Archives for February 2018

Happy Friday! Hope you had a wonderful week and are ready to WORK this weekend! For the most part, FPF patterns have been quilts that you could whip up in a fairly short period of time without breaking a sweat (perhaps excepting the curved piecing).  Today’s pattern breaks that mold with a crafting time that is subtly described as “Longer Term”. Check out Garden Mosaic.

It finishes at 96×96 and I can hardly begin to describe what is included. The construction itself is not particularly complicated but the volume is astronomical. 2,048 HSTs. Once you have constructed your HSTs, you then mix them up with squares to form four patches and put everything together to create the amazing secondary pattern.

The only thing that would make this remotely doable is if you have a foolproof way of making HSTs where you don’t have to trim each one. There are several ways to do this, mostly using a paper template.

I might not be starting this pattern any time soon. I have my own quixotic quilt in progress. A few bee-mates and I are embarking on a log cabin/flying geese project that will hopefully be done in one year.

As shown, this quilt is 64 log cabin blocks, 144 flying geese blocks, and 81 four X blocks. Whew. Two epic quilts in one post. I’m exhausted!

Enjoy the pattern for the Garden Mosaic quilt and have a great weekend.

Garden Mosaic

Becky

 

 

Happy Friday! I had a very busy week – starting with a very successful grand opening of Montgomery Quilt Company‘s new location. It was so fun to meet a lot of new quilters and be involved in the decisions the every small business has to make as it grows. Plus I was allowed to do merchandising and quilt hanging – neither of which I’m very good at, so it was nice to have an opportunity to practice (although I know that there were a lot of changes made after I left!)

There was also the big news of FreeSpirit/Westminster closing the doors on its fabric business. I’m not sure how they’ve not managed to be successful with their line-up of popular and prolific designers, nor why they didn’t sell their business to a competitor who had a more successful distribution network in place. But, I guess that’s why I’m just a small designer and they’re the head of a large…. well….. unsuccessful company. Anyway, I hope that we will shortly find out where the likes of Joel Dewberry, Kaffe Fassett, Tula Pink and several can’t-live-without designers will land.

I also finally finished a quilt that I had been working on since sometime before Christmas. I purchased the fabric during my Black Friday binge and quickly decided to go for a quick and easy pattern that I found on Moda Bakeshop. I love the Bonnie & Camille Good Life fabric and was intrigued with the idea of two quilts with three jelly rolls. Was it too good to be true??? Turns out that the answer is no! Three jelly rolls makes two magnificent quilts – or it does, if one puts in the effort. So far, I have one fantastic quilt.

I was able to quilt it at our January quilt bee – we all brought UFOs to work on – but it took me a further month to sew on the binding (how embarrassing!). I love everything about the quilt. The royal blue against the Good Life aquas, reds and whites. The flannel dot on the back. The Bella solid in Christmas Red for the binding.

Since this quilt pattern comes from the Bakeshop, it’s this week’s Free Pattern Friday! Despite my procrastination on the binding, it’s a very easy sew – there aren’t any matching seams and the whole thing comes together very quickly. I quilted it in an all-over stipple with clear poly thread with my domestic machine. It was a breeze and I love it! I can’t wait to make the other half.

Lawn Chair Quilts

Have a wonderful weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday! Hope your week has been a good one.  I’ve been working hard helping my friend move Montgomery Quilt Company to it’s new location! So far I’ve only been trusted with the painting – and after seeing how well I’ve done with that, I can see why!  hahaha. The new store is about twice as big as the old one so I’m excited to see all of the new fabrics.

There will be an open house on Tuesday, February 13 to celebrate the move! Come check it out at 301 Prairie St in Montgomery TX, starting at 10. There will be a huge sale, a make ‘n take activity, refreshments, and lots of socialization. I can’t wait!

Since I’ve been working hard, I’m in the mood for an easy quilt pattern. I found the perfect one from Andover Fabric. Meet Hothouse Flowers. It’s fat quarter friendly and is a great 76×76 size.

I love that it is fat quarter friendly and the pieces are pretty large – sometimes I get a fat quarter and really struggle to cut it up because I love the fabric in it’s large size. The construction of this quilt is columns of flying geese with a sliver of sashing along the long side. If you wished to make the quilt larger, you would merely increase the size of the geese (you are only limited by the size of your fat quarter).

Whip this quilt up and brighten up someone’s dreary February (or your own!)

Hothouse Flowers

Have a great weekend!
Becky

Yet another week has just flown by! I’ve been working on a bunch of different quilting projects, plus a couple of life projects too.

For quilting projects, I’m in the middle of the Southern Stars quilt pattern by She Quilts A Lot. As you can see, it’s a cute and fairly straightforward pattern. If only there weren’t 288 stitch and flips to make for the little stars!!!

I’m also trying out Anna Graham’s Maker Tote. I’ve made quite a few of her other bags and loved them all, so I’m anticipating that this will be as enjoyable as the other projects. Right now I’ve picked out fabric for a couple of totes and am waiting on my separating zippers to arrive. I’ve never sewed with a separating zipper before but don’t anticipate any issues. In March, I’ll be leading a class on this project, so if you’ve ever wanted to get into bag making but are intimidated by the zippers, handles, and hardware this is a great opportunity to learn those skills. There’s a huge variety of bag and totes (even free patterns) out there and once you are confident about the fundamentals, you can make any bag.

This week’s free pattern is a beauty from Ella Blue. If you’re not familiar with this fabric line, it’s a family-owned business out of Australia and the fabrics are printed in Japan. I love their basics, but don’t see the fabric very often here.

As you can see, there’s nothing terribly complicated about this pattern – it’s pairs of HSTs arranged in a chevron-style pattern. The quilt finishes at 60×60″, but if you wanted something larger, you could make your HSTs larger than the called-for 6.5″. The pattern is 10×10 HSTs – so 100 total. Nothing too traumatic and totally doable if you’re whipping up a quilt on short notice. However, the impact of this baby is impressive and I also love the potential for using SCRAPS, although it would take some careful planning to get the rainbow effect.

Firecracker

Have a great weekend!

Becky