Author Archives: Jennifer Ofenstein

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About Jennifer Ofenstein

Owner of sewhooked.com and fandominstitches.com. #quiltforgood advocate. Quilt designer, instructor, Talk to Me Tuesday founder & contributor, cat mom, and craft enabler.

Blog Hop Winner!

On this day before Thanksgiving here in the U.S., I’m thrilled to announce the winner of my Blog Hop Party Giveaway!

You all answered the question of your favorite quilting technique. Your comments, as usual, were a blast to read! Mine is paper piecing, but you already knew that. 😉

There were 99 commenters at the time of the drawing, and as I usually do, I used the Random Number Generator over on random.org.

I sure was surprised at the results:

blog hop giveaway

winner

Congratulations to Jan Jones, commenter number one! Jan, you should have already received my email on how to collect your prize.

Blog Hop Party Giveaway, Nov 2013

Jan won the following:

Fall Placemat

Did you miss the blog hop post? Be sure to stop by for this fun, free project!

Paper Piecing Vintage: Sign-ups start December 3!

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Coming January to Fandom In Stitches!

Time is running out! I’m donating $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November! You’ve got until Saturday to buy your copy and help with a great cause!

If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I hope it’s a safe and happy holiday filled with friends, food and fun.

Until next time,

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Featured Pattern: Tree Trimming, $8 on Craftsy!

TTMT #238 – No, Seriously, Talk to Me!

Paper Piecing Vintage! Sign-ups for half price beginning next week!

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Coming January to Fandom In Stitches!

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Don’t miss my Blog Hop Party post with a fun giveaway, a free project and a special, limited time coupon for blog hoppers!

Movember is almost over, but there’s still time to buy Mustachio! Remember, I’m donating $1 to Movember for each pattern set sold during November!

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Featured Pattern: Tree Trimming, $8 on Craftsy!

Paper Piecing Vintage – Coming in 2014!

Let’s face it, when I get ready to sew, paper piecing is what I love best.

There’s this other thing, too: I’ve always wanted to make a vintage-inspired sampler quilt.

After years of contemplating the idea of paper piecing vintage blocks and considering what blocks I personally would most like to include in a quilt like this, the idea has solidified.

Please join me beginning January 1, 2014

for a very special year-long event:

Paper Piecing Vintage - a Block of the Month Sample

This will be a for purchase Block of the Month (BOM) through my Craftsy store that includes each month’s block in two pattern sizes: 6″ & 12″.

The entire quilt is designed in two colors with a solid background. Can you make it scrappy? ABSOLUTELY!

If you sign up in December, you will get a super duper special discount, because honestly, I want you to play along. Quilting is more fun when we do it together!

The best part? You only need to sign up once:

It works like this: 

  • Once you’ve paid, you’ll receive a notification from Craftsy to download your pattern.
  • One the first of each month, I will update Paper Piecing Vintage on Craftsy.
  • You will receive notification from Craftsy that the updated pattern is available.
  • Download and print the pattern for each month’s block in the size of your choice.
  • That’s one payment, one time for the entire 12 month series; that’s 24 patterns total, each of the 12 patterns in two sizes, all for one price.
  • Any questions? Ask! I’m just a comment away. 😉

I'm a Craftsy Designer

Remember, buying a pattern from time to time helps keep my free content free, and I LOVE to share free content!

Sign ups begin December 3!

Do you think you might play along? Let me know in comments before December 3 and I will give two lucky commenters a free copy of the first month’s pattern!

Do you Facebook? Join our spiffy new group for Paper Piecing Vintage and quilt with friends during 2014!

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Don’t miss my Blog Hop Party post with a fun giveaway, a free project and a special, limited time coupon for blog hoppers!

Movember is almost over, but there’s still time to buy Mustachio! Remember, I’m donating $1 to Movember for each pattern set sold during November!

Thanks for hopping, I hope you’ll stop by again soon!

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Blog Hop Party & And Free Fall Goodies

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Welcome to Sewhooked and my post for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

This is one of my favorite events to participate in! Not only do I get to visit loads of gorgeous and inspiring quilting blogs, but I get to give away free stuff, one of my all-time favorite things to do!

Make sure to read all the way to the end for a free project,

a fun giveaway, a special discount and mustaches!

Fall Placemat

This year, I’ve worked up this fun seasonal placemat to share with you. It’s EASY peasy.

To create it, you need the following:

  • 1 pumpkin, pieced at 10 1/2″  or 10″ finished (copy the free, 5″ pumpkin pattern below & enlarge at 200%)
  • 2 maple leaves, pieced at 5 1/2″ or 5″ finished (free 5″ pattern link below!)
  • 2 – 5 1/2″ squares of background fabric
  • 2 – 2 1/2″ x 20 1/2″ strips of background fabric (stitch top and bottom)
  • Piece as shown above to create a 20″ x 14″ placemat. Embellish & quilt as desired.

Maple Leaf Pumpkin
FREE – 3″, 5″ and 6″ Maple Leaf Paper Pieced Pattern (get it on Craftsy!)

FREE – 3″, 5″ and 6″ Pumpkin Paper Pieced Pattern (get it on Craftsy!)

Fall Placemat

Feeling ambitious? Add some nine-patches or other 5″ blocks of your choice! This layout also includes a 1″ strip of background fabric between the pumpkin.

Blog Hop Party Giveaway, Nov 2013

For my Blog Hop visitors, I offer this special giveaway:

Just comment below with your favorite technique. Paper piecing? Embroidery? Hand quilting? I wanna know!

On Wednesday, November 27, I’ll announce one winner who receive everything seen here. Can’t wait? Click the link for each pattern in my Craftsy store.

etsy coupon

Not only do I share my free and for sale patterns via Craftsy, but I also sell one-of-a-kind handmade items and magazines where I’ve had patterns published in my Etsy shop . Just for you, my  Blog Hop visitors, between now and November 26, receive 20% off your total purchase of $8 or more with coupon code QUILTING, only on Etsy!

Proceeds from my online business help off-set my daughter’s college expenses and every single purchase is greatly, greatly appreciated!

For those new around here, I’m donating $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

Thanks for hopping, I hope you’ll stop by again soon!

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TTMT #237 – Secret Projects

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Join me later this week for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

REMINDER!  I’ll donate $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

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Revisiting Ariel

Ariel's Blanket

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away (when my kids were elementary-aged!), I was commissioned to make a crocheted blanket for a little girl. I was to recreate a blanket her grandmother had made for her and her mom was going to make a donation on my behalf to The Linus Connection.

Ariel's Blanket - The original blanket

In the past, I’ve used the expression that her blanket was loved to pieces. That is meant literally. After quite a bit of trial and error, I reverse-engineered the pattern, created a new one, delivered it and she loved it.

Sometime later, and with the family’s permission, I shared the pattern online. This was, oh, maybe 2004, 2005?

The pattern was copied and recopied as I moved from free website to paid website and from website to blog format. Eventually, I offered a printed version, too. I even added the pattern to Ravelry, so the world could share Ariel’s Blanket.

And somewhere in there, something went a bit wrong.

Last week, commenter Michelle got in touch and let me know that something just wasn’t quite right with row 5. Unfortunately, she caught me in the middle of being crazy busy and I just didn’t have time to check it out.

Fortunately, I have Facebook and some of my readers there came to the rescue. With their feedback and a copy of the pattern, I finally had time yesterday to sit down and sort it all out.

So here, for you, is the updated pattern with spiffy new pictures of the block that makes up Ariel’s Blanket.

Ariel's Blanket Block

Queue this pattern on Ravelry!

Printable Pattern

And, because it’s what I do now, you can also get the pattern free on Craftsy!

The original afghan uses Red Heart Baby Sport Pompadour Yarn: small amount blue, yellow, green, peach & pink (approx. 1 – 1½ oz.), 40 ounces white For one square: small amount for center color, approx. 2 oz white).

For the sample block, I used Red Heart Baby Fingering Weight and & F hook. I also changed color on row 10 so you can really see the popcorn stitches. It takes a little more colored yarn in this variation.

  • PC= Popcorn
  • Ch 3 counts as DC in PC st
  • Size “F” Hook
  • Finished Blanket is approximately 44″ x 54″

Row 1: Starting with center color, Ch 6, join with sl st in first ch st. Ch 1, 12 sc in loop. Join with sl st to first sc.

Row 2: Ch 3, 4 dc in beg sc [drop loop from hook, insert hook in top of first dc, pull loop through to make first PC] ch 4, sk 1 sc, 5 DC in next sc, follow [ ], ch 4 around until you have 6 PC, ch 4, join to top of first PC with sl st.

Row 3: ch 1, sc in same st. 7 dc in ch sp, sc in PC join st around. Join with sl to first sc. (6 “Petals”)

Row 4: ch 1, sc in same st, [ch 5, sc in next sc] around, join with sl to first sc.

Row 5: ch 3, 4 dc in first ch sp. [In next sc: Dc, ch 3, dc. In next ch sp: 4 dc. Dc in sc. In ch sp: 3 dc, ch 3, 3dc] Dc in sc, 4 dc in ch sp. Repeat [ ], join with sl st to top of beg ch 3. Finish off. (This seems very odd, but take your time with it and I promise it works out!)

You should now have a square with equal sides, 9 stitches per side with a ch 3 in each corner.

Row 6: Join white with sl st in any corner sp. Ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in same corner space. Ch 1. {[Dc in each of the next 3 dc. Ch 1] Repeat [] to corner space. In next corner space, 3 dc ch 3, 3 dc,ch 1}, Repeat {} around. Join with sl st at beg ch 3.

You should now have 5 clusters of 3 dc with a chain sp between on each side with ch 3 in each corner.

Row 7 & 8: Sl st to corner sp ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, 3 dc. {3 dc in ch sp to next corner. 3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in corner}. Repeat {} around. Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3.

Row 9: (do not sl st to corner) ch 3 (counts as first dc), 1 dc in each dc to corner. {[3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in corner], 1 dc in each dc to corner}. Repeat {} around. Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3.
(for added variety, row 10 can also be in a contrasting color)

Row 10: ch 3, PC in next dc, 1 dc, PC, 1 dc, (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in all corners), 1 DC, pc, 1 dc, PC around. Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3. (13 PC per side)

Row 11: ch 3, DC in each st around, (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in all corners). Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3.

Row 12: ch 1, sc in each st around, 3 sc in corners. Finish off.

FOR BLANKET PATTERN
Make 20 squares. Join squares 4×5 either with whip st or sc. Add border.

Border:

  • ch 3 counts as first stitch
  • cluster = 3 dc, ch 2, sc in 1st ch, 3 dc
  • Here, your cluster is 3 double crochets with 2 chain stitches, then you single crochet in the first chain stitch you just made. This makes a point in the middle of the cluster. You then make 3 more double crochets to finish the cluster.

Join white in second sc of corner, ch 3, 2 dc, ch 2, sc in first ch, 3 dc, skip 1 sc, sc in next ch, (cluster, sk 1 sc, sc in next ch, cluster), around.

Each square should have 6 clusters, not counting corner clusters.

Join with sl st, finish off, weave in ends.

Ariel's Blanket Block

Center block from the front. Row 5 is the last colored row before the color changes to white.

Ariel's Blanket Block

Center block from the back.

Ariel's Blanket Block

Popcorn border.

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Join me later this week for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

REMINDER!  I’ll donate $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

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An Anniversary

The Linus Connection Banner (& Me!)The Linus Banner & Me in 2006

Yesterday’s Linus Connection meeting was just lovely. You should stop by and see some of the GORGEOUS show & tell photos.

This meeting was a little extra special for me because it was my 11th anniversary as a Linus volunteer.

I didn’t make a thing of it while I was there, but I thought about it all day.

Eleven years ago, I remember walking into my first meeting with my heart pounding. Another mom, who was to become my good friend, invited me after she found out that I crocheted.

November 2002

The first blanket I donated, November 2002.

We’d lived in Austin almost four years at the time and I still didn’t feel really connected. Believe it or not, I was shy and more than a bit introverted and I was so nervous to walk in that first day because I had no idea what to expect. I was welcomed with open arms, despite obviously being the youngest volunteer there.

By March the next year, I’d taken over the website. Six months after that, I was nominated to be a board member and had started learning to quilt. Linus became a very important part of my life, one that I could not now imagine living without. My longest local friendships all started at Linus meetings. Sucking up that courage to walk into that first meeting literally changed my life and I am a better person for it.

Stars For Linus

2011, Stars for Linus is born

In  December 2010, I participated in The Project for Awesome and talked about The Linus Connection

I’ve chronicled my years at Linus through photography.  The following are Flickr albums for each year I’ve volunteered. Most of the years before 2010 are pictures of my blankets. Eventually, I invited the online community to contribute to my favorite charity and began sharing photos of the blankets and quilt blocks you all shared, too. I’ve lost count of how many blankets I’ve personally donated since those first few!

This is not by any stretch of imagination all the photos I’ve taken for Linus. With a few exceptions, every photo taken and posted on the Linus website since 2002 was taken by me!

Or, you can click to see an epic mishmash of Linus photos I’ve taken!

IKEA bags for Linus

At each month’s meeting, I help sort blankets for distribution. We use a lot of IKEA bags for this!

The Linus Connection Heart

The Linus Heart, a free paper pieced pattern by yours truly.
 

Thank you for indulging me as I think back over my years with Linus. There aren’t enough words to explain how important this organization is to me. Being part of this extraordinary group of volunteers has given me more by far than I could have ever anticipated.

Do you volunteer? I’d love to hear about it in comments!

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Join me later this week for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

REMINDER!  I’ll donate $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

 

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Lots of Linus!

And NOW, I'm ready for tomorrow's meeting!

I have two IKEA bags stuffed with donations for The Linus Connection thanks to many wonderful online friends and participants in Stars for Linus.

Because I can’t keep the quilty goodness to myself, how about some fabulous Friday fiber before I turn all these gorgeous blankets in for distribution tomorrow?

One more Stars for Linus!

Stars for Linus quilt,  made from blocks donated by Sewhooked readers as well as two blocks from my orphan block bag.

Click here to find out how you can help.

Stars for Linus ready to donate tomorrow!

Another beautiful Stars for Linus made from donated blocks and as well as one of my own.

Won’t you make a star block for a good cause?

Simple Crochet Ghan by me

Simple crochet afghan made using DC  across working in the back loops only. Made by me!

Afghan by Margie

Gorgeous afghan made and donated by sweet friend Margie.

Eep! Almost forgot the afghan made from Marissa's blocks!

Afghan made from blocks donated by Marissa. Bonus points if you can spot the ones made from my patterns!

Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda

EIGHT beautiful afghans made with blocks donated by Mary.

Assembled by my wonderful friend and Linus volunteer, Linda.

Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda
Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda
Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda
Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda Blocks by Mary, assembled by Linda

REMINDER!  I’ll donate $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

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TTMT #236 – Hand Jive

In this video:

Contessa's Canoe  - 2013 Update

Contessa’s Canoe, a free, updated pattern!

Something I forgot to share: awesome FREE classes from Craftsy:

And now, the winners of my two drawings for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival are:

Ladies, I’ve replied to your comments in the original posts. If you didn’t receive my message, please email your mailing address to sewhooked@gmail.com. Thanks to everyone that commented and congrats to my two winners!

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Contessa’s Canoe, a revisit

Contessa’s Canoe, free on Craftsy

Back in August 2010, I shared a pattern named Contessa’s Canoe.

This pattern was designed for, surprise surprise, Contessa, who had a drawing from an old magazine. There was no designer or pattern, just this black and white drawing.

When I originally shared this pattern, it was uncolored and had no seam allowance.

See the original post

See the 7″ uncolored pattern

Seriously, I know, I never do that!
contessas canoe pieced by shae
Earlier this weekend, Fav Quilts shared the original Contessa’s Canoe (above, pieced by Shae) on Pinterest.

And then this happened: I woke up this morning to several messages letting me know the pattern link in the original post was broken.

Oops!

You see, this pattern existed before my blog and website were one in the same . I’ve spent oodles of time updating Sewhooked to try to ensure that all my pages are up to date, but with almost a thousand posts, occasionally one pops up that has a broken link or two.

I am sorry about that!

As I was correcting the links and contacting those people looking for the pattern, I decided it was time for an update.

Contessa's Canoe  - 2013 Update Contessa's Canoe  - 2013 Update  Contessa's Canoe  - 2013 Update

When inspiration hits, I like to go with it, so I opened EQ7 and got to work! One of the best parts of designing in a software intended for quilts is being able to simply and quickly see what the blocks will look like in a variety of colors and fabrics.

Aren’t these just lovely?!

Get the new 6″ version of Contessa’s Canoe right here on Sewhooked

or download it from CraftsyBoth are free!

Contessa's Canoe  - 2013 Update

And of course, while I was at it I had to create some EQ7 quilt mock-ups!

It seems I almost always have a quilt done in all blues. Favorite color? Why yes, it is!

Contessa's Canoe  - 2013 Update

Wouldn’t this make a beautiful baby blanket if made with 12″ blocks?

Contessa's Canoe  - 2013 UpdateTis the season, in red & green! I love how lacy and floaty this looks.

Reminder! During November 2013, I will donate $1 from EVERY sale of the Mustachio! pattern set to Movember!

Don’t forget about the free classes I told you about last time on Craftsy. They are STILL free today!

If you make Contessa’s Canoe (or any other pattern, tutorial, etc. from Sewhooked!), please share it with the Sewhooked flickr group for a chance to see your project right here!

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