Congratulations to last week’s winner #146 Erin. She won the Quilters Dream Cotton Batting donated by Seaside Quilting Supplies.

This week’s give-away is two gorgeous tote bag patterns, pictured below, donated by Barbara Weiland Talbert. One winner will be chosen to win both patterns. Stitch up a few for Christmas gifts.

Barbara is a nationally known author and award-winning free-lance writer/editor in the home sewing and quilting fields. Her sewing career began as a small child at the knee of her dear great grandmother and she’s been sewing and quilting and writing about it ever since!

Barbara’s most recent book, The Quilting Answer Book was published in April, 2009, by Storey Publishing. It was the featured selection of the month at Crafter’s Choice shortly after publication. Barbara’s next book, The Sewing Answer Book, is due for release in July, 2010.

Barbara has been designing and marketing quilt, tote bag, and garment patterns under the Jo-Lydia’s Attic label since 1999. And, when time allows, she posts sporadic entries to her blog.

To enter the give-away, please leave a comment below answering: Have you started your Christmas quilt-giving projects yet? The contest closes September 10, 2009. Winner will be randomly chosen.

Come join the fun … Christmas Swap – Inchie Ornaments

UPDATE: Congratulations to #99 DiahRothman. She won the two tote bag patterns.

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Along with Nadine Ruggles of Inchie Quilts fame, the Quilting Gallery is very pleased to host the first-ever Inchie Ornaments Swap.

Come join the fun, learn a new technique, be creative and make new friends in the process.

• Guidelines
• Registration
• Participants
• Inchie Ornaments Tutorial
• Flickr group
• DreamWeaver’s Quilts Studio – get your Inchie Supplies!

Registration closes October 15, 2009. However, I will be releasing partner information within two weeks of registration so that those that sign up early can get started right away. The deadline to mail your ornaments is December 1, 2009.

Registration for the Fall-themed Swap will start at the end of September and will not be due until next January.

It was my mom’s birthday earlier this week. I sent her this beaded Friendship Bag:

I also made her a tote bag from a Moda Bake Shop Tutorial:

Close up of the stitching:

Free-motion stitching on the back:

Serena Smith from Embroidery Treasures has put together two fabulous videos on how to cover a pizza box with fabric. She makes it look so easy. The addition of a little piece of ribbon to make the boxes easier to open is brilliant.

I’m going to head over to the local pizza place and see if I can’t convince them to part with a few boxes. These will really help in the cleaning up of the mess in my sewing area.

I have several projects on the go that will benefit from being kept flat instead of in a bag where they end up all wrinkled. :( I’m also going to use one (or two) for strips cut from leftover projects.

Serena has several other great videos she’s posted on YouTube. I especially like her roman shade idea for protecting your fabric stored on book shelves.

Slowly, over the last few weeks (months?) my sewing area has reached the disaster you see here:

Piled in the mess are 5 Friendship Bags, 6 baby quilts waiting on labels and binding to be finished, and two lap quilts waiting to be quilted.

The table you see in the front does not belong inside. It’s for temporary use only. I brought it out last February when I was working on the Market quilts and never put it away. It just accumulates things, so away it goes this weekend.

It’s rather overwhelming, but I finally emptied the laundry basket of fabric that needed to be ironed. My plan is to remove everything from the temporary table, put it in the laundry basket for now or put it away if there’s a spot for it.

Then I’ll have a place to organize the fabric by colourways or by sets. I have a few empty shelves for it already.

I’m hoping to have this all done in the evenings this week, so I can get working on my Summertime swap this weekend.

Anyone else use the Labour Day weekend to organize, regroup and prepare for Fall? I do more this time of year than New Year’s in terms of making plans and reorganizing life.