Friday Finds – Quilt Inspiration

While we’re away at Quilt Market in Portland this week, we thought you might enjoy a little quilting inspiration from Nancy Zieman. She used Clover Trace n Create Quilt Templates for each of these designs. The templates make piecing your quilts faster and easier and allow you to create each shape in four different sizes for maximum design options. If you’d like to see photos from the road this weekend, follow us on Facebook. We can’t wait to show you what we’re doing at Quilt Market. Happy Quilting!

• Santa’s Jingle Belly Quilt
• Adding Sashing to Tumbling Block Pattern
• Jumbo Sized Grandmother’s Dahlia Block
• Dresden Plate Applique with Yo-Yo Centers
• Whimsical Dresden Peacock Design Block

Watch Us Wednesday – Grandmother’s One Patch Collection

Nancy Zieman demonstrates Clover Trace n Create Quilt Templates making two difficult quilt block shapes easier and faster. First she demonstrates the trapezoid shape for the Tumbler Block Design, and then she shows you how to make faux hexagons to create Grandmother’s Flower Garden Design.  Both of these designs are available in one collection and each one makes four different sizes of blocks.  You can create beautiful updated traditional quilt designs faster and easier with the Trace n Create Quilt Templates.

We’re traveling to Quilt Market in Portland this week.  We can’t wait to see all the beautiful inspirational projects, and share all of our newest projects. Follow us on Facebook to see photos from the road this weekend.  Happy Quilting!

Make It Monday – Grandmother’s One Patch Table Runner

Wouldn’t you love to get the look of hexagons without all the intricate Y-seams? Nancy Zieman created the Trace n Create Quilt Template for Grandmother’s One-Patch Collection that does just that. It includes super-size two traditional quit blocks – Faux Hexagon and Tumbler designs with one template collection. Both templates provide four different sizes. Fast piecing with no Y-seams! Here’s a link to the instructions to create a Grandmother’s Flower Garden Table Runner to show you a bit more how it works. Have you ever pieced with hexagons?

Friday Finds – Needle Felting

As the weather heats up and it gets too warm to work on big wool projects, needle felting is a great substitute. We found a few small projects to share today that we hope inspire you the way they did us.

• Felted Dotty Necklace (shown) from Lindsay Obermeyer
• Needle Felted Garland from Lauren and Limn and Lovely
• Felted Buttons from JoJo’s Crafty Love
• Needle Felted Acorns from Torie Jayne

Our line of needle felting tools make felting safer and easier for you. When working on small projects, the Needle Felting Claw is perfect for holding your roving or wool pieces in place to avoid injury. It’s also a handy blending tool for mixing wool roving colors. The mat cleaner end works as a brush to remove wool from the Felting Needle Mat. Have you tried needle felting yet?

Watch Us Wednesday – Needle Felting on Silk Scarf

Did you know you can needle felt wool roving into a silk scarf?  It works because they’re both natural fibers and is such a fun way to needle felt.  It changes the hand of the silk and gives it a very interesting texture.  You can create any design you can imagine from abstract to imagery. Here’s a very quick trade show demonstration video showing the process.

You can find our complete line of needle felting products on this link.

We Have a Winner!

Thank you to each and every one of you who entered our May Flowers Giveaway.  We were thrilled to receive over 500 entries!  The randomly chosen winner of this giveaway is Regina Furman.  We just sent an email requesting her shipping address, to send her new creative toys out.  Congratulations Regina!

We’ll post a new contest later this month, and Nancy Zieman is giving away a pair of Bordeaux Ultimate Embroidery Scissors on her blog.  Leave a comment on her blog before May 11th, for a chance to win.  Good luck!