Butterflies are up and ready for sale online.

In Flight - Butterflies Patterns available NOW! 4-30-09

Go to my home page and hit the burgundy button on left side of site that says “zebra patterns online store” then go to Butterflies! They are all there. I will be starting Block of the Month Programs in Maryland and Delaware very soon! Keep posted. Main Street in Elkridge, Patches in Mt. Airy and Serendipity in Delaware will have the Block of the month programs starting very soon!

I just finished the top for IN the Beginning! I think it is my best quilt/block of the month to date! I will get it finished up and quilted thne onto photos for each pattern and the composite as well as the BOM.

I will get to work on finishing Chicago the citystamp next!

Shoot for the Moon #4

The Turning point of my life-

Funny thing , I was laying in the back yard near the pool in the spot where out to little Bijons would do their business! All I could think of was YUCK! I had a stabbing pain in my upper abdomen and I was once again burning up with fever. I got myself into the house and told Gary and I manage to get settled and relieve the pain/fever with some healthy doses of Tylenol and Motrin. Gary scheduled a Doctors appointment immediately.  Off I went to the doctor the next morning early and she sent me to Howard County General for some tests, scans and   that same morning. Still fever ridden and in discomfort I succumbed to a battery of tests, poking and prodding. I waited patiently in the ER for tests results until mid afternoon. This was the really bad part. Gary had been by my side every minute. The kids were at some sort of sporting event and had to be transported from point A to point B. Gary left for just over 30 minutes and while he was gone a physicians assistant came in and I asked if she knew anything. She said to me in a flip voice – Oh yeah – they found a large mass in your pancreas. It looks like pancreatic cancer. I could not process her words. The world stopped and I hit replay in my head. I literally could not make any sense of what she had said. After the spontaneous lapse of coherent thought I blurted out – what do I do about that? She again responded in a glib tone “….Ahhhh Book a cruise?” My mind was a big tangle of thoughts and feelings and questions, mass confusion. After a few minutes the words cancer, pancreas, cruise, surfaced in my mind. I looked around the empty sterile cubical I was in and realized I needed to call Gary. I dialed the cell phone and suddenly a started to tremble uncontrollably. The rest is a blur. I know I told him and Gary rushed back and called our close friend who is a Doctor at Hopkins. She came over to the ER and made calls to her contacts to get clarification and to get some attention on my grim test results.  It is, even now numbing to recount those first few hours in the hospital. I do recall they ordered a spinal tap. I also recall the Doctor on call was a crackpot who poked my spinal column for a good forty five minutes before she finally hit the cord. The pain was excruciating. Anytime anyone head for your lower back with a big long needle you know there is going to be hell to pay. That was the first of many spinal taps and bone marrow biopsies I would get in the coming year. My good friend was overcome with frustration watching the Doctor poorly attempt to find the right spot. She is an anesthesiologist and she was a breath away from asking her to step aside so she could do what she so routinely does in her job on a daily basis. Finally it was over. The final diagnosis was, while they originally thought it was pancreatic cancer it appears to be a large 6 inch mass around my aorta and several (too many to count) small tumors in my liver, lungs, etc. Then I was released and instructed to  remain flat and motionless for 24 hours to avoid headaches from the spinal tap. Flat on your back is not the position I yearned for after the day I had. I wanted to go home in my room, curl up under a big pile of quilts, cover my head and just sleep to let my mind catch up with the chaos. Many calls were made and we got an appointment with the best solid tumor Doctor at Hopkins in Baltimore. I was scheduled for a biopsy in 10 days. (That was very quick for Hopkins with this top Doctor).

Off to the Beach!

So what was next? We went to Rohobeth Beach, DE and stayed for a week at a condo we had rented months before this whole mess emerged. We did not tell the kids. We knew it was bad but were not 100% certain what was to come.  I had been functioning for weeks with these fevers and pain – so why not a few more days and let the family enjoy the prepaid planned vacation week before we entered a the unknown.  We arrived at a beautiful condo on the beach called Sea Pines.  It was very nice and like a little home away from home. After arriving I needed to nap. I pitched camp in the master bedroom with my large bottle of water, heating blanket and stack of pajamas.  The family went out to explore the new surroundings while I entered in to a cave of long days and nights in that foreign bedroom in Delaware. The Hopkins Doctors had prescribed some sedatives and pain medications which I used to ease the pain, the fevers and the confusion in my head.

I remember not being strong enough to get out of bed much more than to pee and get a drink. I had no appetite. I had lost a good 15-20 lbs since before the motorcycle accident. That all makes sense now – but a few weeks prior to Memorial day I had joined Weight Watchers to loose a few pounds to not look like the overweight middle aged mom with 3 kids for the summer. I also recall thinking Weight Watchers was amazing! The first week I lost 3-4 pounds. The next another 4-5  and so on until I was back into a size 4.  I do recall thinking – man – Weight Watchers is amazing! After I went I had no appetite and was dropping weight like nobodies business! Needless to say it was cancer that was the appetite suppressant.  Through all of the horrible ordeal, I do remember the silver lining of getting thin! That was a good thing – I thought. I also recall sitting my our local pool one morning at a home swim meet and I was in sweat pants and wrapped in a blanket while the temperature soared to over 90 degrees. I could not get warm. I also remember people asking if I was okay. This was before my backyard collapse. I also remember people saying that my skin looked grey. How odd. I did not see the foreshadowing of the upcoming trauma until months later when I was in the midst of doctors, chemotherapy, ER visits and many other trials.  I tried to participate in the Seaside vacation, but it was just not possible. I just would lay in bed listening to an audio CD of “The DiVinci Code” and trying to make each moment pass quickly. I also listened to Marianne Williamson – a uplifting motivational and spiritual teacher and occasionally I would listen to a self hypnosis tape on relaxation. I wanted to get to Hopkins to see that oncologist and get a clear picture of what was happening and then again I wanted to just stay there in bed under my heating blanket cranked up to the max. It was a week of chills and fevers of 102- 104 degrees. I would shake and shiver for hours, fall asleep and wake up with my entire body soaked in sweat. That pile of pj’s came in handy! I also remember Gary bringing me huge broiled scallops and a chocolate shake from a wonderful restaurant up the road. It was the only thing I was able to eat. Finally the week ended. The kids were getting quite concerned. We went home and arrived at Hopkins and did a biopsy of the large tumor they found and got a diagnosis.

MORE to COME

Shoot for the Moon #3 (Please leave comments)

Expansion?

After my small success teaching at The Quilt Block and making a few patterns I decided to venture to another quilt shop.  That had limited or as I can recall no success. There a ton of aspiring quilters who self publish a pattern or two and hope to become the next Alex Anderson or Elenore Burns. It did put a damper on my fleeting thoughts of making a home based business. Meanwhile at home I am spending most of my time keeping up our home and raising three boys. I was quite involved in their early education by being Room Mom for as many of their Elementary Classrooms as I could volunteer for. Why stop there? I was heavily involved in their swim teams and any other sport they ventured into. I would always volunteer any graphic services that were needed. I would and still do make all tee shirt art, program art, do bulletin boards etc. for all their activities. I also LOVE to bake. I would often drop by gourmet deserts to the teachers and the school office.  Yes – I was still making small baby quilts and then I headed up several Painted Pottery projects for Silent Auctions that raised money for the PTA. I slowed down on the class teaching as I was quite discouraged when I was basically blown off by a few other quilt shops.Obviously my skin was not very thick when it came to doing business in the real world.

Quilt Guilds

During my continuing self imposed  education I got introduced to the concept of “quilt guilds”.  Oh my! A full club of mostly women who were passionate about fabric art and quilting. I joined Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia MD and made time to go to the weekly meetings at a local church hall every Thursday. I started getting exposed to all types of quilting styles and got a background on what quilters want and like. I showed a few ladies my stocking pattern and they were extremely supportive and encouraging. Hmmm – maybe I would venture back to that place in my mind about thinking of making my passion my business.

So I figured if one guild was good a few more would be great. I joined Friendship Star of Gaithersburgh. They have monthly speakers that came from all parts of the United States and some from abroad. Oh – the wheels started rolling seeing how these people sold patterns and books and just about anything else they could acquire that related to their particular techniques and style. I was starting to learn that guilds have personalities. This guild was more focused on presenting and supporting quilting on a National basis. That was great. I learned so much from seeing so many different speakers and taking classes with National teachers.This guild introduced me to the concept of “Challenges” – Hmmm. . . very interesting. I started entering the challenges and I started winning. That was the beginning of my intense interest in making quilts and entering them into competitions.

The third guild I joined was another Columbia Based guild, Milltown Quilters. My wonderful quilt teacher, Pat Brousil, was a member of this guild. Again, another guild profile. This guild had a limit of 100 members and was a bit more formal in overall structure than the other two guilds. This guild impressed me with the level of craftsmanship of the overall group. These ladies generally were very good technicians, not to say there were not good craftsmen in the other group – it just seemed that this group as a whole were very advanced. Every guild can offer different experiences and focuses.

All three guilds focused on traditional quilting. That was fine as I was still in my “Moda”, “Thimbleberries” mode. I was exposed to a few quilters that were working outside the box.

Flowers

I noticed a recurrent theme of flowers. Quilters loved flowers. I decided to draw a few flowers and make  small wall hangings to keep the project fast but interesting. I designed a coreopsis, a sweet pea and I wanted to design a rose. I settled on a dog rose that had many fewer petals. I made these for gifts for my family and friends. I would bring them to guild and got a favorable response and again that question came up…Do you have a pattern for these? Hmm.. should I take another risk and ad a few flowers to my meager pattern line? OK – I gave it a shot. I designed twelve flowers. I know twelve is alot! But I did not want to look like one of those “One Pattern Wonder” quilt designers. I figured if I had 12 that would be a “line” of flowers. I had a blast making them. I learned a lot about what translates well to fabric. Poppies with broad petals worked well, where as lilacs and hydrangeas have too many little flowers to recreate accurately without having quilters wanting to take a contract out on my life if I patterned hundreds of tiny buds! As I completed one flower after another the guild members got more and more excited. Soon a few local quilt shops heard about my flowers and started approaching me! Another glimpse of hope!

The Death-mobile

The death-mobile is my code name for my husbands Harley Davidson. It earned this name when on Memorial Day in 2003 he went on a cross country adventure with a few of his white collar hog fans. They were doing the male bonding thing on their way to a big Harley Event in New Mexico. Apparently when the executive white collar bikers arrived at the gathering it was a bit rougher than they had anticipated! LOL – They had no tattoos, they were the only sober ones and did not have a biker babe hanging off the back of their hogs. All was well until Monday morning I got a call from Gary’s co-worker in Tulsa OK.  “Debra, Gary has had a little accident” was the first words I heard Monday, Memorial Day in 2003.

Gary had been traveling all day in the heat from NM to Tulsa in one clip. He was exiting a highway and hit a patch of gravel which slammed his 700 pound bike onto the pavement. The full  impact was on his shoulder. He was received at the ER as “Oh another stupid Motorcycle rider – aka organ donor”. They really wanted him to go home. He insisted on an x-ray. With a punctured lung, a broken clavicle, and twelve compound fractures of his ribs and too many hairline fractures to count, they decided maybe he should spend the night after all! I called my parents to stay with the boys and I flew to Tulsa. He was in very bad shape. He was terribly uncomfortable and the focus was on getting the lung re-inflated and drained of blood and fluid. 8 days in the hospital was trying at best. He could not fly in an airplane because of the pressure created in the airplane cabin at flying altitude. So we had to rent a car and drive. I drove from OK to MD – it took three days because we had to make frequent stops to rest as well as I started having a few problems of my own. I had been having fevers all week while being bedside to Gary in the hospital. I did not say anything as I was certainly not the focus during that situation. All week and all the drive home I was inhaling Tylenol and Motrin in an effort to keep the fevers manageable.  We got home and it was a long 6 months until Gary’s ribs really healed entirely.

Just when you thought it was safe to get back into the water…..

We got home and we rearranged our life to acom0date Gary’s injuries and slowly life returned to normal.

Back to my flowers and quilting.  I had positive feedback from guild members and from a few shop owners prior to the accident. I entertained the idea once again to try to make a few bucks to support my hobby. It seemed safe to give the teaching and pattern making a second look. I returned to being a mom, wife, quilter and designer.

It was late one summer evening when I was cleaning the backyard from a Birthday party that I had given for my oldest son. All my boys were born in winter so we would postpone their parties until summer when they could take advantage of our pool as the main focus of the party. The boys had gone upstairs with all the gifts and left over cupcakes.  I was picking up the last traces of Pinata tissue paper from the yard when I collapsed on the lawn. This was in July of 2003.

What is going on?

More to come…

Shoot for the Moon… #2 (Please leave comments)

A Brief History of Location

My quilting quest started early in my childhood as side job. After college Gary and I married in 1985 and focused on having a family and settling down. Seven long years of infertility and lots of tough treatments, drugs and science we had our first son Brooks in 1992.  Being a mom at home I worked part time as a graphic designer, mainly designing shopping bags, gift tissue and wrapping paper for leading packaging companies in the USA. We were in Long Island at the time and eventually settled in Columbia MD to raise our son and expand our family. Columbia was the brainchild of Mr. James Rouse who designed Columbia to be a planned community for families. It was a wonderful place to raise a family and we are still in the area today.

We settled in a wonderful Columbian housing development and we made life long friendships with our neighbors. We had 12-15 houses on our street and we must have had 25 kids among the gang. This was the time when I had our two other boys. Someone was always pregnant on the block. Having some extra time on my hands between being a mom and a part time graphic designer I returned to the world of quilting to make my kids baby quilts and eventually making friend quilts for their kids. One of my long time pals, Dana and I took a beginning quilt class by a well known quilter, Pat Brousil (incredible quilter)  at a great quilt shop about 15 miles away in Catonsville named Seminole Sampler.  It was a 6 week complete beginners course. That was it! I was hooked, or maybe the word is “obsessed”! We made samplers. This is where the madness began. I could not just make one sampler – I made two! I developed an insatiable need to learn as much as I could about quilting. I wanted to piece and applique and bind and anything else that allowed me to play with all the wonderful fabrics. Having my childhood experience with the craft quilter when I was young made me very familiar to the whole quilt scene. I guess I just woke up and thought – oh- now it is my turn to make quilts, create things for my home and eventually just make art with fiber and thread.

My QAD

I had consciously decided in my head that I wanted to get a degree in quilting. So I made up my own QAD (Quilt Arts Degree) since there were not any real quilting programs around.  I decided I needed to know how to piece triangles, paper piece, piece curves, applique by hand, applique by machine etc. The list went on and on. I took classes and read books during every spare moment.  I think that I had made over 50 quilts in a 3-4 year period. All the quilts were traditional. Once and a while I would make a simple baby quilt with a few nine patches and a simple applique for one of the pregnant ladies on my street. No patterns – just nine patches and a simple drawn applique. I really did not “get it” that there were patterns out there. I had several books and I would follow their instruction – but did not get it that you could buy cute little patterns of fun and interesting things. I guess when I was in a quilt shop all I could see was the gorgeous fabrics and never bothered looking at any patterns or books with any intent.  So I went on making quilt after quilt, taking class after class and zeroing in on the “likes” and “dislikes” of my personal quilting journey.I took classes with Ellen Ann Eddie, Ricky Tims, Libby Lehman, Barbara Barbara, and many other quilting names in the business – before they were big names in the business.

Moving to a New Home

We lived in that neighbor of Columbia for 4-5 years and moved in 1999 to a nearby town of Clarksville. We moved from a 1/4 acre lot to 3+ acres of beautiful rolling farmland. When we moved we had our three boys in tow, Brooks 7 years old, Austin 4 years old and Cole 2-1/2 years old. Oh yes – I was a busy lady! I am proud to say that all my boys put down the toilet seat after the pee! Only a mother of three or more boys understand how much of an accomplishment that was!

New house- new decor. I made all the curtains and pillows in my house. We moved in and the entire house was decorated. I know that is nuts – but I was thinking… You know how one goes nuts frantically preparing your old house to be sold? You paint, you clean, you make the house look its best for the potential buyer. Hey – if I can do all that work for someone I will be leaving my house to – I certainly deserve to give as much if not more effort to my new house! So I planned our entire interior decoration and executed it all before we moved in.   So are you somewhat getting a sense of my over the top approach to life? Those of you who know me now know the pattern of over doing everything started early! lol! We moved in and every wall was faux painted, or wall papered. Every window had custom window treatments of window boxes  or draperies. Every bedspread and couch had matching pillows. It was great! Now – doesn’t that make sense? Work your butt off on your house before you move in instead of only when you move out! The best thing about the our new home is that we built a beautiful 2o x 20 craft room for all of my graphics, quilting and school projects.

The first Christmas in our new house I decided to make  Christmas stockings for my family in my craft room/studio. I love Christmas stockings! I wanted a stocking that was beautiful, lined and big to fit the socks, toys and treats that I so fondly remember in my stocking as a child. My mother and father would always stuff the end of the stocking with a big juicy orange. Oranges are big! I could not find a stocking large enough to fit that orange.  (As an aside – none of my kids love oranges – they would rather have a toy, gift card or candy in that fat toe now!) So I discovered that there was a cute quilt shop less than 4 miles from my house! What a wonderful thing! So I went to “The Quilt Block” and bought some fabric. I loved the moda prints and homespuns in that time, actually I still do. I have not met too many types of fabrics I do not love! I layed out the fabric and just started cutting. I made one and it was a bit too skinny. So it was okay because I still had four more to go. I made the next and the lining was a bit funky. On the third I got most of the shape right by that time and wanted to jazz it up a bit so I added some prairie points. By the fourth stocking I decided to make a cardboard pattern. The forth came out best to that point but still needed some minor adjustments. The fifth stocking was perfect. I had a pattern from cardboard and 4 wonky “off” stockings and one good one. I brought my creations to The Quilt Block and the owner Diane said – hey Debra, those are great. What pattern did you use? I said – no pattern I just made my own.  She asked if I would be interested in teaching a class. I had three young boys at home and I was just moving into a new home – there was NO WAY I would be able to teach a class.  That changed after two of the three boys were in school and I had my baby in pre-school.  I taught my first class in the attic of The Quilt Block sometime around 2000-2001.

My First Quilting Gig

I brought my cardboard patterns and we all made stockings. I think I had 4-6 students and they all left with a finished project in 3 hours. The students loved the project and asked if I taught other classes. I discovered I LOVED teaching in the peaked roof attic in Dayton MD with my first class. That was the beginning of my pattern business. I made a paper pattern with written instructions for the “Prairie Point Stocking”. I sold a ton of those little patterns and taught the class many more times. In my personal life my friends were still having babies. I would show the ladies at The Quilt Block my baby shower gifts for my fertile friends and they would say – “You need to make a pattern of that”.  The next thing you know – I have a pattern of “Trucks ” and I am teaching raw edge applique.  That was the beginning of Zebra Patterns. At that time I did not have the brand “Zebra” – it was just a pattern with a picture of the finished quilt and a small credit …. “designed by Debra Gabel”.

{More to come – come back – leave a comment!}

Changes to In the Beginning quilt…

Okay so the comments I got from early viewers about my In the Beginning quilt…The Jonah and the whale looked babyish and the ark needed a rainbow and dove. Great suggestions – Here are the changes. Much better!The whale is still cartoonish – but much more realistic and keeps with the quilt style. Thanks to Linda and my other fellow quilter from a Delmarvalous quilt guild who made those suggestions!

Shoot for the Moon… #1 (Please leave comments)

“Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.” Les Brown

This morning I walked the kids to the bus stop and went on my way to walk a few miles with our new little puppy, Lacey.  Walking and driving are the times when my ideas that are baking in the oven get checked like sticking a toothpick in a homemade devil’s food chocolate cake in the oven! I have had this idea in the over for several years. When I stuck the toothpick in this morning- it came out slightly wet and I took out the idea and decided it was almost ready and that it would be just perfect by taking the idea out now and letting it finish to perfection on the cooling rack which is this blog. Maybe the icing on the cake will be publishing of this journey. I love the icing, don’t you?

The idea is not original but it is a matter of timing. While lecturing in a Delaware guild last week I realized I am well on my way on my path to shooting for the moon. I though I should slow for a moment and capture the moment in writing so that maybe the next artist who seeks a similar path might glean an insight or two on their own homemade devils food chocolate cake. So here we go.

Guess it makes sense to start at the beginning. As a child my mom sewed some. She would make curtains and alter clothing on her singer sewing machine. That machine neatly converted into a walnut table that sat in our living room with a bouquet of silk flowers on a round hand tatted doily and two ceramic bird figures that my mom collected. That is where I got interested in sewing. At 12 years old I started baby sitting and trying to make a buck. I have always had an internal drive and love for multitasking. I started babysitting  at 12. One of the mothers that I sat for was a quilter.  I would do fine playing with the kids but when they went to bed I would get bored. So I would clean the house where I was sitting. Eventually the babysitting families would notice and give me a small tip. Then – I would offer my services to babysit while the kids were up and clean or mow the lawn while the kids slept. Multitasking at it’s earliest with a few extra bucks! The mom that was the quilter started a small home business of making homemade raw edge applique pillows with Unicorns and castles. Once the kids were settled I would sometimes cut out all the unicorn manes, horns and bodies. As time passed her home business grew into a professional craft business on the ACC Craft circuit. I worked with this crafter all through the 70’s and into the 80’s when I was home from college. That was my introduction to the concept of taking your hobby/passion and making a business.

Years passed and I got a BFA degree in graphic design. My first job was as Art Director of the Walden NY Paper Shopping Bag company owned by Champion International paper. Guess who my boss was? It was my husband Gary! It was quite the coo. Long story short, I was in the midst of a divorce and Gary had hired me as an intern. I was a very dedicated worker and found myself after hours getting ahead on work and always trying to make a better system in my art department. Gary was often after hours as well , as he is a self proclaimed work-aholic. One night after a long workday we stopped for pizza and talked about the current happenings. Next thing you know we both stopped thinking about work for a split second and said ” Hey, do we like each other”? The next thing we knew we decided to move to Dallas TX and lived together and today have three wonderful, creative and wild sons.

Okay – that is a quick synopsis of my journey from 12 years old until now. Isn’t that interesting how it took 47 years to make all that history yet I can write most of it it in just a few small paragraphs? Sometimes that is how fast life seems to travel. So what is the intention of this blog, possibly book? The intention is to document my journey in hopes that the next marksmen in the quilt/art/craft field will have a glimpse of the path I took and might figure out that some diversions along their path are worth it and others…not so much!

The Intention

The intention of my journey is simple.

My intention is to peruse my passion and focus that energy to continue on a never ending path of seeking knowledge with byproducts of a successful business that will provide a great income and an opportunity to make a wonderful work environment for a staff of employees.

[ I think I will stop now so I can work and maybe you will come back for the next installment of "Shoot for the Moon". Please leave a comment.Subscibe to my blog so it will come to you directly every day that I post.]

Lots of stuff to blog about….

SAQA

I was invited to participate on SAQA’s (Studio Arts Quilt Association) on line feature gallery with my Obama quilt. That will be up on SAQA.com in May. I am in the company of quilting artists like Carol Taylor, Eserit Austin and Katie Pasquini Masopust! WOW!

Delaware Lecture

I was invited to lecture at the Delmarvalous quilt guild in Delaware – near Bethany Beach. What a great group of quilters and I met two great quilt shop owners. In fact I am coming back to DE in June for a 1 year anniversary with Kathy – the owner of Serendipity Quilt Shop to give a small trunk show and maybe teach a class or two. Kathy has been in business for 10 months and has the perfect quilt shop! It has character and great fabrics and patterns. She even teaches basket weaving! I stayed with my newly proclaimed Aunt Doris! I have a friend who lives up the road and her son and my youngest played baseball together. My friend brought her mom over one day when she was visiting and then Doris invited me to her hometown guild in DE. We had a ball together shop hopping and eating out! I think I have a new Aunt!

Robbed!

I was robbed about three weeks ago in a local park. Centennial Park is a nice park about 5 miles from me that my son Cole and I went to on a nice day to take a walk. We walked and upon returning to the car – someone had smashed my window took my pocketbook with 250.00+, my new 200.00 digital camera, my palm pilot and my coach bag and wallet! UGH! What a pain- replacing all the credit cards, losing all the money – etc.

Book idea- Shoot for the Stars

I have an idea. I am well on my way in this quilting journey to who knows where – hopefully the national scene and then the world! I thought before I go to much further I think I should start writing about the journey. Then I thought – I think I will write the journey for a book on my blog and if I get to travel abroad I will publish the book! So Look for my book to be started through blogging – called “Shoot for the Stars” – because even if you miss you will end up among the stars! I will write in installments with entry numbers to keep track. Please respond so I can include or feed off your comments. Look for the next entry.

Support

Thanks to my quilter friends who have generously given me constructive feedback about my In the Beginning Quilt. One quilter said I should add a rainbow and dove to the Noah’s ark block! Brilliant. My friend Linda commented that the whale in my Jonah block looked juvenile compared to the others. That was spot on! I am redesigning that one today and plan to finishe the top so I can send it to my pal Maria for quilting.  I am feverishly working to get as much done as possible before I go to Pittsburgh for National Quilt Market. I get butterflies just thinking about it! Market is May 14-17. I have ordered a lime green shag rug and I am getting all my panel;s ready for the booth.

Citystamps

I am feverishly designing Chicago which is 1/2 done and San Francisco for my next two stamps. Linda also suggested LasVegas which is very appealing! I want to really make a mark in Pittsburgh with my stamps before anyone rips the idea off!

Watch for my “Shoot for the Stars”

I am working hard….

In Flight - Butterflies quilt realeased in April of 2009

It has been awhile since I have blogged – That is because I am Busy busy busy! What am I doing? I have successfully vended and exhibited at two quilt shows the past three weeks. I did very well! I am feverishly getting the “In the Beginning” quilt done. I have finished the “In Flight” (Butterflies) quilt and patterns.  I am working like mad to get my line as developed as possible before Mat 15 – my debute at The National Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. I went out with my 17 year old son and we got a great lime green shag rug for the booth. I have decided to replace all my booth walls to a natural muslin colored canvas. I have been researching what makes a successful booth and they all say – light backgrounds.

I got a note from Pokey Bolton of Quilting Arts that she would like me to write an article about my new technique of Oversketching with oil pastels for the Summer issue of Quilting arts. I also got a note from SAQA that my Obama quilt was selected to be in a invitational online quilt gallery. Boy I miss my Obama quilt! I may need to do Obama 2 soon!

That is the quick wrap up. I will try to blog more often! See pix below of my Butterflies! Have a great week! Debra

12 Butterflie Wall Hangings from the "In Flight" Series by Debra Gabel - Zebra Patterns. March 2009