So here are some pictures of my gardens….weeds and all. Who can deny the growth of weeds when in the end they bloom into flowers as well?

I had some photos from this Spring when I was working in the beds.  And I just took some new photos so you can see what the beds look like now.  It’s amazing what water and sun can do!

Click on any of the images to see them bigger.

This garden bed is in my front yard.

Front yard this Spring, this is the real me in all my glory!

Front yard garden as it looks now!

Check out the front of the house, this is another “before and after.”

Front of the house in April.

Front of the house now!

And here is the back yard.

Our backyard in all its summer glory.

Isn’t this  rock in the picture below beautiful? That was my Mother’s Day present from Marie and Rich…..I love rocks….and I got another one for my birthday. Rich could hardly lift it!!! Keep them coming kids!!!

My Mother's Day present...a rock! That's MY kind of gift.

Bird Diner

I call the area for my bird feeders the “Diner”.  The deer keep coming up from the woods and cleaning me out of seed….but then again…what am I to do???

This is what my “diner” looked like in the Spring.

My "Bird Diner" in the early Spring

Since then, I have decided the “Diner” needs to be enlarged.  Why?  When the birdseed hits the ground, it tends to sprout.  With a larger paver bed underneath it, I can just pluck the bird-seed-weeds out of the sand.  I LOVE easy maintenance.  Plus I wanted to put flowers there along with a water supply.

Here is the new and improved diner under construction.  Huge thanks to the hubby’s cousin, Barrett, for his help.

Removing the sod.

Adding the sand.

Laying the stones.

Hey birds, come and get it!

Erving checking out the workmanship.

The Diner at Sackel Park is now open for business!  Here’s what the finished Diner looks like.

The Diner at Sackel Park.

Our first customer.

I hope your summer is going well!

The big news in the Sackel household is that we are going to be Grandparents!  Our son Chris and his lovely wife Susan are expecting.  When I first found out, I immediately found a baby quilt I had set aside and sent it off to them.  Here it is.

For my grandbaby

The quilt is my Constellations pattern published by Quiltwoman.com.  Here’s the another of my quilts that is on the cover of the pattern.

It’s a design from my 4-in-1 series.  This series features quilts that have large areas for embellishment.  In this case embroidered designs are the embllishement.

A few weeks ago we got more good news….

Yup, it’s a boy!  The only downside to all this great news is that my son and his wife are living in Korea for a while.  We’ve been doing the webcam thing via Skype, but it is going to be so hard to have a grandson and not be able to hold him for a long while.  But I can tell you one thing, my mind is whirling with my list of necessities that I need to stitch up for this baby!  Korean customs isn’t going to know what hit them!

The Rose Cottage Quilting Shop

The winner is Barbara from Columbia, South Carolina!  Barbara is going to receive a fat quarter pack of my new fabric line, And Sew It Goes, and her favorite pattern from my designs for the And Sew It Goes fabric line.

And Sew It Goes for Blank Quilting

Barbara, the goodies will be in the mail to you shortly.

One of the questions that had to be answered to participate to win was “What is the name of my next fabric line for Blank Quilting?”  The answer was Florentine Fancy.  I can’t show you what it looks like yet…but soon!!!

For now it’s back to my sewing room.  I have a new serger to play with AND a new top-of-the-line Bernina.  So many toys, so little time!  Happy sewing!

In my imagination, there is always a few words spoken by the parties involved before the premier of a movie.  So indulge me here!  Ahem…..

The motivation for making this video sprang from a trunk show I recently did.  The audience’s reaction as I showed quilt after quilt – all cut out with the AccuQuilt GO!™ was tremendous.  I was shocked at the response.  That got me thinking, is there a way to show the story of my pattern designs for the AccuQuilt GO!™?  Thus, this video was born.  I borrowed from my pattern testers their quilts made from my patterns, photographed them, and have included them in the video.  So even though you may have seen my version of these patterns, you haven’t seen theirs!  It’s always fun to see someone else’s take on one of your patterns.

I’ve babbled enough.  Grab your popcorn, settle back, and enjoy the show.

So, what did you think?  There is just so much you can do with the GO!.  My thanks to Nancy Dill of QuiltWoman.com for pointing me down the road of designing for the AccuQuilt GO!™ Fabric Cutter.  Also thanks to the people at AccuQuilt for their support.  They are wonderful people to work with.

Another dream of mine has been realized.  My web goddess has been feverishly working to get my new on-line store up and running.  So without further ado <imagine a trumpet fanfare here> I am proud to announce the opening of my new on-line store, The Rose Cottage Quilting Shop.  <insert thunderous applause here>

The Rose Cottage Quilting Shop

Seriously, I have had so many requests for my fabric and such from people that don’t have ready access to them, it seems to only make sense.  In my on-line store you can find for sale:

• Fabrics that I have designed
• Patterns to go with my quilts
• Kits made up that use my fabrics and patterns
• Quilts and bags for sale – all Barb Sackel originals designed and stitched up by little ole me

My store accepts PayPal for payment.  And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that all my patterns are always available at QuiltWoman.com.

A Give Away!

To celebrate this Grand Opening, I am having a give away!  Visit my store site at http://BarbSackel.com/shop and

1. Tell me the name of my next upcoming fabric line…the answer is on a page on my store, an OBVIOUS page!  (Hint: the answer is not “And Sew It Goes”).
2. Tell me YOUR favorite “And Sew It Goes” pattern that you would like to win.

By random drawing, I will award one person a Fat Quarter Pack of “And Sew It Goes” along with your favorite pattern.   Just leave a comment below or shoot me off an e-mail to barb@barbsackel.com.  I’ll take your comments and e-mails until June 14th.

Please, take a look and tell me what you think!

I had a great Quilt Market (who doesn’t?) and have some great news to share with you.  Where to start???

Blank Quilting

Let’s start out with my new fabric line that I have been babbling about all over the Internet (and in person too, if you happened to get too close to me). As you probably know, it’s called And Sew It Goes… and is being produced by Blank Quilting. Here’s a picture of my Plantation Quilt (pattern literally just appeared on the QuiltWoman.com website with two more designs for this fabric) and my And Sew It Goes apron (pattern soon to be on the QuiltWoman.com website).

Plantation Quilt and "And Sew It Goes" Apron in the Blank Booth

The people at Blank also took some of this same fabric line and made a sewing machine cover to show off in their display.  What a great idea!

Sewing Machine Cover made with "And Sew It Goes..." fabric

Needlework Factory

Now this is exciting news!  I met with Sue Radzanowski of The Needlework Factory.  They are a company that specializes in digitized machine embroidery designs.  They are going to digitize the motifs from my two fabric lines (here I go again, talking up my fabric), The Ibiza Collection and And Sew It Goes..!  and create 2 complete Machine Embroidery Collections.  Wow!  My ever patient husband spent a whole evening this week getting the images together to send to Sue.  I’ll let you know when the designs are available!

The two Marks

I had the exciting opportunity to hang out with a couple of Marks;  Mark Lipinski and Mark Hordyszynski.  Mark H. and I were at the Blank Quilting Booth and spotted Mark L. across the way.  Mark H. had a Jeebers t-shirt to give Mark L.  Here’s Mark L. attempting to put the t-shirt on (I think).

Sue Radinowski form The Neeedlework Factory wearing her Jeebers t-shirt and Mark Lipinski getting ready to try his on.

You might be asking “What’s a Jeebers?”  Mark H. created a line a fabric for Blank Quilting called Jeepers Creepers. Sue digitized it into an Embroidery Collection and the rest of the story (named “The adventures of the Jeebers”) I’m going to save for another blog posting coming up shortly.

Anyway, with the 2 Marks in the vicinity, I just decided I wanted to be part of a Mark Sandwich.  Just call me Happy!

Mark Lipinski, ME! & Mark Hordyszynski

And Some Fun

Dolores Joshua, a Blank Sales rep who had been great to deal with, did a Schoolhouse session in conjunction with QuiltWoman.com.  What I want to point out in this picture are the SHOES!  We went shopping at the Mall of America and Dolores found more sneakers to add to her collection.  Let me just say the shoes match Dolores’ personality perfectly.  Yup, we had a great time.

Dolores Joshua presenting at Schoolhouse

I think Dolores’ shoes deserved their own Schoolhouse session!

A lot more happened at Quilt Market, but that’s all I can talk about right now.  (That’s a tease…stay tuned for some nifty stuff coming up.)

Finally, I have to acknowledge my husband, Grant.  He is unfailingly supportive of my quilting ventures and travels with me when I attend all these events.  But what is a husband to do while I’m schmoozing with the celebrities of the quilting world?  Take a look.  This is Grant watching the CBS television series The Unit on our DVD player.  I don’t think he missed me a bit during the day.  I’d come in the room bursting with news and say “Can we talk?” to which he would reply “Just a minute, it’s almost over.”  Oh well, at least he was entertained!

Grant and "The Unit"!!!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!  I’m going to split mine between my sewing studio and my garden!

Celebration of Love Skinnie

I just spotted my “Celebration of Love Skinnie” pattern featured on the Kreinik website.  Woo Hoo!!!  A “Skinnie” is amy name for a quilted wall hanging designed to go in a narrow space.  The Celbration of Love Skinnie pattern is one of my AccuQuilt GO! compatible patterns. (Meaning if you have a GO!, great!!!  But one is not required.)

It was so exciting for me to go to the Kreinik home page and say “Hey, that’s my pattern!”  I used some of Kreinik’s Metallised Gimp and Facets threads when quilting this.  Here’s a link to the page on the Kreinik website if you want to see my Skinnie in all its Kreinik glory!

QuiltWoman.com will be publishing my patterns designed around this fabric.  They aren’t up on their website yet.  I’ll let you know the minute they are.

And now I have to call my husband and tell him the fabric is now on the web.  I hope he doesn’t mind that I let all you know first!!!  “Grant…..”

The past few weeks have been very busy. My trunk show for a local guild was a success. On Saturday I was at the Morgan Manning House in Brockport, New York with some of my kits for sale. Here’s my Mom and me hanging out (photo credit goes to Lori Skogg of The Skoog Farm Journal Blog).

Mom and me at the Morgan Manning House Quilt Show

Yesterday I met up with my web goddess at QuiltWoman.com and we did a video shoot for a video trunk show of my AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutter patterns. Phew.

Today I need to pack for the International Quilt Market in Minneapolis. This is the BIG show for the wholesale quilt industry. If you are attending, I’ll be hanging out in the QuiltWoman booth (2717) and at Blank Quilting (Sorry…don’t know their booth number yet).

I will have some free time in Minneapolis before Quilt Market starts on Thursday. Any suggestions with what to do with my time on Wednesday? The Mall of America is on my short list. Are there any quilt shops in the Minneapolis area that I just HAVE to visit???? Let me know via the comment section below. Thanks!

That’s all from me today. However, I will leave you with this from yesterday’s video shoot….

Yup, I bought a coconut.  I got a boat load of suggestions on how to get into it, but finally settled on what my Facebook buddy Jen Eskridge had to say:

The surgical team assembled in the operating room...Grant, Mom & Dad

The final result!