Quiltmakers 100 Block Blog Tour Nov 8-12

And my blog will be one of the stops on the tour.  There will be great give-aways of patterns and copies of the Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Magazine!  I will have five issues to give away and other prizes as well.  You don’t want to miss this.

Check back early next week for more details.
In the mean time, let me share a few events in my life.  Wow, has October been busy.  My calendar looks like a used bingo card!  Something nearly every day.  Today I had a booth at the Melvern Craft Fair.  Melvern is a small town southwest of where I live that is about 2 blocks long – literally.  But they had a great craft fair today and I was the only quilt booth among all the other crafters.  It was fun.  And I actually sold some quilt patterns.  Plus, you gotta love this --- I got to be the judge for the childrens’ halloween costume contest.  I guess you wear a lot of hats in a small town.  And it was a hoot to see all those adorable little kids in costumes.  What fun!

Last weekend I was a vender at the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin City, KS. . . hmmm I think I already wrote about that, but I know you want to see some quilts so here are a few of my favorites from that show.

Maple Leaf Festival Quilt Show VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Next weekend is another much venerated family tradition: Duck Camp.  Yup. . . the start of Duck Season means that we drag the trailer out to the lake so the guys can spend the week killing small low flying ducks.  Not sure why this particular father/son/dog experience is so important but I am not one to stand in the way of male bonding.  Besides I get to camp for the weekend on one of the few weekends in the year still warm enough to camp, the dog loves being able to dive in the lake and swim. . . and the guys do all the cooking.  What’s not to love???
After that I got on retreat for 5 days and I am sooooo looking forward to that.  So what is going on in your world?

Reeze

Tulip Tiles Block 11 is Posted!

Whooppeeee, I knew I could do it.  This month's BOM installment is posted ON TIME!!  This may just be a first for me.   Check out the page tabs at the top of this blog and click on the tab for the FREE Block of the Month.  It is Block #11 and provides you with instructions for doing the outer 2 borders.

Now, if you are a scaredy cat, you could stop at this point and call it done.  But, if you want to give yourself a bit of a challenge, and have that pretty piped and scalloped border to finish off this quilt, then you will want the next and last installment of this BOM which will be posted in December.

Note:  If you have the Groovin' Piping Hot Binding Tool by Susan K. Cleveland, you will want to find where you stashed it.  If you don't have it, I strongly recommend you purchase it to do the piping around the edge of this quilt.  It really does make piping easy to do.

         

This past weekend I vended at the Maple Leaf Festival Quilt Show put on by the Baldwin City Quilt Guild.  It was a great show, with some lovely ladies pulling it together. 

Marla Jackson, the featured speaker, has some great work that you really must see!  Her contemporary African American quilts, soft sculptures and art quilts are absolutely stunning.  Here is an example of one of her works which was featured at the show:

You really need to check out her work, her website, and sign up for one of her classes.  She is a really amazing talent and I had a lot of fun getting to know her during the show.

This week in EQClub we will learn to draw a grape wreath.  See my EQ7 tutorial on the EQ tutorial page.  I have had a lot of fun designing this block and a great quilt that features this block.

Quiltmaker 100 Blocks Blog Tour is Coming

Yup, and guess what???  I have a block in the magazine and am thrilled to be part of the bog tour.  Whooohooo!
Of course I am not famous enough to merit getting my name or block on the cover, but it will be one of the 100 Blocks and that is good enough for me.  BTW, I am working on one for the next issue too!  The magazine will go on the news stands in early November and I hope you will all get a copy.  But just in case. . . .I will be giving away a couple of issues right here on my blog!!!!
I am not sure which block they chose for the issue.  It will either be this one: Rising Star
 
Or this one: Winter Sun

I figure it will be exciting no matter which one they chose!  I will be posting more about this in the next week or so, so hang in there.  They are going to be offering a whole lot of give-aways on the Quiltmaker website as well.

OK, I have more news.  My Publisher Quiltwoman.com has introduced downloadable patterns, and most of my patterns that are available from her will be epatterns in the very near future.  That means that you will be able to pay for the pattern and download it on the spot!  And my newest pattern available from Quiltwoman.com is my Midnight Posies!!  Many of you got this pattern for free last year when I offered it as my free Block of the Month.  In case you missed it, click on the sidebar picture of the quilt on the left and it will take you directly to Quiltwoman.com where you can instantly download hundreds of patterns. . . including mine!!

Oh and more good news.  Last weekend I vended at the Starlight Quilters Guild Quilt Show in Shawnee Mission, KS and here is a picture of my booth.

This weekend I am vending at the Maple Leaf Festival Quilt Show in Baldwin City, KS.  This is a great outdoor festival complete with craft booths, great food and a parade.  The Quilt Show is in the old elementary school building and is always a great show with lots of quilt vendors.  The Maple trees in Baldwin are starting to turn and it is a perfect weekend to come out and see the festival and the quilt show.

Any more good news and I think I will faint.  LOL

Reeze

I'm in the Movies Mom!!!!

Yup,  I finally figured out how to make screen capture videos of EQ7 and put them into my tutorials.  You have got to check this out.  On my tutorial page is my first "talkie" -- a video that walks you through the steps to draw a leaf in EQ7.  It is a very simple drawing exercise but introduces you to several important drawing features in EQ7":

• Patch Draw Motif  - block drawing worktable used when you want an applique shape but no background.
• "Oval" drawing tool
• Brush stroke tool and its settings
• The Adjust tool for editing your drawings
• The Color Tab and Paintbrush tool
• The Save to Sketchbook and Open Sketchbook shortcut buttons
• Notecard in your sketchbook for naming your blocks

WOW, that's a lot to cram into a 4 minute video.  Plus you get to hear my sultry voice (hehehe) narrate the video.  Turn up your sound because I was a little too far from the mike.  I will fix that on my next video.

Please go in and take a look and let me know what you think?  What lessons would you like me to post?  Anything special you want to learn?  I would love to hear your comments.