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You may have noticed all the LIKE buttons around the blog.  I wanted to make it easier for you to share this site and the FREE tutorials with your friends.  Simply hit the little LIKE buttons and a link will instantly be shared on your facebook profile.  Thanks for the LIKE!  I like you, too.  =)

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Military Mailbag & Express Mailbag RD2-029 LIVE!

(larger, Military Mailbag)

As promised, I'd be back to tell you when the newest pattern in the recycled uniforms collection is live and available for purchase! Well- its today. RIGHT NOW!

(smaller Express Mailbag)

Hooray hooray hooray!

Head over to QuiltWoman.com to purchase your copy today. Remember- there are two bag sizes and two strap designs for you to mix and match to create the perfect messenger style bag for all your needs.

Edited to add: AND- This just in this title is available as an instant download, e-pattern!

See the other Recycled Military Uniform patterns at ReannaLily Designs.com.

Military Mailbag & Express Mailbag RD2-029 LIVE!

Makeover- Blog Style

I'm sure you've noticed the new bright orange banner. I'm loving the funky new look to the blog. I wanted to let you know, though, if you didn't already- I've gone into the TUTORIALS page and added a photo for every single tutorial listed. The graphics are much more inspiring to us visual-types than just plain-vanilla text. (Vanilla gets such a bad rep, right? Good thing it still has root beer floats on its side!) I'm also cleaning up my Patterns page on my ReannaLily Designs website. Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes. All the new patterns should be live very very very soon. Stay tuned.

Makeover- Blog Style

Quilted Party Tray -Makeover!

I've recently given a completely makeover to my Quilted Party Tray pattern. I'm so happy to report the cover looks much more like me now. ...well, not that I'm a quilted box in green stripes... but you know, much more like my style. Let me show you the brand spankin' new cover pictures-

Not only is it a great way to use scraps, but its fun to make for organizing the office or for party treats. It makes a great gift basket, too! This pattern will be distributed by QuiltWoman.com (hooray!) Of course the pattern cover features the last bit of Nicey Jane fabric I own.

And while on my makeover spree this past weekend, I rearranged my patterns page on my website. The patterns are in nice, tidy categories with an overview paragraph at the top & links within the paragraph. Hopefully, this will help my customers easier find what they are looking for. Unfortunately I don't have a "search" button my site yet.

Quilted Party Tray -Makeover!

GiveAway Time!

I moved from Korea to Oklahoma a little over 1 year ago. On August 1st, I went to the Oklahoma "county office of all things official" and got my business information all squared away. I have officially been in business one year as ReannaLily Designs.

Big things have happened this past year, from Seamingly Accurate to a line of quilt patterns, and I've got a few irons in the proverbial fire for even bigger things on the horizon. I'm officially working with Art Gallery Fabrics! I'll have pictures for you after market. For now, the projects are all top secret. Also, after years of sewing commissioned The Cube purses, I'm in the final stages of getting that pattern ready for the retail world. The Cube purse pattern made with recycled uniforms is currently AT the pattern tester's. There's a special twist with The Cube purse pattern and you'll have to just check back to see what it is. AND when that baby releases, I'll be giving away something super special along with the pattern. *stay tuned*

I want to celebrate my first year with a give away. Scratch that- TWO giveaways! Each giveaway will receive a charm pack and my free-with-purchase Headband pattern.

These are charm packs, of course. They are both from Benartex. The one charm pack is Victoria by Nikki Russell. The pack includes 2 squares of each of the 28 different prints. You can see them all here, at the Benartex site.


The second charm pack is Fossil Fern. Are you sitting down for this- its 100 pieces! One of EACH Fossil Fern print. (Thumb not included.)



To enter the giveaway here's what you need to do:
Leave a comment telling me which color is most dominant in your fabric stash- or heck, just let me know what your favorite color is. (and make sure there's some way for me to contact you.)

To be entered twice:
Blog, tweet or otherwise (web-wise) mention this post. Leave a second comment with the link.

To be entered a third time:
Subscribe to my blog feed (by email, or bloglines or reader, or whatever you use) and leave a comment letting me know you subscribe. If you are already a subscriber, leave a comment to that effect as well.

I'll be throwing all those comments into the hat and drawing out two lucky winners on August 7th {lucky #7!!} 5pm CDT. Good luck to you and thanks again for subscribing & showing all your continued support.

~jen~

updated to add- This giveaway is officially closed. "winners" post, coming right up!

GiveAway Time!

The Quilting Class

The are the class products from our Beginning Quilting series over here at ReannaLily Designs. I'm so proud of the students. Neither lady had ever quilted before and through the 3 (or was it 4) class meetings, they have produced these excellent quilt tops from the Baby's Boxes RD2012 pattern. If you love the design, check out the Patterns page on the ReannaLily Designs website.

Today's class was the final one in the course. We machine quilted and discussed binding. It so great to see the big 'ole smile on the faces of students when they finish/make a new item. I love the "I made that!" look.

The next class at ReannaLily Designs will be headbands, at the end of May. You'll have to check out the Classes tab on the website later for dates and times.

The Quilting Class

My New Shop-

Ok, I've been running my Etsy shop(llyrric) for over a year now. Its going well, but I've noticed it kind of looks "all over the place". I've decided to break out and open a second Etsy Shop(reannalilydesigns). One shop will be for patterns/supplies/notions and the second shop is for sewn-finished goods. The shops are referenced in the shop description pages, so you'll be able to find what you're looking for if you snag the wrong link. I still need to move the fabrics over to the supply shop: ReannaLilyDesigns- but for now, its filled with 10 listings for patterns/notions. Thanks for checking them out! ~jen~

My New Shop-

I'm in Quilter's Home Magazine!

Ya'll, I just have to post this on both the family blog and the design blog. Its BIG hoppin-up-and-down news! I'm in Quilter's Home Magazine (April/May 2009)! Editor, Mark Lipinski, thinks my Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide is wonderful and did a whole little write up on it, on page 83!

A humongous thanks going out to the folks at Quiltwoman.com who have produced & marketed my product for the quilting industry since the beginning. They also allowed me to work with them at the Housont Quilt Market where Seamingly Accurate launched this past fall. I'll be in the Quiltwoman.com booth at Pittsburgh's Spring Quilt Market with them, also. (Just booked my flights & classes this past week.) Hooray for teamwork!

My biggest supporter scanned a copy of her magazine and emailed it to me. I can't wait to get my hot little hands on my very own copy. Who are we kidding, I might buy a few copies and plan out how I might wall-paper my living room with the article. It hits news stands this week! I wanted my blog fans to be able to grab a copy as soon as the post hits the web, which is why I had to wait a bit to share the news.

Thanks for all your continued support & interested in ReannaLily Designs- as posted by Jen from CLOUD 9!

I'm in Quilter's Home Magazine!

The Adjustable Apron

I offered a class for the Adjustable Apron (#RD2015) last month and used my own pattern to teach the ladies the techniques for making this functional little kitchen accessory. This pattern uses French seams, a fabric turning tool and casings to achieve a very finished apron. The pattern also gives you designer leeway to add/omit the contrasting band and to add trims where they will look the best for your design and fabric combinations.

Well, after a bit of drafting and testing and retesting- I'm happy to announce that the Adjustable Apron pattern has an ADULT size and a CHILD size.... and you might have guessed it- It's available in my shop. {It was previously only available to students in the class.}

Now lets talk about making a pattern. My mom had made a couple aprons for my own children about 6 years ago. She says the design is just more functional than having a strap around the neck and separate straps for the ties. So with her permission, I asked if I could draft my own measurements for her concept and author up the pattern. She agreed.

I've been selling the finished Adjustable Apron on Etsy for ... um ... about a year or so now. I have a few aprons currently in the shop. Those are all adult sized, though can fit elementary school age students, as well. I needed to draft and test the additional child size apron measurements. Thankfully, I have a little test model here in the house. The child size is designed for 2T to 4T.


I was debating what kind of cover image I'd use on the apron pattern. The cover image is very important because no one buys a pattern thinking the text is going to be flashy and fabulous. They buy patterns based on the picture on the cover. So I'm thinking: Should I have someone wearing it? Should I have them in a kitchen? Should I have them holding a bowl or wisk? Outside natural light is better, maybe I should have someone grilling in the apron... On and on, I did take this funny Kitchen Model Action photo- but, in the end, I opted for dress forms + outside light + drop out all the background. I think the cover is clean and still showcases the variations in the apron design.

My little model was so funny though- when you ask him to put on an apron, you should be specific and say with your clothes. It must be wonderful to be 3yo. Did NOT go with the "in the kitchen with mom" approach for the cover image for the pattern.

I do hope you'll check out "the patterns" over on www.reannalilydesigns.com and drop an Adjustable Apron pattern into your cart. ~jen~

The Adjustable Apron

More Blocks & a Quilt finished

I've received more blocks for the swap. The pile of envelopes is steadily growing! Thank you thank you for mailing them in early & making it easy for me to track who all has been received. The spreadsheet thanks you as well.

And in other news, with the release of a few more patterns, tomorrow- I thought I should go ahead and finish out, completely, one of the titles. I just finished the binding this weekend. This one is called Floating Bubbles, RD2013 & it will be launching tomorrow! Thank you pattern testers!!! You've seen the quilt before, here it is all bound and folded.

Stay tuned. I'll be uploading & testing my design site, www.reannalilydesigns.com this weekend and blogging a give-away for the pattern release on Monday. Stay tuned! ~jen~

More Blocks & a Quilt finished

Big Announcement!

Its Big Announcement day here at the ReannaLily Designs studio. The fine people who run my domain name account have fixed my website. http://www.reannalilydesigns.com is back on! I cannot tell you how happy I am with their quick turn around. They must have heard me hollerin' all the way up in Canada. Do you see me doing the happy dance?? Oh, I'm dancin!

In other big news (which is why the site-crash timing was LESS than ideal)- I've added a shopping feature over on my site! I've joined the 21st century and have my own cart buttons and paypal service linked to my products. Whenever you see the custom designed:

You can start shopping. I have to thank my friend Gretchen for turning me onto the whole paypal "cart button" feature. It was super easy for me to use, and so far seems to be super easy for customers. I'm still working out a few kinks- but its going pretty well.

And in redesign news- Customers can now see the front and BACK of the pattern envelope when you click on the thumbnail image. I know when I'm shopping I always want to know the fabric requirements I'm getting into. Sure its a nice quilt, but am I going to need 33 yards??? (FYI, none of my patterns need 33yds- goodness, that'd be alot!!!)

Still with the big news- I've released 2 of the upcoming NEW NEW NEW patterns over on ReannaLily Designs.
The first one is a very sensible Quilt Guild Name Tags pattern, which I had mentioned here before. The final image has gone through some make-overs, but the patterns are well-tested and ready for your sewing machine. The 6 designs are all paper pieced. I developed this pattern after joining a few quilt guilds (in various cities) and not having my name tag, which always seemed to get lost in the move. Boy, if I had a dollar for every time I've used the phrase "lost in the move." Anywhoo- Its hard work to make a "quilt" that small- especially if you aren't a miniature-quilt quilter. As a result of really wanting a tidy, quick but-still-WOW name tag, I designed these. These are NOT hard work to make, and you probably have enough fabric in your current stash to make them. =) Each finished "quilt" measures 3.5" x 5" OR and this is really the best part- you can enlarge the pattern 130% to make fabric postcards. (Yes, you can actually mail them.)

This second release is a Queen size quilt called Intensity. Its made from fat quarters or assorted yardage. This one, like my Quick 3D Sampler and the Interlocking squares patterns has quite a bit of graphic impact without being an art quilt. I love the contrast in this design. Do you see triangles? Do you see squares? Me, I see squares. My husband, he only sees the triangles. I love the red with black & white.

I have 3 more patterns in the works. Two are tested and we're just waiting on cover images. Oooh- the suspense! Hopefully a pattern will make it over to your house, soon. As always, I'll keep ya posted on all the developments here at the HQ. Have a great afternoon. ~jen~

Edited to add: As of Jan 21, 2009- The great 2009 Spring Quilt Block swap only has 6 spaces left. Section 4 will be the last section. There are only 5 remaining days to sign up. If you're already in the swap and would like to join a second time- please do! Tell your friends. Monday the 26th of Jan is the last day to sign up. After the 26th, I'll be sending an email out to all the players regarding the shipping instructions. Thanks again for playing!

Big Announcement!

As luck would have it-

I just wanted to stop by and let you know that my URL forwarding service which makes my long extensive homepage read "www.reannalilydesigns.com" is down. If you found the blog, but still want to get to the main design site, you can still get there from here: CLICK HERE. Boy I wish I would have had some advance notice on that mess. I wonder how many other customers are sitting here thinking "I'm glad the QNNtv.com newsletter didn't drop TODAY." Goodness. ~jen~

As luck would have it-

The Swap and Patterns

Wow guys- you're awesome. This swap is taking on a life of its own! I've got everything sorted and tracked on an excel spreadsheet. I just opened up Section 4. The swap is listed with SwapDex and Sew Mama Sew- so thats a good bit of coverage for my little Spring event. Sign-ups are still open 'til Jan 26th. Please do check that your name is on the side bar and the color is correct. I do still need email addresses for


Sect 3- Ginny, & N Canadas

I need to get these addresses so that I can send out the "where to mail 'em" email at the end of January. Most of you have your blogs listed/linked to your name under the section where you're playing. Thanks again for playing!!!

And in other news, I'm working on two new patterns for my small modest little pattern line. I'm very excited. The first one is finish & tested, I just need to finish up the photography for the cover. The second pattern is finished, and the photography is finished- I just need to have it tested. Its currently at the pattern testers' house right now. I'll have the images on here as soon as they're available.

The Center Applied Zipper classes were this past weekend. I must say, they went really well. The students worked with cotton, satin and even faux fur. Turns out, you can put a zipper in every single one- no problem. One student made TWO pillows in the allotted class time. With that one down, I'm already marketing my February class. Its the Adjustable Apron. I've got more details on the Class page of my website.

Ok, its official- I'm a link-aholic! I put so many linky-words in my blog posts. Holy smokes. It only takes a second to do... Everyone's doing it... hehehe.

Many irons in the fire.

edited to add- Thank you ladies, for sending your email addresses.

The Swap and Patterns

QNNtv dot com Newsletter

I'm so excited to tell you that QNNtv.com has featured me in the member community as the "Free Member Pattern". HOW EXCITING. QNNtv.com provides online streaming video of many various quilt shows with tons of techniques. Not only does it have a link to my website's pattern page, but it also has a write-up on Seamingly Accurate. I am just beaming. Thank you so much for the support! I really do appreciate it. ~jen~

QNNtv dot com Newsletter

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today is Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas to the blogoshpere! We are having fun on our family holiday. I've got the Etsy shop on "delayed delivery" and the sewing machine is taking a little break. Well... I say that, my MIL has a sewing machine or ...4 ... keeping me company. In fact, she's got a full-on Gammil Long Arm machine that I'll have to post all about when I get home. I've got pictures and video and holy smokes- it.is.cool!

And I want to give a big thanks to all the crafter seamsters out there who have given the gift of Seamingly Accurate this holiday season. Thank you so much. I hope you love it as much as I do. I need to write a little tip on my website for using the guide with bigger half-square triangles. I figured out another little use for it and I'd love to share it- as soon as I'm back on my own computer.

Also- I'm kicking off the New Year with a zipper pillow cover class on Jan 9th. I have that info on my Design website, too. Once you put in a zipper- you'll wonder why it seemed so intimidating.

Wait- this is supposed to be a festive Christmas post. Well, I do have some festive news- The quilt I carried in the car, for hand-quilting is now completely finished. I ran up to a local quilt shop (who is now going to carry Seamingly Accurate) and picked up the light blue binding. I'm so happy that its finished. In fact, I finished 3 quilts so far this week. One top on the long-arm is quilted and bound and a 3rd quilt, which my MIL quilted is also now bound. I'll have photos of that when I get back.

Merry Christmas, again- and I hope the NORAD Santa tracker gives your kids all the info they need this season!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Big Things...

Big things are happening here at 'ole ReannaLily Designs. For one, I've updated my homepage over on the design site to look MUCH more clean. I am really enjoying the new cover page. I've received an overwhelming response to my Seamingly Accurate, thank you so much to those of you who've tried it. If you haven't tried it yet, go download one for yourself. In fact, I'm proud to report that you'll soon be able to download Seamingly Accurate from CottonSpice quilters magazine! Yours truly will be in their September Issue. Of course, I'll have a link when that goes live. I also have patterns in stores now! Quilter's Point in San Antonio is now carrying my two quilt patterns. And very very soon, my patterns will be carried by a national distributor. I'm finishing up the details, and I'll tell you all about who and where, when its finished.

Thank you all for the encouragement and support.

Hum, sorry there are no pictures in this post. I've been a wee bit busy lately. ~jen~

edited to add- Seamingly Accurate is no longer available for free download, as of Sept 23rd 2008. It is, however, available for purchase through Quiltwoman.com.

Big Things...

Its finally here!!! Seamingly Accurate

I thought up a great little product a couple months ago. I've been going back and forth thinking how it will be used and produced and distributed. Wait 'til you see it!!! Its a Seam Guide! Yes only a seamstress would be this excited about a seam guide... And get this, its called Seamingly Accurate.

At first I wanted to produce this guide out of clear static cling vinyl. Then I got to looking around and I don't know that the cost of the vinyl would cover the marketing and distribution... so INSTEAD I've decided to produce in paper.

The best part- ITS INCLUDED IN ALL MY PATTERNS (Where its needed). Oh, but even better than that, I've decided to make a FREE download on my website. I love free! Also on my site, you'll see how to install it on your sewing machine. Remember, its paper.

Hopefully all you quilters and seamstresses and interior designers out there will benefit from this little page of greatness. It makes half-square triangles in a snap! You don't have to fold the center line of those dang'd squares anymore.

Just line the front corner of the square up with the 1/4" line and you're in business! And you can sew down one side, flip your square around, an sew right down the other side without missing a beat.
I sound like an info-mercial- But its just so exciting. The design is done and now we can all whip out sewing projects with ease.

Speaking of interior designers and home-sewing:

Wide hems are your friend! No longer do you need to place a pin at the 3" mark or 4" mark on your fabric. And forget rubbing off tailors chalk. Depending on how wide your sewing machine area is, you can make hems up to 5.5" wide. Ah, go peel that masking tape off your machine. I'll wait. Great.

I hope you enjoy using the Seamingly Accurate as much as I'm enjoying it. I hope it expedites your processes.

These are my two patterns that currently use and feature Seamingly Accurate:

edited to add: I have NO idea why those colors on the Quick 3D sampler are not right. You'll have to click on it to see it on my website, in the right color-way. I think its showing up in "negative" right now.

Thanks for driving by my blog today. Sorry about the info-mercial. I do hope you download and use this little tool. Have a good weekend! ~jen~

edited to add- Seamingly Accurate is no longer available for free download, as of Sept 23rd 2008. It is, however, available for purchase through Quiltwoman.com.

Its finally here!!! Seamingly Accurate

Defensive Driving

If you take defensive driving to avoid future crashes... whoooo- I'm a defensive blogger!!! I was trying to update my blog template this morning, so that I can have a more professional site and possibly even use my blog as my main website...

I found a few great free CSS Template websites and decided on a nice clean winner. Blogger even posts a message "you might want to save your current template before you upload the new one" That is a great idea... EXCEPT it doesn't save your actual blog. See all those links and sections over there on the right --------------------------->
The "save" deal doesn't save any of that. It basically shows up with the About Me section and a link to your old posts. YIKES! Did I just crash my own blog site???

It took about 40 minutes of "Good gravy where's the undo button." And now, I managed to get the blog information back together. It was a near miss but a very very long 40 minutes!

I did try uploading the new clean blog template and it says there's an error. So for a brief bit, I thought - wait, you discarded all my side bar stuff AND you cannot give me the nice template? AGH.

So here's the weird looking {hopefully temporary} blog. If there are computer savvy people out there who want to tell me how to save my widgets to be installed into my new template, please email me.

Thankfully, I can sew better than I can use a blogger template. *wink wink*
Super cute bamboo handled mini bag. The fabric is by Valorie Wells for Free Spirit. Its heading over to the Etsy store. ~jen~

Defensive Driving

I'm BACK!!!

All of my household goods are now actually IN my house. {imagine that} I'm so happy. Then unpacking marathon is in full swing. Its wonderful!

You know what that means, my Etsy shop will be filling in with funky handmade sewn items and recycled uniform items very soon! Patterns will be arriving shortly. We just purchased a nice new printer, and that changes the pattern game significantly. I can actually print a nice quality pattern for myself. hooray for business expenses!

In other news, the company that holds my domain name, and has for the past 4.5 years, decided to fix my website for me, and now thats back online. sweet! I do still need to update a picture or two and change my contact info, though. I didn't figure out the email and server-hosting deal... but I've got time. I will likely just transfer my domain. Too technical? Yeh, lets move on.

While still in Korea, I made a cute little outfit for my niece and she's finally big enough to wear it. I've already listed the outfits similar to this one over in my store.

Thanks for stopping by my bloggy-blog. Hopefully, I'll be back to creating soon. Just a few more boxes to go. ~jen~

I'm BACK!!!

GREAT NEWS!

Hooray! I just received a call that the last bit of our household items are here in our new city. I'm so excited! I've been apart from my sewing machines for over a month and I'm having withdrawals. (Can you see my eye twitching slightly? heh) I'm very excited that all the items should be delivered on Friday and shortly after that I'll be back taking custom orders and filling in my handmade inventory in my shop. (The shop currently has cuts of fabric, just for you!)

It will take a couple days to unpack and get full-on up and running. I'm just so thrilled that everything will be arriving shortly.

In other news, now that we are back in the USA and not residing on a military base overseas, I've set up ReannaLily Designs to be a regular business. I will be charging sales tax on all products purchased in Oklahoma.... I should make a note of that in my shop. Anyway, very big things happening around here. Stay tuned! ~jen~

edited to add: The ReannaLily Designs website might be down some today as I'm trying to figure out this whole IP pointing thing. If you have any tips- email me!!!

GREAT NEWS!