New Designer, New Pattern, and a Give Away!

It absolutely thrills me to introduce

a new pattern designer,

blogger,
and pattern.

What's great is that it's just in time for crafting
for Christmas gift giving.

Without further adieu,

meet Karen!

In her own words:

Sugar Free Quilts

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

My 5 W's WHO: Besides being a wife, mother and grandma, quilting brings me to my happy place. I'm a flight attendant by day, which gives me the means to play with my creative quilty side. WHAT: Manipulating fabric to create different fonts makes me giddy. In college, studying graphic design, I always said I'd specialize in lettering. Little did I know it would be with fabric and not the printed page. WHEN: I started sewing when I was ten years old, almost half a century ago. I saved up all my money and bought my first sewing machine before my eleventh birthday. I guess I've been creating ever since. WHERE: We raised our family in Nova Scotia. Although our childrens' jobs have taken them all over Canada, my husband and I remain in this beautiful province on the east coast of Canada. WHY: I can't imagine being passionate about another craft and the women I've met during this journey makes it all worth while!

Her Etsy store: Sugar Free Quilts

Her Blog:  Sugar Free Quilts
Her FB page:  Sugar Free Quilted Designs

Karen has designed this adorable pin cushion.

The first time I saw it at Lesley's (The Cuddle Quilter),

I fell in love with it.  It's filled with crushed walnut shells

and made such a nice statement in Lesley's sewing space.

Almost a year later, I saw one at Linda's (Scrapmaster),

and thought, "I NEED one of these!).

Little did I know that I was soon to not only meet the designer,

but she'd ask ME, a TOTAL stranger, to be her pattern tester.

Sew, I made one and sent her my impressions.

We emailed back and forth for a few weeks

while she tweaked and we tested

and she tweaked some more.

Now I have three!

And I plan on making many more.

It's a lot like eating potato chips,

you can't make just one!

They were so quick and easy!

The best part of the process is the Piece Map 

that Karen included in her pattern.

It fits right on my white board,

so once my pieces are all cut and placed,

I can easily carry it over to my sewing machine

and get to work.

Ingenious!

I didn't time how long it took to cut the pieces

for the pincushion,

but I did pay attention while sewing it together.

In only 45 minutes, I had a wonderful pincushion!

I filled two with crushed walnut shells,

available from Karen's Etsy Shop,

and one with poly stuffing.

I love them all, but the walnut shells trump the stuffing.

I also altered the cutting directions for the backing

to use the stuffing, which I will share if you ask nicely.

The best part?

We have not see the last of Karen's beautiful creations.

Not only did she design and quilt the above avatar

for her shop,

but she designed and made this gorgeous

and unique wall hanging,

hopefully, soon to be a pattern.

Both were on display at the quilt show in Amherst last week.

Karen has very graciously offered

to give away her pattern to one of my lucky readers.

It's in PDF format,

so it's an international give away!!

Yay!

Just leave a comment by Nov. 3rd 

to be entered in the give away.

That's one week!

(You know what?  If you share about this 

pincushion pattern give away

on your own blog and come back to let me know,

you can have a second entry.)

Thanks sew much for stopping by today!

XO, 

Karen

What? Sit Still?

Time to do a post.

It requires sitting still, 

something I don't do well.

But last Thursday,
I did sit still long enough 

to travel the three hours

with Lesley (The Cuddle Quilter) 

to the sweet little town of Amherst, NS

for the 8th Annual Fibre Arts Festival.
I did, however, crochet the whole way!

I joined Linda (Scrapmaster), her sweet daughter, and the other

dear ladies from the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild

for three fun days at their show! 

Be sure to click on their link to read all about it!

And, you can read about it on Adrienne's blog  HERE,

on Linda's blog HERE,

Jen wrote about it HERE , Lesley, HERE.

And the other Karen shared HERE!

There are lots of fun pictures, so I hope you'll check them out!

Even though I was there all that time,
I had to leave around noon on Saturday,

and I can't believe how much I missed out on!
Those MMQG ladies have it so together!

I finally met Karen Neary of Sew Karen-ly Created.

She's as sweet as the day is long!

She had a booth at The Zonta Bazaar on Saturday.

One of her beautiful creations

hangs in Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium,

a wonderful quilt store on the main street.

I walked down there to shop four times.

(Shhhh, I swiped this pic from Adrienne's post!)

There was more going on than quilting.

There was a lot of rug hooking,

but I only took one picture

This is Polly.  She's making little sheep Christmas pins.

Her family has a big history of rug hooking

and crafting in the community.

Here we have Faith and her niece, Claire,

spinning their little hearts out.

This was absolutely fascinating, and I kept gravitating

over to their area to chat with them.

Plus, there were luncheons, suppers, chocolate night out,
trunk shows, classes, a weaver....and two more quilt shows.
The list goes on and on and on.
Now that I know what it's all about, I'll be better prepared next year!

When you attend something like this, it's so electrifying!
I came home utterly exhausted,
but so charged up,
I haven't stopped sewing since!

Stay sweet!
~karen