JWD Publishing Blog

Greetings Everyone,

Sometimes it’s the little things that excite us and give us a happy smile on our faces. That is the case for me today. I clicked on the JWD homepage this morning and I found a SURPRISE awaiting me—–something I have been wanting for sooooooooooooooooooooo long.  (Thanks David & Christina.)

To celebrate my happy-day feeling at JWD, I want to give 5 happy quilters a free pattern. If your’re interested, here’s what you do:

Go to our homepage to see what I am so excited about and why I picked 5 happy quilters rather than 4 or 1 or any other number. Then go to the JWD Comments and tell us what you think of our new feature (please do rave!) ……….and tell us which one of these you would like to have.

Then tell us what has made you really happy this past week—-big or small. The winners will be selected on Friday.

Happy smiles to you!

Joen

When Alex Anderson designed her Holiday Lights quilt many years ago, she designed a winner. It’s been extraordinarily popular with people of all ages.  This year has been no exception. The pattern keeps selling and Holiday Lights quilts continue to brighten the homes of people during the month of December.

This year The Piece Corps and Friends chose to make Holiday Lights their selection to raise funds for the Sutter Hospital Quilt Auction to benefit breast cancer research and patients.  The Sutter Cancer Center holds their auction every three years at the Sutter Hospital in Sacramento, California.

The Piece Corps and Friends named their auction quilt Trees of Hope. You can see their finished quilt (above) with several of the fourteen-member group:  Sally Scholz, Barbara Wexted, Martha Flanagan, Della Goss, Connie Seale, and Donna Bays. They enjoyed making this quilt and were extremely happy with the results.

Below are several in-progress photos that you will enjoy seeing. Also, if you are part of a quilting group that might want to make a group quilt for an auction or any other purpose, you’ll be interested in reading how this group organized themselves and how they worked on this quilt.  At the end of this post, you can see Alex’s latest version of Holiday Lights.

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It’s button-time at See How We Sew!

One of our favorite blogs is the four-person blog See How We Sew written by four sewing enthusiasts who are also well positioned in the quilting world: Christie Batterman, Laura Nownes, Jennifer Rounds, and Darra Williamson. Each member posts twice a month, giving us wonderful posts twice a week—Tuesdays and Fridays. Each has her own style, personality, and interests. Thus each member’s posts have a different flavor from the others. If you have not had the opportunity to read their blog, scoot over there soon to read a wide variety of offerings. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Darra’s most recent feature has to do with one of our newest pattern lines, Button Madness.  Darra’s post Immerse Yourself in Button Madness not only features one of our designers Teresa Fields and her three new button patterns, but it gives some very interesting history about buttons and button collecting that you might find interesting.

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Look what Cindy Walter has been up to—-preparing for the Christmas season!—–It’s a Poinsettia Christmas!

Do you love decorating for the holiday season? Well, we definitely do at JWD Publishing. We also know that Cindy Walter does too.  In fact, she has created  a beautiful Christmas ensemble that we think you’ll love.  Cindy created her designs featuring poinsettias.  The pattern includes projects for placemats, a table runner, napkins, and coasters. We love these elegant poinsettias. They are so refreshing. You can see a table set with her placemats, table runner, and napkins above. It also comes with a bonus pattern that we think you’ll love (see below). This pattern is unique because the projects can be either appliqued or painted—your choice. There are directions for both techniques in Cindy’s pattern Poinsettia Christmas.

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Alex Anderson’s The Grape Escape debuts at Quilt Market this week. If you are going to Quilt Market in Houston, be sure to stop to see this quilt and order patterns for your shop.  Our booth number is 333-335. See you there. For more details about the quilt, see below:

The Grape Escape by Alex Anderson

When Alex showed us this quilt and asked if we would be interested in patterning it, we immediately said, YES! It’s not only beautiful, but after taking a close look at it,  we realized even those of us who are not skillful appliquers could actually make this quilt because the pieces are fused (or glued for those of you who prefer that route) and then everything is machine appliqued. Alex used a small buttonhole stitch to finish off her edges. Now those who prefer hand applique can prepare by adding seam allowances to their pieces.

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Welcome to autumn!  The leaves are beginning to turn here in the Pacific Northwest, yet they have quite a ways to go before they are of strong coloring.  We assume you are seeing these same subtle changes taking place in your neck of the woods—-if you’re not living too far south.

Here’s another quick and easy fall quilt that’s perfect for October—–it’s October by sisters Mary Hoover and Barbara Persing from 4th & 6th Designs. They live in the northeast where the leaves turn colors dramatically during the month of October. We like the organic placement of the leaves, as well as the beautiful leaf shapes. You could follow Mary’s and Barb’s pattern or you could make your own subtle changes in leaf amounts and/or placement. That’s what is so fun about patterns such as this—they give you the freedom to play.

As you can see, the background is pieced with a variety of soft neutral fabrics. Once the  quickly-made background is in place, you will cut out the leaves in your most favorite autumn-leaf  fabrics.  Mary and Barb placed these leaves on the background in a very natural manner. Then they machine appliqued the leaves.  As you can see, this quilt is quick, easy, and just like its name, it features those wonderful October leaves that are ever so ravishing.

If you are a shop owner, you can purchase this pattern from your favorite distributor or you can have us send patterns to you.  If you are a quilter, inquire about this pattern at your local quilt shop. If you do not have a local quilt shop, you may purchase this pattern online. For more information about this pattern, see the October pattern page.

Happy October!

Monday (the 10th) was Canada’s day of Thanksgiving.  So, Happy Thanksgiving Canada!  Canada’s annual Thanksgiving holiday takes place on the 2nd Monday each October.

Soon we who live south of the Canadian  border will begin to think of our own Thanksgiving celebration, which takes place on the fourth Thursday in November. This is  a beautiful time of the year to celebrate the historic 1621 autumnal harvest feast with the Wampanoag Indians and the colonists of Plymouth sharing food and giving thanks for those who had survived  the harsh living conditions in their new colony. It was definitely  a time for abundant thanks.

Although we celebrate Thanksgiving in remembrance of the Pilgrims and their small colony, our country’s annual celebration did not begin until our country was in another crucial period of time—–the Civil War. In 1863 with our country in crisis, President Lincoln proclaimed a day of national thanksgiving take place each year in November. It was our 16th president, then, who brought us our traditional Thanksgiving holiday. We earnestly hope your Thanksgiving will be a time of thanks for all that is most precious and important to you.

We Give Thanks pattern

Because we love Thanksgiving, we hunted for a Thanksgiving pattern to bring you.  We found a perfect pattern created by one of our favorite applique artists, Charlotte Warr Andersen. (If you have an   opportunity to take a workshop from her, do so. You will learn a lot!)

Charlotte Warr Anderson designed this classic Thanksgiving quilt many years ago. We so loved it here at JWD Publishing that we asked Charlotte if we could put it into a pattern. She happily agreed.  Charlotte’s Thanksgiving quilt is called  We Give Thanks

We Give Thanks is a full size pattern. We think the pattern is superb and we love this quilt.  We hope you do too. This pattern is designed for machine applique.  If you are a hand appliquer, you can make this quilt by adding seam allowances and reverse the applique pieces.

For further information about this pattern, go to the We Give Thanks page. If you are a shop owner and you would like to order this quilt for your customers, contact us.  If you are a quilter who is unable to purchase this quilt from your local quilt store, you can purchase this pattern online by going to the We Give Thanks page.

Enjoy creating this quilt!

It’s autumn and it’s time to think about making  a quilt for fall. We have a quilt for you:  Autumn’s Arrival.

Autumn’s Arrival is a great fall quilt.  If you are a lover of fall AND you love sunflowers, this quilt was designed with you in mind. As you can see, the background piecing will be a breeze—-nothing to slow you down. Just pick up a fall color collage of fabrics to create your quilt’s background. This quilt is perfect for jelly-roll fabrics and fat-quarters.  Naturally, yardage works well too. The great news, too,  is you will have lots of fun choosing the fabrics for the lovely sunflowers featured on this quilt. Make them uniquely your own, if possible. There are so many beautiful fabrics to choose from.

Mary Hoover and Barbara Persing designed this quilt for all of us fall-lovers out there.  Many of you know their designs under the pattern line 4th & 6th Designs. This name was chosen because Barb is the 4th child and Mary is the 6th child in their family.

Shop Owners: This pattern is very popular. It’s a great design, the piecing and machine applique are easy to do. It’s a stress-free project that should be quick to make.  If you do not have this pattern in your store, you’re missing out on an opportunity. This pattern was originally published in a multi-paged booklet. We have redesigned it into a large-page format, so it’s easy for quilters—the pattern pieces are full size. You may order patterns from your distributor or from us.  For futher details, see the Autumn’s Arrival pattern page.

Quilters: If you love this pattern as much as we do, run along to your favorite quilt shop to pick it up. If you do not have a fabric or quilt shop near you, you can purchase this pattern online. For further details, go to Autumn’s Arrival pattern page.

To get you into the mood for fall and give your home a new seasonal quilt to decorate your walls with, here’s Alex Anderson’s classic fall quilt Welcome Home. Welcome Home is our most popular fall quilt pattern. It comes in three sizes: wall, lap, and twin bed.

Welcome Home by Alex Anderson

This charming quilt can decorate your entry hall, your family room, or some wall that needs a quilt to bring it warmth and cheerfulness this fall season. If you have a twin bed that is need of a fall quilt, perhaps this is the quilt for you. It is entirely pieced. Here you can see  the wall quilt. It is made from three different blocks: a leaf block, a house block, and a star block. Two detail views of this quilt can be seen below.

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It’s that time of year when all of a sudden you realize one of your favorite nieces, nephews, a friend’s child—or even your own child is heading off to college in a few days or weeks—– and you meant to make a quilt for the big occasion, but time has slipped away from you. You need something quick and easy with relatively no thinking—-and perhaps you want to use fabrics straight from your stash. We have at least two handfuls of quilts in our pattern collection that would fit the bill. Out of those we have selected three quilts to feature today. They are all perfect for a fast project for that college-bound student. When the weather turns cold this winter, your quilt will be so welcomed by the college student, as he or she snuggles under it feeling that cozy warmth with fond memories from home.

You want to make a quilt that is fast to construct, colorful, and can take the punishment of college life. These three quilts take minimum time. Their designs make it easy to use the colors and/or themes that your college student loves. In fact, these quilts can be made as sophisticated, as wild or as quiet as you wish. Just let your imagination and fabric stash dictate your options. Three quilts that fit the bill of easy, quick, fabric-stash friendly, for college quilts are Jammin’ Jelly by Cindy Wiens, Short Circuit by Mary Hoover and Barbara Persing, and Fat-Quarter Frolic by Larisa Key. Below are pictures of all three quilts. Fat-Quarter Frolic is shown in three versions.

Fat-Quarter Frolic by Larisa Key (shown in three versions)

Larisa Key has a great pattern  that is quick and easy called Fat Quarter Frolic. It’s made from squares and rectangles that are combined into  units to make this quilt. This quilt comes in three sizes, but for a college student, the twin-bed coverlet would be best (64″ x 72″).  Larisa has made many versions of this quilt. Here are three examples showing a variation using Amy Butler fabrics, one using batik fabrics, and the last using Japanese-motif fabrics. This quilt has been extremely popular and we have seen it in many Amy Butler fabrics, as well as other large-motif fabrics by other notable fabric designers. We’ve seen wonderful versions of it using Michael Miller, Hoffman of California, and Kaufman fabrics too.  You simply find fabrics in the colors, motifs, and textures you want…..and start cutting and sewing……

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