LizzyHouse

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. 

I've been away.

I've been away. Maybe you noticed. 

I have several blog posts that I've owed you for some time now. Maybe it's just best though to pick up and move on. I went to Paris. I went to New York State to visit one of my dearest friends and her sweet family. I spent a week teaching peeps I love in Cambridge, MA how to do things that I love. Then I was home for a spell, only to sew my heart out until I left for Quilt Market. 

There are lots of posts in there. And lots of grateful tears for the people who remain steady and constant in my life. 

But I'm here today to tell you that I have so many exciting things coming this holiday season for you! The first of which, is in the shop right now, and will become available at 10:00 AM (Mountain Standard Time) in the morning. 

Hopefully you will see this in your feeds so you get a chance...

The first item available will be.....

24, 50 fat 1/8's set. They were such a hit last year, that we thought we'd give it another go. This time we are releasing them earlier than last year, so we A. have time to cut them down, and B. after all that cutting have time to get them to you. 

So as I just stated. There are only 24 available. So act swiftly. The fabric will be as always, a delightful rainbow ranging from Outfoxed, Hello Pilgrim, Guising, and Constellations (including some new and loved PB's).

We'll be shipping internationally all season long, fyi. 

Here is the link for the bundle, and good luck! 

Here is a list of dates of upcoming shop updates!

Monday November 12: Paper Goods

Monday November 19: Stocking Stuffers

Monday December 3: New art and last minute gifts

We'll have it all. Ok. Happy almost Holidays.

love dove,

lizzy. 

All the Pearl Bracelets.

This has been a long time coming. Probably since about 2007... truth. That's a lot of years ago. But honestly. I have always been so impressed and touched that you have all used and loved my little Pearl Bracelets. In your quilts, on your children, on your dolls, in your products, in your books and on their covers... since they came onto the market in early 2009. Introducing a rainbow of them has always seemed like the right thing to do, and the right thing to do often waits for the right time to do it. 

In an effort to save heartache and confusion and redundancies I have named every one of the pb's, regardless of what collection it was originally from, because they are now available as a collection. 

So, I went ahead and made a chart for you to download. This way you can keep track of which ones you have, and which ones you still need. It also lets you keep track of the date you purchased, as well as where you got it. In addition, there are multiple lines for inventory, so when you use some, you don't need to start the whole chart over. 

Each entry has the name and the sku number so even if the pics of the pb's online are hazy or look like a wild berry color never seen before, you will know what is what. We are fighting confusion with knowledge. 

Download Pearl bracelet collection chart <-------- get the chart here and start filling in what you already have, and begin plotting for how you will obtain the rest! It's legal size, so that's 8.5 x 14

Please just print it or take it to a print shop. For right now, I'm not changing the doc size. 

On a personal note, I just got back from Paris, and I have always, and will probably always feel like a fraction of me truly belongs in France, and calls out to it, and in a way that hurts me. So every once in a while I go and visit that fraction of myself. 

And with that, I leave tomorrow for the East Coast. To visit, and love, and teach, and learn from some of my dearest peeps. I'm excited and overwhelmed with a full heart. Just like a fraction of me is France, a fraction of me resides here in Salt Lake. I'd say a good percent, so it becomes harder to leave for longer. 

download the chart. Love your lives. Love Pearl Bracelet. Pet a cat. Hug someone who needs it. Eat a peach before they leave us. And will you, for me, take a minute to count your blessings and marvel at how truly sweet our lives are?

i love all of you! 

ps. Mystery Boxes are being mailed out today! Of course! 

I made a decision.

photo taken Fall 2011, when I was finishing the Colorist. 

It's my friends birthday on Saturday and as a treat we went to a spa for facials. As I was laying there on that table I had an epiphany, and it was clear as day! I'm not going to produce paper quilt patterns anymore. I'm not going to completely throw out the idea of producing quilt patterns, but part of the epiphany was a big question mark. 

Why? Why have a continued doing this? And the answer is not my favorite kind of answer. 

Because that's what you did when you got into the Industry when I did. You made quilt patterns. You started a pattern company. And so I have found myself on this road that I don't necessarily still belong on. I'm a printmaker, and a textile designer. I love making things. I love sewing. I love quilting. But my heart is not in pattern writing. It's in producing art. 

I would like to say how proud of the work that i've done I am. I think the Colorist is brilliant, and Outfox the Fox is one of the coolest easiest patterns to follow on this green earth. Castle Treasury is a pain in the butt, but there is no denying just how beautiful it is. And my 1001 Peeps book is a literal work of art. It really is, and I am just so pleased with the things that I've created over the past 5 years. 

So with that I'm closing my pattern shop. I'll move my paper good stuff over to my etsy store until I get a more permanent solution, and if I do create a pattern of note, it will be downloadable. 

The biggest thing is that I am recharting my course as a printmaker. That is where my heart is, and when I ask my HF what it is that I am really supposed to be doing, I always get the same answer, "you know what you are supposed to be doing". That's printmaking, people. 

I PROMISE I'm still designing fabric. And I'm still designing a free quilt pattern for the lines to support my peeps and my shops. I'm just correcting the path.

You guys... cleaning out my house has changed me! And the closer I get to it being complete the more things are taking shape for my little future. 

All patterns are 50% off while supplies last in the shop, and I'll shut it down September 1st. Tell your peeps! Tweet about it! 

I'm getting back to the business of being an artist, and as always I hope you'll stick with me. 

Summer Shop Update!

Hi peepers. I've been working on a slew of new products for all your summer treat making! These products have come from a love of making beautiful things as well as threatening jeers for the past 5 or 6 years that have been aimed at me with the sole intent of getting me to produce recipe cards. Well it finally worked. You've shouted long enough. 

Tonight at midnight all of the new stuff will go live in my little shop. I've been giving you glimpses on instagram and twitter, and so some of you have inklings of what I've been up to. But I will have you know that there is one item that is limited. The summer treat set is in an edition of 50. It includes 10 recipe cards (5 of each design), 10 hang tags, 10 canning labels (only available in the treat set), and 3 yards of the prettiest blue bakers twine you've ever seen. All of these designs come from Hello Pilgrim which I can't seem to get over. So I won't, I'll just keep loving it. 

  

And if this treat set goes over well, then there might be a few more up my sleeve. Radish edition anyone? 

So! See you tonight or tomorrow! 

It's scrap box time again!

I live in a not so big apartment. It's perfect for me though. I have a work space that doubles as a living room, a living room that doubles as dining room/sewing room, a bedroom that doubles as a warehouse/closet, and the kitchen and bathroom pretty much are for what they are for. 

What this means though, for someone who designs as many things as I do, that it can easily start to run the show. So the time has come to clear out the bits and pieces (by that I mean sizable/functional/usable pieces of fabric) from projects that are long since complete... and much as I think I can, and indeed try, I just can't use it all. I am one girl, with a mountain/living room/dining room full of fabric. Beautiful as it is, there is more coming, and after that, there will be more after that, and then more after that. Which is good. Which is what we want, right?

The scrap boxes this time will include mostly: Outfoxed, Hello Pilgrim, and a few bits of Guising. As always, I try to include a good rainbow, so that you get a good range. I will also throw in goodies I have around, possibly a few patterns... other fabric (i'm seeing peeps hanging about)... there is lots to go around this time. 

So here is how it will work: Each box is $35 + Medium box flat rate shipping. You will receive over 3 yards of fabric (cumulatively), a good assortment to be sure, and other gems. I'm starting with 20 boxes, and will employ a waiting list that you can sign up for here if you don't get a box. I will make up all additional boxes with any remaining fabric and then use the list. 

we will ship internationally this time. 

I will post the boxes at noon Mountain Standard time so everyone gets a fair shot. 

Here's a link to the shop! May the odds be ever in your favor! Happy Scrap Boxing day!

****

The boxes haven't gone up yet, it's noon today! Next time I will pick a more friendly time for my Australian peeps. I'm sorry about that... 

school girl crush.

I've got a crush. I don't really like to talk about this kind of stuff on my blog, because my feelings change so quickly (roving eyed gemini here)... but I just have to tell you about this...

I'm pretty much head over heels for Hello Pilgrim. 

I think my knees get a little weak, and I definitely get butterflies. I just can't help it, it really does something to me... more than any other collection to date. 

I'm looking at you Outfoxed. 

I'm so all about it that I decided to make my friend, Kenneth, a tie. And because I was making this tie, I decided that we should probably match. I believe it was a smashing success all around. We wore our Hello Pilgrim outfits to church, and I couldn't help but giggle all day. 

What are you making with Hello Pilgrim?

the actualization of The Colorist.

The Colorist gets here on Monday. I have all the pre-order envelopes addressed, and I'm turning them around as soon as they get in the door. Same with any new orders. 

Monday is also my last shipping day before I leave for the holidays. So time is of the essence. 

The pattern is beautiful. And BIG! it also has one of my favorite quotes in it:

Only those who love color are admitted to its beauty and immanent presence. It affords utility to all, but unveils its deeper mysteries only to its devotees.
—Johannes Itten

aside from that it has fully colored/illustrated/photographed instructions, and a gigantic pattern piece to cut out and use. This pattern was quite the production, but I think it will all be worth it. I designed it a year ago, figured out the wheel in March, how to do the background in July, made the real one in September, finished the pattern in early November, and now it is ready for action. 

I can't wait to see the variations you come up with. I've already got a few different ones planned, along with the other 2 colorist tops I already have made waiting in line to be quilted! 

some holiday cheer.

I didn't say WITCH holiday!

I'm pretty excited. Amanda was going on and on about Halloween, and so I said, Hey, I'll try my hand at Halloween. 

I wanted to do something different. Something that looked like me, but wasn't so typical Halloween. All Halloween means to me anyway is Charlie Brown. There is no green, the purple is really gray, not shocking. The ghosts are emoting. The pearl bracelets are present... the eyes are just googly enough. The candy corn was made special so you could have as many as you want without a tooth ache/nap. The jack-o-lanterns are doing their thing. Nothing too frightening. 

My biggest deal, as we have been discussing as of late, was the color. Think more It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, than Nightmare before Christmas. You know I love a good peach. Also, I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but our little ghosts are doing the neutral thing, so I can see using them well outside of this holiday. 

So, I hope you like Guising (to go disguised). Tell your favorite shops to talk to their Andover reps! I think it will ship late spring/ early summer. 

Moral of the story. If I like you enough, and you talk about something enough, the odds of it turning into a line of fabric are high. 

I'm building you a rainbow.

I have always known that color was important to me, but it wasn't until relatively recently that I realized that it was such a sticking point about my work... not to me, because it always has been, but to other people. I've had several conversations with random guys who don't say anything about the designs, all they see is to color. Which in and of itself is interesting to think about, but that my color is the discriminating thing about my work to them, and that has me thinking that it's not just me who's into my color work. 

Did you know if I went and worked for some one it would probably be in H. Wood, and it would probably be as a colorist for a cartoon? or an animation company? true story. And then they would hear how silly my voice is and my life long dream of doing voice work would come true. Also, true story. 

Since last week I had been working on the fabric bundles. We'll just say that it was quite the task. But interestingly enough it gave me a really personal overview of my little canon of work. It pointed out to me that I really like orange, peach and barbie pink. It also pointed out that I am missing some greens, and it showed me that I need to work on adding some neutrals. 

I then I realized that a lot of the missing pieces to this spectrum are present in Hello Pilgrim. Minty greens, Magentas, more deep blues, and lots of neutrals! AND pinks that aren't necessarily barbie pink. I then remembered that that was how I designed it, and what I designed it for, to fill in some of these spaces. 

I don't know how everyone designs, or how they choose their colors, but for me it is continuous. I want to to keep filling and wedging new color into this brilliant little rainbow. I don't know if you are collecting my fabric, or keeping some pieces of it, or just looking at it... you can really do whatever you'd like with it, but just know that every piece I add to my personal catalog is to stretch this color bridge a little farther.

I love color. I love using color. I love talking about color, and I love sharing color. etc etc etc.