Monthly Archives: December 2019

The glass is half-full, and the other half was delicious!

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My niece and nephew-in-law are in New Zealand on their honeymoon, and that was the bumper sticker on their rented car. Lots of wisdom in bumper stickers.

When Emily shared with us the wit on her rented wheels, the tagline buzzed around my brain for several days. I loved the thought. It speaks of a positive outlook and gratitude for the past.

I decided to make it my 2020 slogan.

The glass is half-full,
Because 2020 is “the year of vision or clarity,” we started planning for 2020 in November! We have so many plans for new patterns, books, programs, and shows. Lora and I became Michael Miller Brand Ambassadors for 2020 too. They sent an AccuQuilt machine and dies, plus GOBS of colorful fabric. We’ll be starting a Block of the Month Quilt Along with Michael Miller in January. More info on that soon. I can’t wait for 2020 to get started. It will be a fun year for Material Girlfriends.

To look back at 2019, I pulled out a quilt from one of our patterns called Deep Reflections. Appropriate for thinking. I want to say 2019 was all roses and not a single struggle, not a frustrated tear, not even a sour note. But of course, that wouldn’t be truthful. There were many days of hard work and little to show for it. Without encouragement and support from our spouses, Lora and I probably would have faltered or sunk to the carpet more often than we did! But I choose to reflect on the past year with an attitude of gratitude – what a great year.

Lora and I grew as a team. We are so strong together. And funny. And creative. We love working with each other.

Material Girlfriends Patterns company grew. We broke all our records and surpassed our 2019 goals. I used up all my fingers and toes, trying to count all the new patterns we made this year. We’ll say over 20 so Lora doesn’t have to take her shoes off. We are THIS close to finishing our book, “Circle is the New Square.” Our first fabric line was manufactured (2nd line scheduled for July 2020). We had a booth at Houston’s Quilt Market and Festival for the first time. And we met more quilters in this one year than ever before. The quilters are what make this half delicious. Lora and I are so relational that if we didn’t have the interaction with all the wonderful quilters out there, creating quilts would be a bit flat. Quilters indeed make my life delicious.

Is it too early for a pre-dinner glass of wine? I’m ready to fill it to the top, wrap up in Deep Reflections and smile over the wonderful year I had with you all.

In 2020, may your glass always be half full, and the other half delicious.

Absewlutely,

Lisa Norton

 

Christmas Came Early!

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Last month, when Lora and I were in Houston at the National Quilt Market (see a couple of blogs back for the Houston show report), we were approached by a super cool quilter that told us we should apply to be Michael Miller Ambassadors. She loved our patterns and thought we’d be a great addition to their program. She even went back to the Michael Miller Fabrics booth to collect the program information for us! Talk about sweet. Quilt Market and Festival were busy, but when we got home, I immediately went online, and I applied for the program. So what was the program, you ask? This was what was on their webpage.

1.    Free fabric and goodies.

Go no further, right? You got me at number 1.

2.    Promotion of you and your brand by sharing your content on our social media channels.

Uh, yes, please. This would be awesome for our little pattern company.

3.    Opportunities for you to be featured on our blog and marketing channels.

Really? Can it get any better?

4.    Sharing our “I Like Mike” promo badge and other graphics and images for your posts.

Easy-Peasy. (Already up, did you notice?)

5.    Opportunities for your patterns/projects to be included in our catalogs and marketing materials.

OMG! It just doesn’t stop!

6.    Connections to magazine publications for your projects using Michael Miller fabric.

Someone help me off the floor.

So of course, I applied. But, considering the competition out there, I didn’t hold my breath. Imagine my surprise when I got an acceptance email. It was to just 11 email addresses welcoming us into the program! YES!!! I was so excited. I shared the info immediately with Lora, mom, and a few Material Girlfriends, but didn’t share with you all yet. I kinda had a little fear that they would email again and say, “Just kidding, we changed our mind.” But it is happening!! Pinch me. We feel so honored that they would trust us with this program!

My Material Girlfriend proofing and editing team is now in a group chat called MM Am-bad-ass-editors. LOL.
The Minky was cool. They had cute stuffy toys made of it too.
The Michael Miller Solids, called Cotton Couture, are to DYE for. They have 214 colors! Woodland Musicians cute display

My husband, Michael, wanted to know if I was getting my own embassy too. “No,” I told him, “just an embassy car, with Material Girlfriend logo flags flying over the side mirrors (aka my old blue Durango).” I get free parking in Discovery Bay.

Sew, we will keep you posted. We should be receiving a box full of goodies later this month. We’ll show you all the fun things we will be creating with Michale Miller fabrics in 2020!

Absewlutely,

Lisa Norton

Michael Miller Fabrics Brand Ambassador

I Have an Idea

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“I have an idea,” Lora said.

My first thought was with a smile, is it going to get us in trouble?

Lora and I are identical twins, but we’re not ‘two peas in a pod’; instead, we are like ‘two sides of the same coin’. I’m Heads and she’s Tails. I know how that sounds, lol. I don’t mean I’m the brains of the operation, nor does Lora follow me around as a tail. I’m a Starter, and she’s a Finisher. I do most of the design work. We both piece, and then Lora finishes the quilt with her amazingly artistic, free-motion quilting. When Lora says she has an idea, I take note. Even though she doesn’t design often, when she does, it’s brilliant.

“What’s your idea?” I asked. We had just finished Lisa’s Finishing School at In Between Stitches. It is a fun, Open-Sew-with-Help, type class, every first and third Saturday evenings. While unplugging irons, checking doors, and turning off lights, we were discussing my “Design To-Do” list. Or mostly, I was discussing, and Lora was politely not listening.

“I have an idea,” she repeated. “Just a sec.” and she runs off into the already darkened quilt shop. She finds a paper towel and pen, and after a moment of sketching, she hands me the paper. I laughed right out loud, “This is fantastic! Too funny and very cute. I’ll keep this and draw it up into a Christmas Bite Size pattern.” It didn’t take me long to re-draw her sketch and write up the instructions. At our first opportunity, we sewed it up.

Lora’s quick sketch

Re-drawn by Lisa

Drawn again on the computer with Illustrator by Lisa

Lora worked on the elf appliquéOops! I almost sewed it right.

Deciding on the hat embellishment. Pom-pom all the way.

If you’re not familiar with the naughty elf tradition, you’ll want to google “Elf on the Shelf” and “Elves Behaving Badly.” They are the inspiration for this funny block. The skinny elf causes mischief when you’re not looking or when you’re asleep. I almost sewed up the Variable Star the correct way. Lora caught me before sewing it correctly wrong! That little elf was up to no good! Lora quilted this 12″ Bite Size quilt on her long-arm. Yes. She. Did.

On December 15, 11am-4pm, Lora and I will be teaching a lecture/project class called “How a Quilter is Pieced” at In Between Stitches. The light-hearted lecture and small trunk show are about the different quilting personalities, and then we will sew up this cute naughty elf block. The pattern and kit (just like the example shown) are included in the class fee. Join us! Last time I checked there was about 6 seats left.

We had never offered a digital download pattern before so we thought this would be a good one to try. We are calling this naughty elf “Christmas Mischief Bite Size Pattern” for $4.95. Lora posted a few pictures online, and the digital pattern orders were astounding! Lora is brilliant. Don’t worry, if you prefer to have a hard copy we can get you one of those too.

Time to bust out the Christmas decorations and some nog. Christmas is just around the corner. I hope you enjoy a little Christmas Mischief too!

Absewlutely,

Lisa Norton