October has arrived! In a year of extreme everything, the promise of cooler temperatures, longer evenings and a bountiful harvest seem normal and absolutely welcome. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year! The colors and smells of the season are as comforting as the favorite cozy quilts that start coming out of storage.  There are a few new quilts to add to the mix this year. I’m anxious to put them to use and feel confident that they will quickly become old friends that I look forward to using year after year. One of those new quilts is a pattern made free to newsletter subscribers during the month of October. If you are already getting “News From the Studio” it should have arrived in your inbox today. If you would like to get the pattern, simply subscribe through the end of the month so you can make your own version of this fast and friendly design.

Wishing you all a happy harvest season and lots of happy quilting!

Sometimes I just want to sit down and sew. The hum of my sewing machine is meditative, and I enjoy the calm it can bring me.

Maybe it’s been a long day after a busy week at work. Maybe I’ve got a special concern for a friend or a situation on my mind that I can’t stop turning over and over in my thoughts. Maybe my plate is just chockablock full of errands and tasks and I need a quick break for myself! During those moments, I don’t necessarily want to think about design or make fabric choices. I want repetition, action, and rhythm.

I just want to sew. And when that need hits, I turn to precuts.

Charm packs, jelly rolls, layer cakes (oh my!) and fat quarter bundles are available just about everywhere. I confess that when precuts started making their way to the market, I was a little skeptical. Under most circumstances, I tend to mix and match different lines of fabric in quilt projects. I love options and choices! So, picking up a stack from a single designer or fabric line, where all the choices had already been made for me, didn’t necessarily interest me at first. I also looked at my stash and thought that I just needed to cut up what I already owned – I mean, I have perfectly good rulers and rotary cutters and know how to use them!

If I only knew then what I know now.

I didn’t anticipate the way these awesome collections would wiggle their way into my quilting life. They have become a standard in my sewing room for a few reasons, the first being that it’s a fun way to get straight to the sewing parts of a project quickly. Secondly, choosing from precuts (including fat quarter bundles) also keep me from accumulating excess yardage when I don’t know what I’m making but am really inspired by fabrics that have caught my eye. Last, but certainly not least, precuts allow me to have a snack size taste of a wider variety of fabrics…and let’s face it, there are a LOT of gorgeous fabrics out there! (And bonus reason? My stash stays neater and has more variety since I’ve been buying precuts, too!)

So, while I wasn’t sure about them at the beginning, I’ve definitely changed my tune about precuts.

Are you a precut lover, too? What’s your favorite purchase so far?

Today is an exciting day for me! It is the publication date of Make Modern’s 26^th issue and my newest pattern, “Chain Drive” is featured in this edition.

“Chain Drive’ has the appearance of an intricate and difficult pattern, but in reality it’s actually super easy to do! It uses a traditional motif that has been altered to offer contemporary appeal. I am so proud and happy to see my design in print, and it is even more gratifying to know that others may see it, be inspired and then have the instructions to recreate their own gorgeous version of this quilt.

For the sample quilt featured, I used fabric from the “Welcome to My World” collection by RJR Fabrics and a selection from the deeply pigmented “Zuzu’s Petals” collection from Frond Fabric Design Studios. I’m not a spokesman for either manufacturer, I just love their fabrics!  My friend Elizabeth Vaculik of Libby’s Quilting Creations did the long-arm quilting using a Bauhaus design called Urban Elementz, which I think perfectly highlighted both the fabric and the design.

Your fabric and quilting choices choices might be completely different, and it would thrill me to see how you’ve interpreted this pattern. Please share your photos here or email them directly to me at glendawilderdesigns@gmail.com.

I can’t wait to see what we can make together!

Today marks the end of a journey. I have successfully completed 31 days  of the 31 Day Blog Challenge, which I boldly agreed to at the first of the month.  Do you want to know what I’ve learned? Blogging is a bit like quilting. Funny that!

Some days I am inspired. I can see the finished results in my mind’s eye and can produce successful outcomes easily and in a short amount of time. Other days the process is much like chain piecing without bobbin thread. I’d move steadily and confidently along only to find I’d created nothing and had to go back to the beginning.

But the truth is that no matter how good (or bad) I am at any element of my life, practice makes…well, if not perfect, at least it keeps my mind fresh and my heart young! And as I turn my face upright and grinning into the new year, I am resolving to stay alert and enthusiastic to all the new and exciting opportunities coming my way.

Thank you for going on this blogging journey with me. I hope this new year brings you abundance and joy in equal measure.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

We are almost to the end of the #31dayblogchallenge and I would like to celebrate! You have followed along with my meanderings, and hopefully, you’ve gotten to know me a  little better through these personal stories and crafty posts. Your individual comments, emails, and participation here and beyond continue to be absolutely priceless.

To thank you for your support in a really fun way, on January 1st I’m giving away one pattern pack complete with every single one of my currently published patterns!  That includes:

• Designer Shoos
• Frosty Friends
• Just Kickin’ It
• Micha’s Delight
• Stars Over The Pumpkin Patch
• Stitch in Prime

In order to quality for the drawing, simply subscribe to News from My Studio and leave a comment on this blog post. That’s it!  One lucky blog reader will be picked at random on January 1st and notified no later than January 2nd.

Happy sewing in the upcoming year!