eliza, I had an array of things go wrong and ended up with some blood clots in lungs and breathing was physically hard.  So seeing him gasping for breath is always miserable for me.  He's better now, back to running around like nothing in the world bothers him.  Does anyone have any experience in preventing croup?  Old wives tales?  I'll try anything.

Prepping for market and the debut of Meadowsweet TWO.  I am loving it-the colors are a bit of a different route for me, but at the same time, I feel it is so me.  I'll share just as soon as I get the final few pieces.

Been playing with the apple peeler Dustin got me for my birthday-apple stuff has taken on a whole new life for me since the pie.

  

Working on finishing up the website.  Again-I love it, but I've told you that already. 

Hmm..  what else?

I have a huge pile of what I affectionately call "rejectamenta" strike offs.  Stuff that I ended up cutting even though I loved it.  That part of fabric design is tough-you don't put anything out there that you don't think you will like!  Anyhow, I'm planning on doing a rejectamenta quilt next month after market so you'll be able to see and appreciate the rejects with me.  :)

Spring has sprung in Missoula finally-it is beyond joyous for me!  This winter has been a tough one for me, and to walk outside in a short sleeved shirt feels like vacation.  ahh..  I can't wait to share a Missoula summer with you.  Speaking of Missoula-

Project Selvedge is right on track and we are down to the final challenge.  It takes place in 3 weeks and the final three contestants are busily (I assume) working on their collections.  Get this-Project Runway got wind of the contest and contacted Selvedge Studio to tell the contestants they should enter Project Runway.  So cool! And I can say I judged them when...

Not that it is a big surprise-look at some of the amazing things they have created!  These were my two favorite from the paper challenge.  Yes, paper-these dresses are made from paper!

 
So, now I think we are caught up.  I'll be back with some new stuff soon-bear with me a tad bit longer!

xo

Sandi

Down for Maintenance

 

Do to an oversight in DNS, Nameserver and othersuch technical mumbo-jumbo, our website (not the blog) is going to be down for a bit.  The above coming soon page will be up in 24-72 hours (their time-line, not mine).  We're going to leave the shop closed until the new site goes live on April 26.  (hooray!)  If you need any patterns in the meantime, you are more than welcome to email your order to portabellopixie@aol.com

I'll get the links on the blog and everything updated as soon as possible!

Sorry if you have tried to get on today and been confused!

Coming, Coming soon..

I hope you all had lovely Easter weekends?  Ours was very relaxed, just what I needed.  Easter dress photos next week..

Okey dokey-

I get a lot of emails inquiring as to the whereabouts of my Ruffle Pants pattern. And my new patterns.. They are coming. They have taken a long time to get to publication point due to lots of other work responsibilities.

As for the ruffle pants pattern I mentioned, it is at the printer as we speak.  All done up with new illustrations and a pretty new cover.

Here are a few outtakes from our photo shoot.  Notice the pumpkin mouth Eliza is sporting lately-  (so cute!)

 

When we lived in Idaho, we had to search high and low for good spots to take pictures.  Don't get me wrong, I have great Idaho memories and am super grateful for the time we lived there.  But now, all we have to do is basically walk outside.  Montana is good to us like that.

In case you're wondering, the top in the picture is View C from Gracie with some fun trim sewn on.

 

And the final new cover:

 

The options are the same, everything is just updated a bit..

 

I also picked out the final pieces for the next fabric group.  When I designed Meadowsweet, I pitched 3 color groups.  Retailers are requesting smaller groups, so we printed only two at that time, and planned to print the third at a later date.  I loved that grouping-but in the end felt it didn't have enough juxtaposition in the colors.  I like my color groups to tell a story if you will, not just be a mix of 2 or 3 colors.  So I used that third color grouping as the basis for a new one.  I love the end result and will share pictures when I get pieces of the entire grouping here!

xoxo

Sandi