Modern Quilts, Home Decor, and Handcrafted Clothing

Very quick update today on my Arkansas Traveler quilt. I finished the blocks! Sewing the four quadrants together for the blocks actually went pretty fast. I think it took about 2 hours to assemble 24 blocks.

I’ve started laying out the blocks for the final top. Sorry about the bad phone photo! I still need to decide on a backing and order that, but things are coming right along!

Tagged as:  Arkansas Traveler · Free Spirit · modern quilt · modern quilt block · Modern Traditionalism · paper piecing · Quilt Top · Scrappy

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This post is going to be all over the place. But that’s not always a bad thing, right? I’ve been busy sewing over the last couple of weeks. Not really finishing anything but making good progress.

First up, my Arkansas Traveler quilt. After lots of cutting, sewing diamonds, paper piecing those diamonds, trimming, trimming and trimming, I have 96+ blocks! It really feels like a huge milestone.

You can find a tutorial to make this block on Lee of Freshly Pieced’s site. Those of you with an eagle eye might notice my template is a little different than the one from the Summer Sampler Series. I’m trying out something new Lee came up with, less seams, but maybe a little trickier to assemble the final block, depending on how you feel about sewing together shapes other than squares.

I know I said I wasn’t going to share my final design until I was done. I guess I lied. Here’s the plan! This weekend/next week I’m hoping to finish the quilt top assembly.

As a bit of a personal reward for finishing all those components, I cut into the little pack of Liberty of London Lifestyle fabric I picked up at Quilt Con.

I knew I wanted to pair it with some Essex Linen in Natural. I thought it would look super cute as one of Anna’s Open Wide Pouches. Great pattern, as usual! I made the smallest size because I only had a 10″ zipper on hand. (I bought my metal zipper from Zip It on Etsy.)

The inside is Stamped by Ellen Luckett Baker for Kokka.

This week I also performed a little surgery on my local Modern Quilt Guild challenge quilt top. You can read up on the sadness of unmatching white fabric here.

I finished the top yesterday (happy dance!) and will share the finished quilt next week. That is a promise – it’s due Thursday!

I also have been lucky enough to receive some new fabric in the mail this week.

Windham was kind enough to send some of Lotta Jansdotter’s Glimma Canvas for me to check out. I don’t think I’ve ever worked with canvas so I’m pretty excited to try something out. They also sent a charm pack of Ride, Julia Rothman’s second collection. I seriously love the little bicycle wheels. My son has already claimed this for his own, so I’m thinking of using it in some way to make him a tote bag for the library.

I also had a very happy surprise from Moda Fabrics – three layer cakes of upcoming collections.

These are S’More Love by Eric and Julie Comstock, Simply Style by Vanessa of V and Co, and Honeysweet by Fig Tree & Co. (Seriously, I don’t know how I got so lucky!)

I decided to immediately cut into Vanessa’s fabric because, well, I think she’s pretty fun. I found a block in 163 Favorite Patchwork Patterns : Japanese Craft Book, an awesome book I purchased a few months ago from The Workroom in Canada.

I had some questions on Instagram about this book. It is all in Japanese. There are diagrams that help give ideas about block assembly, but there are no directions or sizes in English. If you like a challenge and are good at figuring things out, this is the book for you. I do, and really, what do you have to lose except a little bit of fabric? Keeps my old mind sharp.

So anyway, I picked this cool design…

And started to layout a couple blocks…

And then something funny happened. I made these up at pretty much the exact same time Lee was writing up her post to announce her planned Bloom Bloom Pow Quilt Along with a very similar block! Yesterday morning we had a good laugh about how we must be totally on the save wave length after writing the book together. So! If you like the block, are interested in making the block, you are in luck because Lee’s about to start her quilt along and will have tutorials for you. Her block just has some great additional shading.

Phew! I hope some of you made it through all that! Next week is Spring Break here. (As I ignore the -4 degree wind chill and snow outside…) I’m not really sure if that means I’ll get more sewing done (not driving the kids all over the place) or less (more play time with the kids!). We’ll see. My newly 4 year old wants to put on a kid art show in the house, so we have big crafting plans. Very exciting! Have a great weekend everyone!

Tagged as:  Eric & Julie Comstock · Fabric · Fig Tree · Fig Tree Quilts · Liberty of London · Log Cabin · Moda · modern quilt · Modern Quilt Guild · paper piecing · Pouch · Robert Kaufman · Scrappy · V & Co · Windham Fabrics

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Today I’d like to give a big welcome to my newest blog sponsor, the Fat Quarter Shop! A few years ago when I started quilting and wanted to build up my fabric stash a bit, this was where I bought my fabric. I remember being so incredibly impressed with not only the fabric selection and speed of shipping but how pretty the fabric was packaged. Seriously, I can still picture that first package in my mind!

The Fat Quarter Shop was founded in 2003 by Kimberly Jolly. Kimberly (a quilter) began the shop as a side business on evenings and weekends while still working a corporate position outside the home. From the very beginning, she was committed to delivering top-notch service for every single order and customer. As the Fat Quarter Shop’s reputation grew, Kimberly decided to make it a full-time operation with the addition of her husband and, later, more staff. As a team, the Fat Quarter Shop continues to branch out with the best fabrics, exclusive kits, quilt clubs, BOMs, and more.

This is shaping up to be an exciting year at the Fat Quarter Shop. The 2013 Designer Mystery BOM (Block of the Month) is a stunning row quilt with blocks by 12 amazing Moda designers.

From June 2013 through May 2014, members will receive fabric and instructions for one block and finish with a fabulous quilt setting. This year, they are using the upcoming Avalon collection by the fabulous Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts, who has designed the equally fabulous and unique finishing kit. Fig Tree fans, do not miss out!! More info here and sign up before it’s full!

You can keep up the latest at the Fat Quarter Shop through your favorite social media platform:
Blog: www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/fatquartershop
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fatquartershop
Twitter: www.twitter.com/fatquartershop
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/fatquartershop.com

Thank you for joining in the fun here Kimberly and company! And thank you everyone for supporting my sponsors.

Tagged as:  Fabric · Sponsor

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Hello everyone! I’d like to start off today by thanking everyone for their kind comments on my last post about Vintage Quilt Revival. We are so excited about the book and can’t wait to share more as the year progresses. You guys are really the best!

Today I’m happy to share with you my last installment for the Art Gallery Fabrics Fat Quarter Gang, the Mod Stack Placemat.

These placemats feature fabrics from three of Art Gallery Fabrics newest collections, Color Me Retro by designer Jeni Baker, Textures by designer Angela Walters and Carnaby Street by the wonderful Pat Bravo.

This placemat pattern is great for beginners. I paired the fabrics with a classic linen. My backing happens to be my daughter’s favorite print from the Carnaby Street line, making the placemat reversible.

You can find the link to my new pattern on the Art Gallery blog.

As a celebration of the release of this *free* pattern for all of you, Art Gallery Fabrics is giving away a fat quarter set of each of the prints used in this quilt.

TTop Row: CST-3101 King’s Road Fuchsia, CST-3210 Retro Pop Mint, TXR-8108
Crosshatch Lime, CST-3107 Ladylike Black Tea
Bottom Row: CST-3100 Brit Boutique Royal, CST-3104 Girl About Town Lime,
CST-3109 60s Waves Midnight, CMR-2101 Dulcette Azalea

To enter, you just have to do a couple things.

My rules:
• Leave a comment on this post

Art Gallery’s rules:
• Follow Art Gallery on your favorite social media platform (Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook) and Subscribe to the Art Gallery Fabrics blog.

I will pick a winner Friday evening, March 22nd.

And don’t forget to add photos of your finished quilt to the Fat Quarter Gang Flickr Group. Happy sewing everyone!

++ Closing comments to pick a winner! ++

The winner is #191, Rebecca! Congratulations!! I will be contacting you for your mailing address. Thank you so much everyone!

Tagged as:  Art Gallery Fabrics · essex linen · Fat Quarter Gang · Linen · straight line quilting

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