It's been a week or two................

since I said I would post the winner of the Front Porch Dessert Roll tomorrow.

The winner is Janice Fowler and her Dessert Roll shipped with her March Hare blocks.

Hope you enjoy it Janice.  I really like this fabric line.

So why did it take so long to post?

First, I had to finish the patterns that will show at Spring Market.

My new fabric line is called Castlewood.

Here's a sneak peek of "Santa's Tree Farm" a pattern designed by myself and grandson Cullen.

As soon as the deadline was over........

I got the flu.

Only time in a couple of years and the worst was over in about 36 hours but that was long enough.

Then for 3-4 days I just wanted to sit around - no get-up-and-go.

So everything took about 3 times longer than normal.

I've mostly recovered now - enough to have Cullen and Quinn up for the weekend.

We made some great cupcakes - or I supervised (and helped with the eating part)

And they made them.

Then we all took a nap - - - -  you notice that Dobby has a sock nearby :)

It's finally feeling and looking a little like spring.

To celebrate, we put Farmer's Market on sale - both the kit and the pattern.

As well as the Tulips and Leaves Kit.  But hurry if you want the kit, we only have 2 left.

Here's a closeup of Lori's awesome quilting.  

From now on I'll have to go visit my Uncle Fred & Aunt Grace if I want to see it.

My sister Nancy and I spent a wonderful week with them last summer at their home in California.

Tulips and Leaves reminds me so much of the colors and feel of their home that I'm giving it to them.

I hope they enjoy it.

And it gives me a chance to go visit again - both my Aunt and Uncle and my quilt!  :) 

March Hares - Calendar Quilt, Block 1 or Table Stand Quilt - or both

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.  Hmmm - not when you're really sick of winter!

My Sunday afternoon was spent taking all of the snowmen, holly berries, winter quilts & rugs and lovingly storing them until next year.

Out came Spring!  - Bunnies & birds & Iris!

Audra's Iris Garden got to hang in the foyer this year - last year it was traveling.

(We still have a few kits left and of course we have the patterns.)

And Farmer's Market is home this year too and went to the back of my chair.  (For the pattern, click here and click on the name for the kit.)

I tell you ladies - it is SPRING here - at least inside anyway :).

Outside's doing pretty well too - for today - this is Missouri.

And today is the first tutorial on the Calendar Quilt/ Table Stand BOM.  

I'm really excited about this.  It's lots of fun.

Block One is March Hare.

It will include the Applique block each month and a log cabin block each month.
And every month on the 10th (or as close to the 10th as we can get) a tutorial on the block will be posted and then we'll ship the kits close to the 15th.

You can buy the patterns month by month for the table stand quilts and the kits too.  However if you want to make sure you have the kits for all of them or want to make the big quilt, you need to email Tori at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com and sign up.  We'll ship kits to the sign up people first and then put the rest in the store.
We all know by now that when we run out of fabric, we run out of fabric.

And speaking of fabric, all our existing club members and anyone new that signs up will be in a drawing for this great Front Porch Dessert Roll.

We were going to have the drawing for it today but since it's a Monday, we'll wait until tomorrow so everyone has a chance to sign up that wants to.

Good luck ladies.

Moda Designers Blog Hop Day 10 -

I hope everyone has enjoyed the hop.  We always enjoy doing it.  If you missed any of the letters you can go to Moda's Blog for a link to each designer and letter to download.  There are also finishing instructions on a little quilt to make out of the letters.

Now to the important part - who won the fabric …..

And the Winner is……….

Nancy P 

Nancy P who said

Hi Jan - I'm 68 and I like my age but I would like my body to go back to age 35 -40. I think I would get more done. But I will take what I have and do what I can. Love the fabric and the pattern. Nancy P.

I had so much fun reading all of your comments - some each day.  It was good to hear that most of us like being the age we are - that makes for contented quilters.

I also think that a lot of the reason we're contented to be who and where we are is because we're quilters.

Quilting is one of the ways we take care of our souls.

Nancy, if you will email Tori at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com or call here at 816-632-7632 and give her your snail mail address, we'll send you your Fat 1/4 bundle.  Don't forget it the phone just rings and no one answers, it means she's on the phone with another quilter.

And I do have another giveaway -

A Front Porch Dessert Roll giveaway.

We do 2 BOM quilt kits each year on the website.  The Mystery Quilt, Fall Festival which has already started (see left sidebar) and

what we call a Featured Fabric Quilt.  This year it's a dual purpose quilt.  

You get an applique block each month and a log cabin block.  You can either do one each month and eventually have a full sized quilt (76"x76")

or

Sew an applique block and log cabin block together

to make an awesome Table Stand Quilt.

You can buy the blocks for the Table Stand Quilts (along with the Table Stand) on the website each month but we do have limited quantities of the kits. (You can always get the pattern)

If you want to make the big quilt or just be sure you get the Table Stand blocks each month, you need to email or call Tori at the number above to sign up.  If you decide you want to do both, there is a small discount on 2 sets of kits.

Anyway - hah, finally! - to get a chance at the Dessert Roll you need to either sign up for the series or be a continuing member from last years quilt.

We'll have a drawing of all of the members on March 10th which is when the 1st BOM tutorial goes on You Tube.

The kits should ship on the 15th - God Willing and the Creek don't rise  :)

It's been a fun hop ladies.  Thanks from all of us for coming along.

Day 7 of MODA Designers "Spell It With Fabric" Blog Hop - Y,Z

It's going to be a good day.

  

Not only do we have a couple of neat blogs to hop to but on this end the Heat Pump repairman is due.

Actually, it was kind of nice using the wood burning stove again as a source of heat.

It's a different kind of warm and since we live where we do we have lots of available wood right on our land.  We always leave some for the critters but there's still lots for us.

Getting up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire, however, wasn't quite the chore when we were younger :)

Let It Snow

Each day I've been chosing a quilt kit to put on special corresponding to one of the letters in the hop.  I don't have any Y or Z quilt kits any more so I decided to have granddaughter Zoie pick her favorite.

She picked "Let It Snow" so it's on special today.  She said she loves snowmen.  Well, she may get her wish - we're supposed to have another winter storm moving in this weekend.  Aargh!  

Well, we all know who to blame now :)

On to the hop.

My friend Barbara Brackman - maybe she got Y because she knows so many "whys" - sorry Barbara, just couldn't resist a pun here.

Zen Chic is of course, Z

and Gina Martin.

If you haven't made a comment for a chance to win the Fat 1/4 bundle of Front Porch that Moda so generously gave me to give away, click here to go to my post on the 21st and make one.  There's still time.

The random generator will pick someone and the winner will be announced tomorrow.

Good luck ladies.

CRISIS COPED WITH - DOUBLING UP TODAY - S,T,U - V,W,X

This is Day 8 of the Moda Designers Spell It With Fabric Blog Hop.

This is the wood burning stove that resides in our living room fireplace.  The fireplace isn't on an outside wall as in most houses  - it's in the middle of the house.

Before we got out Ground Source Heat Pump, it was the major source of heat in the winter.

It's been about 15 years since we used it on a regular basis.

Luckily we usually keep a good amount of wood in case the electricity goes out for days.

The electricity didn't go out -

 but the heat pump did.

It took some time but we got things perking again.  

Dampers had rusted in place and we filled the living room with smoke - yada, yada, yada but we're pretty well back to normal.

It just took a lot of time to get it up and running and then round up space heaters for the bedrooms.  I like to sleep where it's cooler but my design computer doesn't like to be chilly.

So we missed S,T,U yesterday.  If you did too, hop on back to see 

Sweetwater

Camille of Thimbleblossoms

and my good friend Sandy Gervais who had a lot of fun with U.

 Starpatch

And I've been putting a kit on special that starts with one of the letters.  My daughter Kelly really, really, really is ready for spring - aren't we all - so she wanted 2 Spring kits for the week.

Spring at the Gate

So Starpatch and Spring at the Gate are both 30% off all week.

Now today is V,W,X and we'll hop in a minute.

I searched and searched for a V,W,X kit and found a very few 

Wild Oak kits.  And I'm in a good mood since I'm warm finally so it's 50% off - today only.

Now lets go see 

Vanessa

Malka

and

Alma & Barb of Blackbird Designs

See you tomorrow.

Spell It With Fabric - Day 6 - P,Q,R

We're hopping again!.  This time our letters are P,Q, & R.

But before we leave I thought I would show you Parasol Princess since its a "P" quilt and is made out of my new Front Porch Line.

This little quilt - really it's not so little - it's 58" x 58" - got started many years ago when I picked up an antique "Southern Belle" block at a flea market.  She had embroidered arms, neck, shoes and parasol handle.

Years later, my very pink and white granddaughter Lilly fell in love with the Disney Princesses.  I used the Southern Belle block to make her a quilt of all the princesses but I do appliqué so I appliqued the arms, neck, etc.

When I decided to make it a pattern I darkened the background using Front Porch fabrics so that things would show up.

And Lori did an awesome job of quilting as usual.

 I'm usually not a "girly girl" but I just 

love my Parasol Princesses.  They are really 

challenging to appliqué 

so I'll be doing a tutorial on them in April.  My April "Table Stand Quilt" is going to be 

April Showers and will be the same block only smaller.  Anyway, I'll be showing you all how I put them together to appliqué.

The quilt kit on special today is Ring Around the Posie.  (P,Q,R).  Here's the pattern picture and the quilt on my bed.  

The color on both of them is really not true.  

This is really closer to the real colors.

Anyway, it's 15% off today.

Whew - lets go see what people are up too.

Lisa from Primitive Gatherings

Minick & Simpson got Q - I want to see what they did with it :)

and Stephanie Ryan is R on the Moda Blogspot.

See you tomorrow.

SPELL IT WITH FABRIC - DAY 5 - M,N,O

Welcome to Day 5 of the Moda Designer's Blog Hop - M, N, O.

As you probably know by now, each designer has a letter you can download and all together make a really neat alphabet quilt.  (Be sure to back up if you just got here and want them all.)  

And the letter they have usually goes with their name or something they do.

My name is Jan Patek and my company name is 

Jan Patek Quilts

so my letter is

When I got the email from Lissa saying my letter was "O", I emailed back 

sooooo…. does O stand for Old?  :)

I am the oldest designer.

My husband said it might stand for Omniscient

or Omnipotent

But I stuck with Old :)

As you might be able to tell, I think it's funny and love to tease our fearless leader, Lissa, about it.  I really enjoy being the age I am.  The only problem I find with it is that sometimes my body gets cranky and thinks I should ease up on the pace a little.  Silly of it!

To get the pattern for the O, click here.

Now for the questions.  

My letter is…. O

What are your initials? JLP

My favorite quilt block......…. Ohio Star

My favorite book, movie or television show starting with your letter...… Over My Dead Body - a Nero Wolfe mystery novel

I love quilting because.........… Only nice people quilt - mostly

What if everyday was a holiday?...… I'd get to quilt even more

Is there an object, tool or anything that you cannot work without? Sandpaper Board

Do you have a quote or motto you live ( or work) by? ……Do unto others

Something I like...… Olives

Somewhere I have been...… Oregon

Somewhere I want to go...… Ohio - I've been there too but would like to go back - great quilting state

Someone I know…. Old McDonald - well not really, but I do live in a farming community.

As you can see, I don't always stick to the rules.

For my project using my O,  I designed "O My Stars".  

I just love Circle/Stars and I just love this fabric line.

To download the patterns for the project, click here.

To purchase a kit for the quilt click here.

This is Little Houses, one of my new Front Porch patterns.  When we were making it, it dawned on me that there were 48 little windows on the little houses.  Whew! So I found an easier way to make them.  To get a tip on making all of those windows you can watch my tutorial by clicking here.

And I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at my latest fun thing!.
 We're doing a dual purpose block of the month.  Each month starting in March you will get an appliqué block and a log cabin block.  You can use them as Table Stand blocks or sew them together to make a large quilt - or both.  And you get a discount if you do both.  There's more information on the side bar.

Anyway, you can check it out at your leisure by clicking here.

Now for the part you really came for - THE FABRIC!

Moda has generously given me a Fat 1/4 bundle of Front Porch for a prize.

Make a comment saying why you like being the age you are - "cuz its fun" will do - and we'll have the random number generator pick a winner on the 28th.

And more prizes are to be had from

Barb & Mary

Kate Spain

Pat Sloan

so hop on over and see what they're up to.

See you on Monday.