Friday, July 30, 2010

Rocky Mountain Quilt Fever Shop Hop 2010

It's almost time for the Rocky Mountain Quilt Fever, Colorado Memories Shop Hop. It's August 6, 7, and 8th. Yikes, it's almost August--where has the summer gone?

Last year for the Shop Hop we designed a beautiful batik. This year, we designed a beautiful toile fabric with RJR. The toile showcases many Colorado landmarks and symbols, including Grand Mesa, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the "Sleeper House", the State Capital, the and many others. If you have ever lived in Colorado, visited Colorado, or want to make a quilt for someone that has lived in Colorado, then you need at least a yard of this exclusive fabric. Six yards would make a beautiful backing for any quilt that has a Colorado connection. Here are a few of the images on the fabric.






All of the shops have designed an exclusive quilt that showcases the main fabric or the secondary fabric (the same design, but not as much of a contrast). We expect that this exclusive fabric will sell fast, so order ASAP!!

Happy Hopping!

Lynda and Nancy

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Christmas in July

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas in July at Great American Quilt Factory, starts this Sunday, July 18th and goes through Saturday, July 24th. Customers in the store and online will enjoy 20% savings off of anything Christmas. What a great time to start your Christmas sewing.

Just in time for Christmas in July is our newest pattern No Peeking. This delightful wallhanging/banner is approx. 14 x 40".

No Peeking's bright colors and simple patchwork and applique make this a perfect gift.

We have a ton of Christmas fabric and Nancy and the design team have stitched up lots and lots of stitching friendly panel quilts. See some of them on the website http://www.greatamericanquilt.com/.

Also on display in the store are several of the models from our newest C&T book Christmas with Possibilities.
Christmas with Possibilities is truly a lovely book filled with 16 holiday projects--some old fav's from out of print books and some wonderful new projects! If you can make it into the store, I'm sure you will enjoy seeing the actual quilts and projects.

Last, but not least, become a fan of Great American Quilt Factory on Facebook for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate. We have already given away 2 and are giving away at least one more when we reach our 1000th fan. Go to Great American Quilt Factory and click on "Like" at the top of the page next to our name. Good Luck!

Happy stitching,

Lynda

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Happy Fourth of July


Happy Fourth of July friends,

It is a beauty of a holiday weekend here in Denver--a little barbequing, a little partying, and lots of friends. The quilt above is 1776 from our Seasonal Delights book. I thought it was very appropiate for this weekend.

We have a very special tradition in our neighborhood. For a reasonable price a couple of boy scouts put up a large flag on everyone's lawn for all patriotic days. The street looks lovely with all the flags flying. They put them up at dawn and take them down just before dusk. I can't wait to see them tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend and maybe get in a little stitching.

Lynda

Saturday, June 26, 2010

More books for you to enjoy...............

Well, I've finished listening to a couple more books that I think you might enjoy. The first is The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, which was recommended to me by a blog reader. I have never been much into history, but the last several books I have read are piqueing my interest. This book takes place in Seattle in 1986 with flashbacks back to the 1940's. It is about a Chinese-American boy named Henry and his friendship with a Japanese-American girl named Keiko. Keiko's family is interned into a camp during WWII. It is a somewhat bittersweet story but I really enjoyed it. Today I finished listening to Breaking Dawn--the final book in the Twilight Saga. I enjoyed the series, but found that I was more than ready for it to be over. I am looking forward to seeing the new movie Eclipse based on the third book.

My next audio book listen is also from a series. I'll start listening to it on my trip to the store and back for inventory, tonight. Fun, fun! It is the third book in a trilogy--The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson. He is a Swedish author and I enjoyed knowing a little about Sweden, having been there on two vacations. His books are full of intrigue and his first book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will be out as a movie, soon.

I am also actually reading Shift by Peter Arnell. I saw him interviewed on the Today show a few days ago and found him fascinating. The subtitle for his book is "How to reinvent your business, your career, and your personal brand". He has worked with many of the top companies in the world with his branding and design expertise and he himself lost over 256 pounds. It's a very fascinating story!

Please send me your favorite books and I will check them out and possibly put them on my "wish list".

Happy listening or reading,

Lynda

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Have you ever....?

Have you ever been cleaning out your stash and come across something that has you saying to yourself "What was I thinking?" This is what made me say it--a pattern for troll doll clothes--what WAS I thinking? And yet, it's so funny that I can't bear to part with it. Leave a comment to let me know about one of your "What was I thinking?" moments. : )


Still sorting and cleaning,
Lynda

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Kathie Savickas' Christmas Quilt

We were treated on Monday to a special visit by Kathie Savickas, who lives in California. Her daughter lives in the Denver area, so she visits the store whenever she's in Denver. Awhile back, she decided she wanted to make a Christmas quilt. One of our ladies led her to our Seasonal Delights book that has a Christmas Sampler with a Santa Claus. The book also contains two other samplers--one with Uncle Sam, and one with a witch. Kathie creatively decided that the witch could turn into Mrs. Santa and enlarged the quilt to include her, also.

Here is her finished quilt. She repeated some blocks and created new ones, too. We think you will agree that Mrs. Santa is very charming. To see the original witch before she was transformed and other projects in Seasonal Delights, click here.




What inspiration you gave us, Kathie! Thank you for sharing your quilt and it's bittersweet story with all of us and some other lucky customers who happened to be in the store at the same time.

Keep inspiring others with your wonderful projects!


Happy stitching,
Lynda and Nancy

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Dino Buddies--and more new stuff to come!

This is one of the three new patterns we debuted at Quilt Market last month in Minneapolis. Writing the directions is my homework for today and tomorrow. These friendly dinosaurs (Tyrone and Bruno) are appliqued to a pieced background and are just perfect for a child's bedroom or playroom. The banners are 12 x 29" and the patterns will be ready to ship soon--if I get my act together and start working on them.


I'll have a couple more things to show you in the coming days, including the beautiful Pineapple Garden quilt that we made for the July/August 2010, McCall's Quilting magazine. For a preview, click here. This pattern uses our Pineapple Rule and we will have kits ready soon.

We also have a beautiful fabric line coming this month from Quilting Treasures. The line is called Autumn Harvest. Click here for a preview of the rest of the line, click here.


See you soon with more new patterns.
Until then,
Happy Stitching,
Lynda

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Great American Quilt Factory a McCall's Hometown Favorite

We are so honored to be one of McCall's Hometown Favorites featured quilt shops! We love working with the great women at McCall's Quilting and Quick Quilts and in fact we write a column each month for these magazines.

This new magazine features 16 quilt shops around the country and each shop has designed a quilt and kitted it. This special magazine America Quilts Hometown Favorites will be on the newsstand on May 18th. Starting Monday, May 10th, 3-4 shops will be featured each day in an online Shop Hop. Register to win the featured quilt kit from each shop and other prizes, including a delicious Moda fat quarter tower. Don't forget to enter each day. Just go to the Great American Quilt Factory website for the Online Shop Hop link.

Here is a picture of our quilt, Into the Woods. I must say that it is absolutely gorgeous and would be beautiful on a wall in my family room. Hmmmm--there is the finished sample. : )


Enjoy reading about the featured shops and deciding which is your favorite quilt. Register at the 3-4 featured shops each day and remember that if you don't win a kit there will be kits available for purchase.

Good luck and happy shopping,
Lynda

Denver National Quilt Festival

We vended at the Denver National Quilt Festival last week. It was a great show and the competition quilts were remarkable--you can see the winners online here.

We had a display of 34 Possibilities quilts--the most Possibilities quilts displayed at the same time. It was so fun to see them in all of their glory. The quilts are from current books and patterns. I have put together a short slideshow so that you can see them, too. If you want more information on any of them, please comment, email us, or call the store. I hope you enjoy them!












Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Denver Quilt Show
Create your own slideshow - Powered by Smilebox
Another slideshow design by Smilebox

Monday, May 3, 2010

Christmas with Possibilities Surprise

Nancy and I got a package in the mail today and a special delivery for each of us at the store!

Here is what was in the package--our newest book Christmas with Possibilities published by C&T. It is truly a lovely book filled with 16 holiday projects--some old fav's from out of print books and some new wonderful projects! I'm ready to jump right in since it is May and we are already receiving Christmas 2010 fabrics.
A little bit later, we each got one of these...................


.................a beautiful basket filled with flowers!

Thank you to all at C&T who helped bring this book to print. We always enjoy working with all of you and you truly bring out topnotch products!

Thank you for a wonderful surprise!

Lynda and Nancy

Friday, April 30, 2010

Sarah's Key and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

In the last couple of weeks I have listened to two wonderful books that I think you will enjoy. It is interesting that the last two books I reviewed were about women from the South and these next two books have ties to WWII.

The first one I'll tell you about is Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. This is what Publishers Weekly has to say: "De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down. "
I really enjoyed this book and yes, it was very moving and I had to sit in the car after I got to my destination several times to finish a part--always a good recommendation--and it was beautifully read!

I had a hard time getting into the 2nd book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society until I reread the description on Audible.com and realized that it was a series of letters--and then, I really enjoyed it. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is read by 20 different people and that is one of the reasons that makes it so special. From Publishers Weekly: "The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers."


Like Anne of Green Gables this book made me want to travel to the destination. I love to read books, but because I drive at least 1-2 hours a day to get to and from work, audiobooks are my salvation. I highly recommend them, not just for listening to while driving but for anytime you can't be turning the pages of a book.


If you have any suggestions for what I should read next, please comment.


Happy stitching, reading, or listening,
Lynda

Joy to the World Winners


Oh, I'm so sorry. I chose the winners for the blog contest and then forgot to blog them. The three winners were chosen at random by a random number generator and here are the winner's names and comments.

paula, the quilter said:
"I am a 'totally prepared' gal myself. Starch on the edges around either a freezer paper or templar template, iron and then glue. I 'do' remove the template if it is freezer paper."

stitchinRN said:
"my favorite is using freezer paper, but i spray starch my pieces after basting to the freezer paper template. i remove the freezer paper before i stitch it in place, no removing later, easy to peel off. it looks like needle turn, but easier."

Lori H said:
"During a recent class, our teacher showed us needleturn applique. While my sister 'hated that day', I loved it. I look forward to many new projects."

I will send each of you an autographed copy of Joy to the World as soon as I receive your snail mail addresses.

Thank you to all who left comments! There are so many methods of applique out there and I think that I just might design an applique sampler.

Happy stitching,
Lynda

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Hometown Favorites Online Shop Hop with prizes

McCall's Quilting Magazine is introducing a very special, newsstand only issue titled America Quilts, Hometown Favorites available on newstands, May 18. There will be 16 featured shops that have each designed an exclusive quilt and we were lucky enough to be one of them. Our quilt is absolutely stunning--the only thing I can tell you is that we've named it Into the Woods, it's made in creams, rusty reds, browns, and blacks, and it's a variation of one of our favorite traditional patterns.

McCalls will also be hosting an online shop hop, May 10-14, where you will be able to read interviews with the selected shop owners and purchase a kit for their quilt. And...........prizes--each shop will be giving away a kit for their quilt and Moda will be giving away a tower of 40 fat quarters (and we all need more fat quarters)!!!!

Visit McCall's Quilting to get the full list of shops along with contest details. Bookmark this site and don't forget to check in on May 10th to start the hop. We're excited!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Happy Birthday to us and a blog contest for you!



It's April and Great American Quilt Factory's 29th birthday, which means that we are going into our 30th year in business.! Hip, Hip, Hooray! I can still vividly remember sitting on the cement floor in a brand new vacant space, drinking a glass of wine and wondering how we were ever going to make it to the end of our first 5 year lease and here we are, many leases later.

Now the store is in it's 30th year which means I have been quilting for over 40 (I started at a very, very young age). Recently I have been researching different hand and machine applique techniques. I do quite a bit of machine applique but haven't done applique by hand for many, many years--my how it has changed! My method back then was to baste all the seam allowances under, baste the pieces into position, and then applique. Several years ago I tried a little bit of needle-turn and decided it wasn't my cup of tea. Just recently I took a class on the freezer paper method by Pearl Pereira-P3 Designs. I really enjoyed it, especially because after the applique was glued into place, it was totally portable. Next I'll be checking out the back-basting technique for hand applique and revisiting Beth Ferrier's machine technique.

Now, I'm asking for your advice. Please leave a comment telling me what your favorite method of applique is and why and/or your favorite applique tool. You will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win one of 3 autographed copies of our out-of-print book, Joy to the World--a collector's item and very difficult to find in perfect condition. You will have until Sunday, April 18th to comment and the 3 winners will be chosen at random on the 19th. Please make sure that you leave an e-mail so that you can be contacted.
For a quiltylicious way to celebrate your birthday or special occasion, this little quilt from the pattern Ode to a Cupcake, might be the perfect choice. In fact, I might use this pattern to experiment with my applique techniques making an applique sampler.


Quilting has changed so much in the last 40 years and I am so glad that it is still my passion! Next I'll be checking out hand piecing techniques and perhaps we'll hold another contest.

Best of luck to each of you and happy stitching,
Lynda

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Eco-Friendly Snack Bags


Nancy's daughter, Laura, shared her pattern to make eco-friendly snack bags with us. These are pretty darn cute little bags--about the size of a self-sealing sandwich bag--that are lined with a waterproof fabric called PUL. Think of how many self-sealing sandwich bags you can save by making a few of these eco-friendly bags and tossing them into the washer to clean.

We have made them up in sooooooo many different fabrics, from fruit and veggie fabrics, to cupcake fabric, to florals, and we are even making some kits up with the new Monopoly fabric from Quilting Treasures. The bags were featured this month in Quick Quilts magazine. Check them out on our website--kits and pattern or already made by Mamamade.
Happy stitching,

Lynda and Nancy