Market Release #5 - Parallel Universe

This is my favorite of all of the quilts that I made for Market this year. It's a large quilt, clocking in at queen size. I found the border by accident and grabbed all that was left on the bolt. It is a Moda batik, and the first time I had purchased their batiks. I have used their regular cotton prints for most of my quilting life, but they only moved into the batik side about 5 years ago, and their selection of batiks is still small relative to their cotton line, and since I live in Southern California, just down the street from Island Batiks, and just down the road from Hoffman Fabrics of California, there aren't a lot of the Moda batiks on the shelves here. But this one.....This one is lovely. A navy background with multi-colored dots in yellow, red, pink, green and orange. I used the print to pull all of the other prints, in navy, lime, sun, turquoise, hot pink, tangerine, and a hint of red....

The blocks are big on this one, so the quilt works up really fast...I could easily see this one in other combinations : red and blue only for 4th of July, red and green only for Christmas, or purple, lime green and black for Halloween....or reproduction prints, or Bonnie and Camille's Daysail. The blocks are big enough to show off fussy cutting squares, and those larger prints.

I hope you will enjoy this one as much as I have.....Parallel Universe.....

The lovely swirly quilting was done by Kerry Smith of Escondido, under a super short deadline, and as always she came through and I love, love, love the quilting!!! The swirls are perfect on the angular piecing. Did I mention I love it?

Well, this completes my updates on all of the patterns from Market. International Quilt Festival opens today at 5pm, and goes through Sunday. Look out next week for information on the show and all of the people we meet...we are expecting 50,000+ quilters to descend upon Houston in the next few days.....If you are at Festival, stop by booth 1714 and see them in person.

Happy Quilting!!!

Catherine

Market Release #4 - Starry Starry Night

Starry Starry Night was the first quilt that was designed for this market. I've had it on paper for a while, but didn't get around to making it until mid-September....it was one that just languished in a drawing form for a long time....

Here are the outtakes from the photoshoot.....

This quilt is a combination of batiks, the border print and background are by Robert Kaufman, and the stars are a combination of Hoffman prints and 1895's.  

Of all of the quilts that were made for this Market, this is the one that Penny the Dog kept trying to steal. At every stage she either stole blocks, laid on the middle of the blocks, or attempted to steal the finished quilt.....she seams to think that her cute face means she gets whatever she wants.....

See, that gleam in her eye.....

I hope everyone has a great week, it may be a little quiet here as we participate in Quilt Festival which runs from Wednesday night at 5, through Sunday at 4pm. 

Hope to see you all there, and have a great week in the meantime!!!

Happy Quilting!

Catherine

Make a List Monday

Make a List Monday is brought to you from Quilt Market. It is the final day of Quilt Market, the three day trade show to show off all the new trends, fabrics, notions, and quilting paraphernalia.....

I'm in booth #1714 and having a blast......I have a lot of blog posts to catch up on from Market, and prep for Quilt Festival, which starts on Wednesday evening.....so, for this week, no sewing. Just shows and travel between now and November 6th....so, here's a quick peak of what to expect this week....

This one is from a Sassafras...and was the newest hit....they were everywhere....in their own booth....

In the dear Stella booth....

In hoffman's booth....

In American Made Brand solids booth....

Simply stunning everywhere!

Stay tuned for a Judy Market Trunk Show.....at Anthology, Hoffman, RJR, Timeless Treasures, everywhere!!!!

See you soon!

Catherine

It's that time again -- Sew Along Starts November 15th

It's time to start thinking about the new edition of a Sew Along. I've been thinking about it for a couple of weeks, trying to figure out which quilt to do next, and I've got it down to three, and it's your chance to set the priority...so, let me know which one you want to work on and I'll work on the schedule over the next few weeks, with the intention to start on November 15th...so far, the options are...

Option 1 - Flower's for My Wedding Ring - a classic wedding ring, with gorgeous corner appliqué.
Since we haven't done one with appliqué yet, I thought it might be a fun new technique to cover.....

Option 2 - Stormy Seas - A relatively new pattern for a table runner. This one might be a good option because of the time of year.....I know a lot of people have Christmas and Thanksgiving commitments, and this one has a lot less sewing that some of the others. New Techniques to cover include the S curve.

Option 3 - Prairie Pinwheels - This pattern was released at Spring Market and is a really quilt strip pieced technique. I sewed one of the original samples in Reclaimed West in just a couple of days, so this one might be another good option given the time of year. 

 Option 4 - Ice Crystals - one of the newest released patterns, this one is a quick and easy one as well, based upon the glacier star center medallion, and is appropriate to the season.

SO, that's my four current recommendations...and I am looking for your input on which one to do next.....My plan is to start on it during the week of November 15th, and finish sometime in late December or early January, depending upon which one we pick.....I will also be doing some You-Tube videos to go with the weekly posts, giving you some more info on how to work on it....

Which one is your favorite???

Happy Quilting!

Catherine

Market Release #3 - Simply Strippy

This quilt was inspired by simplicity. I wanted something that would be quick, would use a bali pop, and would leave a small amount of scraps. This one is made of the new Bali Pop called Mercury -- a great blend of yellow, orange, and green 1895s, that has a great modern vibe. I will definitely be carrying this one in the store when they are delivered in February. Here's some outtakes from photo day....the quilt is 45 x 54.

The quilting was done by the amazing Kerry Smith of Escondido, CA, and the fabrics were provided by Hoffman Fabrics of California. 

Happy Quilting!!!

Catherine

A Sneaky Day Off

Last week I got a chance to attend a class with Bonnie Hunter...She was the speaker at our guild this month, and she offered a number of classes (all of which completely sold out). I was lucky enough to get a slot in two of them -- Virginia Bound and Winston Ways, and I took full advantage. I picked her brain about her Scrap User's System (which I have started implementing in my sewing room over the last few months) and her approach to quilting. I love her use of scraps, and her approach to the more the better. While I love a good organized quilt, and love "color ways" I love prints and fabrics, and love to add options. If a quilt calls for 1 yard of blue, and look and see if I could do 4 fat quarters of blues, to give myself more options, and make it more mine. I look my quilts to be a reflection of me, and while I love putting kits together, I love to see students "own" their aesthetic, even if the quilt changes as a result. I am infamous for the more is better, and those who know me well know that I am a fabric collector...but more on that in another post.

So, back to class....

Virginia Bound

Virginia Bound is from the Scraps and Shirttails book, and is a string pieced block. I had never worked with strings before, in fact, before class I wasn't really sure of the difference between a strip and a string, much less how to classify which ones where.....Bonnie set us straight, and got us working on these right away. They are a great block to burn through odd shaped "strips" and bits and pieces that are not square, not straight strips, or just plain ugly.

I didn't get any pictures in my Virginia Bound class, but Bonnie has some lovely ones on her blog. I stole this pic from her blog...hopefully, she won't kill me, since they are my blocks....

Mine is the rainbow version, where each of the "wings" is a specific color family, rather than all mixed up. I haven't quite figured out what my plan is for the quilt. I was originally going to do each star in 1 color family, and I might still do that, but I need to pull some more color families (like turquoise and purple, and maybe a little less orange). We'll see how it ends up....after market.

Winston Ways

Winston Ways is from Bonnie's most recent book -- More Adventures with Leaders and Enders - the book explores the quilts that you can make using the leader and ender technique. I had never heard of this technique until I caught an episode of Quilt Cam a few months ago. It's genius....really. You have to try it! I started the Leader ad Ender Challenge last year which was made of Half 9 Patch Blocks. And I am also about half way through my Lozenge Leader and Ender from this year....Anyway, check out the technique and all of the quilts that she uses it on...including Winston Ways.

Here's my Winston Ways block that we made in class. It's 12 inches, and has 104 pieces in it. And it is Perfect!!!! It is assembled using some techniques that I hadn't seen before (which is always fun to learn something new). I love the color way, and the precision of the block. I generally don't work with strips that are less that 2 inches, but this one knocked through a bunch of scraps that were left over from 1 1/2" sashings. It was great to see that scrap bin hit hard. I can't wait to work on the remaining blocks in this quilt. I want to make it a king for my bed, so I need about 45 more blocks....which should make a huge dent in the pinks and greens, but leave plenty of purple and turquoise.....I suspect I will need to do some additional cutting into scrap user's to get the variety that I want - but that project was already scheduled for after Market, so now I have an incentive to get it done, and a reward for finishing!!!!

Do you reward yourself for getting things done in your sewing room???

Have a great week, and happy Thursday!!!

Catherine 

Market Release #2 - Crossroads

This quilt was inspired by a student. She brought in a lovely Kaffe Fassett lanterns quilt (the courthouse steps quilt) in these colors, and I loved it! I'm not traditionally a fan of his fabrics, as I struggle with them. I finally realized that when it comes to Kaffe, it's go all in or go home!!! Seriously, use them all, or not at all. So, all in, I was, and it was a great result. You can use as few or as many prints as you want, as long as you stick to your color families.

I could see this quilt in a million different variations, from alternate Kaffe colorings, to batiks, even to modern solids....pick your three color families, and pick all shades in each family.

It's a fairly quick quilt to make, and because it is on point, it is a great way to make a bigger quilt without the hassle of a million blocks. So, pick you theme, and off to the Crossroads you go...

This quilt was a challenge to photograph given the day -- it was windy and bright, a deadly combo when attempting to photograph something that tends to turn into a sail....hope you enjoyed some of the outtakes....

Happy Quilting!!!

Catherine