Did you say "FREE" Patterns?

Yes, free. With the high cost of fabric, free patterns sound pretty good to me!

To the right, you will find a listing of the major fabric manufacturers who offer free patterns for not only quilts, but clothing, baby accessories and gift ideas. I must, however, give you a word of advice on these sites--they do remove patterns and add new ones, so if you find one you would like to save for future use, it might not be on the site when you are ready to use it.

You can either print it or save it as a pdf on your home computer. If you need help with that, just let me know. Another bit of advice when opening up the sites--there is a lot of information and it does take a minute (or two) to come up, so please be patient.

One thing I would like to remind you is that there are lots of patterns that give you the modern look vibe, so if you would like to dabble in this theme, here is your chance--and for free!

Quilt Won Comes From Down Under

As many of you know, I belong to a quilting board on the HGTV website, started back when Alex Anderson was the hostess of "Simply Quilts."

Each year, they hold a retreat in a different part of the county and in an attempt to give back to that area, charity quilts are made by members to donate to the hostesses particular cause. I was fortunate enough to attend one several years ago in Manchester, NH so I got the opportunity to get to meet many of the quilters on the boards. It's a delightful group of quilting sisters with hearts of gold willing to band together and help with each other's projects, charities and participate in fun swaps.

As of late, most have been made and raffled off with all monies going direct to that retreat areas "Ronald Mc Donald House" Charity fund. This year, I won a quilt made by an HGTV member, Kentucky Sunshine, who lives in Australia (or the land of Oz, as she calls it). By her board name, you can tell she loves the South and visits with her family often.

Usually, as quilts are donated to this cause, photos are taken to encourage members to buy and sell tickets. Any where from 30-40 quilts are made, using the hostesses theme (this year it was black and white with a bowl of ... (in this case, cherries for the red). For some reason, a photo of this quilt was never taken or posted, so when I found out I won I didn't have a clue as to what it looked like. Imagine my delight when I opened up the box to find this eye-popping quilt with beautiful machine quilting. To make it even better, I know the maker and she is delighted to know a fellow quilting sister will find it a good home!

Next year's retreat will be held in Harrisburg, PA, near Lancaster and Intercourse--Amish quilting heaven! My late husband and I traveled there many years ago for a week of shopping and taking in the ambiance of the area. It's beautiful country and I look forward to returning back there in June of 2013.

In lieu of making quilts to raffle off, our Harrisburg hostess will be having all quilts made and donated to the "Quilts of Valor" program. Lucky for me I have a vast supply of the required red, white and blue fabrics in which to make at least one quilt to bring. Stand by for future posts and pictures of the quilt I will be bringing along with me.

Area 3 Meeting-Turner, Maine

 An Area 3 meeting co-hosted by Country Aire Quilters and Village Scrappers was held on October 9th.

A total of 58 attendees from eight chapters, floaters and even some special guests rounded out the group. Many thanks to Brenda and Karen for your chapters working so well together to put on a stellar meeting.

After a delicious supper and "low-calorie" desserts, speakers Beth Allen and Joanna Timberlake spoke on machine applique methods and the 4-1-1 on free motion machine quilting. I'm sure everyone left the meeting with a new tip or shortcut on these topics.

The winner of the 22 signature blocks was Mary Lee and the winner of the Quilt-a-noply game was Joanna Timberlake. Besides all the nice door prizes, each lady left with bead-laden stilettos, scissor fobs and fat quarters.

Pumpkin-Oatmeal Cookies

I'm all about the pumpkin and fiber, so why not join the two for a terrific tasting cookie? This recipe makes two dozen yummy treats at less than 100 calories per cookie.

1-cup wheat flour

½ cup quick-cooking oats

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

1/3-cup butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ tsp. vanilla extract

2/3 cup pumpkin puree

1-cup raisins

 

Handful of pumpkin or sunflower seeds (for extra calories, you can also throw in a handful of chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients; put aside. In another bowl, mix wet ingredients; stir into dry ingredients until well blended—add raisins and nuts.

Drop onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes. Leave on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

 

If you wish, you can make a powdered sugar glaze by mixing with cream or milk to make a drizzle consistency.