Visionary Thinking - A Solution For Rising Shipping Costs

Shipping fees around the world have been skyrocketing, creating challenges for those in the business as well as those of us that enjoy ordering products online, hosting giveaways where we need to ship prizes, as well as shipping gifts to family and friends.

But, Superior Threads came up with an Visionary idea of using drones to ship packages and SewCalGal wanted to share their video with you today:



SewCalGal is definitely looking forward to being able to order from Superior Threads using their drone delivery service.  And, I hope this service will rapidly expand for other businesses as well as personal deliveries of gifts and other items.

This definitely quacked me up, but I sure hope it will one day be reality.

You can find Superior Threads at:

http://www.superiorthreads.com/
http://www.superiorthreads.com/blog/

https://www.facebook.com/superiorthreads

https://twitter.com/superiorthreads

https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperiorThreads?feature=watch

Quack Up Insights: Major League Quilting

Are you a baseball fan?  How about a quilt fan?  Have you been watching  Major League Quilting this summer?    Well, if you are not yet aware of MLQ SewCalGal hopes you'll check it out soon and it will quack you up too!

Well, SewCalGal is sorry that she wasn't paying attention to share the scoop on MLQ earlier this summer, but as they say it is never too late until it is over!  Yes, there is still time to check out MLQ and SewCalGal wants to encourage every quilter to check it out.  MLQ is super fun.

Like major leagues baseball, participating quilt shops are divided into two leagues.  Each shop has a beautiful quilt which when they are up against another shop, quilters are able to log in to MLQ and vote for their favorite team (quilt).  Winning teams proceed to the next bracket.

Besides having fun and getting inspired by all of the beautiful quilts, you can also visit these stores online to get the pattern for their design or a kit.

You can also have fun watching youtube video reports of these games by "the Chief"  .

Some of the participating quilt shops include:   Cozy Quilt Shop (San Diego Madres); team managed by "shorty" who is also known to run a strip club!, Quilt Asylum (St. Louis Redbirds), Quilted Treasures (Minnesota Twinkies). and Stitchin Heaven Texas Wranglers.  Click this image for links to all of the participating quilt shops.

Each week two contests will be played:

• Mondays the American League teams will compete
• Thursdays the National League teams will compete

Game play will last for 3 days. During these 3 days every quilter is encouraged to visit the page for each quilt, read about them, and make a decision on which one should advance to the next round. Your vote is very important!

Games every Mon. 12:00AM until Wed. at Midnight CST ~ AND ~ Thurs. 12:00AM until Sat. at Midnight CST

The Miami Fish (Boutique 4Quilters) came up with a win in last week's game. This week the KC Loyals (Quilters Quarters) will take on the Detroit Tigers (In Between Stitches) in this second round of play. Like. Share. Vote. These teams are depending on your support to advance to the next round.

On October 21st Cozy Quilt Shop plays against Red Rooster Quilts And, of course, SewCalGal is rooting for her home team (Cozy Quilt Shop).  I hope you'll join the fun at Major Leaque Quilting and vote for your favorite team (shop) too!  There are many weeks left till the playoffs and every game needs your vote to help determine the winner that gets to move up the bracket.  While SewCalGal thinks all quilt shops are winners, I must confess I'm happy to cheer on Cozy Quilt Shop!
   

And let me know what you think of the quilts entered in this event.  Do you have a favorite quilt and/or a  favorite team?  SewCalGal certainly hopes this will quack you up too!  And, if it does, maybe you'll want to share it with a fellow quilter to bring them a smile too!

MLQ can also be found on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/MajorLeagueQuilting  

Making Crowns for Quilters and Others Too!

You may have noticed in a recent post, that Daniela Stout was crowned the "Queen of Quilting" to recognize all her beautiful Cozy Quilt Designs and books that are appearing in quilt shops and online stores, around the world.



Many have asked where did I "buy" the "Queen of Quilting" crown?  Buy it ? Why I made it, and it is so easy I know you can too!  Thus, today I want to share insights with you on how I'm using the MyMemories Suite software to have fun creating images for my blogs, bookmarks, greeting cards, scrapbooking and, of course, crowns!

While I use a variety of software packages, the MyMemories Digital Scrapbooking software is truly my go to software for ease of use and creativity.  The software is reasonably priced, can be downloaded and easily installed on your computer.  There are also great video tutorials and a blog that is available to help teach and inspire.


They currently have a sale on several different crown sets,  but even when they are not on sale they are reasonably priced and fun to create with.  Just click on the image to go check these sets out at the MyMemories online store.  They are very easy to download and install within your MyMemories software.


They are cute as is, or you can edit to further embellish (e.g. add clipart that comes with the software, that you can buy, or that you may already have).  You might want to decorate yours with buttons, flowers, jewelry, photos.....the possibilities are endless.

It is also very easy to add text or WordArt to any of your MyMemories projects, including this easy to make crown.

Of course you might wonder what a quilter would do with a crown, now that the "Queen of Quilting" title has been granted to Daniela Stout, of Cozy Quilt Shop/Cozy Quilt Designs.  Well, let me share some other things that I created with this fun design set.

Quilting Diva'

Speedy Quilter 

Queen of Soccer

Birthday Girl

Queen of Quilting

These crowns print out on regular home printers.  For this project I printed the front of the crown with the text and the back of the crown without text, each on a photo sheet of 8x11 paper, then did a quick trip to the shape of the crown and taped the two pieces together.  And, a beautiful crown was quickly created.

So, what type of crowns would you create for sharing with your quilting friends, family, or non-quilting friends?  Possibilities are endless.  And, you'll certainly generate smiles when you give someone such a crown!

I'm truly amazed that MyMemories software is so reasonably priced at $39.97. They have also offered readers of SewCalGal a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the My Memories store - $20 value!

Just copy and paste the code STMMMS74482 and enter it during checkout to receive your discount!

MyMemories is also on Facebook and gives away a digital freebie every Friday.  And, this week they are celebrating reaching 18,000+ Fans on Facebook with oodles of digital giveways too!

www.mymemories.com
http://www.mymemoriesblog.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MyMemoriesFans

 

Quack Up Insights: Quilt Block Name Quiz

This quacked me up and I wanted to share with you....

About.com has a fun Quilt Block Quiz Test.  There are 30 blocks in this quiz and you are given a score on how well you do naming each of these blocks.

I definitely need to work on my skills for naming quilt blocks, but it sure was fun.

And beautiful quilt blocks too.

 

Do you have a favorite quilt block?

Quack Up Insights: Quilt Games

Do you like to play quilt games at guild meetings or sew-cials? 

I've played Name the Quilt Block, Word Jumble, and Quilt Trivia Challenge, among many others.  HP has created a template that you can print these quilt games out and use for free.


Here is a link to more quilt games too, compliments of QuiltGuild.com.

Do you have a favorite quilt game?

Quack Up Insights: #TALKNT and The Fat Quarter Shop

Are you familiar with #TALKNT? 

For those that are not familiar with #TALKNT, it is a fun event where quilters connect on Twitter every Tuesday.  #TALKNT is hosted by Cara of  CaraQuilts.com and their are fun chats that cover all things sewing, quilting & fabric. Each chat has a sponsor and participants can win prizes too! 

All you have to do is have a twitter account is add the hastag  "#talknt" to the end of your tweets and follow this hastag to be involved.  But, it is easier to see all the chatting by clicking this link to participate in these Tuesday chats: http://tweetchat.com/room/talknt

The weekly chat starts

• 9pm, Eastern
• 8pm, Central
• 6pm, Pacific

And, the first Tuesday every month is sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop.


For those participating in Talkin' Tuesdays, Cara also has a post where participants can sign up.

This last week, I won 3 yards of Children at Play by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller Fabrics.  To clarify, this was 3 yards of my choice of fabrics from this beautiful collection.   There were so many to choose from I felt like a kid in a candy store.  I ended up selecting  Children at Play Cream Pinwheels and Children at Play Berry Wallpaper Flowers . And, I've already recevied these beautiful fabrics too!

Yes, #Talknt was late Tuesday and this is Saturday.  Talk about fast service!  Kimberly at The Fat Quarter Shop is amazing!

Thank you Cara and The Fat Quarter Shop.  I have a design in mind that I can't wait to use this fabric and am looking forward to quilting with it!

I wanted to share this to formally say thank you, but to also encourage others to participate in #Talknt.

Lastly, I've also heard that Cara is working on a big project to make several different styles of memory quilts and is hoping to get some donations.  She'd like to get any clothing/fabric items that might be something one would use to memorialize in a quilt.  And, she is hoping that these items cover a lifespan, so anything from baby clothes, tshirts, ties, wedding/prom dresses, old linens/bedding, etc.  If you are interested in donating something to help Cara make such memory quilts you can contact her on Twitter, or  via her site Cara Quilts.