How to fight Lex Luther using only fabric

Wow... winter is back again!

by Joanne Hillestad on 02/20/14

It is another snowy day in MN... no surprise there. Yesterday it was so warm... in the 40s! Snow melted for the first time this winter and I saw brown grass!! I found it sad that I was excited about seeing the edges of the dirt roads... but I will take it. Today it is snowing like crazy and it is very pretty. Fresh snow is always fun... maybe the kids will get a day off tomorrow?

I have been so busy with my quilting designs! Streamline is through testing and at the final editing stage. Photos are done, test sewing is done, and done again. I am so close!

Tabitha is also just about ready to go. Printing is next for that one!

River's Bend is written and off being tested... my tester is going to be sewing like a crazy person. Luckily she is family and can't escape my clutches...LOL.

There is more.. but I will save those for next time. I am also busy designing a pattern for Camelot Fabrics (also off being tested) using their Nightfall collection. If you go out to their website you can see the fabrics. Black, white and gold... should be fun. I just sent in a design idea for their Pepsi collection today. We will see. It is a bit busy... but I was thinking of college freshmen at the time. Busy quilts hide stains. Perfect!

Until I sit myself down and write some more... and before I forget... Lex is buried in snow today. Ugh.

Jo

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Lex survived Girl's Weekend...

by Joanne Hillestad on 01/30/14

Girl's weekend was so much fun! I sewed and sewed and ate and sewed some more. In the end, I had 3 new designs in various stages of development.

One is called 'Tubular' and would be terrific for a boy of any age. It is modern, bright and fun. I'm planning to offer it in lap and twin sizes... maybe full as well.

My second design is an attempt to use freezer paper and curves. I really like the way it is coming together. I made a prototype out of some fat quarters I purchased at Market. It is pretty neat looking... but I have a better idea! You'll have to wait and see.

My 3rd design is something I have had in the back of my mind for awhile. I played with some of my stash. Now I will work on taking the blocks I put together and placing them into a fun quilt that leans towards the traditional side of things. I used some fun colors that made me think of Spring. Every girl needs that in Minnesota in the winter.

Lex survived all the estrogen... most likely because of all the food. I'll give him a break this time around!

Happy Quilting!

Jo

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Take him to Girl's Weekend

by Joanne Hillestad on 01/20/14

I'm so excited!! This weekend is our annual Girl's Weekend! This must be our 5th or 6th now at least. We have such a fun time. I sew all day and all night long, only stopping to eat and sleep. We watch chick flicks and laugh and laugh! This year I am going to try to get my girlfriends to help me make a "how-to" video. I think it will be an annual thing... I'll see what questions they have for me and then make a video showing helpful tips. Maybe I can even get some of them to be actors!

I have several designs sketched on graph paper that I am dying to put together. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have 3 new patterns to start producing. Might have to produce an annual pattern line all from Girl's Weekend. That would be fun, fun, fun!

Last year I put together 2 quilts. The first is a fun quilt using all sorts of scraps, a bunch of white on white, silly chubby people fabric and embroidery. I will post a picture of "Girl's Weekend" on the About page. I also designed Ziggy Zaggy Baby, which is in test sewing right now. There is a picture of it on the right hand side of my home page. I had writer's block for a good 9 months on that one. Sometimes it is hard for me to explain how to do something. Once I figured out how I wanted to explain it... then it was easy!

I am on the verge of a lot of new patterns. Photos are holding a few up, others are still be tested... I will list them here for you to try to picture in your heads!

Steamline

Tabitha

Ziggy Zaggy Baby (ok, you can see that one)

River's Bend

Window Sash (this is 2 patterns in one)

Latte Da

Secret Garden

Ok, enough. Lex is going to be defeated by massive amounts of estrogen this time! Ha!

Until I am inspired to write again!

Jo

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It's that time of year again....

by Joanne Hillestad on 11/21/13

As I'm sure many of you have discovered, it is the time of year for the "Crud". It hit our home in a span of 24 hours. It left after about 36, thank goodness! Hopefully you all have been healthy and happy!

It has been quite awhile since my last blog. I'm am not a very good "bloggist". But that's ok, I'll get better. Since the last time I went to battle with Lex I have been to Quilt Market in Houston. What a whirlwind weekend of fun that was! I met so many incredible people just standing in line! My sister and I walked the floor in what we called our "covert spy" mission. Next spring I am going to have a booth of my designs at the Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. So this trip was all about soaking it in and trying to learn everything I could in 2 short days! I also spoke with distributors and fabric companies, other designers, magazines... it was quite the experience!

The overall response to my designs was actually better than I hoped. There are some mighty talented quilt designers out there... it make a girl humble. As a very "green" designer, I have come to realize I have a lot to learn about this business. I actually was nervous talking to people! I have been a Database Analyst for so long that I don't get nervous talking to corporate execs and marketing people, but this brought on the shaking knees! It makes a huge difference when it is all you they are critiquing! Blondie (that's the sister) and I took all the feedback, good and bad, and logged it like crazed autobiographers! Ok, that's a weird analogy... but it is sort of true. It gave me a set of goals. I like goals.

So, to wrap this up, Lex must be smashed in some fantastic form this blog... I'm thinking the pile od batting in the long arm room has fallen over very suspiciously. He is still alive, but at the moment he is in a pile of white and slightly confused... that will keep him busy until next time!!

Happy Thursday!

Jo

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Just who??? exactly is Lex Luther??

by Joanne Hillestad on 10/07/13

It has come to my attention that everyone is not "in the know" about Lex Luther. He is Superman's archenemy. As a child of the 70's, I am very familiar with Lex. My older brother used to make me watch Superman often...

This has been a busy couple of weeks. I just came back from a road trip to visit quilt shops in Northern Minnesota. I sold a few patterns, started to get my name out... I can now add "salesman" to my resume. Yeah?? Yes, Yeah!

I also hung out with Corrine from North Country Quilts at the Minnesota Charms Quilt Show in Carlton, MN. Corrine was nice enough to display my quilts and help get me a little publicity. Together we sold a few patterns, laughed, ate pretzels and in the process I learned a lot of quilt shops and how they work. Invaluable information! Thanks Corinne!!!

So, Lex needs to be defeated... this week he will be tied by his toes from a high bridge with my fabric strips left over from Zignosis. that ought to do the trick.... until next time!

Jo

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