36 and counting.......

It is October and I have safely made it to 36+ weeks. YEAH! I am off to the doctor today to see how far I have progressed, with the symptoms I have I should be moving along. He likes to bang his head against my cervix-lovely, my doctor says he is just trying to find his way out. That would be nice I am tired of being pregnant and would really like to meet him and move onto the next part of it all. There is that part of me that remembers that this will be the last time I am pregnant and to enjoy it and quit rushing things along.

I wasn't able to sleep the other night and did the math on how early the girls were - Liv was 30 days early and Vi was 22. Right now I am in the middle of that. There is a lot of anticipation because I just don't know if he is going to wait longer or come any day. I am such a planner and this so throws me off my normal. But this little guy has done this from the beginning so I should not be surprised.

Mom heads off to market this week. She is taking some of my new product to put up in the Free Spirit booth. I have a couple of free patterns that I will get posted soon.....I think I have said that before. With the new Del Hi home dec there there is a cute bag - that takes no time at all to make. For the Della Flannel mom made this great little quilt - perfect for baby. And then I have a new Valori Wells Designs pattern that should be all printed and ready to go by the time the fabric hits the stores it is new stuffed animals - a kitty, Lucy and a dog, Logan. Here is the postcard that mom is taking to market......notice the two bellies....

 

I am on the left....and Miss Carolyn is on the right - her little boy is due mid December.

Well, off to hang out with the girls until heading to the doctor........

Have a great day!!

XOXO

Val

Buried in Fabric......

The new Della flannel and fleece sample yardage has arrived in the studio......it is exciting and overwhelming at the same time. I am buried in work.......and this little baby would like to try to come earlier than I would like - my doc has me on bed rest each day which is a good thing and a bad thing. I lay there thinking about everything I have to get done and finally will take a bit of a nap but feel like I miss out on a bunch  of the work day. Part of me feels like I will be able to get more done after the little man arrives that I can now.....I am sick so much now - nausea, heart burn, contractions....ect. etc. etc.........Oh, I shouldn't complain it is a blessing to have a baby just caught up in my own drama. Anyway, when the fleece arrived the buried the girls in it and took a photo - they had so much fun playing in the fabric and boxes that it came in.

It is a micro fleece so it is thin but OH SO COZY.....can't wait to make a blanket for myself for the couch......

Here is the Della Flannel.....very nice and goes really well with Urban Flannels. I want to come up with a quilt that uses them both....just haven't figured it out yet.

Sophie is always in the mix - she can't miss out on anything going on in the studio. Mom and I were putting together fabrics for the free pattern and she felt that she had to put her two paws into the mix. Gotta love cats!
On another note - this spring I met (well not in person but on line) a great gal, Rebekah Merkle, that lives in Oxford, England that makes little girl clothes and she wanted to use some of Del Hi. Well, she just wrote to send me the link to her site with the dress out of the turquoise PomPom from Del Hi......

Too cute.....Amoretti is the name of Rebekah's clothing line. She sent me a link to the video - I am unfortunatley a little behind on the technology and don't know how to put the video on my blog so I am putting a link to her site. Check it out - I am totally impressed!!!! The three beautiful girls are her daughters......Thanks Rebekah for using my fabric and sharing with me!!! I love it!
Maybe updating my computer skills would be a good thing to do on maternity leave......Oh, the list for maternity leave is getting longer and longer........besides just being with the baby!
Well, I have some deadlines to get back to before the end of the month.
Have a great day!!
XOXOX
Val

Taos, NM.....and new designs......

I am sitting in the Historic Taos Inn enjoying dinner - my three days off…yeah! Yesterday I finished taping The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Timms….it was too much fun. I took lots of photos but those are to come tomorrow - hopefully I can get them downloaded...I also have a painting date with Katie...we are going to go out and do Plaine Air (ok I know I misspelled that one) painting - you know where you set up in some place beautiful and paint what you see. I have never done that and am so excited for the challenge......
    I went for a hike this morning up to Taos ski area - the hike was to Williams Lake. It was a  2 1/2 mile hike to the lake - I figured no big deal…..well as I was huffin' and puffin' my way up I couldn't help but think I am not out of shape what is my deal…..well as I reached the lake there was a sign - Williams Lake 11,040 feet. Well no wonder I was out of breath!!! I don’t think I have ever hiked at that level before…..beside the altitude I was alone and a little nervous about bears so I was singing the girls favorite song…."I love you bushel and a peck, bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck"……if someone would of come up on me they would of thought I was some crazy girl. I did meet a great couple from Portland of all places. I had lunch with them at a great little German restaurant at the base of the chair lift. One of the better Caesar salads I have had. Maybe it was the altitude at any rate a great time. I will get some photos posted soon. I took a lot with my Roliflex (medium formant, twin lens camera that takes film) I shot black and white...
    I have lots to share today…..before I got on the plane on Saturday I finally finished my newest collection of fabric - the ones with the Dahlias…I am still trying to find a name for the collection…maybe you all can help. I am just horrible with names. Carolyn and Mom helped my name the designs and the come up with color names. The designs are painted in the Mediterranean Palette - clean clear colors. Like the photographs that I took of the dahlias last summer. The second palette I am calling High Desert - it is reminiscent of Central Oregon with a little sass….anyway I took some quick - I mean quick not great - snap shots of the designs before they went to get scanned.  They are not the best quality but it will give you an idea of what they will look like……….

First we have In Full Bloom….this is a big design - like most of my designs but very colorful and clean lines. This is how much these are snap shots the background of this is white.....

Pom Pom - this is my new favorite Dahlia…..they are so cool - I painted this on canvas because I wanted a bit of a different look - I am excited to see what will happen in the printing process…….
Can't wait to see this in all blues….wouldn't that be cool!

This design is called Tango - it is one of the last ones I did - I just wanted to incorporate butterflies….I had been seeing so many around the house that they were inspiring…(again White background)

This is the Paisley….I wanted to create a design that looked like my drawings before they are painted - the lines with a background color. One of the colors I want to do is white lines and a red background….I have a lot more strike-offs that I am going to have them do than I can actually have in the collection but I just want to see what will make the best variety and outstanding collection.

Ok….you might have seen Tapestry before on one of my other posts….I just love how this one turned out. I haven't done a design like this before and it worked just like I imagined - is always so cool when that happens…….

Chandelier - I had to look up how to spell that one - is one of the elements from Tapestry….I love how it turned out.

Flora is another element from the Tapestry - I actually did a sketch of these flowers about a year ago and thought it would be a great element to the Tapestry.

Monarch is another of the designs I just did - I wanted to make the butterflies look like they were all flying in different directions….yet still make it simple and stylized.

The last design is Stones…..the other day I had cut up some of the roses from Olive Rose and one of the pieces was just the dots…I loved the look so I took that idea to create the stones. You can never have too many dots…..and these dots are defiantly not perfect circles so I thought stones was more of an appropriate name.
     I feel like I have to say these are my designs and unpublished (so to speak) at this time - Please don't use them in any form.....I want to share what I do with you, my process - the whole package so to speak I hope that this is not misused - Ok, I had to get that off my chest......I hope that I didn't offend anyone I just felt that I needed to say that....so I will quit going on and on......
I hope every one is having a great September - can you believe it is September!
More to come later.....
Valori

In the studio......

Even though we are getting ready for the show and everyone is so busy I am still in my studio trying to get some fabric work done......In the wee hours of the morning when it is not too hot. Then I head into the shop and help out......aaahhh summer. So, as I was in the studio the other morning I took some shots of the work going on.....thought I'd share........

Paintings in progress........

Another painting in progress...this one is for mom's birthday. Well a bit late but I didn't want to rush it to get it done - hopefully after Quilt Show I will be able to finish it for her.

A new fabric design with PomPom dahlias and then all of the drawings left to paint.....oh boy there is a lot of them.......

Another design.....I am loving this one......

The knitted piece I did for the little quilt....hopefully (boy I say that a lot) I will be able to quilt this soon....should be pretty cool.

After one of my long weekends with my dad I came home and my wonderful husband had put my sign from market above my studio door.....he is so sweet! Anyway I am off to the gym - gotta get in one more kickboxing workout with Jesse before it all begins........ Working out during Quilt Show week is tough to do - but my plan is to have my cruiser bike here at the shop and I am going to ride it around town during the week. Save gas, get a little exercise, and avoid a bit of traffic!
Have a great day!!!
Val

So EXCITED!!!

I have finished a new painting.......

This is the friends painting that will be flannel fabric this fall....I am taking a bunch of my older deisgns and re-coloring them for a flannel collection this fall.....I was inspired a couple of Sunday's ago as we sat at breckfast to do a design that would incorporate the medallion designs that I do with some animals. The animals are also reminisant of a new pattern of stuffed friends that will come out this spring....images to come soon. I am so excited that it is done!!! YEAH!!!! Now all I have to do is the color changes on the other designs. I really want to create a great collection of flannels that will appeal to little boys and little girls but would also make great jammies for the mama.....among other things.

Miss Vi likes to hang out in the studio with me while I paint.....she is such a great baby...plays so well by herself. If you were wondering where that great fabric came from on the chair....it is the new Olive Rose which is arriving in the shop as we speak......By the end of the week I think I might have some fabric to give away...keep checking back!!! A shameless way to get you to come back to my blog ;)
    Violette, Mom, Carolyn and I will be heading to Portland tomorrow for a field trip. We like to take little trips to the city - get a city fix - and check out shops. Get ideas from displays and merchandise what other people do in their shops, it is great time to brainstorm on ideas and just have some girl time. It should be fun....I'm taking my camera and sketch book to capture any sort of inspiration.
Have a great evening.....
Valori