Quilt Festival time

I decided at the last minute to enter my Village Green quilt in the wall hanging category in the blogger's quilt festival. it is #41 (on the wallhanging page)

The "town" buildings in the quilt are all paper-foundation pieced with lots of scraps. Many of the trees and shrubs are felted wool appliqué with embroidery and silk ribbon embroidery for leaves and birds.

my favorite house on the quilt is the little abandoned home on the end on the left with chicken-wire fabric for the windows and the tree with no leaves. I don't know why I like it, but I do.
This quilt was my first experience with hand appliqué (needle-turn, that is) and it's a good thing the tree trunks were supposed to look organic, because my needle-turn skills are VERY organic!

The pictures above show off the quilting, which is phenomenal! it was long-arm quilted by Judi Madsen of the Green Fairy. Can you see the sun and clouds in the sky of the top two pictures? some of the chimneys have quilted smoke coming out. This quilt is definitely made more impressive by Judi's skills.
Quilt is about 60" square
foundation piecing with appliqué, embroidery
quilted by Judi Madsen
pieced by me, Sharon

I hope you visit the quilt festival...lots of fun projects on display and you can win prizes for voting for your favorites!

Sharon

W.I.P. interrupted

I was feeling so righteous about working to finish my Noteworthy quilt before I started a new project. But, I am teaching the Jumbo Hexagon piecing class next week at my local quilt shop, so I had to start preparations for that.
While the kids were at school yesterday, I started plotting...

I really wanted to make a kind of monochromatic quilt with gray fabrics I have been collecting. Then I had the idea to add in some really bright solid colors. I am sorting the solids in rainbow color groups and in groups from light to dark. Don't those look so pretty?

Here is what's on my cutting table:

plus these,

oooh, la la.
I got a few hexagons sewn together. It was hard to remember that I had to focus on making demo pieces for my class...I am so excited, I just want to sew up the whole quilt now!
I can tell hexagons are going to something I will be doing a few projects with. My mind is racing with all the ways you can piece them and rearrange colors to make secondary patterns....and they sew together surprisingly quickly despite the set-in seams!


Happy Weekend!
Sharon

Indoor Voices: The Pattern is Here!

It seems like ages since I have had much to show in the way of finishes, so I am super excited to have this pattern ready and show the finished quilt.

I nicknamed this "indoor voices" when it was  a work in progress, but the final quilt and pattern are called "Beach Comber". I love the scrappy feel of the low(ish) volume background fabrics with the bright pops of color. It's just soothing and pretty.

Pattern includes full instructions for the throw quilt as shown plus an alternate block setting with instructions for making a twin size quilt. I also included a black and white illustration of the design to copy and color and plan your own version.

I was playing around with this on the computer, making one with red, white and black...and noticed that using different color placement creates some different designs. This was what I came up with:

It looks completely different! The background fabric requirement is equivalent to a Layer Cake (42 10" squares) and cutting instructions are included for use of a layer cake or yardage/scraps, so there are lots of possibilities!!
Beach Comber is now available on Craftsy and in my shop. All of my pdf patterns are still $5.

Thanks for visiting me today!
Sharon

Quilter's Favorites

Happy Mother's Day!
The winners of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day are:

Heather, in Canada, who received a copy of my newest pattern, "flying kites"...I hope you like it!

Linda, in Montana, will receive the pink fat quarter bundle along with the pink scissors and tape measure.

Thanks to all who visited, I really enjoy all the comments! I found out many are enjoying the growing flowers, as well as a growing fabric stash, some even have growing tummies with babies inside!

Today I am linking in with Geta Gamma's quilter's favorites party. This is for sewing bloggers to share their favorite tools, techniques, and all things crafty, so we might all learn from each other.

One of the questions Geta asked quilters to answer is "how do you choose colors for a quilt?"
My basic requirements for a fabric palette are:

• good contrast (light, medium, and dark mix)
• add something big, something bright and something light
• if you think something doesn't go, add more of it

I'll share a bit of my process and also show you my current favorite collection of fabric: PB&J by Basic Gray for Moda.

I like this collections because, really, you could make something with just these fabrics...there is a good variety of prints in navy, red, gold, aqua and cream, with plenty of variety in scale (the size of the printed patterns), pattern (stripes, floral, geometric) as well as value. The prints are just super cute, too.

But...it's way more fun to add some other pieces to go with it.
How about something light?

I added a few more light prints containing cream, gray and pale green and gold. There is not a green color way in the designer's collection, but I think it needs a bit of green. It expands on the little bits of green in the floral prints.
How about something bright?

More green, a bit of red in the pearl bracelet fabric and some gold and blue. These fabrics coordinate with the original prints, but add some punch...Brighter and Darker versions of the original colors.
When I say add something Big, this can mean a large scale print or just something that stands out, a zinger. I think these brighter fabrics, along with their larger scale prints, fit this bill.

How about adding some solids?
Here are some textured "solids"

linen/cotton blend in natural, a blue shot cotton, and gray, red, blue pieces from the Mod Century fabric collection. I like these because they read as solid but also add Texture and bit of Brightness.

Here are some flat solids,

Two shades of green, red, blue and gold.

This give me lots of options for piecing something with this group because there is lots of contrast: my piecing will stand out rather than moosh together and I can use the placement of value to bring out design elements.
I mentioned above about if something doesn't seem to go, add more...like the green. It wouldn't be right to add just one green, but adding some green prints (both light and bright) and solids makes the green become part of the crowd.

Check out this post where I write about creating a palette with the fabric collection "Noteworthy" by Sweetwater for Moda. This is an absolutely adorable collection, but they are all very similar in value and scale.

Thanks for being patient with my rambling!
Sharon

Twirling Fans: final border

This is it! the final step in making the Twirling Fans Quilt. I hope you all have enjoyed the entries (and Maybe, just Maybe, someone has sewn something with the tutorials....). Even if you don't make this quilt, there have been some tutorials along that way that you may find useful for other projects, including,
partial seams (adding the center square so the fans "twirl" around it)
cutting and sewing borders that lay flat
machine applique with a turned (finished) edge

This is our last step: sewing the outer pieced "scrappy" border for the quilt.

in the previous step, I showed you some different ways to piece that inner, half-square triangle border.

The final pieced border consists of 8" (finished) blocks, put together at random so that the blocks blend and look scrappy all together.
Measure your quilt top down the center axis like this:

This measurement will be the length of BOTH of the short borders. Based on this measurement, you may adjust the size of your blocks to fit your quilt properly, or plan on making some half blocks, etc. I will show examples using the 8" border blocks (they will be 8 1/2" unfinished).

I am not listing quantities, just piecing instructions, as you will need to make the quantity appropriate to fit your quilt.
When you are piecing the blocks, think of each one as a giant 4-patch where each of the 4 squares contain different pieced units or solid squares/rectangles of fabric.

1.  to make a four patch block:

• cut four squares 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
• piece the squares together in pairs, and press seams to opposite sides
• sew the two units together, matching the center seams (if pressed opposite, they will snuggle together)

2.  to make a strippy block:

• cut four strips 4 1/2" x 1 1/2"
• sew the strips together along long edges to form one unit (should measure 4 1/2" square)

(I used scraps from my fan blocks to make the pieced components of my borders)

3. cut fabric squares 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"
    cut fabric rectangles 4 1/2" x 8 1/2"
    cut fabric squares 8 1/2" x 8 1/2"
   (I used fabrics with large scale prints, or really pretty ones I wanted to show off for the solid fabric components of my borders)

4. Sew the units made above into blocks in various combinations that equal 8 1/2" squares.
Here are a few examples:

sew these blocks together in strips to the appropriate length for your quilt. If your quilt measurement doesn't equal an even number of pieced blocks, you may trim some of the solid fabric components (such as the 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" rectangles: make them 4" x 8 1/2" for example, if needed). The 8 1/2" square pieces are perfect for trimming as needed, since slight variations won't be noticeable once you have all the blocks sewn together. it's supposed to look scrappy, after all.

5. Lay the border strip alongside the pieced quilt center. Measure the center point of both, as well as the half-way points between center and edge, as shown below (red dots)

Next match the border strip right-sides together with quilt top. Pin at the points marked (red dots) as well as the two ends.
Sew the seam to apply the border to the quilt top (quarter-inch seam). Turn right sides up and press open or to one side.
Repeat for opposite border, which should measure the same length as the first.

6. To add the last two borders, repeat all steps. Measure the center axis of the quilt including the two borders already added to determine the length of last two borders.

Your top is complete!
Here is mine,

I sent it out to be long-arm quilted. Hope to get it back gorgeous this summer!
I have enjoyed writing up the pattern for this quilt, hope you have enjoyed reading it. I would be totally tickled to see what you have created with the pattern!

Sharon

It's a pink (giveaway) day...

This week I am linking up with the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day!
Thanks for visiting my little corner of Blogland. I hope you will check some other posts and projects while you are here...and come again! Please do visit my pattern shop on Craftsy.

I would like to dedicate this day and this giveaway to the color pink. I noticed that there is a lot of pink in my garden right now,

and I like pink quilts and pink fabric, too!

for the giveaway today, I have two!
for visitors in the United States, one person will win this little package of pink fat quarters and pink scissors and tape measure:

for international visitors, you can win a PDF copy of my newest pattern, Flying Kites, so you can make this:

to enter the drawing, leave me a comment including where you live (so I know which drawing to put you in) and what is growing around you (is it your fabric stash or your flowers?)

**this giveaway is now closed! thanks for visiting, come again.

Enjoy!
Sharon

Just in time for Summer! a new pattern

I am thrilled to introduce a new addition to my Craftsy Shop!

This quilt is called "Flying Kites" and it the perfect size for a picnic or nap on the porch swing!

The pattern includes fabric requirements and sewing instructions for a quilt that finishes 76" x 54". It can also be made without borders for a sweet baby quilt. Just like other Yankee Quilter patterns, this one includes creative suggestions to make your quilt unique....I add the ideas I get along the way as I am making the quilt, ways to make it in different ways.

The printed squares are equal to a pre-cut Charm Pack (42  5" squares), but the quilt would also be great for using some scraps!

I have added all of my current PDF patterns to Craftsy, and reduced the price for all to $5. If you are interested in purchasing any of my patterns in paper form, please e-mail me at Yankeequilter@gmail.com.

Thank You, and I hope you like it!

Sharon