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

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

Hello quilting friends,

We design fabric for Quilting Treasures and our newest line is Petals and Paisley and it will be delivered to stores this month. Petals and Paisley consists of prints with an Old World wood block character in rich tones of denim, aqua, browns, and teals that will work well in traditional as well as contemporary projects.

Check out the Quilting Treasures website to download a wonderful quilt that we designed to showcase this delightful fabric. This quilt would be so easy to make for a special Christmas present for a special person. I'll let you know when we receive the fabric in the backdoor.

Only two more days until the Dolly Dresses Blog Event starts. We have designed a special quilt using Holly Holderman's (LakeHouse Fabrics) Dolly Dresses panels. The Blog Event starts this Friday. Check out Holly's Blog for more information and to get a sneak preview of Dolly Dresses 2 and 3 fabrics--they are lovely.

See you tomorrow,

Lynda

Artifacts by Possibilities for Quilting Treasures

Our new fabric line from Quilting Treasures is now in stores. Artifacts features soft, stylized imagery reminiscent of native motifs in soothing colors of turquoise, green, lavender and purple. This beautiful, sophisticated group lends itself to art-to-wear as well as accessories and quilts.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We think it is a very beautiful line and can't wait to share some projects with you!
Happy Stitching,
Lynda and Nancy

Happy Halloween Blog of the Month, part 3b

OK, now on to the stitching. Mr. Pumpkinhead has the most intricate stitching so far, but no worries, I'll lead you through. Let's start with Witch.

The stitching order I used for Witch:

1. Top of hat
2. Top edge of hat brim
3. Hat band
4. Hair*
5. Head
6. Shirt
7. Eyes and eyelids**
8. Nose
9. Bat (I used a shorter, narrower stitch for the bat)

*I decreased the width of the zig-zag stitch as I stitched the points of her hair. As you get closer to the point, decrease the stitch width one point, stitch a few stitches, decrease the width another point, stitch a few stitches. After finishing the point, start increasing the width a point at a time until you are back to your regular width. I hope you can see this on this close-up.

Each eye, eyelid, and nose combination seems to need a little different treatment. Trace the stitching path with your finger to see what works best. For example, for the witch I stitched the bottom of her left eye first. I then stitched her right eye from her nose, around the lid and back down to the nose. Lastly, I stitched the top of her left lid and then across the bottom of her eyelids.

The stitching order I used for Vampire:

1. Right and left shoulder
2. Right and left collar sections
3. Right and left sides of bow tie
4. Bowtie knot
5. Bottom of ears
6. Head
7. Hair
8. Eyes and eyelids*
9. Nose
10. Fangs

*For Vampire's eyes, I first stitched the bottom edge of the eyelid and then around the entire outer edge of eye and lid.

Mr. Pumpkinhead has the most applique challenges. Here is my stitching order:

1. Shirt, right side and left side
2. Neck, right side and left side
3. Face #4
4. Face #5
5. Face #6
6. Right side of bow
7. Left side of bow
8. Bow knot
9. Face #7
10. Stem*
11. Mouth
12. Eyes and eyelids (I stitched his eyes in the same order that I did Witch's)

*When stitching the stem, it is best to start along a straight edge and not at a point. You can see where I started. You will also find it helpful to decrease the width of your zig-zag stitch when you are stitching the fine points along the edge of the face. Just take a few stitches, decrease the width, take a few more stitches, decrease the width, finish the point, and then start to increase the width gradually.

Well, I hope you are having fun. I sure am! I wanted to get this posted before Nancy and I leave town to teach in Liberal, KS, this weekend, so I'm going to do a third post this month which will cover the satin stitch for the detail lines. I will (hopefully) post that next week. Next month we will work on Werewolf, Cat, and Death, leaving the Mummy for last.

This is a great time to think about your quilt's backing. We have some wonderful Halloween fabric in now or coming soon. We have posted some of it in the store and I blogged about our Quilting Treasure's Happy Halloween fabric line a couple of days ago. I'm thinking that I want the orange skeleton fabric for my backing. You will need 3 1/2 yds for your backing. Check it out to get the best selection. Please leave a comment to let me know if I am helping you, or if I need to give you more detailed information and pictures.

Until next week,

Lynda

Happy Halloween fabric from Possibilities & Quilting Treasures

Our newest line of fabric, Happy Halloween from Quilting Treasures, is full of ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night...this scarily fun collection will make spooky Trick or Treat bags, accessories and quilts for your favorite goblins! Coming to Great American Quilt Factory soon, info@greatamericanquilt.com, just in time for making lots of Halloween treats.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Where in the world was Nancy?

As most of you know, Judy and I were at Quilt Market in Pittsburgh recently. Nancy was to be in Ohio for her nephew's wedding, but............................she kept popping up, not wanting to miss her first market in a bazillion years. She of course, helped me with our Quilting Treasures Schoolhouse presentation where we debuted our two new fabric lines, Artifacts and Happy Halloween, but she was a lot less talkative than normal.

She got plenty of sleep every night, and woke up totally refreshed and ready to go--hair and makeup perfect--gee whiz, when I wear my lipstick to bed, it never looks that good in the morning.

She had a great time at the Quilting Treasures dinner, although her choice of wardrobe was a little unusual and doesn't that look like red wine and not white zinfandel?

Hmmmm--Cranston Print Works President, George Schuster was also wearing the same suit and tie.

Nancy, Judy, and I ordered lots of beautiful fabrics, although Nancy wasn't as quick to give her opinion as usual.

Janet and Elliot were on their way out of the show when Nancy ran up to get a last minute pic. You can tell from their smiles how great Spring Quilt Market was!

Here's Nancy and Judy with our Benartex friends.

Nancy wanted to tell Mother Superior about how much we like her threads, but Mother Superior was having an out of body experience.

We got a chance to ham it up with Mark Lipinski, although he was on the hunt for his parents and son. Thanks Mark, for the Kodak moment!

Our last trip on the May Quilt Market Free Shuttle and Nancy still has that sparkle in her eye and that beautiful smile. She was so happy that she could be in two places at the same time.

Well, another Spring Quilt Market is over. Good times, lots of laughs, great friends!

I LOVE MY JOB!!!

Lynda

Quilting Treasures, Marie Osmond, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Whew! Another Fall Quilt Market is over. We work hard getting ready to go, we work hard while there, and we work hard catching up when we get home. But, we really have a great time!!!

Our new line from Quilting Treasures, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, made it's debut. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod is a poem written by Denver journalist, Eugene Field, in 1889.
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe...
Sailed off on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
The main print is a panel and it's supported with some other fun prints, including a star that would be a great addition to anyone's stash. The best thing is that the fabric wasn't supposed to be in until December and we already got ours--yeah! For quilt market we made lots of samples, including 3 quilts, teddy bears, a slumber sack, a day pack and lots more. Nancy quilted the entire poem on one of the quilts and embellished the stars with crystals.

Another fabric designer for Quilting Treasures is Marie Osmond. She actually came to Quilt Market and spent part of the day being photographed and signing autographs in the Quilting Treasures booth. Here she is below (sorry for the blurry pic) with Cranston Print Works President, George Schuster. Cranston is the parent company of Quilting Treasures.

Isn't it a shame that some people have soooo much hair (I'm referring to Marie, not George)--I sure could have used a little more. I especially liked Marie's Gypsy Breeze fabric line. The color palette is soft celadon, aqua, periwinkle, and purple.

While Ashley and our good friend Peggie manned our booth, Judy, Nancy, and I set out to see what QM had to offer. We looked at hundreds of fabric lines--including 5 Christmas 2009 lines at one booth alone. We have lots of new patterns and books coming in--if you are in town, we have a QM preview coming up Nov 19th. Last market we pooh poohed the Clover pom pom maker--this market we saw a demo on how to make wonderful fabric Hydrangeas and we ordered two sizes!

Needless to say, we had a great time, ordered wonderful product, ate delicious food, met up with good friends, and will be ready to do it again in May! I'll be sharing more pictures soon.

Welcome to November,
Lynda