Stitchin’ Heaven Howdy

Alright, Ladies & Gents, today is the last day of the month….You know what that means, right? Earlier this month we showcased the new Nuance Fabric line by Paula Nedelstern for Benartex. We challenged you to give your idea of what you would do with this wonderful fabric line. You’ve given some great ones, too! Got more? Or haven’t commented yet? Get your comments in before the end of the day! Over the weekend we’re going to chose from our “10 Best Ideas” and post them for voting! Winner will recieve the complete fat quarter assortment of the whole line!  How great is that??!!

Summer of Fun

We’re into our 7th week already!  This has been better than we had anticipated. We have over 300  participating.  Wonderful, right!?  Thank you all and please continue to write in about your progress, although, we have’t gotten many pictures..Hmmm… So, we’ve been throwing the idea around about doing another Summer of Fun type party, but for Christmas…What do you think? Please let us know or send us your suggestions. We hope to have a decision made soon so please let us know what you think or how you might like it to work!

August Blocks of the Month

We have so many things going on here at Stitchin’ Heaven, ALL the time! Our blocks of the month programs keep us pretty busy as we hope they do for you, too. Just in case you don’t have enough to do, how about doing a block of the month? Ya know, you can think of it as sort of like a quilt layaway program, except you get to take a little piece home a month.  We allow you pay it out over the course of usually 12 months, 24 for Dear Jane, and you get to work on a block at a time, so you can do it piece by piece instead of trying to decide where to start. We make it really easy for ya, too. We offer online color charts and upon request can mail you one. We offer a huge variety to chose from, and if you’re unsure of the skill level we are here to help you decide which program is best for you. We always  have friendly customer support! You can call us, email us or walk in if you have any questions or just need some help. Mistakes?  That’s ok, too!  We are here to help you through them and always have what you need.

We have some really great programs starting so please visit our Blocks of the Month page and see for yourself!

Don’t forget to give your ideas for the Nuance Fabric line & ideas for a Holiday Block Party! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and stay cool!

When Angela Wylie, one of our local customers and cousin to Sandra (our BOM manager), came in last week with her “show and tell” we definately had to show and tell you all we knew about it!  This amazing nautical quilt was inspired by Angela’s desire to do something challenging.  Ruth B. McDowell once said “If you can draw it, you can quilt it”, that has stuck with Angela ever since, and that is exactly what she did.  Angela found a picture of a ship that she blew up on a projector and then traced it.  The center and corners of this quilt are hand pieced AND quilted!  The quilt also includes curved peicing that she assures is an easy technique to learn!

With doing this quilt while her hubby was at work it only took from October to January to piece and about 6 months to hand quilt. Angela says she find peace in quilting and that it is her therapy.

When I asked who the quilt was for Angela quickly answered “Me”, but will be passed on to her son when she’s ready to give it up!

We always invite you to send in your projects and quilts and your story.

Please let us know what you think, too, of this gorgeous masterpiece!

Speaking of sharing….How are you all doing with your Summer of Fun? I haven’t heard too much from anyone, guess that means you’re all having too much fun, right? I’d like to hear what you all think and how it’s going for you? Anyone doing it as a group or with someone else?

Hope you all are enjoying the summer! Talk to you soon & can’t wait to hear from you!

If you’re not following us on Twitter be sure to do so, we ofer special deals and promotions for our followers along with our Facebook fans! So, please come and join us!

I’m in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, fellow purse-aholics! My friend Jill Reiks just had a toe-tapping machine embroidery fling that was a blast! Jill’s shop is Pine Needles . Jill is a friend from way back, and I’ve been having fun playing with all of the Bernina machines. It won’t be long until the developers design a sewing machine that will wash and fold laundry while you sew!  (LOL Don’t we all wish?)

My bag this month is the fun Ruffle Tote made from Hot Blossom fabrics by Josephine Kimberling for Robert Kaufman. I made a bunch of coin purses that go with this bag to give as little “happies” as I run into fun quilters around Iowa. MORE people have commented on this bag this month, from waitresses to dry cleaners! Don’t you find that sometimes something you made just suits you so well that oodles of people comment on it?
“Patchwork quilts remind me of the Iowa landscape looking down from the air. Some farms are laid out in orderly rectangles pieced together in greens, yellows and browns. Other fields look like appliquéd quilts, with ellipses of grasses stitched around slopes to protect the soil beneath. Here and there, the landscape becomes a crazy quilt, a hodge-podge of oddly shaped pieces joining at odd angles, appealingly pattern-less.” (Christie Vilsack)

I just love this opening paragraph to an article former Iowa First Lady CHRISTIE VILSACK wrote a few years back. The whole article about quilting in Iowa is really great.

I’m taking the barn quilt tour of Iowa for the rest of the month, so I may bump into you if you live in Iowa! Iowa is one of those states where people have painted quilts on the sides of their barns, and it is a fun trip to find as many painted quilt barns as possible. Here is one site that talks about a 4-H project of painting quilts on barns.

If you see a brunette with this bag taking pictures of barns or in a fabric or quilt shop in Iowa this month, it might possibly be me, so be sure to stop me and say “Hi!”.

Till next time, here’s to never having too many bags, totes or purses…and never having enough fabric!

~ Perse

Wow, the time sure does fly when you’re having fun! We’re already going on Week #4 this week! So far, we have over 300 participants! Thank you all!
We are doing the red version here in the shop but would love for anyone doing the blue or black to send in your pics so we can share them!

More fun Stuff!

We can’t hardly contain ourselves with fun stuff! Well, when new lines of fabric are about to be released, Benartex will send a fat quarter pack of one of each fabric in the line.  We sometimes find projects to make out of them and sometimes we’ve just randomly drawn a customer and send as a giveaway!

This time, though, we want to take a poll! We can’t let this fabric line just pass us by without a project! What line is it, you ask?  Nuance by Paula Nedelstern.  Nuance’s stunning shapes and vibrant colors come together to make a collection that will literally get ideas moving! Which is what we want! So, here’s the scoop: for the rest of July we want you to send in your comments letting us know what YOU would do with this fabric if it was yours. At the end of the month we will pull together our 10 favorite ideas and then post again as a poll for everyone to vote on. The idea with the most comment votes will win this beautifulpack of 28 fat quarters!! So, be sure you let everyone know and there is no limit to ideas, you can submit as many ideas you can come up with!  To see this entire collection of Nuance, go to the Benartex website here…

Ok, so ready?….Set?….Go! Let us know what you would do with this fabric!

Also, don’t forget to submit your summer of fun blocks and share your Summer of Fun!

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