LizzyHouse

Pulling my hair out!

Good news!

The Book is done. It's beautiful. I hope that you all find it to be the resource you have been searching for while at the same time being a delight to look at. Helpful and lovely. 

Bad news.

I have been working for the past two days, literally all day, to get it onto a site to no avail (a site that I will never use again). I haven't been so frustrated in a long time. BUT, I have made a new account with another e-book site, and will have it up as soon as possible. I was planning on having it up by midnight tonight, but it's not going to happen. It will be up tomorrow as promised, and I will just post again when it goes live.

So, as soon as it is up. You'll all be the first to know.

thanks for your patience,

Lizzy.

ps. for your patience, I've included a spread from the book. Enjoy!

Squam Art Workshops!

photo by Maya*Made

I wanted to let everyone know that I am teaching at Squam again this year! I am so happy and excited to head back to New Hampshire this summer for another week of magic and peace! It's like getting to see all my camp friends again.

I'm teaching at the Spring workshop that takes place in early June. This year I'll offer two days (Friday and Saturday) of my block printing fabric class, and one new class, Clever Mobiles! I'm so excited to teach, and meet everyone. Just excited to be there.

It's sure to be a wonderful time. I made so many incredible friends last year. I really think you should come and join us! You can register here.

Exciting News!

I've gotten better at keeping secrets to myself, so if they some how fall through, I'm not embarrassed. Well, this is something that I can keep secret no longer!

I've written an e-book. It didn't start out that way... it started as in inspirational guide or pamphlet, and turned into a full size book. It's called How to Enter the World of Textiles: For the Quilting Industry.

Since I started designing fabric, my inbox has been filled to the brim with questions from peeps who too want to design. It's difficult to respond to every email, and difficult to respond in a way that is actually helpful, and not continually allusive. My thinking for the book was this: there are books that tell you how to get published, there are books that tell you how to get your work into galleries, there are books for everything under the sun; why shouldn't there be a book for this tiny specific specialized market, that seems so hard to break into. 

No reason, there should be.

So, this e-book is my best effort in helping everyone who is interested in designing fabric for a manufacturer in the quilting industry. It does not teach you how to design fabric, but rather tells you what to design and present to a manufacturer. Like the title says, "How to Enter the World..."

When my Mom and I were just getting started in the industry, someone said that they would throw us a bone. It wasn't great but it was something. Well, I want to throw everyone who is interested a proverbial bone. I want you to meet your goals, and do the things you dream of doing, and if one of your desires is to design fabric, then this book will answer the questions that you need answered to get started. 

I will release it for purchase and download Monday February 1st, and eventually you can order a hard copy if you desire. That shouldn't follow too far behind. But it's my hope that this book can be of some assistance.

Here's the cover for your viewing pleasure. Also, Amy Schimler has written a beautiful foreword.

Have a great week everyone!

A final goodbye!

I'm totally bummed. My littlest pet shop of a sister, Melissa, is leaving tomorrow. Since she was here for a month, because of her surgery and the holiday, she brought her little cat Minkee with her. Minkee is what we like to call an "only cat". She is very sweet and reserved, but is spoiled and does not play well with others. She has kind of a funny face, and little disgruntled lines on her chin making her appear older than her 2 years.

Finn didn't seem to care that she didn't care for him, and just treated her like he loved her the whole time she's been here. She eventually found her own little groove here, and I am sad to see her go, more sad to see Melissa go though. They make a good pair... Melissa the youngest child and Minkee, her strange little only-cat. 

She liked staying with me in the sewing room while I worked. Here is a picture of her little hamburger face.

now it's officially back to life... back to reality.

Procrastination and Identification

Today was kind of a strange day. It's super cold here in Texas, and one of our pipes busted this morning. Froze and cracked... it kind of put a damper on the whole day. Needless to say it's been kind of hard to focus. I've just been wrapped up in an electric blanket trying to solve the problems of the universe. Real work is slow going, fake works moves along with rapidity on days like these. So i've made myself what will soon be a sticker for my personal packaging, and I will put it on everything. I might even spoonflower this sucker, and turn it into labels for all my quilts and things. The possibilities are endless! 

All of the images are from my personal and commercial design portfolio over the past couple of years. It's nice to see all of them together. It's as if they have all shown up at the same party.

Castle Peeps Strike Offs

I'm so excited! So I have a little preview for you. Castle Peeps will be available this Spring in three color ways: Gallant Green, Royal Blue, and Cardinal Red. If you haven't already ordered it for your shop, contact Andover, or your Andover rep.

And don't forget about the Free Castle Peeps quilt pattern I designed. All you have to do is download it, and decide who you are going to make it for, and wait like a patient little Castle Peep until the release date.

being better together

I've read your comments and emails, and I think that we can really help each other. I have been giving a lot of thought to some of the problems we seem to be collectively facing, and how we can collectively kick the habit this year.

We are too hard on ourselves. I was in Salt Lake the other day, throwing my little Asher in the Rye a birthday party. On one of the days I was there, I met this lady, and we were talking about art and what not and she started talking about how hard she is on herself, and the expectations she puts on herself, and then she said, what I feel is the common thread with all of us, "No one expects it of me but I figure if I don't do it, it's not going to get done right". So, I think this is one of our issues. We are taking on so much, and when we don't accomplish everything we get so down on ourselves... when we were the ones!

I taught myself a lesson in this. You have to be realistic. Simplify. Remind yourself how many hours there are in a day, remind yourself who shares your time, remind yourself of your resources; financial/mental. When we were planning Ashlee's party, we knew that we didn't have much money to put into it, and we only had the day hours to prep everything for the night. I went from having a menu with a cake, and 3 different appetizer things, to no cake but six kinds of profiteroles; 3 savory and 3 sweet, to finally, cream puffs. We just had cream puffs, and everyone loved them. I just made up four batches, whipped some cream, dipped the tops in chocolate. No one complained about there not being a cake... or more stuff, we just had cream puffs, and everyone danced.

I could have done it. I could have baked the cake, and made the appetizers. I am more than capable of making everything I want to have happen, happen. I would have spent more money then I had and driven myself nuts...But I wanted to spend that time with Ashlee, on her 23rd birthday. I didn't lower my expectations of myself, I was just more realistic.

I started on this path to simplification my senior year in college, when I was finishing up. I had all these crazy expectations of myself, because I felt like it was what other people expected of me, what I came to expect of myself... but one day, I was too tired, and too worn out, and not everything I had had planned worked out... and amazingly enough, the world didn't end. It's like in A Boy Named Charlie Brown when Charlie Brown looses the Spelling Bee, and Linus comes to visit him when he doesn't come to school the next day, and he says... oh just watch the video

the other thing. Times are hard right now. I know that sometimes it seems like you have been sold up the river without a paddle, and that you have been left alone. Forsaken by friends or family, or worse, forsaken by God. This is an imperfect world we live in, made to shape and change us. I've known financial troubles, and family troubles, heart ache, and disappointment. But you can't loose hope. You can't loose hope that there is something better and brighter. We are innovative people. We have an oppurtunity everyday to better our situations. 

I look at my different issues like a design problem. And often times I find myself running into the same problems. I keep hitting the same brick wall. Why? How? I need to step back. I need to assess the situation, and see if there is anything that I can change. 

If we are approaching things, like we always do how would things ever be different if we are staying the same? If you look at it in an equation, you are the control in your life, and everything else is the variable. So, you always have the oppurtunity to change, and better still have some say over your situation.

That's something else too. You can't wait for other people to change. You have to be the one. Things get better when you decide to make them better. And the beauty of the whole thing is, the better you take care and love yourself, the better you are, the better you can love other people. It's amazing how the whole thing works. And to add to the beauty, we have each other. We're in this together.

So, those are just some thoughts I've been having. I want to hear how you feel about it. What are some of your ideas to simplify, and be better to yourself or better your situation this year? 

Embarkation (2003) by Gordon Senior from the private collection of the Crocker Museum in Sacramento California