Shop Hopping

I've been traveling for workshops and guild presentations. If I have time, I try to stop at a few shops on the drive back home. I know some of you like to know where to find some good shops. Last week I visited Back Door Quilts in Greenwood, IN. If you like reproduction fabrics, this is a great place to shop -

It's worth your while to stop for a bit if you're traveling around or near Indianapolis.

Another good shop is Quilts Plus, in Indianapolis. Not heavy on reproduction fabrics but they had some and it's still a nice little shop with lots of inspiration.

Did I tell you I finished another book?? I turned everything in to my publisher and just finished the first edits. Martingale/That Patchwork Place will publish the book in July 2018. Yes, a long time away but not really THAT long. 

My small quilt groups are working on my Fall Flowers quilt for our October challenge. You can find the free pattern in Files in the Yahoo or Facebook small quilt groups (see blog sidebar for links to groups). This is the quilt some people worked on in September at our retreat. Lots of pretty variations if you take a look at my previous blog post.

Have a great weekend. I am pretty close to finishing the center  of my Dear Jane quilt (not the whole quilt, sigh). 

I get giddy when I finish a block and I place the "official" Brenda Papadakis Dear Jane 5-inch ruler on top and it actually measures up to the correct size. You never know . . . . 

Small Quilt Retreat

Some of you know that we had a small quilt sewing retreat last month. I meant to post pictures but I've been really busy since I got back. I forgot to charge my camera battery before I went so had to use my phone to take pictures and then had trouble loading them up to the blog for awhile. But they're here now, so enjoy - 

There were 13 of us who met for a few days at a hotel north of Chicago, near me. 

Jane and Robin

Karen

Jen

Kathy and Deborah 

Karen's craft table

Susan and her gorgeous antique quilt

Mona and her pretty retreat quilt -  Fall Flowers

Robin and Jennifer

Karen and her orange peels. Tada - finally finished!! 

Jen made us some sweet little hexie pincushions.

Candee made us pretty wool button pincushions. 

Some of us took a break from the intense sewing (hah!) and drove over to the Chicago Botanic Garden on Saturday afternoon

Jane, Robin, me and Liz 

Dinner at PF Changs

Jen, Heather, Liz, Candee, Susan, Jane

 Karen, Janet, Kathy T (not me, I'm the photographer), Deborah, Mona, Robin

Jane and Candee liked  LOVED Marian's quilt I brought for Show & Tell

Karen finished her Mystery Quilt

Kathy's pretty scrappy quilt with that purple border.

Robin finished her retreat quilt too!

Janet

Kathy T's cute project

BFFs

Robin's Mystery Quilt

Everyone got along really well and a great time was had by all.   (Well, there was that ONE troublemaker . . . . and there was that time we lost Mona . . . .) We re-connected with old friends and made some new ones. Couldn't have asked for nicer quilting friends or a better time. We're planning on doing it again next spring and in between will plan some additional sewing days to get together in the northern Illinois/Chicago area. You're welcome to join us if you happen to be in the neighborhood  : )  and if you promise to bring chocolate to share.

Have a great week!  

Civil War Quilts E-Book Winner

Thanks so much to all of you who posted a comment to enter the e-book giveaway of a copy of The Big book of Civil War Quilts. And a great big thanks to Martingale for their generosity.

The winner is Ellie Lively from Indianapolis, IN.  

Ellie -  please contact me to let me know you've received my e-mail. I will pass on your info to Martingale and they will send you the free download.

I wish I could have given every one of you a free book. It's that good. 

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Have a great Labor Day weekend, everyone. It's hard to have fun when our hearts are breaking for all those in southeast Texas. Words escape me. 

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For those of you who are in my Facebook and Yahoo small quilt groups and think you'll feel like sewing this weekend, lucky you - I've got just the project for you. It's September 1 and the challenge quilt for this month is the little strippy quilt from my book Small & Scrappy. Isn't this the cutest? Our friend Marian Edwards made this tiny version of one of the larger quilts in my book using 1 1/2" blocks!  If playing around with such tiny pieces is not your cup of tea, you can substitute the 3" blocks from the larger quilt to make your challenge quilt. 

Have fun with this one and post a picture of your finished quilt in one of the groups. The pattern is on page 73. If you don't have the Small & Scrappy book yet (and why not??) there's an e-book version available here, at Martingale's site.  You don't even need to leave your home -  it's an instant download. How easy is that?? You could be sewing as soon as you finish reading this . . . . 

Civil War Quilts Book Giveaway

Love using your reproduction fabrics to make Civil War-style quilts?  Well, there's a great book that just came out and Martingale (That Patchwork Place) is generously allowing me to give away a free e-book. 

The Big Book of Civil War Quilts. Just released!

Books like this provide us with wonderful inspiration to create legacy-worthy quilts. It's a nice collection of patterns for large and small quilts. The book contains six of my previously published patterns from two of my books plus 52 other wonderful quilts by some of our favorite designers. 

Here are a few of mine -  

There are 58  fantastic quilts by Country Threads, Carol Hopkins, Jo Morton and Julie Hendrickson as well as many other Martingale designers.

If you like working with reproduction fabric and scraps, you will love this book!

** To win a free e-book, leave me a comment to enter your name. (You can instantly download this e-book to your computer or other device.) Remember to leave your name and e-mail so I can contact you if you win. Good luck! Winner will be announced on Friday.

  You can purchase a hard copy of the book here. 

Winner was announced. COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED.