'The Blessings' Quilt Pattern Has Arrived!

Robyn Falloon's pattern for her beautiful quilt has arrived at Three Ducks!  As I mentioned in earlier updates, I will be selling the pattern alone and included in a kit featuring all Jo Morton fabric.

Last Sunday with the help of two quilting friends, Linda Gant and her daugher Jayna deRoon, fabric cutting got underway. We managed to get through 116 bolts and I have increased that figure to 147 bolts since then. There are another 28 bolts to go plus 'Indigo Berries' will be arriving by Wednesday! Hurray! This will add another 14 fabrics to the kit.

'The Blessings' quilt pattern and kit will be placed in the shopping cart and activated on Sunday, February 14 at 9:00 am PST (Noon, EST). I think Valentine's Day is a most appropriate date!

Shopping at Three Ducks

Just a gentle reminder for my American and International visitors -  Three Ducks on a Roof is a Canadian online quilt shop. Fabric is sold by the metre which is slightly over 39" in length. Fabric is also more expensive here in Canada due to three major reasons: 1) we must order through a fabric distributor, 2) the dollar exchange, 3) custom charges and federal taxes. As a result, the retail price of Jo Morton fabric at Three Ducks is $15.50/metre.

Fabric in the Three Ducks Shopping Cart is purchased in half metre increments; therefore, the price you see in red below the fabric number is the half metre price.  If you read the description beside the fabric swatch, it does mention in bold that the fabric is $15.50/metre. When ordering fabric, placing a "1" in the quantity box means you would like a half metre, placing a "2" means a full metre, placing a "3" means 1.5 metres, etc.

Jo Morton Restocks & New Fabric

I was back at my fabric distributor on the last Friday in January. My goal was to find a suitable Jo Morton fabric for the sashing in The Blessings Quilt kit.  While on the hunt, I managed to pick up pick up three fabrics from the Classics line which I was sold out of.

Starting from the left, A3794-B, A3794-K and A3798-R are once again available in the Three Ducks shopping cart on the Classics page. The black A3794-K is one of my favourite Jo Morton fabrics - it is so rich in appearance.

As well, I picked up A3787-L which is from the Toast line; for whatever reason, this fabric was not available when I originally placed my order. It is a lovely print and can be found here.

(Hmm, there is something buggy with Blogger right now as I am having trouble with sizing the images - I will have to try again later)

Jo Morton's Block Pressing Techniques

Elaine at 'Faithful Quilter: Elaine's Journey' has shared Jo Morton's block pressing techniques with one and all in a posting made today. Elaine attended a recent workshop with Jo (lucky Elaine!) and, thankfully, took lots of pics and now we can learn those techniques, too. Thank you, Elaine, for sharing!. You can read Elaine's blog post here.

Be sure to go to Elaine's blog home page and scroll down the whole page. You'll see all the wonderful little quilts made by those at the workshop and see all the beautiful quilts from Jo Morton's own trunk show!  You will truly be inspired!

The Blessing Quilt - Update

'The Blessing Quilt' patterns are on their way!  Robyn Falloon shipped last Monday and I am hopeful they will clear Canadian customs this week and be at Three Ducks by this upcoming weekend.

In the meantime, I have disabled Jo Morton's Seneca Shirtings fabric line in the shopping cart until I can pull the fabrics I need for "The Blessings Quilt' kit. Thankfully, I have two quilting friends who have kindly volunteered to help me put the kits together; so, it will be a busy weekend cutting fabric from over two hundred bolts of fabric.

I have decided I will prepare four to six kits with the Seneca Shirtings (depending on my stock at hand); however, I will also prepare a number of fabric packs for just the appliqué and piecing. Fabrics are more expensive here in Canada and this will give my American visitors the choice to purchase the Shirtings at home where they are cheaper, but take advantage of my great selection of Jo Morton fabrics for the appliqué pieces.

Jo Morton Restocks & New Fabrics

I was at my fabric distributor last week and managed to pick up some half bolts of of some very popular fabrics that I carried in the past.

Starting from the left, A3183-E and A3184-B are both from the 'Jo's Necessities' line and can be found in the cart under the 'Jo's Mixed Lines' category. Next are A3291-G and A3290-K and both can be found, again, in the 'Coventry' category. On the top right, is A3791-V and it is a 'Providence' fabric. And last but not least, is A3094-KN which returns to the top position under 'Toast'.

I also picked up two half bolts from the 'Jo's Ticking Stripes' line. On the left is A3160-W and its stripes are a bluish-green or greenish-blue depending on whether you place it next to blue fabrics or green fabrics. Both fabrics are brushed cotton on one side and can also be found under the 'Jo's Mixed Lines' category in the shopping cart.

Indigo Berries by Jo Morton

Jo Morton's newest fabric line 'Indigo Berries' will be arriving next week - a month earlier than expected! I was at the fabric distributor in Richmond yesterday and the warehouse manager took me over to view the newly arrived Andover shipment and I was thrilled to see the Indigo Berries line which I hadn't expected to see until sometime in February. Believe me when I say, it is gorgeous! Here is a peek at what to expect...

I will be picking up the order next week and hope to have them up in the shopping cart by January 24. This early arrival is wonderful because I will be able to include the line in The Blessings Quilt fabric kit.

By the way, I will be in and out of the Vancouver area over the next two weeks and all orders will be processed on the weekends. I should be back to a normal schedule by the first week of February.

Reaching Back...

Three Ducks is beginning to prepare for three new Jo Morton fabric lines. 'Indigo Berries' arrives in February, 'Ravenwood' in March and 'Cocoa Express in April. There are some fabrics in earlier lines that would be spectacular with Ravenwood and Cocoa Express and one of those is 3094-KN shown on the left and I am bringing it back.  In fact, I have a half bolt waiting for me at the distributor now which I will pick up next week and I have ordered another full bolt which should arrive in February if it is still in stock with Andover. I am keeping my fingers crossed.


Do you have a favourite Jo Morton fabric that you would like to see back on the shelf? Let me know in 'Comments' and if other quilters share your interest I'll see what I can do!

The Blessings Quilt - Announcement

Three Ducks on a Roof is thrilled to announce it will be the first retailer outside of Australia to carry a Robyn Falloon quilt pattern. I have ordered 12 patterns of 'The Blessings Quilt'; however, I could increase my order if I am given an indication of quilters' interest.

At this time, I plan to sell the pattern alone and as a kit. The pattern by itself will retail at $24.95 CAD. For my American shoppers, you will be able to purchase the pattern at $24.95 US or less depending on the exchange rate. As for the kit, at this time I have no idea what the retail price will be. It will comprise of all Jo Morton fabrics with the Seneca Shirtings line used for the individual block backgrounds. As well as the Seneca Shirtings line, I currently have an additional 152 bolts of Jo Morton fabrics from which to make fat eights. I will also have Jo's new line "Indigo Berries" arriving in February (14 fabrics). I promise you there will not be one repeating piece of fabric in this kit!

Robyn is having the pattern reprinted to include imperial (yardage) measurements as Australia and Canada both use the metric system. The Three Ducks kits will use metric measurements (1 metre = 39" - you can never have enough Jo Morton fabrics!) I expect the pattern to arrive towards the end of January.

If you would like to leave a Comment expressing your interest in either the  pattern or in a kit (depending on price, of course), I can increase my order before Robyn ships.

EQ6 & PSP - Creating Web Images Part 4

There is a great deal of information in Part 4 of 'Creating Web Images using EQ6 and Paint Shop Pro', but don't be intimidated! Believe me, once you have practiced these steps a few times using the great little toolbar you created in Part 2, you'll be able to take that EQ6 block and make a web image in about 5 minutes. So, grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and let's begin!

EQ6 Upgrade

Three Ducks has sold its last in-stock EQ6 Upgrade and will not be restocking as I am assuming the vast majority of EQ users who have wanted to upgrade will have done so by now.  However, if you are looking for the Upgrade and wish to buy from a Canadian retailer, please email me and we can arrange for the shop to include the Upgrade in a future Electric Quilt order.

Just a gentle reminder: if you are still working with EQ5, you should note that it will not operate on any Microsoft operating system beyond Windows XP. 

Coming Soon! - Editing Quilt Photos for the Web

I thought for my next tutorial we might tackle preparing our quilt photos for websites and blogs. We can't always take our quilts outside to photograph and unless you own professional lighting equipment it is tricky to get a great picture indoors. However, as the image below shows, if you have a good photo editing program, you can work miracles!