Category: Quilt Market

New quilt pattern, Quilt Market

New Pattern #3 for Market

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It’s just new,new, new here!

When we get done there will be enough patterns for you to make & hang one each month for the entire year!  I love changing out decorations throughout the year, I suppose that’s why I have so many seasonal quilt series.

They’ve been some of my best-selling patterns.

Here is

In Season for St. Pat’s Day,

Funny thing is, it seems so far away now, but it will creep up on us…

I’m not Irish, but I’m looking forward to hanging this quilt before March 17th!

Until next time,

Susan

My Life, New quilt pattern, Quilt Market

New Pattern #2 for Market

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It’s so much fun being able to post my new patterns here, especially when I’m usually still running back & forth to printers and putting finishing touches on different things that I still need to have done…  I don’t know why I’m done so early for this market, but I’m sure enjoying not being so rushed.

Maybe the reason is because six of these new pattern samples were so quick & easy???

My second new pattern,

In season for Halloween,

Yep, it’s 18″ x 22″, with a bit of fusible applique and a bit of hand stitching and cute to hang for Halloween.  It’s so quick I’ll bet you could still make one in time to hang for this Halloween!

Until next time,

Susan

My Life, New ideas, New quilt pattern, Quick Little Projects, Quilt Market

New Patterns ready for market!

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I’m so excited to have my patterns ready to go to market!  I’m also excited to be able to debut them here on my blog for all you quilters to finally see what I’ve been working so hard on.

So, for the next eight days I will be showing you one a day.  I also have two patterns that I’ve updated samples and instructions for that will be following my new patterns.

Without further ado…

In Season for Birthdays

A quick little project that would be great to make for a friend or family member for their birthday, don’t you think?

I now have a dozen patterns in my “In Season” series.  I love these fabrics, so Susan.  For those of you that don’t know me personally, THESE are “my” colors.  Muddy, muted and of course green, black with a bit of pink or red…

The quilts are all 18″ x 22″ with a bit of fusible applique and a bit of hand stitching with no. 8 perle cotton.  I like to use Sulky’s 12 wt. cotton thread for my applique stitching.  It’s thickness really makes my applique POP!  I always use the buttonhole stitch for these.

Look for this and all of my patterns at your local quilt shop, but if you can’t find them there, check out my website.

Until next time,

Susan

My Life, New Pattern Sample, New quilt pattern, quilt as you go lap quilt, Quilt Market

Now this is a new Package

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I know it seems like a long time since I posted, but to me it seems like just last week!  This time of year (market prep time) flies by because I’m so busy designing, sewing, writing patterns, scheduling photo shoots, meetings with printers, and all this in conjunction with keeping up with my family.  You know what I mean, grocery and Wal-Mart shopping, food prep, laundry, and the list goes on and on.  Even though everyone is back in school, my life just gets crazy busy.  This is why I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted that I had a “new Package” made with the new Amelia fabric collection.

As I stated in the previous post, I knew my photographer would do a much better job than I could ever to, hence the reason I hire him!!!  Know what else?  After I posted that photo in my last blog I realized I didn’t like a portion of the quilt, so I “fixed” it!

Can you see what’s better and different?

I like it much better!

I have a total of 8 new patterns just about ready for market, in addition to this re-color of an existing pattern plus two more sample re-colors going.  I hope to be totally done with this part the end of the week so I can get assembling new patterns.  It sure would be nice to get a few good nights of sleep before heading off to market where there is no rest for the weary.

Until next time,

Susan

fabric shopping, new fabric collection, New ideas, New Pattern Sample, New quilt pattern, Quick Little Projects, Quilt Market

More Amelia

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These days my “work brain” is all about Houston’s Fall Market the end of October.  Deciding what to showcase at market is always a hard decision.  After the decision is made, things always seem to go a bit smoother.  

Fall market is the time of year that shops are purchasing the items that they will supply their shops with in the new year. These items are things to take your mind off of the cold, dreary, wintry days.  One of the things that can usually do this is sewing for spring.

Today, after our guild meeting, I was thinking more “Amelia”!

I know I already showed you a sneak peek of my newest creation last week that was also made with “Amelia”, but I decided that I wanted to make some of my “Charm Pack Garland” to hang in my booth too. 

It’s one of my “Tiny Treasures” patterns, a fast & fun pattern that makes a cute garland for a Christmas tree, but it also can be made to hang anywhere, anytime.

Last week I noticed Sweet Annie’s, a local shop, had their Amelia pre-cuts already. I decided I’d better get them while I still could.  Next month the yardage will be available. I hope to have my samples made by then!  This is going to be too cute…

Until next time,

Susan

fabric shopping, My Life, Quick Little Projects, Quilt Market, Quilt Shopping Out & About

A Cute Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheel Quilt

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The beginning of June you might remember me chatting about Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods coming to teach at our guild’s Quilt Away 2011.

While Celine was here we took in a few quilt shops and the Hearts & Hands Quilt Guild’s quilt show.  That was a very nice show with lots of vendors! While there we both fell in love with Betty Cummings’  (Village Mercantile in Booneville, IN) Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheel quilt.  She was selling kits so we each bought one to sew the next day. I was lucky enough that Celine stayed a couple extra days and we got to have our own mini retreat. We see each other during International Quilt Market each year, but we’re always so busy we’ve never had a chance just to sew and visit for fun.

I finally got mine quilted this week and finished the binding too.

Isn’t it cute?  The pattern and template are by Primitive Gatherings.  I added some of my own civil war prints to the kit. It’s fun to do someone else’s patterns once in a while too!

Celine, is yours done yet???

Until next time,

Susan

 

My Life, New quilt pattern, Quilt Market

New Pattern, A Pretty Package #179

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Some of my best-selling patterns are the result of my own quilt-as-you-go technique.  I’ve written a tutorial that you can see here.  Basically the backing & batting are cut to the finished size of the quilt, basted together and that acts as a foundation that the strips are then sewn onto.  Once the foundation is filled with strips, the quilt is complete.  Depending on the pattern you choose, you may need to add a bit of applique.  Apply the binding and label and the quilt is finished.

In the time since I created this technique, pre-cuts have come about.  They’re so fun to buy and design with that I couldn’t help but adapt them to some of my quilt-as-you-go lap quilts.  Today’s featured new pattern was created with a jellyroll plus yardage. The collection is Sweetwater’s “Countdown to Christmas” by Moda. 

Meet “A Pretty Package“:

As I mentioned earlier, these lap quilts are some of my best-selling patterns, here’s why: 

1. They are small enough projects that they can easily be completed in about 6 hours, maybe less if you choose one that can accommodate the pre-cuts that are available at quilt shops now.

2. They don’t cost a small fortune, so you can make and give them as gifts to friends & family.

3. Since they are quilt-as-you-go, once the strips are sewn on you don’t have to figure out how to quilt them (or pay someone to do it).

This pattern was tied for first place as my best selling pattern at market last month.  Can you believe the other pattern that it tied for first place with was another quilt-as-you-go lap quilt? It also began with pre-cuts!  You can see and purchase them here or at you local quilt shop.

While packing for market last month I realized that this quilt doesn’t have to be made with Christmas fabrics.  It would also look great as a birthday gift, baby gift, or whatever occassion you choose.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my other market best seller. 

Until next time,

Susan

My Life, New ideas, New quilt pattern, Quilt Market

New Pattern, Santa’s Pockets #178

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Besides my “In Season” series that I’ve been showing you as they’re completed, I have nine new patterns that premiered at Salt Lake City’s Spring International Quilt Market 2011.  I love them all, but my favorite is this gem:

 As you can see it’s called “Santa’s Pockets” and it’s an advent calendar/Christmas countdown.  You can purchase yours here. When my kids and nieces & nephew (9 total) were small I made them each an advent calendar with 24 pockets.  I started with a pattern that I purchased and added my own pockets to accommodate a Hershey’s Kiss.  The day after Thanksgiving those advent calendars still come out and during my black Friday shopping I buy the bags of Christmas Hershey’s Kisses.  Since they were quite small when I made them, that was quite a special treat to eat chocolate BEFORE breakfast each morning.  It was a treat for me too as a stay-at-home-mom because it occupied their attention several times throughout the day for almost a month!  Waiting for Christmas as a youngster is a hard thing to do without driving mom crazy!  Even though they are all three teenagers now, they still fill the pockets & eat the Kisses each morning.

With that said, I’ve been wanting to create “The” Christmas countdown/advent calendar complete with numbers so we could keep track of how many days are left until Christmas.  I think I did it.  What do you think???

I had a real lightbulb moment last winter when I finally figured out how I was going to make the numbers on the pockets.  I discovered I could trace the numbers that I created in just the right scale for the pockets that would accommodate gift cards, Hershey’s Kisses or notes.  After tracing, I stitched them on my old Bernina sewing machine with Sulky 12 wt. thread.  That’s right and you can too.  No embroidery machine required. Another day I will show you just how I did that.

I’m thinking when our local shops get their “Countdown to Christmas” yardage I’m going to have to buy enough to make each of my kids one, this one’s mine!!!

Until next time,

Susan

new fabric collection, New ideas, Quilt Market

No rest for the weary

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It seems no sooner do I get home from one market and deadlines for the next market are waiting for me in my “in” box!  No kidding, I’ve already got my flight booked for Houston the end of October.  I’ve booked a hotel to share with pattern designer buddies and I’ve already received a shipment of love from Moda!

Meet Amelia:

Dots, bright pastels and just the right amount of black (my personal favorite) thrown in. I had ideas in my head on our flight home from Salt Lake City, so the first chance I got I went to their website to drool over fabric collections due out this fall for spring designs.  It’s a fast paced cycle getting current fabrics to make samples with so shops will hopefully have the fabrics in stock to sell with the patterns.  It’s fun to dream with new fabrics that the folks at Moda are generous enough to supply to pesky designers like myself! It’s a win win situation I guess.  I can’t tell you how many shop owners came to my booth and fell in love with the fabric collection many of my booth samples were made with, Sweetwater’s “Countdown to Christmas.”  Remember my post here? The pre-cuts were just arriving in shops the week of market I heard over and over that weekend, but no shops had the bolts of yardage yet. I’d bet if you tried your local shops that they are receiving them by now.

Now that I have a bit of dreaming time on my hands (before I need to get back to graduation party prep for this weekend) I’m drooling over these pretties! 

I know, you want to know when you’ll see the new stuff from this market, right?  Tomorrow!  I will start those tomorrow, I promise!

Until then I’m going to go back to drooling and dreaming over Amelia!

Until next time,

Susan

Family Time, My Life, Quilt Market

Here I am!

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I’m sure you’ve all been wondering, “Is she EVER coming back?”  Well, I’ve been home for a while now, but I’ve been extremely busy. 

My son graduated from high school

 

the same day my niece got married.

I hosted my family throughout the holiday weekend so we could all visit with my out-of-town brother & his wife.

Next I spent two days with my son at SIU-E’s orientation getting him ready for not only school this fall, but also a class later this summer.

 I also attended our guild’s Quilt Away, a three-day retreat which Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods came in town to teach at. More on that in a later post.

 

Salt Lake City’s Quilt Market was a very successful show for me!  Chloe was a great help. I met lots of new shop owners and employees that loved (and bought) my new “stuff”. The city was beautiful, what we were able to see of it, and the time shared with fellow quilt designers was priceless.

 

A photo of Chloe & me in our booth.

Here are some of our friend’s & neighbors’ booths:

Mary Jane of The Quilt Branch (Susan was out & about).

 

 Celine of Perkins Dry Goods & friend Barb.

 

Susan & Leslie of My Favorite Things.

Roger of Blue Hill fabrics. 

 I’ve met so many nice people through quilting and Salt Lake City was no exception! Going to market is a LOT of work; from designing and making samples, to writing patterns, to photography and printing, to packing, traveling, booth set-up, working on your feet 9 hours a day…  Then there’s tear down and more traveling, not for the faint of heart for sure, but the feedback from shop owners and distributors has been great and keeps me going!  It was fun to experience market with my daughter, Chloe this time.  Not only was she great help, but she was fun to spend the week with.  She and Celine have already been planning to meet up again in Kansas City next spring where Celine hopes to also bring her daughter.  That should be fun too!

Until next time,

Susan