Winter Storm Coming!

Well, if all our weathermen are correct - we will soon be buried under a pile of snow.  Somewhere between 18 to 24 inches.  Wow - I have not seen snow in that amount since I was a kid!

If all of it does come, I guarantee you - I will be playing a little in my own stash of fabrics because I'm not getting out in all that white stuff!  Also - just a little warning - if that much snow comes, our postal pick up for orders might be a little behind.  So don't get worried if your order ships out in the next couple days and seems to be taking a bit longer than in the past.

Wish us luck - we may just need it!  LOL - but I am so looking forward to being "snowed in"  - I'll be quilting away while all that white stuff is coming down!  Yaa Hoo!

Give A Way Winner Announcement!

Wow - I am really impressed with all the comments on our Give A Way post!  Each of them are wonderful tips for quilters! If you get a chance, go back and read through the comments on that blog post which you can find here:

Simply Charming Book Give A Way

This morning, my fun loving daughter had the honor of picking today's winning name out of the basket.  She was so tickled to be a part of this.  My little Ashley has nicknamed me the "Quilt Fabric Hoarder" and she asked me "Mom, do you know this person?  Does she hoard fabric like you?"  I had to laugh!  Well....

Miss Lori - Do you hoard fabric also?

Congratulations Lori of Humble Quilts Blog fame.

You can view her awesome blog here and leave her a comment congratulating her on her win today.  Lori, if you will contact me at sewunique7@aol.com  I will ship a copy of our new book and both charm packs out to you!

Have a great weekend everyone.  I'm going to pack up a few orders this morning, tinker around in the kitchen this afternoon and then sit in my favorite recliner, relax, watch a rented movie and enjoy a little hand piecing this evening!

Pictures from the 2010 DeKalb County Quilt Show!

Ok, so I'm a little behind on posting pictures from some of the quilt shows from last year.  Well, a bit more like - way behind!  I was cleaning out my digital camera card and it had over 2500 pictures on it - oops!

Here is the slideshow of the quilts on display at the 2010 DeKalb County Quilters Guild Show that I was a vendor at last October!  A fun time was had by all!

If you would prefer not to watch the slide show and would like to go directly to my WebShots album - here is that link:

2010 DeKalb County Quilters Guild Show

2010 DeKalb County Quilters Quilt Show

Simply Charming Book Give Away!

To celebrate the release of our new book
Simply Charming: Small Scrap Quilts of Yesteryear

We are going to have a give away!  By answering one little question for us, we will put your name in the drawing for one copy of the book (and if you have already purchased the book through us - we will either refund the cost of the book to you and also send you the other two goodies or you have the choice of receiving another book and passing it on to a friend etc. - so join in!) and also one each of the following:

A 42 - piece charm pack of Primitive Muslin designed by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings and

and this 48 piece charm pack that we have assembled.  There are 24 different fabrics - 2 of each print.

So - what I am curious to find out ----- what is the biggest or best tip you would give another quilter?  Think of something valuable that you have learned along the way and would like to pass on to other quilters - new or advance!

We will do the drawing this coming Saturday morning, January 29th, 2011.  (and don't worry or think we are ignoring you if we do not respond to each comment - it's kind of crazy around here right now packing the book orders up!)

Enjoy and good luck!

Also - we are including our newsletter below that we sent out earlier today.  If you are not on our email newsletter list, please feel free to join either here on our blog in the upper right hand corner of the screen or on our opening page of our website - just scroll down the page a little bit.  www.sewuniquecreations.com

Here is today's newsletter - read no further if you already received it!

We are proud to announce:

Simply Charming: Scrap Quilts of Yesteryear

our new book - has arrived! We are ever so in love with it and happy to share it with you!  This book has 20 scrappy style projects included for your quilting pleasure.

All 20 projects can be viewed on our website!  Come see!




We also welcome the following new fabric lines:




The Cocheco Mills II collection by Judie Rothermel

This pretty collection is full of the most amazing blues and reds in the perfect shades for your reproduction projects!

Bonnie Blue Basics III by Paula Barnes of Bonnie Blue Quilts

Great group of fabrics to use as "blenders" and "stash enhancement" pieces.  Lovely small prints.



Devon Shirtings by Nancy Gere

Great small prints on these fabrics and excellent shirtings!


Also just in:


Prairie Women's Sewing Circle: Journey #2




Friendship Strips & Scraps by Edyta Sitar


Jo's Little Women Club #10
(we currently have 4 more club member packs in stock - we will order more if their is interest! - Just let us know!)

We also have re-stocked our shelves with the following fabric collections:

Ember Reds & Evergreens
Attic Shirtings
Spice Chest
Indigo Berries
Ravenwood
Cocoa Express
Complements
Toast
Toast II
Stafford County
Hurrah
Annandale
Cinnamon & Spice
Fairfax County
Crimson & Clover
Jo's Chintz
(some of the above mentioned fabric lines we have the entire collection of - other's we ordered certain pieces!)

And last but not least, Barbara Brackman's new line due to be released next month is now available for Pre-Order!



Civil War Reunion Fabric Collection

Now, it's back to work for us!  We have two extra sets of hands on board today - helping us to pack up all the pre-orders for our book!  If you have already placed your order for our new book, we will have every order packed and shipped by February 1st!  We promise!

Also, if you are "in the area" all the quilt models from our new book, Simply Charming will be delivered to Robert's Sewing Center in Joliet/Crest Hill, Illinois, this coming Friday (January 28th, 2011) plus the books (we will be dropping them off Friday afternoon)!  So stop by there and see the models and pick up your copy of the book soon!  They are taking phone reservations for the books also! You may call them at 1-815-729-1600

The models for the book will be on display there at Roberts Sewing Center for the entire month of February! Feel free to stop in and browse!

We will also be having a book signing event with demos on:

February 26th from 10 am to Noon at Roberts Sewing Center in Joliet/Crest Hill, Illinois

Family Quilts

I woke up this morning with my great Aunt on my mind.  She recently has been stumbling and falling a little and had to be taken to the doctor last week for a cut on her leg from one of those falls.  She put quite the scare into all of us!  My great Aunt Columbia is my oldest living relative in our immediate family.  She is such a gem and still lives on her own and quilts on a daily basis.  She has this wonderful old quilt frame in her bedroom that is hung from the ceiling and "let down" when it's time to quilt.  She has not been doing a lot of hand quilting lately as it's hard for her now.  But she still peddles away on her treadle sewing machine!

Above are 2 photographs that she gave to me this past November when we went down for a visit.  I treasure these photos.  Both of these quilts were sold some years ago and I would so love to stumble upon them one day, but what are the chances of that.  I would also like to find out the names of the quilt patterns - so if you have any idea what the blocks are called - leave me a comment!

You might remember me speaking of my great Aunt in the past here on the blog and on FaceBook.  Here's a photo of her:

In this photo is my Aunt Teresa on the left, great Aunt Columbia in the middle helping to hold up one of her beautiful creations and then on the right is my Aunt Julie.  All three of these women are quilters in my family and each of them are special to me.  They also have a quilt named after them in my new book

Simply Charming: Small Scrap Quilts of Yesteryear 

which my favorite boy in brown lovingly known as Mr. UPS will be delivering today.  He better have that hand dolly ready to haul all those boxes of books up the driveway!  Knowing me - I'll probably run down the driveway and give him a huge hug when he pulls up.  I just cannot put into words how utterly excited I am about this book.  To think - it's somewhere on a truck in my town right now - so close, yet just not here yet - I wish he had a GPS tracking system where I could stalk his every move (just kidding, I am not a stalker!)!

Here's another pretty creation my great Aunt made.  I will make a quilt just like this one day - colors and all - just like this one!  I so love this quilt!

Jacks Chain & Rosalia Flower Garden Quilt Patterns

We are up to our ear's in fabric here with the UPS truck making daily deliveries.

So, I thought I'd take a little coffee break and show you a little treasure I purchased in an ebay auction.

I just love a good scrappy project, now granted - this one is a little on the bright side for me, but it's still neat.  It's scrappy!  The fabrics and various pieces that came with this unfinished quilt top are just a treasure to look at and enjoy.  When I saw this quilt up for auction on Ebay - I immediately thought of my Aunt who is making one of these quilts right now out of 1" squares of scrap fabrics!

Here's a picture of one of the quilt blocks included in the auction.

And a few completed nine patches:

This quilt pattern is called Jack's Chain or Rosalia Flower Garden. It's block #430 in Barbara Brackman's encyclopedia of pieced quilt patterns or in BlockBase if you have that program for Electric Quilt (love those 2 programs!)

I also found this pattern in the book called "The Romance Of  Double Wedding Ring Quilts" by Robert Bishop (which by the way you can pick up a copy really cheap on amazon.com right now!)  In his book it's called Amish Nine Patch Wedding Ring.

Below is the quilt shown in the book.

Well, that's all for today.  I have to get back to work. Bonnie Blue Basics III and The Cocheco Mills II collections arrived today and we need to get the bundles cut!

Have a good one!

My Heart Is All A Flutter today!

My heart is pounding ever so fast today.... I just received confirmation that our book is shipping out today!  If you have not been to our website to view all 20 projects that are in this book, feel free to visit the following link and scroll down where you will see a picture of each quilt!

Simply Charming: Small Scrap Quilts Of Yesteryear

It should be hitting your local quilt shops shelves any day now!  We should have our order this week also and I'll be shipping these out as soon as they arrive! (And just a little FYI for my local friends and fellow quilters - Roberts Sewing Center here in Joliet, Illinois, will for have their copies of our book by Monday January 31st - if not sooner!  We'll be dropping all 20 models off at the quilt shop also, if you would like to stop in and take a look at each of them!  Also - don't forget out book signing at Roberts Sewing Center on February 26th, from 10 am to Noon!)

And as always, we will ship all pre-orders in the order they were received.  It will probably take me a few days to get all the orders for these caught up, so just be patient with me!  I have enough ordered to cover all pre-orders plus some extras.  Feel free to place your order for your copy today!

Also - a little birdie told me that this has arrived also:

   

Prairie Women's Sewing Circle: Journey #2 is now here!  

Oh and I cannot wait to get started on these quilts!  They are all breathtaking and I'm having a hard time deciding which one to start on first.  Plus, we've ordered more fabric to make up kits for a few of these too!

And another little birdie told me that this is arriving today:

We will begin shipping the Club kits for Jo's Little Women Club #10 out tomorrow as long as my faithful UPS man delivers these as scheduled today!  Only a few of the pre-orders will ship at this time because we have not received all of Jo's fabric yet, but we will ship them as soon as all the pre-ordered fabrics have arrived also.  We started receiving some of the fabrics from Jo's various lines last week and I'm assuming more will be appearing this week also!

A Fabricologist Resource Center.....

I have a "Fabricologist Resource Center".....now doesn't that sound more impressive than "fabric stash". (author unknown)

I love this quote. Fabricologist Resource Center - can I use that on my homeowners insurance as an impressive title for my hoarding tendencies toward fabrics?  Do you think the insurance company would laugh at me and think I've lost my mind?  LOL

Along with a growing stash of fabrics that I love and have no regrets about having, I've been building a "resource center" of old quilt blocks, templates, quilt tops, old vintage fabrics etc.

I woke up this morning thinking about these little gems:

I'm assuming these little blocks should be arranged in this fashion.  They remind me of a double wedding ring quilt.  I do not know the name of this pattern, have no templates for the shapes at all.  I received these in a "treasure" box that I purchased on ebay last year.  There were only a couple completed blocks and several cut pieces of fabric.

I like this block, I would love to make a quilt like this some day. I do not need another project right now!  LOL

Anyone out there ever seen a block like this?  Do you know the name of it?  As I looked through my goodie bin this morning searching for these blocks and fabrics (because they were engraved in my brain when I woke up - I wonder if I was having a dream about them - why do I wake up thinking about these!), I just kept wondering about the quilters that made these beauties that I know have.  

Devon Shirtings Fabrics

These pretty little prints arrived late yesterday!  This is the Devon Shirtings collection by Nancy Gere for Windham Fabrics. We were able to get in 26 bolts out of the collection, the rest have been discontinued or are on backorder now.  Such a shame they discontinue such good shirting fabrics!

All the fabrics are available as yardage or fat quarters on our website plus fat quarter, half yard, fat eighth and fat sixteenth bundles! You can view those here:

Devon Shirting Collection

Last night I was able to go to our quilt guild meeting.  I really enjoy getting out every now and then for quilt fun!  We were able to view some lovely scrap quilts last night and wouldn't you know it - I forgot my camera!  Figures!

A Quilter's Must haves....

I just had to come back and blog about something today again....

These are just too darn cute and I had the honor of meeting the gal behind all this creativity last year at a quilt show and I was lucky enough to be able purchase a few of her pieces - and now I want more!  Look!

You must go and visit Julie and see her goodies! She started a blog - yeah - more fun stuff to read! Here's her blog addy:

Me and My Stitches Blog

Go leave her a little comment and welcome her to blogland.  

(I'm really wanting one of those cute little scissor fobs - so neat!)

Redware & Harvest Quilt & Prairie Women's Sewing Circle Updates!

Here is a little of what I tinkered around with last night and this morning.  This is Redware & Harvest and is one of the projects in the Jo's Little Women Club #10 that we are doing as an online group.  Today after I pack orders, answer a few emails and check on fabric orders, I'll be quilting this one.  I wish I had time to hand quilt it, but I do not believe that is going to happen this time!

If you are thinking about joining the Jo's Little Women Club - it's still not to late.  I'm going to be ordering the pattern sets today and I'll be sure to order a few extras.  Send me an email if you are thinking about joining in the future so we can get a good idea of how many participants we may have. You can join at any time and just jump right in on the fun!

The above quilt will be offered as a kit.  I'm still figuring out the yardage and double checking everything and we will put the kit on the website as soon as possible.

  

In other exciting news - Prairie Women's Sewing Circle: Journey #2 is now available on our website!  I'll be receiving these pattern packets this weekend and will begin to ship those the first part of next week. This little club is sure to be a fun one also!  I'll begin working on kits as soon as I have our shop packet in hand! I need more time - I want to make everything in this club!

In other news, we are sold out of Spool Block Templates (again!) for the Spoolin' Around Club.  I placed another order yesterday, so hopefully we will see those very soon also! Also - I've ordered more stamp pads and re-inkers.  The stamp pad's that come with the spool templates generally last throughout the making of a good large sized quilt, but I know several people have joined in on the fun and are sharing the template stamps and have been using other stamp templates by Cindy Blackberg, so we will now also have the Chocolate, White and the Black stamp pads and the re-inkers if you choose just to re-ink your current stamp pads!  Those should be in next week and I'll list them to the site soon!

Plus - for all you Road To California show go'ers - have fun!  I wish I could visit this show someday - take lots of pictures and post to your blogs!  We love seeing how much fun everyone has at the shows! And good luck to all my "show roadies" friends - I'll miss not seeing you at this show and vending with you and wish you the best of luck!  (Lucky people - they are enjoying 80 degree weather right now and I'm sitting here in 18 degrees and ice on the roads!  I'm jealous, pure and simple!)

OK, enough jibber, jabber, I must get on with the day!  Have a great day everyone! 

(oh - and if you have not signed up for our newsletter - please do so!  I don't like to fill my blog constantly with "business" stuff - I want my blog to be fun, but I'm always afraid I'll miss a few of my quilting friends if I don't mention things on this blog!  Sign up for the newsletter - I always mention things there that I just do not talk about here! I'll probably be sending out another issue this Friday or next Monday!)

Lonestar Log Cabin Finished!

 Surprisingly - these mitered corners on my quilt went together easily and quickly last night.  Usually mitered corners on small quilts are a breeze for me and then when I do them on larger quilts - I run into a snag or two.  But this time the "quilting Gods" were with me!

And here is the finished quilt top!  I'm loving it!  Please excuse the props you see in the background - photography genius I am not - and my living room is only so big!  This quilt was way to large for me to put up on the design wall and try to take a picture!  I attempted that this morning and could not stand back far enough to get a good picture!  So the living room floor it is and me standing way up on the stair case looking down acting like a monkey hanging over the ledge to get a good picture!  (picture that without laughing!)

I'm getting the backing fabric ready today and then I'll be shipping this pretty quilt off to the long arm quilter along with 3 other quilt tops that have been sitting here needing a little attention!

Then I think I might just work on a little Jo Morton quilt today if all goes well!  Have a great day!

Borders are going on smoothly...

The borders are going on smoothly this evening.  The Lonestar Log Cabin quilt is getting closer to being finished and headed to the long armquilter.

It's been a good project.  Took me awhile to get it completed with everything else we've been busy with. I'm bound and determined to get these mitered borders finished tonight!  Wish me luck!

Today's adventure

Well, today finds me having a little more fun on this quilt.  I achieved my personal mini goal yesterday and was able to complete all the log cabin blocks!  Yeah me!

Last night I arranged the upper left corner of the quilt.  I fussy cut a particular stripe fabric I had in my stash to go around the medallion lonestar center and I'm really loving that.  Now, here's the funny part.  I did not like how that outer border was looking at all to my naked eye. I started thinking, OK Tara - that's just not going to cut it.  Darn - guess I'll use it as a backing!

Well, live and learn - how many times have I heard of people taking photos of their quilts and then changing their minds about certain things once they see the digital image??  Tons - now that I've taken this photo and looked at it all from a different angle - I'm liking the border fabric again.  Live and learn I guess!

Today, my goal is to complete this section of the quilt.  Then I hope to pull some fabrics to get started on making a sample of one of the Jo's Little Women Club #10 quilts.  Also, I want to pull some fabrics for one of the quilts from the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle Journey #1 club quilts!  Sounds like a pretty busy day to me!  Oh yeah, some hand piecing on those spool blocks again this evening sounds quite enticing with a nice hot cup of tea!

Just a few spool blocks!

I am really enjoying piecing these spool blocks.  To sit and hand piece in the evening with a nice hot cup of coffee or tea is sheer joy and such a stress reliever!!!  I have half of the first months set of blocks finished for January for our Spoolin' Around Club!

In this picture you see that all the fabrics are the same in the spool blocks, but as I continued to sew I discovered I prefer the way these turned out!

I like them scrappy style much more!  So here's what I've decided to do for this project.  Each month we can make 40 spool blocks out of the 5" x 20" pieces of fabric in the club. I am going to continue to make 10 of them that have all the same fabrics matching as in the first photo above.  The next 10 I am going to make scrappy style from that months selection of fabric. Then the remaining 20 - I am going to carry those pieces forward into other months and mix and match those fabrics also!

After I thought about this, I really think it will give the finished quilt a really different look!

Plus, I wanted to share with you - for those of you that have joined the club and are receiving the 5" x 20" fabric packs each month - you will have plenty of fabric left over to make a few more blocks - beyond what you will need for the finished quilt!  I'm thinking about using my scraps to make more of these little spoon blocks to make matching pillows or maybe a table runner and a few small quilts for Christmas gifts!  Now there's an idea!

Now, I need to get back to work for the day.  I have to finish piecing the February club blocks and also ------- I only have a few more blocks to finish for my Lonestar Log Cabin quilt!  I almost finished them yesterday but ran short on time!  I really need to get these two items completed soon - we have the Jo's Little Women Club projects that I want to begin working on as soon as the club patterns get here plus the big one ---the Paducah Quilt Show and Quilt Market in Salt Lake City is coming up really soon and I need some new goodies to introduce along with our book!

I'll be sewing the day away today and I hope you can enjoy your day as much as I am mine!

Lonestar Log Cabin Progess

Here's my lonestar center so far!  I don't think I have showed you this yet with the background fabric added to it!

And we are still plugging away on the Log Cabin Blocks.

I'm making progress - but honestly - It seems to be taking me forever to get anywhere on this quilt!  I'm loving it, but I can't wait to start putting the top together!  I have one more round to go on my log cabin blocks.  Maybe if I put my foot to the pedal a little today, I can get this last bit accomplished!

Not to many strips left!  The end is near I do believe!

Wish me luck in finishing these blocks today - I might be hoping for more than is possible, I only have 2 hours and 45 minutes till the kids school bus arrives!  I'd like to hand piece a little this evening also and work on my little spool blocks using the February fabric pack for our Spoolin' Around Club!

Happy quilting and I leave you with this little ditty....

I love quilting and have a plenty of material witnesses to prove it!

Jo's Little Women Club #10

Having trouble locating a "Jo's Little Women Club" near you?

We can help you out!  Our club is online only!

Jo Morton's new Jo's Little Women Club #10 will be available soon - oh so soon - but you can pre-order your Club #10 pattern set now!!!  This club pattern set has 8 new patterns!  All gorgeous!

By signing up for this online club, you will receive the club pattern set, and a coupon good for 15% off your purchases on our website (online orders only - no phone orders please!) that is good from February 15th through November 15, 2011!

We have to play by the "club rules" just like everyone else and there is a fabric purchase requirement!

To be eligible for the purchase of Jo's Little Women Club #10 - you must also purchase a minimum total of 6 yards of Jo Morton fabric from our website (any combination as long as the total fabric purchase is for at least 6 yards total and we have to follow the "rules" to be able to play in this club, so they have to be Jo Fabrics!!)  This purchase must be made at the same time that you are ordering Jo's Little Women Club #10.  (With one exception to this - If you have placed an order or pre-order for any Jo Morton fabric during the month of January 2011 while we were waiting for the club information - that fabric purchase will go toward your six yard minimum purchase!  - Don't worry about looking for your receipts - we keep good records! If you cannot remember if you ordered any Jo fabric during January 2011 - just email us with your first and last name and we will look it up for you!)

If you are pre-ordering your 6 yard minimum fabric purchase - the Jo's Little Women Club #10 pattern set will ship to you when the fabric arrives and is shipped to you also!

Today we finished uploading a lot of Jo Morton fabric that was recently ordered to replace our dwindling supply of Jo Fabric. Andover is finally done with their yearly inventory and they can now ship fabric again!!!  Our orders will be shipping to us this week and over the next several weeks as they get more out of stock prints in!  All of that fabric can be found here:

Fabric Available for Pre-Order from Jo Morton


 

We do still have Jo Fabrics in stock now - but our inventory is low!  Enjoy browsing our website to see what lovely fabrics we have now and what is coming soon!
 

We are trying to get a good idea of just how many people are interested in this club.  We will be placing our intitial order for pattern sets within the next 2 weeks and will place additional orders as need be!  We will do our best to have the pattern Club packets in stock by February 1st - which would work out great for everyone because that should be about the time we are going to receive several and I do mean several gorgeous boxes of Andover Fabrics! (Would you not love to come play with us the day the "UPS Man" delivers all these goodies!  We should have a fabric party!)

You may pre-order your Jo's Little Women Club #10 pattern packet now and Jo Fabrics by visiting our website here:

Jo's Little Women Club #10

As always, we will not charge your credit card until all the items you wish to purchase are in stock and ready to ship.  Please note: if you are using PayPal and paying be credit card - your card will be charged at the time you place the order!  This is not our policy, it is normal PayPal policy.

****And to answer a question that might pop up - if you order a couple or a few fabrics or bundles that may not come into stock at the same time and you are going to order the Club #10 pattern set.  We will ship you the patterns for the club at the same time that we ship all of the fabrics once they are in stock.  For example: the Hurrah collection is due to arrive this month and let's say you would like to order a bundle of the Ravenwood fabric also - well, some of those fabrics will not be here until Mid February - so everything on that order will ship once all fabrics are here.

**** We would love to be able to start an online photo album of all the "in-progress" or completed Jo Projects!  So - as you are working on things - send us pictures!  We love to see what others are working on!  Plus, we will share this photo album with Jo herself!  She loves seeing everyone's completed projects!

Have a great day everyone and keep on quilting! I'll be back later on today to share some progress pictures with you on my Lonestar Log Cabin quilt that I'm still plugging away at!

Primitive Muslins Arriving Today

So exciting around here today!  The Primitive Muslin's fabric designed by Primitive Gatherings for Moda is arriving today!  

(Oh please Mr. Man in Brown - aka the UPS man - hurry up and get here!)

These muslins are just so pretty!

Well, this day just keeps getting better - pinch me!

Look what the boy in brown, driving that big fancy UPS truck just brought me:

Oh my, what's this???  Nope - not a box from Moda - yes, I know it has Moda tape on it - but I "recycled" this box many months ago when I sent something to a very special place called "Kansas City Star".

Hmmmm, let's see what's inside, could it be.....

Oh.... my heart is pounding and I'm shaking from the adrenaline rush!

Yep, it's my little jewels come back home to me.  All 20 little pretties are safely back home and awaiting their guest appearance at their first book signing in a few weeks!  Right now they are being printed into this:

And I couldn't be happier.

Thank you Kansas City Star - you rock!