Quilting Arts Magazine - Free trial issue

If you love contemporary quilting, mixed media techniques, thread painting, embellishments, felting, hand-dyeying fabrics and more, Quilting Arts Magazine is for you. This colorful magazine is one of my personal favorites--it includes wonderful samples, easy-to-follow instructions, and amazing inspirational ideas that you can use on your own quilts, bags, wall hangings and more.

See more about Quilting Arts on their website.

You can get a trial issue here.

Free admission to the Quilt, Craft and Sewing Festival in Del Mar, CA!

Visit the Quilt, Craft and Sewing website to download a coupon for yourself (and all your sewing buddies) who are somewhat local to Del Mar, CA (just north of San Diego) for free admittance to the Quilt, Craft and Sewing Festival on May 20-22, 2010 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in Bing Crosby Hall. This is a direct link to the PDF coupon. Free admission is part of their "recession busting efforts." You can also make a copy of the coupon.

The hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 am - 5 pm. And they advertise early buying privileges if you arrive early on Thursday. Your ticket is good for all three days.

I attended last year, and they certainly had lots of fun stuff, included fabric, quilting kits, sewing and embroidery machines, other crafts and special deals. I think I'll try to go this year also.

New BasicGrey fabric by Moda

I'm thrilled to see that new BasicGrey fabric will be available this month (May 2010) by Moda. It's a lovely Christmas collection that matches their scrapbook paper line, called Fruitcake. Wonderful vintage colors and prints, the sample I show here is of course the property of United Notions/Moda.

Other fabric lines that are also available by BasicGrey are Eva and Blush. Eva is a lovely combination of brown, pink, rose and a pop of lime green. They contain prints such as stripes, woodgrain, florals, dots, large pheasants, lace, and paisley.

Blush is a wonderful blend of large leaf prints, florals,  birds, dots, swirls, feathered paisley, and elegant script. The colors are an antique feeling: blush, rose, powder blue, chocolate, burgundy, and just a hint of mint. Here is a link to a free pattern that uses the Blush collection.

More free quilt block patterns at Quilt Blocks Galore

There are lots of free quilt block patterns for private home use on the pages of Marcia Hohn of The Quilter's Cache.

Please be sure to read the Terms of Use page before downloading any of the patterns. You won't have the license to make any of your quilts for sale, or any other commercial use, when using these patterns. Read them carefully, and make sure you understand.