New Blog!!

Hi Everyone! This is my exactly 700th post on this blog- it is also my last post here...... I have a brand new blog! 

Please visit my new blog address JacquelynneSteves.com.

We'll be sharing quilting, sewing and craft projects, recipes,

travel & shopping inspiration and more!

Hope to see you there :)

Garden Inspiration: The Philadelphia Flower Show

We're still working on the new blog and website! In the meantime....

Is the nice weather putting you in the mood to get outside and work in your garden? If so, I have some inspiration for you...

Waaayyyyy back in March, we visited the world famous Philadelphia Flower Show. Everything was so beautiful. It is amazing to think that all of the gardens and even buildings were constructed inside the convention center... you really feel like you are walking outdoors through garden after lovely garden.

This year the theme was English gardens. There were teapots, umbrellas, and Union Jacks everywhere! I loved it.

I have to say that the problem with going to this show is that I come home with way more ideas than I have the time, money, and energy to implement in my own garden. There was inspiration everywhere! Oh, how I wanted to come home and start digging in the dirt immediately!

You can't celebrate Britain without Big Ben:

Or a tribute to the Beatles:

All kinds of English gardens were represented at the show. A formal garden:

A quaint cottage:

A royal garden gate:

Beatrix Potter's garden... perhaps she sat in a garden like this and 

was inspired to write Peter Cottontail??

Jane Austen's garden:

One of my very favorite displays was this Cricket Club. (Remember- all of these displays were built inside the Convention Center building, were displayed for the 8 day show, and then had to be completely dismantled once again!)

Entrance to a "Secret Garden":

 Another of my favorite displays was this simple collection of cloches, glass jars, and concrete containers holding all types of vegetation: potted flowers, cut greenery, vegetables, and succulents:

(Don't you love the giant fern fronds in this cloche?) 

(Who would have thought that rutabagas & turnips planted in concrete containers 

could be so fun and attractive?? I love this!)

Harry Potter themed display:

There were also lots of ideas for fabulous and dramatic tablescapes:

 (In addition to the very large urns full of flowers shown above, there were also smaller arrangements scattered about):

So that is our tour of the Flower Show. This is just a small representation of what was shown there. Truly incredible and inspiring!

Now I must get out into my garden... While it's easy for me to have grand plans, it is usually all I can do to get my existing flower beds weeded and mulched... but it's nice to dream.

If you could have any kind of garden or outdoor feature (such as a fountain, fire pit, etc.) what would you choose? I have been telling my husband for years that I want him to build me a wood-burning pizza oven outside!! I'm still waiting!

DIY Quick Broken Necklace Fix

Wow! What an incredible response we had to last week's blog hop, sponsored by Quiltmaker Magazine! The winner of the free issue, chosen at random, was Lea from Indiana! Her copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 7 is on its way.

The new website and blog are almost done... please stick with me as we get it launched. I am hoping for next week... I'm not sure, but this may be the last post you see on this "old" blog!

In the meantime, I wanted to show you a really quick fix for costume jewelry chains. I always have fishing line in a couple of different weights in my craft cupboard. Because it's clear and very strong, I find it comes in handy for lots of stuff.... this week I found out that you can use it to fix jewelry!

My daughter had this inexpensive necklace that broke. And when I say inexpensive, I mean really cheap, like it cost just a few dollars at the accessory store at the mall. But she still liked it and wore it a lot.

The links were too small to try to fix with the pliers that I had at home. I removed the broken link. If you can't remove the broken link because it's too small, just leave it there. I took a piece of fine fishing line, several inches long, and threaded it into the 2 links.

I carefully tied it off, several times, being careful that the necklace chain stayed flat and didn't bunch up from pulling the fishing line too tight.

Then I threaded the fishing line up the necklace through several more of the links. You don't want to cut the fishing line off right at the knot because it may become untied later on.

After I had threaded both ends through the necklace chain, I cut off the excess fishing line.

You can't even see where the repair is!

Now obviously I don't recommend this fix for your good jewelry- but for cheap costume jewelry it really does the trick!

Quilt Contest!!

Recently we held a contest which benefited Quilts for Kids- an organization which distributes quilts, made by generous volunteers, to hospitalized and seriously ill children. They also distribute quilts to comfort children who are confronting tragedy, such recent Hurricane Sandy, the earthquake in Haiti, Tsunami in Japan, and the children of 9/11. Because I think this is such a wonderful organization, I designed a fabric line called Happy Town to benefit Quilts for Kids.

The great thing about the contest is that it helped children in 2 ways- my royalties from all of my Happy Town fabric sold went to Quilts for Kids, plus all of the quilts entered in the contest will be donated to children in need. Henry Glass Fabrics, who manufactured the fabric, sponsored the contest and also made a donation to Quilts for Kids.

I met up recently with Linda Arye, Founding President of Quilts for Kids, and Harriet Clemens, Design Director for Henry Glass Fabrics, at the Quilts for Kids headquarters in Fairless Hills, PA. We took a tour of the offices, and got a look at all of the beautiful quilts entered in the contest!

Would you like to take a tour with me?? OK, here we go:

A "Happy Town" display with contest and fabric line information greets visitors at the entrance.

Linda (on the right) shows Harriet some of the many news articles and acknowledgements that the organization has received. On the left, you can see rows of tables which are used for monthly workshops. Volunteers can come and learn new techniques and make quilts to donate.

 Nancy Lacey, Director of Operations, fields phone calls in her office.

Volunteers spend countless hours making quilts from the kits Cindi cuts at Headquarters.

 Linda and Harriet look at some of the fabric that is donated by corporate sponsors and individuals. Quilts for Kids also uses monetary donations to purchase fabric for quilts.

 Every day, Quilts for Kids receives quilts from generous quilters all around the world.

 Stacks of quilts waiting to go to their "kids"!!!

Linda hangs some of the quilt contest entries.

Would you like to see some of the beautiful quilts entered in the contest? Prepare to be inspired...

So now you want to see the winners, right?

First Place (winner of $500 cash) goes to :

Dana Followwell of Texas

Second Place (winner of $250 cash):

Sally Cottrell of North Carolina 

(that's Harriet, Linda, and me in the photo)

Honorable Mention (winner of a box of Henry Glass fabrics):

Pauline Francis of Michigan

A Really Huge HUG and THANKS to all who entered!!! Some very grateful children will be snuggling up in your beautiful creations soon :)

For more information about how you can get involved with Quilts for Kids, click here.