HELLOmynameisHeather

Applelicious

With kids heading back to school, sales of our popular Fresh Picked Pincushions sewing pattern always make a discernable spike, as do our apple kits. An apple for the teacher — I love the cheek of it.

The two apples above were made by Robin (Robin Bobbin on Flickr) for her daughter Sophie's preschool teachers.

I'm making a bushel of these for my kids teachers. I figure if they don't sew, they can use them as decorations. Ones that won't shrivel and bruise.

Paper Moon

Check out these super-fun paper stitcheries from Belinda Moon of Australia. She starts with colorful craft papers and adds rows of free-form stitching which adds visual movement—and panache.

I discovered Belinda's work in the HB Paper Crafts Flickr Group. I was thrilled to see such a perfect and adorable use for my scrapbook papers. They almost look like they are made out of fabric, don't they?

If you think these are fantastic, like I do, brighten Belinda's day with a kind comment here, or at her blog. She has an Etsy store too, with birds, fish, pirate ships, robots—all sorts of great graphic pieces to decorate with.

Show Belinda some craft-love.

NOTE: Such great projects are being posted in the HB Flickr groups—wow, you guys! I'm going to make a renewed effort to spotlight some here and there. Thank you for posting your projects. I get to craft vicariously through you.

Color-Yum

Some color-yum for you.

It's not often I get to help out with orders. But, every once in a while, I sneak my way into the warehouse and join in on prepping fabric, assembling felt and gathering stationery and other goodies for you, our awesome customers.

My favorite is gathering up your selected felts and rolling them together. I love to see the resulting color palettes. Often, they are truly unexpected and transfixing. Sometimes they remind me of a familiar era or theme. Take this roll here, it makes me think of Sky King Tricycles, Radio Flyer Wagons and other classic American toys. These colors make me want to sew up some felt cars and trucks or something. They get my wheels spinning.

I'm often tempted to pin on a note that reads, "Ooo, wow!" or "So delicious!" or "Please send me pictures of your finished project!" It drives me crazy not to know what folks are making with these varying color palettes. Same goes for fabric, really. Hm, what about including a text-field at the end of ordering that lets the merciful 'tell Heather' what they are planning to make. Or I can just resist hanging out in the warehouse, right?

I do try.

Mmmm, Breakfast

Breakfast, my one weakness.

Here's a fun breakfast recipe. Make an omelet inside of a roll—sourdough rolls are the best. And bake them in the oven till the eggs are set.

Yum. But what to call this deliciousness? It's begging for a cheeky name. Egg in a Nest. Bird in a Basket. Eggy-Breadlets. What would you call an egg in a nest that didn't result in a bird, but a delicious breakfast? Or is that gross?

These are things I should probably work out before posting. I should just declare the recipe name with bravado. Chick in a Tub. Chub in a Tub. Chubby Tubbers. Ranchy Scramblers.

But I have better things to do than deciding recipe names—like brainstorming recipe names. Brainstorming is much more fun than deciding. On-a-Roll Breakfast Breads. Rockin' Rolls. Rolly Pollos. Huevos Nuevos.

Fun in a Bun. Egg in your Face. Ooo, I like that one.

Saucers. Disks. Pucks. All good words to build on...

...while I snarf down another Scram-bowl.

After

Here's the finished remodel. We went ahead and laid down the white flooring from our last tradeshow booth, figuring we could swap out the flooring in both rooms later on. However, I'm liking it. It's incredible how much brighter the room is with a big, white reflector for a floor.

Here's a glimpse of one of our finished work tables too. They are amazing. Each table is seated onto a rolling platform. The tables can be lifted off the platforms as needed for classes and workshops—at some point—or for a myriad of other uses. And they are tough as nails with a commercial-grade finish.

Now that the sheetrock dust and construction debris  have been cleared out, it's time to get back into artwork. With Project Life under my belt, next up is more fabric. I'm working on completing a couple of new lines for next year. 'Tis true.

Project Life - Olive Edition

So here's the scoop!

I just wrapped up designs for a new Project Life collection — the Olive Edition. Becky Higgins announced the news on her blog this morning, along with a ton of sneak peeks.

I'm sure a bunch of you are already familiar with Becky and her Project Life mission to "cultivate a good life & record it." If not though, I will LOVE to be the first to tell you. Project Life is a fun and easy system for housing treasured pictures, thoughts, memories, and life's important details, without the time, fuss, expense and gewgaw of a traditional scrapbooking approach. Of course, you can add as much gewgaw as you like.

Basically, you get a Project Life album, along with some thoughtfully-laid-out plastic sleeves (lots of configurations available) and a kit of double-sided cards to slip into those sleeves along with your photos. You can use the cards to track details and stories relating to your photos or just use the decorated sides of the cards to add personality to your album—or as placeholders till you are ready to write the details down. There are paper packs and plastic month dividers too.

Here's the idea...

I have kept journals since I was ten years old. I know first-hand the benefits of keeping a personal record. You recognize your blessings better, you appreciate your day more, time doesn't seem so fleeting, and on top of that, you are left with a treasure for your loved ones to prize for generations.

Project Life makes all of these life-keeping benefits easy to access.

So, on top of my thrill in curating the new Olive collection for Becky, like the founder of The Hair Club for Men said in his commercial, "I'm also a customer."

The Project Life Olive Edition by Heather Bailey will be available to purchase in November through Amazon.com. There are swarms of PL fans waiting for each new edition to be available, so if you are interested, follow Becky's blog for updates and be prepared to shop the day the collection goes live.

So, go have a look at Becky's announcement post. She has way more preview photos posted over there than I do. Leave a comment. And read up on how Project Life works. There's even a cute little cartoon you can watch on her home page.

(Fabric-folk, you realize these images sneaky-preview some new designs for you too, right?)

Any Guesses?

I have been immersed in designing a fantastic new collection for a great company with a great product. The big announcement goes live on their website today. Once they spill the beans, I'll come back and add some salty photos and spicy details to the news.

It's exciting to be able to share a project with you so soon after I completed the artwork. Usually, I have to wait a miserably long while—at least that's how it feels. But not this time! Just a few more hours. Till then, here's a teaser photo.

Update: The word is out. Read more about the big announcement here & here.