Sneak Peek 2013 Quilt Fabric: Antoinette

Antoinette by Michele D'Amore from Benartex

Beautiful classic design, done Michele D’Amore style! The graceful rhythms and swirls of Jacobean designs have made them a favorite style that has endured for centuries. When you add trendy colors of chocolate and pink, and new design elements like pencil stripes, mod dots and tattersall plaid, the look is wonderfully fresh. Some other interesting “twists” to this collection:  a 3-print double border (perfect for curtains, pillowcases and more) and a two-print stripe (both diagonal and pencil stripe on one handsome fabric!)  Antoinette is perfect for wherever a touch of updated tradition is wanted.

Queen Anne Quilt Kit will include a free quilt pattern: Queen Anne

Finished size: 53" x 71"
Skill Level: Confident Beginner
Graceful rings are linked together in a beautiful classic design.
It’s a great use of Michele’s elegant Jacobean florals!

Kits will be available here: Queen Anne

Yum! Butterfinger Rice Krisipe Treats!

Ingredients

• 3 cups Rice Krispie cereal
• 3 cups Rice Chex cereal
• 1 (10 oz bag) mini marshmallows
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 Fun Sized Butterfinger candy bars, chopped
• 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp peanut butter

How to Make

1. Lightly spray a 9×9 pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large saucepan melt your butter over medium-low heat.
3. Add in your marshmallows and stir until melted. Remove from heat.
4. Pour in your cereals and salt and stir until almost combined.
5. Pour in your chopped Butterfinger bars.
6. Stir until distributed evenly and press into your prepared pan.
7. In a microwave safe bowl combine your chocolate chips and peanut butter. Microwave on 50% power in 30 second increments, stirring between each until melted and smooth.
8. Drizzle on top of your krispies.
9. Let the chocolate set and cut into squares.

www.abbimays,com

Snow Quilts - Wow!

These are pretty amazing. You've got to wonder how, at ground level, he can see what he's creating well enough to be sure that it will be symmetrical. 

Snow Quilts 
Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather!  Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art.  Working f or 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields!  The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels.

How long these magnificent geometric forms survive is completely dependent on the weather.  Beck designs and redesigns the patterns as new snow falls, sometimes unable to finish a piece due to significant overnight accumulations.  Interestingly enough, he said, ''The main reason f or making them was because I can no longer run properly due to problems with my feet, so plodding about on level snow is the least painful way of getting exercise.   Gradually, the reason has become photographing them, and I am considering buying a better camera.”  Spectacular art for the sake of exercise!

What's a Grinch Pill? and we have Grinch Fabrics

 What's a Grinch Pill? 

We have yardage and kits for Chrismtas Grinch Quilt Fabric in stock in cotton or flannel!

Whoville Forest Quilt Kit

It’s the Quilting Gallery’s 5th birthday!

It’s the Quilting Gallery’s 5th birthday and to celebrate we’re having a HUGE party, with give-aways from quilters around the world!!





Welcome to Gabbi Abbi May we are helping celebrate the Quilter's Gallery 5th Anniversary Blog Hop Party!  What a wonderful way to network and see fresh and exciting designs--thanks, Michele, for providing the opportunity!

I will be giving away a Fat Quarter Bundle of 6 Christmas Fabrics!  If you would like to enter the give away, simply leave a comment here with why you would like the bundle.  I will randomly choose one recipient per day, December 10 through 15 and send the winner a copy. Take a moment to sign up for email notification of new posts in the right-hand sidebar--and Thanks for stopping by!

I will randomly choose one recipient per day, December 10 through 15 and send the winner a copy. Take a moment to sign up for email notification of new posts in the right-hand sidebar--and Thanks for stopping by! 

Oh the weather outside is frightful......

but it was delightful!!!

This is the first snowfall in December.  My camera wasn't set on the right setting and the picture turned out blue.

We challange you to make Pillowcases for others!

My monthly quilt club Sew Fun Quilters got together this year made a total of 86 flannel pillowcases! These will be donated of our local charities to use this Christmas as gifts.

We challenge your quilt club or bee to do the same for your local charities this Christmas Season!

This is how we did it: we organized ourselfs into groups of assemblers, piners, sewers and pressers!

This also would be to do with your grandson or granddaughter! All you need is pins, scissors, iron and sewing machine.

Abbi Mays has cotton and flannel pillowcase kits for you to use that are already precut with 27" case, 2" strip and 9" cuff for $5.00 for adults and kids!

 Purchase here for:
Adult Pillowcase
Kids Pillowcase
Kids Flannel Pillowcase

Toys for Tots 2012

Last night our quilt guild PALS (Patchers at the Lakeshore) had our annual Christmas Potluck.

The primary focus of our December meeting is always a toy drive for the US Marines  "Toys for Tots".  It was a huge success and lots of toys were donated!

A Troup Marines came to accept these toys and we were treated to a special time of hugs and thank yous!


Click here for more information about this project: Toys for Tots

Semper Fi Marines!

Sneak Peek: Incense & Peppermints coming in 2013.

Robyn Pandolph from RJR designed this new quilt fabric collection Incense & Peppermints:

We will have yardage, fat quarter bundles and quilt kits.

Shiver Me Timbers Quilt Fabric

Shiver Me Timbers from Clothworks by Jamie Woods.  

Jamie likes boy-friendly designs as with our new fabric collection Shiver Me Timbers is a this fun-filled pirate collection. 

 From treasure maps to pirate ships, sharks, skulls and pirate speak, your little Mateys will love it! She has  two little guys that are pretty impressed with their Mom over this one. The soon-to-be 7 year old has been speaking pirate since the sample yardage arrived. 

Wake up Susie (Jamie Woods) fabric and pattern designer:
"Wife, mother of two rambunctious boys, love to sew and love to create. I am also a fabric designer. I like comments so please let me know you were here by leaving me a word or ten."
Not only did she design the fabrics but 3 fun patterns too!

 Visit her blog here:

Trails End Batiks from Moda

Trail's End by Holly Taylor

Discover the best nature has to offer while traveling by trail along the Canadian border.

At the Trail's End, deepest into the forest, you may spot a moose or a bear and the sounds and color are as if no human being has been there before you.

It is a feast for the eyes, colors so rich you can reach out and touch them.

That thought was Holly Tayor's inspiration for Trails End, bringing you those rich colors in warm brown and rich walnut with the clay and carmel accents for the beautiful fall leaves and of course all the wonderful greens from nature's palette.

Tree of Life coming in 2013

from Timeless Treasures by Chong-a Hwang.

Tree of Like fabrics are black background with jewel tone colors. The gold metallic make them absolutely stunning!

The panel is 24" x 44" and the picture does not show how beautiful this really is. 

The main companion fabric matches the large floral in the panel:

And.... look at the other companion fabrics and border stripe:

 

Thess quilt kits will be available in 2013 -

Stop back in 2013 and see all our new fabrics: www.abbimays.com

2013 BOM Contessa from Wing and a Prayer Design

The stunning Contessa 2013 Block of the Month quilt program by Wing and a Prayer Design features the Contessa collection by Timeless Treasures. 

 King size above finishes at 104" square.

 Ten prints were used on the front of the quilt.

These blocks are the components of the center portion of the
quilt which is completed in the first 4 months of the program.

You will construct these pieced borders during the month 5.

There are approx 17 yards of fabric used in this kit
Fabrics used in this quilt are as pictured (we've made no substitutions).

**Each month (around the 20th of the month) you'll receive kits that include fabric and patterns to make your blocks.  Instructions for this quilt are written using basic quilting tools and skills.

We also have a Quilt Insurance Package: 10 fat 1/8's for $12.50 plus shipping. This gives you a little added security in case you make a wrong cut.

**You will be put on automatic shipment with the blocks being mailed the third week of each month. Your credit card will be invoiced monthly at the time of shipment. This is a six month commitment with no cancellations.

Or.. You can purchase you kit for a one time cost: $199.95 plus shipping
(includes pattern; fabric for top, border & binding).

 

**Price for each month is $35.00 + shipping. 

Click here to reserve yours now: CONTESSA BOM

Quilt kits will be available in December for $199.95 + shipping. Click here to order and reserve yours now: CONTESSA KIT (pattern and fabric for top, borders, and binding)

   

Purchase the PATTERN here for $30.00 +shipping  CONTESSA PATTERN
includes instructions for king (104" sq.), queen (96" x 104") & throw (65" sq.) sizes plus two bonus pillows.

 

 If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate call us at 231.828.5002 
or email us at linda@abbimays.com

Funny Quotes and jokes about Thanksgiving!

When I was a kid in Indiana, we thought it would be fun to get a turkey a year ahead of time and feed it and so on for the following Thanksgiving.  But by the time Thanksgiving came around, we sort of thought of the turkey as a pet, so we ate the dog.  Only kidding.  It was the cat!  David Letterman 

Erma Bombeck: No One Diets on Thanksgiving. 
What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets.  I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?

The Secret of Stuffing a Turkey
How many cooks does it take to stuff a turkey?  Only one, but you REALLY have to squeeze to get him in.  Anon

"I love Thanksgiving turkey; it's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts." -- Arnold Schwarzenegger 

Anonymous
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs! 

  Ten Historical Thanksgiving Facts

1. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the USA.
2. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada.
3. The Plymouth Pilgrims were the first to celebrate the Thanksgiving.
4. They celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day in the fall of 1621.
5. The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.
6. The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford, had organized the first Thanksgiving feast in the year 1621 and invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians also to the feast.
7. The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817.
8. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920's.
9. Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the USA.
10. By the fall of 1621 only half of the pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived. The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to hold a Thanksgiving feast.

A man in Phoenix calls his son in New York the day before Thanksgiving and says, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing. 45 years of misery is enough."

"Pop, what are you talking about?!" the son yells.

"We can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the father says. "We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone, "Like heck they're getting divorced," she shouts. "I'll take care of this!"

She calls her father immediately. "You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?"

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. "OK," he says, "they're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way. What are we going to do for Christmas?"

 

Sneak Peek: Interlude from Benartex

Coming to Abbi Mays Fabric Shop in 2013 yardage and projects:


This unique floral collection has a beautiful hand-painted look, from the exquisite floral panel to the delicate coordinates and stripe. Interlude was designed for multiple end-uses. Use the elegant patchwork print for backings, table top or on its own as a lovely patchwork quilt top. Furthermore embellish the panel with embroidery, decorative stitches or beading for a one-of-a-kind wall hanging. Or mix the Interlude fabrics to create trendy bags, apparel and accessories. Another winning collection from Michele D’Amore.

Just Arrived: Magical Memories Quilt Fabric Collection

from Clothworks by Lydia Quigley.

This folk artsy collection has 14 prints in purples and wines, creams and greens, and pinks.

  

 Magical Memories Quilt Kit

Quilt Designed by Toby Lischko of the Rabbit Factory
Finished size: 51" x 51"
Skill Level: Advanced Beginner

Free Pattern here: Magical Memories

Included in kit:
Free Pattern
4 3/4 yards fabric
Fabrics used in this quilt are as pictured (we've made no substitutions).
Purchase this kit here for $50 + shipping: Magical Memories

43 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS

There's still time to make a quilt for your grandkids!

Use one of our free "Quickie Patterns" and 5 yards of Grinch Flannel and make a twin size or 2 throw quilts!

Make the smaller quilt and add the story book panel with the left over yardage for the back!



Or, you can purchase our Flannel quit kit: Whoville Forest

Shop at Abbi Mays Fabric Shop for more fabrics like this in our Christmas 2012 department!

Yum Yum - Crustless Cranberry Pie

CRUSTLESS CRANBERRY PIE

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9 inch pie pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir in the cranberries and the walnuts, and toss to coat. Stir in the butter, beaten eggs, and almond extract. If you are using frozen cranberries, the mixture will be very thick. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

BASICS to help: ASAP basics needed - Virgina Findlay Wolfe Blog

Read Virgina Findlay Wolfe blog here:
http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/2012/11/basics-to-help-asap.html

Fat Quarter Bundles 20 for $25

Back in stock with all new prints!

(This picture shows just a small portion of the fat quarters we have for this offer!)

Here at Abbi May's, we have put together Fat Quarter Bundles with a variety of fabrics from our shop,  including fabrics from 
Moda, Benartex, Clothworks, Marcus, In the Beginning, Robert Kaufman and more! 
Each bundle will be an assortment of 20 different prints, colors, and patterns.

The bundles are not returnable or refundable.
Purchase yours here + shipping: 20 for $25

Just Arrived: Pristine 3 from Robert Kaufman

by Studio RT.
Pristine 3 has two colorways: Pewter and Antique

  Whisper soft vintage florals make up the Pristine 3 collection by Robert Kaufman. A perennial favorite, the roses bouquet look to be antique textiles.

Quilt kit Garden Stars in two colorways: 
Pewter                                    Antique

Free Pattern: Garden Stars

Finished size: 72" x 90"

Skill Level: Advanced Beginner

We like using this pattern with easy to follow cutting instructions:

The quilt blocks has easy to read instructions and pictures:

Included in  kit are all the fabrics shown in the quilt (we didn't subsitute any)

Approx: 10 yards of fabrics for top, borders and binding
Free Pattern (Before starting this project you should reprint this pattern in case the designer made any updates to it)

Purchase your kits here for $98 + shipping: Garden Stars