Recap of Houston Quilt Market – It’s About Time

I’m just getting back to blogging and writing a quick recap of our splendid time at the October Houston Quilt Market.   Truth be told – we’ve been just a tad busy around here lately….having spent the last month closing down our brick and mortar store, Linderella’s Quilt Works, and wrapping up a few odd ends here and there,  Colourwerx blogging had to take a back seat to everything else  (and yes, – I realize I am a year between blog posts, but hey-who’s counting, right?)

Anyway, back to Houston….We had a single booth space just a few spots away from one of our favorite fabric companies, Free Spirit Fabrics.  It was a great spot and so much fun to be just “down the block” from some of our favorite people like Kaffe Fassett, Tula Pink and Heather Bailey.

As usual, Carl did a great job designing the booth.  Like our previous booth at Houston (which I blogged about in “Colourwerx & Quilt Market”), Carl redesigned the 3-tiered truss system from a lightweight, metal EMT (electrical) conduit piping so that we could hang our quilts on drapery rings staggered apart for optimum viewing.  The big advantage we had this year was driving to Houston, which meant we could take the entirety of the booth – piping, rugs, decor, displays and tables all in the car and all ready for set up in a day without having to leave the convention center.  It was great! and a big relief to know that we had everything we needed packed and ready to go when we got there.  The car was a bit cramped though and due to the 10 foot pipe extending from the front window shield to the back, I was resigned to the back seat for the ride-check out the photo to the right for my view for 16 hours there and back again!  It was spacious but still in the back.

Carl also designed this nifty display table which was the talk of market…the table was a glass topped-metal bookcase purchased from Ikea -he added a cheap  metal curtain rod with metal tie backs (bought at Walmart) and created a hanging rod on the front,  perfect for displaying a quilt – what a genius!. Then our friend Nancy at Shutterbug Graphix installed the Colourwerx vinyl letters on the glass top which Carl highlighted with a row of bright LED lights…it was all very theatrical looking and splendid. 

We debuted two new designs – “Mod Dog” and “Splendor” – both patterns are now available for purchase at your local quilt shops or on our website.  “Mod Dog” was a huge success and was clearly the favorite of of all of our designs by the shop owners.   We’ll also be blogging about these new designs and others soon – so stay tuned!

An additional thrill was to have one have one of our commissioned designs featured in the Free Spirit Fabrics Quilt Gallery.  This was such an honor as this was a special exhibit set up by Free Spirit Fabrics to showcase new fabric collections with accompanying quilts (which will be offered as free patterns when the fabric collection is released.)
We were asked to design and make a quilt for Nel Whatmore’s new collection “Rosealea.  “Rosealea” is a beautiful fabric collection chocked full of vintage cottage roses reminiscent of English countrysides. To the left is our design titled “Roundabout”.   Carl designed this in the software program called, Electric Quilt 7 – I paper pieced it and Teresa from Quilting is my Bliss, did a magnificent job free motion machine quilting it!  If you’d like a copy of the pattern you can download it for free on the Coats Crafts website.

There were a dozen or so other quilts featured in the Free Spirit Gallery too – some of our other favorite designs  were Laura Heine’s The Dress, Tula Pink’s Designer Essential Solid,  Kaffe Fassett’s Artisan and Anna Marie Horner’s Loominous.

 

 

 

 

 

And of course while we were away our trusty office manager kept a keen eye on all the activities at home.   All in all, quilt market is always so much fun and we are now looking ahead to Spring Market in St. Louie!

Until your next colour fix~
Linda & Carl

 

 

 

 

 

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Our shop, Linderella’s Will be Closing….

Have you heard the saying “Some of the best things in life happen when you least expect them…?” Well, something has happened and it’s of course, when we least expected it….The Linderella Brick & Mortar shop will be closing…..

As many of you know – this past year we’ve had lots of pots percolating – operating two full time businesses – Linderella’s Quilt Works, the shop & Colourwerx, the design business. We knew at some point we would have to make a choice between the two – well, we’re excited to announce that one “colourful” pot – Colourwerx Designs – has recently boiled over with loads of exciting opportunities that we intend to pursue. Unfortunately that means just one thing…the Linderella brick & mortar store will need to close.

We are “Movin’ On Up” to something new and we hope you’ll join us to say goodbye to Linderella’s Quilt Works in grand “sale-abratory” fashion!!  In order to prepare for this – the shop will be closed Mon-Wed., November 7th-9th! But…

Starting Thursday, November 10th at 10am-
Our “Movin’ On Up” sale-a-bration to celebrate over 8 years in business will begin, and all Linderella assets will be liquidated! This will be fast, folks – so don’t delay!  You snooze, you lose!

*  Storewide – All Merchandise Discounted at 25% to 35%!!
(Online shoppers – stay tuned! What doesn’t sell in the shop will be made available online at substantial discounts in a few very short weeks – Yippee!)

* Beautiful designer quilting cottons discounted –
No moldy-oldies here. It is definitely worth the drive!

* All books, patterns & kits on sale – current titles!

* All notions substantially reduced! Blades, cutting mats, needles & thread – oh my!

* Fixtures, furniture & all equipment for sale –
sewing machines, sewing tables, irons, classroom tools & notions, custom fabric shelves, racks, decor, displays –
all first come, first serve basis!
**Note: Shop owners also welcome – by appointment – please call!
**All fixtures, furniture & equipment must be paid for in full at the time of purchase and picked up from the shop at your expense and muscle prior to the closing date – Failure to do so, will result in you forfeiting your monies and that item and it will be
sold to the next person!

So grab your friends and come on down to our Linderella”Sale-A-Bration” to close out our shop!
Starting Thursday, November 10th at 10am!

Just a little note from Linda & Carl ~
We appreciate each and every one of you, and will always cherish the memories we made with you these last 8 years. Please know that while we are sad to be closing our brick and mortar shop, we are also equally excited about our next adventures with Colourwerx and hope that you will continue to be part of our colourful quilting journey!

Thank you as always for your continued support! It has been our pleasure to serve you, and we hope to see you in the shop for our Sale-A-Bration on or after November 10th  – Happy & bright quilting always!

New Patterns for the New Year!

Happy New Year and wishing you all a joyous and happy start to 2016!!

But without further delay, we have a special new year announcement for you all….

We are so thrilled to announce that our new Colourwerx patterns are now available.  That’s right – Cosmos, Dazzle (formerly the dragonfly quilt), Skyline, Spikey, Colourstruck and Feelin’ Groovy are all available and you can purchase them at our new  Colourwerx Shop located here – http://colourwerx-shop.myshopify.com

We’re delighted to offer them to you in printed form or as a PDF digital download.

And to sweeten the deal and to thank you for your patience, we’re offering a New Year’s Special…save 20% off all orders just using the code NEWYEAR20 at checkout. This special will be for limited time and expires on January 15, 2016.   All orders for printed patterns will ship out no later than Friday, January 8th (PDF’s will be available as a digital download file immediately after placing your order).

And with the New Year means new things coming your way – over the next few months, watch our blog for free tutorials, more colour features and free patterns ….we’ll also be starting up Colourwerx Newsletter – We hope you’ll sign up to catch up on the latest news about us, Colourwerx and what colour adventures we’re up to. …just click here to sign up!….http://colourwerx-shop.myshopify.com/pages/newsletter

Happy New Year and thank you all so much again for your continued support!

Until your next colour fix~

Linda & Carl

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Colourwerx & Quilt Market

We’re back from our first journey as Colourwerx to the Houston Quilt Market and we had a blast….

Quilt Market is the bi-annual trade show where the latest and greatest the industry has to offer is on display and available to be ordered by shop owners and other quilting businesses…most of what we saw at this quilt market will be arriving in your shops 3-6 months from now.  Attending as a shop owner is always overwhelming – there are literally hundreds and hundreds of notion vendors, fabric companies and pattern designers on display, and each one offering something totally unique for your shop.  It is very hard not to just order absolutely everything! 🙂

But this time around, we were also back exhibiting as a pattern vendor….I had forgotten how tiring and also exhilarating having a booth can be…

Carl designed the booth and lucky for us, his past experience as a television production designer and roadie experience really paid off…

We had a nice corner booth space right next door to Moda Fabrics…it was a great spot!  Instead of hanging colourful drapes for our backdrop to the quilts, Carl designed and had printed a series of vinyl banners that showcased our logo and fabric designs – this way the logo and artwork provided some interest in the background (behind the quilts) but better than that, the banners rolled up neatly in our luggage for travel and they did not need fire proofing like most drapes do (a messy task indeed).

Also another added benefit, in lieu of the customary pipe & drape system used to hang drapes or quilts, Carl designed a 3-tiered truss system out of ordinary lightweight, metal EMT (electrical) conduit piping that we purchased on our arrival in Houston from the local Home Depot….This way we had a place for our vinyl banners to hang but also could uniquely layer and change the height of the quilts that were on display….pretty ingenious and pretty cost-effective considering the rental of the pipe and drape from the convention center would have been over $200 and Carl purchased his system from the Home Depot for about $80.00 – it was easily adaptable to whatever we needed.

The first day of set up was spent building Carl’s truss system and hanging the banners.

That night we had a hot date at Wal-Mart (yes, that’s right – Wal-Mart..) to pick up our stools and bar table. It is amazing what you can find at Wal-Mart Online…we had ordered the bar stools and table 2 weeks prior to market and asked them to be shipped to the local Houston Wal-Mart…so easy to do and no hassle or expense of shipping them to the convention center to potentially get lost or misplaced….we went to the special order desk picked up our delivery, and it was back to the hotel to settle in for a night of building bar stools and the table…

The second day of set up, we hung the quilts, placed our stools and chairs and finished off the booth with that fabulous rug from Ikea.  Once complete we “locked” up the booth with our trusty white tulle ‘security barrier’ – amazingly tulle or some garland-like barrier across your booth signals to the rest of the convention center world that you are now closed for the evening…not really secure but hey –  it works….

The next day, quilt market was officially open – Carl sported his paisley!….and it was great fun to be back exhibiting…we had a blast making new contacts but also seeing old friends from long ago..

But after 2 days of set up and three days of meeting and mixing, it was quickly over and packed away in less than 3 hours….always amazing to me how fast this goes!  So now we turn our energies towards our next deadline of November 20th when our patterns for the new designs will be released- very exciting!  And we look forward to the next Quilt Market, which will be in May in Salt Lake City!

All in all, quilt market was a blast, our new designs were a success and we had so much fun! We thank you all who stopped by the booth and welcome those of you who now follow us along on this amazing journey….

Until your next colour fix~
Linda & Carl

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Back to the Future….

It’s hard to believe that in a few short months we will be headed back where it all began some 14 years ago….back to the Houston Quilt Market trade show…..but this time under our new design company….Colourwerx.

We booked our very first trade booth at the Kansas City Quilt Market in the Spring of 2001….we debuted with just six Linderella patterns…it was a monumental task for two individuals who knew nothing about the industry and who were really going because it “sounded like a fun thing to do” (oh my!)   At that time, we were both working full time at our “TV jobs” in Hollywood – we designed in the mornings and made quilt samples in the evenings…we drew the illustrations by hand and scanned them into Adobe Illustrator without having a clue about how to use the program – we must have set up and auditioned and re-auditioned the booth in our backyard about 20 gazillion times – we direct mailed to quilt shops across the country inviting them to see out booth and enclosed free patterns for them to test (can you imagine?) Instagram and Facebook would have been great assets but at that time, they weren’t even invented! – in short, we jumped in head first and never looked back.  Our patterns were a hit and we were on our way!

Now we’re headed back to where it all began – to Quilt Market and the funny thing is, it is under very similar circumstances… our full time job is running our quilt shop (Linderella’s)  but at the end of each day, our attention turns to Colourwerx and the patterns and design process….we collaborate each evening….free moments are usually spent designing, sketching or feverishly sewing up a new quilt sample for our booth….Sunday is no longer a day of rest  but rather a day to squeeze in all that Colourwerx needs doing….we are essentially headed back to our future, and it feels great!  Colourful things are coming – see you in Houston!

Until your next colour fix~Linda & Carl

Back to the Drawing Board…

Well, we are back at the drawing boards…After an eight year absence from design, the creative juices are flowing and Carl and I are back to designing…..it feels great!

Our goal was always to get back to it someday, but we never intended our absence from designing to be this long.  In our defense though, these last eight years we have been a bit busy – we have moved house twice and opened and still operate full time our quilt shop in Southern Pines, NC, called Linderella’s Quilt Works.  Running the shop by itself is a “48 hour/7 day” a week job times two…but we’re not complaining though…our customers are super and best of all, we love our jobs – what could be better than that!   But now that the quilt shop is established and in a routine, we are ready to get back to designing fabrics and quilt patterns….

The exciting news is that we decided to form a new company and call it Colourwerx…….. Why a new company?  Well, we could have stayed with the name Linderella’s and why not?  Linderella’s is well known, there is an established quilt shop and website to accompany it and a portfolio of dozens and dozens of popular quilt designs and illustrations that have been published under that name….but Linderella’s is also known for playful, whimsical and character driven designs and graphics…although those fun designs will never go away – and some may even pop up in new colourways under the Colourwerx name – we felt that going forward we needed a new vehicle and a new name that embodied our goal of creating bold surface design that was more stylized, graphic, and contemporary….a fresh start….hence the name Colourwerx – mixing our love of colour with the industrious nature of our spirit for design….. Now to get back to the drawing boards where the creative mojo, we’re happy to report, is overflowing! Until your next colour fix ~ Linda & Carl

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