Missouri Star Birthday Bash

My good friend Leslie Tucker Jenison and I took a trip to Hamilton Missouri last week to be part of the Missouri Star Birthday Bash. We went as representatives of RJR fabrics, a company that we both design fabric for. Our main goal was to promote my new line Hopscotch. Leslie is also a designer for RJR Fabrics and her first line was called 'Urban Artifacts.'

They had a little area of their parking lot that was dedicated to vendor booths promoting Fabric lines and other products. We talked about my line, the way I make my quilts, Mistyfuse and planned to do a little make and take project. Then we found out that we would not have access to any electricity, so that kind of changed our plans.

The weather in Missouri was interesting. In Southern California we do have humidity, but it is nothing like what they have in Missouri. It was hot and sticky. Luckily for us we were sitting under an easy up in the shade most of the time. But when the wind comes up in the afternoon we found it hard to hold down our easy up. We literally had to hold the poles down with our hands for a couple of hours.

Late in the afternoon on the first day, we were given permission by Missouri Star to use an ironing board and iron to put together about 200 birds for next day in their retreat center. During the planning stages of this project I was told that I would have electricity in the booth for this Make and Take. That wasn't the case upon arrival, so onto Plan B. The bird is a Sizzix die that is exclusive to Missouri Star. I believe it's a duck. I cut out the birds, the flowers and leaves a few weeks before I left for Missouri on a Sizzix machine. There were enough components to make over 700 birds. People could pin these birds on their shirts or bags. They were really popular!

There were people from all over the world at this event. It was incredible! Bus loads of groups from states and Canada rolled into town. 

Missouri Star is so unique. They own about nine stores and they all house different fabrics. The Batik Boutique, Florals, Wools and Primitives, The Main Store, The Machine Shed (notions), JC Penney store (solids and modern fabrics) and Man's Land (where the men go to hang out while the women shop). The sides of the building all have wonderful murals.

The main building, which is their very first store is a sampling of products from all the other stores. During our time there I did two demos in that building. This is just one of the displays in that building I have some of my fabrics!

The JC Penney building has solids and what could be considered modern Fabric. This is where my line is. Hopscotch consists of 11 hand drawn designs and 84 different colors. Just pinch me. Absolutely thrilled to be a designer for RJR Fabrics! 

These are the tags that RJR uses on fat Quarter bundles using my artwork. I am so happy with how they came out.

Jenny Doan stopped by the booth for a photo op! She has put Missouri Star on the map with her YouTube videos about making blocks! 

Florals. This was one of my most favorite stores!

The view from our booth with one of the painted murals. We had so much fun at this event! So long Missouri Star! Thank you for everything!

The birds were suppose to have googily eyes, but the Glue Dots wouldn't work with the humidity, so we ditched that plan and moved onto the next one. Poked out the top fabric eye to reveal the second layer of fabric and used that cute little RJR pin to secure the pin to people's shirts. Happy Birthday Missouri Star!