Friday, April 29, 2011

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour Volume 3 - Preview


Be sure to stop back here next week on May 5th to hear about my Swiss Chocolate block for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour.  There are some great giveaways going on in conjunction with this, including (pause for dramatic effect)... Robert Kaufman's donation of 1 yard of EACH Swiss Chocolate print! IN BOTH COLOR STORIES!!!

I know.  A pretty generous giveaway, huh?  (Thanks, Robert Kaufman.)  Some of thse SKUs are sold out, so make sure to visit the Quiltmaker site next week and stop back here on May 5th.

Oh - I almost forgot to give you a peek of my block...


Happy sewing!
Amanda

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Hand Quilting

Sorry for the silence lately but I have been sewing, sewing, sewing, in preparation for Market - mostly on the machine, but a little by hand.  I love the look of hand-quilting and should do it more often. 


Last night I hand-quilted around this Desden block with 12 wt. thread.  I used a slightly darker green in the center and a vivid pink around the block itself.  I love how the pink contrasts with the green striped background.  I love it and wish I had used heavier thread, but time is of th essence and 12 wt. is what I had. 

Next I need to quilt this...


I am thinking purple or green in the center circle and maybe a light aqua around the Dresden.  Or maybe pale green.  Your thoughts?

Happy sewing!
Amanda

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Monday, April 18, 2011

My Pattern Line

My pattern line is debuting at Market (along with my new collection, Veranda) and I'm so excited!  There are six patterns in all - in full color, and they all feature my new fabrics.  To see the quilts that I have been planning bound and completed has been so satisfying.  I can't wait to share... 




Three and a half more weeks!  But I CAN wait, because there is still a lot of sewing to do!
Amanda

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Friday, April 15, 2011

Swiss Chocolate Sale at Wondrous Woven Fabrics

I just got an email for Wondrous Woven Fabrics this morning.  They are having a spring cleaning sale before Market.  While they don't have the entire line of Swiss Chocolate, they have the following discounted at 30% if you use the code 8great2 at checkout.  This is a great opportunity to pick up the kit for my complimentary sampler pattern, or a roll-up or ten-square...







Happy sewing!
Amanda

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

"Pinwheel Garden" for Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting

This one has been gone from home for so long that I almost forgot about her.




Luckily Fons and Porter didn't.  "Pinwheel Garden" features my Ambrosia collection for Robert Kaufman and, best of all, it is being featured as a free pattern on the Love of Quilting website that you can download  here

One note:
An attentive reader was downloading the pattern and noted the following:
I fell in love with your "Pinwheel Garden" quilt that was featured in the latest edition, May/June 2011.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could download it.  In reading through the instructions, I noticed that the names of the small templates may have been reversed.  It appears that the name for the "Small Fill-In Template" on page 4 should have been named the "Small Take-Away Template and vice versa. 

So be sure to make a note on your pattern.  Thanks, Linda!

You can still find most of the Ambrosia line at Fat Quarter Shop.  And the two prints that they have sold out of can be found over at Wondrous Woven Fabrics.  And it looks like Fabric Shack has them all!

Just to make it super-easy for you to order materials should you want to whip up this quilt, here are the SKUs:
  • 1/2 yard pink floral (AAM-10757-193 )
  • 3/4 yard blue floral (AAM-10757-192)
  • 3/4 yard blue leaves (AAM-10758-192)
  • 1 yard purple crackle (AAM-10760-192)
  • 1-1/4 yards brown crackle (AAM-10760-193)
  • 1-1/2 yards yellow circles (AAM-10759-136)
  • 3/4 yard dark pink medallions (AAM-10756-193)
  • 3/4 yard light pink circles (AAM-10759-193)
  • 1 yard dark green medallions (AAM-10756-192)
  • 1/2 yard medium green leaves (AAM-10758-193)
  • 5/8 yard light green circles (AAM-10759-192)
  • 3-1/2 yards backing fabric - anything from the Veranda line will work

The Fons and Porter curved seam templates are also very helpful.
 
Happy sewing!
Amanda

P.S.  I had a momentary lull in sewing last night in order to get out a scrapbook collection and last night we were able to (pause for dramatic effect)... eat in the dining room!

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Saturday, April 9, 2011

The state of things...

Have you ever picked up a quilt from a quilter and been so excited because they brought your work to an entirely new level?  That is how I felt this morning when I picked up this....


I love Deborah Norris' little leaves and rose swirls.  I can't show more yet (soon, soon...) but had to share.

I dropped off quilts #6 and #7 this morning, which means I have need of lots of binding...


It was so nice to see Deborah's quilting because I'm feeling at sixes and sevens because we are living in complete chaos.  Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I don't have a studio all to myself and that we homeschool our children.  That means a lot of activities take place in just a couple of rooms and, right now, I'm taking more than my fair share of space.  You can't go more than a few feet without stepping on a project.  These are various snapshots from our dining room, which is being used for pretty much everything but eating.  (And we don't have an eat-in kitchen, so right now we are sometimes eating standing at the counter, or on towel in the family room.)  Such is life.  For those of you who might be feeling behind with housekeeping, take a look...


Fabric - washed and ironed

Quilt tops, in various states of completion

Borders, waiting to be sewn on

 I completely forgot about laundry, but these fabrics have little strings before I've even ironed them, and I find that really funny.

More ironing on the chair, and more quilt blocks on the floor. 
I'd much rather iron quilt blocks than laundry, wouldn't you?

Happy sewing!
Amanda

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Giveaway at Jaybird Quilts

Julie is having a fantastic giveaway of Ty Pennington fabrics and Robert Kaufman Silk/Cotton blends over at Jaybird Quilts!  Be sure to enter...

Monday, April 4, 2011

Giveaway over at Koolbeenz

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the tips yesterday.  A little fusible web and some zigzagging did the trick. 

April, a fellow North Carolinian, is have a fabric giveaway over at her blog, KoolBeenz.  She has some great ideas over there.  Hop on over and enter!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Do you feel my pain?

Has anyone ever, in the process of squaring up the edges of a quilt that has been expertly quilted, misaligned their ruler so that there were four inches of border on one side and only three on the other and made a cut before realizing it?



OH YES I DID!  My daughter heard my moans of anquish from across the room (where she was pressing blocks for another top) and came over and looked.  She said, "Oh my."  I just groaned incoherantly on the floor.

So, now I am faced with either a) making the border narrower OR b) zigzagging an inch or so into the quilt to secure the damage.  I am leaning toward the latter as I think I love my border more than some delusion that future generations will consider me an expert quilter.  (The quilting itself was done by Deborah Norris - didn't she do a fabulous job?  She accentuated the blossoms shapes and did freehand flowers and vines on the background.)




I will zigzag in yellow to match the border and it will be okay.  This is what I am telling myself.  This is actually the first quilt to be finished from the pattern line I'm debuting at Market, so I think it is fitting that it be marked insome special way - and I have certainly found a method to put my unique stamp on it.  (If you are at Market, please stop by booth 2224 to meet the unfortunate victim of my rotary cutter - and to meet the antagonist in this saga.)

On another note, lots of quilters devote time to teaching young people how to sew and I think that is great. (Julie, of Jaybird Quilts, recently blogged about helping a girl scout troop with a project and Allison, of Cluck Cluck Sew, wrote about a great project involving fabric and lots of glue that she did with her young son.)   Although it does certainly take more time to produce quilts with young children "helping" (I have secretly unstitched many a seam to make blocks fit together) I can vouch for the fact that, in the end, giving new, enthusastic sewers confidence in their growing skills certainly pays off.  I am currently reaping the benefits of having an expert 12 year old sewer in the house.  (She is my preferred helper in everything sewing-related - and is much better at it than most adults.)  When she was six or seven she helped by running zigzag stitches around blocks that I was going to applique.  (My ten year old son, incidentally, is an expert in ripping stabilizer off of the backs of quilts - there is something for everyone, even the destruction-proned.  Yes, he obviously gets that from me.)  So if you have a son, daughter, niece or nephew in your life, find a project that they can do an help them discover the joy of working with their hands in this digital age.  And if anyone out there has some fantastic ideas about projects that are suitable and enjoyable for young sewers, please share.  I'd love to hear what everyone is doing!

Now it is time to have my daughter help me with that zigzag stitch.  Happy sewing!

Amanda

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