Easy Flip and Sew Placemats

I've got a new pattern ready to go to print. Easy Flip and Sew Placemats features placemats made using Soft and Stable.

However, I'm having a hard time deciding on a cover. I'd love your opinion!

Bright and bold in red and yellow?

or classic in blue and white?

Leave a comment by Saturday, February 16, with your thoughts. We'll pick one name from the comments here and on my facebook page.

The lucky winner will receive the hot-off-the-press pattern and a ByAnnie's Soft and Stable Project Pack with four die-cut placemat pieces.

Quilter's Calendar

I just learned about a great new service and wanted to share the information with you. If you know the program chair at your quilt guild or another guild, please share this.

The Quilter’s Calendar is a brand new website that connects quilters and guilds with quilt teachers, using an easily searchable online calendar.

Instead of having to search through every quilt teacher’s website, looking for opportunities to book that teacher or attend a class, quilters and guild members can use the calendar, which is searchable by state or province, to see quilt teachers that are scheduled in their state/province or nearby.

Guilds can then contact the teacher to book them to their guild, sharing expenses between guilds. That means less expenses and more opportunities for classes for guilds and their members.

Quilters can easily see what events, classes, retreats and shows are happening in their state, month by month.

Teachers can submit their teaching engagements for free, and by being visible on the calendar they can enjoy higher attendance and increase their opportunity to receive “piggy back” teaching engagements.

Visit www.quilters-calendar.com today to see what’s happening near you!

Happy New Year from the Unrein Family

It was a special treat to have both our kids home for the holidays and we even made time to take a family photo.

I found a great website for designing and printing cards, stationery, and more, so decided to print a few cards to share with family.

Designing the card was easy and they've got cards for lots of occasions and events.

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

I'm getting ready to order more Serenity fabrics for kits which reminded me that Randall M. had sent some pictures over the summer of some amazing bags that he made using those beautiful fabrics. I'd meant to share them right then, but time got away from me. What's new?

Anyway, I found the pictures again and was just as impressed with them the second time around, so thought I'd post them for you to see, too. Here's what Randall wrote:

Hi, Annie.

I haven't sent you any pix in a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been at it. I've made two more Serenity bags since my first. One also used the Serenity fabric with Texture Magic, but the second was for a cat loving friend who insisted on cat-themed fabric. It all came together well. I'm sorry I didn't snap a pic to send you.

I'm going to the UK next month to visit a number of friends, and I thought I would bring some bags and totes as gifts. I'm going to send some pix of four that I've made this week. Two, of course, are ByAnnie patterns. The other two are from A QuiltersDream - my other favorite designer. I just hung the bags on my overgrown back fence, so the pictures aren't great. But the bags are!

I'm also going to send a snapshot of a resized MiPad Case that I made for my friend Eva. She wanted something just right for her daily walks. Room for her ID, a small water bottle, and her keys. I'll also send a pic of it with a standard sized case for comparison.

Here's one more of a MiPad case I made last night using Serenity fabric along with some Japanese yarn-dies.

Hope you enjoy seeing these. You'll see that my love for Japanese fabric hasn't diminished.

Randy M.

P.S. I really like the dark Bookin' It bag. It gave me a reason to finally use some of the black Soft and Stable that's been sitting on my shelf.

Thank you, Randall, for sharing the pictures and your story. I am so impressed with your careful and meticulous work. Your fabric choices are exquisite and are inspiring me to order more of the beautiful Serenity fabrics.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

Annie

Kathy B. sent this fun picture of the awesome diaper bag she made for her new grandson, Noah. Annie

Kathy writes:

I made this bag using Soft and Stable instead of the fleece that the directions called for. It is very sturdy, but pliable, and I loved the cross-hatching quilting on this…it has such a wonderful definition! This is going to be used as a diaper bag for my newest, and 6th grandson, Noah!

That's one good-looking bag, Kathy, and I know your new grandson and his parents are going to love it. Thanks for sharing!