Quilting Motifs Volume 8 contains 95 original quilting motifs, 35 allover designs and more than 300 creative possibilities. Categories include Flowers & Leaves, Feathers & Swirls, Geometrics & Chains and Whimsicals.

We think you’ll like this one as much as the earlier volumes. If you need to complete your set, several special deals are offered on groups of volumes. They’re a great value.

Would you like to win Quilting Motifs Volume 8? Leave a comment below by midnight on Nov. 30 and we’ll pick a random winner. A little something to start your holidays off right!

The winner is Lorrie, comment #501. Thanks for playing along, everyone!

You may know that from its beginnings in 1982, Quiltmaker has always told readers how to quilt each and every project. We pride ourselves on the fact that we have never printed the words “Quilt as desired.” We have designed thousands of original quilting designs over the years for the quilts on our pages.

Several years ago we took the quilting motifs from our magazine pages and created books from them. Quiltmaker’s Quilting Motifs are now available in eight different volumes, which can be purchased one-by-one or in combination packs. The combo packs are a good deal!

The motifs are also available on CDs produced by The Electric Quilt Company called Quilting Designs. Each CD number corresponds to the paper volume with the same number.

The CDs are wonderful resources because the quilting designs can be printed at any size you choose. By following this link, choosing any one of the volumes and then clicking on “watch a demo video” you can see exactly how the CDs work. Volumes 1 through 7 are available on CD and Volume 8 is coming.

If you have trouble deciding what to do about the quilting or if you have tops tucked in drawers waiting for some quilting drama to bring them to life, Quiltmaker’s Quilting Motifs in book or CD form will give you the push you need to finish. I hope you’ll check them out!

Click to download the pdf for Teardrop Hearts.

I gathered up some quilter’s eye candy as a Valentine’s Day treat for Quilty Pleasures readers.

Denise made this little beauty from a kit by grabngokits.com. It’s called Red Hot Hearts Penny Rug.

One of my most favorite Robert Kaufman “I love you” prints from a line in 2004 called Cute to Boot. And below, in another, more intense colorway:

I wish I had bought yards of these when they were out, so I could put them on the back of my (yet to be) grandbabies’ quilts.

Eileen learned to hand applique on this heart quilt many years ago. That’s a lot of inside and outside points!

Here we have vintage-type Valentine images on 2004 “Sweet Valentine” fabric from RJR Fabrics. And below, smaller Valentines on white from the same line.

Denise learned to foundation paper piece while making the multicolored hearts quilt shown above. The pattern is from the Carol Doak book shown below.

Denise made “A Mother’s Love” (above) as a bee challenge. I liked what she wrote about it: “It’s called A Mother’s Love because a mother’s love is endless, overflowing and topsy-turvy all at the same time.” I believe she is exactly right!

And just because I collect heart-shaped lovely things, here is my favorite pewter heart hook set from Crosby & Taylor. Isn’t it fun?

Wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day, and time spent with the ones you love.

Hello! Welcome to Quiltmaker’s Countdown to Christmas!

Today I want to tell you about the best.Christmas.food.ever.

Last year I came across an amazing blog,  There’s No Place Like Home, written by Kelli, who I want to be like when I grow up. She has a beautiful home and makes the most scrumptious-looking food.

When I found this recipe for Eggnog Quick Bread, I knew I had to try it. Oh my. Is it ever yummy. Kelli has graciously let us share her recipe here:

Eggnog Quick Bread

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup eggnog
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 1 bread pan. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside. In a medium bowl, beat eggs, stir in sugar, eggnog, butter, vanilla and almond extract. Add mixture to flour and stir just until moistened. Bake 45-60 min. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Frosting: Mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp. vanilla and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg in small bowl. Add enough eggnog to reach drizzling consistency. Drizzle over bread and serve.

Thanks for sharing with us Kelli!

When we made this at our house, we made 3 small loaves, but by the time I found my camera to take a picture one loaf was already gone. I still don’t know who ate it!

If you like eggnog, I’m pretty sure you have to make this bread. Seriously. Go put eggnog on your shopping list right now. You can thank me later.

In honor of our Countdown, we also want to share a quilting freebie,  Holly and Ribbon Quilting motif.  This link takes you toward a pdf you may download and use in many different ways. It’s a fun quilting design for all of those holiday quilts you are going to finish up before Christmas, right?

Happy Holidays!

Paula

Save on a kit for Christmas Lilies, reduced to $29.99. Pattern included.

Christmas Lilies, kit on sale now

Save on a kit for Flip Flop Flakes, one of this year’s most popular patterns, reduced to $39.99. Pattern included!

Flip Flop Flakes, kit on sale now

And what has to be the deal of the week: A set of all seven of Quiltmaker’s Quilting Motifs books for just $69.99. Get thousands of original quilting designs to breathe life into your projects! The books retail for $14.95 each, so with this special, they’ll cost you less than ten dollars each. Get them while they last!

Get all seven Quilting Motifs books for $69.99

Or how about this: give your loved ones the link as an idea for your Christmas gift! Wouldn’t you love to find quilting motifs under your tree on Christmas Day?!

Special prices are valid through Monday, Nov. 15, 2010 at quiltandsewshop.com.

“How should I quilt it?”

Being unable to answer this question has left many a project folded neatly away after the piecing was complete. But it doesn’t have to be so. There are lots of resources for quilting ideas. You just need to know where to look. Try these:

#1: Past issues of Quiltmaker—every issue has quilting motifs you can adapt to your design, like this one.

Here’s more of a birds-eye view.

#2: This website: 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs You are going to love this place! A few of her amazing patterns:

Flowing Glass (used with permission)

Tree Roots (used with permission)

Beaded Curtain (used with permission)

#3: The Electric Quilt Company’s Quilting Motifs series of CDs (they don’t require EQ) feature hundreds of Quiltmaker motifs in digital format. So easy to use!

Here’s the little piece I want to quilt next.

I have already anchored it by quilting the border in the ditch.

Now what? At this point I ask myself a couple of questions:

• Do I want to emphasize the piecing or de-emphasize it? Quilting each block will emphasize it. Quilting an all-over design will de-emphasize it.

• What kinds of shapes are in the piecing? Do I want to add similar shapes with quilting or do I want contrasting lines/shapes?

• What’s the scale (size) of the piecing? What will the scale of the quilting be?

• Am I going to mark the quilting or will it be quilted freeform without marking?

• Is thread color going to matter? If so, what color will it be?

• How much time do I want to spend on this quilt?

In this case, I want to de-emphasize the piecing with medium-scale quilting, so an all-over design is in order. The piecing is angular, so I want the quilting to add softer lines. Thread color won’t matter. I prefer not to mark it and I want to spend only a few hours on the quilting (it’s 22 x 25 inches).

What would you suggest? Leave a comment with your ideas and I’ll give away a sampler of thread to a randomly drawn winner on Friday, Sept 17. Then I’ll decide how to quilt it and show you the results in an upcoming post.

The winner of the thread sampler is Zarina, comment #6. Thanks to everyone who left a comment and for all the great ideas! I hope to get started on it very soon.

Viewer's Choice: Bear's Paw in the Cabin by Susan Wood

Susan wins gift certificates from both ShopQuiltersVillage and Electric Quilt.

Check out a larger image of Susan’s quilt and just the quilting plan in the Quiltmaker/Electric Quilt Contest Gallery.

Congratulations Susan!

1. Early Bird Special: Buy QM’s 100 Blocks at 10% off until Nov. 16.
   

   QM's 100 Blocks

2. Buy any QM Kit, get an issue of QM’s 100 Blocks free. Use promo code 100B as you’re checking out. Good until 11:59 pm EST Sunday, November 15.
   

   Happy Holly Days Wall Kit

   

   Happy Holly Days Twin Kit

   

   Flock of Dreams Kit--Purple

   

   Flock of Dreams Kit--Blue

3. QM Fall Patterns for 50% off. Buy this special combo of Falling Leaves, Autumn Splendor and Turning Leaves for only $12.00.
   

   QM Fall Pattern Special

4. Buy 6 QM’s Quilting Motifs, get Vol. 7 free. These classic QM books make a great addition to any quilter’s library.
   

   Buy Volumes 1-6, Get QMs Quilting Motifs, Vol. 7 Free

Good news about shipping costs from Quilter’s Village: We listened to your concerns. Shipping costs have been reduced, plus we can now ship to international customers! We’re still “rearranging the furniture” on the new ShopQuiltersVillage website, but it is ready to take your orders securely!

Grand Prize: Quiltmaker staff will select the winning design–we will make a quilt from that design and the pattern will appear in an upcoming issue. The winning designer will get to keep the quilt, plus will receive a $200 gift certificate from The Electric Quilt Company. There will also be an EQ Staff Choice and a Viewer’s Choice. Keep reading to find out more.

Great quilting designs can do so much to enhance our quilts. In every issue of Quiltmaker magazine, we give you several new, original motifs. We’ve been collecting these motifs into books for years, and have seven volumes of inspiring motif books.

EQ has been converting our motif books into software and just released volume 7 earlier in October. Read an interview from EQ staffer Andrea Bishop who has recreated each of the 4,425 designs in all seven volumes. Each volume of the software corresponds to a book volume of the same number. The Quilting Designs CDs from Electric Quilt can be used two ways:

1. First, no other software is needed. If you don’t own Electric Quilt 6, you can resize any motif and print it out.
2. Or the Quilting Designs software is compatible with EQ6. You can link the quilting designs to an EQ6 project–where you can combine, modify and resize the designs. Read more about Using Quilting Designs with EQ.

For the Quiltmaker-Electric Quilt Contest, design your quilt in Electric Quilt 6 and incorporate quilting designs from any of the seven volumes of Quilting Designs as described in #2 above. Designs will be judged on originality and the creative interpretation of the quilting designs. Entry forms are due by midnight on December 1, 2009. We can’t wait to see your creations!

Read on for more details, see all the prizes and find the entry form.

• Sept/Oct ’09 featuring Any Witch Way, Winding Road, Great Ball of Fire and Part 2 of Bonnie Hunter’s Christmas Lights Mystery

• Quilting Motif books (volumes 1-7) available individually or in cost-saving sets

• QM’s Exclusive Patterns including Turning Leaves, Construction Zone, Cat Nap and more

• Back issues (2005-2009) available individually or in bundles by year

Plus this offer includes all products from other CCG titles: McCall’s Quilting, Quilter’s Newsletter, Quilter’s Home and Quick Quilts.

The offer code to use is FREE-SHIP-OFFR. Start shopping!