The Beadmat Winter Collection is Here!

NEW ADDITION!
SOLD OUT!
Far Out Floral!

Far Out and Flash Back -
Such "trippy" print!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my judipatuti beadmats, they are a wonderful addition to your studio or a great gift for your beading friends!

The mats are made in the USA - San Diego to be precise and designed by bead artists for bead artists. The interior features a colorful box for storing your tools a double pocket for other tool necessities and a pocket designed to hold 3 bead tubes. At the top of your beadmat is a ribbon for tying on your "fireline" and the interior surface is an ivory plush fabric that keeps your beads from "running away"!

Your bead mat will have one of these juicy colored tool boxes!

The beadmat is a roll up (like a jelly roll - sorry...my sweet tooth is showing) ready to be dropped in your tote for traveling, or stash on a shelf in your studio!

Here's the Winter Collection!

Carnival Blooms - this time is paired with raspberry Sun Spots!
Great for creating color on a gray winter day!
SOLD OUT!

Spirit Panache is teamed with a great abstract line and inside
hides chocolate (fabric print) circles!
SOLD OUT!


How can you resist this great print? Fandango is paired with a
chocolate and vanilla
Organic Cotton.
SOLD OUT!

Blues and greens are so "in" right now and
Caitlin Blooms
gets it right!
SOLD OUT!


The popular Divine Damask is back!
This time I couldn't resist Lolli Dots
as it's partner!
SOLD OUT!



And for the Wild and Crazy in all of us....
my favorite (am I allowed to say that?)
Crazy Dots and Wild Flowers
SOLD OUT!

I use PayPal for your orders... the beadmats are $38.00 plus shipping. Just contact me through my email (upper right corner of my blog).

Don't forget to tell me which one you want...the quantities are limited and gift giving is right around the corner!

judipatuti

Christmas at the Store

Mandolin Orchestra

Our neighborhood stores and restaurants have a "Walk About" 4 times a year and last night was the Holiday one! Everyone turns out to sample tasty treats handed out by the restaurants and hear live bands at our internet cafe, begin their Christmas Shopping and sing carols to the Mandolin Orchestra hosted by The Grove, where I have judipatuti fabrics.

This year the weather was perfect...a sweater and warm scarf was all that was needed and the whole neighborhood came out! A trolley took walkers to different parts of the neighborhood and Santa, of course shouted Ho Ho Ho and visited every store and restaurant!



The Grove sparkled with Christmas glam from the little white lights, the Christmas Tree, the mistletoe crystal ornaments, Christmas stockings, wonderful sounds of Mandolins and lots and lots of delightful little sparkly's to give as stocking stuffers!

These trees are wrapped with silk yarn and topped with wool roving or a jeweled pine cone. A perfect Christmas Dinner centerpiece!

The Grove store owners Anne and Susan with the
Celebrity of the Night
Santa!

Watch my blog for the next shipment of Beadmats -
a perfect Christmas Gift idea for that Bead Artist in your group!

Coming Soon!

Halloween!

This holiday brings out the creative in those of us who still like to "dress up"! I'm always amazed at how creative we can be when we want to have fun and sometimes throw caution to the wind.

One of my Grove students, Lee, decided after seeing the Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland movie that Alice's dresses were a must have! And as soon as the opportunity presented itself...she got creatively inspired by the colors and grandeur and decided this would be her Halloween outfit!

After lots of fabric shopping for just the right colors, prints, tulle, hearts and bustier, she started cutting. On a "Drop in Sew" day at The Grove, I had fun helping her puzzle out the pattern and how to overlay and ruffle the fabric to get the right "look".


Here's a shot of it almost done on the sewing table and then Lee, complete with Alice curls, modeling the finished dress! Job well done Lee, it looks amazing on you!


As many of you know, when I'm not creating, I'm President of Fashion Careers College, and Halloween brings out the "creative spirit" in all our administrative staff! This year the looks were all very fun! We had a kitty, King, pixie, inmate, Wilma, and a witch to name a few. I had to attend a meeting off campus that day, so I threw on a quick outfit (when I returned)- Little Red Riding Hood, the 2nd from the right. The easiest outfit belonged to our CEO, who dressed in regular clothes with a sign "Nudist on Strike"!


Hope you Halloween was fun and you saw
lots of little "creatives" at your
door!

4 Days in the Candy Store!

Well, it was a whirlwind 4 days in Houston! Weather was identical to San Diego...and the theater district surrounding my hotel offered up a delightful fusion of restaurants! Loved it! And even better was the time spent walking up and down and crisscrossing (many, many times) the floor of the convention center wanting to buy every fabric and pattern in sight!

The booths were amazing...many vendors try to out do each other for the best booth and here's a few photos of some of the best!

Michael Miller Runway!

Michael Miller Fabrics staged a 50's Prom night complete with runway, big white vinyl-tufted "diner" booths for us to sit at and order. But the most fun...the reps all wore 50's vintage inspired clothes or the "real" thing, complete with 50's style "hairdos" and Princess/Prom tiaras.

While their booth took up at least 1000 square feet (almost as big as my house), many designers had small booths to showcase their new collections.




Here's Amy Butler's booth - loved the way the fabrics were displayed. Notice in the background, behind the poof pillows is her raincoat pattern in laminated cotton. I'm currently sewing it up as a sample for The Grove. It's adorable and comes in adult and children's sizes! Amy won a prize for best small booth! It's not hard to see why!
\
Tina Givens also won a Best Booth prize! Here's some photos and one with Tina and I. She's a delight and extremely talented - many of her new fabrics and her new book "Tina Sews!" will soon be joining my judipatuti line at The Grove.


Now begins the wait.... expect some fabrics to arrive in the next few weeks and others over the next few months. It's like seeing all the wrapped packages under the Christmas Tree and having to delay gratification for weeks! I said it then and I"ll say it now...

No Fair!

Buying Frenzy!

I'm off to Market! Leaving tomorrow to buy fabrics for "Fabrics at The Grove" and for my judipatuti Beadmat production. Once a year I travel to Houston for the largest tradeshow of fabric vendors in one place, at one time that specialize in cottons.

I've been to the textile shows in Los Angeles for apparel manufacturers and they're great shows but don't compare to the Houston Quilt Market for highlighting 100% cotton fabrics!

Last year I met Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner - both very personable, warm and amazingly talented textile designers. I expect to meet more emerging talent this year and buy their fabrics. I have also met some pretty talented pattern designers and will keep my eye out for new pattern lines to sew!

Yes, I'll take lots of pictures to blog about what's coming!

I also plan on scoping out unusual and colorful fabric combination's for my next Beadmat production. Will be setting the production schedule once I settle on the fabrics and their ship dates!

While I planned on wearing Winter clothes - you know - wools that I never get to wear in San Diego, I just found out they're having 80-85 degree weather! Guess I'll be leaving my warmies in the closet and my coat and umbrella hanging on their hooks!

The Return of the Beadmat!

My next shipment of Beadmats are here...I know...this makes two posts in one day - but just couldn't resist showing them off!

Tool boxes come with each one, in an array of colors from Juicy Lime to Sweet Summer Strawberry!


Divine Damask is for the sophisticated beader that loves patterns in palettes of greys and blacks.

SOLD OUT!

Big Plain Jane I just love for its simplicity and retro 60's feeling!

SOLD OUT

Freebird is a play on "tweeting", flowers and rich color combos!
SOLD OUT!

While Vera's Garden walks us through multiple shades of green on a rich chocolate background!

Love the name of this one....Exuberant! Doesn't that start the creative brain cells snapping?
SOLD OUT!

And then there's Carnival Blooms! Can you smell the popcorn and
taste the luscious pink cotton candy!

SOLD OUT

Trumpet Flowers is a favorite...so-o-o-o grand!

SOLD OUT!

And last...Oh so Sweet Sandalwood!

Each flap hides pockets for seed bead tubes, and other all the things you need to create your
next,and of course favorite, adornment! The short ribbons let you tie on your Fireline and the entire beadmat wraps with the long ribbons and is ready for traveling or moving from the studio to the living room -wherever your creative mood strikes!

Let me know which one you want...each style comes in different ribbon, piping and tool box combination's!

Too see them in use, go to Marcia DeCoster's Blog!

Delicates!

You guessed it....its those lacey, feminine items of lingerie we buy from Victoria Secrets, Nordies or Intimacy that we usually spend more than we want to....that's what I'm writing about today. Yes, they usually have a price tag that we definitely remove before our better half sees them....but after all aren't we worth it?

Now you're probably wondering why my "judipatuti fabrics" blog is talking about lingerie, especially when I specialize in contemporary cotton prints. Well, I found this darling little pattern for a fun hamper, that's just the perfect size for our delicates, a place they deserve! And I couldn't resist.

Not only would it be great hamper for us, but those of you with new little ones, it would be a great addition for the nursery. And those of you starting your college "dorm" experience...what a fab colorful addition to your side of the room!



The pattern is from Vanilla House and I chose 4 colorful (of course) fabrics to make each piece. The bottom fabric is from Moda: "Spirit Panache", the next tier up is an Amy Butler fabric: "Star Paisley". The next one up is a great fabric call "Boutique Flower Pin" by Moda (looks more like Pomegranates to me)! And the last fabric is also from Moda, part of the Wonderland Collection called "Tweedle Dee".




To combine fabrics easily.... first look for similar color palettes and be mindful of the print sizes. In my selection I put the largest print on the bottom to balance the large size of the bottom tier and put the smallest print on the top layer. I've found this to work well. Once you get more "daring" you can easily mix color palettes by remembering to pick up at least one color in the print and repeat it.

Have fun! It's only fabric!

The flower was also super easy! I used batting to back the fabric. Instead of cutting out the fabric I drew the pattern (on the right side of the fabric), put the batting behind it and satin stitched on my drawn line. Last I cut out the flower. It's really fool proof this way! PS: the satin stitch is just the zig zag stitch adjusted so the stitches are all snuggled next to each other.

Don't you love the buttons? The small button is a new one I just brought into The Grove. Thought it would jazz the hamper up a bit when sewed on top of the colorful abstract button!

I'll be teaching this class at The Grove on Sat, Oct 23rd! If you're in the area...be sure and pre-register, as seating is limited! If you're not in the area...pick up the pattern, have fun shopping colorful fabrics and rev up the sewing machine!

Back to the Gym!

A few weeks ago Bridget and Jenny decided to make a back-pack in one of my classes at The Grove. Although the pattern was called "Gym Junk" from Vanilla House, they decided to use their packs for lots of other things and create something that was uniquely theirs!

The pattern was supper easy, including the grommet setting technique used to run the shoulder cords through. Jenny chose a great fabric combination from Robert Kaufman called Mingle Espresso and Mingle Cocoa (don't you just love these names?). Very contemporary styling!

While Bridget used one of my newest fabrics celebrating the "Day of the Dead" (very timely), with fabric from Alexander Henry called Calaveras and a pocket of pretty pink leaves from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane collection called Lindy Leaf.

Congrats!
on a job well done
in
barely a blink of the eye!

Too Hot to Handle!

August is almost over, but BBQ season is still in full swing! So in preparation for next weekend's Labor Day celebration I decided to make some "Pot Pinchers" to use for the pork 'n beans pot! What's hot dogs without the beans? Right?


Of course, I figured, I'd be the one using them since I made them out of floral fabric. But much to my surprise, my DH said, that while he totally wouldn't use the "rick rack" one, he loved the grey/black/citron printed fabric! AND would even use it!

Thus my latest idea...they are so easy to make that I'm offering a class to make them in Sept. It only takes a couple of hours to knock out one and an afternoon for a pair! While these particular pinchers don't go together...still have the other halves to make....you could mix and match using different patterns on different parts of the pincher! And the combination of fabrics and trims is endless!

If you can't make it to The Grove for the class, pick up the pattern by "Vanilla House" and get some fun fabrics and get ready for that weekend BBQ!

PS...not too early to think about Holiday gifts!

Baby's on her way!

My sewing studio has been a whirlwind on activity in the last month! My daughter is about 3 weeks away from delivering her 2nd daughter and we've been designing and decorating the nursery for my new granddaughter.

Trysta, my daughter, decided to have birds as the theme so we designed a tree that she put on one of the nursery's walls and then designed birds and leaves to attach to the tree. The tree is a textural wall paper and the birds and leaves are made of 2 pieces of fabric with padding in the middle to give the birds and leaves a little weight.

The beginnings of the Tree!

On the Wall!

To go with that we designed a birdie crib blanket backed with flannel and edged with all the fabrics that we used on the tree. The fabrics are from the "Arcadia" collection by Sanae while the back of the blanket uses "Chirp" designed by Katie Henniger for Robert Kaufman Fabrics.



and I mustn't forget "Monster Iris"
who now has a place in the
Nursery!

...guarding the crib!

What a lucky baby!