The prizes are arriving and the boxes of 100 Blocks from Today’s Top Designers are here!

Please visit us daily next week for the 100 Blocks Blog Tour. Each day we’ll list the blogs of about 10 designers. Visit the blogs for ideas and inspiration and prizes, prizes, prizes!

Fabric giveaways from Maywood Studio and Windham Fabrics! Just a hint of what's to come!

We’ll have numerous giveaways here on Quilty Pleasures, too. And at the end of the week, we’ll draw for a Big Bundle Giveaway—a grand prize that will thrill the heart of any quilter!

Several Quilt Markets ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Jacqueline de Jonge, the amazing designer of the Be Colourful patterns. Her foundation-pieced designs are full of rich, vibrant colors. I caught up with her in Houston at Quilt Market and asked her to be a guest blogger for us. She also gave me some of her patterns and a set of note cards to give away on this blog. Leave a comment telling us your favorite color combinations to work with in a quilt, and I’ll randomly draw 5 names on Tuesday, November 10th around noon. Each winner will receive one of Jacqueline’s patterns or the set of note cards.

Quilts are beautiful!

Everyone who is making a quilt finds his or her piece really unique and special! Perhaps it has something to do with the purpose for which the quilt is made or the event where the quilt is received or given as a present. Nevertheless, each quilt is a piece of art where the maker spends a lot of love, enthusiasm and fun in making it!

With that consideration in mind I started to publish my own pattern line under the name Be Colourful. My  patterns are now sold worldwide. It is my goal to inspire quilters all over the world with my colorful patterns. No, it is better to say that it has become my passion and my main importance. It has come from the talent I have received from God. I feel myself rich and blessed by Him that I can do this.

How do I start with a design, where do I get my inspiration from, how do I put all the different fabrics together…every day I receive these kind of questions. Inspiration for a design happens in a single moment during the day. Whether it is in a meeting at work, or a sign on a truck, an advertisement in the newspaper or a magazine, a wheel on a car, a flower…it can be anything. You can see that the shapes I use are traditional and therefore very accessible. But my use of color is maybe not so very common, it is different.

Some of Jacqueline's quilts in her booth at Quilt Market.

I love to experiment with fabrics and colors and to come up with unique combinations. A design is never steady with me. I can always adjust my drawing as a quarter of the design is always beside me in my studio. Sometimes I have great expectations for a new design along with the colors and fabrics that I planned to use in the design. But once I start to assemble the quilt, it is sometimes not exactly what I expected it to be. Yes this also happens! Because I work on one design at a time, I am able to adjust the pattern at any time. Once the quilt is finished and the pattern descriptions are written, I can leave it and start on another design. 

It often happens that ideas pop up in my head when I am quilting. Then I go to my fabric stash to gather different fabrics and colors. This also inspires me to come up with a new design. And those designs ultimately lead to a new pattern which you can find in your own quilt store in Dutch, English and German.

More quilts in Jacqueline's booth.

I have started teaching classes in the US and I really enjoy that! We are now working on a schedule for April 2010, starting in Texas, then to Colorado, Nevada and Ontario. As soon as we have the dates set, we will mention them on our website.

May I invite you to enter my website so that I can inspire you. I really hope that you will enjoy the Be Colourful designs! 

Jacqueline de Jonge
Becolourful!

Ever since Executive Editor June Dudley mentioned Jan Morin in her last edit letter, readers have been asking us for more information. Seems like a perfect topic for a blog post. Jan lives in Pine Grove, California and has found a way to be green with her quilting scraps and contribute to a worthwhile cause at the same time.

Jan makes pet pillows and donates them to her local SPCA. Here’s how:

Using stash fabric, cut two squares or rectangles of the same size. They can be any size that is roughly appropriate for a pet to lounge on. Place the pieces right sides together and sew around the edges, leaving an opening on one side for turning. Turn the pillow right sides out.

Use your fabric scraps and thread clippings to stuff the pillow.

Jan says the scraps don’t have to be extremely small, just not extremely large. After stuffing, sew the opening closed.

Jan says the pillows are used for dogs and cats, who love them! The SPCA loves them, too, and even gives them to new pet owners for their newly adopted pets.

To find an animal shelter in your area, visit aspca.org. If you’ve read this far, please leave a comment about something you’ve sewn for a good cause and we’ll have a giveaway!

This beautiful bundle holds nine fat quarters of brand new Benartex fabrics in a line called Playful Pups. It’s so new, stores don’t have it yet. We’ll draw for a winner on Friday, Oct. 30 about noon MST.

Another view of the fabrics included:

How cute are these?! Our thanks to Jan for sharing her good cause with QM readers.

Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts), fabric designer for Moda Fabrics and author of the new book Friendship Triangles, organized a fun exchange with other Moda designers. Each of the different designers made triangle-squares that they shared with each other plus more to give away at market.  I collected autographed triangle-squares from the different designers along with a copy of Edyta’s book, published by Landauer Publishing that we’ll be giving away.

autographed triangle-squares

Here are a few of the designers whose triangle-squares we’ll be giving away.

Edyta Sitar

Karla Eisenach of Sweetwater

Sandy Klop

Jan Patek

Just leave a comment and tell us your favorite way to make triangle-squares and we’ll randomly draw a winner on Friday, October 16th.

Update 10/15/09: Carolyn won’t be in the office on 10/16 to pick a winner–she’s extending this giveaway to next Friday 10/23. Leave your comment by noon MST!

One very enjoyable part of my job at Quiltmaker is the area of product reviews. In the most recent issue (Nov/Dec 2009, No. 130), we reviewed some interesting thread stands called Coneflowers, so named because they look like coneflowers, of course.

These beauties are made by Paul Boyum way up in Battle Lake, Minnesota through his business paulsmetalpetals.com. They’re meant to hold cones of thread and they have an additional spindle for storage of extra bobbins. They’re so pretty, they’d add a nice decorative touch to your sewing space. I have two Coneflowers to give away. One is shown above, it’s the Sara, double (meaning there are two flowers). The other is the Laura, single.

To enter, leave a comment telling us about your favorite thread: what it is and why you like it. We’ll randomly select a winner on Friday, Oct. 16 around noon Mountain time. Good luck!

. . . #126 Vickie who likes Winding Road. Congratulations Vickie–I’ve sent you an email to get your mailing address.

And thanks to all who entered–it’s sure been fun to see what your favorite patterns are in that issue. Please remember to send us your photos when you make a Quiltmaker pattern–we love to see what you create and you could end up in Sew to Speak or Spotlight! Send your photos to sewtospeak at quiltmaker.com.

Diane will be bringing you our next blog giveaway on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

We have a new feature that you’ll be seeing occasionally on our blog. We’ll have guest bloggers who we’ll be introducing you to. Sometimes they’ll be designers who are featured in our issues or other special people we think you might like to learn more about.

Joni Pike has a wonderful collection of whimsical quilt patterns that she sells through her company, Sew Special Designs. You can find her adorable Christmas card holder wall quilt, Special Delivery,  in our November/December ‘09 issue.

“My name is Joni Pike and I’ve been designing fusible web appliqué quilt patterns since 2001 under my company name Sew Special Designs. I’m an accountant by trade but I love all things related to sewing including fabrics, notions, trims, threads, and buttons. My patterns are great for all skill levels and lots of fun to make! The use of buttons and other embellishments add a touch of whimsy. Each pattern has a button pack made especially for that design. My main goal when designing is to make people smile! Check out my fun patterns at www.sewspecialdesigns.com.

In addition to my pattern business, I’ve authored a book for C&T Publishing. Cute as a Button Quilts is primarily a project book but contains many of the “how-to” techniques for completing the book projects. This makes it perfect for beginners or expert quilters alike.  Vote for your favorite pattern and win a copy of my book plus six of my favorite patterns with buttons packs. Click here and add a comment to be included in the drawing, which will be held on October 5, 2009. 

If you’re a big fan of HGTV’s Simply Quilts, you can see my video of the Catnip quilt. The Catnip show has been very popular! 

Look for new designs in the future and visit my website for pattern updates in the coming months. I’ll also be working on a new project for Fairfield Processing, the company that makes batting, stuffing, and pillow forms you see in your local fabric and craft stores.  And, I may even have another book up my sleeve!

Happy Sewing!”

Our Sept/Oct ‘09 issue started shipping from the printer yesterday. That means it will begin to arrive in subscriber mailboxes soon. I wonder what part of the U.S. will get their issues first? We haven’t received our initial copies yet in the office. It’s scheduled to be on newsstands by August 11. In the meantime, QM staff is getting all the web pages ready to launch by the end of this week.

When you get your issue, you’ll notice in my edit letter that I’m giving away a 45.5″ x 45.5″ color option!

It’s from the Shining Star pattern, designed by Joyce Robinson. Our color option uses Cambridge Square, a Quest for a Cure fabric by Ro Gregg for Northcott, plus fabric for the binding and backing.

How do you get a chance to win? It’s simple–just leave a comment here mentioning your favorite project in the Sept/Oct ‘09 issue by 12 noon Mountain time on Friday, October 2. I’ll use random.org to select one winner. Good luck everyone!

Update: Our initial box of first-bound copies arrived in the office Friday 7/24. I think magazines should be starting to arrive for some subscribers soon. Most of our web pages for the issue are live now, although we still have a few to post.

Update #2: This giveaway is closed–Congratulations to Vickie #126.

I had the pleasure of meeting Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts at International Quilt Market last fall in Houston.

What a delightful and extremely talented quilter! Not only does she design beautiful quilts, she also designs fabric for Moda Fabrics and her first book, Hop To It! has just been published by Landauer Publishing.

You can find the pattern for one of her quilts, Botanic Beauty, in our July/August ‘09 issue, and we’ll be working with more of her designs in future issues.

Edyta has a unique knack for combining different types of fabrics in the same quilt—from batiks to traditional cottons. In an exclusive Quiltmaker interview with Edyta, I asked her if she would share her formula for choosing fabrics for her quilts. She replied “I choose my fabrics by using my ‘Rule of 5.’ The five refer to large, medium, small, stripe and dot prints. If you’d like to learn more about my method for choosing fabrics, I have included complete details of this process in my new book Hop To It! ” Read the complete interview. For information on ordering her book, contact Landauer Publishing at 800-557-2144, info@landauercorp.com, landauercorp.com.

We’re going to give away four copies of her new book. Just leave us a comment with your favorite quilting tip and we’ll randomly choose four lucky people on July 24th to receive a copy of Hop To It!

One of the most innovative ideas out there right now has quilters creating with selvages. You read that correctly—people are cutting the printed selvages from their fabrics, saving them up and putting them into all kinds of sewing projects.

My first intro to the idea was from Karen Griska’s book entitled Quilts From the Selvage Edge. It’s full of fabulous projects made with selvages. Karen’s blog is wonderfully inspirational, with readers contributing photos of their own selvage sewing. (By the way, look for a fabulous quilt from Karen in an issue next year.)

There’s a bag pattern by Amy Butler that I love, I’ve probably made it at least a dozen times.

I recently made a selvage version for my daughter Holly for her birthday. (By the way, Holly is a writer with a great blog.)

Earlier this year, Karen made a color option for our “green” Jan/Feb issue, which was four blocks from a quilt by Mark Lipinski of Quilter’s Home fame. 

I’d like to give this piece (the four blocks shown) and a copy of Karen’s book Quilts From the Selvage Edge to a reader who submits a comment about how she has used selvages in a project. We’ll draw for a winner on Wednesday, July 1 and post the results at that time.