Slopeside giveaway and discount!

I'm so excited to announce the launch of my pattern company, Quilts for the Making, and my very first pattern, Slopeside! I hope you will love making your own version!

What I love about Slopeside

I love how bold and colorful it is and it isn't too hard to make. It uses a unique but easy construction technique that I walk you through with LOTS of diagrams. You can use either yardage or layer cake squares for the colored triangles. I love to have variety in the colors so a layer cake is a great way to get that, especially for the throw size.

I've included size options for throw, twin and queen. It will look gorgeous on a bed! I always appreciate having size options instead of having to calculate how many blocks and how much fabric I need to alter the size of a pattern.

This pattern has been thoroughly tested, too, so you can be sure that it is clearly written and accurate.

To celebrate the launch of Quilts for the Making and the Slopeside pattern, I'll be giving away a copy of the pattern and a Kona Summer 13 Ten-Square layer cake to a lucky blog commenter (US only for the layer cake). Leave me a comment to enter and I'll draw a name on July 1. 

Please make sure you are not a no-reply blogger or if you are, leave your email in the comments. If I can't reach you, I'll have to draw another name.

Everyone wins!

Get 20% off your purchase of the Slopeside pattern from now through July 12, 2014 with this coupon code: SLOPESIDE20. 

Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmaking Blog Tour

I am excited to introduce Lucky Spool’s Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making and tell you a little bit about my chapter.

The coolest thing about this book is that it is not just a project book, although there are killer projects included. It is an education in modern quilting techniques. This book is deep in content. Each contributor has shared their expertise on a subject, like alternate grid work, working with solids or prints, quilting, improv piecing and more. To top it off, there is all the eye candy in the large gallery of modern quilts.

The sheer amount of information and inspiration makes this an essential reference book for any quilter, especially those who enjoy modern quilting or are curious about trying it.

I am thrilled to contribute Chapter 1: Principles of Color. Most of all, I hope the chapter will help you gain confidence in choosing a color scheme, applying colors to your quilt designs and understand color in a way that opens doors to creative expression.

I walk you through my approach to color theory, which might be a bit different than what you have learned. I start out with defining the three most important principles of working with color, then go over how to utilize these principles to your advantage (which doesn’t have as much to do with the color wheel as you may have been taught). Speaking of the color wheel, I don’t even recommend using the traditional red/yellow/blue color wheel. I’ve included a useful troubleshooting guide at the end of my chapter to help you with specific color issues that many quilters experience.

Color Play Quilt Project 

I’ve designed this quilt project to help even a beginning quilter experiment with color principles. I love this quilt for its striking design and simplicity, which creates an ideal framework for changing up the colors. Your color choices will completely alter the mood of the quilt.

Blog tour bonus! 

Here are some examples of other directions you could take the color, to get your wheels turning, along with a free Color Play coloring sheet to download, print and color in.

Special discount

Get the book at 20% off at the Taunton store with the coupon code EGQM20. The discount is good for your entire purchase through July 27.

Visit the other authors, too! 

Check out this amazing list of who is in the book and their chapters. Here is the blog tour schedule:

6/23  //  Chapter 1: Principles of Color  //  Teacher: Kari Vojtechovsky (you are here!)

6/24  //  Chapter 2: Working with Solids  //  Teacher: Alissa Haight Carlton (Handmade by Alissa)

6/25  //  Chapter 3: Working with Prints  //  Teacher: Dan Rouse (Piece and Press)

6/26  //  Chapter 4: Improvisational Patchwork  //  Teacher: Denyse Schmidt (dsquilts.com)

6/27  //  Chapter 5: The Alternate Grid  //  Teacher: Jacquie Gering (Tallgrass Prairie Studio)

6/30  //  Chapter 6: Circles and Curves  //  Teacher: Cheryl Arkison (Dining Room Empire)

7/01  //  Chapter 7: Paper Piecing  //  Teacher: Penny Layman (Sew Take a Hike)

7/02  //  Chapter 8: Large-Scale Piecing  //  Teacher: Heather Jones (Olive and Ollie)

7/03  //  Chapter 9: Modern Machine Quilting  //  Teacher: Angela Walters (Quilting is My Therapy) 

7/04  //  Chapter 10: A Study of Modern Quilts  //  Teacher: Heather Grant (Modern Day Quilts)

Lucky Spools

I made this little mini quilt for Susanne Woods, founder of Lucky Spool (hence the monogram letters and spools) and someone who really deserves a big thank you from me. That is putting it lightly. The quilt is a tiny little thing. I didn't measure it but I think it was around 10 or 12'' square.

Speaking of Lucky Spool Media, keep an eye on all the great books coming out from them. I'm biased because I contributed to one of them, but seriously, there are amazing titles that will be rolling out. Really amazing.

I got the idea for this quilt when I saw some First of Infinity block letters fabric my wheels started turning about how to do some kind of monogram and knew I wanted to put spools with it.

The blocks of the small letters in the fabric finish to 2'' so I needed a 2'' spool. I made my own paper piecing pattern for it and thought I'd share. They are easy to put together, considering it is a 2'' block made of 12 pieces.

Ready to quilt! Boxed In and Forgotten Fabric: Top 1 of ???

I'll start off showing the Boxed In quilt. It is so pretty and sweet. I'm sending it out to be quilted because I don't have time and I'm on a deadline to give it to my niece. The backing is one gigantic four patch. I love it! I'm definitely going to do this for a back again.

the back is a 60'' x 60'' four patch

Second, I'm not sure how I did it, but in between a very busy weekend I managed to cut and piece the Forgotten Fabric quilt. I don't love it but not to the point that I'll do anything more with it. I'm glad it is done but I sort of wish I had just cut squares and done a plain patchwork quilt. Live and learn! Plus, I think quilting will bring it all together. Extra bonus is that I'm glad I don't have to feel guilty about that stack of fabric and I can mentally move on AND I've got a gift for someone that I think was meant to have this.

I love the pattern (Carryall Tote and Throw from Valori Wells) and how quickly it comes together. I need to get out some of my big prints and make this one again. It sings with larger scale prints.

And no more stashing fabric for a project because I think someone else will like it. Only stashing fabric because I like it. I don't want to turn this blog into Craft Crappy.

So what do you think? Is that an ok quilt? Or an embarrassment to the craft? lol!

Forgotten Fabric Challenge

I came across this stack of fabric recently. It is a stack of fabric from approximately 12 years ago. It's definitely not my style now. I'm not sure it ever was, but hopefully you can cut me some slack since the selection of fabrics in quilt shops was quite different 12 years ago. But somehow, SOMEHOW, I could never get rid of it when I culled my stash. (Brutal honesty—I get very attached to my fabric.) I think it is the blue/purple color because I have always loved that color. Somewhere buried in that mottled, metallic, Asian themed mess, there is some potential in this color scheme. Or maybe I've gone batshit crazy. Either way...

Fast forward to now, and I HAD to do something with it. It either had to go or it had to be made into something. Not something throw away, but something that someone would really enjoy and be happy to have. I first tried to give the fabric to a friend but they didn't want it. (enter hilarious laughter, at me, not her). Then I had an "ah-ha" moment when the perfect recipient popped in my mind. Someone who deserves something a little special from me, is very into Eastern medicine and I've seen their massage therapy practice and know this would fit toward their aesthetic. I hope I've read her right, anyway. I'm going for it. I'm even trying to make it look as modern as I can. (Whoa nelly!)

Please, tell me I'm not the only one who has fabric that you just can't get rid of for some reason. Join me in the quest to use that fabric that is sitting around. I've got soooo much more of my stash that needs to see the light of day. Stuff I actually still like a lot more than this stack. It's wasteful and how can I justify getting so many of the new fabrics that I love if I have so much sitting around. It needs to find its perfect home, hopefully made into something but even donated or given to a friend.

Join me on IG @quiltsforthemaking and tag #forgottenfabricchallenge. It will be liberating. I'd love to see what gems are lurking in your stash and what you make with them, so I don't feel alone in this. Seriously, I'm gathering up some prize of some sort for this. Let's say we give ourselves the summer and see what progress can be made. Who's with me?

Boxed In quilt progress

I've got the blocks completed for a Boxed In quilt (from Skip the Borders by Julie Herman) for my new baby niece. After I get them sewn together and a backing made, I need to get it to a long arm quilter because I have no time to quilt it. Life is about to get hectic (in a great way!) with work.

It is so soft colored and pretty and is a sister quilt to the one I made her older sister (here).