Sew Many Places with Jim

i am in the process of finalzing an exciting shop hop on a cruise ship, announcing all the details this coming week. and i was thinking, why not organize your own shop hop in the area where you live?

look up all the quilt shops withing a 50 mile radius, grab your quilting friends, make a caravan, call the shops and tell them what you are doing, and have fun.  plan a fun place to have lunch, as each shop if they will give you a little discount if you stop there and take a lot of photos.

doesn’t that sound like fun?  you may even get your quilt guild involved and all your guild members can do this together.

enjoy your weekend, what ever it is you are doing.

jim

ok, i know you might be thinking, what kind of soup is that, i’ve never heard of it!  well, actually, quilt soup is not a soup that you eat, but rather an idea for a quilt. for those of us who cook, when we are in the kitchen making a homemade soup, a lot of the time, we look in the fridge or in the pantry and see what it is that we have onhand to make a homemade soup.

there might be some beef, left from sunday’s pot roast, some noodles, a couple carrots, onions, celery, even some tomatoes, that if not used soon will transform itself into some kind of science project.  now if we take this same concept, and look around our sewing room, we will find all kinds of scraps, items to applique, etc. that we can combine into a fantatic quilt.

and maybe it’s not even a quilt that you make, but rather, quilted pillow cases, blankets, napkins, table runner, the list is endless.

remember, there is no wrong way to do it, and it does not have to look a certain way.  the main thing is that you think completely outside the box, and see what you can come up wtih to make that soup special!

enjoy your day quiting chefs!

jim

A VIEW OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

it’s saturday morning here in spring valley, illinois and it is snowing again!  tomorrow they are forecasting another 10 inches of snow, and i am thinking to myself, how can i see this through a quilter’s eye?   then it hit me………………a white quilt!

a friend of mine, who i facebook alot with, and who is a fantastic quilter-MATT SPARROW, will be featured in the upcoming spring quiltposium.  you will see a cream color quilt that he has created, and the stitching and quilting on it is off the charts fantastic.

so if by chance, you are sitting at home this weekend, and it happens to be snowing out, make it happen.  design a “white” quilt and let your creative juices flow.  now remember, i didn’t say make a quilt this weekend, i said design one. 

look outside, see the textures, colors, designs of the bushes, trees, marks in the snow and come up with something original, and think outside the box when you do.

and if you would, send some of your designs my way, via email, and i just might post them in the next issue of the magazine!

happy saturday everyone!

BE CREATIVE!

jim

i am not sure how many of you are on facebook, but if you are interested in becoming my friend, i am on there.  just type in my name and look for the goofball on the camel…………….that’s me!

enjoy your friday everyone, i am doing a lot of cleaning this weekend myself (in my basement.)  finally going to whip it into shape once and for all!

cheers my dear,

jim

hello dear quilting friends!

i have had many of you emailing me and asking when i was going to get back on my blog and write again.  well, truth be told, i needed a good two month break from it all.  i had just finished a whirlwind 2009, traveling 306 days last year away from home, and i just needed a good time off to recharge my battery.  and so i have.  in my new blogs for this year, i am going to be sharing with you a lot more personal information about my home, friends, family and interests that i haven’t shared before.  so be sure you are checking back now each day for photos and fun surprises.  i will even be giving away prizes and even trips if you have read my blog for that day and answered a question correctly.  so don’t miss out!

there are so many exciting things to tell you about sew many places and the direction we are going with things.

we have had an incredible response to our quiltposium magazine.  so far, we have over 207,000 people registered to view our FREE magazine online!!  where did they all come from?????   i have heard from many of you who said you had cancelled your magazine subscriptions with magazines you used to receive in the mail, and you are very happy with what you are reading in quiltposium.  thanks so much for your encouragement ,and i especially want to thank the celebrity writers who send articles for each issue.  i appreciate all of you.

just to let you know, we are finalizing all 2011 cruises, tours, expeditions and quiltaway programs.  if there is some place you would like to travel and we don’t have the destination listed with our existing trips, let us know.  we are open to all ideas.

thanks for your patience in me not blogging for a while, but i am back and back with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm.  watch for my daily blogs on here and be sure to tell your friends.

happy quilting, happy day!

jim