Slow Dance

This is my "Slow Dance" quilt, and is featured in this May 2015 American Quilter magazine. 

This quilt was inspired by the traditional Tennessee Waltz pattern, with a few modifications.

You might recognize the design from another quilty friend of mine, Lee of Freshly Pieced, because she has an almost identical pattern. She and I made the quilts completely separately of one another -- just both liked the way the clever piecing creates the illusion of curves! (And Lee uses paper piecing for part of hers, while I use templates and rotary cutting). My quilt was slated to be published in an upcoming magazine, and she used hers for the DS solids competition -- no bad feelings or scandal here... we assure you! :)

For quilting, I did swirls in the white negative space, and an orange peel type design in the colored diamonds. This is absolutely one of my favorite quilts! 

This is the palette inspiration for my color choices (from design seeds.com), along with the backing fabric (my favorite!) 

This quilt has happily lived on our couch for months! We love it! 

I have a few extra copies of the magazine (I'm also posting on IG), but you can email me here if you'd like one! $6 + $2.50 shipping

Leaded Glass - BQF entry

Welcome to the Bloggers' Quilt Festival! 

This is my entry for the year -- my "Leaded Glass" quilt



The design was about 3 years in the making, inspired by its namesake of a cool window I wanted to re-create in fabric, and is featured in this month's issue of American Quilter Magazine (on newsstands now!)



The quilt measures 72" square, and is machine quilted by Natalia Bonner from Piece and Quilt. She did amazing feathers, and pebbles, and cool cathedral shaped petals in the centers. And swirls... I just love it.

You can see more of the quilting in this angle.



This quilt uses a combination of basic piecing and paper piecing, in order to ensure those "grout" lines line up just perfectly, and other than carefully planning your color placement (if you don't want to go scrappy), is actually not a hard quilt to make.

Julie from Intrepid Thread has the kit for sale using the True Colors fabrics featured here! (and she had a coupon code for 10% off the kit + whatever else you buy with code TJLG10 --> only works with the kit too though!)

Thank you for visiting! (You can find me in the ROYGBIV quilts!)

So Pretty Christmas Star

I'm back with my Christmas in July tutorial with Sew Lux Fabric!

Chrissy has set up a series of tutorials this week, including a link up, coupon code, and prizes at the end! :)

I was working with the 25th and Pine line from Basic Grey. I plan to turn this block in to a table topper, but for now, here is my So Pretty Christmas block!



The pattern will be available for free on Craftsy for a limited time, and then I'll turn it in to a full-fledged block pattern with multiple sizes.

...when I finish this one in progress.

The pattern is compatible with a charm pack, a little background, and some larger scraps (5" x 6 1/2" is the largest size needed -- info is in the pattern).

The pattern includes the paper piecing templates, directions, and a coloring page!

(it does not include a full paper piecing tutorial...)



Enjoy! ♥

Source: So Pretty Star via traceyjay on Craftsy

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! ;)

Roundhouse - Finished and Published!

This is my Roundhouse quilt.

This is also my first magazine published quilt pattern!  You can find the full pattern in this month's American Quilter magazine.

The story behind this quilt -- 

When Scarlet was about four months old, I was able to attend one of Anna Maria Horner's classes in person.  She was teaching her Patchwork Prism quilt, and though I chose different fabrics for that quilt, I was inspired to make a spectrum quilt using as many of Anna Maria's fabrics as I could.  

For the design, an architectural feature behind one of the characters on Once Upon a Time caught my eye.  I used the idea for my Pillow talk pillow, and reworked the size and layout so there would be no inset seams. 

I was THRILLED when I realized that one of my acrylic templates from my Cosmic quilt fit perfectly to make the Roundhouse block.  When paired with some half-square triangles, you get a very easy to construct block with the primary design of Roundhouses, and secondary design of pinwheels.

To make the quilt, I cut and arranged all my house shaped pieces in color order.  

Then, starting from the top left, and using purpley-pinks, I laid out my pieces alternating light and dark values. Some of the pattern is not completely obvious due to my fabric selections on this, but I love the scrappy spectrum effect.  

Lindsey made an alternate version of the quilt for me using Happy Go Lucky and white.  Definitely gives a different dynamic.  

Here, with the quilt mocked up in black and white, you can clearly see the primary and secondary designs.  Super versatile pattern, no?

Lindsay from EileenQuilts.com did the quilting, and it is gorgeous!  She did a fairly dense all over paisley design.  I wanted something with movement all over it, and this was a perfect design.  I have worked with Lindsay many times before, and highly recommend her if you're looking for longarm quilting services.

The quilt is backed in one of my favorite AMH prints from her Field Study line, and bound in Buttoned up in Ink (thanks to Kelly).

I expect to be receiving a few copies of this month's American Quilter magazine, but if you would like to buy a template, it is available through my shop.  I will have the pattern available for sale separately once the magazine is off newsstands.

Overall though, I love this quilt, and hope you do too.

Union Jack quilt for Ty (finished quilt and free block pattern)

I got the quilt for this little guy done last week, and mailed it Wednesday morning.  It arrived Saturday, just in time for his birthday on Sunday!  *phew!*

Previous posts on this quilt here, and here.
Tutorial for similar quilt here (quilt size is different).
Free Union Jack block pattern in my Craftsy shop here.

This was a custom order for a little guy who is just a few days younger than Steiger.  His mama is British, and wanted a Union Jack theme.  We picked out some fabrics with an Anglophilic flair, and she said she wanted his name, and that flag in there.

I could not find a pattern I liked, so I made one.  I think it really looks great in there too!

I re-sized my Bricks in Bloom quilt so it was a nice twin size, this was (64" x 88").

Rachel posted this picture of the quilt on the bed (by the way - I didn't make the sham), and I was so glad it fit so well!

She says he loved it too. ♥

I free motioned the quilt all over, except in the flag part.

For the backing, it's mostly a cute plaid print. 

Hooray for another quilt finished!

_____________________________

My friend Lindsey just emailed me this picture!  I LOVE the fabrics she used!  (and am happy that the pattern works!) ;)

Cosmic!!! Pattern is ready

I did it.
I got my Cosmic pattern ready!

This is the front cover.

I posted about this quilt way back during the Bloggers' Quilt festival, but was stalled in publishing the pattern with the prospect of needing to learn a new software program.  But bit by bit, I got it put together in to something I'm quite proud of.  

This design features a large, graphic block that is part arrow and part star.  I used Laura Gunn's Cosmos fabric, because I thought the large scale blocks would complement the artwork in her fabric.  I love that this block would be good for large scale, focal prints, because sometimes you don't want to cut them in to little tiny pieces.

If you look at the back cover, you can find all the fabric requirements to make one of your own.

Included in the pattern are fully diagrammed cutting and piecing directions, full size template pieces, and a coloring page for planning (who doesn't love a coloring page?)  There are no 'Y' seams in the construction of this block, and the piecing uses a combination of regular rotary cutting and cutting from templates.  I have a small and full set of acrylic templates available if you would like working with acrylic more than paper.  The templates are clear, laser-cut, and labeled accurately.  (Templates will be shipped early next week).

Here is a shot of them, (as well as a peek at a new pattern I'm working on that uses one of the large templates.)

To clarify the templates:
- The large set includes all four of those templates shown above, and the red and gray pieces shown below.  There are two large kind of house-shaped pieces, and two smaller notched triangles.
- The small set only includes the two smaller notched triangles (shown in red, which are nice to have a template for).

The pattern includes all the full-size paper templates; you only need these if you prefer to cut with acrylic.

So there you go!

Cosmic. 

You can find the pattern here in my pattern shop, or on Craftsy. :)

To celebrate this new pattern, I'm offering 20% off all my pdf patterns, through the end of the month.  I'll also discount the pattern/acrylictemplate bundle by 20%.

If you'd like to enter to win this pattern and full set of templates, tell me what fabric line you'd make this quilt with or a favorite song you like to work out to.  Or find a fun way to entertain me.  Followers get an extra entry if they leave an extra comment (and no word verification here folks... no sirree).  If you buy the pattern, and then win, I'll refund your purchase. :)

Linking to Fabric Tuesday!