stashing - Dowry from i don't do dishes

I knew I would get it as soon as I came out.

This is Anna Maria Horner's new line, Dowry. And I was so happy to have snatched up a bundle from Caitlin at idon'tdodishes.



That Anna Maria knows how to do color so beautifully!



Caitlin sent me the bundle all stacked together so pretty; it was almost hard to untie it.



While I was there, I picked up some of the Bluebird Park textures too. I love them. :)



It has been a week around here... big ups and downs that have left me utterly grateful.

And speaking of grateful, I wanted to say thank you for those who voted on my Roundhouse quilt... it won a viewer's choice award at the Blogger's Quilt Festival. So thank you!

Hopefully I'll be back over here soon.

I have two quilts I have to finish before I get to keep playing with these (planning to add my Dowry FQ's in here), but I'm considering making it a quilt-a-long. But only if I can finish it first. Because I have learned too much about quilt-a-longs and myself and that I have to have the quilt finished before I make it a quilt-a-long. So maybe I'll just do a block tutorial instead. ;)

Roundhouse is ready! (And Festival and sale!)

If you're stopping by from the Blogger's Quilt Festival - Welcome!

I forgot that one could make two entries in to the festival, and so, Rendezvous was my first, and I decided this will be my second (since I got the pattern finished this weekend).

I blogged about this quilt before, so many of you have undoubtedly already seen it, but if not, here is my Roundhouse.

This quilt is special to me for a few reasons.

1) It was my first ever magazine published quilt.
I work part-time as a pattern editor with American Quilter magazine, and happily, they liked this design of mine enough to publish it!

(This is the cover of the issue, with Amy's gorgeous Spinning Wheels)

2) It was my all Anna Maria spectrum quilt (a quilt on my bucket list, that I'd been wanting to make after meeting the lovely Mrs. Horner).

It was so indulgent working with so many of her prints together!

and 3) It lives on my couch and served as part of a fort today.

(I should have got a picture).

This is a wonderfully fun quilt to piece, whether you go scrappy or high contrast. (You can see more options of the design in my original post about it). The quilt uses a basic house-shaped piece and half-square triangles, without any Y-seams.

I even have an acrylic template available to make for easier cutting.

Specs:
72" square
Made by me with all Anna Maria Horner fabrics
Quilted by Lindsay Széchényi at EileenQuilts.com
Pattern available here.
Pattern and template available here.
Linked to the ROYGBIV quilts at the Festival.

Use code: FallFestival for 20% off everything in my pattern shop through November 1.
(Including brand new Rendezvous pattern)

Thank you for visiting!

I do love this quilt. ♥

Rendezvous - Bloggers' Festival quilt, new pattern, and sale!

Happy Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

Introducing Rendezvous.

Photo credit: henleycreative.com

I love this quilt design. And I love the fabric it's made with.

It was born from a picture of a rug I saw that I thought would make a cool quilt. So I sketched it out, and figured out how to make it work with half-rectangle triangles, some rectangles, and the interplay of two different blocks.

It has sort of a "Comings and Goings" feel -- which is why I named it Rendezvous.

A while back, artist Melissa Ybarra of Iza Pearl design caught me gushing over her fabric. She left a little email, and I replied with, "hey! If you ever need someone to play with your fabric, I've usually got a few designs in the works."

And lucky me, she had a new line coming out, and got it to me just in the knick of time. :)
Her new line is called "Garden Party Tango," for Windham fabrics and the colors are bright and beautiful, with very fun designs, but the hand of the fabric was also exceptional. Melissa tells me she's not (yet) a seamstress, but she or someone sure picked a really nice base-cloth. (It's very similar to Art Gallery and Michael Miller's Cotton Couture).



This quilt is designed around six different types of fabric for the main blocks - the white/light, a "neutral," a medium, dark, stripe, and focal print (those are the rectangular shaped pieces). It lends itself really easily to a more cohesive or scrappy fabric selection, as well as gives lots of room for playing with value, texture, color, and style.

photo credit: henleycreative.com

I was really in a hurry to get this quilt finished and shipped to Melissa in time, so I did a quick free motion loop which you can see in this picture with this very dapper little lad (who does not belong to me). 

photo credit: thethreeco.com

I've got the pattern nearly finished, finished now, including directions to make this quilt in three sizes (a baby 48" square, throw 72" square - which is featured here, and a big queen or even king at 96" square). The pattern includes templates to show where to notch your half-rectangle triangles so they come together easily, is fully diagrammed, and of course includes my trademark coloring page so you can plan your own. 

You can get it now! and I will email the PDF to you by October 29, 2013. 

I will be printing some paper copies as well for wholesale distribution, but will wait until after Quilt Market to see how many I will need. 

My apologies for not having the pattern already ready... we just finished harvest. In fact, this was the only really fast picture in the early morning light I got. So thank you Melissa for sending pictures!

To make up for it, I'm also having a sale on everything. (Check out all available PDF patterns here) Use code "FallFestival" through November 1 to get 20% off everything. Including templates. Because I also just got my Roundhouse pattern ready to go (also available as a pre-sale). 

I hope you love this quilt and the pattern and have fun seeing all the other quilts at the Festival (or at Market if you're lucky enough to go!)

♥

Code: FallFestival for 20% off

And no worries -- all proceeds go right back in to the quilting industry. ;)

Thank you for stopping by!

Here's hoping we "rendezvous" again soon! ;)

WIP Wednesday: more treasure boxes

I have another custom quilt I'm working on.
In purples, with a splash of aqua and yellow.

This will be a slightly modified Treasure Boxes design, where I plan to off-set the rows and I sized the blocks to finish at 11" each. The little owner of this quilt will be turning two shortly after Scarlet, so I need to hurry!

I caught my little lady trying to help me finish it up. :)

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It's still harvest time here, and the harvesters keep breaking down (sad!)... so it's been a little stressful around here. I do what most quilters do when they get stressed -- buckle down and finish something... pull pretty fabric and start something new!

At the retreat I went on a couple weeks ago, Amanda let me sleep with her velveteen backed quilt. And I needed one of my own. ♥

No idea on the design yet... got any suggestions? I want it to be a wintery quilt... hmmm...

Linking to Lee's!
and listening to this.

Kiley's Princesses and Mermaids quilt

I finished this little custom quilt last week.

This was my starting stack of fabric.

Kiley's mom told me a few colors and that Kiley wanted "princesses, butterflies, and mermaids." I thought it would be a perfect excuse to use this Alexander Henry "Once Upon a Time" print.

For the design - I stole from an idea I used a long time ago, when I made this little Plume quilt. It lets you feature a big focal print with the frame as well as the wide directional border.

The half-square triangles make a nice contrast.

For the quilting, I used a basic, loopy free motion all over. It gives good texture, looks cute, and complements all the triangle points well.

I have made quilts for Kiley's brother, and baby sister, and I didn't want her to feel left out by not having her name on this quilt.  So I decided to put it on the back, so that when it was folded down, it shows up the right way.

Cute, huh?

I screwed up the piecing on this a couple times, but ripped a few seams, and eventually got it right. :)

Kiley picked the mermaid backing herself (from Out to Sea by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller).

Binding was a pink and purple from Tula Pink's Parisville from my stash.

I don't do very many custom quilts, but this one was fun to work on! Thanks Kiley! ♥ I can't wait to see it in your room!

I got a picture of Kiley with her quilt too! So sweet!

Simply Modern Christmas - book review and giveaway

*giveaway closed - Mindy was the winner! Congratulations Mindy!*

My favorite thing about blogging, by far, is the window to meeting wonderful new people it has given. One of those ladies, to be added to my ever growing "would love to meet in real life" list is Cindy from Hiyacinth Quilt Designs. I tease her that I want to be her when I "grow up" (which really just means that I love her style and fabric combos, and I'm pretty sure we could happily share stashes). When she asked if I would like to review her new book, Simply Modern Christmas, I was very happy to do so.



Pros of the book -

• The styling is Christmas, but most of the patterns are universal and lend themselves easily to multiple fabric combinations. Cindy uses really fresh and pretty color groupings throughout, and it was easy for me to envision the designs with various combinations. Cindy blogged about all or most of her patterns, if you want to see some other examples!
• The patterns are thoroughly explained with words AND diagrams (which is nice for multiple learners!)
• In my opinion, the projects in this book are perfect for gifts -- there are some great, beginning to intermediate designs that are easily customized to your gift-giving needs.
• Designs lend themselves to using scraps.
• Some really cute seasonal patterns (stockings, and tree skirt for example).

Con of the book - 

• This is kind of a forced con, but there are not really any advanced patterns in here... so if you're looking for "advanced" designs, then this isn't really for you.

A few of the patterns that caught my eye in particular:

I am really drawn to this "Peppermint Float" star-in-star-in-frame motif. 

Love this tree skirt, "Skirted" (love it).

And this "Hanging Around" pattern I loved so much, I wanted to stitch one up for myself (and did so last weekend on a retreat).

This is my rainbow version of "Hanging Around."

This is going to my lovely friend Kelly, because well... she's lovely. Funny too. And she likes rainbows. And she made me a bag (I don't like making bags).

I used black and white background fabrics and the new Joel Dewberry and Anna Maria Horner True Colors fabrics. See what I mean about how the designs look great with non-Christmas combos?

Giveaway!

Leave a comment here letting me know what kind of quilt is next on your to-make list, or a project you need a pattern for and I'll pick a winner Sept. 29 to win an e-book of Simply Modern Christmas. 

Or, you can save yourself the wait and get the book on amazon, Simply Modern Christmas: Fresh Quilting Patterns for the Holidays, or Martingale.

Good luck!

Linking to Lee's!

crazy fabric love Friday

Oh my goodness.

I didn't know this was going to show up at my house yesterday. But I was pretty happy (happy being a total understatement and trying to figure out how I could send my kids to their grandma's two weekends in a row)... ;)


These are the True Colors fabrics from Free Spirit fabrics' new line of blenders (they'll have them at Market and I believe they're being released in November). These are the lines from Anna Maria Horner and Joel Dewberry, and they are the most magical fabric thing I've seen in a long time. Seriously. I've got an upcoming design that will be featured in American Quilter, and these were the fabric line my heart was set on to make the quilt, and they are here!

Here they are by print:

and in color order:

And the ones from AMH (who I like to think I have a bond with because she's held my daughter)...

See? Magical. ♥

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Something I DID know was coming yesterday was a really fabulous order from Julie at The Intrepid Thread.  I probably would have resisted had I known the True Colors fabrics would arrive so swiftly, but I'm glad I didn't. Next weekend, I'll be heading to the SewOn Retreat, and I needed something to work with (such a lie - I have plenty, but Heather Bailey is my other favorite, and she hasn't released a new line for so long, so I *had* to get these).

There's a FQ bundle of Lottie Da, some of Leah Duncan's Tule, a few blenders from Acacia and Bungalow, and some Koi. All so pretty.

Disclosure: I'm not getting paid to blog any of this by Free Spirit, American Quilter, or The Intrepid Thread. Free Spirit graciously supplied the fabric for my upcoming design (thank you!!!). I have a side pattern editing gig with American Quilter magazine, and if you have any questions about submitting your own designs with them, and partnering with fabric companies to make the quilt, feel free to email me! I'd be happy to answer questions or get you in contact with my wonderfully upbeat, gracious, and fun editor Michele.

Happy weekend! It's harvest time around here... so that part about wanting to drop off my kids with Grandma... that was all true. 

Though I bet I'd miss them as soon as I dropped them off. The little loves. ♥ ♥

(My kids don't pay me either...but they are lovely little creatures)

a look in to Scarlet's room

Bless my husband.
He really hates painting, but the last couple weekends, he finished up painting Scarlet's room (it wasn't working with what it was before).

The color is "Blanket" from Lowe's. It's somewhere between a mint and aqua. One of the "Kid-friendly" color areas (you know, where they have all the individual swatches instead of the ones that are on the card in a set). White for the trim.

It used to be painted a beige, with a chocolate brown trim from when Steiger had this room. I re-painted just the bottom section a honeysuckle pink, but wasn't terribly happy with it. But Jay hates painting, so it remained that way for over a year.

It makes me so much happier now!

There's still nothing on the walls (except in one spot, and it's only there because it fit the existing screws in the wall.)

I plan to paint this frame white.  And put a few more things on the walls. And no, the changing table no longer gets used as a changing table.

Her room has a bit of an eclectic mix of pieces. Next to her crib is the dresser I used growing up. It's so pretty.  And the first quilt I made her is in there ( the one I made before I knew for sure she was a she).

(You can see her crib sheet here. And a tutorial for the mobile here.)

Her other quilt sits on our rocking chair. I rocked and nursed both my babes to sleep in that chair. ♥

So her room isn't finished, but is still sweet with little touches from her mama. And her daddy who loves her mama enough to re-paint. And clean out her closet too.

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Now back to finishing this quilt so another little girl can re-do her room!