Congratulations go out to Maryellen in Franklin Square, New York! She is the winner from my segment of the Road Rally blog tour. She commented "Sweet block. I do love roses." We love roses too, Maryellen. She will be receiving her very own copy of the new issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. Hooray, Maryellen! Enjoy your new block patterns!
Hello and welcome to my little corner of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 16 Road Rally Blog Tour. I'm so glad you've taken a few minutes out of your busy day to visit me! You are rolling your virtural "road rally" car into the beautiful countryside of Henderson, North Carolina. We're at the peak of the fall foilage this week, my favorite time of the year. I love the way the bright leaf colors pop against the gray skies.
This is my block for issue 16, "Grow a Little Love". It is block #1509. The pattern for this block appears on page 12 in the applique section of the magazine.
I designed and made a small wall hanging to showcase the Grow a Little Love block. This quilt features fabrics from the Peony Passion fabric line, by Lynnea Washburn, for Northcott Fabrics.
This block would make a wonderful friend gift as a wall hanging, pillow, or sew three in a row to create a cute table runner. The possibilities are endless!
To win a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, please leave a comment below. Let's make it interesting ~ what is your favorite flower? I look forward to reading your answers. The winner will be chosen randomly. Please be sure I have a way to contact you, if you should be the lucky winner.
To return to the Road Rally Blog Tour page, click here: Quilty Pleasures.
Mark your calendars! The Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 16 Road Rally Blog Tour is coming soon. Get ready for quilty giveaways, designer tips, fabulous new blocks for your quilting bucket list, and fun, fun, fun!
Yes, I have a brand new block in this issue, too. You can read all about it on the first day of the blog tour, Monday, November 13th. If you're not already one of my followers, be sure to sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of this post for more details, reminders, and special newsletter reader only coupons.
Here's a sneak peek at the cover of the upcoming 100 Blocks. Don't you love the cover redesign? It looks gorgeously modern! I will be giving away a copy or two of this new issue, and more on blog tour day, Monday, November 13th. See you then!
Hello quilters! Welcome to my little segment of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 13 Blog Tour. I can't believe we're up to 13 issues of 100 Blocks already! Here's my block for this issue, Evening Bloom. It's in the applique section, on page 14. If you love applique as much as I do, this block will be fun to sew! I believe there are 67 pieces? Count them if you want to.
I made my block with these gorgeous fabrics - Wool Needle Flannels III by Primitive Gatherings for Moda Fabrics. So delicious!
I used a green tone on tone plaid for the bias stems. To make the stems, cut the fabric 1-1/4" wide on the bias, fold in half, and sew a tiny seam along the length of the strip. Press the seam under and voila! - you are ready to applique.
To help with stem placement, I drew a four by four grid with chalk onto my background piece. I did not have to remove the markings later, they were gone by the time I was finished sewing the stems down.
Next, I used tiny applique pins to secure the stem in place, and stitched it to the background fabric.
I applied the flowers, leaves, and berries using the fusible applique method - always fun!
To keep my pieces separated while I work, I put them into little zipper sandwich bags as soon as I cut them out.
Here you can see the stems sewn in place and the flowers, berries, and a few of the small leaves after fusing. I prefer to fuse a few at a time, rather than trying to lay out all the pieces at once. I just give them a quick tap with the iron at this stage, so if I need to move anything I still can. I give everything a final fuse when all the pieces are in place.
Here is a close up pic of the berries and leaves.
After all the pieces are fused in place, I like to go around each patch with matching thread and a zigzag stitch. You can just barely see the stitching here, on the bud and leaves.
Here is the completed block, once again, Evening Bloom. I hope you enjoyed seeing my creative process and maybe learned a tip or two for sewing my block.
And now for the giveaway! If you would like your very own copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 13, please leave a comment below, and let's make it interesting. Please comment about who taught you to quilt. I'll choose a random winner at the end of the blog tour. Please be sure I have a way to contact you, should you be the lucky one.
To return to the blog tour, and more quilty inspiration, click here: Quilty Pleasures.
Hello! Welcome to my little segment of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 12 Blog Tour. I'm so glad you're here, visiting my blog home. If I could, I'd offer you a warm cup of cocoa and a cookie.
This is my block for the issue, Pinwheel Flowers. It appears on page 37 of the magazine, Block #1160. At the end of my post I'll give you a chance to win your very own copy of Volume 12.
Let's talk a bit about backgrounds and using directional fabrics today. For the Pinwheel Flowers block, I used a cloud print fabric. As I cut out the pieces for the background, I made sure all my clouds were "floating" in the same direction. You can see here that they don't have to fit together exactly at the seams to get a good sky effect.
I played with the block's background in this version, using a "sunrise/sunset" style fabric. All these pieces were cut from one fat quarter. I laid the pieces out on a design wall as I cut them to keep them in order. It only takes a little bit of planning to use directional fabrics effectively, and they can add fun and fabulous dimension to your blocks.
This is the completed sunrise/sunset version of the Pinwheel Flowers block.
You can easily change the mood of this block by simply using different background fabrics. Pinwheel Flowers seem to glow at night with this dramatic dark blue version.
Pinwheel Flowers on a sunny day can be sewn by using a light yellow fabric for the background. What a happy feeling the yellow background creates.
In this version I made the flowers three different colors. Notice how I kept the light, medium, and dark values the same in each flower. This is a great way to use a variety of colors and still have a balanced look.
What can you do with the Pinwheel Flowers block? You can sew a few together and grow a garden of flowers - or a whole field of flowers.
I sewed a strip of four Pinwheel Flowers blocks together, and combined them with a few more strips of fabric, and pieced pinwheel strips to make this happy wall hanging. It's hanging in my studio today, right over my quilting machine.
If you haven't already seen it, here's the cover of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 12. Pinwheel Flowers actually made the cover, along with so many other fabulous blocks - awesome! Thank you, Quiltmaker.
To win your very own copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, leave a comment below. Let's make it interesting, please comment about your favorite traditional quilt block. Be sure I have a way to contact you, should you be the lucky one.
Thank you so much for stopping by. Be sure to visit the other designers on the tour all week - you can return to the list at Quiltmaker's blog here: Quilty Pleasures.
Just a quick post today - I wanted to share this vintage-y pincushion I found at the local thrift shop. I still need to clean it up; maybe I'll share an "after" picture, too. Isn't it cute? It's about the size of my fist. The tiny ruler is my favorite part. Ruler, buttons, wooden thread spools, tiny bits of folded fabric, all tucked inside a little basket. So cute & this would be a fun, easy, and thrifty gift to make for all of your quilting friends. Do you have any quick to sew gift ideas? Please share in the comment section below.
Don't forget to join me on November 16th for the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 12 Blog Tour. That's one week from tomorrow - how exciting! Mark your calendar. I'll see you then.
It's almost that time of year again - time for the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour with the release of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 12! There will be blocks! There will be prizes! There will be fun, fun, fun! This Fall's blog tour will be November 16th through 20th. My day will be November 16th, so be sure to mark your calendar & visit that day to see my block and win some quilty goodness.
Here's a sneeky peek of the cover of Volume 12 so you can get a little taste of the wonderful patterns inside. I'm a cover girl this time - exciting! So technically, you can see my block, but I'm not going to tell you which one it is until November 16.
I made a small quilt using four of my blocks, too. This was sewn on my Featherweight while I was taking a little trip to Marion, North Carolina. Do you take a sewing project along when you travel? Leave a comment below.
