The baby news out of England is all over the airwaves…we have baby news too! No, not the human kind…I have just given birth to my latest pattern! Sunrise At The Cabin is a paper pieced center medallion surrounded by traditionally pieced log cabin blocks. The pattern offers sizes from lap to king.

The process to create a quilting pattern is not unlike the human pregnancy experience. When you first get the idea you are very excited and can’t wait to tell everyone. Then the morning sickness and weight gain begin as you realize all the editing and sample making that are in your future. Towards the end of the gestation period you only scream that you just want it to be all over…and RIGHT NOW!  Unlike humans, the gestation period for patterns varies greatly. This particular pattern is in the elephant category. I have been fighting with…err…working with this one for YEARS. It has been a sometimes painful process. I’m not sure why it was so difficult but for some reason my brain had “issues” with this pattern, the words just didn’t flow.

Some designers opt for the cesarean approach and have an editor write their pattern for them. I opted for the more traditional Natural Pattern Birth and stuck it out. Granted the pattern could have been finished long ago with a cesarean but I feel better now, having done it the old fashioned way, all by myself. Of course there were a few complications in the delivery room with the printer but it all worked out in the end.

I owe a HUGE thank you to my mid-wife, Beth Helfter of EvaPaige Quilt Designs for giving me a good swift kick in the rear (on several occasions I might add…) in spurring me to get this pattern finished.

I will be debuting the pattern at Maine Quilts this weekend. We will even have a special introductory price of only $8.00. If you’ll be at the show be sure and stop by to check out my new baby. I won’t have cigars but I will have purple chocolate kisses for ya!

We all know that we should use different needles for different sewing tasks. (blatant commercial…if you don’t know this then you should have your guild let me stop in and tell you all about why…I love to travel…end of commercial). How do you store those needles in between uses? You don’t really want to put them back into their original containers because then you can’t tell which ones are new and which ones are used…and which needle is currently in the machine anyway???? Are these the questions that keep you awake at night? If so, you really need to get some fabric fondling therapy…but we can offer a solution in the meantime.

We have a new product available called My Pad. It’s a foam pad imprinted with the various styles and sizes of needles. Every needle has a spot. There is even a flowerhead pin to mark which needle is currently in the machine. This pad is made in the USA and measures approximately 6.75″ square. The suggested retail price is $11.98 but our price is only $10.29. It can be found here, in the Needle Accessories section.

Is this too pricey for you? Do you prefer the DIY approach to such matters? How about this needle storage solution then…

Take an ordinary tomato pincushion (new or used, doesn’t matter) and label the green leaves with the variety of needles you use. Write the size of needles you use down each section. I would suggest using a permanent pen for this. Insert a flowerhead or fancy pin to mark which needle is in the machine. Viola – customized needle storage at it’s finest! We can supply you with tomato pincushions if you’re lacking…they’re just $1.39 and can be found here in the Needle Accessories section.

Enjoy,

It’s time to announce the winners of our fabric give aways. If you don’t see your name listed – don’t despair quite yet. If, for some reason, the person doesn’t offer up their mailing info to me then I will be going back to the lists to pick another winner. If you do see your name listed you should be receiving an email from me shortly.

So I gathered my random number generators (Moosette and Hubby) and had them pick numbers for each day. They had no idea whose name was associated with each number so it really was quite random. They managed to pick all different people so there was no need to re-do anything. I love it when a plan comes together…

Side note: if you are looking for some cheap entertainment, have your family pick numbers for winners. It’s very entertaining. Of course, we have had much new snow recently and everything is very white so I may be suffering from snow blindness or cabin fever…or perhaps it’s because I’m a really cheap date…

Anywhoo, here are the winners:

Day 1 – We were supposed to have 4 different winners but I found a couple more chunks of fabric so we have 7 winners!

~anna~(fall, brown), Allison Bayer (blue), Cindy T. (blue), Heather (blue), Jerry (brown), Trina (rust), Debbie (swatches)

Day 2 – the brights

Sandra Timmons

Day 3 – beige and maroon

Terry D.

Day 4 – mint green, blue and geometric

Leonore Neumann

Day 5 – batiks

Elaine Morin

Day 6 – beige and greens

Joan

Thank you to everyone who participated. It’s really fun to give stuff away. We’ll be doing it again for sure!

Up for grabs today we have a batch that is really beige and greens. Leave a comment below for your chance to win FREE FABRIC. Winner will be chosen on March 1, 2013 at noon (EST). Be sure to comment on the previous entries. There are six in total.

Good luck!

Up for grabs today we have a batch of batiks. Leave a comment below for your chance to win FREE FABRIC. Winner will be chosen on March 1, 2013 at noon (EST). Be sure to comment on the previous entry and come back for the upcoming entries too. There will be six in total.

Good luck!

Up for grabs today we have a batch that is minty green, blue and a geometric print. Leave a comment below for your chance to win FREE FABRIC. Winner will be chosen on March 1, 2013 at noon (EST). Be sure to comment on the previous entry and come back for the upcoming entries too. There will be six in total.

Good luck!

Up for grabs today we have a batch of beige, maroon, light blue, and a floral print. Leave a comment below for your chance to win FREE FABRIC. Winner will be chosen on March 1, 2013 at noon (EST). Be sure to comment on the previous entries and come back for the upcoming entries too. There will be six in total.

Good luck!

Up for grabs today we have a batch that is really bright. Leave a comment below for your chance to win FREE FABRIC. Winner will be chosen on March 1, 2013 at noon (EST). Be sure to comment on the previous entry and come back for the upcoming entries too. There will be six in total.

Good luck!

At times we sell kits. Whenever I make up a batch of kits I save all the extra fabric until several months after the last kit is sold – just in case someone has a terrible rotary cutting accident and needs just a smidge more. Well, all the kits are gone and it’s time to move the extra fabric along to a new home. That home could be yours!

Each day for the next six days I will list a batch of fabric. Simply leave a comment on this blog and you will be earn a chance to win that days batch of fabric. You are free to comment on each day but you can only win one batch of fabric. Gotta spread the wealth around! All the batches vary as to how much fabric is there and the pieces are of various sizes. Some are small and some are large but they will all be FREE. The batches will all be coordinated with the exception of todays batch.

Today we will actually have 4 winners. There is the blue on the left, the brown with large floral, the rust with smaller flowers on the right and the swatches in the center. I received a set of swatches the other day from Benartex from their current lines (Hero Dogs, Man Cave, Cabana II, Who’s On First, Frost, Ellie Ann, Catalina, Lilified and The Big Apple). There are dogs, power tools, baseball bats, watches, sailboats, sky scrapers and a few all-overs and florals. There are 10 swatches total and they are about 8″X10″.

So, would you like some of this FREE FABRIC??? Leave a comment and let me know which color you would prefer if you are chosen as the winner. I can’t guarantee that you’ll get your first choice but it never hurts to ask!

Don’t forget to come back for the next 5 days to leave another comment for the other fabrics. We will choose winners on March 1, 2013 at noon (EST).

Good Luck!

Friday December 21, 2012 is the end of the Mayan calendar. According to some experts this is supposed to mean the end of the world. As a quilter I have a different opinion. The Mayan people were very industrious and clever. They managed to achieve great things considering they didn’t have the modern advances that we all know and love (ok, sometimes not so much love for technology…) They were a brilliant people. I like to think that I have moments of brilliance as well which should give me some insight about how they may have operated. Much like the Mayans I have many things going on at any given time.  Granted I don’t have to forage for food as they did, carry water from the local watering hole or carve my way through the jungle to get to the temple but I still have to feed my family, water my garden and commute across the hallway to my studio. Sometimes that hallway can feel like trekking through a jungle but that’s another story…

As quilters we are all too familiar with the concept of a UFO (unfinished object). I think the Mayans were simply too busy with all their projects, got bored with the calendar project and simply set it aside to be finished later. I mean really, can you think of anything more boring than repeating, day after day after day, the same mathematical patterns? Then the mother ship arrived to take them back to their home planet. The calendar was left behind, unfinished, to be studied by our scholars. If any of those scholars were quilters then they would have understood the UFO mindset and simply determined that the calendar was yet to be completed and did not signal the end of the world.

So, what can we quilters learn from this? Don’t be a Mayan and leave behind UFOs when called to the home planet! Need a little help in this area? My friend Beth Helfter, the original Quilting Hottie, has a great program coming up in February that will whittle down your UFO pile. It’s called “Drop And Give Me 20”. You promise to devote 20 minutes to your UFOs every day during the month of February (the shortest month of the year). Beth has managed to collect all kinds of cool swag from various quilting designers and shops for prizes. Twenty short minutes each day can add up to some completed projects by the end of the month. We all manage to waste 20 minutes each day. It’s time to try and turn those small wasted blocks of time into something productive. You just might win some cool prizes for your efforts too. Even if you don’t win a prize, you will have a smaller UFO pile and completed projects to keep, gift or donate. You can’t lose!

So, don’t be a Mayan – head over to Beth’s right now for further info. You can find all the latest here at her blog, Quilting Hottie Haven.

And just to cover my bases – if the world does end tomorrow I would like to thank all of you for being a part of my Purple Moose family. I LOVE bringing you all the cool tools, threads and patterns. I hope to continue to do so when we reach the home planet!