Bari J.

Hey all. I'm working on the Beachside Holiday quillt today. I expect to have this pattern done by the end next week, the latest. Also, I need to know what you think... I'd like to make some videos for this blog... I plan on working on a fabric collage video first... what other tips, techniques etc would you like to see demonstrated?

In the meantime, I've just created a "handbag supplies and KITS" page on my website to kick off my very first magazine kit, Strip Ease.

I hope you'll check it out... Quilts and More Fall '11 hits stands today! And I will have a supply of them on my site by next week as well.

In the way of really cute handbag supplies, I just got these last week... I think they'd be perfect on this bag, don't you? They come in lime green, red and light blue.

 

So honored to be featured over on Cindy's blog today as part of her Sketchbook Stories series! You can check it out here!

I just love Cindy Ann's blog and her work! If you don't know her already, I know you'll fall in love!

 

 

My mommy is in town for a visit. And she found the unfinished version of this pillow which I made in July for a class sample. It's a project in Inspired to Sew and this one is an UFO I'd entirely forgotten about. Mom wanted it and that was just the excuse I needed to divert my attention from what I was doing and make it into a pillow for her. Glad it's finished and has a new owner.

I did manage to finished up two of the Slice Fabrique projects and sent them off to Utah for photographs before I got distracted. Of course I took a few of my own before they left.

And in other news, my studio appears in the newest edition of Studios magazine with the one an only Ty Pennington on the cover!

And look! We're BFF's in the table of contents... Yup. That's my studio pictured right beneath his. 

Ty Pennington. Bari J. Ackerman. BFFs. 

I'll be getting a few copies in stock soon if anyone wants one. 

 

 

Some time back, a blog reader sent me this clipping from a French magazine. My heart flip-flopped.

It's made from my first line of fabric, Full Bloom. Who knew it made it all the way to France? 

At any rate, this was the inspiration for my market chair.

But if the powers that be would please send me this one, I'd be forever grateful. 

 

This is what I now know... It is exciting and terrifying at the same time to have your mug show up in a national magazine. Eek. And, it's also a little like, "How'd that happen?". And, "Whose life is this?". And... admittedly it's pretty cool too. Even if I don't like how my hair is sprigging out on one side. Whatevers. Sigh. At least I look good in purple.

You can find out all you needed to know (and more) about me in this Summer's issue of Quilts and More.

There's also a little project:

 

It was inspired by the frames I did last fall for Quilt Market... in case you were thinking that it looks oddly familiar. 

 
 

Back when I was a theatre student, I would have sort of considered this like winning one of those pretty statues. My work right here in Romantic Homes Magazine! I mean, come on! Whaaat??!! ((Insert acceptance speech here!))

All kidding aside. I'm just really thrilled. I love the cover of this issue. And it makes me way happy to be in The Color Issue. You may have noticed... I like color. 

Romantic Home's Editorial director, Jacqueline deMontravel, both edited and photographed this article. A great big thank you to you, Jacqueline! I'm silly giddy about it! 

 

(This is the March issue, but it's already on newstands.There are full instructions and a diagram to make my Garden Tea Party quilt with collage edges in a table runner size. Hurry and go get it... my mom and sisters may buy them all up and there will be none left for anyone!)
  
 

I love Stampington Publications. I really, really do. Hope you get a chance to pick up the Winter 2010 issue of Sew Somerset. And not just because my Sew Scrappy Cuffs and easy buttonhole tutorial are in there... it's really a great magazine! There's info this time on bobbin stitching which I'm dying to learn. So, if my 13 year old doesn't steal it first (she found a minimum of four projects she wants to do), I'll be working on that this weekend.  

  

Just received copies of two magazines that my patterns are in this month. Hope you'll enjoy making my Stephanie Mag Bag with Art Tree in Haute Handbags this month and the Pretty Petal Pocketbook in Sew Hip! I'm thrilled to have features in these great magazines! Both can be found at Barnes and Noble.

Happy Sewing! 

Today on Studio Five in Utah... You'll have to go about 1/2 way into the video, but there I am!
And they say such nice things... listen for what they say about quality ...
We've worked really hard on that!

I gotta' send out a couple great big thank you's to Jenny Doh and Morgan McLaughlin of Belle Armoire. This article hit the news stands May 1, and it was more than I ever imagined. And... my name on the cover made my mother (ok, and me) very happy. Between my sisters, mother, father and me a minimum of 15 - 20 copies were purchased. The only people not impressed were my daughters who completely and insultingly shrugged it off as, "Yeah, Mom. What-ever!" Well, "Hmmmpfff!" to them and thank you Jenny and Morgan very much for the kind words and attention! It is greatly appreciated.

So so much going on here. You know, that Oprah is right. What you put out there does come back to you.

As you know, I'm practicing "putting it out there". You won't believe what's happened since I started doing that... oh... last week. I highly recommend it.

I had thought it was kind of corny. But this is what I didn't know: when I Said Aloud What I Wanted my little brain had synapses firing off all over the place. It suddenly became... "I AM doing this." Hmmm. Which led me to making a bunch of phone calls and emails and talking to everyone I know ... gathering information to Make IT Happen.

Can't wait to be able to tell you what's going on... I loathe secrets. I can't keep 'em (so expect me to totally bust) and worse, I go nuts when one is kept from me. Super Husband thinks that is a wonderful game to play. "I have a secret". Drives me crazy... and why it works every time, I don't know. I'm like a four year old.

On another note, look what showed up in my mailbox yesterday! Goody Gum Drops! I've been waiting for this.

This is from Stampington's, Haute Handbags which will hit newstands Monday. (Remember when I said I was sending something in??? I didn't jinx myself after all.) Thanks, Amanda! I love what you did with it!