Cocoa Express Has Arrived!

Just another quickie post - Cocoa Express arrived while we were in Paducah!  It is absolutely gorgeous!  Yummy browns - I'm drooling here!!!! I want to sit and sew!  You can view the fabrics here:

Cocoa Express

Anyhow - we are busy packing orders from while we were away at the shows.  All orders placed during the past 2 weeks will all be shipped starting today and everything should be on it's way by this Friday, April 30th!

Also we have switched phone services.  Our phone number remains the same, but I have lost all voicemails that were left for us between April 17th through the 25th.  We were not able to retrieve them prior to the switch.  So, if you left us a message during this time - please call again or email - we are not ignoring you!  The old phone carrier had continually been giving us problems, so now the problem is solved!

Enjoy your day!

Wow - 2 Back to Back Quilt Shows!!!!

Wow.....

Double Wow....

Both quilt shows were so much fun.  What an adrenaline rush to do two large back to back quilt shows.  I have so much to share and talk about.  I was able to take a few pictures while at the Chicago show - but in Paducah, well - I was in the mall and that is the only place I saw during my week there.  I was in the mall from 10 am to 9 pm.  Long hours - but we were really shocked at how fast the day went!  I only have pictures of my booth in Paducah - we'll get to that later on.

First up - I have to share this treasure from Chicago.  I was so enamored by this antique quilt.  This is the one quilt - out of several beautiful old treasures - that stuck in my mind.  This quilt drew me back to it 3 different times when I was "released" from my booth duties for a little while on Sunday, the final day of the show (dearest hubbie and son ran the booth for me!)

Anyhow, here are some photos from the quilt.  Is this not gorgeous!  Would you not love to know the story behind the making of this quilt?  Look at the details!  It was very hard for me to get pictures of this quilt - every time I was by it there was a large crowd studying it - and that is understandable!

Enjoy!

Bye, Bye Chicago and another new pattern!

Well, I'm a little un-decided right now.  Just got word that this is going to be the last year for Chicago to host the International Spring Quilt Festival.  What a shame but I guess the terrible parking that is available and the high price to park where you can find a spot plus the 10% sales tax has just gotten to be to much.  Plus the fact that their are very few places to eat at without getting into a vehicle and driving to a location really added to the negatives.

I'm upset the show is moving.  This is the most "convenient" larger show for me to do - I get to come home every night after the show and sleep in my own bed.  I get to see my children every day while doing the show and see them off on the school bus in the morning and home in time to tuck them in at night. Plus the benefit of bringing more stock in everyday was also nice.  OK -  those are mostly selfish reasons, but they are true! Plus - I get to see so many of my friends at this show!

So, next year we move on to Cincinnati, Ohio.  April 8 - 10, 2011.  Hello Buckeyes!  I hope I can make this new location work.  I'm really not sure how yet, but if I am meant to go to Cincinnati next April I guess I'll figure it out!  I may need to beg a couple family members (hint, hint) to come help me if I make it to this venue, I'm not sure if I can wing it on my own!

So my fellow blogging friends - if you in any way can make it to the show this week in Chicago, please do so.  It will be your last chance to enjoy this awesome venue here.  The show starts at 5 pm this Tuesday the 15th and closes at 9 pm on this evening.  Then is open Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm.

Let's make the final year in Chicago a blast!

I finished up another new pattern earlier today - actually it's an updated version of a pattern we released 3 years ago.  This is called Mountain Trails

We have kits for both the red version and the blue version also.

You can view the pattern here:

New Pattern Designs

and the kits here:

New Kit Designs

This will be all the new goodies that I will have for a few more weeks.  After I get past these 2 large shows, then I'm back home and finishing up the other new projects I have in progress for quilt market!

The Butter Churn and Cheddar fabric arrived today. I have all the bundles ready to go for the shows!  I didn't have time to upload those fabrics yet to the website, but if you are coming to the show - I'll have them there!  I'll try to get them on the website ASAP!

3 New Pattern Designs!

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here in our neck of the woods.  The boys all snuck off on me and went dirt bike riding and my daughter is having a little girlie time with her friend.  So, I went outside this morning and finished shooting the pictures for 3 of our latest designs!

Here is the 3 newest ones (with another 1 or 2 to come soon if I can get moving on them!  LOL)

Above is #403 Shenandoah Valley

 This is #402 Old Rag Mountain

This is #401 Appalachian Trail

I've got all the new patterns listed on the website and you can find those here:

New Pattern Designs

I'm working on adding these latest three pattern kits also!  I should have that uploaded on the website in just a few moments and you will find the kits here:

Kits

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of these 3 new patterns - I would love to hear from you!

Inkwell Reds Fabric

I forgot to mention earlier - the Inkwell Reds fabric collection is back in stock.  We have yardage, half yard bundles, fat quarter bundles and fat eighth bundles on our website. You can view this collection of fabric here:

Inkwell Reds

I'm also getting in the Butter Churn and Cheddar fabric collection by Judie Rothermel.  I look for it to arrive any day now!  Lot's of gorgeous reds and yellows in this collection!

Rosalia Flower Garden Quilt

Well, we have a name for the block from yesterday's quilt that I showed.  It is Rosalia's Flower Garden.

It was originally a Kansas City Star pattern, originally published December 3, 1939. Block pattern found in Jinny Beyer's book "The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns". Page 416 block #2

The block can also be found in Barbara Brackman's book "Encyclopedia of Pieced Pattern". Page 70 block #430. In this book it's listed as being called Jack's Chain also!

Here's a link to an antique quilt of the same pattern:

http://shop.thequiltcomplex.com/2008/11/rosalias-flower-garden-crib-quilt.html

And here is a photo of the another quilt of this pattern found at the above link:

Thanks go out to my Aunt Julie who called me yesterday with the pattern name!  Makes life a little easier now doesn't it!

2010 String A Long Quilt Guild Show

2010 String A Long Quilt Guild Show, Valparaiso, Indiana

Here is the slide show for the 2010 String A Long Quilt Guild Show in Valparaiso, Indiana that I vended at a couple of weeks ago.  This was a very nice guild show with some beautiful quilts and lots of warm friendly people!  The guild members are extra sweet!

Please notice that several of the quilts toward the end of the slide show are made by a woman named Pat Atwell.  She was the featured quilter and does such beautiful work.  She has some awesome antique sewing machines too!

If you would prefer, here is the link to go directly to my WebShots album so you can view the pictures at your leisure!

2010 String A Long Quilt Guild Show

Name This Quilt Pattern

OK, the last show I did was in Valparaiso, Indiana and was put on by the String A Long Quilt Guild.  Great show - if you are close to that area, be sure to go to their next show in 2012!


Here is a quilt that I love and think would be so great and quick to piece.  The nine patches I could whip up on the sewing machine and use fabrics from my scrap basket.  Then I'm thinking the actual assembly of the quilt top would be a great hand piecing project while I'm on the road doing quilt shows!

So, here's the question of the day - Anyone have any idea what this quilt pattern is called? I'm sure I could draw it out in EQ 6, but I would really love to know the name of the pattern!

Hello World

Thank you to a very special and kind person who surprised me beyond belief last night by creating this page layout you see here!  She did it all on her own and I cannot explain what a relief it was to be on the receiving end of such a great gift.  I'm going to leave this person as nameless, because I'm not sure if she wants to advertise the fact that she can create such a pretty blog layout and ask nothing in return.  You know who you are and thank you a million again.

I'm had a few emails that pictures are not showing up in some of the new blog posts here that I was able to retrieve from my old blog.  Sadly, toward the end of that blogs life I started saving the images in a different file on my server and that file was deleted also.  I'm going to see if I saved any of these images somewhere else, but I'm not counting on it!

Also - I missed wishing everyone a Happy Easter while my old blog was having issues, so Happy Belated Easter!

I'm working on uploading pictures from out last quilt show we vending at - it was so fun!  When I get that finished, I'll post a little eye candy for you!

Word has it that Cocoa Express is making it's way to quilt shops now......hmmmm, I wonder if Mr. UPS man has my boxes???  Please Mr. UPS can you come visit me today with some pretty Cocoa Express?  I'm aware of one shop that received there order yesterday, so if anyone just cannot stand the wait any longer, contact me and I'll let you know where you can order some of this yummy fabric now from a friend of mine!

Testing....

Just a test to see if my "new" blog is working.

I've been having blog drama and had to completely delete my old blog - long story short - I'm happy to be on blogspot now and feel a lot safer here also!

I've lost all my contacts from my old blog, so dear fellow blog friends if you can pass my new blog address on to other bloggers in blogland - I would greatly appreciate it!

Here is the new "direct" address for our blog:

www.sewuniquecreationsblog.com

2010 Springfield Illinois Quilt Guild Show Pictures

Here are the pictures from last weekends quilt show in Springfield, Illinois!



2010 Springfield, Illinois Quilt Show

Here is the direct link to our webshots album if you would like to view the photos individually.

2010 Springfield Quilt Show

I hope you enjoy the pictures!  Toward the end of the album I took a lot of detailed close up shots of some beautiful hand quilting!

Our Facebook Page

Sew Unique Creations



Promote Your Page Too

I have been on facebook for a while now and enjoy it, but we are going to be separating our personal account from our business/quilting goodies.  I'll be keeping my original page for family and friends and going private with that.  This morning we created a fans page for Sew Unique Creation so that we can have fun with all our quilting friends.  I think I'll be having a lot of fun with this fans page if I can get it all figured out!  Come join me!

We are on Twitter also, but I'm not as "into" that as facebook.  I'll have to see if I can get a little bit more "techie" this morning and link the Twitter account to the facebook account so that I only have to update one at a time!  LOL

This Is What Chaos Looks Like

I don't think the following pictures of my sewing room need much explanation.  Chaos at its best....

Above is "supposed" to be my cutting counter.

Above is "supposed" to be my sewing area.

Above is "supposed" to be my pressing area. And I'm not even going to show you what is to the right of this picture - it's a mess - a big huge mess of papers, fabric samples, piles of scraps (geez I should do a scrap give away or something), pictures, bags for this weekends show - just a mess, trust me.

What you see here, is what I will be doing for the rest of today - and probably tomorrow.  Pictured is about 150 fat quarters that need folded (with about a gazillion more that I need to cut and get ready for the Chicago and Paducah shows). 12 fat quarter bundles with 24 pieces in each bundle (that's 288 fat quarters folks!)  186 kits that need to be folded and assembled. 378 patterns that need to be folded and assembled.  Oh yeah, and I think my apple and water bottle is hidden in there somewhere to - I'll snack on that if I can find my way to it.  Looks like fun huh?

Well, you will have to excuse me while I disappear into my cave for a little bit.  The photos of last weekends show are in my webshots album and if you've been there before I'm sure you can find it.  I'll post a more "professional" link to that when I get more time.

Also, be sure to view the 8 new patterns and kits we just uploaded on the website!  You'll get a first hand view of what all the above piles of fabric and paper will become in a few hours time.  Here are the links:

New Patterns

New Kits

Wish me luck and if anyone out there is really bored, come on over to my house and help me out for a little while!  The kids are off hiding on me (they are on spring break) - they know if I hear one "Mom, I'm bored" I'll find something really quick to keep them entertained!

Toodles!

Pictures For My Aunties

Here's a few photos of a quilt I saw this past weekend that I'm posting especially for my two Aunts that will just love it! (Don't forget - you can click on the photos to make them larger!)  I wish I were there with both of you right now!  I thought of you both when I was looking at this quilt - it was just so sweet to see in person!

Enjoy!

Yet Another Quilt Finish

Well, last week we were able to finish quilting yet another quilt during our longarm quilting time!  Here is my "mock" grandmother's flower garden quilt that I made back in December of 2008 using one of Moda's freebie patterns.  I adjusted the pattern a bit and cut 3" wide strips from a Blackbird Designs fat quarter bundle and then used my hexagon ruler to cut the shapes.

I love it!

Sorry for the bad angle on this picture!  The quilt is a queen size plus and I had to lay it on my living room floor and then go up the staircase and shoot the picture at a weird angle!  All because I'm to lazy to dig out the tripod quilt stands and go outside to take a picture!  LOL

Here's a close up - you can see the quilting better in this picture:

Last weekend's show was fun. The kids went with me and ran the booth like champs while I ran around taking quilt pictures and chatting.  I'll upload those photos later on and post a link here to my webshots like usual!

I think the biggest highlight of this past weekends show for me was getting the chance to sit and chat with 3 very accomplished quilters.  One lady showed my daughter and I how to do some of those beautiful ribbon work type flowers for Baltimore Album quilts.  She showed a great one using rick-rack.  The other 2 ladies were priceless and I could have sat an talked with them for hours.  Both ladies shared endless tips and techniques on hand quilting.  They hand quilt beautifully and could probably do it in their sleep.  I also learned a lesson that I need to remind myself of every once in a while - sometimes the good old fashioned way of doing things is best.  I'm reminded time and time again that some of the tools in the quilting market today are not all they are cracked up to be and we just don't "need" them.  Going back to what our grandmother's used is sometimes best and all we need.

One thing that still gets me though - that tiny, faint little line drawn as a marking guideline for hand quilting using a pencil????  I don't know why I really enjoy studying old antique quilts and love finding the pencil/quilting lines - but why does it irritate me on my own work when I cannot get those lines to erase and be gone!   One of those odd little quirks about myself I guess.  I even got a little scare last week when I washed 6 of my newest little quilt designs and "assumed" the chalk pencil lines would disappear.  When I pulled them out of the wash - they were still there!  I about freaked!  I had to scrub each individual area very gently with soap and a sponge.  What a pain!

Also - if you are interested, the Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon batting is back in stock on the website. This is the batting I use for all my hand quilting projects.  I can get several little quilts out of one of these packages!   Just go here:

Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon Batting

Also - after speaking with those 2 wonderful ladies this past weekend, I ordered some Hobb's Thermore batting.  They swear by it for hand quilting.  It's a low loft poly batting - which I swore I would never use - but they bent my wrist a little and I decided to try it for my next hand quilting projects.  I'm only stocking the smaller size for now to test it out, but if there is enough interest we can get larger batt sizes.  I'll be hand quilting some of my newer small quilts using this batting once they are completed.  The quilts those 2 special ladies showed me this weekend sold me on trying out the low loft poly batting.  Any thoughts on this batting? The Thermore batting is listed here:

Thermore Batting

Also, the remaining bolts of Aster Manor fabric have been marked down to $5.00 a yard.

And yes, we are still sadly waiting on our initial order of Ravenwood fabric.  I'm really bummed it's not here yet.  Cocoa Express should be here in the next couple of weeks also - I wonder if I'll get it - or will I get bumped from the order line up again?  I guess time will tell!

Plus, I hope those of you that are local will come out to see us at the quilt show this weekend!  We'll be in Valparaiso, Indiana vending at the Quilts In Bloom Quilt Show presented by the String-A-Long Quilt Guild.  The show is at the Porter County Expo Center, 215 East Division Road, Valparaiso, Indiana.  It's conveniently located one mile south of Route 30 on Route 49.  So easy to get to and a nice large parking area!  I remember going to this location as a child for the fair - brings back a lot of memories!

2010 Plainfield Quilt Guild Show Pictures

Here are the photos from this past weekends quilt show.  The Plainfield Quilt Guild put on another great show, the quilts were gorgeous and the vendors were excellent.  I was able to find a couple older magazine to add to my collection along with an older quilt book that is now out of print, so I'm a happy camper!

Here's the slide show of the photos (please remember I did my best to get pictures of each of the name tags too!  Many from this show listed the pattern designer or the source of the pattern!)

2010 Plainfield Quilt Show

If you would like to go directly to my WebShots album and view the photos individually here's that link:

2010 Plainfield Quilt Guild Show

Quilting today was excellent!  My quilting is getting so much better!  I quilted the entire queen almost king size quilt and now it just needs to be bound.  But I have lots of work to do - we leave Thursday afternoon for our first quilt show of the season that we are vending at!  So I better run and go get the trailer and start loading up!

Chat more later!

201

My Proud Moment

It's the little things in life that make me happy. But I finally, after 11 1/2 years of designing patterns had a "big" proud moment this past weekend while visiting the Plainfield Quilt Guild show.

You see, I've been to many - many - quilt shows and seen 1,000's upon 1,000's of quilts on display.  I've even seen our own pattern designs made up and hanging so beautifully on display and really enjoyed it, but felt a little let down each time.  Why?  Well, because even though it had been our quilt design it had never had one of those beautiful name tags hanging on it proudly stating who designed the quilt or where the pattern design originated from.

My wait is over - look -

Sandy - thank you from the bottom of my heart for stating where the pattern came from.  I can't tell you how much that meant to me.  I stopped  and almost tripped someone by stopping so suddenly when I saw the quilt.  It brought tears to my eyes when I read this label - seriously I had to hold back the tears, because the flood gates had opened.  I stood there and admired Sandy's talent. Her piecing is beautiful, her fabrics were gorgeous and her quilting - wow - I want her to quilt one of my quilts!  I took pictures and walked on to the next quilt display.

Then I came back to look again....

Yep, the quilt was still there and so was the name tag.  I hadn't imagined it.

Look.....

I have a confession to make - I kept going back and looking at that quilt.  6 times total and each time I got a little thrill.  Each time someone was there admiring Sandy's work.  Each time they where delighted by her quilt.  Each time I was so happy that Sandy had purchased our pattern and thought enough of it to proudly state on the name tag on this quilt who designed it.  I'm proud of you to Sandy.

So here's a little reminder to everyone.  When you submit your quilts to shows of any size, please state where the pattern design came from or originated from.  You cannot imagine the feeling the designer will get if they stumble upon it and you just never know who might be viewing those quilts at the quilt show.  The same goes for stating whomever quilted your quilt - Long-arm quilters deserve recognition also!

I can still remember the first time I saw a model of one of our pattern designs hanging in a quilt shop.  I cried.  And still today I'll see things in random quilt shops and my eyes will tear up.  The most recent time was when I was in The Back Door Quilt Shop in Indiana.  My daughter was with me and caught me tearing up - I got the "Mommmmm" warning and then she said "Mom - isn't that one of your patterns"  and I said "Yes, isn't that cool"  Her simple "Yeah, that is" made my day and we walked on. Then she asked "Does this mean your famous".  It was cute - it was very cute coming from my 12 year old.  I said "No, not at all" and she replied "Yeah right Mom" and rolled her eyes.

I can't explain the tingling feeling you get when you see something you worked really hard on, then put it out there in pattern form and hope for the best and then one day walk upon it in a quilt shop or at a show.  It's awesome, it's exhilarating and it makes you want to work even harder to make sure you have more "sitings" in the future.

Thank you quilt shop owners for purchasing our pattern and making the models and hanging them in your awesome shops and selling our patterns. It really means a lot to me.

Thank you to people like Sandy that bought our pattern, dug into their stashes of fabric and took the time to make the quilt or project.  Then took the time to fill out the form her guild gave her when submitting her finished quilt to their show.

Thank you!  You made me day - week - month and year.  This is one of those moments I will not forget.

I'm off to long-arm quilt today.  Working on a hexagon quilt that I pieced on the machine way back in December of 2008.  It's all Blackbird Designs fabric and it's so pretty.  Can't wait to finish it up so I can show you!

I'm also busy uploading the pictures from this past weekends quilt show. Those will either be ready this evening or tomorrow.  I'll try to get a link posted for you!