Valley…

Happy Tuesday!  Today is the day I get to share what I’ve been working on for such a long time! Chelsi and I finished up work on our second collection for Moda fabrics late last winter, got to review strike-offs this summer, and have now been sewing for the past month to get things ready for International Quilt Market in Houston later this week! We are both head over heels in love with Valley and hope you love it, too!

 Valley is a beautiful mix of color, prints, and patterns we love: it definitely has a southwestern vibe along with geometrics and florals that fit right in with other collections. There are soft ivorys and muted bisques which are perfect for backgrounds and also work as great contrast with the brighter colors in the collection: gold, coral, teal, and navy. There are perfect border prints, binding prints and backing fabrics. In short…I love it!



This collection has been incredibly fun to sew with…I love it so much that after I was finished with all the quilts on the list I decided to make one more quilt at the last minute!  I actually just finished up that final quilt binding just an hour or so ago. Today I’ll be sharing the new quilts and patterns, and later in the week I’ll share some of the other projects we’ve made for our booth display (I kept thinking of more small projects to make as well).

The picture above was a must…the navy print on the bottom is one of our favorites…(in fact we’ve used almost all of our sample yardage of that one). Later this week I’ll also showcase the individual prints and color stories for this collection.


Okay…so here are the quilts…first up is Desert Sky. This pattern features a traditional block with a ribbon setting in two different block sizes and quilt layouts.

 The cover quilt version is perfect for using a layer cake along with coordinating fabrics. This version would also be perfect for using scraps and unifying them through your choice of contrast and sashing fabrics. The cover version quilt was quilted with a delightful orange peel design by my friend Marion Bott.

  
And the pattern also features a big-block version of the quilt in a 9 block arrangement (the big-block version uses fat eighths rather than Layer Cake squares for the blocks). I had a lot of fun making the big blocks in a two-color version and loved seeing how the ribbon sashing really changed the quilt by using a bold fabric. My friend Val Krueger did the beautiful custom quilting on the two-color version. So this pattern actually contains two quilts in one!

 Next up is Stepping Stones! Stepping Stones is another fun quilt that is perfect for fat quarters from a collection or from your stash. Some strip-piecing for some of the block units makes this quilt a quick-piecing project.

 My Stepping Stones quilt was beautifully pieced by my friend Gail Begay who is one of those precision piecers we all admire. The quilting was done by Marion Bott who is always able to find a perfect design complementing the fabrics.

Gail had a surprise for me, too. When you piece the Stepping Stones quilt you will have a lot of left-overs that can easily be stitched into half-square triangles. Gail didn’t let any of those go to waste, and today she brought over a finished quilt she made with all of those hst’s!

I was truly appreciative…not only did she piece and quilt the “left-overs” project, but she also bound it with scrappy binding left over from the Stepping Stones quilt. I’m going to write up a little PDF when I return home from market with instructions for making the topper (it’s 34″ x 36 ½″–and if you wanted it square I’ll give directions for 34″ x 34″ as well). If you purchase the Stepping Stones pattern, leave me a comment with your order, and I’ll email that PDF to you separately when I get home.

 Next up is Hope Valley, a very modern design inspired by a sketch my daughter Chelsi did. Hope Valley is also a fat eighth quilt and uses 27 different fabrics for the blocks. it was a lot of fun putting the combinations together for this one!

 This quilt was also quilted by Marion Bott who again found a perfect pattern for the quilting…I love the raindrop effect cascading down the quilt! This is definitely a quilt pattern that is great for your favorite collection as it showcases so many of the prints…and it’s perfect for scraps as well!

 Next up is Oasis, a jelly roll quilt pattern. This great quilt is pieced with just 33 jelly roll strips, a background fabric, and a border fabric. The blocks are big, and so this quilt really makes a statement! I’m sure I’ll be making this with some of my left-over jelly roll strips…I think  a Christmas version is in order as soon as I get home from market!

 My friend Kaitlin did the perfect piecing on this one, and another friend, Abby Latimer did the wonderful quilting. Kaitlin and Abby both live in Utah, and it was a huge help for me to be able to ship everything to Kaitlin, have her piece the quilt and deliver it to Abby.

 Finally, I have one more quilt to share…it was a last-minute decision to make “just one more quilt,” and I’m so glad I did. It might be one of my favorites. Hope Chest is a big-block quilt that uses fat quarters along with extra yardage for the sashing and borders. I changed my Valley version up just a little from my original pattern so I could use all of my different lights for the block backgrounds.

 Marion was so good to quilt this one too…even after I had told her my market quilts were all finished! I am blessed with good friends for sure!

 The PDF patterns and paper patterns are available in my Etsy shop, with the PDF’s ready for download now and the paper patterns available for pre-order  (paper patterns will ship by November 1st after I get home from market).

Plus, use the code Valley for 30% off of all the new PDF patterns in the shop through  Monday, October 26th.
  

I can’t wait to share the specific prints and the small projects I’ve been working on behind the scenes. Thanks so very much for stopping by!