EARLY CHRISTMAS!!

I'm so excited!!!  Look what showed up on my doorstep 2 days ago! 

It's samples of my new fabric collection "Modern Bliss" - all 22 combos!  It's like Christmas came early!  I have so many fun ideas of what I can make with it.  

And look!!!  It's my selvedge!  For real!  I'm seeing it for the first time on actual fabric.  Yay!!!  Someone pinch me please!  This is crazy!  Don't you just love the butterfly icons!?

Also, now that the bulk fabric is ready, that means the Robert Kaufman sales reps will have it in their hands soon and can start selling it to fabric stores.  Look for it in your local fabric shop starting around March/April.  (If they don't have it - ask for it and maybe they'll get it)

Here's a better look at the 3 color palettes.

I can't wait to start seeing it in stores!  I wonder which color palette will be the most popular...

Now I just need to work on sewing patterns to go with my collection.  I've been super busy working on concepts for that as well as creating 7 more print collections for next Fall/Holiday.  I can't wait to share them with everyone!

Happy Holidays!!

SNEAK PEAK

I'm beyond excited to share with you a little sneak peak of my Modern Bliss collection.  Robert Kaufman will be producing 3 color ways of my collection and I love them all!  It will be ready in January and should be in stores in February/March.  Also, it will be launched at Quiltcon in Austin in February.  (I'll be there! - I'm so excited!) 

One of the colorways is very similar to the color palette I used for the Fabric8 contest.  Turquoise blues and citrus greens.  

I love all the pop colors in this next color way!  It would be great for a little girl's room or clothing!  (I need to have a girl!)  I love that the 2 black and white prints can go with 2 of the color ways.  I LOVE black and white!!

Lastly, this colorway in soft greys and pales is so delicate and pretty.  It would be great in a baby girl's nursery.  (again - I seriously need to have a girl)

I'm also super excited about my selvedge!  Somebody pinch me please - my name is on the selvedge!!!  Woohoo!

Send me your comments!  I'd love to know which colorway is your favorite!  Once I can get my hands on it myself, I'll be having some fun give aways - so keep following me.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  Safe travels to you and your families if you're traveling!

P.S. - don't forget to vote for my "Love Birds" print on Spoonflower.   :)

(see previous post for details)

SPOONFLOWER ROCKS!

I've just gotta say - Spoonflower Rocks!  They just keep getting better and better!  They recently added wallpaper and now for the Holidays, they will have wrapping paper!  How exciting!  Now I just need to narrow down the 800 million ideas I have for that.  I've still got some spoon dollars left over from my Fabric8 win.  Another exciting thing about Spoonflower is that their weekly contests keep getting better and better.  I have a personal goal of entering as many of them as possible because it really challenges me creatively - but of course I've been too busy to enter many of them.  However, I couldn't pass up this week's contest called "Flights of Fancy" where the winner gets to have their design featured on the cover of 'Mollie Makes' magazine.  How exciting would that be?!!!  I just love that magazine!  There are so many cute things in it!

So this is where I entice you to sign on and vote my print "Love Birds".  I hope you like it!

 It's an interesting color palette - not one I would have come up with on my own.  These are the colors that were required for this particular contest and I really like them!

QUILT MARKET!!!

This was my first time attending a Quilt Market and it was fantastic!  I went with my mom and my cousin Michelle (who is a sewing instructor at a fabulous shop in Clintonville called Sew to Speak and who has also worked for Amy Butler helping with her sewing patterns.) We saw so many amazing things, I think my brain is completely full.  We got to see the incredibly creative booths of some of my favorite designers:  Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Tula Pink, Joel Dewberry and Valori Wells to name a few.  I was so inspired by all the creativity that I came home and finished 2 collections that I had started and was stuck on and started another one.  (I haven't slept much this past week)
Here are some of the super fun things we saw:

How cute is this ruffled duvet in the Bari J booth?  I want to make this in my fabrics!

These dresses in the Ann Griffin booth are adorable - I especially love the one with the handkerchief hem!

These VW bus pillows in Tula Pink's booth are beyond fabulous!

This camper was an extension of the Moda booth and it was so fun!  The inside was all decked out too.

One the coolest things was going to the Robert Kaufman booth and getting to meet everyone in person.  (I've been working with them via phone and email)  I also got to see the  boards with the swatches of my collection that they were showing.  I even met a buyer at the show who liked my bag that I was carrying and requested that I take her to the Robert Kaufman booth so she can see my full collection and place an order.  Yipee!

I also got to attend a cocktail party hosted by Robert Kaufman and I got to meet fellow Robert Kaufman designers Ann Boyd of Anne Kelle and Laurie Wisbrun.  Since I'm a newbie to this industry, I got some great advice from Laurie who is very talented and has a great business marketing background.

They had a photo booth at the party and my mom, my cousin and I had a ton of fun with it!

Not too long after we were in the photo booth, we heard a loud scream and the whole booth collapsed with about 5 people falling to the floor.  One poor girl in a dress was on her back with her legs up in the air.  Luckily no one was hurt and when they all got up everyone cheered.  All my mom and cousin and I could say was "We're so surprised that wasn't us!" and "Thank goodness it wasn't us"

Aside from continuing to work on more fabric collections, and creating my own sewing patterns, I now have a ton of sewing projects to work on because I bought some really amazing trims at Market.  (I spent way too much $$)

Here are some of the fun things I bought:

These beads are made from paper in Uganda.  They're amazing and come in so many beautiful colors!

I see some jewelry making in my future.

These are all vintage trims that I bought to go with my Modern Bliss collection.

BALLS!

These are the most fun thing ever!  They are wool felt balls and you can do so many things with them.  You can make jewelry, Christmas decorations, trims for bags and clothing etc.  They come in many sizes and the color palette is beautiful. 

 I'm obsessed with these balls!  I LOVE wool felt and these are just so fun!  I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but I couldn't help it - I bought about $50 worth of them.  When we first stumbled upon the booth and saw them we all went crazy and I said "I want balls!"  My mom replied "You have balls"...  I wasn't sure how to take that, but I'm taking it as a compliment.  And now I officially have lots of beautiful, colorful woolly balls.

They make me happy.

Lastly, I do have to mention that we spotted Elvis!!!  Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a huge Elvis fan (with some very cheesy memorabilia) - I have the same birthday as Elvis.  I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that it was Halloween - but we totally saw Elvis at our hotel bar and got a pic with him!  (we also saw Elmo)

TCB

SEWING MARATHON COMPLETE

As I promised in yesterday's post, I'm sharing the clutch I've been working on.  I just finished all the hand sewing (lots of buttons and a rosette) and I think it turned out pretty cute.  I used my Grey Haute Blooms fabric with my Golden Haute Ditzy fabric as the rosette.  I originally planned on putting a wristlet strap on it, but it's a good size clutch so I opted to leave it off.  I don't think I'd carry it by a wristlet.  I think I might carry this to the cocktail party that Robert Kaufman is hosting on Saturday night in Houston at the Quilt Market.

Sewing Marathon

So I've been frantically working to get ready for Quilt Market next week.  It will be my first Quilt Market and I'm so excited because I get to meet everyone at Robert Kaufman that I've been corresponding with via phone and email.  They're supposed to have some sort of sneak peak of my collection for buyers which will be fun to see - I have no idea what the 'sneak peak' consists of.  Since the bulk fabric is not ready, I'm guessing it will be on paper.  
I also can't wait to see what all of the amazing artists that I follow have going on and to see all of the beautiful booths.  (I dream of having a booth of my own someday)  I probably won't sleep much because I'll be so inspired and full of creative energy.  Plus I'll be with my crazy fun mom and my cousin, Michelle who are also extremely creative and very talented.  I've been working on getting a bunch of promotional materials together for Market, so I've been crazy busy.  I just got my business cards in the mail last week and they look great.  I highly recommend overnightprints.com if you want great quality with reasonable prices.

I also finally broke down and got an iPad so I could put my portfolio of designs and photography on it.  And I can't just have plain iPad, so I ordered a skin for it in my Pink Haute Blooms print from Zazzle.com.  I haven't received it yet, so I'll share it when I do, but I did get an iPhone case from Zazzle in my Turquoise Haute Blooms print which just arrived this week and I love it!

The biggest thing I've been working on for Market is sewing up a few bags to carry at the show.  I mean, of course I have to promote my Modern Bliss collection and carry some totes in my own fabric right?  The crazy thing is that my ACTUAL fabric is not ready yet and the ACTUAL color palettes will be different so I'm really just promoting the artwork and my tote designs (which will eventually be sold as Andie Hanna sewing patterns).  I ordered a bunch of my fabric from Spoonflower with the spoon dollars I won in the Fabric8 contest and designed a few totes and a clutch for my mom and I to carry at Market.  I put my mom to work and the 2 of us have had a couple of all-day sewing marathons.  Since I designed the totes myself and drafted the patterns, we had to sew them up in muslin first to make sure the proportions were right.  We finally got the 2 totes done and will be working on the clutch this weekend.
The first one is a large tote in my Lively Line Up fabric with contrast trims in my Haute Ditzy and Medallion Melody prints.  I quilted the main portion of the bag with a turquoise topstitch which was a bit tedious but I really like how it turned out.  (my first time quilting anything)

The next tote is a more feminine tote with shirring in my tonal Grey Haute Blooms print.  It has an adjustable shoulder strap so you can wear it over your shoulder when it's short or cross-body when extended.  My favorite part is the rosette detail in my Golden Haute Ditzy print with vintage mother of pearl buttons.  I absolutely love how the rosettes turned out and now I want to make them and put them on everything!!

FUN NEW PROJECTS

So it's been awhile since my first post and I've been super busy.  I've got a few freelance projects going and I've been working on some more print collections for Andie Hanna Designs.  I've also been working on some design concepts for my first collection "Modern Bliss" launching in the Spring.  I'm working on some concepts for other licensing opportunities as well as some sewing pattern designs.  It's fun to see how my collection looks in so many different products and styles.  Here are several of my initial concepts that I've ben working on.  I'll share more as I create them.  I've actually ordered some of my fabric from Spoonflower and plan to sew up a couple of the tote and clutch designs.

IT'S OFFICIAL

So now I am officially a blogger.  This is my first post and I'm so excited, I don't know what to share first.  The reason I started this blog is because I've quit my day job to stay home with my amazing 5 year old son and start my own business.  I'm so lucky to have had the choice and opportunity to do so.  My husband and I have worked really hard over the past few years to make this an option and we finally did it!  Yay!  I've also been extremely lucky to have  landed a contract with Robert Kaufman to produce my own collection of fabrics (in stores in the Spring).  I entered the Fabric8 contest on an amazing website that I'm obsessed with - Spoonflower and I actually won!  I can't believe it!  

Here's the announcement from Spoonflower.

  And here's the announcement from Robert Kaufman.

I'm so excited to be working with Robert Kaufman on this collection!  I've already sent them my logo for the selvage.  (I can't believe my name is going to be on the selvedge!!!)  They have also recently sent me some color ways of the collection that they are striking off.  The color combos are really pretty - I can't wait to see the actual fabric.  I took a tour of their studio in L.A. via Skype recently and got to meet many of their talented artists on staff.  I'll actually get to meet some of them in October when I attend the Quilt Market in Houston.  That will be my first time to Quilt Market and I can't wait!

I'll definitely continue to post about my journey with Robert Kaufman as the process continues.  I've gotten some great feedback and such amazing support already from the Spoonflower community.  My collection is currently for sale there, but not for much longer.  I'd love to see what people are doing with my fabric and will be sure to share any fun projects that come along.