A Festive Fourth of July

This year is almost half over, and it has passed all too quickly! I've spent most of my days working on quilts for a new book, which I won't be able to share with you for quite some time.

I had fun this month putting together a cute little Independence Day centerpiece for the upcoming holiday. It has a few new items from Hobby Lobby, "USA" blocks from my own childhood building blocks, my own crafted paper hat and firecrackers from Country Living magazine patterns from years ago, a vintage star cookie cutter and cup, and red and blue pom poms to fill the tiered trays. Coincidentally, in addition to this new centerpiece, the rest of my little family room is decorated year round with a patriotic theme.

My centerpiece is sitting on my very first machine quilted quilt. For the class, we were told to bring something to quilt, so I quickly pieced a small nine patch quilt and brought that to class. I chose solid red and white fabrics, figuring that even if my first machine quilting was a mess, at least I would be able to use the small red and white quilt in decorating for the holidays - Christmas, Valentine's Day, Independence Day. 

I took my dear little Kenmore sewing machine to the class, and free motioned loops and stars over the top. And to the casual observer, it probably doesn't look too bad. My plan for this little quilt's use in decorating has been fulfilled many times over.

This month my quilt, Autumn Stars, from my patriotic themed book, Betsy's Scrapbag, will hang at the Texas Quilt Museum beginning June 27. The exhibit will run through September 29, 2019. The museum is located in La Grange, Texas, and if I can manage to escape my feverish quiltmaking for my book, I would like to take a trip to the museum, which would be my first time. I have also always wanted to visit that part of Texas, so it would be a fun trip!

For more information on the Texas Quilt Museum, here is a link to their website:

http://texasquiltmuseum.org/index.html

Happy Summer Sewing!

Martha 

Autumn Happenings

Happy Autumn! We've finally had a break in the weather here in Phoenix, and it's a welcome change!

I have a few things to share about the upcoming months to come.

My book Annie's Scrapbag is now out of print. 

Annie's Scrapbag

I think it's a book with a wonderful collection of patterns, if I do say so myself. Although I don't have any copies left to sell, either wholesale or resale, there are still copies available at quilt shops nationwide, so please check the internet or on your travels, if you're interested in purchasing a copy.

I have decided, however, to release some of the patterns from Annie's Scrapbag, as individual stand-alone patterns, and those should be available at least by the end of the month. I will also have a new Halloween themed pattern –" Happy Jacks Table Square" – too!

Happy Jacks Table Square

Speaking of Annie's Scrapbag, one of the quilts from the book, "Garden Girl", will be on exhibit at International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, next month, and again at the Spring International Festival in Chicago, Illinois. You'll find it in the exhibit "In Full Bloom".

And I'm also honored to have another of my quilts, "Autumn Stars", from Betsy's Scrapbag, on exhibit at International Quilt Festival in Houston and Chicago. It will then fly solo back to Texas, and be on exhibit at the Texas Quilt Museum in the summer of 2019. Woohoo!

Be on the lookout next month for the Nov/Dec issue of Quiltmania magazine, where I'll have one of my quilt patterns featured! I can't wait to see it myself!

I have another project that I'm so excited about, that I'm hoping will come to fruition by the end of this month. Fingers crossed.

Happy Fall Sewing!

Martha

Happy New Year! The Year in Review

Happy New Year! I've been an absentee blogger the past few months - maybe my New Year's resolution should be "I will be a better blogger in 2017". LOL!

When I look back on this past year, I'm amazed at all of the things that have happened, or changed, all in one year. Some of those happenings have been personally challenging, but I'll skip those, and just stick to quilty happenings!

First, in 2016, I published my book, Betsy's Scrapbag, the second in the Scrapbag Girl® series in March of 2016. Betsy's Scrapbag is near and dear to my heart, and if you've read the introduction to the book, you'll know why! 2016 marks the 240th anniversary of the year of this country's independence, and I'm so happy that I was able to contribute to the celebration of that very important year, in cloth and thread.

And, to go along with the publication, my registered trademark, Scrapbag Girl® was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Yippee!

A collage of projects from Betsy's Scrapbag by Martha Walker

Next in 2016, my fabric line for Henry Glass Fabrics,  
A Prairie Journal, was delivered to quilt shops in June. When I returned from my big cross country trip in July, I was finally able to start making a bunch of quilts with the beautiful fabric. Some of those projects I've yet to show, and I'll be talking more about those after the first of year.

I have just recently added a free pattern for one of the projects, Prairie Flowers Table Runner, to the website to download. And, I have kits for the table runner, just listed as well:

http://www.wagonswestdesigns.com/shop/Kits/p/Kit-Prairie-Flowers-Table-Runner-x23145638.htm

Prairie Flowers Table Runner

Next up in 2016 came another big happening - --Wagons West Quilt Shop & Studio in Wickenburg, Arizona. I had been wanting to move most of my business out of the house and into a small space where I could teach classes, and house a small shop to carry some of my favorite materials for creating beautiful, quality works of art, in cloth and thread. The opportunity arose, when we stumbled upon a building that had formerly housed another quilt shop, M's Quilting Inspirations, in Wickenburg, Arizona.

If you've never been to (or heard of) Wickenburg, it's just a short drive northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. Here's a link to the Google map:

https://goo.gl/maps/jsrJpAX2sQT2

My husband and I were busy most of the summer getting the building ready to open the shop by November. We're open Fridays and Saturdays, and if you're in the area, please stop by!

Yes, we're small, but we have a very good selection of the hard to find Aurifil Lana wool thread, which I love for wool applique, and I just received a big shipment of beautiful Valdani hand dyed 3 strand floss and Perle cottons. Love! We also have the entire line of Mettler 60/2 cotton thread, which I use for both hand and machine applique, and many times machine quilting. We have wool fabric on the bolt, hand dyed wool fat quarters, and of course, quilt shop only cotton fabric!

I just added the classes that I'll be teaching in January and February of 2017 to my website, and you can register and pay for the classes online. Classes will be small, so please register early if you want to take a class! Click Here for classes.

Check back again to see if I made that New Year's resolution haha!

Until next time,
Martha

A Prairie Journal fabric arrival!

This summer I did something I've never done before - drive across the country - and by myself, no less! I had a very exciting destination. I was going to see my new (and first) grandson who was born in June! He was just about to turn 3 weeks old when I finally arrived. Of course, I could have flown to Virginia, but I wanted to see my sister in Oklahoma and my mother in the Kansas City area, so I thought driving would be in some ways easier. It was a great trip (except for the torrential rain on 3 of my driving days).

I left in June, and a month later was back home in July. While I was away, my Henry Glass Fabric collection, A Prairie Journal fabric arrived, so it was here when I got back. It's just beautiful to see on the bolts!

A Prairie Journal

Last week, I was finally unpacked, and ready to cut into the fabric and make my first quilt from the collection. I chose to make the panel quilt first, which is a free project to download you can find on both the Henry Glass Fabrics website and my website. This quilt is made using the panel from the collection, cutting out the large center portion, and the four small floral blocks for the corner sections. It's surrounded by plain borders and broken dishes blocks made from the red and blue coordinates. I'm just in love with the dark teal blue fabric!

Here are the pieces ready to put together:

And the top finished!

A Prairie Journal quilt

I have more quilts to make with the collection, so I'll post more pictures as I get them done.

Back to my trip - while I was in Kansas City, I did a trunk show at Quilter's Station in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Here are a few pictures that I borrowed from the many that their wonderful photographer took, and posted on the Quilter's Station Facebook page.

"Basket Quartet" quilt made from my Studio e Fabric line Elementary

"1776" from Betsy's Scrapbag

"Autumn Stars" from Betsy's Scrapbag

 

"Bricks and Boughs" table runner from my book Be Merry

 

And a few pictures from my drive cross country:

One of my overnight stays both ways was Paducah, Kentucky.

Downtown Clinton, Tennessee

I had heard that Clinton, Tennessee had some good antique shops, so I made a short side trip to do some shopping. I came home with some fantastic goodies from Corner Antiques.

And visiting my sister and brother-in-law in Oklahoma always takes me through the beautiful Cimarron country of Oklahoma:

Gloss (Glass) Mountains

We live in a beautiful country, and I loved seeing familiar places again, and places I've never been to before. It was a great trip, and I miss my new grandson already! But East or West, home is best, and I'm happy to be home and making quilts again!

Until next time,

Martha

Quilter's Station Trunk Show

Flag Day was just a few days ago, and in addition to hanging the stars and stripes on our flagpole outside, I have a year round Flag Day reminder hanging inside - my Flag Day wool applique hanging.

FLAG DAY

Flag Day is one of the wool applique projects found in my new book Betsy's Scrapbag. I used Aurifil Lana wool threads for the simple whipstitched applique and the embroidered tassels strings. I decided to bind this hanging as I would a quilt, with single fold cotton binding.

If you will happen to be in the Kansas City area on Saturday, June 25th, I will be doing a trunk show at Quilter's Station quilt shop in Lee's Summit, Missouri. I'll be showing all of the projects from Betsy's Scrapbag, as well as all of the projects from Annie's Scrapbag, and a selection of projects from my two Christmas themed books, Vintage Christmas and Be Merry: Quilts and Projects for Your Holiday Home.

Here are a few of the details:

You can also go to their website http://www.quiltersstation.com/ to find a map and other details on the Shop News page. I hope to see you there! 

After my Kansas City trip I'll be heading to Virginia to see my first grandson, who was born just yesterday! It will be a great trip, and hopefully I will have pictures to share!

Until next time,

Martha

Betsy's Scrapbag Giveaway Winner!

Betsy's Scrapbag

Congratulations to Tay Satterfield, the winner of the
Betsy's Scrapbag giveaway!

Thank you to all who entered, and left your comments either here or on my Facebook page, and thank you for your patience with the comment section not working on the Rafflecopter widget. I will be having another giveaway one of these days to see if we can get that section to work next time!

Until next time,

Martha

Betsy's Scrapbag

Today is the first official release day of my new book, Betsy's Scrapbag! It's now on our website, and we have a lot of work to do to get it out and about to your favorite quilt shops.

The first of my Scrapbag Girl TM series began with Annie's Scrapbag, a pattern book of quilts and projects inspired by my fictional seamstress, Annie, a girl living in the early homesteading days of the American frontier.

Annie's Scrapbag

Book 2, Betsy's Scrapbag, follows with quilts and projects inspired by the American Revolution, and Betsy's story of her family's role in the fight for American independence.  And just as in Annie's Scrapbag, Betsy's Scrapbag includes FULL size applique placement diagrams for all of the projects, including the wool applique projects. No drafting on your part needed - whew!

Betsy's Scrapbag

Just like in Annie's Scrapbag, Betsy's Scrapbag includes patterns for quilts, wool applique, and this time a punch needle project, Lady Liberty, one of my favorites! Lady Liberty is made primarily with Valdani 3-ply floss, with the addition of DMC embroidery floss. I also have instructions for my easy method for finishing punchneedle, that "stiffens" it for hanging or applying to a platform, such as a box, or basket, but it's archival, meaning no glues are used.

Lady Liberty

Autumn Stars is one of the five quilts in the book, and is the largest quilt, - a queen size 89" x 89". 

Autumn Stars

There are 10 projects in all, with four wool applique projects, one of which is the Liberty pillow, appliqued using my favorite Aurifil Lana wool threads, which you can also find on our website:

Liberty pillow

To celebrate it's release, I'm having a giveaway for one copy of Betsy's Scrapbag! Just follow the directions in the Rafflecopter box below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, and I hope you find Betsy's Scrapbag soon at a quilt shop near you! I will announce the winner of the giveaway on Monday, March 21st!

Until then,

Martha 

International Quilt Market 2015 Houston

I'm back from International Quilt Market in Houston, and finally catching my breath a bit from travel, filling orders, and just plain doing laundry!

Despite all of the media alarmists, the hurricane did not wreak havoc on Houston, but it did bring a lot of rain. Not something I am used to at all, but it only affected our going to and leaving the convention center. In fact, I didn't even know there WAS a hurricane, until there was some mention of it from fellow vendors.

The attendance was low at Quilt Market, so I'm counting on quilters everywhere to let their local quilt shops know about my new fabric line with Henry Glass, "A Prairie Journal". I'm so excited about this line, which was released at Fall Quilt Market in Houston.  It will ship in the summer of 2016, so please let your local quilt shops know you would like to see it in their shop! If you click on the image below, you can see the entire line, and the quilts I designed as free pattern downloads.

A PRAIRIE JOURNAL

In my market booth I was also displaying some of the projects that will be included in my new book that will be released in January, 2016, "Betsy's Scrapbag".

BETSY'S SCRAPBAG

I will be working like crazy the rest of the year to finalize the book.

The Quilts, Inc. organizers keep the Special Exhibit portion of the show open for an extra hour so that the vendors can enjoy the exhibits after hours, and not leave their booths unmanned.

An hour won't cover it all, so we had to edit what we could see, and my pick was the antique quilt exhibits. Only one of the exhibits allowed photography, so I'll share some of the photos here. These photos are from the Moda antique quilt exhibit:

The "quilt" above is made from paper postcards, very unique. 
 

We were on our way out, when this beautiful quilt caught my eye. It's newly made and one of the quilts juried into the Quilt Festival.

The quilt titled "Lady Indigo" was made by Carol Coffey Taylor and Martha Vincent of Beaumont, Texas, and is truly a beauty. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Of course, I had to go visit my quilt displayed in the Primitive and Folk Art Special Exhibit!

Annie's Scrapbook

I hope you've enjoyed the photos!

Until next time,

Martha