online inspiration

The rest of the newspaper and magazine industry may be struggling along, but somehow online magazines seem to be taking off in a beautiful and innovative way. Have you seen these three terrific children's magazines? I love the fact that they feel less corporate and more innovative than the big glossies; they're each truly a labor of love, and they ooze creativity:


LMNOP: a quarterly magazine published out of Australia, filled with all sorts of stylish ideas for parents and kids.


Small: includes a wonderful variety of features, my favorite part is the opportunity to see the work of a different illustrator in each new issue.


Papier-Mache: the newest addition to the group, this one is also published out of Australia. I really like the fashion features and the scrolling format.

Have fun!

Minneapolis, MN

You wouldn't suspect it from a glance at the map, but Minneapolis, MN, was once the flour mill capital of the world. Geographically, it doesn't seem like this would make sense. But because St. Anthony Falls, located near downtown Minneapolis, is the only natural waterfall along the northern portion of the Mississippi River, it was an ideal arrangement for providing the hydropower necessary for the flour mills. Those mills produced most of the flour for our country until electricity enabled flour mills to be located anywhere they were needed.




This history would explain the preponderance of grain elevators that we saw from the light rail on our way from the airport to our hotel last Friday. The grain elevators themselves reminded me of Charles Demuth's painting, My Egypt, at the Whitney Museum of American Art.


Todd and Tsia frequently discuss the "rays of force," which is what Demuth called those lines that criss-cross his work. I kept mistaking the power lines along the road for rays of force when we passed the buildings.

Speaking of art, Minneapolis boasts the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a terrific collection of modern and contemporary art located in the downtown area. Probably the most photographed work in the joint collection is Spoonbridge and Cherry, the Claes Oldenburg piece located in the sculpture garden.




We, however, mostly enjoyed James Turrell's Sky Pesher, an underground bunker set into the hill directly behind the museum. The room is arranged with stone benches set around the perimeter of the room. When you sit on the benches, you can look up through a large hole cut into the ceiling of the room to view the sky. Optimal viewing is near sunset, when the sky begins to deepen and you lose all sense of depth. It's a terrific experience, particularly when the sky is perfectly clear and cloudless like it was last Sunday evening. (The sky cleared completely a few hours after I took this photo.)


Now Todd and I have been known to take off for a weekend to view art in unexpected locations, but it wasn't specifically the art that drew us to Minneapolis this weekend. Sky Pesher and the Walker Art Center merely acted as a backdrop for the real draw: my sister's wedding.








Adrienne and Justin invited their families and a small group of close friends to join them inside Turrell's Sky Pesher to witness their vows before we all headed to a nearby restaurant for drinks (Tsia mis-heard the bartender and called her fruity concoction a "kitty cat tail") and dinner.

After which, a few guests returned to Sky Pesher to watch the sky turn to black and drop down into the room while the rest of us went bowling.

My kind of wedding.

ta ta!

This is so brilliant I can hardly stand it.

And now we're off on a little weekend trip. I'll tell you all about it when we return. Have a great holiday (or weekend, if you're not in the States)!

what I did on my Market "vacation"

Usually, standing around talking to people isn't too exhausting, right? I must be fighting something, because it's taken me a couple of days to recover from Quilt Market. I dragged myself to the studio yesterday but didn't get much done and probably should have just taken the day off instead. My feet would have appreciated it.

We actually had a very relaxed trip this time--driving is much easier than shipping and flying. But for some reason I completely neglected to take photos during the show. Here's a little travelogue of the things I did remember to photograph:

I honestly can't remember the last time Todd and I took any sort of road trip. I think it may have been a trip around New Zealand about six years ago? Since we don't own a car, trips of this sort are extremely unusual. We rented a minivan to transport ourselves and the booth. Here it is, all packed up from the loading dock (closed already) and set to leave. We had plenty of room in the back and were actually surprised at how little space the booth takes. Usually, it's all cartoned and shipped on a big pallet, which seems to take much more space.


Headed over the Williamsburg Bridge. At first I thought that was our apartment complex in the front, with all the grass and trees, but it's not. We're a little farther north.

I wonder if biking to work might be an option this summer, since the bridge has a separate pathway for bikes and pedestrians. Wait. I don't have a bike!

A little side trip through China Town on our way to the Lincoln Tunnel.


Aren't NYC water towers great?

I love the cast iron buildings downtown, too.


It's easy to tell when you've reached Pennsylvania, with all the farms and rolling hills. And more rolling hills. Who knew Pennsylvania was so long?!?

Some of the hills were easier to go through than over, apparently.



Once we reached Pittsburgh, we felt right at home. Our hotel was located on Oliver Avenue!

I remembered to take photos of the booth before we turned on the lights, which is why it all looks so flat in these photos. Then I forgot all about photos until we left for home. I even forgot to take photos of Heather Ross and her adorable samples at the booth on Saturday.


The conference center was filled with natural light and lots of windows overhead. It's a beautiful setting, situated directly on the river.



The hotel was a beautiful, ornate older building. This type of work couldn't be duplicated today, and if it were it would feel all wrong and fake, like a Disney version of a hotel.


Almost home again. Is she waving to us, off in the background there?


Such a pretty skyline, even from the highway in New Jersey.

Random items I noticed or wanted to tell you:

It was nice to have a little time with just Todd, sans kid. We enjoyed time on the road together and had a couple of meals alone, too. I had a terrible time sitting still in the car for seven hours, but satellite radio and lots of bad 70's, 80's and 90's music got me through the ordeal. How did Todd manage to sit still in an airplane for hours every single week for all those years that he was traveling for work?

Megan, a reader of disdressed and resident of Pittsburgh, was so kind to email with a list of local restaurants (organized by neighborhood--go Megan!). We took full advantage of that list and enjoyed some terrific meals, including an especially memorable and hilarious one with Heather and Denyse. Thanks so much, Megan!

It was great to see some dear friends and customers at the show, and equally wonderful to make many new acquaintances. My absolute favorite part of Quilt Market is the amazing conversations I get to have with so many people. Nothing beats person-to-person contact, and it's my primary reason for attending and exhibiting at the show. Wouldn't it be great if we could all get together like that sometimes? With nothing to do for three days but talk to each other? Hurray!

We passed a truckload of golf carts on the way home. Maybe not exciting to you, but I was intrigued. (I don't get out much, perhaps?)

We agreed that TGI Friday's and Taco Bell are on our list of never-again experiences. Nevermore. Nevermore. Heather's Skittle dinner doesn't sound so great, either. What ever happened to vegetables? Or meals that don't heavily feature meat and only meat?

Pittsburgh is gorgeous. Really. Even the obviously depressed parts of the city are picturesque. I hate to think of all those beautiful factories and homes sitting vacant, however, and hope that the economy will pick up and revitalize the area soon.

Tsia was much too busy with her grandparents to talk with us during most of our absence, which was a relief. But she was happy to have us home again, too. Also a relief.

I've posted a separate wrap-up on the Oliver + s blog, if you're interested in learning more about what I saw at the show. Lots of fun fabrics and other products coming our way!

in public

Are you still there? Sorry--a little preoccupied over here with Quilt Market preparations and getting the fall patterns out for size grading, etc.. We leave Wednesday morning on our first road trip to Market. I usually ship the booth (very expensive and a lot of hassle to prepare) and fly to save time, but since the show is in Pittsburgh this spring it works out well for us to drive. I'm excited because it's Todd's first trip to Market and we'll have some no-kid driving time together. Poor guy will have to listen to me practice my School House presentations while we travel. I'm fairly certain I won't need the duration of our drive for practicing (it's a six or seven hour trip), but it's a great threat to have in my back pocket, just in case.

Around here, this outdoor installation has been catching my eye recently. I love how artists are appropriating knitting and crochet for their own purposes, and apparently for this show opening even the tops of the fence posts had little knitted caps. I haven't had a chance to pop into the gallery itself to see the rest of the show, but the fence itself is getting lots of interest in our neighborhood. The show draws connections between math and knitting, as well as the theoretical and the tangeable. I think mostly people like it because it's public art involving a set of skills that is generally saved for other purposes. Like sweaters and fractals. And it makes the iron fence look a little more friendly and attractive.

I'll try to check in again sometime during the next week. Maybe with photos? Certainly I'll have lots to share when we return, including funny stories either involving or told by Heather.

No question about that.

an easy gift for Moms (and others)

Many of you know my Mom, who plays a huge part in my life despite our geographic separation of about a thousand miles. Mom has attended every Quilt Market with me, heavily influenced my decision to change careers and become a clothing designer (she was happy that I ended my Wall Street episode, I think--somehow parents just know when you're not a suit, heels and spreadsheet girl), and has been a supporter of her five daughters through all sorts of adventures. She's the most patient, soft-spoken person I know.

Tomorrow my Mom starts chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Fortunately, my Mom's cancer was caught early. The chemo is precautionary, following a successful lumpectomy, and we're fairly confident that her prognosis is good. Nonetheless, the anticipation of this episode in her life has been pretty hard on all of us. Two of her daughters will be getting married this spring and summer, and we want her to feel well enough to attend and enjoy the weddings. And it's just difficult to watch a parent suffer, no matter what the outcome. I can't even imagine what it's like for her right now.

In honor of my amazing Mom and what she's about to undergo, I have a favor to ask you.

There is a little boy here in New York (a schoolmate of the child of a friend of mine) who has just been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Friends of this child's family have organized a bone marrow drive to search for a potential donor. Through this effort I recently learned that there is a national registry of potential bone marrow donors. All you need to do is request a donor kit, swab the inside of your cheek with a Q-tip, and you're entered into the list of potential life-saving donors for hundreds (thousands?) of other people in need of a transplant.

Here is a link to Hope for Kai, the little boy who needs a donor. May I request that you follow this link to the national donor registration site and request a kit? Of course financial donations are extremely helpful as well, so please do what you can. But that donor registry is haunting me. I can't think of a easier way to help someone else at little or no cost to yourself. The more people on the list, the better the chance of finding a donor.

So I'm spreading the word, in honor of little Kai and his Mom (and family--his Dad has cancer as well) and also to celebrate my amazing Mom. I encourage you to celebrate your Mom in this way as well.

sugar coating

Thank you all for your supportive comments regarding our summer preschool situation. I'm pleased to report that we have already found several other possible solutions, all of which feel more comfortable and positive to us than the original plan. Details still need to be finalized, but I think we're on the right track. I'll keep you posted about the pre-K part of the question, too. We should be hearing back about the school lottery soon. Probably right after Quilt Market.

I also wanted to thank you for your positive feedback regarding my work process and the writing of Oliver + S patterns. What a thrill to hear so much kind encouragement from you! I've almost completed the first draft of the fall instructions, which is a huge relief. That means I've worked out almost all the design and construction challenges and can take a deep breath before moving on to the next steps of development. I'll be able to pass the patterns along to the grader by the end of this week, just in time for Quilt Market.


Speaking of Quilt Market, every season just before we leave for the show, we take a little trip to Economy Candy on the Lower East Side to stock up on our trademark Berry Blue Jelly Belly jellybeans for the show. Brooke and I spent far too much time weighing our candy options before the Oliver + S debut 1 1/2 years ago. (Actually, we spend far too much time analyzing most of our choices, come to think of it. I guess that's why we work so well together: we're both obsessed with the details.) We considered getting custom M&M's with our logo on the back, but the Jelly Belly's have a better depth of color to them and match almost perfectly. But if M&M's came in dark chocolate I might have reconsidered.


I thought you might enjoy a peek at the candyliciousness that is Economy Candy. It's so New York, not in the flashy manner of Dylan's Candy Bar (speaking of which, did you see that fabulous wedding?), but in the style of old New York, where substance counts more than style. (And did you know that Jelly Belly's are kosher? I didn't until just now.) We took my parents for a visit once and they found all the candy of their childhood: Blackjack gum, Teaberry gum, I don't remember what all. They were really, honestly, like kids in the candy store. I loved watching them.