RaNae’s Latest News

My episode of The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims is live online and you can view it for free until February 12!   Click here to sign up for my newsletter — you’ll receive a free spiral pattern, a link to view The Quilt Show for free, and a code to get 20% off The Quilt Show membership if you sign up this week.  If you’re already signed up for my newsletter, watch your email inbox this week for the link and code.   Click here to see the trailer for my episode and here for a behind-the-scenes slide show of our filming day.   

Here’s the beautiful new limited-edition, block-of-the-month quilt kit called Dreamcatcher that I created for my episode of The Quilt Show.  It’s part of a project I’ve created to help you set and achieve a special goal in the next six months.  Click on the image to read more about the project and to order the kit and pattern.

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The next session of my online Spirals Crash Course begins Saturday, February 4.  Click here for more info and registration.

Here’s the book, Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts. To order a copy of this or my other book, Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts, as well as patterns, kits, fabrics and my favorite quilting tools, click here.

For information about workshops (both in-person and online) click here.  To see all my scheduled in-person events and online classes click on RaNae’s Calendar.

To sign up for the newsletter and receive a FREE PATTERN click here .

I’m also on Facebook.  Click here to become a friend!

Follow my progress as I learn to machine quilt using my Bernina 640.  This was my first full-size project, completed in December 2011.  Click here to read more.

Click here to share my favorite quick and healthy recipes on the Spiromaniacs blog.  (Be sure to scroll down to see them all.) Okay, so chocolate cake might not be healthy, but this recipe IS quick — 5 minutes from beginning to end, with frosting!

Spiral on!  RaNae

Tough Love for Business Owners

For anyone of you who, like me, owns their own business, I want to share this excerpt from an article in New York Magazine, January 16-23, 2012 entitled The Political Handler…. 

I’ve substituted a couple of words like “marketing” for “fundraising”, “business” for “campaign”, “owner” for “candidate” and “you” for “them”.  You get the idea.  Just in case you think it’s going to be easy . . . .

“No matter what you’re doing in [your business], if you’re not paying attention to the [marketing], you’re in trouble.  The cold, hard fact is a lot of the [owner's] day is eaten up with [marketing]. Every single [owner] will say at the beginning of the [business] that they’re fully committed to spending five or six hours a day [working on marketing]. But once you get into the [business], most of [you] will find a way to get that down to two hours.  There’s always a bright shiny object to distract [you].  [You'd] rather tweak the language in an e-mail than do call time.  To get them to do it, you just beat the s— out of them.” 

Online Classes for 2012

Spiros, I just posted my online class calendar for 2012, so if you’ve been thinking about taking a class, check out the schedule and enroll. 

To inspire you, here’s a photo of Jane Cousins’ mandala quilt from my most recent session of Spirals 203: Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts.

To learn more about my online classes and to enroll, click here: www.ranaemerrillquilts.com/teaching.

Happy quilting!

RaNae

More Mandala Honors

Congratulations go out today to Spiromaniac Betsy Vinegrad — her quilt Cosmic Spin was juried into this year’s AQS Quilt Show & Contest in Lancaster, PA.  Click here to read more about Betsy’s phenomenal design.

Inspiral-ing rug

Spiros, here’s some mandala inspiration for you — this is from a rug I saw in a custom rug studio recently.  Studio Four, NYC.  Check out their website — even more inspiration!

http://studiofournyc.com/

Inspiral-ation

Spiros, here’s a fossil ammonite (a nautilus) that I saw at a store called Evolution in SoHo (NYC).  (I call it the “bugs, bones & rocks store.” Boys love it!)  Each of the cells of the fossil shell has been filled with yellow geode-like crystals.  Isn’t it amazing????

A new use for sewing machine needles

Spiros, yesterday a friend asked me to show him how to sew a button back onto a pair of pants. 

(I was happy to do so, being that I think men should be able to take care of themselves, not expect us women to stop our quilting to take care of petty things like mending!  A while back a rather well-known quilting friend of mine told me that her sister-in-law had asked her to take up a pair of pants, since she sews.  She didn’t want to do it — “I’m an artist,” she said, ”not a dry cleaning tailor” (or something to that effect) – so not wanting to offend the sister-in-law, she said yes, then dropped off the pants at her local dry cleaner and paid them to do the job.)  Anyway, back to the topic…

Since he was sewing the button onto a waistband, my friend pointed out that there needed to be some space behind the button to accomodate the thickness of the waistband.  I told him he was absolutely right, and looked around for something to put behind the button.  Usually I use a safety pin or a bamboo skewer, but you can accidentally sew a safety pin in, and in this case the skewer was too thick.  (Besides, neither of those tools stays in place very well, and I didn’t want him to get discouraged over this and shy away from doing it in the future.)  And that’s when I noticed a package of sewing machine needles.  PERFECT!  I stuck the sharp end into the fabric a bit below where the button belonged, so that the thick part of the needle sat right under the button.  It stayed in place, it spaced the button, it came out easily when he was done sewing, and the button had exactly the right amount of space behind it.

And that’s my first sewing tip for 2012.  Happy new year!  Happy quilting!

RaNae
RaNae Merrill Quilt Design
www.ranaemerrillquilts.com

The windows at Bergdorf Goodman

Spiros, I have to tell you that there is no window dressing in the world that quite measures up to the holiday windows at Bergdorf Goodman.  This year’s theme was “Carnival of the Animals.”  You could examine them every single day of the holiday season and still not take in all their extravagant detail — there are literally dozens of animals packed into these windows, and, of course, at least one couture gown that is a work of art in itself.

Since most of you can’t be here to see them in person, here are photos to bring them to you.  Click on the image to see a larger view.  Enjoy!

Everything in this black-and-white themed window is made of paper

The blue window is done all in glass tiles & gems. The pearl-encrusted dress is by the late, great Alexander McQueen

The theme of this window is wood — notice the monkeys wielding scissors!

Everything in this window is gold, except for the skirt of the dress, which is feathers

This miniature window holds a tableau from The Nutcracker ballet . . . with dancing mice.

The dress in the red window is made entirely of beads

One of the needlepoint leopards in the red window

Another needlepoint leopard in the red window

The silver window — all mirrors, naturally

The theme of the white window is yarn. Notice the knitted seal and the fringe polar bears.

The ram’s horns are crocheted and the wolves are clothed in sheep’s wool.

A game for Spiromaniacs

Spiros, look what I found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift store for my nieces and nephews this Christmas.  How could I, Chief Spiromaniac, pass it up? 

http://www.amazon.com/MindWare-44004W-Dizios/dp/B002RTIOFA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325091804&sr=8-1

You are not a beginner

Spiros, here’s my most recent quilt completed.  It does not contain any spirals at all, but it was my first full-size machine quilting project.  I learned some really important skills and concepts while working on this, including realizing that none of us is a beginner, and that can make a world of difference.

To read more, click here.

English Toffee

Making english toffee is (like my spiral quilts) an endeavor with results that seem really extravagant, though the actual process is quite simple.  (There, I knew I could find a way to relate this to quilting!)  So here, for your holiday pleasure, is my family recipe for english toffee.  It’s a wonderful treat for yourself, and an impressive (and inexpensive) gift for family, friends, colleagues and clients.

English toffee