Day #3 - Lots More Goodies

Day 3 brings us to the blogs of 5 more great Moda designers. You won't want to miss the quilt blocks and giveaways of:

1) Bonnie of Cotton Way

2) Kaari of French General

3) Liesl of Oliver and S

4) Karla of Sweetwater and

5) Ellen of The Long Thread

They've really got some neat stuff for you.

Back here I'd like you to meet Byron (or Max to his dad & I). Here he is with sons Quinn & Cullen. (Quinn had decided he didn't want his picture taken.) Byron does all of the computer work - first of all figuring out how to make the new updated Quickbooks work, then invoicing and charging all of the clubs and orders. Then he emails the invoices to Tori who ships them out. He does all of this while going to school and raising 2 very active boys. And he is greatly helped in the raising, etc. by his significant other Michele. Michele is the one who makes things "download" and figures out how to get my fabric as a background on the blog. Together, they're a pretty good team as well as being pretty nice individually.

When I asked him which kit he wanted to put on special he replied that he wanted one with eggs or chickens or devils - something to go with his Deviled Egg recipe. I've had some chicken kits (Flags & Chickens & Kids) and a little devil in the Trick or Treat kit but they're all sold out. So we decided on Blessings Baskets. The vines wouldn't be growing at this time of year, after all, so we can use the baskets to gather eggs. :) Use the promo code blessings15 for the discount and blessingsship for free shipping.

Download Now!

To download a copy of his recipe, click on the words. Well, it didn't work this time. We'll see what we can fix it to download tomorrow. I just love left brain stuff. :)

Day # 2

There are 5 great Moda designer's blogs to hop to today. Along with Lynne from Kansas Troubles are Joanna at Fig Tree, Julie of Cosmo Cricket, Lucie fromSummersville and Liz at Paper Pie. Each and every one of the has a great block for your Moda Sampler Quilt. And there are some great giveaways too.

Back here at Jan Patek Quilts Tori is my Girl Friday. She cuts kits, orders fabric, prints patterns and does all of the shipping. Lately the shipping has involved a trip to Kidder twice a week (1/2 hour each way) so we can be sure to get things out. Unfortunately for some reason our local post office is somewhat unreliable since last March. And right now Tori and her family are moving to a new house. Nobody was in any shape for pictures so we'll have to do that sometime later. I really hate it when people post bad pictures of me so I don't want to do it to Tori and Wendy. Anyway, Tori has picked Family Circle as her kit for you. To get 15% off just type in the code "family15" and then "familyship" will get you free shipping too. Family is certainly uppermost in her mind right now.

Here's her recipe for a great dip for the Holidays. In her words "there are no real directions for the cheese dip. Just throw it together and call it good!" Sounds yummy to me.

To download a copy of the recipe sheet hit the button below.

Download Now!

Day #1 - 4 Great Moda Designers & Triple Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies too

Today is Day 1 of the December Moda Designers Blog Hop. Each day four or five of the designers will show you the quilt block and recipe that they presented at the schoolhouse session at Salt Lake. You'll be able to download their patterns and recipes - a little Holiday gift to you from us. And some of the designers that weren't at Market have added a block and recipe to the mix. At the end of the week you'll have the blocks for a great sampler quilt (my favorite kind of quilt) and maybe even a wallhanging or two and lots of great recipes.

The designers featured today are:

Minick and Simpson - (you've got to see Polly's house and I want that giveaway rug)

Bunny Hill's Anne Sutton

Barb & Mary from Me & My Sister

Deb Strain

Meanwhile, at Jan Patek Quilts, I needed something to post each day besides the designer picture. It's a neat picture but could get really boring after a day or two. I decided that everyone here could get in on the act. Each day you'll meet one of the great people who help Jan Patek Quilts stay together so I can design and sew - my favorite things in the world outside of my family and dog. And they'll give us a recipe for our Christmas party and pick their favorite kit to be on sale for the day.

So today meet Wendy Karr. What - no picture. Well Wendy is camera shy and was helping Tori and her family move Friday before the rain set in, so no picture ........ yet. I have my camera ready and am waiting. Check back later.

You see Wendy's name on the pattern covers or books under "sewer". Wendy is an absolute whiz at piecing and machine applique. She does, however, hand all blocks that need hand applique over to me (or Amy or Marie). For some reason, she's just stymied by the hand work. Which really is fine with me because it's my absolute favorite thing to do. My day is not complete without some stitching to do each morning and night.

The quilt kit that Wendy picked is Tic-Tac Baskets. As you can see, it's just made for her - great piecing and machine applique. Today, until midnight, it's 15% off and free shipping. Just type in the code Tic Tac Baskets to get 15% off and then Tic Tac to get free shipping on your kit. We're new to the "coupon" thing so if you have any problems email Tori at jpqinvoices@yahoo.com (Byron's in class today) and we'll fix it.

Wendy, poor girl, just returned from a week in Hawaii so she said her recipe had to have macadamia nuts in it. I can't wait until our office party to taste them.

To print out a copy of the recipe sheet, click on "Download Now" below.

Download Now!

Come back tomorrow to get the links to 5 more Moda designers and their patterns. And to meet Tori and see what she has for us.

Ok, ok - so it's Winter

It seems that our days when it's in the high 60's are over here for awhile - probably quite awhile. At least we're not far enough north that we're getting snow already. I think we were already last year though.

The house is slowly changing seasons - Bittersweet wreath returned to the peg in the back room, Stars & evergreens on the door, twinkly lights overhead.

Dresden Turkeys came off of the back wall and will return to the loft while our latest Sue's Snowman Basket came down to the house. This is the latest Mini Quilt Club offering so if you belong to that club yours will be shipped next week. I really like snowmen because they're great for Christmas but then carry over into the new year since winter usually carries on after Christmas. And it's quick and easy and along with "Here Comes Santa" should give you something to stitch on each night.

And speaking of Christmas and stitching, a gift from Jan Patek Quilts to you - a free pattern or book (excluding KC Star and Quiltmania books) will be included with every order from now until the 1st of the year. That includes our Club & BOM shipments.

I'm working on next year's Mystery Quilt and the Blog Hop Pumpkin Tablerunner (still holding onto Fall a little - in my heart at least) every morning and night. It is pretty cold outside so Deuces decided to stay in and entertain us by playing with Spike while I stitched and Pep watched TV. They really like each other and didn't tire of playing until Pep had to get ready for work.

The Blog Hop starts Monday and we have some goodies in mind - Dec. 5th - 9th. See you then.

Skipping Black Friday.......

The last 2 years Kelly and I have cheerfully gotten up before the crack of dawn to join the throngs of shoppers looking for a deal on Christmas goodies. This year there just wasn't anything we wanted that was offered. So we just as cheerfully slept a little late after a great Thanksgiving dinner.

It was supposed to start raining Friday night so that morning I planted some bulbs (a little late here) and Jake turned over a couple of beds in the garden to ready them for Spring. We have some walking Egyptian onions that refuse to stay where they're put and we always have go get them out of the other beds or they'll take over. Grandma Laird's iris are safe for another year, thanks to Jake.

And our house and garden still have most of the vestiges of Happy Hollow. I do so love Fall.

I pulled all of the marigold plants, shook them a little and then laid them in the beds. Playing in the garden was a great way to spend the day. Then in the afternoon, we jumped in the car and went to Max's to have some post Thanksgiving pizza and cake with Max and Quinn and Cullen. Michele got home - she's working at Sears for the holidays and had gotten to work at 3:45. She said it wasn't too bad, all in all, for Black Friday.

Can you tell I'm not quite ready to let go of Fall?

I'm afraid Winter is on it's way though. The temperatures have drastically fallen.

I have one awesome potted plant that doing it's best to hold on. I almost feel like bringing it in the house tonight. Probably will.

We're getting excited and ready for the Moda Blog Hop though - Don't forget - December 5-9th.

It's beginning to look a lot like..............

But let's have Thanksgiving first, please.

I just love our Dresden Turkeys wallhanging. It is, of course on the wall at our house. If you haven't gotten a kit already you probably won't be able to get one made for this year but you could be stitching on Thanksgiving Day while watching (or not watching) the football games of choice. Be sure to order a Dresden Tool too as it makes things so much easier. Then you can feel very self satisfied as you're already ahead of the game for next year :).

"Santa's Coming" is our newest Wallhanging Club quilt so if you belong to that club, yours is on it's way. If not, you have plenty of time to order a kit and get it made in time. The piecing is really easy.

If you happen to live in France or Europe, you can get the pattern in Quiltmania's newest magazine Simply Vintage. The directions, of course, are in French.

And be sure to keep checking in for Moda's latest - this time very short - Blog Hop starting December 5th. I'm not sure which day I'll be posting yet. We'll all be downloading the patterns and recipes we did for the schoolhouse last spring. And I decided to take the block and make a tablerunner/wallhanging so I'll also be downloading the pattern for that. All of this downloading, of course, depends on whether I can sweet talk Michele into setting it up for me. Have I mentioned more than a million times that I am NOT a very left brain person. I'm sure she will, she's very nice.

Well, off to designing, the grocery store, picking up feed at Coop, Jake's school Christmas parade tomorrow, picking up Cullen and Quinn for the parade, yada, yada, yada.

And tonight I will get to sit and stich. :)

It's Veteran's Day

Most of you who follow this blog (or have just read my books over the years) know that we're a pretty military family. My father was career Army, Pep's father was career Navy and Jake's father is career Air Force.

So Veteran's Day is pretty important to us. And it's a day for the country as a whole to stop and remember to say "thank you" to all of the men and women (my aunt Janet was a WAC) who have served their country so well and kept us all safe.

We thought it would be nice to celebrate Veteran's Day by cutting the price of two of our patriotic quilt kits.

My idea was to offer Jake's Eagles and Four Flags for 20% off today. But Kelly sends out our emails and she made it 20% off for a week. Good idea Kelly.

The kits would make a nice gift for a quilter who has served or has a spouse serving. And really, they're both pretty simple to make and could easily be done in time for the holidays.

But you don't need a quilt to say "thanks". It's just one way of remembering. Our local veterans were selling things outside of Walmart this week. I didn't need a cap but I gave some money anyway. When they said thanks, I said - "And thank you!" Let's make sure we do.