Ladybug Picnic! (And a giveaway too)

The winner of this giveaway is Kathy S., who likes lilacs.  Thanks to everyone for participating!

Well, it is day 4 of Sew We Quilt's Perfect Picnic blog hop and it is my day to post!

We had a "Ladybug Picnic"!  (Does any other child of the seventies remember a song by that name?  I think it was on Sesame Street maybe?)

This quilt was inspired by the ladybugs that always make their way into our daughter's room for two week in the spring.  They love her sunny window but drive her crazy!

I was interested in contrasting the traditional appliqué ladybugs and blooms with something really modern and came up with a herringbone idea.  I wanted the herringbone blocks to lead your eye travel around the quilt and be bold in scale - really quite different from the style of the appliqué.  (I thought about doing the herringbone blocks scrappy, but in the end I decided to make them symmetrical.  One could really do it either way.)

Because the motifs were fairly bold, I kept the colors soft.  The fabrics are from my Bella, Topiary, and Bonjour Mon Ami lines for Blend Fabrics, and some Vanessa Christenson prints, all thrown together.  I'm thinking that I might put this together as a PDF-only pattern - what do you think?

Riley Blake makes this wonderful polka-dot laminate in a variety of colors. The aqua matches perfectly.  I pieced it and turned under the edges and tacked it on the back of the quilt.  That way I can just remove it when it might need a wash!

For our picnic we had homemade lattes and sweet potato apple muffins!

And of course you have to choose a game that matches your quilt so it had to be Quads... (You can see the embroidered accents on the ladybugs in this shot.)

Now for the giveaway.  I'm going to be giving away a copy of my new pattern, "Flower Power".  Just leave me a comment on this post telling me what your favorite flower is, okay?  Deadline is the end of the blog hop - Monday the 9th at midnight.

Thanks so much to Cori from Chitter Chatter Designs, Mary from I Piece 2-Mary, Riley Blake Designs, and Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt for making this blog hop possible.  Don't forget to stop by and see all of the wonderful entries on the bloghop!

Monday June 2

Sew Incredibly Crazy

How Art You?

The Reluctant Quilter at Hazelnut Deux

GrammieQ's

I Piece 2 -Mary

Pig Tales and Quilts

Tuesday June 3

Ridge Top Quilts

A Stitch in Time

Quilting in a Not Shell

Just Let Me Quilt

Creativity Amongst Chaos

Wednesday June 4

Quilt Taffy

Pampered Pettit

Creatin' in the Sticks

Miss Priss Quilts

Life in the Scrapatch

That's Sew Julie

Thursday June 5

Ella and Nesta's Little Room

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Jane's Quilting

Amanda Murphy Design

Quilting Quietly

Words & Stitches

Childlike Fascination

Friday June 6

Quiltscapes

More Stars in Comanche

Stitchin' By The Lake

Life, Quilts and a Cat Too

Kris Loves Fabric

In The Boon Docks

Living with Purpose

Monday June 9

Cherry Blossoms

The Quilting Queen Online

Mad Quilter's Disease

Daisy Days

Buzzing and Bumbling

From My Carolina Home

Sew We Quilt

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Sundance Quilt: Part 1

Hi everybody,

Yardage for my Topiary collection from Blend Fabrics arrived just over a week ago and I've been busy planning how I want to use it for my new version of my Sundance quilt that I'm going to sew along with BERNINA fans everywhere.  (Sundance is a quilt I designed for BERNINA that is available exclusively through their dealerships.  If your dealer is in the US they already have access to the directions, and BERNINA is hard at work trying to arrange it to be available through their international dealers as well, so keep asking and stay tuned!)

Here is the original version of the Sundance quilt in my "Bonjour, Mon Ami" collection…

Sundance in (mostly) Bonjour, Mon Ami

And here are the Topiary options I've been playing with…

Sundance in Topiary (Option 1)

Sundance in Topiary (Option 2)

Sundance in Topiary (Option 3)

I think I'm leaning toward Option 1, but what do you all think?  If interested, you can access the SKUs I used for these versions here...

For shops looking to order the Topiary collection please call Blend Fabrics at 1-855-817-0604.  And don't forget to let me know you ordered Topiary so I can add you to my list!

For all of your quilters out there, I will be keeping a list of shops that are stocking all 15 SKUs of the Topiary collection.  I added a special section to the top right sidebar of my blog to start.

Remember, if you are sewing the quilt, to note #berninausa #sundancequilt to share your fabric choices on Instagram!  You don't have to do it in my fabrics - choose whatever strikes your fancy!  (My local shop, Sew Much Fun, in Lowell, NC, is doing this quilt in batiks and I just can't wait to see it!)

Happy quilting!
Amanda

P.S.  I'm sorry, but I can't sell the directions to Sundance to anyone directly as per the terms of my agreement with BERNINA.  I do have another Block-of-the-month called Under the Veranda available also in Topiary.  You can find it here.  If you are a shop you can contact me directly to place a wholesale order for that pattern or order it through any of the major distributors.

Window Boxes

This winner of this giveaway, according to the random number generator, is PK Sews!  Congratulations!

Window Boxes is a fun, modern design that I pieced this summer for Quilters Newsletter Best Modern Quilts Issue.  I'm so excited to be able to share it with you here today as part of the last day their blog tour, for which they have generously sponsored a giveaway of both a magazine and a Jolie fat quarter bundle by Anna Griffin!

Some of the larger wonky windows sport just a bit of appliqué!

Window Boxes is sewn in a combination of my "Bella" and "Bonjour, Mon Ami" lines for Blend Fabrics.  I used Aurifil thread for the piecing and appliqué and Warm and White batting.  My good friend Cherry Guidry of Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio, quilted the fun floral pattern.

"Jolie" fat quarter bundle by Anna Griffin

To enter the giveaway of a copy of the magazine and the Jolie fat quarter bundle simply leave a comment telling me about a quilting project you are currently enjoying or are excited about starting.  Deadline is tonight (Friday the 17th of January) at midnight.  One entry per person please.

And be sure to stop by Quilters Newsletter and another designer on the tour, Janet Jo Smith (a little bird told me it was her birthday today so be sure to wish her "happy birthday"), for more chances to win prizes!


Happy quilting and have a great weekend!
Amanda

P.S.  Please join me on Instagram at "amandamurphydesign"!

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

New Patterns for 2013 Spring Market!

Hi everyone!  Don't you love seeing all the new things that came out at Quilt Market?  They are some of my favorite blog posts to read.  I put out five new patterns at Market and I really hope you like them!

Because I was showing an embroidery collection this Market, Modern Blossoms, a Brewer Sewing exclusive digitized by OESD, all of my new patterns feature optional use of embroidered motifs.  Of course, you don't need to use my embroidery collection to make these patterns.  You can use another embroidery collection or you can also use feature prints instead of embroidery, but I wanted to design pattern in which you COULD use a light amount of embroidery for added interest and texture if you chose to do so.  I used my new Bonjour, Mon Ami collection with Blend Fabrics for four out of the five patterns.  I also used Kona cotton for all five designs.  (Ordering info is at the bottom of this post.)

First up is Soda Pop!  This pattern is a Brewer exclusive designed to celebrate Modern Blossoms' debut with Brewer Sewing and I had so much fun making it.  Brewer put their version of this design, sewn in solids, on the cover of the embroidery collection - you can see it at the bottom of this post.

Soda Pop has free form circles that are either cut out of feature prints or feature embroidery.  And it is so much fun to applique them in contrasting thread!

Next is Whirl.  It is sewn out of Bella along with Kona Cottons and some Vanessa Christenson prints.  It is super simple to piece since you sew strip sets, cut them into Kaleidescope blocks, and place them on point.  Embroidery is just used as little cornerstone accents, but you can also use a feature print.

Then we have Manhattan.  It is a 2-1/2'' strip friendly quilt that is super-easy to put together.  Again, the sample is sewn with Bonjour, Mon Ami.  And you could use embroidery for the square accents or you could fussy-cut a panel or feature print.  There are lots of possibilities.

All three new quilts were quilted by Jenn Reeve of Honu Quilting and she did a great job - thanks Jenn!

I designed a couple of smaller project as well this time.  They are great for little gifts with feature prints or just if you want to do a little project to experiment with the embroidery features of your machine.  In fact, if you embroider a test for a larger quilt don't throw it out!  Set it aside to use for a small project.

This is my fat-quarter-friendly On the Go zippered pouch.  Yes, I did say zippered but it is so easy!!!  You quilt a rectangle of fabric used for the bag body, attach the pocket, and then insert the zipper while the bag is still flat!  You literally just sew right down the middle of the zipper tape.  Then you sew up the two sides and you are done.

Our daughter has claimed the aqua and brown version.  That's my favorite too!  (Secretly that brown Bonjour, Mon Ami print is my favorite in the collection.)

Brewer markets a Bosal fusible base for both placemats and a table runner so they asked me to design a pattern for those products.  Of course, you can also use regular batting so this is just one option.  Again, I wanted to make things scrappy but feature optional areas for feature prints or embroidery.  Here is A Modern Table.

I hope you like the new patterns!

And then, of course, I was also showing Modern Holiday and Modern Blossoms in my booth....

A number of people wrote me requesting to see the back of the case so that they could see all the motifs.  My scan isn't great but here is is.

If you live near a local shop and would like to purchase my books, patterns, or embroidery CD please support them and request that they order my products for you.  It is really important that we support our local shops!  If, on the other hand, you can't seem to locate my products I do have some exciting news.  Lots of people have written to me asking where they can find one specific pattern and I don't always know because most of my patterns are sold through distributors.  So now I have opened a shop where you can purchase my products.  Hop on over and see what you think.

I'm expecting advance copies of Modern Holiday,  Modern Blossoms  and all five new patterns the first week in June.  So they aren't available yet but you can place pre-orders if you would like and yours will be the first to ship.  All pattterns that were already in my line are available.  I'm currently shipping to the US and Canada and shipping in the US is free.

Hope you enjoy the new patterns!

Happy sewing!
Amanda