Show and Tell…

Margery Tadder from Colorado Springs sent me a lovely email show and tell and I’m sharing it with you. Margery, I love your quilt and I’m so happy that you enjoyed making it! It was a very creative thought to enlarge the block to make the medallion. Way to go, you!

Many years ago I bought your wonderful book, Welcome to the North Pole, and immediately fell in love with the ice cream shoppe. I had the design enlarged 400% and made a machine appliquéd medallion block. I love to do hand appliqué but knew I wouldn’t live long enough to make a king size quilt by hand!

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Anyway, copying Baskin-Robbins flavors, I made 33 cone blocks to go around the shoppe block. Of all the quilts I’ve made this is my favorite and am so grateful to you for your wonderful designs. Am sending a picture of the medallion block and one of the cones so you can see how it turned out.

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I used to enjoy seeing you and Linda on “Simply Quilts” and have been a devotee of hand appliqué ever since seeing those shows and buying your great books. Whenever I sit down to do hand work your New Appliqué Sampler is always right beside me!

Most Sincerely,

Margery

Wednesday Giveaway

Even in summer, there are days when you need some happy socks for your feet! This week, Claudette B. is the lucky winner and she will be sporting this  pair of In Your Dreams ankle socks. Congrats to Claudette!

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I’ll be back next Wednesday with another Giveaway. Happy stitching!

FYI: You can always find this and more at pieceocake.com!

Wash a batt?

Do you ever read the instructions on batting? I only do when I’m working with a new-to-me batting and sometimes I learn a new thing. In this case I learned that the manufacturer recommends washing the cotton/poly batting before using, or after quilting.

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Since I wasn’t sure I’d want to wash after quilting I decided to do it beforehand. I put in the tub with a little bit of Soak. You don’t have to rinse Soak out, making it a good choice. The wet batting reminded me of oatmeal.

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I let it soak 15 minutes as per instructions, and then I let the water out. As I squeezed the batting I realized that the water was not clear. It wasn’t bad, but I can understand why washing is recommended.

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It didn’t take long for it to dry on my rack out in the sunshine.

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Some batting instructions suggest washing, others do not. Either way, following instructions is important. And you know what? Washing batting in the tub is a lot easier than I had imagined it would be.

Wooly news from Linda and her stitch group!

Linda decided she wanted to do 48 of the blocks from the Applique Delights book in wool. She thought her stitch group would have a lot of fun doing them together. The girls met and loved the idea!

For those of you who haven’t seen this book, Applique Delights has 100 different block designs that range from classic to whimsical. The patterns are 5″ x 5″, but you can enlarge them to any size—there is a handy chart in the book. The original book is out of print but you can get it as an ebook or as a print-on-demand book. AND these blocks are great in wool!

Each stitch group member selected the blocks she wanted to do. Linda provided the background fabric and she put her wool fabrics out for them to choose from. The finished blocks are wonderful! And Linda says that as new blocks go up on her design wall, she is thrilled to see how great they look together.

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Everyone has personalized their blocks with embroidery and embellishments. They are having a whole lot of fun sharing ideas. Linda sent me this picture of some of stitch group with their finished block. More to come as the blocks are done.

Linda says that if you have a stitch group, you might consider doing his kind of project because it is so much fun! Happy stitching, from Linda and me :-).

Wednesday Giveaway

You can never have enough zippered pouches — can you? This Pretty Bird Pouch is one of my favorites 🙂 and this week Lori is the lucky winner!

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If you are not Lori, you can find this and more at pieceocake.com. Thank you for reading my blog!

 

It’s A Mystery (package)!

The Mystery Package is back and everything inside is cute! The retail value is $57.35, but you only pay $28.00 (+ shipping). What a bargain! Click here to buy yours.

Mystery Bundle

There’s some fun stuff and some practical stuff and there are only a few, so click here to get yours quick.

Happy Stitching!!