Desire To Inspire - January 2015 Edition

The Desire To Inspire Challenge continues into 2015. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable event on our blog. We hope to continue to inspire you again this year. If you would like to submit to the challenge, see details below. We have a long list of submissions but our goal is to get to all of you! Beginners and more advanced quilters or sewers are welcome to submit to Henry Glass to be considered for the challenge.

We start the year off with a fun project by January's Desire To Inspire Challenger, Bev Bryan. Bev was given a bundle of Marie Cole's Monkey Around to play with and she came up with the most darling design. We love it.

HG:  Where do you live?

BB:  I live in Oklahoma City, OK

HG:  Family

BB:  I live with a little shih tzu, Lola. I have 3 grown children and 7 grandchildren! I just recently lost my other little shih tzu, Charlie, who had been my companion for 18 years. Lola is my little quilting buddy.

HG:  How long have you been quilting

BB:  I’ve been quilting since the mid-90’s but have been machine sewing since I was about 8 years old. My grandfather was VP of sales for White Sewing Machine Company. He taught me to do the “zig zag” stitch when it first came out (yep, I’m old) and I demonstrated it at state fairs and trade shows. It was the latest thing! Ladies would walk by and say, “if that little girl can do those stitches, so can I”.

HG:  What's your favorite technique?

BB:  I love machine quilting on my Bernina. I also love doing machine appliqué and piecing. I really love everything about quilting and love every technique.

HG:  Who taught you how to quilt?

BB:  I taught myself to quilt by watching Eleanor Burns, Georgia Bonesteel and Doreen Speakman on television. There weren’t the resources then that there are now. I didn’t even know anyone who quilted at the time so was on my own. TV quilt teachers made it easy and fun to learn but I had to wait a week between quilt shows. Now with the internet and YouTube, quilters have fabulous tutorials at our fingertips.

HG:  Do you belong to any guilds?

BB:  No guild fun for me! Until recently, I worked full time and just could not work it into my schedule.

 

HG:  Anything else you would like to share with our readers?

BB:  I’d just like to say that it was fun for me to design this little quilt but a real challenge to show it. I am so shy and it’s hard for me to actually show people something I designed myself. I don’t know why. It’s easy to show traditional quilt blocks and tops but it is hard to show something I designed (I'm no artist) and not know if people are rolling their eyes and thinking “that poor woman…her little 5-year-old granddaughter could have done better.” I loved the fabric that was used for this quilt. I hope you like it!

HG:  Thank you Bev for such a fun and happy design!
Enjoy the weekend!

-HG

We Love It!

We love it when we receive lovely mail and the ones where you make something from our fabrics steals our hearts. If you are interested in sending a submission in to us check out the details below.

Here is an close up view of the sweet quilt. The bold colors and the critters are so fun and we know that the babies will love it.

Diane Beavers from Virginia sent us this adorable photograph with the following note.

I was the winner of the "At the Zoo" fabric bundle in the Countdown to the Holidays in December 2014.  I was so surprised and I thank you so much for the 15 one-half yard cuts.  It is just adorable!  Attached are two pics of one quilt top I've completed thus far.  It's a gift to my two newly born great nieces, Olivia and Cecelia.  My sister Ruthie is their grandmother, and she recently lost her job so I've gifted her w/the rest of the bundle to make quilts and such for her other grandchildren.

Thank you so much for making our day Diane. Please continue to follow the Henry Glass blog and other social media. We are continuing our giveaways this year.

-HG

Let's Get Quilting! - January 26, 2015 Edition

Our parent company Jaftex Corp. is celebrating 85 years this year! We had so much fun last year with our "Countdown To The Holidays" event that we thought we would celebrate our parent company's birthday in a big way. 

First, if you are a quilt shop owner, make sure that you check out our big birthday contest [details above] because it is an amazing giveaway. Also, we want to see how you feature Henry Glass fabrics in your shop. We will feature your shop on our blog.

As a consumer, we are going to give away bundles of our beautiful fabric each week. Stay tuned by following here on the blog, liking our Facebook page and participating on our other social media. It's going to be fun!

This week we are going to give away a bundle of Elena Vladykina's Berry Cobbler collection.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

-HG

A Flair For Fabric Review!

Our book just got a review by Mark Lipinski! Check it out here. Do you have the book? Let us know if you've made a project from the designs. We'd love to see it.

Stay warm and safe!

-HG

Monkey Around

Monkey Around by Marie Cole is a fun collection featuring adorable monkeys having all sorts of fun. Marie used a bright and bold palette to color the prints.

One of the prints is a panel that can be cut and sewn to form a sweet book called Monkey Around. These monkeys really mean business though and they will teach your little one some very important words.

For design inspiration, there are a couple of free patterns for you to download from our library.  One quilt is designed with the panel in mind and the other is an easy pieced quilt that would great for a baby gift.

Enjoy!

-HG

Gentle Garden

The Gentle Garden collection by Mary Jane Carey of Holly Hill Quilt Designs is making its debut in quilt shops in January. This pretty range features dusty green, soft pink and cream colors. The prints include sweet flowers and can be used in many different types of projects. Hop over to the Henry Glass website to download the free patterns, Gentle Garden and Dancing With The Stars.

There is also a group of patterns that were designed to accompany Mary Jane's Ninth & Vine range that can be used to make up some beautiful nursery items using Gentle Garden. Click here for the Henry Glass free patterns library.

-HG

Henry Glass Visits With Brewer Distributing

We wrote a book last year remember? Putting together A Flair For Fabric  was a great adventure for us and we hope that you love the book as much as we do. If you have reviewed the book, do let us know! We'd love to see it.

The Henry Glass designers who were in attendance at Quilt Market in Houston last fall were invited to be filmed by Brewer Distributor's and Quilt In A Day. It was good fun and we're sharing the links to the videos to you today!

Start here for a few of the links. Then click forward and have fun listening to all of our designers and talk about their inspiration.






Enjoy!
-HG

Designer Inspiration: Kim Diehl

Henry Glass designers are diverse and talented and we are proud to show off their creations. Kim Diehl's Simple Whatnots - Collection 2 quilts were sent to the HG offices recently and we were so inspired to see them up close. We thought that we'd feature our designers' projects so that you can be inspired too. This latest collection of Kim's is going to be appearing in quilt shops everywhere. General details for the club can be found on the Henry Glass website here and there is a list of participating quilt shops on the site as well. [Click here for shops.]

Have a great day!

-HG

Big News! Happy Birthday To Us

Our parent company Jaftex is celebrating 85 years!

Scott Fortunoff, one member of the fourth generation in the family business started by Jacob A. Fortunoff [hence, "JAF" in Jaftex], shares the details of the contest for quilt shops:

"In celebration of the big 85, we are having a contest.  I will attach the flyer for the contest below, but here is the gist.  For every order that you place, from January 1, 2015 to September 30, 2015, that has 15 bolts for a single delivery (or multiples of 15 bolts) you will get a single entry to the raffle.  This applies to regular orders with our sales reps for any of our companies as well as drop ship orders from our distributor partners.  You must be in good credit standing with all of our companies to win.   Here is the kicker, the prizes.  First prize is 85 bolts of 44 inch cottons...say what?  Yup, that is for real.  This is around $15,000 at retail for the winning shop.  We are not messing around here.  The next top 3 prizes are credits for $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000 towards orders with any of our companies.  The bottom 6 prizes are $250 credits."

Good luck!

-HG