Making Pillowcase Dresses for Haiti

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer to make pillowcase dresses for children in Haiti.  There were 19 of us -- eight sewers and a great group of helpers and pressers.  We completed 36 dresses yesterday afternoon and there are more in various stages of completion.  Some people even took extra pillowcases home to finish on there own time!  What a great group of volunteers!!!

We are fortunate that a local church does missionary trips to Haiti and they will make sure that our dresses get there.  Our dresses are going to a school that educated and feeds 60 children in  3 room schoolhouse.  The school and teacher salaries are completely paid for with donations and fundraising.

INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED?

Here's a couple places to get started:

Little Dresses for Africa

Little Britches for Boys   (this is the boys' version of Little Dresses for Africa)

Dress a Girl Around the World

Orphan Grain Train

WANT TO DO YOUR OWN PILLOWCASE DRESS PARTY?

Here's what we did:

1.  Find and contact an organization to work with, whether it's one of the groups above or one in your community that does missionary work.

2. Find a central location with a large space, good lighting, and good electricity such as your church community room, local library, or meeting hall.

3.  Decide on a date/time and how long you want to sew.

4.  How many people will you need based on your space?  We had 8 sewers and 11 helpers who pressed, cut, pinned, threaded elastic, picked out trims, etc.

5.  Ask for volunteers and donated items that you will need (through social media, newspaper, friends, etc.).  Make sure you have enough irons/boards, cutting supplies, pins, extension cords, strips,  etc.

6.  When the day arrives, have some snacks on hand and enjoy working together to help others.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD!

Planning a Quilt Blog Hop

Right now I'm getting a Blog Hop put together for my new book, I Love Precut Quilts!  This is the first time I've ever organized a blog hop so I thought I'd write about my process in case anyone else might be interested in doing one at some point too.  Psst!  If you do a blog hop, sned me an email -- I might like to join yours.  :)

I do have a couple slots open if anyone is interested in joining my hop.....Email me at:  littlequilts@windstream.net.

STEP 1

The first thing that you need to do is figure out what your blog hop will be about.  Mine, of course, is going to be about promoting my new book.

STEP 2

Now you need to decide when your blog hop will happen.  At least give yourself 3 or 4 weeks to get everything organized or else you're going to feel overwhelmed.

STEP 3

Decide how many people you want to participate.  For example, if your blog hop will be five days long you will want to have at least 5 bloggers (yourself included), but you could feature more than one blogger per day if you wish, it just takes a little extra planning.

STEP 4

Invite bloggers to participate.  Start with your friends and acquaintances and branch out from there.  If you can pull in some "famous" bloggers then that will only help your blog hop to be more successful.

STEP 5

Double check your bloggers and your schedule so that you have the correct number of bloggers for the number of days that you planned.  Make any last minute adjustments if needed.  Make sure that you send out information to your bloggers so that they know what's going on and what you'd like them to do.

STEP 6

If you're going to do giveaways, how will that work?  Make sure everyone's on the same page here.

STEP 7

 Now it's time to Blog Hop!  Since you're super organized and everyone is ready, this will be a breeze, right?????

STEP 8

After the Hop, make sure all giveaways have been done as stated.  THANK your bloggers and hoppers for participating.

 

New Year.................New Review

Hello Everyone and Happy New year!

I would have created a blog post yesterday but I was too busy doing nothing all day in my jammies.  LOL!

But even though I was AWOL, my book wasn't as it was featured on Mark Lipinski's Facebook Live program yesterday afternoon.  What a way to start a brand new year!

If you missed it -- here's the link to his Blog where you can watch his live program from January 1st:  Mark Lipiniski's Blog


WOW!  I can't believe it but Mark said he had over 11,000 hits for the Live Program yesterday.  OMG -- that's mind-boggling!!!!!!

Mark had a nice recipe for Irish coffee as well as showing lots of great books and fabrics that he'd just received -- truly quilter's candy!!!   Oh yeah -- I Love Precut Quilts was  featured on there too (wink, wink).

 Mark suggested that quilters make their own precuts instead of buying the prepackaged ones.  Yep, my book would be great to use up your stash that way you can buy more fabric.  He also mentioned my second book, A Russian Journey in Quilts (this was his favorite of mine so far).

Thanks, Mark -- you rock!

Sew, what are you waiting for????  GO CHECK IT OUT!

Mark Lipiniski's Blog

Precut Quilts OR.........Tricia's Quilting Channel!

Yesterday I received a HUGE box from Annie's/Quilter's World magazine.  Inside were five or six quilts that I had made for them as well as couple advance copies of publications.

I really had to smile when I perused the new Annie's Quilting With Precuts Special Interest Publication.

I had made a couple new projects for this one, but Annie's cleverly added previous precut projects that I had made for them in the past.  All in all, there are a TOTAL OF 10 OF MY DESIGNS IN THIS PUBLICATION.  That's 10 out of 25 projects that carry my name.  Sheesh!  Isn't that just crazy????

I'm thinking they'll need to change the name of their publication if this keeps happening.  :)

Hmm.

Tricia Quilts?
Quilts by Tricia?
The Tricia Maloney Quilting Collection?

Oh sew many possibilities.....

Don't forget to grab your own copy of this great news stand publication -- you know, Tricia's Quilting with Precuts......

And since I totally skipped blogging over Christmas, I'd like to send out a Very Merry and Happy New Year to everyone!

Here's to all of the good quilty things coming in 2017....including a blog hop for my new book.  Yay!

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!

Playing With Christmas Part 2

Okay, it was so much fun designing quilts based on favorite Christmas songs, that I'm back with some more!

I Saw Three Ships

O Little Town of Bethlehem

 Here Comes Suzy Snowflake

 Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Frosty the Snowman

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Favorite Cat Christmas Gifts

My plan for this blog post was to continue with my Christmas song inspired quilt designs using my Electric Quilt software, but well, you know what happens.....

My cat had to have emergency surgery the other night.  We noticed that her belly looked really bloated on Sunday.  On Monday it was worse so we called the vet like good pet parents and were able to get an appointment on Tuesday.  Well, things went south from there.  Poor Callie had a terrible infection -- pyometra and had to get spayed ASAP.  So we had to take her to another vet who could do the surgery that night because waiting might have caused everything to burst.  Ugh.  Poor kitty girl.

Callie made it through surgery just fine and came home Wednesday afternoon.  She is not a very happy camper wearing her e-collar.  She also happens to be difficult to medicate and is stubborn -- charming, right?  Anyway, since her incision is huge she won't get her stitched out for 12 days (instead of the usual 7-10).  Ouch.

 Here's Callie (the tortoiseshell) with her favorite companion, Joey, before her surgery.

So in honor of Callie's recuperation, I thought I'd write a post about some fun gifts you can make for your favorite kitty children.

1.  Sushi Cat Toys by Pet Project

 Aren't these just too cute for words?  Add a little catnip and the kitties will go wild for sushi.  LOL!

2.  Recycled T-Shirt Toy by LVLY

Who doesn't have a stack of  old t-shirts siting around?  Although this toy is suggested for dogs, make it smaller and spray a little catnip spray on and kitty's got a great new chew toy.

3.  What about a special bed for kitty?

 I just did a quick search on the Internet for "homemade cat beds" and OH MY GOODNESS -- people are SEW CREATIVE!  I saw beds made out of old TV's, wooden crates, suitcases, hammocks, computer monitors, book shelves, and just about everything else!  Whatever happened to the cardboard box with a pillow inside?

Looks like I need to get in the groove and make my kitties something more fun than a store-bought round fleece bed.  LOL!

4.  Tuna Crunchers Treats by Doggy Dessert Chef

Just a couple ingredients and flour free.  The added catnip with really get kitty going.

5.  What about a cat quilt for your furry buddy?

Whenever I'm working on a quilt, I have at least one furry baby trying to help me out.  You know, curling up in the middle while I'm binding, or pouncing on it while I'm machine quilting, or maybe just hiding under it.

I haven't made a cat quilt for a while, but I did make one for my furry baby Sandy a long time ago.  Sadly, Sandy's no longer with me, but he sure loved his quilt so we buried it with him.

A simple little scrap quilt with left over quilt blocks perhaps around 30" x 30" would do for most kitties.  To make it more cozy, use flannel fabrics and a flannel or fleece back.  You could even just quilt some printed fabrics together for a super quick quilt.  I wouldn't suggest tying a pet's quilt, however, because he/she might try to eat the yarn which would not be healthy at all for your furry friend.


Well, I hope these ideas inspire you to make something special for your best furry friends this holiday season.  They sure inspired me!  I'd better get back to my studio and start whipping up some goodies for the furry kids.