Take 20% off your entire order, plus free shipping, when you purchase $25 or more. US orders only. Offer good now through 11/30/09. Use promo code QVBF30 when you check out at ShopQuiltersVillage.com.

Happy Holly Days Kit

Have you been thinking about a QM Timesaving Kit? Happy Holly Days comes in a wall kit or twin size–great for yourself or a gift for your quilting friends.

Quilting Motifs, Volume 7

Are you missing any of Quiltmaker’s Motif books? Now’s the time to complete your collection.

Explore ShopQuiltersVillage.com for great quilting deals this holiday season.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving feasts everyone–we’ll be back with more quilty pleasures next week. If you make a project using blocks from 100 Blocks this weekend, be sure to post it in our 100 Blocks flickr group for everyone to see.

Even the quilt’s name—Fandango—makes you want to dance! Fandango is featured in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Quiltmaker, which should be arriving any day now. It was designed and made by Karen Griska, an interesting person who has made more than 200 quilts, all original designs. And the quilts are ever-so-interesting! They invite you in for a closer look. The ones we’ve had here in the office intrigue me day after day after day!

Karen has a great blog chock-full of ideas at selvageblog.blogspot.com. You’ll want to read our interview with Karen, too. I’ll be interested in hearing about your experience making the first few fan blocks (instructions are in the Fandango pattern). My first successful block looked like this:

I haven’t gotten back to this project yet, but I will. These little charmers are addictive.

#76, Marianne Ogg was randomly selected to receive the fat quarter bundle from Riley Blake Designs. I’ve sent her an email for her address. Thank you everyone for all your wonderful comments. It’s really interesting to see the wide variety of quilting styles, likes and dislikes. The youngest person to comment, Laura, is 14 years old and has already been quilting for 2 years. Way to go Laura! Keep the comments coming—we always love to hear from you.

Our Jan/Feb ’10 issue (No. 131) features a gorgeous quilt in QM Spotlight (on the last page) with an interesting story sent by Kathy O’Toole.

Cabin Constellation

It was made from a pattern called Cabin Constellation which first appeared in the May/June ‘05 issue (No. 103).

Peggy Stern from Baxter, Minnesota and Kathy O’Toole from Oakland, California are sisters who made the quilt together, in spite of living more than 1500 miles apart. It’s one of many projects they have worked on together through a system of long-distance quilting they have developed over the past 12 years.

Along with a cousin, Marilyn Petersen from Watertown, South Dakota, they sometimes have several projects going at once.

It takes the three women about three years to finish a quilt together. So far they have made about nine quilts and given away three as wedding gifts to young couples in their shared families.

Granddaughter Latice and her new husband

Cabin Constellation became a wedding gift for Kathy’s granddaughter Latice and her new husband.

Both sisters had been saying they wanted to use up some of their scraps. When Peggy saw this pattern in Quiltmaker, she thought it would be more fun than most patterns because it had more than one type of block. She suggested to her sister that they make the quilt. Kathy had already seen Cabin Constellation in Quiltmaker and liked it too.

Kathy picked the colors by looking through many books and narrowing the color scheme to a combination that appeared mostly in antique quilts from the mid- to late-1800s. Both sisters pulled fabrics from their stashes, which differ considerably.

They exchanged enough fabrics so that each had some from both stashes. They made extra blocks so that in the end, some could be eliminated if necessary.

Kathy says their tastes in fabrics and designs are very different but they each admire what the other can do. “It’s nice to bring two totally different sets of eyes to the same project and to use each other’s fabrics. Most importantly, the joint project gave us some alone time during visits when we were surrounded by other family members. These sessions together alone bring back the good old days of playing paper dolls when we were kids.”

The women as children in South Dakota

The women grew up on a farm near Watertown, South Dakota. Along with Marilyn, they belonged to a girls club organized by their mothers, through which they learned to sew, embroider and bake cakes and cookies. Like many others, they discovered quilting when America celebrated her Bicentennial in 1976.

A September wedding in Wisconsin

Peggy’s son Tad was married in September and Marilyn’s son Bruce will be married in January. Each couple will choose a quilt when the family gathers next for the holidays. By that time, another cousin who is Marilyn’s sister, Liz from Dallas, will have been added to the circle. The women are learning to chat online and to hold conference calls for virtual quilt meetings.

“This is about more than quilting. We are trying to keep a family together in an era where we are geographically scattered. I love my local five-member quilt group in the San Francisco Bay area, but I value even more the time with this virtual family group that dates back to childhood,” says Kathy.

What’s your long-distance quilting story? Have you made a quilt for a special occasion? We always love hearing in the comments what our readers are doing.

Cabin Constellation will be available for purchase as a downloadable pdf in the near future. We’ll announce its debut here.

I have bad news and fantastic news for machine embroiderers who are looking for Quiltmaker’s Quilting & Embroidery newsstand specials. The bad news is there is no Fall or Winter issue coming in 2009, but the fantastic news is that we’re already working on Quilting & Embroidery Spring 2010 (on newsstands 3/9/10) and we are planning for a Fall 2010 issue as well.

Have you made a Q&E project? Look what two of our readers made and posted in Quilter’s Village galleries.

Christmas Comes Around was designed by Lori King and made by teeny48. The pattern is available for purchase in Quilting & Embroidery, Fall 2008.

Wedded Bliss designed by Jennifer Gigas and made by teeny48. The pattern is available for purchase in Quilting & Embroidery Summer 2009.

Birthday Girl designed by Linda Griepentrog and made by LReneeR. The pattern is available for purchase in Quilting & Embroidery Summer 2009.

Do you machine embroider? Help us plan future Q&Es. Leave a comment and tell us what kind of quilts you like to embroider. What techniques do you want to learn more about? Point us to pictures (your blog, a Quilter’s Village gallery or flickr) to show off your embroidered quilts.

One of the things I enjoy about Quilt Market is the opportunity to meet new designers. This past Quilt Market was no exception. I met several young designers who are just now making their mark in the quilt world. One of them was Rachel Griffith, and I asked her to be a guest blogger for us. We’ll be working more with Rachel in upcoming issues of Quiltmaker.

And, we’ll have another giveaway! Just leave a comment telling us how long you’ve been quilting and what your skill level is. You can also add the types of quilts you like to make. I’ll randomly draw one name next Tuesday, 11/24 around noon to win a fat quarter bundle from Riley Blake Designs.

Rachel Griffith

Once upon a time…there was a 16 year old girl who loved home economics class. She learned all things domestic that a young girl should including how to make pillow turn baby blankets…she was instantly addicted. She made pillow turn blankets for years and knew that she needed something more…her one true domestic love.

“I think I’ll learn to quilt!!!” she said to herself in the middle of the fabric section of Wal-Mart. And that’s where her story started.

So here I am…that young girl, all grown up and I’m still in love with all things domestic. {except laundry of course…ewww.}
I guess yall could classify me as a multi-talented domestic diva. *kidding*
I’m pretty much your average stay at home momma, except I get to play with fabric in between changing diapers and picking up toys. And yes, I SO love my job. I began to make baby quilts, table runners & lap quilts for our house. Then I started making items for people when they needed them or when I needed a few extra bucks. Lately it seems as if the quilty part of my job has been branching out and I’ve added a few more things to my job requirement list.

I have been designing for the Moda Bake Shop, which in itself, is such a great gig. {It’s no big surprise that I am addicted to Moda Fabrics.} I think that it’s pretty safe to say that designing patterns & doing tutorials for the moda bake shop opened the flood gates for the designer within me.

I had the pleasure of attending International Quilt Market this past October and boy let me tell you…it was amazing. I met some of the most amazing quilty stars in the business and was inspired beyond belief. It definitely made me want to come home and design, design, design.

Basically, the quilty beast can’t be tamed, and my story will continue to write itself as I continue to branch out in the quilting world. I hope that yall will follow along with me as I share my quilty {& sometimes not so quilty} adventures over at my blog, p.s. i quilt.

Thanks everyone for participating in Quiltmaker’s first ever Blog Tour–and how appropriate that this is our 100th post! It sure sounds like everyone has had a lot of fun discovering new blogs, new ideas and finding new inspiration. And the best thing is these links will be here for future exploration–I know I haven’t had a good visit yet at all the new sites!

We have selected three names for the Big Bundle Giveaways (two from the U.S./Canada post and one from the Outside U.S./Canada post.)

Those three people have been notified by email and, once I’ve verified their shipping addresses, I’ll announce their names here.

Winners of the 100 Block issues are listed in this post–and I think we still have a few names to add there as well. We’ve been mailing the issues out since last week, so watch for your copy soon if you won.

OK–now it’s back to regular work for the QM Staff. We’ve got January/February ‘10 web content to get ready to post next week, March/April ‘10 patterns to write and proofread and more quilty pleasures to plan and get ready for you. We’ll be back to our normal 2-3 posts per week instead of 2-3 posts per day.

Be sure to post pictures of the projects you make from 100 Blocks in our flickr group! Can’t wait to see what you create!

Update 11/17/09: The U.S./Canada winners are:

• Debbi Price from Des Moines, WA
• Valorie Kortus from Loveland, CO

Congratulations–I’m going to pack up your prizes for UPS to pick up!

I have not yet heard from the Outside U.S./Canada winner. I’ll send another email today and if I don’t hear from her by 10 am on Wednesday, I’ll pick someone else.

Update 11/19: It took a little longer because the first name drawn was from the U.S and ineligible, but then emma #46 from Australia was randomly selected as our international winner–congratulations emma and thanks to all for participating!

If you suspect a problem in any Quiltmaker issue, please check quiltmaker.com/corrections first. We work hard to avoid errors, but when we find them, we want you to know and we always post them online. If you don’t find a correction posted and still suspect an error please write to editor (at) quiltmaker.com.

Here are the known errors in 100 Blocks, Winter ‘09:

• Art Deco Star, block # 27: foundation section 1 is numbered incorrectly on pattern page 1. Download the correct foundation.
• The cutting dimensions for all the sashes (A) in the Settings & Yardages on page 6 should be 2-1/2″ x 12-1/2″.
• Dodi Poulsen’s last name was spelled incorrectly on pages 27 and 65.
• Emily Herrick’s blog address is given incorrectly on page 47. It should be crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com.
• Hoffman California Fabrics was inadvertently left off the credit list for Heartfelt, block #68.
• Twist and Shout. The cutting dimensions for the A patch should be 3 3/8″ x 3 3/8″ not 2 7/8″ x 2 7/8″. 

We regret the errors.

We didn’t plan for comments/winners in the daily posts, but they’ve been so delightful to read that I’m picking 2 random winners from each day to each receive a copy of 100 Blocks.

from Day 1

• annieofbluegables #11
• sheila carita #24

from Day 2

• jeanne #8
• charmin #42

from Day 3

• becanne #14
• Judy #15

from Day 4

• Donna Joy #33
• Claudia #66

from Day 5

• Shelly #3
• Jocelyn #29

OK, I’m sending emails to all these winners to get mailing addresses. Congratulations to all 10 of you!

There’s a list that we’re trying to keep updated of the winners so far–easier than new posts all the time.

All week we’ve been teasing you in regard to the Big Bundle Giveaway. Many of the contributors to 100 Blocks from Today’s Top Designers sent prizes to be included. SO many sent prizes that we’ve created two giveaways for U.S. and Canadian folks. (For those of you in other places, see this post.) If you live in the U.S. or Canada, just leave a comment on this post by 3 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 16 (MST) to be entered. Tell us how you first heard about this blog tour. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

This giveaway includes fabric, books, patterns and more, and each prize has a retail value of about $500. A big thank you to all the donors (we’re going to blog about them next week).

It’s been great to have you along for this wonderful ride! We hope you discovered lots of great new blogs and quilting resources, and we hope you’ll come back often.

Update 11/17/09: The U.S./Canada winners are:

• Debbi Price from Des Moines, WA
• Valorie Kortus from Loveland, CO

Subscribe to Quiltmaker: special offers here.

Find the entry form to win one of the actual blocks here.

Buy QM Kits and other products: special offers here.

Post 100 Blocks projects on a flickr group here.

Sign up for the free Quilter’s Village email newsletter here.

Send us feedback anytime to editor at quiltmaker.com.