Happy 4th of July! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. We enjoyed some beautiful weather here in Illinois and spent lots of time with family and friends. Ben had his first real popsicle and liked it very much!

Believe it or not, his swim suite did actually come clean. The girls had a fun weekend too but were too busy playing with friends to stop and take a picture. I'll be sure to get them next time!

We had a ton of fall fun at last week's Facebook Live Demo. If you missed the demo, you can still see it by clicking the video picture below. We start the video about 7 minutes in so feel free to fast forward to the 7 minute mark.

This demo was full of new fall projects including three from the book Buttermilk Basin's Pick of the Crop by Stacy West. I just love everything Stacy does and this new book is full of things I want to make!

We may have to go back and make a few more things from this book, but for now we have kits for the following three projects:

I got to make the Gather Round sample myself and it was so much fun! I love all of the embellishments on this mat and the fall colors are so pretty. The Pumpkin Patch Ornament looks adorable on our new mini clipboard. We have some other plans to use this clipboard in the future too because it's so cute. The Signs of the Season Pillow is big enough that is could sit on its own in a chair, but it also still works as a bowl filler or to set on a shelf. All three of these adorable projects can be found in the Buttermilk Basin book and we have kits for all of them on our website now as well.

Karen Yaffe fans should be excited this week because not only do we have a new Karen Yaffe project, but she has a new BOM in the works too! Indian Summer is Karen's new fall pincushion that we have kitted up. The colors that she's chosen for this are just perfect. I love how to yellows and reds pop off of that dark brown background.

Karen's big news is that she will be starting a Mystery Block-of-the-Month called Autumn Bounty next month! This is going to be a mystery so I haven't actually seen the finished quilt yet, but here is what I do know: Autumn Bounty will be a fall themed, four-block wall hanging with wool applique on flannel backgrounds. The blocks are 9" finished. The sign-up fee is $20 and then the cost is $20 per month for five months (plus shipping). We will make one block each month for the first five months, and month five will be a finishing kit which includes wool applique as well. I've seen some sketches and I've seen the wool that Karen is using and this is going to be beautiful! If you are a Karen Yaffe fan, you won't want to miss this. Sign up on our website now by clicking the link below.

Karen is also one of the featured designers in another stitch a long that just started. Wild & Wonderful 2 Under the Harvest Moon is a free stitch a long that you join on Facebook. Join the Facebook Group and get free patterns every Saturday for these adorable blocks. You can also pre-order kits for Karen's block (block 3) on our website now. Karen's block will be revealed on Saturday July 17th and we will be shipping pre-ordered kits on Wednesday the 14th. Order yours now to make sure you get one. I have seen Karen's block and it is ADORABLE! I'm not sure if this is allowed but I'm giving you a little sneak peak of the kit and the block below. Hopefully I won't get in trouble with the rest of the group!

Other new wool projects at last weeks demo included this cute little Bittersweet Fall Wool Mat and the Pumpkin Spice Runner which is pieced cotton with just a little bit of wool on the ends.

I love how the Pumpkin Spice Runner turned out. The fall colors in the log cabin blocks are just perfect with the beautiful pumpkin wools. This one is so pretty, I think I might need to make one of these for myself!

We also had some really adorable non-wool projects to share last week. Buttermilk Basin fans might find that they also love new designer Hannah West. Hannah is Stacy West's daughter and is now designing fabrics for Henry Glass. She has an adorable new line called Hello Fall which includes a cute fall panel. Brenda took the panel and some of the prints and came up with this beautiful fall lap quilt.

This is a fairly simple quilt to make and one that you could still put together in time for fall. Once you get the panel cut apart, you just make four maple leaf blocks and some large flying geese. This one should go together in no time and would be simple enough for beginners. Wouldn't it make a fun couch quilt for fall?

We also have this cool new Buffalo Check Fall Table Topper that Julie put together. It's all pieced but the way you put the light and medium backgrounds together makes it look like a buffalo check print! How cool is this?

We couldn't do a seasonal demo without a new sample from our favorite book Trendy Table 3. If you've been following us for awhile, you know that we've done a number of projects from this wonderful book. For fall, we did a more "pieceful" version of the Autumn Garden Runner and I love how it turned out. We switched out the brighter blues that they used in the book for some darker purples. I think this gives it a nice fall look. What do you think? You can find this kit plus all of the other kits that we still have in stock using the link below.

For those of you who are embroidery fans, we had something for you too this week! Check out this Thanksgiving wall quilt. The center says "For these I give Thanks" and then there are 16 little blocks that have words like "Family", "America" and "Home" stitched on them. Be sure to zoom in and look at all these cute little blocks. We even put together a DMC floss kit for this so you don't have to worry about finding all of the colors.

The last think I wanted to share with you this week, is the Red Robin Block-of-the-Month. One of our wonderful sample makers, Karen Ytzen, put this sample together for us in no time and it turned out absolutely stunning! If you've been on the fence about joining this program, you should come in and see this quilt in person. Pictures do not do this quilt justice but here are a couple that I took today of Karen's finished sample.

This is a 6 month program designed by Sheryl Johnson of Temecula Quilt Co. that we are hoping to start next month. The fabric is scheduled to be delivered in July but I do need to confirm that that is still the case (many fabric companies are still running behind on deliveries). We will start as soon as the fabric arrives though and it is going to be so much fun. As Karen pointed out on Thursday, one of the nice things about this block-of-the-month is that there is no huge finishing kit at the end. Since it's a medallion quilt, you assemble it border by border as you go. The borders do get larger towards the end, but when you're done, it's DONE! You don't have a pile of blocks that still need to be assembled. If you have never done a BOM, this is a great one to start out with. Nothing in this quilt is very difficult. You can find more information on our website or stop in to see the quilt in person and signup!

I think that's all for this week. I know there is a lot of information in this newsletter so thanks for sticking with me! We sure have a lot of new stuff in the shop right now. If you're local, please come in and check it all out! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Northern Illinois Shop Hop is BACK THIS YEAR! We are so excited to have a real in person shop hop again. This annual hop runs from June 1- August 31. There are 27 shops this year divided into three regions. This years Grand Prize is $1000 CASH! There will also be two first prize winners ($500 cash), three second prize winners ($50 gift certificate from each shop in the region), and twenty-seven third prize winner ($25 gift certificate from one store). The best part is that you get a 15% DISCOUNT on all regular priced merchandise at each store on the day you get your passport stamped! Pickup a passport at any participating shop, or click the link below to print your own. This is such a fun hop and we are so excited to be a part of it again this year! Grab some friends and plan a road trip across Northern Illinois this summer.

Visit our website for details and to print off the take-in form.