Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 9

Announcement:  The winner of the fat quarter bundle and magazine over here is Amy DeCesare and the winner over on my instagram account is crazyquiltlena.  Congratulations, ladies!  Send me your snail mail addresses and I'll get them out to you.  Thanks to everyone for the helpful comments - you've given me so many ideas!

It is Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks time again and today is my day blog about my block and have a giveaway!

Can you guess the inspiration for my block?  It kind of knocks you over the head, doesn't it? It is my fabric line, "Topiary" for Blend Fabrics, which, in turn, is inspired by the gardens of the South. (I'd show you a picture of my garden, but I have whatever is opposite of a green thumb, so that's no fun...)

I wanted to do a  simple-to-sew appliqué block so I chose one of the trees I drew for this line and enlarged it quite a bit, then added borders and corners so that it would create a diamond pattern when joined with its neighbors.

So... onto the giveaway.  Quiltmaker is giving a copy of the magazine to one of you and I'm throwing in a fat quarter bundle of Topiary!  To enter, leave me a comment letting me know what colors you'd most like to see in a quilt collection for a boy.  (I know this is off-topic considering the style of the fabric in this block... but I'm curious.)  And I'll also be picking an additional winner from my instagram followers so if you don't follow me there already please consider it.  (My user name over there is amandamurphydesign.)  The deadline to enter is this Friday, May 2nd, at midnight.

They have lots of other great prizes over on the Quiltmaker blog so make sure to stop by!  (Including a grand prize at the end of the week that has both my books, as well as all sorts of other goodies!)

Happy sewing.

Love Birds and Forever (and SVG files) are now available as downloads for my international customers!

I've gotten lots of requests from international customers to make my patterns available as downloads too so that they can purchase them easily, so I've decided to try this out for my most recent two patterns - Love Birds and Forever.

Of course, I would always ask that you support your local shop and buy there is possible, but this is an easy solution for those who don't have a shop in their area.

Best of all, I've put up a new Downloads page on my site, where you can download the SVG field for both patterns FOR FREE.  (Of course, you will still need to purchase the pattern to put it together.)  It is something new I'm trying with the growing popularity of fabric cutters on the market.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Sundance Quilt: Part 3

Hi there!  I hope everyone had a happy Easter.  I was able to squeeze in a little bit of sewing today (right in time for this post) and I hope you were too!

Luckily it was really simple.  I put together the embroidered blocks for my new Sundance quilt (available through your BERNINA dealer) - this time I'm sewing in my Topiary line for Blend Fabrics.  The final quilt will look like this...

The SKUs for this quilt are listed as "Option 3" here, in case you are interested.  I decided to embroider the central block using more pink to draw one's eye.

I got so excited to see them sewn together I forgot to wash out the water-soluble stabilizer before hitting them with an iron.  Whoops!  So there is a little puckering but it will wash out of the final piece.

I can't wait to make the rest of the quilt! And if you're sewing along, I'd love to see yours.  Post to Instagram with the hashtags #berninausa #sundancequilt.

Happy sewing!
Amanda

In time for Easter... just!

Almost two years ago now I wrote a free complementary pattern for BERNINA that incorporated embroidery and specialty stitches on the BERNINA 580.  At the time, I liked the project so much I pieced two - one for them and one for me!  I had so much fun playing with specialty stitches I just couldn't stop making the eggs that border the design.

Of course, you know how it goes... I finished theirs and mine languished by the website.  Really, all I had to do was quilt it but I didn't have the time.

I'm sure you guys don't have any projects sitting around like that, right?
Most of the fabrics used are by Lauren and Jessie Jung for Moda.

Well I finally finished it!  Hee hee.  It only took me two years.  You can find the pattern here but you need to email me to get the embroidery file.  (I'm hoping to post a solution for that soon.)

I hope you all have a lovely Easter week!

Happy sewing!
Amanda