Winners and a Project Linus quilt

And we have some winners! Rachel from Awesome Sauce Quilts and Heather from peace.love.quilt. Congrats ladies!!

Thank you to Katie from Swim Bike Quilt for hosting the 100 Quilts for Kids again this year. I got down to the wire, but this morning dropped this quilt off to our local Project Linus rep.

It's a quilt I made a year or two ago from a line by Riley Blake called "Penny Lane". It's been sitting here looking for a good home. Hope it gets some love from a child.

Today is the last day to link up to 100 Quilts for Kids!

Read More

More Chances to Win!

I asked a few of my favorite bloggers to review my book and give away an ebook on their blogs. You definitely want to check out these two! Candace and Carla are both fantastic photographers and wait until you see what they made from the book!

Candace blogs at Saltwater Quilts and has an amazing gift for putting fabrics together. I found Candace from Lee's WIP Wednesdays and have been a loyal follower since. You must see the "Joy" quilt she made using the Moda line Lush Uptown {and of course some of her stash additions}. It makes me want to make a third version! Visit Candace's giveaway post here.

Carla blogs at Lollyquiltz and we have just gravitated towards each other. Our styles are very similar as are our grandchildren's ages. {We've got a boy and girl born a month apart that we have plans to fix up someday!}. Carla made the tree skirt, "Skirted", from the book and it is just fabulous! She used an Aneela Hoey Christmas print for the large triangles and well, you've just got to hop over and see it! Carla's giveaway post is here.

And don't miss the chance at Tracey's blog, Traceyjay quilts.

I'm packing up the quilts today and they're headed out on the road again {they've been traveling a lot!}. A few will go to Quilt Market ~ check out Martingale's booth there ~ and the remainder will be on display at The Hickory Stick. If you're in or near Hannibal, MO be sure to check them out. And I'll be there for a book signing on October 19th!

Read More

Bangles, Geese and giveaways...

How has your week been? I finished up 2 quilt tops and it feels like some good progress. But before I show you those ~ just a reminder about the book giveaway post here. If you're an anonymous commentor and I have no way to reach you, you're not eligible. If that's you ~ go ahead and leave a second comment!

And guess what?! I have a few more opportunities coming up for you to win an ebook! First up is Tracey from Traceyjay Quilts. You must hop over to see her rainbow version of "Hanging Around". It's a perfect example of how talented and amazing Tracey is. Leave a comment there for a chance to win and really ~ you're going to want to keep hanging around at Traceyjay Quilts!

I finished my "Bangles" quilt this week. The pattern is from Hand Quilted With Love. It was a slow project, but very doable and I'm so happy with the results. I'll be back with some helpful tips soon.

Once the design wall was cleared, I couldn't wait to arrange my Redbird Bee blocks. Another quilt that would have been slow going with all those Flying Geese, had it not been for the awesome girls in my Bee!

The inspiration quilt and the block construction can be found here. I'm thinking of piecing a backing for this one with some leftover coordinates...

This Saturday I'll be at the Jackman's Holiday Expo in Illinois with the quilts from my book. It sounds like a fun day with lots of ideas for the holidays!

And today I'm making some new pillows. Fall is here and I love the rich colors in this Amy Butler print! Hope your weekend is filled with some fun Fall activities!

Read More

Scrappy Quilts and a book giveaway!

Thanks for reading along as I share all the projects in my new book. One of the interesting things about making quilts for a book is that you spend so much time with them - when you're done, you're so ready to ship them off and move on. But then about a year later, they come back and you fall in love all over again. Yes, I'm so happy with every quilt in this book.

Many of you have shared in my excitement and I so appreciate that. I have a couple more quilts to tell you about, but before I do that ~ how about a giveaway announcement?

Next Monday morning I'll randomly pick 2 names from the comments on this post. One international reader will receive an ebook and one US reader will receive a signed hard copy.

Who doesn't love a scrappy quilt? And who doesn't have some scraps to use up? Meet "Check". She's the perfect quilt for using all kinds of fabric. Coordinated or totally scrappy.

Here's an earlier version I did. It has more of a sweet, Springy look to it.

The last quilt in the book is called "Coming Together". It's made from lots of scrappy Flying Geese and  a fun larger scale print. I love this quilt, even though it seems a bit chaotic. Don't you think the holidays can be a bit chaotic in a happy way?

And an alternate version in one of my favorite combos ~ red and aqua.

So there you have it! A close up look at all the quilts in the book.

For a chance to win your own, leave a comment on this post. I'd love to know if you have a favorite quilt from the book; or what kind of sewing you're doing for Christmas; or what's your favorite Christmas fabric?

If you're an international reader, please note that in your comment - {I'd love to know where you're from} there will be 2 separate drawings. And please be sure there's an email address associated with your comment. I'll draw 2 winners Monday, September 30th at 8am. Good luck!!

Read More

WIP Wednesday...

This week everything is in progress - the perfect opportunity for a WIP Wednesday!

I spent this morning folding and putting away quilts. Together {the quilts and I}, we've visited 5 local guilds in the past month. The house has been adorned with a bunch of boxes full of quilts for a while and it felt good to put them back were they belong. Ready for a nap!

 Much of my sewing time has been with my "Bangles" quilt. I'm happy to say I'm 5/6ths done. {I divided it into 6 sections ~ 5 are together}. One of the things that keeps me going on this one is the fact that it has to stay all laid out on the design wall.

And I've got all the blocks back from the Redbird Bee that I'm excited to sew together. Just have to get that "Bangles" done and free up the design wall!

I've also been quilting my "Garden Lattice" quilt with parallel serpentine lines. It's such a graphic quilt, it really just needs a simple quilting design. About halfway here!

Linking up today with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

Read More

My Ohio Star challenge

On Saturday we revealed our Ohio Star challenges at the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild meeting. Every single one was awesome and beautiful! You can see them here and on our flickr page.

We were to use the traditional Ohio Star pattern to make a modern quilt. I knew I wanted to create a quilt of stars in various sizes with a random setting. I remembered one of my favorite quilts by Faith of Fresh Lemons and knew I could substitute lots of Ohio Star blocks in the setting.

My color inspiration came from Rashida Coleman Hale's line Washi that I've been saving for a while. It's a scrappy quilt and I wanted to use as many of my favorite designer's fabrics as possible. The quilt has pieces from many different lines that you probably recognize.

And 17 cute, 6" Ohio Star blocks...

The back is one big 45" Ohio Star!

Be sure to check out all the others. We have one talented group!

Read More

Modern Quilts from Traditional Blocks

I've had some fun over the past couple of weeks lecturing for some of our local guilds about making modern quilts with traditional designs. It's been dubbed "modern traditionalism" and fits my style to a "T". I thought I'd share a few of the quilts from Simply Modern Christmas that are truly designed around a traditional block.

First up is "Peppermint Float". If you're a local you may remember this pattern that I did several years ago for one of our shops. It was back in the day when brown and blue were the go-to colors and my original was called "Root Beer Float".

A few years later I moved to brighter colors and a more modern aesthetic, and it became "Peppermint". The block is a Sawtooth Star - a little one and a big one that looks like it's sitting on top of it's border. Really, pretty easy to piece. The fabric is a beautiful Christmas line by Heather Mulder Peterson that is somehow both traditional and modern at the same time.

That traditional Sawtooth Star block has been a favorite of mine forever and I love combining it with an alternate block. "Funky Christmas" is a good example! I just love the bright aqua in this quilt {then again I have an affinity for aqua}.

And yup! The same Sawtooth Star is found in "Spruced Up". This simple design is another that showcases the gorgeous fabrics we have to work with. I love the modern asymmetry created by the Christmas tree, but you really could leave that off and have a wonderful, simple quilt for any occasion.

Here's my original in an older Christmas line by Basic Grey.

Did you know the Sawtooth Star dates back to 1884? I love how we're using these old blocks in new ways. Our ancestors would be very proud and probably amazed!

Don't forget to add anything you make from Simply Modern Christmas to the flickr group here.

Saturday I'll be at Janie Lou in St Louis from 1-3 for a trunk show and book signing. In fact the trunk show is already up in the shop. Hope you can stop by and chat!

Have you seen the ad in Quilt Sampler magazine? You can get a $10 rebate on any Martingale/That Patchwork Place book purchased from a quilt shop. You need the coupon in the ad and a receipt. What a deal!

Read More

My favorite things...

Have you been listening to the podcasts of Amy and April called Quiltcast? If not hop on over to the itunes store here. I've been listening to it as I take my walks in the mornings. The podcasts are full of great information and I feel like they're walking with me having a casual conversation about life and quilting and how to do both at the same time!

One of the features of the podcast is a top five - sewing supplies and sources of inspiration so far. I'm really enjoying that. Recently Camille listed her favorite supplies and I couldn't agree more with all her featured items. So in addition to all of those, I thought I'd share 5 of my favorites...

Disappearing marking pens ~ my favorite is Dritz because they seem to last longer than any others. I use the purple marker which disappears in a day or so to mark almost all my quilting. Obviously you can't mark the whole quilt unless you're going to quilt it pretty quick, but I just mark as I go and have found the purple lines to be really visible on almost every fabric.

My dry erase board ~ I started using this when I was writing my book as a way to stay organized and on track. I've since kept it up as a way remind me what I have going and what I may want to do next. Seems to be much too much to keep in my head!

Freezer Paper ~ I use it for hand appliqué, making templates that I then rotary cut around, and paper piecing. If you haven't tried it yet - the waxy side sticks to your fabric when you hit it with a dry iron, but the paper then pulls off cleanly. It's sold in most grocery stores {does anyone still use it for freezing?} Used it this weekend for my September Lucky Stars block!

I do a different method of paper piecing than most. The pattern is on freezer paper, but the pieces are not sewn directly to the paper. The paper pulls right off.

Quilt Pattern books ~ I have tons of quilting books, but these are my go-to favorites for finding new blocks, naming blocks and construction. I think between the three I have enough patterns to last a lifetime!

Bias Square ruler ~ My most frequently used specialty ruler! It's great for squaring up units of a block or blocks themselves up to 8". I love the clearly visible diagonal line and the fact that there's a solid line from each 1/8" marking to the diagonal. These 6" blocks came from Judy Hopkins book above and were squared up with my Bias Square!

I'm starting what will be a year-long project reminiscent of the Farmer's Wife quilt along and totally inspired by this gorgeous quilt. Stay tuned!

Read More

Bangles...

Seems like it's been a busy week, but I did manage to get some sewing in. I've become rather obsessed with my "Bangles" quilt. It's from Sarah Fielke's book, Hand Quilted with Love. The quilt popped out at me the first time I flipped through the book. But all those "Y" seams ~ I'll admit I was a little intimidated! Then I saw this one and this one. It's what sharing our quilting projects is all about. Seeing someone else successfully tackle those "Y"s, gave me the courage to give it a go!

All my prints are laid out and sewn into hexagons. I'm to the point of slooowly sewing the print hexagons together with the white ones.

I used this inspiration fabric from a line called "Blythe", added a few more pieces from the line, and finally threw in some stash fabrics. The colors are very rich!

Hopefully I'll have more to show next week, along with some tips that have helped make this project move along smoothly.

This Saturday I'll be at Winston's Sewing Center from 10-12 with a book signing and trunk show. Hope to see some of you there!

Read More