Art Gallery Fabrics - The Creative Blog

Wow. That's basically the word that sums up my trip to Los Angeles. From the crowded downtown streets, to the gorgeous shopping district in Santa Monica with its flawlessly dressed people, everything was just Wow. And please do not get me started on the weather. Yeah, I know the Miami weather is not really something to complain about, but California weather is PER-FECT! Can you imagine a life without hair frizz? 

Aaaaanywho, the first day we got there we didn't have to do anything show-related so me and the girls went out shopping in Santa Monica... well, not a lot of actual shopping was done, more like "window shopping" but oh well. Still fabulous! 

Ok this store was amazing. Period.

Brandy Melville is the name of this super cute store. Think california surfer girl meets Anthropologie. Gorgeous!

Then it was time to get down to business.

At l.a textile they make this thing called the "trend forum", which consists of inspirational visuals from the fall 2012 trends; fabrics, notions, pictures and pure awesomeness. They do this so designers can immediately understand what the upcoming trends are, and what kind of fabrics they should use... and guess what?? I spotted quite a lot of my fabrics in the pack! Biggest honor ever.

Can you recognize some Bazaar Style, Hyperreal Garden and Bespoken? And the tribal print from Bohemian Soul? Woohoo!

 I love me some shoes.

How do you like our brochure?? 

The girls made this gorgeous caftan dress using our new voile! Wish you could touch the picture and feel the softness lol. 

We made these cool dreamboards to create different moods;and also made one board for each of the Fall 2012 trends. There were a headache to make but totally worth it!

Just a girl with really cool hair haha.

And me in one of my favorite tops which my husband totally hates, haha! What side are you on? 

L.A I'll miss you! hope to be back there soon... like, very soon. 

Whoa those were a lot of pics! Alright you guys have an amazing weekend, I'll be back on Monday with new fabric goodness yum!

Love,

Pat. 

For the past couple of weeks I have been extremely busy having 22 hour workdays. Yes, no sleep and a lot of stress, but at the end I know it will all pay off. My amazing team and I are going to the LA Textile Show this weekend for the first time! We are extremely excited and super stressed, all at the same time! We will be located at Penthouse A-Wing & B-Wing, Booth #2001. I would love to show you all my new collections designed for fashion! If you are planning to go to LA textile, don't be shy! Come by and say hi!

In case you did not know I'm introducing a new substrate, VOILE! Yes, we are moving into fashion! I am super excited! Moving into a different industry is one of the biggest steps I have ever made in my career. Every step you make in life means change and challenge, but I love challenges and the passion that drives me makes that everything work out for the best.

And yes... don't worry, these fabrics will be available for the quilting industry too, so I'll be showing them at Quilt Market...

Now you have an idea at how hectic my life is right now. Between my new fabrics collections, new quilting patterns, new kits with the new fabrics, the LA textile Show, Quilt Market in Texas, photo-shoots and much more, I'm surprised I don't have fumes coming out of my ears! Someone once asked me, "How do you do it all?" My answer.. "I simply Love what I do"!

Since this is our first time going to LA Textile, I thought it would be a great idea to give you all a sneak peek at what we're going to be showing...

Hmmm... I wonder what can that be?!?!

What's going on here?!? ... I don't know :)

Here's Vicky having a blast. She was the best team player. I have to say she was strong enough to brave the Miami heat.

 
Vicky came out amazing in this image. It was pretty hard to decide what picture was the best. I think we found a new super model.

I hope you enjoyed my little sneak peek at what we will be showing at LA. I promise to bring back lots of great pictures of fabrics and fabrics galore! If you decide to come, keep in mind that LA Fashion will be October 10-12 at the California Market Center. See you there :)

Love,

Pat

You know I love your comments, so thank you so much for your positive feedback on Hyperreal Garden!

A little bit less than a week away for market and we are still sewing at the studio... All of the sewing machines and the girls have been working non-stop trying to keep up with all the ideas we've had for samples. 

With so much done, it seems like the girls and the chairs are all entangled with thread.

Here is a Verona Bag in the making with Bazaar Style...

Cutting patterns and more patterns...

And this one of the girls working on a dress I will be wearing... 

We tried to keep the rolls neat after sewing, but it seems that was impossible... 

It has been a busy month, but it's all well worth it!

I can't wait to share with you this Spring Market 2011. See you next week with a juicy recap and all the gossip!

Love,

Pat.

Hey ladies!!

How's your holiday going? A Monday off work always comes in handy right?

Well, I wish I'd knew what that looks like! Holidays don't apply to me when it comes to designing my next collections, choosing the colors, drawing, creating new patterns, writing, making samples, and getting done everything that's on the everlasting to-do list tattooed in my head! 

But oh well, I'm so passionate about what I do (and designing has to be my favorite stage!), that I almost don't mind skipping the holiday this time...

I wanted to thank you all for your lovely comments on my booth at Market, besides creating something appealing and inspiring for the shops, I really have YOU gals in mind too when I think about the whole display... So it fills me with joy to know that you actually like it! 

But hey! The booth is not everything. This time around we decided to step it up a notch and go for the showroom! 

Now imagine this: you have a 10x10 feet white cubicle ready to be filled up with whatever you want and however you want it, with the challenge that it MUST make your fabrics look absolutely stunning. Sounds like quite a task, right? 

After days and days of thinking and raw-sketching (well, reaaaally raw I must confess), this is what we came up with, hope you like it!

Voila! How do you like it so far? The entire showroom was like a tribute to my Paradise collection... the whole concept of it was to make a mirror image using the opposite colorways (those quilts are twins!), and I personally think we executed pretty well... What do you think?

This is the "Sunrise" colorway...

Aaaand, the Sunset...

And last but not least, this is me looking picture-ready trying to match the prettiness of the showroom!

What do you think? Your feedback to me is sooo important!

Oh and by the way, Paradise will be available in August (just in case you were wondering when you could put your super crafty hands on that fabric!) so be sure to check out your local quilt shop!

A bunch of exciting projects are coming up, so be prepared to see some interesting stuff going on here at Art Gallery...

Back to work now!

Love,

Pat.

Hey everyone!

I'm just back from the beautiful (and surprisingly warm!) city of Minneapolis, where, as you probably all know, the Spring Quilt Market was held. 

All of you that were there will mostly agree that this was one of the Minneapolis shows with the most attendance, right? It was CRAAAAZY! From dawn til dusk setting up the booth, making sure there were enough catalogs and brochures (those just seemed to vanish into thin air!), shaking hands, walking around, talking and talking about my fabrics, patterns, kits, introducing my new collections, and on top of that, looking pretty for the pictures! 

So, despite the seriously sore feet (note to self: run out of band- aids. Need to get more) and the lack of sleep, I totally managed to have the most fun in this show, and I hope you had the best time too!

But since I know you couldn't all be there, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures for you girls to see what you missed... so, without further adieu, I'm proud to present the Spring 2010 Art Gallery Booth!

What do you think? I presented my Naturella, Filigree and Sugar collections in every way possible: pillows, quilts, cute little girl dresses, clothing, handbags, framed fabric,  even slippers!

I was thinking about how to describe this pillow until the lovely girls from Quilt Magazine beat me to it and named it "The Cabbage Pillow"! (now that I look at it... it really does look like a cabbage!

A little peek on my new blender... because everyone loves dots... OVAL ELEMENTS!

But it wasn't all about the fabric; of course I had to include my new line of mini sewing and quilting patterns, along with the regular-size ones, which also got new great additions like the Paris bag and the Monaco! 

It was all very pretty, but was it market-show-crazyness resistant? You bet!

Here's the Art Gallery crew in the middle of the action: 

My son Alex was in the zone!!

And how can I forget my thread palette for Signature? Angie took awesome shots of the spools:

And this was my happy  I-love-my-booth-I-love-my-work-team face:

How do you like it so far? And this is only part one... I still have the showroom pics! (I did warn you I took an immense quantity of pictures)

So stay tuned, more Quilt Market Spring 2010 coverage coming soon!

Love,

Pat.

Yesterday I was tweeting that I have soo many pictures to use from the event that I didn't know which ones to choose... OMG! Many of them with poor lighting, because at Houston lights were different that for example... Pittsburgh (there is natural light there). Bah!, I said to myself; there is nothing that a touch of Photoshop can't do. So I took full advantage of curves, auto colors, brightness and such. I wanted all of you to see them! Now is like... magic, all decent enough to use them for this post.

For this second part I wanted to introduce to you an amazing group of people that visited my booth not only to see everything new I had, but just to say hello, chat a little, and share... Because even if each one of us is there to sell our products, Quilt Market is MUCH MORE than that. It's a place where you can feel a sense of community, friendship and support. There is nothing like "everybody have to buy only my stuff... or". No, no. There is room for all of us. We congratulate between designers for our collections, we have dinner together. We talk about our kids and family there. I feel soo happy each year when I come back and see everybody again... good and with health. It is so nice to be there. I think I belong to a big family!! So look at ALL the pictures that I'll show you...

One day before the show starts there is Schoolhouse, where all the companies show their new collections, samples with creative ways to use fabrics and so much more.

This was my first Schoolhouse and I was so nervous! We had a great half hour.

Jennifer Eskridge who did the technical writing for my patterns, is explaining how important is to engage beginner sewers with cristal clear instructions.

The first day of the show was great. Traci from Hipfabric came to visit us. She has beautiful fabrics at her store. Do you agree that orange looks very nice on her?

Lyric from Lyric's Lateedas & Oohlalas in Texas

Evelyn and Bryanna from Trimweaver came the first day also. Both of them are really sweet! Do the pictures still look dark?

I'm selling fabrics here... Look at my my expression!

Second day. Debbie Hearn, from QUILT Magazine. One of the sweetest persons that I met in this industry. They invited me for the 30th anniversary Celebration of her magazine... So many years and each issue is better than the last one!

They made a sign to display at my booth with an interview I did... Thank you Debbie!!

Ladies and gentelmen, an awesome artist, terrific person and consumated twitterer: Bari J. She designs fabrics for Windham. Her latest collection, ART JOURNAL is beautiful!! Be sure to go to her site and check them all...

She was so kind to interviewed me for BOUTIQUECAFE. How exciting was that? Stay tuned to watch the vidcast soon... I was so nervous that I couldn't speak at the beginning!! Look at me!

Debbie from MATERIAL GIRLS and our husbands. Can you see the second day is taking a toll on my face? I started to look tired...

Here is my dear long arm quilter Kathy Grey

Our Illinois rep, Iris Cohen

Sarah from FAB SHOP NETWORK

Kim Knight from TRUE UP. She wrote a post in her blog and didn't want to put our pictures together. She said she look haggard. Not true!! She looks fantastic!

Hey Kim! I love this one!

For the last day, you can see the difference... I was so tired that I didn't even put make up on. Look at my dark circles and bags!!

I want to introduce to you a great friend, Beth Hayes. She's the editor in chief of MC CALL'S QUILTING Magazine. She came to my Schoolhouse and I was very happy to see her!

And look who is here?? Eleanor Burns, the queen of quilting. OMG!! What an honor to have her in my booth...

And who is who in this great group?? Behind me is Laurie Harsh from FABSHOP, and with Eleanor is Carol Veillon from QUILTMANIA Magazine. This picture was so much fun!

Wohoo! This post is getting long...Yes, looks like it!!

Here I am with my new customer, from one of the top ten shops in the country. Kimberly Jolly, of FAT QUARTER SHOP. It was a pleasure to finally meet her at Market. She will be introducing my new kits very soon. Be sure to check her site!!

For the last two spots I wanted to present to you two great designers that work for Michael Miller. Patty Young is pure dynamite!! She does it all: designs not only fabric, but her own line of sewing patterns for children. And she tweets a lot too!!

And the sweet Paula Prass! Her booth was exquisite... It was really nice to meet them both.

So, another Quilt Market went by... 30 years! Hope we can celebrate another 30!! I want to thank EVERYONE who came to visit us!! 

Now we start the full circle again... and I love it! I have all my energy ready to send it to you through my fabrics and other products.

Next post will be talking about my other 2 collections, new patterns and my KITS and I couldn't be more excited about!!

Handmade rocks... so let's keep on stitching!

Pat