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  • Meet Nicey Jane

    ByHeather Bailey

    NiceyLogoGraphic

    She's gussied up and ready for her big debut. Meet Nicey Jane™, my
    new fabric collection for Free Spirit. Nicey is sassy, sweet, and ready
    to sew.  In other words, check your local fabric store, as Nicey Jane
    arrived this week. 

    These new prints are available in two color palettes. We'll call the pink/olive/tangerine palette Kissing Booth and the blue/gray/gold palette Porch Swing. Along with florals, geometrics, and stripes, there are also a handful of Nicey Jane cotton solids — which are batting their threads at me now, calling, "Sew with me, Heather. Forget that computer and run away with me."

    NiceyJaneLaundry

    In a couple of weeks, there will also be eight 58" wide laminated
    cottons (similar to oil cloth, but light-weight and super-duper supple
    — must touch).  I'm excited that the finish is light-weight enough to
    be gathered.  Once I finish up my stationery design work this month,
    I'm going to sew up a Smarty Girl book bag with the laminated cotton and give a full report.  I also have some raincoat plans and a kid's booster seat to make.

    NiceyJaneBasketW (I never did show off my birthday bicycle,
    did I?  Nicey is doing the job for me now.  Yep, that's my
    pinkity-pink-ol bike there.  I never would have guessed I'd go for a
    pink bike.  Would have guessed orange.  Or khaki.  Or bright yellow.  I
    love it though.  Wait till you see the bicycle saddlebags I'm planning
    to make out of this print — but in laminate.  Oh yah.)

    Back to the fabric, shall we?

    The collection tells the story of small-town girl, Nicey Jane. Nicey
    heads to the city on Friday nights to swing dance with her beau — but
    not before hanging the laundry to dry & enjoying an afternoon
    picnic on the farm.  The prints are named for Nicey's story: Hello
    Roses, Hop Dot, Swing Toss, Wash-Day Ticking, Welcome Road, Picnic
    Bouquet, Slim Dandy, Dream Dot, Church Flowers, Pocketbook, and Lindy
    Leaf.

    (The Lindy Hop is my mom's favorite dance.  She tried to teach me some moves on the family room rug when I was little.  Tried.  The Lindy is dang-tricky.)

    NiceyJaneBike

    Now for dessert, a little Nicey Jane video.  Be patient with the resolution;  I uploaded this piece to YouTube instead of hosting it on my own site so it can be shared, embedded in other blogs, watched a gazillion times, etc.  I have Isaac to thank for the wink — you'll see.

    For second dessert (what would a Hobbit
    call a second dessert?), I believe I'm in the mood for a celebratory
    giveaway.  New fabric has arrrived — and it's Christmas time — a dangerous combination.  So, three prizes!  One $50 gift certificate  and two $25 gift certificates to The Heather Bailey Store. 
    To enter, leave a comment. Tell us something fun, or interesting, or weird, or clever, or
    something kind someone has done for you.  Something like that.  I do read all of the
    comments.  I'll go first (see comments).

    Happy holidays, my friends.  I'm off to stir some hot cocoa with a
    candy cane and find myself a pair of slippers.  It's cold outside.

  • Red & White All Over

    ByHeather Bailey

    HolidayTags470

    I'm so ready for Christmas songs, twinkle lights, gingerbread
    cookies — the whole shbang. I have looked forward to the holidays all
    year.  Our last Christmas
    was pretty hectic and tiring with Isaac in the hospital and whatnot. 
    This year we are all drinking an appropriate amount of water, to say
    the least.

    I've been working my tail off to wrap up my first stationery release
    (Inviting Company, Jan 2009), to get new patterns to the printer, and
    to prepare for my new fabric collection, Nicey Jane™. 
    I'm so thankful these projects hit in November and not in precious,
    chilly December.  Despite the hubbub, I channeled some of my holiday
    excitement into designing a fun stack of holiday gift tags as a present for our customers this year.  A set of these tags will be sent out with every order placed in the month of December.  And they are DANG
    cute.  My favorite is perhaps the holly berry design at the bottom-left
    of the photo above, or the reindeer.  There are other great holiday discounts and freebies right now at HeatherBaileyStore.com as well.  Click here to take a look.

    Part of my holiday plan is to blog more.  My goodness, where have I
    been?  That's right, under a heavy stack of deadlines.  With new
    patterns on the horizon and plenty of holiday projects in the works, I
    have lots to share, including several sewing projects that have had to
    stay under wraps the last two months.  Ah, what a relief.

    First up is Miss Nicey Jane (next post) — can – not – wait!

  • Bead It, Kid

    ByHeather Bailey

    Necklace1new3
    Beadingnew So, guess who made these necklaces?

    Four-year-old Charlotte did this all by herself.  I thought I was
    embracing disaster by allowing her free access to several bins of beads
    while I worked on the computer today.  I was entirely wrong.

    Not
    only did Miss C patiently string together all of these designs without
    my oversight, but she made them all symmetrical.  Even her most
    eclectic necklace doesn't miss a beat
    bead.  Hours and hours of necklace-making.  All I did was add the
    clasps.  And I bent a loop at the top of her one pendant.  That's it.

    Necklace3new2

    Necklace4new2
    When I was four years old, my bottom dresser drawer was stocked with
    white paper, a stapler and staples.  I made all sorts of wild
    inventions with white paper that year.  And here I thought I had been
    tricky-stuff at four, with my paper robots and elephants.  Looks like
    Charlotte has 4-year-old me mightily whooped.

    The moral: 
    Moms, Grandmas, Aunts and Alligators, let your kids have access to some
    of your precious supplies.  They may surprise you with tidiness and
    ingenuity!  I can only imagine what I would have done with real art
    supplies at that age.

    Of course, they may surprise you with a royal disaster instead.  I've been there too — many times.

  • Black, White, and Read All Over

    ByHeather Bailey

    June 25, 2009 Arizona Republic I always forget to post these things, but not today.

    Check out the big ol' cover story
    in today's Arizona Republic newspaper — on me.  In the article photos,
    I'm talking it up in my studio, one of those mid-sentence
    shots.  They wanted pictures of me working in my authentic environment. 
    However, the studio was clean when they came.  Yes, I insisted on
    messing up my desk — authentically.

    HeatherandMom Another big article I never mentioned was a feature on me and my mother
    over at Creating Keepsakes last month – for mother's day.  My mom is a
    funny writer.  You should at least read her interview if not both of
    ours.  Click the 'next' button to read through each page of the
    combined interviews (there are 5 pp. total).

    Sending out the June newsletter
    momentarily.  Any minute now.  It's like 5 blog-posts worth of good
    stuff.  That's right.  Then back to the sewing pattern I'm designing — and
    loving.

    (Sign up for the newsletter here if you like.  But hurry.)

  • Flit & Flutter

    ByHeather Bailey

    FlutterbyFlip-5a

    I'm bouncing all over the place this week.  By Tuesday night, I'll be in Concord, North Carolina again for Donna Downey's Inspired Artist event.  While there, I'll be teaching a mini-workshop on Thursday called The Flutterby Flip-Book for which my team has been kitting supplies all week.  Around the studio, stacks of Heather Bailey papers are shuffled together with some beautiful solids from Bazzill Basics.  And we're surrounded by bowls and tubs of colorful ribbons, flowers, clothespins, rhinestones, butterflies, and brads.  Bowls of candy. 

    FlutterbyFlip-10a

    Cutest paper project!  Can't wait to show you. (We'll post some extra kits to the Heather Bailey Store later this week.)  If you're in North Carolina, come see me.  Here's where you can sign up for the last couple of seats in the 1pm class.  The 12pm class is completely sold out.

    FlutterbyFlip-8w Let's see, there are some Trash Ties workshops
    late Thursday night as well (at Donna's irresistible urging).  We'll
    probably be somewhat loopy by 10pm, so I'm expecting more of a giggly,
    slumber-party-like setting than anything else.  Everyone in the class
    is getting two sets of Trash Ties and I'll be spending the hour
    teaching how-tos and demonstrating hairstyles. I hear there are a few
    more spaces available in the 9pm & 10pm classes.  If you're in NC,
    sign up!  I'd love to meet you.  Here's the workshop schedule
    where you can get your tickets.  Scroll down to the time-slot you're
    interested in (both are on 5/7), then click the blue & orange 'buy'
    button to read more about the class.

    FlutterbyFlip-6t

    On Wednesday, before the workshops, I'll be at the Free Spirit
    headquarters     in Charlotte, discussing fabric, hush puppies, high school (Jeff, the Sales Manager went to the same
    high school     as I – small world), whatever comes up.  It's mostly a
    social visit.  Always fun. 

    FlutterbyFlip-7 Friday, I'll fly back out west to attend a preview weekend for next summer's Creative Escape event.  I'll be crafting along with Heidi Swapp, Tim Holtz, Debby Shuh, and the other Creative Escape teachers
    while we preview our classes to each other and the entire volunteer
    staff.  There should be some fun dinners in there too, I think. 

    Come Saturday night, I expect to flop into bed like an eggy crepe.  

    Perhaps
    my kids will pour some syrup on top on Sunday morning — a smoochy
    reunion.  Isaac's always good at heading up some sort of kid-made
    breakfast-in-bed for Mother's Day as well.  I dream of fuzzy slippers and
    chocolate.

    FlutterbyFlip-9

  • Flirty Skirt, Dirty Dirt

    ByHeather Bailey

    Skirty1Detail

    My
    friend, Jill, has two cute little girls and she always has them dolled
    up to the nines.  (And she's the best hair-bow-maker around — a new
    bow for every outfit.)  Jill watched Charlotte a couple of
    times a week last year.  During that time her girls became like sisters
    to Charlotte — and Jill really did a great job of keeping them all
    busy and entertained with swimming, carousel-ing, park-time, etc.  So,
    as a heart-felt thank you to Jill, I designed her girls some matching,
    skirty outfits.

    Skirty1

    The tee shirts — Talk
    about a high impact-to-effort ratio, decorating tee-shirts can be
    easy-peasy.  I fused floral elements from my Rose Bouquet print from
    Pop Garden to each store-bought tee shirt using fusible web.  I then
    stitched around the edges of each fused piece (with a ball-point needle
    installed in my machine to prevent holes from forming in the knit
    material.)  There are at least three or four flowers in this print that
    make perfect appliques. 

    Shirty1

    The two skirts — I had a lot of fun putting the fabric combinations together.  I wanted them to match each other, but not really match.  I didn't draft a pattern as they're just sewn from various
    rectangles.  I probably should have jotted down some measurements as I went. 
    However, my friend Jona does have pattern for a similar skirt all
    ready to go – The Edith Twirl.  (Check out the embroidery on those
    Edith under-skirts.)

    Skirty2w2
    The floral print in the skirt above is probably my favorite print from Pop Garden.  It's
    soft and romantic, yet electric and sassy.  And the ziggity Zag Stripe to the right is entirely too fun to sew
    with.  I still need to bind a quilt in this print and see what it does.
    Fussy-cut quilt blocks made with this fabric could result in some
    interesting effects too.  More sewing, more sewing.

    I'm not sure if I
    scratched that dern sewing itch well enough with this one project, but
    I expect to do more sewing once my next fabric collection is off to the
    mill here soon. And OH, it's pretty.  And sweet. 
    Sweet and pretty.  That's all I'm going to say.  Like that
    housekeeper-lady says in The Parent Trap, "I'm not saying a word."

    Shirty2aa

    What else, what else?  OH!  I should have mentioned this first —
    yikes.  Tara's baby girl, Grace, was born this week!!  And she's
    stinkin' beautiful.  Which is really unfair to the other bruised,
    swollen newborns in the nursery.  I mean, come on — tilting, exotic
    eyes, high cheekbones, a perfectly-shaped head covered with beautiful,
    dark hair.  At three weeks early, we were only caught slightly
    off-guard.  Isaac's been phone-interviewing for a new Office Assitant
    this week and then final interviews are next week.  Tara will be back
    in a few months in a new position.  We'll miss her while she's away
    smooching on that sweet, new baby.

    Skirty2Detail2
    We're really overlapping about five or six projects at the
    moment.  And as I'm not so great at falling asleep when I'm excited
    about a project – or six projects, imagine my self-satisfaction at
    rolling out of bed on time this morning for my 8 o'clock tap class —
    jazz hands!  : )

    And then there's the yard.  Wednesday
    was Fill-the-Raised-Garden-with-Dirt Day.  Thursday was
    Move-the-Big-Rocks-Around Day.  (Isaac might as well have been at
    Disneyland.  He wouldn't climb down from that bulldozer for anything.) 
    Yesterday was Rake-the-Dirt-All-Smooth Day.  And today has been
    Form-the-Perfectly-Curved-Curbing Day.  Isaac's ready to move onto
    Install-the-Five-Valve-Sprinkler-System Day, but I'm entirely ready for
    a break, so we've pacted to give ourselves a week of
    Avoid-the-Yardwork-Alltogether Days so we can celebrate
    Get-Back-to-What-We-Should-Have-Been-Doing Day – which may evolve into
    a week-long celebration in the end.

    JillBows

    And
    I'm looking to do March of the Tools again this year.  One more day
    till March.  There are a number of gizmos, gadgets, thing-a-majigs and
    who-z-whatzits I'm excited to share.  I'll have the badge back up in my
    sidebar later today.  I'd love for you to join me – yes, please join
    me.  Infact, email me to let me know you're doing March of the Tools
    too and I'll post a link to your blog on the March of the Tools page so we can all see who is playing along and get some leads on new, must-have tools.