Star Crossed ~ a pattern give-away!

How would you like to win a copy of this wonderful pattern? It's a first pattern published by my friend and fellow St Louis Modern Quilt Guild member, Krista Robbins. There are so many things I love about this quilt ~ fresh and modern, but based on traditional blocks. And I love to see quilts where the different blocks intermingle to create a brand new design. Did you notice that there are 4 different block designs? I didn't at first! Love that! And the pattern comes with multiple sizes!

And of course, it's done in one of my favorite color combinations ~ red, aqua and gray on a nice white background.

But if you know me, I rarely make a quilt just like the pattern and rarely use one line of fabric. So i immediately started thinking about what other three color combinations I could use for this quilt. That resulted in a bit of fabric play and here's what I came up with:

Navy, coral and aqua {one of my current favs}...

Spring green, pinky red and golden yellow...

Minty teal, orchid, and gray...

So here's the deal! As part of the blog hop, Krista has given me a PDF copy of the pattern to give away. Just leave a comment here and tell me what 3 colors you would make the quilt in. Just be sure that your email address is in your profile or leave it in the comment. And be sure to visit Krista at her blog Sew What's Cooking and find the other blogs on the hop here for more chances to win!

I'll announce a winner Friday morning April 4th. And on the slim chance that you don't win, the pattern can be purchased on Craftsy here! Good luck!

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Making a Kaleidoscope

Thank you for all the love for my Kaleidoscope quilt! It's always been a favorite design!

Several of you have commented or emailed me about the pattern. I made a Kaleidoscope quilt years ago and just pulled out the ruler I had to make my Lattie Da version.

The ruler can be found here. I have pretty sketchy notes, but it looks like I cut my strips 6 3/4". Then I used the wedge ruler and cut my wedges flipping the ruler up and down along the strip. You need 8 wedges for each block. For the corners, I cut 5" squares and cut them once diagonally. These are oversized and trimmed after sewing to the block. I was aiming for a 12" finished block. It turned out 11 3/8" square. You can adjust the size by adjusting the width of your strips. Just remember to adjust the size of the corner triangles up or down also.

There are lots of variations of the design depending on how you color and rotate your blocks. I found tons of examples on Pinterest and Flickr for ideas.

Hope that little bit helps you make your own!!

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Kaleidoscope! A finished quilt...

Here it is March and I have my first big finished quilt for the year! It's a Kaleidoscope in Lottie Da and True Colors by Heather Bailey. I'm a big fan of Heather's fabric - Pop Garden is one of my favorite all time fabric lines. It's been a while since she released a new line and I was thrilled to see Lottie Da hit the market.

The orchid threw me a bit. I'm not usually a purple lover, but I think this color gives it a bright, Springy, fresh look.

The quilting took a while. I wanted to emphasize the curved illusion created by a Kaleidoscope design. I quilted in the ditch from edge to edge along the triangles and again about an inch away tapering to the centers. A figure eight pattern filled in the empty space between the straight lines. This required many trips through the centers where the triangle points come together. I was a bit worried that there might be too much of a thread build-up there, but it turned out fine. Yay for Aurifil 50!

I decided to go with the orchid chevron for the binding.

Pretty happy with this one!!!

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Perfect Union...

Almost wordless today...

Pattern, Perfect Union, in the Feb. issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. Fabric: mostly Rapture from Art Gallery Fabrics.

I'm thinking maybe it will bring Spring!

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Another Mini!

It was a fun retreat! I made progress on several projects and will be finishing those up soon.

I did get my mini Spools quilt done on the day I got home. My original plan was to make it short and wide with two rows of four blocks. There really is something aesthetically pleasing about an odd number of blocks. When I got home I ripped it apart, made another block and set it together just like the pattern 3 x 3.

It quilted up quickly with organic, wavy lines. It's now bound and hanging in the sewing room!

And I'm keeping up with the weekly duo of blocks for the Layer Cake Sampler QAL. Block 7...

Block 8...

Be back soon!

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It starts with a block...

Tomorrow I head off on my Spring Quilt Retreat! Even though I mentioned in my last post that I have many irons in the fire - a retreat necessitated some new projects. So this week I cut out some quilts and made a few test blocks - just to be sure I don't get there and have everything cut wrong! That might be a problem!

Here's a peek inside my box of fabric...

A quilt called "Perfect Union" found in the Feb '14 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. The prep for this was quite a challenge. The blocks create diagonal rows of warm colored crosses in one direction and cool color backgrounds going in the opposite direction. I think I've sorted my pieces correctly, but we'll see in the end...

A traditional block I've always wanted to use for a quilt - the Churn Dash. This will be scrappy, but with a limited color palette of aqua, teal, cream and soft pink.

You may have noticed, I've jumped on the bandwagon of mini quilt makers! They've been a nice addition to the sewing room walls and it seems fitting to have a mini-spools.

My blocks for this week in the Layer Cake Sampler QAL. Block 5...

Block 6...

And speaking of blocks, I sewed my Alphabet blocks together today. I was tickled with how quickly it went with no block arranging to do!

I plan on having a fun week and I'm wishing the same for all of you!!! Hopefully I'll get some shots posted on Instagram as we sew!

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Sewing time...

I never work on one project at a time, but lately I've felt pulled in so many directions wondering what to work on during my sewing time. Seems I have a lot of irons in the fire. Here are a few.

Last week's Layer Cake QAL Block 3...

And 4...

My Redbird Bee Traveling quilt blocks...

Inspired by the block variations in the book 500 quilt blocks, each person will make a different variation of this block. I'm providing colored pencils and sketches of the block for experimentation. I won't see the finished blocks for a year, then I'm hoping to come up with an alternate block or a pieced setting to bring them all together!

Continuing with my ABCs...

And making some progress...

A Dresden I made for a class last week. I machine quilted the background first, then machine appliquéd the Dresden to the background. It was a quick and easy way to make a wall hanging or pillow!

I'm also getting a few projects ready for a retreat next week! So many quilts and ideas! A really good problem!!

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