Bari J.

LillyBelle Tweetchat Recap   

If you missed our tweetchat earlier today, here is a recap. This is just part of the conversation. To view it in entirety, search #LillyBelle on Twitter.

@crowzandroses: Where did you start in the design process: design, color or shape?

@BariJ: I almost always start with color.

@crowzandroses: How do you choose? Favorite color or an item? 

@BariJ: Partially I choose color based on trends and partially just what mood strikes me.

@artgalleryfabrics: FB Question...will you have sewing patterns released using your new fabrics?

@BariJ: I will definitely have new sewing patterns featuring LillyBelle. Can't wait!

@crowzandroses: Was it hard to eliminate or did it all come together easily?

@BariJ: It was hard to eliminate certain designs, plus this line went through a huge metamorphosis from beginning to end.

@ellieannapurses: How many designs in this collection?

@BariJ: There are ten designs in 2 different colorways each. It's very diverse and super fun!

@MelissaStramel: Where did the name come from?

@BariJ: Was simply after a beautiful woman's name… imagining her grand estate and gardens. This is the home of LillyBelle.

@MelissaStramel: Will you have a booth at Spring Quilt Market.

@BariJ: Yes. I will be right next to the Art Gallery Fabrics Showroom booth.

@crowzandroses: Do you see it more for smalls or home dec or will it work for larger quilts?

@BariJ: We were very careful to make sure that pieces fit into charm pack sizes, and kept some larger.

@BariJ: I'd say it's a large array of sizes. Some very small (the zig zag) and some large (the lilies). But even the large prints we were careful to make sure that good bits would be visible in a charm pack size. 

@BariJ: I can see it being used for home dec, clothing, purses, quilts and more! 

@Caraquilts: Will the larger print be good for collaging? like from your book Inspired to Sew?

@BariJ: Yes! Most definitely!!! Collage is always in my mind when designing fabrics.

@ArtGalleryFab: LillyBelle will be great for collaging... the style is funky vintage and works well with the collage style.

@BariJ: I think it's the color palette that makes for a funky style plus the the mixture of scale.

@CaraQuilts: Will LillyBelle be able to be combined with any past collections? or planning for future?

@BariJ:  I think that I tend to keep with palettes that combine well together. I'd say it could be mixed. 

@CaraQuilts: What is your dream project to see LillyBelle in?

@BariJ:  I'd love to see it in home decor. And as I started with purses, I am usually picturing them as I design.

@SzyHomemaker: Will @artgalleryfab ever consider other fabrics such as knits for @BariJ or their other prints? 

@Artgalleryfab:  We have started printed Voile for some collections, but the possibility of knits still up in the air.

@3kitchenfairies: Tell us about your creative process, what inspired you to create LillyBelle?

@BariJ:  I imagine places a lot. I dream of traveling. I tend to look at photos and start with just doodles. An element gets mixed with another. Drawings get put on shelve and then taken back out. Eventually it all comes together. 

@fiberosity: What is your favorite color incorporated into the line?

@BariJ: Mustard yellow + raspberry! It's like a great big crazy surprise when u look at it. I LOVE it.

@BdAnderson: What is something different about LillyBelle compared to your other fabrics? 

@BariJ:  I think that this line has a bit more sophistication than the others. It is definitely a step beyond. 

@artgalleryfab: Bari J. offers a more vintage feel to our company but the fabrics are still the same high quality, hand that you love.

@steynhandmade:  the background looks quite ikat inspired, is that true?

@BariJ: Silk Moire inspired. It is very textural and meant to be an interpretation.

@3kitchenfairies: please tell?? How did you get to work together??

@BariJ: Pat and I had chatted years ago about working together. The stars really aligned.

@artgalleryfab: Great minds think alike and the pairing was just inevitable ;)

@BariJ:  And here's the thing about Pat Bravo :When she says something,she means it. A true good person! 

@artgalleryfab: I always wanted 2 work w/ Bari J. and timing was just right this time. We love her style & r super excited she joined our team

@Bdanderson: I love the combo of geometrical and florals - Keep them coming!

@szyhomemaker: I love the 'untraditional traditional' nature of this line, semi-traditional prints in untraditional colors and vice-versa

@BariJ: I love the 'untraditional traditional' nature of this line, semi-traditional prints in untraditional colors and vice-versa.

@BariJ:  I'm thrilled to get to have 10 prints in 2 colors rather than 7 or so in 3. Gives shops more variety!

@Crowzandroses:  Makes it easier to work with and for stores to sell. 

@BariJ:  10 prints gave me many more options when designing the free quilt pattern for this line. So fun.

@SzyHomemaker: I think they're going to be great for garments and home dec for sure -- not just for quilters anymore ;)

@artgalleryfab: FB Q... fb: Start from palette of colors? Doodle designs first and then fill in the color?

@BariJ:  I start with a palette of colors which may or may not change. Then I doodle doodle draw doodle and mix and match. designs from years ago can be taken out of files and suddenly they find a home in a line

@caraquilts: Do your teen daughters influence your art?

@BariJ: they tell me very very honestly when something sucks.

@BariJ:  But really, having teen girls means I have to keep up on trends or be punished by them. LOL.

@CaraQuilts: Do you ever come up with a design, and think "where did THAT come from?"

@BariJ: Yes! All the time. And when things come together, it happens all at once as an epiphany.

@CaraQuilts:  What is your favorite print/colour in the line?

@BariJ:  There is a large scale floral you haven't seen all of yet. I'm crazy about it.

Introducing... LillyBelle!

My first line with Art Gallery Fabrics will be released soon... for now I'm so excited to tell you a little about it and share a bit of the world of LillyBelle with you! Please watch the video below. Also, please join Pat Bravo and me for a live twitter chat tomorrow at 1PM EST ... details here.

 

 The Secret is OUT!

Hi Friends. We have both been teasing you all week with some mysterious and some not so subtle "Big News on Thursday" tweets and incessant Facebook posts.  Did notice that both of us had big news to announce on Thursday? "Both who? And why are you so excited?", you ask? Please watch the video to find out.

 

Save the date for another video on Monday + a live twitter chat... details to come!

The Needlepoint that started it all...

My mother is a painter, a stitcher and a general craft-a-holic. She is currently in a threaded beading phase (not to mention crochet and knitting ... she always has something cooking in that arena).

When I was a small child (three to six years old) there was a three year period where she was working on a very large needle point. It is this piece that I have found influenced my asthetic and design style more than anything I can put my finger on. I remember her working on it and watching her, I remember how excited she was when she finally finished it and had it framed. For years it hung in our dining room, and now it hangs over my parent's bed.

Of course my mother has hugely influenced my art and certainly gave me the arty-crafty bug (even though my dad claims for some reason un-known that "she gets it from me"). But it is this project that has become part of my consciousness and sub-consciousness and turns up over and over in my work whether in direct relation, a color combination or in bits and pieces. Just look how it relates to the current background on this blog.

Is it that it was made by mother and therefore warms my heart? Is it that I watched it being made? Or is it simply that it appeals to me? I'll never know why, but my mom's needlepoint is somehow part of who I am.

 

 

 

Aurifil Designer of The Month

I'm very excited and honored to have been included in this fantastic group of stitchers for the 2012 Aurifil Designer of the Month. I'm Miss August. 

The fabulous Roseann Kernes of Rosebud's cottage is this month's designer, and her block is just adorable! You can check out the whole interview and get the pattern on the Aurifil blog. Also, don't forget to join the Flickr group.

Home Really is Where the Heart Is.

We've packed it up. Our house is under contract and we are now in Arizona ... staying with my parents (that's an interesting one at 42 years old) and looking for a new home. My mom has generously let me set up shop in her den. My computer and sewing machines are easily accessible as well as my shop goods.

The adventures are many... mostly in arranging schools for the girls. Arizona has open enrollment so we can put our kids in Scottsdale schools even though we are currently staying in Fountain Hills. It hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be, and one girl is still not registered. I'll have to do it on the first day of school because the offices are closed for Winter break. All said, if selling the house didn't kill me, then getting kids in school shouldn't either. Though I acted like the world had ended when I couldn't get one of the girls in school due to a red tape issue. Drama.

It was rough getting here. But we all went out to dinner the other night and I realized I wasn't (per usual) busy envying big families sitting together because we were one big crazy happy family. So though we are currently in cramped quarters, I have no idea where my younger daughter is going to school, and I am generally discombobulated, my heart is content. I grew up in Chicago, and after 14 1/2 years in California, I am finally home.

To Hand Quilt or Not to Hand Quilt, That is the Question.

 

First the plan was to hand quilt the hexie quilt. Then the plan was to machine quilt it myself. Then the plan was to send it to a long arm quilter. Because I have no time right now. Being that, oh, I'm selling a house (and moving), designing fabric lines and sewing patterns that are due soon, I'm throwing Thanksgiving for 30 and my daughter's bat mitzvah is two days later.

Despite all that... I've chosen to do hardest of the three which will take the longest... you know... because I have time for that  that's what this quilt was screaming for. So, my sister will have to wait until 324 hexagons are hand quilted to receive her 40th birthday present... probably right around the time of her 50th birthday.

Now, I've done a little bit of hand quilting before and tons of embroidery so in my pea brain I thought this was going to be a piece of cake. 

Ahem...

As you can see from the back of my work, It is not a piece of cake. Until you get your groove. And then, suddenly, you get it. The light bulb goes on, your stitches get more even and you realize that the center of the quilt where you started is going to suck while toward the outside, the quilt will be perfection. You consider tearing out the first stitches until you realize you don't have the stomach for that. And you decide it's not so sucky after-all...

Here's what I've learned so far:

1. Don't stab stitch. Do a rocking stitch. Your stitch length will thank you.

2. Do use a thimble of some sort. I like the ones that stick on your finger (even though I'm allergic to the adhesive... if I leave it on too long I get a blister). 

3. Stitch toward yourself.

4. Mark your lines if you expect them to be straight... I did that here with a Frixion pen.

4. Don't expect perfection.

 

You will get it... This is the latest hexie I'm on. The stitches are getting pretty dang even. By hexie 324 I'm sure I can be renamed Bari J., queen of French Knots AND hand quilting.

That will be in 2022. I'll let you know then.

It still doesn't seem real...

We have lived in Northern California for 14 years. That doesn't seem real. And now we are getting ready to move, and that doesn't feel real either even though we've known for about three months that it was a very real possibility.

Super Husband accepted a job in Arizona about a week ago. And I've been staging the house for sale for a month.

We've loved it here, we've raised our two girls here who are now almost 14 and 16. But all this time, we have desperately missed having famiy here. 

When we first moved here, I cried every single day for about a year. I was pregnant with Emily, our second daughter. After being here for four months, I ended up on bed rest for pre-term labor. A bit of a conundrum when you have an 18 month old, no family, are new to an area and your husband is traveling on business all the time. In the end, of course, everything worked out. Somehow or another we made it through, and we are stronger for it.

Today one of my sisters has two little boys aged two and two months. She lives in Arizona near our parents, and I've been pining to live there for years now. My wish has finally come true, and it's bitter sweet.

I love my life here, but I love my family even more. I miss my sisters, my brother and my parents. I wish the girls could have spent their whole lives near Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins. So though I will miss Northern California, it's beauty and it's weather... and our friends, the only thing that would make this move better would be if my other sister and brother could live in Arizona too. It seems unfair that we all can't be together.

We have lived in this house for eight years. Longer than we've ever lived in a home our entire married life... nearly 17 years. Getting it ready to sell has been a huge undertaking. And now that it is decluttered and beautified, I sure would like to take it with.

Of course new adventures and a new home await ahead of us. I don't know when this house will sell, or when we will finally make it to our destination. I do know that good time are ahead. I'm looking forward to playing with my nephews, family dinners and holidays, dropping in on my sister and parents without a moment's notice and a new life in a new home.

Good Lord, My Sewing Machine is SMOKING!

This is not the way I planned for her to go. 

I bought my sweet and lovely Pfaff about eight years ago used and she worked extremely hard for me for those eight years. And she was well taken care of. She had yearly/bi-yearly spa dates over at the sewing machine shop. She has had her circuit board replaced. 

But despite all her tender loving care, when it's time, it's time. And you know it's time to replace your beloved sewing machine when certain things happen. One of them is she starts to smoke.

No. I'm not kidding. There was actual smoke coming from the top of my sewing machine. Now granted, I let her cool off for an hour and then sewed two king size pillowcases with her and she seemed just fine. But the truth was undeniable. She'd been on fire. Somewhere within the mechanisms of her sweet little frame, there had been an actual fire. Or was about to be a fire. 

I could no longer be in denial. I needed a new sewing machine. And considering what happened to her sister, Babylock Grace, when I opened the rear gate on my SUV (she may or may not have fallen out), I knew I needed a work horse that would not be in need of a backup for at least a little while. (Have no fear. Grace is currently undergoing a series of treatments at the spa. I will need her and all of her stitches very much.)

I ended up buying the above sewing machine, a Juki T2010. I am totally in love. Of course there are a few things I'm not totally in love with, but let me tell you, this baby is a speed demon work horse. 

Made of steel, the Juki T2010, has some incredible industrial like features. She's a straight stitching/quilting machine. No fancy schmancy stitches or functions that can break.

Here are the things I love about her:

• Has a built in cutter in the foot pedal. You just step back with your heel and the thread is cut. Love that!

• Great LED lighting.

• Doesn't make any clicking or crazy sounds when you turn her on.

• Has a handsfree knee-lifter lever for the presser foot. This is key when you are fiddling and fuddling with pieces of fabric trying to keep them straight while putting under the presser foot. In fact, I had no idea what I was missing. This thing is the bomb.

• This sucker is FAST and has three speed settings.

• I haven't witnessed it myself yet, but I hear tell she sews through multiple layers flawlessly.

• Has a needle down and feed dogs down position.

• Came with an extension table that has legs that pop up for easy storage. My last table's legs we stationary or screwed in, which made it very difficult to store.

• The stitches look impeccable.

What I don't love:

• The bobbin case is to the side, and it's a little goofy to reach in that way to put it in.

• You have to screw off the presser feet, which is inconvenient.

 

Overall, I am crazy about this machine so far.

Now, let's get sewing, right? Last night I finally finished my sister Ilisa's 40th birthday quilt using my down and dirty new sewing machine ... It is *slightly* overdue. Her birthday was in April.

But alas, the top is finished and I'm sending it out for quilting!

This quilt is made from Flower Sugar by Lecien and was started last winter. You might want to check out the post. There are links to videos on how to machine stitch a hexie quilt. 

I have to admit to procrastinating on this quilt. Once I got to the white hexies it became quite boring and tedius. I'm thrilled it's finished. And I really can't wait to give it to my sister, who I adore. Happy (um, belated) birthday, Ilisa!

 

We Are Not "Just" Anything.

I'm writing this for my daughters. And for my friends and my sisters. 

I've heard this relatively often enough from my women friends for it to bother me ... "I'm just a Mom." or "I'm just a wife." Sentences that start with "I'm just...".

You may be a mom, a wife, a daughter or whatever you are. But you also are you. You are more than "just."

As my daughters get older, these thoughts go through my head more and more often. I hope my daughters become moms one day (far far far in the future)... and when they do, I want them to say, "I'm a mom". Not I'm "just" a mom. And if they have other ambitions, I want them to know that they can do what they set their minds to.

For so many years of my life I believed in my heart of hearts that "other people have talent" and "other people have the secret to success"... I literally felt like there was some sort of magic that "other people" had, and that I certainly did not hold the key. I thought I was "just".

Then one day it honest to goodness dawned on me... other people had what they wanted because they worked really really hard for it. Yes, people are born with certain talents and pre-dispositions, but they didn't hone their talents without really hard work.

Back then, I didn't even know what my talents were. I thought I was "just."

I've heard that it takes 100 hours of practice to get good at anything. That is probably a bare minimum.

But I believe something else. I believe that if you want to succeed in anything, you have to truly, deeply believe that you can... and that you will.

I also believe that you don't necessarily need a degree in that which you want to succeed in. You know, unless you'd like to be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever you want to do requires a certificate. Good grief, my degree is in Social Sciences with a concentration in Psychology and Women's Studies ... yes, that's a true story.

What you need is experience, commitment, a belief in yourself, and quite likely ... someone who strongly believes in you.

I believe that we can do what we set our minds to do. I believe that we are not "just" anything.

I believe that I can succeed. And I believe you can too. And not only that. I want you to. Because I want my daughters to believe the very same thing. They are more than "just".