And the winner of the Quilter’s Newsletter subscription is: Collette!  Thank you everyone for entering, and congratulations to Collette. 

The AQS show at Paducah has the winners listed.  Go check out the list!  There are some beautiful quilts.

Would you like to win a $1000 Accuquilt shopping spree?  They are holding a contest.  Check out the details.

Have a listen to the show.

So, what the heck happened to me?  I’m still alive and kicking.  Thanks so much to the concerned listeners who checked in on me!!!  Life just got in the way a bit there.  I’ve still got plenty to talk about in my head, though, so I’ll be delivering up some new shows soon.  Thanks for your patience

Sorry, I don’t have much to say in the roundup today.  I did put up some pictures of the NQA show in the previous posting.  I hope you enjoy them!

I had a fabulous time at the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio.  As usual there were tons of awesome vendors and plenty of terrific quilts to see.  

What did I spend my money on?  

1) A piping kit from Susan Cleveland

2) A darling little quilt pattern to paper piece (ok, I shudder a little at that…I didn’t have a good experience the first and only time I paper-pieced) a miniature Amish quilt

3) Batiks in green, blue, and purple as well as plain old black fabric to make the Amish quilt

4) The ‘Guide to Judged Quilt Shows‘ put out by NQA (Krypto already chewed out several pages and part of the cover)

5) Some YLI thread for piecing the sunburst blocks.  I worked on it on the bus on the way to Columbus and ran out of thread.  I like this thread a lot better…somehow it feels smoother but also threads on the needle much easier.

I took a break from the frugal quilting series because I wanted to release something.  We’ve been super busy trying to get our house ready to put up for sale.  I know – it’s not a great time to sell but our circumstances don’t care about the timing!  The Husband makes a (surprise) guest appearance.  

I mentioned 4 books in this episode:

• The Civil War Love Letter Quilt by Rosemary Youngs
• The Quilter’s Catalog – a comprehensive resource guide by Meg Cox
• Material Obsession – Modern quilts with traditional roots by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke
• American Quilts and Coverlets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Amelia Peck

I finished a Round Robin round – applique!  I do have a picture of it but of course I haven’t downloaded it from the camera which is AWOL somewhere in the bowels of or house.  (update: found the camera!)

Me & the latest addition to someone else's robin

I’ll be at the NQA show June 19th.  Stop me and say hello if you go!

HOT NEWS!!!  The Clues in the Calico is available as an ebook for $19.99.  This long sought-after book was out of print.  Thanks to the miracles of science we can all download our own personal electronic copy.  Yippee

‘Quilting with Machines’ will be held in Aurora, Ohio from October 22nd to the 24th (2009).  If you are interested in learning to machine quilt using any type of machine – domestic, short, mid, or long this is the place for you!  And some famous quilters will be there too.

On to frugal quilting.  We’re making a hand-pieced potholder.  What fun.  (And here’s a frugal point – it’s “fun”ctional!)  What you’ll need:

1. Fabric – 3 coordinating cotton fat quarters should suffice; or you could do it frugal all the way and go scrappy with lights/darks for design contrast
2. cotton thread
3. cotton batting (just say no to poly!!!  It will melt in this case.  Same goes for the thread.)
4. template material – plastic, cardboard, whatever.
5. Printout of the template

Create the template – cut the paper copy out and tape it on your template material.  Trace around the edge and cut out the template on the line.  Then poke holes at the four corner dots and transfer the arrow onto your template material.

Using the template – lay fabric right side down on a rough surface, such as a piece of sandpaper.  Put the template down on the fabric.  Carefully line the arrow on the template up with the threads in your fabric…the arrow and the threads should appear to be parallel to each other.  Trace around the edge, mark the corner dots through the holes and cut it out. 

Cut – 5 squares using the template from one color and 4 from the other color for the front.  You’ll need a 10 inch x 10 inch piece for the back, and a 38 inch binding that is 2.5 inches wide.

That’s it!  You are ready for next time.  Have a great day!

There are lots of ways to get your quilt fix by snail mail – who doesn’t love getting mail?!

Show notices – glossy brochures to upcoming shows are lovely to get.  Here are a few I’ve recently received:

• The Original Sewing & Quilting Expo has 4 upcoming Spring events around the United States, including Cleveland on March 26th, 27th, and 28th.
• AQS Quilt Show & Contest in Paducah Kentucky, April 22nd – 25th.  Big Gammill giveaway – go here to enter for free or join up as a member.

Sewing catalogs!  I love catalogs!  Sure you can shop on the internet too but then you don’t get the joy of touching glossy paper.  And you can still browse when the electricity goes out.

• Keepsake Quilting - order a free catalog for yourself here.
• Sewing with Nancy - order a free catalog for yourself here.

Magazines!!  There are tons of magazines to read, here are the three I get:

• Quilter’s Home
• Quilter’s Newsletter
• The Quilting Quarterly (from NQA)

What about…

• Block of the Month programs – otherwise known as BOM’s.
• Fabric subscriptions – some shops offer a subscription service similar to fruit-of-the-month clubs, with themes like Bali or Moda fabric, etc.

Many thanks to those leaving comments!!!

As mentioned in the show, I have one goal for the podcast: twenty fifteen minute episodes in 2009.  Can I do it?  We’ll see!  1 down, 19 to go.

My personal quilting goals – I have four goals for the year.  Complete a guild crayon challenge quilt, complete a guild round robin (top only), complete 6 blocks from my hand pieced project – the Sunburst blocks from the Christmas in July project of the August 2007 Quilter’s Newsletter, and complete the Moulin Rouge quilt from the book Quick Colorful Quilts for The Boy.

I am a member of NQA and I spent some time talking about the benefits of membership & the SHOW!!  I can’t wait for the show, June 18-20, 2009.  I will be attending at least one day this year.  I hope to see you there