Free Books!

When I was at TNNA I picked up a few new books. I need more craft books like a fat kid needs more cake but I simply can't resist them. Especially when they are free - I mean just giving them away! So I got these two gems:

Crochet Adorned:

A Rainbow of Stitches:

I haven't had a chance to really dig in to either book yet but after flipping through them at the show I am very excited about some of the cute projects - lots of great ideas. Plus I met Linda, the author of Crochet Adorned and she is super nice. She even offered up her email address in case I was having any trouble with any of the projects, how sweet is that! I will let you know once I crack open these books and have more info for you.

TNNA

I was lucky enough to get to go to another wonderful trade show last weekend. TNNA (The National Needle Arts Association) was in Columbus so I got to go and take a peek around. I am not very into the needle arts...yet. I was very inspired walking around the show and seeing all of the beautiful samples so I think I might need to pick up my knitting needles and crochet hooks and get started again with these crafts.

Not many people let you take booth photos at this show so I only snapped a few shots of some nice looking booths.

The one and only Rowan:

Noni Designs:

Amy Butler, again. This lady is everywhere, now with yarn!

Spring 2010 Quilt Market...finally

So this post is only about 3 weeks overdue but I finally uploaded my quilt market pictures to my computer. I didn't take a ton of photos but I got a few of some of my favorites.

Enjoy!

The wonderful Seven Islands/Kokka/Echino:

Indygo Junction:

The wonderful Amy Butler:

A new organic fabric company - Birch:

Favorite Things:

A great new pattern company called - Make Your Day Designs:

New from Mallory Hill!

Linen Zips!

Sorry for the not so pretty picture, I got excited about these new little guys and just took a quick snap on my iphone because my camera was downstairs and I was being lazy. I had so much fun stitching these fellas together, I tried a couple different versions but these simple zips were my favorite. I am going to be at the summer Bazaar Bizarre in Cleveland on July 3rd (Stop by if you are in town!) so I will be zipping up a bundle of these for the show and then any leftovers will go into my Etsy store for you!

Obsession Confession - Sunflowers

I have become obsessed with sunflowers lately. I logged onto Google this morning and saw that you can change the background of your Google home page - I don't know if this is new or not but it's new to me! (Check the bottom left corner of google to set your background) So I set my background to a crazy fun field of sunflowers.

I have always loved sunflowers and I've always wanted to visit a sunflower field, I've never seen one in person so now I am on the hunt for one in Ohio, preferably central or northeastern Ohio. Then, of course, I spent way too much time looking around online at photos of sunflowers and sunflower fields. Here is a little sunny inspiration for you today:

(This was taken in Ohio!) via flickr user janruss

I also found this image:

via Thai Blogs

And riding an elephant through this field of sunflowers is now on my bucket list.

Strange Purses #5

Another edition of strange purses to feed your need for crazy and unique fashion accessories. This is another purse design that although it is a little strange I kinda like it. I don't know if I would be the type of person to walk around with a skull around my wrist but these are a bit edgy and the colors and textures are great. These are from accessory designer Natalia Brilli. Check out her website for some of her other fantastic designs.

Click Here for strange purses #1, #2, #3 & #4

Back from my travels

I am back from my crazy travels and back to the blog! I haven't had a chance to upload my photos from Quilt Market yet but I will have them up soon. If you are starving for a little Quilt Market goodness, head over to True Up to see some of Kim's fantastic photos and reviews of some of the exciting new collections from market. She has tons of posts on a wide variety of booths so be sure to check out each and every lovely one.

I just found out that the summer Bazaar Bizarre show has a few openings so I might be hopping up to Cleveland for that show on July 3rd if I can get my act together and start sewing (a lot!) over the next few weeks. I will keep you updated on my progress along the way.

I will be back soon with market pictures and other updates. And since I've never done a picture-less post, here are the two new books I picked up at market, signed by the lovely authors themselves!