Bigfork Bay Cotton Company Blog

Beautiful AQS Quilt Show Submissions

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:56:06 +0000

The gang here at Bigfork Bay Cotton Company were delighted recently to recieve an email from the American Quilter’s Society, sharing with us two quilts that had been submitted to the 2012 AQS Quilt Show & Contest in Paducah, Kentucky (April 25–28). We had been listed as the design inspiration or pattern source for the quilts and they will be appearing in the 2012 CD and Catalogue of Show Quilts (which will be for sale during and after the show).

We thought these quilts were so impressive we just had to share them with you. Make sure to click on the pictures for larger images.

“Spirit Landing” by Diane Phillips in corporates the pattern “Spirit” by Toni Whitney. This is what Diane told us about the quilt:

“I met Toni Whitney several years ago when she came to Ennis to promote her animal patterns. I fell in love with her designs and have made several of them. The eagle was one of my favorite…I had to come up with something to show him off.

Spirit Landing placed 1st in the Art Quilt category at Helena’s Quilt Show last year and placed 3rd in the Innovative Custom Freehand category at the Northwest Quilting Expo in Portland, Oregon, last September. Just to have it accepted as a semi-finalist at Paducah is an honor.”

“Return Home” by Beverly Raptis incorporates the pattern “Autumn Eyes” by Toni Whitney. Here is what Beverly let us know about her quilt:

I began this project at a retreat and just as soon as I got the nose done I added the eyes…from that point on the ladies fell in love. He became a “sweet” bear as opposed to a mean one.

When we complimented her fish she also let us know that:

The fish actually came from a project that I was making that did not work out. It had originally been living in the ocean beautiful, silver and happy…it was sitting in a drawer waiting for a new scene. I found red/green fabric and turned it into a spawning, rather tattered and not so happy salmon.

We thank both of the artists and AQS for sharing these quilts with us. For more information about the AQS show where these quilts will be shown visit http://aqsshows.com/AQSPaducah/

Click Here for More Quilts by Toni Whitney from Bigfork Bay Cotton Company

Watch Autumn Lady Come To Life

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:36:25 +0000

Laura Krasinski is an amazing quilter and teacher in Wisconsin….how many of you are aware of her? She has a couple of blogs…I suggest you start getting to know her by clicking HERE. She has created a wonderful slideshow of our “Autumn Lady” coming to life….click HERE to view her slideshow. Laura has managed, without words, to show the steps taken to recreate this stunning Carl Brenders design. I sometimes wonder how many people shy away from our wildlife designs because the appear too complicated? The reality is, whether the design you want to create is a simple daisy or wildlife such as this, the steps are the same…trace, cut, and iron! The difference is simply the number of pieces. A good pattern will guide you through laying out the pieces so all goes together nicely to create your finished quilt top. Stay tuned….soon I will post about what to look for in a applique pattern…they are not all created equal!

Romancing Red Contest

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:58:46 +0000

Romancing Red, by Debi Hubbs, is one of our most popular patterns! Click HERE to visit our facebook page and enter to win a Romancing Red fabric kit! If you haven’t done so already, you will have to “like” us on facebook…another easy click of a button! Traci has come up with several fun ways to enter: 1) Post your favorite valentine memory; 2) Make a valentine and post a picture of it on our facebook page (this earns double entry); 3) Make a valentine and mail it to us…don’t specify that it is to us, as we will be passing it on to a senior citizen at our local assisted living facility (this earns triple entry); 4) Post your favorite romantic getaway; 5) Post a link to your favorite romantic getaway (this earns double entry). Don’t worry if you are a newbie to facebook…each entry can be done with a simple click of a button at the top of the page! You can enter as many times as you want! Contest deadline is midnight, February 13th. Good luck!

Aurifil Quilt Contest

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:05:09 +0000

Did you know there is an AURIFIL QUILT CONTEST running right now on facebook? Have you made a quilt using Aurifil Thread? Click HERE to visit Aurifil’s Facebook Contest page for details. You can post a picture of your quilt, and then ask your friends for their votes! You can also view many beautiful quilts entered by others. Don’t delay, the contest ends January 25th! Don’t miss the chance to win one of these prizes:

FIRST PLACE

AURIFIL BORSA SET OF 216 MINISPOOLS

SECOND PLACE

SUITCASE OF 48 SPOOLS

THIRD PLACE

KIT OF 12 SPOOLS

These are fabulous prizes! Good luck to all who enter!

Pat Sloan “Girls in the Garden” Give Away!

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:30:13 +0000

We are excited to announce an online give away for FIVE sets of Pat Sloan’s Girls in the Garden patterns!

Five shops are hosting give aways. Each shop will announce the contest on their blog and facebook page.

The five shops are:

Batiks Etcetera & Sew What Fabrics www.batiks.com

Kelly Ann’s Quilting www.kellyannsquilting.com

QuiltBug http://quiltbug.com

Fabric Depot www.fabicdepot.com

Pumpkin Patch Primitives www.pumpkinpatchprimitives.com

These are all fun, exciting quilt shops. I encourage you to subscribe to their blogs and “like” them on facebook.

Enter each shop’s contest for five chances to win! Winners will be announced on January 14th.

Good luck!

Pat Sloan’s Girls in the Garden Series

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:42:04 +0000

Yes it’s true!

Pat Sloan, the voice of quilting, is working with us to create the “Girls in the Garden Series”

This four pattern set reflects Pat’s unique style with flowers, birds, houses in all four seasons! BBCC is releasing these patterns in late November. Each wall hanging is 22″ by 45″ and is visually stunning. You can pre-order these patterns by clicking here.

Fabric kits with the original batik fabrics chosen by Pat will also be available at that time.

We are planning on offering how to make all four into one large unique wall hanging – once time permits us to work on the details!

This is the beginning of a wonderful relationship with Pat and we are so looking forward to what is coming! Stay with us so you can reap the benefits of this partnership.

Click on an image to see it in our shopping cart:

Nicole's Autumn Pumpkin Patch

Ava's Winter Flurries

Amelia's Spring Delight

Chelsea's Summer Garden

MYSTERY QUILT STEP #8

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:16:56 +0000

This is a really quick step! You will use the strips you pieced in step 3…..

Sew the two shorter strips to opposite sides of the quilt top. Press towards the quilt top.

Sew the remaining two strips to the other sides of the quilt top. Press towards the quilt top.

MYSTERY QUILT STEP #7

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:14:51 +0000

How is everyone doing? Did you get your blocks put together? This month we’re going to put them together with some simple sashing and cornerstones. It may appear that we are at the end, but we have a little more finishing up to do. I know it is a busy time of year with summer winding down and families getting ready for school. This is a quick step!

BIG OOPS on my part. Do you know how I usually take photos as I go along? Well I did do that this time. However, I didn’t notice until I took the very last photo that I didn’t have an SD card in my camera! So you will notice that the first two photos are cropped from the final one, which leaves a “little extra” around the edges. I think it’s still clear enough what to do….

Subcut the eight 2 1/2 inch LIGHT/MEDIUM strips into 2 1/2 X 12 1/2 inch rectangles. You will get three per strip. You need a total of 24 rectangles.

Subcut the 2 1/2 inch DARK strip into 2 1/2 inch squares. You will need 16 squares.

Using twelve of the LIGHT/MEDIUM rectangles, and all of the DARK squares, make four strips as shown below. Press away from the DARK squares.

Using the remaining LIGHT/MEDIUM rectangles and the blocks, make three rows as shown below. Press towards the LIGHT/MEDIUM sashing strips.

Lay out the strips as shown and sew together. Press towards the sashing strips.

MYSTERY QUILT STEP 6

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:26:00 +0000

I am sure that by now some of you have been playing with the components, trying to figure out the block. Let’s see how many of you are correct!

Subcut the 4 1/2″ strip of FOCUS fabric into 4 1/2″ squares. You will need 9.

Lay out the block components as shown below:

Stitch into rows. Press the center row towards the center (FOCUS fabric). Press the other rows away from the center.

Stitch the rows together. Press either way, or press seams open…whatever makes the block lay the flattest.

Voila!!

See you next month!

DEBI HUBBS CHOOSES “ZURI” FOR HER GIRAFFE!

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:14:00 +0000

and the winner is…..NICKI REID!!!

Here are Debi’s own words regarding this contest and her choice:

“I want to thank everyone for such wonderful names. I really could not decide. And I changed my mind over and over. I hope some of you won’t mind if I use some of those fantastic names for my future creations. I will give you credit of course. My biggest dilemma for choosing a name was this little giraffe’s gender. I made him/her and I still cannot decide if he is a boy or she is a girl.

Here is the name I have chosen. Zuri. Which means beautiful in Swahili. I have a strong love for Africa and its amazing landscape, and spectacular animals. And most of all the beauty in the women and children there and how they persevere over challenges with such grace. Zuri represents all of the loveliness that is Africa for me.”

We did receive multiple submissions of this name, but Nicki’s was first! She will win a fabric kit with pattern. The others that submitted this name will receive a free pattern!

We are still probably about a month out from delivering this pattern…but we are accepting preorders now. Why order now instead of waiting until it is ready? The first 50 orders will received patterns signed by Debi Hubbs! This is the first time we have offered this! Debi is becoming very famous….this autograph is priceless!!

The pattern will cost $12 and the fabric kit will cost $46. As always, the fabric kit will include the pattern, all fabrics needed to complete the top as shown above, and the binding.

Call now (406-245-5718) or visit www.bigforkbaycottonco.com to order.

Oh yea, one more reason to order soon…..for a limited time, all Zuri orders will be 10% off!