Wednesday, July 25, 2018

When the place mat you design has 82 pieces...

The thrill of having a project featured in a quilting magazine doesn't go away! Not too long ago, I received this issue with one of my projects inside. 

 These Accordion Place Mats, made using Painter's Palette Solids, are featured in the July/August 2018 issue of Modern Patchwork. 

I chose these ten colors from Paintbrush Studio's Painter's Palette Solids collection. If you haven't tried these solids yet, I highly recommend you do! They're smooth and silky and fantastic to work with, and they come in 168 different colors. 


In addition to the white and gray, I chose a light and a dark each of green, purple, orange, and teal. This color scheme was inspired by my Diamond Drama quilt.
I love how they work together!

The beauty of designing digitally is that you can see what projects look like before making them, and tweak the design before you ever cut a single piece of fabric. The danger of designing digitally is that you come up with a design you really like, and only when you start cutting and piecing do you realize that each place mat has 82 pieces. Yep, 82 pieces. That's A LOT of piecing. Especially when you multiply by four place mats!

I finished each place mat with a flange binding. I really liked the pop of color it added, and it's a fun way to add binding to a project. 

Which color combo is your favorite? I personally like the teal and orange best. Which, if you've been following my blog for a while, shouldn't be a shocker. I really like teal! 

I straight line quilted each place mat. I love the texture it creates! 


Read more about these place mats over at Paintbrush Studio's blog, Inspired by Fabric.
Find Modern Patchwork magazine here
See all 168 Painter's Palette Solids colors here.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Star Flight quilt

I've enjoyed sharing all of my "secret sewing" from last fall recently, as the quilts I've made for magazines have gone on sale. The most recent is "Star Flight," featured in the August/September 2018 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. 


This
 is the quilt that inspired the Star Struck design. I'd played around with adding the star to it, but didn't at the time; I'm glad I returned to this design and used the star this time! The quilt looks totally different in the crisp blue and white prints, doesn't it?!


I fell in love with these blue and white prints when I first saw them last summer--the collection is called Fleur de Bleu from Paintbrush Studio. I received the quilt back two weeks ago; just in time to take a photo with the blooming orange tiger lilies in our yard. 

My friend Diane Oakes quilted this quilt for me, and as usual, did a fantastic job! 

I also really love the backing fabric. I wanted to use it on the quilt front, but it was too busy. Instead, I can enjoy its gorgeousness in a larger size on the back! 

Read an interview I did about this quilt for the Paintbrush Studio blog here.
I also created this bargello quilt tutorial here.
Find McCall's Quick Quilts magazine featuring this quilt here.