Ever wonder what it’s like to go to the International Quilt Market, set up a booth and sell your wares??? Here’s a little peek into our world. This is the Lizzie B team setting up for Spring Market in Portland Oregon. It’s quite a process! We always like to pick a theme. If you’ve seen our pictures from last fall, you’ll notice the bright colors and swingin’ 60’s themed lava lounge we had in our booth. This time around…..our imaginations journeyed to the South of France for inspiration….. 

Designer Mom here, just sneaking in while I know the partners are scrambling to finish getting ready for Spring Market.  

I took the opportunity to find out some “stuff” you might not know about the Lizzie B team.  Check out the About page and get a peek at things you might not be aware of.

Well it is April 30th and Lizzie B has exactly 13 days left before flying off to market in Portland from all corners of the US of A. YIKES!!! Yes, we are feeling the panic kick in. We have a big ‘ole list of things to do before we can actually pack our bags, and might I say, we ain’t there yet! I’ll start feeling a bit better when we can cross more and more off the darn list. But Beth and I have ways to deal with stress. I’m sharing some of those in the photos below! These were taken during our Market Blitz the last week of March. Earlier that month we had decided to revamp our ENTIRE theme for Spring Market. STRESS!

Giant Choco-Chip Cookie Sundae! Okay, we’ll admit it. We resort to sugar. But hey, this was DINNER so as far as caloric intake goes, it’s not so bad, right? Riiigghhhht!

Here’s Beth as we await our last dose of sugar for the week. We’re sitting in one of our favorite places to brainstorm. They have crayons and BIG paper on the table! (Not to mention FABULOUS desserts!)

Tira me what??? We don’t do well with sugar temptations. I mean, we see that tray of desserts floating toward the table and just KNOW we gotta have something! Good thing we live a zillion states apart or we’d both weigh 500lbs….

This baby helped us jump start our “To Do” list for market! We savored every bite as we wrote down all the things we still needed to do. And that was just the list that needed to get done before the patterns went to print! Shoot, we got another big list going now, pass the tiramasu please!

Whew! A week of very little sleep, loads of sugar and gallons of Diet Coke can sure take a toll. Just look at the circles under those eyes!

Stress+Liz+Beth=PEDICURE! Hey, there should ALWAYS be time for a pedicure in times of manic stress. Gotta have time to read People Mag., get caught up on the gossip and fall asleep in the massage chair. Ahhhhh! Bliss. We managed to find one of the few spots of green grass in Tucson for this picture! Can you guess whose toes belong to who?

Shortly after this picture was taken I boarded a plane back to Philly. Only to be delayed in Dallas getting me home at 3am. Talk about exhaustion! Thank goodness I had an hour in that massage chair before I left.

And lastly, this is what vegetation looks like in MY neck of the woods. We’re surrounded by blossoms and flowers everywhere. It’s soooo gorgeous! This is the part of Spring I can truly enjoy as allergies don’t usually hit me yet. I’m sure they will when I return from market and all the Honeysuckle is in bloom sending its sweet scent through the air and wreaking havoc with my allergies.

As for the rest of Market Blitz week, I’m putting together a podcast of the videos we took of us working that week in what we call the West Coast Atelier. It’s on the LIST of things to do, but since Beth just overnighted me 8lbs of FABRIC to make samples of our new bag for Sample Spree, I won’t be seeing much but my Juki for the next coupla days! Thank goodness my fabuloso sister Christine is coming over on Friday for a sew fest!

By the way, Christine is the WIZARD who designed our website! Our NEW one which is being launched TOMORROW! Woohoo! She speaks all sorts of weird computer languages and says things like “rastorize” and “vector” and “it’s in script” which doesn’t actually mean something’s been written in cursive handwriting. Go figure. She’s a total techie (you should see the weird magazines she reads!) but hey, she’s a quilter and an awesome photographer! She’s also willing to speak so I can understand her as well. Good thing. And guess what? Christine is joining the Lizzie B team at market this spring! So if you’re in need of an awesome website and don’t speaka the techie language, we’re bringing our master designer with us.

Off to work on that list. We’ll keep you posted!

Well, Lizzie B is now on the blog-scene! Way cool! We have been trying to get this up and running for a bit, now here we are. I must say (and this is Beth, from the West Coast Office, by the way) I am a bit intimidated by all the wonderful blogs out there. There are several other quilty-blogs that I follow, and they are just SO inspiring and creative and fabulous. And the talent! The photos are beautiful, the scenes idyllic. So it is a tad scary to jump in there with the rest of ‘em.

I do want to post some pics, but hey— please realize that we use photo-man, Gregory Case, to take our quilt photos for a reason. A GOOD reason. I am not too handy with a camera. (And I should be…. given that is in my genetic code somewhere, with a photographer-dad and a grandfather who was in the photography business professionally). So, while other blogs always seem to have a fabulous photo of some wonderful blossoms outside their back door, here is what I have to offer…… (and it really IS outside my back door!)

Now, please understand that I live in Tucson, so here is what the same cactus looks like just 2 days later…..

So, there won’t be many wonderful blooming photos from THIS side of the Lizzie B team.

I also love to read about the beloved pets that other designers have…. usually a cute, cuddly, curled-up creature that is a great studio-mate. Well, MY reality is a bit different……. OH, I’ve got the cute, cuddly studio-mate alright…. here she is a few months ago when Daisy was just a pup….

See what I mean by CUTE? She is a goldendoodle— half golden-retriever, half standard (BIG!) poodle— oh, wait! Also half mischief-maker and half thief. Have to tell you though— she is my girl. LOVES fabric, just like I do. And wool! She loves wool! Loves to rearrange my stacks of fabric, reorganize my wool, and THREAD! She loves thread! Just give her a spool of thread (or no… she will find it on her own!) and she can have that thread devoured in a couple of minutes flat. And here at Lizzie B- WCO, we do our part to be green and save energy. No need for an electric paper-shredder, no sir-ree! Any sensitive documents (or important ones to save for that matter) are shredded in no time, thanks to Daisy. So, just when I thought I was done with the toddler-years, here I am again.

Just getting a drink of water involves playing splash ball and toweling-off before heading back up to the studio. Sometimes I think I need a puppy-nanny!

The other thing that I absolutely LOVE about other quilty-blogs is the wonderful pics from the studio! Stacks of lovely fabric, just waiting for that new quilt to jump off the graph paper, and all sorts of wonderful inspiring things to get the creative juices flowing. Well, here at the WCO, just 2 weeks before Spring Market, THIS is what you will find…..

Boxes, boxes everywhere! I am picking up the LAST of the haul from our printer today. He has been working like mad to get all the Lizzie B new patterns ready for us. We don’t do anything small here, Liz & I, so it helps to also have a warehouse space to hold it all. The busy bees will be frantically packaging patterns in the next couple of weeks so we can get our new patterns to our distributors, and have them ready for quilt shops to see at Market! It’s fun, really. It is. Fun.

The upstairs studio is a MESS! I am NOT taking pics up there! We are working on samples of our new “Charm Candy” bag to sell at Sample Spree in Portland.  It’s SO cute…. I think the quilt shops and quilters out there will love it.  Its fast, and easy…. (well, unless you are making DOZENS of them at a time, that is!)   Well, OK, maybe I will take some pics. Tomorrow. I have GOT to get up there and get some fabric ready to send to Liz (so the East Coast Office can keep on workin’!). We have a lot to organize, a booth to pull together, and a whole to-do list to tackle.

Our wonderful printer, Brian, just called…. I have to go pick up more boxes! Yay!!

Hey there Lizzie B fans….we are so excited for everyone to see our NEW and IMPROVED website! So much is going on with our little pattern company that we want to keep you all well informed. We’re adding some great features to our site, like our new blog so we can stay connected…AND check out our new podcast!

Beth and I had a crazy “blitz before market” week in March where we created two of our new quilts to debut at Spring Market in Portland and…drum roll please…..the next Lizzie B handbag! I’m working on a podcast detailing that week of very little sleep and LOTS of cre8ivity. I’ll let you know when it’s launched. Meanwhile, check out the fabulous write up Lizzie B got on the Quilter’s Buzz (www.quiltersbuzz.com)! Our good pal Gina Halladay gave us some rave reviews. We had the privilege of sharing our row with Gina and the Threaded Pear gals last fall in Houston and we’re looking forward to seeing all our friends at market in just a few short weeks!

We’re finally breathing a SMALL sigh of relief as all the files for the new patterns have been sent to the printer. Phew! Way to go Beth! Her computer was fairly smoking with the amount of work she had to do to get those patterns written and print ready. But we don’t have much time to relax because we’ve got a whole booth to design! Actually, it’s all down on paper and is going to be so darn cute if we can pull it off. If Gina liked our booth last fall, wait ’till she sees this one!

So Quilty Bloggers…bookmark our blog and keep checking in. We’ll have lots more to share in the future!