Sunday, January 30, 2011

Cabin Award Winner: January 30, 2011

As promised, a special prize this week:

The winner can choose one of these two quilt kits (with pattern, backing not included),

swpurejoy swpurelove

Pure Joy?  Pure Love?  Which one will you pick…

Congratulations to heaton!

The next Cabin Award will be announced Sunday February 13th, just in time for Valentines Day.   Again, a two week interval, and an extra special prize.

In celebration of the next Sweetwater collection, Sunkissed, you’ll get a project pack.  Three patterns:

 

And, enough fabric to make at least one item from each pattern.  About 3 yards, assorted. Plus a few zippers for the Pack & Go bags

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Total prize value: between $50-60.

Click here for Sunkissed.

Remember, Cabin Award winners are randomly chosen from the list of Blog Followers.  Don’t miss your chance, sign up today.  Click on the “followers” link on the left sidebar to join.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

A Blog Follower?

Hi .  After today’s newsletter, I’ve had a couple of inquiries about how to become a blog follower. 

Here’s a very basic explanation of how to do this:

1.)  Look to the left column. Under "About our Family", you'll find a little button that says "Follow" with Google friend connect. Click on that button.

2.) You'll be taken to a page, where you are prompted to sign in, if you already have a twitter account, or a Google/Yahoo account.

3.) If you don't have such an account, there is a little area below that which says, "Create a New Google Account". Click on that, then enter your e-mail address, and a password. You don't enter any billing information, or much of anything personal, other than e-mail address and birthday... and you can certainly lie about your birthdate.

4.) A second page prompts you to create a screen name, and allows you to add an optional photo.

The end result... your screen name with optional photo shows up in the follower list.  I can randomly select you as a Cabin Award winner and send you an e-mail without knowing any of your personal information. It’s up to you whether you follow publically, or privately… but I recommend following publically otherwise your screen name is not visible for Cabin Awards.

It's a means of communicating by e-mail without your e-mail address being posted on the internet.

Hope this helps. Laura

Petite Gateau

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“Petit Gâteau (in French, small cake; plural: Petits Gâteaux) is a dessert composed of a small chocolate cake with crunchy rind and mellow filling that is served hot with vanilla ice cream on a plate.

The dessert has been popularized in New York City restaurants in the 1990s. Nowadays variations of the cake/ice cream flavors have come to include fruits and even alcoholic beverages, such as whiskey This dessert has also been known to be made using crepes , in which case it is multiple crepes stacked on one another separated by some kind of filling such as warm jam or berries.”

Source: Wikipedia

Yum!

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Joanna Figueroa has captured the delicious goodness of these small cakes in a new pincushion pattern,  Fig Tree Threads, Petite Gateau (FTQ #728) .  Click here for pattern.

From the pattern cover:

"These are really good enough to eat! A perfect way to play with your favorite charm pack, these yummy little goodies are just irresistible as gifts or for a special treat for yourself. Simple to construct and quick to sew, these perfect little "cakes" are app. 3 1/2" when finished. Great project for your sewing group or for a gift exchange."

She also promises that most people can’t make just one!  Well, she’s sure right about that.

So far, I’m up to four pincushions. With no plans of stopping anytime soon.

The technique starts with two pieced pinwheels, and a strip of fabric for the gusset.

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I like to cut my circles to size with the Olfa Rotary Circle cutter.  Find it here.  A very handy gadget… I use it a lot. It’s like a compass from a geometry set, with a sharp central point that secures into the cutting mat, a sliding adjustable ruler, and a sharp little rotary blade on the end.

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Sewing involves a gusset technique.  Pattern instructions are excellent, with many useful tips. Gusset strip is marked according to instructions, then pinned in place.  When sewn, the project resembles a wrapped candy.

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The pattern guides you through assembly, and a hole is left to allow stuffing.  I like to use walnut shells, carefully filling the pincushion with a funnel.

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Then, using a tip I learned from Miss Rosie, I stuff a tiny amount of Sweet Dreams stuffing into the hole, so the walnut shells don’t fall out as I stitch.

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Almost done.  Just needs “icing on the cake”: covered buttons to give a finished look.

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Dritz Covered Button Kits: found here.   I used the 7/8” size.

To make each covered button, you’ll use 5 items, from left to right, a plastic tool, the button back, a fabric circle (cut to size with the Olfa Rotary Circle Cutter, above), the button front, and a pusher.

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Set the fabric circle, right side down, centered across the plastic tool.  Then, set the button front in the middle, and push.

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The front slips inside the tool, and the fabric wraps around it. 

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Then, the button back is set on top.

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Then, push with the pusher until button back snaps into position. 

Tada!  A perfectly covered fabric button.  It only takes a few seconds. 

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My finished Petite Gateau pincushions.  Don’t you just love them?

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The kittens started the project by being helpful (you know… lying on top of the sewing table, playing with thread, carrying buttons away then batting them around… the usual).  But it was all too much for them, and they finished the afternoon with a nap.

 

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Helping in the sewing room is hard work!

Happy quilting!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Cabin Awards Jan 16, 2011

As promised, two winners this week: packets include Quiltsmart Cell Phone pre-printed fusible interfacing, and three fabrics from my stash for their bags.

Bonnie

krepnow

The next Cabin Award will be announced Sunday January 30th.  I’m leaving a two week interval, so people who haven’t signed up as followers yet will have time to do so.

The prize?  A really good one, I think.

The winner can choose one of these two quilt kits (with pattern, backing not included):

 

Both “Pure Joy” (value with pattern $62.00) and “Pure Love”  (value with pattern $58.00) feature the new “Pure” collection by Sweetwater.  Both quilts would make lovely unisex baby gifts, and could easily be enlarged to make lovely throws (consider purchasing 2 kits with a single pattern).

purelogo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love, love, love this collection!  My stitching fingers start to itch every-time I walk past it at the shop, or work on that page on our website.

Click here to check it out.

Remember, Cabin Award winners are randomly chosen from the list of Blog Followers.  Don’t miss your chance, sign up today.  Click on the “followers” link on the left sidebar to join.

Atkinson Designs: Four Square Farmhouse

When I originally wrote about Terry Atkinson’s “Four Square Farmhouse” pattern, I considered the beautiful simplicity of the quilt pattern, and the stunning batik color combination.

foursquarefarmhouse1

To be honest, I didn’t think much about the pattern name.  Until today.

Terry writes on the back of her pattern,

“Four square farmhouses, often called “Cornbelt Cubes”, became popular in America when a “Square Deal” was offered by president Teddy Roosevelt.  These homes had simple, pleasing proportions- four main rooms on each floor, set two rooms deep by two rooms wide.  These same dependable proportions are used in the “Four Square Farmhouse” block.

A quick search of “Google Images” turned up the following images:

foursquare1   foursquare4

foursquare6 foursquare2

And a very interesting article, found here.

Hmmm.. now I get it!  I didn’t know homes of that style were called foursquares.  If I remember to pay attention,  Terry Atkinson always teaches me something.  

And, then there’s Rose’s beautiful new quilt.

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Start with a stack of beautiful batiks.  Carefully chosen to vary in color and value, with a pleasing mixture of marbles and prints. Use contrasting pairs to highlight the beauty of every fabric.

The result?

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Simply beautiful.

Four-Square Farmhouse patterns and kits can be found at Dakota Cabin Quilts, by clicking here.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Quiltsmart Cell Phone Bag

I went into my sewing room with the goal of cleaning up the mess.

A couple of hours later, I left with three (yes, THREE) finished cell phone bags. 

The place was still a mess… but I had three finished projects!

To start:

One package of Quiltsmart, pre-printed fusible interfacing (found here). 

Includes (3) pre-printed interfacing panels, fusible velcro for 3 bags, and three cords (my package had two brown cords and one red, but I’m not sure if they are all the same).  Current Price: $14.95.

cellphonebag

This project is so fun and easy, you won’t believe it.

Interfacing panels look like this.  

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Rough-cut a single unit.

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Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of desired fabric, cut approximately 6” x width of fabric.

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Trim on the dotted lines.

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Fuse the velcro into position (clearly marked on interfacing).  Not sure I’m crazy about this fusible velcro… I worry it will come loose.

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Stitch cording into position (clearly marked on interfacing).

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Fold the project as instructed.  There’s sort of a triple fold technique, to create the flap, and two pockets.

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When correctly folded, the bag looks like this.  Stitch on solid lines as clearly marked, leaving a hole to turn right side out. The interfacing is marked with words like “START”, “STOP”, “LEAVE OPEN TO TURN”.

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Then carefully turn the bag right-side out, and gently press.  Top Stitch.  Stitch a decorative button on the flap.

Ta-Da!

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Two pockets, one for cards or a key, the other for the phone.  Doesn’t look too bulky, or overstuffed with phone inside.

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More fabric scraps.  A little more time.  Two more finished bags.

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Flap can have rounded, or squared off corners.  Bag on the left is my favorite.  My two nieces will love these. I’d like to find a different button for the bag on the right.  I think it needs more contrast.  Maybe purple?

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Hooray!  I love these!

In celebration of this fun project, two Cabin Award winners next week will receive one packet of Quiltsmart,  and three scraps of fabric from my stash for their bags. 

Award value: $14.95 plus some really great fabric!

Cabin Award Winners: Jan 9, 2011

Good morning, and Happy New Year!

Sorry, with the busy holiday season, blogging was just not my first priority.

But, I’m getting back to my usual routine, ready for a wonderful year.

To begin, three cabin awards today.  We finished doing inventory at the quilt shop this week, and found a variety of things we forgot we had.  The following people will receive “grab bags” of assorted found items.

  • Christina Gordon
  • Janiece Talbert
  • tiredmom42

I just sent all of you messages,  including codes that allow us to identify you as a winners.  Please include that code with your shipping information, and e-mail Tera at promotions@dakotacabinquilts.com.   She’ll help you redeem your awards.