We hear BABY STEPS

It's finally here.  QUILT magazine, the July/August edition.

Why is this important?  We have a new quilt design in it.  Actually we have three quilts.

Last December, our friend Demetria at RJR fabrics called and asked if we would do a design for a great new line of fabric called BOABAB.  She sent us the pictures and we were so excited.  Great modern prints, and a border to die for.  All this, three color waves, and it is the softest FLANNEL we had ever felt.  The end result was BABY STEPS in three color waves.  Yes, the magazine loved it so much they asked for all three color waves.  Here is the picture from the magazine.

They are even offering a special WEB BONUS

 www.quiltmag.com/quilt-patterns/quilt115-baby-steps-variation

And the best news of all, WE ARE SELLING THE KITS FOR ALL THREE QUILTS.  We have them NOW, but the fabric won't be in stores until late August.  All the details are in the magazine or on our website, http://www.abbeylanequilts.com/ .  The kit is selling for $ 49.95 plus $10.50 for shipping and we picked the adorable matching polka dot fabric for the backing for each quilt.  The total including backing and shipping will be $ 99.95.

Brown/Blue color wave

Pink/Brown Color Wave

Green/Orange Color Wave

Great quilt, great fabric, great deal. 

We have more exciting things happening, so check back next week for the next surprise.  Have a great week. 

Janice and Marcea

HOME AT LAST...

After flying 2500 miles to Florida, then driving nearly 2,000 miles to Minnesota, then driving back to Florida and then flying back to Utah, I am finally home.  What a crazy couple of weeks.  We had a great time in Minneapolis, though.  Now to the NEWS.  Two brand new quilt patterns were debuted,  ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, and PENNY LANE (pictures coming soon), and the most EXCITING NEWS of all.  We published our first book - BLOOMING POSSIBILITIES.  (so many fun projects we have to devote a whole post for it.)

We wanted to share with you this week, pictures of our booth.

We had a bigger booth this year.

And we used every bit of the space.

Two walls were devoted to the new quilts.  Penny Lane is the third one over on this wall.




















Across the Universe is the far quilt on the right.

We devoted a whole wall the the projects from Blooming Possibilities.




















We had cookies and flowers to celebrate the book.

The last bit of news came on Saturday.  Janice and I were busy helping customers, when a lovely lady interupted us "for only one reason."  WE HAD WON THE BOOTH AWARD FOR....
 BEST MERCHANDISING. 

All in all, Spring Market was a fabulous success.  We got to catch up with old friends, and make new friends, too.  We will be posting pics of some of our favorite booths in the next couple of weeks, and look for a BOOK GIVEAWAY, coming soon.

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday.  Wishing you a great week.

Janice and Marcea

THE WONDERFUL MONTH OF MAY

We would like to wish a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mothers, grandmothers, mother's to be, foster mothers, want-to-be mothers, and all of us who lovingly mother those around us.

May is also the Wonderful month of SPRING MARKET.  We are officially going crazy.  I head to Florida on Wednesday, and on the following Monday, we get in the car and DRIVE to Minneapolis.  We use the time during the drive to finish hand sewing on quilts, stuff patterns, shoot cover shots after we finish sewing, make brochures and pretty much every other little thing we did not get done in time.

I have spent four days this week shooting pictures for new patterns and our BIG SURPRISE.  It is soooo big, that we aren't even showing peaks yet.  But, I am showing you a new pattern.  The four days I shot this week showed the crazyiness, I mean, Wonderful month for weather.  The first day it snowed, the second day it was 75 degrees, the third day, sunshine with snow falling everywhere, day four 68 degrees.

My very helpful husband went along with me for a couple of the photo shoots.

He found a really nice spot to hang the quilt.

He did find this beautiful spot.

Here is the final shot.

The quilt is call JUST LET IT BE.

I did have to throw in a picture of my favorite things, flowers.  Here was my flower on this location.

Hope you Wonderful month of May is just that.  We will keep you updated on our Market preparation.

Janice and Marcea

New EQ7, YIPPEE

Let's start with the most exciting news first.  Electric Quilt has a new version, EQ7.  We love eq, we use it almost everyday, in fact most our designs are done on it.  We have been interviewed by eq and even featured in the Amy Butler version.  Sarah and all the ladies over there are so helpful.  So,  head over to http://www.eletricquilt.com/ and read all about it.  WE CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUR HANDS ON IT.

Janice and I are up to our ears in fabric, patterns, quilts, flowers, bags, you name it, we are working on it.  Market is coming way too fast.  We do have one new pattern that is now ready to purchase on the website, http://www.abbeylanequilts.com/.  It is called MA BELLE, and has a fun, french flair.  We used Provence from RJR for the pattern cover.

We made up this beautiful version using moda fabrics.  It is just patiently waiting for binding.

Have to get back to work, so have a great week.

Janice and Marcea

ALOHAS AND GRANDPAS

Sorry, just no way to break the news other than to say, I am heading to Kaui, Hawaii, in the morning.  I know, it's rough, my niece called two days ago and asked if I would go and help her watch her two little babies.  Her husband has been detained with work meetings.  Darn.  Janice is in Pennsylvania visiting her daughter and three grandsons, so this post will be short.

One quick grandpa story.  Janice's husband, Kevin called me on the phone yesterday to check a recipe.  He usually makes a cake called 30 MINUTE CAKE which he decided to make but did not have the recipe.  He found one of my recipes, TEXAS FUDGE CAKE, so he wanted to know if it was the same.  Yes, I said.

He called back a couple of minutes later, but I missed the call, so I called him back about thirty minutes later.  "There is no frosting recipe,"  he said.  "I think I remember it though."  While we were talking I could here this yelling in the background.  "Are you babysitting Kevin," I asked.  "Yes," he said, three boys ages 5, 3 and 1.  "Who was that?" I asked.  "That was Noah,"  he said.  Noah is the 1 year old, just turned 1 last week.  I asked Kevin what the baby wanted.  Kevin said, "He is eating a corn chip."  I asked him if the baby had any teeth to chew this hard corn chip with.  Kevin said, "Yes, he has two on top and two on bottom."  I asked him if he thought the baby could chew up the corn chip.  Kevin said, "Sure, he just put too many in his mouth at once."  We finished our conversation and all of a sudden a very strange noise.  "Oh no," Kevin said, "the baby is starting to gag."  I told him goodbye very quickly and suggested he go help the baby. 

As you can see, the three boys survived their day with grandpa.  On a side note, this is the same grandpa that gave the same baby blue marshmellows out of the cereal box when he was two months old.

Thought I would throw in the recipe for this cake.  I am pretty sure you have all had it, but just in case.

Have a great week, we are, and make sure that all your grandpas act like little boys.
Aloho, Janice and Marcea

SPRING IS SPRUNG

Don't you just love spring,  yesterday, 69 degrees, tomorrow, 62 degrees.  This morning, woke up to 3 inches of snow on the ground.

It was 35 degrees outside when I took these pictures.  I wanted ya'll to know the sacrifices I go through for your viewing pleasure.

Next on this list is a brand new pattern.  You have followed the progress and now MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR is finished.  Here is the final cover.  The pattern is really three different patterns in one.  It is on our website, so go check out the details:  http://www.abbeylanequilts.com/.

The back shows all three quilts.

Finally, I posted this picture last year, and several people wanted the recipe.  Janice has called three times for the recipe.  The problem, I don't use recipes, but I have finally written down a recipe for it.
















The pie has no sugar, which makes it great for the diabetics.  The picture has a real pie crust, but the recipe has a nut crust.  My step-daughter has a wheat allergy, so I changed it up for her.  It is also very low in carbs and high in protein.

Remember, you can double click on any of the pictures of the recipe and it will give you a bigger picture to see the details, or in the case of the recipe card, you can print it off.

Have a great week.

Janice and Marcea

WE HAVE THE WINNERS

We did it, 200 FOLLOWERS.  We did not have any number in mind, but when it hit 190, it is an exciting goal.  When we made 199, we were hoping one more, one more. 

We got our facebook up and running and have 220 friends already.  Facebook is great for posting a quick picture and we love your comments on the work.

Before we give the winners, we want to thank everyone who left us a message, checked our website and joined us on facebook.  We were truly overwhelmed with the response and the kind words.  Janice went to everyone's blogs and she said your comments there were fabulous. 

Also a BIG APOLOGY to all who could not view the website.  Apparantly mozilla firefox does not like one of our fonts, so it won't read it.  We are fixing it right now and hopefully tomorrow EVERYONE can take a look at the website.

We wish we could give everyone an ABBEY BAG,  (we can't live without ours).  Based on your comments, though, we are adding FIVE ABBEY BAG PATTERNS to the giveaway.  That makes 11 winners all together.   I know, I know, you just want to know who won. So here goes:

We chose from 603 entries coming from 34 states all over the United States, 18 countries, and 6 continents.  Don't you love the internet.  I tell my husband all the time we have friends all over the world.  The top three patterns were in order:  1- MATCH BOX   2- ABBEY BAG   3 - GLAD ALL OVER.
The favorite ABBEY BAG was NUMBER 2, the TEAL AND GREEN one.

Every year for birthdays and christmas, when my kids wrapped the presents for each other, they would use an entire roll of scotch tape, sometimes duck tape, and sometimes 10 layers of wrapping paper.  It took forever to get to the present.  Oh, but I digress, hee hee.  You have endured enough of my wrapping. 

The LUCKY WINNERS are:

Abbey Bag # 2  goes to CHRISTINE from Crafty Girl Creations.

ROMEKA from Australia wins her three favorite patterns:  PAPER BACK, UNCLE ALBERT, and GLAD ALL OVER.

JAN HATCHETT from Jackson, Georgia wins her three favorite patterns:  THE ABBEY BAG, MAGGIE MAY, and MY DEAR PRUDENCE.

NANCY ROTHSHILD BIRD from Many, Louisiana wins her favorite pattern:  SEPTEMBER MORN.

LYNNQUILTSALOT  wins her favorite pattern:  MATCH BOX.

QUILT HOLLOW from North Carolina wins her favorite pattern:  THE CLARABELLA BAG.

KRISTY  in Ohio wins an ABBEY BAG pattern.

SONIA from Sydney Australia wins an ABBEY BAG pattern.

QUILTMAVEN from Texas wins an ABBEY BAG pattern.

PURPLE PAINT from Colorado wins an ABBEY BAG pattern.

BEESHEBAGS from Australia wins an ABBEY BAG  pattern.

Ok, winners, email us at abbeylanequilts@yahoo.com with your addresses.

Finished the quilt tops for our newest pattern "MA BELLE".  Janice will quilt them this week, then cut that border with a beautiful scallop.  It is 60" square and very french inspired.

This is the original quilt made with a brand new fabric collection from RJR called Provence.

Second version.  Beautiful purples and greens.

Here is a close-up view.  Just can't wait to see it quilted.

Here is the lifestyle shot for "MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR."  We just LOVE this pattern.

Thanks again everyone.  We are so lucky to be quilters.  Have a great week.  Janice and Marcea