Water Lilies

The fabrics, Darjeeling by Rosanna Bowles plus Essentials, all from FreeSpirit, are bright and cheerful and using the AccuQuilt Go! Fabric Cutter made cutting the triangles fast and easy. I stepped out of my comfort zone with this design. Normally, I like my quilt designs to be symmetrical but with these fabrics I thought something playful might be fun. So I decided to cut into the triangles on 2 sides and insert white strips. Three-dimensional flowers scattered along these strips made the design complete! I love it!

We’re offering a kit for this pattern. And, the triangles have all been pre-cut for you. How convenient is that? You can whip this quilt up in no time! It would make a wonderful graduation gift or addition to your own home.

Quiltmaker Sept/Oct '10

Jo’s design looks far more complex than it really is. One block in a variety of colors is set with pieced sashes to create a fantastic secondary design. Jo gets to keep this cover quilt as part of her grand prize—congratulations once again Jo! If you’d like to make one just like it, we do have a Bull Run Nine Patch kit available with Civil War-era reproduction fabric from Blue Hill Fabrics.

Asian Autumn, designed by Theresa Eisinger, is simple to make, yet yields a very interesting design. As much as I’m usually drawn to bright colors, I find these Serenity Taupes by Daiwabo for E. E. Schenck Co. to be very restful and relaxing. (Go to E. E. Schenck’s website; click on fabrics; click on Cara Collection; click on Serenity to see the entire line of taupes.) If you’ve got a large-scale fabric you’ve been hoarding, this design is perfect to show it off.

The Flip Flop series continues with a flavorful pear. These yummy pears are made from Woolie Flannels by Maywood—wonderful flannels that look like wool. Flip Flop Pears kit available.

Plus, we have a new series starting in this issue. Meet Me at the Manor, designed by Connie Walker of Whistle Stop Quilt Shop, is a four-part series AND we’ve got four people making it in additional colors. Starter kits are available.

Meet Me at the Manor, Original colors (Summer)

Meet Me at the Manor Color Options: Batiks, 1930s, Blue & White and Autumn

There is a lot more packed into this issue: Preview Sept/Oct ’10 if yours hasn’t arrived yet. We’ll be giving you more glances at this issue in the days ahead.

If you have your issue you might have noticed in Sew to Speak or Spotlight that we’ve got some digital back issues coming, along with It’s A Wrap as a free pattern. They are ALMOST ready, but not quite available yet. Watch the blog for an update when they’re available–sorry for the delay.

Giveaway: Which Meet Me at the Manor version do you like best? Or, what other colorway would you choose to make it in? Tell me in a comment by noon MST on Monday, August 9 and I’ll pick some winners to each receive some leftover fabric from a project in this issue. [8/9: Update--today was my first day back in the office after a week's vacation--I still need to figure out how many winners I can pick for this one and didn't get that far today. Look for winners on Tuesday.]

[Update 8/10: Winners listed in this post.]

Are you a quilter who enjoys paper crafts? Or a paper crafter who quilts? We’ve been watching a number of designers who have both paper and fabric and thought it would be fun to see what we could come up with. For example,

• BasicGrey designs fabric for Moda
• SEI designs fabric for Robert Kaufman
• Cosmo Cricket designs fabric for Andover

We shared our plans with Paper Crafts magazine, one of our sister publications, and invited them to see what they could come up with to coordinate with our quilt. Jennifer Schaerer, Editor-in-Chief of Paper Crafts says, “It’s a natural combination – whether you stitch on paper or make embellishments out of fabric, you’ll find that these two friends of a different fiber go together like Fred and Ginger, salt and pepper, or bees and honey.”

We used Girl Friday by Cosmo Cricket for Andover Fabrics to make the Butterfliers crib quilt in Quiltmaker’s Small Quilts newsstand special issue.

Butterfliers, designed by Mary Cain. Most fabrics: Girl Friday by Cosmo Cricket for Andover Fabrics.

Kim Kesti, a Paper Crafts Go-to Gal, designed this delightful mobile, made with Girl Friday paper by Cosmo Cricket.

Butterfly Mobile by Kim Kesti with Girl Friday paper by Cosmo Cricket

If you’re a quiltmaker who’s never dabbled in paper crafts before, this sure looks worth giving it a try! Kim did a great job and, besides the paper butterflies, her mobile’s got lots of fun buttons and it all hangs from an embroidery hoop–so it’s not too far removed from a quilter’s stash.

If you’re a paper crafter who’s been thinking about making a quilt, Butterfliers is easy for beginners to make–all straight line seams. The triangles of fabric are folded, so they are very simple to fit into the seams.

Make the Butterfly mobile with this supply list and free instructions.

Buy the Butterfliers crib kit to make the quilt.

Buy the Butterfly Mobile paper kit to start the mobile.

Tell me what you think of this idea–coordinating paper projects with a quilted project. Leave your comment by Monday, June 14 for a chance to win a copy of Quiltmaker’s Small Quilts. [6/17 update: Esther, comment #3, won the copy of Small Quilts. Congrats!]

Cornflower Fields by Julie Herman

A while back it was my job to find an alternate color scheme for the quilt which would create what we call a “color option.” You’ll see color options near the end of most Quiltmaker patterns, and they’re meant to expand your vision for a project by presenting a completely different look using different fabrics in the same pattern.

An interesting thing happened as I was thinking about another way to present Cornflower Fields.

Instead of the usual colored quilt diagram (above), I had a diagram with only the lines of the quilt, and no color (below).

I was surprised by how much this opened up the possibilities! Jumping right off the page were trees, trees and more trees. I couldn’t see anything but trees. And so began my inspiration for Hoo’s in the Forest?

A search through our fabric room, which is well-stocked with the latest fabrics from many companies, brought me to Robert Kaufman‘s “On a Whim” owl print. Perfect! I wanted the owls to take center stage, so plenty of tone-on-tones from Robert Kaufman’s basic lines such as Mixmasters Dot to Dot and Fusions fit the bill. For the border, a fun plaid with all the right colors from Flower Child framed the quilt nicely. I left off the border sections in this version, which made it a “design option.” A design option goes a few steps past a color option by changing not just the fabrics, but also how and where they are placed.

Hoo's in the Forest?

Hoo’s in the Forest?, an abbreviated version of Cornflower Fields, is now a free online pattern. We’re excited to offer timesaving kits for Hoo’s in the Forest? as well.

I started thinking about how often I look at colored diagrams or even photos first, and I’ve decided that I’d be much more open to the infinite possibilities if I’d look at only the lines. In a future post I’ll expand on this idea and show you more examples.