Well, I’ve been quite sick this week, so I have not spent any time at my sewing machine. Today’s post is going to just be some fabric eye candy. (Which we all like, right?)

The first photo up there is Type by Julia Rothman for Windham Fabrics. I absolutely love it! (And if you have a Paper Source store by you, they sell a notebook with those typewriters on the front as well.) I honestly have no idea what I’m going to actually do with it, but it was too cute to pass up.

The below fabric just came out and I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how excited they are to use it. Especially for making man-quilts for their engineer/architect husband.

It’s called Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman. There are a few additional prints that aren’t shown here – it’s a really great line. Brenda made a fantastic quilt using it at Quilt Camp.

I’m super pumped to get to work with a couple charm packs of Lotta Jansdotter‘s upcoming line, Glimma, for Windham Fabrics. This fabric will be for sale in April 2013. The colors are just beautiful and pair perfectly with Echo and Bella.

And just a few fabrics I ordered last week that arrived…

The clocks are by Melody Miller – Ruby Star Shining for Kokka. The others are a mix of Timber & Leaf by Sarah Watts for Blend Fabrics and Les Amis by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller Fabrics. The matching was a total accident – I was clearly in a certain color mood that week!

I hope everyone is enjoying the last minute holiday preparations. Things will be a little quiet around here while I recover from whatever bug I’ve caught and enjoy the holidays. I do have a post planned for Monday with a new quilt pattern though. I hope you will stop by!

I was lucky enough this past week to have the chance to work with artist Laura Gunn’s upcoming line, Cosmos. Laura sent me a charm pack with 5″ squares of each of her new designs and Painter’s Canvas. As usual, the fabric is beautiful. If I had to pick a favorite, I think it would be the Tiny Cosmos print. I’m already thinking I need to buy more and make some pillows for my couch with it.

I was debating what I should do with charms, and I decided to use the Ribbon Star tutorial from the Solstice Stars Series, with some minor changes. Since the charms were a bit larger than I needed for the 12″ block, I decided to increase all the squares that make the block slightly (up to 4″ x 4″ after trimming rather than 3.5″ x 3.5″). Simple enough change that resulted in a slightly larger finished block.

I also decided to use several different shades of tan for the background rather than white. I just randomly selected these as I was sewing my HSTs. I quilted in diagonals, 1/4″ away from each side of the diagonal seams. The binding is Skinny Stripes in Citron, from another Laura Gunn collection, Poppy.

Cosmos comes out in September, keep an eye out for it at your favorite local or online fabric shop!

Hello everyone! Today I’d like to introduce you to my newest blog sponsor, online fabric shop I Don’t Do Dishes. Boy can I related to that shop name, how about you?

I Don’t Do Dishes is an Etsy shop owned by Caitlin McIntyre. Exceptional service is Caitlin’s main priority, and she promises same-day shipping if payment is received by 3pm Central Time. She cuts generously, so there is no need to worry about having squaring-up room.

I first “met” shop owner Caitlin when I purchased a Michael Miller Couture Cotton color card from her shop.

Caitlin not only carries the color cards, but several colors from the line (you know I love solids!) If you’ve never used the Cotton Couture solids, you will not be disappointed, they feel extremely high end.

In addition to the cotton couture, she just got in the highly anticipated Madrona Road by Voilet Craft. I seriously LOVE this line and predict those text prints go fast.

I Don’t Do Dishes not only carries fabric but also offers patterns (which ship free in the US!) and thread, including Aurifil. I just started using Aurifil last month and I am most definitely a convert. Caitlin even carries interfacing and Quilter’s Dream batting, the batting I use exclusively!

Keep an eye on I Don’t Do Dishes – Caitlin is expecting small tonal chevrons from Riley Blake in the next few weeks and Chicopee by Denyse Schmidt in September.

Caitlin is offering 10% off all orders through the end of July using coupon code FRESHJULY. You can keep up with the latest fabric happenings on Facebook. Happy shopping everyone and thank you so much for supporting my sponsors.

When pulling fabrics for a child’s quilt, I seem to have a much easier time selecting prints, patterns and colors for a girl’s quilt. Part of my problem is that I tend to have a hard time finding “boy” fabrics that I like. But last summer Sarah Jane really hit it out of the ballpark with her Children at Play line. I just love her artwork, something about the innocence of the designs – paper airplanes and sailboats, hopscotch and dress up dolls, pinwheels and wagons.

I decided to take some of the little boy line and pair it with some of my favorite blenders in green, blue, yellow, orange and red.

It’s really fun to play with prints like stripes, sometimes aligning them horizontally based on the center of the block…

And sometimes vertically.

I quilted this quilt in a diagonal grid. It was the first time I used the metal guide that came with my walking foot. It was actually quite helpful! The lines are about 1.5″ apart. I marked the starting line and then just used my guide to work off from there.

The back is a lime green and the binding is a turquoise. The blocks are 12″ squares and the final quilt measures 36″ x 36″. I decided to list this little quilt in my shop – it is so lacking in boy items!