We have blog tour winners!!!!

Drum roll please, I have a first place winner, using random generation drawing, number 134, and her name is Karrie S!!!   Karrie wrote "I love your tree skirt! It is so beautiful!" Congratulations Karrie!  You will be contacted in the next week or so by Quilter's Newletter to obtain your mailing address to ship your beautiful Fat Quarter bundle from Maywood's Snowfallen collection!  Yay!  I just love it when someone wins a prize!

I have also picked (using the random generator) a second and third place winner.  Second place is Karen, number 60 in the comments list and she wrote " Love the Tree skirt, and colors.. Great blogsite too!!  Karen I will contact you for your address so I can send you the magazine issue as promised!  Oh this is fun.

My third place winner was randomly generated for number 2!  That is Celcelia who wrote, "I love this tree skirt! I've been wanting to make one for myself, but haven't found one I like. I really like yours, especially the fact that I don't have to match points. :) Thank you for the chance to win."
I'll contact you as well today for your address so I can mail you your new magazine. 

Thanks to all of you who visited my blog for a chance to win.  Don't forget there are more tours after mine so you still have a chance to win!  Stay with it--you just never know when your number will come up!

Ok, so I have to share more quiling stuff with you this morning.  I just finished a traditional quilt I designed from RJR's Incense and Peppermints line by Robyn Pandolph that will be available soon!  A couple of weeks ago, I went to a wonderful class with Kim Diehl, and I have to admit she is one of my favorite teachers!  I learned a whole new way to applique using several techniques I've used before but put together in a whole new way.  I love it!  So I had to make some applique blocks of course, plus a few yo yo's and I just shipped the quilt yesterday!  So exciting!  I'll share some sneak peak views for you here.

I just love it when an applique block comes together!  Kim's method looks hand done, but in the end is stitched on by machine. 

You use freezer paper templates, but instead of ironing the waxy side to the wrong side of the fabric, you glue stick the center of the paper side to the wrong side of your fabric.  Carefully trim around your template leaving a 1/4" seam.  The sides of the freezer paper will be loose, so use small scissors and keep rotating the edges in your hand while you trim.  Then the fun part begins.  Lay your piece right side down on a hard pressing surface, and using a small iron, (I perfer the Rowenta iron) press the edges to the waxy side of the freezer paper!  Fabulous!  You need very few snips to inner corners--like ONE-- and none to the outer curves!  On outer corners press over one side, then the next and then using a dot of liquid basting glue, tuck under the point carefully and press to set the glue. 

Now it's time to lay out your pieces.  Fold an inner crease corner to corner on your background square to give you placement registration marks and work from the bottom pieces to the top.  Put tiny dots of glue along the pressed over seam allowance only, and press in place!  This holds all the pieces in place so you don't have to make your background block larger.  This eliminates trimming your block to size after the applique is done.  By the way, I have always used bias bars for any stems, they work wonderfully!

Sew the edges of your applique pieces, one layer at a time under the sewing machine using a tiny zig zag stitch, setting about 1.0 width and 1.0 length, using a cotton thread in the bobbin and a monofilament thread on top.  One swing of the needle goes on the outside edge of the applique, the other into the applique.  You will stop and turn frequently so a hands free system on your sewing machine works well (a knee lever to lift the presser foot).  Well, I couldn't stop there so I made a pile of yo yo's and sewed them on (this time by hand) for the flowers! This was the most fun I've ever had with applique!  It's usually so time consuming, and this was a pleasure to work on.  I highly recommend all of Kim Diehl's books where she gives much more detailed instructions to the process, and some beautiful quilt designs too.

It's amazing to me what just four applique blocks can do to add interest to a quilt.  You'll be seeing a lot more applique work from me in the future! 
Have a great day and keep quilting!!

12 Days of Best Christmas Quilts!

The new issue of Best Christmas Quilts 2012 from Quilters Newsletter is in quilt shops and bookstores now!  You can also find it through www.quilt andsewshop.com both in hardcopy and digital editions.  At $9.99 it's a great value because it has more patterns than most books at half the price. 

For the second year in a row, I just happen to have another project in this wonderful Christmas issue!  It is probably my most favorite class I have ever taught, and a favorite pattern.  It's called Holly and Ivy Tree Skirt, and also is known as my Spiral Tree Skirt! 

What I really love about this pattern is that it looks so complicated, yet it is so easy to make and there are absolutely no points to match!  The secret is the use of a 9 or 10 degree wedge ruler that is 24" long to cut your wedges out of a strip set.  When the ruler is placed at an angle on the strip set it automatically makes the fabrics "spiral" around on the tree skirt! 

Leave a comment on this blog post before 11:59 p.m. MDT tonight (August 29th) for a chance to win
this beautiful prize of Fat Quarters of Fresh Fallen Snow from Maywood! 

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!  Please include your eamil address when leaving a comment so that you can be contacted if you win!  There will be one winner at random for the Fat Quarters, and I will also give
away an issue of this magazine for a second and third prize!  Again, leave your email so I can contact you.  It may not be Christmas in July, but August works just as well!  I'll announce the winners on August 30th.
Thanks for stopping by, and keep quilting!!!