Bloggers Who Giveaway

Have you ever entered giveaways on the many wonderful sewing blogs?  You should, these quilters and suppliers and designers give away such beautiful things.  Right now is a great one at Dye-Candy , a great place with fabrics dyed and jewelry made by a fellow Wisconsin blogger, Chris Daly.  Go check out her blog and leave a comment.  I love her jewelry pieces, I think I've seen them at shows, maybe by Sun Prairie or Madison?  Anyway, very nice offerings.
Here is another very sweet, free embroidery of tea cups at BusyAsCanBe .  Just sign up at her email list and she will forward you a nice file of the embroidery.  She also has tips on embroidering it on her blog.
As mentioned in a previous post, Esther Aliu has started her new BOM.  The first block looks lovely and today I see she posted a nice demonstration on the applique technique that she used to make this quilt.  Its worth checking it out just to see that. 
PS.  I did win an item on a blog giveaway, it was a beautifully handpainted card that came all the way from England.  Very sweet.   Happy quilting.   Diana

Diva Diana!

Sue and I (Deanna) made a special trip to see our February Diva of the Month friend's quilts hanging in the new Quilting Diva's Shop.  Seeing Diana's quilts and ribbons hanging there was very nice.  For those of you who haven't seen the shop it's well worth the trip. 

Submitted by Deanna

New eMagazine

Have you ever looked at emagazines online?  These are emagazines put only on the internet, are probably the wave of the future and are fun to check out. Lizzie B Cre8ive has a new one, their premiere issue, called Dream, Laugh, Create. There are some nice articles, stories and patterns available in this eMagazine.  I especially like the little Irish rose pin for St. Patrick's Day and the fabric lollipops, I think the grandkids would like those too.
I was a little unfamiliar with the workings of an online magazine but caught on.  Just click on the magazine and it will load, it will probably be small and this is where I had a problem, couldn't read it.  Just click on the page again and it will bring it up larger and you can put your cursor over it and move it up and down too.  The arrows are pretty self-explanatory, they take you forward or backward through the magazine.  I hope you enjoy this free magazine that these nice ladies put together, they look to be very creative!   Diana

Kathy's Flower Girls

Kathy’s Flower Girls……

This is a group of ladies interested in the “Grandmothers Flower Garden”

Quilt. This is sometimes called English Paper Piecing and is done by hand.

No sewing machine needed. It is made up of hexagons, any size from ¼ inch

To however big you like. If you like hand work, it is rewarding.

Since we had one of the experts at this process in our Quilting Guild, I asked

Kathy and a few other girls if they would like to come over and she would help

Us get started. That was the beginning and we have been meeting monthly

Or close to that ever since. I believe there was 5 of us to begin with and that was

Two and half years ago…..as time went on, many projects started and some have

Finished their project. Our starting group included myself, (Evie), Joan, Dorothyann,

(who has since moved to Arizonia), Shelia and our leader, Kathy.

And a couple other gals (Barb and Lois) have joined us, we now have six in our group.

We meet at our home usually for lunch and then work on our projects for the

Afternoon……..we welcome anyone who would like to join in…..

Here Kathy, Sheila, Joan, and Dorothyann work on their paper piecing.

Sheila's finished quilt earns a ribbon at the Treasurer's of Tomorrow Quilt Show at Marshfield.

Evie, Dorothyann and Kathy display their blocks.

Submitted by Evie

                                

New BOM for Esther

Do you remember the beautiful "Red Delicious" BOM offered by Esther Aliu?  Peg and Laurie each made one and they were entered in our last quilt show.  What a wonderful design that was!  I have one started, should be a goal to get it done, what a waste to have it sitting in a bag. 
Anyway, Esther is starting a new BOM in about a day so go and check out her blog.  She has her personal fabric choices for this BOM displayed and like the last one, you don't really know what it will all look like until your done.  You can be assured that she does wonderful designs and you won't be disappointed!  Diana

What's Up With Cotton?

I was recently emailed a link to American Quilt Retailer for a really good article about the rising prices of anything to do with cotton, including our fabrics, batting and even our clothing. I think you'll find it interesting reading.   diana

February Sewing Session

 Yesterday was our monthy sewing session.  If you are not a regular there, come join us sometime.  It is inspiring to get together with friends and sew.  If you are working on something big, like squaring up a quilt it is really nice to have access to the large tables to lay things out.

Many of us are working on our Mystery Quilts, and it is fun to see the color choices everyone has made, and to watch the progress on those.  Here Evie is pressing the strip pieced components for hers.

There were a couple of birthday girls at the sewing session as well, and all enjoyed in sharing their birthday cake!  Happy Birthday Ladies!

Laurie

Moda Pillow Talk

Rita has sent me information on a fun place to check out.  Moda had challenged it's designers to create a pillow using Moda fabrics.  These pillow designs will be featured here, so go take a peak.  It may be of interest to some of you that the featured pillow for February 20th was designed by Lisa Bongean of Primative Gatherings.  I know that many of you enjoy that shop, so go and see her design, as well as all of the other creative designers featured.
Rita also informed me of another site,The Golden Thimble, which has a lot of fun patterns and BOM's to check out.  I have also added it to the BOM page.
Laurie

Baby Boomer Quilting Bee

There are a lot of fun and generous quilting blogs out there.  One that I have recently enjoyed is BabyBoomer Quilting Bee.  Jamie is a blogger from Louisiana who features many projects and at the moment she is participating in Judy Laquidara's challenges for this year.  In addition, Jamie has a wonderful selection of free quilt patterns that she offers on the side bar of her blog.  The pattern, Kristy's Dream, is a nice pinwheel type pattern, Missy's Fall Garden uses "Layer Cakes", which are 10x10 precut blocks, Nicole's Journey is a great way to use up scraps and Kendra is a bright way to use black in your quilts.
She also had a nice tutorial on partial seams.  This technique is used in the Nicole's Journey quilt and well worth learning to do. 
Jamie's blog is a fun place so go and check it out and maybe you'll be inspired to start a new project.  diana

Valentine Quilt

Its February already and have you thought about Valentine's Day quilts?  Here is a link to a really cute quilt designed by the Electric Quilt Co.  If you do searches online, there are a lot of free patterns out there.  Diana