… and there’s an elephant chasing them!

9 Lives is a wild looking quilt designed by Phil & Lisa Girard of Tivoli Quilt Creations. You’ll be able to use up even your tiniest scraps. Make a few single cats and they’d make an interesting grouping on the wall in a child’s room. Make all nine cats and you’ll have a fun lap quilt. Just the kind that a child would love to look at and “explore” when they are having some quiet time or laying down for a nap. It’d be fun to make up names for each of the “crazy cats.”

But look out… here comes the elephant! This wall hanging is done in reverse applique but no need to do any of it by hand. Quite a dramatic looking elephant.

Wonder what she’d look like with painted toenails?

Enough with the animals – here’s a Christmas project. Christmas Express is an advent calender. Each car on the train, including the locomotive, is a pocket ready to hold a small surprise for the countdown. If you have any scraps left after making those cats, they’ll be put to good use here.

Now that your scraps are used up, grab a bunch of fat quarters and here’s a simple quilt… Reversible Lap Quilt should make up quick. There are even quilting designs included so there’ll be no hesitation to finish while you try to figure out what’s the “best” way to quilt the project.

Lots of choices for the two sides: light/dark, winter/summer, spring/fall, bold/muted, cats/dogs… hey, who let the animals back in?!

Next, for a challenge and a stunning finish, try Serpentine. Again, with the scraps. Designers Phil & Lisa Girard say it’s not as hard as it looks, but they agree, it’s stunning.

These should keep you busy for a while, but they are just a few of the many, varied designs by our featured designer, Trivoli Quilt Creations. There are also a few more advent calendars, tote bags, full size quilts, and more. Check out all of their projects and all of the other designer’s quilt patterns at QuiltersWarehouse.

New this week at QuiltersWarehouse is quite a variety of patterns. . . applique, paper foundation, punchneedle, pieced, wallhangings, baby quilts, lap quilts, a table runner, a full size quilt and a book for Moda’s Layer Cakes.

This Stars and Stripes Runner is a paper foundation pattern. Looks great this way, but you could use Christmas fabrics too and make a holiday decoration.

And while you are in a holiday sewing mood, here’s Snow Globe, a needle punch project. It finishes 3″ x 3″ and would make a great gift. Make several! Cools you off just looking at it, doesn’t it?

Have you sampled any layer cakes yet? They do look delicious and now here’s a book with 8 patterns especially for layer cakes. It’s The Sweet Life from Anka’s Treasures. The patterns were designed by Heather Mulder and sweetness is promised.

3 Little Baskets from Quilted Closet is a reverse applique wallhanging. This is a fun, fast and easy project. Use all the same fabrics for the baskets or three different, coordinating fabrics. Do the same with the backgrounds. DIfferents threads, the same… the variations are endless.

And for a pieced pattern… Triple Expresso – Hop, Skip & Jump. It’s just what the name suggests and more! Three blocks, three different layouts for three different looks. Make any size from crib to King.

There are lots more new patterns this week. Check them all out at QuiltersWarehouse.com.

A  new CD is out for a simply gorgeous quilt pattern by Black Cat Creations… Kathie Southern of StudioKat Designs is our current featured designer at QuiltersWarehouse… and have you seen the new Christmas Kittens by Mary Herschleb?

First, the new CD…

Aunt Bea’s Parlor by Amy Cotham of Black Cat Creations IS gorgeous, isn’t it? And now the CD is available for your machine! If you don’t already have an embroidery machine, it’s enough to make you want to go out and buy one. hmmm. The designs are in full color so you can match the quilt as shown. sooo pretty. Or use the one color designs and contrast the colors you select for the pieced portion of the quilt. Either way you will have a winner when you are finished.

On to our current featured designer, Kathy Southern of Studio Kat Designs… “art you can wear!” Patterns for bags, bags, and more bags. Here’s a few. . .

Mezza Luna is the name of this pattern. It’s suitable for beginners and versatile enough for the more experienced to really add some flair. You can get very creative.

This next one is Bellagio Bag pictured with one of the two flap styles. More of a free and easy bag again with plenty of opportunity to embellish, get fancy or just keep it simple.

How about a bag for inside your bag?

This handy purse insert pattern comes in two sizes. Use those wild fabrics that you’ve always wanted to use but were afraid to. No one will know but you!

Check out all of Studio Kat Designs‘ patterns for “bags with panache.”

And, finally, the Christmas Kittens…

Everyone knows once July gets here it’s time to start sewing for Christmas! You’ll get a nice head start and maybe thinking about Christmas will cool you off. This pattern by Mary Herschleb makes a cute bell pull – it’ll decorate you doorknob nicely. The pattern also includes four ornaments.

That’s enough kitties for now. Time to get your machine purring.

Wallhangings and miniatures are not the only sizes of Carol Hopkins quilt patterns, but she does have a nice selection of these. She designs her reproduction quilts for use with reproduction fabrics. But don’t let that stop you from experimenting! All of these quilts lend themselves to a scrappy look, so dig out your scraps and transform them.

Carol Hopkins is currently our featured designer at Quilters Warehouse, and she has a new quilt pattern called Hooker’s Hat Patch. What a nice wall hanging it would make – a perfect accent for a family room, or as the center of attention in your entryway. Tell your guests the name of the quilt and you have a conversation piece!

May 16 through the 18 was International Quilt Market in Portland Oregon. A beautiful city that provided the backdrop for a wonderful Market. 40 QuiltersWarehouse suppliers exhibited at this Spring Market with all there exciting new designs on display.

Suzanne and I attended market and took photos of all the booths of these suppliers. You can pretend to be in attendance as well and view the Spring Quilt market displays each of these designers had by selecting the tab above entitled ‘ quilt market photos’.

The new quilt pattern designs and products that were introduced at market will be featured on the QuiltersWarehouse home page over the next few weeks. Be sure and sign up for our weekly news letter so you don’t miss any of these new introductions.

Technology is GREAT, but it can be a little BORING! So why not have fun and personalize yours with a fun holder! These USB Memory Stick/Dongle Holders are a neat idea to protect your data and photos from the rigors of travel and keep it all close at hand. Just pack and go – it’s in the bag, backpack, sewing kit, suitcase, briefcase or wear as a necklace. They’re a cinch to make and fun to give as gifts!

We have had a great response to this pattern. Everyone is making them to store and carry embroidery designs to class – and of course they wanted to make theirs special! During class(es), I encourage my students to make machine-embroidered designs on a fat quarter of fabric and then cut out the USB pieces from the embellished fabric. Everyone is different and it’s so much fun to see the end results. Some students continue to embellish with beads, crystals or sequins; one student, using her embroidery machine, stitched the date/year on the fabric of several she made, claiming that we wanted to scan all her scrap booking pages and store each year’s creations on individual sticks. Another student, a “Mother of the Bride,” made a fantastic holder using white satin covered with beautiful machine-embroidered lace designs, which she then embellished with tiny glass pearls around the top flap using a ribbon rose like a button and a string of tiny glass pearls as the handle. She planned to scan all of her daughter’s wedding pictures, store them on a USB stick and present the collection in the beautiful holder. A month later I ran into her, and she was now making them for everyone in the wedding party plus a few extra to store in safety deposit boxes! I like to store audible books on my USB sticks…so each USB holder is embellished with fabric and items to reflect the book’s content. Don’t forget to store copies of all your favorite family recipes on an USB Stick.

Once you choose your machine embroidery designs, stitch them out on your background fabric. In this example we stitch out a block of “Blackwork,” large enough to cut two USB Holder pieces, as well as, one lace design large enough for one USB Holder piece.

If you cut a template from Quilter’s Plastic, you’ll be able to see through the plastic to the design. Arrange template as desired (making sure to include seam allowances), cut all your pieces and follow the pattern instructions.

Embellish as desired and enjoy!

If you don’t have a embroidery machine, you can choose theme fabric and embellish with theme buttons, beads or charms. There are hundreds of ways to personalize your holders – just think of all the sportsmen, students, pet lovers in your life and how you could make something special for them.

These are really a lot of fun to make and give as gifts; and like I stated on the back of the pattern cover: technology is GREAT, but it can be a little BORING! So why not have fun and personalize yours. No more cookie-cutters holders for you…now go and have some fun creating your very own designs!

Suzanne Shore
Susie C. Shore Designs