QUILTY PLEASURES

2012 – DRAGON ALONG! Welcome to 2012, the Year of the Dragon. The Chinese zodiac characterizes the dragon as a free spirit, one who rejects any restrictions that threaten to blow out its creative spark. Colourful and flamboyant, the dragon is a bundle of energy with lots of enthusiasm, confidence and ambition – sure sound like it would make a great quilter! So here's a resolution: Let's all channel our inner dragons this year and stretch our creative muscles. It'll be fun, and it might help us finish up those banes of creativity, our dreaded UFO's! All best wishes for a happy and healthy new year. We hope to see you soon! Leslie, Val and all the staff at Quilty Pleasures PS The Quilty Pleasures zodiac makes January the month of the sock monkey, which is characterized as fun and full of bananas.

BELLA VERONA BLOCK OF THE MONTH! Prepare yourself for a gorgeous block of the month program from Timeless Treasures! The pattern is reminiscent of old Italian tilework with colours that are soft but with a lovely depth to them (creamy greens, roses, burgundy, and tans). The program will run for six months, starting in April and ending in November (we know, that's eight months – we're giving you a couple of months off in the summer) and includes a demo drop-in to help you with each month's blocks. The full-sized quilt and bonus pillow patterns are pictured here, so have a look and let us know if you're interested. Kits are limited, and we anticipate that this will sell out quickly, so don't risk being disappointed!

SENSATIONAL OFFER! Here's an excellent reason to buy a Pfaff creative sensation embroidery machine right away: Until February 15, 2012, your purchase of this fabulous machine will entitle you to a $500 rebate from Pfaff! So now you can have it all – bright, spacious, and elegant design, optimized feeding performance, the original IDT, ActivStitch Technology, Soft Touch Buttons, the PFAFF¨ creative Color Touch Screen, a completely reinvented graphical user interface, PLUS $500 in your pocket! Sensational!

CREATIVE GRIDS RULE! When it comes to hydro, we'd all like to be off the grid, but when it comes to rulers, leave us on the Creative Grid! The markings are clear and easy to read, their exclusive turn-around feature eliminates confusion with full- and half-inch measurements, and the imbedded grippers are tremendous at preventing slippage. Click on the fox logo to open their website in a new window, and see the huge variety of rulers, both basic and specialty, that are available for all of your projects. Not sure which to choose or how to use? Check out the informative how-to videos for everything you need to know!

SEW A LOT AT CAMELOT! Yay, it's time to sign up for our third annual in-town retreat, being held on March 23, 24 & 25! The place is the same – the beautiful Camelot Golf and Country Club in Cumberland – but the season has changed. Only 5 minutes east of Place d'Orleans, Camelot offers bright, spacious sewing and socializing areas with spectacular views of the Ottawa River and Gatineau Hills, along with gourmet meals and a cash bar. We'll provide mini-classes, games, prizes and surprises, with, of course, lots of dedicated sewing time. Arrive any time after 2:00 pm on Friday and go home to sleep at 10:00, leaving your machine and all your stuff without worry, ready for the next day's sewing. Come back from 9:00 am until 10:00 pm on Saturday, then spend from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm on Sunday. The cost of the weekend, which includes two three-course dinners, two continental breakfasts, two lunches and between-meal munchies, is only $350, plus HST. Sign up early to guarantee your space. This is a very popular event, one that you won't want to miss!

BEST BUY! Consumer's Digest has awarded the PFAFF Expression 4.0 as their Best Buy saying: "No other quilting machine delivers a better combination of genereous work space and numerous needle positions than the Quilt Expression 4.0. It has one of the largest work spaces...so you can maneuver large quilts and sewing projects much easier than you can on other sewing or quilting machines. Its 37 needles positions let you place stitches more precisely when compared with the needle positions that are on most other quilting machines."

THREAD CANDY! Have you tried our new Wonder-Fil threads yet? Konfetti (50-wt solids) and Tutti (50-wt variegateds) are fantastic for both piecing and quilting – made of high quality long-staple cottons in a yummy range of colours, they're smooth, strong, and practically lint-free. Spagetti, their 12-wt cotton quilting thread, comes in the yummiest solids imaginable and is perfect for dramatic quilting and thread painting. You'll love them all, guaranteed. And be sure to try Invisifil, too, for proof that it's time to rethink the old rules about polyester and quilts. Available in amazing colours, this 100-wt thread carries more than its weight: used in the bobbin, it lasts almost forever; used for quilting and appliqué, it just melts into your fabric for texture without threadiness. Try it and become a convert.

BE OUR FRIEND! We've finally gotten with the nineties and started a Facebook page! While we try to figure it out, Sam and Amy are holding our hands and leading us through the process – should be interesting. We'll also be twittering. This is totally new territory for us and we can use all the friends we can get, so please look us up and help us out. Quilty Pleasures on Facebook! (A new window will open.)

SAVE A BOTTLE! If you love Mary Ellen's Best Press starch but hate the idea of buying a new plastic bottle each time you run out, we have great news: for $8.99, we'll refill your old bottle, right up to the top. That's a saving of $3.00 and lots of plastic!