Twice a year, Quilt Market rolls around, and every time it does, I tell myself that I WILL NOT say yes if someone asks me to sew for their booth. And then every Market, I end up sewing. It's so exhausting and can be very stressful due to the time restrictions. Houston 2016 was going to be different! I was NOT NOT NOT going to do it, I don't care who asks!
Yeah, right.
And then Samarra Khaja said, "Hey, Kristi? Your name came up as someone who might be able to help me. I have a men's vest I'd like to have made for my booth..." Then guess what? I found myself enthusiastically agreeing to that men's vest. And a shirt, pair of pants, bow tie, neck scarf, skirt, jacket and baby romper. Oh! And two pretty cool band jackets for Samarra to wear during Market.
I was happily up to my eyeballs in redesigning existing sewing patterns, matching hand-dyed threads to funky awesome quilt tops (Panda pictured above), taking FaceTime calls with Samarra while at work and sending mass amounts of text messages over fringe and trim.
I didn't mind one bit, though. And do you know why? Because Samarra is infectious and warm and fun. You could say that her new line with Lecien, Geogram, is too. It's bright, colorful, versatile, subtle and very clever. There are 30 bolts in this one line. THIRTY BOLTS! That is so incredible!
I spent a few frantic weeks helping her put together a good chunk of the items for her booth, with the help of my mom, who is a long arm quilter. Samarra stitched all of the animal portrait quilt tops herself, which are the coolest animal quilts I've ever seen, and then sent them on to my mom to be quilted, "framed" and labeled.
Fortunately, we didn't need to ship all of her items because Mom and I had decided to drive the ten hours (it'll be fun! What?? No. Never again. Yeah, yeah, famous last words but in this case I mean it!) from Atlanta to Houston and deliver everything ourselves. I'm telling you, that was the longest drive ever. EVER. EVERRRRRRRRRRR ugh, never again.
Anyway, somehow we made it in one piece and we delivered everything the next day. We spent a few hours helping to arrange and set up Samarra's booth while she ran around between booth and two schoolhouses. The next day, it was official booth time. The response was incredible, mostly because of her animal quilt portraits and those amazing 3D masks. But still, it felt really good to be a part of something so unique, creative and visionary.
Here are a few pictures of what I worked on, in progress and completed. Be sure to ask your LQS to stock her new line, it is definitely stash-worthy! Heck, it's even horde-worthy! Enjoy!
Baby Romper front and detail
Men's vest pattern in redesign mode
Men's vest detail and almost finished
Girl's jacket lining in progress
Girl's jacket finished
Band jacket #1 detail
Epaulettes!
Samarra's jackets almost finished
Jacket detail
Girls skirt finished
Neck scarf and bowtie
Take a look at the Geogram Blog Hop, if you can! There's some cool people showing off their projects! You never know what's going to inspire you, right?
Enjoy!
-Kristi-
• Feb 1, Wed: Brenda Ratliff | @justabitfrayed | http://www.justabitfrayed.com/
• Feb 3, Fri: Katy Jones | @imagingermonkey | www.instagram.com/imagingermonkey
• Feb 6, Mon: Tara Curtis | @weftyneedle @t_jaye | http://www.tjaye.com/blog
• Feb 8, Wed: Nicholas Ball | @quiltsfromtheattic | https://quiltsfromtheattic.wordpress.com
• Feb 10, Fri: Jessee Maloney | @jessee_artschooldropout | www.artschooldropout.net
• Feb 13, Mon: Nicole Daksiewicz | @modernhandcraft | http://modernhandcraft.com
• Feb 15, Wed: Kristi McDonough | @schnitzelandboo | http://www.schnitzelandboo.com
• Feb 17, Fri: Laura McDowell Hopper | @sonicstitches | http://www.sonicstitchesquilts.com/
• Feb 20, Mon: Giuseppe Ribaudo | @giucy_giuce | https://www.instagram.com/giucy_giuce/
• Feb 22, Wed: Daphne Parthoens | @octopurse | https://www.instagram.com/octopurse/
• Feb 24, Fri: Kate Basti | @katebasti | https://www.instagram.com/katebasti/
• Feb 27, Mon: Rebecca Greco | @hugsarefun | http://hugsarefun.com
• March 1, Wed: Terry Druga | @tooheycohen | https://www.instagram.com/tooheycohen/
• March 3, Fri: Samarra Khaja | @samarrakhaja | http://samarrakhaja.tumblr.com
