Inchworm baby quilt featuring By Hand fabrics & a giveaway!

Welcome to my stop on the By Hand Hop! 

Amy Friend (duringquiettime.com) has a gorgeous new line of fabric out called By Hand from Contempo Studios. When I had the opportunity to sew something from it for this blog hop, how could I say no! I love the hand-drawn textures of these fabrics. It's neat to see something that doesn't look computer generated and in great patterns and colors.  The fabric is lovely to work with because it is a really nice quality--all these strips sewed beautifully.

I love a good textural fabric line like this because it can work for so many types of projects.

I used By Hand to make a neat quilt for one of the baby boys in my life. I included all the teal, green, yellow and orange prints in the line, along with a hunter green solid. I designed this quilt just for these fabrics and it made such a happy and fun top!

I'm calling this sweet quilt Inchworm, because the little asymmetric zig zags look like little inchworms crawling across the quilt. Making the worms irregular adds some fun and unexpected elements.

If you are interested, making the pattern for this is in the works and will be out soon. Keep an eye on here and my instagram page @quiltsforthemaking for the release. Now on to quilting this cute top and wrapping up the instructions... but not until I do a giveaway of a bundle of By Hand fabric for one lucky commenter!

Giveaway!--closed

Please leave a comment for an entry. (US only due to shipping costs.) Make sure your name links to your email or you include it because if I can't contact you, I'll have to choose someone else and that would be sad. Comment by midnight (MST) on Friday, October 12. I'll choose a winner on Saturday by random number. I'm so glad that one of you will get a little fabric treat from Benartex!

**Lucky winner is comment number 66. Congrats to the winner! I hope you love the fabrics as much as I do!**

Hop Schedule:

Monday: 

Introducing By Hand

Tuesday:

Laura - Slice of Pi Quilts; IG - @sliceofpiquilts
Kari - Craft Happy; IG - @quiltsforthemaking  you are here!

Wednesday:

Sheri - Whole Circle Studio; IG - @wholecirclestudio 
Erin - Why Not Sew; IG - @whynotsewquilts 

Thursday:

Rachel - Rachel Rossi: IG - @designsbyrr
Fat Quarterly Sneak Peek

Friday: 

Amy Friend's Virtual Trunk Show

New Patterns!

Popping in to announce that I'm working on a series of seasonal quilted pillow patterns! Spring and Summer are already available on Etsy or Craftsy. My Etsy shop is 30% off through the 14th with code SUMMERFUN. I'm so excited about the different designs of these two sets and can't wait to finish up the fall and winter versions. The fall one is going to use some lovely woven plaids.

Why pillows? I love a big ol' snuggly quilt, of course, but I am busy and want (need!) the satisfaction of finishing something. I know I'm not the only super busy quilter out there! Pillows are a great way to make a manageable quilt project. They come together quickly, don't require a ton of fabric, don't need to be sent out to be quilted, and still add a big punch to living spaces. I feel like we actually use our quilted pillows more than our throws anyway.

It's fun to make little changes with the seasons, without giving everything a full bore holiday look. Pillows are perfect to change out with a removable cover that makes them store flatly and not take up too much space.

Heartland Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the Heartland Blog Tour! 

Pat Bravo from Art Gallery Fabrics has a beautiful new fabric line now out called Heartland. I have always loved their fabrics, especially for their high thread count substrate and on-trend designs and colors, so when Amy Friend asked if I'd like to be part of it, it was an easy yes.

I was tasked with making something from that line. It looks like I have a new guy that will be joining my life in a few months so I immediately thought it would be fun to take some of the the more masculine or neutral prints from the Heartland line and make a baby quilt suitable for a little boy. Life being what it is (busy!!! always!!!) and loving a minimal, modern aesthetic, I came up with this quilt made of oversized half rectangles in a graphic arrangement with the colors. It really lets the fabrics shine and is surprisingly sophisticated for how simple it is. 

Tip: 

when you go minimal, every proportion and fabric placement has a lot of impact. That means you can't really hide anything in the busy-ness, so although I saved time in the piecing, I had to make sure every fabric choice was well thought out.

Backing:

I backed it in the adorable owl print. So cute for a baby quilt!

Quilting:

I also used some newly gained ideas from Jacquie Gering's book Walk to use that owl print backing fabric as my guide and quilted it. I quilted it with the back side up. It is a variation on one of the motifs in Jacquie's book called Boomerang. I love how it adds a geometric texture on top of the simple geometric piecing. I had to be really careful when basting my layers that my owl backing fabric was registered nicely to the front but otherwise it was not tricky at all.

It was a quick, fun quilt to make! Thank you for stopping by and be sure to check out what this talented group of makers has created with the Heartland fabrics. Also don't miss the Trekant Rows free pattern from Amy Friend!

November 7 Debbie 
November 8 Jess and Charise
November 9 Jade
November 10 Amanda
November 11 Kari ---you are here!
November 14 Stephanie
November 15 Christopher
November 16 Kerry
November 17 Nichole
November 18 Krista
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The Quilt Block Cookbook Blog Hop

I have to tell you about one of the most gorgeous and useful quilt books. It is The Quilt Block Cookbook by my friend Amy Gibson (you probably know her blog Stitchery Dickory Dock). I love the concept of cookbook and how the photography and design just brought the blocks alive. It's so useful too, as there are options to change up the sizes of the block units and switch up designs, so you can really make the blocks all yours.

Here are some projects that have been made from the book on the blog hop: pure gorgeousness and every one bears the signature of the maker. I love that anyone can get creative with these!

Photo © Page + Pixel, LLC, courtesy of Lucky Spool, Inc.

All that is really great but my favorite part is actually Amy's designs for sampler quilts. I'm not always a huge fan of sampler quilts so I'm a pretty tough customer in this regard. Her quilts are creative and fresh. I just love them!

I decided to start out with one of the simple blocks: #43 Round About. It's simple and I had been looking for the perfect block to show off some of my precious stashed pink bouquet fabric from Flea Market Fancy. The scale of this block was absolutely perfect for that.

Gosh, that is a pretty block! So pretty I made 5 of them and have plans to continue on with the book to make 4 more fancy blocks to go with them to make a baby quilt. It's going to be so pretty. It didn't even feel painful to cut into that fabric since it cannot get more perfect than this block, with that chambray and mustard yellow. I think that is a feeling any fabric-stasher can identify with.


Check out the rest of the blog tour, buy the book and get going on your own creation!

Tell Me a Story finish

I finished my Tell Me a Story quilt mini and my daughter has laid claim to it. It makes me happy to see her enjoy it so much! First, it goes to Fancy Tiger because I'll be teaching beginning foundation paper piecing later this summer. Teaching has been really wonderful. I hope my students not only gain some technical knowledge (in this case how to foundation paper piece) but also a great deal of confidence and encouragement. They inspire me by seeing quilt making through their eyes. Summer is going by so fast that I know it will be here before I know it!


Stats:

Pattern: Modified version of Tell Me a Story from Intentional Piecing by Amy Friend. I made it a wall hanging with 16 blocks instead of a larger quilt, used scraps for the background instead of a consistent fabric and used the template to make the pieced border instead of a solid border. The genius of the concept and design is all Amy though!

Fabric: all scraps from my stash, including some Kawaii, hen fabric produced and purchased in Germany, and bits I purchased from others on #thegreatfabricdestash on IG. Border is a color snubbed chambray from Robert Kaufman.

Quilting: I quilted it in a diagonal cross hatch that aligns with the blocks and extends out into the borders.

Synapse Quilt for the MQG

The new pattern I designed for the Modern Quilt Guild just launched today! I'm so excited because I love this quilt. It takes a classic, simple plus shape and makes it something special with the pops of bright pink, the scrappy fabrics and spacial relationships.

The pattern is called Synapse. It's named after the minute gaps between brain cells. This quilt has thin sashing between the plus blocks, creating an interesting visual tension. The dynamic pops of pink make your attention dart from block to block, like nerve impulses sending signals from one cell to another. The circular quilting defines each cell. The end result is one eye-catching and elegant quilt. That connection between this quilt and brain synapses was inescapable to me.

I love being part of the MQG and am so happy they chose my design to be part of this program. The free quilts they offer every month are amazing. The membership is worth it for so many reasons already, and getting these every month is just icing on the cake. I belong to the Denver Metro MQG chapter. They are a fun and incredibly talented bunch!

Christine Perrigo did the quilting on it. She said circles and we both immediately jumped to doing the rings around the blocks. She designed this and it is just perfect! It is amazing to have her insight and amazing quilting skills. I love this quilt all the more for her being a part of it!

Anyone who is a member of the MQG can get the pattern for free! Yay!!!!

Intentional Piecing: Tell Me A Story

My adaptation of the Tell Me A Story quilt from Intentional Piecing

I have to tell you about a new book that I absolutely love. It is Intentional Piecing: From Fussy Cutting to Foundation Piecing by Amy Friend. You probably know who Amy is from her blog During Quiet Time and her many publications and patterns. The premise of the book is to use fussy cut fabric in clever ways. There are so many great foundation paper pieced blocks, but I also have some of the other projects on my list like the cute little clutch. I had the good fortune to be able to help with the book production at Lucky Spool too and it was so hard not to drop everything and make something from the book! I have been waiting to finally dive in and be able to share it!

Tell Me A Story Quilt Stitched Storytelling Event

Amy has a Tell Me A Story quilt stitched storytelling event going on right now. For every block you make and post to Instagram until June 1, you are entered to win a lovely bundle of fabric. The full details on it are here. The instagram tag #TellMeAStoryQuilt is fun to follow!

That stack of fabric on the left is the prize! Lots of good fussy-cut options there!

I dove right in and couldn't stop. These things are like block crack! They go together quickly and easily and it was fun to find a use for some novelty prints I've had stashed away. I seriously thought that I didn't have that many novelty fabrics before I started putting these together. I guess I have more than I thought. My theme is loosely fairy tales and childhood stories. That was an easy one to have on my mind since I have to small kids that I read to on a daily basis. I was impressed that when my daughter saw the blocks, she exclaimed "Mommy, these are all like story blocks!" I see some fun times looking at the little details and making up our own stories together.

Here are some of my favorite blocks out of the bunch I made:

I had so much fun making this beautiful, fun project and making it my own! I didn't use any background fabric in my blocks like in the gorgeous original and made up a little complimentary border. I've been in scrap busting mode so I figured I'd use up some odds and ends from my scrap bin.  The projects in this book are awesome for that! Now it is time to get it quilted but until then, the top is hanging up in my family room play corner already.

I used the same foundation pattern for the block to make the border.
It is a block with only the corners pieced in and then cut in half. Easy peasy modification!

Next up!

My next project from the book is the Stash Happy Tote. It will make a great teacher gift!

Discount!

Lucky Spool is offering a 30% discount on the book on their site! Use the code: FRIEND30