The UFO’s have landed!! Below are the ten finalists for the Quilting Is Murder – Save a UFO Challenge. Take a look and vote for your TWO favorite quilts. Don’t forget to read the stories: these quilts are all super special! For some, you’ll need click the link to go to Flickr to read the full story.

Voting closes midnight February 19th, 2012. Forward the contest info to your quilting friends and share the love.

On February 20th, we’ll award the quilt that receives the most votes a brand new bernette 25 sewing machine. The 9 runners up will receive a set of Quilting Is Murder lapel pins and both copies of the Quilter’s Cookbook from the Quilting Gallery. Please refer to the full contest info page for how the votes are calculated for this contest.

How to Vote:

• Review the photos and stories below… there are several, so you’ll need to scroll down to see them all.
• Underneath the photos, scroll down, you’ll see the names of all the quilts with a square button** beside each one. Select the buttons for the TWO quilts you want to vote for.
• Then scroll down, all the way, until you get to the bottom of the names of the quilts. Press the vote button.
• One vote per person (based on IP address NOT email address), so have your family and friends cast a ballot for their favourite quilts (from home if you send it to coworkers).

** Note: If you don’t see the square buttons to vote, but instead see the voting results, that means someone on your IP Address already voted, or that the voting period has ended, or that you need to refresh the page to see the voting options. Shared IP Addresses are very common in home or work networks.

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It was not easy for the killer shop judges to choose the ten finalists. Check out the Flickr Group to see all the entries.

Be My Valentine – Weekly Quilt Contest

Don’t forget to enter this week’s Be My Valentine quilt contest. For this contest, you can also enter other items made with fabric that fit the theme… and quilts too, of course. The Fat Quarter Shop are giving away this beautiful jelly roll of Always & Forever by Deb Strain for this week’s winner.

Enter the contest here!

Today is my special day for Melissa’s Valentine’s Day Showcase event.

I’ve made a Love-ly Garden wall hanging (or table runner) free tutorial, just for you! This project finishes at 22″ x 38″.

You can visit Melissa’s blog to see the Love-ly Garden photo tutorial or download the tutorial and pattern templates here [PDF File].

I haven’t got the quilting done yet. So far, I stitched in the ditch between the background and borders. Next, in free-motion mode, I outlined all of the applique shapes. This is the first time I’ve done this. While it’s not perfect, I think it’ll be just fine once the quilt is washed and it puckers up nicely.

I drew some random heart shapes in the white background using a Crayola washable marker. These shapes were stitched as I got to them while doing a close stipple in the background. There are two at the bottom that I changed my mind about and didn’t stitch out. While I didn’t have to draw the heart shapes in advance, I could have just stitched them, by drawing them first, it’s helping me to focus on the stitching and not worry if I have enough space or good balance to do the hearts.

I’m not sure yet what I’ll do for the border. It will finish at 4″ wide. I’m thinking something geometric, a diamond shape perhaps, that doesn’t take away from the fabric or centre panel. Any ideas?

If you make the Love-ly wall hanging, please share the photo in my Flickr group or on Facebook. I’d love to see it.

Download the tutorial and pattern templates [PDF File].

Valentine’s Day Showcase

Check out the other free Valentine’s tutorials at Melissa’s site. This one is my favourite made by Kris. Isn’t it just adorable?

Click on the date link to go directly to each post.

• February 1st – Sharon from Craizee Corners
• February 2nd – Connie from Quilting by the River
• February 3rd – Vicki from Sassy Blog
• February 6th – Kris from I don’t have a problem, I have a well-rounded fabric stash!
• February 7th – Lisa – Cupcakes, Hair Bows and Kiddos
• February 8th – Debbe from Pieces to Love
• February 9th – Lyanna from Purple Panda Quilts
• February 10th – Jenna from SewHappyGeek
• February 13th – Brandy from When Life Hand You Fabric…Make a Quilt

Starting tomorrow, Melissa will also be having a Valentine’s-themed link party on her site. She has some awesome prizes to give away too!

Valentine’s Day Parties

I’m linking up my free tutorial at some fun Valentine’s Day parties from other quilting friends. Be inspired by these gorgeous projects shown. Who knows, maybe I’ll even win!

Be My Valentine – Weekly Quilt Contest

Don’t forget to enter this week’s Be My Valentine quilt contest. For this contest, you can also enter other items made with fabric that fit the theme… and quilts too, of course. The Fat Quarter Shop are giving away this beautiful jelly roll of Always & Forever by Deb Strain for this week’s winner.

Enter the contest here!

This week I want to share creative ideas and tips for storage from some of my friends. These gals know it’s important to have a space that works for them. I know they have some ideas that might work for you too! Share your ideas in the comments below.

Reminder: Share your Before photos on last week’s post: A Space of your Own for a chance to win. I’m loving all the submissions so far!

We have two copies of Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter: An Illustrated Guide to the Space of Your Dreams to give away.

Erin Russek – One Piece at a Time

My favorite and most useful organizing tip is to organize by color.

Monica Solorio-Snow – The Happy Zombie

I plug my iron into a surge protector (seen next to right side of the right lamp in the photo) – plugged in along with the counter-top lamps that flank my ironing board. I use the on-off switch on my surge protector to control my lamps and my iron. If my lamps are off, I know there’s no way my iron could be on should I have accidentally forgotten to unplug it. No lights = no hot iron = restin’ easy.

Heather Jones – Olive & Ollie

My top studio organization tip is storing spools of thread on spool holders that are mounted on the wall to save table space. I use wooden holders by June Tailor that are meant to stand on a flat surface, but I attached a couple of d-rings to the back and hang them on the wall. That way, I can easily see what colors of thread that I have, plus it saves precious work space on my sewing table!

Anne Sutton – Bunny Hill Designs

For me if it’s out of site it’s out of mind so I try and store things where I can see them.

I use wire baskets, open shelves and glass jars.

My fat quarter caddy is a silverware tray that I use to contain fat quarters I’m working with at the time

Each work area has a cute storage box filled with notions, scissors, pins and needles, pin cushions etc.. I like to be able to grab my scissors, seam ripper etc where I am and not half to walk around looking for them.

A painted wood napkin holder houses everyday rulers.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe – Bumble Beans Inc.

So, where do you store your HAND QUILTING FRAME?

If you are running out of space AND you don’t have a desk lamp, stick your frame up against the windows, and position your LAMP over your desk!

It will remind you everyday, how much you spent on that frame, how many times you’ve tried quilting on a frame and still prefer to have it all piled in your lap and you’ll be able to work all night on projects without lighting up your entire studio and keeping the rest of your home awake while doing so!

A hand quilting rack on your west facing window ledge also becomes a great place to hang special knickknacks, important papers you DO NOT want to lose… (Now, why did I not hang my jury summons up there? where could it be?)

And if all else fails, you could move it to the north window ledge to block an unwanted 28 story apartment building where tenants will soon be peaking into your windows…. If the open face bookshelves with bright and nicely folded fabrics on them, has not blocked enough of that view!

Valentine Giveaway

Plus, I’m hosting a Valentine Giveaway at my blog today! Click on over and leave a comment and YOU might win this bundle of sweetness!

Pat Sloan is owner and founder of the quilting design and publishing company Pat Sloan & Co. She has published over 25 books, more than 100 patterns, nearly 10 fabric lines, and has had her work featured in all the major Quilt magazines. In January 2010, Pat started hosting her weekly Internet Radio show called Creative Talk Radio.

Find Pat here:

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