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!)