Category — Fabric

Happy weekend everyone! Here are some deals from my lovely sponsors.

The Intrepid Thread
The Intrepid Thread just put a couple hundred new fabrics in their sale section. Check early for best selection.

Sew Sweetness Patterns
20% off all patterns until Sunday at 11pm CT with code freshlemons.

I Don’t Do Dishes
15% off your order with coupon code ONEYEAR. Also, Simple Marks Summer by Malka Dubrawsky is only $7.50/yd!

Christa Quilts
ChristaQuilts is holding a huge clearance sale with an extra 10% off all clearance fabric, patterns, notions and gifts when you use the code 13CLEARANCE at checkout. Coupon is valid through Monday, May 20th.

Connecting Threads
All batting is all 30% off through 6/17. Also, Connecting Threads is having a furniture sale on select Arrow and Kangaroo sewing stations and tables. Customers can save up to 23% through 5/31.

Fort Worth Fabric Studio
All Pam Kitty Morning by Lakehouse is $7.00 per yard and panels are $5.50 each. They also have FQ bundles (limited quantities) available at reduced prices. No coupon code needed. Sale is good through Tuesday, May 21, 2013!

Pink Castle Fabrics
Stash Builders sale ~ 15% off anything in this section of the shop, including Stash Builder Bundles like the new Rain, with code STASH15

Skye Reve Fabrics
15% off everything in the shop with the code FRESHLEMONS through Sunday.

Surly Sheep
Week-long sale on color wheel sets, 15% off. Ends by midnight Sat, May 25th. No coupon necessary.

Lark Cottons
Lark Cottons needs to make room for new inventory! Take 25% off store-wide with discount code market13 through Monday May 20th.

Contemporary Cloth
25% off selected pre-cuts, use code: 25off

Happy shopping!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. I spent both days traveling to the city for various birthday and Mother’s Day parties – May is a very, very busy month in our family. I did manage to get a photo of me and my kiddos yesterday. Usually I’m at the other end of the camera so it’s always a special treat.

I wasn’t able to spend any time at my sewing machine, but I did finish up my newest mini quilt last Friday. This quilt was so fun to make. Mostly because of the great fabrics from Laura Gunn. The colors are really amazing!

When making this quilt, I first cut my neutral squares at 2-1/2″ x 2-1/2″. Initially I thought this was going to be a pillow, so I set it up to finish at 18″ x 18″. This means there are 9 squares across and 9 squares down (for a total of 81). I pieced those together first, and then created my quilt sandwich for quilting. The neutral fabrics I used are all Free Spirit Designer Solids – Pearl, Sand Dune and Dogwood.

After that was all set up, I started placing out my circles until I came up with a layout that I liked. I used Heat n Bond Lite to fuse the circles to the squares.

After I was done ironing everything into place, I did the quilting. I’m not sure if this is a weird order to go about the process, but I thought it would be fun/smart to combine the applique and quilting steps. (As opposed to appliqueing the circles onto the squares, and then sewing them together, creating the quilt sandwich, and quilting).

At first I started just going around the edge of each circle, but after one row I changed my mind and decided on something a little different. So I ripped out those stitches and started quilting 4 straight lines through the middle of each row and column. Just something a bit unexpected.

From the beginning, when I was thinking about this project, I envisioned raw edges fraying in the finished quilt. I’ve washed it a couple times now and it’s only now starting to fray a little. I think I need to throw it back in a couple more times. I’m really enjoying the texture it’s creating.

This week I’m hoping to sit down and do some design work, and also get back to work on my Simply Style work in progress. Finger’s crossed!

*Lots* of eye candy for you today! Last week I received a little bit of designer Laura Gunn‘s new line, Edges, in the mail. It arrived courtesy of Michael Miller Fabrics. I absolutely love the colors she chose for her latest collection.

As I was laying out the charms to take pictures, I was getting more and more excited to cut into them. I wanted to really feature all these great colors.

Inspired by this print from the line…

And this amazing quilt by my mom (hi mom!)…

I decided to make something with circles. I cheated a bit and used my Sizzix die cutter to cut these out.

They are 1-1/2″ in diameter. Before I cut them, I iron Heat n Bond Lite to the back of my charms, as I am going to fuse the circles onto fabric before quilting.

I spent Wednesday playing with the layout. The neutral squares are 2″ x 2″ finished. I can’t wait to share the completed mini quilt with you soon!

Edges is now available in stores. You can find it at Fat Quarter Shop.

We had such a beautiful weekend here (finally!). I spent almost the entire time outside with the kids and zero time at the sewing machine. We have to appreciate the warm weather while we have it, right? I did manage to get out to take a few quilt pictures though! Last week, I finished my latest quilt, Whimsical Windmills. (You can see more about the fabric and quilt blocks here.)

It was really fun to get a chance to work with Full Moon Lagoon by Mo Beddell (thanks Andover!) I love the colors, the artwork, really everything about this collection.

When I was brainstorming ideas for this fabric, I couldn’t stop thinking about low volume.

I really enjoyed making this little quilt a couple months ago. I started thinking about how great Ashley’s low volume quilt, Marcelle Plus, looked, with the brights mixed in. So I gathered my low volume fabrics to use as a scrappy background to a vintage block and started working.

After doing a lot of straight line quilting recently, I decided I wanted to get back to a bit of meandering free motion quilting for a nice, crinkly look. It took a few minutes to find my “free motion groove” again, but I just love the results – even if it is a bit harder to photograph!

My local quilt shop happened to have the great panel from the Full Moon Lagoon line, so I thought that would make a perfect backing. I was a little short – opps – so I added a simple strip of white down the side. The binding is a lovely, soft stripe from Cloud9 Simpatico. The finished quilt measures 48″ x 56″.

I know a lot of people have asked me about a pattern for this quilt, as I did paper piece my blocks. I created one and it’s in my shop – it includes the required fabric amounts, a cutting table, some quilt math for figuring how many of each print to cut, and the paper piecing template.

If you haven’t paper pieced before, you can find a tutorial here on my blog. I really like to encourage everyone to learn. It opens up such a great world of opportunities for you!

Full Moon Lagoon is now available. You can find it at the following shops:

Happy sewing everyone!