if you're shopping... #13

Welcome to if you're shopping.... On Fridays I will share with you the news from my sponsors, in case you want to do a little shopping, or even window shopping, this weekend.

Mimosa has arrived at Fluffy Sheep Quilting, and it is so beautiful!

At Sew me a Song I am still in love with this bundle called Kerry's Suzuko Koseki bundle.

Mad about Patchwork has Wildwood by Elizabeth Olwen in stock. These are printed on organic cotton by Cloud 9 and are fantastic.

Sew Sisters has a 100 piece charm pack of Denyse Schmidt Modern Solids. If you are looking for just a bit of a lot of solid colours, this seems to be a perfect choice.

Over at the Fat Quarter Shop I found this fantastic bundle of low volume historic 19th Century Shirtings by Erin Turner. I have a quilt in mind for just a bundle like this. The FQS now has their Wishes Quilt Along Quilt up for auction. All proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, so share the word or make a bid.

Massdrop has 2 packs of 5900 metre (6452 yard) cones of Aurifil thread on, you can pick from 8 different colours. I use these large cones for piecing and quilting all the time.

At  Green Fairy Quilts the bargains continue. My favourite today is this jelly roll of fantastic dotted fabrics called Dottie! And they have all their Aurifil thread packs on for 40% off - I may have just bought three!

Oakshott Fabrics have put together a free Quick Makes booklet of projects you can make with their Fat Eights mini packs of the beautiful Colourshott fabrics, even more inspiration for using these fabrics.

I'm still in love with the she can quilt blogger's bundle over at  Fabric Spark. My give away for this bundle is over (winner will be announced on Saturday) but you can still buy a bundle just like mine if you like.

I know this post is late today, it's been a week. I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Best,

Leanne

Scraptastic Tuesday winners and this and that

I have to confess that I am still making it around to read the links at the Scraptastic Tuesday link up, while my partner in this venture, the lovely Nicky from Mrs. Sew and Sow, has been able to visit them as they have been posted. I am so enjoying visiting each link, thank you all for joining Nicky and I in this Scraptastic Tuesday venture.

It's time to award the October link up prizes. Thank you again to our fantastic and generous sponsors:

The prizes and the winners, as drawn using the random number generator, are:

• Fluffy Sheep Quilting - a bundle of beautiful remnant scraps: # 66 Myra from Busy Hands Quilts

• Fat Quarter Shop - a $25 gift certificate: #84 Nepeanquilter from Flickr

• Mad About Patchwork - a $30 gift certificate - # 26 Colleen from Flickr

• Sew me a Song - a $20 gift certificate - #80 Lynley from Lynley Quilts

• Oakshott - a 10" square Autumn Oakshott cotton pack: # 54 Celine from Espritpatch

• Massdrop - a Joel Dewberry Birch Farm fat quarter bundle: #18 Anne via Instagram as limeleaf741

We have sent emails to the winners but if you read it here first, please contact us so we can get the prizes on the way to the winners.

Thank you for joining us and remember the next link will be the second Tuesday of the month - November 11. Please plan to share a scrappy project finished or in progress or your ideas about how to use or organize or deal with scraps with us then, and feel free to join us at any time in the month. Use the hashtag #scraptastictuesday or add our button to your post.

photo courtesy of Christa Watson

In other news, there are some beautiful posts about the Modern Quilt Guild showcase at the Houston International Quilt Festival. Check out Christa's post at Christa Quilts here, and the MQG blog post here. I was not able to go to Houston as I had planned so seeing these posts is a lovely alternative - you can see my quilt Cycles 2 right there in the middle right, what a beautiful display.




I shared my first finished version of my new quilt pattern - the pattern is called Consider - yesterday, for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. Peace is a baby quilt size of the pattern. I will be sending this pattern to pattern testers no later than Monday and although I have some pattern testing volunteers already, I though I would make one more offer, if you would like to be on the pattern testing list please let me know in a comment or by email.

And if you have not yet entered, there is a fantastic give away of the she can quilt blogger's bundle sponsored by Fabric Spark open until 6 pm tomorrow, go here to enter.

Well, I'm off to work and even to the theatre tonight.

Best,

Leanne

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Peace

I named this quilt Peace, as that was what I was thinking about while I made her. Peace in more of a personal peace and quiet, calm and restful sort of way. She was made from Kona cottons and Essex linen borders and binding. After a wash and dry she is about 44" square.

I am entering Peace into the Original Design category of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. This pattern is called Consider and it is my newest quilting pattern. I am hoping it will be ready for sale in a couple of weeks or so. It is inspired by the work of Josef Albers like my pattern Canvas was.

I wanted to play with a new to me kind of matchstick quilting. So instead of the mostly straight lines I often use, I made the lines noticeably wavy, sort of like wind, water or woodgrain.



I used 100% cotton thread in both the needle and bobbin. I hand guided, free motion quilted these lines on my Millenium longarm quilting machine. From time to time I changed to another thread colour.



The texture on this quilt is fantastic after a wash and a dry. The quilt is full of movement, like a calm, warm summer breeze or gentle waves at the beach.



This quilting could be easily done on a regular machine as well as the long arm and on my regular machine I would probably use a walking foot. As shown in the picture above, I would draw a line about an inch or so out from the last quilted bit and then fill it in.



It's a little easier to see the quilting method in these next few before the wash photos. While I filled in that inch or so of unquilted area, I would follow the top and bottom lines of the space, without worrying if the lines were even or terribly neat or if they crossed in the tight areas. Sometimes I would loop back and forth in a wide gap making a shape much like an onion.



If I felt there was too wide a gap between two areas, I just quilted another line into that area. You can see that there were areas where the thread built up and then some wider spaces which create so much of the texture.



As no part of any quilting line has to be any exact place, it means that most any wobble just fits right in. The more that is quilted the more any wiggles or wobbles disappear. Truly, this is very easy to achieve and looks so much more difficult than it is. But patience is important, there are a lot of lines.



That photo above is also before the wash. Although you can see the quilting lines a bit more than after the wash and dry, for me the design process is not completed until that final texture the wash gives is added - you can compare this picture to the ones at the top of the post.



Here is the back. I am growing very fond of backs with large pieces of some favourite fabrics.



One last picture with the wind catching the quilt. I am off to enjoy all the fantastic quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I hope you will be too.

Best,

Leanne

ps. My giveaway of the she can quilt blogger's bundle sponsored by Fabric Spark is still open, go here to enter if you have not yet done so.

Scraptastic Tuesday - last day to link up this month

Today for Scraptastic Tuesday I am so excited to show you my start of the sampler that Nicky, my scraptastic partner from Mrs. Sew and Sow, is sharing for Scraptastic Tuesday. As I love everything Nicky makes, and she is including all the instructions, I had to join in. I am going to use just my Liberty scraps and Kona Snow. That purple Flying Square block is 15".



The orange Flying Square is 10". These two blocks have a partial seam and I did what Nicky said and it was easy. Once these were done I totally took her advice when she said:  say after me 'Partial seams are easy - I don't know what the fuss is about!'  It's totally true.



This sort of pinwheel block Nicky called a two by two block and it is 9" square. You can see my approach already. Each block will have some of the Kona Snow in it and each one will be mostly one colour or at least warm colours or cool colours. I am hopeful that this will result in a sampler quilt that is very scrappy but yet is a little more tame that a total riot of colours.



And the Rail Fence is an 8" block. I still have the Suzanna block from Nicky's last week's instructions to make and all of the first week's blocks too, but I am excited to have had time to make this many blocks already.



I continue to struggle with scrap organization. I had bits of Liberty fabric tucked everywhere in my sewing spaces, so I found a bin and put them all in it. Even this little bit of organization made it easier to make these scrappy blocks. I am going to look for a bin with a lid (or the lid to this one) as it is better to keep the dust out of the scraps.

It's interesting how much I love the historic and incredibly beautiful Liberty prints. They are a cotton lawn, so thinner and tightly woven. I found a new sharp and thinner needle for my sewing machine which helped to piece them nicely. These fabrics are a sharp contrast to the modern fabrics which I also love. Despite being certain I am a modern quilter, clearly there is a big corner of my heart reserved for these fabrics and a more traditional styled quilt made with them too.

I am still working on cutting strips for the blended scraps blocks and my scrappy X blocks, and I hope to have more progress on them to share with you next week as well as more Liberty sampler blocks.

Today (up until midnight at my house which is MST) is the last day to link a post or picture about your scrap projects, or ideas for using or organizing or working with scraps - go here to do that if you have not yet, one link per person please. We will be draw winners randomly for the fantastic prizes from our generous sponsors tomorrow and announce them on Thursday.

• Fluffy Sheep Quilting - a bundle of beautiful remnant scraps
• Fat Quarter Shop - a $25 gift certificate
• Mad About Patchwork - a $30 gift certificate
• Sew me a Song - a $20 gift certificate
• Oakshott - a 10" square Autumn Oakshott cotton pack
• Massdrop - a Joel Dewberry Birch Farm fat quarter bundle

The next monthly Scraptastic Tuesday link up will be the second Tuesday of November which is Remembrance Day, November 11. From now on the link will be open for just a week, so you will need to be a bit more organized if you are playing along, and I sure hope you are as I still have mountains of scraps to use and will be at this for a long while.

Best,

Leanne

Fabric Spark - a sponsored giveaway of the she can quilt fabric bundle

Daryl from Fabric Spark invited me to pick a blogger's bundle and she has one just like that photo above for me to give away to one of you. It took me a long time to decide on the bundle I wanted to work with because Fabric Spark has such a beautiful collection of fabrics available. I have to say that I am totally in love with the she can quilt bundle, which you can find in the shop here.



Fabric Spark is an online fabric shop which the lovely Daryl started this year. She is based in Toronto with this primarily online shop although she is venturing out to events like CreativFestival as well.

Fabric Spark carries a carefully curated selection of modern quilting cottons which work beautifully together. You will not see all the fabrics in a single designer's fabric line, but instead Daryl has a beautifully balanced selection of some of the best fabrics from several designers.

I had the pleasure of meeting Daryl last week when I was in Toronto and was able to pick up my bundle at the same time. I might have also ordered some additional fabrics and packed an extra large suitcase too. Daryl is lovely, excited about fabric, sewing and quilting, and just so easy to get to know. I am looking forward to the next time we are in the same city for another visit.



I will be cutting these fabrics up soon - I have two quilts planned using them, stay tuned.

In the meantime, here is how you can enter to win the giveaway. I will randomly draw from the comments on this post after 6 pm Friday night - Halloween - and announce the winner then or on Saturday morning.

This giveaway is now closed.

To enter:

1. Leave me a comment. Please take a look at Fabric Spark - click here - and let me know in your comment what fabric you especially love there. If you want, you can join the Fabric Spark mailing list, just scroll to the bottom of the opening page.

2. If you are a follower of mine, feel free to leave a second comment letting me know where you do that and how.

Please, please make sure that your comment is connected to your email or leave your email for me in the comment. Just being part of Google + does not mean I get access to your email. I am willing to search a bit to find the winner, but you need to have some kind of breadcrumbs to allow me to do that. If I cannot find you, I will immediately draw again.

Good luck and thank you to Fabric Spark for such fantastic give away! As usual, I will not reply to comments on the draw but I do read and enjoy them all.

Best,

Leanne

Blogger's Quilt Festival - All the Colours

If you are new, welcome. I am entering my quilt All the Colours into the Modern Quilts Category of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I have recently shown All the Colours off here, so you may have seen her before and heard her story. She was made using the Chess on the Steps pattern my friend Krista - Poppyprint - designed for the Modern Quilt Guild Pattern of the Month, go here to see Krista's fantastic version, do, I will wait. My quilt is about 43" square after a good wash and dry.



When the pattern was released, I had a charm package of Michael Miller solids sitting on my sewing table. I had been given this beautiful set of fabrics at the MQG's Sewdown Nashville so I decided to use them for the pattern. Krista has shared the fastest, fun improv technique. In no time I used up all the charm squares and had the middle section all done.



Despite my desire to use all the colours, I am not very comfortable with quilts which are totally scrappy or totally a riot of colours. So I grouped the colours by warn and cool. This is not something I made up, I first saw the impact of this technique in Malka Dubrawsky's quilt book Fresh Quilting - I'm not sure she invented it either but she is the person I learned it from. Just this small colour sort makes this quilt so much calmer to me.



I wanted this quilt to be for one of the new babies arriving in my family. So I picked out some larger pieces of Kona Solids that were on my shelf and added them on, carrying on with the court house steps concept that Krista used in the pattern.



When I started quilting this quilt, I thought I would practice swirls and such but almost immediately I decided that was not what I felt like doing that day. Instead of tearing out the bits I had done, I just transitioned to wavy then to straightish lines. When I got the other end I reversed the process and ended with more swirly bits.



I included a dragonfly - which is a motif that Jamie Wallen taught me at the American Quilter's Society show in Grand Rapids. These are surprisingly easy and fun to quilt.



I picked the back before I knew the gender of the baby.



This photo gives you a bit of scale, taken in the stairwell at my office building. All these photos are after the wash and dry, which really brings out the crinkle and pushes the lightly variegated King Tut cotton thread into the folds.



I bound her with a black sketch fabric, which I think works very well with all the colours.



I am not sure which way up I like better, this way or the yellow on top as in the first photo. It does not really matter, it is for a baby, not a wall.

Krista's Chess on the Steps pattern is currently only available to Modern Quilt Members - you can join a local MQG or join as an individual member. All the MQG Pattern of the Months have been wonderful, but I have to say this one is my favourite so far.

I am finishing another quilt today for my second entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival and hope to share her soon. If you have not yet entered, you have until October 31, so pick a quilt and do enter. Also, this festival has so many inspiring quilts and their stories, it is a great place to go for inspiration and to learn about other quilters.

Best,

Leanne