A very merry Christmas to you all out there. I hope you've got your shopping done, and family is drawing close.
My stockings are done and hanging up. They sure do brighten the room with their Christmas-y colors. And most of my hand made gifts are done too. I am still working on my husbands birthday present, his birthday is the day after Christmas, so I better hurry!
His birthday gift is made from an 'ugly' fat quarter I was sent, in our yearly 'ugly' fat quarter challenge. This year Jess gave us a twist on it. We all sent her our 'ugly' FQ's and she swapped them around and sent them back out. So we all ended up with an FQ that someone didn't want. Luckily, the one sent to me is not ugly to my husband. You can read about it and follow us along here: http://www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1222&posts=204&start=1
Another of my favorite swaps going on, it's turning out to be a yearly thing too, is our Round Robin. We have our groups picked and getting our medallions made. I already have my first medallion to put a border on. So I can get right to that after Christmas.
Here's wishing you all a wonderful holiday season, and a terrific, crafty New Year!!
Dorian
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Busy Little Bees....
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, and are continuing to have a great weekend. We are all so busy around the forum this time of year. We have so many fun swaps going, plus our own creations for our home and family. By the end of the year, we'll all be happy for some rest! LOL
It's cool now, in my part of the world. The days have been sunny, but the evenings are cool enough for a fire. I've been enjoying sitting in my rocking chair, hand sewing on my lap. I'm working on my Secret Santa gift, I have to hurry and finish, as the deadline for sending it is drawing near.
I've also finished a Christmas stocking, only 4 more to do for my family. We had a Saturday Special on the forum, in which we made stockings and posted pictures and 'talked'. Here is mine.
Our Fall table runner swap is over with, and boy are there some beauties! What a lot of talent there is in on the forum! This one is mine, made by my friend Colleen. If you would like to see more of them, you can find the album here:
http://www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=82
And we are all gearing up for next years Round Robin too!! I love Round Robins. You get to add borders to your friends medallions, and have them add to yours. Then you have a lovely wall hanging or quilt, and everytime you look at it, you'll think of your friends. It also helps you to think outside your own box. You might have to work with colors you don't normally. You have to consider what has been done by someone else before you, hoping that the border you chose to do will be just right. It's lots of fun. I think that my medallion this time, will be the Carpenters wheel, and I'll make it with some gorgeous died fabric that Connie made. Her products are in the quilt and needle store. It's going to be lovely! I can't wait to get started on it....But I still have stockings to make, secret santa gift to finish, an armchair cozy to finish....
It's a windy day, perfect for sitting inside with the radio on....sewing machine humming! Have a great day everyone.
Dorian
It's cool now, in my part of the world. The days have been sunny, but the evenings are cool enough for a fire. I've been enjoying sitting in my rocking chair, hand sewing on my lap. I'm working on my Secret Santa gift, I have to hurry and finish, as the deadline for sending it is drawing near.
I've also finished a Christmas stocking, only 4 more to do for my family. We had a Saturday Special on the forum, in which we made stockings and posted pictures and 'talked'. Here is mine.
Our Fall table runner swap is over with, and boy are there some beauties! What a lot of talent there is in on the forum! This one is mine, made by my friend Colleen. If you would like to see more of them, you can find the album here:
http://www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=82
And we are all gearing up for next years Round Robin too!! I love Round Robins. You get to add borders to your friends medallions, and have them add to yours. Then you have a lovely wall hanging or quilt, and everytime you look at it, you'll think of your friends. It also helps you to think outside your own box. You might have to work with colors you don't normally. You have to consider what has been done by someone else before you, hoping that the border you chose to do will be just right. It's lots of fun. I think that my medallion this time, will be the Carpenters wheel, and I'll make it with some gorgeous died fabric that Connie made. Her products are in the quilt and needle store. It's going to be lovely! I can't wait to get started on it....But I still have stockings to make, secret santa gift to finish, an armchair cozy to finish....
It's a windy day, perfect for sitting inside with the radio on....sewing machine humming! Have a great day everyone.
Dorian
Sunday, November 8, 2009
November Snug Society Quilters Give Back Projects
“Many Hands Make Light Work!”
NOVEMBER’S SNUG SOCIETY QUILTERS GIVE BACK PROJECTS: Thanksgiving is right around the corner. What better way to express your thankfulness for all your blessings than to be a blessing to someone else! The Snug Society projects will provide the way to do just that, to be a comfort to others in need.
The November “I Spy” quilt will be blocks made of warm colors, such as oranges, reds, browns, yellows and golds. You can find block sizes and cutting information here. This quilt will benefit a resident of the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation in South Dakota.
Our November Sweet Child quilt blocks will feature fairies bordered by turquoise, green or purple. You can also make pieced block centers from these colors rather than using “fairy-themed” fabrics. You can find information on this project here. These quilts provide comfort to children from abusive situations that are counseled at Harmony Home in Texas.
The November Snug Uniblocks will feature autumnal colors (oranges, reds, browns, yellows and golds) with white or off-white backgrounds. You can find this quarter’s block pattern and other information about these quilts here. The quilts from this project will be sent to comfort wounded veterans in hospitals here in the States as well as abroad.
NOVEMBER’S SNUG SOCIETY QUILTERS GIVE BACK PROJECTS: Thanksgiving is right around the corner. What better way to express your thankfulness for all your blessings than to be a blessing to someone else! The Snug Society projects will provide the way to do just that, to be a comfort to others in need.
The November “I Spy” quilt will be blocks made of warm colors, such as oranges, reds, browns, yellows and golds. You can find block sizes and cutting information here. This quilt will benefit a resident of the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation in South Dakota.
Our November Sweet Child quilt blocks will feature fairies bordered by turquoise, green or purple. You can also make pieced block centers from these colors rather than using “fairy-themed” fabrics. You can find information on this project here. These quilts provide comfort to children from abusive situations that are counseled at Harmony Home in Texas.
The November Snug Uniblocks will feature autumnal colors (oranges, reds, browns, yellows and golds) with white or off-white backgrounds. You can find this quarter’s block pattern and other information about these quilts here. The quilts from this project will be sent to comfort wounded veterans in hospitals here in the States as well as abroad.
August 2009 Snug UniBlock Quilt Top
My Trip to Market - Why I Didn't See Much of the New Spring Products
At market I went to dinner with my friend Pati Fried of Red Thread Studios (http://www.patifried.com). After a lovely Greek meal, we got down to shop talk. Pati, who is a quilter and wonderful artist (we shall see great things from her soon) strongly encouraged me to seek out distributors for my designs. She loved the designs and my ideas about great mystery quilts. She also said I really needed to start teaching my patterns locally, in order to achieve the goals I have set for my personal career.
I really had no idea if I would do either of these things...
I could only attend market for a few hours the following afternoon, as I can't leave Sapphire for very long while I am still nursing her. Just after arriving and registering, I went into the closest ladies' room and you would not believe who was in there! My LQS owner!! I thought this must be the cosmos pushing me to approach her about teaching in her shop. I will spare you the details, but she wants me to start next semester - January. WOW!! I hadn't even hit the floor and I have become a Mystery Quilt Teacher!! Terri (the shop owner) was very enthusiastic and seemed excited to have me on board. I have since met with Terri and we are finalizing the dates for my classes. I will be teaching Mystery Classes as well as a couple of others. EXCITING!!
After meeting with Terri in the ladies room (hahaha), I took some deep breaths and headed to the show room floor to look for fabric for my December Mystery. First things first though, I must find Pati and give her a hug for encouraging me to approach Terri in the first place. I found her quickly (aren't cell phones cool?) and she was very excited for me. She also said that she heard during a school house session yesterday that Northcott was looking for pattern designers for their new collections. Awesome, I LOVE Northcott. We headed over to their booth and I sat down with one of their marketing directors... and a few hours later met their other marketing director... and long story short...
I am one of the new pattern designers for Northcott Fabrics!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then I pretty much just walked and stared, at nothing really. Couldn't really concentrate you see. Anyway, I had a great Fall Market experience, but I really didn't see much of anything while I was there!
Thank you all for your support. I can't wait to get started on these fabulous new ventures and to share them with you all in the coming year!
Jess
I really had no idea if I would do either of these things...
I could only attend market for a few hours the following afternoon, as I can't leave Sapphire for very long while I am still nursing her. Just after arriving and registering, I went into the closest ladies' room and you would not believe who was in there! My LQS owner!! I thought this must be the cosmos pushing me to approach her about teaching in her shop. I will spare you the details, but she wants me to start next semester - January. WOW!! I hadn't even hit the floor and I have become a Mystery Quilt Teacher!! Terri (the shop owner) was very enthusiastic and seemed excited to have me on board. I have since met with Terri and we are finalizing the dates for my classes. I will be teaching Mystery Classes as well as a couple of others. EXCITING!!
After meeting with Terri in the ladies room (hahaha), I took some deep breaths and headed to the show room floor to look for fabric for my December Mystery. First things first though, I must find Pati and give her a hug for encouraging me to approach Terri in the first place. I found her quickly (aren't cell phones cool?) and she was very excited for me. She also said that she heard during a school house session yesterday that Northcott was looking for pattern designers for their new collections. Awesome, I LOVE Northcott. We headed over to their booth and I sat down with one of their marketing directors... and a few hours later met their other marketing director... and long story short...
I am one of the new pattern designers for Northcott Fabrics!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then I pretty much just walked and stared, at nothing really. Couldn't really concentrate you see. Anyway, I had a great Fall Market experience, but I really didn't see much of anything while I was there!
Thank you all for your support. I can't wait to get started on these fabulous new ventures and to share them with you all in the coming year!
Jess
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Christmas time
ARGH! Christmas is only a few months away...and you know what that means to us crafty Gals...LOTS of things to make and do. For me, not only do I have craft items I want to make, but I am usually pretty busy in the kitchen too. I love making fudges and other candies, gingerbread men cookies are a big hit here too. Not to mention the pies!
On the forum, we are having fun with a few special swaps. One is the Secret Santa swap. Someone drew names and assigned them to others. So each participant has the name of a Gal she is being a Secret Santa to. And the person you are Santa to, is not Santa to you. How fun! We get to make a special gift for someone and then get a special gift from someone.
And then we have an ornament swap going on. We make a certain amount of ornaments, for however many Gals are playing. Then they swapped around so everyone participating gets an ornament from the other players.
Which means that I've been scouring the net, looking for neat little gifts to make. Thankfully there are tons of crafty sites out there with free patterns on them. And all the quilt magazines and craft magazines have their Christmas editions out. I also love going to the library and browsing thru their Christmas books. The problem is, there are sooo many cute ideas and wonderful gifts to make....I can't decide what to do!
All this talk on Christmas gifts reminds me that I have been wanting to make stockings for my family for a few years now. We are still using the red fuzzy, cheap stockings you can buy at any store. I think it's time for some lovely new handmade ones..... It's a good thing they look easy to make.
I hope you all are having fun getting ready for Halloween too. These next few months are going to be busy ones in crafters houses. And as always, you all are welcome to come on over to the quilt and needle and join in our fun and meet some new friends.
Have a great day all,
Dorian
On the forum, we are having fun with a few special swaps. One is the Secret Santa swap. Someone drew names and assigned them to others. So each participant has the name of a Gal she is being a Secret Santa to. And the person you are Santa to, is not Santa to you. How fun! We get to make a special gift for someone and then get a special gift from someone.
And then we have an ornament swap going on. We make a certain amount of ornaments, for however many Gals are playing. Then they swapped around so everyone participating gets an ornament from the other players.
Which means that I've been scouring the net, looking for neat little gifts to make. Thankfully there are tons of crafty sites out there with free patterns on them. And all the quilt magazines and craft magazines have their Christmas editions out. I also love going to the library and browsing thru their Christmas books. The problem is, there are sooo many cute ideas and wonderful gifts to make....I can't decide what to do!
All this talk on Christmas gifts reminds me that I have been wanting to make stockings for my family for a few years now. We are still using the red fuzzy, cheap stockings you can buy at any store. I think it's time for some lovely new handmade ones..... It's a good thing they look easy to make.
I hope you all are having fun getting ready for Halloween too. These next few months are going to be busy ones in crafters houses. And as always, you all are welcome to come on over to the quilt and needle and join in our fun and meet some new friends.
Have a great day all,
Dorian
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