JWD Publishing Blog

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!

Hi Quilters!

If you call the Steady Betty company, you will be greeted with a warm friendly hello from Kathy Purdy, owner of Steady Betty. Her company is located in Texas, so she has that wonderful Texan accent. She is very passionate about her Steady Betty products. Kathy gave me detailed information about all of them, which I will share with you over the next few weeks. From what I understand the first product came out about four years ago. That was The Steady Betty Board. Let’s start there.

What is The Steady Betty Board? That is what I first asked Kathy. Here’s her answer: It is a board that is covered with a special material that gently holds fabric in place, making perfectly pressed seams. This board keeps fabric from distorting or stretching. It is especially great for bias edges or bias bindings too.

Continue reading the rest of the post »

In one of my blogs while at Quilt Market, I mentioned that Camilla Watson was awarded an honorable mention for her beautiful appliqué quilt Menamorphosis, I not only misspelled her quilt’s name in the blog, but I reported that Camilla was from New York. Although Camilla would probably love to visit New York someday, she happily makes her home in New Zealand….and plans to stay there.  To the left you can see Camilla’s needle-turned appliqué quilt, with more detail of the appliqué in the other picture (click to see a larger picture).

Congratulations, Camilla. Your appliqué is superb!

I just got back from the International Quilt Market in Houston, TX, and I found a lot of fantastic things that I bet you never knew you needed! Over the next few weeks I thought I would share with you what I have found. Today I would like to tell you about a couple of really cool things that I have never seen before. They are really awesome. They are a new felting tool and mat by Clover Needlecraft,Inc…O.K. I know what you are thinking. You have to use wool to felt and it takes too long to do. Wrong! This is over the top. The demonstrator had a silk scarf, you can get this from Pagewood Farms with the fibers needed, she laid the scarf on a felting mat. The felting mat looks like a big brush. She then placed all kinds of fibers, that come in a kit, on the scarf. She took the felting tool, his has 5 barb needles with a spring action, and punched it up and down. In minutes, yes minutes she had a finished scarf. It was so beautiful! What a great Christmas gift. Like I mentioned the felting tool and mat are from Clover and the kit with the scarf and fibers are from Pagewood Farm. You need to check these out. Stop by again and see the next great thing I review. Till then keep quilting.