Hugs from Helen

Who’s coming to Salt Lake City?

With only four sleeps until I leave and a very long list of to dos still I shouldn’t be here, but yet again its been so long and just in case any of you are coming I wanted to let you know of some of my movements so we can say hi if its possible.

So, Spring Quilt market – the International Quilt trade show (trade customers only this time sorry) is on next week at the Salt Lake City Convention centre downtown SLC. Sue and I fly out Monday to start the long journey and then the long setup ready to open next Friday.

 

of course I have three schoolhouse sessions first on Thursday as follows:

Have Much More FUN with
COSMO! – Im doing this one for Lecien

                                  Room 253a 1.20-1.50pm

Want Cash to Walk In Your Door
Monthly? We’ll Tell You How!  Room 250e 3:30 - 4:00

 

Calling All Hexie Addicts! EPP the
EasyWay                              Room 250e 4.05-4.35

 

 

Then I have two Take & Teach Classes again for you to join in and learn to take back to your students and stores:

Friday 8.00-9.30am

310. SIMPLY REDWORK EMBROIDERY—THE HUGS ‘N KISSES WAY $10

Simple embroidery stitches are ever popular! Introduce them to your students and expand your range of embroidery skills and inventory with simple stitcheries, red work, and more. Make the first block in the Razz-a-Dazzle BOM quilt. (*; 6in embroidery hoop)

411. FROM HEXIES TO CLAMSHELLS— EPP THE HUGS ‘N KISSES IRON-ON WAY $10

Using the new EPP Iron-ons™ extend your knowledge of English Paper Piecing beyond hexagons. Clamshells are the next big thing! Make this super cute purse/cushion and take it back to wow your customers. (*; Sewline fabric glue pen or similar)

I will also be doing demos on demand in my booth daily showing the Easy English paper piecing method using iron on, leave in papers that is going crazy.And 4pm on Saturday I’ll be demoing and book signing on the Landauer Booth #1243  on my Gluestick applique method..

Phew, Im tired just thinking about this…

But wait! there’s more… This year a group of your favourite Aussie designers are grouping together to form the Aussie Aisle!

We’ll all be there in aisle #1800 – right inside the entrance doors next to the quilt exhibit!  You’ll see our aussie bunting for sure… we have some exciting things in store for you….

Each designer will be doing their demos of what they do best!

We have a gorgeous Koala coming with us all the way from Australia – she is very excited, and also very friendly and would love to have her photo taken with you all.  Then you can try and guess her name and go in a draw to win a fabulous basket of goodies from us all.AND

we are having free vegemite tastings too!

Come join all the action in aisle #1800  but before that join our new group – Aussie Designers on Facebook, you’ll see what each of us are doing now and into the future and have us on hand to answer questions etc ongoing.

 

of course, after market brings more excitement as I rush to the airport to travel to Minnesota to teach for the Hayward Quilt guild.. maybe I’ll see you there – there might be just 1 or 2 spots left if you are close by….

 

okay, back to my list now…

hugs for today

Helen

Kona is in the house

colour

noun

1. the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.

"the lights flickered and changed colour"

synonyms:
hue, shade, tint, tone, tinge, cast, tincture

 

Anyone who is a quilter or stitcher has an affiliation with colour – and with that comes an appreciation or heightened sense of colour all around them.

Without doubt, the reaction to our Kona Room at the new shopfront has been ‘wow’ – all those colours in one place… its like my coloured pencil collection and our fabric stash – all that colour stimulation right in front of us – oooooh, ahhhh …. ideas flow, the brain goes into overdrive and our artistic brain starts to race…

I can walk into my Kona room everyday and be stimulated and get the creative juices flowing….. and now it seems many of you want the same!!! so by request we have prepared a Kona Club program for you…

 

Just a selection we will personally pick for you to give you a great range to begin with…. then you can chose to continue until you have them all – but beware – there are 300!

Then you can make things like this quilt as designed by Kat Jones (pattern and class coming)

or her many other plays on colour

To see all the details and to join up now click here.

hugs and happy colour gazing today

Helen

 

 

footnote: a bit about Kona Solids from Robert Kaufman fabrics:

The #1 quilting solid with the broadest range of 303 IN-STOCK colors.

Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton sets the standard in the industry for high quality solid quilting fabric. Kona Cotton is made from premium, long staple, cotton, 44" wide. Kona Cotton is 4.3 ounces per square yard.

Scrappity Doo Dahing right along….

For those of you not on the Facebook group I thought I’d share some progress shots on the Scrappity Doo – dah EPP quilt along project. Many have finished or nearly finished their tops and the array of fabric choices is amazing.. all looking just as great as the next.

Many are now only just joining in- particularly after doing the EPP Craftsy class and wanting more…. and some shops are about ready to start their instore programs with help along the way.

This is Marg’s from Seriously Crazy’s  version

And Lee’s from Threads and Tangles – she's already quilted hers! how amazing does black and white look?

Lisa from megelles soft and sweet version

Lyn opted for jewel colours on black!

Nicole's version

and Maggies – see how different they all are?

from batiks, to liberty, aunt grace to Tilda, they all look fantastic..

Linda White of Gumvalley patchwork will be running this one with her stitching customers..

And of course the original version – in Fancywork Box and Basically Hugs fabrics.. – packs are still available.

 

hugs and inspiration for today

Helen

Kona Solids are in the house!

well, actually in the shop – and now on the website…

Over the two weeks we’ve been open at Quarter Inch, every single visitor has entered the Kona room and drooled. It is a feast for the colour senses….

Colour  is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, blue, yellow, etc.

Because perception of color stems from the varying spectral sensitivity of different types of cone cells in the retina to different parts of the spectrum, colors may be defined and quantified by the degree to which they stimulate these cells. These physical or physiological quantifications of color, however, do not fully explain the psychophysical perception of color appearance.

Wikepedia.

Here’s some peeks to stimulate your senses…

Lots of samples and magnificent quilts by Kat Jones.

Kat will be teaching these amazing techniques once our classroom has been built.

enjoy!

or pop in and see them in real life… and of course you may like to take a few home.

Would anyone be interested in a Kona fabric club – fat 8s each month? there are 300!

If the need is there, we can accommodate.

hugs for today

Helen

Grandmas Fancy work box

As my next fabric range is about to hit the Aussie stores (and I think may already have arrived in US stores) I thought I should tell you a bit more about it. When designing a fabric range it is so far from my memory once it finally delivers that I often have moved on and forgotten I haven't even shared my travels with you.

This range is special to me as it is inspired by my grandmother who taught me to embroider from her fancywork box at a very young age. I actually have her original goodies from that box – now in a shoebox carefully stored, but I practiced my stitches on the prestamped linens with  her guidance….

So I really wanted to re-create those memories and those prestamped doilies and designs… so the collection includes a panel – with a table doily set (3), three rectangular doilies and two sweet little oval doilies…

It is printed in coloured lines so you can just use it as fabric – and make into a myriad of projects..

OR, as I envisaged, you can cut each one out and embroider over the pre-printed lines…

my only problem now is that she always crocheted the edges for me – and although she also taught me to crochet – that is one craft I haven't kept up with and can only do the basics…

 

so I added a faux crocheted lace edge onto the panel… So you have choices… if you can crochet – then do as Grandma would have and finished your doilies beautifully, or cut the printed lace off and use purchased lace trim

OR, cut around the faux edge and applique onto your projectOr use the printed lace to embroidery over the lines to make your own stitched lace – stunning – but a lot of stitching

I (and Jo) had a lot of fun making various things to show you how you could use them in other ways – just look at my vintage doilies board on Pinterest and you will see heaps of ideas…meanwhile….. just stitch

Note: none of these photos are patterns available – they are just ideas for you to use the panel… as I know you all want to embroider but what to do with them once finished.

 

There is a free pattern for the quilt below available on the Red Rooster website – which uses one whole panel and then the coordinating prints (along with some of my basics). This was made and quilted for me in the pre-market rush by my lovely lifelong friend Twyla in South Dakota… If you’d like a fabric kit for this – let me know or ask at your local store.

Oh, and if you’d like a panel – they are here – or very soon at your local store…

hugs for today

Helen

JellyRoll Sands–free quilt pattern/tute

if you follow me on instagram you may have seen some progress shots as I made this little quilt a week or two ago..

well, it is now complete and I am pleased to say I have decided to do a free tute on it for you…

It started with this!  A 2 1/2” strip set of Primrose Sands for Red Rooster Fabrics – available in Australia through Two Green Zebras, many stores may have these – if you cannot find one – I have some!!!!

- and is based on this block I made up – don’t you think it looks like an ‘H’ for Helen… or others suggested a chair… anyway, its simple and comes together easily.

So we start by choosing 16 strips – there are 17 in the pack so choose which one to leave out.

Lay them all out at once on your cutting board. I left them folded (thats how they come on the roll) and layered them up to three in each layer approx.

Using your ruler and rotary cutter trim off the selvedge ends evenly.

Then you are going to cut from the left of the strip:

8 1/2”           3 1/2”         2”

Then open out your folded ends and again stack them.

cut from the left:

8 1/2”        3 1/2”       2”

You should now have from each colour

3 strips 8 1/2”, 3 strips 3 1/2” and 3 strips 2”

Each colour fabric will be in three blocks. So you need to take one of each size and match them up into pairs. eg.that is as in the picture below – I have paired the dark red and the stripe together – you can pair these three times or you can do a total mixup of colours.

Next: your sashing fabric – I used white.

Cut 14 strips 1 1/2” x wof (width of fabric)

Now two choices here – you can either

Cross cut them (in piles- as many layers as you can handle)

to make:

50 strips 1 1/2” x 4 1/2”

75 strips 1 1/2” x 2 1/2”

 

Or simply sew together in the following manner:

Take half of your coloured 2” x 2 1/2” strips (one fabric from each pair) – place them right sides together on a long white sashing strip (the longer – 2 1/2” edge is on the white strip) Stitch. continue to chain stitch all of your pieces onto the long white strips. Trim them apart and press seams to the coloured fabric.

 

Now take the opposite remaining fabric from your pairs and sew in the same manner on the other side of your white sashing strip. again press to colour

Next you are going to stitch these units onto another long white sashing strip. Just chain piece them through again.

Trim them apart and press to the SASHING. Repeat this by stitching the other side of your unit to another strip of white fabric and press open to SASHING.

In the same manner as above stitch the short end (2 1/2”) of every 3 1/2” colour fabric piece to a white sashing strip. Trim apart and press to colour.

Lay all of your units back into their piles with matching pairs.

Attach a matching unit to the left of all centre blocks. Press open.

Make sure those seams line up  - this should be easy if you have press as above as the seams will be mirrored.

Repeat with the matching unit on the other end. You now have 24 of these units.

Finally you will add the 8 1/2” matching strips to the top and bottom.

Next step is to layout all of your blocks out on the floor to decide placement. Each alternate blocks rotates 90 degrees.

Cut from white sashing fabric:

15 strips 1 1/2” x wof.

Cross cut six of them to make 25 strips 1 1/2” x 8 1/2”

Join a white sashing strip between blocks as per the photo below. press all seams to blocks.

Join the remaining strips together to make one long strip.

Attach strip to the left edge of your first row and trim off at the bottom. Take care not to stretch as you sew ( this is cheating, really we should cut the strips to length and pin every quarter to make sure we are not stretching either seam – if you’d prefer to do this they should mathematically be cut at 53 1/2”)

Repeat between all rows until they are sewn together into one unit.

You should have enough white strip left to attach to the top and bottom of your quilt top.

tada, your top is done in just a few hours.. now to layer and quilt – but that’s a whole ‘nother story…

Well I’m off to the Australian Quilt market in Melbourne tomorrow (trade show where we show all of our wonderful shops what we have new to order for you) – so I will leave you with this and tell them all to order their rolls whilst they are there for you.

I have some here  - only $25 while stocks last – not on the website so you’ll need to phone or email Lori to bags one..

hugs for today – off to pack some clothes…

Helen

footnote: requirements for this size are:

One Primrose Sands 2 1/2” strip roll

75”/1.9m white sashing fabric

13”/35cm stripe binding fabric.

Quilt measures 37” x 55” /  93x138cm approx

and the winners are?

wow, I certainly have a lot of ideas of what you’d like me to work on next…. can’t promise them all but it does give me food for thought…

so now I have to choose five of you for a little fabric pack of each of our 36 Basically hugs fabrics…

If you are a winner please contact us with your snail mail address so we can send it straight out!

so….

Comment:
I love mini quilts, and in your fabric range, would be lovely. Thank you for the great giveaway,

• Commenter name: Angela

 

Comment:
Your new fabrics are just gorgeous, Helen. I'd love to see more mini quilts. Thanks for the lovely giveaway.

• Commenter name: Christine M

 

Commenter URL: http://macdonaldspatch.blogspot.com

Comment:
Beautiful fabric! I would love to see a tablecloth made with either collecton. Thanks!

• Commenter name: Delaine

 

Comment:
I love the fabric range. I'm not sure what I want to see next perhaps something for Christmas - another Christmas BOM

• Commenter name: Donnacraft.wordpress.com

Comment:
I have shared this on Facebook too because ...who wouldn't share the love of such adorable designs and fabulous fabrics!!! Have a great day!

• Commenter name: Pam White

 

congrats and hugs for today

Helen

Fabric Heaven–a giveaway

I thought I’d officially tell you about my two latest fabric lines now that they are shipping into Aussie stores as I type.

…at market this year I had to be prepared to release two ranges at once – scary but exciting, and a lot of last minute sewing – twice as much as normal… but we got there… so here are the two lines and what Red Rooster had to say about them….

 

Primrose Sands

Primrose Sands is the name of a small seaside village in Tasmania, an Island state at the very bottom of Australia near Helen’s home. Helen tells us, “The collection started from my wallpaper photograph at my friends’ beach shack and was the inspiration for the main geometric print of rosettes. My memories of good times at the beach with my girls and our friends…the soft minty greens, romantic pinks, and silver grays with a pop of raspberry signified relaxation, peace, freedom, and perhaps a bit of romance…at the seaside in an Australian summer…bubbles, summer fruit, laughter, and sunshine…” Although the main geometric was inspired by a wallpaper pattern, the bright, bold colors were inspired by popular 1980s colors…pinks, reds, teals, and grays.

For each line I am contracted to provide a free pattern for you. These can be downloaded from the Red Rooster website and stores will make up a kit for you.  Sunshine and Daisies (below) is my free pattern for the Primrose Sands line…

Basically Hugs – available very soon

“My inspiration was my dream to have a wonderful ongoing basics collection that would be very usable for me as a stitchery and appliqué designer - and for stitchers and quilters throughout the world. I hope to build on these basics with future additions to create must-haves for all kinds of projects and quilter’s styles. For Basically Hugs, I began with the basic blenders and small prints that I love to use as backgrounds and for contrast in my projects. Some of the designs are from earlier collections - the fabrics that I use over and over again. The motifs are from my own drawings and pattern designs and include tone-on-tone heart stripes, a flower toss, a hearts and flowers toss, dots, a lacy stripe, textured burlap, subtle spirals, and rows of little hearts.”
Helen’s four colorways evolved from her earlier collections. There’s a range of light to medium grays, a selection of light to dark blues, another of light pinks to dark reds, and a nice range of essential white, cream, and beige prints.

Clambaked is my free pattern for the Basically Hugs range. Ask at your local store if they can do a kit for you.

Of course I have also designed a lot of other projects using the fabrics with more in the design line. I have been busy cutting kits for many of these also so if there is something you’d particularly like just ask.. (email)

Quilt measures 12” x 12“

A simple little banner to show you care. Suited to a 12” table stand. Applique paper included in the pattern pack.

Stitch with me

Tea and Cake

So Tweet

and others you can see on the website..

Now I might just have 5 charm packs (4” x 36 Basically Hugs fabrics) to give away.

Leave a comment here telling me what you’d most like me to design next to be in the running

For an extra entry, share this post on Facebook or your blog (and let me know)

And anyone who purchases any new pattern using the new fabrics over the next week will get another entry….

hugs for today

Helen

home home again jiggety jig

Yes, home again after a wonderful three weeks in the USA with Jo.

Many of you may have followed our travels and misadventures on Facebook, but for the rest of you here’s a few pics to try and show you just how big & exciting Quilt market is.

This is how our booth looked when we first rolled out suitcases in..not much to work with

after two days of building, sticking, pinning, tweaking and finalising we managed to get it to look like this…My aim was to show off my two new fabric range patterns at this endBlock of the months and other favourites hung here on my special multiple quilt rack display (which I think I need to have patented – half of the traffic to my booth was stores and other vendors photographing the hanging idea) Emma and Paul?This was my redwork display – and a little display from One Day in May – which was well received

and on my outer wall were all of the projects from the new book Simply Applique…I also had to make quilts and displays for my two fabric ranges in the Red Rooster booth. Thanks to my lovely friend Twyla for making the Sunshine & Daisies quilt – this is my free pattern for the Primrose Sands fabric line and is available to you all here.

And to Emma for making gorgeous clothes – this little dress pictured along with a skirt and top I’ll show you later.. You should visit her FB page – she does beautiful work.

I was launching this bundle of gorgeousness!  and I am so excited to say that EVERYBODY else also loved it! I am so lucky to have been allowed a basics range that will be so useable and it looked just soooo pretty…To give you an idea this pic below shows about one eighth of the show floor. Yes 26 rows of overwhelming inspiration and stitchy goodness….

I've got sooo much more to show and tell you along with all the new patterns I managed to get done before I left…

but for now, just letting you know… these greeted me as I arrived home… yes the books are here!

so to keep the jetlag at bay I spent last night signing all of the preorders… not too late for a signed copy. Just order and leave a comment asking for it to be personally signed for you.

hugs for today…

Helen

up, up and away - again

As I cross the final points off my packing list, ready to fly out to International Quilt market in Pittsburgh tomorrow, I write to you with a few peeks until my return.  Yes, as always life has been mad preparing for market and not one but two fabric ranges to make wonderful things from… a few peeks below for you, they are ready to go but won’t be on the website until my return, sorry just out of time….. but on my return I promise lots of goodies, pics and possibly even a giveaway or two!!!!

       

If you’ve been following me on Instagram or Facebook you have probably already seen many of these in the works. I do have to thank Jo and Belle for helping me out along with my wonderful sister Tracey for quilting I think five quilts in a week for me – and even binding them!!! I couldn't do it without her..

This is going to be one of the Free patterns available to you for the Basically Hugs fabric range…

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now speaking of Jo – in about 15 hours she and I will be heading to the airport for another market for me – but the trip of a lifetime for Jo – I am so excited to have her coming with me… watch for pics of us in New York City, a girls road trip with Anni Downs, Amish Country PA, Pittsburgh, Amish country Ohio and more….

 

Oh and don’t forget I'm teaching at The Quilt Foundry in Maumee Ohio –if you happen to be close – do come on down…

hopefully we will return in one piece!

 

until my return, hugs

Helen