Here’s the list of participating bloggers … you’ll see me on the 14th with a super cute doll quilt.

• 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 – Melissa from Sew BitterSweet Designs
• February 8th – Debbe from Pieces to Love
• February 9th – Lyanna from Purple Panda Quilts
• February 10th – Jenna from SewHappyGeek
• February 13th – Lisa – future food and craft blogger
• February 14th – Michele from Quilting Gallery – that’s ME!

All projects will be featured on Melissa’s blog starting Wednesday. If you make one of the projects, you can link up on her site on the 15th to be eligible to win a fabulous prize from one of the generous sponsors.

Head over to Jennifer’s site for the details and to see what dates are still available. Sign up to be a designer if you’re interested on her site.

I’ll be doing a block April 11th… need to decide what to make.

Registration is now open for the New Beginnings Mini Quilt Swap.

Registration for this swap closes February 1st. Partner information will be sent by February 5th. The deadline to mail your mini quilt is March 12th for international shipments (including Canada/USA) and March 19th for domestic shipments. All mini quilts should arrive at their destination no later than March 30th.

Quilter’s Super Deals

Based on the popular Daily Deals concept in most communities, Quilter’s Super Deals is an opportunity for online quilt shops, designers and authors to offer a unique discount on their products for quilters. Advertisers: Contact me for an information package.

Starting Wednesday, January 18th, a new Quilter’s Super Deal from a favourite online quilting retailer will be featured. The Deal will be valid for one week.

Today, I’ll be a guest on Pat Sloan’s Quilting Radio show. The show is broadcast live at 4pm Eastern, 3pm Central, 2pm mountain, 1pm Pacific. You can listen to it live or subscribe via Itunes and listen to it later.

I will be today’s first guest. Pat and I will be talking about the Quilting Gallery and the plans for 2012. We’ll also be sharing our super secret project which you’ll be able to read about on the blog later today too.

If you have a question for me, head over to Pat’s blog and she might just ask me your question LIVE.

Hope you’ll turn in to listen… and that Milo doesn’t BARK! LOL

If you’re hosting a free event that I have not included, please add it to the comments below.

Swaps and Bees

I will be hosting a new swap here at the Quilting Gallery starting later this week. It will be a mini quilt swap and the theme is New Beginnings. Swap info will be posted on the Quilter’s Fun page. Sign up for my newsletter to get notified when registration starts.

From Samelia’s Mum the Name Game Swap. Hurry, registration closes Jan. 15th.

Stash Bee is being organized by Sunni Bolger of Love Affair with my Brother. The first bee block has been posted already.

Block Swap Adventure is an ongoing project. Accepts international members too.

Block of the Month (or Week) & Quilt-Alongs

Long-time followers here will know how much I love Erin Russek’s appliqué designs. This is her finished 2011 BOM, My Tweets. The free patterns are available for you to download until the end of January.

Here’s Erin’s free 2012 project for us all: Mimi’s Bloomers. The photo is the centre panel which one can purchase if they want. There will be 12 free blocks provided that coordinate with this centre along with finishing instructions. I’m really hoping to keep up with this project this year.

In 2011, Leah Day from The Free Motion Quilting Project, completed her 365 FMQ designs project. A truly remarkable initiative that she undertook to bring us so many wonderful options.

While one project ends, the sharing continues with Leah’s new Free Motion Quilt-Along project. I’m really looking forward to following this one.

Quokka Quilts is hosting a FMQAYGQAL – a free motion quilt-as-you-go quilt-along.

Learning how to do the traditional bargello technique becomes fun when you’re making some small items like placemats and a table runner. The quilt-along will be posted in 3 parts, part 1 released on 1/6/12 is all about choosing fabric, cutting strips and piecing your strip sets together to create your tubes. Part 2 will be about how to cut your strip sets, exercise the seam ripper and then sew the rows together. Part 3 will be finishing your bargello and some quilting ideas.

Reeze Hanson of Morning Glory Designs has a new BOM this year: Vintage Floral Sampler. Blocks will be posted at the first and 15th of each month and will be available for free for 30 days. Here’s the first block.

Kim’s Crafty Apple is hosting a Houses and Trees BOM over the next few months. 16 designers will be created 12″ blocks. I’m really excited about this BOM as I find houses to be so inspirational. I’ll have a block featured at the end of February.

From Jenny of Elefantz is this super cute Promises & Borders stitchery and appliqué. This is a 10-month BOM program starting in January.

Fat Quarter Stars Quilt-Along – already in progress – hosted by Konda of Moose on the Porch Quilts. I will have a block featured in this quilt-along late January. You can see the gorgeous blocks that have been created so far in the Flickr group.

Join Amy Gibson in a free BOM hosted at Craftsy.

From Jenna a Sew. Happy. Quilt. QAL! This is a modern/traditional mixed sampler style quilt which begins with blocks that aren’t too terribly difficult, and gradually builds up to more challenging techniques like paper piecing and dresden blades.

From Shabby Fabrics is this free BOM: Country Cottages. Be sure to subscribe to their blog to get notified when the next block is available.

Here’s Sulky’s 2012 BOM: Sweet City, an adorable appliqué project. Thanks to my friend Ruth for sharing the link on Facebook.

Angie’s Bits and Pieces is hosting three BOMs this year: Asian Teapots, Itching to be Stitching and Quilt labels.

From Benita of Victoriana Quilt Designs is Pattern Play a free BOM. The first block has been posted.

Also from Benita a new Design of the Week that you can use as a quilting motif, for embroidery or appliqué.

Don’t miss Benita’s Jacquard Quilt Plan a row quilt already in progress.

For the 2012, the Aurifil Designer of the Month BOM, will showcase their 12 wt thread for hand work. 12 wt is used for embroidery, stitchery, sashiko, big stitching quilting, and even very fine crochet! The 12 designers have designed a small stitchery picking colors they love and creating a design to reflect the month they are featured. The first designer is Roseann Kermes with a lovely snowy bird pattern. Random winners will be chosen each month of those that complete the block. Join the Flickr group here.

Jackie from Canton Village Quilt Works is hosting a Bloggers BOM, already in progress.

Fresh-squeezed sew-alongs will take place on the 2nd Tuesday of each month and will feature a fun project–some will be simple and perfect for beginners, and some will be more advanced, designed to up our skill levels. Join the Flickr group here.

Already underway, Sherri is hosting Mystery Monday’s. Each Monday, she posts a portion of a mystery pattern for you to sew.

Already in progress is the Oh My Stars quilt-along.

Try your hand at English paper piecing with this gorgeous Rose Star Block Party. If I weren’t already working on a hexxie project, I’d be joining this one. Join the Flickr group here.

Join Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs in the Scrappy Plate Club! If you’ve always wanted to make a Dresden Plate quilt then you’re going to have so much fun! Every month for the next 6 months Anne will be sharing pictures, tutorials and directions to make a wonderful Dresden Plate quilt.

Designed by Dorothy Baker for Lecien, Vintage Tiles Revisited, is a BOM already in progress. I simply adore this pattern. Thanks to Bradie for sharing the link on Facebook the other day.

From Patchplay is a free Christmas-themed BOM: Jingle Bell Square .

Becky from Patchwork Posse has a new round robin starting January 20th. It’s totally free and designed by other sewers! No passing around the box… you sew up your own quilt after the new row design is published.

Jill from Apple Avenue Quilts is hosting a free BOM. She designed the blocks as calendar blocks so each block reflects a theme for the month. The blocks can be used on a calendar holder (instructions also supplied) or as part of a sampler quilt. Each month will include instructions for a traditional pieced block and a foundation pieced block. April gets an extra block for Easter. Setting instructions will be included for the quilt with December’s blocks. January’s block has been posted already.

Shelly from Prairie Moon Quilts is hosting a quilt-along: Bouquets for Hazel. The quilt has some applique and some piecing, and she’ll be providing free tutorials about the techniques used along the way … as we travel through 1953 with her mother during high school!

Starting next week, for the next five weeks, Faith of Fresh Lemons will be posting tutorials for five star quilt blocks that you can make.

Challenges

Along with Quilting Is Murder, I’m thrilled to be hosting this quilt challenge where we ask participants to save a UFO (unidentified project) from certain death by finishing it up! Here’s the best part: it can be anything mysteriously quilting related *and* you decide if it is "finished" or not when submitted. Head over to the Quilting is Murder – Save a UFO Challenge page for all the details.

Jennifer of Sew Hooked has an excellent challenge for the new year: 12 for 2012. I seriously need to join this. Let’s see if I can get myself organized and prepare a plan of attack this weekend. I need to be accountable! There’s a Flickr group and a Facebook group too. You can see Jennifer’s plans here. She’s so organized!

Rhonda from Quilter in the Gap is also hosting a similar fun challenge to get us to finish up those UFOs: 2012 Finish-A-Long. Each quarter decide what you’ll finish up, do a blog post, link up on their site and follow through for a chance to win prizes.

It’s Season 3 of Project Quilting hosting my Kim’s Crafty Apple. The theme this year is It’s Time to Think Outside the Square. Tonnes of prizes to be won too. Challenge 1 has been posted: Architectural Elements.

Darlene at SewCalGal is hosting a 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge. Every month in 2012 a FMQ expert will share a tutorial with tips to help quilters learn and/or improve their free-motion quilting skills. What a fantastic idea. I’m looking forward to learning from these experts. The first post from Frances Moore has already been posted.

Quiltjane is hosting a super fun Dress up your roll competition. What a clever and creative idea with great Prizes too!

Over at SassyBlog is a challenge to make 12 scrappy projects in 2012. The first project is scrappy rectangles.

Alexandra is hosting a Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge. Make a quilt or a mini quilt using oranges by March 2nd. Join the Flickr group here.

If you haven’t been quilting long enough to accumulate a big pile of UFO’s, this challenge is for you. NewFO Challenge gives you an opportunity to build up your supply of UFO’s! Each month, you’ll start a new project that you don’t have to complete this year.

Building Houses from Scraps – Make a house block each day challenge. The Rules/Guidelines are here.

The Curious Quilter is hosting a Postage Stamp Quilt 2012 Charm Swap & Challenge.

The Block A Day Challenge – The idea is to make one block a day and see how many quilt tops you can finish in 2012. Participants get points for each quilt block, top and completed quilt they post to the Flickr group. Each point equals one entry for monthly prizes.

Other Fun Stuff

The Modern Quilt Guild is doing a fun series on their blog: 100 Days of Modern Quilting. Each week they will feature 7 different modern quilts that represent various topics. They’ll also include tutorials from around the web on each topic, and a brand new tutorial each and every week.

Quilting friend Linda Parker is sharing with us how to put together a Lone Star Quilt. She’s included lots of tips and very detailed photos to make it EASY! One day I hope to tackle one of these beauties.

FairyFace Designs is hosting a series of tutorials aimed at beginners and newbies to sewing. The {Sew} Get Started tutorials start this week and will run up to May.

Victoria at Bumble Beans is hosting a fun series of colourful interviews. I will be a guest soon. Can you guess what my favourite colour is now and what it was as a child?

Over at Lawson and Lotti, there’s a link up party for anyone who has used a tutorial and posted about it or anyone that has written a tutorial. Link up happens every Tuesday and is a great way to learn new techniques and skills and finding out which tutorials work for their level of difficulty, etc.

Something a little different, but I thought it was very clever: A Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal. It’s easy and inexpesive to make. What a wonderful gift for someone that loves to write.

Stay in touch!

Like us on Facebook to get notified of the latest FUN!

Are you ready for a challenge? A quilting challenge, where you get to pick one of your UFOs (unfinished quilting objects), make some progress and get it finished – or almost finished.

Along with Quilting Is Murder, I’m thrilled to be hosting this quilt challenge where we ask participants to save a UFO (unidentified project) from certain death by finishing it up! Here’s the best part: it can be anything mysteriously quilting related *and* you decide if it is "finished" or not when submitted.

Head over to the Quilting is Murder – Save a UFO Challenge page for all the details. I hope you’ll join the FUN and rescue one of your UFOs.

My Challenge

I don’t know about you, but I need some accountability! to get some of my UFOs done this year. I’m overwhelmed with all the projects I have on the go. While I can’t officially enter this challenge, I am going to participate and make a challenge to myself, and you, to get this quilt top done.

This is my postage stamp quilt that I started collecting 2″ squares for back in January 2010. As of mid-December, I have 17 blocks completed. Each block will finish at 12″ square and contains 64 – 1.5″ finished pieces.

I redid the math for this project and decided I wanted a 5×6 layout or 30 – 12″ blocks. During December, needing some time to de-stress, I started piecing the 8 strips together for the remaining 13 blocks for this quilt. Mindless stitching at its best.

I did some additional piecing over New Year’s and now have 52 – 16 patches together. Next up, pin and stitch into 26 patches, then into 64 patches for the completed 13 – 64-patch blocks.

With 3/4″ sashing strips and 2.5″ for the outer border, the quilt will finish at 70″x82″. I haven’t decided yet the sashing or border colours. This quilt will contain 30×64 = 1,920 – 1.5″ finished patches when done! Here’s an EQ7 interpretation:

Happy New Year everyone … are you ready for 2012? I have lots of exciting events planned here at the Quilting Gallery for 2012. I’ll reveal what I can in the next few days.

Do you pick words of intention for a new year? I’ve picked my three words for 2012 .. Keeping two from before, colour and inspiration and adding “new beginnings”. What have you chosen as your words for 2012?

On to some New Year’s fun …

Pat Sloan is hosting a New Year’s UFO Busting Luau party! What will you finish this weekend? I was planning to work on my postage stamp quilt, but might work on a secret project that keeps calling my name instead. I’m going low-key tonight, watching hockey games and fighting off a cold.

Reminder: New Year’s Eve Twitter Party tonight!

Our friends at Stitchin’ Heaven are organizing a New Year’s Eve Twitter Party. It’s sure to be loads of FUN and there will be tonnes of wonderful prizes!

Not sure how to use Twitter and join the fun? Check out this blog post with all the details. RSVP on Facebook and check out the wonderful prizes that will be awarded.

Konda of Moose on the Porch Quilts is hosting a Fat Quarter Stars Quilt-Along on her site. It started late January and will run until end of March 2012. Every Tuesday a new star block is posted.

Here are the first seven blocks that have been created. Aren’t they gorgeous? I love the variety.

You can find the quilt-along info and block tutorials on this page: Fat Quarter Stars Quilt-Along. You can jump in and join the quilt-along at anytime. There are prizes too! See the gorgeous blocks that have been created so far in the Flickr group.

At the end of January, I’ll have a block featured. I’ve been playing around in EQ7 this week, and below are four block variations I’ve come up with. What do you think? Do you have a preference? There’s a poll underneath the photos that you can select your preferred block. The colours will change depending on what fabrics I choose to use. I’m hoping to get a test block done this weekend.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Version 4

Which block version is your fave?

I’ve received many lovely comments of appreciation and thanks for hosting the Blog Hop Party. I hope everyone had fun participating, whether you were a blogger hosting a give-away or a quilter hopping along visiting new blog friends.

It was so much FUN, that I’d like to continue the event in 2012. I have a couple of polls included in this blog post. Please can you answer and let me know your thoughts. The questions are similar but are geared towards (1) bloggers that want to do give-aways and (2) quilters that hop around visiting the blogs and entering the give-aways. Bloggers can answer both questions.

Keep in mind, that you do not have to commit to participating in the event each time, this is just so I can get a general opinion of how often to organize future Blog Hops.

Question 1: For those bloggers that participated in the event or those bloggers that would like to participate in a future event:

How often would you like to host a give-away on your blog and participate in future Blog Hop Parties?

Question 2: For those quilters that hopped along visiting the blogs:

How often would you like to hop along visiting bloggers in a Blog Hop Party?

Also, if you have any suggestions or ideas for future Blog Hop Parties, please share them in the comments or send me an email.

Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along

First off, the final winners of the buttons donated by Button Mad – Incomparable Buttons for the Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along.

• Block 22 – Circle of geese wreath – Fluffysoftkitty
• Block 23 – Starry Night – K9toywear
• Block 24 – Christmas Star – Mona’s Creativity
• Block 25 – Christmas Stocking – MezCat
• Block 26 – Welcoming Friends – Fluffysoftkitty
• Block 27 – One horse open sleigh – ColourinStitch
• Block 28 – Christmas Candy – ColourinStitch
• Block 29 – All Wrapped Up – Mona’s Creativity
• Block 30 – Bountiful – Fluffysoft kitty
• Block 31- Merry Christmas – ColourinStitch
• Block 32 – Let it Snow – CBNova1
• Block 33 – One special star – Fluffysoftkitty
• Block 34 – Snow Cristil – Mona’s Creativity
• Block 35 – Tree Toppers – Mona’s Creativity
• Block 36 – Christmas Memories – Momma Thomps

All of the winners were notified via Flickr. Check your winning photos and/or your Flickr messages for the notification.

I’d like to extend a huge Thank You! to the wonder folks at Button Mad for generously donating 37 packages of hand-painted buttons for the quilt-along. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Blog Hop Party Winners

I have 13 winners to announce for the Happy Birthday! Blog Hop Party. All winners have been notified via email. I’m still working my way through the hundreds of comments left the past week. Thank you so much for the inspiring Christmas music suggestions. Winners were chosen randomly.

• Winners of the Aurifil threads are #123 Jeanne G. and #286 Michelle Harrison
• Winners of the Saral Transfer Paper sampler packages are #447 Erin, #269 Anne, #29 Lynne, #356 Sunni @ Love Affair and #96 Ranch Wife
• The winner of the Montana Star Quilts book by Linda Parker is #26 Mary Valaika
• Winners of the Quilter’s Cookbooks are #472 quiltmom anna, #331 Sharmond, #63 Michell. #69 Lee and #517 Bente

Thanks so much to the fabulous sponsors!

Another Give-Away Winners

Two winners were randomly selected for the Sew Mama Sew give-away featured on the site last week. The winners are #79 Katey and #132 Heartsdesire.

Weekly Quilt Contest: Christmas Quilts

Finally last, but certainly not least, the two winners of last week’s Christmas Quilts contest:

Susanne

Vreni

Thanks to everyone that took the time to vote. I do apologize for the web site glitches encountered over the weekend. The problem has been found and, happily, it’s been fixed too.

Wanted: Contest sponsors for 2012.