"Quiltsurround" by Greely Myatt

There are tons of things to see and do if you find yourself here in Memphis, but this public art exhibit is an absolute must-see!  Created by Sculptor and University of Memphis professor Greely Myatt, these "quilts" are installed at the southwest corner of City Hall in downtown Memphis.

To create the installation, Greely used about 700 street signs that the city was about to recycle.  Breathtakingly cool-- don't you agree?

I love everything about these quilts!  You can read more about this amazing project here.

All photos copyright Joel T. Rose, 2011.

Grand Hotel-- Coming Soon!

I'm happy to see my newest fabric collection, Grand Hotel, popping up in the "Coming Soon" sections of some of my favorite fabric shops!  The collection ships in May and is available for wholesale pre-orders now.  Contact Free Spirit Fabric (1.800.907.3305) for more information.

Grand Hotel comes in two colorways:

With each collection I create, I strived to bring you something new and refreshing while maintaining the graphic, highly detailed style you've come to expect from me.  These fabrics introduce some new colors (including the Pantone color of the year--Tangerine Tango!) to my palette.  And this collection also includes my first border print!

Here is a slideshow of all the designs.  If you are reading this in a reader (or if for some reason you can't get the slideshow to work for you), you can view the collection in its entirety here.

I'm really excited about Grand Hotel!  Sample yardage should be arriving soon, so I will share pictures of the actual fabrics as soon as they arrive.  The colors are a little brighter and more intense on the fabrics.  I can't wait for you to see them!  And as always, I can't wait to see what you do with them!

Delta Exhibition 2012

This past November one of my paintings was chosen to be a part of the 2012 Delta Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.  This is the painting, titled Rosetta, and created in 2011. 

I shipped the painting out in December.

And was thrilled to see it hanging in the exhibition this past Thursday!

It was really cool seeing my work in the show.  It was fun seeing people's reactions.  I mean, I tried not to watch them in an obvious way.  But no one knew who I was so it felt ok.  I didn't eavesdrop or anything!  I just watched.  And one of the cool things was that people seemed intrigued by the texture.  I saw a couple of people looking at it closely from the side, trying to get a better view.  I even watched a woman (not the one pictured below) stare it from several different angles, then give in to the impulse to touch it.  Then the person she was with touched it.  While I know that's a no-no when viewing art, I kind of liked that they did it.  I liked that they were that curious.

The opening was packed, and we had a great time.  After being gone for a week to Alt Summit, it was nice to take a road trip with Joel and spend some time together.

The show runs through March 28th, so if you find yourself near Little Rock, you should check it out.  There is lots of really wonderful work in the show!

Alt Summit 2012

I'm back from Alt Summit, and I'm filled with ideas and inspiration!  I learned so much-- about blogging, about business, about myself.  It was truly wonderful, and I can't wait to go back next year!  I took some great notes, but instead of sharing those here, I thought I'd see if I can't put some of what I learned into action to make this a better blog.  If you are looking for class notes, there are some great recaps out there and they are popping up all over!

Some highlights from the conference, along with some random thoughts and observations about the experience-- in absolutely no particular order:

• Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest, gave one of the most inspirational talks I've ever heard.  He is so sweet, so charming, so humble and so smart! I cried at the end of his talk, then teared up again when I met him at one of the parties later that night.  If my eyes look a little glassy in the photo below, it is not because of that wine I am holding. :)

• Sometimes a not-so-fancy hotel is perfect!  The rooms at the gorgeous Grand America Hotel had sold out by the time I got my ticket to Alt, so I stayed a few blocks away at the Sheraton.  I have to say, while it is nice to splurge on occasion and stay in a super-nice hotel, I also like the laid-back-ness of a conference hotel like the Sheraton.  This isn't to say it isn't nice--it is!  I had a two-story room, large as can be (550 sf) and quiet to boot.  I was also continually supplied with FREE (yes, completely unheard of these days) bottled water in the room, and was able to order a delicious "Mountain Breakfast" from room service for only $8.00.  I highly recommend this hotel on your next visit to SLC!
• Dressing up is FUN!  My husband and I spend most of our nights at home.  We go out occassionally, but after years of going out just about every night when I was younger, I prefer to spend most nights in.  At Alt, I went out three nights in a row!  What a party girl I was!  And I had a blast every night.  I also dressed up during the days.  I spend a lot of time in "housefits", so I enjoyed having a place to wear my cute clothes.
• Cheesecake is delicious.
• Strawberry shortcake is, too.
• I learned a lot by attending the classes, but I enjoyed and learned more from some panel discussions than I did from others.  Some of them absolutely blew me away; others not so much.  For me, content is key.  I would rather leave feeling completely overwhelmed with my head spinning from too much information than leave feeling like I didn't learn enough.  Which brings me to--Q and A.
• Most panels like to leave time for a question and answer session at the end of their presentation.  This is a great idea, but too often fails in execution.  One problem is that I can rarely hear what question is being asked.  The person answering should always remember to repeat the question for the group so that we will know what was asked.  (This is not relevant when there is someone walking around with a mic as there was in the keynote addresses, only in the panel sessions).  Another problem is that people asking the questions often ask very personal questions, specifically related to themselves and their situation and having no relevance to the rest of the class.  I'd like for audience members to give thought to whether this is a question they should take up the rest of the audience's time with.  Can others benefit from this information?  If not, maybe save your question for another time.
• Squarespace is about to get even better!!  Hard to believe, right?  I love Squarespace and love their current product so the idea of changes kind of concerned me.  Nothing to stress about-- this is going to be amazing!!  Version 6 is in Beta right now, and by attending the portfolio class on Saturday, I was given a coveted invite.  The class was taught by Susan and William Brinson.  They are a gorgeous, inspiring, crazily-talented couple.  Their class was one of the best I attended!  Also, Ryan from Squarespace was there to answer our questions and guide us around the new version.  He was such a nice guy and a great representative for Squarespace!
• I love Kathleen of Jeremy and Kathleen!  She led a great round-table discussion called "Your Blog as a Marketing Tool", and it was a fabulous class.  Definitely a highlight for me.  I really enjoyed the round-table setting.  I just wish the table had been a bit larger to accomodate everyone.  Either that, or it would have been nice to offer these classes a few times so that each class happened more than once.  There were so many of these round-tables that I wanted to attend.  It was tough to choose.  One thing that was great and different about the class was that it was led by one person, and she had a very well-thought-out lesson plan.  Sometimes one person's clear vision is easier to grasp than four peoples' (as in the panel presentations) combined vision.

• I WON A KitchenAid MIXER AT THE WilsonArt MINI-PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAY!!
• Meeting inspiring creative men and women is something I need more of in my life!  There is nothing better than connecting in person, face-to-face. 
• These tiny pineapple cakes at the WilsonArt party were delicious:

• Amy Butler and Laurie Smithwick are two of the kindest, most generous women I have ever met. I met many lovely, talented, and creative women, all of whom inspired me with their smiles, their laughter, their stories.  I have a huge stack of business cards and I could name-drop all day, but I don't want to make you too jealous.  (I've probably already made you hungry--no need to make you green with envy, too.)  I hope to grow these relationships, keep in touch and possibly work with many of the people I met.  Think of all the people I will know next year when I go back!
• Minted rocks! I went to a meetup on Wednesday and it was awesome!  Now, more than ever, I hope to develop a strong working relationship with this company.  Mariam Naficy and Natasha Lawler are two of the coolest people on the planet.  Also in attendance were Eric Comstock and Ashley Porter, both of whom have products for sale at Minted, and both of whom were delightful.  Eric, one half of the Cosmo Cricket team, is also Lizzy House's cousin!  Mariam and Natasha shared some of the exciting things they have in store, and Minted is only going to get better and better!  There are a couple of things I'm really looking forward to, so expect to see me entering more challenges in the future!  Oh, and wait until you see the art prints-- so beautifully printed and on seriously gorgeous paper!

I have quite a few more thoughts on the events, but this is a good start, right?  A huge thank you to everyone that I met at Alt, and to everyone who created and worked on the event!  What an amazing week I had!  I'm all smiles right now!  Let's all keep in touch!

Untitled: The First-Ever Minted Art Print Challenge

I recently participated in a really fun challenge over on Minted.  Are you familiar with Minted and their design challenges?  Here is a description from their website:

We uncover design genius through ongoing competitions. At Minted, all that matters is good design. Designers submit, and the Minted community votes and tells us what to sell.

This is my first challenge to enter, and I'm really excited to be participating!  Voting is now live, so I'm hoping you'll pop on over there and vote for some of my designs!  There are some amazing prizes this time around, including a trip to San Francisco for the launch of the Minted Art Collection!  The best part, though, is that the winning designs will all be sold on Minted!  I know, pretty cool, right?  I would love to see these prints made available for purchase-- they are planning to offer prints as large as 48" x 70".  So obviously I would love your votes!!  Here is my designer page featuring all of my entries:  Jenean Morrison

These first two are called "Collide" and "Wiggle", respectively, and they are meant to work as a set.  (Click on the images to be taken to the voting page.)

These next prints are "Good Folks" and "Kindly Folks".  I was going for that good old folksy feeling!

And more!  Yes, I really enjoyed this challenge-- can you tell?  Here is a fun set of three:

A few more.  Scribble Blossom:

Reflections Reversed:

City of Patterns:

And one more set: 

Bouquet of Sunshine:

Rays of Sunshine:

I'm not sure when voting ends, but probably pretty soon.  So, you know, if you feel like sharing some love, I would really appreciate it!  Plus, there is an abundance of amazing design to check out while you are on the site!  Thanks, you guys!

Happy 2012!

Boy, I feel really great about this year!  How about you?

I had a super-busy holiday season.  Not only did I spend some nice time with family and friends, I also worked my little heart out creating these:

And these:

You are looking at over 500 fat quarter sets (each set containing 2 fat quarters) put together from four of my fabric collections.  I shipped these to Utah last week where they are being assembled as part of the Alt Summit gift bags!!  And the best part is, not only are these fabrics traveling to the summit, I'm going also!

What a great way to start off the new year, don't you think?  I'm looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends.  I'm looking forward to learning, growing and getting inspired.  Oh, and I can't wait to wear some of my fun winter clothes! 

Putting these together was a lot of hard work.  It was also incredibly enjoyable and rewarding.  It was a nice thing to do during the time of year when I usually do a lot of reflecting.  Looking at all of these made me feel great about the journey I've taken in my art career.  Seeing all of the different fabrics, all the different colors and designs--well, it was just nice.  And it made me feel really proud!  I'm so happy to have the opportunity to share this work with a new audience!

By the way, are you guys using Instagram?  I am, and I am loving it!  Here are a few shots I posted while I was making these.  If you are on Instagram, follow me and I'll follow you back.  @jeneanmorrison

If you follow me, you will not only see the things I'm working on and the places I'm going, you'll also be seeing quite a bit of this sweet guy:

I try to limit the photos I post of him, but he is always striking such cute poses!  It is hard to resist sharing these.

I'll be Instagramming (and tweeting, of course) while on my trip to Alt.  Oh, and something else really cool is happening--there is a Minted meetup in Salt Lake City on the Wednesday before Alt Summit.  I can't wait!  More about Minted in my next post!

If you are going to either event--the Minted meetup or Alt Summit-- let me know!  I hope to meet as many of you as possible!  Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful new year!

L'Avventura

Here is a painting I've been working on for the past couple of weeks.  I finished it up a couple of days ago.  What do you think?

I always wonder if people who are familiar with my fabric designs would recognize my paintings as being created by me.  There is definitely the same level of detail in the paintings as in the designs.  Yet often in the paintings I relax and let go a little more, at least in the early stages.  Once I get to the end, where I am adding the detail of the dots, I am as focused and precise as I can be.

I'm have a few more paintings in the works right now.  For some reason, I always return from Quilt Market with a strong desire to paint.  Maybe my creative brain just needs a change of pace, a step back from fabric and fabric design.  It is nice to step away from one way of creating and move to another, if even for a little while.  I have so many creative interests.  I can't wait to share more of what I've been working on with you!

"Wild World" Fabric Flower Art

I've been playing around with options for the fabric flower artwork I wrote about in this tutorial.  I've made a few fun changes, one of the most exciting being that this time around I used my new Big Shot die-cutting machine from Sizzix!  Wow!  What a time-saver.  AND, look at these adorable flowers:

In the original tutorial, I used my Power Pop fabrics and a plain white canvas.  The result was an explosion of bright, happy color.  This time I decided to go a little softer, using a linen-covered canvas and fabrics from my Wild World collection for Free Spirit.  I love this softer, more scattered version.

And I absolutely LOVED using the Big Shot!  It was so simple and easy to use.  And it was nice being able to cut out so many flowers so quickly.  You'll also notice that I did some layering this time around--the precision of the die-cutting made this work out beautifully.  Full disclosure:  as I mentioned in the previous post, Sizzix and Westminster fibers have partnered to bring these machines to the quilting community.  This machine was kindly sent to me by the nice folks at Sizzix.  Now that I've had the chance to play with one, if Sizzix hadn't sent me one I would probably be ordering one right now!  I cannot wait to try more projects using this machine!

I really love the added texture of this linen canvas.  And it makes for a nice layout to go from the larger flowers at the bottom to fewer, smaller ones up top.  The possiblities are truly endless!  I'm thinking about trying this with some of my Silent Cinema scraps next.

If you don't have a die-cutting machine, don't fret.  This is a great tool, but keep in mind that I cut all of these flowers with scissors and the artwork turned out just great! 

I sure hope you all had wonderful, relaxing weekends.  I feel well-rested, and I'm happy to be back in the groove and working away!  I hope your week is off to a great start, too!

Fabric Flower Art (A Tutorial)

While at Quilt Market last month, I had several people tell me how cute they thought this artwork would be in their little girls' rooms.   I completely agree!  And these would work in just about any room in your house--or your store--too.  You can use any combination of fabrics you want, and you can make them any size.  This is a fun, simple project for everyone!

Here is how I made them:

Materials:  scraps of fabric (any size), scissors, tacky glue, colored pencil, embellishments for the centers of the flowers, iron-on adhesive (I used Heat'n Bond), and a white canvas (any size).  Optional:  clear-drying gem glue if you want to permanently attach your gems/jewels.  Most of these are adhesive-backed, but glueing would be a more permanent solution.

I really love these embellishments from Recollections!  I see these on sale all the time, so keep your eyes open and stock up when you get a chance.

Click the link below to read the rest of this tutorial:

Click to read more ...

Oh, Happy Day! and Delight

It seems I've been in a pretty good mood lately, as you might have guessed by the titles of these next two pieces of art.  Although the weather is doing its best to bring me down, my sunny outlook is doing its best to fight back.  Shorter days and lack of sunlight can really get to me, but so far this year I am handling it just fine.  Of course, you might want to check in with me in another month if we don't get some sunshine soon!

This print is titled "Oh, Happy Day!"

It is available in my Society 6 shop in the form of prints, framed prints, laptop skins and iphone cases! 

And this print is called "Delight":

I'm working on some posts about my quilt market projects.  I will share those with you soon.  I really appreciate all of the kind words about my booth at market and about this new fabric line.  A big thank you to all who blogged about it and shared photos on their sites.  I link to most of these (when I spot them) on my Facebook page, so check in with me next time you are on Facebook.

I heard from three of my favorite fabric shops that Power Pop is in stock and shipping NOW!  Check out these awesome shops:  Fat Quarter Shop, Hawthorne Threads and Lola Pink Fabrics!  If you are a retailer carrying the fabric, please let me know.  I will be updating my links list on the left of this page, as well as adding a more comprehensive list of stockists soon.

Up next: Quilt market projects!

"Sewspirations" and a Free Quilt Pattern from Free Spirit Fabric!

I'm so excited to share this new project with you-- Sewspiration kits from Free Spirit Fabric!

These kits are available to our retail customers.  I collaborated with Free Spirit on this tote bag, which uses fabrics from my newest collection, Power Pop.  The kit contains instructions and fabrics so that shopowners can make a sample for their store to show off the fabrics.  You could even buy several kits and use them for a class.  The instructions were written by the amazing Cheryl Adam, so they are as simple and clear as can be.  Contact your Westminster rep for more information on this kit.  The fabric is shipping now, and so are these kits!

We have also made this quilt pattern available as a free download from the Free Spirit site!

You might recognize this quilt design.  I actually designed this for use with my Wild World fabrics, but didn't have instructions written.  I love how it looks with this collection!  Click the quilt above or follow this link to download the free pattern.

And, as always, if you make any of these projects I would LOVE to see!  Post them to my Flickr group or share them on my Facebook wall.  Or just send me some pics!  Happy sewing and quilting!

Quilt Market Booth and the Creativity Award! Fall 2011

Hi guys!

I finally made it home from Quilt Market--just a few hours ago, in fact!  I had THE best trip!  I am too exhausted to write much at the moment, but I have just enough energy to post these pics.  I'll catch you up on all the details soon!  So, here we go!

This booth was designed to showcase my new fabric line for Free Spirit Fabric, called "Power Pop", shipping this month!  I wanted a booth that was as happy and fun as possible, and I'm so proud of the result.  By the way, you can read more about the inspiration for the line here on the Power Pop page.

You may have noticed that ribbon hanging in some of the photos.  My booth received the Creativity Award!!  This is my second year to exhibit (see my previous booth here) and my second year to win this award!  I can't even begin to tell you how honored I am to win.  There are so many amazing, gorgeous, creative booths everywhere you look.  You can see photos of all the winning booths here on the Quilt Market Facebook page.  Market is such a wonderful experience--to have my hard work and creativity recognized on top of everything else-- it is extremely rewarding! 

I'll talk a little more about the details and projects in the booth once I get caught up on my rest!  As always, a big thank you to my husband.  He couldn't be with me this year at the show, but he was absolutely essential in helping me come up with ideas and the design for the booth.  And thank you to everyone who stopped by and spent some time with me!  It was so nice to meet (or see again) every one of you!

"Orbit" A New Print at Society 6

I added this artwork to my Society 6 shop this morning.  I've been adding lots of repeat patterns for sale, and they are doing great on iphone cases and laptop skins.  However, I'm not selling as many prints as I am the other products.  With this design, I decided to take the repeat pattern and try to use it in a way that would work as well for artwork as for the iphone cases and skins.

Let me know what you think!  Have a great weekend, everyone!

"Twist" at Society 6

Here is some new artwork I posted recently in my shop at Society 6.  This work is available in the form of prints, framed prints, ipad and laptop skins, and iphone covers.

I am really having a great experience at Society 6.  There are so many wonderful artists posting and selling their work there.  I love seeing the work of all the people in "my society".  It is a very positive place to post work, share with others and get great feedback from like-minded artists.

If you are on S6, please follow me (and I will follow you back) so that we can connect!

Featured: Print and Pattern

A big "thank you" to Bowie for featuring my artwork on Print and Pattern today! I am such a fan of her work and her blog--it is always a thrill to have my work featured!

And, speaking of Print and Pattern--I am super-excited to share with you these images from Print and Pattern 2, the newest book from the blog!!  This book features some of my all-time favorite designers, so it is an honor to be featured alongside them in this beautiful collection!

My pages:

I am completely overjoyed by this!  It is definitely one of the things that I am most proud of in my career. 

Thanks so much to all of you who are reading this--your encouragement and support mean so much to me!