Ornamental" - a Topiary Table Topper

I was so excited when I opened my mail yesterday and found my "Ornamental" table topper design in my Topiary line for Blend Fabrics in the July/August issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting!  It is such a fun (and quick) design to sew and - guess what - they will be offerings a kit!!!  (I don't think it is up yet, but soon!  Magazines will be on newsstands in mid-June.)

I used 28 wt. Aurifil thread for the appliqué and 50 wt. for the quilting.

On Friday I will show you some sneak peeks from my next line!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Holiday Bouquet Table Topper

In the November/December issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting...

My Holiday Bouquet Table Topper.  I've had a couple dozen emails the past few days about where to locate this line of fabric for this pattern.  I do get sales reports of how many yards are sold, but I don't get a list of the shops that place the orders.  Your best bet is to call local stores in your area and see if they stock my lines.  If they don't, please recommend that they start!  Blend Fabrics is a subsidary of Anna Griffin so they might also know the company by that name.  If all else fails you can call Blend's toll free number (855-817-060) and ask them to look up a store in your area that placed an order.

I've also seen the prints at various internet sites, although the cream blender can be hard to find.  If you can't locate it a generic cream blender would work.

The effect of the center medallion was created by fussy-cutting these medallion prints...

And the ornaments were fussy-cut from these prints...

The entire thing was assembled like a layered Dresden-Plate, similar to the way I created the Easter Table Topper for Bernina.

I can't believe the holidays will be upon us in just a couple of months!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Bella's Garden yardage and a magazine giveaway

Hi everyone,

I've had so many emails this weekend from people looking to find Bella fabric to make Bella's Garden. No, I don't have any kits unfortunately.  There just aren't enough hours in every day for me to stock, inventory, and cut fabric in addition to designing so I leave that to the wonderful quilt shops.  Unfortunately this was a few collections back so you might need to do some searching, but I have seen it  in shops.  I know that my local shop, Sew Much Fun, in Lowell, NC has some yardage, and I've seen it online too.

What is can do is provide you with SKU information.  I went back through my design notes and this is what I found and I reconciled them with Fons and Porter's directions.  If you want to see what the fabrics look like up close, visit my fabric page.


Gold print for the background - this is actually a creamy color (115.101.06.1): 1-½ yards
Turquoise print for the sashing, outer border, and binding (115.101.04.2): 2-¼ yards
Turquoise large scale strip for the sashing - this is actually the medallion print in the Bella collection, not a true stripe (115.101.03.2): 1-½ yards
Pink print for pieced rows and large yo-yos - I’d describe this as an orange and pink circle design (115_101_07_1):  ⅝ yard
Dark pink print for inner border, petals, and small yo-yos (115.101.08.1): - 3/8 yard
Green print for pieced rows (115.101.02.2):  ⅝ yard
Light green print for stems and leaves -  (115_101_04_1):  1 fat quarter (or 1/2 yard if you prefer to make bias bars, as I did in the original, rather than curvy applique shapes)
Blue print for pieced rows (115_101_06_2):  3/8 yard
Orange print for petals and small yo-yos (115.101.05.1): 1 fat quarter


Bonjour, Mon Ami, one of my more current collections for Blend Fabrics, plays very nicely with Bella, so you may be able to draw from it to produce a lovely quilt as well.  Hope this helps!

Also, Fons and Porter sent me a couple of extra issues that I thought I would pass on to you all, so if you would like to enter to win a copy leave a comment on this post telling me what color you think should be the "color of the year" for 2014.  No research - just your personal opinion.  Deadline is this Wednesday night, August 28th.

Happy sewing!
Amanda

"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!

"White Chocolate"

Another of my Swiss Chocolate quilt, "White Chocolate", appears in Fons and Porter's Easy Quilts Summer Issue.

Directions didn't fit in the magazine, but if you are subscriber, you can go over to their website and download them.

I wish you could see the quilting on this in more detail. Janice Hayes did a fantastic job on this one. The brown bars look dimensional, the crea print is heaiviy quilted, and there is a flower motif quilted in each central block.  I will post a picture from the back once it arrives home.

I am washing and ironing at least a hundred yards of fabric this weekend. Literally. Can't wait to cut into it!

Happy sewing (or maybe ironing too)!
Amanda