Imagine Halloween Day, a long working weekend is coming to a close, being exhausted but knowing you still have a long flight ahead of you. Then coming across this joy of joys, THE GHASTLIES IN REAL LIFE!

The guys at the Alexander Henry booth were in costume on Monday at quilt market, as The Ghastly family, the spitting images of the ever loved fabrics. See some closeups of the fabrics here, and you’ll recognize little Cordelia in her bow, with Matilda and Mister Ghastly. Ever earning our adoration, those Alexander Henry guys.

We were doing a bit of research yesterday, specifically needing to know what that metal thing on top of a pencil is called, (answer=ferrule) when we came across this essential piece of factory education.

And here is where I confess what a total nut I am for factory videos. It all started with the crayon video from Sesame Street (Mr. Rogers had a similar too). And notice the music; am I just nostalgic or is it totally saying “ooh you don’t even know what kind of magic awaits in these tiny wax cylinders!”

I get really sappy about that video. As a kid, watching it made my fingers tingle as I imagined the texture of the wax. And seeing those colors lined up perfectly made me itch for a brand new box of untouched 64 Crayolas. I still love new crayons, and in a way every time I gather fat quarters for a project, I get the same feeling as opening a fresh box of crayons and possibilities. Now that I think about it, that’s exactly why we named our shop Suppose. When you begin to suppose, it’s the moment when you first dream about what you can create with all the colors. You’re the master, your tools are ready, and you are about to transform raw color into something unique. We just LOVE those moments.

Last night we were working on a new pattern for a new quilt out of Loulouthi that we’re pretty excited about. Here’s a little peek at what we’re calling “Wild Garden.” We’ll probably be publishing this pattern under our Golly label but will keep you posted.

The other day my mom came up to me and said, “Look! I designed a quilt!”

I know you wish you had talent like that too.

Two amazing friends and their kids were about to move across the country (Miss you, Mylers!), and I just kept thinking of those hours in the car, and what they might want to listen to. So I burned some cds and made these little sleeves for handy keeping.

I chose fabrics from Alexander Henry, Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks, Art Gallery’s Filligree, & Tufted Tweets and loved how they just went together.

Thinking I might want to recreate them sometime, I started taking notes, but this is as far as it got

because it was pretty simple, really. For each cd envelope, I used heavyweight fusible interfacing inside & made 2 identical 5″ pockets that I just slipped inside each other and sewed closed around the top. I quite liked the result and may be making more of these for little gifts, and for the cds that get tossed around my car.

Then there was a package to send to California for my dear friends who always act as home when I just need to get back there for the beach and some good shopping.  These new Kaffe Fassett prints (Ombre and Radiation) in the Pastel colorway were just calling to be made into something for them, as they could go with all the vintagey pastel kitchenware they have.

I ended up making 16″ square napkins and 4″ square coasters. It was a simple right-sides-together-turn-inside-out-and-topstitch kind of project. The coasters have some heavyweight interfacing for sturdiness too.  Looking at them does kind of make me want to have a picnic at the beach.

Been making any hand-sewn gifts lately? Show us in our Flickr Pool!

Has anyone been watching Jay McCarroll on Celebrity Fit Cub?  I knew I’d have to start watching when at last quilt market, Jay told me that he was in the middle of taping the show and was rooming with Bobby Brown and Kevin Federline.  I mean seriously!  He is proving to be just as lovable, entertaining, and competitive as he was on Project Runway.  Plus, you can take bets on which of his quilting cotton designs he’ll be wearing next.

Remember how we nerd out when we see our favorite fabrics on tv?  Keep those eyes peeled for Jay to show off more from his Woodland Wonderland, Garden Friends, and Germania collections.  It has me thinking, a head scarf sure does look easier and faster to make than those dresses I’ve got queued up…

You can catch up on Celebrity Fit Club on vh1.com

The other night we were catching up on some recent episodes of Medium, when suddenly Bridgette Dubois was wearing one of our favorite Alexander Henry prints as pajamas!  There it is, Spotted Owl in Green Tea.

I haven’t figured out whether somebody out there is producing pj’s with AH fabrics, or the costume designer is having these made just for the show.  We’ve seen Patricia Arquette wearing pj’s made of familiarly cool quilting cottons before, so maybe somebody on Medium is just a fabric junkie too.  But yeah, we’re nerds, taking screenshots of tv shows.  I’m not promising it won’t happen again.

We’ve always been fans of Liberty of London‘s coveted, luscious cotton Tana Lawn fabrics and the detailed, floral and whimsical prints they’re known for.  Though the luxury brand is a British icon, it has heretofore lacked an American presence. But that’s all changing.

Liberty seems to be teaming up with strong, reliable brands that we love all over the place these days. And being the brand loyalist I am, I’m a bit giddy to see the convergence of Liberty prints all over my every day go-to sources.

Recently, Liberty teamed up with Kaffe Fassett and Westminster Fibers to produce classic Liberty prints on quilting weight cotton in new Kaffe Fassett colorways. (Would be good for a man quilt, no?)

Now Target is about to release a range of Liberty of London wares from clothing to bikes, all featuring killer prints. Tomorrow a Liberty/Target in NYC near Bryant Park opens for just a few days. It sounds amazing and you can bet I’ll be checking the blogs and Twitter for details since I’m not there. And then maybe to assuage my jealousy I’ll sew my own dress and pillows out of our own Liberty from the shop.

As if that wasn’t enough, Liberty has also hooked up with MAC, which might as well be the official makeup of Suppose (if only they’d give us free stuff) as it’s all we know how to wear. The Liberty/MAC collection features sweet but edgy limited edition colors in a variety of products for making your face lovely.

And of course the packaging shows of Liberty prints in a way that makes you want to buy it all, even though you’re not low on makeup at all. I’m such a sucker!

Way to go, Liberty, on making your way in the American marketplace, and with the right collaborations. You know where I’ll be shopping this weekend.

she sewed.  Today is her birthday, a good day to get nostalgic and show you what creative things she was up to before the quilting obsession took over.

Kathy is a good momma.  She did lots of sewing for her kids. Which was especially lucky for me, being the first.  I’ve still got this brown calico blanket she tied.

What great custom pieces she created!  A knit jellybean jumpsuit for my first day of kindergarten.  (And apparently my birthday. Two birthdays in one post!)

Matching kittie Halloween costumes for my brother and me.  Cleverly made large enough that we could get years of use out of ‘em!

Kathy’s always been a great designer too.  For Girl Scouts’ International Day, she conjured up this Canada flag from scratch. (Which we were clearly, uh, very happy about.)

You can check out even more of her work over on Flickr.  Including a felt shark (notice the sweet beard on my pops), some Easter applique, and finally something for herself: a Hawaiian shirt (catch that Karen O-worthy haircut!).

Happy birthday to my dear mother, the other half of Suppose, the creative genius of the family!

A couple weeks ago we had a little picnic themed sale at which we let everyone who made a purchase play Plinko a la “The Price Is Right” to win a discount.  The prizes ranged from 5% off to free fat quarter to a $10 gift certificate.  Our big winner of the day was Tina who reenacted the win for us.

The Plinko game originated by “The Price Is Right” is rumored to have been inspired by a Japanese game called Pachinko that’s sort of like pinball.  It was called Plinko because of the plinking sound the chip made as it fell through the pegs and it’s true!  Our own Plinko board, which Kathy made herself, sings when you play it.  We had so much fun with it that we might just have to pull it out for future events.