Want a quick and easy project for Halloween? Check out Pat Sloan’s, October Treats. What a great way to dress up a classroom or your office, or perfect for hanging on your front door. They finish at 14″ x 24″.

For all my Canadian friends, please don’t forget to vote … and vote smart!

Here’s a wonderful tutorial on making your own Bubble Mailers. How pretty are these!

They’re perfect for the upcoming holidays, and those Secret Santa exchanges. They might even get a smile out of the postman.

Please join me in welcoming another Guest Blogger to the Quilting Gallery. If you’re interested in being a Guest Blogger, just drop me an email to discuss.

Hi there- I would like to tell you about a new Online Quilting Community called "My Quilt Patch".

I know that I don’t have to tell you that quilters and patchworkers constitute one of the most friendly and sociable groups that you will find anywhere and that we are all interested in sharing our love of the craft and hearing about what others, who are also passionate about patchwork and quilting, are up to.

The new and developing features of the internet (dubbed "Web 2.0") are ideal for the creation of special interest groups with a social media dimension and for building online communities around a particular activity or interest. The growth in popularity of "Groups" in sites like MySpace and Facebook is testament to this.

It is this approach that is behind the "My Quilt Patch" site, which we hope to build into a worldwide community of quilters, such that it will be a place where people can share their joy of quilting with others, using a range of simple online tools and applications that enable them to do a number of fun and useful things.

However, in addition to being a quilters’ online sharing and communication facility, we want the site to be entertaining and informative as well and, therefore, there is also a ton of articles and other resources available (including tutorials, patterns and projects) covering a wide range of quilting related topics, many contributed by internationally-acclaimed quilting tutors and textile artists.

Here is a brief selection of the kind of thing available on the site:

	Here is a super Free Block Pattern from textile artist Pat Archibald entitled Celtic Tree, where she shows you how to use her own technique of using iron-on foils to create a shiny metallic motif on the block.
	Here is a beautiful mixed media project for you to do, incorporating delicate fabric painting together with free machine embroidery. This design by Tracy Curtis called "Thistle Project" is suitable for a number of different applications. It could be used as a framed picture, a cushion cover or part of a design for a quilt.
	Why not let Annette Morgan show you how to add some real sparkle to your quilting? In this article she walks you through one of her techniques, in an extract from her book "Glitzy Quilts". Here you will learn just how she cleverly makes use of all sorts of materials for Beadmaking, which she then uses to add sparkle and interest to her quilting designs.

Now, what about these Web 2.0 utilities? What are they all about and what do they enable you to do online?

Well there is quite a long list of features that are available to members of the community to use, which are mainly about different ways of celebrating and sharing your own quilting creativity and also interacting online with like-minded folk in a variety of fun ways.

A sample of these include:
(For the full details of everything available on the site visit the MQP "Getting Started Guide".)

• Creating your own Quilting Photo Gallery to "showcase" your work and share it with members and others via the internet. This can be displayed as individual images with narrative descriptions, or as a slideshow.
• Browse and/or participate in the My Quilt Patch Forum and exchange views with other quilters around the world, ask questions and pick up (or pass on) patchwork and quilting tips. (There is also a facility to set up private sub groups on the forum).
• Online Chat – With this feature it is possible to communicate with other members of the community anywhere in the world in "real time" via text, audio or video (or a mixture of all three) simply by using your web browser (no phone charges) This is also great for use by private groups!
• Create a Quilting Website without scripting, coding or HTML. An intuitive and fun tool you can use to easily make your own custom quilting website hosted at "My Quilt Patch" at no additional cost.
• Send Online Audio-Visual Postcards to your quilting circle (or anyone) by simply using your webcam or microphone. Use this tool to email personalised "rich media" communications to any email address.
• If you have a wish to teach others or to pass on knowledge of particular quilting styles or techniques there is an Audio-Visual Presentations capability together with a Video/MP3 Gallery available, not to mention a facility for creating Podcasts. (All simply accessed and utilised via web browser).

The My Quilt Patch quilting community is still very young and in the early stages of growth and while its origins are in Britain, it already has members from all over the world (particularly from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia).

It is a members only website with a small monthly subscription (to keep down the advertising!) but no long term commitment is required. There is a month’s free trial available so that anyone interested can check out the community thoroughly before deciding to remain subscribed as a member.

However as a special offer for "Quilting Gallery" readers there is an opportunity to win a year’s free subscription to the My Quilt Patch community. All "Quilting Gallery" readers who sign up for a free trial before the end of October will go into a draw for the free year’s subscription (just put "Quilting Gallery" as the referral source when signing up for the free trial, to be automatically entered into the draw).

I hope this information has been of interest to you and very much hope to see you inside our new quilting community.

To check out the MQP site just click on this link: www.MyQuiltPatch.com

Best wishes and "happy quilting".

Sarah Jane King
My Quilt Patch

Note: this has been a paid guest blogger post.

The leaves are definitely falling here in Ottawa. We’ve even had a few nights dip just below freezing; however the past couple of days have been glorious sunshine (mostly). I was lucky enough to head over to a friend’s house on the weekend in Gatineau Park to enjoy the beautiful colours of the season while walking her new puppy. It’s also Thanksgiving this weekend here in Canada… yummy food, relaxing with good friends and family (if they are close enough) and hopefully some time in the sewing room.

And, it’s the perfect time to start the next photo contest here at the Quilting Gallery. I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s creations and reading the wonderful comments from the Lazy Days of Summer Photo Contest. I hope you did too!

I’m pleased to announce the Falling Leaves Quilt Show Photo Contest. This contest will feature quilting projects that have a Fall/Autumn, Halloween, Harvest and/or Thanksgiving theme.

I adore all the fall colours and can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on or what you have done in the past. There are three wonderful prizes up for grabs too (see below).

Guidelines:

Send me a photo via email of your Fall/Autumn quilting project that you completed. If it’s not 100% done, that’s OK too. Just one submission per person, please.

Submissions will be accepted up to the end of November 15, 2008. Voting will commence shortly after.

Please read: When you send me an email, don’t forget to include:

1. the photo (minimum of 350 pixels wide)
2. a name or title for your quilt/project (so I know what to call it)
3. your name
4. your blog or web site address (if you would like me to link to you)

That’s all, really simple. Now, before you send me an email, please make sure you’ve included the four items above.

The Prizes

I would like to thank the three generous ladies below for their donations for this contest. Please visit their sites… what’s a contest without prizes!

• Dorothy Baker has donated three wonderful patterns: Pieces from my Heart, Chugach Pine, and Home is the Happiest Place Pillow.
  
• Laura Sampsel from the Fabric Square Shop donated a gorgeous Moda Woodland Greetings Layer Cake by Sentimental Studios which includes 40 prints – 10″ x 10″ squares.
  
• Patsy Thompson has donated one of her free-motion machine quilting instructional DVDs, Fast and Free! Volume 0.5
  

Feel free to use the Falling Leaves graphic up above to help promote the contest on your site… Thanks for your support!