Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Stained Glass Stars Published

Fons and Porter’s LOVE OF QUILTING Magazine published my Stained Glass Stars pattern as an online Bonus Pattern in their January/February 2013 issue on page 98.  You can get the pattern HERE!
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They did not give credit to the Machine Quilter, Brenda Weien of Ottawa, KS, who did an amazing job on the quilting!
In the magazine they rate the pattern as Intermediate, but on their website they rate it as Challenging!  You pick!  I would rate it Intermediate for setting blocks and Advanced for the star blocks.  I paper pieced much of it, but their instructions have you rotary cut and strip-piece the whole quilt.  Not that difficult in my opinion. The star blocks do take some time because of all the pieces, but they are not difficult.  I did most of them at a retreat and had a blast watching them come together.
If you receive the Fons & Porter’s LOVE OF QUILTING Newsletter, there is a link to the quilt in the December 25. 2012 issue.
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Scroll down a ways until you see the picture and the link.
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Once you get to their website don’t forget to click on the Designers Page!  You will see my smiling mug if you scroll down far enough!
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Leave a comment and one lucky winner will get a FREE Morning Glory Designs Pattern of your choice! 
Gosh I love give-aways!
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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Winners in McCall’s Quilting Magazine Give-Away

Wow, my random number generator got a real work out today.  I used it to pick the three winners from among all the comments posted about my Rainbow Galaxy Quilt blog post.

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First, thank you for all the wonderful comments and compliments on the quilt and the publication of the pattern.  I am pleased that so many of you liked the quilt.  It was fun to see how many people love these CW repros as much as I do.  But then, I love 30’s repros and 50’s repros and just about everything else.  Well there are a few things I don’t like.

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Ok, back on task. . . .the winners are comments # 19, 34,and 42.

19.  Rachell19

34.  Cynthia in Connecticut

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42.  Cat Lady

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Congratulations to our winners!!!  You all rock! 

Please send me your mailing address via email [reeze @ morningglorydesigns.net] so I can get your free magazines mailed off to you as soon as possible!!

And thank you to everyone who left a comment.  You are all winners in my book.

Merry Christmas and

Happy New Years from Morning Glory Designs

Reeze

Sunday, December 9, 2012

OOPS! Block 22 got a boo-boo

If you are one of my newsletter subscribers and already downloaded your #22 Blocks, please go back and download #2 (12" block) again.  The templates were the wrong size!!  Yipes.  The applique placement guide was the right size, but I put in templates for a 9" block instead of for the 12" block.

The pattern is correct now.  So if you downloaded the block prior to December 9, please go back and download it again.  Here is the link:  Tulip Crossing 2 - 12" block.  It is the same link as the one in your newsletter, but the file is updated.



Sorry about the confusion.  Some days you get the bear.  And some days the bear gets you!


 

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Rainbow Galaxy Published!

Hold the Phone!  Its time for a Give-Away! 

McCalls Quilting will give away 3 free issues to 3 lucky readers who leave a comment on this post .  Just leave a comment!  That is all it takes!

I will choose 3 winners from comments on Friday, December 21. 
Here are the OFFICIAL RULES for the contest. 


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Whoo Hooo!  My Civil War Stars quilt just returned home this week and much to my amazement it got a new name:  Rainbow Galaxy.  I guess because it is a lot of stars and they are all different colors, get it?  Hehe, yea took me a while to figure that out too.  Some days I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

But here is the best news.  McCall’s Quilting just published it in their special publication called America Loves Scrap Quilts Winter 2012-13. 
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My quilt is on pages 66-69.  You can see it HERE.
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Let me tell you the story of this quilt.  I was wandering around on eBay one day looking at old quilts and saw this great old red and white quilt.  Now this was way before that big red and white quilt exposition in NY happened.  I just was struck by the pattern.
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Being the curious type, I wanted to see it in more detail so I scanned the listing for a close-up.
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I loved the secondary pattern which was formed by the white space between the blocks and had to figure out how it was made.  I realized that it was a combination of two blocks:  a variation on the variable star and the counterpane block.   I immediately drew it up in EQ7 and was off!
I tried a variety of colorings, mostly variations of red and white.
red and white quilt 74 x 74 with border2
Then I turned it on point. . . Yes, the original is a horizontal setting.  Here is what it looks like on point:
red and white quilt 78 x 78 with border
Strange huh?  I sorta liked it like that but I knew all those pieced setting triangles would earn me no friends!  LOL  So I returned to the horizontal setting and tried other colors.
Scrappy Civil War Stars
I loved the civil war repros a lot but thought it needed a border.  In the red and white versions I created the illusion of a border in my fabric colorings.  But I thought this one needed a real border, but it had to be simple.
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Viola!  (pronounced wah-la’)  The Civil War Stars quilt was born.  I sent it to McCall’s Quilting and they wanted to publish it.  It took me quite a while to get all the civil war reproduction fabrics I wanted to make it.  There were 41 stars and I wanted each one to be a different fabric.  I had a lot in my stash but they all tended to be blues and reds.  I needed more variety.  I went shopping in the stash fabrics from some of my quilty friends who kicked in a few fabrics and then I shopped the online fabric sales and purchased a few more in interesting colors and textures.
It went together really fast and the blocks filled my design wall and I was ready to put them together.  Then I discovered I had only made 8 rows of blocks and when I consulted my drawing there were 9 rows of blocks!  Yikes.  I raced to my LQS, picked up a few FQ’s from the repro section and scooted home to make up five more blocks.  Thank heavens I had enough background fabric.
I finished the top and ran it over to my quilter – the incomparable Brenda Weien of Brenda’s Machine Quilting and asked her to do her magic.  I always love how Brenda “reads” the quilt and knows just what it needs to make the pattern work.  She is a wizard with thread and did a fabulous job on the quilt, as always.
Here are a few pictures of the completed quilt so you can see her work up close and personal.  Now that the quilt is home, the magazine is on the news stands I have to figure out what I will do with this baby!  It is 80 x 80, a bit small for my queen-sized bed.  I think it will become a snuggle quilt on my recliner or perhaps a Christmas present for my new daughter-in-law.  Hmmmmmm. . . . . . .  Smile
Now I discovered I may have to change the label.  Why?  Well look at it.
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It was originally scheduled for publication in the December 2011 issue but looked too “Americana” for that issue so they held onto it.  The told me they would publish it in a different issue so I waited patiently to find out which one.  When I got an email from their editor last week saying they were returning the quilt I asked if they were returning it because they were no longer going to be able to find a place for it.  To my delight she told me they put it in their annual Scrap Quilt issue!  Well I knew my quilt would be very happy there and home it came.
I like the label, however, so I may just leave it in place and add a little note to the bottom identifying where it was REALLY published.  HEHE.
Hope you go buy the issue!!  Cuz there are lots of great scrap quilts in there!  If you decide to make this quilt I would love love love to see what your version looks like!  Yup, it’s a Happy Scrappy Quilt.