Quilter's Connection Magazine & Giveaway!

At the end of my previous post I mentioned a new Canadian quilting magazine and now I finally have a minute to tell you all about it!

If you are a Canadian quilter you may have already heard about Quilter's Connection Magazine. Heather McArthur, publisher & editor of QCM has made her dream of creating a Canadian quilting magazine for quilters by quilters a reality after taking the reigns of the BC newsletter "Connections for Quilters".

In July, Heather asked me if I would be interested in contributing a pattern to the first issue due out in September and of course I was excited! She was also in need of a graphic designer so I mentioned my experience designing business cards, invitations and ads for an Art Gallery where I used to work. We decided to design her business card and she was so impressed that somewhere along the way she hired me as the Creative Director of the magazine!

I am so excited about my new job as it incorporates everything I love and everything I am good at. There hasn't been a boring minute since July! I have been busy doing graphic design, layout, illustration and even some photography, as well as designing my quilting project which is featured on the front cover! I'm really happy with my "Partridge in a Pear Tree" project. The borders at the sides are little pockets that hold all the pears & the partridge ornaments! If you want to try to make one then you will just have to order yourself a copy of the magazine :o)

A big thank you to Heather for making me a part of something HUGE, and thank you to my hubby who is excited even when I'm not, and to my daughter whose Mommy has a computer glued to her face all day ;o)

Many Canadian quilters are looking forward to the first issue of Quilter's Connection that will be available in September. Issues will be available at select quilt shops across Canada and annual quarterly subscriptions are available online to anyone who is interested at www.quiltersconnection.ca

If you want to try to win yourself a copy, I am hosting a GIVEAWAY for a one-year subscription (4 issues) to Quilter's Connection Magazine! To make this giveaway available to quilters from ALL COUNTRIES, I will be paying for the shipping! To enter, all you have to do is to subscribe to the online newsletter by midnight on Wednesday, August 19th (Vancouver time). Please remember to leave your name, e-mail, blog (if you have one), and country. The e-newsletter will be filled with information, great tips for quilters, and fun & easy projects!
Good Luck Everyone!

UPDATE: Thank you! The GIVEAWAY is now CLOSED. I will be posting the winner tomorrow! :o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Buttons!

You will have to thank Sara in Italy for my first blog post in over 2 months. The buttons I received from her Etsy shop PopcornTree were so amazing that I just had to show the world.

I adore wood buttons but I have never seen any as beautiful as these! Each button is hand-cut and the designs are skillfully burnt into each one... just look at this amazing tree...

I ordered some custom buttons and what I received was absolutely beyond my expectations! I love them so much that I feel like keeping them all to myself and never using them but they would be oh-so-gorgeous on a quilted bag!

I love that sweet little house button too! Thank you so much Sara. I will definitely be returning to your shop soon ;o)

There are a few more buttons I would like to share with you. I bought these lovely ceramic teacup buttons from themssmiths.etsy.com

and I received these ones as a thank you gift for my Fabric Labels Tutorial. What a surprise! Thanks Patricia! You're so sweet :o)

Pretty soon I will tell you all about what I have been up to and why you haven't seen much of me. It has something to do with a new Canadian quilting magazine...

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Tea Time

Tea and Lavender...
two of my biggest addictions!

I have been addicted to making these little lavender-filled teabag sachets. I have made lavender teabags before but my goal this time was to make something cute and more my style using fabric scraps. The idea came about when I was trying to come up with a little "surprise" to send with signed copies of books in which my patterns have been published. I find making them so relaxing...

I made the tea tags using a cute stamp I bought from CraftPudding. I love my new Tea Time stamp set! I seem to be stamping everything with them lately! Even stickers for my packaging :o)

Moving on to real Tea Time... I had a wonderful tea party at my home with my two of my best friends. I used my new high tea tray for the first time filling it with all sorts of delectable goodies! I made very lemony poppyseed cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing, super chocolatey walnut banana bread, chocolate covered strawberries, and crêpes with pear preserve sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Yummmm...

Why am I not surprised that my 4 year old daughter is drawing teapots & teacups?! Wait a minute... that teacup design looks an awful lot like my teacup & cofeemug pouches ;o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Books & Bananas

I am happy to announce that two more books to which I have contributed patterns have been released this month! The first one I would like to share with you is "Pretty Little Cozies" and I am proud to say that my cozy has made it on the cover! I couldn't bring myself to part with the cozy yet so here is the actual cozy with the book! I haven't decided yet if I want to keep the cozy for my own french press but I do know that I will keep it in case I need any extra photos when I am ready to design its PatchworkPottery Pattern booklet.

My Monkey Quilt pattern is finally available in "Quilts, BABY!" by Lark Books. I am so utterly thrilled with this book and would buy it even if I wasn't in it! The book includes 20 amazing baby quilt projects! What's more fun is that there is a baby picture of each designer and a "behind the seams" short interview. I love my baby picture. I didn't realize until after I sent the picture in that I have a banana sticker on my forehead... how perfect is that for a Monkey Quilt!!!

I am listing these two books along with "Pretty Little Potholders" and "Pretty Little Purses & Pouches" in my SHOP. Each book contains one or two of my patterns along with many other great & creative projects. I will sign the books and also include a little surprise! There is a list of all these books with links for more information on my sidebar.

Since several of my patterns have been published, I am very curious to see what wonderful things are created with them! Please add photos of your creations to my PatchworkPottery Patterns Flickr group. Links to my Flickr Groups can also be found on my sidebar.

And before I go, I'd like to share a funny little story about baby me & bananas! First you need to know that I do not use foul language at all... When I was a baby just old enough to talk, my parents offered me a brown banana. To their surprise I replied, "I don't want no shitty banana!"

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Butterfly & Greedy Fox

I haven't posted much lately so I feel as if I need to catch up by posting lots of stuff in a few days! As you have probably noticed, I am a rather sporadic blogger & crafter! I tend to craft, flickr or blog only when the mood strikes...

This was my inspiration for the following shabby chic butterfly potholder. A vintage bedsheet, super yummy striped linen from Japan and linen rickrack from Finland :o)

My friend claimed ownership of the butterfly as soon as she saw it sitting on my side table! There are two others that will hopefully make it into my shop!

Here it is in its natural habitat...

This is what I brought home after a visit to Dressew in downtown Vancouver. The entire bottom floor is trims, buttons & other notions!

Hey Fox... Those are MINE!

I think he's in heaven... I know I am :o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Red

How could I possibly relate all these random photos? I know! They all have red in them!

A cupcake pincushion on a new stack of fabric cut from old shirts...

A future wall organizer with teacup pockets...

A little bird & a detail shot of a teacup pouch that I made last month for a swap with Anna in France...

A custom house tape measure I made this week...

Yes, there are some more tape measures on the way!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Spring Things

Spring has arrived at last and I am filling my days with Spring Things. The days of sun and warmth are more frequent now and instead of sitting at my sewing machine I have fun filling teapots with flowers that Claire has carefully picked from our yard. What better use for a teapot that dribbles!

We turned over a garden in the corner of our backyard and dream of harvesting fresh vegetables throughout summer and fall. It doesn't look like much but was a patch of grass and overgrown weeds a couple weeks ago. I will take some more photos once things start growing.

Claire has almost outgrown the skirts that I made for her last summer. I have chosen fabric for two new ones including a patchwork skirt using these Japanese fabrics I purchased from Matatabi. I also bought some brighter polkadot, check & stripey fabrics that absolutely reminded me of Spring!

And now I will share a bit of our Easter with you... I made a stuffed & lavender-filled fabric Easter egg for my Mom this Easter to go with her mug of flower seeds since she doesn't like chocolate. I wrapped it in a very sweet French Chocolate bag that I found at a local Japanese dollar store.

Claire had fun on her Easter egg hunt at Grandma & Grandpa's house, and she drew this wonderful picture of the Easter bunny for them.

I don't remember ever drawing this good when I was 4 1/2 years old! That's her own writing too! Yes, I am a proud mommy. I can't believe she will be starting school in September. She is growing up so fast! I look forward to the days when I will have more time to focus on designing & quilting :o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)