Sew in the Know Newsletter!

Like many of you - I have hunkered down somewhat - waitng for winter to settle in so I can make a few of my own quilts.

After digging myself out from under several bolts of fabrics and scraps, I cleaned the quilting room only to discover several unfinished glasses of wine.

(Clearly I was not sewing impaired as it was apparent that I had not finished the wine that I had started drinking.)

This year I quilted 207 of your quilts - and wow - were they amazing. Many of them inspired me to dig into my stash. In there I found a heavy cotton sheet from my Great Grandmother that my mother gave me to use as a backing for a quilt. That got me to thinking about how to continue to make beautiful tops and incorporate the past into those quilts.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE STASH CHALLENGE BELOW

Around New Years there is a lot of hype around making new years resolutions. Lose weight. Complete projects. Clean the quilting room - haha. As commendable as these are - the only resolution I have is to be a kinder, gentler person. It's a big job - but I am determined to do it.

In addition... I have PLANS! Read below to find out more. Hopefully there is something there to inspire you - or get you sewing!

Happy Quilting...

Mandie

OH - and I almost forgot - check out the new "resources page" on the web site. Next month I will have 2 free patterns for you there as well!

This content is NOT AI generated - and therefore there may be the odd typo - but that's how you know I wrote it!

January 13 2023

Coming next month!

Pattern, Kits - BIG Savings

Have you ever made a quilt from a pattern - and you realize the fabric left over or wasted after cutting cost almost as much as the quilt? Yeah - me too.

I have taken some simple patterns and made small changes to maximize width of fabric - and there is very little wastage. I'll be releasing the patterns and some new kits next month. GET READY FOR BIG SAVINGS!

P.S. Did you know that using pre-cuts often cuts down on fabric wastage? More on that next month!

I have a friend heading to my place to visit from Hamilton within the next 10 days....so if you are in that area - make sure to send me a pick up request so we can arrange a pick up! Request pick-ups here

NEW NEW NEW!

How often have you seen a quilt or a fabric line in a magazine that you absolutely love - and then find yourself travelling from store to store to find the fabric line. A few of the fabrics are here - some more are over there - and maybe some are available on line.

In the next few months, I will be bringing in 2-3 full lines of fabric for kits I will be building. This will mean that I will order 10-15 bolts of fabric in one line. In addition - I will also be stocking wide backs at a discount. The first fabric line I will be bringing in is the Northcott "O Canada" line.

After making the kits and quilts that I have for sale - there will inevitably be fabric remaining. I will be offering these quality end of bolt fabrics that retail between $19-$22 a meter at deep discounts for 24 hours once a month at my home or online at $15 a meter. I will notify you when they are avaialble - so keep your eyes pealed! First come - first served. Delivery or shipping will be available.

I took some time off in the weeks between Christmas and the 3rd of January... and discovered that I had a stash I could no longer hide!

And so I dove in....

Over the holidays I made 4 lap quilts and 1 queen quilt - start to finish from fabric I had on hand.

Now, granted the Queen size was from a purchased layer cake and matching jelly roll - but from that I still have enough left over for a lap quilt.

I did find that the pattern I chose to make the quilt was incredibly wastefull - and so I altered the pattern so that it had as little waste as possible.

Then I found a few fabrics I absolutely LOVED. Who wants to cut that up? So I made a simple pattern that highlighted the fabric. I'll post the full pattern next month.

But the trick was making a small change to the measurements so that there was little or NO wastage. The green quilt to the left is the result.

So here is the challenge:

Send me photos of a recent STASH only quilt. Send details of why you made it and where you will use it or who you gifted it to.

The most innovative use of stash will win a $50 credit towards quilting on your next quilt and be featured in next month's newsletter. Who knows - you may inspire someone else!

The judge of the entries wil be AL DOWNEY. (My guy) He has a pretty good eye - so send your pics and I will let him decide!

One layer cake and one jelly roll + background fabric:

Below - Lap quilt made from left over fabric from table runner and placemats.

DID you know that you can sell quilts online through the web site? Check out this page! You can access Bed quilts, lap quilts and babay quilts all for sale from there. Over the last several months I have sold 3 quilts this way - and I will be soon transition this page into a separate web site. PDQ members can list 3 quilts for free. Otherwise there is one time upload fee of $15. - and no commission charged if you sell your quilt. Contact me for more information.

Here are a few things to look forward to in the next newsletter:

• Exclusive Quilt retreats in a beautiful setting of 30 acres of trees - great get-away!
• Mini workshops and sewing days - lunch included
• Special Kits - easy patterns, current fabric lines - precut with no wastage
• 24 hour end of bolt sales at $15 a meter or less.. (current high end quilting fabric lines)
• Launch full site - Quilts for sale - you can list quilts (free for PDQ members). This domain is currently listed within this site but will have it's own space next month
• Launch Quilter's precuts web site with exclusive kits and pre-cuts. (and end of bolt sales)

I don't often have someone who can video some of the shortcuts and tips I like to pass along.. so many of my videos are one handed.... however I hope that they can be helpful.

#1. I now have a RESOURCES page on my web site that have many of the businesses and resources that I use. Check them out here.

#2. I have posted 2 videos - one about some of the tools I use when binding a quilt and the other on HOW a machine bound quilt can save time and still look great!

I know many quilters shy away from machine stitiching down binding - but with a little practice - it can look very professional and save you hours of time and that comes in handy when you are trying to cook dinner, wrap presents, do laundry and still have a quilt ready for gift giving.

Try using specialized feet when machine stitiching binding down and using mono-filament tread in the bobbin so sticihing is invisible. More here

Over the holidays I had the opportunity to go through my "stash". Guess what I found? An antique heavy cotton bed sheet. Well I gave it new life and I LOVE the end result. How are you recycling or reducing your waste? Have you ever made something you love out of something that had outlived its purpose?

Many of our ancestors re-used items and made them into something new to them and useful.

It is rumoured (and likely true) that in 1814 when the British threatened to burn the White House, Dolley Madison took the red velvet curtains from the Oval drawing room and had them fashioned into a ball gown... read more on recycling items here

Yes. Pre-cuts save time.

And they are colour co-ordinated.

And using the right patterns they also cut down on waste. In addition to this - they often have the full line of fabric - and that is very hard to find anymore. Many stores carry only a few fabrics within a line of 20 or so co-ordination fabrics.

But the niceset part is that I do not have to do much cutting and a 2-1/2 inchs strip is exacty that. 2 1/2 inches wide.

I was in a store one day when within 10 minutes two separate women came in looking for a jelly roll of one line of fabric. She was told it was not available. The next issue was that the store did not have the entire line of fabric. So she ended up buying .1 meter of 22 different fabrics and it took her 45 minutes to find 22 colours that were complimentary to each other. The sad part is that after doing that- she has to trim all the fabrics - and she may never use the scraps - or they are simply thrown out.

A jelly roll would have solved that without the wastage and offers many fabrics that are all comapatible and from the same line.

Next month I will be offering several new jelly rolls and layer cakes with really nice patterns that use pre-cuts. These pre-cuts will be less than the cost of buying fabric by the meter - and there is little to no waste!

I currently have a few left from my last wholesale purchase and they are all priced at least $10 below retail cost. Let me know if you are interested. Many have sold before I could even announce that I had them! https://www.janestreetquilts.com/quilters-precuts.html

Thanks for reading to the end!

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Have questions or comments - please be sure to let me know. Email me at [email protected]