Moda (mini) HoneyBun Giveaway

OK - we hope everybody had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did - it was a white Christmas here in Portland, which is pretty rare...

But enough about us, let's give away something!!! Introducing Moda "HoneyBuns". These HoneyBuns are 1 1/2" X WOF strips. This Moda Bake Shop package includes one Aviary mini-HoneyBun (designed by 3 Sisters) and one Spring Magic mini-HoneyBun (designed by April Cornell).

These cute little HoneyBuns also come with a free Moda Pattern to make a Sweet Treat Bag. Two Sweet Treat Bags can be made from this Moda gift box containing two mini-HoneyBuns (but note that four Sweet Treat Bags can be made from a full sized HoneyBun).

This fun and fast bag makes up in minutes. It is the perfect ditty bag for sewing notions, a cosmetics bag or a gift bag – on its own or filled with treats for a special friend.

If you want to win this set of HoneyBuns, just leave a comment here, and we'll choose a winner in a week or so and post the winner here on our blog. How does that sound - good? I thought so! Good luck everybody!

Fabric Giveaway! Free Fabric!

Each month, we are going to give away free fabric to our customers who sign up to receive our newsletters. The signup form is on our homepage of www.TheQuiltedCastle.com, or you can sign up right here!

Add your email address here and click the button!

In our newsletters, we will let you know when the latest fabric collections from your favorite designers have arrived, like Amy Butler, Tina Givens, Tanya Whelan, Sandy Gervais, Patty Young, Lila Tueller, Robyn Pandolph, Paula Prass, Quilt Gate, April Cornell, Fig Tree Quilts, Holly Holderman, Verna Mosquera, Me & My Sister, 3 Sisters, and More! We will also let you know when we're having another great sale (when AREN'T we having a great sale??).

What can I win, you ask???

Monthly winners will get their choice of:
1) 1 yard of fabric (excluding Lecien, Yuwa) or 4 fat quarters
2) 1/2 yard of Lecien or Yuwa premium Japanese fabric or 2 fat quarters
3) 1 charm pack
4) 1 sewing pattern

Requirements:
1) Sign up for our newsletter (available on every page of our web site)
2) Leave a comment on one of our blog articles right here!

Any questions? Feel free to ask!
Good luck and happy sewing!

Fabric Matcher from Moda

Have you tried out Moda's Fabric Matcher yet? If not, you should go check it out. Here you can download your favorite pattern, select some Moda fabrics (or upload pictures/scans from your own stash) and see a finished quilt project with the fabric you have selected! Pretty neat, huh?

Membership is free - all you have to do is go to http://moda.fabricmatcher.com/ and register. Feel free to add any comments here or tips for those of you who are already experts at this!

Creating a new project with fabrics and a pattern is very easy.
1. Find a pattern for your project – In the New Project box on the left click on the Find Pattern link and search for a pattern to save into your project box. It will also tell you how many fabrics you need to fill the pattern.
2. Find fabrics for your project - Click on the Find Fabrics link at the bottom of the fabric box – browse through theme or designer, choose by color or by uploaded image. You can also upload your own photos (see our example quilts below!)
3. Each time you find a fabric you like, add it to your fabric box. This fabric will then appear in the fabric box to the left. You can save up to 15 fabrics in your fabric box.
4. Once you have added a pattern and fabrics, then click on the Create Project button
5. Click on the Add Fabric link and you can choose from your fabric box. The pattern will automatically fill up as you choose fabrics.
6. You can easily change the fabrics around by clicking on Change Fabric and then re-select the fabric to use
7. You can use the same fabric as many times in the pattern as you like
8. You can then view your completed pattern in a large picture by clicking on the enlarge button.
9. Make sure you name your project and save to your online "stash."



Here are a few examples we've played with (kits available on our web site soon). While the large pattern in the middle of the quilt is not true to scale, it gives you the general idea!

Cottage Romance quilt - fabric designer Willowberry Lane for Maywood Studios
Wizard of Oz - Over the Rainbow



Have fun!!

I Love Lucy - Lucy's Chocolate Factory

(Click to enlarge picture)

It's finally here! One of the funniest ladies of all time is commemorated in this line of fabric by Quilting Treasures. Lucy and Ethel enter the working world and the men take on domesticity in this well known episode of I Love Lucy. How many chocolates must have been consumed in this episode? I don't know, but I've had many laughs watching this classic show. How about you? The fabrics are represented in retro tones of mint, pink and yellow and blue.



We will be offering yardage of this fabric line at our web site and will also be selling quilt kits with the free pattern below.

We can also make you some 5" fabric squares or jelly rolls from these fabrics - shoot me an email if you are interested! I bet this line will be VERY popular - there has been some demand pent up for some I Love Lucy fabric for a while...

Have fun!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there! We hope you have a wonderful day visiting with family and friends. For those of you shopping on black Friday, have fun and find some great deals.

Pink Fig Patterns

From our last post, we talked about meeting Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig Patterns along with her Aunt, Lila Tueller. Well, the picture below shows those two creative artists in the Pink Fig Pattern booth at Quilt Market in Houston. Don't you just love those adorable kids (how about those cute clothes, too?) We picked up the patterns for the Lily Top, Bella Pants and Olivia Top - I'm sure we'll be picking up more of these very soon!

Chelsea just listed the Quilted Castle on her blog as a place to find her patterns. We're still pretty new at this, so we appreciate the link!

Lila Tueller Designs

We got the chance to meet Lila Tueller at Quilt Market in Houston (pictured here with her talented niece Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig Patterns). We picked up some of Lila's patterns, which we carry on our site, along with her Moda collection Woodland Bloom in the Shop By Designer category on our web site. How Lila handles being a mother of seven, a grandmother (really?), designing fabric and patterns while also owning a paint your own pottery studio is simply amazing. You rock, Lila!

Savon Bouquet for Free Spirit

We just got this fabric in which was designed by Verna Mosquera for Free Spirit, and it is gorgeous! Click here to see our yardage selection and four different fat quarter sets. Coming soon, we will be listing charm packs and jelly rolls of this wonderful line as well.

Savon Bouquet is a yummy combination of beautiful fresh florals, playful polkadots and vintage french ticking stripes. The colors are clear and fresh and include delicious shades of pinks, yellows, blues, greens, lavendars and creams. Savon Bouquet is inspired by vintage french soap labels and each color is named after a type of soap.

See you soon!

Win Free Fabric at The Quilted Castle!

At our new web site - www.TheQuiltedCastle.com, each new subscriber who signs up for our newsletter updates each month will be entered into a drawing for a free yard of fabric, charm pack or 4 fat quarters.

Monthly winners will be published here on our blog. We're constantly adding to our selections at The Quilted Castle, so stop by, browse through our beautiful fabrics, and sign up for the newsletter for your chance to WIN!

See you there!

40% Off Holiday Clearance! Go check it out!

We have just listed a bunch of items 40% off in our store! We are trying to make some room for the new items we purchased at International Quilt Market in Houston last month.
Go check out our sale and save some big bucks!

Happy quilting everybody!!

Houston Quilt Market - Hurricane Damage

From the George Brown convention center where the fall version of international quilt market is held in Houston each year, you can still see many signs blown over and the telling scene downtown where the skyscrapers are still missing many windows, a month and a half after Hurricane Ike swept through town after destroying much of the gulf coast.


The weather was nice and clear while we were in town - high 70's and sunny! Much nicer weather than in Portland, Oregon where we live. In Portland, the rainy season begins in October/November and goes on through the spring time - yuk!Off to buy more fabric...









We spoke with Robyn Pandolph who lives in Galveston which was devastated by the Hurricane. Luckily for Robyn, her condo is several stories up, so she was not impacted severely like so many others in the area. I've seen some of the pictures where the beach front has been swept completely clean, and you can see sand and house foundations only. Very sad!

Robyn has a new line of fabric for RJR which debuts in February 2009 - Sumptuous Living. We'll be blogging about this fabric line at a future date -we can't wait to get it in! Here's a sneak preview of a few of the fabrics:

Quilt Market Houston Day 1

Well, here we are in Houston, for the International Quilt Market. This is our second market to attend (the first was this May in Portland, Oregon), and it is pretty amazing to see over 500 vendors selling patterns, fabric, notions and anything else that can be attributed to quilting! We had fun today talking with "Me and My Sister" designers Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson. We love their four new patterns! The fabric used to make the quilts in these patterns is from their Oh Cherry Oh collection for Moda. We ordered some of this fabric and expect to get it in February 2009. It is so bright and cheerful - we can't wait to get it in!

Click on the patterns below to see the fabric requirements for each quilt.

1. Center of Attention - This 76" X 76" quilt uses a layer cake and a Sweet Roll, which is the new 1 1/2" strip precut fabric from Moda (it is basically a miniature Jelly Roll).

2. Cherry Turnover - This pattern makes a 54" X 54" quilt and is made from a charm pack and two Turnovers. The Turnover is brand new from Moda too - it has 6" squares cut into half square triangles which can be used with charm packs. This new product was the brainchild of everybody at the Moda U retreat.

3. Simply Sweet - This quilt is 60" X 70" and uses a Sweet Roll and Jelly Roll. Very cute!



4. Spin Cycle - This quilt is adorable! It is 72" X 78" and uses a Sweet Roll and other yardage. We will be selling kits for these patterns soon at our website.

Time to get some sleep and see some great new fabrics tomorrow!