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.

Did you have a chance to listen live to my interview on Pat Sloan’s Radio Show? If you missed the live show, you can listen to it here or via Itunes too.

On the show, I shared some of the plans for 2012 here at the Quilting Gallery. Here’s what’s planned:

I’ll be hosting 4 swaps this year, one each quarter. Registration for our first swap New Beginnings will start later this week. This will be an open-ended mini quilt swap where each quilter is free to interpret the theme as they wish. The other swaps planned for this year include projects designed specifically for the swap by Sandi Andersen, Lenna Green and Jennifer Ofenstein.

The Blog Hop Party we did last year was so much fun. Thanks to everyone’s feedback, I’ll be hosting four events this year. The first one will start around Valentine’s Day with others planned for April, August and November.

Our Weekly Themed Quilt Contests will continue for the third year. See the 2012 themes. You can submit a quilt for this week’s New Beginnings contest.

I really enjoyed last year’s Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along. I plan to host a Spring Garden quilt-along starting sometime in April or May. Also, the Super Deals were very popular and I’m thrilled to announce that they’ll continue starting next Wednesday. More information will be posted on the site later this week.

I also have plans to create a 3rd edition of the Quilter’s Cookbooks. This one will feature quick and easy Summertime recipes.

More FUN things will be announced later in the year.

The Learning Center

Last but certainly not least, I’m extremely excited to be working with Pat Sloan on a new section for the site, called The Learning Center. I have known Pat since I first started this site and had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time in Nashville in 2008.

Over the years, we’ve seen each other at various shows and communicate regularly. She’s been a great mentor to me and always so eager and willing to share her advice and perspective whenever I’ve asked. We’ve been talking about doing something together for almost 2 years, and finally we start.

While Pat will be the hostess and organizer for The Learning Center, it’s really all about you. Pat will be organizing guest experts, sharing her own experience and links to fabulous tutorials and other useful information. We’ll be having linky parties, featured products, Q&A sessions and more. Each month, I’ll also be organizing and writing a couple of the posts.

Pat’s organized the draft agenda for the entire first year, and let me just say it’s EXCITING! Each month has its own theme. February is Storage and Organization and March will be Quilting Basics.

There will be a new tab at the top of the site for The Learning Center, where all the posts and resources will be stored. As we start to get content entered into the site and build up this section, it will become a super-organized resource for quilters of all levels.

I hope you’ll enjoy the new section and that you’ll share your own knowledge and participate. At the middle of each month, we’ll announce the next month’s theme and we will be asking for volunteers to guest write, answer questions, share their tips, etc.

Now, I’ll let Pat take over and tell you the plans for February…

From Pat:

I’m really excited to have you join Michele and I for our Fabulous new Learning Center section! The February topic is near and dear to my heart, organization! I know we talk a lot about it and people are always looking for the best solutions that fit their work style.

I believe we can all find a solution that works for us by sharing ideas! All during February you will find links, tips, interviews and ideas for how to proceed with organizing your studio space.

We want your ideas! Have you written a post on your own blog, seen a really clever storage/organization idea online or have your own ideas on fabric, notions & thread storage, project organization (including BOMs), and digital organization (what to do with all those free tutorials and patterns)? Send Michele or Pat an email.

If you have a specific organization/storage-related question leave a comment, or email it to us, and we’ll try and get you an answer!

Also, at the end of February we’ll be having a linky party where you get to show off your own creative space. Take before photos, organize, organize, organize and take after photos. You’ll write a blog post on your own blog and link it up in our linky party.

Give-Away: Share your Ideas for The Learning Center

We’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts about The Learning Center. What do you want to see included? Is there something quilting-related that you struggle with and need help? How should the Center be organized so that as it grows, it becomes a useful resource guide that you can refer back to?

Leave a comment below with your thoughts and suggestions. I have two free gift certificates from The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims to give away. One is for a free 6-month membership that is good for a new member only. The other is for one past online series of the show. I believe this certificate is open to both new and current members (I hope).

Two winners will be chosen randomly next Wednesday, January 18th.

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.

Normally, for my anniversary post, I’ll spend some time reflecting on the past year and sharing what the next year will bring. However, I haven’t had time to get this written yet. Look for this post next week.

If you’re new to the Quilting Gallery, Welcome! Here you can meet thousands of quilters from around the world in the quilting bloggers directory. Browse the quilt shop locator, a unique map-based directory of quilting retailers and professionals. Find connections in our world-wide directory of quilt guilds and search for the latest in quilting books, patterns and notions in the quilter’s market.

You’ll also find hundreds of free quilting projects, inspiring guest bloggers and charity quilting projects.

I host a weekly themed quilt contest. Vote this weekend for your favourite Christmas Table Runners or submit a photo for next week’s Christmas contest.

We just finished up the Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along featuring 36 fabulous designers. I host swaps too; our next one will be in January.

Subscribe to our Newsletter or Like us on Facebook to get notified of the latest FUN!

Give-Aways!!

I have prizes to give-away from a few wonderful sponsors. There will be 13 winners selected!

Aurifil Threads

If you’re new here, you might not know that I’m a HUGE Aurifil Threads fan. I use the 50wt cotton for all of my piecing and hand appliqué work. I’ll use 50wt or 40wt for quilting and have recently fallen in love with their 12wt for machine blanket stitch appliqué.

Alex from Aurifil has donated two thread collections for the give-away. Send Aurifil some love by Liking them on Facebook. They host super fun contests and give-aways there.

Collection 1: Wild Rose by Marti Michell contains 10 small spools of 50wt thread (220 yards each).

Collection 2: Freshly Baked by Kaye England contains 10 small spools of 50wt thread (220 yards each).

Saral Wax-Free Transfer Paper

Another product I adore is Saral’s Wax-Free Transfer Paper. I use it for marking quilting and appliqué placement lines. I did a product review earlier this year. The good folks at Saral have donated 5 sampler packs.

Montana Star Quilts

Quilting friend and author Linda Parker has donated a copy of her book Montana Star Quilts. It features over 90 brilliant full-page, color photos of Indian and author-made star quilts. It also includes complete step-by-step directions for eleven original star quilts with tips to design your own.

Quilter’s Cookbook

I’ll also be donating 5 sets of the two Quilter’s Cookbooks.

Santa alert: Just $4/each! Filled with fabulous recipes, heart-warming stories and gorgeous quilts, they’d make a great gift for you and your quilting friends. Purchase them here!

How to Enter, How to Win!

Leave a comment below. One entry per person. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Winners will be chosen randomly December 18th.

Answer the following: What’s your favourite Christmas song? (Or another song, if you don’t celebrate Christmas). Bonus if you find and share a video of it!

Here’s my favourite Christmas Time by Bryan Adams.

Quilter’s Blog Hop Party

Visit the more than 240 quilters participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party. Thanks to all the bloggers participating. I’m thrilled so many wanted to help us celebrate.

Comments are now closed! Winners announced here.

Head over to the Blog Hop Party page for all the info. Register your blog as a participant and on December 10th, start blog hopping.

Let’s have some FUN!

Upload your fabric selections to our Flickr group.

Buttons Give-Away

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of introducing my blog readers to Incomparable Buttons. Their main aim is to create employment for women in South Africa. Their second goal is to create fabulous buttons!

I’m excited to announce that they’ve donated 36 buttons cards to be awarded during our Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along. For every day of our quilt-along, one quilter will win.

Here’s how it works. You’ll have two weeks from when a quilt-along block has been published to make the block then upload it to our Flickr group. The staff at Button Mad – Incomparable Buttons will be reviewing the photos and choosing one winner for each of our blocks. Winners will be contacted via Flickr mail from Button Mad. Super simple!

Here are just a few photos of their fabulous buttons:

As the little ones head back to school, and the evenings starts to turn a little colder, let’s have some quilting fun.

I’m so excited to announce the upcoming Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along and Super Deals for Quilters campaign. A 12-week event, starting September 13th. We’ll have 36 fabulous designers sharing a 12″ block that everyone can make. You can make all of the blocks, or just the ones that most appeal to you.

The queen of quilting FUN and a dear friend of mine, Pat Sloan, will be our first featured designer. I wonder what’s she’s got in store for us. A pieced block, some appliqué, a bit of stitchery. We’ll have to wait and see.

Our fabulous friends from the Fat Quarter Shop have agreed to be a Super Deal advertiser for 12 of the 36 days. If you want to be a Super Deal advertiser, drop me an email and I’ll send you the campaign information package.

Please help share the news … grab yourself a cute little button, from the general info page below, to post on your blog.

• Celebrate Christmas Campaign – General Info
• Featured Designers
• Super Deal Advertisers

Thanks also to Jacquelynne Steves for asking me to participate in the blog tour and for donating a copy of her new book.

The winner of the Fruitful Hands book is #124 Dresden Quilter, who wrote:

We went out for dinner last night and for dessert my daughter was given a cookie that she did not like. The waitress exchanged it for free, which I thought was a wonderful gesture.

If you didn’t win, you can order an autographed copy of the book directly from Jacquelynne’s web site or through Amazon.

The winner of the Aurifil thread sampler pack and Lapel glue stick is #90 Cindy, who wrote:

This is just a little something I do whenever I go to a store where I use a shopping cart… Instead of leaving the cart some random place in the parking lot or in the cart corral, I walk the cart back up to the entrance of the store and leave it there or put it inside the store where I found it.

It is a simple task that only takes a moment. At my home I put something away after I am finished using it. why not do that at the store? And, when it is raining… don’t you love to find a dry cart inside?! I enjoy providing that for someone else. :-)

Read all of the wonderful comments here!

I really wanted to be able to see the large images for all the quilts without having to click on each individual picture.

Unless it’s really broken, and not working for many, I may use this tomorrow for the Quilts for Little Boys contest. So, what do you think? How’s it working for you?

Update: This is just a test to see how the images/descriptions look in the large slider, as opposed to having just the small images. There is no voting associated with this post. Voting options will still appear underneath the photos as we’ve been doing all along.

Thanks!!
Michele