Local Quilters in the Same Publication!

Dang!  I ruined my streak of writing a weekly blog post last week.  Oh well, I'm going to get myself back on track.

I just had to share this awesome story with you.

Recently, I received my author copy of the book, Farmhouse-Style Quilting, which is a compilation of the work of many quilt designers.  The book was created by Annie's Quilting.

 To buy your own copy of the book, go HERE.  It is available as a book or an ebook.


I was fortunate to have 2 projects accepted for the publication --

Red-Letter Day Place Mats p.9

and

Wash Day p. 29

My Wash Day Quilt made the front cover of the publication.  If you look closely at the wooden crate under the bench, you can see my quilt peeking out.  (Tehehe)

Wash Day was quilted by one of my favorite local long arm machine quilter's, the very talented Karen Shields of Karen's Quilting Studio.

The design for Wash Day came to me pretty quickly once I found the Moda collection Oxford by Sweetwater.  The fabrics reminded me of my Grandpa and his quilt, which I inherited after he passed away.  The quilt was made by his mother -- my great grandmother -- when he was a young man before he married my grandmother.  It is one of my most treasured items, even though it is faded and worn.  (I promise to add a photo of the quilt to this post when I get the chance.)

Here's the back of the book.  You can see both my projects there!

 

Anyway, another of the designs in the Farmhouse-Style Quilting book is by my friend and fellow designer, Cathey Laird.  You might know Cathey from her ruler, the Firefly Glow Y Block Ruler.  Cathey's design is called Country Stars Runner.

Okay, what's really neat is that another one of my friends and fellow quilters, Kristine Smith, also had a quilt featured in this book.  Her quilt is called Country Comfort and it was machine quilted by another friend, Debi Crocker.  Kristine's quilt is also on the back cover of the book.

As they say on info-mercials --

but wait -- there's more!

All five of us -- 

Karen, Cathey, Kristine, Debi, and me -- 

live right here in northwestern PA 

AND WE ALL BELONG TO 

THE SAME QUILT GUILD! 

Holy Guacamole, Batman!  Can you believe it???

It's a Mini World!

Have you noticed that Mini Quilts are HOT???

It's interesting to me how trends come and go in the quilting world.  I can remember when I first started quilting in the 1990's that Mini Quilts were IN at that time.  Then interest in them waned.  Now they're back!

Why Mini Quilts?

1.  They don't use very much fabric, especially when fabric prices keep rising.
2.  They are smaller and most likely won't take as much time as a full-sized quilt.
3.  They don't take up much storage space.

I teach a yearly quilt class at my local quilt shop.  We meet once monthly and each year we have a different project.  Often, my co-teacher Mary Lee and I design our own sample project, but sometimes we use someone else's pattern or book.

SHHHH!  Don't tell anyone, but  our "class" isn't really a class -- it's a sewing group in disguise.  Some might even say a therapy group.  LOL!

This year we are tackling Pam Buda's new book, Vintage Patchwork.

I met Pam at Fall Quilt Market when I went to one of her book signings.  Her enthusiasm for Minis came through with each quilt she showed.  I knew right then and there that I wanted to make the mini quilt projects in her book.  Then I had a brilliant idea -- why don't we do this for our 2019 Saturday Class/Group?

The group was pretty skeptical at first.  Some were downright appalled (snicker....). 

But I didn't give up and YAY!  We are going to make almost all of the projects in Pam's book this year.

We just had our first meeting. They were still skeptical.


Our first project was Pride and Prejudice.

(Photo from the book)

I showed them my samples, which by the way are far from perfect.  But I find their quirkiness appealing and cute.   I am planning to proudly display a grouping of my mini treasures on a blank wall in the living room.

The class was willing to give it a go, even though they were still dubious.  I showed them three different ways to sew the tiny pieces together and we even checked our 1/4" seam allowances.

1.  Cut out all the 1" x 1" squares and sew them RST together into pairs.  Then the pairs into 4 patches and so on.  This method yields the scrappiest project.

2.  Cut 1" squares of assorted mediums/dark and cut 1" wide strips of your background/light fabric.  Sew a square RST to the light strip.  Stop then place another square, sew that square, then stop.  And so on.  After all the medium/dark squares are sewn to the light strip, then use the 1" squares to cut the
light fabric and you have pairs of squares.  You can get a scrappy look but the background will be the same with this method.

3.  Cut a medium/dark 1" strip and a light 1" strip.  Layer them RST and sew them together.  Then cut 1" segments .  Open pairs and press.  Not very scrappy at all, but you could use smaller medium/dark strips so there is a little variety.

Everyone started cutting and many of them even began sewing and making itty bitty blocks.

The next day, 2 of the class members sent me a picture of their almost-finished minis and I know a third member finished her top as well!  Wow! 

Hmmmmm.  Maybe making Minis won't be as painful as they thought it would be.

And the Winner Is..................

Congratulations to 

Kathy in Lexington, KY!

You are the lucky winner of

a copy of my book, 

I Love Precut Quilts!  

I want to thank everyone for participating in my Quilt Book Giveaway!

MY FAVORITE NEW PARTY GAME

Do you like to play games?  I do.  When I was growing up, my family had game nights and we'd play games like Operation, Don't Break the Ice, Payday, The Game of Life, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Uno, and a bunch of other games that I've forgotten the names of.

As I got older, I discovered Scattergories, Triominoes, Outburst, and later Apples to Apples.

Now I have a NEW FAVORITE GAME!

 

Bring your Own Book!

 

Have you tried this game yet????

Here is the game description from Amazon:  "Your old favorite book is now your new favorite game! Draw a category card, grab a book, and then quickly skim to satisfy the chosen prompt (and the judge!) with the most entertaining phrase. Can you find "a ridiculous tabloid headline" in that best-selling novel? How about "dating advice" in your well-worn cookbook? Since you can use any book, you can play with any group and find limitless potential on every page! Where will you discover "the title of the next hit party game?" Find out when you Bring Your Own Book!."

I first heard about this book in a Facebook post by a quilter friend of mine.  I thought it sounded like fun so I ordered one.  Then I took the game to the library where I work.  OH MY!  What a crazy time we had and we just grabbed a random book off the shelf, mind you.  In fact, several times when I've played at the library, people have ended up checking the book out that they were playing with -- definitely a boon for libraries!  I have played this game with teenagers in my teen summer reading group and they LOVE it.  I have played this game with my book club and they LOVED it.  

So, you're probably wondering what this has to do with quilting, aren't you?

Well, I even played this game with my Saturday Quilt Group using quilt books off the rack in the quilt shop where we meet AND IT WORKED!  Who knew that quilting books could be so racy when the words and phrases were taken out of context.  LOL!!!!  You've got to try this with your quilt books!

You can use just about any book that words.  I have even tried a local phone book, although children's picture books don't work quite as well and the nonfiction book about some clinical medical topic didn't work out very well either. 

So, if you're looking for something fun to do with a group of people this summer or anytime, get this game.  You won't regret it and you'll end up as the best host ever.

Bring Your Own Book on Amazon

P.S.  Today my teen group decided we were having a BYOB game rematch next Saturday!!!

I LOVE PRECUT QUILTS! BLOG HOP FINALE AND GIVEAWAY

WOW!  This has been such a fun week.  I'm sew very thankful that I've had this wonderful opportunity to share my new book with you.  Thanks for coming along! :)

Of course, I couldn't have done it without my awesome bloggers!  I want to send out a GREAT BIG THANK YOU HUG to  Bea of Beaquilter, Mark of Mark Lipinski's Blog, Julie of The Crafty Quilter, Sandy of  Upstairs Hobby Room, Camelot Fabrics, Generation Q Magazine, Joy of Am I Shouting Yet?, Cheryl of Cheryl's Tea Pots 2 Quilting, Bernie of Needle and Foot, and my publisher C&T.  Yay!   I really appreciate each of you taking the time to participate in my blog hop.

I'm a little sad that it's time to wrap up my blog hop, but what a fun time it's been -- 

kind of like a week long book party!  

 

PSST!  Don't forget to read all the way to the bottom for a GREAT GIVEAWAY!

_________________________________________________

Since this is the last stop, 

let me tell you why I love my book,

 I Love Precut Quilts! 

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FABRIC! 

Whoever invented precuts was absolutely brilliant!

Fat quarters were my first introduction to precuts.  I loved my fat quarters so much that I infected both my nieces when they were quite young -- I can still remember taking my oldest niece, Meghan to the quilt shop and encouraging her to pick out  fat quarters from the sale suitcase. (Meg, I still can't believe that you picked out that hideous pink and blue big polka dot fabric -- what were you thinking? I guess as a 2 year old, you probably didn't have a sophisticated fabric sense yet....)  I guess if I had to have the fabric bug, then I wanted everyone else around me to have it too.

Then I discovered 5'' charm squares..........be still my beating heart. Now I could buy an ENTIRE fabric collection for a small amount of money.  Charm squares were an easy transition for me into all sorts of different precuts. It wasn't long before I started cutting my leftover fabrics into 5'' squares, 2 1/2'' strips, 10'' squares, 2 1/2'' squares -- you get the picture.

Now that I had this terrible precut addiction, what was I going to do????  Too much fabric and not enough time.

VOILA!  Time to write a new quilt book with projects featuring all my favorite precuts.  The funny thing is, I didn't originally start out to write a precut book, but strange and wonderful things can happen when you least expect them.

FAST AND FUN PROJECTS = DONE PROJECTS

  I am a quilter with a short attention span.  I like fun projects that I can get finished fast so that I can move on to a new project.  Precuts have really helped me with this whole concept.  But it's more than just precuts -- the projects have to be designed to go together fast too.  When you add precuts to fast projects then you can make more quilts in less time.  Who doesn't want that?????

Here's one of my favorite SUPER FAST projects from my book:

It's called "Big Bow Ties" and you can literally make this bed-sized quilt top in a matter of hours with matching layer cakes and charm squares,  a collection of fat quarters, or even your stash.  The blocks are HUGE and there's only 16 of them to make.  

Add a couple borders and you end up with an 88'' x 88'' square quilt.  WOW!

Here are a couple more QUICK QUILTS from my book:

It's called "Around and Round" and you don't even have to cut up your charm squares!  

Choose a coordinating fabric and get sewing -- you'll have this cute throw done before you know it!

 This one is called "Breeze" and boy is it a breeze to put together.  It's big enough for a

 twin-sized bed, but you could easily add more rows to make it larger.  Or subtract rows to 

make a baby quilt or a throw.  Whatever size you make it, the hardest part of this quilt is deciding where to place the blocks!

MORE OPTIONS

Be honest.  Who doesn't want more????  I love that we had room in my book to add a lot of USEFUL EXTRAS.  Like "Tricia's Crayon Box" where I show you two additional colorways for a quilt.  Or how about TIPS scattered throughout the book to help you get the most out of your quilting?  There are alternate sizes for the quilt "Bounce" and a discussion about color theory for "Spritely."  I even threw in an extra project for a coordinating throw pillow. 

   

Here are two quilt variations that I put together to demonstrate that I Love Precut Quilts! isn't just a project book -- it's a springboard to more ideas and inspirations --YOURS!

This striking wall quilt is adapted from the "Divide and Conquer" bed runner.
Red, white, black, and grey is one of my favorite color combinations.

This cute little table topper is adapted from the wall quilt/children's quilt, "Bounce." 
Don't you love the batiks on solid black?

It never fails to amaze me how changing fabrics and adding/subtracting blocks can give
you an entirely new project. 

What project will you make first???

 

Now that you're as excited about my book as I am --

  

THE FINAL GIVEAWAY:

 

You've all been very patient, reading through my entire blog, 

so I promise that it'll be worth it!

I will be giving away the following:

1.  A copy of  I Love Precut Quilts!   (International winners please note that you will receive an ebook version)

2.  A pastel collection of hand-dyed fat quarters. 

3.  A bright collection of hand-dyed fat quarters.

4. A set of 42 hand-dyed 5'' charm squares.

Here's how it works:

You have up to 3 chances to win the prizes listed above.

1.  Leave a comment and tell me the craziest thing that ever happened to you while quilting.

2.  Become a blog follower and leave a comment telling me you that you're a blog follower.

3. Follow me on Instagram @tricia.maloney and leave a comment telling me you're an Instagram follower.

Ready!  Set!  GO!

You have from Friday, February 3rd through Saturday, February 4th to participate. 

 Winners will be selected randomly on Sunday, February 5th.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS 

SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!

If you are not selected as a winner, don't be sad -- 

you can still get your own copy of my book  :)

1.  Ask your local quilt shop owner to carry my book.

2.  Order your very own signed copy on my website:  www.orphanquilter.com

3.  Visit C&T Publishing, Amazon, or your favorite online retailer.

  

Thanks for coming along on my Blog Hop!  It's been fun. 

 Let's do it again sometime.

 

 

I LOVE PRECUT QUILTS! BLOG HOP KICK OFF

Greetings!  

My name is Tricia Maloney and I'm the author of the new C&T book, I Love Precut Quilts!  I'm here today to invite you to come along with me on a super fun quilt blog hop to celebrate my new book from January 30th - February 3rd.

WHAT'S A BLOG HOP?

A blog hop is a group of bloggers who are all writing about the same topic -- in this case, my new book.  Each blogger is assigned a day during the hop and decides what he/she will write about. For example, some bloggers might decide to create projects from my book to share with you, while others might do a book review, or even an author interview.  Blog hops generally run for a specific number of days and often include fun giveaways.  This blog hop runs from January 30th - February 3rd and you will be able to register at each blogger's blog to win a copy of I Love Precut Quilts! (international winners will receive an ebook copy of the book).

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?

Below, you will find the I Love Precut Quilts! blog hop schedule along with links to all of the bloggers who are involved with the hop.

All you have to do is click the links each day to go to the featured bloggers. Once there, read the blogger's post and follow the instructions to register for the giveaway.  It's that simple to get in on the fun!

BLOG HOP SCHEDULE

Monday, January 30th

            C&T Publishing

            Quilt With a View 

Tuesday, January 31st

             Mark Lipinski's Blog 

             The Crafty Quilter

             Beaquilter  

Wednesday, February 1st

                Upstairs Hobby Room 

                Camelot Fabrics 

                Cheryl'sTeapots2Quilting  

Thursday, February 2nd

                Am I Shouting Yet? 

                Needle and Foot  

                Generation Q Magazine   

Friday, February 3rd

                Quilt With a View

NOW THAT YOU KNOW HOW THE BLOG HOP WORKS, LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY BOOK

I Love Precut Quilts! is a fresh collection of 16+ beginner-friendly and intermediate quilts ranging from table runners and place mats all the way up to big bed quilts.  ALL of the projects feature precut fabric bundles -- fat quarters, charm squares, jelly rolls, layer cakes, and even half yards which makes fabric selection a snap!  You can even use your stash or scrap collection because each quilt project includes a detailed shopping list with the number of squares or strips needed to make the quilt.

Here are a few of the projects featured in the book:

I'll share more about I Love Precut Quilts!  on Friday, February 3rd on my blog, Quilt With a View.

Until then, please use the links in the blog hop schedule, above, to participate in the I Love Precut Quilts! blog hop.  Good Luck -- hope you win!

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY

Today you can win a copy of my new book,  I Love Precut Quilts!
Stop back here on Friday, February 3rd for more prizes.

  

Here's how it works:

You have up to 3 chances to win.

1.  Leave a comment and tell me what your favorite precut is.  

2.  Become a blog follower and leave a comment telling me you that you're a blog follower.

3. Follow me on Instagram @tricia.maloney and leave a comment telling me you're an Instagram follower.

Ready!  Set!  GO!

You have from Monday, January 30th until Saturday, February 4th to participate. 

 Winners will be selected randomly on Sunday, February 5th.
Please note that international winners will receive an ebook version of my book.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS 

SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!

Let the Blog Hop Begin!

Be here on Monday, January 30th to join in the fun for my book blog hop!  

Hope to see you here!!!!

Ho Ho Ho for Me! I Love Precut Quilts! Book Review

I am SEW EXCITED!  Deirdre at C&T forwarded me the link for my first book review.

The book review below is from Yarns and Fabrics in the UK.

I Love Precut Quilts by Tricia Maloney

Posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2016.

I Love Precut Quilts by Tricia Maloney, softback published by C&T Publishing, ISBN 9871617453427, price 14.99 available in the U.K. from www.searchpress.com

Forget the hassle of cutting fabric and use jelly rolls, charm squares, layer cakes, fat quarters and more. Cutting takes time and is often where mistakes are easily made, so you can save time buying pre-cuts and put all your effort into the design and make-up of the quilt. See 16 fast and fun projects to use pre-cuts. For each design, you get a full colour image of the finished quilt, the measurements, shopping list, cutting, construction, making and finishing, plus a diagram so that you know how everything goes together, and alternative colourways. I have been looking for a simple idea to use my favourite Morris charm pack and I think the first design in this book Around and Round might just fit the bill. I can see easy ways of adapting this design too. I like most of the designs, but some stand out for me Divide and Conquer, Big Bow Ties and City Houses. get quilting without delay.

Thanks sew much for a lovely review, Yarns and Fabrics!

C&T Blog Post about I Love Precut Quilts! and a Show

YAY!  I should be receiving an advance copy of my new book any day now...maybe even tomorrow.  :)

In the meantime, C&T blogged about my book on Friday.  Here's the link.  Check it out -- it shows several of the projects and features the introduction from the book.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.......

I Love Precut Quilts! Blog Post

________________________________________________________________________________

Now I don't normally vend at shows because I'm more of a designer/quilter/author/lecturer but one of our local shows, Octoberfest,  lowered its fee so I thought I'd take a chance since I have umpteen quilts that need to find new homes.  (Honestly, I think I need to start a quilt adoption program.)

Although sales weren't that great and I went home with almost all the quilts that I took with me -- umm, that was around 66 -- I had a great time and did a lot of networking about my book, lectures, teaching, etc.  So, maybe this show will surprise me at some point in the future.

Here's some pics of my booth.  I was pretty luck that the vendor diagonal to me never showed so I, of course, offered to fill the space with quilt eye candy.  (wink, wink!)

Shipping, Shipping, and More Shipping

HAVE YOU EVER HAD TO SHIP YOUR QUILTS?

Well, this week was all about shipping quilts for me.  I spent 2 days prepping and packing ALL of my quilts (that's 20 pieces ranging from placemats to queen-sized bed quilts) for my new quilt book. 

What an exhausting process.

It goes something like this:

1.  Cover the biggest bed in the house with a clean sheet.

2.  Lay a quilt on top, right sides up.

3.  Use many sticky lint roller sheets to go over the quilt surface. This process takes me a long time because I have several cats and they leave their hair everywhere.  No matter how much I try to keep them away from the quilts I'm working on, their hair still shows up.  Sigh.

4.  Fold quilt with right sides together.

5.  Repeat with lint roller on new area exposed.

6.  Fold.

7.  Lint rolller.

8.  Repeat (you get the picture here) until quilt is folded correctly to fit in box.

9.  Place quilt in plastic bag lined box.  I always put my quilts in a large plastic bag in case the box might get wet in transit.  Have you seen how packages are handled?

Whew -- done.......with ONE QUILT.  Now do this 19 more times.

Luckily, I started with the largest quilts so by the time I was totally worn out, I was preparing table runners and placemats.  I spread this torture out to 2 days and two boxes.

Of course, before I even prepped and packaged the quilts, I had to get all of the paperwork in order.  Then as I prepared each quilt, I had to pin a paper label to the top corner.

Once the quilts were safely folded inside the boxes, then the packing tape marathon took place.  I think I won first place....

WRITING A QUILT BOOK IS DEFINITELY NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED!

Oh?  You always wanted to write a quilt book?  Well, welcome to the reality of the process -- it's not just about fame, fortune, and riches (I wish....). 

I wish I had thought to take some photos of this process, but I was totally focused on getting the task done, that I didn't even think of it.  Sorry....

So, yesterday I hauled my two big boxes of quilts to the UPS shipping center at Staples.  The boxes each weighed around 20 pounds.  When I got to the store, I went inside to get a cart.  Then the whole shipping process was over within minutes and my boxes were happily on their way to my publisher in California.  WAIT!  This momentous occasion should have been accompanied by confetti and balloons, don't you think?  But....there was nothing.  The Staples employees didn't even congratulate me or shake my hand -- NOTHING.  Oh, there was something.  I had to sign away my first unborn child to pay for the shipping and insurance.

This morning, I had the icing on the cake, so to speak --

I had another quilt to prep and package, a quilt project for Quilter's World magazine.  Will this torture ever end?