Leafy Cool Quilt with Jacquie's Favorites

I had some fun recently playing with Jacquie's Favorites, a curated selection of Paintbrush Studio's Painter's Palette Solids by Jacquie Gering. I've raved about the feel of these solids before, and with 168 colors, it can be challenging deciding which to use! I enjoyed working with a more limited palette chosen by such a master quilter! 

I created Leafy Cool, a 30" square wall hanging (or table topper, if you like). 

If you like it too, great news! The tutorial to make it is available on Paintbrush Studio's blog.  

Here's the cool palette from Jacquie's Favorites:

This is definitely "my" palette--I'm a teal and green girl. I didn't end up using all of the colors--I chose a more limited palette for my design. 

One secret about this quilt--it was inspired by a kleenex box! The box was covered in simple leaf shapes, some nested and some not, and I liked the idea enough to play around with it. I arranged the leaves to "burst" from one corner, which created a bloom effect with four blocks put together. 

This is the size quilt (30" square) that I really enjoy quilting on my domestic machine. It's small enough to be both manageable and maneuverable, so I can practice doing some "fun" things. I was inspired by Wendy Sheppard's quilting as I worked on this. 

I'm not usually big on applique, but I really enjoyed this--first, the shapes were easy to cut out, second, the quilt assembled pretty quickly, and third, I didn't need to stitch down each applique (my least favorite part) because I took care of that with the machine quilting. I just might have a future in applique after all...

See the entire Jacquie's Favorites collection here. (I'll be sharing a tutorial with the warm colors soon!)
Find the Leafy Cool tutorial here. 

My first Sew Together bag! + OMG

I just finished my first Sew Together bag (pattern from Sew Demented). I've wanted to make one of these for a couple years now, so when the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild decided to do it for a sew day, I was in! Except I'm in Florida and not Michigan so I was in virtually.  :)

Here's my first finished bag:

Love all the different fabrics inside. The fabrics are from Paintbrush Studio's Dianthus collection.

This bag is great zipper practice. I really like how it comes together, and even the outside zipper isn't scary. 

My One Monthly Goal for November is to make a second Sew Together bag using the yellow and pink prints from the Dianthus collection. Thanks, Patty at Elm Street Quilts, for keeping me on track each month!

My Quilts at Market!

What's the next best thing to going to Quilt Market?
Sending quilts there! 

I'm lucky enough to have six quilts in booths at Quilt Market this year. I'm hoping that some of my quilty friends at the show can take photos of them hanging, but here's a preview:

Paintbrush Studio Fabrics (booth 641)
Otter Playtime
This is a free quilt pattern for the bright and fun Otter Romp collection. Designing a quilt with 320 half-square triangles in it is a alot faster than making it! Seriously, though, I love how the prints work together in this fun quilt, and the otters are adorable. The print that looks solid(ish) in the photo is a constellation print--so cool! Diane Oakes quilted and bound this one before sending it off for the show. She found a great balance between letting the busy pattern be in charge but still allowing the quilting to play a role. More close-ups to come when I get it back. 

A (pre-quilted) close-up

You can download the free quilt pattern and see all the Otter Romp fabrics here.


The Suitcase Quilt
This is another free quilt pattern--this time for the Dear Friends collection. The prints show handwritten letters, airmail stripes, stamps and passports, and were just calling to be made into a quilt full of suitcases! I had fun choosing the Painter's Palette Solids colors to use with the prints. Diane Oakes also quilted this one--don't you love the beads in the suitcase straps?! Keep watching for details--The Suitcase Quilt will be featured in a quiltalong at some point in the near future.

You can download the free quilt pattern and see all the Dear Friends fabrics here.


Honey Bees
The honey bee block was a natural fit for a fabric collection called Bee Kind! I love the hexagon prints and the text prints in this quilt, as well as the bee-colored palette. I did not make this quilt (a girl can only sew so many quilts before Market), but someone else did and the image here is the digital version, and but the actual quilt will be hanging in the booth. It's also a free pattern.

You can download the free Honey Bees quilt pattern and see all the Bee Kind fabrics here.


Small Plates
What to do with veggie prints? I kept coming back to the idea of tapas and small plates, so I used circles in various sizes to showcase all these bright and fresh vegetables in the Market Medley collection. It makes you want to eat a salad, doesn't it? It also makes me wish I had a green thumb. I also did not make this quilt, but someone else did, so while you see the digital image here, the actual quilt will be hanging in the booth. It's also a free pattern. 

You can download the free Small Plates quilt pattern and see all the Market Medley fabrics here.


Windham Fabrics (booth 622)
Ebb & Flow
I designed this quilt back in April and have been (im)patiently waiting for the fabric to arrive ever since. The collection is called Gemstone by Whistler Studios and it was such fun to design with. When the fabric arrived, I was happy to see that I liked the quilt just as much in fabric as I did digitally (which isn't always the case). It's currently my favorite quilt! I machine quilted this one myself--wavy horizontal lines add texture and that's about all, as the fabric and the quilt pattern do the rest!

You can see all of the Gemstone fabrics here. The pattern will be available for purchase from me shortly.



Michael Miller Fabrics (booth 822)
Jewel
This paper pieced quilt is made up of one simple quarter block with only three seams. It's all about repetition and fabric placement. The fabrics are called Strata and come in three different colorways. I really like the fabric--especially the stripe-iest dark purple one. I only have a photo of this one before quilting, but Linda Leathersich did a fantastic job on it. Jewel will ultimately be a free quilt pattern available on Michael Miller's website. 

That was A LOT of sewing in a short period of time.

A Finish: Rolling Waves

I finished binding my Rolling Waves quilt last night (my October One Monthly Goal), and took a few quick photos before trick or treating started tonight. Now I'm writing my post in a chocolate-induced fog. :) 

I love how this one turned out! 

A close-up of the striped binding (and you can see the quilting pretty well here too--I followed the "curves" in the black and in the white sections). The stripe and dots are from Kanvas' All About Color collection. 

The wind caught the quilt during my photoshoot--but then you can see the stripe on the back as well! 

Another look at the quilting--this is a good distance to admire it from. Any closer, and you can see how not-quite-straight it is! 

I'm happy to add this one to the "finished" list, especially since it's one of the commercial patterns I'm offering for sale on Craftsy. 

If you want to make your own Rolling Waves quilt, you can purchase the digital pattern here. 

Time to finish my Rolling Waves quilt!

My October One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts is going to be finishing my Rolling Waves quilt! It's hard to see, but I have all the black quilted--I just need to go back and quilt the white sections! I'm echo quilting with my walking foot, so it's not difficult beyond all the twisting and turning of the quilt. I just need to get it done! The binding is the fun stripe that's also on the back--I can't wait to put it on--the perfect finishing touch! 

I used these fantastic dots from the All About Color collection from Kanvas, and I think the next time I make this quilt, I'll do it in blues, like ocean waves. 

If you want to make your own Rolling Waves quilt, you can purchase the pattern here. 

Diamond Drama in Prints

This quilt has been a long time in the making. It began with the solid version--the original Diamond Drama--made from Painter's Palette Solids. I designed it before QuiltCon 2017. I knew I wanted to remake the quilt in various prints, and chose the fabrics later that spring. 

I left them with my mom--an accomplished quilter who is ever generous with her time, and she delivered the quilt top to me about a year ago. And then it sat for several months, until I quilted most of it and then stalled. Which brings me to my September One Monthly Goal--to finish it! 

After I finished quilting the blue blocks, I went back to all the blocks to add in squiggly lines between the straight line quilting. I'm glad I did--the blocks needed it! 

I found a cool black and white "stripe" for the binding at Wandering Stitches, my (new to me) local quilt shop, and now this quilt is complete! 

I love the bright colors of the diamonds. 

Here is the finished quilt:

OMG: Quilt the blue blocks!

You know those projects that you just.can't.quite.seem.to.finish? 

This one--Diamond Drama--has been following me around (literally...I brought in on our move to FL!) since winter. 

It's bigger than what I usually prefer to quilt on my domestic machine, so it involves a fair amount of wrangling. And line marking. So I've been procrastinating.

One of these blocks is not like the other...

That's right! The blue diamonds aren't quilted yet. Everything else is done. 

My One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts for September is to finish this quilt--machine quilt the blue blocks and then bind it. 

If this quilt looks familiar, it's because it's a print fabric version of my original solids quilt, Diamond Drama, shown here: