Rob Appell At Portland Market: Fabric Designer Audrey Wright

Spring Market Portland

Spring Market in Portland is always a great time. I have an added bonus, my sister lives in the area and I get to spend time with her. She enjoys helping in the booth and seeing all our new projects.
She is not a quilter (yet) but loves fabrics and is drawn to crazy quilting. I am encouraging her to give it a try. This pic is in the booth and behind us is one of the patterns I designed using my newest fabric line introduced at market called "Briarcliff". It is more formal than Haversack but uses those rich jewel tones that I love.

 

I was excited to meet our fabric distributor's from Australia and New Zealand along with our friends in Canada and Europe who have been carrying my lines from RJR. The fabric will ship to the stores in August and I can't wait for you to see it. Here are two more patterns that feature Briarcliff.

 

This is called Leland Park-check out the amazing quilting-Thanks to my talented quilter and friend Kim Hull!

This one was displayed in the RJR Fabric booth.

The pattern is called Cambridge and it has to be my favorite from this group-check out the quilting on this one also!

 

 



What Next?

After getting home from the shows and working on all the stuff we have going on for Spring Market in Portland, we celebrated Easter with the kids and grandkids. I got home from the studio on Monday night and was cooking dinner when I heard a strange sound coming from the living room. I had just told my husband that dinner would be ready in 2 minutes. I heard it again and went to see what he was doing and got the shock of my life! He was having a seizure and I called 911. Needless to say it has been a whirlwind couple of days. After the ambulance ride and too many tests to count, two days in ICU (I ended up sleeping in a very hard chair) my loving husband is now home and doing better.
We have been married 36 years and I never want to see him go through that again! He is the healthiest person I know, he eats perfectly and exercises. The message I want to share is for us all to slow down and remember to not miss a chance to tell someone that you love them. We are making some big changes and will now have a new normal at our house, but being able to hug my husband everyday for many years to come is worth it!

We made it home!

We have 4 new patterns-they are Block of the Months that we have repackaged to sell as one pattern instead of monthly. We had requests from so many of you that wanted them, but did not want to do them as a BOM.
We listened!

They are:
Celebrate Santa
The Snowman Club
The Angel Collection
Aunt Cora's Sampler

We met so many new friends at both shows and will
be coming back next year. The weather cooperated and we even got in a couple of visits with family along the way in Alabama and Tennessee. It is great to be home after 2 1/2 weeks of traveling. We are working on many new samples for Paducah and waiting for our sample yardage from the new fabric line to arrive. It is called "Briarcliff" and I can't wait to start sewing with it. It will be introduced at Spring Market in Portland and in the stores this summer. I am also proud to tell you that my daughter Stephanie is now a designer with RJR Fabrics and will have her first line in Portland. It is a vintage travel line called "ADVENTURES". Her website is www.stephaniemariedesigns.com. She also has an adorable line of baby quilts that are very popular-the newest one's are Ollie Owl and Bella Bee. be sure to take a look.

Quilt Show

Just a quick note-if you are in the Tampa or Orlando area this weekend-we are vending at the Original Quilt and Sewing Expo show in Lakeland. This is our first year and the show is amazing. It runs Thursday-Saturday and yesterday we had a blast! I also wanted to send a shout out to Sandy- a Legacy Pattern fan we met at the Atlanta show last week. She even came ready to show me all the different versions of our Cheaper by the Dozen pattern she has made and there were ALOT. Keep up the good work Sandy!

Snow bound and Loving it!

This is the view from my front porch. We are potentially getting up to 11" of snow by tomorrow night. We haven't seen this for several winters. I loaded up the projects when I left the studio yesterday. What better way to spend a snowy weekend! I plan to do a little baking along the way. I only hope the electricity stays on, but I brought some stitchery along just in case.

I am busy working on new patterns for Spring Market in Portland and can't wait for you to see them. They all use the Briarcliff fabric line. I am also starting to design stitcheries that will use the fabric line. Watch for those along with holiday themed projects.

RJR Fabric's new office

Just returned from not so sunny California and a visit to the new office and warehouse for RJR Fabrics. It was great to see the team and tour the new place. My next fabric line "Briarcliff"  has been finalized now it is time to finish the patterns. I am really excited about the line. It can be used for home dec, holiday and rich beautiful quilts.

 

The first printing of HAVERSACK has already sold out and they are reprinting it. I know many of you are having fun working with it. These pictures are of the warehouse and all the boxes of fabric that are getting ready to ship.
They had to move over 400,000 yards of fabric.
They could lock me in here for a long time with a sewing machine and a few snacks.This is one huge fabric stash-every quilter's dream. Next time your husband comments on your stash-show him these pics, smile and say "It could be a lot worse!"


 If you are in the Phoenix area-we will be at the Arizona Fairgrounds at the Quilt, Craft and Sewing Expo Jan 31- Feb 2nd. Please stop by the booth and say Hello and see HAVERSACK and the newest patterns.