Despite the fact that I'm so ticked off because it's snowing again, my spirit is soaring. Our advance yardage of Heirloom in the voile substrates showed up on the doorstep this morning, and oh-my-goodness, I'm about to thrust myself into a sewing frenzy! This stuff is absolutely gorgeous, and will look so stunning in the two dress patterns we will be releasing next month at Quilt Market. My head is spinning right now with all kinds of ideas for these prints. I've never actually sewn anything with voile, and now that I have 12 3-yard cuts of this luscious fabric, I know it's not enough for everything I want to do. But, if I have my way, there WILL at least be a family photo shoot (yes Joel, just embrace the experience) with us all dressed in our Easter best, which for this year will include ties, dresses and skirts made out of the voile and cotton prints in the Sapphire colorway. Oooohhh, I can't wait!

I guess you'll find out whether my persuasive powers will be enough to successfully convince Joel and our four children to cooperate with my photo-shoot plans. If so, I'll be sure to post the results! Until then, I'm hoping we will soon see blossoms outside rather than snow.

I'm sure like most Americans, you're at least familiar with "March Madness", if not full out obsessed. But what about "Modern Madness", the fabric lover's version of bracket competition? If you haven't seen this yet, make a visit to Fat Quarterly to see what form of March Madness they have going on.

Joel and I are flattered that the voters have chosen Joel's Modern Meadow collection to advance to the "Sweet 16". We feel pretty good about our chances to move to the Elite 8. But then, we felt pretty good about BYU's chances to advance from the Sweet 16, only to watch their dream season come to a brutal end against Florida the other night. And to see Jimmer take such a beating...that was tough to watch.

We don't watch a lot of sports on T.V. at our house, which is probably a good thing. I was so tense and on edge during the game that I could hardly respond to anyone without a snappy tone, and in some cases, didn't even hear when someone was talking to me because I was so focused on the game. Joel's not sure he'll let me watch another sporting event on television in the future. I don't think he's seen that side of me in the 13+ years we've been married.

Anyway, last week I promised you a sneak peak of Joel's new Heirloom collection. After waiting impatiently for our advance yardage to arrive, I was pretty darn excited when two large boxes arrived Thursday afternoon filled with pretty piles of fabric.

So here you go; three vibrant colorways of a stunning collection of classic-modern prints in cotton, cotton sateen and, for our first time, voile and laminated substrates!

Please wish Joel and me (especially me, as I don't handle stress as well as he does) a productive 6 weeks of designing and sewing before we head to Market in Salt Lake.

As soon as our nine-year-old saw the Lilac color palette, she had her heart set on having these prints decorate what will soon be her very own bedroom. To be honest, once I had the fabric in hand, I wanted to redecorate the whole house with these prints because they make me so happy. For me, these prints scream "Spring", and I am so excited for winter to be behind us.

So, while the basement is currently under construction to give us two more bedrooms, a design studio, a family room and a kitchen, I set to work on creating some bedding for Brooke's new room, using The Pendant Quilt pattern (available for download on the side bar) that Joel designed.





I also created this throw pillow out of the Plum Damask print decorated with a swath of hand-made ribbon roses. Her room is going to be so sophisticated and pretty. I can't wait to see the end result because I have a few more projects planned to finish out the space.

However, home decorating projects will have to be put on hold for a little while as Joel and I are currently up to our eyeballs with preparations for Quilt Market. Check back soon for a sneak peak of Joel's new "Heirloom" collection, and some of the patterns we will debut in Salt Lake this May. You're going to swoon over these seriously gorgeous prints. I promise.

On Monday evening you can see Joel with the crafting divas, Kris and Kim of DIY Dish for the first episode of season 3.

It has taken me three weeks into the New Year, but I finally feel organized, or at least as organized as I'm going to get. I have a perfectionist problem. I can't seem to sit down and get any work done on this blog (obviously) or any other design-related projects because I want my house to be perfectly clean, my children to have all their homework completed, my laundry all folded and put away, my errands run, my dinner prepared...but, seeing as how all these things are NEVER done at the same time, I've decided to put some of them off to get work done that actually stays done.

Like most people, I sit down at the beginning of every year and write out a list of resolutions, most of which I fail miserably at achieving. On the other hand, Joel rarely, if ever, writes out New Yew Year's resolutions because he says he's always in the process of making and working on goals and doesn't need the start of a new year to get him motivated. He's definitely a "Highly Effective Person". I know because I recently read Stephen R. Covey's book so that I can become one as well.

In order to do that, I've determined I needed a more inspiring workspace. I've had a vision in my mind of what I wanted my creative work space to look like for a year, but have had little time to actually make it happen because I was trying to do it all by myself. Then I found some talented individuals to help me out and now my space is almost complete.

One of my favorite collections of Joel's is Deer Valley in Azure, so that became the inspiration for my space:

The bulletin board was made by Angie Maxfield, a niece of a friend of mine. I LOVE IT! I had temporarily placed a plain cork board on the wall above my desk until I saw Angie's magnetic boards and knew one of them would be perfect for this space.



I love the old fork Angie bent and curled to use for a picture-holder magnet. Angie doesn't have a website yet, so if you'd like to contact her, please email her at bittyvintage@gmail.com:



A couple of years ago Joel partnered with The Madison Park Group to create these iPop magnets using his Deer Valley artwork. The line has since been discontinued, but they will be using some of Joel's Spring 2011 designs for a new collection of magnets.



Once in a while I like to peruse Etsy to see what kinds of items are being created out of Joel's fabrics. I'm not sure this is a healthy activity for me because my jealousy sometimes gets the best of me and I wonder why I wasn't creative enough to come up with such clever ideas. Take for instance this ironing board cover I stumbled across. It was made by Paula at Compelled to Craft:



I found a second ironing board cover made by Jamie and Carmen at CityChicCountryMouse, and ordered one from them as well to switch it out with the other one from time to time. They included this cute, little pincushion to match:



Finally, this corduroy bag was created by Jessica at www.fresh-tomatoes.blogspot.com. She just happened upon a booth we did for a local art show in 2009 and couldn't believe Joel and I had recently moved to the same small town where she grew up. We were happy to swap fabric for some of her adorable bags:



So, thank you ladies for helping me create a more organized workspace. Now that my design workspace is embellished with all of these beautiful items, I'm hoping I will feel more inspired to work on my own projects over the next few months before Quilt Market. While Joel didn't make a list of personal resolutions, he and I did sit down New Year's Even to make some ambitious business-related plans for this year. I can't wait to receive our advance yardage of his Spring 2011 collection next month and get sewing!

For the past two years Joel and I have not been able to carry out one of our favorite Christmas traditions because we moved in early December each year. I know, not really the smartest planning on our part. However, now that we are settled, our Annual Gift Exchange party is on!

The invitation shows this is our first annual party, but that's just because it's our first official one here in Utah. For three of the years we lived in Florida we threw a big Christmas party for our friends and had a blast each time as we planned a different theme. We are recycling this theme from our first year, but we think it's definitely worth repeating. So, here are the instructions for our guests: