Jacquelynne Steves

Sign up for the FREE 2018 Block of the Month – Save The Bees!

It’s here! It’s here!! Introducing our Free Block of the Month for 2018:

Save The Bees!!

Our last block of the Month, I Love Home, was sooooo much fun, I hope you will enjoy this one, too!

The Save the Bees Free BOM will have 4 different blocks, and it will start in August and run through December. Once again, you will have the following options for making your blocks:

*you can just piece them
*OR you can applique them (hand or machine- I did machine applique)
*OR you can do simple hand embroidery (just 2 super easy stitches- the backstitch and French knots- plus I have a YouTube tutorial for those stitches)

You will get my easy-to-follow step by step instructions, with lots of diagrams, to make all 4 blocks and to add borders to make this quilt (finished size 49 x 54″): (more…)

5 Comments Posted May 22, 2018. Filed under Block of the Month, Embroidery, Featured, Fusible Machine Applique, Sewing & Quilting

It’s coming! Our 2018 Free Block of the Month!!!

Here’s the buzz…. it’s coming! Our 2018 Block of the Month! In about a week, I’ll be showing you the quilt, and giving you some information about fabric kits, coordinating quilt labels, and even Aurifil thread boxes!! Woo hoo!!!

It will run like last year’s, where we have awesome prizes and we will have “featured bloggers” so you can get some creative ideas and tips. Every year, we have more and more awesome quilters and sewists participating…. and I can’t tell you how many people have told me that our BOM was the first quilt that they ever made! That makes me so happy…. to know that our BOM is a “gateway” project for new quilters!

While we’re getting everything ready for you:

***Make sure you are on my newsletter list, so you don’t miss any announcements about this.

CHECK YOUR SPAM if you are already on my list but not receiving emails from me! I sent a newsletter about once per week. Everyone has a spam folder, you may need to look around for it or contact your email provider, but it’s there…. and I’ll bet you’ll find a bunch of stuff in there that you didn’t even know you were missing. (And yes, you’ll find some weird and inappropriate stuff too. Sigh.)

***If you’re not a member of our Sew Quilty Friends Free Facebook group yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for, LOL! It’s a great way to share your photos, see what others are making, ask questions, etc.

***Follow me on Pinterest! We’ll be posting photos there as well!!!

8 Comments Posted May 14, 2018. Filed under Block of the Month, Featured

2 Super BONUSES for The Art of Home Club!

I mentioned the other day that we will be opening up The Art of Home Club to new members soon-

The Club will be open to new members from Wednesday May 9 to Tuesday May 15, 2018.

A couple of exciting things- First, I have an AWESOME bonus for everyone who signs up on the first day (Wednesday May 9).

PLUS- a members-only exclusive BONUS BLOCK for our upcoming BLOCK OF THE MONTH. And, it’s really really really really really really really really cute. (Did I mention that it’s cute? And adorable as well….)

Watch my video below where I show you both of the BONUSES!

Here is some of the FUN that you can expect as a member of The Art of Home Club: (more…)

14 Comments Posted May 5, 2018. Filed under Featured, The Art of Home Club, Videos

Coming Soon!

We are gearing up to open The Art of Home Club to new members soon! Woo hoo! We have a lot of really exciting things going on in the Club, and I’d love for you to be a part of it! But- we only up enrollment a few times per year. The Art of Home Club is an exclusive “neighborhood” for friends who want additional monthly projects and patterns from The Art of Home.  Members have access to exclusive members only videos and other content, plus new patterns and projects as they are released every month.

The Club will be open to new members from Wednesday May 9 to Tuesday May 15, 2018.

I have an AWESOME bonus for everyone who signs up on the first day (Wednesday May 9)- I will be announcing it soon!

PLUS- Our 2018 Free Block of the Month will be here soon! I have a special bonus for Club members- a really adorable BOM “bonus” block, which will not be included in the free version of the bom. (The Free version of the bom will include all blocks and finishing instructions, just like previous years, but Club members will receive a fifth block that they can use in the quilt, or use for a coordinating project.)

The other day, I filmed a video showing all of the projects and bonuses, and I’ll be revealing that in just a couple of days! Here are some of the great features of The Art of Home Club: (more…)

4 Comments Posted May 3, 2018. Filed under Featured, Sewing & Quilting, The Art of Home Club

In the studio- 2018 BOM Preview & New Projects!

Happy May 1st! What did you do this weekend? I took a quick trip down to Florida to visit my daughter who lives there, and my parents who winter there. It was wonderfully warm and sunny. I always used to think that I hated winter because of the cold… but now I’m thinking that it’s not so much the cold that I hate as the grayness and lack of light! Daughter and I visited Busch Gardens in Tampa, rode some roller coasters (happy to say that I didn’t die!) and enjoyed seeing all of the animals.

In the studio, I’ve been working on our upcoming Block of the Month! We will be starting sign ups soon! Once again, we will have an optional fabric kits available, as well as coordinating quilt labels, and this year we will even have optional Aurifil thread boxes available. Have you seen the sneak peek for this year’s quilt? It’s soooo cute!

****By the way- I don’t blog nearly as much as I used to! It just always seems to be the thing that I don’t have time to get to anymore. BUT- I still do my free newsletter 2-4 times per month. It’s where I share a lot of what I’m working on, places I visit, sneak peeks like the one above, etc. I also announce sales and coupons in my newsletter, which I usually don’t get a chance to post here on my blog. SOOOOOO….. If you want to stay up to date on all the happenin’s, please make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter! If you are only relying on my blog or Facebook to keep up with the latest goings on, you are missing out on a lot! Click here to sign up! (And get lots of free goodies, too!) 

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7 Comments Posted May 1, 2018. Filed under Clubs, Embroidery, Featured, Sewing & Quilting, The Art of Home Club

Free Embroidery Pattern- Cactus in Teacup

Isn’t this a darling embroidery pattern? Cactus and succulents are so popular right now. And a cactus in a teacup? Too cute! You can reduce or enlarge this to any size you want for any project- a wall hanging, pot holder, dish towel, etc. (Hand embroidery pattern only, this pattern not available for machine embroidery.)

(more…)

8 Comments Posted April 30, 2018. Filed under Embroidery, Featured, Sewing & Quilting, The Art of Home Club

26 Free Spring Quilt & Sewing Projects

After a long, long winter here, it’s finally starting to feel like Spring! The sun is shining and the birds are singing- I think they are happy that winter is over as well! There’s something about Spring that makes us want to spruce up and brighten up our surroundings, it seems the urge to do some spring cleaning and nesting really kicks in as the weather warms up and the days get longer and sunnier.

Here are 26 Free Spring Quilt & Sewing Projects to sew to brighten up your day and your home! (more…)

3 Comments Posted April 24, 2018. Filed under Featured, Sewing & Quilting, Sewing/Quilting Patterns, Spring

Tuffet Pin Cushion Tutorial

This is my Tuffet Pin Cushion tutorial. Are these the cutest, or what? I can’t get enough pin cushions, and judging by Pinterest, neither can anyone else (wink.)

These adorable little pin cushions remind of the “tuffets” that were going around the internet a couple of years ago. I got this idea because I’ve been saving up those little tiny dog food cans (when you have a little tiny dog, you accumulate a lot of those!) I hated to throw them away, and early on I got the idea that they’d be just the right size for a pin cushion base. Now, if you don’t have little tiny dog food cans lying around, you have a couple of options. You could:

A. Get yourself a little tiny dog, or

B. Substitute a similar sized can.

(I happen to prefer option A, I’m just sayin’!!) Keep in mind that if your can is a slightly different size, you may need to cut your fabric circle a little smaller or larger to accommodate. You can go crazy making these, using up all your little bits of fabric and trim and buttons….

I’ve used a combination of rice/beans and polyester filler for the stuffing. If you like to use crushed walnut shells, etc. that’s fine, too. See this blog post about different types of stuffing for your pin cushions. 

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3 Comments Posted April 10, 2018. Filed under Crafts & DIY, Featured, Sewing & Quilting, Sewing/Quilting Patterns, Tutorials

A Beginner’s Guide to Pinterest

I love Pinterest- how about you? It’s such a great way to save photos and links that you might want to refer to again. For example, have you ever read a really great article or tutorial, but when you try to find it again later, you have NO idea where it was? Or maybe you have a “bookmarks” bar on you browser, but it’s so disorganized you can’t find anything- or you can’t tell what the web page is about based on the link address? Maybe you are looking for ideas for making a pin cushion- but don’t have any idea how to efficiently organize all of those ideas for later when you actually sit down to make your project? Have you ever tried to find an efficient way to “store” all of the delicious chicken and casserole recipes which are available all over the internet?? This is where Pinterest comes in handy.

Pinterest is a way to organize web addresses and images so you can find them later. Think of it as an “online bulletin board” where you can “pin” photos and ideas in an organized way. (more…)

3 Comments Posted April 3, 2018. Filed under Art-Design-Business, Featured, Videos

A Snowy First Day of Spring and Wool Class

A few weeks ago, I received an email from The Old Country Store, a charming quilt shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They were offering a wool workshop with Kathy Cardiff, in conjunction with her new book by Martingale, A Cottage Garden. I LOVE making projects for The Art of Home Club, for my blog and for our annual Block of the Month- but all of those come with a deadline, and so feel a little like “work” sometimes. I hardly ever do sewing “just because.” So when I saw this workshop, I thought I’d treat myself to a day or 2 of shopping and sewing in Amish country.

As the day of the class drew nearer, the weather forecast looked iffy. First, it was a chance of flurries that would probably pass us by… then a few inches of snow predicted…. by the day before the class, they were forecasting 10-12 inches. On the first day of Spring. Which is more snow than we had had all winter long!!

I decided to go anyway, and planned to stay an extra night if necessary. The first day, as the snow began to fall, the stores were empty and perfect for shopping, LOL! I stopped at a diner for dinner (see the train in the background) and enjoyed watching the peaceful snow fall as I had my soup and sandwich and cup of tea. (more…)

20 Comments Posted March 27, 2018. Filed under Featured, Sewing & Quilting, Wool