Tag Archives: quilt kits

Working with Cooking Up Quilts!

Hello everyone! Just popping in this morning to share a project that Beth Sellers and I ‘cooked up’. As you know, I love to support many of the talented quilt designers in our community by selling their patterns in the shop. My preference is to purchase directly from them whenever I can, as opposed to through a distributor. It helps the designer a tiny bit financially and allows me to get to know the person too. A total win-win.

Recently I placed an order with Cooking Up Quilts to restock some patterns that had sold out in the shop. Her patterns are lots of fun, not terribly complicated and her directions are so clear and easy to follow; making them popular items in my shop.

When the last order arrived and I was able to take an even closer look at Summer Rain, I thought it would look great with a set of layer cakes I have in the shop called Spring Blue. Summer Rain is designed to be used with a layer cake. Spring Blue features blue and white tones with soft florals, birds and butterflies. The bundle is so pretty and with a light background and dark blue corner stones, it just works perfectly! I contacted Beth at Cooking Up Quilts to get her opinion and she agreed.

Beth quickly did a rendering of what the quilt might look like with the fabrics in the bundle. Isn’t it lovely? After seeing the rendering, I decided to add the kit to the shop.

The dark blue used for the cornerstones and binding is very saturated. I think it best to prewash it to prevent any dye issues since it will be placed directly next to the white background. Both the white and blue fabrics are subtle tone-on-tones from the Urban Legend line by Blank Quilt Co.

Here is another rendering Beth provided. This one has a more organized layout. Are you into the random look of the first photo or this structured look? (I love them both!)

Many thanks to Beth for working with me on this kit and for the wonderful patterns she creates! Hope you will take a look at the kit and let me know what you think. Thank you so much, Beth, for your help with this project!!

Camden Road QAL – New Kits!

Being the start of the new year, there are all sorts of fun quilting challenges, projects and quilt alongs to take part in. Today is the kick off of a fun quilt along, the Camden Road QAL. Hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs and Cindy of Hyacinth Designs, this might be just the project to start your new year right. The pace is a bit quicker than Cheryl’s Mosaic Mystery QAL which I have been sewing along with since late summer. As you can see in the picture above, the Camden Road pattern is gorgeous!

Prints from this kit are a burst of color!

Cheryl, the designer of the Camden Road pattern, curated several kits and asked if I would stock them. She based the kits on a floral print by Pat Bravo called Femme Metale Boho. (This vivid print with berry, teal blue and orange is available in the shop). From there she gathered other Art Gallery prints that look fantastic with the Femme Metale print. These kits are helpful for quilters who don’t enjoy putting their fabrics together.

Each kit creates a different look depending on the background fabrics used. For the purposes of this post, I am showing the kits in the smallest size of Camden Road – finishing out at 45 1/2″ square. The pattern also has options for a lap size and twin size quilt. What do you think of the version above with its mint green and off-white background fabrics?

Here it is with a background in Macadamia and Linen, which are a soft beige with pink tones and a creamy off-white. With these background fabrics, the look is warmer.

This version is lots of fun with two print backgrounds. The teal blue has tiny plus signs and the inner background fabric is a tone on tone white dotted fabric. Using small prints like this adds movement to the overall look of the quilt.

The Camden Road pattern is fat quarter friendly, uses lots of flying geese blocks and is a sure success. Cheryl Brickey is a pro at pattern design and her instructions are very clear. Through the 28th, the Camden Road pattern is 25% off if you use the promo code, CAMDENROAD. Click here to take advantage of the sale. For more details on the quilt along, click here.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. Hope your week is off to a creative start! I took Julia back to the university yesterday and she started classes that afternoon. The holiday break went so quickly – now it is time to get back on track.

Incredible Stitches!

While I don’t have any work of my own to share this week, I do want to pop in and show you something pretty! As program coordinator for our guild, I have scheduled Cindy Needham to come teach a workshop in February for us. I scheduled this a long while back and felt fortunate even then to be worked into her full teaching/speaking schedule. Luckily for us, Cindy lives only two hours from here which made her very affordable for our guild.

Mini quilt pieced and quilted by Cindy Needham.

Anyway, on to the good stuff! When I schedule someone to teach, I always request a sample of the project they are going to teach. Guild members love to see the samples, as opposed to a picture, when deciding if they want to take the class. I believe most guilds provide samples for this reason. Cindy will be teaching a workshop on planning quilt motifs and quilting feathers. The sample above is pieced with silk. The mini measures approximately 20″ x 28″ or so (I didn’t actually measure it.) This particular piece is labeled as a Gaudynski sample as it looks to be stitched in the style developed and taught by Diane Gaudynski.

Up close, quilting by Cindy Needham

This sample is just incredible. I knew Cindy was an extremely talented quilter. But seeing it up close is such a treat. She free motion quilts and for the life of me, I cannot imagine ever quilting like this. I thought it would be a fun thing to share this beautiful stitching with you.

Quilting by Cindy Needham.

The motifs are so tiny and so detailed. It is hard to imagine having this sort of control. I tried to watch her lines, where she traveled to and from. Jaw dropping work!

Check out these feathers! Quilting by Cindy Needham

The feathers are beautiful but to me the most impressive are the petals to the right of the feathers. Those tiny spaces between each petal are stitched down with minute stitches causing the petals to pop. Same for the flat space between the feathers. Such teeny tiny stitches!

Quilting by Cindy Needham.

These look like tulips to me. I love them because they show off the silk beautifully. The whole effect overall is elegant. Pale colors of pink, rose and a really light gold all worked together. Cindy collects vintage linens and textiles and works them into much of her art. I am so looking forward to her trunk show and listening to her lecture. I will post an update in a couple of months after our February guild meeting.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks to so many of you who shopped my Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday sales! The last of those shipped out yesterday.

I am still cutting kits for the Push Pull QAL. My customers have been really patient as I ran out of the darker fabrics for both kits and had to re-order. An interesting thing of note – I offered four kits. Two teal blue kits where the quilter could choose a light or dark background and two orange kits with the light or dark background.

Every single kit sold so far has had the dark background. Not sure why this catches my attention but it does.

I am curious what your thoughts are? Maybe the transparency effect is shown better with the dark background? I like them both but clearly that is not the opinion of most! I still have a few kits left if you are interested. Click here to check them out.

It is going to be a rainy weekend so tomorrow I should be able to find some time in the sewing room. I have several holiday gifts I am working on and I need to make some progress with those! Sunday we are driving over to my son and his wife’s house for lunch. We haven’t seen them in a long while so I am excited about that! How about you?

Pillows with Faux Sherpa and Mosaic Mystery QAL Prep

It seems like more of last week was spent outside working in the garden than sewing. We had a bit of cooler weather which was a treat. I joined Ray in working outside several mornings and got several areas of the yard cleaned up. When you have a big yard it must be tackled in smaller sections. If I look at the whole, it is overwhelming and I just avoid it completely. By taking it in small portions, it is more manageable. Much like looking at a quilt top and thinking of all that needs to be quilted. Better to just start with one section and keep going, right?

I did get a few fun things done in the sewing room though. Julia and I have been shopping for fun things for her dorm room. She found out who her roommate is (a girl from Maryland) and also that she was placed in a double dorm room rather than a triple. The campuses in California are overcrowded and many of the dormitory rooms have been converted to triples with three students in them and yikes, that is a tight squeeze. She was really hoping for a traditional double and is so relieved she got one.

When we were shopping she picked out her comforter, sheets and towels. She wanted some throw pillows too. She selected a black and off-white pillow and was looking at others. Her (very) frugal mother was slightly gagging at the price of $25 each for dorm room throw pillows. Then I saw a faux sherpa pillow case at Target for $5.00. I explained I could cover a pillow form with it and she would have the same sort of pillow as the one she was looking at. Yay! Not like I needed another sewing project but this would be so quick. It was easy to convince myself to add it to the list!

As it turned out, the pillow case had an invisible zipper already placed in one end – better yet! So one pillow form fit the width perfectly – I only had to trim off some of the length and stitch up the end. Does it get any easier?

The length that was left was just enough to cover another form I had. This one had to be taken in about one inch on the width and I sewed about two inches of the long opening shut on each end. Then I hand stitched the opening shut after stuffing the form in. Hurray – two more throw pillows for $5.00 instead of $50, which makes this frugal mama happy. A quick distraction from other projects but completed in one sewing session!

My other accomplishment of late was to cut the pieces for the Mosaic Mystery QAL. This is my second mystery QAL. The first one I did was with Tish from Tish in Wonderland and you can check it out here. Of course, I am a bit of a cheater. Because I sold kits for both QAL’s in my shop, I had the picture of the finished quilt ahead of time (to be able to create the kits). So for me it is more of a regular quilt along. The two fabrics on the left are Dancing Daisies and Wild Gatherings from Art Gallery Fabrics Capsule Campsite. From there I chose two blenders to round things out.

Anyway, I am thrilled to have the cutting completed for this project. I really like the fabrics I am using for it. They will be really nice in my living room as a lap quilt. Perfect colors! Cheryl’s Mosaic Mystery QAL goes at a very relaxed pace. July was fabric selection (but I didn’t commit to joining in until mid-August). Then she released cutting instructions in the beginning of August. The first steps for piecing will be released in early September. You can see there is plenty of time for you to join in still! I am enjoying all of the quilters that are actively involved in the Facebook group for the QAL. So many gorgeous combinations are being shown. However, if you are not one for pulling fabrics for a Mystery QAL, I still have kits available in the shop. Easy peasy!! (The collection I chose for my quilt is not listed as a kit but if you happen to love it and want it, let me know. I will happily create a kit for you.)

I have also continued quilting my friend’s memory quilt. I have just a few squares left to quilt and then on to binding. I will share that soon as I get it finished up. Hope you are all doing well. Have a wonderful weekend!

Sharing this post with several link-ups, including Sandra’s DrEAMI link up at month’s end.. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Also, have you signed up for the Needle & Foot newsletter? If not, click here to sign up. It is a great way to hear about current fabrics, sales or events!

Mosaic Mystery Quilt Kits

It is the first week of July, so you know what that means, right? The annual Meadow Mist Mystery Quilt kicks off! Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs is back with her 5th annual mystery quilt, called the Mosaic Mystery, beginning on Thursday, July 4th.  This confident beginner level quilt along is completely free to join and has a relaxed pace with monthly instructions posted on the first Thursday of each month.  All quilt instructions will be posted on the Meadow Mist Designs blog and you can find all information about the quilt along on the Mosaic Mystery page.  Join over 3,700 other quilters in the friendly and quite active Meadow Mist Designs Facebook Group .  Cheryl is also offering a non-mystery option for those that want to join in, but would rather see the design ahead of time.  You can sign up for the non-mystery option here

This year I am involved on a couple of levels. Needle and Foot is sponsoring two different prizes during the event, one in August and another at the final reveal when the QAL wraps up. Additionally, Needle and Foot has two kits curated specifically for the Mosaic Mystery Quilt. This is really exciting! Cheryl and I worked together to create two kits, each with very different vibes.

For some quilters, a Mystery Quilt can be somewhat daunting. It might feel a bit nerve wracking to pick fabrics without knowing what the pattern looks like. To this end, Cheryl and I thought it would be nice to have kits available for you to choose from. Both collections contain a selection of fabrics from Art Gallery Fabric, with a solid as the background and three prints used in the quilt and as the binding.

One of my kits contain three prints from the Sun Kissed line. Designed by Maureen Cracknell, these fabrics are summery and so cheerful. The Sun Kissed kit is available here.

Going clockwise, there is Linen for the background, Summer Dress Dreams, Hazy Daisies in Scarlet, and Bandana in Grapefruit.

The prints include large and medium scales which just happen to work well with the design of the Mystery Quilt.

Above are the details on the Sun Kissed kit for your review.

This stunning kit contains print fabrics from Pat Bravo’s Matchmade line. Created by Pat as a line of blenders, the range of color used for the Matchmade fabrics is bold and saturated. To see more details, click here.

The background is a solid black called Caviar. The prints starting in the top left and going clockwise; Indication Midnight, Positivity Berry, and Positivity Midnight.

This kit is very modern with strong contrast. The prints are small scale and not the primary focus of the kit. The color is the focus – shades of teal and berry with a dramatic black background. Gorgeous!

Here are some details on the Matchmade kit for you to review.

I have had such a great experience working with Cheryl creating these two kits for you. If you are someone who is intimidated by the prospect of selecting fabrics for a mystery quilt pattern, be sure to take a look at the kits. Cheryl and I tried to create two very different kits, both modern with bold colors and yet each with a very different feel to them. Using strictly Art Gallery Fabrics in the kits means they are of the highest quality. Kits do not include the backing fabric or batting. However, I do have fabrics in stock that work really well for the backings for both kits. You can see backing suggestions when you click through to the kit links.

There are a number of each kit available in the shop. Come take a look! If you have any questions about the QAL – hop over to Cheryl’s so she can assist. Questions about the kits? Leave them in the comments or shoot me an email. And…. just to have some fun, let’s take a vote. Which kit is your favorite? Let me know in the comments. I am so curious.