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It's here! the fist "official" week of this program! (those who signed up the early access emails are three weeks into it, and having fun! Before we get started here are some general reminders about this program: Today we're posting “Clue one” each clue is one little piece of the puzzle that will make up your quilt (they might not necessarily look like traditional blocks until later in the pattern). We'll post one clue each Thursday for a total of sixteen weeks. There will be two “versions” of the quilt- the first option is a 72” quilt with three colors (you can make it as scrappy as you want- but to make is easier on yourself maybe stick to three color groups). To make this version you’ll need a total of … Fabric A (Background): 5 yards Fabric B (main color): 4 yards Fabric C (accent color): 1 yard Plus, 2/3 yard for binding. Option 2- is a slightly scrappier, and bigger (84” square) version of the quilt. The center of the quilt will be identical to the 72” version (just that 4th color added in)- but you’ll add an additional pieced border to expand on it. (no, we won’t say much more than that.. it is a mystery quilt after all!) For this option you’ll need: Fabric A (background): 6 yards Fabric B (main color): 4 ½ yards Fabric C (accent color): 7/8 yards Fabric D (bonus accent color): ¾ yards Plus, ¾ yards for binding. Use these measurements to plan you colors according! As always, the scrappier you make your quilt, the more fabric you’ll potentially need (because there’s more potential waste with awkward cuts… nothing hinky.) Now onto this weeks clue! Horrifyingly enough, we’re starting you off with one of the more time consuming clues (might as well get it over with!) Clue one- Bowtie Units make 40. General Instructions and Hints: Use a quarter inch seam allowance. Sew your fabrics right sides together. Press your seams towards the darker fabric. Fabrics you’ll need for this week’s Clue: A: ¾ yards B: ½ yard Cutting Instructions are in the image below!  Half Square Triangles: On the wrong side of the light 3 ¼” squares, draw a line from corner to corner. Pair up, RST with the dark squares. Sew a quarter inch seam on each side of the line. Cut ON the drawn line. Flip open, and press. Trim/square to 2 ½” squares. You need 120 HST’s.   Assembly Row one: On the left, the 2 ½” square from A. Right, HST. Make 40. Press seams. Row two: HST on the left & right. Make 40. Press seams. Sew the two rows together and press seams. You will now have 40 funky little bowtie units. They should measure 4 ½”. (if they don’t. Fix them so they do!) And you’re officially done with the first clue! *Technically, you only need 3” squares, or 2 7/8 if you’re legalistic. We call for extra because life isn’t perfect, and the ability to trim things up evenly is easier with a bigger square. But if it works better for you to use the smaller measurements, go for it! That's all for this week! If you're eager for more- you're still welcome to sign up for option B- which not only gets you the clues two weeks earlier than everybody else, but you also get them sent directly to you inbox (as a PDF- which is much easier to read, and print than a blog!) Click on the item below if you're thinking about it. Feisty Fifteen Mystery Quilt Registration- Option B
$15.00
This $15 not only gets you early access to each weeks "Clue" for our Feisty fifteen mystery quilt- but we will also personally email you a PDF of each clue every Thursday starting April 2nd! Want us to cut your own fabrics into a personalized pre-cut kit each week? Want a monthly open sew time designated for this project? We can do that too! (That's Option C!) Call the store (541-466-3662) or come see us in person so we can get you signed up (option C is $80. Fabrics are not included - but we pre-cut kits, available for monthly pick up).
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To celebrate fifteen years of collecting (and then redistributing) our favorite fabrics ( it’s technically a business. Technically) we are planning to host a one-of-a-kind quilt show in addition to our usual party! Hence, the mystery quilt, were introducing. We want to give out awards to those who turn in their own version of the mystery quilt, we want to celebrate how you took our directions and interpreted them differently, making your own one-of-a-kind creations, we want to reward quilters who just went ahead, followed the directions, and enjoyed the process! We also want to celebrate fifteen years of designing quilts for the Progressive Quilt Club, as well as classes, and our own original pattern line, P.I.C patterns. So, we will be soliciting entries from those areas as well. Stay tuned for announcements regarding this upcoming celebration. It won’t’ be for several months yet, but if you want to enjoy a local quilt show, celebrate a local business, and maybe win some awards….get cracking and finish some projects! Now, let's talk about our upcoming mystery quilt! We have three options for those of you who want to participate (and maybe win some prizes by finishing!) Option A: Starting in mid April we'll have one "clue" uploaded every Thursday to out blog! this option is free- but you do have to manually check our blog weekly to get your patterns. Plan B: Pay a one-time $15 registration fee. You get the “clues” emailed (or printed and picked up) two weeks early! The first round of clues will be sent out (or available for pickup) Thursday April 2nd and sent out every Thursday for the duration of the program. You'll also get 15% off any fabric you buy for this project- as well as 15% off long arming of this quilt! You can Sign up for this plan online (at the bottom of the blog) or come see us in person! Plan C: $80. Pre-cut kits (using your own fabrics!) This is a great stash buster, (plus- those of you who hate cutting will love this!) Basically- you get everything from plan B PLUS bring us your fabrics (or buy it from us we'll even give you 15% off!) and we’ll cut and arrange your fabric into pre-cut kits! Kits will be available for pickup once a month on the last Friday of the month (starting in March)- where we will host an open sew time (maybe even with cookies!) The first round/open sew will be Friday March 27th.. (you can always join late if you can’t bring your fabric in on time for the first round. Fabric is due March 25th to give us time to cut the first round! Plus- you get 20% off any fabric you buy for this project, as well as 15% off long arming for this quilt! You can sign up for this plan by calling the store (541-466-3662) or coming and seeing us in person! ( might as well bring us your fabrics while you're at it!). Now for the important part- Fabric Requirements! We have two versions to choose from- depending on how big, and how scrappy you want this quilt to be! Option A: This version features three colors and finishes at 72” square. You’ll need the following fabrics: Fabric A (Background) 5 yards Fabric B (main color) 4 yards Fabric C (accent color): 1 yard Binding: 2/3 yard Option 2: This slightly scrappier version features four fabrics and includes an additional border bringing it up to 84” square. You’ll need the following yardages: Fabric A: 6 yards Fabric B: 4 ½ yards Fabric C: 7/8 yards Fabric D: ¾ yards Binding: 3/4 yards Want to use assorted yardage and make it scrappy? You should- it’ll look awesome! BUT you might want to increase your yardage totals to account for less than efficient cuts (the smaller the cuts you start with, the more yardage you’ll need to account for some wastage). Feisty Fifteen Mystery Quilt Registration- Option B
$15.00
This $15 not only gets you early access to each weeks "Clue" for our Feisty fifteen mystery quilt- but we will also personally email you a PDF of each clue every Thursday starting April 2nd! Want us to cut your own fabrics into a personalized pre-cut kit each week? Want a monthly open sew time designated for this project? We can do that too! (That's Option C!) Call the store (541-466-3662) or come see us in person so we can get you signed up (option C is $80. Fabrics are not included - but we pre-cut kits, available for monthly pick up). Remember the story about Alexander, and his very bad day? It’s a classic! We loved that story until …now! It’s been one of those days; only the day has lasted for one month and eighteen days. ( so far.) We started the year off strong (sarcasm here…) with a deer using Mari’s car as a trampoline (neither the car, nor the deer made out very well). It hasn’t gotten better since then… Usually, running a family-owned store is wonderful - communication is easy, and we generally love our job. The downside- is that when family emergencies happen (like Mari’s mother having a stroke, pneumonia, and an infection simultaneously) – it’s easy to burn out. This year (it’s only February for the goodness’ sake!) has been one of those years where every time you think to yourself, “well, we’re past the worst of it at least” life laughs in your face. Long story short: we’re a little tired- and we want to do something that’s FUN! What’s fun for us? The support and joy we see from you when we run an event/sale. Seriously- the feeling we get when you guys show up to support us is the highest of highs! So, for two days only, and starting Thursday the 19th (through Friday the 20th) we’re running a “no good, very, very, bad day year sale”. For two days only: spend $100 and get an additional $30 of stuff FREE (use coupon code:nogoodverybadyear)- or Spend $300 and receive and additional $100 of stuff FREE (Use coupon code: yearfromhe**)! Yes, you can use this on anything, and everything we have available, even the new stuff (the only exception is long arming). We would LOVE you see you guys in person- but if you can’t make it, we’ll feel the love through online orders just as much 😊 We’ll end this little rant with a general thank you for all the love and support you guys send our way- and a last little nudge to take advantage of this sale- it would genuinely make our year (and hopefully bring us some better luck!) Want to see a humorous (and incomplete) list of how our year has gone? Take a look through our slideshow! *to use the coupon codes: make sure you have either $130 of stuff in your cart to use code:nogoodverybadyear- or $400 in your cart to use code: yearfromhe**
the codes don't work with totals less than that (stupid computers not giving us unlimited coupon variations). How does that song from Sinatra go? “Mistakes….I’ve made a few”. That song is running through our head right now even though technically -for once- we didn’t make the mistake. Let’s back this story up a bit. There is a massive shop hop coming to Oregon called, “The All-Pacific Northwest Shop Hop”. It includes shops in both Oregon and Washington. One of the unique things this hop does is publish a magazine, full of pictures of quilts made from the exclusive Shop Hop Fabric, and it includes some resource guides, and the passport. The link for more information about this hop will be at the end of this blog. We submitted a design, and boy was I pumped when it was accepted! The fabrics from Jason Yenter (In the Beginning) reminded me of everything my Grandpa Church loved. He was a logger, who hunted and fished in his spare time, and was briefly a game warden. When he got old enough, hunting and fishing were no longer doable he would entertain himself reading stories about hunting trips from Patrick F. McManus, a very humorous writer. While we crafted this sucker with blood, sweat, tears, some prayers, and cussing….I thought about Grandpa. We were pleased with the results of the quilt once it was done. I felt I had done Grandpa some justice! I named after the title of one of Patrick’s books, “They shoot Canoes, Don’t They?” Later we received a photo of the cover of the magazine. Our quilt was not featured. My lower lip stuck out a little bit, but still, the quilt had still been accepted, and that’s an honor. Then we received a copy of the magazine, and it was clear why our quilt was not gracing the cover. It had been photographed sideways. Below are three pictures. The group photo with all the projects is on the left. (Our quilt is the star hanging in the back.) The lone ranger photo of our quilt is in the middle, and to the right is the cover of the magazine. It really looks to us like they caught the error late and edited our quilt out. And I don’t particularly blame them! However, my first instinct was to feel like crying. It was disappointing.
However, the timing for this error was perfect! We had just finished our monthly Progressive Quilt Club. In that club, we do a presentation, and pass out a pattern, along with a newsletter that pertains to that month’s subject. We have five people check for errors, and we use spell check. Still, occasionally, stuff sneaks in. It’s always a little nerve racking to be speaking in the presentation while watching “spell checkers” circle all the errors that slipped in. I imagine this magazine had at least five people editing it as well. And they still had an error slip in. So my thought was, what would Patrick F. McManus do? Patrick would embrace the error. He would absolutely have seen the funny side of this and turned it into a story to boot. So we are rolling with it. We will be CELEBRATING this error. How often do you get a picture of your quilt published in a magazine? Rarely. Sideways? Rarer still. It’s official folks. We are one in a million.  We did try to post something humorous about this on the APNW shop Hop Facebook page, but apparently, they are not seeing the funny side of this yet and removed the post. (we thought our post was funny! So here's a pic of it!) Sigh. ----> So, back to celebrating this error. We are having a contest! Stay tuned to our website and Facebook page and consider signing up for our newsletter for the announcements. Our contest is designed to celebrate mistakes, and we will be awarding some cool prizes! ( Anyone want a mini Oliso iron, cover, and pressing matt? Yes please!)  Because while “misakes” happen, they won’t happen if you don’t try. If you don’t try, you won’t succeed. Might as well celebrate all the mistakes we have made on our way to success! (No, pictures of your ex-husbands can not be part of this contest.) Here is a cartoon of our quilt, turned the correct way. When we get it back, we will take a better picture. But maybe it will be upside down? Just for fun! Click the button below for a link to the shop hops website- in case you want more info. Click the button below to head back to our home page where you can sign up for our newsletter (helpful if you want announcements regarding our upcoming contest!) Scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up!
Here it is guys, the last and final month! Buy/download the "Clues" below to see the reveal!
As a quick reminder for those of you who want you're mystery quilt long armed- if you bring your quilt into us by April 15th, we'll guarantee a completion date of June 30th. That way you guys have no need too worry about it not getting done in time to enter the contest. Don't forget to enter your quilts in this years Linn County Fair, for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to our store. (no need to worry, we bring in a third party judge- so there's no concern about showing us your quilts before the contest) And that's a wrap- have fun with this project, and don't forget to show us the results! You all know the gist of things, so we won't bore you with too much info!
That being said, this is the second to last month, which means things are finally ramping up! This months pattern includes clues 11-14. Download the pattern below (free until Friday) and you'll get some pretty big hints as to where this years quilt is headed :) Any one have any guesses for what our inspiration was? We'll keep things simple this month, with just a quick reminder that this months "Clues" (aka block patterns) will be free for 48 hours, through Friday the 29th!
For those of you who would like monthly reminders, we normally send one out as an email. You do have to sign up for our newsletter, so if you haven't done so you can head to the bottom of our "Home" page and fill out that form! (its a quick form to fill out. And no, we won't sell your email address or send you spam- we don't know how.) Last year for the "Linn County Mystery Challenge" we had fun highlighting some of our favorite historic mysteries that have taken place in Linn County. This year, the goal is to offer some fun quilting tips that will be associated with the blocks your making, but so far, we have not met that goal!
Some changes to the program have caused some confusion, and we would like the chance to make some things a little more clear. This year, everyone is "buying" (for free!) the clues ( AKA, Patterns) directly from our website as a PDF that is then e-mailed to you. You have 48 hours to make the purchase for free- but you still have to go through the purchasing process. The pattern is then e-mailed immediately. We have chosen to run the program this way in order to better track how many people are potentially doing the project, and because we hope it will also help drive people to our website. Should you want a paper copy of any of the patterns, they can be purchased directly at our store, but for $4.99 for each months "Clues". Give us a heads up if your wanting to do that. To make this a little more fun for all of us, we have decided to do the following. Bring in your made "Clues" sometime between December 5-9, and receive a 15% discount off your purchase of notions, fabrics, threads, books and patterns. Additionally, we are going to be offering discounts for Long Arm Quilting for this projects to anyone who brings it in to us by April 15th, AND we'll guarantee it'll be done by June 30th! And because we do so hate to have a boring blog, we will put a joke on here: What do you call a gathering of Quilters? A block party! As always, click on the product below and purchase it to receive this months "Clues" (aka blocks. And yes, there will be more than six clues. Its a six month program, but not a six block program.) Now that we've spent the last few days being unusually sweet, lets go back to our normal snarky selves- and tell you about 12 things we've learned about small towns, and business over these last 12 years. 1.Even though you swear you won't turn into your parents.. you will. Not only did I inherit my dads chin, but also his love of history and research- which we've luckily been able to use for progressive quilt club! As a kid, I swore I would move out of the area when I grew up. Well- just like my dad, grandparents, and great grandparents... I'm still living in the same area (granted- I haven't really grown up...) 2.Running a business in a small town is hard- because... less people! Running a business in a small town is great- because most people want you to succeed! It makes lean times less overwhelming when you know people are actively rooting for you to succeed. 3.People are just as crazy in small towns, as they are in big towns. The difference? You know who they are. We used to have a local guy who was suffering from hallucinations (as well as other issues). His caregiver went around town and explained to everyone that if he was causing trouble to just tell him "Go home, Sissy is making pancakes." I actually tried it once when we we're having a rather strange conversation (it worked). When we see someone having an event, its nice to know who to call (besides 911). 4.Some people want to shop local- but they always want to buy the stuff we don't carry. They also usually spend about 40 minutes telling me about how they shop local before they leave (without buying anything). Thankfully we cater to quilters, who believe in supporting ALL local quilt shops. 5. If you're the mayor of a small town, everyone will notice when you speed, ride your bike on the sidewalk, or walk your dog without a leash. Same thing when you own a business in a small town. 6.After twelve years in business, we still can't figure out what will sell or bomb. So one of us (out of our six crew) has to like it if we're gonna order it. 7. Some people would bitch if you hung them with a new rope. Let 'em bitch... they don't pay the bills, and they will never understand the thrill of operating a business. Sad for them. 8. The UPS deliveries are always scheduled for the days you're closed. Always. 9. Google maps will take people to very strange locations instead of to our store. We don't know if this happens in larger towns or not, but its interesting. One time it took people to the car wash. 10. As a business, we try not to discuss politics. Our town is 50/50, so if we state an opinion- someone's gonna be offended. That said, ALL quilters are welcome- so long as they adhere to the one commandment of quilting: Use a quarter inch seam allowance. And of course, we would like it noted that we celebrate ALL fabric colors. Even the ones that hurt my eyes. 11. If you're in business for more than five years in a small town- you're considered stable. It just feels odd. 12.People think that if your can quilt, you can hem their pants, alter their wedding dress, or sew patches on their baseball caps. We can't. Day Five: The Big Reveal!  Pieced Flying Geese: Sew the Pieced triangles together into four rows of two. They will finish at…  First and Third Row  Sew the funky squares to each side of the pieced flying geese. Press seams.  Second Row.  Sew the pieced flying geese to the sides of the double variable star.  Now sew all the rows together.
Voila! You’re done! Except for quilting & Binding. Or, if your making it bigger, borders and quilting & binding. Minor little chores like that. Thank you for helping us celebrate 12 years in business, getting by with help from our friends! The best thing about working full time in a quilt store is the friends you make. We have a team of four now (Five and six if we count a couple of our kids who would prefer not to be named) that have spent the past few years celebrating each other’s wins or holding each other up when things are getting rough. We said goodbye to our parents with each other, we have celebrated when new babies entered our families! They are a strong foundation for the store, and we truly could not do this without them. They help us hurry up and get samples done, set up quilt shows, fold and assemble patterns. You name it, they have done it. More importantly, they help us keep business concerns in perspective. We would not be where we are without them, and we know it! So today we are raising our glass (ok, it’s a strong cup of coffee) to that group of quilters we have nick named the Quilting Aunties. Day Four: Double Saw Tooth Star… Piecing: Half Square Triangles: A/F Combination: Make Sixteen   On the wrong sides of the squares from A, draw a line from corner to corner. Pair up, RST, with the squares from F. Sew a quarter inch seam on each side of the line. Cut on the line, flip triangles back, and press. Trim/Square to required size. Flying Geese: Make Fou   Sew the Half square triangles into four rows of two. Press seams. They will measure…….  Row’s One & Three: (they are the same thing, so make a total of two)   Order of Piecing. Bow tie, flying geese, Bow tie. Press seams. They will finish at…  The middle Row   Order of piecing: Flying geese, variable star, flying geese. Press seams. Finishes at….  Star Assembly: Sew rows one and three to the top and bottom of row two. Press seams. Finishes at...   That’s it for today! Tomorrow we will do the grand reveal!
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AuthorMari is the owner (and Slave) of Yankee Dutch Quilting. She spends much of her time being bossed around by "Thing One" (her perfect eldest daughter), who may or may not also be her web editor. Archives
March 2026
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