What a big finish to 2010 we had with the Quilter’s Favorite Things giveaway! We had so much fun with that contest and we had five lucky winners. This Monday, Jan. 10, I’ll be Pat Sloan’s guest on her Creative Talk Radio show. You won’t want to miss this interview, because I’ll be revealing a quilting industry first on her show, and her listeners will get the exclusive scoop.  Join the party to hear us chat about color, Pantone’s color for 2011, and of course there will be prizes! So tune in and don’t miss the fun. To listen in, visit her show’s website and click the listen live button. The show runs from 4:00 to 5:00, and I’ll be on the second half starting at 4:30.

To add even more to the fun, I’ll be posting live on Facebook during the show.  I’ll be asking questions and giving away prizes during the show, so listen in and answer the questions I post from the show to have even more chances to win!

Here’s to a colorful and creative 2011!

A simple red and cream color palette, enhanced with turquoise Christmas ornaments.  The basic red and cream allow you to update this classic runner every year with a new set of colored Christmas ornaments every year.  Turquoise was 2010’s color of the year, but next year I’ll do something completely different.  That’s the beauty of this runner:  it stays contemporary and classic, but changing the ornaments with each Christmas season.

Christmas Tree also doubles as an Advent Tree, with 24 branches and ornaments.  Today, December 1, it starts out decked completely with all 24 ornaments, one of which will be removed each day, counting down until Christmas.  I’m writing on the back of my ornaments, listing Bible verses, community service projects, and where to find treats scattered around the house.

Next year I get to decide what ornament shapes to trim Christmas Tree with: will they be gingerbread men?  Angels?  Stockings?  Stars?  The possibilities are endless!

To order the Color Mastery Table Runners enhanced e-pattern. click here: I Want to Master Color

So here’s something for quilters on both sides of the orange fence:  if you have a passion for orange, you’re really going to enjoy this month’s show, which features stunning and innovative uses of it in quilt projects both large and small.  If orange is not your favorite and you tend to stay away from it, you’ll be surprised by what you see:  one of the quilters in the show felt the same way and unexpectedly found herself relying on it for her designs.

Get advice from the pros and see their quilt designs and fabrics using orange.  This month I host Edyta Sitar, Betty Alofs, Pat Sloan, Sarah Whitney, Geri Richardson, Faith Wellman, and Laura Berringer of Marcus Fabrics.  To view the show in Full Screen mode or to embed this slideshow in your blog, just click the Menu link.  Remember to support these wonderfully creative designers by asking for their patterns and fabrics in your local quilt shops!

September’s featured color is orange, a perennial challenge for most quilters.  Orange, more than any other color, pops up as quilters’ least favorite color in my workshops.  Well, no more.  I show you, in Autumn Antlers, how to work with orange and make it one of your favorite colors in your quilt’s color palette.

Orange is one of the brightest colors in the quilt shop, and many only think of it for halloween, pumpkins, and garish college football team colors.  That’s about to change, because I give you artist’s tips on how to work with a challenging color and make it your own.  Eric Carle, author and illustrator of gorgeous children’s books, did this with colors he didn’t like, and they became his favorites.  Orange can become one of yours too.  Trust me.

Autumn Antlers design is fun, funky, and sophisticated, and evokes fall without limiting its place on your table to only the fall months.  This runner would be welcome in any season, any month, in any home.  Timeless design, innovative color, all in one stunning runner.

Autumn Antlers Pattern Update:  $5.95 (delivered early and automatically to pattern series subscribers – keep reading!)  Add to Cart

If you can’t get to the quilt shop to select your own fabrics, no worries.  I’m offering an Autumn Antlers kit as well.  It’s best to choose your own fabrics for your color palettes, but we all have those times when life gets too busy and we just can’t get to it.  I’d rather you be able to do the lesson with a kit than not at all.

Autumn Antlers Kit: $21.95 Add to Cart

Learn by Doing

In addition to learning how to coordinate a fresh autumn color palette, you’ll also discover how to:

• cut and place applique motifs
• learn the best stitches to use for machine applique, including optimal stitch length and width
• improve your machine applique skills by watching two step-by-step videos (COM Subscribers only)
• quilt a freemotion flame design to harmonize with the antler design

So not only do you get a sophisticated and new original design, you update your skills as well.

Last Opportunity to Subscribe and Buy Patterns

September is the last month you can buy a Color-of-the-Month subscription or individual patterns.  Why?  Because these beauties will be offered in a book, along with a bed quilt using the monthly blocks, that will be available in 2011.  I’ll still be sharing the monthly table runner projects for the rest of the year, but they won’t be available for purchase:  you’ll have to wait for the book!

To order the Color Mastery Table Runners enhanced e-pattern. click here: I Want to Master Color

You will too after you experience the luscious blue-green quilts offered up this month by indie quilt designers from the Yahoo Quilt Designers Collective.  Get advice from and see the quilts of Pat Sloan, Barbara Campbell, Sarah Whitney, Helen Stubbings, Marilyn Foreman, and Marcy Horswill. To view the show in Full Screen mode or to embed this slideshow in your blog, just click the Menu link.