Don't Forget

Hi Quilters,
Do not forget to add your email address in the message. Some of the wonderful comments are coming up with a no reply for the email and I will not be able to contact you if you win. :)
Thank you
Heidi

100 Blocks Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to The Whimsical Workshop
on the 100 Block Tour from Quiltmaker Magazine.

Quiltmaker has been one of my favorite quilting magazines since I started sewing and designing in 2000. I was quite honored to be asked a second time to submit a block for the second edition of the 100 Blocks magazine. This time the magazine was coming out around the same time as my newest line of fabric, "Furry Friends" from Blank Quilting. So I used my fabric and my favorite bear to create a fun and easy block. I hope you enjoy making this block as much as I did.

I have gotten my copy of the 100 Blocks magazine and can tell you it has so many wonderful designs that can keep you busy for entire year. Whether you love piecing, applique or paper piecing there are blocks for you. Make sure to order yours today. You can also check out all the artists on the blog tour as well as sign up for different prizes at the Quiltmaker Blog
including a chance to win of one of the 100 blocks the artist made and signed for the magazine.

As for our giveaways. Please leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win a copy of the 100 Blocks magazine (we will be giving away five of them!) or a fat quarter bundle of my Furry Friends collection (we have several to give away). Make Sure to check back tomorrow to see if you have won!!!

Make sure to sign up for our email newsletter which will feature a free pattern to use our Bear block along with my matching Bunny Block which will go out next week to all that sign-up.

You can see all of our great products at www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com where we always offer FREE Shipping and until Christmas we are offering 15% off your entire purchase, just use promo code- FLL15Off. You can also follow us on Facebook.

I look forward to hearing from you this week and hope you have fun on this great blog tour.
Happy Creating,
Heidi

Bee My Honey

Hello all,
We are finally back from Quilt Market and happy to have another market done. We did over 25 quilt samples for this market for seven different fabric companies on top of the several projects for ourselves. My sewing machine was on fire. Happy to be back to normal (sort of) for another couple of months.
We have several exciting things happening around the studio over the next few months, starting with my latest magazine feature "Bee My Honey", which is in the current issue of The Quilter Magazine. It showcases my newest line of fabric "Furry Friends" which is available on our website along with the fabric kit for the quilt. www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com
The other exciting thing to share with you is we have a block in Quiltmaker's 100 Block issue in sale now. We will participate in their Blog tour this month with several giveaways. Our special day is 11/11/10. What a fun date to get. Check out the whole schedule of events and sign up for free prizes at So check back to see what we have going.

Winter?

I cannot believe it is the end of Halloween and we are close to the holidays. I know we are close because my newest issue of McCall's Quick Quilts just showed up and it is all about the holidays.
Now you have to understand why I am so messed up about exactly what the time of year it is.
First I live in Phoenix, AZ and today is the first day that it is under 90º since May. After growing up in Upstate New York, where the weather told you when fall was here, in Phoenix the season change slightly.If you are not paying attention the holidays are over before you hang the first decoration . I miss my sweaters and boots.
The other thing working against my ever knowing what time of year it is, is the design season is is about six months ahead. That means this darling Reindeer Games quilt shown here was designed in June and currently we are working on summer designs for next year. We always have Halloween in the Spring. I tell you my whole calender is off, off, off.
Now all that being said, I wanted to share with you why I was so excited about the McCall's Quick Quilts magazine, our newest holiday quilt is in there. Yep you guessed it, it is Reindeer Games. We have a limited number of fabric kits for these guys and I kept the size small to make is easier to make as well and find a place to hang. Even better is we currently are offering 15% off your entire order. Just use the code FLL15off when you check out at www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com

What a year!

Hello World. Sorry to take so long in between blogs. We have been so busy here at The Whimsical Workshop that I cannot believe it is already mid-October. Anyone who has been following my blog
knows that I have been spilting my time between quilt designing and jewelry designing. As this journey continues, I am learning to manage my time better. As we go forward, I have decided to keep this blog about our quilting world adventures and have a separate blog for the jewelry world adventures at hpcstudio.blogspot.com. I hope you will visit both blogs but understand we each have our interests and limited time in which to do them in.

Whoops? 2 months since my last post!!!

Hello,

Sorry it has been so long. When I last posted I was just starting a metal smithing class and an enameling class. Both were wonderful but it was a lot of work balancing two classes along with studio work. Then the holidays and then excuse, after excuse, after excuse.......

So now it 2010 and lets start again. I will try my best to keep up.

So what has been happening with the studio, you ask. Well we just finished two more quilts for McCall's Quick Quilts and Harris Publications Quick Quilts. Both are summer themed one is bright and fun and the other is made with batiks. Unfortunately I cannot post pictures yet. We are also getting ready of our biggest show of the year, the Phoenix Sew and Craft Festival at the Phoenix Fair Grounds. It is nice that our biggest show is actually in town.

I am also getting ready to sell some of my jewelry at the Phoenix First Fridays, starting in February. Wish me luck. This is a new venture for me and I hope people will like my designs.

I am posting a photo here of the finished pendent that I showed in November as a work in progress. Next month I become a traveling fool. It was nice to be home for several months but back to work. Though I love meeting so many nice and creative people at my workshops, lectures and shows. So until next time.....

Tuesday at the Studio

Hello again,

After my exciting class on Monday I blogged about below, I went into my studios (Yes I am so lucky to have three entire rooms all to myself!!!!) and realized they were totally unorganized and I was not working efficently due to this fact. Here is my set-up. I have one large room which I have as my sewing studio. It is set and designed so two people can work comfortably. This is due to the fact that Kathy (my assistant) comes 3-5 times a week to work in there with me. This was suppose to be my studio for everything.

Once I really started to make jewelry I realized it was better to have these two work areas separated, due to the fact that jewelry making can get messy, dusty and using chemicals around fabrics just was not a good idea. So I took over a spare bedroom, put a workbench in there and started to take over the room. Now I had part of my jewelry supplies in the jewelry studio and part of them across the hall in the sewing studio. I also had stored some sewing supplies in the spare room that became my jewelry studio. So being the way I am, I tore apart both rooms on Tuesday while I fired my PMC3 pieces I showed in Monday's post and got the correct supplies in each room. The jewelry studio is now set up and organized. I feel very comfortable and the area works for me. Now on to cleaning up the sewing studio and finally I will clean up my office (the third room). I am posting a picture of the Jewelry studio here and will add the other two rooms once I get them organized.

This is my excuse for not having a piece of jewelry the last couple of days but now I am set up and ready to go. Until next time.....