Winterkist Pillow in Fat Quarterly

I was asked to be a part of the designer challenge for the Christmas issue of Fat Quarterly. I was given a small stack of Winterkist by Monica Solorio-Snow and asked to design a pattern with it.

I decided to go with the snowflake theme seen in so many of the prints and designed a snowflake paper pieced block.  I made up six of them and set them on a Charcoal Essex background with a patchwork border and gnome backing.  

If you'd like the pattern, it's available in the Fat Quarterly Christmas Issue.  Enjoy!

I'll be back tomorrow with Halloween costume pictures!

Lipari Oakshott and Velvet Table Runner

First of all, thank you to everyone who has reached out to me with an email or Facebook message to see how we are doing here in MA during the storm.  We are all safe and sound. The winds were very strong and much of town lost power but we never did.  However, we lost a bunch of shingles and have water coming into the attic.  Hopefully we can get that fixed right away!

I am sharing a long overdue project today using Oakshott Lipari shot cottons. They came to me courtesy of Michael Oakshott and Lynne of Lily's Quilts.

It took me awhile to decide what to make with these shot cottons. I am not the type who normally has a hard time chopping into fabric but I hesitated with this stack. It's just so beautiful and I simply didn't want to mess up!  I needed the right plan.  It finally came to me.  These fabrics are so iridescent, showing different colors from different angles. I tried to convey that in the close up shot of the fabric stack above.  They have a sheen and are a bit silky feeling.  To me, this Lipari collection seems regal.  I decided to pair it with something equally regal--velvet!

I had never pieced with velvet before and I won't be doing it again. It's a bit of a nightmare!  My best advice about piecing with velvet is not to try.  If you insist, I suggest using basting glue and lessening the pressure applied by your pressure foot.  Even then, it is a pain in the neck!  That's why I just used three carefully placed 4 1/2" squares of velvet (unfinished).

The rest of the runner is pieced with 112 quarter square triangle pieces cut using a Sizzix die.  Four triangles are sewn together to create an quarter square triangle block or an hour glass block.  I then assembled my runner with 4 blocks across and 7 rows down.  The runner finishes at 16" x 28".  The binding is Lime Essex Linen from Marmalade Fabrics.  

I quilted heavily with straight lines in a plum colored thread.  I chose to quilt certain sections leaving an unquilted zig zag down the center through which I stitched just two lines to hold things in place and emphasize the zig zag shape.

I think that this runner can carry me from fall straight through winter, I love that about this collection.

Picnic Blanket Quilt at Market!

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to design a quilt pattern for BasicGrey for Moda.  This is it!  It's called Picnic Blanket and it's made with BasicGrey's new release, PB&J.  It's a fun line combining primary colors, florals, chevrons, stripes, grunge and alphabet prints.  I went with one of my favorite styles here for the pattern design--traditional with a twist in an organized scrappy layout! 

The quilt top above was made by me from the pattern and is currently off in some stage of being quilted, bound and photographed for the pattern cover.  The pattern will show layouts for four quilt sizes with cutting directions, piecing directions, etc.  Both the fabric and pattern will be shipping in March.  BasicGrey has told me that I can hold a pattern giveaway at that time.  

This is a shot just sent to me by Peg from Sew Fresh who is currently at Market.  It's my design in the Moda booth!  I didn't make that quilt, Moda did.  They shifted around some of the fabric choices too so it looks a bit different from mine but both show the lap sized quilt.  It's so fun to see it there!

I hope you like it!  I will have a PB&J project tutorial on the BasicGrey blog in November and I believe that it will be combined with a PB&J fabric giveaway so stay tuned!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I thought I would share my recently completed Indie Vibrations Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival this time.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Stats:

Finished quilt measures: 48" x 64"

Special techniques used: foundation piecing

Quilted by: me on my home machine

Best Category:  Favorite Thrown Quilt, Favorite Home Machine Quilted Quilt, Favorite Quilt Photographer

 

 

I'd like to share my Indie Vibrations Quilt, pieced with Pat Bravo's Indie, Robert Kaufman's Essex and Kona, and a few shot cottons. Most of the solids were found at Marmalade Fabrics. The herringbone blocks are paper pieced using my own pattern. I decided to paper piece because I wanted the lines to be different widths and I wanted them to match up nicely. I thought I could do that best paper piecing.  

The quilt top measures 48" wide by 64" long.  I started scrappy on the left and increasingly added more linen and coordinating solids as I moved to the right. I used both color stories from Indie in this quilt-Moonlight Temple and Sunlight Bazaar.

The quilt is bound in Kona Navy with a little scrappy strip on the right side.

 



I love the way the quilting looks on the back!  The backing is Timeless Treasures Linen Look with a pieced Indie strip.  I quilted heavily in the linen sections and then used some straight line stitching in the other areas.  I made a free motion triangle burst sort of design in the"eyes" of the quilt.

I received a number of inquiries about the pattern so I have made it available in my Etsy shop.

Enjoy visiting all the blogs and seeing all the quilts!

Etsy Shop Sale

It occurred to me that I haven't had a sale in my Etsy shop since last winter so I thought it was time!  You may receive a 20% discount to my Etsy shop by entering the code "20DISCOUNT" at checkout.  All items ordered this weekend will not ship till Monday.  Patterns will still be emailed within 24 hours of purchase.

The sale will continue through Wednesday, October 31 (Halloween!).

Christmas Crafting Inspiration

I have such an undeniable love of Christmas crafting.  I like to try to keep it low pressure, crafting for family and friends but every year I am asked to sell my ornaments in my Etsy shop.  It looks like once again, I will probably not be prepared early enough to do that.  But I intend to make my share of Christmas crafts for fun at very least. If I am able to make enough to add to my shop, I will.

I also joined a Christmas ornament swap so I need to make four ornaments, one each for my four secret partners.

I'm trying to get myself in the Christmas crafting mood by going through my photos of Christmas projects from the last couple of years.  It's starting to work but I think that the Christmas crafting spirit will come a bit easier after this weekend when I am done throwing my daughter a Halloween themed birthday party...and when a box of new Sizzix Christmas dies arrive!

What are you making for Christmas?

BasicGrey Sale

Wow, as if the recent Sewing Summit in Utah weren't reason enough to want to move there, look at this!  A BasicGrey scrapbooking, fabric and baby warehouse sale.  You lucky Utah folks get all the fun stuff!  

A Little Quilt Market Sewing

I had a chance to do a little quilt market sewing for Blend Fabrics and Anna Griffin this fall. These three pillows will be in their booths at market this month! 

All the pillow designs were chosen by the art director at Blend, looking through images of my work.  It's sort of fun to see how different the same design can look depending on fabric choices.  The pillow above is my Summer Fans design, originally designed for Sizzix with my tutorial here, this time made with Chinoiserie for Anna Griffin, shipping December 2012.  I like the turquoise, orange and lime green colors in this fabric line and think it worked up nicely with this pattern.

This pillow uses my Summerlove Blooms paper pieced pattern but is enlarged to 18" rather than 16".  I originally designed this pattern for the Art Gallery Fat Quarter Gang and you can find the tutorial here.  Rather than having a beachy feel, this version belongs on a tropical island.  The fabric here is Palmer by Anna Griffin, now shipping.  I think that the stripes give a great look to the center of the flower.

And finally, this pillow is based on the design of a Zig Zag pillow that I made a couple of years ago. You can see the original design here.  In my original pillow, I chose to alternate between white rows and patterned rows.  The goal of this pillow was to show of the collection as much as possible but it got too busy using a different pattern in each row.  My solution was to use the green tonal print and the grey tonal prints as solids and to break up the busier patterns.  This is a fun collection.

It's always an honor to get to sew something for quilt market!

Apple Core Pincushions

I have a new tutorial on the Sizzix blog today. I started out planning on making something quilty with the apple core die but got completely sidetracked by the idea of making actual apple cores out of the apple core die.  It had to be done.  Aren't they cute??

I think cute little things always look best in multiples so I had to make a few more!  For the how to, check the Sizzix blog today.

Door Prizes

I just posted on the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild blog about some doorprizes for our meeting next weekend.  Please check it out and follow us there as I won't always post on my blog as well.

Heart Houndstooth Mini

Do you remember when I shared BasicGrey's new line, Kissing Booth?  This is my first tutorial using Kissing Booth fabrics and it is based on one of my favorite designs in the line, the heart within the houndstooth.

I decided to design two paper pieced blocks in order to piece the pattern seen on the Kissing Booth fabrics.  It's a fairly easy design to paper piece because you don't have to match seams and the pieces are not too tiny.  If you are a beginner, go ahead and give it a shot.

I practiced my free motion quilting again!

If you would like to check out the tutorial, it's on the BasicGrey blog today.  Enjoy!

Indie Vibrations Quilt Pattern

Thank you for all the kind words about my Indie Vibrations Quilt!  There were a number of requests for the pattern.  I have created a pdf with simple instructions and the paper pieced block pattern.  I have only included the fabric requirements and layout instructions for the size quilt that I made, 48" x 64".  The simplicity of the pattern is reflected in the cost.  

The pattern is available for instant download in my Craftsy shop and can be purchased and emailed to you within 24 hours from my Etsy shop. 

Thank you for your support!

A Mermaid

Many of you guessed correctly!  Lily is going to be a mermaid for Halloween. I really like little girls to look like little girls, not little women, so I wanted to make a modest mermaid costume, one that she could walk in, and one that she wouldn't freeze in!  I started with a long sleeve white t shirt.  I appliqued some scallop shells for the bikini top along with some elasticized trim that continues around the shirt for the strap.  The fabric I used for the scallops was found in the costume section of JoAnns.  It's a pretty sea blue color with glittery specks on it.  Lily loves all things that shine.  I used Steam A Seam 2 and just used a warm setting on my iron and a press cloth because I know from experience that the iron sticks on the glittery spots.  And it worked well.  I appliqued using my free motion foot and just stitched by eye using silver metallic thread.  That was a mistake!  The metallic thread is horrible to work with!  It kept snapping.  The best combination for success was a size 90 needle and lowering the tension.  Even then, there was a lot of rethreading going on.  

Her skirt is made of more slippery, fraying, horrible to work with stuff from the costume section.  I made an elastic waist with a single seam up the front of the skirt.  The skirt rounds down from the split on the right side and into a tail on the left.  The tail has some batting in it and I quilted swirly oceany shapes onto it which Lily thinks looks gorgeous and fancy.  I added some of the trim in a loop at the center of the tail so she can wear it on her wrist, keeping the tail up so she can walk and trick or treat with ease!

I added strips of super cool metallic fabric to the waist because I thought it looked seaweed like and because it adds more sparkle!  I am going to use some of it on a headband too to look like seaweed in her hair.

Then I will be done costumes for the year!  Penny is going to wear one that I made a number of years ago.  Pictures of the kids all decked out will be shared on Halloween!

Looking Smurfy?

All three kids are sick to varying degrees at the moment and I now have a touch of it too.  We decided to spend our Columbus Day at home, taking it easy, and working on Halloween costumes.  What do you think?  Is Timothy beginning to look Smurfy?

We need to add the side ribbons to his box (he is Jokey Smurf).  But other than that, he is ready to go and pleased as punch as you can tell from his grin.

Here are the supplies for Lily's costume.  Can anyone guess what she is going to be?

Alissa Haight Carlton to Speak at the SMQG

I'm so excited to announce that Alissa Haight Carlton is coming to speak to the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild in November!  All the details have been posted on the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild Blog.  Hey, it's happening exactly one month from today.  I can't wait!

Stolen Dreams Quilt

I've just completed this quilt that I am calling Stolen Dreams.  Let me explain.  I used the "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul" die by Sizzix to make the blocks, hence the "stolen" part. The fabrics are Pat Bravo's Rock 'n Romance in the Dreammaker colorstory, that's where I got "dreams" from.  So, there you have it, Stolen Dreams--it sounds kind of mysterious, romantic and maybe a little scary.

This is my favorite shot of the quilt against our barn.  We are working on painting this section this fall so it might not have as much "character" in photo shoots next year.

I really enjoyed making a pillow for my mom last month using the Sizzix "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul" die.  You can see it here. The blocks in the pillow finished at 4 1/2". I couldn't quite see myself making a larger quilt with curved blocks that size so I decided to try the Pro die that finishes at 9". You do need the Big Shot Pro machine to cut this die because it is a 12" die. The blocks are constructed exactly the same so you can refer to my pillow tutorial for directions. 

This time, I made 20 blocks-2 from each of the fabrics in the Dreammaker colorway.  I used a number of different prints for the orange peel like sections including: Moda grunge in black and grey; Robert Kaufman Essex in grey, steel and yarn dyed black from Marmalade Fabrics; Madrona road memoir (purchased from Fresh Squeezed but now only available there in bundles also found at Sew Fresh, Fat Quarter Shop and Sew Me a Song) in both black and white, and Kona Ash.

I added borders--about 8" on the top and right and 12" on the left and bottom.  The resulting quilt top is about 46" x 65".  The sashing is Kona Pepper which you can find at Marmalade Fabrics if I left Tammy with any.  I used it on the back too so this quilt is heavily peppered, ha, ha, ha.

As you can see from the back, I went a little crazy free motion quilting.  I think I was inspired by Angela Walter's talk at the recent Boston Modern Quilt Guild meeting.  I just tried to channel my inner Angela Walters and went for it on my home machine.  I attempted her swirl pattern on the Kona Pepper sections using a black thread.  Then I quilted inside of each Robbing Peter to Pay Paul block.  I used different designs for each block and thread that blended best with the quilt top.  Some are wavy lines, some are leaves, a feather like design, a couple of double loops and I followed the fabric pattern for another, oh, and I echoed the shape of the block for others.  I tell you, I am taking my "improving my free motion quilting skills" goal seriously.  Hopefully it will pay off!  I do love the texture.  While quilting I noticed every flaw in my work but a little time distance and physical distance and I am pretty happy with it.

I love the color of the top center print in this photo-it's called Wild Heart Spirited.  I wanted to use that color for the binding so I chose Oval Elements in Amethyst and it was perfect! With all the black, it needed the touch of softness at the edges.  

I just noticed that Rock 'n Romance is now in stock at the Fat Quarter Shop if you are interested in fat quarter bundles.

Snowmen Coaster Tutorial

I recently had the opportunity to play with the most adorable Sizzix Bigz Die with Bonus Die-Snowmen Let It Snow by BasicGrey.  I decided to make a set of quilted coasters.  Since I happened to have some Blitzen on hand, it was a no brainer--I had to use it for this project!

I started off using the Sizzix 4" Square Die to cut four backings, four fronts and four pieces of cotton batting. As you can see, the Blitzen snowman print that inspired this die was used for the coaster backings!  Because the snowmen are applique, I backed my fabric with Steam A Seam 2 prior to cutting my snowman shapes.

I then placed the snowmen on the coaster fronts, making sure I had a 1/4" seam allowance all the way around.  I set them in place with my iron.  I placed the batting behind the coaster fronts and used my free motion quilting foot to outline the shapes with coordinating thread.

With right sides together, I stitched the coaster fronts to the backings leaving an opening for turning.  I turned the coasters, pressed, hand-stitched the openings and then top-stitched around the edges.

Here is the cute little set all done!

An "action" shot with the hot cocoa here.

And all wrapped up and ready to go.  Don't you think that this set would make a great teacher's gift or hostess gift this winter?