Fellow Quilters,
The mayhem of October and Quilt Market preparations is over, and I am settling into the mountain of paperwork that has taken over my desk. Fellow Northcott staffer Hania, who likes a minimal amount of clutter, shakes her head when she sees my desk. I am one of those people who functions nicely in a controlled amount of clutter – I have a lot of stuff on my desk, but I know where to find whatever I’m looking for. I think that creative people need a certain amount of clutter. How about you? Is your sewing space spotless, or do you have to push piles aside to cut a fat quarter into pieces?
I have lots of loose ends to tie up, and several new ones to show you. Last month, being October, I teased you with a couple of fat quarter packs of Sweet Jane, our latest Quest for a Cure collection supporting breast cancer research. There were some wonderful comments posted – thank you to all of you! It seems that a lot of us have very supportive spouses/partners, followed closely by friends, sisters and children. I randomly chose 2 comments – congrats to Jane Ritz & Kathleen Lambert.
In my August post for 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge I also had a giveaway, and Bonnie Pfrimmer, Sheila and Myra were the winners of packets of Noah’s Jungle fabrics. During my August road trip through Alberta, Canada I presented trunk shows in which I inspired the attendees to use panels in their quilts for simply stunning quilts. Since Noah’s Jungle has 2 panels, these lucky quilters will receive them in their packets. How fun!
Another quilt that uses panel-type fabric (it is actually running yardage of 8” blocks) is my Frosty’s Mittens quilt, featured on the cover of Quilting for Christmas, the annual holiday issue of The Quilter magazine.
Needless to say, I was delighted when I saw my quilt gracing the front cover!! It uses the Holly Jolly Christmas flannels for a super easy, super comfy lap quilt.
Northcott has recently added a free downloadable pattern for Solar System to the website. 
This easy wall quilt features the Stonehenge Out of this World collection, and several of the fabrics glow in the dark. We even added twinkling lights to it. How cool is that?!? The Solar System wall quilt uses the panel in the center, and has 2 simple borders. I taught this class at Quilt Market – it is an abbreviated version of my favorite new class on Borders and Binding, in which I teach participants 6 different border techniques, along with our speedy machine binding that looks as good as hand-binding. I really love this class because it empowers quilters – they learn how to fearlessly apply mitered borders to their quilts, among other things. The students pre-cut the mitered borders before they apply them to the quilt. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but trust me when I say that it works! I was delighted when the Quilt Camp at Sea organizers asked me to teach this class on their upcoming Panama cruise next April 7-18th. The students will start with a panel as their “quilt”, and then add lots of borders as they fill their “technique” toolbox with these new-found skills.
The other class that I am teaching is my Simplified Double Wedding Ring, and this one is almost full. Kathy, Pat and the QCAS gang do an amazing job of co-ordinating everything, including providing sewing machines. It is like going on a retreat on a luxury floating resort. I am really looking forward to several of the ports of call, including Aruba, Curacao, Cartagena, Costa Rica, and of course the Panama Canal! I will be ready for some fun in the sun by April, and look forward to seeing some of my quilting “buds” from previous cruises, as well as making some new friends. If you are interested in joining me, please visit www.quiltcampatsea.com. It will be a blast!
I’d like to send a shout-out to 2 guilds that I visited this week – Dunville’s Own Tiny Stitchers, and the Erin Village quilt guild. Tomorrow I am presenting at the Prince Edward County guild in Picton, ON. I am also participating in a blog tour for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 8. As in previous blog tours, I am giving away a copy of the magazine, and a couple of fabric bundles, so please come back tomorrow for a visit, or even better, subscribe to my blog. And have fun visiting all of the other sites on the blog tour.
Cheers,
Patti
pattispatchwork-blog.com 
The sweetest person in my life is my wife Susan. I love that i can indulge her fabricholism by supporting her habit, and see beautiful results produced for months.
Thank you for giving us a chance at some like silk material.
Love the fabric.
Love the Solar System panel. This would make a great quilt for my son.
Thank you for contributing to the 100 blocks tour – love fabric
Oh fabric – we can never have too much of it – like paint is to an artist – fabric is to a quilter.
Thank you for a chance to win maybe a magazine or some wonderful fabric.
MaryLou
Fun4Me1249@aol.com
Love Northcott fabric ! Thanks for chance to win giveaway.
Very pretty fabric, and thanks for entering the 100 blocks blog tour
Great blog tour, thanks for your contribution!
thanks for your block. Your solar system is on my bucket list too.
Thanks for a chance/
I call the the “messy” desk/workspace – Creative Clutter! Keeps the mind photographic!
I work in a constant tornado! I clean it up and it just comes back again.
Thank you for the great idea how to use a panel to make the middle of the quilt and then add co-ordinating fabrics to finish the frame. I love panels but sometimes am at loose ends on how to incorporate them into a quilt!
Hello…I am trying to follow the instructions for the mitered border on the Solar System Wall Quilt and it just isn’t clicking, beginning with number 8 on the pattern. Please help me by clarifying the instructions..
The way I understand it, in number 7 you are to cut the miter ON the pinned piece to the right of the pin where the patterns match on the miter of piece #2 laying upside down on the pinned piece. That would make the pinned piece pretty small. Then it says to put the right miter upside down on the left miter and sew 1/8″ to the left of the pin – now it is even smaller, and the second piece has not even been utilized except to mark the second miter on the pinned piece.
Can you please clarify the instructions for me. I was hoping to have this made for a friend that is a teacher before school starts next week.
Thank you!
Pam Harrington