Fabric Trends Winter 2011

Happy New Year, everyone - wishing you all a joyous and wonderful year!  I've been reading some wonderful blogs today with beautiful pictures of projects.  What great work everyone does!  (Wish I could show more of what I've worked on here, but that will have to wait a few months.)

Some of you have been kind enough to email me about my quilt in the Winter 2011 issue of Fabric Trends (fabirc doesn't ship until late Feburary), but to date I hadn't seen it.  Too impatient to wait for my copy to arrive in the mail, I picked up one from Barnes and Noble yesterday...

The people at Fabric Trends did such a nice job with the instructions.  They even showcased both color stories!  You can preorder a kit here, but the kits won't ship until late February/early March.  If you can't wait, Fat Quarter Shop, who will be kitting many of the Swiss Chocolate magazine quilts, just got in the entire line!

Mocha!

Chocolate!

And imagine my surprise to turn the magazine around and see an inset of the blue/periwinkle feature from Ambrosia on the back cover and this inside...

What a nice way to bring in a New Year.  Yesterday was a good day to shop for other reasons too.  I visited two quilt stores.  The first, The Quilt Patch, in Fairfax City, Virginia, has an amazing selection of rulers, templates, and threads.  I picked up some circle and hexagon templates.  Can't wait to use them!

The second quilt shop I visited, The Artful Quilter, in Burke, Virginia, has a lovely selection of fabric lines with a modern vibe. 

Look at this zipper display.  I was/still am salivating.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays!

Amanda

Santa's Workshop

There has been a mad flurry of activity here since Sunday evening, when the kids' last Nutcracker performance of the year wrapped up. We always have lots of ideas for gifts, but run out of time to make them all. This year, Caitrin came to the rescue with beaded earrings. (I don't know a thing about beading, but she let's me think I am helping by choosing beads and making packaging. She does all the hard stuff. Thanks, Cait!)

I have been furiously sewing my nights away making quilts out of cuddle fabric for both kids and I can finally post about it since they won't be able to check my blog until morning. Ho! Ho! How sneaky am I?

Not very sneaky, actually. I saw these adorable kits at Sew Much Fun! and couldn't resist. Consequently, I have ended every night this week in a losing battle to clean up "cuddle" fur. Have any of you worked with this fabric? It is gloriously soft but also sheds and loves to stick to everything in sight, especially to one tired and crazy elf who likes to wear a robe of just that material while sewing in the wee hours of the morning. Have I ever mentioned that every member of our family has a robe made out of this fabric? Yes, that includes my husband. Four yards of tan cuddle fabric. It is grand.

Anyway, I have been singularly unsuccessful at covering up traces of my nightly toil with one of our children, who sees a walking foot on a sewing machine with nary a quilt in sight as a sure sign that something fishy is going on, and she knows her dad has nothing to do with it since he doesn't know what a walking foot is.

I hope all of you out there have wonderful holidays full of warm memories!

Amanda

My mom is a quilting machine!

Sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words.

She just learned to make these last Tuesday! Congratulations, Mom!

More Lazy Angling

My mom/International Retail Distribution Manager (she prefers exalted titles) was here for a few days and I gave her a basic quilting tutuorial.  Some of you might remember that she tried quilting a few years ago.  Always overly enthusiastic...  ahem... she chose this pattern:

I finished it because she is my mom and also happens to be the most enthusiastic gift recipient ever.

This time we are starting with the basics. I taught her how to do flying geese units. (This is all part of my secret, diabolical plan to get her quilting by the time she moves down to North Carolina next year.) Mom is going to make up a bunch in Swiss Chocolate and we are going to make up a placemats, napkins, a table runner, and even upholster her piano bench and dining room chairs in the Mocha colorway. (Yes, I am a lucky recipient of that overly enthusiastic gene, so the two of us together are up to no good.) Patterns will appear here later next year.

You can do it, mom!

Also this week, I played more with the Lazy Angle Ruler. I have Joan's Lazy and Lovin' It Book, which has oodles of great ideas.

In addition to making (12-1/2") blocks from 4 (6-1/2") squares,I made some from 9 (4-1/2") squares.

There are even more possibilities with 9 squares. I can't decide which block I like best. I love this ruler!

Happy holidays!
Amanda

Bags, bags, and more bags...

I finally finished Caitrin's bag (now I have to make one in Swiss Chocolate!)

It coordinates with this picture that I mistakenly took at the Botanical Gardens.  I wish I knew how I did it so I could so it again!

Back to bags, we've also made Oragami Bags (also from Amy Butler's new book, Style Stitches) for Christmas gifts.

The best part is that they nest inside each other!

Speaking of bags and sewing, the new book The Bag Making Bible by Lisa Lam makes a wonderful present for your favorite sewer.

It shows how to really customize your own bags from any pattern.  I already have learned a few new techniques for clasps, etc. that I haven't tried before.  I am reading this fantastic how-to book cover to cover like a novel, proving, once again, that I am a sewing geek. 

(As if the fabric laying all over our family room floor left any doubt.)

Have a good week!
Amanda

P.S. I've had a few emails from people looking for kits for the Swiss Chocolate quilt that appears in the winter issue of Fabric Trends.  (Mine hasn't come yet.  Boo hoo!)  Swiss Chocolate will ship in late February.  (One of the great things about Fabric Trends is that you get sneak peeks of fabric before it ships.  Of course, then you have to wait for the fabric to... ship.)  I trying to wait patiently (patience is not a virtue for me as far as fabric goes) as well as I almost completely used up one of the SKUs sewing quilts for magazines.  I had two inches left.  Talk about cutting it close!

Patchwork Bouquet

Introducing "Patchwork Bouquet", another complimentary pattern I designed for Robert Kaufman using their new line of Artisan Batiks - Emma.  It would work well in a wide variety of fabrics.  You can download it off of Robert Kaufman's site.



Patchwork Bouquet  (Scrappy)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Lapis)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Petal)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Olive)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Peony)


Happy sewing!

One more note:  I have sold out of "Garden Beds" quilt kits already, but you can order the fabric for this kit  from Fabric Shack as they are carrying the entire line.

Kona Dots!

Robert Kaufman's site is featuring a new complimentary pattern called "Kona Dots" that I designed for their Kona solids.  (The instructions were written by Heidi Pridemore - thank Heidi!) 

Kona Dots (original color scheme)

The quilt is 74" x 74".  There are alternative instructions for a rectangular quilt that is 52" x 62", but - as you can see - this quilt can be easily adjusted to just about any size.  (Due to a mistake of mine, the actual instructions show one less row of blocks in the graphic right now, but you get the general idea.)

I wanted to show you some alternative color combinations.  Don't you love the range of Kona solids?

Kona Dots (spring)



Kona Dots (summer)


 

Kona Dots (autumn - option 1)

 
 

Kona Dots (autumn - option 2)

Kona Dots (winter - option 1)



Kona Dots (winter - option 2)


 
If any of you Kona solids fans out there create something fantastic with this patterns, I'd love to see it.

Happy sewing!

I turn my head for 5 minutes and this one turns 12!

I swear it was only yesterday that she looked like this....

I know that many of you out there know how I feel.  How does time slip away so fast?

At each of our children's birthdays, I think that I can't possibly enjoy their new age any more than their last, yet I always do.

Here are some of the things I appreciate most about Caitrin at age 12:

• She is tremendously empathetic.
• She is determined... about everything... always.  (Frustrating in a toddler, but a much appreciated trait in a young lady.)
• She is wickedly funny - with an acute, dry wit that can catch you by surprise.
• She is much more organized than I am.
• She lets me think that I am much more organized than I am.

I am making a new customized ballet bag for one of her presents.  The fabric is from the Garden Glam line by Josephine Kimberling for Robert Kaufman.  The pattern is from Amy Butler's new book, "Style Stitches". 

Note the customized pockets that I've added.  I'm showing you all the pockets, rather than the completed bag, because, although it is now one day after Caitrin's birthday, I haven't completed the bag.  My excuse is that we are in Nutcracker season; consequently, I am adding 24-hour chaffeur to my job description.

Caitrin says she is thrilled with the customized pockets.  Have I mentioned that she lets me think I am much more organized than I am?

Happy birthday, Cait.  One day (and one bag) late. 

Love you so much that it makes me feel as if my heart will burst (and, OF COURSE, you too, Bob!),
Mom