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Material Girlfriends

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It’s a Mystery!

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Our 8th Annual Mystery to be exact. We’re sew excited about our 2022 Mystery Quilt Event!

Because this has been such a fun and popular event, we have two mysterious opportunities to offer you.

Join us for an IN-PERSON class at In Between Stitches Quilt Shop in Livermore, California, Saturday, February 19, 10 am – 3:30 pm. Check out this link for Mystery Class info and to register, In Between Stitches Class.

Or…

Join us for a ZOOM class Sunday, February 20, 1 pm-4 pm PT. The participants taking the in-person class on Saturday will pinky-promise not to reveal/post/hint or otherwise spoil the mystery for the Zoom class participants on Sunday.

Zoom Mystery Class

Gimme the Details!

In order for you to have a successful Mystery experience, we want to give you as much help as we can. The In-Person or Zoom Mystery class participants will want to check out the list below.

Supplies you’ll need:

  • Sewing machine in good working order and a manual for trouble-shooting
  • Rotary cutter with sharp blade and a cutting mat
  • Piecing thread that matches your light color fabric
  • Thread cutting scissors
  • Seam ripper
  • Straight pins
  • Ruler and/or square – at least 10.5″ long and 5.5″ wide, larger is fine
  • Iron and ironing mat
  • Reading glasses and a task light. You need to see, right?

Fabrics:

  • Twenty-four Light 10″ squares
  • Twenty-four Medium/Dark 10″ squares
  • Backing 3 1/2 yards (not needed for class)
  • Binding 1/2 yard (not needed for class)

What do we mean by that? A layer cake can work great. However, one layer cake has 42 squares and you’re not likely to get 24 Lights and 24 Medium/Darks. You may need some extra coordinating fabric if you have a layercake you want to use. Another way to get your 10″ squares is to select and cut your own. A third of a yard will get you four 10″ squares. Select 6 or 7 coordinating fabrics and get 1/3 cuts for twenty-four Medium/Dark squares.

Your Light fabric can all be one fabric – if so, you’ll want 1 3/4 yards in order to cut enough 10″ squares. Or it can be scrappy, all different, or with several duplicates. Our sample quilt used a variety of light batiks. However, your Lights, need to be light in comparison to the Medium/Dark squares.

Your Medium/Dark fabrics need to have a clear contrast from your Lights. So eliminate those Medium/Light values. The design will get muddled if you don’t have a clear contrast in values.

You can make this quilt in just two fabrics too. 1 3/4 yards each.

You can flip the color values and use Black fabric for twenty-four dark 10″ squares and twenty-four Light/Medium squares. Not sure about your choice? I’d be happy to give you feedback. Email me at Lisa@materialgirlfriends.com or post a picture on our Group Facebook page.

More Clues

We feel this Mystery design is modern, geometric, and can be masculine. Busy fabrics can get overwhelming if not paired with a solid or gentle tone-on-tone to give your eye a rest. For example, solid white paired with a Kaffe Fassett layer cake would be great. Lora says it isn’t one she’d use busy florals with busy backgrounds. This is a picture of her next one, but you know how she loves her solids. 😉 Besides, she already had these at the house. The foreground is her Medium/Darks selection and the background is her Lights selection.

I selected a pretty red and green layer cake I found in my stash. From Fig Tree & Co., I think? The label is long gone. I’ll cut up some cream yardage for my light 10″ squares. Fortunately, I found yards and yards and yards of a coordinating print that I can use for the border… and backing…and binding. Why did I buy all this yardage? I sure don’t remember. I think its’ very pretty though and sometimes that’s all the reason I need. 😉

Oh, one last little thing for my border-abiding friends. The quilt will end up being roughly 51″ x 68″. If you want to add a 4″ border, you’ll need 1 yard. Then adjust your backing amount to be 5 yards and binding will still be fine at 1/2 yard.

Absewlutely!

Lisa Norton

Gratefulness is the Key to a Happy Life

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It isn’t as easy as it sounds. Gratefulness has to be exercised like a muscle. Lately, I felt like my gratefulness muscle was pretty puny, which is embarrassing to confess. Fortunately, it’s an easy muscle to exercise.

Marcus Fabrics is a company that Lora and I do a lot of work with. From patterns to fabric, Marcus has our back. They continuously work to promote our little design business. I am truly grateful for the wonderful people that work for Marcus Fabrics. Truly. Last month Marcus Fabrics asked their designers to do a social media promotion on gratitude. We were to post every week on why we were grateful. It was a great idea. Why did I fail so miserably at it? I didn’t make a single gratitude post until today.

What robs you of gratitude?

For me, it’s busyness. The Tyranny of the Urgent is my biggest thief of gratitude. I do it to myself. I’m my own boss, after all. When I fill my day with so much, I lack time to reflect on gratefulness. It’s that simple. So let’s take some time to do just that, reflect.

What are you grateful for?

My list can go on and on and on. Am I right? We all have blessings in abundance. This month, the guild that Lora and I belong to, Delta Quilters of Brentwood, CA, had a volunteer day to create donation quilts because they had been given a ton of fabric. Lora and I had a great time choosing fabrics and creating kits for the guild members to sew. I brought a handful of patterns from our warehouse to share for the quilt kit-making day. The popular pick for quick and easy scrappy quilts was Open Options.

Have you heard of the quilt patterns; Disappearing Four-Patch, Disappearing Nine-Patch, Disappearing Pinwheel? No?! Do a quick google or check out Pinterest to see some examples. Open Options was designed using the same technique. It’s a Disappearing L Block, plain and simple. If you want to see how the block is created, just watch this quick tutorial.

This is my donation quilt. I’ve got the blocks done, just need to sew them up. Missing two blocks in my picture.

I’d post some of the other ladies’ quilts, however, I didn’t ask permission. Therefore I’ll send you to our Flickr album to see the different layouts for this fun throw-size quilt. Open Options Album.

Marcus Fabrics just sent me some of their WOW batiks. Wow, indeed. Look how these large ‘splash’ batiks are enhanced with the large spaces in Open Options. Cool.

A Free Pattern for You

While the guild was working together on making kits, sewing kits, cutting backing and batting, etc. We noticed how hard the metal folding chairs were. I think they used the same hard metal on the space shuttle. It’s beyond hard. I might add I was grateful for the chair, 😉 but my backside wasn’t. Therefore this month we have your back…side. Download this Tushie-Cushie pattern and create a portable cushion to use at your guild meetings, workshops, or anywhere metal folding chairs are the seating option.

Tushie Cushie Pattern download is available FREE for a limited time. The download link will expire on December 31, 2021. Download expired. So download your pattern today!

You can use a 12 1/2″ orphan block (leftover from another project), a 12 1/2″ large print, or a 12 1/2″ t-shirt block for the center.

Holiday Sale

Because we are grateful for you, we are having a Black Friday Sale all week. The sale is from 11/22 through 11/29. Enjoy 25% off EVERYTHING including patterns, kits, and notions. Use coupon code MG25Off at check out www.MaterialGirlfriendsShop.com

So if you prefer instant gratification, check out our 25% off sale at our Material Girlfriends Etsy store. Receive your pattern instantly as a digital download.

My gratitude muscle has been worked a bit. I’m feeling very happy. When the busyness of the holidays begins to pull you down, take a few minutes to reflect over a hot cup of tea, chocolate, or coffee. Exercise your gratefulness muscle. Gratefulness is indeed the key to a happy life.

Lisa W. Norton

Hello Fall

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Hello fall, I missed you.

I had my first pumpkin spice latte yesterday. For me, a pumpkin spice latte kicks off autumn. Granted, we may have a couple more 100+ degree days before autumn can get a good grip, but September 22 is, officially, the first day of fall. Yay! Here is an easy Pumpkin Spice Recipe for you to try.

Pumpkin Spice Compound Butter

  • 2 Sticks of Unsalted Butter
  • 2 Tablespoons of Powdered Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons of Pumpkin Spice

Allow the butter to come to room temperature. Mix in the powdered sugar and pumpkin spice with a hand mixer or fork. Place on wax paper or plastic wrap and roll into a log. Chill in the refrigerator. Spread on toast, pancakes, biscuits, or baked sweet potatoes. Yum!

This isn’t a cooking show! Enough. Let’s get to the lovely quilted pumpkins, fall quilts, and the monthly FREE pattern download. Bring forth the pumpkins!

Autumn is my favorite season. You can tell by how many fall quilt patterns we have! Here are just a few pumpkins to get you in the fall mood. First up is Autumn Breeze.

Next up is this Happy Jack Bite-Size pattern. He comes as a kit as well, Happy Jack Kit. A quick little project, this 12″ mini quilt will brighten any spot in your home.

The third pumpkin quilt is our Charming Pumpkin Runner. This pattern includes instructions for two runners and can be made from a single charm pack (5″ squares) plus background and border yardages. Aren’t the 3D leaves fantastic? They’re just cut from flannel and stitched on like the veins of a leaf. I like to embroider, but Lora free-motion stitched her vines with her longarm machine.

Free Pattern Download

Finally, our monthly FREE pattern download. Feather your nest this fall with this beautiful feather runner or mini quilt wall hanging. Feather size is 4″ x 8″. The finished runner or mini wall quilt is 10″ x 26″. Download will expire 90 days from original post. Link expired.

Feather Mini Quilt Wall Hanging 10″ x 26″

The pretty feathers are paper-pieced. Yes, the P word. Don’t fret. We’ve got your back. We have a few paper-piecing tutorials on Youtube. Check out the Material Girlfriends Patterns channel on Youtube and type paper-piece if you need a reminder or are new to paper-piecing. Be sure to follow us to receive a notification for when we upload a new video tutorial.

Youtube Material Girlfriends Channel

But, how do you select the fabrics? Well, I used batik scraps. But let me clue you in on how to find a fresh color palette. I love Pinterest. I have a board that I collect color images with color swatches. Check out these color palettes. Can you image your feather runner made in these? I need to make another one.

We can hook you up on some batik bundles. Check out MaterialGirlfriendsShop.com for some pretty groups of batik fat quarters.

Material Girlfriends Shop

Additionally, did you just love the driftwood hanger and macrame accent? Check out Etsy.com/shop/BlueEyeDesignz for the hanger and feather dangle. Although she makes them as jewelry holders, I bet if you contacted her, she could customize one for you.

Upcoming Shows

Both Lora and I will be heading to three shows in October. Be sure to catch us at the Sierra Gold Quilt Show, Pacific International Quilt Festival, and the Independence Hall Quilters Mountain Heirloom Faire.

Quilters’ Color Therapy Booklet and Sew Along

Lastly, we have a brand new booklet to introduce. It is called Quilters’ Color Therapy, The Use of Color Psychology in Quilting.

Color Psychology is the study of color’s impact on human behavior. 

Color and its effects on the brain, and on an individual’s behavior, have been studied for years by various groups from scientists to marketers. Your personal feelings of color are rooted deeply in your upbringing, experiences, culture, age, gender, and situational factors. The meanings of colors are going to fluctuate and change as you do. With this booklet, learn to use Color Psychology purposefully to help you feel and express your emotions through color and quilting.

Basically, the booklet includes color psychology information on a rainbow of colors as well as a Block of the Month pattern. It includes all the instructions for the quilt (queen size 87″ x 87″, kit available), plus a few optional in-depth color therapy mini-projects.

We are certainly excited about this project. Lora and I are planning a Quilters’ Color Therapy Sew Along beginning January 2022. Keep an eye out for more information and registration information next month. I hope you can join us!

Absewlutely,

Lisa W. Norton and Lora W. Zmak

Cupcake Party!

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Is it party time?! Our mother believes in “birthday month”, not just birthday day. A day is too limited. To celbrate our mother, Carolyn Wooldridge, we are offering you this FREE Cupcake Party pattern. Mom says, presents are always welcome. So this gift is just for you. However, it is for a limited time! The FREE download will expire September 30, 2021.

Cupcake Party Pattern Download Expired

Yes, of course, we’d be happy to supply you with this adorable kit. It includes all the fabrics shown, no substitutes, and…. drum roll, please…. it’s laser cut! The cupcakes and stand are double-sided fusible appliqué peices, ready for you to fuse to your background. Easy as pie, or… cupcakes, for just $22.99. Have as many as you like, because it is zero calories.

Cupcake Party Kit

Lisa is on the left and Lora is on the right. That pretty young thing between us is not our older sister, as soooo many have asked, not our third twin, but actually our lovely mother. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Join us at the Delta Quilters Quilt Show

Find Out More!

2021 Featured Quilter:  Barb Bartzi

Each year a Delta Quilter is selected as the Featured Quilter for the show. Come meet Barb Bartzi and see her beautiful handwork on display in the Featured Quilter area. Barb Bartzi is a wonderful, kind woman and you’ll thoroughly enjoy meeting her. Her love of quilting is evident in all of her works on display.

Quilters’ Color Therapy Lecture by Material Girlfriends

Lora and I will be giving two 30 minute lectures, Quilters’ Color Therapy – The Psychology of Color. One lecture will be 11am on Saturday and the other will be 12pm on Sunday. Check your Delta Quilters Quilt Show brochure for location. Our mother said don’t storm the booth at these times since she’ll be managing it on her own, lol.

Quilters’ Color Therapy – The Psychology of Color

And the Winners are…

Is August your birthday month too? Then you’re a winner. Look for the Material Girlfriends booth in the main display room. Meet our mother, Carolyn-the-birthday-girl, and receive a free gift.

Sneak Peek! Check out the Material Girlfriends’ Raffle Basket. Enter to win the “Quilting with my Girlfriends” basket. Over $700 of quilting supplies, including two Yazzii bags, folding cutting mat, quilt kits, fabrics, and of course, Material Girlfriends Patterns. Raffle tickets sold during the Delta Quilters Guild Quilt Show. The winning ticket will be drawn at the end of the show Sunday, August 22. Need not be present to win. I hope it’s you!

“Quilting with my Girlfriends” Raffle Basket

Guild members, load a car!

Delta Quilters encourages members of neighboring guilds to enjoy a day together at their Quilt Show. Buy 3 tickets and get a 4th ticket free for your driver! Wear your guild name tag and receive a ‘goodie bag’ for your carpool!

This is a personal invitation to join our guild. Well, it’s not OURS, per se. It’s the guild we belong to and we love this group! They are awesome. Come check us all out. We’ll be on our best behavior (wink). If you have any questions, the Delta Quilters will be wearing bright blue shirts. It will be hard to miss us. No quilting or sewing experience is required to join a quilting guild. You’ll learn so much from all the guest lecturers and workshops. We’d be sew happy if you joined our tribe. Tell them Lisa and Lora sent you!

Absewlutely,

Lisa W. Norton and Lora W. Zmak

Sunflowers and Sunshine

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Sunflower Bite Size Pattern Mini Quilt, 12″

Sunflowers and Sunshine go hand-in-hand like hugs and kisses. Sunflowers are my favorite summer flower. I once planted sunflowers in a row alongside my fence. The stalks grew tall and straight and the heads grew fuller and fuller and then they opened their beautiful faces toward the sun. Unfortunately for me, the sun showed over my neighbor’s house. My neighbor loved the sunny yellow flowers peeking over the fence at her. I couldn’t get them to turn their heads to shine back at me and my kitchen window! Ha! If you make a sunflower from a Dresden plate block, you can have the happy yellow flower face you no matter which way the sun shines!

To be honest, the Dresden plate block always intimidated me and was a block I put off learning for years. Once I finally tried it I was amazed at how easy it was! All this time I had thought it was a difficult block to make. Try this Bite-Size Sunflower block. It’s just a 12″ block. Because we want you to try this fun block, we’re making it a free download just until the last day of summer. The free download will expire on Sept. 22, 2021.

Sunflower Bite Size Block, 12″ mini quilt
Sunflower Bite Size Block Pattern Free Download Expired

Create this Dresden plate block with a variety of scrappy yellow fabrics. Place a large center circle in the middle and accent with random buttons. What a lovely mini quilt to make for yourself or to give to a friend.

“True friends are
like bright sunflowers
that never fade
away, even over
distance and time.”
~ Marie Williams Johnstone

We have the Sunflower Bite-Size block kit available as well. $14.95 plus a little postage. While you’re visiting the shop, check out the Bite Size hanger and stand.

Sunflower Bite Size block with green polka-dot background and green floral binding.
Sunflower Kit $14.95

Since I got hooked on the Dresden block, I started a Pinterest board with a variety of ways to use this fun block. I even used Dresden ‘petals’ as wings for an owl in my Night Watchman Block of the Month pattern. Check out our Dresden Pinterest board. Once you discover how easy they are to make, your creativity will just bloom with all the options.

The Dresden is our Sunflower, now check out our Sunshine…

Open Options in Yellow.

Open Options is a quilt you can make from 10″ squares or 10 1/2″ squares. But all your squares need to be the same size. The reason they can be one or the other is that the block is created in thirds. One-third of 10″ is 3 1/2″ – you need to round up, can’t really cut 3 1/3″. One-third of 10 1/2″ is 3 1/2″. See? Therefore, you’re going to cut your strips at 3 1/2″ whether you have a 10″ block or a 10 1/2″.

Then you’re going to make L blocks. An L block is a standard unit that is used in many blocks. Just like so many other “disappearing” blocks, this L block is cut, pieces swapped, sewn back together and you’ve just created your dark and light Open Options blocks. There are no little triangles to sew! Because you end up with two blocks, a light and a dark, the layout options are amazing. The pattern includes 14 different options to try!

We made this little quick tutorial to show how easy the block goes together. This is a beginner-friendly quilt pattern!

Want to see the 12 other layouts? Check out this flicker album to see the gallery of Open Options quilts.

Open Options Gallery
Open Options Partial Kit, $28.99
Material Girlfriends Shop

We have starter kits for the Orange Open Options at our online store for $28.99. All the orange fabrics are in the kit but you’ll need to purchase the background fabric separately. We have 2 yards of solid marshmallow (our favorite solid white from Marcus Fabrics) available or you can scrappy up your backgrounds with a variety of lights from your stash.

Since it’s such a hot summer, let’s heat it up just a bit more with the Material Girlfriends’ Summer Heat Sale! Man, it’s hot! The Open Options Pattern is 33% off. And for how long? Until the end of summer, baby! Sunshiny days ahead! The sale price expires on September 22, 2021. I must be delirious from the summer sun because I just added 7 more patterns at the $7.00 sale price! Check out at www.materialgirlfriendsshop.com

$7.00 Sale Price!
Open Options 33% OFF!

Enjoy the sunflowers and sunshine! I’m headed for some shade and ice tea.

Absewlutely,

Lisa W. Norton and Lora W. Zmak

Scruffy Pup

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You never know where inspiration may strike. Sometimes, creative inspiration will come from a trip, a mountain top, a family get-together. This time, creative inspiration was a fuzzy animated fur ball.

Meet Pepper. Pepper is Lora’s new cairn terror. I mean, terrier. (Same difference.) This scruffy puppy was the inspiration for our new pattern Scruffy Pup.

Pepper has grown sooo fast. When we were checking out our photos for this blog, I was so surprised at how much she grew in just a few months!

We made Scruffy Pup quilt in two colorways. No babies on the way for us wanna-be grannies, so we’ll play with puppies until then. But, you can never have enough baby quilts ready. Am I right? This is an easy Half Square Triangle quilt with two different blocks. One of the blocks has the puppy appliquéd in the center. AND we gave you three puppy appliqué options. The cover pink quilt uses our Scruffy Pup drawing and is made with the fusible appliqué method. The second option is for Accuquilt users. We included Half Square Triangle and a Scottie dog die numbers for those that enjoy the AccuQuilt die cutting machine. But don’t worry. If you don’t use AccuQuilt, all the standard cutting, diagrams, and instructions are there for you. The last option is a simplified pup appliqué that will be much easier for hand appliqué lovers.

Scruffy Pup Pattern

Purchase your pattern online at our web store. But wait, we have kits! The adorable dot fabrics are from Michael Miller’s fabric line, Dumb Dots. The swatches and color names are also printed on the inside of the pattern for your reference. We have die cut fusible appliqué Scruffy pups with each kit.

Scruffy Pup Kits
Lora separated the dies for the kit. It looks like paper but really it is fabric with fusible appliqué and paper liner on the back.

Round Rosie Zoom Workshop

Join us for a Zoom Workshop for the Round Rosie Runner. Saturday, June 26, 2021, 10 am-4 pm PST for just $25 (includes pattern). Class size is limited! Don’t wait to register. Be entertained by twin sisters, Lora Zmak and Lisa Norton of Material Girlfriends in this fun Zoom class, Round Rosie Runner. They’ll share their personal Round Rosie projects to teach and illustrate the runner. You’ll have a front-row seat with 3 camera angles to see piecing and quilting demos. This creative block is an Improv Round Log Cabin and very fun and easy to put together.

Round Rosie Runner Pattern

Finally available in printed format! Waiting for the printer is like waiting for Christmas. Shipping was even delayed a couple of days! But we finally have the Round Rosie Runner pattern available in printed format, as well as Round Rosie Runner Digital Download.

Follow Us!

On Facebook, Instagram… and to RENO!! We are hitting the trail (oh, happy day!) and heading to Reno, Nevada for the Quilt Show Reno, June 10-12, 2021. It is $12 per day but click here for a $2 off coupon. Grab a co-pilot, wingman, cohort, compadré, partner-in-crime, and hit the road to Reno to join us for a ton of fun. We’ll be at the Nugget Casino Resort. Find us at booth #s 612/613.

Hope to see you sewn,

Lisa W. Norton and Lora W. Zmak