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

Modern Holiday Winners

Congrats to all the Modern Holiday winners from the blog tour.  Some bloggers won't announce their winners until the weekend but over here Anjeanette on Instagram and Terry Phelps on Facebook won on the last stop here.  Congratulations ladies!  Please send me your addresses...

I really wish I had Modern Holiday books to give everyone.  You all have had such lovely comments and I've so enjoyed reading them but haven't been able to respond to each one individually as I'm on a huge deadline that I'll reveal in a couple of weeks.  Maybe one day I'll be all caught up!  One can dream...

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Modern Holiday Blog Tour Day 13

It is the last day of the Modern Holiday Blog Tour.  Bloggers will be announcing winners by the end of the week if they haven't already.  The winner on the first stop of the tour here is Cecilia, who said:

I really love Christmas crafting and sewing! That is a super cute snowflake and I think I would definitely make the pillow, but in the colors of the quilt. Beautiful! 

For two last chances to win a copy of Modern Holiday:

• Like my Facebook page and comment on the Day 13 post.
• Follow me on Instagram!

I'll choose two more winners Friday.

Happy holidays a little early and thanks for following my Modern Holiday Blog Tour!

Amanda

Modern Holiday Blog Tour Day 8

In just a few hours Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter will be blogging about Modern Holiday.  I've been following Amy's blog for a few years.  She has a great eye for color (which you can see on her Flickr feed) and she is fantastic at writing posts to which all of us can relate (like this one....)

So hop on over to Diary of a Quilter for another chance to win a copy of Modern Holiday!

Amanda

Modern Holiday Blog Tour Day 7

Next up on the Modern Holiday Blog Tour is Cherry of Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio!  I actually met Cherry through Madame Samm, who had to talked to us both on the phone and thought we would become great friends.  She was right!  Since then Cherry and I have had booths at Market next to each other.  We have the same birthdays, same taste, and we even order the same food on our breaks from Market.  Kind of funny!

I wish Cherry lived closer so we could sew together but we share our work virtually all the same.  (She has the cutest bike quilt you've ever seen.)  She actually has been working on the Holiday Forest cover quilt and has teasing me with pictures of it.  I need her to stop because I don't have time to make another quilt!  Hers is so cute with the squares and greens and an added touch of red.

I can't wait for you to see it so hop on over to Cherry's blog and don't forget to enter for another chance to win a copy of Modern Holiday!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Modern Holiday Blog Tour Day 5

In just a few hours Fat Quarterly's time to blog about Christmas in July in my Modern Holiday blog tour.  Brioni from Fat Quarterly stopped by my booth at Market and was interested in doing a book review so of course I asked her to help out on this tour too.  Make sure to stop by the Fat Quarterly blog for another chance to win!

Happy sewing
Amanda

Modern Holiday Blog Tour Day 3

Next up on the Modern Holiday Blog Tour is Sara at Sew Sweetness.  I've known Sara online for years (she tested some patterns for me when I was just starting out) and she such a nice person!  She makes the most fantastic bags (and bag patterns) and is working on a book too!  When I saw her at Market in Portland I recognized her immediately because she was wearing one of her fantastic dresses.

So, if you aren't familiar with Sew Sweetness make sure to check it out and if you are familiar with it, make sure you hop on over for another chance to enter to win a copy of Modern Holiday.

Happy sewing!
Amanda

P.S.  If you are in the Charlotte area I'll be speaking at the Charlotte Quilt Guild tomorrow night (Wednesday) about embellishment ideas for your holiday projects...

Modern Holiday Blog Tour Day 2

First up on the Modern Holiday Blog Tour after Stash Books is Madame Samm and her fantastically popular blog Sew We Quilt.  Make sure to hop on over and check out what she has been up to, how she decorates her tree, and get another chance to win another copy of Modern Holiday!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Firecracker

I'm so excited because it is my day to contribute a block design to Madame Samm's Red, White, and Blue blog hop at Sew We Quilt!  Mine is called "Firecracker".  (And, yes, there is a giveaway - see the bottom of this post!)


( sorry I was late, I got Mdm Samm to post it for me, I forgot to schedule it ..thanks everyone)

It is a 12-1/2'' block that can be arranged to form this...

I actually paper-pieced Firecracker.  You can find the pattern here.
You'll need to enlarge the pattern to 200% and trace it onto paper-piecing paper.  The template looks like this.  The outer solid lines indicate trim lines and the dashed lines right inside them indicate seam lines in the finished block.

When you enlarge the pattern Section A will JUST fit onto a sheet of 8-1/2'' x 11'' paper.  Just center it so that you have a 1/4'' seam allowance on both sides when you trace. You'll need scraps of red, white, and blue fabric, and scraps of white background fabric.  You'll also need two white rectangles 4-1/2'' x 8-1/2''.  I chose to use red fabric for pieces A4 and C1 and D1.  A5, A1, B1, and D4 were various shades of blue.  The rest of the pieces was white.  (The blues I used were from "Blue Eden", designed by Maria Kalinowsky for Bernatex.  The red was from my stash and I used Kona White Organic cotton.)

I pieced each section using a traditional paper-piecing method. (Note that, in the photos below, the lower section labeled A4 should have been labeled A5 - my mistake!)

You get the idea...

I then pieced Sections A, B, and C together into 1 unit.
And pieced this unit with Section D and the two white rectangles to form a block.

I love it in red, white, and blue, but it would also be really dynamic in bright assorted colors - oranges, pinks, and greens.

I hope you enjoy Firecracker!

And don't forget to visit the other bloggers who are making up fun, red, white, and blue treats!
Today the bloggers will be:

• QuilterShelia
• The Slow Quilter
• Creativity Amongst Chaos
• Diane P
• Mochawildchild

 You can find a full schedule of all the blogs here at Jane's Fabric and Quilts.

And now for the giveaway...  I'll be giving away the winner's choice of 5 patterns in my pattern line to one person who comments on this post.  (I haven't updated my website to reflect the two newest yet, but Cupcake Countdown and Square Dance are also fair game.)  To enter, just leave me a comment on this post telling me what your favorite color combination is... at least currently.  (Mine changes almost every day.)  Please consdier becomign a follower or subscribing to my Feedburner feed if you haven't already.

The giveaway deadline is this Wednesday, the 11th, at midnight.

Happy sewing!

Amanda