International Quilt Market Schoolhouse.....Wish I Was There

It's time for International Quilt Market in Houston, Texas. 

All day yesterday I kept thinking to myself  "Well, if I was going to Market, I'd be flying to Houston today."  It made me a little sad.  But then I reminded myself that I went to Houston last October AND St. Louis in the spring. 

So, I wonder what new and exciting stuff will be debuted at Market and will find its way into our local quilt shops? 

Today would be Schoolhouse Day.  Schoolhouse is a day filled with choices of mini programs all about what's new and exciting from fabric collections, books and patterns, tools and gadgets, to techniques and information.  It's a nutty day where you run back and forth between classrooms every 15 minutes or 30 minutes depending on which session.  There are usually a lot of different choices during each session and sometimes it's hard to chose just one.  By the end of the day, you're usually totally wiped out and ready for some down time.

How about Guadalahara?  The best Mexican restaurant in Houston.  A great place to kick back and chill.

Although I'm not there, I am there in spirit and in quilts.  I am a new designer for Villa Rosa Designs.

Pat is doing a schoolhouse today about new Rose Card patterns, mine included!  She will also be showing my two table runners at her Schoolhouse and will have them on display at  her booth.

Here are my first two Rose Card Patterns:

Soon, I hope to have them to sell, but for right now, you can order them on the Villa Rosa website or perhaps you'll find them at your local quilt shop. 

Tomorrow the floor will be open and hoards -- literally hoards -- of eager people will rush onto the floor to look over every vendor's booth.  It's an amazing and mind-numbing experience.  Oh!  And the quilt show -- now that's worth spending time at, just drinking in all of the amazing quilts.

Wish I was there....

Jumping on the Copyright Wagon......Again

Recently, I received a couple email requests for quilt designs featured in a magazine that no longer exists.  Both shop owners wanted to know where they could find the pattern because they wanted to use it in their beginner quilt classes.

I had to do some fast research to find out if I owned the copyright to my patterns or if the now-dead magazine owned them.  So I went right to my friend, the former magazine editor, with my question  and discovered that I did, indeed, own the copyright to my patterns.

This was great news, because then all I had to do was rewrite and package the patterns for resale.

Navigating copyright law is no easy business, that's for sure.  I'm always concerned that I'm going to make a mistake, so it's always a good idea to ask before one assumes.  It could save you not only time in the future but also money.

I know that I've referred to this old blog post several times, but it's really a terrific article and worth rereading.  Here's the link:  Copyright for Quilters

Take a look at it.  The article was written by my friend and mentor, Cheryl Weiderspahn.  Thank you, Cheryl!

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!

Check Out These New Publications

Being a quilt designer is like riding a roller coaster most of the time.  All of sudden, I could have 3 or 4 or even 5 quilts that need done ASAP........then I'll hit a nothing spot for a while.  This cycle just keeps repeating over and over.  Like I said, it's like riding a roller coaster.

Anyway, in the last month or so, I've received 5 new magazines featuring my projects.  What fun!  Let me show them to you.  Most if not all of them should be available by now.  Of course, I actually made the projects months and months ago, but that's how it is in the quilt magazine world.

 

 Check out my Jelly Roll friendly throw quilt, Blue Hawaii, in this issue of Quilting Quickly!

 

You're going to love my quilt In the Spotlight in this magazines -- it features awesome fabric from the Hello Jane collection.

 

 

First time in Country Sampler -- my mom's favorite magazine!  YAY!  Check out the DIY section in the back for my Christmas ornament.

 I have several Christmas goodies featured in this one -- ornaments and even a yo yo garland.

See the cute place mat top left on the cover?  That's my design.  Woohoo!

Hope you'll be on the lookout for these publications -- they are sure to inspire you.

National Sewing Month, Precuts, a new FREE Pattern, and a GIVEAWAY

As part of National Sewing Month this month, C&T authors are writing blog entries, doing tutorials, and offering free patterns!  YAY!  To see what other authors are up to on C&T's blog, click HERE.

Today, September 20th, is my day.  So you can hop on over to C&T and read my blog post about My Obsession with Precuts.

There are a lot of reasons to love precuts, aren't there?

Here are some of mine:

12)  Less waste than yardage. 
11)  Precuts are smaller than fabric bolts -- you can store more precuts in a smaller space.
10)  They are just like candy, but better -- no calories!
9)  Whether you actually use them or just decorate with them, they're pretty.
8)  There are sew many different types of precuts available -- there's a precut for every person and every project.
7)  When you're traveling, they pack well in suitcases and carry on bags (fat quarters roll up nicely in shoes).
6)  I've never met a precut that I didn't like.
5)  Books, patterns, rulers, and other tools.  OH MY! (Have you checked out my book, I Love Precut Quilts! yet?)
4)  Precuts make it easy to make controlled "scrappy" quilts.
3)  I can have a piece of fabric from each bolt in an entire collection and it doesn't break the bank.
2)  Precuts can be cut into other precuts (for example -- you can get four 2 1/2" squares from a 5" charm square or four 5" squares from a 10" Layer Cake square).
1)  Precuts are sew addicting!!!!!

I am happy to offer you a new FREE PATTERN in honor of National Sewing Month!  It's called Around Town and it is another companion quilt project from my book, I Love Precut Quilts!  On my Tutorials and Freebies website page, you will also find a couple tutorials and 2 other free companion projects for my book.

 Around Town

 NOW FOR THE NATIONAL SEWING MONTH GIVEAWAY

I will be giving away a copy of my latest book, I Love Precut Quilts!, to one lucky winner -- maybe it will be you!

Here's how it works:

You have up to 3 chances to win.

1.  Leave a comment and tell me why you love precuts.

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 Wednesday, September 20th through Sunday, September 24th to participate.

 The winner will be selected randomly on Monday, September 25th.

You never know........I might be inspired to add more prizes along the way if I get lots of encouragement.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS 

SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!

 

Bye Bye Gallbladder!

First, I must apologize for being AWOL for so long from my blog. 

I do have a good reason, though.  Through July and August I had some ongoing health issues which was finally diagnosed as a bad gallbladder.  UGH! 

Finally on August 29th, I had my gallbladder out.

So, now I'm gallbladder free.  I wonder if there's a special club for people sans gallbladder?  We could get matching t shirts or something, right?

I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that an organ that has been with me since the womb is now gone.  It's a weird feeling.

 I'm now three weeks post op, but still dealing with one or two minor complications. I'm thinking of making a quilt to honor my gallbladder.  What are your thoughts on this?

I'm hopeful in another week or two to finally be over all of it so I can get back to my life again.

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!!!