Ho Ho Ho Contest Winner!!!

And the winner is......

PomieMommie!  Please contact us with your address so we can ship out your prize pack!

Want to know what she won?  Our awesome winner will receive the Tidings book by Nancy Halvorsen, a 12 fat quarter bundle from the Tidings collection, a Tidings fabric panel and one yard each of three Tidings fabrics!

Congratulations!

Happy New Year everyone!!

~Bear Hugs~

Mary Jo & Matthew

Ho Ho Ho Contest

Hi everyone!  We hope you aren't getting too stressed with all the Christmas shopping and preparations!!  We are busy preparing for our end-of-the-year clearance sale which begins December 20 -January 2.  All fabric will be on sale for incredibly low prices as well as books, patterns, kits, thread...okay well EVERYTHING will be on sale!

We are also having a Christmas contest.  

The rules are simple...become a follower of our blog and post a comment below telling us what you are making this Christmas.  That's it....you will be entered to receive a great prize package.  (More later on the prize...He He..or should I say Ho Ho?!)  Post your comment before December 25th to be entered!!

Sign up for our newsletter by clicking the link below:

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Stay warm and cozy and stay tuned for more Quilt Bear news! 


God Bless!
 

Mondays!!!

Okay I am sure I am not the only one to do this, but I sewed my sewing machine foot to the machine....yes I forgot I had my 1/4 inch foot on the machine when I tried to sew a blanket stitch and voila sewed it right to the machine. Am I the only one to have to use a seam ripper to disengage my sewing foot from the sewing machine!!! LOL  Mondays!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our wonderful customers!  We are so grateful for each and everyone of you!  Matthew and I have been very blessed this year and are so thankful for all the Lord has provided!  May God keep you safe in your travels, blessed with abundant food and surrounded by loving friends and family!  Enjoy your day!

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month!!

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and we are going to try (what did Yoda say...There is no try, only DO) to raise $750 by October 31 to be donated to the Susan G. Komen foundation.  Purchase any of the four breast cancer products on our website and in addition to the donation the manufacturer makes we will donate another 10%!  This is huge ladies!  We can make a difference in a disease that has touched almost everyone of us in some way!  Let's see what we can do to make a difference!

Click on the links below the pictures to purchase!

Click here

 Add- a-Quarter Ruler $6.50

Click Here

Fiskars 8" Scissors  $7.00

Click Here

Olfa 45mm 5ct Replacement Blades $29.50

Click Here 

Quilt Pink For Hope Book $28.50

We hope you are enjoying this cool, fall weather and creating some fun quilting projects along the way!  It is hard not to get inspired with all God's beauty around us!  

 

~Bear Hugs~

Checker Open House 2010

Hi Quilt Fans!  I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the 62nd Checker Open House this weekend!  How cool to meet some great quilters and presenters!  I attended several workshops and learned many new techniques!  Here is a re-cap of Day 1!

The first session was a class on the new EQ7 quilt software.  

 I learned how to add and edit any image to add it to a quilt.  It is so easy to import your images into the program and then you can do all kinds of things to enhance and even use effects to change the photo completely.  After you make your changes you can then print them on fabric and sew directly into your quilt using EQ Printable Fabric Sheets!

The second session was presented by Karen Montgomery and she told us all kinds of ways to host events in our quilt shops!  I will need to improvise since I don't have an actual shop, but I got some great ideas.  She also had several products that she demonstrated for us, including the Creative Grids Quick Trim Ruler and the Creative Grids 60 Degree Triangle Ruler.

The Strip Easy Table Runner uses this ruler.

Here are some other cool patterns she designed and The Quilt Bear carries them all!

The third session featured Sue Hausmann who gave us many tips for selling and also demonstrated several rulers and tools.  The Quick-Easy Mitered Binding Tool makes mitered borders a breeze!

The final speaker of the day was the fabulous Eleanor Burns!  She had everyone laughing hysterically and presented her new book Quilt Block on American Barns and several quilts made from the book!  What a hoot! She had a roomful of quilt shop owners singing and laughing!

Afterwards, Eleanor stayed and autographed her book.  I had to get one and a picture!  What a wonderful lady!!

Stay tuned for Day 2 update!!!

One of those Days

Do you ever have just one of those days?  Well yesterday and now today are one of those days for me.  

It all started by waking up with a killer migraine yesterday.  Then I came down to my computer to find our website is not up and running.  After many phone calls it still is not working. Now we are into day 2 and no resolution.

I hate having my hands tied and nothing I can do to fix it.  And being a fix it kinda person this just really irritates me.

The only thing I can do is give it to the Lord and hope it gets resolved soon...and hope I don't lose any customers over it. 

What do you do when you are frustrated over a situation that you have no control over?  I am thinking a huge bowl of ice cream is sounding really good! 


This one ought to do it!

Anyway, we hope to be back soon and send ~BEAR HUGS~ to all!



 

New Quilt Project

So don't you just love starting a new quilt project??  I spent Saturday morning cutting my fabric for the Montana Log Cabin quilt sample. 

I got all my strips cut and then I fussy cut my panel.  I thought I was doing such a good job making short work of it...but when I laid my fussy cut 8 1/2 in squares on my cutting mat...oh noooooo...they weren't square. :( 

So I guess its finally time to buy an 8 1/2 in square ruler.  I have looked at a couple and think I am going with the Omnigrid Omnigrip ruler.

8 1/2" x 8 1/2"

On a positive note, as I was cutting my fabric I received an order for several yards of Montana Modern fabric.  And then when I signed in this morning what did I see...an order for a Montana Modern Log Cabin kit.  This must be Montana Modern week at The Quilt Bear...and we love it.

Get yours today and let's quilt together!!

~Bear Hugs~

Sew, What's the Pointe? - Yellow Brick Road Quilt

Hi everyone. This will be our first virtual Sew, What's the Pointe? re-cap from our meeting last night. We had two attendees, Pam Zak and Mary Mackie. Mary is working on the Yellow Brick Road project...

and Pam is working on finishing her 'Comfort of Psalms' Quilt.

We decided to change the format of our meeting to actual sewing meetings and we will bring our sewing machines next month.

Here is my Janome Quilter's Companion 6260 which I absolutely love!

If you would like to follow along and create a Yellow Brick Road quilt, you will need to have the following supplies:

1 Rotary Cutter

1 Quilting Ruler

1 Cutting Mat

Sewing Machine

Iron

1 Yellow Brick Road Pattern

Fabric for top and borders to make the size you choose:

6 fat quarters - Crib

12 fat quarters - Lap

18 fat quarters - Twin

24 fat quarters - Full

30 fat quarters - Queen

48 fat quarters - King

**Refer to pattern for border fabric and backing fabric requirements.

Once you have selected your fabric, the next step is to cut your fat quarters. We completed step A of the pattern this month and cut our fat quarters according to the pattern directions. (Remember to iron your fat quarters first to remove all creases.)

Lay out your fat quarter with short side (18 inches) along the bottom.

Then fold in half from top to bottom.

You can then start cutting. Once you have cut all your fat quarters according to step A you will be ready to start sewing.

Next, we discussed our product of the month. This month's product is: Colorfast Printer Sew-in Fabric Sheets

Retail $30.00 at www.TheQuiltBear.com/store/moreinfo/Colorfastfabsheets.html

These printable fabric sheets are a dream to use and hold the color beautifully. I used them in my last quilt and loved the versatility and ease of use. There was absolutely no color bleed! Try them on your next project.

Next, was our show and tell. Pam brought an awesome tooth fairy pillow that she made for her daughter and Mary had a photo quilt project that we discussed how to assemble. (Will remember my camera next time to take pictures of their show-n-tells)

Finally, we enjoyed some awesome frosted angelfood cake and a nice refreshing cup of Limeade with 7-Up to make it sparkly.

See you here next month for our next installment of Sew, What's the Pointe?!

HAPPY QUILTING!!!

Hired to Make a Quilted Wallhanging

So what do you do when a customer wants you to make a wallhanging  (or three) out of the wildest, crazy Hawaiian prints you have no idea what to do with?

The first thing I had to do was come up with some kind of design that would work with all the different colors and patterns.  I laid out the blocks in a basic square, trying to come up with some kind of pattern.

The colors were a little to close together so I thought of adding some borders to make it look like a window pane.  A Batik border adds just the right touch and pulls it all together.  The finished result is stunning!

I had enough squares left over to make two coordinating side wallhangings.

Now to deliver to the customer and hope she likes them! 

Bear Hugs for Mark Lipinksi and Breast Cancer Awareness

With the new site design, we have created a Bear Hugs page where you can see our focus charities.  We give 10% to each organization when you purchase the products displayed or listed. 

 Breast Cancer Awareness was a natural choice as Matthew's mom and my grandma were survivors.  Although we have since lost our loved ones, we wish to honor their memories.

Mamma Boyd

Grandma Bloink

Our second charity is the PKD Foundation better known as Polycystic Kidney Disease.  You may have heard of Mark Lipnski, our friend, designer, talk show host, teacher, and quilter extraordinaire.

Ok, well I haven't actually met Mark, but I am his friend on Facebook and I stayed in a Holiday Inn last night so I will take the liberty of calling him my friend!  Anyway, Mark suffers from polycystic kidney disease and is in need of a kidney transplant.  See Mark's Blog for all the details.  http://marklipinskisblog.wordpress.com/

Since I can't give him one of my kidneys...sorry Mark wrong blood type...and since I am already praying my little tosh off...which does work...we wanted to do more.  So we decided to give 10% of all sales of Mark Lipinski products on our website to the PKD Foundation. 

We quilters need to stick together and help each other any way we can.  Watch our Bear Hugs page as we post how much you have helped us raise each month!  As Mark might say, "Quilt for a Cause Cupcakes!!!!"

~Bear Hugs~

Website Re-Design

Sorry it has been so long since my last post!  We have been very busy re-designing our website to bring the "beary" best to our customers.  (Sorry couldn't resist the bear pun)  Not only did our site get a complete facelift, but it is also much more user friendly and fun!!!  Especially check out the Bear Hugs page where we will be featuring various charities that we will be donating 5% of our total sales to each month!!  When you buy from us you also help others in need!

http://www.thequiltbear.com/

Besides the re-design we have also been building our inventory and  have received the Clothworks Birds and Berries collection and will be receiving the Northcott Good Morning Sunshine collection by Mark Lipinski this month.  These fabrics look so beautiful and pictures just don't do them justice.

                  This Starry Night Pattern and kit will be available soon!

           I can't wait to whip up a sample of the Birds and Berries wallhanging!

Also, my son Ben created several ad slogans and here is one more for you!  He is so creative!

Take care everyone and happy quilting!

~Bear Hugs~

International Quilt Study Center & Museum

Today I am writing to you from Lincon, NE.  My "day" job as a legal software consultant brought me to Lincoln this week for our annual software forum.  Little did I know Lincoln is also the home of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.  I am hoping for a few extra minutes to run over and take a look.  This looks like an amazing place and I wish I had more time to spend here.  If you are in Lincoln, NE stop out and check it out.  Otherwise, take a look at their website.  http://www.quiltstudy.org/

~Bear Hugs~

Pillowcase Challenge

Want to do something good?  Make a quick pillowcase and donate to a local charity today!  Click below to get information, free patterns and more!  The Quilt Bear is proud to be a participating shop! 

Mark Lipinski's Winter's Grace Collection 2

So I got the Celebrate wallhanging finished.  Check out the pictures from start to finish.

First, I cut out and appliqued the blocks to the background using a buttonhole stitch. I used Mark Lipinski's Aurifil thread in varigated gold.

Next I cut and sewed the strips.   

                                            

I cut the strips into sections and sewed them together to make the blocks.

I layed out the top and stiched the blocks together.  Next I added the inner border.