SOMETHING BLUE

Thanks to Dot at Rantala Rags I have something to show and tell today. Dot is the first one to send me a pic of her completed Christmas Punch quilt. As you can see, Dot opted to change the colors, and doesn't it look great?!

My EQ6 project folder is over flowing with ideas and never enough time to complete them all. I am currently working on something strippy. Maybe by the end of the week I will have a picture to share.

Last Thursday and again this Thursday I am teaching a lovely class for Indian Paintbrush. I enjoy making new friends, and especially when they are making one of my patterns! Ha! Plus it is fun to see what fresh eyes and a different interpretation does to a pattern. One of the gals mentioned that she is doing a BOM where they send you a few fabrics, but with a black and white photo so you have to depend on your own imagination to create each block coloring. I like this idea of stretching your own vision. Sometimes we depend too much on the interpretaion of others.

But not Dot! She did it her way! Thanks for sharing with us Dot!

FREE CHRISTMAS PATTERN

Computers make me crazy. I can't prove that is what did it, but it is just my guess. So here is the deal, I usually work on a PC desktop. But my husband has an Apple Laptop. I actually prefer working on my own PC, never mind what the commercials on TV say. But that is another story. What I want to explain is that while looking at my blog on my husband's MAC I clicked on the free quilt image on my sidebar. It links to my website. Well my whole website shows up as a goofy mess on the MAC. I can't explain it, but it is just awful. If you have a MAC and find my website to be a mess (or any other computer) I just don't have any advice. I think it displays better on Internet Explorer. But who really knows.

So far no one has complained that they are having problems. However, if you are trying to read the directions for the free quilt pattern and are unable, and if you want to make the pattern, please e-mail me and I will e-mail the directions to you. It shouldn't be this difficult. Honestly.

Thank you for all your kind words about the pattern. I am glad you like it!

YOU MAKE ME SMILE

Yes, you make me smile! I can't tell you how many times I sit here all alone at my computer and read your comments and laugh out loud. Or I read your blogs with a big grin on my face! When my husband and I moved to Virginia nine years ago I didn't know anyone. I was barely literate on the computer. We had never had the Internet before, and so I began looking around for quilt stuff. I managed to find some quilt blogs that were great fun, and so I began winding my way into Blogland. To my great joy, I found a whole new way to interact with quilters. I found a format for sharing my projects, and I found inspiration through other quilt bloggers. I found quilt bloggers to be open and unafraid, generous with their comments, and helpful to me as I struggled to learn new computer skills. In short, I found new friends! Most of you I will probably never meet face to face, but I do enjoy dropping in for the occasional visit. There are so many bloggers out there now that I don't know everyone, and can't always keep everyone straight. I recently found myself making a comment on a blog and as I scanned thru the other comments I found that I had already been there and done that. Haha! That made me smile too!

So my friends, as this year has literally flown by, I once again offer up my little token of friendship in the form of a free Christmas pattern. It is a simple little design that I hope you will find attractive and maybe you will have a chance to make it this year. In light of all that is going on in our family, I put forth my best effort to get this out early this year. You can find the link to the free pattern by going to my website at PatchalotPatterns.com. Free patterns from years past are there as well. Feel free to share this picture and the link to my website and blog.
If you are in this area you might join me at What's Your Stitch 'N Stuff where I am doing this as a class on November 3rd.

Best Wishes and Happy Stitches!

SUMMER SUCCESS STORIES

Summer has come and gone, but for once I can say that I actually got a few things done. The photo above shows my version of the little Orange Peel quilt that I made from Kathleen Tracy's book, Remembering Adelia. It was a delight to make and it gave me an opportunity to display some of my Civil War fabrics that I love so much. I even used a few 5 inch charm squares because they were so easy to find and use. I got two little segments from each square. It added a few samples of fabrics that I only had in those charm packs. As I dug through my fabric I found this Thimbleberries fabric from years ago that was just the perfect color for the border, and the corner squares are from an old Smithsonian print that I have also had for many years. I love this little quilt, and it was made even more special by Mary Flynn at Quilt Hollow who quilted it for me. She did a lovely job and I certainly recommend her if you are looking for a quilter. Mary also quilted my red, white, and blue Prairie Paisley quilt for my grandson. It is in the collage below, and guess what---McCall's Quilting is going to publish it in their Quick Quilts magazine, July 2010 issue! I thought I was really organized to have gotten the quilt completed for a baby that is not coming until December. Now the dear child will have to wait for his quilt for a while. But I made it plenty big and he won't know the difference, and I am psyched!

The collage above shows the several things that I have completed this summer. Along with my little Orange Peel, I have completed five full size UFOs this summer to the point where they are quilted, bound, labeled and delivered to new homes. Also I designed and completed two Honor Guard quilts with the four eagles; the red, white and blue American Dreamer quilt; and two Christmas Punch quilts. I feel good!

As always, more awaits me, including the directions for the Christmas Punch quilt, which I will try to complete this week. Our LQS What's Your Stitch N Stuff had Open House this past Saturday and that was very nice. Lots of browsers looking for classes to sign up for, and lots of classes to choose from, including mine. I will be teaching Indian Paintbrush again, and then Christmas Punch in November. If you are looking for a cute little Christmas quilt to teach you might consider Christmas Punch. It is fun to make and the pattern will be free! (And you can intoduce my patterns to your quilt shop owner!) Also keep in mind that there are other free patterns at my website, PatchalotPatterns.com Also, if you have trouble on my website with overlaying words or links that don't seem to work, re-open the site in Internet Explorer. For some reason the site has issues with other internet browsers. I try, I really do. I wish these various browsers would play nice.

Today is Monday and Friday will be here in a flash! Enjoy your week everyone!

MY LOVELY PADDED CELL

Today I come to you from the confines of my padded cell. Some of you refer to your sewing space as "the sweat shop", or "the studio", or even "the kitchen". As for me, it will always be My Happy Place, where my walls are padded with layers of fabric. Some in the form of finished quilts, some on a soft wall in the process of design, and some walls are padded with stacks of my fabulous stash of mish-mashed fabrics.

I sadly have no real plan when I buy fabric, and I often chastise myself for my random purchases. But at the time of the purchase I am quite sure I felt I needed it desperately. Thus the title, Marcie Patch, Quilt Designer, Quiltmaker, and Compulsive Collector of Fine Fabrics. Sounds so much better than "Fabric Psycho!"

Oh, I actually do have a bit of a plan when I purchase. I love reproduction fabrics from the Civil War era. And that is about all it takes for me to cross the line from "shopper" to "psycho". My fabric stash is not really as mish-mashed as it would seem to the casual eye. Ninety percent of it is Civil War era, and the rest is about to be removed from my presence to a more accommodating home.

My favorite creations are those that combine newly purchased fabrics along side the old ones. It is such a thrill to me to pull out a piece of fabric that I have had for years and see it blend perfectly with something I just purchased. And I am rarely content to make a quilt from a kit or from a certain line of beautifully coordinated fabrics. What fun is that? A quilt like that contains nothing of myself in it. I need wiggle room. Even on the rare occasion when I buy a kit, I end up changing something. Actually, that is how I ended up designing quilts. I always needed to change something to make it my own.

I am not so pious as to think that my way is the only way. It is a big wide wonderful world of quilts, and each of us is free to decide where we fit in. We are all blessed with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Scrappiness! (Oh my gosh, that is the perfect name for a quilt! Don't steal that, I am hereby copyrighting it!)

New topic. With all that is going on in our family this year, I started having nightmares in early August about not getting my Christmas projects done. For the past couple of years I have offered a free little Christmas quilt pattern, or, with a change of fabric, Hanuka if you prefer. We all recognize this traditional quilt pattern. Nothing too out of the box here. But just look at how cute it is with these fabrics! Don't fabrics just make all the difference?! It measures 22.5 inches square. I am working on the instructions for this quilt and it will be available for you soon. I will post a link on the top of my blog when that happens.

Hope you get some sewing in today!