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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Good Vibrations in Quilts and More

Used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

I'm so excited to announce my first ever pattern published in a magazine! The project I designed (and sewed and even quilted myself!) is called Good Vibrations and can be found in the Fall 2014 Quilts and More. It's a little modern, will look fantastic in many different fabrics, and is very easy to piece. The small lap-sized quilt definitely packs a visual punch. The issue should hit the newsstands on August 12.

Used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

I even made the cover, down there on the lower right! You can see the other featured projects from this issue, here: www.allpeoplequilt.com/fall There are some excellent ones. I'm definitely making a Petite Chic quilt (by Emily Herrick of Crazy Old Ladies) for my cousin's yet to be born baby out of a layer cake from my stash.

It is an amazing full-circle moment for me since that magazine division cannot be more responsible for me getting into quilting. I freelanced for them right out of college where the then editor Heidi Kaisand encouraged me to borrow one of their sewing machines, and the rest is history. I wrote about it a bit more, years ago, in another post.

Used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

I have to say a special thank you to Art Gallery for the gorgeous fabrics. If anyone is interested in copying this look, they are Carnaby St. by Pat Bravo along with some of their basics. I know I can still get these prints at one of my LQS, and some of them have been added to their basics lines and coordinate with some of their newer collections, too. I'm a huge Art Gallery fan! Their fabrics sew like butter and they have some of my favorite fabric designs, plus they have a deep selection of lovely basic prints.

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!

Big bold prints vs. basics

I just pulled these fabrics for a new quilt and realize how much I love them—small prints, many one or two colors.

Anyone else gravitate towards big, graphic prints on the bolt, then not know what to do with them in a quilt? Sometimes I have this problem.

On one hand, they look fabulous in big pieces and can make for a quick quilt. (Living Large and Living Large 2 are books with some of my favorites, Swoon is another pattern that can work)

On the other hand, I'm starting to realize that many of my favorite quilts or blocks use medium to small scale prints.

I would say it is time for stash enhancement of basics and small prints, but my wallet says otherwise.

Anyways, time to get cutting! Some of those fabrics have been patiently waiting to see the light of day for years. I think there is some Sandy Klop fabric in there from 2003. Funny thing is that I only want one tiny triangle of each fabric for this particular quilt. Don't you think they're just begging to be used in another bigger project too? If only there were more hours in the day.

Fabric Haul from Christmas

fat quarters from Mom and Dad

I can hardly believe all the fabric my parents gave me for Christmas. What a great way to start off some new projects! I know my mom got a great deal on them, but they are awesome. Many of them fill in some gaps I had in a couple different projects. I think all of them came from Isabelle Originals and Ivy Threads. (It's a very cute shop. If you happen to be in central eastern Iowa, it is well worth a trip to go there.)

yardage: seriously big pieces on the bottom two!

There are so many possibilities. I really like all of them. The yardage will be great for a back or some borders, or both. I think that stripe will make a great binding too.

even more goodies!

They even gave me a neat quilt stand that I had hinted I wanted, a nice calendar with patterns, a huge set of thread and an Amy Butler halter pattern. Mom even threw in some scraps from the scrap bin when we went back to the quilt store.

A little splurge on myself

I did a little spending of some Christmas gift money on myself too. I found some wonderful fabrics, including some Flea Market Fancy. I bought all of the fat quarters I could find of the one on the upper left. I love that print!

With all these new additions, I should have no trouble making some quilts or other projects this year. Now, my biggest challenge for the year, to use my stash.

In the works

I can't believe I'm finally cutting into these fabrics. They've been stashed away for awhile. Temple Flowers was Amy Butler's second line ever, I believe. The only thing holding me up from starting sewing is that I want to get my hands on a few Parisville prints to add into the mix.

I'm cutting out 10" squares and am going to make a potentially huge half square triangle quilt. I want to show off these fabric designs. I still have lots left over so I'll probably make another quilt out of them in the future.

I told my hubby I'd like to use these fabrics as a quilt for our bedroom and to redecorate. I think he just saw dollar signs and said no. I'm going to have to work harder than I thought to get him behind this one. Darn!

Stash additions

Fabric purchased at Quilt A Fair two weeks ago. A couple of the fat quarters go to my mom, but the rest are for my stash or a fall colored pineapple quilt I've got started. Most were purchased a booth that had 20 fats for $25. I should have purchased another 20 for that price!

Colorado toile

Image from http://greatamericanquilt.blogspot.com/

Image from http://greatamericanquilt.blogspot.com/

I just got a yard and a half of this year's Rocky Mountain Shop Hop fabric, a Colorado-themed toile. The images are actually quite big. I don't know how I'm going to use it yet, but that will hopefully be enough for something nice. The store I got it from was almost out by 2pm Friday. I hope everyone who wants some gets to the shops quickly!