6 Feeling Inspired.

I'm not sure what it is about that start of a new year that gets me so inspired. I've been making stuff lately, much more frequently than usual, which is pretty awesome! Part of it is that my busy season for photography has come to an end so I have more free time, but part of it is that I just have this desire to make. all. the. things. lately!

I picked up some Bluebird and Alison Glass Handcrafted Indigo since I've been loving the indigo and blues. The colors are just so beautiful! I got started on a new quilt design this week using these and have been really enjoying the process!

I finished up a scrappy trip quilt top a few weeks ago, which I started in November at a local sewing retreat. It's made with Alexia Abegg's Paper Bandana collection for Cotton & Steel. The squares finish at 1.5", they're pretty teeny!

Cloud 9 sent me some digital yardage of my Brush Strokes collection (releasing in June) so I could start stitching up some samples. I made a fun triangle quilt with it at the Stitch Supply Co sewing retreat last month. It was so nice to get together with my friends and sew!

I made a quick wonky log cabin quilt last week after starting it at another local quilting class (maybe the trick for me is to go to sewing events so I'm forced to sit down and sew?!). This is probably the fourth quilt I've made with Violet Craft's Brambleberry Ridge. It's just so pretty!

I've got a stack of unfinished quilts taunting me now. I used to be so good at quilting them right away! Not sure what happened there. I hope to start finishing these very soon! Right after I make another quilt top :)

26 Quilting from Every Angle.

I feel like I've finally been making progress again with quilts after focusing on photography this summer. It's a nice change! My friend Nancy Purvis just released her new book, Quilting From Every Angle and asked if I would join her blog tour. I love Nancy's style so of course I said yes! The book is really awesome, to be honest it took me a long time just to figure out which quilt to make because there were so many I loved!

I settled on the Brooklyn Quilt, partly because it looked like a quick one and I never have enough time lately, and mostly because I just love the look of it! It took me no time at all to put together once I decided on the fabric. The pattern calls for just three fabrics, but I couldn't resist adding in a couple extras to test out a new color scheme I've been loving lately.

I used one of my favorite prints from Carolyn Friedlander's Doe collection, some pink Sprinkle basic from Cotton & Steel, and a random selection of solids from my stash for this quilt. I used my go-to Essex yarn dyed linen in black for the background. I just can't quit that stuff, I need to start buying it by the bolt!

I can't wait to get this quilt finished. I think it will be a perfect wall hanging for my new studio! Must post more about that soon.

Back to the book. Nancy did a fantastic job creating quilt patterns that are original, modern, and beautiful. They're a really great body of work to showcase her personal style as well, which I love! The diagrams in the book are very clear, which makes it much easier to glance at to remind yourself what the next step will be. Especially if you're bad at following patterns, like I am :)

Make sure to check out the rest of the quilts made from Quilting From Every Angle. They're all amazing! 

11/10- Michelle Wilkie of Factotum of Arts
11/11- Hillary Goodwin of Entropy Always Wins

11/12- Karen Lewis of Karen Lewis Textiles
11/13- Anna Graham of Noodlehead
11/16- Rachel McCormack of Wooden Spoon Quilts
11/17- Tara Larson of Rad & Happy 
11/18- Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane
11/19- Holly Hughes of Holly Gets Quilty
11/20- Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft
11/23- Pat Bravo of Pat Bravo Fabric Design and Jesse Maloney of Art School Dropout
11/24- Astrid of Red Red Completely Red
11/25- Holly DeGroot of Bijou Lovely
11/26- Christopher Thompson of The Tattooed Quilter
11/27- Spoonflower

I'm giving away a DIGITAL copy of the book today! To enter, please leave a comment! Please leave your email address too so I can contact you. I'll choose a winner on Monday, Nov 30th.  

Note: This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to the winner, Janet M!

You can find Quilting from Every Angle on Amazon or purchase a signed copy from Nancy here. Make sure to check here before starting a quilt for any pattern updates!

11 Bloomsbury Quilt.

I've been meaning to share this sample of my Bloomsbury Quilt pattern with you for awhile now.  It's a very late gift for a friend of mine who got married last fall. I used mostly Cotton & Steel fabrics with some Carolyn Friedlander prints mixed in. I hope my friend likes the bright and scrappy look!

I used some Essex yarn dyed linen in two different colors for the background fabric, which probably doesn't surprise you since I use it all the time! I just love the extra texture and softness it gives to a quilt.

It's quilted in a loose crosshatch pattern, which was kind of a pain to mark on the quilt (I used a hera marker as usual) but I'm happy with how it looks finished.

It's bound in a favorite green Cookie Book print by Kim Kight, and backed in a pretty teal print from Carolyn's Doe collection.

You can find the Bloomsbury Quilt pattern in my shop, here!

8 Bound Quilt.

So I haven't blogged in months, oops! This summer got away from me, I can't believe it's already September! I've spent most of the past few months taking senior portraits, but I've got some really exciting things coming up that I can't wait to share here very soon! In the meantime though, I've got a few quilts to share here, starting with this baby quilt that I just finished this week.

I was able to finally meet April Rhodes this past spring at Quilt Market, and she is just the sweetest! She asked if I'd be interested in sewing with some of her new line, Bound, and of course I said yes. Her prints just really speak to me! I mixed up the Morning palette with some prints from her last line, Wanderer and a bunch of Leah Duncan prints. Their fabrics go so well together! I had to mix in a bit of Essex yarn dyed linen in a couple colors too to give some spots for the eye to rest.

 
Anna and I narrowed down the fabrics I was going to use at our annual sewing retreat, and she suggested that I make a log cabin quilt with them. I love log cabins so I thought that was a great idea!

Since I only had FQs of some of the prints, I had to get creative with the piecing as the strips got longer, and just started adding on other random strips. I really like the easy, relaxed look it gives the quilt!

Piecing this quilt was so much fun, I want to make a million more of these. It's just so easy to cut all the strips ahead of time and add a few here and there!

I kept with the easy theme with the quilting, and just stitched in a square pattern starting from the center and through each strip. It looks nice, took no time at all and makes the quilt really soft.

It's backed in my favorite print from Bound, Painting Celebration and bound in April's Coming Home Spring print and ready to gift to it's new owner as soon as she makes her arrival!

Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful fabric with me April!

8 Experimenting.

I've been experimenting a bit with block printing and hand painting fabric lately. It's really fun!

I've been really into simple, graphic, imperfect looking patterns lately, so I printed some up to include in a new quilt.

I love how they looked mixed in with these pretty prints!

These fabrics will all be included in a new traveling quilt project I am doing with a few friends.  I stitched up two starter blocks for the quilt and shipped them off this week to start the project. I've had this first block design in my head for awhile, just some simple pieced stripes with a gold heart appliqued on top!

My second block was improv pieced.  Just strips put together on different angles.  I mixed in my own prints in this one, which was fun!  Now I want to make an entire quilt like this.

Pretty happy with how these turned out!  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else makes to add to the quilt.  You can follow along on Instagram under the #fantasticquiltvoyage hashtag.

21 Modern Solids Challenge: Woodcut Quilt.

Update: You can now purchase the Woodcut Quilt Pattern in my shop!

My quilt for the Modern Solids Challenge is finally finished! (You can vote for your favorite quilt in the #modernsolidschallenge on the FreeSpirit blog, facebook page, or pinterest board!)

I designed at least five different quilts before deciding on this one, which of course was the first one I came up with. Funny how that always happens! I was inspired by a few different traditional quilt designs and combined them a bit to come up with this block design. I wanted to make a variation of a traditional log cabin block, but somehow incorporate half square triangles into the design as well. I also love clamshell quilts and wanted to achieve the look of clamshells without curves. In the end, the blocks remind me of trees in a forest, so I'm calling this the Woodcut Quilt!

I used 12 different colors solids on the front of the quilt, along with Arctic White for the background fabric. I wanted an edited color scheme, so I chose my favorites from 75 colors in the Denyse Schmidt Modern Solids box. I am happy with how all the colors look together! I wasn't completely sold on the color scheme until I started hanging the blocks on my design wall.

The blocks are all paper pieced, and finish at 8" square. Each block took quite a long time to piece one at a time, so I made them in batches of 12 (one in each color) to make it go a little faster.

The quilting looks deceptively simple here. I didn't want to distract from the graphic lines of the blocks, so I opted to just quilt each block in the skinny white strips. This meant there were more than 246 knots to bury, as I really don't like the look of backstitching while quilting on my sewing machine. Burying threads alone took me at least 5 hours, and that didn't include the quilting part! It does look pretty neat on the back of the quilt now though, so I suppose it was worth it.

I bound the quilt in a light pink. I was scrambling to finish the binding before the sun went down so I could take photos! I don't like binding quilts by machine, so I managed to somehow hand stitch it down in an hour and 15 minutes! Not bad for a 60" square quilt. Definitely faster than I've ever done it before.

The back is just some random coordinating fat quarters from the box and more pink yardage, along with a few of my favorite Chicopee prints that seemed to match.

It's been really fun watching everyone's quilts come together for this challenge! They're all so different, even though we were using the same fabric.

 This quilt will be made into a pattern very soon! I will let you all know when it's available.

Thanks to FreeSpirit Fabrics/Coats & Clark and Denyse Schmidt for the opportunity to participate in this challenge! Please vote for your favorite quilt in the #modernsolidschallenge by commenting on the FreeSpirit blog, facebook page, or pinterest board!)

Update: You can now purchase the Woodcut Quilt Pattern in my shop!