Christmas Goose and Craftsy

"Kitchen Sink" from Fresh Family Traditions

Saturday, April 19th, I will be at Christmas Goose in Las Vegas, Nevada for a trunk show, book signing, and class! The trunk show and book signing run from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Beginning at 1:30 p.m., I'll be teaching "Kitchen Sink," the cover quilt from my new book Fresh Family Traditions: 18 Heirloom Quilts for a New Generation .

If you are in the Las Vegas area I would love to have you join me for any or all of these events!

I'm also excited to announce the release of a free Craftsy download, Save Those Scraps! This is a downloadable Scrap Quilting Handbook featuring some of my most popular scrap quilting posts for Craftsy. It also features wonderful material by my fellow Craftsy writer Angela Mitchell of Fussy Cut and Ashley Smith, quilting acquisitions editor at Craftsy.

The handbook features 21 pages of information on sorting, displaying, and of course, using your scraps! There are lots of photos, and you're sure to be inspired by the ideas in Save Those Scraps.



Happy Saturday, and thanks so much for stopping by!

"Sew Write" Journal Cover and Pencil Pouch

 Used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved

There is a new Quilts and More magazine available...and I have a couple of small projects included. If you've followed my blog for a little while you might know I love hexagons. My very first design was my hexagon bag pattern (first published in American Patchwork & Quilting), and of course I love paper piecing hexagons of all sizes. So I thought it would be quite a bit of fun to design a hexagon notebook cover.

I used Lori Holt's Hexie Half ruler in the small size so I wouldn't have to sew any "y" seams. And then I decided to make a little pencil pouch with some of my scraps.  You can make the notebook cover and the pouch from one charm pack, or you can use bits and pieces from a favorite collection. I used Denyse Schmidt's Florence collection for my sample notebook cover and pouch.

Used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved

There are a lot of other fun projects in this issue as well! Just look at the cute projects on the cover! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Bucket List Patchwork Quilt

Happy Monday! While I have some new patterns coming out with some of the new market collections coming soon, I also have a couple I've been working on here and there. The first new pattern is for a quilt you've seen bits and pieces of here and there..."Bucket List." And yes, this pattern got its name because it was on my "to do" list for so long!

Bucket list is a wonderfully scrappy quilt. The use of one contrast fabric for the alternating blocks really helps the scrappy patches to stand out!

I have my quilt hanging on a wall right now...it's perfect wall-hanging size (50" x 50"). But it's also great for a table covering or a picnic quilt! My friend Abby quilted this beautifully using a perfect "mini" orange peel design.

Paper patterns won't be ready to ship for about 10 days (you can pre-order now), but I have the Bucket List PDF patterns available in my Etsy shop for instant download...and they are just $6.00 until the end of spring break...next Monday.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Working on my Quilty Bucket List

Spring break is officially here, and I've been working on some small projects I've had on the list for a while. I'll be doing some market sewing soon, so this has been fun for me to have some fast finishes.

Something I've been wanting to make for quite some time is the "Sew Together Bag." 

This bag is a wonderful zipper pouch with three interior zipper pockets inside along with four other open pocket areas. You can really have fun mixing up the fabrics for the different parts and pieces. I used some of my favorite Gracie Girl (by Lori Holt for Riley Blake) for my bag.

Yes, the Sew Together Bag does have 4 zippers to install, but the pattern is wonderfully well-written, and every topic you might have a question on is addressed. I'm thinking about making more...some for gifts and at least another one for myself. I want to have one for applique and another one for paper piecing. Having the separate pockets will make it so easy to keep the various supplies organized.

 I've also been working on some Christmas ornaments (yes, I said Christmas in April)! But seriously, I've always wanted to have a lot of handmade ornaments ready to give out at the beginning of the holiday season. And this is the only way it's going to happen.
 

 I'm using Bonnie's wonderful pattern called Christmas Candy Ornaments. And this pattern is as sweet as can be. There are also patterns for a wreath and Santa ornament included.

 And, you can make a lot of these ornaments with a small amount of fabric. I used just one Moda Candy pack of Kate Spain's Solstice to make the 8 ornaments pictured above (and I even have some fabric left over). I'm going to get these ready for some hand quilting and put them in a project bag ready to take in the car.
 

  
Something else I've been wanting to make ever since I sewed the market sample for Joanna for her Cherry Pie quilt is a cherry wall hanging for my kitchen.  After making a pear wall hanging just recently, I decided I really did need to have some cherry decor as well.

 I made three cherry blocks using a mix of fabrics from my Fig Tree scraps.

And now I just need to figure out how I'm going to set them to fit the space I have in mind. And then start on some of the other projects on my list!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

**Note: I often include product links in my posts...mostly because I find it helpful myself, and because I often receive requests for that type of information if I don't include it. I'm not receiving any compensation for most of the links I include in my posts; however, I am a Craftsy affiliate, and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on one of my Craftsy links. In this post, the Sew Together Bag links are affiliate links, and the pattern for this bag is only available on Craftsy. However, I was not compensated in any way for my review of the pattern...I really do love it!

Churn Dash Quilts

Welcome to the Churn Dash "Simply Small" project parade. If you are looking for the information about the project for the May parade, go to yesterday's post to read all about the Scrappy Patchwork Pillow project which uses just one pack of Moda Candy. And now...here is a fun group of Churn Dash projects!

 Hildy will start us off with her beautiful 4-block churn dash table topper. I absolutely love the combination of fabrics she used!

 Wendy also made a beautiful 3 block runner that just says "summer" to me!

Janet made the larger version with all 5 blocks...beautiful!

  
Jennifer sent in this beautiful 4 block runner photo.

Lisa C. also made a 4 block table topper version...beautiful!

 Peggy made a fun Bonnie & Camille version!

 Mindy made this beautiful runner!

 Sandie made two mini runners! She used Kate Spain fabrics!

 Sharon sent this beautiful version.

 Susan not only made a long runner, but she also made a matching mini!

Tilda's version is beautifully classic in reds and cream.

  Pati sent in her Tapestry runner...beautiful and ready for quilting!

 And how about this lovely April Showers version! She is going to use the blue stripe for the binding...beautiful!

And Dorothy finishes up the parade with her lovely runner.

Thanks so much for sharing your photos, everyone!I'm really looking forward to seeing some lovely pillows next month!