testing

This year I had the opportunity to make a couple quilts for Quilt Market. For the past year or so I have been working with FreeSpirit fabrics to design some quilts for new collections.  These designs have been used to make quilt kits or showcase collections, but this was the first time any of the quilts have been used in Quilt Market booths. My experience working with them has been very positive. I have done a little bit of work for a couple of other fabric companies (these experiences were also very positive), but I have never been kept this consistently busy. It has been fantastic. A big part of what I have loved about it is how it has pushed me to try new things and to work outside my comfort zone. I design all of these projects in  EQ7 , then write a pattern for any designs that are selected, and then make the quilts. I'm not going to lie, it is A LOT of work, but I can visibly see how it has helped me grow and change and become more comfortable with trying new things. The firs

I am really excited about the contents of the Culcita box this month. I am just a tad bit obsessed with this collection.  It's Wonderland by Rifle Paper Company for Cotton + Steel and the colors are amazing! The box had 12 FQs - all from the Wonderland collection, as well as a pattern, a label, and a fortune cookie. The collection has several prints with metallic detailing. My favorite print is this gorgeous Wonderland in Periwinkle. I already started working on a project with it and will be sharing it soon.  If you would like to pick up this month's box, or subscribe to a monthly Culcita box delivery, check out the options on their website .   April Quilt April Fabric March Quilt March Fabric February Quilt February Fabric January Quilt January Fabric

Since a few people asked, I put together a little tutorial on making the Firetruck Quilt  that I made for my son.  This quilt is very beginner friendly since it is just made using squares. This is a great quilt for scraps.  In fact, the more variety you have in your prints, the better.  My quilt ended up 50" x 60" and is made up of 2.5" squares (2" finished).  If you wanted to make the quilt smaller, you could use smaller squares, and if you wanted to make the quilt bigger you could use bigger squares.  Cutting the squares 2" (1.5" finished) would give you a 37.5" x 45" quilt and cutting the squares 3" (2.5" finished) would give you a 62.5" x 75" quilt.   In order to keep track of everything when piecing together this many little squares, I like to break them down into blocks.  And this is how I pieced each of the blocks.  While I guess you could strip piece the squares, it would affect the random feeling of the fabrics so I

Last month my daughter turned 9.  Instead of having a big party, she requested that she take 2 friends to Get Air and then out for ice cream.  Since she decided on a smaller (and much cheaper!) party, I wanted to do something special for Harper and her friends so I made them tote bags. I used my favorite  basic tote tutorial  for the bags, but I sized the measurements down by about 20% to make it more 9-year-old sized. Filling the bags was a blast.  They had sunglasses, sidewalk chalk, notebooks, stickers, pens, glow sticks, bracelets, and gum.  I went a little crazy at Target.  I didn't tell Harper about the bags ahead of time and the girls all had fun with them.  

There is a fantastic Mother's Day sale going on at the Fat Quarter Shop through May 14th. I like to use this opportunity to buy a large gift certificate and then buy things throughout the year.

The April Culcita Box fabrics were so much fun to sew with. I struggled a little with what I wanted to make with them and ended up making two different quilts (I am hand quilting the second one, it won't be done for a bit).  But I do have the first one to share with you today. Forgive the upside down quilt. I wanted a pattern that would show off the fabrics and not cut them to tiny pieces.  I also really wanted to make a baby quilt with them because they are so bright and happy.   In order to make the Betty Quilt pattern FQ friendly, I made my blocks slightly smaller.  It worked out perfectly and just made the quilt slightly smaller. Since the collection is so colorful, I knew that I didn't want to use white or gray as the background color.  I took a small risk and with Kona Ice Frappe.  It's not crazy colorful, but I like how it works with the fabrics in the collection. Once the quilt was quilted and ready to be bound, I ditched my plan to use dark gray as the binding a

A few people asked, so I put together a little tutorial for this quilt here . My kids' birthdays are one after the other and it is birthday season!  My son's 2nd birthday is coming up and he loves fire trucks so I decided to make him a quilt for his birthday.  I made him a quilt before he was born, but I hadn't met him yet and it's not very "him." My son also loves the song Hurry, Hurry Drive the Firetruck and it kept getting stuck in my head while I was making the quilt.  Which was not very fun, because this quilt felt like it took FOREVER. It is comprised of 780 little tiny squares and it seemed like the more I worked on the quilt, the further I got from finishing it.  Pixel quilts are not of the faint of heart. The timing on this quilt was perfect because last week, August learned to climb out of his crib.  That crazy child!  This one is the perfect size for a toddler bed.   I quilted it with my favorite cross-hatching.   And backed it with Mammoth flannel