Stars For The Linus Connection

Stars For The Linus Connection
Stars For The Linus Connection a free 12″ pattern

If you’ve been around Sewhooked any length of time, or have watched Talk To Me Tuesday, well, ever, then you know that The Linus Connection is a big part of my life. I started donating blankets to Linus way back in November of 2002. The Linus Connection, in turn, distributes those blankets to children in crisis throughout Central Texas.

Right now, more children than ever before are in crisis in Central Texas because  Texas has been burning all week. Hundreds and hundreds of families are now homeless. People have died. I have a friend that lost everything. It’s bad, bad business.

So now, I’m going to do what I do best and give you a free pattern.

But this time, I want a little something in return.

Stars For The Linus Connection 

a free 12″ pattern

for best results when printing, set scaling to “none”

Take this free pattern and make a block, or two, or twelve. Make a quilt top, or a quilt, or an afghan (because yarn is fabulous, too!) and mail it to the address on the pattern. Yes, that’s my address there. Please don’t stalk me, but do send me loads of blocks and blankets for The Linus Connection so we can then take those blankets and get them to the children in our area who need them!

Wonky Star
Wonky Star, by mkissa

donated to the Bushfire Quilt Project

So, you’re not a paper piecer, but you’d still like to contribute? Inspired by WIP Girl, Kristel, known as Clumsy Chord on Talk To Me Tuesday, I will also accept 12″ (12 1/2″ unfinished) Maverick Stars or Wonky Stars (the same technique, different tutorials). To make a 12 1/2″ Maverick or Wonky star, your nine patch units need to be 4 1/2″. 12 1/2″ Wonky Stars with colorful sashing are appreciated!

See the video with Kristel’s Wonky Star quilt for Linus.

Want to do your own thing? Be sure to check our the Linus Blanket Specifications first. Here’s a summary: 100% cotton quilting fabric for quilts, washable acrylic yarn for blankets, sizes can range from 30” x 30” up to  54” x 70”. Cotton or low-loft acrylic batting and french fold binding. Here’s the rest!

All blocks sent to me will be pieced into quilt tops, quilted and bound by myself or another Linus volunteer. I will make every effort to share finished quilts here on Sewhooked.

Linus has already started getting calls, and the number of blankets needed is going to be huge. My favorite charity and the children of my home state need your help. Whether you make just one block or many, every little bit counts.

If you make a block (or a lot!) add them to the Block and Blanket Drive for Linus flickr group and The Linus Connection flickr Group (the second group show up on the Linus blog in the flickr widget!).  As always, you are more than welcome to add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group. I love featuring your photos!

And please, please, please share, tweet, Facebook, tumble and +1 this post. Get it out there, share the pattern with your friends and help us cover Central Texas children in blankets of made with love!

My Memories Giveaway!

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When I was presented with the opportunity to play with fun new software AND give a copy of that software away to one of my readers, all for free, I thought it might be to good to be true.

Was it?

No, indeed!

Not only do I get to give one of you fabulous people free software, I have a coupon for $10 off of cool crafty, and super-reasonably priced software for every Sewhooked reader!

That’s a win-win situation!

My Memories is scrapbooking software. Now, I’ve never been much of a scrapbooker in real life, but I love digital photo manipulation. I’ved used online solutions through stores with photo processing and such to create cards and photo books, and I have to admit, this is way, way cooler. It’s a crazy versatile software that allows you to do all kinds of cool things with your photos.

I have oodles (and oodles!) of digital photographs. Up until about 2005, I kept them in tidy albums, organized by dates. Then this weird thing happened.

I got my first digital camera. ..

At first, I continued to have my photos printed, but eventually, I realized I was taking way too many pictures to do that. So I began archiving them on a multitude of discs, then eventually on an external hard drive. Have I gone back to dig out those discs and look at those photos? Do I regularly visit my million and one photo files?

Sadly, no. I have thousands of photos that are just sitting, collecting virtual dust instead of being easily accessible. So what the heck, why not try a little digital scrapbooking?

Of course, the first thing I did after downloading my spiffy new software was to download all the FREEBIES! Free paper designs, templates, cards, gift tags and, and, and! What? I like free!

Once the freebies were installed, I started playing. Papers and embellishments and text, oh my…

My Memories Suite - test album2

My darling daughter’s Sweet 16 Birthday.

Once I started playing with My Memories, I had a really, really hard time stopping.  It’s super easy to use, and after just a little trial and error, I got the hang of where most everything was. There are all kinds of cool embellishments and such built in to the software (note the spiffy pencil and clips in the image below) and the software accesses your font library, so if you have a million and one fonts like I do (DaFont free fonts for the win!), the text options are endless.

My Memories Suite - test album1

My son with all the awards he won at the end of the last school year.

See, I told you I couldn’t stop! I’m an absolute novice here, but I’m super happy with these results.  There are SO MANY FUN TOYS!

My Memories Suite - Christmas Tags
A Sample of the Free Classic Red Gift Tags with my kitties in the photos!

My ramblings not explaining it? Watch a little video!

Now, the fun part for you! Enter to win a FREE COPY of My Memories right here on Sewhooked! All you have to do to be entered to win is to visit the My Memories website and check out their Album Themes and tell me the name of a theme that you think is really fun or cool or pretty, or crazy, or just plain interesting. Then, leave a comment with the name of the theme so I can check it out, too!  (Note: If you read this on your feed or on Facebook, please visit the original post on Sewhooked in order to be eligible to win.)

On Wednesday, September 21, I will choose a random winner and that person will receive a coupon for a free software download! How cool is that?!

Just can’t wait? Get $10 off your purchase of My Memories with coupon code STMMMS23344!

Learn More about My Memories:

Happy crafting…and don’t forget to enter to win!

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TTMT #126 – In No Particular Order

I sincerely apologize for the tardiness today. Let me explain a little.

First of all, Central Texas, where I live, has been struggling to fight wildfires. People are losing their homes. People have died. Our power was down earlier today due to a fire that was just a few miles away.

My family is safe, for the moment, but I’ve been thinking a lot about what we’d need to do to evacuate. It’s almost unfathomable.

I do talk about the fires in my video, just a little. It’s bad here, and scary. Everything is just so very dry. It hasn’t rained in so long, the grass and bushes and trees are burning like torches.

If you would like to help families and their pets affected by fire in Central Texas, visit this page set up by the Austin American-Statesman. Every little thing will help.

Or, you can make it easy, and donate to The Red Cross of Central Texas.

From Deep In the Heart of Texas,

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Feeling Chicken

5 Inch Chick

Free 5″ Pecking Chick Pattern, by Jennifer Ofenstein

Several years ago, I participated in a year-long birthday quilt block swap. At the time, one of my dear friends and fellow designers, Cat Magraith, was collecting chicken-themed blocks. She was also participating in the same swap. I drafted several before deciding which blocks to share with her.

The above pattern, Pecking Chick, never made out of the sketch stage and is being posted for the very first time today! I think he’d be a sweet little chick with a French knot eye and a few seed beads at his feet for pecking!

The first two were made for the swap, and I believe I sent the egg block on to her as well. It’s one block I’m incredibly proud of. Doesn’t it just look like you’re looking in a full nest?

Chickens for hardhatcat
Cat’s Roosters, free 5″ patterns here on Sewhooked.

chick for cat
Chick for Cat, adapted from this pattern at Patch Pieces.

three eggs
Three Eggs. Free 5″ Pattern here on Sewhooked.

But wait, there’s more! I’m not the only that’s created or adapted chicken patterns. Cat has quite a few of her own, many of which are available right here on Sewhooked for free!

CAT_2 chicks_pic
2 Chicks, free 5″ pattern by Cat Magraith

CAT_Hen with chick_pic
Hen With Chick, free 5″ pattern by Cat Magraith

CAT_Rooster_pic
Rooster, free 5″ pattern by Cat Magraith

CAT_Pecking_hen_pic
Pecking Hen, free 5″ pattern by Cat Magraith

CAT_Hen_pic
Hen, free 5″ pattern by Cat Magraith

Get more great

free patterns right here on Sewhooked 

and on

 Fandom In Stiches 

(fandom quilt patterns by fans, for fans!).

Have a very happy, crafty, quilty Friday!

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Celebrate Christmas with Quilting Gallery!

Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along and Super Deals for Quilters

I am super-excited to announce that I will be a participating designer in Quilting Gallery’s Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along and Super Deals for Quilters. The event features 36 designers, which means 36 unique 12″ blocks for you to make! It starts September 13 and you can look for my design to be posted here on Sewhooked on October 5*. Check out the link above and get ready to quilt along!

*Does this date sound familiar? It should, it’s also the day There and Back Again commences! October 5 is going to be a BIG day for us!

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

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TTMT #125 – It’s never 108° on the Yellow Brick Road

 

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Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Wizard of Oz Tumbling Blocks, In Progress

On my machine this week: a tumbling block quilt made from Wizard of Oz fabric for The Linus Connection.

The tumblers were cut on a fellow volunteer’s AccuQuilt Go.

Now, to decide…borders or no borders?

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5,4,3,2,1 Things…

5.4.3.2.1. things about...

Since the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 series started, I’ve been reading with great interest and enjoyment the lists of other crafty-type folks. Since my world revolves around handmade, I thought it would be fun to jump in.

So…here you go!

Me
Me ~ Jennifer Ofenstein, aka ofenjen

One Project You Are Particularly Proud Of

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This one is super easy. It’s the project I just wrapped up earlier this month, The Project of Doom (see what I did there, I even have “project” in the title!). The Project of Doom was a Harry Potter Block of the Week Mystery Quilt that I designed, wrote, edited and hosted from January – August of this year for Harry Potter Paper Piecing. It was my gift to the Harry Potter fandom, which has given me so very much. You can find The Project of Doom archived here (Fandom in Stitches) and here (Sewhooked).

Two Mistakes You’ve Made in the Past

1. Tying my self-worth to how accepting others are of my work. This was an especially hard lesson to learn. I hit a wall a couple of years ago when I had a book contract canceled. The publisher, after months of working with me, decided that my work wasn’t “mainstream” enough, despite having chosen my work for it’s whimsical nature. I had been working on the book project for about a year and a half at that point and it was a big pill to swallow. In the end I realized that my work is what it is because it’s part of who I am and being mainstream has never been my goal. I’m okay with that.

2. Much more fun, but still a mistake; doing too much at once. I love running community projects such as swaps and challenges and craft-alongs, and, and, and…the list just goes on! It’s much too easy to get very caught up in too many things and become overwhelmed. I’ve gotten much better at stepping back and taking a breathe before starting something new and huge.

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique

Lil' St. Nick Zombie HP Snitch

1.  My whimsical style. I love hearing from people that they can recognize my pieces just by seeing them. That’s an awesome compliment.

2. I craft happy, and I think that comes through. What miserable person would spend time designing the things I do?

3. My close relationship with fandom. While I do make a lot of non-fandom related projects, both quilts and other crafts, my first love is fandom crafting and the community around it. I’ve been crafting for fandoms of all variety my entire life and am the proud owner of Fandom In Stitches, free fandom quilt patterns by fans for fans, and Harry Potter Paper Piecing, a Harry Potter quilting community.

Four Tools You Love to Use

1. My laptop. I draft my patterns, keep up with my quilting and craft communities, run swaps, challenges and online projects, post a weekly craft vlog called Talk To Me Tuesday, and run Sewhooked, Fandom in Stitches and Harry Potter Paper Piecing. I would be lost without my laptop!

2. My camera/camcorder. Being able to share real images from my life and my work, whether a digital photo or a during TTMT  is absolutely invaluable. It makes what I share real and I love that!

3. My sewing machine, of course. It’s the tool I use to make the magic go from paper to reality. My current machine is a Babylock Quest 2. *pets*

4. Recycled paper. I draw on the back of everything. When an idea is stuck in my head and only a paper and pencil will do, I grab a sheet of the pile of recycled paper I keep and start sketching, plotting or calculating!

Five Inspirations

halloween drawing by comic_day A Little Haunted Wall Hanging

A Little Haunted and it’s inspiration drawing by my son.

1. The first one is easy, my family. They give me so much support and a ridiculous amount of good ideas. I’ll be putting my kids through college on the royalties they should have earned for sharing their ideas with me!

2. The books and movies that I love is obviously a big one. Harry Potter, the works of JRR Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who…  The results of many of those efforts can be seen on Fandom In Stitches or in my Craft tutorial archive.

3. Friends, friends, friends! My friends give me so many good ideas, I should have them on payroll! They’ll have to settle for homemade candy at Christmas.

4. Community feedback and comments. I love when ideas unfold through conversations in comments. They’ll often nudge me this way or that, sometimes completely unintentionally.

5.  Past projects I’ve worked on. Sometimes I’ll be looking through photos of old project and wonder why I didn’t do it this or that way…and then I do!

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Project of Doom Archive

You can now find all Project of Doom patterns archived here on Sewhooked.

The Project of Doom was a Harry Potter Block of the Week that took place between January and August 2011. The link above includes a comprehensive archive of all of the patterns that were posted during that time, including fabric requirements and suggested layouts.

Go have a look!

 

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TTMT #124 – Good at the Blather

In which I discuss embroidering The Project of Doom, extra credit blocks, There and Back Again (a Hobbit BOM), The Linus ConnectionAccuQuilt Go templates, teaching, etc., etc.!

POD-Week- 11
see all of my Project of Doom blocks on flickr

Linus Connection Donation August 2011
My August Linus donation – whole cloth quilt with free-motion quilting

Linus Connection August donation quilting close-up

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