Berry making

We're getting ready to send out the last section of Pomegranates and Berries - a quilt with lots and lots of berries. I'm getting familiar enough with blogging to try and show what I think is the easiest way to make lots of berries. And those of you that know me know that I love to put berries on quilts. This method works great for any kind of circle though, not just berries. So here goes.

Trace the circle on your pattern the required number of times onto freezer paper and cut the circles out.
Or if the berries are the right size (and most of mine are) buy Avery dots at your local office supply store.



Iron the freezer paper dots to the wrong side of your fabric - or simply place the Avery dots there.



Cut the fabric 1/4" larger than your pattern - 1/8" for very small berries.



(I like to keep my patterns and fabric circles in a ziploc bag so I don't lose any.)



Make a knot in your thread and do a running stitch around the outer edge of your fabric.



Pull the thread until the fabric is snugly around your paper berry. Backstitch and cut your thread.




Applique berry to background. Cut out the back and remove the paper with your fingers or with tweezers. This is one of 4 sections to a Pomegranates and Berries block. Each block has 24 berries and there are 9 blocks to the quilt. It is totally awesome to behold. Can't wait to get it on my bed - if I can keep Kelly away from it. She loves black quilts and the border is black.



If I'm doing lots and lots of berries in a block I use glue to anchor the berries before sewing. You don't need much glue - just put a dot on each side of the fabric.



Now sew the berries on by sewing up one side of a string of berries and down the other. That way you don't have to keep starting and stopping.
This is a flower from the beeskep block from "Across the Wide Missouri" by Edie McGinnis and myself. It's the KCStar BOM for 2010.



Love those berries!

We have a Winner

November Mystery Quilt Block



I really want to thank you all for all the awesome names and really nice comments in my quest to find a name for the Mystery Quilt this year. It was really hard to pick one because there were so many great choices. And I finally had to decide on one.

The 2009 Mystery Quilt will be "Cabin in the Pines". Colleen please email Tara your shipping info and she will send you a Cottage Garden kit.

I did decide to use the name "Homespun Stars" for the Featured Fabric Quilt next year so Patchworksail if you'll email Tara your info we'll ship you a Harmony Layer Cake. (Moda somehow lost my order for the Blessings precuts so I didn't get any - Hope Harmony is OK)
And since there were so many really neat entries that I liked a lot, we did a consolation drawing of all of the rest of the suggestions and Nancy of MT won either my last Harmony Layer Cake or my last Hemming House Jelly Roll. Just let Tara know.



Meanwhile it was Halloween! And since we live outside of a pretty safe small town, all of the grandkids congregated here. I don't have pictures of the 2 smallest because they came after Trick or Treating and were very tired.



Zoie had a gigantic pumpkin (not pictured) that called for the Pops and his Spiderco (sp?) knife that will cut through cars. She wanted it carved to look like a guinea pig. It did too! Pops and Max set to work and soon all of the pumpkins were carved. Quinn had gotten his pumpkin at his preschool party and didn't want a bigger one.



Then on to costumes. Uncle Max applies face make up to a "devil" of a face. (Good old Brian Jr.)



Cullen made a great snake!



What a fun night.
They were all cozy in their costumes. Grandma only wore her jean jack and almost froze to death. Silly grandma!

On October 18th, 1969 at 6:30 pm - 40 years ago - Pep Patek and I got married. His real name is Harry but his friends have always called him Pep. He is now and has always been my great, best friend. Not that we haven't had a rough time or two along the way but we've always been able to maintain our commitment to each other and to our marriage. We were very lucky. (He says this isn't a good picture of him - he wasn't smiling. Life with him has always been interesting.)



Quite a few people got the year right so we had a drawing.



Here is Zoie with her great, best friend, Afentra the Guinea Pig. She drew the angel on the door. You can look for it in a quilt some day. And she drew Alda's name from the Halloween bowl.



Alda, if you'll email Tara at info@janpatekquilts.com, she'll send you a Blessings Jelly Roll.
I almost hate for it to be over because it's so much fun to read all of the comments.
Thanks to all of you for your guesses and your congratulations.

Pep & Bruce now

You've seen pictures of Bruce Gervais and Pep in their wedding tux's. Here they are with Hassan at Fall Market in 2009.



They were watching people get their pictures taken in the Moda frame and commenting, I'm sure.
I think they've both just gotten better and better looking each year.
And I am only slightly prejudiced. They both turned out to be "keepers".

Market pics - and How Many Years

We made it home through the driving rain - not at all a fun trip. At one time heading north just before Dallas it was raining so hard that the water couldn't drain off the road. We were suddenly (in a loaded van) floating sideways as were the cars in front of us. Pep did what he calls "white knuckle driving" the rest of the way through Texas, it slacked off in Oklahoma and then set in again in Kansas. But he got us home safe and sound. Rather exhausted but here again on top of our hill.



This is Sandy Gervais' booth. I'd tell you all about Market but she did it so well I thought I'd refer you to her blog on it. I sat and laughed out loud and read it to Pep. Her pics are great too of everyone. Anyway go to Sandy's blog if you haven't already.




Edie McGinnis and I in front of our "Across the Wide Missouri" quilts. These will be the KC Star Bom for 2010.



The display in the KC Star Booth at Market for my new book "Flags of the American Revolution".



Another view of my booth with my "triangle square" quilt - Oak Leaves and Berries (due to ship with the Looking Back fabric). The triangle square exchange was great fun. Edyta Sitar's batiks (Laundry Basket) are awesome and her marketing ideas are great. If you're a shop I'd really refer you to her book Friendship Triangles.



Picture taken by Sandy Gervais at Market - what I really look like. That's Kathy Schmidt behind me.



Now a contest (within a contest - the Mystery Quilt contest won't end until Halloween - keep thinking up those names for me.) Anyway - October 18th is Pep and my anniversary. And the contest is of course, how many years.

I was thinking about it this morning. There was no Walmart. I spent about $25.00 a week on groceries but there were only 2 of us. And my math back then was as bad as it is now. We got some checks for wedding presents and I added them all up and put them in our checking account to buy things for the house we were renting. I wasn't at work so I didn't have an adding machine. I overdrew us $150.00. We had to ask Pep's parents for a loan the 1st week we were married. They were pretty neat about it. :)

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDl4Ig2vb5qTACgCtxjFSTEcoZmj6I4bJaIgpIZAGPZKpWHsO-PdeHwi7ZWA4nB0WQS9ozkp_13HWK7Rx8IpO6TNQudYMrIAjaGKZ4pmgIbDWisCXPIDvTh0KADPyD3dxRoeeIlqGP-2AJ/s1600-h/Wedding+picture+2.jpg">

Here we are leaving the reception. Pep's father had brought the champagne and liquor by the case into the hotel. Then he paid the bartender a corkage fee. So he got paid for every bottle that was opened. It was a very fun reception as most of the people from out of town were staying there and didn't have to worry about driving home. We did - so we just took a couple of bottles of champage with us.
Memories. - Good ones.
And 3 kids and 8 grandkids later, we're still building the good memories.
Anyway, I'll end this contest Saturday afternoon, the 24th. If there's more than 1 correct answer I'll have Zoie draw a name. The winner will get a Blessing Jelly Roll.

Woo-Hoo......TEXAS!!!!

This is going to be short because it's taken us last night and half of this morning just to find the picture files after we loaded them onto the computer.



Computers are NOT my thing. Luckily Pep is along. The booth is in the convention center which is not airconditioned (in the set up area only). It is warm (hot,muggy) in Houston at this time of year - I think mostly all year and it rained most of yesterday. Sandy and Bruce ran around in the rain all morning looking for a bench to put pillows on and didn't find one. I lent Sandy a stand and a couple of wire baskets and it looks great.



Here at the end of the day, Bruce and Mark Dunn (pres. of United Notions) discuss weighty matters.

While we're away.......

We'll be gone almost a week and we'll be pretty busy. So I thought I'd have you all do some work for me while we're gone.



I need a name for this year's Mystery Quilt. I've been calling it the Star Medallion but that's pretty lame.



Here's a jpg of the drawing of the whole quilt and a couple of the blocks that are sewn - can't give away the Mystery quite yet.




I thought I'd have a contest. Just give it your best shot at what I should call the quilt. This is a purely subjective contest. Enter your name in the comments section. I'll give it until the end of October - Halloween Day I'll pick a name.



And since I always miss my garden at this time of year, the winner will get a Cottage Garden kit. If I like 3 or 4 names, I'll keep them for future kits and the runner ups will get a Blessings Jelly Roll.



We're taking Pep's laptop to Market. If I can figure out his photo program and get the camera to work on it (big "ifs" for this not computer person) I'll blog from Market. But I will at least be able to read your entrys. This will be fun.
Better get back to sleep for awhile.
Keep quilting.