Verna Layer Cakes

Moda Bake Shop is featuring a great pattern you can download and use to create a quilt with the new "Verna" fabric line by Kate Spain. Konda Luchau from Moose on the Porch Quilts designed it using a happy pink fabric for the sashing and if you'd like to tone it down a notch, we have 4 fabric friends on the bolt to do just that!

This gives a quick look at the 40 fabrics you'll find in the "Layer Cake".

"Easy As Cake" is a fast smart way of using one "cake" to it's fullest. If you'll look closely at the skinny inner border, you'll see it's the same fabric... Check out that pattern on the link above for details and fabric requirements.

A New Block of the Month!

Celeste is working on a new BOM starting up in March. Here are the first 5 for your review:

As you can see, these kitties are derived from vegetables.... an eggplant, an avocado, a pumpkin, a bunch of celery, a gourd and 4 more to come. What til you see the cauliflower cat. So cute!

This BOM will last 9 months and can be embellished with fancy stitching, hot-press crystals.... couching... your imagination is your limit. I'll keep adding the blocks as Celeste finishes them and post the completed quilt ASAP

Pillow Day

I mentioned, down below, that on Feb 5, on UFO Friday, we are going to sew up a storm. Well, we got the party started early this week. Check it out.

Serger Action!

Just want to share with the readers what hub-bub of activity we experienced Tuesday morning here at Bright Hopes. Here you see a group of ladies behind a couple of serger machines, cranking out pillowcases. Now, some of us had never used as serger before and in MY case, I may have been in the same room with one before but it was still sitting in its box on a shelf. So what great fun it was to sit behind one and take it for a spin. Those rascals are FUN! and efficient!

You can see we had stations set up, one for cutting, one for ironing and 5 with various machines and we just went to town. We all donated fabric towards the cause and what a collection it was.

The Sharp Needles cut n sewed for little over 2 hours and the end result was 25 pillow cases ready for distribution.

Our stack of pillowcases and the Sharp Needles
(and what's left of a pile of fabric)

So there you have a little preview of what we will be doing on Friday. Now this time we will be focussing on the Pouches of Comfort and everyone is invited to participate. Bring a machine if you have one and cutting tools or fat quarters you would like to donate. One fat quarter will make one pouch. Or...

If you have a UFO project you would like to work on and just want company, come on in.

Happenings, Happenings - Up-Dated!!!

A few posts back, I wrote about our new "Lagniappe " classes. Once a month, we (let me be more specific: Linda Kay!) will host a class that teaches the student something that can be made quickly. The idea is to be a helpful method of preparing yourself for Christmas or any gift-giving, really. When you want to give something of yourself (at the last minute, even) now you can have a veritable arsenal of ideas at your fingertips.

Here are the results from the first class last weekend: The Bucket Class

Adorable!

Now that you have seen this, here is what's coming up:

Feb 20, 10 am - 1pm Learn to sew a quilted cover for a folding "camp stool"! You can buy one of these at Wal-Mart and you will need it when you come. You'll get the class supply list when you sign up. Too cute. And so easy to stow away when it's not needed. How great would that be to cover with school colors and send off to college in the fall?

Up-Date: Linda Kay has made it official: March 20 Lagniappe Class will be the Bucket Basket.

Call to reserve your spot!

And speaking of coming up, next week, Feb. 5 is UFO Friday.

Pearl sent out an email concerning two volunteer Outreach projects you might be interested in joining. One is to sew "ditty bags" (Pouches of Comfort) for the women soldiers to stow their personal items while they are in fatigues and the other is to make pillowcases for Ronnie's Life Ministry, through St. Timothy's Church in Mandeville, LA.

You don't sew much but would like to help anyway?, great! We'll get you cutting up the fabric. You say you don't cut too good? No problem! You can doing the turning and keep us in stitches.

If you would like to help out with either of these two projects or would like to bring your UFO in and join us for the camarderie, bring your machine, UFO's, donated fabrics, cutting/piecing tools and good cheer next Friday. And a snack! Snacks are good! (I'll hit the Chinese take-out, meself)

We're going to sew up a storm ALL DAY at Bright Hopes Quilting. Feb 5 That's next Friday.

Romantic Blooms BOM - Up-date

Mona finished the center block!!!!! Come in to give yourself a preview

Back in October I posted that we were going to have a Block of the Month of this quilt, by Kit Morse and Julie McAufille. Fabric by Alex Anderson and P & B Fabrics.

It Has Arrived!

But only Just Arrived (shhh......I saw the bolts hidden in the back!) and OH the blues and yellows are beautiful......when I get back in the shop, I'll take some close-ups of the fabrics for your viewing pleasure. and voila!


This is going to be one gorgeous quilt. You can see from the promotional sheet that the blocks are not just cookie-cutter ordinary either. Here's a chance to improve your piecing and points as you move thru the months of 2010.

If you want to get in on this BOM, give us a call at 985-845-9554 to save your spot.

Just a Few New Things to Show

Ya'll know how popular Fleur d' lis' are in Louisiana and how remarkably few there are to be found in fabric.....? Well, take a look at these four new fabrics Pearl just got in and in these unusual and fashionable colors....

"Plume" by Moda


This is one of those images you need to click to enlarge to really appreciate the patterns. The colors remind me of a cup of neapolitan and chocolate mint chip ice cream! (great, now I'm getting a craving...) The quilts' pattern is "3-6-9" which goes Fast, Fast, Fast. and the fabric is lusciously soft!

"Nicey Jane" by Heather Bailey

This is one of new quilt samples using the pattern, "Flora" and new fabric from Heather Bailey called Nicey Jane, by Free Spirit. Again, the fabric is very soft and these colors bring to mind gentle breezes of summer. What a sweet quilt for a young girl.

Last month I posted about a new fabric line designed by sight-impaired artists. We have made a sample using these fabrics and the "5 & Dime" pattern:

This quilt is larger than what you can see here....which showcases these vibrant fabrics rather well.

Yesterday was Applique Society meeting day at Bright Hopes Quilting, which brings to mind the following: I am so bad at applique, darn near hopeless. Yet at the same time, I really appreciate the look and artistry of applique and do try it on the odd occasion. Like now.

I am working a mostly pieced quilt-top that calls for a, thankfully, small amount of applique and have been stressing over how to actually DO it. I can't needle-turn to save my life and yes, I have tried and tried. I didn't want to have rough edge, machine-applique on this one so that left, as far as I know, traditional technique. But I don't want to use freezer paper because I don't want to cut the back to remove it. I know... picky picky picky.

I spied at the shop a product that intrigued me, bought a pack and scurried home to see if this might be what I need:

Wash-Away Applique Sheets by C & T Publishing

The idea is you can run these sheets through your ink jet printer, or draw directly on it, iron the shiny side to the back of your fabric, cut leaving a 1/4" seam allowance and sew to the background, using the sheet as the edge to needle-turn against. Then, it washes away with warm water. And here is a neat feature! It's so soft that you can just LEAVE it in the quilt and it will soften in time!

Now I like Steam A Seam; it's great for machine applique but it does leave a stiff layer in the quilt. It has it's place in sewing, to be sure.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Well. Does it work?"

YES! It washes right out in warm water! I let the block soak for less than a minute and could feel it disappear.

!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!!

If you do use an ink jet printer to make your templates, any ink will transfer to the fabric in the water bath! This happened to me and I was able to wash THAT out with detergent. I would advise you to white out any labels, marks, unnecessary lines you have on pre-printed patterns prior to copying and printing them on that applique sheet.

It will save you from a panic attack like I just had. You really don't want one of those!

How Things Sneak Past Me

I find it amazing that I can totally miss something we have had in the store for several weeks (months apparently as well....) and when I finally see it, I hear "Oh we've HAD that!" Here is what I speak of:

Robin Pandolph Beach House Rolls

These are a collection of 35 - 5.5" x 22" strips in her new Spring Collection of roses, stripes and solids in beautiful yet vibrant pastels. When I saw the name she gave this collection, I thought "perfect!" It really brings to my mind what a Cape Cod cottage would have draped over a sofa.

Soft, soft, soft.