We wish you a Merry Christmas!
I hope you’re able to spend it with those you love.
Susan
Apliquick Rods Are Back In Stock!
Did you come by our booth at
Quilt Festival in Houston
while we were sold out of Apliquick Rods?
Well, they’re back in stock, fresh from Spain!
You can order yours today on my website.
If you don’t already know how wonderful they are,
you can watch a short video demonstrating them below.
I don’t know what I’d do without mine!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
Happy Thanksgiving 2017
I hope you have many blessings to be thankful for today!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
Fall Quilt Market 2017 Recap
We’re back from Fall Quilt Market and Quilt Festival
and most of my catch-up work is complete, whew!!!
What a busy, tiring and fun trip.
It took most of our kitchen to hold all the “stuff” that I packed into the van…
Everything was labeled & packed tight for the 15 hour drive.
Nothing worse than listening to things rattle for hours on end.
Ask me how I know!
My super booth helpers (market slaves), Robin (Nestlings by Robin)
& Chloe & I had the booth set up in no time!
That’s a bit of an exaggeration.
It did finally get set up Friday evening after
a schoolhouse session with Pepper Cory & Studio e Fabrics & her Designer RSVP Blocks that
Robin & I participated in, making blocks with her Peppered Cottons:
Yes, Robin the overachiever made 2!
Then, 2 Schoolhouse sessions showing my new Tiny & Mini Dresden plate book & patterns,
and then the C&T Schoolhouse session introducing the
13 new quilts from Dresden Quilt Workshop:
Then there were book signings introducing Dresden Quilt Workshop.
A couple of mornings before market opened,
we walked part of the show to see what else came to Houston besides Suzn Quilts.
Here’s a look at my fav… Jo Morton’s newest line, New Hope, yum!
I’m pretty sure Jo designed this collection just for me ;)
(Spoiler alert—-You’ll be seeing a lot more of this collection!)
Betsy Chutchian’s new collection was very pretty.
French General’s new collection was lovely too.
Lella Boutique also very pretty.
Tim Holtz, always super cool!
Jen Kingwell, WOW!
Her newest collection, more yum!!!
Oh, & a new book…
a little close-up in case you’re not sure what I’m pointing at, lol!
Then there was Festival!
That will have to wait for another day.
Until then,
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
I’m Making Stitches, Are You?
I know I’ve been neglectful of this blog the last few months.
Besides having 12 new patterns for spring market,
helping with my son’s wedding this past July,
going on our family’s summer vacation
and then the release of my new book,
I’ve been busy & you must have thought that I had dropped from the face of the earth.
I had not.
In fact I’ve been working A LOT!
I don’t know about you,
but this time of year I pop my head up and wonder where summer went!
I’ve been stitching.
Besides the new sampler that I’m working on with Circulus & Lollies Sweet that I showed you earlier this week,
I recently finished a new Tiny Dresden little quilt.
I used an American Jane charm pack plus a cute black dot print.
I’ve also been writing instructions for these feathered star blocks.
I designed them just the right size to have a Tiny Dresden plate appliqued in the center!
So, are you intrigued?
Have you made a feathered star quilt before?
Do you think they’re hard or do-able?
I once thought they were extremely difficult, but no more!
You’ll think so too when you get one of my patterns, not any day soon though.
You’ll have to wait a while longer until I can get my quilt finished (designing & sewing…)
and the rest of the pattern written.
So far I’ve made 4 blocks
and I think that I have all of the step-by-step illustrations just about perfect!
Just as I was finishing those step-by-step illustrations, wondering if I was going a bit overboard, I got the nicest email out of the blue from Dana who had just finished making a quilt from one of my patterns:
Your pattern was very easy to follow . . . it was like you were sitting here telling me what to do next!! I like that!
Have a blessed day . . .
Dana
Needless to say, in my opinion, that’s the nicest compliment a designer/author can get.
It’s also the affirmation that I needed just then.
Knowing that I hadn’t wasted the weeks
I had just spent on those illustrations for just part of that pattern was nice.
Unfortunately, I don’t know what direction the quilt is going just yet,
hence the reason I put it on the back burner to work on my sampler quilt.
Stay tuned.
We’ll all be surprised together, Lol!!!
What have you been stitching?
I hope something fun!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
New Fabric, Circulus & Lollies Sweet
I found a magical fabric collection!
It’s Circulus & Lollies Sweet by Jen Kingwell for Moda fabrics.
There are lots of dots,
but the cool part is all the stripes from just a handful of prints!
Each stripe will accommodate my Tiny & Mini Dresden petals and my Tiny Dresden background squares too.
It’s not my usual color pallet you might say, but I sure am loving the bright variety of these fabrics!
New ideas are in store for you here on my cutting table!
These are some Mini Dresden petals.
A nice bold, fun contrast don’t you think?
I’m working on the new pattern samples but it’ll be a bit before they’re ready for you.
Look at this sweet mess!!!
I can’t wait to show you all of it!
In the meantime, what are you up to?
I hope it’s something fun.
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
Dresden Quilt Workshop Now Available!
After much work, much wait & so much anticipation…
Dresden Quilt Workshop has finally arrived!
If you already have one or both of my little Dresden plate templates
(Tiny Dresden #216 & Mini Dresden #186)
you’re half way there.
Like all of my little Dresden plate patterns, the paper templates are included in the book, but the plastic templates make your cutting so much faster & more accurate.
I’m all about accuracy.
These are some of the 13 quilt patterns included in the book.
Every quilt in the book uses my Tiny Dresden template
and some of them also use my Mini Dresden template.
Dresden Quilt Workshop is available on my website now
and hopefully will be available at your local quilt shop soon!
If you’re like me and prefer to shop at your local quilt shop,
please give them my information so they can find
Dresden Quilt Workshop at their favorite distributor.
Get yours today!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
Timeless, New Fabric Collection
As the sun streams through my sewing room windows this morning I’m not sure which I’m enjoying more, this lovely new “Timeless” collection by the extremely creative and talented Jo Morton for Moda, or the extra light in my room so early in the morning.
The colors and designs are very “Jo Morton” I think.
Pretty, creative and new, yet they feel like the civil war prints that I also love.
Coming to a quilt shop near you soon I hope!
You can see the whole collection here on Moda’s website.
I’ve got work to do.
I’m dreaming of Dresdens.
But today is my mom’s birthday, so I’m looking forward to spending this day with my parents and whatever that entails… hopefully ice cream!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
My Tennessee Souvenir, A Feedsack Quilt
We traveled to Pigeon Forge, TN last week for a much anticipated summer vacation.
We love going there!
Dollywood, white water rafting, outlet mall shopping, lots of good restaurants & tourist shops & this year plenty of antique shopping & a trip to The Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC!
Early in the week I spotted an old quilt with lots of feedsack prints in an antique mall.
They closed at 5:00 and we showed up at 4:50, but the woman offered we could shop since there was another couple already shopping so we took a quick look around.
Whoever made the quilt had done a nice job & the quilt was most likely not used but had been washed (probably by whomever had it for sale).
I wasn’t crazy about the binding on the quilt so I didn’t buy it.
The rest of the week I couldn’t stop thinking about the quilt,
so Friday, Chloe & I ventured back to the shop to see if it was still there.
It was still there and so I bought it!
If you didn’t look closely, it was perfect.
But alas, I’m a quilter so some things are blatantly obvious even from a distance…
This binding was horrid & not original to the quilt!
So while sitting on our back porch with this wonderful view, I set to work removing the ugliness from my quilt.
Fortunately I had a small pair of scissors along with me in my hexagon go-bag.
I had made a couple of these in some down time on our trip.
In less than 2 hours all signs of ugliness were history!
On our drive home we stopped at one more antique mall and I found the perfect replacement binding fabric from the same era as the fabrics in the quilt.
It was even on sale!
No comparison…
With the removal of the binding, the smallish size of the quilt and the odd binding made a lot more sense.
You don’t see many quilts of this era that aren’t bed size
unless its’a baby or doll quilt & this is a bit smaller than twin.
I knew there had to be a story.
There ALWAYS is.
Look how the unbound edge of the quilt is so ragged.
Someone took scissors to it.
I don’t know if a dog got hold of it or something else tore into it.
In two places the edge of the quilt had bites out of it that would not be covered by typical binding.
Instead of putting a wide binding on it like the previous “quilt preservationist” did,
I went to my feedsack stash & pulled out a piece that would work OK and appliqued little patches in those two areas.
It’s by far not a perfect (or even a really close) match but after I had them on,
I couldn’t tell where I had put the patches because all of the fabrics are so busy;
the reason I was drawn to the quilt in the first place.
I straightened the edges of the quilt & sewed on the new binding that I had made.
As I was photographing it I noticed this cutie patootie print.
How cute is that Jack-in-the-box?
Now I love it just the way it is.
I can’t wait to look at every patch of fabric in it
& when I do I’ll look at it I smile instead of wanting to rip the binding off!
What are you doing this summer?
I hope it’s a fun time.
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
Learn a little more about me while we wait for Dresden Quilt Workshop to arrive
I can’t wait to share with all of you
my tips, tools & techniques for perfect little Dresden plates.
Just look at the pretty cover models!
It will be here soon
(not soon enough for me),
but while you wait you can learn a bit more about
me from today’s blog post over at C&T.
Just click the link below:
http://www.ctpub.com/blog/interview-with-susan-r-marth/
Here are some snippets of some of the 13 projects that are included.
August 30, 2017 cannot get here soon enough!
You can pre-order your copy today on my website
& be the first on your block to own your very own copy!
Until then I guess we will have to
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
Quilting my way through life! 