Beribboned!

Hot on the heels of Bedazzled, is her sister Beribboned!

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This is another interlocking design, which features two fabrics that cascade down the quilt top like interlocking ribbons.  (If you follow the pressing directions, all seams lock, which makes it really simple to put together.)  It uses only 2 blocks and they are simple!

This time I used a white background with 3 Kona Brights charm packs, but you could use prints too!  Oh - please send pictures!

As always, Deborah Norris did a fantastic job with the quilting...

Look how she used both ribbon colors in the quilting so the green pops on the pink and vice versa!



Looking down the ribboned rows...



I really love the litttle echoed feathers that curve around themselves in the background.  Really, really love them.  Thanks, Deborah!

Beribboned measures 74" x 94" will be available to ship in mid-November.  Here is what you need to make her:

• Semicircles - 96 (4”) squares (3 Kona® Bright Charm Packs)
• Background - 3-3/4 yards (Kona® 1387 White)
• Ribbons Color A - 1-1/4 yards (Kona® 199 Cactus)
• Ribbons Color B - 1-1/4 yards (Kona® 1062 Candy Pink)
• Inner Border - 1/2 yard (Kona® 1295 Pomegranate)
• Middle Border - 3/4 yard (Kona® 23 Lemon)
• Outer Border - 1-3/8 yard (Kona® 199 Cactus)
• Binding - 3/4 yard for straight grain binding or 1-1/8 yard for bias binding (Kona® 199 Cactus)
• Backing 5-1/2 yards - (Kona® 1062 Candy Pink)
• Fusible Web 3 yards - (24” wide Warm Company® Steam-A-Seam 2)
• Tear-Away Stabilizer - 3 yards (Sulky® Tear-Easy Stabilizer)
• Appliqué Thread - 30 wt. Sulky® cotton appliqué thread

Next up... "Bejeweled".  Think yo-yos.  Lot and lots of yo-yos.  A really good quilt to travel with.
But, before then we have another Quilters Newletter giveaway so I'll be back tomorrow!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Do you feel my pain?

Has anyone ever, in the process of squaring up the edges of a quilt that has been expertly quilted, misaligned their ruler so that there were four inches of border on one side and only three on the other and made a cut before realizing it?

OH YES I DID!  My daughter heard my moans of anquish from across the room (where she was pressing blocks for another top) and came over and looked.  She said, "Oh my."  I just groaned incoherantly on the floor.

So, now I am faced with either a) making the border narrower OR b) zigzagging an inch or so into the quilt to secure the damage.  I am leaning toward the latter as I think I love my border more than some delusion that future generations will consider me an expert quilter.  (The quilting itself was done by Deborah Norris - didn't she do a fabulous job?  She accentuated the blossoms shapes and did freehand flowers and vines on the background.)

I will zigzag in yellow to match the border and it will be okay.  This is what I am telling myself.  This is actually the first quilt to be finished from the pattern line I'm debuting at Market, so I think it is fitting that it be marked insome special way - and I have certainly found a method to put my unique stamp on it.  (If you are at Market, please stop by booth 2224 to meet the unfortunate victim of my rotary cutter - and to meet the antagonist in this saga.)

On another note, lots of quilters devote time to teaching young people how to sew and I think that is great. (Julie, of Jaybird Quilts, recently blogged about helping a girl scout troop with a project and Allison, of Cluck Cluck Sew, wrote about a great project involving fabric and lots of glue that she did with her young son.)   Although it does certainly take more time to produce quilts with young children "helping" (I have secretly unstitched many a seam to make blocks fit together) I can vouch for the fact that, in the end, giving new, enthusastic sewers confidence in their growing skills certainly pays off.  I am currently reaping the benefits of having an expert 12 year old sewer in the house.  (She is my preferred helper in everything sewing-related - and is much better at it than most adults.)  When she was six or seven she helped by running zigzag stitches around blocks that I was going to applique.  (My ten year old son, incidentally, is an expert in ripping stabilizer off of the backs of quilts - there is something for everyone, even the destruction-proned.  Yes, he obviously gets that from me.)  So if you have a son, daughter, niece or nephew in your life, find a project that they can do an help them discover the joy of working with their hands in this digital age.  And if anyone out there has some fantastic ideas about projects that are suitable and enjoyable for young sewers, please share.  I'd love to hear what everyone is doing!

Now it is time to have my daughter help me with that zigzag stitch.  Happy sewing!

Amanda

An Inspirational Quilter

Diane Rose woman is amazing and so inspirational.  Take a look...

"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

Templates and buttons

Look what I found over the weekend at Sew Much Fun...

They have a lovely sheen and coordinate perfectly with my collection that will debut at Market - both the warm and cool color stories!  Can't wait to design with them.

I also picked up these new charm square templates.  They are 5" so would work perfectly with charms or ten squares. 

I'm interested in seeing how they can be used in combination with eachother. What a great idea for precuts!  (But also for scraps, which we have a lot of around here.)  I'll be posting some small, simple projects as I experiment with these tools.

Hope you had a good weekend!
Amanda

Swiss Chocolate complimentary pattern - in a kit!

Wondrous Woven Fabrics is selling kits for my complimentary pattern for Swiss Chocolate for Robert Kaufman! 

You can find the pattern here...

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Swiss Chocolate is shipping today! (and a sneak peek at a new quilt)

Hi everyone!

February 20th is the "official" shipping date of Swiss Chocolate.  Of couse, it is Sunday, so that would mean Monday is the official shipping date.  Then again, tomorrow is President's Day, so maybe Tuesday is the date.  At any rate, it should be showing up in stores soon.

To celebrate, I do have a new quilt from this collection to share with you.  "A Box of Chocolates" is in the April/May 2011 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts, which is starting to ship to subscribers now and will be in newsstands in early March.  

At 76-1/2" x 94-1/2", it is a great size for a bed, and quite simple to make.  I really had fun laying this one out.  Kimberly at Fat Quarter Shop was kind enough to put together some kits for this quilt, along with some cuts of backing fabric, which is the caramel-colored tone on tone print you see on the front of the quilt.  They'll be shipping in a couple of weeks, but you can sign up to be notified when everything is ready at her site.

If you prefer to make it in mocha (blue and caramel color story), you'll need the following:

• 2 yards brown swirl print (sashing)- AAM-10930-174
• 3/4 yard cream print (border)- AAM-10930-15
• 1 yard cream/blue strip (binding)(AAM-10925-227)
• 3/4 yard tapestry - AAM-10926-227
• 3/4 yard blossoms - AAM-10928-227
• 3/4 yard melted swirls - AAM-10930-227
• 3/4 yard medallions - AAM-10929-227
• 3/4 yard scrollwork - AAM-10927-227
• 3/4 yard tone-on-tone floral - AAM-10931-227
• 3/4 yard feathers - AAM-10932-227
• 3/4 yard tone-on-tone Floral - AAM-10931-14

You'll still need to purchase the April/May version of Quick Quilts, and you can use the same backing fabric that Kimberly offers for the red and brown kit.

Also, I was ever able to get in contact with Carol to claim her Ambrosia giveaway prize, so I've used the Random Number Generator to pick a new winner.

Mary said:

I am doing Blockapalooza, and decided to come to your blog after seeing what you have done there. I'm embarrassed to say I wasn't aware of your work before that, but I am, after all, a "noob!" Anyway, I just wanted you to know I'm not just following you because you are giving away free fabric!

Having said that, Ambrosia is SO up my alley, and that Yo Yo pillow pattern is delicious!

Thanks Mary - and don't feel badly - my first collection of quilting fabrics came out this past year!  Isn't the blog-a-palooza program fun?

Happy sewing, everyone!
Amanda

Blog-A-Paloozing (Part 2)

While working on some new lines and patterns, I've been having fun "blog-a-paloozing" with some other quilters out there.  A new blocks gets posted each Mondays and Thursday.  It is has been a great oportunity to try out my new Swiss Chocolate line. 

I think that I said in an interview that the "tapestry gone wild" is my favorite print, but in the last few blocks I really had fun fussy cutting the blossoms fabric, so it is running a close second...

Hop on over to the blog-a-palooza page to join in on the fun. You can see all the great work that people have done so far on the flickr group. (You can get the fabrics shown above at the Fat Quarter Shop, or use ones from your stash!)

Amanda

Robert Kaufman's (and my) Swiss Chocolate patterns and another giveaway!

Sherri of "A Quilting Life" has been dreaming up a recipe in Swiss Chocolate that I just can't wait to see.  She should be posting later on today and the best part is that SHE HAS ANOTHER SWISS CHOCOLATE GIVEAWAY FOR YOU, so head on over to her site!  Of course, you also still have time to enter Ryan's giveaway on I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts and the Ambrosia giveaway on this site. 

Robert Kaufman asks me to do a complimentary pattern for them for every collection.  Since Swiss Chocolate comes in Roll-Ups and Ten Squares, I designed a pattern that uses both precuts and incorporates all the fabrics.  (Swiss Chocolate Roll-Ups and Ten Squares will be available at Fat Quarter Shop at the end of the month.  They have yardage now, but are waiting on precuts.)

"Swiss Chocolate" for Robert Kaufman

Here is another complimentary pattern for a chocolate pincushion to make with the leftovers.... 

Hope you enjoy!

Amanda

"A Rows Garden" in Quilts and More

Introducing "A Rows Garden", in this Spring 2011 issue of Quilts and More...

Didn't they do a wonderful job photographing that quilt? My daughter and I are swooning over the purple walls and yellow bed. LOVE LOVE LOVE the yellow bed! "A Rows Garden" is a bed-sized quilt that is simple to put together. The blocks are quite big and the fabric does most of the work for you. It features prairie points on the top and bottom. If you at all skittish about trying them, they really aren't hard. I took some photos of the process while making this quite, which you can find here and here...

Oh - and Robert Kaufman put in the sweetest candy bar add using my mocha colorway of Swiss Chocolate on another page in this issue - look...

The top two photos in this post sit on a backdrop of my newest Ambrosia design, in which I pieced the Lazy Angle blocks. No instructions are available as of yet (soon, if I can get my act together), but here is a sneak peek...

Have a wonderful weekend and happy sewing!
Amanda

"Caramel and Cocoa" in American Patchwork and Quilting

It's been so hard to keep these Swiss Chocolate quilts secret and I finally can let this one, at least, out of the bag.  My quilt "Caramel and Cocoa" is in the April issue of American Patchwork and Quilting!  (Yes, I am pinching myself.)

This is a really fun, easy quilt to sew.  The tapered panels and bargello pattern give it movement and sophistication.  The Swiss Chocolate collection just screamed for a bargello quilt, and now it has one!

Fat Quarter Shop is offering kits for this quilt in the chocolate (brown, pink, and red) color story.  (Thanks Kimberly!)  If you prefer the "mocha", blue and caramel, color story, you can order yardage separately for that there too.  Here is the information you will need:

Caramel and Cocoa in blue (sans Cocoa)

• 5/8 yard tapestry (AAM-10926-227)
• 5/8 yard blossoms (AAM-10928-227)
• 5/8 yard scrollwork (AAM-10927-227)
• 5/8 yard medallions (AAM-10929-227)
• 5/8 yard feathers (AAM-10932-227)
• 5/8 yard tone-on-tone floral (AAM-10931-14)
• 1-1/4 yard melted swirls (AAM-10930-227) for rows and binding
• 1-7/8 yard light fabric (melted swirls - AAM-10930-15)
• 1-7/8 yard dark fabric (melted swirls - AAM10930-174)
• 5-1/4 yards backing fabric - choose your favorite of the above!

Hope that helps!  Back with another quilt tomorrow - happy sewing!

Amanda

Fat Quarterly's Swiss Chocolate Roll-Up Giveaway!

Fat Quarterly is hosting a Swiss Chocolate Roll-Up Giveaway!  (And so am I - for a second chance to win see details below.) 

In celebration of this giveaway I have written up a recipe with this goody for my exclusive Chocolate Torte!
You can make it in rich, decadent chocolate...

Or with a hint of mocha...

To hear more of my blabbering and to download the recipe, visit Fat Quarterly's site.

You can enter the giveaway there as well.  For a second chance to win,

1. Become a follower of my blog.
2. After becoming a follower (or if you already are one), leave me one comment on this post saying you've done so and tell me which flavor of my torte (chocolate or mocha) you prefer.  Maybe even tell me what you would make with this collection, but that is not required - I'm just curious!  (MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE A WAY FOR ME TO CONTACT YOU SHOULD YOU WIN.) 

The deadline for the giveaway will be Saturday, February 5th. 

If you'd like some Swiss Chocolate, please ask your local shop to order it from Robert Kaufman Fabrics.  (Fat Quarter Shop has yardage too, but no one has a roll-up yet, so if you win, you'll be the first!)  Swiss Chocolate ships February 20th!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Patchwork Bouquet

Introducing "Patchwork Bouquet", another complimentary pattern I designed for Robert Kaufman using their new line of Artisan Batiks - Emma.  It would work well in a wide variety of fabrics.  You can download it off of Robert Kaufman's site.



Patchwork Bouquet  (Scrappy)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Lapis)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Petal)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Olive)




Patchwork Bouquet  (Peony)


Happy sewing!

One more note:  I have sold out of "Garden Beds" quilt kits already, but you can order the fabric for this kit  from Fabric Shack as they are carrying the entire line.

Kona Dots!

Robert Kaufman's site is featuring a new complimentary pattern called "Kona Dots" that I designed for their Kona solids.  (The instructions were written by Heidi Pridemore - thank Heidi!) 

Kona Dots (original color scheme)

The quilt is 74" x 74".  There are alternative instructions for a rectangular quilt that is 52" x 62", but - as you can see - this quilt can be easily adjusted to just about any size.  (Due to a mistake of mine, the actual instructions show one less row of blocks in the graphic right now, but you get the general idea.)

I wanted to show you some alternative color combinations.  Don't you love the range of Kona solids?

Kona Dots (spring)



Kona Dots (summer)


 

Kona Dots (autumn - option 1)

 
 

Kona Dots (autumn - option 2)

Kona Dots (winter - option 1)



Kona Dots (winter - option 2)


 
If any of you Kona solids fans out there create something fantastic with this patterns, I'd love to see it.

Happy sewing!