LizzyHouse

Goodbye goodbye goodbye!

Hi everyone! 

First. I'm not going to be blogging here anymore. I'll be blogging here, and building a website in and around this space. It will take about 24 hours for lizzyhouse.com to switch over to the new space. 

Second. I just want to say thanks. Thank you for sticking with me through all of the years. I'm excited for what's next, and I hope you will be too. 

ok. It just seemed like a good time to make the switch! 

Quick Update About the SALE!!!!

All of your pattern orders will go out tomorrow!

And, the fabric sale has been moved to Friday! The 31st!

I will be at my place from 2-7 PM. All fabrics available, around 6-8 yards of most prints. $10 a yard

1954 S. 900 E. #2

Also, if anyone local wants to come help me cut some fabric down tomorrow, I would be most grateful and you could have first pick of everything. I'm a generous gift giver too. Send me a message

Any leftovers I will post or make bundles with this summer. 

xoxox I'm so exhausted!!!!!

All the things.

First. I've been gone for far too long. 

I've been difficult to get a hold of. I've been traveling. I've been thinking. I've been away.

Here are some things that are going on. 

I'm moving. Not cities, yet, just apartments. So I am having my last pop up shop in this space. As a note, I am condensing my fabric collection to only 6 yards of each of my prints. Which means... anywhere from 2-6 will be available of most prints. All the way back to Castle Peeps. 

I have relisted the quilt patterns. I have been getting frantic emails searching for them. And although I stopped selling them last year, I have a box of them, that you are welcome to search through, but will also be available in the shop. These will be available until Saturday May, 25. 05/25/13

In other news! I am revising How to Enter the World of Textile Design, and releasing it as an actual book. I recently reread it, and it's time. Also, since I released it, people have asked for a hard copy of it. So just so you know. I am working on it, and it will be released later this summer. I am aiming for the beginning of July.

 And some more news. I'm leaving this blog. I'm stepping into something new, and I'm really excited. I will let you know when and where you can find me soon. 

Ok. Last day for patterns: Saturday, May 25

Last Studio Sale here: Saturday June 1st, here in SLC. More details soon. 

ok. love you bye. 

Last Chance!

Hey peepers. 

You've still got a chance to join in my Pattern + Print class at PNCA. There are a few spots still open, which is lucky for you. So now is the time to take the leap, commit, face the music, and all those other things. You want to know how to design patterns. You want to know how to ACTUALLY print. 

I'm the girl to teach you. 

You can find all the info here!

Also, PNCA is offering what's called a Fabric Pack, and it's two fabric design classes. Mine and another by Designer, Chelsea Heffner. You get a major savings when you sign up for the pack. Which is awesome if you are looking to get serious about fabric design. 

So... I'll see you next week! 

Quilt Con Supplies!!!

Quilt Con is upon us! 

I have gotten some emails concerning supplies. Particularly ink. You want oil based relief ink. Speed Ball produces an oil based ink that will work just fine. Or if you are looking to place an order, Daniel Smith is my recommendation! They have ink, they have palette knifes, they have miracle gel, and they have top notch customer service. 

You don't have to pre-wash your fabric, but you can! 

As far as blocks go, I recommend unmounted blocks, and I suggest that you get a few different types. There is a white type of block that is super easy to carve. Then there is a gray kind. You should be able to bend it. If you are really lucky you might chance upon a glossy gray block. It is soft, and structured... so it isn't painful to carve but you can get nice detail. The tan stuff is fine, it's just rough. 

Carving tool. Get the speed ball set that comes with multiple ends. DO NOT get the pulling/hooked kind. You will regret it. Those usually show up in my classes when you are using a vintage tool that someone found in an attic/basement. Get a new tool. The ends are sharp, it's not expensive, and it's what you need. 

These were the main concerns addressed in the emails! 

I'm excited to meet all of you. We are going to have a great time! 

Leave comments with any other questions! I'll respond to them here

hooray for Quilt Con. 

 

ikea.

Some people love Ikea. Like they LOOOVE it. 

I have a love hate relationship with Ikea. I would like to think that is the camp that most people are in... But I do feel, that after 4 visits in a weeks time, I have a new understanding of Ikea.

here are five ways to stay sane in this store. 

First. I think that the people that L. O. V. E. Ikea, don't have an Ikea within one hour of them. 

Second. You can not get through that store without a snack. You will fade, and you will get hangry (hungry/angry). This does not mean stopping at the cafeteria. This means you brought something with you. The food in the cafe is mystery food. And you say, hey! It's so cheap! And that dessert plate is only $1.48. You are going to crash. Things will get ugly. Bring your own snack. Or just eat before you come. Like right before you get there. I have found the best solution for myself to be a chia seed kombucha. Filling and calming. Try the grape. 

Third. Park your car on the side near the exit. Not the entrance. 

Fourth. Go in the exit, so you can go right to the as-is section. We always go there very first. This allows you to find some sweet deals, and make plans for things before you go through the whole store. This saves you time and money. Also. I'm pretty sure all returns go into the as-is section, not back on the floor. I just got 3, $20 lampshades, for $3 each. They are in mint condish. Go to as-is first. 

Fifth. When it's all said and done, depending on what you have purchased, if it is within your means, and you live within range. HOME DELIVERY. My little sister Melissa just moved to town, and we have essentially just bought an entire house worth of Ikea, and her bedroom we did ourselves. We packed the whole thing into the Matrix, and some dudes helped us tie the mattress on top of the car. The rest of the house, we just didn't even bother. It was hard enough pulling all the stuff, and then better still getting through the self check out, where wait, how many employees helped us get through that line with our 6 carts??? 0. That would be zero employees, and we were clearly struggling, and worse, we were asking for help. How many employees were standing around chatting? That would be 4. So at the end of the whole ordeal, it was really nice to park all of the stuff in front of the home delivery station and walk away. 

The delivery dudes were really great. 

So for the past week I have assembled something from almost every range that Ikea carries. And I have to say, it is the most expensive, but the Hemnes furniture is far and away the nicest, best quality stuff. I will put together Hemnes furniture for anyone. Gladly. 

Melissa's place looks great, and as detrimental as trips to Ikea can be, it really is amazing. It's amazing that these flatpack boxes contain futures. At the end of the day it's worth the cost. 

I'm so glad Melissa is here, and I am so glad we are done shopping for a while! 

do you love Ikea? Hate Ikea? Love-hate Ikea?

have a great weekend, peepers. 

Yuzu happens.

So I did the artwork for the brand new fragrance, Yuzu, for Soak Wash. Not only is the product beautiful, but the Yuzu scent is out of control. It smells really good you guys, and I am so particular about smells and perfumes. If it were a fragrance that I could wear, I would. The official release is February 11. So if you are a shop that carries Soak, or would like to be a shop that carries Soak, that's when this sweetie becomes available! 

Aren't they beautiful!? Thanks to Jacqueline, and congrats on the new designer series!!!

Making plans.

I have already started planning my garden. I started 3 weeks ago. I got home from my Christmas break, and was so deeply saddened by the weather, that I did the only conceivable thing I could do besides getting back on a plane and flying to somewhere where the temperature remains above 50 degrees all year long.

I started planning my garden.

Most single people my age are probably out at parties, or on dates, maybe just hanging out with peeps. I don't know, maybe we are all in by ourselves planning gardens??? I just don't know. What I do know is that I constantly have four books open around me, two notebooks going with things to do, and lists and lists of seeds to try. It isn't getting me asked out, but it is bringing me joy. It is also reminding me that the sun is going to come back around to me, and that the days will last well past 9:45 PM. Maybe I'll go on dates then. 

At the end of last years garden, I made some notes about what grew, what wasn't worth growing again given the space/yields, what was worth growing again, what I saw other people growing that I wanted in my own garden and kitchen... this year I want to pay some attention to beans. Pole beans mostly, and the snap kind. Not the kind for drying. I don't have that kind of production space, and it's still economical to buy from the bulk bins. 

When I started last year, I didn't know anything. I felt compelled to do it, so I did. I figured that I could figure it out as I went along. And I did. The figuring speeds up when you've got lives on your hands, even if they are plants. They are lives all the same. So I'm happy to put my babiest garden bit of know how into practice and try again. 

I am going to break this into parts as to not bore you to death. But maybe talking it out will give you some of your own ideas.

Here are a few things that I am going to do with the planters outside my kitchen door:

First. The planters at my house produced pretty poorly. They looked cool and grew plants, not produce, like crazy, but the tubs were only suitable for a few things and to a point. I had a serrano chile plant that did really well, a crazy little goji berry, and a praying mantis that I loved. I kept the bees happy with borage and mint. So herbs worked, flowers worked, and a pepper plant. 

What didn't work. Tomatoes. Peas. Cucumber... and so on. When something was categorically not working, I would put it in my basket and take it down to the community garden to see if there was something that could be done for it there. Usually if it could get more root space, it did better. Also, more bee/pollinator exposure always helped. Also, the tennis courts of the community garden get pretty cool at night, and eventually everything got some shade. 

The trouble/why they didn't work. They had everything they needed, vitamin/mineral and water wise. But, where they live is south facing, and the asphalt is black and burning hot. So they receive full sun exposure and no reprieve from it, above or below. Things like the chiles and the herbs did famously. Things that need to cool down at night, like tomatoes, never got the chance to do so. 

So here is the plan. With my friend, we are going to design and build raised raised beds. Like these. But a fraction of the cost, and it/they will fit the dimensions of my building perfectly, and if we were to somehow face a repeat of last years power wash incident of ought '12, it's completely movable. It's great to have skilled friends, and to be skilled, so you can trade skills. My friend is an architect, and I'm really passionate about this. We're going to make some cool boxes.

What this means is, I have some beverage tubs that I will be able to serve beverages out of this year. 

What else? It means that all of the space that was used last year in the community garden space for peppers is going to get freed up, because all of the peppers are moving home. That means that there can be more tomato space at the garden. It's a good trade. 

So the plan. Peppers, herbs, flowers outside of my apartment. Done. I haven't completely decided on which peppers to grow this year, but my Anaheim's did so well, and the bells produced such small quantities, that I think I'm going to try and stick to high yield peppers, even if that means that they have thinner walls... 

next up. The community garden and what I plan on planting this year.

 

the past seven years.

As I bundled up this fabric I did some real pondering. It's an interesting thing to tie up the time with a piece of string. This stack of fabric literally colors almost a decade of my life. It speaks to times of heartache and late nights and long plane rides. It talks about a battle I have with myself about my work. It represents the Nintendo loving  naive  rose colored glass inquisitive-pilgrim colorist that I have always been and continue to become. I could tell you where I was and what I was listening to for every piece. Who I sent it to to get feedback. Who I was in love with when I made it, or who I was trying to get a laugh out of by telling visual jokes. I can't count or tell you the hours I've spent wondering if anyone would ever get or care about the subtext that I worked into every inch of it; hoping that the deeper meaning would some how add some sort of intrinsic value to quilting cotton. 

thank you for loving it, and loving me in the process. 

My love for PNCA goes on and on

The last two years in a row I have taught Pattern Design + Printing at PNCA for the their Continuing Ed program. I love PNCA as you can read here, and here, and I love teaching people to print, and I have really come to love more and more teaching people to create repeating patterns. It removes the biggest hurdle on the road to becoming a textile/surface designer, and I like being that hurdle remover. 

So come join me! for my third year! If you've been putting it off, this is your chance. We will spend a fantastic 3 days together from March 29-31 (that's a Friday through Sunday), and I will share with you all the things I know about designing textiles, breaking into an industry, and my one true love, printing your work. You will learn to create repeating patterns, and you will learn how to use them by hand. 

Let this be the year you really do something about wanting to design fabric. 

xolizzy 

Register here! 

Hey, this is actually crazy.

Virginia is doing the #scrappytripalong as are many of you (who started this? Was it you, Brenda?). And I received a text from her, Virginia, the other night saying that she had cut up her entire (oh my glob) 50 fat 1/8s she bought right before Christmas. She decided to do her entire quilt, a queen sized quilt, out of my fabric. So the 50, some Lizzy Dish she had received, and everything of mine she had ever stashed. Cut into tiny strips

I saw the pic and nearly cried. I couldn't believe how much work, and what all of that fabric together meant to me. I mean I see all my fabric together every day, because I keep it on shelves in my living room, kind of as living art, but to see collections crossing collections all tucked in together in tiny little blocks and rows really did something to me. 

Well her collection wasn't complete, and I want her quilt to be complete, so I decided to reach into the vault, and cut a little bit of everything. 

What does that mean? 

That means that I have 5, and only 5 fat 1/8 bundles of 130 prints available. It's really hard to believe that I have that much fabric, that these years have amounted to serious numbers, but they have. So with this, you can either make a scrappy trip along quilt in all LH seriousness, or you can stare it, forever. The choice is yours. I have more than 130 prints in total, but this will mean, like in the earlier stuff, that you will at least have one of every print (not necessarily every color way) invented. 

This bundle is not for the faint of heart. Also, I am finishing a new fabric collection so the bundle will ship Tuesday the 15th. If you are Domestic, then you will have it by next weeks end. 

Find the bundle here. 

A year in review.

2012 was a curious year for me. 

At the end of 2011 when I was getting offers for workshop jobs, I felt compelled to pass. I didn't have specific reasons or explanations, other than that it didn't feel like the right thing, and you know me, I want to do the right thing. I took some considerable time thinking about why it wouldn't be the right thing, why I should be home and not wherever in the world I would be otherwise... I felt grounded. I had at the time, also, a strong desire to move to New York at the end of the year, to be so much closer to so many people I love. Again, it wasn't the right thing. Grounded. 

It's literally as if my security clearance was revoked. (I've been watching Alias)

So I stayed in Salt Lake. I hunkered down. I tried really really hard to make friends. I tried, for the first time in my life to plant some roots. My whole adult life (gross) I have been on the loose. I've been running and searching, and working, and seeing, all that was available to me. And when I look at it now, they were years well spent. They shaped and taught me lessons at a price that I could afford. 

But 2012 was the year I stayed.  

I took a few jobs that took me away, and every time I left, it was as if I had been given special permission to be where I was. But for the first time in my life, it felt like I had something to get home to. A life I had started in January, cultivated and kept, waiting for me. The year of the garden. That garden changed my life. It taught me lessons that I have needed, and have misunderstood for years, in a visual living breathing way that made sense to my better nature. I grew more in 2012 than I thought possible.

So here are some things that happened:

I got fit. I look fly. I didn't say super skinny, I said fit. I'm taking good care of myself, loving the Bar Method. 

I made friends. The kind of friends that you're all like, "this is really rude I didn't know you sooner, oh well, what are we doing for dinner," kind of friends. The kind of friends that when you say your prayers at night, or write a list of all that you are grateful for, your little eyes well up and you can't see straight for three minutes because your heart swells up and pushes all the tears out. Gross, but true. The kind of friends that you are always telling people about, because you think they are amazing and you think everyone should be so lucky as to know them. 

I killed it in the kitchen. This past year, I wanted to take my cooking/baking skills to the next next level. It worked. It's all about patience. 

I learned a real lesson about patience, that made me more patient than you ever thought I needed to be. 

I learned to be more trusting and not SOOOO guarded ALLLLLLLL the time. It's a work in progress. 

I tried to cut being offended out of my life.

I've chosen love and honesty with myself, so I can continue to change and progress, without being unkind or overly critical. I don't want to hurt myself anymore. I payed a lot of attention to this, as this has always been a one way ticket to a downward spiral for me. 

I really put into practice taking people from where they are, not where I am. Again choosing love and honesty, not criticism or judgement. 

I over all just stopped being so hard on myself. Which is real achievement, that actually solves a lot of problems for me. A clean sweep, truly.

I found out I am almost all the way Danish. (Not an accomplishment, just something that happened). 

I had cascading Princess Hair. 

I took time for myself. Like almost a whole year time. I knew that I might never get time to figure this kind of stuff out, figure myself out, and all that biz in such a concentrated way... so I read, took care of my garden, made a bunch of clothes, designed some fabric, visited with friends, rode my bike a lot, and made some plans. 

I got really good at making dresses. 

I had a serious epiphany in France. 

I made the biggest, and very best commitment of my lifetime in March.

I realized how grateful I am for my little sweet life. If somehow it were frozen right here just as it is, it would be wonderful, and I could always be happy. 

I became a life long gardener. 

I chose to be happy, and it worked. 

I'm just listing the positive outcome of these lessons... they were hard won. It got messy. But I didn't ruin a phone by crying into it this year... that's an accomplishment. It could, however, be that I was just on speaker phone most of the time instead of crying directly onto the device.

I think the biggest thing. Like the very biggest thing, is that I am getting better at remembering who I am all the time. We lose our way when we forget, but it's our job to remember, and I'm getting better at my job. 

If I can give you one piece of advice, just one little thing to put in your pocket or sew into all your quilts, or spin into the thread that you tie onto your finger: choose happiness. Choose it every time. Do whatever it takes for your decisions, thoughts and actions to be based in love and not fear, and you will be happy. It will change your life. You will love yourself more, and you will love others more.

Peeps are that they might have joy.

That's a not so direct quote. 

all my very best to you all in this New Year. I know it's going to be great. And BIG!!!

xolizzy

ps. beautiful photos by Carolee Beckham