Earlier this Fall, I was lucky enough to received some fabric from Quilt Market from my friend Katie. I had done some graphic work for her and as a “thank you” she really spoiled me with a Fat Quarter set of Echo by Lotta Jansdotter as well as a little sample charm pack of Malka Dubrawsky’s upcoming fabric line for Moda, A Stitch in Color. I saw a bit of this fabric in person at Malka’s Improvisation Piecing class from the summer, and I’ve been excited about it every since.

I’m not sure if you have ever seen these little sample charm packs, but the squares are 2.5″. I knew I wanted to showcase the bold prints in this line, so I decided to make a simple patchwork quilt with several shades of off-white and tan from my fabric stash. This is another project that I thought I would finish in a couple hours but sewing 200+ tiny squares together accurately actually took longer than I thought!

For the quilting, I wanted to do something a bit in contrast to the horizontal and vertical rows and columns, so I decided to first quilt a diagonal line through all the squares. Then I added two more diagonal lines in the resulting empty diagonal sections, leaving every other section empty. I am thinking about hanging this on a tan wall in my house, so I bound it in off-white so it would not blend into the wall.

I went to the Arboretum again today for my photos. Winter is really taking it’s time to show up here in Chicago. I know I shouldn’t complain because a couple months from now I will be SO ready to be done with the cold and snow, but I will miss having a white Christmas if it doesn’t start snowing soon.

It’s still beautiful though, even without the white stuff.

** Update: For those that missed out on the issue of Quiltmaker Magazine, I’m excited to announce this pattern is now available for sale for instant download in my shop. **

I feel like I’ve been waiting ages to show you this quilt. Last July, Quiltmaker magazine asked me to create a quilt pattern for their January/February 2012 issue that fit into the category of “modern color”. I designed this quilt, which I call Prism. It uses 99 paper pieced blocks. Simple paper piecing though, I promise!

I spent August working on the quilt, and that even included taking it and my machine on vacation with me so I could get it done on a tight timeline! Luckily I have a very understanding husband.

The quilt is made using all Free Spirit designer solids. These are all the bright colors, except for the dark purple.

Pink, Fuchsia, Tango, Orange, Saffron, Lemon, Kiwi, Apple Green, Sky, Rocket Blue, Lavender, (Violet not shown)

So the magazine article itself is really cool. I’m lucky enough to be featured with two other bloggers I’m sure you know – Rachel from Stitched in Color and Elizabeth from Don’t Call Me Betsy. They both also have great patterns in the issue. We were all interviewed on our thoughts regarding use of color and there is a write up before the patterns.

My two pages in all their glory!

The final quilt measures 70″ x 85″. I quilted it in straight lines, on both sizes of the horizontal and vertical seams. I also quilted in the ditch on both sides of the white fabric.

The back is solid white with a simple stripe of all the colors I used on the front.

The solids and the pattern of this quilt make it probably the most modern I’ve created. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and am really thrilled to be in my first print magazine. I hope you will check it out!

And speaking of pattern making, Generation Q has a post up on their blog about what *really* goes into writing a pattern. If you are interested in pattern making yourself, or just are curious into the time and effort involved, head on over.

I’m so happy to share with you my latest quilt designed around Aneela Hoey’s Little Apples fabric. To me, this quilt just feels like Fall. The colors of course – different shades of off-white and tan, the browns, greens, yellows and reds.

The Little Apples fabric in particular reminds me of going back to school, with the children reading books and playing together…the sweaters and scarves… I just love Fall.

I started this quilt by fussy cutting bits and pieces from Aneela’s fabric. I built a log cabin around those pieces in various coordinating fabrics from my stash. Every square was a different size. I then sashed them (off centered) in different shades of off-white and tan.

I added a strip of a red (a print from the Little Apples line) to the top and bottom. I really like the punch that gives the top of the quilt.

The back is a combination of prints from Aneela’s line. I quilted this in a meandering free motion style and bound it in a chocolate brown. The finished size is 36″ x 56″ (toddler bed sized) and it will be listed in my Etsy shop later today.

And, because she is just so cute, I have to include a picture of my little apple from the weekend.

I’m entering this quilt in Rachel’s super cool Celebrate Color contest.

Despite my continued “Multitasking“, I finished a quilt this week! I mentioned this quilt top last week. It has been in process (ahem, on the design wall) for maybe six months? I had initially planned for it to be as big as my original Off Centered Innocence quilt but I decided to face reality and time constraints and finish this one up as toddler sized. The pattern for this quilt is my Off Centered Squares pattern.

This quilt uses a variety of Moda cross weaves, combined with Kona white and a tan Essex linen. I have now quilted with a lot of different types of fabrics – cotton, linen, voile, double gauze, shot cottons, home dec, flannel…cross weaves have been my biggest challenge. They really like to stretch and shift. However, the end result was worth the stress. This is one very soft quilt.

The back of the quilt was made with left over cross weaves as well as some white and tan Kona cottons. I quilted it using a meandering free motion style and the binding is also a cross weave. It measures 36″ x 48″ and is listed in my shop!