Breaking the Grid

I absolutely love this new quilt top! It came about from sketching some block shapes. I think you can really see some influence from my career as a graphic designer in it. The shapes are quite flat, but the way the shapes overlap and the color positioning creates a lot of depth and movement. To me, it has a good balance of expected and unexpected. That little red cross finishes it like a little punctuation point.

I included a textured background fabric which is Line Scratch in charcoal from Carolyn Friedlander. This fabric is brilliant in the way it hides seams. The seams are even more invisible than on the solids. Carolyn's fabrics are amazing. I've been mulling over how to quilt it. I haven't quite decided but it will be on the simple side. It needs a structured and/or linear quilting, not something very curvy. Now you know what I'll be working on in my spare time!

Feature on Sew Mama Sew

I'm super excited Sew Mama Sew is running a series of features on Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making every Thursday. The chapter I wrote was featured yesterday. There is a great deal of color theory terminology basics just in the post! Of course, there is a lot more in the book… ;-)

Slopeside change up from my mom

My mom was one of my pattern testers for Slopeside. I had asked her just to work through a few blocks but she loved it (of course--she's my mom!) and wanted to make a whole quilt. It is great to have a supportive mom even though I'm an adult.

Look how great it looks! She's a fairly new quilter but she pieced it perfectly. She used a print layer cake called Tranquility by Sandy Gervais. The quilt will be cute to have out during the fall especially.

My mom's version of Slopeside!

Notice that she also paired up her colors instead of using a contrasting mix like I did. I love seeing what she did with the pattern!

Don't forget you can still get the pattern on sale! Get 20% off your purchase of the Slopeside pattern from now through July 12, 2014 with this coupon code: SLOPESIDE20.

Joann insanity

Why do I bother going to Joann? Oh that's right, I am now clutching these lovelies, most of which are Juliana Horner Modbox and Homestead fabrics. One of them is Jennifer Paganelli. (Am I the only one that did not know she had fabric there?) They sure are lovely! Next time, I'm leaving the kids at home though.

Quilt finish for my new baby niece

I just finished this adorable quilt in time for my mom to give to my niece. I wish I could give it to my niece in person, not that she'd know, but we live too far away for that. I thought it would be kind of neat to give her a quilt that was coordinating to her older sister's quilt but not a copy. I had some left over Buttercup charm squares from that quilt plus another mini charm pack of the same line. That was my base and then I pulled from my stash and only bought one additional mini charm pack of Mirabelle from Fig Tree. Extra quilter bonus points to me! ;-)

The back is a big four patch. It's the biggest four patch I've ever made! The binding is the leftover scraps of these two prints. It is my first scrappy binding.

Quilt details:

Pattern: Boxed In from Skip the Borders by Julie Herman (A little note: mini charm packs work great with this pattern!) I used very similar fabrics to hers. It was just fate! I had already planned to make a quilt for my niece out of these fabrics and had a bunch of 2.5'' squares to use. I was flipping through my books, saw that pattern and the rest is history.

Fabrics: all stash! Most fabrics are Buttercup, Fresh Cottons and Mirabelle from Fig Tree fabrics but the woven stripes are Poetry from April Cornell. The brown is the little dragonfly fabric from Hushabye from Tula Pink. That pop of dark twinkles across the quilt. Some of the fabrics used have been sitting in my stash for over 10 years. Yikes!

Quilting: Susan Santistevan of Modern Prairie Quilting did the overlapping bubbles quilting on it. The round quilting looks great with the square patchwork.

Slopeside + Layer Cake winner!

Random number chose #8, my friend Megan! Megan, the pattern pdf and a layer cake are headed your way! Thank you to everyone who commented and your supportive words!

The discount is still available to everyone else for the pattern. Get 20% off your purchase of the Slopeside pattern from now through July 12, 2014 with this coupon code: SLOPESIDE20.