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

 

 

My Life, New quilt pattern, Quilt Market

We’re off to Salt Lake City, Utah for market

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It’s that time again, Spring International Quilt Market.  This year it’s in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I can’t wait to see the city, and I’m anxious to show off my new designs I’ve been working on all winter. 

My oldest daughter, Chloe, will be attending with me. Although we’ve traveled throughout the country on family vacations, we’ve never been to Utah, and Chloe’s never been on a commercial airplane.  This is sure to be an adventure!

I’ll be back next week with lots of photos and I’ll be showing you my new patterns too!

Until next time,

Susan

A Giveaway!, Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour

And the Winners are:

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Thanks to everyone who joined in on the blog hop!  I know you had a lot of fun and saw some awesome quilt blocks.  There are so many talented quilt designers and Quiltmaker did a fantastic job of organizing this blog hop along with putting out an awesome publication.  For those of you who didn’t win a free issue on my blog or another’s blog, please visit your local newsstand this week and buy one.  You’re sure to find lots of inspiration on those pages, I guarantee it!

After a random drawing, comment #25 by Gill Watson is the winner of a free issue of 100 Blocks vol.3, congratulations!  Please send me your address and you will receive a copy of this issue really soon.

The winner for a fee pattern of choice for subscribing to my blog is: hempeltammy63@gmail.com.  Please email me and let me know which pattern you would like to have and I’ll ship it right out to you.  Don’t forget to also send me your address.

Thanks again to all of you for participating in the blog hop!

Until next time,

Susan

A Giveaway!, New ideas, Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour

Welcome to Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks vol 3 Blog Hop!

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The folks at Quiltmaker have done it again with another great issue filled with beautiful blocks that will inspire!  I’m honored to be part of this issue that will be on magazine stands May 10th. 

My block, #208 is found on page 29.

I submitted this block for the spring issue because it’s the perfect time for all of you to get started on a patriotic quilt that can be finished in time to hang for your 4th of July celebrations. 

I also made the block into a quilt that is featured in this issue’s gallery found on page 82.

So with just one 12″ block you can make this adorable quilt! 

Along with the block, you will need:

  • 2, 20″ squares of another print, cut in half diagonally for setting triangles
  • 4, 3-1/2″ Strips of Blue Print for Border
  • 2 Yds. Rickrack
  • 12 more stars from template found on page 29  
  • Plus Blue Binding Strips

 Please subscribe to my blog to follow me as I “quilt my way through life.”  Each Tuesday I share with my readers a hot tip.  You can submit your own hot tips to me here and if I use your tip, you will receive a free Suzn Quilts’ pattern!

I’ve been working to finish up new designs that I will be introducing at International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City, Utah next week.  If you’re there come by and say “hello.”

Join me here too as I show my new designs in the next few days.  All of my designs are available at quilt shops as well as on my website. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you’ve also checked out the other designers on  the blog hop.

For a chance to win a free copy of 100 Blocks volume 3, just go back to the top of this post and write me a comment! 

Subscribe to my blog and be entered to win a second drawing for a free pattern of your choice!  If you’re already a subscriber, let me know in your comment and you’ll be entered too.

Until next time,

Susan

 

Hot Tips

Hot Tip Tuesday # 24, Listen while you work

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A few weeks ago I explained how I listen to smooth Jazz a LOT while I work, but when I hear about a good book and don’t have time to sit and read guess what I do?  I request it from our local library on CD.  Since my daughter Chloe works there, I also have a constant lookout for the latest books by my favorite authors; Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks & Debbie Macomber… She’s very handy to have around, my daughter! 

Books on CD, very convenient.  My friend Susan told me she listened while she sewed a few years ago, but I didn’t think I would like it. As part of the summer reading program last summer I listened to a book with my daughter Clare as we sewed.  I was hooked! I now keep my son Blake’s portable CD player in my room where I can change discs easily.

 

The best part is that I can hit pause if the phone rings or if I need to leave the room.  I don’t want to miss a thing.  I just listened to this book in two days. It was not Nicholas’ best book in my opinion, my favorite is The Wedding.  I actually read that  in paper form last summer as part of the summer reading program. 

Now I can listen while I work!  Perhaps you (other) skeptics will give it a try!

Until next time,

Susan

Hot Tips

Hot Tip Tuesday #23, Piecing Cotton Batting

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I use Warm & Natural cotton batting exclusively.  As discussed here previously I have my own technique for making my quilt-as-you-go lap quilts.  By using Warm & Natural cotton batting I have no puckers because the cotton batting sticks to the fabrics like Velcro!  I love this “Velcro” property and therefore have been using their batting for as long as I can remember.  I have a big roll that I cut off of and since I use it for all sizes of projects I have scraps too. 

 

They go into table runners, and pillows and I also use them in stitchery projects as previously discussed too.

Today as I was working on yet another new project for Spring Quilt Market, I needed to piece a smidge onto my batting because my project grew a bit after I started.  Not to worry though, my backing was big enough.  My batting was just a bit short.  So, I searched out a strip of batting and squared it up along with the end of the batting inside my quilt-to-be. 

Here’s a tutorial to show you how:

Square up both pieces that you want to join.

 and just zigzag stitched them together. I use the widest and longest stitch settings.

voila!

One piece of cotton batting! (I use cream color thread normally, but I wanted you to be able to see it here.)  

I just finished my quilt by the way…  Can’t wait to get it into pattern form so I can show all of you!

Until next time,

Susan

Hot Tips

Hot Tip Tuesday #22, Quilter’s Travel Companion

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I mentioned in my post yesterday that I was out of town a few days last week.  I tagged along with my husband while he attended a conference.  Although I really should have been home for those three days making progress on my new designs for Quilt Market, I can always justify going by spending some quality time in a quilt shop or two!  And for those of you with teenagers at home, we have three, you know what I mean when I say David and I can’t even have a conversation any more, so it’s a good time to catch up with him as well.

So, before we left I grabbed my Quilter’s Travel Companion and looked up the quilt shops that I could travel to while out and about.

Are you familiar?  If not you must get one.  This book lists quilt shops by state. 

Just look up the state you want and it shows a map of the state and pinpoints the shops.  Keep in mind quilt shops have to pay to be listed here so not every shop is included, but many are.  It’s put out every two years, so it’s pretty current, but I’d still call the shops listed before I traveled across the country to see one. 

Besides the shop’s address & phone number, the QTC also shows

  • a simplified map to the shop
  • it’s hours of operation
  • the square footage
  • how many bolts of fabric it may have
  • plus a sentence or two of the feel of the shop!!! 

This is a great way to decide if the shop is for you while planning a trip. It doesn’t hurt to have a GPS too.  I just typed in the address and it took me right to the door, OK in one instance it took me right across the street from the door!

So, besides being some company for my DH on his trip, I got some inspiration from a few purchases.  I’ll show you those a little later.

Until next time,

Susan