It’s a party … a Paper-Pieced Garden Blog Hop Party … hosted by Jennifer at Sewhooked. The blog hop will feature free paper-pieced patterns by 30 designers and you are invited to participate!

All patterns will be showcased on the Sewhooked blog with links to each featured designer on their assigned day. My special day is April 11th. There will be 30 blocks that will finish at 10″ square. There may also be a few bonus blocks posted at the end of the month too.

Here are the talented participants:

1. Cheryl Parks, pattern to be posted on Sewhooked
2. Jennifer Rodriguez, All Things Belle
3. Aalia Zaman, pattern to be posted on Sewhooked
4. Schenley Pilgram
5. Megan Dye, Monkey Beans
6. Lilja Björk, liljabs
7. Jill Majers, Apple Avenue Quilts
8. Dolores Attard, A Labour of Love
9. Kari Ramsay, Fresh Cut Quilts
10. Cindy Staub, Quilt Doodle Designs
11. Michele Foster, Quilting Gallery
12. Alma Stoller
13. GourmetQuilter
14. Carol Steffensen, Chickadee Chatter
15. GraceParfait Creations
16. Gaya
17. Jessica, Plum Patchwork
18. John Kubiniec, Big Rig Quilting
19. Cherry Guidry, Cherry Blossom Quilting Studio
20. Vanessa Wilson, Crafty Gemini
21. artisania
22. Amy Friend, During Quiet Time
23. Cat Magraith, pattern to be posted on Sewhooked
24. Benita Skinner, Victoriana Quilt Designs
25. Charise Randell, Charise Creates
26. Jen Boucher, A Quilting Jewel
27. Denise Johanneson, pattern to be posted on Sewhooked
28. Jennifer Ofenstein, Sewhooked (it’s my birthday!)
29. Candace, Double Nickel Quilts
30. ButterflyAngels Quilts

Back-up/bonus participants:

1. Diane, From Blank Pages
2. Soma
3. Cyrille Zellweger, Bubblestitch Quilts

Head on over to the Garden Party HQ for the latest posts. I’ll see you on the 11th.

Join the Flickr group too. There will be prizes each week.

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.

Hi everyone! Thanks so much to Michele for inviting me to share with you all today.

Over at Lilac Lane, we’ve been spending the last couple of months learning the VERY BASICS of quilting. If you’d like to check that out, it’s there for all time, or until Blogger breaks down. haha Anyway, it goes through step-by-step everything you need to know to quilt. Everything from supplies to choosing colors and patterns and sewing.

As a pattern designer, I want everyone to learn how to sew! But not just so you can buy my patterns. I think there is such a sense of accomplishment when you create something yourself.

I thought today I would give you some tips that will help beginning sewists, but might also be new to more advanced seamstresses.

Irons

The iron is your very best friend in sewing. Until I figured that out, my projects were pretty cruddy. If you think about it, the iron flattens wrinkled fabric, turns back seam allowances, sets seams and does a myriad of other things.

Tips:

• Never iron with your iron. No, we want to press, a simple up and down motion. Ironing — moving the iron from side to side — can stretch your fabric.
• Use a lot of steam. Some will disagree, but I LOVE steam. It’s the easiest way to get rid of wrinkles. I love how it sets seams.
• Sewing is full of gunky adhesives, fusible interfacings, wonder under, etc. All of these things can really gunk up your iron. And that stuff can get transferred to your fabric. Take a dryer sheet and rub it on the plate of your iron while the iron is hot (I use an oven mitt) to remove all that gunk. It works like a charm. Just make sure to remove the greasy stuff before using it on your fabric again. I rub the iron on a scrap of fabric and then you’re ready to go!

Knits

I love knits. To me, they are the easiest fabric to make garments from. After all, you can usually skip the buttons, zipper and finishing seams. But there are a few tips to keep in mind.

Tips:

• Prewash! Knits shrink A LOT the first time you wash them. Wash exactly as you intend to wash the finished garment.
• Use a ball-point needle. They’re available everywhere and won’t snag your knits.
• I sew with a long, thin zigzag. Just enough so that you can barely tell it’s a zigzag. This allows the knits to stretch.
• While we’re talking about stretch, don’t forget to use polyester thread!

Cutting

Rotary cutters and rulers are such time savers for a quilter and for a garment maker. We’d be lost without them. If you’re new to quilting, you can get by with a good 6″ x 24″ ruler.

Tips:

• Keep your blade sharp. The duller the blade, the harder you have to push, which can lead to nasty accidents.
• Line your body up with your cutting table. It helps to put your cutting mat on a corner. Then you can always cut “straight on”.
• Keep firm pressure on the ruler with your left (right if you’re left-handed) hand. Try to focus the pressure downward so the ruler won’t slip.
• While we’re talking about slipping, always cover the fabric piece you are cutting with the ruler. If you do slip, you won’t ruin your good piece, just a bit of the extra — and it will be fixable!

My Number One Tip for Quilters:

Invest in a quarter inch foot with a guide along the side! These are usually fairly inexpensive and will make a world of difference in your quilting. After all, in quilting, size does matter. Of the seams that is!

And if you made it this far, I’m happy to offer Quilting Gallery readers a coupon for 30% off my patterns with the code QUILTINGGALLERY. Just visit my store at melissastramel.com. Coupon is valid for one month (until Feb. 19th 2012).

Love,

xoxo

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!

This month, Shruti is doing an ABC’s of Quilting series on her blog. She’s invited guests to help her out. Check out the various subjects that will be covered here.

My post is a Blogland Tour of 10 of my favourite modern bloggers. I have to admit, it was not easy to pick just 10. I could easily have picked 20.

Head over to read my post and see who I chose: Blogland Tour: 10 Favourite Modern Bloggers.

Share your favourite bloggers in the comments below. I cleaned out my RSS reader earlier this week, so now I have room to add a few blogs.

Thanks so much for inviting me to guest blog, Michele!

Hi all, I’m M-R Charbonneau and I blog at Quilt Matters. Even though I’ve been quilting since university, I’m relatively new to the quilting blogosphere. I started checking out quilting blogs in February when I was putting together a Tips and Techniques table on Quilt Journals for my guild. Wow, how that changed my quilting world — so much talent, creativity, and passion!

In May, when I started my own blog – partly because I think I was boring my non-quilting family and friends with all my ‘quilt talk’, but also because I wanted to participate in all the great things that I saw happening online, like quilt-alongs, tutorials, and giveaways — one thing I hadn’t really thought of was that people from far away countries might come and visit my blog to see what I do. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was pretty amazed when I saw that there were people from all around the world, including Israel, Finland, Slovakia, and Germany, who found my blog. I thought that was awesome and it gave me the idea of ‘travelling’ to check out quilting blogs from other countries.

Since I signed my blog up with Quilting Bloggers, I knew that Michele had a great list of the blogs by country so I used her site as my travel guide and headed for Finland, as I’d had a number of visits to my site from quilters there. I thought that language might be an issue, but it wasn’t – and really, quilting is a universal language, right?

I had so much fun visiting the quilting blogs in Finland that I did a post on my little adventure: So, I went to Finland last night. I included links to all the quilts or things that I thought were especially interesting or inspirational; things I might want to go back and visit again.

I came away from the experience feeling so inspired that I decided to do it again, this time to Thailand. For this visit, in addition to posting links to the inspirational quilts that I found, I included one of my favourite recipes for Thai Green Chicken Curry. To my surprise and delight, Jill from Jill’s Quilt Site, one of the sites I had visited and written about, actually found my post and posted a really nice comment on it.

I’ve continued my virtual travelling with visits to Kenya, Chile, Washington DC and Edwards Air Force Base and Nova Scotia. I also did a Welcome to Ottawa post for Canada Day to introduce Ottawa to my readers if they aren’t familiar with it.

I’m having a great time learning about and getting inspired from quilters around the world. Everybody has an interesting story to tell and a quilt to show.

There is so much great talent out there in the blogosphere that I’d encourage anyone to grab a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of wine and give this type of travelling a try. It’s certainly easier on the bank account and you won’t be battling jet lag when you ‘get home’. And I promise you that you will come away inspired and energized.

I’ll be continuing my virtual visits and posting about them on my blog so if you’d like to come along, you are more than welcome! I also blog about my own projects (the photos in this post are quilts that I’ve made over the past couple of years), as well as other quilting-related videos, tutorials and information.

In honour of my most recent virtual and real trip to Nova Scotia (and my birthday), I’m hosting a giveaway of a travel-inspired bundle of fat quarters. Come by my blog between now and Sunday, August 28th and leave me a comment on what you would do with this bundle.

Thanks again for letting me guest blog, Michele!

Cheers and happy trails,
M-R

Please note: You’re more than welcome to leave a comment here; however, the winner of the giveaway will be chosen from comments left on M-R’s blog.

Here’s the schedule:

Monday: Brenda Riddle of Acorn Quilt and Gift Company and Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Tuesday: Pat Sloan of, well, everything!
Wednesday: Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches
Thursday: Michele Foster of The Quilting Gallery – that’s me, see you Thursday!
Friday: Sandi Andersen of A Legacy of Stitches

Rumour has it, you’ll be able to win copies of Jacquelynne’s new book Fruitful Hands, and perhaps some other goodies too from each blogger. The fun starts at Jacquelynne’s blog. See you on Thursday for my special day!

This weekend is sandwiched by two patriotic holidays; Friday is Canada Day and Monday is US Independence Day. To quilters, special days like these are enthused with particular meaning. Through the watermelon and the fireworks, we see quilt blocks. Triangles and squares inspire us not only as art, but also as tactile remembrances of our time with family, and pride in our community. To me, this is the greatest power of quilting: the tradition of commemorating. Think about it. Your memory quilt shares the same sentiment as the burgoyne surrounded stitched by a colonial quilter.

Now I have a surprise for you. We are entering a new era of commemorative quilting! Turns out that the coming decade and a half is a cornucopia of special anniversaries, all fit for quilty observances. For example (and speaking of cornucopias), Thanksgiving will mark 400 years in 2021. Plus, 8 Provinces and 43 States will celebrate birthdays in the next fifteen years. In fact, 16 States are turning 225 during that time (that’s a quasquibicentennial, I know you were wondering). Overall, there are 68 big reasons to celebrate all the way through 2025.

In order to piece these dates and events together, Road Home Quilting has created a table of New Commemorative Dates, indexing major anniversaries 2011-2025. Bet you are dying to see if your home is on the list. But wait, before you go, here is more exciting news. You can join with other quilters enthused with The New Commemoratives on the Facebook community page, Commemorative Quilting. This is the place to share your commemorative projects and get news of memorial events.

Something to consider under the fireworks this weekend. Remember that in quilting years, a decade and 4 bits is not very long. (I had better start my Thanksgiving quilt now if it’s going to get done in time!) Time to get your stash ready, start your machine, and go bring a new expression to the tradition of commemorative quilting!

Road Home Quilting designs quilt patterns from warmth and tradition, while meeting contemporary decorative functions. Here are friendly quilt projects that remind you of home, each one tested for fun and functionality!

Please visit: http://roadhomequilting.blogspot.com/

Congratulations to quilter Vanessa Wilson of the Crafty Gemini for winning YouTube’s NextUp Contest. Vanessa’s been putting together awesome video tutorials on quilting, crafting, sewing and cooking for the past year and a bit.

See Vanessa’s contest entry video, and her welcome/acceptance video below:

In addition to being totally awesome for Vanessa, I think this is fantastic that YouTube recognized the value of quilting/crafting videos and tutorials and recognized Vanessa’s efforts. We can all look forward to more awesome tutorials by Vanessa and I’m sure her story will inspire others too. Very proud of you Vanessa!!

Vanessa was a guest blogger here late last year, read her story and see pictures of her lovely family. Vanessa’s winning story was also picked up in her local news too, here and here.

Subscribe to The Crafty Gemini on YouTube.

2014 Olympic Branding

Thanks to Jovita who first shared this with me on Facebook last week.

Here is the branding chosen for the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in Sochi, Russia. Isn’t it fabulous? It will be fantastic to see quilting so prominently in the spotlight during the Games.

At the heart of the Look of the Games concept design lies the principle of the “patchwork quilt” – a combination of 16 designs representing the most famous traditional Russian arts and crafts, ranging from Gzhel to Khokhloma. The Look of the Games concept is the visual embodiment of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games philosophy and is intended to express the character of modern Russia whilst at the same time introducing guests from all over the world to traditional Russian hospitality. Credit

Various links:

• Concept, design elements and interpretation – a fascinating read of Russian arts, crafts and culture
• The look of the games
• Unveilling presentation – awesome photos here
• Olympic brand – additional photos, some not above
• BOSCO Press Release – branding was developed and donated by BOSCO.

I so want to pimp out my car like this:

Quilter’s Take Manhattan

A fun-filled trip and fund raiser announced by the Alliance for American Quilts earlier this week. Three events are planned: Modern Stories: Documenting the Modern Quilt Movement; Marianne & Jay on the Runway:A Quilter’s Alliance of Fabric & Fashion; and, NY’s Ultimate Block Party:Cocktails at The City Quilter. More info and ticket sales available here.

Quilts for Alabama Tornado Victims

I know many have seen the devastating photos of the Alabama Tornados that hit a few weeks ago. Here are a couple of blogs with info on making quilts for tornado victims:

• Bama Bound Quilts
• Green Quilts

If you know of other initiatives for the tornado victims, or even other charity quilting initiatives, please post in the comments or have the organizer send me an email. I’m always happy to help promote these projects.

Quilts for Japan

Congratulations to Bev Rogan and all the quilters that have so generously sent her more than 560 quilts for Japan. The quilts will be sent shortly from Canada. See the awesome donations here and more pictures here.

The Fresh Air Fund

While not quilting related, I thought my readers would like to know about this and might even be able to help out.

The Fresh Air Fund is in need of host families for this summer of 2011. Host families are volunteers who open their hearts and homes to children from the city to give them a Fresh Air experience that can change lives. It’s only for up to two weeks, but it’s an experience that can change their lives forever. Click here to find out how you can help.