Wednesday Giveaway

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This week’s Giveaway winner is Kathleen Connolly who won a pair of Tula Pink’s Micro-Tip Scissors. They cut precisely all the way to the point and they have a lovely iridescent finish. If you didn’t win and still want a pair of these dandy scissors, click here.

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Leave a comment to enter the drawing. If you can’t find the comment box, you might see a little icon that looks like a thought bubble at the upper right at the top of this post. Try clicking that to open the comment section.

I’ll use a random number generator to choose the winner Thursday, June 8, 2017.

Good luck!

Fabric love at first sight…

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I love Alison Glass‘s fabric. That’s a fact.

You know that the fabrics in any collection, by any designer or from any company, are designed to work together. I have found that even though I may like a collection, there are only a few fabrics that I actually use. It is a rare thing to find a collection of prints where everything works together as well as these fabrics do. Why is that?

  • In addition to being just luscious, there is a nice mix of values.
  • These particular prints add texture without being distracting. That works really well in both piecing and appliqué.
  • There are both clear colors and gray colors. When used together, clear colors come forward, grayer colors recede. In a quilt, the combination of clear and gray colors adds dimension to the design.

This is what I have right now: a mix of Alison’s Chroma and Handcrafted Indigo collections as well as a text print. It’s a great start but I know I’m going to be adding more AG fabric to this mix because more is obviously better in this case :-).

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If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I’m working on a foundation paper pieced quilt. The first quilt top is sewn and I’m now making variations of the pattern in AG fabric. I don’t want to ruin future surprises but this gives you an idea of how these prints work together in a pieced block.

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One last thing: When I was in St. Louis last week I picked up some give-away scraps of vintage fabric from the guild table. Too many quilters are nervous about mixing vintage-style prints with modern prints. Don’t be! This is a happy stack of fabric that would make a great quilt.

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I don’t often go on and on about fabric on my blog, but these prints are special. You should consider adding them to your stash.

Happy fabric shopping (is there any other kind?).

 

What do you want from a kit?

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The Magical Unicorn pattern is scheduled for release in August – yay!!! I’ve already had requests for kits and I’m working on it but I need to know what sort of kit you would like.

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There are two block sizes in the pattern (35″ x 35″ and 50″ x 50″). This quilt has the 35″ x 35″ block and 5″ wide borders making the finished quilt 45″ x 45″. The block is constructed on a white base layer that can be cut away after the shapes are sewn down. I machine appliquéd my quilt but you could hand appliqué if you prefer.

If I was buying a kit for this quilt, I would want larger pieces of fabric to work from. There would be fat quarters plus other pieces both bigger and smaller. These cuts would be big enough to allow for shrinkage for those (like me) who always prewash. There would be leftover fabric because of the scrappy nature of this quilt.

The unicorn and flower appliqué shapes could come as fabric pieces OR they could be laser-cut and ready to fuse. The downside to fusing is that the base layer cannot be cut away and the quilt will be a bit heavier.

So my question to you is, what kind of Magical Unicorn kit would you buy? I thank you in advance for letting me know your thoughts.

Wednesday giveaway…

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Congrats to Kathleen Doran, this week’s Wednesday Giveaway winner of The New Quick & Easy Block Tool book.

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This book, edited by Liz Aneloskie, Kandy Petersen, and Debbie Rodgers, is wonderful! In it you will find 110 quilt blocks. There is a chart with each block to help you create it in five different sizes. I especially like the section of the book that groups blocks by what sort of grid they are built on (2×2, 3×3, etc.)

There is a gray-scale version of each block, and a blank version, so you can design it yourself without regard to the original color placement. On top of that, there is a project for every block! Plus, the editors created an index of these projects that can be made with precut fabrics such as charm packs, fat quarters, jelly rolls, and layer cakes.

Click here to find the Block Tool at Piece O’ Cake.

Leave a comment to enter the drawing. If you can’t find the comment box, you might see a little icon that looks like a thought bubble at the upper right at the top of this post. Try clicking that to open the comment section.

I’ll use a random number generator to choose the winner Thursday, June 1, 2017.

Good luck!

Show and tell…

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Loa Kay Welles made her May Baskets quilt from our book, Curl Up Quilts, for her 6 year old granddaughter. Isn’t it cute!

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Loa Kay changed the pattern, making more blocks and a bigger quilt and it turned out very well! If you would like to make your own May Baskets you can find the ePattern here, or the whole eBook here.

Wednesday Giveaway

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Congrats to this week’s winner of the Cupcake Bento Box, Connie J. Martin.

If you are not Connie, you can click here to find all of the bento boxes at Piece O’ Cake. It’s not just me who thinks these are dandy boxes. Here is a recent review:

I actually purchased 5 of the Bento Boxes— 3 for grandchildren, one for my daughter in law, and one for me. Most of them are being used for packing lunches, but I will use mine for sewing supplies. They are darling and very well made. I love how tightly they close—no chance of anything leaking out to damage anything else in a backpack.

Click here to find all of the bento, sandwich, and pencil boxes at pieceocake.com.

Leave a comment to enter the drawing. If you can’t find the comment box, you might see a little icon that looks like a thought bubble at the upper right at the top of this post. Try clicking that to open the comment section.

I’ll use a random number generator to choose a winner Thursday, May 25, 2017. It might be later in the day as I will be out of town teaching.

Good luck!