Anniversary Wrap-Up

We want to thank all our fabulous customers & friends who came by during our 10th Anniversary celebrations. We had a terrific time seeing everyone and swapping pincushions. 

They were all just wonderful and everyone seemed pleased with the ones they received. Check out these smiling faces!

We had a blast watching quilters open the bags and pull out these pincushions. Thank you to all the participants for making this a successful swap.

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Now, I have a quick tip to share when you find yourself in an unhappy situation in the middle of a free-forming project. 

We were demonstrating several rulers including the Double-Strip ruler by CreativeGrids. I had a jellyroll from a few years back but no yardage from the line. I also used the pattern, Penny Candy,&  from Kathy Brown's Strip-Smart Quilts book and after sewing all the strips and sewing the pieces back together, I found I was one block short of making a 4 x 5 setting!

Booo!!!!  Well, I could have just made a square format quilt but then I decided instead to insert a blank panel in the center. When I finally finish this baby quilt, I will applique' the recipient's name in that blank space!

Quilting Is Good For Your Health

Those of us who cheerfully call ourselves quilters already know this fact but now we have research to back it up!

It doesn't hurt that the mind behind the study in Glasgow is a quilter for the past 40+ or so years.....

Professor Jacqueline Atkinson, co-author of the study and a quilter herself for five decades, said: ‘Doing something that engages you and that you enjoy is key. As adults, we don’t often do enough that includes fun and play.


‘We put a lot into studying the use of green spaces and that’s useful to individuals and communities.


'But maybe we need to say there are other things too.’

So the next time you waver or hesitate over starting yet another project, just remember that this passion, this creative outlet is more than a hobby. It exercises your muscles, it sharpens your mind with math, it stimulates your pleasure-zones with color and reduces stress levels, except possibly when your quarter-inch seams are slightly too big.

But we can help with that!

Moda Blog Hop

Okay, so you've had a few weeks to recover from our SELA Shop Hop and you are no doubt aware that our 10th (count 'em, TEN) Anniversary is in less than two weeks away. 

So, with a little 'down time' on your hands, allow me to point you in the direction of  Laundry Basket Quilts and the estimable Edyta Sitar. WHY?  I'm so glad you asked!

That is a starting point for a super-cool multiple stop "blog hop" sponsored by MODA Fabrics (which we all LOVE) and at each stop along your way, you can download a specific pattern for a block and read each entry about the block that was chosen for them and how they chose to use it. 

The theme of this is "Size Matters" and you have no idea which direction each designer will take. The first one is 9 Patch and oh, I can hear say, "yeah, yeah". but really, go hit the link and you will see that the PDF has cutting instructions for itty bitty teenitsy 3" size all the way up to 24".

If for no other reason, like you don't have time to make another quilt! you might just want to make your own binder of common blocks to future reference. Or if you are really a techie at heart, you can save all the PDFs in a folder on your computer or tablet and save a tree.

 This is a fantastic and generous thing Moda and the designers are giving us and if that's not enough, well, you can also possibly win a gift by leaving a comment at each post.

At that first page you will find a roster of all the bloggers and which day they are posting their block so don't forget to book mark that page for easy recall.

Birgitte Heitland from Zen Chic has a fabulous block! 

I hope you enjoy the "hop" and remember, Bright Hopes Quilting is sponsoring a pincushion swap during the 3 day Sale-abration, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 19-21. Bring in a handmade pincushion in a Brown Paper Bag (no peeking) and swap it for another one made by quite possibly a friend! Put some effort into it and make sure your name is in their so if you do recognize each other, you can let them know......

We have crushed walnut shells for sale which we recommend for filling the pincushions and patterns for sale if you need a little help there. You can find patterns online if you google the words.

We'll have demonstrations of various rulers and notions as well as door prizes and fantastic new patterns and bundles all working off the 10 theme. You don't want to miss it!