Happy Valentines' Month!

"Quilting is like love. Enter it with abandon or not at all."

Greetings Quilter -

With the popularity of the Quilt as You Go project DVDs, we thought it would be fun to do a live Quilt as You Go project in TheQuiltingCoach.com.

This project will be one week at a time, and include how to create a Quilt as You Go block using a foundation pieced method (so your quilting and piecing are accomplished at the same time). Then we will add sashing with cornerstones and binding. This should be a fun project, and present some interesting challenges. After all, you said you were interesting in something a little more challenging!

The quilt block, 3 Kings Journey, was chosen because it will be easy to sew as a foundation pieced block. This would make a great Christmas wall hanging, especially if done in reds and greens.

You’ll have plenty of time to make more than one for Christmas. Hang one on your wall, and give them to your family and friends at Thanksgiving so they will have new Christmas decorations this year!

TheQuiltingCoach.com will be updated each week with a new lesson for the project. Quilt along with us, or watch and save the instructions for a future project. Jump into the Discussion Forum and let us know your progress. You can post pictures, too – of your successes or challenges!

If you are not already a member, join today and get one month free. If you have purchased something from us recently and paid by credit card, your membership should be activated automatically. If you paid with PayPal, visit the site and enroll for your FREE membership.

This is a project you won't want to miss!

Quilting Business on a Shoestring

Stop putting your dreams on hold when you can turn your quilting passion into an online business that easily makes 6 figures a year . . .

Have you ever thought about starting your own business?

Maybe you dream of having a huge business. Or maybe it is a business that simply supports your fabric purchases.

Maybe it’s not really the business you dream of, but the vacation, vacation home, quilting studio, or the extra cash you will have with a successful business doing something you love to do.

So, what is stopping you from starting your very own quilting business?

Are you confused? Don’t know where to start? Don’t think you know enough about quilting, or business.

Or maybe you are surrounded by skeptics who think that this is a really bad time to start a business; or they tell you that living in a [small, large, urban, rural -fill in the blank] town and starting a business would certainly result in failure.

With the economy struggling, now might sound like a crazy time to start a business, but did you know that more millionaires were made during the Great Depression than during any other time in history.

For a very limited time, the DVD recordings of the Quilting Business in a Shoestring Seminar are available.

http://thequiltingcoach.com/success.shtml

As amazing as it might sound, using the strategies disclosed during this Seminar, my business increased last year - even in the crummy economy - and is picking up steam this year, too.

This is not a complicated business. I work from home and love every day - and you can, too.

Watch the videos in the comfort of your home and at your speed. No travel or hotel room, just pop the DVDs into your TV or computer and get ready to blast into a fabulous 2009 with this valuable information.

This will be available only until February 2.

Happy Quilting!

penny halgren

Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversation

Mark your calendar for next Sunday evening -

Bonnie is known for her scrap quilts and her Scrap Users System. I don’t know about your scraps, but mine are a mess. I’ve got cardboard boxes with bits and pieces of fabric kind of sorted by color. But, then, there are the pieces that are left over from strip piecing, and have two or more colors of fabric.

And Bonnie has tips for keeping them organized and ready to make quilts. One thing she suggests is to keep them cut and sorted into size groups. She sorts all of the strips that are longer than 12 inches by width - 1 1/2 inches; 2 inches; 2 1/2 inches and 3 inches.
Anything smaller than 12 inches gets cut into squares and bricks (rectangles). The squares are the same sizes as the width of the strips (1 1/2," 2," 2 1/2," and 3") and the bricks are cut into pieces that are 2" by 3 1/2," 2 1/2" by 4 1/2," or 3 1/2" by 6 1/2."

And, because they are sorted, you can keep your stack of cut scraps next to your sewing machine and use them as starters and finishers as you are chain piecing. Just pick up a pair and sew them together, so you never need to cut threads from other sewing. Magically your stack of sewn-together pairs will grow, and when you are ready to make a quilt, much of the work will be done.

Bonnie’s website is: www.Quiltville.com

Click here to Register for the call & Get more information

Postcard Quilts for the Troops – All aboard for Spring!

There is still plenty of time to send cards for the Spring Roundup.

To make the Spring deadline, get your cards to Diane by March 8.

Please send your cards to:
Diane Malaznik
14215 Westmore St.
Livonia, MI 48154-4149

Diane is doing a fabulous job keeping the pictures updated, and if you have sent cards in, let your friends and family know that they can see pictures of them here: www.Fabric-Postcards.com

Remember you can get FREE postcard patterns at: www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

Featured Block in Video

heart quilt block

With Valentines' Day coming up, it seems like the perfect time for a really easy-to-make quilt block in the shape of a heart. This block should take you just a few minutes to make

Get a free download of this pattern at www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com and check out the other heart quilt patterns there, too!

While you're there, invest in Pattern Credits (minimum $54) and get a FREE DVD showing 6 different ways to sew Half-Square Triangles together. We've only got a few of these left, so get yours quick.

Enjoy!

BOOK OF THE MONTH – Quick Star Quilts and Beyond

Stop making star quilts the hard way!

Using the techniques divulged in this brand new quilting resource, making star quilts is now easy - and your bed-size star quilt will be complete in no time at all.

ohio star quilt block

You can never have too many star quilts. You can make individual star blocks created by piecing squares, triangles and half-square triangles, such as an Ohio Star or a star like the Time and Tide quilt block. time and tide quilt pattern

Using star blocks pieced in this fashion, you can often create some secondary designs in your quilts, which makes for some fun and interesting quilts.

There are two other stars that are like the grandaddys of all star quilts - the Star of Bethlehem Quilt and Broken Star Quilt.

These quilts are typically made from smaller diamonds that are pieced to create a large 8 pointed star. The Star of Bethlehem (sometimes called Lone Star) has a large 8 pointed star as its centerpiece, while the Broken Star includes diamonds surrounding the center star.

While these quilts are all very fun to make, they are also a lot of work.

Oh, there are some shortcut, strip piecing methods that will save time and aggravation in piecing the smaller diamonds in order to create the star points, but, still, there are a lot of little pieces.
But, what if you want something that is easy to make while being interesting and dramatic? What if you could create a broken star quilt that had the illusion of 3 dimensions - using a really easy technique?

Now you can!

quick star quilts

Jan Krentz is an award-winning quilter, designer and author who has taught quiltmaking for more than 20 years, and Jan loves stars. When you look at her gallery of quilts, you will see stars. Mostly big stars that are the focus of each quilt.

With Jan's newest quilting resource, Quick Star Quilts & Beyond, you will learn how to make these beautiful big stars in a breeze.

This is a brand new resource from C&T, fresh on the stands in February, and promises to be one of those quilting books that stays around for a long time.

http://www.how-to-quilt.com/quickstarquilts.php

The Deadline to Reserve Your Copy of Quick Star Quilts is Today - February 2!

February Quilt Block Patterns

The January selection of free quilt block patterns includes some especially for celebrating Valentine's Day as well as some great quilt patterns for any time of the year.