Quilters Newsletter's Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 Blog Tour

Welcome to Day 4 of QN's Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 blog tour!

If you've been following along with the tour, then you know that Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 is full of colorful and beautiful quilts and projects for your home.  If you'd like to take a look inside, check it out on QN's website.  And when looking turns to buying, Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 is now available at quilt shops, bookstores, newsstands and on line at Quilt and Sew Shop.

I'm thrilled to have two projects in Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014!  First off is my "Fresh as a Daisy" pillow found on page 16.

This cheerful 12" x 16" pillow is made with a mini charm pack, fabric scraps and a half yard of additional fabric.  I chose to make mine with Kate Spain's "Daydream" fabric, yum.

And this project is fast!  With pre-cut squares, the preparation is minimal, and the only hand work is the embroidered "joy."  I appliquéd the flower by machine using pink thread and left the edges of the flower rough for a shabby chic look.  Here's a close-up of the flower petals:

To quilt the pillow, I machine stitched 1/4" on either side of each seam.  This project is easily accomplished in a day – give one as a gift or, even better, make one for yourself to brighten up your sewing room!


My second project is "True Colors," a lap quilt found on page 84, and may I say, one of my favorite quilts that I've made this year.

I was inspired to make this quilt by a birthday card that I received that featured striped candles atop a birthday cake, but when I finished the quilt top, I was immediately reminded of Fruit Stripe gum...

Photo:  givetogrant.org

I almost ended up naming this quilt "White Stripes" a kind of artsy reference to the "negative space" that my brilliant (just in case he reads this) husband came up with, but alas "True Colors" prevailed.

This improvisational quilt was fun to make from start to finish, but choosing the fabric may have been the best part.  For each of the 8 rows, I got to choose a dark, medium and light fabric – that's 24 gorgeous colors – and the stack of fabrics was so beautiful that I was afraid to cut into it.

I used a foundation method to make each strip of the quilt and I was a little nervous about it, but it worked beautifully and was surprisingly fast.  In fact once I had all of the fabric strips cut and organized for each row, I finished this quilt top in a single weekend.

Here's a picture of the finished quilt top – pre-quilting – draped over my railing late last winter.  And eek, sorry, that is snow behind it.  If you're not looking forward to winter, look away!

And now the fine print: For a chance to win a fabric bundle from Quilters Newsletter, leave a comment on this post before 11:59 pm MDT tonight (11/13/2014) by clicking on the word "comments" below.  You'll be redirected to a "Post a Comment" window.  Once there, either scroll to the bottom of the window or click "Jump to Comment Form" and follow the directions to leave your comment.  I'll draw one name at random, so please make sure I have your email address.  This contest is only open to those who haven't won something from QN in the last 90 days.

Good luck and happy quilting!

***This contest is now closed.  Thank you for all of your comments and don't forget to visit the QN blog today (11/14) for links to other designers' blogs and more chances to win!  Good luck!***

Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 Sneak Peek

Quilters Newsletter's latest special issue, Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014, is now available in quilt shops, bookstores and on news stands.

And to celebrate the release of Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014, Quilters Newsletter is hosting a blog tour this week starting at 8:00 Mountain Time tomorrow morning, November 10th and running through Friday, November 14th.

I'll be blogging about my Best Fat Quarter Quilts projects on Thursday, November 13th, and yes, you'll have a chance to win a prize!!

But in the meantime, head over to QN's blog for links to other designers' blogs.  Quilter's Newsletter is showcasing project by 12 designers -- that means 12 chances to win!

Good luck and I'll see you back here on Thursday!

Got Fat Quarters? - Fabric Giveaway

Are you like me?  Have you been saving a fat quarter bundle, a jelly roll, or a charm pack for just the right project?  Do you shudder at the thought of breaking up the perfectly coordinated, full collection perfection of your pre-cuts?

Take heart and read on.

Last week I posted about Quilters Newsletter's latest special issue, Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2012 (see Got Fat Quarters? below).

Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2012 is full of patterns for beautiful projects, including my In the Garden lap quilt and Charmed pillow, that are sure to convince you that it's finally time to cut into your pre-cuts.

In the Garden

Charmed

I promised to show a picture of a table quilt version of Charmed.  And here it is -- quilted, bound, finished:

Look close.  Look closer.  Recognize the fabric?  It's confession time.  This little quilt is made from a charm pack of Kansas Troubles' Bound to the Prairie fabric that I bought in Ohio 6 years ago!  That is world class hoarding.  I LOVED this fabric and could never decide how to use it.  The longer I waited, the worse it got because I knew I could never buy more if it.  Every few months, I would take out the charm pack, fan out the fabrics and imagine the possibilities, but I could never commit.  I must have designed a dozen options for this charm pack before I finally broke down over the summer and pieced this little quilt.  And let me tell you, cutting that first square was rough -- made only slightly easier by the fact that Moda actually re-released some of the Bound to the Prairie fabrics in their KT Favorites collection (wait long enough and everything comes back into style!).

But look at it now!  The charm pack fabrics are just as lovely in smaller pieces and they look much better on my table than they ever did in the closet.

Now it's your turn.  Be brave!  Pull out your pre-cuts and take the plunge!

And yes, I did mention a fabric giveaway in the title of this post -- here goes:  Quilters Newsletter is promoting Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2012 by giving away fabric every day this week.  Check out the QN blog each day and leave a comment to enter your name in the drawings.  Hope you win!  Just don't wait 6 years to use the fabric!!

Got Fat Quarters?

For Christmas last year, my mom gave me a fat quarter bundle of Lynette Anderson's Secret Garden fabric.  Gorgeous fabric.  The kind of fabric that you just want to display and never use because you are afraid of making a mistake and wasting it.  Here's a picture of the fabric bundle:

See what I mean -- perfect just as it is.  Blues and greens, plums, browns and creams; all with adorable flowers, bugs, and beehives.  Yummy!  Needless to say, I let the fabric sit on my sewing table for months before I finally got up the nerve to cut into it.  But I'm so glad I did, because the end result, a lap quilt called In the Garden, is one of my favorite quilts I've ever made.

Here's a picture of the quilt top draped on our deck railing:

I wanted to stay with the garden theme of the fabrics so I decided to use a triple Irish chain as lattice work with two different "flower" blocks peeking through.  Here's a picture of the finished quilt:

You can find the pattern for In the Garden in Quilters Newsletter's latest special issue, Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2012, on newsstands now or available through the Quilt and Sew Shop.  

The pattern is probably more appropriate for an intermediate quilter because there is quite a bit of piecing -- I love piecing -- but it could be simplified by substituting a standard border(s) for the pieced border and it would still be lovely.

Want to try something a little faster?  Grab your favorite charm pack and check out page 40 of Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2012:

Charmed is a 20" x 20" pillow that's fun and easy to make.  Here's a picture of it in my favorite chair:

I turned this little quilt into a pillow (no quilting required!), but I liked the pattern so much that I'm actually making another to use as a small table quilt.  I'll post a picture of it when I'm finished.

Happy quilting!