The winner of five fat quarters of Pajama Party from QuiltSoup is Pat V., Nov 16, 2011, 3:59 pm who said she also needed new potholders. Please send me your address and we ship out soon. If we haven't heard from you within 7 days we reserve the right to do what we think is best with the prize. Again thanks to all of you for your nice comments and for visiting our site. We enjoyed the hop and hope you did too!
Don't forget to enter the big drawing at the Henry Glass website. I'm pretty sure you need to visit their blog to enter.

It's the final day of the Henry Glass Designers' Jolly Holiday Party. Today you can visit Chelsea Andersen of Pink Fig Designs whose fabrics definitely trend to fresh and modern.

Next is Linda Lum DeBono of dzyning things. This girl is super creative! She is also the Techno Guru of our bunch. She is so savvy when it comes to electronic publishing, blogs, facebook, twitter and all of that stuff. She has had the unenviable task of herding us all through a blog hop. We may not be the easiest bunch to herd but we probably have some fun once we get going!!
These two ladies have the last 2 two secret words. Be sure to write them down somewhere. I need to say that my word was actually 2 words...gingerbread cookies. The QuiltSoup contest ends Saturday night, 11:59 pm MST. I will draw the winner on Sunday morning and announce then as well. Please send your address right away because I am leaving on Monday morning and will not be shipping again until Dec 2.

Thanks so much for hopping and following our designers. I wish you a wonderful holiday season filled with every thing you absolutely adore.

Holy moley! I am posting a little late this morning. I have been out shoveling snow that I am just certain Pam and Janet of the Buggy Barn have sent this way. It is that kind of snow that is gentle and quiet and continual. It piles up in a hurry. I have been to the Buggy Barn for annual outdoor quilt show and it is truly spectacular. I see a great write up about them and the show in Mary Janes' Farm Girl mag thisi month.
After you visit with them, stop by and see Renae Allen at RGA Designs. for some of the most beautiful pieced quilts going. If you are a traditionalist, today is your day!



Lastly, if you stop by the Lazy Diasy Cottage you will find Dana Brooks. I'm not sure whether she has done a project for you for not, but it is always fun to visit as many shops as you can in my opinion. Dana is a very talented designer and runs a mile a minute. I am also lucky to count her as one of my friends. Don't forget about those secret words. I m sure these women have plenty of fun for you today.

Today the HG designers for the blog hop are Leanne Anderson of the The Whole Country Caboodle and Brenda Pinnick of Brenda Pinnick Designs.

Leanne has been in the quilt biz for a good long time. It is a family endeavor and I am pleased to say that I met her mother a couple of times at market and now her daughter as well. How wonderful to be able to share the quilt bug with your mom and child.



I can still see the photo of Brenda's project from last year in my mind. She did the cutest fabric banner and the sight of it has stuck with me. I am guessing that she is a lover of color. I'm sure this year's project will be as memorable. We don't get to see her at market and I have a feeling that is our loss. She has also tried to keep us a bit organized on this blog hop!

Thanks to everyone who visited me yesterday and for all your nice comments. Don't forget to collect those words as you hop.

Happy Holidays from my house to yours! I didn’t realize I had so much to talk about when it came to Christmas until I had a look at the interview questions we are answering.

I did know that Christmas is absolutely my favorite time of year and always has been. I love the generosity and kindness one sees at Christmas and always wish we could keep that spirit with us a little longer than we do.

I’m excited to share a pot-holder design with you. It seems like everyone always uses Christmas dishes and towels during the season and these might make nice hostess or neighbor gifts. You could make a plate of Gingerbread Cookies and provide the recipe with the pot holders. The reason I made these is that my mother needs new pot-holders. Here she is.

She was very specific about what she wanted; “like those ones I got 20 years ago from that lady at the craft fair”!!!! I, of course, had no idea what she was talking about but did a little investigating. The hot pads were simple round cloth disks that really fit a hand pretty well. What I loved about them is that didn’t have any hanging loops or wooden rings attached to them (which made my photo shoot a little more challenging).

They were just the essence of a pot holder. “What happened to the ones you had?” is asked? “Oh I caught them on fire” she said. Forget about taking away someone’s keys when they get older…maybe we need to take away her pot-holders! I plan to make a holiday set as well as some everyday ones for her. You can find the patterns on our web site. We also have some good sales going on right now too!

What is your favorite holiday food?

I debated sharing this recipe with you because it makes for a long post. In the end, I decided why not?! My grandpa was an incredibly patient farmer from Arkansas and he used to make the kind of corn he said "made a rabbit hit a bear". We never knew why he said that but it always made us laugh. When he and generation all passed away, no one made this corn anymore and I missed it way too much. As a way of honoring him and keeping this tradition alive, I resurrected this recipe for home-made creamed corn! This is not that icky stuff from the can that you are probably thinking of. The best way to explain what it is, is to tell you how we make it. Then you will see why it is only served during the holidays (we ration it out!)

During July, when corn on the cob is in season, we order 6-12 dozen ears from the farmer. We chose a farmer that grows the “Confetti” variety of corn. It is white and yellow and incredibly sweet. We schedule a picking for a Saturday because making the corn is a time consuming job. The corn is picked early in the morning and we are there to load it up and head for home. From there, we husk, remove all the silk, wash, dry and stack the ears in a cool place.

Next comes the tedium and the mess. We do this job outside and cover the ground where we work with sheets. Take a sharp razor blade, (you will need a pack of single edge razor blades for this job, barely trim the tops of the kernels by running the razor blade down the ear. These tops are for the compost post pile. Next, take a butter knife and run the smooth side of the knife down the ear while holding it over a pan. All the creamy goop and goodness that comes out is what we are keeping. When the pan is full, stop and bag the corn goop. We use very strong freezer bags. For every pint of goop, add 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/8- 1/4 teaspoon salt. Squish all the air out of the bag and seal well. Lay the bags flat in the freezer and allow corn to freeze before moving it.

To prepare the corn, melt 1 stick (yes, one whole stick) of butter in a large frying pan. No wonder this is so good! Add the corn. I have used it frozen or thawed. The only difference is in the time it takes to cook. Cover the pan and cook over low heat stirring frequently. You have to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t scorch. We usually give someone the job of "corn stirrer" so somebody tends it closely. Cook about 1 hour. Sometimes we have to add a little more butter as it cooks. You will end up with a bowl of the creamiest, most delicious creamed corn you have ever eaten. It takes some planning but it is really worth the effort of keeping this tradition alive.

Does your family have a favorite holiday tradition?
Ours is to have a sit-down traditional Christmas dinner and a family party. We do this on Christmas Eve.

Did you love or hate sitting on Santa’s lap?
I loved it and I loved him!

Was there a gift you desperately wanted? Did you get it?
I wanted everything I wanted desperately!! Yes, I always got what I had hoped for.

What is your favorite holiday movie? I don’t watch them.

Favorite holiday song?
There are three that I love equally; they are the Carol of the Bells by Celtic Woman, Mary Did You know (but only the version by Michael English) and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). I just downloaded All I Want for Christmas by Justin Beiber and Mariah Carey a couple of weeks ago. I listen to these songs all year long!

Do you make many holiday presents? What do you like to give?
I used to make almost all of the gifts I gave. That might have included Gingerbread Cookies or not. My time is so limited now that I only make gifts for my grandchildren and their mother and father. I like to give them something they can’t buy and something unique. This year it will likely be knitted and felted intarsia bags for the girls, knitted scarves for my snowboarder boys and/or quilts. I am always hopeful when I undertake my Christmas gift making. Usually, I find should have started about 6 months earlier than I did in order for it to be humanly possible to complete it all in time! Sound familiar?

If you could go back in time, when would you say was your most favorite holiday memory?
The best Christmas mornings I ever had, were those when my son (who is an only child) was about 3-5 years old. Seeing the excitement of Christmas through his eyes was better than anything else!

Do you like a big family gathering at the holidays or do you prefer a small dinner followed by hot chocolate by the fire?

I like them both, it just depends on the time of the day! I like to start out with lots of family and chaos but by evening I am ready for a calm respite. I don’t like chocolate so it would be some kind of a latte instead of cocoa for me!

As a reward for persevering to end of this epistle, I would like to tell you that we have a giveway contest for you here at QuiltSoup. We are giving away 5 fat quarters of our latest Pajama Party line of fabrics. It isn’t even in stores yet but you can see the whole thing at Henry Glass. I am really excited to work with this line. We have done a free quilt and pillowcases for you. Who knows, maybe pot holders would from these fabrics would be cute. Just leave off the Christmas appliques, etc, etc. Comment to be entered into the drawing. We will draw and announce the winner on Tuesday. Could someone please check on those gingerbread cookies????

I hope I haven't worn you out. I am sharing the day with Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched and everything she does is wonderful! I don't know Anni very well yet but hope to change that!

Good morning to all. The blog hop continues today with the ladies of Little Quilts. They are Mary Ellen Van Holt (seated), Alice Berg and Sylvia Johnson (don't they look so pretty?) Last year they did fabric strips that were tied onto the branches of their Christmas tree and it was so stunning and so simple. I can't wait to see what they have come up with this year!

Lucy Morey of Hot Scott Patterns is of the up and comer generation and I am expecting a hip and funky twist from her.

All I know about Vicki Oehlke of WillowBerry Lane is that I have loved every collection of fabric she has ever done, even when she was designing for another fabric house. She leans toward the romantic and lovely florals and I am one of her biggest fans. I have made it one of my goals to meet her at the next market. Her blog is willowberrylane.wordpress.com.

I don't mind telling you that I am starting to sweat. I will be sharing my project with you tomorrow and I am feeling just how talented all these other ladies are. Here's hoping for a good outcome! Have a fun day and please enjoy your hopping! Are you collecting the secret words?

We are spanning the country today from Arizona to New Jersey.No matter where you are located or where you come from, it seems there are some holiday traditions that transcend all of that.On the second day of our Henry Glass Blog hop you will find a project from Jacquelynne Steves of the The Nobel Wife

and the girls from LizzieBCre8ive. Have fun visiting and collecting projects. If you happen to have experienced any technical glitches or missing projects with our hop on Sunday, please try again. It turns out that sometimes life gets in the way of the best laid plans of mice and designers!!

Today begins the Henry Glass Jolly Holiday party. For the next week you will be able to visit many of the HG designers and download a free holiday project from each of their blogs. Collect the secret word at each blog and put them in safe place. At the end of the hop you will be able to comment on the Henry Glass blog to become eligible for the grand prize. You need to know the secret words though! We are also doing a giveaway at QuiltSoup on our day (Wednesday). Comment to be eliblgible for our prize.
Jillily Studios (do you believe she is a grandmother?)

and Kari Ramsay of Fresh Cut Quilts.

Both of these women are from Utah, are very talented, and are lovely people. I can't wait to see what they have come up with.

There's a Jolly Holiday Party coming up and you're invited! The dates are Nov 13-21. Come and join in on all of the fun that we are going to have.

There will be giveaways, stories and lots of inspiration. We get to visit with each designer. You'll find her wonderful holiday post and a special design that she's made for you.


We will post the schedule on Friday.

Fabric give-away by Henry Glass! Like us on Facebook. Give-away closes Tuesday.

New pillow to accompany a new quilt.

Penny Sturgess of Quilts Illustrated makes the cutest dang bags. She made us a new one called City Zipper. It has a cute flower called Pleated Posy. She made it out of our Cherry Fizz line. It is over-sized and perfect as a project bag for quilt retreats, knitting or crochet. I may also drag it onto an airplane just so I am stylin' the next time I have to fly! The kits and patterns are available at QuiltSoup.

We just finished Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. Here are a few quick shots of what it looked like for us.

The QuiltSoup Booth:


My neighbor and friend, Jill Finley of Jillily Design Studio:


Jill's award winning booth and our charming friend, Lenny:

I am falling behind with designer profiles for the Utah girls. I took a little break and caught up with Lila Tueller and Lori Holt. Both are featured on the All Dolled Up blog. Please link from the button to the right!

Check it out! Pam has big news! And so do these Utah designers...