Craftsy is having a wonderful Thanksgiving sale!!!

If you have been thinking about signing up for a class, now would be the perfect time!  The sale starts on Friday - in just a few hours.  If you use this link they'll know I sent you...

You can even get some pre-holiday shopping in and gift a class to a friend!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Amanda

Elegant Machine Embroidered Bags - some detail shots

Hi everyone,
Craftsy just shared some more photos from my Elegant Embroidered Bags class and I thought I would share since some of these items make great Christmas presents.  (The embroidery motifs are included in the class.)

Some of the projects in the class.
Clockwise from top left: Embroidered Medallion on a pre-made backpack, a custom-sewn canvas tote with coordinating fabric panel, a pre-made canvas tote, a zippered clutch with three embroidery motifs, and a pre-made embroidered backpack.

The first step of learning to double-hoop on the custom-made canvas tote.

Embroidering a regular backpack.

Embroidering really quick, fun, and professional luggage tags.
One of the class members is making one for each member of her family for stocking stuffers!!!

For a limited time you can get 25% off using this link.

Have a happy pre-holiday weekend!
Amanda

Under the Veranda shop guide is now available...

Kitting info for this pattern can be found here.

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Holiday Bouquet Quilts popping up!

My day - actually "days"- were made this week when I received two emails to beautiful Holiday Bouquet projects.  It is so gratifying as a designer to see people take your fabric and make something beautiful and personal!

The first quilt is from Jodi Nelson of A Pleasant Home.  I love how clean and fresh this baby-sized quilt looks!

It is just so pretty!  Best of all, Jodi has a tutorial for the block she used on her blog so be sure to check it out!

Next, Linda Hoover emailed me a picture of a Holiday Forest quilt from my book, Modern Holiday, sewn in my Holiday Bouquet fabric line.  Now I have to make one of these for myself!

Thanks so much for sharing, both of you!

I love seeing what everyone makes - it is so fun!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

My Block of the Month Under the Veranda and Diamond Runner patterns are here!

And they are look great.  Under the Veranda is 22 pages - full-color through and through.  It took me awhile to figure out how to print this one affordably for you all… but it turned out beautifully I think.

The cover is shown in my Topiary collection, which ships from Blend Fabrics in January.

Two color ways (my Topiary and Bella collections for Blend Fabrics)
are included in the directions or you can make up your own.

With full color fabric diagrams, it is easy!

And all the blocks have clear, full-color diagrams too!

The final section explains how to piece the blocks together.

But wait… I forgot to show you pictures of the actual quilt.  It has a little bit of a lot of different techniques.  I sewed it up in Bella because Topiary wasn't read in time for Market.

Under the Veranda in dappled afternoon sunlight

A little bit of bargello...

Appliqued berries

"Cabinet Doors"

A Dresden Plate

An applied vine with some "brick blocks" on the far left...

And the central medallion

Also in is my little charm-square friendly pattern, Diamond Runner!  It is printed on sturdy, glossycard stock.

I used Topiary strike-offs for this one

I really hope you all like both Under the Veranda and Diamond Runner.  They are over in my shop!  For those shops that ordered at Market, the orders are on their way.  For toerh shops that are interested, please contact me.  Both patterns also being carried by major distributors, so have your favorite shop ask for them!

Thanks for letting me share and happy sewing!

Amanda

Elegant Machine Embroidered Bags - my new Craftsy class!

I'm so excited because my new Craftsy class, Elegant Embroidered Bags, is now live over on Craftsy!

This class was developed for those who have an embroidery machine and want to learn how to use it to make personalized accessories.  This pillow below is from my Elegant Machine Embroidered Quilts class and the bags are from this newest class.  (Can you tell I'm going through an aqua phase?)

We'll work with a variety of pre made-bags, and I'll give you some tips on how to embroider difficult-to-hoop items.

 We'll also make two bags from scratch. I have a fun canvas tote design we will whip up - we'll experiment with the dreaded double-hooping process (it really isn't that bad!) and integrate a fun accent fabric panel for a personal touch.

We'll make a little quilted pouch with a zipper and pleated pocket, which will give you lots of design options.  (The zippered pouch and canvas tote could be sewn from coordinated fabric - they would make a great holiday gift!)

I designed 5 embroidery designs especially for this class and I really hope you will love them!

If you are interest in making some Elegant Machine Embroidered Bags of your own I hope you will join me over on Craftsy!  They gave me a 25% coupon to share with you all. Just click this link to sign up.

Happy sewing (and embroidering too!)
Amanda

Embroidered Coffee Sleeves

Hi everyone!  If you are looking for stocking stuffer ideas I have a quick embroidery project that I whipped up this weekend.  Machine embroidered coffee sleeves!  (I also included graphics you can trace in the pdf pattern if you prefer hand embroidery.  No instructions for specific stitches for hand embroidery but you will have something to trace.) I made these on the Bernina 780.  These coffee sleeves are really simple to make and have a Velcro closure.  I made a poinsettia and a snowflake design for the Holiday Coffee Sleeves.

And for those who just can't wait unit spring, I made a flower and paisley design!

(Excuse the lighting - I was fighting the end of the day and the sun was really low in the sky and then my camera battery died so I had to use my cell phone...)  Which do you like best?  Right now I think the Snowflake is my favorite but that is probably because of the lovely red canvas from Indygo Junction.  All the canvas is from Indygo (they make a wonderful, buttery-soft one that is great to work , the embroidery threads are Isacord, and the sewing thread is Aurifil 50 wt. cotton.

Oh - and they ll fit in a 145 mm x 25 mm hoop.  File types are: ART, HUS, PES, PEC, SEW, and VIP.

You can find the patterns using this link or by clicking the button on the left hand side of my blog.  I can't believe it is less than a month until Christmas - where did time go?

Hope you had a lovely weekend with lots of sewing!

Amanda

It's here! Color Essentials!

I'm so excited to finally show you all my second book, Color Essentials: Crisp and Vibrant Quilts!

Color Essentials is a book I've dreamt about for a long time.  It straddles the worlds of quilting and graphic design - two things I'm passionate about.  Color was my favorite class in college and it is my favorite part of designing fabrics and quilts.  I love exploring the ways colors interact with each other and make the same design appear wildly different.  In Color Essentials I cover the basics of color theory using Kona cotton solids and Aurifil threads and I provide some tips for stepping out of your color comfort zone to create something new.  I hope that this book inspires you to try something you've never tried before with color!

I want to thank all the people at C&T Publishing for taking a chance with this book.  Since it straddles the line between art and design it is a different type of book than you usually see - and C&T's fabulous design team made it look like a museum catalog from cover to cover just as I'd envisioned.  Because quilting is an art… our art, and beautifully colored fabrics are our palette.

Speaking of palettes, Robert Kaufman allowed me to put together special palettes of Kona solids especially for this book so that shops and quilters could affordably make the projects (thanks, RK!), so in addition to the Bright and Pastel palettes that already existed I designed Sunrise…

And Sunset…

The charm squares and roll-ups each contain 42 colors and the fat quarter bundles contain 23 colors.  I love them!  You can use these precuts for nearly all the projects in the book simply by adding background and border fabric!

To make things easy, I have included a spread in Color Essentials dedicated to each palette in turn, showing all its colors as well as suggested backgrounds.

But you shouldn't feel like you have to stick to those backgrounds - have fun with it and feel free to explore!

And here's the best part - we are all going to get to play with color TOGETHER because the fabulous Madame Samm will be hosting one of her wonderful blog hops at Sew We Quilt January 7th-17th featuring projects made with these fabrics - they can be a project from the pages of Color Essentials or they can simply be inspired by the colors found there.  I'm so excited to see what you all create!!!!  Really - this is the most gratifying part to me as a designer.  So if you are interested head on over to Sew We Quilt and sign up for a spot on the blog hop.  The January date gives us plenty of time to experiment.

And while you are over there take a sneak peek at the Aurifil thread box that Madame Samm put together to coordinate with the projects in Color Essentials.  It is BEAUTIFUL! While I wait for mine I thought I'd share the colors included there with you courtesy of Madame Samm.  They are:  1216, 1482, 1228, 189, 1706, 1392 , 357, 1285, 152, 1513, 1173, and 184.  I did use many of these same threads in the projects in the book (so much so I've very little left to show) - in case you plan to order any I like 28 wt. for appliqué and 50 wt. for piecing.

The entire book was sewn on the Bernina 580 - I love that machine!  It is a real work horse and can do so, so many things.  And the large projects were quilted beautifully by Deborah Norris.  Thanks, Deborah!

Goodness, what else?  Oh yes, I now have advance copies of Color Essentials in my store if you are interested.  I ship to the U.S. and Canada at this point and there is free shipping in the U.S..  For international customers, please contact your nearest shop - they should be able to place an order with C&T or with a distributors.

I hope you like Color Essentials!
Happy quilting and have a wonderful weekend!
Amanda

P.S.  For shops… I do not take wholesale orders but feel free to order a book to make samples if you are interested.  Wholesale orders can be placed through C&T Publishing or any of the major distributors.  It will start shipping later this month.