Answers, questions and an Artisan Cotton winner

First up today is to answer some of the comment questions from Wednesday's post about Flash. A number of people asked about washing and shrinkage of the Artisan Cottons from Windam Fabrics. The photo above is the quilt after washing in nice light. She measures about 40.5" square now and has a lovely crinkle.



The photo above was taken before I washed and dried her. The light is terrible so it does not show the fabrics off properly, but you can see how much flatter the quilt is. At this point she measured about 43"square. So the quilt drew in or shrunk about 3" on each axis in the wash and dry.

Some of the draw in might be from more fabric shrinkage - but you will remember that I pre-washed them and I did not measure before and after so cannot help on the initial shrinkage. But most of the draw in is from my 100% cotton batting and thread shrinking a bit and the dense quilting drawing in more after a wash as the thread settles into the layers more (I am sure there is a more technical way to describe that.)

This happens with all my quilts, made from any fabrics I use and this amount of draw in seems about right to me - so no more or less with the Artisan Cottons than I experience with regular quilting cottons (which I also pre-wash). I also point out that as the quilt is used, some of the draw in relaxes until the next time it is washed.



Here are two close ups for comparison too. The one above is before the wash, the one below after. The washing also softens the quilts with dense quilting so they are no longer cardboard like and instead are soft blankets.



Another thing some people asked was how to make these blocks. There are many tutorials on the internet already, but I will make you a tutorial of my approach for later this week. A pattern was requested too but I think with a tutorial you will be set.

Next up is to announce that Julie's comment was picked by the random number generator as the winner of that beautiful bundle of Artisan Cottons from Windham Fabrics. I'll email you Julie, congratulations!

Thank you to all of you for the lovely comments about Flash, I am so glad everyone likes her - I wish I had time this week to reply to each of the comments individually but sadly I don't when there are so many comments for a giveaway.

Now my question: Are you going to QuiltCon? And if you are, are you making small buttons to exchange? I have nice business cards to share but I have been seeing these buttons popping up here and there and now wonder if I need to have some buttons made too. So, what do you think about buttons - yes or no?

By the way, if you see me at QuiltCon, please come and talk to me if I don't see you first. I will be about every day and at the Moda Party too. I expect that a lot of people there, like last time, will not be part of the internet quilting community, and it is easy to miss those who are. So please don't be shy. I've even put my photo over on the side bar now so you can find me - I hate photos of me, as I am one of the mature quilters with a roundy shape - although I'm working through my plan to address the shape issue over this year and in my head I will be 29 forever.

I'm off to sew, I realized that the deadline for submissions to the Quilt Canada show is next week - February 4, 2015 at noon EST - and last night I have decided to try to make new quilt for it  - wish me luck. I do have a back up plan, should this be far too much to do, but one can try.

Best,


Leanne

if you were shopping... #22

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.

I'm loving the Mad about Patchwork bundle this week, which is called Turn Down  the Volume, and is  20% off until February 1. Pam has a bunch of other beautiful bundles on for 20% off too!

Oakshott Fabrics has more free patterns and pattern booklets out. Check out them out, including this lovely Magic Carpet pattern by Anne Williams.

Over at Fabric Spark Daryl keeps adding beautiful new fabrics. I am in love with this new print, well in fact all of the prints, from the Biology line from Cloud 9.

You can pre-order at Southern Fabric. Right now Wanderer has caught my eye.

Over at Fluffy Sheep Quilting Cindy has some Karen Lewis hand screened prints in stock.

Sew me a Song has so many inspiring prints and bundles. Today I am thinking about valentine quilts, so this bundle drew my attention.

Did you know that Sew Sisters Quilt Shop has a monthly Kona solid club? And they regularly feature a guest blogger tutorial using the club fabrics, you can see the latest beautiful project here.

The Fat Quarter Shop blog, the Jolly Jabber, is full of tips, tricks and inspiration, this week especially.

Massdrop has Oliso Irons on this week, but if you are interested don't delay as the drop is limited to 100 items.

Do you check out the daily deal at Green Fairy Quilts? It is always a great savings - today it is that wonderful Color Theory jelly roll. 

Best,

Leanne

Make It, Take It!

I am so excited to let you know that my friend Krista's (Poppyprint) fantastic new book, Make It, Take It! will be available to buy on February 10 at the Martingale shop (go here). When you buy a copy from Martingale, you get both the hard copy and the digital download, which is a valuable bonus if you plan to use this book for sewing with friends as you can easily bring a copy on your ipad or other digital device.

Besides being a book by one of the nicest quilters I know, I am so excited as I am a contributor to this book too! The Half Moon Needle Case is my project in the book. There will be a blog hop for the book in the spring, and I will share more about this little project then.

That's Krista, with one of the beautiful projects she designed together with Krista Withers. Make it, Take it! debuts at QuiltCon, where you will can meet Krista and purchase an autographed copy. Look for Krista at two book signings: 

• Saturday: 10:30 a.m., Island Quilter,  booth #109
• Saturday: 1:00 p.m., Modern Cottons/The Quilt Haus, booth #306

And if you've already pre-ordered the book, stop and see her for an autographed book plate - of course, she has a plan to take care of everyone. 

I know you are going to love this book.

All images in this post are from Make It, Take It! by Krista Hennebury, Martingale 2015, used with permission, Photos by Brent Kane, all rights reserved.

Best,

Leanne

Flash - Ta Da! - Artisan Cotton Blog Hop

This little quilt is named Flash. She is about 40.5" square after a wash and dry. I made her - front, back and binding, with Artisan Cottons which Windham Fabrics kindly sent to me to try out.

Windham Fabrics sent me the fabrics for free, and they did not ask me to say or do anything with them particularly except use them and chat about it for this blog hop. So the opinions here are my own.



These fabrics have a nice weight. Although they are a shot cotton  - one colour of thread is woven with another colour of thread to make the fabric - they are also a nice weight similar to a regular quilting cotton.



I washed and dried them before I used them and there was almost no colour on my colour catcher, just a hit of dye from the cool colour load which included the black. I washed the quilt when she was done last night, without a colour catcher and there are no issues with colour transfer at all. As usual, the washing also gave the rather heavily quilted quilt a beautiful soft drape.

I had a lot of fun making the back. I picked my favourite colours of the bundle that had enough left over for this improv curvy piecing. I am sure that I am going to play with this curvy piecing again soon.

The binding was made from left over scraps. I machine stitched it in place.

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I quilted the quilt with Aurifil 50wt thread, in a yellow-olive green variegated thread on the front and a pale yellow in the bobbin. I did not want to use white or a white based thread as it felt like that would compete with the colours in the fabrics, and I am really pleased with the results using the yellows.



These fabrics are really rich in colour. Some of them have more of the iridescence that shot cottons often have than others. I actually like the ones with less shine the best, but they are all beautiful. I used almost all the colours in the line in my quilt.



You can see that, after the wash, the quilt has crinkled just enough that even the black fabrics work well with the yellow based quilting thread.

Now, I also get to give away one full bundle of these beautiful fabrics. To enter to win, just leave one comment here - one per person. The draw will close at midnight, MST, Friday, January 30 and I randomly draw the winner and will let you know the result on Saturday.

Do leave me a way to find you - if your comments are not linked to a profile with an email attached, please leave one in your comment. If I cannot find you I will draw a new winner.

I recommend these fabrics. They are lovely to work with and you can see the beautiful quilt that resulted. And I recommend that you check out each post on the blog hop, as besides learning more about these fabrics and seeing beautiful projects, there is a chance to win one these beautiful Artisan Cottons bundles at each stop - you might want to enter them all. Here is the schedule:

Monday:       Windham Fabrics

Tuesday:       Rachel, Imagine Gnats

Wednesday:  Leanne (me!), She Can Quilt

Thursday:      Ashley, Film in the Fridge

I leave you with this photo, in slightly different light. You can see how these fabrics shine, they sort of do flash or shine, don't you think.

Best,

Leanne

Scraptastic Tuesday - reducing the new scraps

This regular weekly focus on my scrap mountain is making a difference for me, slowly but surely. I pay attention to the new scraps that are being created as I work. 

I've been working with the Artisan Cottons from Windham Fabrics and making log cabins, wonky or not, leave scraps behind. So one thing I did was pull out my large bin of white and light solids and made some wonky stars.

I find that for late night, "I'm too tired to think hard" sewing, improv is the easiest for me. The less precision cutting the better, and safer for my fingers. I am thinking that if I make improv stars as a leader and ender type of project, adding a star or two when I sit down or as I finish up for the night, before I know it I will have made a dint in that bin of neutrals and also in the scraps.

I can make these any size and as I just love them, there will be a place for them in projects or a quilt or quilt backs. I can even play around with multiple star blocks placing them in circles or whatever.

Another idea I use fairly often to use up the last scrappy bits of the fabrics left over from making a quilt is to make a scrappy binding. That is what I did last night, and so today I just need to stitch it to the back of my quilt, and I will be ready to show you the finished quilt tomorrow for my spot on the Artisan Cotton blog hop.

Nicky, over at Mrs. Sew and Sow has made another block for her scrappy sampler, it is beautiful so don't forget to go over and see it. I am going to catch up to her this week, you know that she is posting all the instructions to this informal scrappy QAL.

Oh, and excuse these iphone, late night, not good lighting photos. I am now following along with Katy, The Littlest Thistle, for her camera challenge and I am hoping that will inspire me to take out my nice camera more often even when it is dark and I am tired.

Enjoy your Tuesday and if you are in stormy country, be careful and I hope you are inside, safe and warm.

Best,

Leanne

Artisan Cotton Blog Hop - starting Monday

The lovely folks at Windham Fabrics asked me if I would like to participate in a blog hop to show off their Artisan Cottons. Well, a chance to work with a solid shot cotton that I have not yet seen - you know I said sure. Shortly after that, a box arrived with those beautiful fabrics - as with all shot cottons, the actual colours are different and more beautiful in person that what I am able to capture in a photo.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this project developing - I have never made a wonky log cabin quilt so it seemed time to make one. Come back on Wednesday to see the final quilt, assuming I get it quilted today. These fabrics are lovely to work with - a nice quilting cotton weighted shot cotton. They washed up beautifully too.

And I recommend that you can follow the whole blog hop next week, as there will be bundles of these beautiful Artisan Cottons to win as well as a chance to see some beautiful work using them. Here is the schedule:

• Monday:       Windham Fabrics
• Tuesday:       Rachel, Imagine Gnats
• Wednesday:  Leanne (me!), She Can Quilt
• Thursday:      Ashley, Film in the Fridge

I'll be quilting today, and trying to come up with a name for my quilt. I hope you are having a lovely weekend too.

Best,

Leanne

if you were shopping... #21

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.

Today, Green Fairy Quilts has charm packs on sale until Monday at 40% off.

I'm loving the Mad about Patchwork bundle this week, which is called Moody Blues, and is  20% off until January 25. Pam has a bunch of other beautiful bundles on for 20% off too!

Oakshott Fabrics has is featuring their new Lakes Table Linens Challenge booklet this week.

Fabric Spark has a number of new prints, including several from Mochi. I think I need a lot of that one, it would make a lovely quilt back.

Southern Fabric has a lot of new fabric lines in, including Wild and Free, which I am in love with right now. 

Over at Fluffy Sheep Quilting Cindy has some Cotton + Steel on the shelves, including this beautiful lawn, which would make the prettiest infinity scarf.

Becca over at Sew me a Song has several new fabrics, including that Kei bundle. I have to admit to already ordering one for me.

Sew Sisters Quilt Shop has these beautiful Hiroshima needles in by Tulip from Japan. You can read more about these needles here.

The Fat Quarter Shop has a new contest - details are here - and if you play along by pinning your chosen remix you have a chance to win 9 yards of Cotton + Steel fabrics. I'll be joining in for sure. And they have started a new sale today of 20% off all Windham Fabrics!

Massdrop has 4 different sets of Aurifil Thread on for the next couple of days.

Best,

Leanne