Moda's Be My Neighbor - Block 1

Here's my first block for Moda's "Be My Neighbor" quilt.  You can pick up your block pattern from our web site here.
Each week I'll be posting the selection of Moda Grunge fabrics that I've used in my block. I'll also let you know if I have any tips for cutting and assembling the block.

My fabric selection for block 1:

• House - Geranium
• Windows - Creme
• Roof & Chimneys - Fur
• Tree - I used assorted greens, aqua and jade. The trunk is Fur.

This week I have a few tips for cutting for scrappy blocks.

• Background - you'll be cutting lots of different size squares and rectangles from your background fabrics.  It made sense to me to cut a strip across the width of the fabric for each size needed.  I then cut the squares and/or rectangles needed and labeled the leftover strip with it's width.  That makes it easy when you're working on the next block to pick up the size strip that you need. 
• I am using the same approach to cutting for the house and trees.  I've cut strips in the sizes needed. cut off the squares or rectangles listed and saved the leftover ends for future blocks.  Don't worry about direction unless you have an obviously directional fabric.  For example: cutting the pieces for this first house, I cut the 2 - 12-1/2" x 2-1/2" rectangles and 3 - 2-1/2" x 7-1/2" rectangles from strips cut 2-1/2" x width of fabric.
• I'm using "Creme" for windows in most of the blocks.  Most of the windows in future blocks are also 3-1/2" squares so if you cut a 3-1/2" strip, you'll use it again.

I know many of you are planning to select fabrics from your stash as you go.  We'd love to see how your blocks are coming along!  Post a picture to our facebook page or send me an email and I'll put together an album for each block.

Nancy

Moda's Be My Neighbor

When I saw Moda's Neighborhood quilt, I knew I had to make it. Anyone want to do it with me?

It's a quilt-a-long from the creative folks at Moda Fabrics.

Monday September 19, we'll begin posting the series of 16 free downloadable "blueprints" each Monday. They'll be on our web site as well as here on the blog. The project will run through January 2.  I'll also be sharing photos of my blocks as we go along.  I'm planning to make my quilt using Moda's Grunge line of fabrics. You can follow along with me (we'll be cutting bundles this week of the fabrics I'm using) or use your stash to make it all yours.

Are you ready to plan your quilt? Here's a link to the quilt layout so you can get started.

Nancy

Don't you love Show & Tell

Last month we enjoyed three Mystery Weekend sessions here at Glad Creations with a total of 55 participants!  What could be more fun. This was our 56th Mystery Weekend. Since we offer this workshop twice a year, that means we've been offering Mystery Weekends for over 25 years.  It's through these Mystery sessions that we've developed our line of over  90 patterns for bed size quilts.

One of our favorite parts of the weekends is the Show & Tell.  It's so much fun to see all of the finished quilts.  Of course, we see quite a few completed quilts from the previous two mysteries.  Sunburst was from our March 2015 session and Star-Crossed was from our session a year ago.  We also get to see quilts from some of our other patterns and many beautiful quilts from a variety of sources.  Congratulations to everyone who shared their wonderful quilts!

During the show & tell, we like to snap some photos so we can share all these great quilts in a slide show.  You'll see quilt names that are from our line of patterns as you look through the slides.  Enjoy the show!  Just so you know - you won't see the Mystery 56 quilt in the slide show.  Some folks are still working on the pattern in the Mystery by Mail format.  We don't want to spoil their surprise!

Just in case you haven't heard, we're making some changes to our weekend workshops.  Instead of Mystery Weekend, we'll be offering Not a Mystery - Weekend in our winter schedule.  This new workshop will run a lot like the Mystery Weekends.  The big change is that participants can work on any Glad Creations pattern.  We know that many of you have patterns you've been dreaming about starting or that you have been collecting fabric for.  Some of you might even have a couple of our kits waiting to be your next project. So, we think this newly designed class sounds like a lot of fun.  Plan on demos, show & tell, and fun sewing with others.

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Inspiring!

Susan and I have just completed our 55th round of Mystery Weekend sessions - can you believe it??? We love both visiting with longtime friends and meeting new friends as we teach the workshops.  Who could ask for a better job?

We can't show you the new Mystery Quilt yet since folks are still working with our Mystery by Mail kits.  We can show you the pictures we snapped of the show and tell that participants brought to share with the group. Show and Tell is one of the best parts of Mystery Weekend for us.  It's always fun to see what past mystery quilters have completed since the previous session and we love seeing the special projects that our new mystery quilters bring to share.

We saw several quilts using the patterns from the most recent Mystery Weekends. We saw several versions of Gracie's Favorite and Star-Crossed. It's amazing how different they look with different fabric selections. The Gracie's Favorite pattern is available on our website.  Star-Crossed will be coming out as a pattern later this spring.

Enjoy our slide show!  We've labeled quilts in the show that are Glad Creations patterns. You'll be able to find the Glad Creations patterns in the pattern section of our website.   What fun!

Nancy

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Stripes!

Stripes! Our annual staff challenge quilt show is hanging in the second floor of the shop January 1 - 10, 2015.  We've put together a slide show so you can get a look at the quilts. Of course, if you can come and see them in person, all the better!

We started out planning quilts using striped fabric. As always, we're a creative bunch and like to broaden the rules.  Along the way someone says, "this quilt looks like stripes even though there is no stripe fabric. Does that count as a stripe quilt?"  Sure, why not.

Enjoy!

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Mystery Weekend 54 - Show & Tell

November was a big Mystery month for us here at Glad Creations. We've just finished the in-shop workshops for our 54th Mystery Weekend!  We had 3 great groups of quilters working their way through the mystery clues, chatting with friends and sharing some of their completed projects.  Check out our new class schedule online.  The next Mystery sessions will be offered in March 2015.

Show and Tell is one of the best parts of Mystery Weekend for us.  It's always fun to see what past mystery quilters have completed since the previous session and we love seeing the special projects that our new mystery quilters bring to share.

We saw several quilts using the patterns from the most recent Mystery Weekends, Gracie's Favorite, Connect the Dots and Little Trips.  It's so fun to see how all of the different fabric selections have turned out.

Enjoy our slide show!  We've labeled quilts in the show that are Glad Creations patterns.  Of course, there are no pictures of the newest mystery quilt since we have a number of quilters working on it through our by-mail version.  You'll be able to find the Glad Creations patterns in the pattern section of our website.   What fun!

Nancy

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Two-Color Quilt Show

It's time for another staff quilt show at Glad Creations.  Each year we get together and vote on a theme for our annual staff quilt show. We decided on Two-Color quilts for this year's show.

It's always a fun process as each of us decides what quilt to make for the show. This year as we started planning our quilts and sharing our ideas, we found that when we voted on this theme, we had many different definitions of  Two-Color quilts.  Some of us pictured a quilt made with only two fabrics - one solid or print for the pattern with a contrasting background.  Others saw their quilts with the contrast of one color for the pattern against a contrasting background but with a variety of prints for each.  Then there were those of us who selected 2 colors but selected a range of values in each of the colors to create their pattern.

So, as happens with a group of creative people, we threw out the rules.  We decided that we should each make our quilt based on our own vision of what a Two-Color Quilt should be.  It turned out to be a great show with lots of fun variety.

The quilts will be on display at Glad Creations through January 11, 2014.  Stop by and check them out! If you aren't able to get in to the shop to see that quilts, enjoy our slide show.

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Show and Tell at Mystery Weekend #51

It's time for another fun slide show! We've had an great time teaching our Mystery Weekend #51 quilt this month. We had about 60 participants for this round of Mystery. Everyone got lots done and loved the quilt. We won't be showing you the new mystery quilt yet because folks who are doing the pattern as Mystery by Mail are just getting started.

Our Mystery Weekends are one of the highlights of the year for us. We love getting together with long-time friends as well as getting to know new friends. One of the best parts of each weekend is the great show and tell that we see. We love seeing the completed quilts from past Mystery Weekends. We're also amazed by all the other inspiring quilts that participants bring to share. It's so fun to see what everyone has been working on.  Thanks to everyone who shared their creations with us!

As you watch the slide show you'll see that quite a few people finished their Mystery #50 quilt from last fall. That quilt is called Fabulous Fifty. We'll have it ready as a pattern later this spring.

So, here's our slide show of the photos we snapped. We added names to the photos that are Glad Creations patterns. Also noted are quilts made in classes at the shop.

 Enjoy!

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Nostalgia!

We have a group that gets together once a month at Glad Creations. We just call it "Quilt Club". It includes our current staff as well as several former staff members – from as far back as 1984! It's fun to get together. We usually see some recently completed projects, sometimes we bring some quilting to work on, there's often a lesson or demo by one of the group members. Sometimes we just enjoy the companionship of long-time friends. 

So, a few months ago some of us started talking about foods that we remembered eating as children. For many of us that was 1950's and 60's. We had so much fun talking about it that we decided to have a 50's – 60's potluck for our holiday get-together. Just a note, some of us could remember those days and some had to do some internet research to come up with a recipe.

Our friend Georgia offered to host. Her south Minneapolis bungalow was all decked out for Christmas. Every room was filled with fun holiday decorations!

Here's the menu
 • Ham salad appetizer - with Ritz Crackers of course.
• Cheesy olive bites – green olives wrapped in a bit of dough (of course with lots of butter and cheese) and baked.
• Buttered popcorn
• Tater tot hot dish (2 types - tuna and ground beef) – of course Mary did due diligence and confirmed that tater tots were introduced in 1953!
• Wienie Wonders – not what you think – it involves hot dogs, hard cooked eggs, sweet pickles and a meat grinder. I think it was a girl scout recipe.
• Porcupine meatballs
• Chicken Tetrazzini
• Orange Jewel jello – complete with mandarin oranges and cream cheese balls.
• Red jello with fruit cocktail.
• And the highlight of the main course – fried Spam topped with fried pineapple and a maraschino cherry!

Desserts followed – Chiffon pie, banana pudding with vanilla wafers and "chocolate oops"!

Wow! What a meal. We should probably all just eat salads for the rest of the week.

We had some fun show and tell. Debbie brought the quilt she's finishing for our staff quilt show "Vintage Glad's Quilts". She used our Shady Grove pattern for her quilt. If you haven't heard about the upcoming show, here's the scoop. Staff members who wanted to participate selected a pattern from a list of the first 24 Glad Creations patterns and made an updated version of the quilt in current fabrics. The quilts will be on display at the shop January 1 – 11, 2013.  We're pretty excited to see all of these quilts hanging.  We'll be getting out the original versions of the quilts too.

Cheri brought her nearly completed Hopscotch quilt to show. She added some special appliqué butterflies. It's going to be a gift for a special friend. All it needs is binding.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday from all of us at Glad Creations!

Spring Cleaning

Spring Quilt Market was inspiring!  We brought back new patterns, tools, and loads of ideas for new samples to make.  So... it's good that we did some spring cleaning before we left town.  The staff set up a great display of samples that we're ready to sell.

So what's for sale?  Here's a sampling.  There's lots more so come in and check it out!

Fun kid's quilts:

 Pieced Wallhangings:

More fun wallhangings:

Lap quilts:

Tablerunners:

 

Large quilts:

Bags:

Mystery Weekend 49

We completed our final session of Mystery Weekend 49 last weekend with a fun group of veteran Mystery Quilters. We had such a fun series of Mystery Weekends - many folks who've come to Mystery Weekend over and over - and lots of new folks, too! It was inspiring to see so many wonderful fabric combinations as participants worked on their quilts!

One of the highlights of Mystery Weekend is always Show & Tell! We saw quite a few previous mysteries that have been completed and a lot of other fun projects too. There were several versions of the Mystery quilt from last fall - Quilted Gems. We'll be publishing this as a pattern later this spring.

We snapped some photos of the Show & Tell and put them together into a slide show. We've included names for the quilts that were previous Mystery Weekend quilts and are now Glad Creations patterns. Don't worry if you're working on Mystery by Mail 49 right now - we haven't included any photos of the current Mystery project.

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Putting Together a Glad Creations' Kit

We've been busy at the shop assembling kits for Mystery #49. We have the kits all ready for our Mystery Weekend sessions and are now busy cutting fabric for the Mystery by Mail kits.

Have you ever wondered about the process we go through as we create a kit to go with one of our Glad Creations patterns? We start by selecting a group of fabrics to work with. Here we've selected a group of Civil War reproduction prints and a group of Batiks. These are the fabrics for Mystery 49. We'll have information up on the website next week with all the details for Mystery by Mail 49.


Then we spend a few days at the counter - cutting, cutting , cutting.


The final step is assembling the fabrics into a package that's ready for the quilter to take home.

Sometimes it's easy, we just roll them up and tie them into a bundle or fold them into a bag. Other times there's soooo much fabric in the kit that it takes a bit of muscle and some teamwork to get them into their completed form.

Amy was so amused watching Susan & Pat trying to bundle up the Mystery Weekend kits that she decided a video was in order.
If your sound is turned on, you'll hear a bit of giggling!

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Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Part 2

Wow! Another fantastic display of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilts. I am so impressed at all the effort that has gone into creating these quilts. They're just beautiful. We've had lots of folks through the shop to see the quilts and there have been many complements while trying to select a favorite. Such a fun variety of sets and fabric combinations.

This group of quilts will be on display through Saturday January 21. If you're planning a visit to see this group of quilts, keep in mind that we do have a few classes scheduled during this show. You're welcome to view the quilts while classes are in session but it may be a little harder to get up-close to all of them. Our volunteer group will be working on quilts in the classrooms during the day on Tuesday but they'll be glad to have folks in looking at the quilts. Some of them even have quilts hanging in this show. We'll be open Tuesday evening until 8:30 PM with no class scheduled in the evening so that would be a great time to stop in. The final day of the show, January 21 is also our Scrap Tamers day so one of our classrooms will be a bit crowded. If that's your day to see the show, stop in after 2:00 for the best viewing.

Enjoy the slide show. The first 2 quilts in this slide show are quilts that were in the first exhibit but we didn't have a good photo for the first slide show so we've included them here.

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Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

The first group of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilts are hanging at the shop and they look fantastic! If you've been following our blog, you'll know that this show is the culmination of 2-1/2 years of work by our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler club. So many members completed their quilts that we'll be displaying them in two groups.

Thanks so much to everyone who finished their quilt and brought it in to share with us. Our New Year's Day shoppers enjoyed the great variety of sets and fun fabric combinations. This group of quilts will be on display through January 10. On the 11th we'll switch everything around and hang a second group of quilts that will be on display January 12 - 21. Enjoy the slide show!

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The Story of Sylvia's at Glad Creations

In the spring of 2009, we received a new quilt pattern book at Glad Creations. The title of the book was Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. The author, Jennifer Chiaverini, is also the author of the "Elm Creek Quilts" series of fictional stories featuring a quilting guild in central Pennsylvania. In the sixth book of this fictional series, the members of the quilt guild make a wedding quilt using 6" x 6" quilt blocks for their founder, Sylvia. This led to the book we were looking at, Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, which features patterns for the 140 6" quilt blocks that the guild used in Sylvia's quilt.





Susan and Nancy, owners of Glad Creations Quilt Block in Minneapolis, looked at this book and thought it would be fun to make all these blocks. We talked about how long it would take to actually complete this project. We started wondering if anyone else would want to do it with us. As we talked to our quilting friends around the shop we found out that quite a few people were interested in this project.

So, we decided to start a club. We planned on 2 ½ years to complete the project. We sorted the blocks out by technique and planned club meetings, about 4 times each year, each of which focused on a particular technique. Imagine our surprise when almost 100 people signed up to participate in the club! Our group ranged from fairly new quilters to very experienced quilters and included quilters from all around the Twin Cities Metro area. We shared ideas on techniques and everyone learned and improved their skills.

So here's the result. We have about 40 completed quilts to display. They will be shown in two exhibits. The first will hang January 1 – 10, 2012. The second exhibit, with a completely different group of quilts will be shown January 11 – 21, 2012. Not everyone completed all of the blocks but put together the blocks they did complete into a variety of interesting sets.

What an exciting week it is as folks are dropping off their Sylvia's quilts at the shop, getting ready for the display. What an accomplishment! Congratulations to all who have worked on this project!

Watch our blog for a slide show of the first group of quilts on January 1, 2012. We'll post a slide show of the second group on January 12, 2012. www.gladcreationsquilts.blogspot.com.

Market finds

Back from market and now I'm trying to sort out all of the new items and ideas in my brain. So much to see and to choose. So much stimulation. We'll be showing you some of our new finds as they come into the shop.

Some of the new patterns that I think you will love are the Kanzashi flower pins from La Todera. What fun gift ideas. We ordered 3 different flowers and are working up samples so you can see them. The patterns will be arriving any day. These are easy and fast to make. We'll be showing these at the Quick Gift Demo on Saturday, November 26 along with other quick gift ideas. The demo will run from 10:00 - 1:00. Hope you can make it.

South Minneapolis Quilters

We had a fun time last night at the South Minneapolis Quilter's meeting. What a nice bunch of quilters. The focus of our talk was about Glad and all of the wonderful quilts that she has made. Many of those quilts have been prize winners. I think the group was most surprised that she hadn't started quilting until nearly 60 years of age. She's 93 now, so all of the quilts we showed and many, many, many more had been made within about 35 years. We told a little about Glad, her other interests and were able to show about 35 of her quilts. She was able to come to the meeting and I know she enjoyed visiting with all of the quilters and seeing old friends. This is a photo of Glad in her favorite applique chair.


It was also fun to show some of her other craft projects she had been involved in while we were growing up. Did you know she use to make Panorama Sugar Easter Eggs and decorate sugar cubes to sell at a candy store? And some of the quilters at the meeting told us they use to buy her handmade purses back in the 70s--before we opened the shop.

She's just starting her next applique quilt. I think she has a couple blocks done. So it won't be long until we have it on display. We always have a few of her appliqued quilts displayed at the shop. Stop in and see them. You will be amazed.

Quilt Comfort

We have a fantastic group of quilters that meet at the shop each month making quilts, primarily for children. The quilts are all donated to organizations that can use them. It's amazing how many quilts they produce! Not only do they get a lot done but they have loads of fun doing it.

Wanda, a group member was recently contacted by a physician friend, who is also a quilter, about the possibility of the group donating quilts to kids displaced by the tornado that devastated parts of north Minneapolis on May 22. The group participants were notified, and all who responded agreed it was a perfect opportunity to help in a timely way.

Wanda made contacts through the emergency resource numbers and learned that the Red Cross would be an appropriate recipient for distributing the quilts where they were most needed. On May 22 she delivered 30 kid-themed quilts to the Red Cross. They were happy to get a variety of sizes and put them right in the next truck headed to the north location.

These busy quilters have done much more than this! So far this year they have delivered quilts to the following organizations:
Children's Hospital - 66 quilts plus 105 small quilts for a special event
St. Joseph's Home - 5 children's quilts & 5 wall quilts
Veteran's Home - 6 quilts
Red Cross - 30 quilts

What a generous group of quilters. They share so much of their time to make all of this happen.

Glad Creations Totes

The new Glad Creations sunny yellow Tote bags are in! Get yours with a $25.00 purchase in the shop or in our booth at the Minnesota Quilter's Show next week.
We're looking forward to the show at the St. Paul RiverCentre June 16 - 18. You'll find us in booth 310-312. We're packing up loads of fun things to display in our booth. Did you see the photo of Glad with her most recent quilt that we posted a couple weeks ago? It's all quilted and bound so we'll be featuring it in our booth at the show.

What's Glad Been Up To?

We had a staff get together at the shop last night with lots of fun show & tell. Here's Glad - she just completed the applique on her latest project. All I can say is WOW! The pattern is "Roseville Album" by Kim McLean. It has loads of whimsical flowers and fun birds and animals on it. I think most of the cats are grey so they must be Gracie (Glad's cat) although she included one or two orange cats (Milo). Glad is a big fan of Kim McLean's applique patterns and has done several of them. I think this is by far the most intricate. Now it's off to be quilted. We'll have it on display in the shop when it's all done. I can hardly wait!
Nancy