Stop staring and start sewing!

Turn one fat quarter into 5 yards

5 beautiful yards of bias tape that is!  I discovered this method a few months back and it rocked my (small, fabric-centric) world.  The way I always did it required cutting the first triangle off but then I was stuck with this wasted triangle.  This method uses that triangle so there's no waste.  The instructions I saw used a big piece of fabric and I wondered what would happen if I used a piece as small as a fat quarter.  I was thrilled when I got over 5 yards of bias tape out of it.  So I'm going to share it with you and maybe you will be as changed as I was by this.

Okay, so you start with a fat quarter (remove the selvage).  Lay it flat on your work surface.  Oh, and I know this looks like it's newsprint but it really is fabric (Au.then.tic by Sweetwater). I think it's pretty nifty and it's going to look cool when cut on the bias.

Okay, so fold it over and  crease the fold (just run your finger up and down the line hard enough so you can see the crease when you unfold it).

That crease is your cutting line so cut along the line.  Use your rotary cutter to keep it nice and straight if you have one.

Move your newly cut piece over to the other side.  Pin the pieces (right sides together).

Now stitch them together using a 1/4" seam.  Use a short stitch length (I set mine at 2) because you will be cutting across the seams and you don't want them to come apart.  You now have a lovely parallelogram (and who wouldn't want a lovely parallelogram?).

Okay, now take a straight edge and mark lines 1 3/4" apart all the way across your fabric.

If the end piece is too narrow (it probably will be) then cut it off so all of you lines are equally spaced.

Now you're going to fold your fabric (right sides together) so your lines match up (your basically making a tube).  Your fabric will sort of twist while you're this but keep on going.  You want to slide one side over so that the first drawn line meets up with the raw edge of the other side (see drawing in next picture down to get a better idea).  Pin your sides together making sure the lines will meet at the seam (I stick a pin in through the lines 1/4" down and meet it up with the line on the other side, then pin together).

You'll have more than 4 rows but this gives you an idea of how it goes together.



You'll have a pin at each intersection but you can use more if you want.  Remember, pins are your friend.

Now stitch it together using a 1/4" seam allowance (again, use short stitches).

Press your seam open.  You should have something like this with one edge off to the side.  Start cutting along the line there.

Keep cutting.  It will "unravel" in one long strip (sort of like an orange peel).

Yay!  Oh the possibilities!

You can fold it in half and use it to trim a skirt (see bottom of my easy bias tape hem post), or you can fold it into a beautiful length of bias tape (or use one of those new fangled bias makers if you're one of those cool folks that has one) for all sorts of projects or...

...make some beautiful, one of a kind piping for many more projects (which is what I'm doing!).

So give it a try and tell me what you think! Bias tape is so much more fun when it's made from a great fabric (and a bargain too)!

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A huge thank you to the reader who pointed out the genius who developed this method (or at least perfected it!).

Sunday, sickness, and a sale

Download Jona's Hat

My hat's done! The sad irony is I live in a town who's average daily temperature in January is 63 degrees (note the tank top).  I guess I now have an excuse for some trips to northern Arizona this winter.

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Since I've received so many request for this hat pattern, Joey was kind enough to put it on paper so you can download it here (in pdf format).  Yay Joey! Download Jona's Hat

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I'm playing hooky from church this morning because my little one has a cough and runny nose and with this whole swine flu going around it would be embarrassing to have the nursery workers chase me off with torches and pitchforks.  So I'm making a run to Joann's for some piping to use in a slipcover I've been meaning to make for at least 2 years now.  Should be cute (if it's not, you'll never hear another word about it).

I'm anticipating a visit from my beloved UPS guy on Wednesday. Rouenneries will be here so I've made it available for pre-order and I'll start shipping it out as soon as I get it.  Some of the Rouenneries (heck if I know how to pronounce it, I took Spanish) is priced higher than the usual Moda fare but that's because it's AMAZING.  Up until Moda released their's it's been 36.00 a yard (yikes).  And if you're interested in grabbing some stuff to start your Christmas sewing (I'm not one of those folks who says "only ... days until Christmas" so don't start sweating here) all the fabric is on sale (20% off) until Monday night at midnight (Oct 26th).  Just use the coupon code "scream09".

Now I'm going to wipe a runny nose (not mine) and run to Joann's!

Nesting

I'm back!  The winner of the One Yard Wonder book is Simone Howell (purse maker extraordinaire and all around nice gal!).  Yay Simone!  You're going to love this book!

Not much going on around these parts.  I'm trying to avoid freaking out when I consider that I have to get the girls costumes made (hopefully they can do much of the work) and once that is done I have to face the reality that the holidays are upon us.  I was thrilled to get an invitation to have one of my tutorials printed in a "craft a day" type of calendar so I need to submit all the stuff for that and now I know what I'm getting for all my family members next Christmas (so there's that!).

Joey's been busy making a hat for me!  I picked the color from his stash and hopefully I'll have some opportunities to head north this winter where I plan to wear this (it will make him so happy even if it gives me hat head).

Olivia is working on another rag rug (scrap stealer!) and it's looking good.  She's been busy working on aprons and totes with her sister since we are sharing a booth at the local Bliss Fest with my friend Jamie (who has some beautiful things in her etsy store right now in case you want to get a head start on your Christmas shopping).  I think it will be lots of fun and the girls can get some entrepreneurial experience.  Heather Bailey is going to be there with her Trash Ties and I just found out Tara Frey will be there too!  I'm going to bring my Blogging For Bliss book and have her sign it!

On the home front I made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce last night using basil and hot peppers from the garden (we have lots of winter garden plans!), and we are nearly done potty training our youngest (and last!) child.  I'm making plans for all that extra money in my budget that I won't be spending on diapers!  Oh, and our temperatures are in the 80's so we are enjoying having our windows open again.  This is our reward for tolerating 4 months of temperatures over 100 degrees so please don't be jealous.

I'm planning on doing a flash sale in the next day or two (it'll last 48 hours) so if you're following me on twitter you'll be the first to know.  Great time to get some Christmas supplies!  Keep on sewing!

Quilt Market wrap up

Okay, lets finish this!  It's taken me five days to finish telling you about a 3 day event.  We were completely spent after coming back because even though it only lasts 3 days it's 3 very very intense days and we dropped into our hotel bed exhausted every night.  I'm sure the folks who had booths are still recovering because they put so much work into everything.  The booths have to be built in a way that can be broken down into small pieces and shipped to market.  Many of them rent trailers and drive cross country to get there (then they have to break it all down and drive back home).  That doesn't take into account all of the samples that need to be sewn, pictures taken, furniture upholstered, brochures printed and much more!  Oh, and then after all that, the designers need to look fresh and perky because they are having their pictures taken all the time!

So here's a big "Thank You!!" from me for bringing us gorgeous things like this...

Amy Butler had a stunning booth this time!  I really love the bright colors in her Love collection.  It reminds me of her Temple Flowers and Gypsy Caravan lines (which were responsible for starting my addiction to the "good stuff").



It makes me happy just looking at it.



And fresh flowers too! 



Anna Maria Horner outdid herself this time too.  Her booth was a cornucopia of colors and textures.  I'm so thrilled about her new fabrics because she has a gorgeous line of voile prints and I ordered a bunch of them.  One of my goals for the store was to starting carrying Liberty of London prints because they are simply exquisite (but crazy expensive).  Well I got one look at Anna's voile and knew this was what I was looking for!  It's just as nice as Liberty of London (I'm dead serious!) and is a fraction of the cost.  I almost get emotional thinking about it because my mind is already full of ways I can sew with this fabric that I can't sew with the regular quilting fabrics.  I'm sunk!



Another fabric she's releasing is what she calls Dobby cotton and it's very similar to a dotted swiss but has the little "eyelash" dots on it too.  The voile and Dobby are both perfect for smocking and I can't wait to give it a go!  The colors are brilliant too (my favorite is the orange).  I think I ordered all of those (it's all a blur I'm telling you).



I'm so happy Anna is giving us something out of the ordinary and if you love wonderful fabric you will go crazy for this.



The Melly and Me gals came all the way from Australia and they had a darling booth.  Joey and I got to chat with their husbands and they were really nice guys. 



I bought a bunch of patterns from them and ordered their book "Kaleidoscope" which should be here soon.  It's loaded with darling projects for boys and girls.  Seriously cute stuff.



And the Windham booths were really fun this time.  They had a vintage schoolhouse theme and won second place in their category.  Here are Bari J. Ackerman and Jessica Levitt holding down the fort.  Jessica's fabric should be here in January but we have to wait until Spring for Bari's new Art Journal collection (waaa).



This quilt pattern will be available too! 



Here is Jessica showing off her Timber collection (in a very cute jacket!).



More Timber.  I love this!



Art Journal and Timber together!



Okay, I bet you haven't seen a quilted elephant before.  Well, now you have (check that off your bucket list then)!

I LOVE this quilt!  It's "Sweets" by Kayoko Ohzono of Japan.

Delicious!

The winner of the massive blue fat quarter stack is Robyn Kirk (from New Zealand!).  Yay Robyn!!

Okay, I've been saving this one all week because it's very impressive.  I've lost track of how many times I've had to tell my girls "No, we're not keeping it".  This awesome book is called One Yard Wonders and it's got 303 pages of really fun and useful projects that only take 1 yard of fabric.  Messenger bag, plushies, growth chart....dozens of projects (101 to be exact)!  The first chapter is fabric facts (grainline, selvage, bias, etc) and sewing techniques and terminology.  Really a great resource.

It's written by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins.  It comes with the pattern pieces in a pretty envelope and they signed it just for you!  These girls were a real hoot and I'm amazed at the amount of work they put into this book.  It's a real treasure.  Just leave a comment!



Alright!  I'm rested up and need to get my store cleaned up and some costumes sewn.  I hope you've enjoyed my market report.  It was lots of fun to do but now it's time to start making plans for Quilt Market Spring 2010 in Minneapolis!  Onward and upward, always!

Quilt Market (the dark under belly)

Alrighty!  We'll start with a picture of me looking for great things to take pictures of.  I didn't have to look too far because I was in the Seven Islands compound and that place is more fun than a Hello Kitty Store.  I look perturbed but I'm really not.



Can you believe this??  Delicious!



And these cute little matryoshka dolls actually wound up and waddled.



Their linen blend fabrics are really amazing and they have the corner on cute!



Fun!



Reaching sensory overload!



Okay, something a little more soothing....Kay Whitt has designed a darling booklet of patterns for these gorgeous traveling carriers.  Perfect!  And I love the French General fabric she used (coming soon!).



I love this new Bijou Traveler.



I had to get a shot of Kay's shoes.  Are these the cutest or what??  And I'm in love with that skirt!



Here is a small portion of Tanya Whelan's newest line called Dolce (getting all of it!).  So fresh and different.  The oranges and blues are amazing in this collection.



Okay, here is the always lovely Oliver and S. booth.  Liesl has some cute new patterns and I really love the idea of a shirt dress for little girls.



Here is the dress I sewed (far left).  I love all of these styles...classic but totally modern.



Here is Amy Hamberlin of Kati Cupcake.  Really a nice gal and she's coming out with a fabric collection called Marabella (with the Henry Glass fabric company).  Oh, and her booth was darling.



Here is the Izzy & Ivy booth which won best booth for a first timer.  Lots of fun and sparkles!



I loved the Indigo Junction booth!  Look!



Aren't these pin cushions great?



Zipper mouth!  Ingenius!



I really love these bubbles in The Quilted Fish booth.  Look!  Something shiny!



Moda Home!  Do you just love this oversized vintage stitching card?  I need to get more of these in the store because they will always be popular.



Moda Home corner display.  They sure pack a lot in this area but it's all cute (you just have to stand there awhile in order to take it all in).



Okay, here's some Moda fabric!  I did not go to quilt market intending to get Tula Pink's (seriously, follow the link) next collection.  I thought it was pretty but wasn't sure how it would work in my store.  I took one look at it and it instantly went straight to the top of my list of "must have"s.  It's on the left side there.  The colors are incredibly vibrant and crisp but the designs stay very soft because of the birds and feathers in it.  I've always been a fan of her work but this time I'm bowled over.



Okay, time for quilts!  This pretty confection is called Combination by Yuriko Ikuma of Japan.  Adorable!



This is Siren Song by Laurie Britt.  It says it's available for purchase but I'm totally scared to even ask about how much something like this would sell for (and I'm sure it's worth every penny and more).



The winner of yesterday's give-away is Pam Kitty Morning!!  It's true!  First she gets a cake and now this.  Must be her lucky week.

And it's time for yet another give away!  I won this amazing stack of fat quarters when I spun the Gnome Wheel in the Michael Miller corridor.  It contains 20 (!) gorgeous fat quarters from the Blue Krystal collection.  It's all in various shades of blue (with some greys and purples blending in) and it's just beautiful.  That's 5 yards of fabric!  Just say something!  Anything!

I'll finish up tomorrow with some beautiful booths and one more give away (it's a doozy). Then I'll take a nap.  Keep on sewing!

School day! Quilt Market (day 3)

Okay, here are a bunch of pictures from the Schoolhouse Series.  Schoolhouse is where different designers, manufacturers, distributors give a short presentation (15 or 30 minutes).  Some share their new fabric or patterns, new gadgets, or even just advice on how to sell more fabric, how to start a blog....all sorts of applicable things for store owners.  It's lots of fun and a great opportunity to ask questions and find out what people are planning next.

Here is Amy Butler sharing her new fabric line called Love.  It's a beautiful line (I'll be sharing her booth this week) and is already on it's 3rd printing even though it just hit the stores this week.  I really like it but decided not to carry it when I found out most of the other stores had already ordered it sight unseen.  So if you want some (it's seriously pretty) it will be easy to find.

Here is Heather Bailey sharing her new fabric collection and patterns.  She has 4 wonderful patterns coming including the tote bag from the Mary Engelbreit magazine that everyone keeps emailing me about (yay!).  You'll love everything!  She did a great job and her presentation was lots of fun.

 

Here is Anna Maria Horner's presentation but this time she wasn't the star.  Stick a cute baby in a room full of women and watch the magic.  Roman is a doll and Anna's daughter Juliana is such a terrific big sister (that's her holding him up for all of us to ooh and aah at).  Oh and the fabric was great too.  :)  Actually the fabric is amazing and I will try to give more details when I show you her booth.

Patty Young has a bunch of new patterns (all in the store now) and a new fabric collection coming (Flora and Fauna).  You will love both!  Patty always does such a great job with schoolhouse.  She's lots of fun and always gets a few giggles out of the crowd.

Here is Chelsea Anderson sprucing up her display.  This skirt is the Nie Nie Skirt and I love the fact that a portion of the sales from each of these patterns goes to Stephanie Nielsen (AKA Nie Nie, you can read about her here) to help her family offset the medical costs from the plane crash she was in.  Chelsea did a great job telling her own story and explaining each pattern (they are all so cute and versatile).

Okay, here are Paula and Tim Prass working as a team (yay teamwork!).  Paula was showing us her new fabric collection and giving inspirational ideas on how to display things in stores.  Isn't her jacket darling?  It's from the houndstoooth print in her Summer Soiree collection.  Perfect!

Jenean Morrison knocked my socks of with her presentation.  She's wearing her first sewing project!  She made that dress for herself and it looked wonderful on her.  And that's her cutie pie husband Joel.  He did a great job assisting Jenean.

Don't you love these dolls?  This fabric collection is Jenean's third with Free Spirit and it's called California Dreamin'.  I ordered the whole darn thing and it should be here next week some time.  Yay!

Here Jenean shows off one of the quilts made by Ashley of Film in the Fridge.  I'm a huge fan of Ashley's quilts so it was a real treat to get to see them up close and in person.

Okay, time for a lunch break.  We all ran in the rain to get lunch.  Here are Myrinda (Fabric Hound), Jessica Levitt (getting her whole collection, Timber, in January), and Melanie (Above All Fabric), all with iPhones in hand.

And here we have Kim Kight (trueup.net) and Cynthia (Fabric Worm).  It was a great lunch and so much fun to sit and chat with other store owners (plus the food was good).  I'm so happy I got to meet Kim in person and she is so much fun (I sort of expected that)!

Later we all got together again for the Fabric 2.0 party.  Here are Lizzy House, Caroline (who organized the gathering, yay Caroline!), Jay McCarroll, and Jane Sassaman.  So many fun and creative people all in one place!

More booths!  Scott Jarrard and his Boogie Monster booth (chatting with Joey who is carrying his man purse).



The next French General collection from Moda.



Bunny Designs (they import cute Japanese fabric).  Great booth!!



May Arts.  I LOVE their ribbons!!

Angela Yosten (Moda Home Mom).  I simply adore Angela and it's always a highlight to spend time with her at market.

Vintage buttons...

More vintage buttons.  These folks were a little sensitive about picture taking but it's my job to stick my neck out for you so I snapped away because I knew you'd want to see these. 

This was over in the Andover corner and i just love it.  It's a new collection called Chirp. I have the designers information here somewhere (will find it and add that since she deserves credit for such cuteness).

Blackbird Designs.  Great booth!  A fireplace!



Lecien row.  Love it!



The Lizzie B girls do it again.  Wow!



Bunny Hill Designs.  Beautiful patterns and great corner booth.



Pieces from My Heart.  I really liked her display and colors.



Bluebird of Happiness by Sommerset Banks.  Incredible.



Vintage Karanui by Arlene Alford.  Holy smokes.

This one almost makes me want to cry.  Thanks For The Flowers by Sonia Bardella.

Okay, the winner of the goodies from day 2 is....Terriaw who left a comment at 5:27 am (early bird gets the worm!).  Congratulations Terri!!

The give away for day 3 is this cute little notepad from Anna Maria Horner, a tape measure from Patty Young, and this gorgeous necklace in a cute little tin from the nice gals of Sweetwater (their Au.then.tic is in the store now and it's fabulous).  This necklace is really pretty and has their logo on the other side of the tile.  Way cute.  Oh, and a little cinch sack to put it all in!  Leave a comment, yada yada yada!

Quilt Market re-cap day 2 (Michael Miller moves to a trailer park)

Well you know we're in a recession when this happens...  the folks at Michael Miller moved everyone into a trailer park.  The cutest trailer park ever!  With gnomes and shrubs and even a raccoon!  Kathy Miller (the "Miller" in Michael Miller) used oodles of liquid starch to get this fabric shellacked onto the trailer.  It had a trunk loaded with bottled water (they think of everything).

They even had a Wheel of Fabric for us to spin when we ordered enough fabric to qualify.  I won something very nice but I'm keeping it a secret for now because it will be a give away later this week.  Every person who spun also qualified to be entered into a drawing for a trip to New York City and lunch with Kathy Miller and Michael Steiner (the "Michael" in Michael Miller).   My fingers are crossed so hard they're starting to atrophy in that position.

I thought I'd start at the end of the row and show you all of the booths in the Michael Miller trailer park. 

First is the classy yet sassy booth of Paula Prass.  Her new collection (I ordered it all!) has some of the prettiest colors coming out but the orange and grey really grabbed me.  She's also planning a new line of patterns (yay!).

Here she is with that rascally gnome (actually the gnome was pretty darn nice since she let me spin the wheel).

Here I am with Paula.  By the third day the Houston humidity has just made my hair an impossible frizz puff.  I'm trying to pose to the side to look skinnier (that's what Jen, Paula's daughter said we should do).  I love Paula!  She should move to Arizona.

Here is Tim Prass relaxing with Joey.  Those chairs were so comfy and that grey print on them is my favorite.  There was a very good turn out of husbands this time (yay for the guys)!

Next to Paula was Sandi Henderson and her gorgeous MeadowSweet display.  Her booth won the Best Merchandising ribbon (well deserved too!).  Every thing was so golden and glowing in her booth (including Sandi!).

Gorgeous.  This may be my favorite Sandi Henderson fabric collection so far (and it's all coming here!).  She's also releasing new sewing patterns (again, getting them all!).

I want those chairs!  I think they went to Caroline (of J. Caroline fame) since she lives in Houston.  I'll bet she ends up with great stuff after each fall market.

I LOVED Sandi's shoes and she said they were comfortable too!  Eek!

Okay, this was one of the best parts of market...I finally tracked down the elusive and mysterious Pillow and Maxfield!!  You know I adore their fabric (I know a lot of folks do because it's been moving out of the store at a nice pace) but they have no website, no blog, no nothin'.  I didn't even know what they looked like!

Now I know and aren't they cute?!  I instantly made them my BFFs and Joey and I had a wonderful time sharing the end of the table with them at dinner.  Yay (hands up in a pom-pom fashion Anne)!!

Their booth was small but powerful (sorry about the blur, the lighting was not great in the convention center and I didn't want to use my flash, oops).  They are coming out with a larger version of the Whimsy line in these amazing colors and it's so beautiful (yep, got it all!).  You will love it!

And at the end of the row was Patty Young's fun and sunny booth.  She showcased her new fabric line (yup, on it's way) and her beautiful new patterns (in the store now!).  Her hubby Jon built this booth and then they drove all the way from Illinois. 

The American Girl doll size pattern will be coming soon I was promised.  I'm really looking forward to playing with this new fabric collection!

On Sunday I crashed a party on the second floor (well, I think I may have been invited but that's no fun).  Pam (as in Pam Kitty Morning) had been tweeting her way through Texas with Elizabeth (Late Bloomer Quilts) and bemoaning the lack of armadillo sightings (except for a dead one).  So Lizzy House was kind enough to make her this lovely armadillo cake.

The details in the cake were amazing and it was soooo delicious.  Here is Jen McLean (Tula Pink herself) viewing the armadillo innards.  Both Lizzy and Jen have amazing new collections coming and once I saw them I knew I had to have them.  You're going to freak when you see them (I did).  Two nice gals with amazing talent.

Here's a close-up.  I love the details in this picture (and the road kill stuff oozing out the back).  Cream cheese frosting (inside and out)!

Okay, here's a cute quilt!  This one is called Just Sing...Sing a Song and was made by Tom Russell.  Darling, detailed and overflowing with whimsy!  Wow!

Here's another bird quilt and it's called Starbugs Fly-Thru Cafe by Kathy Kennedy-Dennis.  All of the birds have some sort of bug in their beaks (slimy, yet satifying).  Gorgeous and fun at the same time!

And the winner for the give away on day 1 is...Rebecca, who left a comment at 8:86 am on 10/14.  Yay Rebecca!!  Have your people call my people (actually I'll email you).

Okay, pay attention because this is the give-away for day 2.  It includes a huge sheet of paper dolls from Oliver and S (the sheet is much longer than what you see here), a pattern for Amy Butler's Sexy Hexy Love Quilt, a collection of post cards from Jenean Morrison with her new California Dreamin' designs on them, a tape measure from the good folks at Clover, an emergency sewing kit from Leisure Arts, a collection of brochures from Anna Maria Horner detailing her new fabric collection and books (with a great notepad!), and the beautiful fat brochure pack Amy Butler handed out at her schoolhouse presentation (uber eye candy). 

Leave a comment (like you need instructions!).  We're just getting started here so don't go too far! 

Oh, and I loaded tons of new patterns into the store including Modkid, Melly and Me (yay!), Hot Scott (boy clothes!!), Boutique Chic (Kay Whitt does it again and wait until I show you her shoes!), and Pink Fig.  Whew!

Back from Quilt Market (day 1)

We are back from Quilt Market but just barely.  We got in early this morning (very early) and I've taken two naps and need to head off to bed soon here but I wanted to show you some of the wonderful things I saw at market first.

I thought I'd start with the best eye candy of the whole event.  Heather Bailey's booth.  It won best double booth prize and for good reason.  It was over-the-top amazing in typical Bailey fashion.

Joey and I got to help out a little with set-up and it's lots of fun to get the behind the scenes view.  Isaac and Joey set the laminate floor in place while I stitched bindings on quilts with Beth the Fabric Chick (she's Elinor Peace Bailey's business partner and owns a busy fabric store).  That's Beth on the right and as you can see, Elinor is in the foreground chatting with us (I'm the one in orange, but you probably knew that).  See Heather working while we chat?

One of the fun things about Heather's booth is that it was right next to Anna Maria Horner's booth so that was a fun corner to hang out in.  I'll be posting pictures of Anna's booth this week.

Look at those beautiful Nicey Jane pillows!  I've ordered the complete collection and I can't wait to get my hands on it.  Oh and Free Spirit now offers charm packs and jelly rolls so I got those too!  I think this fabric is expected to be released in December.

Here Heather is chatting with Brandon Mably, Kaffe Fassett's partner and a wonderful fabric designer himself.

See that laundry basket on the left?  It's sitting on real grass.  Yes, that had real grass in their booth and it was so much fun (nobody else had real grass)!

My friend Jamie made 8 quilts for Heather (in about 9 days!) and you can see them throughout the booth.  The quilt on the couch was created by Heather's mom Linda and it's absolutely stunning.

The entrance!

I want my living room to look like this!

And in the true spirit of Quilt Market I want to show you a beautiful hand pieced quilt that really grabbed my eye (not literally because that would be gross).  This is Grape Harvest by Gina Perkes, Lynn Drennen and Marilyn J. Smith.  Simply amazing.

Joey and I had some fun in the booth of Barb and Mary (Me and My Sister).  They are so much fun and these cut outs where just too much silliness to resist.  We are so curvaceous (I'm the one on the right).

And then I picked a lucky duck in their booth (it said "winner" on the bottom) and won a pattern.....

...and I'm sharing it with you!  Today's give away includes their darling pinafore bag pattern, a quilt pattern by Amy Hamberlin of Kati Cupcake Pattern Co., a ModKid tape measure from Patty Young and best of all, Barb and Mary's newest book Still Crazy for Baby.  It's loaded with baby quilt patterns and each pattern is shown in both a boy and girl version (plus they autographed it just for you!). 

Just be sure to leave a comment and you may be the first lucky duck this week!

Don't go anywhere because the give aways will just keep getting better and Friday's is a real humdinger!  I'm loading dozens of new patterns in the store right away and you're going to love them!  See you tomorrow!

Things to do while everyone is at Quilt Market

We're leaving tonight for Houston.  Getting in late but that's okay because all the action starts tomorrow anyway.  I'll be tweeting from the Schoolhouse series so don't go too far.  I'll also have lots of posts next week (all week long) and I'll be sharing my swag (stuff we all get) with you. 

In the meantime, here are some things you can do while half of your favorite sewing bloggers are away from their computers.  First of all...paint!  Yay for spray paint!  I saw this orange color and grabbed two cans even though I had no idea what I would do with them.  I put Joey to work spraying a (previously green) shelf for me.

The last of the summer's sunflowers.

This shelf was pale pink a few days ago. Not any more!  Guess what time I took this picture.

Read or start a blog!  I recently got two great books that are not only beautiful to look at but just stuffed with oodles of inspiring ideas.  The Home Sewn book by Kaari Meng of French General is beautiful and has 30 projects.  I'm getting her Rouenneries fabric in the store sometime this month and you can run over there and take a sneak peek and start making some plans because it is truly special fabric (some amazing linen blends).  I'll let you know when it arrives!
And the Blogging For Bliss book is a wonderful resource loaded with pretty pictures and lots of advice from many of our favorite bloggers.  I think it actually sold out recently but will be re-stocked at Amazon soon.  If you are considering starting a craft/sewing blog then this book is a must have.  Tara Frey covers everything in this book.

And here are some great magazines I picked up recently.  Where Women Create is full of beautiful studios by creative women.  I loved the article on Angela Cartwright (previously famous for....?  C'mon!).  Quilting Ideas seemed a little spendy (12.99) until I opened it up and saw all the patterns and tutorials (including a fab bag by Monica and sweet skirts by Tanya) and realized it was quite a bargain at that price!  And then I had to have Sew Beautiful because.....

I made these outfits!  I got an email from my bloggy friend Sivje telling me these were in print and it took a week of searching before I finally found the magazine.  Last year I made the little bubble dress and boy's playsuit for Liesl and this fabric was such a joy to work with.  The dress is made with Liberty fabric and I looked everywhere for this print so I could make myself a blouse but it is nowhere to be found.  The playsuit is brown wool with a small Liberty trim.  Nice.
I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with the changes Sew Beautiful magazine has made.  I used to subscribe but when I stopped smocking all the time I eventually let it lapse.  Well now it's still got smocking stuff but it's also full of great (non-smocked) kids clothes (and grown ups!), patterns, aprons, etc.  It's really worth checking out again!

And if you get bored after doing all those things you can join the great give-away over at Park City Girl.  Here Blogger's Quilt Festival starts Friday so be sure to join!  And if you want to see something beautiful you can run over to Puddin Pop and visit Tonya's new baby (yay for babies!!).  Or you can check out Mona's new blog (yay for new blogs!). 

And don't forget...you can also shop!  I have tons of new mark downs in the store (Laura Gunn, Bari J, Joel Dewberry, Amy B, and more!).   I'll be back in a few days!  Keep on sewing!