Modern Quilts, Home Decor, and Handcrafted Clothing

Happy Monday everyone! Over the weekend, Spring seemed to have finally arrived here in Chicago and I’m feeling refreshed and ready to be creative. I’m excited to introduce to you a new sponsor today and hope that seeing all these beautiful fabrics gets you in the mood to create as well!

Connecting Threads is a family-owned and operated company that offers it’s own exclusive fabrics and threads. They also carry a huge variety of batting, quilt kits, patterns, books, tools….really everything you need!

I had a lot of fun checking out their shop. These are a couple of their exclusive fabric lines – love the colors and designs.

Beautiful Samplers (precut fabric bundles).

A huge variety of colors of thread, sold in sets or individually.

You can keep up with the latest at Connecting Threads – new products and sales – by signing up for their newsletter. Big welcome Connecting Threads, and thank you all for supporting my sponsors!

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One of the fun things about living with a 3 or 4 year old is their always-going imagination. My son has been in a pirate phase for months. He walks around with a cup on his foot (his peg leg), his finger curled like a hook and he’s even given himself a couple pirate names. Depending on the day, you can call him either Captain Willypanels or Captain Root Beard. That’s why when I saw Sarah Jane Studios fabric line Out to Sea, I knew it would make a perfect quilt for him.

This quilt was really easy to make. I combined several of the Out to Sea prints with other coordinating fabrics from my stash. These include some of Moda’s Mono Pez, Lizzy House’s Pearl Bracelets, Sarah Jane’s Children at Play, and Aneela Hoey’s Little Apples. I think one of the keys to making a quilt that really pops is using different shades of each color. As you can see, there are several obviously different shades of blue. But also, the yellows and reds are different. The prints with the white background give your eye a place to rest.

I cut each rectangle 3″ x 10″ and the quilt has 6 columns and 24 rows, for a total of 144 rectangles. The finished size is 57″ x 60″.

I had a definite picture in my head when I started this quilt, and that vision included rounded corners. I found a circular picture frame in my house that was just the right size, and used that as a template to cut the corners. It’s such a nice detail that softens the look of all those rectangles. Just don’t forget to use bias binding when you make something with round edges, or your finished product won’t lay flat.

I also knew I wanted to quilt with wavy lines. It gives a nice texture and reminds me of the ocean which is perfect for this quilt. I’ve mentioned this technique before, but as a refresher, I use the Running Stitch on my machine (Bernina stitch #4) and max out the width and set the length to 4.0. I use my walking foot while quilting.

The backing is a dark navy minky, which made for messy quilting! I had to really work the carpet in my sewing room with the vacuum after I was done basting. The binding is a dot from Sarah Jane Studios Children at Play line.

My son loves the quilt. While I was working on it, he told me he wasn’t going to use it. I called his bluff though, and luckily I was right! It’s quite a nice feeling to know he’s spending time now cuddling under something I’ve made.

Tagged as:  Andover · baby quilt · Bernina · Michael Miller · minky · Moda · modern quilt · Patchwork · Running Stitch · Sarah Jane Studios · Wavy Quilting

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Today I’m very happy to have the chance to participate in the Threadbias Blog Tour. Threadbias is an online community built just for you – fabric lover, sewist and quilter. You can create a fabric library, browse and upload projects, participate in discussions and using the new, subscription based Quilt Design Tool…digitally design your next quilt!

This web-based tool is super easy to use. I spent some time over the weekend playing with it to mock up a quilt design. I’ve had flying geese on the mind, so I thought I’d try my hand at making a quilt top.

Creating a new project is very straightforward. I love how the program auto-saves as you are working so you don’t need to worry about losing your project if, say, your 4 year old decides to hit the on/off button on the power strip where your computer is plugged in. Not that THAT has ever happened around here…

Using the Line Tool, I easily created my first Flying Geese Block.

I quickly copied and pasted to create a column of 4 Flying Geese.

Then I filled in the geese with fabric that I had added to my “fabric stash” library, via the Threadbias website. This is my favorite part. I love to be able to see how the fabric will look in the design.

Once I had my set of 4 Flying Geese, I locked them together as 1 block. This made it easy to copy and paste them as a group, and create my quilt top quickly.

So have I gotten you excited? If you are looking for a new, convenient, affordable way to start designing your quilts, I highly encourage you to check out the Threadbias Quilt Design Tool.

Be sure to keep up with the rest of the tour – some stops have giveaways!

Tagged as:  block design · quilt design · quilt mockup

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Welcome to the April edition of the Great Big Giveaway Day! This is the time of the month where many of my sponsors offer great prizes for lots of you to win. Today we have seven great prizes for seven lucky winners!

1. Fat Quarter Shop is giving away a $20 gift certificate to their shop! Tons of amazing fabric choices for Spring!

2. LiMa Sews is offering a Fat Quarter bundle of Textures by Angela Walters for Art Gallery, including a one-yard panel. I just love this new line!

3. Christa Quilts will be giving away one of her gorgeous Charming Chevrons quilt kits. Her quilt was recently shown at QuiltCon, and you can learn how to make one just like it on her blog at ChristaQuiltsBlog.com.

Christa is on her 5th in a series of quilt alongs where she shows you how to make a complete quilt from start to finish including the quilting and binding. Kits for all quilt alongs are available in her store at ChristaQuilts.com, but of course you can choose your own fabrics, too!

** Giveaway includes free shipping to the US; international winners are responsible for shipping. **

4.Connecting Threads is giving away a gorgeous fat quarter bundle of their new Botanical Beauty collection by in-house designer Jenni Calo.

5. Contemporary Cloth is offering a $20 Gift Certificate to a lucky winner! Such great new arrivals to choose from!

6. Southern Fabric is offering a $25 Gift Certificate and you won’t have trouble finding something beautiful to spend it on.

What’s New:
PB&J by Basic Grey
Mind your Peas and Q’s by Keiki
Oink a Doddle Moo Yardage by Jenn Ski
2wenty Thr3e Yardage by Eric and Julie Comstock
Lario by 3 Sisters

30% off Sale:
Freshcut by Heather Bailey
Taza by Dena Designs
Good Fortune by Kate Spain

7. Skye Reve Fabrics is giving away a half yard Love and Liberty bundle. Such soft florals.

Fabulous prizes for 7 of you this month! To enter, just leave one comment. There will be one winner per shop. I will randomly pick the winners Thursday evening, April 4th. Good luck everyone!

+++ Closing comments – will pick the winners first thing in the morning as I just stained my deck all day and am EXHAUSTED! +++

The Random Number Generator has spoken!

67 – Fat Quarter Shop $20 Gift Certificate
Amber

590 – LiMa Sews Textures Fat Quarter Bundle
Leslie Hassmann

660 – Christa Quilts Charming Chevrons Quilt Kit
Carylanne

479 – Connecting Threads Botanical Beauty Fat Quarter Bundle
Courtney Elwell

29 – Contemporary Cloth $20 Gift Certificate
DaisyLiz

517 – Southern Fabric $25 Gift Certificate
PamC

30 – Skye Reve Fabrics Love and Liberty Half Yard Bundle
Christine

Congratulations to all the winners! I will be emailing all of you for your contact information. Thanks for commenting everyone!

Tagged as:  Great Big Giveaway Day

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