Fresh Cut Quilts Pattern Co.

Introducing....SOX The Sock Monkey

2013-06-12T08:31:00.000-06:00

New pattern available in my Etsy shop now!

I sure have loved making these monkeys. I have made four of them so far and want to make even more! They each turn out so cute and different. The pattern is an instant download on Etsy and includes great graphics as well as a pattern and instructions for the tie, the skirt and the shorts.

I will have the red heel socks available in my shop for sale very soon as well.

I have a new little free pattern I am getting ready to give you all too, just need to finish polishing it a bit! It will be perfect for mug rugs and potholders!

A Little Birdie Told me.....It's Giveaway and Blog Hop time!

2013-05-09T22:59:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Judy1522 who won the quilt in my giveaway. She has been notified and the quilt will be on it's way to a new home very soon.
It is time for my day of the Blog Hop!

I just love these little birds telling secrets in this vintage embroidery pattern. How cute are they? Super cute!
So this is what I made for the blog hop. I wanted to embroider something, and initially I thought I would put these little birdies on the front of a pillow, but I changed my mind. Part of the way through the stitiching, I decided they would be really sweet on a doll quilt. So here it is! I used some Pam Kitty Love fabric by Lakehouse and I love it. I still need to quilt and bind it, but it is perfect for this time of year. So I think it will stay up for a little while.

I got the birdie pattern here at Floresita's site. She has a lot of really wonderful vintage embroidery patterns priintable for free. The design is my own, just something I whipped up! Here it is closeup.

Oh wait, I nearly forgot! I am doing a giveaway. I am giving away a quilt...yep a quilt.

This quilt! Inspiration Point to be exact. This is the quilt that adorns the cover of my Inspiration Point pattern. The pattern can be purchased here . But one lucky winner will get the original quilt. It has been quilted in an allover design, one of Anne Bright's longarm designs, and the backing is form the same line of fabric. I think it is a 3Sister's line by Moda but it's been several years so I can't remember. One day perhaps I will write all that info down for each quilt! In the meantime, I have plans to make a new version of it for the cover. This one is now retiring to someone else's home.

The details:

Leave a comment about the blog hop-tell me what you have liked about it so far or what your favorite blog has been so far.

Share this link on your blog or whatever media you like and tell your friends. Leave me a comment telling me you did that.

Follow me, and leave a comment on that as well!

For each of these things you will be entered one time. So if you do all three you have three chances. Yay! Also if you already follow me tell me and it counts!

Giveaway closes on May 13th at 10PM MST. I am heading off to Market after that so I will mail the quilt out when I get home.

Here are the other bloggers:

Tuesday, May 7

http://www.fiberbabble.com

http://Sewincrediblycrazy.blogspot.com

www.SquawkThat.com

http://Scrapatches.blogspot.com

http://Kwiltypleasures.blogspot.com

www.sowingstitches.blogspot.com

www.justquiltit.blogspot.com

http://krislovesfabric.blogspot.com

http://apassionforapplique.blogspot.com

http://dancingmoon-carla.blogspot.com

http://bumbleberrystitchn.wordpress.com

http://Sewandsowfarm.blogspot.com

http://Ipiece2-Mary.blogspot.com

http://sharon-dancingthruthreads.blogspot.com

http://www.iliketoquiltblog.blogspot.com/

http://catsnqlts2.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 8

http://sunshinequilting.blogspot.com

http://feltfree-p.blogspot.no

http://busyascanbe.blogspot.com

http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com

http://buzzingandbumbling.blogspot.com

http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com

http://ecoughlindesigns.blogspot.com

http://mywhittleadventures.blogspot.com

http://SewMuch2Luv.blogspot.com

www.natilittlethings.blogspot.com

http://justletmequilt.blogspot.com

http://ncweekendquilter.blogspot.com

http://Selinaquilts.blogspot.com

http://saneandcrazy.blogspot.com

http://abis-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com

http://roseprairiequilts.blogspot.com

http://marlarockscrafts.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 9

http://englating.se/wp

http://lauraluvsloons.blogspot.com

http://marjoriesbusycorner.blogspot.ca

http://ruffhaven.blogspot.com

www.pigtalesandquilts.com

http://debbykratovilquilts.blogspot.com

http://why-knot-kwilt.blogspot.com

http://beaquilter.com

http://gwenbru.blogspot.com

http://pccrafty.blogspot.com

http://pumpkinpatchquilter.blogspot.com

http://sherry-blessingsfromournest.blogspot.com

http://zellerwear.blogspot.com

http://crafting365days.blogspot.com.au

http://charlottescreationsanew.blogspot.com

http://Janesquilting.blogspot.com

http://Ipiece2-Mary.blogspot.com Robin Sheaffer

Friday, May 10

http://ssparrowinflight.blogspot.com

http://Hillvalleyquilter.blogspot.se

http://mcsqrd.blogspot.com

http://loveitsewit.blogspot.com

http://piecepeacenc.blogspot.com

http://grammieq.blogspot.com

http://meadowbrook-Kristen.blogspot.com

http://scrapbook-ChickADoodle.blogspot.com

www.craftyshenanigans.blogspot.co.uk

http://Stitchingbythebeach.blogspot.com

www.thebusybeequiltshop.blogspot.com

http://morestarsincomanche.blogspot.com

http://lesquilts.blogspot.ca

http://suebeesworld.blogspot.com

http://mtnmommy2.blogspot.com

www.thatlookslikeitneedsstitches.blogspot.com

http://www.freshcutquilts.com

Monday, May 13

http://www.quiltsmiles.blogspot.com

http://sewdarnquilt.blogspot.com

www.cindycraftycreations.blogspot.com

http://madebymeinred.blogspot.com

http://featheredneststudio.com

http://cmyprims.blogspot.com

http://ukcitycrafter.wordpress.com

www.gracieoliverarts.blogspot.com

http://quilterinthecloset.blogspot.com

http://quilttotheedge.blogspot.com

http://aroundthehomestead.blogspot.com

http://sewpeacetopeace.blogspot.com

www.caliquilter.com/blog/

http://pamela-kieffer.blogspot.com

Tuesday, May 14

http://www.intheboondocks.blogspot.com

http://mychellem.blogspot.com

www.thimblemouseandspouse.blogspot.com

www.quiltingandsewingarts.com

http://Sewgratefulquilts.wordpress.com

www.aquiltingsheep.com

http://tricia-ramblingsofaquilter.blogspot.com

http://sewmanyyarns.blogspot.com

www.moosestashquilting.blogspot.com

http://bethstrand.wordpress.com

http://quiltoo.blogspot.com

http://teatimecreations.blogspot.ca/

http://secretlystitching.blogspot.gr/

Wednesday, May 15

http://cariboucrossingchronicles.blogspot.ca

www.notionnanny.blogspot.com

http://crookedgulleyartquilts.blogspot.com

http://Karamino.blogspot.com

http://celticthistlestitches.blogspot.com

www.sewmolliesue.com

http://devotedquilter.blogspot.com

http://mystitchin-n-stuff.blogspot.com

www.quiltscapesqs.com

http://kocanquilt.blogspot.com

http://createinthesticks.blogspot.com

http://terrysquiltingtime.blogspot.com

http://Sewwequilt.com

It's For the Birds! Blog Hop

2013-05-06T09:40:00.000-06:00

It is time for the Sew We Quilt Blog Hop to begin tomorrow! There are lots of bloggers participating and I am one of them!

The theme is "birds". Anything birds. So I decided to something fun for my day, but you will have to wait until the 10th to see it! A little hint.....It includes embroidery.....I have really been addicted to handwork lately. Both English Paper Piecing and hand embroidery.

Also, the much awaited quilt giveaway has come! I decided to give away one of my quilts for this Blog hop! So be sure and tell your friends, your bloggers, your followers and anyone else who you know because the giveaway begins on the 10th (for my blog anyway!)

I'm in Quiltmaker's May/June 2013 issue!

2013-04-17T08:46:00.000-06:00

Nana's Garden

English Paper Pieced by machine! Great easy technique that will save you time with wonderful results. I sewed my hexagons together with invisible monofilament thread so it wouldn't show. The hexagons are prepped with the papers same as you would if you were to stitch them by hand. Then you sew them, remove the paper and voila you're done!

This magazine issue is available in my online shop if you would like to buy a copy of it.

I just love hexagons and English Paper Piecing--just wish I had more time to stitch everything by hand!

New (old) tutorials and free patterns up on the blog.....

2013-04-05T16:58:00.003-06:00

This title is a bit of an oxymoron- new/old. Well it is a long overdue blog post. I had not realized until this afternoon how many tutorials and patterns of mine that were not linked in my FREEBIES heading. Seemed unjust to me so I have fixed it. There are a bunch of them in there now. Three Moda Bake Shop projects were added, a couple of tutorials, a couple of free patterns from my fabric lines that never made it on here either. Hope you find them fun!

Also, hoping I can get some more up on here soon! I love offering the tutorials, just need more hours in the day!

Stitch Me Up Blog hop

2013-03-25T22:00:00.000-06:00

Word verification is now off! So sorry about that I had no idea it was on! Thanks to everyone who let me know about it! you can't fix it, if you don't know it's a problem right? :)

Today is my day of the Stitch Me Up blog hop! I am so excited to be a part of this hop because I have really stayed away from these kinds of events for a while. I have been so busy with my little guy who turns 1 on Thursday, my two older girls, and my business ventures and designing. Well the list could go on and on.
So I decided to do this one and I have really enjoyed it. I used Madame Samm's cute design with a lady pouring out some coffee. My girls told me the lady looked like me pouring coffee. I took that as a great compliment as my figure is not nearly as cute as this gal has!

I simply embroidered on a dish towel the fun design using the great Presencia embroidery floss. It is really nice to work with. First I ironed some Pellon brand "stacy" which is a very lightweight cloth with a fusible on one side. It helps to stabilize the embroidery stitches and helps hide the knots and thread leaders on the back. It isn't a necessary product to use when embroidering, but I like it.
Once the embroidery was finished, I picked out the cute teapot print fabric and some dark brown rick rack to accent the towel. I love pretty kitchen towels!
It turned out great and I love it.

(And yes these are both my vintage electric stove ca.1927, and my Royal Typewriter ca. 1933, in the picture. The stove is more of a decorative piece as is the typewriter, but they do both work. The typewriter belonged to my parents who got it second-hand when they were first married and dad was in college.)

I had intended to make a pillow with one of Cyndi's designs, but also ran out of time. Oops. Well if I complete it I will show you a finished product when it's all done.

Oh, and these are the other gals who are featured today!

TUESDAY MARCH 26th

Isabel @That Other Blog

Jeanette @That Other Blog

Just Let Me Quilt

MacDonald’s Patch

Pots Pans Pins and Prayers

Grand Mama's Stories

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch

Needled d

Tomorrow's Treasures Today

Hanging On By A Thread

Fresh Cut Quilts-you are here!

My Sweet little hexies in a magazine....

2013-03-25T17:18:00.002-06:00

Nana's Bouquet by ME!

(isn't that quilting gorgeous?)

My little quilt is published in the May/June issue of Quiltmaker magazine!

It is a little quilt, only about 35" square, but oh so cute. All those sweet little hexagons are sewn by machine using a monofilament thread.

Around the outer edge are prairie points using the leftover scraps from the fat quarters. It's a great little tabletopper and very easy to make.

I'm going to see about buying some copies to make available to you all.

Little side trip..

2013-03-13T13:07:00.001-06:00

I'm going on a quick trip to Vancouver Washington to visit my mom with Ethan. Just want you to know if you order something while I am gone, I will get it out to you when I get back on the 20th of March. Sorry for any delay this may cause.

Sew EZ Cathedral Windows! A Tutorial...

2013-02-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to show you all how to do this clever Cathedral Window for quite some time. I finally got around to it-yay for me and for you! I do love it when things come together.

Cathedral Windows is a lovely old quilt design. It is traditionally made with a lot of hand sewing, folding, pressing, more hand sewing, and I felt a waste of fabric- the horror! You want to see why I say this? Check out this blog post-then you will see. It's so complicated I vowed I would never try it again after attempting it once. Then I met Kristine Poor from Poorhouse Designs. She showed me her clever way of making the Cathedral Window block both easy and fun. I then took it a step farther, and figured out some tricks that worked for me. I have been hooked ever since! It looks wonderful, it is easy, it is fast and it works great with pre-cut fabrics. Yep, it is a winner folks!

So here we go....

First get your fabric together.

You will need foreground fabric and background fabric. This is basically a 2:1 ratio. Yes math-ugh. Anyway it's easy. Whatever fabric you will be using as the foreground fabric needs to be twice as much as what you have for the background.
You will also need a glue stick. Preferably not Elmer's, but if it's all you have it will work. It just doesn't stick as well as the fabric glue sticks made by Sew-Line, and Fons and Porter. Plus it is sort of a "chubby" stick and the ones made for fabric are "skinny" giving you a pencil size line rather than a nickel sized line of glue.

Wow. That was easy right?

Cut your background and foreground fabric into squares of the same size.
If you are using 5" squares, they all need to be 5". If they are 3" squares, they all should be 3". You will need twice as many foreground squares as background squares. For instance, if you are using two Charm packs for the foreground, you will need 80 squares. For the background you would need 40 squares.

Once you have them all cut, you will simply need to press the foreground squares into triangles.

Press all the foreground squares into triangles with wrong sides together.
Lay one triangle on top of each side of the square, lining up the right angles of the raw edges. The folds of the two triangles will have the folded edge meeting in the center diagonally.

Do this with all of the triangles and squares.
take your glue stick and glue along the raw edge of the top (right side) of the background fabric. this will secure the triangle to the square without having to use pins. All of you "anti-pin" people out there are loving this part right? Personally, I am a pinner, but some projects are just easier without them.

Okay so the blocks are all set with triangles secured now, right?

Now you will sew the blocks together in whatever fashion you like. In this case I am making a pillow.
If this is just going to be a straight-up pillow, then go ahead and sew the blocks in rows and then sew the rows together.

Press your seams open. It is not usually something I suggest in quilting, but it is helpful in this project with all the layers.

In this picture you can see how the fold pulls easily away from the background. It naturally will create an arc when you pull the fabric from the center.

Once the blocks are all sewn together, you can fold back each side of the fold on each block and press them in place. The reason I wait until they are all sewn together to fold the centers back is to get the optimal shape of the wedge in the center. If you do it before they are sewn into the quilt design, you will lose some of the points once you sew all the blocks together.

For this pillow, you can see the center is made up of the red squares and I created a different look by framing it with more of the blocks. Typically a Cathedral Window quilt, or in this case a pillow, would have all the blocks pieced as the center is, in X's.

Once the centers are all pressed back, I sew them in place along the arc of the wedge. You can do this with invisible thread so your stitches don't show, or with a colored thread so they will show. You can try it with a straight stitch, zigzag, or decorative stitch. If you want the optimal effect you could hand-sew each one down. I'm usually in a hurry, so I haven't done it that way yet.

This pillow is sewn with a decorative stitch showing the thread.

With this quilt, I used invisible thread so it looks hand sewn. Then I quilted straight lines through the center of the wedge shapes.

Please forgive my nasty looking table here. It is in desperate need of refinishing. I also forgot to take a photo of the finished pillow. I sent it to my mom for Christmas--sorry about that! You get the idea though I hope. Let me know if you have questions!

Scrappy Swoon Progress Report

2013-01-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

So here are a couple of photos of my progress thus far on my Scrappy Swoon quilt. Honestly while sewing it, I am not loving it. But when I lay it out on the floor like this and photo it, I really love it.

These different segments are not sewn together yet, and this is steps 1-4 for those of you following along. I think I will really love it when all is said and done.

New Patterns for sale

2013-01-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Shortnin' Bread

Swing Dance

These two really are not "new" patterns, but they are a part of the new look I am converting all my patterns into. I have actually published sixty patterns----I can't believe I did that! That is a lot!
Anyway, many of them were successful, some were not. What can I say? Sometimes an idea that seems great to me- just really bombs. So I have really been working lately trying to update the patterns that have been successful. I am re-making some of the quilts in newer fresher fabrics. So every so often I will show you the "new" ones.

Did you see Cooper in the Swing Dance cover? Yep, he loves to help me! This was the best shot of the quilt, and I thought it was cute with him in it. The fabrics are "Socky" by Windham. Love me some Sock Monkeys!

Scrappy Swoon Quilt Prep

2013-01-21T16:52:00.004-07:00

Call me crazy, but I decide to do the Scrappy Swoon Quilt Along.

Who's with me???

So we have to pick out colors and fabrics. Lots of them. As I said before, this is a scrap busting project. So I looked at what I have a lot of in colors and fabrics. Pinks, browns, reds, lots of random brights, some aqua/green colors. I played with color options and decided on red and aqua. I discovered I have tons of red choices, enough aquas, and definitely in need of more whites. My whites and white prints are in bad shape. I got out all I have, and I will need to buy a few fat quarters to make it work. (I bought 3 additional white prints, and three more aqua-then I found a few more of each when I dug a little more!)
So here are my choices:

I also discovered that I buy a lot of DOTS!

Very pretty I think. Now I have to press the fabrics and begin cutting squares. Okay, did that and here they are all cut up.

And here is the link to the Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/2182026@N22/

This is how far along we are supposed to be...Clearly, I am way behind already!

There are several people uploading photos on there, and the color choices are really great. I am always impressed with the way a lot of people seem to be able to pull colors together that I would never try.

From the Hopeful Homemaker:

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS AND CUTTING:

For your background fabrics, you’ll need 42 – 3 7/8 inch squares and 192 – 3.5 inch squares

For your primary color (the center star color) you’ll need 36 – 3 7/8 inch squares and 132 – 3.5 inch squares

For your secondary color (the outer ring) you’ll need 30 – 3 7/8 inch squares and 168 – 3.5 inch squares

I actually cut my 3 7/8 inch squares 4 inches instead, and will trim them down. That is what really works best for me. I get a more accurate half square triangle. So if you are going on this little journey with me, you can try that if you want.

Let me know how you are doing it and what colors you are choosing.

Scrappy Swoon Quilt Along....

2013-01-04T08:45:00.001-07:00

Christmas Eve photo. He looks like one of Santas Elves!

My sweet baby is recovering from his nasty head cold-turned ear infection, so I am trying to get caught up here. I couldn't resist putting this picture of him on here. I actually swoon over him-but onto the real reason of this post!

This was something I ran across on Pinterest this morning, during a quiet moment in the house. L-O-V-E this!

http://hopefulhomemaker.com/wp/2013/01/02/scrappy-swoon-quilt-along/

Sorry if you weren't able to click on the photo for the link. I promise I had the links in here, but they dropped off for some reason.

I am seriously considering doing this quilt along by the Hopeful Homemaker. (I like that name of her blog--I think I could be a hopeful homemaker too) I love this quilt design, and love even more that it is a total scrap-busting project. Now, I really don't need another project--I have too many in the works as it is. But, I might have to make room for this one. I love quilts made from a giant version of a block. I should really design more of those type of quilts. So what do you think--join me and so many others? I will show my progress on this blog, which will hopefully keep me on top of the project. First I better get to some of those projects that are now screaming at me to be finished!

I'm off now to pick out the quilt for the giveaway-- no I didn't forget! I will post some photos, and the giveaway guidelines soon, maybe. No, really I will!

Tutorial Help for Zippers and Bindings!

2012-12-27T12:23:00.002-07:00

I am still working on the quilt giveaway. Ugh sorry about that. My plans got de-railed for a bit, so I am still going to do that soon. Hopefully in a couple of days..... Sick baby, again. The winter cold season keeps getting him!

In the meantime check this out:

Zipper installation, binding, bias binding and rolled hems. Some are harder than others to get the hang of, but mostly they require practice. I try to practice on something I don't care about first, then I attempt it on the real item i am making.

Well kids, you asked and here is a little help. I really don't do zippers well. But Sew 4 Home is a great website that has all kinds of tutorials on it, including zipper installation. That was one of the most requested tutorials in my pre-Christmas post. Binding is the other one. Binding anything can be tricky. Let me just say that the reason I am giving you the info on Sew 4 Home, instead of doing the tutorial myself is because I have not perfected zippers or bindings.

So-- go HERE and get the most requested tutorials on both my site and theirs. As promised, here is the help I offered. Next I will be doing a tutorial on EZ Cathedral Window blocks- they fast and fab and you will get hooked on them just like I did! That is also coming soon.

2012-12-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

Giveaway winner announcement!

The lucky winner is Angela Moore who said, "Thanks

for the baby blanket mitered tutorial. New follower".

Many, many thanks to everyone who commented!

I have read every comment and will make a list of the great ideas you all offered. Honestly, I don't know that I can do a great tutorial on everything mentioned, but I will sure try to do the ones that I know I can help with.

It seems that zippers, curved piecing, and machine binding are topping a lot of people's lists. Also, bags and purses are very much requested. Smaller projects are in high demand by quilters, and I know why! We are all so busy, it is fun to finish something quick!

Early this week I will be giving away a finished quilt! I need to get the post ready, then we can be ready to give it away!

Blog Hop Party, and GIVEAWAY!!!

2012-12-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

Blog Hopping Along.... Giveaway now closed.
Thanks to all who participated!
That is probably what you have been doing if you found me here! Well thanks for stopping by and let me just say welcome to my blog!

In honor of Michele's (Mishka's) 5th Birthday Blog Hop bash I am sponsoring a giveaway, along with about 170 other wonderful bloggers. You can find all the links HERE at Mishka's site Quilting Gallery. She has so much info on this site and is always running giveaways along with her many links to Quilting Bloggers and Quilt Shops. There is always a contest for different styles of quilts going on to. I think the most recent was Christmas table Runners. There are some very cute ones. My personal fav was this spiral one. I gotta try that technique.

I have a Freebie's Page that has several holiday projects and some other Tutorials that I have done. Check it out. I want to do more tutorials, but sometimes lack inspiration for what my readers want. I would love to hear what tutorials you would like to see here on my blog.

So onto the giveaway...... It's easy enough, here are the rules:

Leave me a comment telling me what tutorial(s) you would like me to post = One entry
If you choose to follow my blog (please do-I would love that!) = you will get a second entry--just be sure to leave a second comment stating you are following.
If you blog, pin, or Facebook about my giveaway leave me a link and a comment = third entry

Giveaway ends December 17th 9 PM MST.

What will you win?

Two bundles of Buggy Barn Basics fat quarters from Henry Glass, one Olfa Circle Cutter (awesome tool), these fine patterns from me, one of my books signed, and an out of print 100 Blocks magazine, and possibly some other surprise goodies. Opening this package will be a bit like Christmas morning for a quilter. It's well over a $125.00 value!

Here is the fine print: Giveaways are great, but participants must realize I set forth the rules, and I randomly choose the winner. (When I say random-- it is truly as random as it gets and is completely fair) If I have contacted the winner and have had no response from them after 9 days, they forfeit the prize winnings to the next random winner of my choice. I have a life and cannot be expected to chase everyone down. It is a giveaway, not life or death. Basically, I don't want to hear a bunch of griping about how this is run. It's my giveaway, my rules, you don't like it- don't play. Simple.

Next week I plan to run another giveaway-- so be sure and check back.

Day 5- A Very Merry Holiday Party

2012-11-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

Today is my day for the Holiday Blog Hop with the Henry Glass Designers.

The holiday's are a wonderful time at our home. My birthday is in early December which always has made it fun to celebrate even more. I love having a birthday in December. It is such a festive time, the lights and decorations are up everywhere, people just seem happier, and it gives my family an excuse to do something fun that we might not usually do. We often take the train downtown and see the lights and decorations of the city and in Temple Square. It is really magical in downtown Salt Lake City at Christmastime. In year's past we have also gone back to my home state of Oregon to visit my family for my birthday.

The following photos are my girls several years ago in downtown Salt Lake City visiting Temple Square at Christmas. Aren't they the cutest! I just want to squeeze them!

Christmas lights are my favorite holiday decoration. I love to see them on people's homes, on our tree, in our home, outside our home, in shops, and my favorite is to take my kiddos on a drive around random neighborhoods to check out the lights on other homes. It makes for a fun adventure and we usually do it spontaneously. I will be driving down the road and take a turn just for fun. The girls are now old enough they know when the car is not headed home like they thought. So they ask where we are headed and I just reply that I don't know, but let's see some lights on the way!

Favorite holiday recipe. This one I have posted about before, but it is still a favorite. My husband's family comes from England and immigrated here in the 50's. His grandmother always made Bakewell Tarts. They are wonderful little cakes with a jam layer and pie crust. They are glazed with a light lemon/almond glaze and a cherry on top. I thought the cherries were maraschino cherries, but last year I found out that they are not. They are topped with a glace cherry. These are the kind you find in American fruitcakes, but they are yummy on their own. Nan (as we called her) passed away 4 years ago this Thanksgiving, and though I miss her terribly, each year I make Bakewell's for the whole family in her honor.
Here is the recipe link

My project is this fun No-Sew Wreath.
A little known fact about me is that I was once a professional floral designer. That is where the name of my company came from. So for my project, I felt that combining both of my professions would be fun. Don't worry if you have never made a wreath before, it is super easy even for a beginner.
you can get the instructions HERE.

I hope you enjoyed my additions to the Holiday Blog Hop! Be sure to go and see Heather today too!

A Very Merry Holiday Party-Day 3

2012-11-13T10:33:00.001-07:00

It's day 3 of the Henry Glass Designers Holiday Party!

You really must check out the blogs of every one of our designers. Why? Because so far the projects are just so cute and clever.

Today's designer's are Wilma Sanchez and Shelly Comisky. Wilma has a great printable treat box for her free project. It is darling and has a a recipe on it too.

Shelly is offering a sheet of printable gift tags-pure genius here! I never thought about designing my own gift tags for holiday packages. I should have thought of it, because each year I run out of tags. Then I have to make do with whatever I have on hand-often this is wrapping paper scraps-pretty lame eh!
So go check their blogs out and come on back here on Thursday for my post.

By the way yesterday's designers were my friend Jill Finley and Dawn Heese. If you missed their posts, they have fun ideas too! Tomorrow is Leanne Anderson and Beth Logan.

2012-11-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today's the day! Our daily special of designer fabulous-ness today is Linda Lum DeBono. Frankly, you just cannot miss checking out her blog. Linda is terrific and has some really wonderful ideas.

To top it all off, she just released this great book Sew Merry and Bright!

And we also have the very talented group of ladies from Little Quilts. They are just full of charm, and their project from last years holiday blog hop was adorable-so you have to see them too! Enjoy!

And by the way-- my day is almost the last day of the hop. I will try to direct you each day, but if I miss a day, check out my first post on the hop, it has all the links to each designer.

A Very Merry Holiday Party Blog Hop!

2012-11-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

HenryGlassFabrics.blogspot.com

Well, it's that time of year again for the Henry Glass Blog Hop-The Very Merry Holiday Party! Our fabric designers at Henry Glass have been busy getting our fun projects ready for this event. It begins tomorrow!

How does it work? Well, that's easy. Each day there will be a couple of designers scheduled for their day. You will need to go to their blogs on that day and get the project and read their post. Each designer will be listing a favorite recipe and telling a holiday story or tradition.

There will be a grand prize giveaway at the Henry Glass blog and all you have to do to enter is to email your guess of which designer belongs to the baby pictures posted. The catch is there will only be a couple up each day- so you will have to check back to get them all and email Henry Glass at the end. So you will want to enter that. The prize will be big bundle of fabric and each designer will send you a little gift. Fun right!?

Below is the schedule for the designers, and keep in mind a lot of us may be doing our own giveaways as well. Enter everything-you never know what you could win!

November 11:
Linda Lum DeBono www.lindalumdebono.blogspot.com
Little Quilts http://www.littlequilts.blogspot.com/

November 12:
Dawn Heese http://www.dawnheesequilts.blogspot.com/
Jill Finley http://jillilystudio.blogspot.com/

November 13:
Shelly Comisky http://shellycomiskeydesigns.blogspot.com/
Wilma Sanchez http://racoonillustration.wordpress.com/

November 14:
Leanne Anderson http://thewholecountrycaboodle.blogspot.com/
Beth Logan http://artstuff.typepad.com/

November 15:
Kari Ramsay http://www.freshcutquilts.com/
Heather Mulder Peterson http://ankastreasures.wordpress.com/

November 16:
Brenda Pinnick http://brendapinnick.typepad.com/
Jana Nielson, http://www.izzyandivydesigns.com/?page_id=154

November 17:
Kim Diehl http://www.kimdiehl.com/
Lizzie B Cre8ive http://dreamlaughcreate.blogspot.com/

Houston Quilt Market- Part 1

2012-10-29T17:03:00.000-06:00

We arrived in Houston late on Friday afternoon. We didn't get a chance to see any of the Schoolhouse sessions which is too bad. I heard there were a lot of really great ones this year.

We went to Sample Spree, but got in on a late admission. So we got in at 9:00 PM instead of 8:00PM. No big deal really there was still plenty of fun things to see.

Day One:

Lots of excitement to get in. The following photos showcase some of the great booths and fun projects. This time I really didn't see that many great new tools. Darlene Zimmerman is releasing some new fun tools, and Julie Herman has her Hexagon ruler out, also Lori Holt has some new circle templates. I never saw Julie's ruler in person, just couldn't find it. I know it was being featured, I just missed the Demo's I guess. Lori Holt's Demo was on Monday and we left Houston Sunday night so I missed it too. But be sure to check their blogs for the fun info on them.

A little fuzzy, but this is the pre-Sample Spree crowd waiting. Some wait starting at 3:00 in the afternoon. Doors open at 8:00-yikes!

Annie Smith and her friends sporting her new skirt pattern-- it is very cute in sizes from small to plus. I apologize for this terrible picture. When I increase the size it pixelates-not sure why. I'm not a computer genius, so the next pic is from Annie's site!

Inside the doors of SS.

Morning of Market's first day. Loads of people waiting. The wind outside was too cold to out there! My first time in Houston when the weather was just as cold as it is in Utah.

Camelot Cottons new Pop Culture lines- my husband will love it!

Before Market started, Kristyne Czepuryk of Pretty By Hand sporting her darling Hexie bag! Loved that. She released a very pretty book called S is for Stitch by C&T Publishing.

Had to show this picture extra large, the details were to die for! This is the new Moda Designer Mary Jane Butters from MaryJane's Farm

booth and her new line with them is Glamping. Glamorous Camping! That's my kind of camping.

Moda's Booth. They carried a paint palette theme this year.

Cool African made beads that help to support the women who made them. I bought a few strands, the colors are just so pretty.

This is one of Darlene Zimmermans pieces--just so pretty in all it's vintage goodness. It is her 20th Anniversary with EZ Quilting/Simplicity and her 30th in the biz! Congrats to my dear friend- I love her to pieces!

I just thought this booth was really cute. Seriously I could not figure out what this person was selling or promoting. No one was there at the time so I couldn't even ask. Very retro cuteness though.

These bears and the Elephant are oh so fun! Made from rescued vintage quilts, that were too worn to use. The quilts were falling apart so they re-purposed the quilts and made them into animals. I bought two of the Elephant pattern and will be doing a giveaway for one soon! Patterns by Rusty Crow Quilt Shop.

Some darling projects at Just Another Button Company of their pins. These pins are so fun! I want lots of them to put in all of my cute pincushions--but now I want to make all these cute pincushions too! So much I want to do, so little time.

L-O-V-E these wooly acorns!

Okay so that's it for this part of Quilt Market. I should have taken so many more photos, but that is the way it goes. I am a bad kid because I didn't even photograph any of the Henry Glass Booths or the Designers booths. What was I thinking? Well I did only get a day and a half to do what I normally do in three full days. That's the way things worked out this time.

Part 2 will have the tools and goodies I picked up and I am thinking it is high time to do a giveaway too!

Houston Market! Surprise I'm back!

2012-10-26T20:00:00.002-06:00

Nearly 7 months ago I gave birth to this little guy. He sure has turned our world upside down but in the best way possible. We named him Ethan Xavier Ramsay and he was Born March 28. He is a wonderful baby and is just so very happy.

I am currently working on some new pattern designs. I am keeping busy developing some new fabric designs. Cant wait to announce the next line soon-I hope! And lastly, I am looking forward to getting some new tutorials up on the blog for you. So stay tuned!

Fast forward to the present day.

Here I am in Houston for market and am ready to get back to business. I cant wait to show pictures and share the new ideas that are out this year.

Garden Party Blog Hop- Day 9

2012-04-08T22:29:00.000-06:00

Let them Eat Cake!

When I was invited to be a part of the Garden Party Blog Hop I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to stretch my design wings. Why you may ask? Because first off, I really am not a fan of paper piecing. I love the look when its done, but hate the process. So I avoid it, like many quilters avoid applique. I have only designed one other paper pieced block and it was relatively easy to design. It was for the 100 Blocks Magazine, and there was no theme for that block. With a theme, it makes you stretch just a little farther in your imagination and in your design. So I felt it was a great challenge for me.

At first I wanted to do a Bee for my block. After all, I live in the Beehive State-it seemed appropriate! I designed it, but decided that after all the angles and about 50 different tiny pieces to sew, it was a little over the top. So what else does a Garden Party need? A gorgeous cake of course! It isn't a party until you have a cake, or some other lovely dessert. But for my Garden Party it is a pretty little three layer cake on a table with a tablecloth hanging down. I put a little heart on top of the cake in my diagram, but you can embellish with buttons, embroidery, or dare I say it? Applique! I also framed my block with a little border, so it finishes at 10". Without the border it is a 7" finished block. I hope you enjoy it!
Click here for the link to the pattern

Mitered Corner Baby Blanket Tutorial

2011-12-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

Well it has been longer than I thought since I last posted on here! My how the holidays do keep us all busy! We got our house all decorated on December 1st and the tree was done on the 2nd. I had serious doubts as to whether this would get done that early this year! My husband is really the driving force there though. He loves Christmastime and loves for the house to be decorated. He actually wanted to begin decorating the first weekend of November, and I said no!

I am now 24 weeks pregnant with our little bundle of joy, and this little one will be a boy. I am in good health and so is the baby, which was my main concern but we are all tickled to get to experience the fun of having a little boy in the house.

On that note, I have been preparing for this new arrival. I have always wanted to learn how to make a mitered corner baby blanket. I just never took the time to figure it out before now. So I surfed around blogland and found a tutorials on this technique. With no intention of criticism I have to tell you that there are some very good instructional lessons in blogland, and a few that are downright confusing and lacking in information. From all of them I took my lessons, and figured it out. I hope that you will find this tutorial to be one of the less confusing ones, and that you can have success in making these super easy and fun baby blankets.

Before you begin I will say that you can use cotton fabric, flannel fabric, Minkee fabric or a combination of a couple of these. My baby is going to be a spring baby so I went with a center fabric that is soft flannel, or Minkee and the main back fabric that is a cotton. For winter babies you may want both pieces to be flannel for warmth. This blanket went to a friend of mine who is having a baby girl later this month.

What you will need:
40" square of the main fabric (this will be the back and come around the sides to finish it)
30" square of center fabric
Thread to match
WOW! That's easy right! You can make this any size as long as the main fabric is 10" bigger square than the center fabric. I like mine to be a bit bigger because I use receiving blankets for everything from a makeshift changing pad, to a nursing cover, to a rain cover for baby. I find the bigger size more useful as the baby grows and moves more. It just covers more "real estate" :) So if you have a piece of fabric that is only a yard and is just perfect for the main fabric, use it. Make the center panel 25" and the main fabric 35".

Press and cut both fabrics to the appropriate square size. These must be square! It won't work well if they are even a little off. To check the square of the fabric, fold the square in a large triangle in half, then fold in half again to make a smaller triangle. If all the four points match up perfectly at the points of the triangle, then your fabric is square. They should not have any fabric overlapping at the folded edges. If it is not square, unfold and double check the measurements on your cutting mat.
Fold the larger square in half to make a big rectangle, then in half again to make a smaller square. Press at the folds. Repeat and fold the smaller square, then press.
Unfold the squares. With right sides together, on one side of each square match up the pressed folded mark of the smaller square to the larger square and pin. Then pin all the way across. They will not match up on the ends. That's the way it should be, don't worry about the overlap of the larger square.
Begin 1/4" in from the edge of the smaller square, and sew a 1/4" seam all the way down the side of the two pieces of fabric. Stop 1/4" from the edge.
Now repeat steps 3 and 4 on the opposite side of the squares. It is easier to pin then sew one side, then continue on to the opposite side once that is done. It will help keep your blanket more square in the end. If you pin it all, then sew all the sides in round, it can end up sort of wonky in the end. It won't lay flat if that happens, trust me.
Repeat steps 3,4, and 5 on the opposite two sides of the squares. But on one side, be sure to leave a 5" opening in the middle of the seam. The opening must be in the middle of the seam, not at the end of the seam. If you did it wrong, unpick a 5" opening in the middle, then sew the end of the seam. Trust me here! The picture shows it right side out, do not turn your blanket yet!
Lay the blanket out flat on a table, on your cutting mat, or even on the floor. Hey I'm not proud, I admit I sometimes crawl around on the floor if it means the job is going to get done. Try to get the smaller square centered on top of the larger square. The larger squares edges will fold over to create the finished edge of the blanket. Try to make sure those edges are about even in measure. The points at the corner will look floppy and strange- that is a "good thing"!
Choose a floppy corner, and pinch together the edges facing you. Fold over the floppy part that sticks up to one side. It should naturally create a 45 degree angle where the fabric comes together. Press down the fold and give it a bit of a crease. Then fold it over to the other side and give it a crease. This will help in the next step, so you are sure to be marking the correct direction of the angle. I skipped this step once and seriously regretted it. I ended up with the angle going the wrong direction, and it all looked more like a giant flat pillow, than a blanket. It all had to be unpicked, trimmed down and started over-what a mess.

Now do step 8 again with another corner. I do it this way, so I don't have re-lay the blanket over and over to get it all straightened for each and every corner. Two corners at a time saves a little time.

Bring together the two seams of one of your corners so the center square fabric is getting folded into a triangle inside the main outer fabric.

Note where the ends of the sewn seams are. I have a pin in that spot. This is where you will begin your mark and where you will begin to sew in a minute. Lay the ruler on your triangle fold and line up a straight line with the folded edge of the fabric. Mark the triangle flap with a pencil line as shown. You can pin it if you want. Repeat with the other corner.

Sew along the drawn line. Then be sure to check how the blanket lays. It should lay pretty flat with the little sewn triangle flaps poking up and a nice 45 degree sewn seam. Trim 1/4" or so away from the sewn line. Turn your blanket right sides out. Lay it all nice a flat. Then press the edges and the center really well. For the opening, press under the seam 1/4". Then sew all around the blanket along the seams. I used a decorative stitch, but you can zigzag it, or straight stitch it if you wish. Just be sure the opening gets sewn closed. I also like to sew a big "X" through the center to keep the fabric from shifting when it gets washed.

And you are all done! Enjoy!

Here are a couple of other ones I made. These are for my baby. I love the book "The Little Engine that Could" so I had to have this fabric! My mom read that book to me a lot when I was little. The other one has the superhero kids on it--I got that one because of my husband's love of superheroes.

See how cute my dotty fabric goes with other fabrics? Love that!

Ruffled Pillow~Free Pattern

2011-11-28T10:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I finished getting the pattern prepared for my Ruffled Pillow. It's really more of a tutorial, but it's downloadable/printable! I thought that might make it easier for you if you want to make it.

The Ruffled Pillow is super easy to make, but it looks complicated. That's just my style you know. And don't let the pleats in the ruffled flower center fool you. They really are easy, and I don't make you measure them unless you really want to!

If you haven't noticed it yet, I added a couple of pages to my blog. One is the FREEBIES page. That is where you will find the links for my free projects that I offer. There is a button at the top of the page that will take you there. More are soon to come. I am still working on a couple but I hope to have the Mitered Corner blanket tutorial up this week, and the Easy Cathedral Windows tutorial up later in the week too. With this new baby of mine coming, I have been working on a few baby projects that I will share as well.

So that is what I have to offer for Cyber Monday kids. A special free pattern that is fast, easy, and so girly! It will make a great gift!