Warm Memories Winner

Congratulations to Moosecraft from NJ - you're the winner this week of the Warm Memories charm pack and patterns. This post comes to you from the lobby of the Hilton at 10:45pm on Sunday night because the cheap &!@?! charge for Internet in the rooms and it's $100 to connect at the convention center. Really people? Whatever happened to free air? Guess it's time to purchase a monthly plan for my iPad.

Anyway, what you want to see are pictures from market. A slightly fuzzy one of the KT booth will have to do for today. I'll have more for you when I return home on Wednesday.



Happy Halloween to all! Have a mini Snickers for me.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Warm Memories Charming Thursday

Welcome to the countdown to Christmas! Warm Memories is all about setting aside a little time leading up to December 25th to spend with family and friends. The season is too full of love and goodwill to cram into just one day. Take a little time each day to make a memory. Our Feather Tree Advent Calendar does just that. We created an ornament and activitiy for each day from Dec. 1-24th to help you get started. The ornaments may be stitched from a Warm Memories charm pack or wool.

 The lap quilt has the ornaments stitched on for a cozy throw to wrap yourself in the holiday spirit.

 Our Simply Runer is just that - an easy checkerboard design for the ends allows you to make the runner any length you need to fit your table or serving space perfectly.

 The Warm Memories charm pack pattern was fun to make with a variety of fused/raw edge ornaments surrounding a pieced center. The winner of this week's charm pack will also receive BOTH of these patterns!

Be sure to comment here to win! What's your favorite Christmas tradition? Are you starting an new tradition this year? I'd love to hear about it.

Perennials Winner

Before we load the truck for market, let's announce the winner of the Perennials charm pack and book. Congratulations to Nellie B in Iowa (who, from her blog, is turning 50 this year - congrats on that life milestone, too!).  Please send your mailing address and we'll send it right out. Well, maybe not until after market, but as soon as we can :).

It's nuts around here! Quilts returning from the quilters, pictures to take, brochures to print, one more quilt to whip up because I can't seem to leave well enough alone. Oh well, such is life right before market. Three of the projects that are done are new Mini Table Treats. Each one only takes about 3 hours (one I had to make twice!). Just layer, quilt/applique/bind. Great for gifts! Need I remind you it's time to make that Christmas to-do list???

                                                   Frost

                                            Pinwheel

                                    Spoolin' Around

IF there's a good Wi-Fi connection and IF my iPad cooperates and IF I have a minute, I'll post pictures from market. Wish me luck! 

Charming Thursday this week features Warm Memories - just in time for a quick charm quilt for the holidays!

Perennials Charming Thursday

We're getting so close - only 4 more weeks in our Charming Thursday blog giveaways. This week's featured KT collection is Perennials. The back story on this is one of practicality. When we built the cabin, I knew I wanted to landscape with low-maintenance, deer-resistance plants native to our area. Easy to care for Kansas Perennials were the answer. We enlisted the help of our local garden store expert who came to our home and made an outline for us - a plant-by-numbers, so to speak. Since she knew how large the plants would get and what would thrive in sun and shade, it made my job much easier. All I needed to do was pick what I liked for each area in the yard. I don't have much of a green thumb although I have grown to love digging in the dirt, trimming back bushes and splitting/rearranging plants each year. Spending time outside is a great way to unwind, decompress and relax while at the same time being inspired and re-energized about a new fabric line or quilt. I can't say I LOVE to garden just yet, but it's definitely growing on me.

Perennials were uppermost in my mind when we were planting our flower gardens and designing last year's spring line at the end of the summer. A vintage French floral set the stage for a variety of prints and geometrics that reminded me of all the flowers we had planted.

After working with straight lines in all the Moda precuts the past few seasons, curved lines appealed. Our Perennials quilt features curves with no curved piecing thanks to our unique raw edge applique technique. Each block is simply a square-in-a-square with (4) 1/4-circles raw edge stitched on the center square. The border echos the theme with 1/2-circles raw edge appliqued to a long border strip - small effort, big payoff!

The flowers scattered all over the quilt top are fused in place and raw edge stitched (I was blessed to have my quilter stitch them as she quilted.) The winner of this week's Perennial charm pack will also receive the pattern with 3 projects. Enjoy!

Let me know your feelings about curved piecing - love it, hate it, allergic, love the look but never tried it?

KT Fav winner

Char S. (cannewa) is the winner of the KT Fav charm pack & book. Please email your vital statistics and we'll send it right out.

The last quilt for market was dropped off at the quilter's last week so I headed to KC to spend a couple days with my daughter - my youngest - who turns 30 next Saturday. It seems we seldom get much girlfriend time together anymore so it was really nice to spend a whole day alone together - I feel blessed to call my only daughter one of my closest friends. Nicole and her family recently moved into a new place, so we shopped for home decor and storage items to get their lives more organized and personalized. With a 7-yr-old daughter, they were drowning in all the papers from school. Now, they each have cubbies, baskets and hooks to drop mail, shoes, video games and keys. Nic picked out a few cool wall decor pieces with subtle earth tones and a vintage-looking metal clock (Aleece needs to learn to tell time on a "real" clock!).

We took a break at Texas Roadhouse for an early dinner - great kabobs - then indulged in chocolate/caramel/nut covered apples at the Legends outdoor mall, window shopping on a beautifully perfect Sat. night. After helping put everything in it's place, I returned home Sunday evening to find a delectable, indulgent triple chocolate ganache dessert that my oldest son had left for Robert and I in the fridge. A tiny sliver with fresh berries and whipped cream was the perfect ending to a delightful weekend, although I'm surely going to be eating more Special K and yogurt this week to get back into my "skinny" jeans before market.

Here's a first look at the charm quilt for Sandhill Plums called Sand Plum Jelly. Simple piecing and a bit of whimsical applique are perfect for a kitchen runner. It still amazes me that it takes about a bushel of Sandhill Plums simmered down to make 6 cups of pulp/juice mixed with 8 cups of sugar to make the jelly. I remember helping Gramma make it each year and we savored those sweet bites of toast well into winter, but I'll buy mine by Smuckers these days, Thank you very much.

Quilts will be arriving throughout the week so we'll have updates of new stuff soon. I'd like to know where you find the bestest, newest quilt stuff out there - quilt shop, internet, fellow quilters? What's your source?

KT Favorites Charming Thursday

After 10 years and 32 fabric lines with Moda, I was able to reintroduce some of my favorites in a basic line we call KT Favorites. Not very original, but it gets the point across. Every couple years or so, we'll freshen things up with some new favs, so if you have any requests....

To celebrate the first 10 years of KT, I designed a BOM quilt with 33 elements - blocks and appliques - that represent each of the 33 collections and finished it off with a KT border using all the fabrics in the quilt. Lois and I had a great time pulling prints out of my stash from the original lines for each block. It's one of my favorite quilts so far.

Can you find Seeds of Time (3 bachelor button blocks along the bottom), Bound to the Prairie (Spiderweb), Aunt Purdy's (purple flowers on right side) and Kansas Winter (cream wool snowflake lower center). The winner this week will receive the KT Favorites book plus the charm pack! Comment by Sunday 10pm. and the handy dandy random number thing-a-ma-jig will pick the winner to be announced Monday, barring worms, power outages and other natural disasters.

If you like BOM's and enjoyed KT Favorites, here's a sneak peek at the new BOM for next year, Bird's Eye View. All the blocks are based on bird-themed quilt blocks (according to Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Blocks) and the view from my studio windows. I'll post a full picture after Lori Kukuk works her magic quilting it.

Now, on to more pattern writing in prep for market. Later, ladies (and gentlemen). Lynne

Summer's End Winner, etc...

Pat F. from Jamestown, NY is the winner of the KT Summer's End charm pack and pattern this week. Congrats! Please send your info to ktquilts@twinvalley.net and we'll ship it right out.

For those of you who've been following my blog, you know we're under construction AND having computer issues. (Anyone I've sent an email with an attachment that's bounced dozens of times knows what I mean.)We moved my computer, sewing machine, etc. out of my studio on Sat. so Neil could install windows on Sunday - and it rained all day. We haven't had but a few drizzles of rain for 4 months, but as soon as the windows arrived, we got soaked with over 2 inches! Isn't that the way it goes?? But, if that's what it took for it to rain, I'm fine with it. Sooooo....the windows went in last night, I plugged in this morning and we're kinda back in business.

I've been doing some research on cameras - anyone have a favorite? The only couple of requirements so far are that it has to have the stablization feature (I tend to wiggle a bit when I take pics) and a zoom lens. I trust you guys to help me out here. Thanks for all your comments.
Lynne

Summer's End Charming Thursday

I love fall! Sweater weather is the best time of year with cool mornings, sunwashed afternoons and evenings curled up with a quilt. It's no wonder I saved more of last fall's fabric line than any other to date - so far. Summer's End has a collection of the yummiest autumn colors and lovely prints. A favorite of mine for sure.

If you're crazy about the warm colors of autumn like me, watch for KT's fabric lines that arrive in your favorite quilt shop Aug-Nov. These collections feature rich browns and pumpkins in addition to the classic KT red, navy, green, gold & tan.

Moda had Honey Buns precut for this line, so we played with the 1 1/2" strips, creating a log cabin style flower. The lucky winner of the charm pack will also receive the pattern Summer Joy that utilizes a charm pack.

Neil announced that my new windows should be delivered tomorrow. By the weekend I hope to have some before, during & after shots of my studio in chaos. He asked if he could unplug my computer for a couple days. I told him he had 4 hours. It's crunch time before market, after all!  We'll see who wins....

Do you wanna go cruisin'? Check out our 1st ever Great Girlfriend Getaway Alaskan Quilting Cruise and watch for more details in the coming weeks! Pam Buda, Heartspun Quilts, has more info on our great adventure. Or check out yesterday's KT blog entry.

The Great Girlfriend Getaway

Ladies, it's time to grab your best friend (or husband, if necessary) and plan a unique quilting trip for Summer 2012! Come with me and my dear friend and designer, Pam Buda, of Heartspun Quilts for a trip we've both been dreaming of for years!

We'll be cruisin' Norwegian Cruise Lines

August 19th-26th,

leaving out of Seattle, WA

with a half dozen fabulous ports of call, including 

Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchican & Victoria, BC. Awesome!

Besides gourmet cuisine, cozy accomodations and lots of entertainment, you'll also have the opportunity to take three different workshops:

One day with me stitching up some Spare Change featuring KT precuts and our unique raw edge applique technique ...

PLUS - A day with Pam learning all her tips and tricks for perfect piecing (she's a techical genius) while creating Stillwater Creek (see her project at Heartspun Quilts)

PLUS - a day with both of us whipping up a project created just for the cruise featuring KT fabrics and wool - too much fun!

Cruise fare includes use of a sewing machine and kits for all 3 projects. For more information, go to Pam's website and check out the cruise brochure (technical difficulties here, but we'll have it up soon).

We're dreaming up all kinds of surprises for this unique destination quilting retreat - you won't want to miss it!

Watch our blogs for updates and sneak peeks after market. Much more to come!

Moda Blog Hop Winners!

IT'S TIME! Time to announce the Moda Blog Hop winners.
Mary - Fat 1/4 Bundle of Cattails & Clover
"Cattails & Clover-how do you keep coming up with these wonderful names?.."

Julie in WA - Jelly Roll of Cattails & Clover
"Whew...thanks for clarifying some those pictures..."

the woolen cellar - Designer Roll of Cattails & Clover
"Have always loved your fabrics & would be so happy ..."

Ladies, thanks to all of you for commenting on my Country Fair experience. I hope you enjoyed all of the designers posts. Watch again next spring for another Moda Blog Hop!

I have an exciting announcement tomorrow, so come back again!

A Peaceful Walk

The weather is slowly turning to fall - absolutely glorious here in Kansas. I've been stuck inside most of the weekend working on projects for market (deadlines next week!) but had to take a break to enjoy the outdoors and the ever-changing colors. The new header on the blog is what I see out my studio window (if I had one) to the northwest - a row of sandhill plum bushes. I've done some investigating since the new line for market this fall is named Sandhill Plum (that's a secret) and discovered most of them grow to about 4-6 feet tall. Ours stand more like 10-12 feet tall in a row more than 40 feet long. Dad claims they were here before his parents homesteaded and must be over 100 years old. Maybe the sandy soil, which they prefer, and close proximity to the pond have made them thrive over the years. He and I both remember picking the tart, nickel-size fruit for Gramma to make pints and pints of sand plum jelly each summer. Unfortunately, the extremely hot, dry summer here did not allow for a good crop - basically enough to feed the birds. I guess we'll just have to make do with the beautiful foliage this year. In my wanderings, I found some other delights of nature to share. (More on the fabric line in the coming weeks.)

The last few clusters of sunflowers.

Goldenrod - some farmers spray it as a weed, but I won't let Dad kill it.

I found the pictures of the yummy sour orange pie Marty & Teri Wilson's Mom made for me while in New York at Material Rewards. They can only get these prized oranges in Florida each winter and hoard the juice all year. I was honored to share this treat with the Wilson's during my stay. Thanks, Ann. I can still taste the unique tartness - even better than lemon meringue.

Now on to the business of the day - the winner of Wrapped in Paisley Charming Thursday. This week's winner is Anne - congratulations and welcome to the KT Blog. I hope you all stick around for the grand finale in December and all the surprises we're cooking up for next year. Thanks for all your lovely comments. Reading them each day makes everything a bit brighter. See you again this Thursday for another Charming Thursday featuring Summer's End - how appropriate!