FREEBIE FRIDAY

We've started something new at Jan Patek Quilts. A lot of Fridays will be Freebie Friday. Watch for them!

Today you get a FREE FAT 1/8TH PACK with every order of $20.00 or more. All Moda fabrics, of course.

Happy quilting.

A Helpful Heart

"Robbie wanted to share a newspaper article about Patrick with his class. That's when the 7th graders at Linscott Charter School decided they wanted to do something to help with medical expenses. They came up with the idea to make a quilt and raffle it off. Each student designed their own square with some sort of heart. There are squares ranging from a robot heart to a flower made out of hearts."

So reads the blog this quilt is posted on. They're raffling this quilt to help pay expenses. It would make a great gift.

To learn more about it click here.

Have a great day.

Jan

And the chickens save the day!

This is what it looked like out my front window today. One of the many reasons we live in the country is the beauty around us.

Jason came back yesterday afternoon to see if we needed anything more bladed. He widened the path through the snow up by the office so Tori & Tara could get out of their cars without standing in 10 inches of snow.

We asked him again about payment - at least for the gas - and again he said no. Then I asked him if they needed eggs. They have cows - we have chickens. I took them a couple of dozen eggs that afternoon and we struck a deal. We'll supply them with real farm eggs all year and Jason will keep our drive clear in the winter. Yahoo! One less thing to worry about. And since our chickens lay about a dozen a day in the summer and 4 - 6 a day at this time of year, eggs are not problem for us.

When I went to shut up the chickens last night, I had to have a talk with a couple of hens however. Hens lay eggs in the morning. If they're still in the nest at night it means they're "setting" - trying to hatch them. It really isn't spring yet, ladies.

We're having a Winter Warm-up Sale from today until next Tuesday. All of the winter kits are 15% off. Oh, and we threw in a couple of Flower quilt kits - have to have some hint of spring. (The prices on the Special page reflect the discounted price.)

All of the winter books and patterns are Buy 1, Get 1 Free (of equal or lesser value-yada, yada, yada)

Well, I'm going to walk up my newly bladed drive to the loft and sew. Thank you girls.

Look Ma! No new snow!

See - the path to the door is still clear. Huzzah! huzzah!

This is our neighbor up the road, Randy Turner, and his awesome 4 wheel drive pickup. He told us that the snow was so deep in the drive that it was dragging snow on the bottom. He was a welcome sight!

And this is Randy's son-in-law Jason. Jason lives straight across the road from us. Apparently last year Randy's dad, Bill, bought a Bobcat for them to play with. Randy says he just goes in circles but Jason can really manuever it.

Jason bladed up the drive, by the office, around the barn, and dug out a path for the van to come out of the barn. He even bladed a wide path from the barn to the chicken yard so I wouldn't have to wade through the deep snow.

If you're going to live in the country, these are the kind of neighbors to have. We offered to pay them but they said it was the least they could do for people who didn't gripe when half their cows ended up in our front pasture. We know all about it. We've had cows. Cows don't want to stay where they're put.

When I made my Noah quilt years ago, you will notice that the cows are not with the other animals. :)

Noah will be in the Quiltmania book that's due to be published in April.

Lots of exciting things are happening this week.

First - in 2011, the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Barbara Brackman has a Civil War Quilts blog. She's doing a BOW (block of the week) to commemorate this event. As a historian, especially a quilt and textile historian, none can match her. I'll keep her Miss Liberty button on my side panel. Just click on the button to follow the events.

Next - and this is very exciting for me. Jan Patek Quilts is on Facebook. I've been invited by lots of people to be "friends on Facebook" but never have been able to figure out how. My son Max finally said, Mom you need to do this. I'll show you how. So, we're off and running this week. Come visit us on Facebook :) Watch for a Winter Warm-up sale to celebrate this event.

Oh - and thanks for your comments about the yo-yo's. My problem is not coming up with the ideas. I have an idea. My problems is making that many yo-yo's. I'll have to go check out Bunny Hill though. Thanks again. And if you want to join a club to have a chance at winning the Petit Fours, call Tara later today. The phone number is on the side panel.

Well, I guess I won't

Go to church in Kansas City,

And then on to Brian's to watch the ballgame. Or take Cullin and Quinn's snowboots to Max's in KC. They left them here last week. Of course, Kansas City only got about 1 1/2". We got 8.

Or have our friend Mike over for dinner.

Nobody is coming or going anywhere until some of this gets packed down somehow. Last year a couple of our neighbors with 4 wheel drive pickups drove up and down people's driveways to pack them down. Hope they do it again this year. It finally seems

to be tapering off. It's still snowing, but not much.

I will stay at home and blog and sew and enjoy the beauty of the snow - make lemonaid out of lemons.

I did get out yesterday and over to Missouri Star Quilt shop to talk to Jenny for a second. They are planning some really neat retreats. The first one is in April and the theme will be 30's style quilts. If that's your love, I'd go grab a space.

And of course, being around Jenny gave me ideas. It may never come to pass but I got an idea for a quilt for my newest grandaughter, Brooke. It would have yo-yo's for pete's sake.

Here's a Lilac Hill yo-yo that just might end up in it.

Meanwhile, I'm going to plow my way to the loft and play.

Don't forget - join a club before the end of the month. We'll do a drawing for all of

these neat Moda Petit Fours from our club member rosters at the end of January.

Snow, snow, snow - Ok already, we've had winter!

Every summer (and I believe I have mentioned a gazillion times before that I hate hot weather), the months right after the 4th of July are a trial for me. I just hold on until the first real tomatoes and then I want a hard freeze. If it freezes and things stop growing we don't have to worry about getting things mowed or canned or whatever and I can go back to my real life and quilt :).

Well, after these last 2 winters I'm beginning to feel the same way about snow. It's great for Christmas - the kids need one or two good snows for sledding and snowmen and then, for Pete's sake that's enough already.

Now, I don't want things to start growing or anything but what's wrong with a couple of months of sunny days in the 40's? That would be a nice winter. :)

As it is, please bear with us. Last week we had 2 days that we were snowed in (and Tara and Tori were snowed out). Then Monday and Tuesday of this week both of them were ill enough that they couldn't work and now we're snowed in and they're snowed out again. So absolutely everything is behind - all of our shipments and orders. Hopefully the maintainer will come by today and clear the road so they can get here tomorrow. They both ran out yesterday and got things to take home to work on so we can ship them asap.

And thank all of you for your kind words and thoughts about my Bully. He is really doing sooooo much better. In fact he's pretty well back to where he was before he got sick. He's on his diuretics, his heart medicine and his new food. With all of those, he pretty well just looks and acts like an older dog (which he is) instead of a very sick, old dog. He even climbed the steps to the loft with me yesterday. I told him firmly not to but he's a bulldog. They don't listen very well. I took this picture of him this morning. You can tell he's older by the loss of muscle mass on his back but other than that, he looks pretty good - to me at least.

This is the Lilly's Hearts Mini I worked on while I was housebound last week. We'll probably ship it out as soon as we can. It's fun and simple enough to get done easily in time for Valentine's Day - - - if the snow will stop! And hearts aren't just for February - love should be with us all year long. It will be a Mini Quilt Club offering and Tori said we have enough fabric to cut 6 extra. So if you want one, I'd order it now.

Oh and be sure to jump over to my friend Deb Strain's new blog and say hi. And check out Moda's Progressive Dinner to see all the new Bake Shop goodies. Make sure you comment each day to get a chance at winning fabric. Fabric is always a good thing.

The walks are shoveled (and the stairs to the loft), the chickens, dogs, cats and birds are fed - Jake's lizard too. He came out with Jake one weekend in December and hasn't gotten back home yet. I can smell the chicken soup bubbling away - dinner is taken care of. So I'm going to go design a quilt. This is the part of winter I love!

Meeting myself coming and going!

A week ago Sunday (the 9th) I was scheduled to give a Needleturn Applique workshop for the Warrensburg Mo. Quilt Guild and then give a lecture Monday at 7:00 p.m.. Sunday morning dawned cloudy and the weather report for Monday said snow, snow, snow.... and cold. So we decided that I would go down and give the workshop as scheduled and then come home that night. Going down (and back up) Highway 13, it only takes a little over an hour and a half.

What a great group they are. Everyone jumped right into sewing and we covered a lot - inside and outside points (stars), inside and outside curves (trees), squares and rectangles (windows and dooor) and circles (berries and flower centers). If you can master those things, there isn't anything you can't applique.

The guild always has a pot luck dinner at the end of their workshops - what a neat idea! The food all looked very good but I was afraid I'd get too tired on the way home if I ate. I am not a night person anyway and driving at night makes me sleepy so I tore myself away from the food. They made me a big glass of diet coke to go. It really helped on the drive.

This is Wooly Bully, my pride and joy. He is my dog. When I am at home, where I am Bully is. He is 10 and from what I understand, that is very old for a bulldog. I took this picture of him last summer, doing his usual thing - sleeping. He's very good at sleeping.

When I got home Sunday night he was very swollen - almost twice his normal size. I realized he hadn't been following me to the top of the hill the last few day. He goes with me to feed the chickens and then goes to the office for his treat Tara keeps for him in the desk drawer. Sunday night he looked pretty sick.

This is what it looked like Monday morning - only it was still snowing. Pep and I got in the van and took Bully to the vet. Our vet up here is mainly a large animal vet and he wanted us to take Bully to a specialist in Kansas City. Bully was having trouble breathing, he was really swollen, anemic and his heart rate was rapid. The doctor gave him some diuretics and antiobiotics (he had bronchitis) and said he was afraid Bully wouldn't make it a week. I couldn't get him down to Springfield to see my brother Jim (a small animal vet) until then.

Well going to Kansas City was out of the question. We barely made it home. (Have I mentioned that we live on top of a hill on top of a series of hills?) Pep didn't go to work that night. The schools were closed up here for 3 days until the roads were cleared.

I called my brother in Springfield. He said that it sounded like congestive heart failure and the diuretics and antibiotics were a good start. He said to take him off his lamb and rice feed and get him some Senior diet because they are very low on sodium. Until we could get out to get the feed we could make our own out of hamburger or chicken and rice - no salt. He also said we could get some nitroglycerin cream to rub on his ear since you can't get a dog to let a pill dissolve under his tongue. As soon as we could get out, of course.

The diuretics started working. I spent 2 days in the house stitching because Bully had to go out to wet about every 20 minutes. As the fluid came off and the antibiotics started working his breathing eased and his gums around his teeth were pink again instead of whitish grey.

When we could get out again on Thursday, Jim suggested that we start him on Enalapril which is one of the same heart medicines I take. With Pep's insurance we pay $2.00 for mine. Bully's costs $35.00. :) He's worth it.

I had Girl Gang at Missouri Star Quilt Co. Thursday night but Pep was off work that night and took him out. By Saturday when the down south Girl Gang met at my house, he was good enough to stay in the house by himself. He's even gone up to the chicken yard and office with me a couple of times over the weekend. I keep telling him to take it easy - he's not 5 anymore.

This is Lilly's Stars, our Wallhanging Club offering for January. We've also decided to kit Lilly's Hearts. If you belong to the Club Tara will be emailing you to see which one you want. If you belong to the Club and order them both, you get 15% off of one and 30% off of the 2nd. If you don't belong to the Club and order them both, you get 15% off of each one.

And while I was housebound getting Bully better, I started on a heart Mini Quilt. I'm almost done, working in and out of teaching and appliqueing. I'll try to show you that in the next couple of days.

Right now, I'm just so thankful my Bully is almost back to his old self. My father was a vet so animals have always been a part of my life. And this one is really special to me. I'm going to probably get a bulldog puppy this summer to ease things. Bully can't live forever - but he can try!

January is National "Join a Club" month - at Jan Patek Quilts, that is.

This is the Bible Quilt. It hangs permanently in my studio. I designed this quilt years ago using Harriet Powers antique Bible Quilt as my inspiration. (I left out the aardvarks :) When I originally designed it years ago, I made two of them because of the demand - one to get to use myself and one for Trunk Shows. I have had numerous requests lately to kit it, so I'm making a 3rd one for this year's Mystery Quilt.

Obviously, the original fabrics are long gone but I'm having fun finding current fabrics that still give the feel of the original. I'll probably give it to my church when I'm finished. Anyway, the Mystery Quilt (the Mystery is what fabrics it will be made of) starts in January and we're shipping out the 1st block around the 15th.

So we decided that this is a good time to tell people new to Jan Patek Quilts about our Clubs. Obviously we have a Mystery Quilt Club that's a BOM. We also have a Featured Fabric Club (a large quilt that comes in 4 sections -3 months worth of BOM at a time), a Wallhanging/Throw Club, a Mini Quilt Club, a Quilt of the Quarter Club (a whole large quilt - one every 3 months) and the Fat Quarter Club (9 Fat 1/4's every other month).

And obviously, no one can join them all. We do have some people that try for awhile though. If you join a club, you get a 15% discount on all of the kits in that club. It doesn't cost anything to join - there's no sign-up fee. And you get a Free Scrap Bag with your first kit.

What the clubs do for me is give me a base to use when ordering the fabric. I figure how much fabric I'll need to cover the kits for the club members and then order a few more for general sale. Since I don't have a brick and mortar store, this is a great help to me. So I help you out with a discount.

These are 23 Petit Fours from Moda's new lines that were sent to me by Lissa and Debbie O. from Moda. They are simply great! I'm following Laurie Simpson's lead and doing some "re-gifting". At the end of January, we'll have a drawing of all of our Club members and give the whole set away. If you already belong to a club, your name is already in the pot. If you've been thinking of joining one of the Clubs, now would be a good time to do it. If you want more information go to the Clubs page or click on one of the clubs above and read all about them. If you already know which one you want to join call Tara at 816-632-7632 or email her at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com.

I think the Petit Fours are just awesome. Good luck ladies.

Happy 2011

Happy New Year! All quilt kits over $150.00 are 20% off!! whoop whoop! (That's Kelly - my whoop, whooper).

Our sale is Saturday, Sunday and Monday only so you might want to hurry on over to the Specials page and get one of these awesome kits to start your New Year right. Each one would make a great winter project. All prices listed are the reduced prices.

Stars and Pomegranates here is one of the kits. And we only have 3 left. If you find all of the berries intimidating just go to the "Berries" tutorial and you'll find they're as easy as pie - berry pie, that is :).

But whichever one you choose, it's sure to be a winner.

All of us at Jan Patek Quilts wish you and yours peace and prosperity this coming year.