Another New Pattern

I created this little wall hanging using flannel fabrics and my new die-cut applique shapes for the flowers and leaves. What a time-saver to be able to use the die-cut shapes! I applied fusible web to the fabric before I cut the shapes and so they were all ready to fuse to my background fabric as soon as they were cut.

Watch for the pattern coming soon.

2 New Patterns are Available Now!

My 2 newest patterns have now been published!

African Adventure (#333) has instructions for using different sizes of embroidery or other needlework. I have also included instructions for using a picture printed on fabric or a paper photograph in a special picture pocket that can be changed whenever you like.

Wonky Stars (#231) is a great stash-buster quilt! It uses fat eighths and fat quarters, or you could use pieces from your scrap collection. Instructions are given for 2 different sizes: 54" x 67" and 38" x 52". I used the Krakow fabric line by Mark Lipinski for this quilt. The fabric is distributed by Northcott and is available in many quilt shops now

Click here and here for more information about these new patterns.

The Ultimate Sewing Place

Yesterday I visited The Ultimate Sewing Place, a huge quilt shop in Titusville, Florida. On the pattern rack I found patterns by my friend and fellow designer, Janet Rice Bredin. Here is her Pansy pattern.

One wall of the shop was devoted to thread.

Fabric was everywhere. As you can see, there is too much fabric for the shelves and the over-flow is on the floor!

And yes, I did manage to find some fabric I just couldn't live without!

More Free Patterns!

Because of the great response I received from my July summertime special, I am continuing it until August 31. For every pattern you order, you will receive one free pattern (my choice). Check out my website to see all the available patterns.

After you have placed an order on the web site, just e-mail me (patterns@ripnet.com) and quote this special new code: SSFP02

Quilt Market Revisited #4: Schoolhouse

Schoolhouse is a wonderful event for Quilt Market attendees to meet with dozens of designers, publishers, fabric companies and "famous quilters". Each teacher makes a 15 or 30 minute presentation about their products or designs. I had 2 presentations about my Memory Quilt patterns and was delighted to have over 100 people in attendance.

Here is Faye from Michell Marketing, waiting to hand out the Schoolhouse class lists.

Susan and Carole from The Quilting Quarters in Almonte, Ontario
choosing their Schoolhouse classes

Some attendees sat outside in the beautiful sunshine amid the rhododendrons to choose their classes.

I was able to attend one Schoolhouse session with Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilters Home magazine. Mark is also designing fabric for Northcott fabrics. I now have some of his black and white Califon fabric and hardly wait to start using it. Lots of ideas - not enough time!

The Great Canadian Shop Hop: Ready to View!

Tricia Sherman's Great Canadian Shop Hop programme that was filmed at the Country Quilter in Richmond, Ontario is now on her website. You can see my demo on Memory Quilts, as well as all the events connected with the Quilt Marathon, held annually at the shop.

Go to Great Canadian Shop Hop. Click on Video Player, then Video Library. Scroll down to Show 7 and hit the Play button.

The filming of the show took many hours and Tricia and her editors have done a wonderful job of showing all the highlights of that day in a few minutes. Congratulations to everyone involved!

The show will also be shown on the QNN network in the very near future.

Here are some pictures of the "Hang Ups" series of patterns that I talked about on the show.

Portraits in Lace

My newest pattern, "Portraits in Lace" #331, is now finished. It will be on my web site in the next few days. The pictures are printed on fabric and then framed with lace. You could also make photo transfers of the pictures. You can use lace applique shapes as shown in these pictures, or use lengths of new or vintage lace to frame the pictures. I used the "Memories" and "Family" hangers from Ackfeld Manufacturing to display these little quilts.

The Great Canadian Shop Hop for QNN

Filming for the Great Canadian Shop Hop programme for QNN (Quilters’ News Network) was done yesterday at the Country Quilter quilt shop in Richmond, Ontario. Shop owner, Ann McLean, was at the shop very early in the day, baking muffins and coffee cake, and welcoming the many quilters who were part of this event. The show, produced by Tricia Sherman from Vancouver, focused on The Quilt: A Breast Cancer Support Project. Co-ordinator of this event, Carol Miller, was there and it was a great pleasure to meet her.

Here I am with Barry (the camera guy) and Tricia Sherman, producer of the Great Canadian Shop Hop

I was thrilled to be the guest pattern designer on the show. I did a demo using some of my newest patterns, including my Hang Ups, Pop-Out Picture Quilts and Pop-Out Picture Books. I also talked about how easy it is to print pictures on fabric and incorporate vintage linens and lace in memory quilts.

Barry, the camera man, was amazing! He was interested in the whole quilting process, even to the point of wanting to film underneath the frame as the quilters were working, so he could show what was actually happening on the underside of the quilt.

Shop owner, Ann McLean was a wonderful hostess throughout the day. She remained calm and collected, while multi-tasking constantly. And of course, the shop was open, so Ann and her staff were dealing with the regular customers while all the filming was happening throughout the store. More information about this wonderful shop will be included in a future post.

"The Quilt" project co-ordinator, Carol Miller (l) and shop owner, Ann McLean

Here's Tricia getting a quilting lesson from one of the experts at the Country Quilter

More Pictures from Winter Park

This is such a beautiful city, I thought you might like to see some more pictures.

Thanks for the Memories!

Last November, I traveled to South Africa with my quilting friend, Colleen. At Christmas, we were part of a quilt exchange group. I had 3 weeks to design and make a quilt for Colleen using fabric that she had given me 10 months earlier. We had shared so many wonderful experiences on our South Africa trip, that I decided to use some of my pictures in her quilt. The quilt is 41" square and uses 20 photographs that were printed on EQ Printables fabric. And yes, I did get it completely finished in 3 weeks! It’s amazing how the job always takes the amount of time you have.

This quilt then became my newest pattern called Thanks for the Memories (#330). It is now ready to be printed and will be available on my website at the beginning of March.

When I wrote the pattern, I also included instructions for using removable paper photographs instead of printed ones. This makes the quilt even more versatile because you can change the pictures whenever you wish.

Close up views

Statistics

It is fascinating to watch the statistics for my Blog and website and to see where all the visitors are coming from. To date, I have had visitors to my Blog from 25 different countries. Most are from Canada and the USA, but there have also been visits from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

My web site, Upper Canada Quiltworks, has had visits from even more countries (27 in total) including Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden Switzerland, Thailand and Venezuela.

I guess it is a small world after all!