It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Crazy Moose Messages from Crazy at the Cabin

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Just like this Merry Christ-moose, hope you are all decorated, with presents wrapped, and Santa's cookies made!  If you are anything like me, that is a bit of wishful thinking, but I hope to be baking and wrapping later today!  

"Seeing Red" from Crazy or Not

 The decorations (quilts) are hung by the chimney with care...but I do have a hard time deciding which quilts go where!

"Believe" from Stir Crazy

Or, maybe this one?

The quilts on the ladder from top to bottom are: "Oh Christmas Tree" from Undeniably Crazy (out of print), "Going in Circles" from "Certifably Crazy" (also out of print), "Countdown to Christmas" from "Completely Crazy" (Yeah! it's available!), and at the bottom is what I believe is called "Christmas Quilt" by Cheri Saffiote Payne.  






This year these are the two quilts that will be on the boy's beds (another thing on my to-do list but Ross won't be here until late Thursday night so I have time!)

"We've Been Good All Year" from Still Crazy

"Santa Baby" from Positively Crazy

 Or maybe this one.....I just can't decide!

"Up on the Housetop" from Completely Crazy

Kathy Woods generously got this Crazy Chiristmas Tree quilt all quilted in time for Christmas! This quilt was made using the tree block from "Crazy Favorite Things".  Now I just need to get the binding on and it will be ready for a long winter's nap!  I'm planning on doing a red, green, and cream candy cane binding from my leftover portions of fat quarters similar to the one shown above on "Up on the Housetop".  

This binding looks difficult, but it's really easy!  Just cut 2-1/2" strips and stitch them together lengthwise, alternating the colors red, cream, green, red, cream, green, to make a strip set.  Or for two-colored binding, just red, cream, red, cream. Then, cut 2-1/2" wide bias binding strips from the strip sets.  The one thing about using the leftovers from the fat quarters, the strips are only half as long, about 21", instead of full 42" long width of fabric strips, so I would recommend piecing two similar colored strips (i.e. cream) together lengthwise and then make the strip set from these longer strips. That is my "Merry Christmas" hint to share with all of you!

I do hope you're all enjoying your own holiday season, and may it be full of blessings and joy! Know that I count each of you as a blessing and thank you for your friendship and support!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas too!

Countdown to Christmas kit

I'm almost through with my second year in business as One Sister, and want to thank all of you for your faithful and loyal support!  And to help you get a jump on your holiday gift giving, now through November 30th, 

enter coupon code: 

MERRYCHRISTMAS 

to receive 20% off your entire purchase! 

I've just added gift cards to the site at the top of the home page, and this discount code will apply to all gift cards purchased, so you can purchase a $100 gift card for only $80!  But only until November 30th!

  

Gloria just made this Crazy Christmas Tree quilt for me....you, too, can get into the holiday spirit and make this quick and fun Crazy Christmas Trees using the tree block pattern from Crazy Favorite Things!  









Be sure to check out my newest fabric line "Folk Art Flannels" and all of the beautiful Japanese taupes that are a recent addition to the site!  There are also many new kits and notions and books, oh my!  

May your season be bright, and thank you for the many blessings you've brought to my life!

Janet

It just never slows down around here!

It doesn't seem like it's been that long since I've chatted with you all, but there's been a lots going on!  First off, let me share with you that I'm so excited that my new flannel line "Folk Art Flannels" has arrived!  Can't wait to start piecing the project for this line-it's next on my to-list! But before allowing myself  to piece, I needed to get everything added to my website so you all can check it out!  

New from Yoko Saito!

In addition to the new flannel line, I've added new products from market, including great new books by Yoko Saito, including "Yoko Saito's Quilts & Projects from my Favorite Fabrics".  I, too, love the Japanese taupes and centenary fabrics and have a terrible compulsion to collect them....not by the yard or half yard...oh no, for me it's by the bolt!  In my defense, they are a bit hard to find, so I've finally decided to share and have added nearly every bolt so that you can collect them also! Click here to start, or add to, your collection!  

My booth at market

Tom & I had fun at market and it was fun to see everyone in addition to finding fun new projects! And the special quilt displays are always great fun to see!  This was the second year that Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine sponsored a "Primitive and Folk Art Quilts" exhibit, and my second year to help judge the quilts to be used in the exhibit, so imagine my surprise when I came around the corner and saw my "Folk Art Blooms" quilt made by Georgia Suwanee with a third place ribbon!  Congratulations Georgia!  Check out the quick video I made of several of the quilts in the exhibit!  It was a very nice exhibit this year! 

After got home from market, I turned around and left to go teach crazy piecing in Molson, WA.  There was a great group of ladies and all were very successful.  Here are a few pictures of the ladies with their blocks!  From the top left and going clockwise, the quilts are "Crazy Goose Chase" from Certifiably Crazy, "Poker Run" from Crazy Fun N Games, "Crazy Little Teapots" from Still Crazy,"What a Hoot" from Crazy at the Cabin, "Let is Snow" from Crazy Snow Days, and "Chicks in the Garden" from Crazy Favorite Things.  I've been having lots of fun teaching!  I taught closer to home in October in Deer Park at Ed & Jean's Quilt Shop and in Helena, MT at the Prickly Pear.  It's been fun having students piecing from both old Buggy Barn books and the new One Sister books! Be sure to check out my teaching schedule under the "Classes" heading to see if I'll be teaching near you!

I've even had first time crazy piecers in class making "Moose Messages", and even though there are a lot more pieces per block, they did just fine!  It was my sister Kathy's birthday this week, so this moose message is very appropriate!  Along with sister Sue and our spouses (and Zack!), we all got together for dinner and this sister selfie! 

It's hard to believe that it's been an entire year ago this week that we had a huge storm that knocked out power and damaged homes across the area, ours included. The house, garage, and barn all got new roofs toward the end of summer, and this week the contractor is finally in to repair the water damage to son Ross's bedroom and the kitchen.  And that means saying goodbye to the Arizona Wildcats red and blue color scheme in his bedroom!  Darn!  The contractors aren't quite done, and I don't have my kitchen and front room back yet but I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to get cleaned up and cook for Thanksgiving dinner!  So as I count my blessings this year, know that I've counted each of you! Take care, and blessings of the season!

Back Porch Quilts book has arrived!!

My first One Sister appliqué book, Back Porch Quilts, is finally here!  This book is in the same style of two my previous Buggy Barn books, "Farm Fresh" and "Crazy for Applique" since it has a garden theme, and as my son Zack says, "It's just like looking out the window"!

"On My Back Porch" is made mostly with my current fabric line "Better at the Lake" with sprinklings of my other fabric lines thrown in!  It is written block of the month style, and the kits are packaged in ten blocks.  The kit is available as a whole kit, getting all ten blocks at once, or as a block of the month, one block at a time.  If you want to participate in the block of the month, just email me and I will email you back an invoice to get started! 

I made this wool piece to show the alternate flag design!  But please note, my kits are made with fabric for the American flag as shown above.

Also in the book is  my "Celebrate" quilt.  As with many good scrap quilts, this one started with a need to reduce the size of my scrap basket (that was wishful thinking!).  It was the beginning of the new year, the completion of my first year in business as One Sister, and I wanted something to commemorate my quilting adventure thus far! And so, using the hexagons from my first One Sister fabric line, “Note to Self” and scraps from all of the quilts I’d made that first year, I began to celebrate!  The hexagon note fabric (2 yards required) and the tan check (3/4 yard required) for the centers behind the flowers are both available on my site.

There are two smaller projects, Patchwork Posies and a 3 ring binder cover that are perfect class projects for those wanting to learn to appliqué!

And now it's off to international quilt market in Houston Tom and I go this week! It's going to be in the 80's in Houston!!  It'll be like vacation! If not for the work!  Friday is schoolhouse, a series of informational presentations that's always a must do: it's like a preview to market!  It's great for shop owners and those of us who just want to be in the know about the latest and greatest! I will be with the Henry Glass folks at 12:10 in room 381B and with the Martingale folks at 3:45 in room 351B.  Below is a poster that Martingale made showing the times for my book signings for my Crazy at the Cabin book- you really don't want to miss one of these! And guess who will be in my booth while I'm out and about-that's right!  Tom will be holding down the fort!

Writing this blog post has been very helpful for me, helping to get myself organized and figuring out where I'm suppose to be when, instead of scrambling around the morning of, which makes Tom crazy, and we need to keep my helper happy!

At the schoolhouses, I'll be sharing this  scrappy version of "Wish Upon a Star" from the Crazy at the Cabin book that Gloria made up last week out of my brand new "Cherry Blossoms" fabric!  I love how this line turned out!  

Here's a peek at the production samples.  There are fabulous plaids also- not sure why I forgot to put them in the photo, but they are all cut up and in a quilt now!  The fabric should be arriving in December!

You'll also be seeing my new line "Autumn Song" that has a great crazy quilt panel with swag border (to use on Tom Turkey!!) and lovely fall colors.

And "Sunshine and Shadows", a lovely teal-blue, taupe, and yellow line. Remember playing shadow tag on a sunny day? There's one more new line that we just finished working on, but not sure if you'll get to see it this time, but we just keep those fabric lines coming!  You can never have too much fabric!

As soon as I get home, I'll be headed to Molson, WA to teach!  That class is full, but be sure to check on my site and see where else I'll be teaching and maybe I'll see you soon!  It was so much fun catching up with friends this month at both the Prickly Pear in Helena, MT and at Ed and Jean's Quilt Shop in Deer Park, WA.  

Long-time friends Connie and Nicki surprised me in Deer Park!  It was wonderful to see them and to meet and make new friends!  

And in Helena, Gena shared this fabulous Crazy Cow quilt.  I hate to even share it with you since you can NO LONGER GET THE BOOK- IT'S OUT OF PRINT! But Gena did such a great job, I just had to share!  I love teaching and seeing all of you!  Miss you all, but hope to see you again soon! 

Back Porch Quilts

Today is a good day!  I'm binding "My Back Porch", and it's a beautiful fall day so I'm going to enjoy a bit of it stitching on the porch since my new book is off to the printer!  

The bush maples in our wind break are stunning this time of year!  I so enjoy all of the fall color in the trees!  

I'm headed to Helena, Montana to Prickly Pear Quilts to teach this weekend, so I will have a beautiful drive!  The tamaracks are gorgeous, shown here from my trip last year!  I'm looking forward to seeing Connie and everyone again this year! 

Crazy Moose Messages from the book Crazy at the Cabin

Although I love summer, I also enjoy the fall!  I've been waiting for the moose to travel through to head back north: they are pretty dependable, June and September they go by!  Use to be, we'd know they'd been here since they'd usually go right through the electric fence.  One morning I thought I had an extra horse out in the pasture but it was a moose!  Now, without Gus, there's no fence to let me know they've been by...if only they'd send a Moose Message!  I'm fairly certain they went by after dark a few days ago. Murphy was encouraging something to move along and it sure sounded larger than a deer as it galloped away!   

What a Hoot from the book Crazy at the Cabin

Murphy is such a goof ball, he even chases the owl that swoops across the pasture from the big tree by the Barn down to the big tree at the end of the lane-like he's ever gonna get lucky! But it seems like everyone is on the move this time of year, finishing things up, tending to the yard, and getting ready for winter -but not quite yet, thankfully!

Scot is done harvesting for us, 

and Tom is done harvesting the hops for our son, Ross 

And we've been to a couple fall festivals; one was a brew fest with the boys up at Schweitzer Ski Resort, and we hit Funky Junk, too.  Lucky for me, they were the same weekend!  

I found some treasures, of course!   I just love that blue and white ice cream bucket!  

 and I just had to get a picture of this guy with his mannequin!  This picture still makes me laugh!  Hope you all are finding the time to enjoy the season, too!  As with everything, these moments are gone too soon!  Enjoy!  

P.S. You can now follow me on Instagram! search:  ones1ster

  

Home Again!

I've been working on my fall book, "Porch Time" and got another block prepared in time to travel with me to the quilt show in Molson, WA this past weekend.  And to answer you question, yes I will be offering this as a block of the month on my website!  

I picked up the U-haul and packed up on Thursday, with WAY too much, but I'm sort of an all or nothing kind of girl!  

I left bright and early Friday morning and on the way up, I stopped to stretch my legs at Grand Coulee and snapped these pictures of the dam, one above and one from down below.  (sorry about the sun glare!) This dam is pretty spectacular:  I've toured it during school field trips and more recently, taken the boys to the laser light & firework show that they have on the face of the dam all summer long.  Here are some facts from their webpage:

Grand Coulee Dam is truly magnificent to behold. Built from 1933 to 1975, it is 550 feet tall, from the 500 foot wide polished granite base, to the 30 foot wide crest which supports a paved two lane road. When you include the third power house, Grand Coulee Dam is almost 1 mile long.   The base of the Grand Coulee Dam is almost four times as large as the Great Pyramid built by the Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops). It stands 550 feet in height, from the bedrock to the blacktop! Like the Pyramid, the Grand Coulee Dam has its galleries. They serve for gate inspections and control, drainage, regrouting, cooling, and other purposes. There are over eight and a half miles of corridors throughout the inside of the Grand Coulee Dam.     In size, it is the second structure created by man to exceed that of the Great Pyramid [c. 2680 B.C.E.] The first structure built after Khufu's pyramid would be the Great Wall of China [c. 215 B.C.E.], which is 1400 miles long and varies between 18 and 30 feet in height. Grand Coulee Dam is truly The Eighth Wonder of the World! a     The Grand Coulee Dam sits deep in the Columbia River Gorge of central Washington. It is located about 90 miles west of Spokane, 105 miles South of Canada's boarder, and about 250 miles east of Seattle.

So, if you're ever in the vicinity, it's worth a visit! Then is was back on the road for me so I could get my booth set up before 4:00 Friday.

Kits for many of the projects in my books!

Of course I didn't finish setting up in time and was there early Saturday to tidy up and put the finishing touches on the booth!  I think it turned out pretty cute, and it was nice to see all of my fabric lines together in color groups, just like I've always done at the Buggy Barn!  Almost all of the quilts from my One Sister books were on display, either in my booth or in the show!  It was the first time that the quilts from "Crazy at the Cabin" have been on display- they arrived back to me right before I left and it was great to see them again after they've been gone for the past year!  

I still love that owl quilt and the wool flowers are a favorite also. 

I met lots of new friends, as well as catching up with old ones!  This is Lisa Chapman with her "Farewell to Buggy Barn" quilt which was very fun to see! Now I'm home again, the U-haul is unpacked and returned, and things are mostly put away, which means my work space is still trashed but I'm trying to ignore the mess and get back to work! Take care until next time!  

a