Stash Report - Lotta Jansdotter at JoAnn

When I saw a post over at Cedar Fork Stitches that Lotta Jansdotter had a collection in JoAnn Fabrics, I had to go and check it out.  The JoAnn Fabrics near my work did not have any in stock, but the JoAnn Fabrics near my home had most of the collection.  The fabric has a really great feel to it and the colors are very classic Lotta.  I bought 4 one-yard cuts and am excited to cut into them :)

Also, I am taking part in the Modern Quilt Guild's Riley Blake Challenge using Cottage Garden's collection by The Quilted Fish.  The challenge is to do something you have never done before so I think that I am going to try some sort of triangle quilt.  I needed some additional yardage past the fat eighths given to us and I also wanted some of the pink prints to use.  I was excited to find out that one of our local quilt shops had the whole collection so I was able to see the fabrics in person.  Here are fabrics for the quilt: 

I'm a day late but still linking up with Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Feature

Amy from Amy's Creative Side posted a short feature today about me as a featured Blogger's Quilt Festival quilter :)  In the interview, I explain a little on how I got into quilting and how textiles relate to my day job.  You can check out the interview right here.

I have entered the previous three Blogger's Quilt Festivals and have a great time pouring over all of the other wonderful and jaw dropping quilts.  Here are my entries over the years:

Fall 2013:  Pi Quilt
Fall 2013:  Pink Broken Herringbone Quilt

Spring 2014:  Kona 2013 Quilt
Spring 2014:  Improv Quilt Two

Fall 2014:  Oh The Places You'll Go
Fall 2014:  Vintage Star

...and because no post is complete without a picture, here are the March bee blocks for the New Blogger's Quilting Bee that I just finished.

WIP Wednesday - March 25, 2015

I have been working a lot on my computer lately giving each of my current patterns a face lift (with new graphics and layouts) and finishing up a few new patterns (I just released Pike's Peak in two sizes), but I have been able to sneak away to my sewing room some.  Here are some updates on two Work-In-Progresses I have going on:

Irish Twist QAL by Melissa Corry (Happy Quilting)

This weeks assignment was to applique stitch the petals onto the petal blocks.  Even though I am making the wall size version of the quilt, I decided to replace all of the modern patchwork blocks with the appliqued petal blocks (mostly because I have only tried applique once or twice and I wanted to make more than one block).  

I used Heat and Bond Lite to hold down the petals and a fun blanket-like stitch on my Bernina to sew them on.  The pattern of the stitches went like this:

1. A forward stitch along on the outer edge of the petal
2. A stitch in and out of the petal area forming the blanket part of the stitch
3. A backwards stitch along the outer edge of the petal and 
4. A forward stitch along the outside of the petal. 

Around the outside of the petal, each "stitch" is really 3 stitches on top of one another which gives the stitching a more bold look, which I really like.  The stitch is number 720 on my Bernina 710.

Technicolor Galaxy Skill Builder by Pile O'Fabric

I put off starting this quilt until after QuiltCon because of the craziness before and frankly being a little scared and intimidated by the pattern.  I think that I have made good progress and I now can say that the hardest part of this quilt a long is picking the colors and just starting.  Once I actually stopped stalling and started cutting fabric, this part of the quilt top came together pretty easily.  

I am off to make the bias tape now for the "lead" in the stained glass section of the quilt.  I am nervous about this step too, but I will be diving into it this weekend.

I am very happy to link up with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced.

Pike's Peak Quilt Pattern Now Available

I am excited to announce that the stand alone version of Pike's Peak is now available.  You can find the pattern in my pattern shop (digital and print versions) and on Etsy.

Pike's Peak uses solid colored half square triangles to create a modern and minimal design with plenty of negative space. The pattern now includes instructions for both wall (about 25" x 25") and lap (about 50" x 50") sized quilts. 

 
The quilt was featured in the 2nd issue of Make Modern Magazine and juried into QuiltCon 2015 in the Use of Negative Space category.

What is also very exciting is that this is my first pattern release using my new professionally designed cover and my new graphics and page layout software. I hope that you enjoy the look of the pattern, I am slowly but surely revamping all of my existing patterns too :) 

Once again, the pattern is now available in my pattern shop (digital and print versions) and on Etsy.  Thanks!

Sunday Stash - March Edition

I have not had a Sunday Stash post in a while so I thought that I would show some of the fabrics that have shown up at my door in the last month or so.

1.  Liberty of London:  I have always wanted to try some Liberty of London lawn fabrics, I love their small scale floral patterns, but I have always shied away do to their crazy price.  A couple of weeks ago I entered Red Pepper Quilts' giveaway from Duckadilly and I actually won!  I have no plans on what I am going to do with the fabrics, but I have a bunch of ideas percolating.

2.  QuiltCon Purchases:  QuiltCon had such wonderful fabrics to buy, I tried to limit myself from buying too much fabric.  I wound up purchasing 4 one-yard cuts of some newpaper prints from Suzuko Koseki and one Echino print.

3.  Cotton & Steel:  My local quilt shop just got some Cotton & Steel prints in for the first time so to celebrate I purchased a few prints.

4.  Riley Blake Challenge:  As a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, I am taking part in the latest challenge which is to use the Cottage Garden line by the Quilted Fish in a quilted item making something you have never done before.  I am leaning towards something with triangles as I have never attempted them before.

Those are some of the fabrics that come into my house over the last few weeks, happy sewing everyone!

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles.

Kona Pineapple Block - Free Pattern

Our February program for the Greenville Modern Quilt Guild was all about paper piecing so I used the opportunity to try out a block that has been on my to-do list, a classic pineapple block.  After making one block, I don't think that I am up for a making an entire lap or bed pineapple quilt, but I think a mini would be very doable.

For this block,  I customized a paper pieced pineapple block from EQ (finishing at 7" square) and used leftovers from a Kona summer 2013 charm pack, giving the block a very fun and scrappy look.  

I thought that I would share the block pattern with you in case you too had a pineapple quilt on your quilt bucket list, here is the 

FREE quilt block on Craftsy.  

The pattern file contains the block template finishing at 7" square and a quilt color page to try out different color schemes.  The pattern does not contain paper piecing or fabric cutting instructions.

I hope you pop over to Craftsy to download the free pattern and if you make a block or a quilt, please share your results on the flicker group Meadow Mist Designs and/or on Instagram using the hastag #MeadowMistDesigns.

Edited to add:
Thank you so much for your enthusiastic response to the Kona Pineapple Block Pattern, it has made it into the top 20 best selling free patterns!

I am linking up to Link a Finish Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday, Finish It Up Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday, and Show Off Saturday @ Sew She Can.

Happy Pi Day! 3/14/15 or 3.1415

To quilty engineers and scientists and Pi lovers everywhere, 

Happy Pi Day!  

During college, Pi day was always celebrated (I went to Carnegie Mellon University, a super nerdy engineering school). People spent most of the night writing out the thousands of digits of pi on the sidewalks all through the campus.  I always try to celebrate pi day now with a celebration including some pie.  

This year is especially exciting being the year 2015.  The date 3/14/15 contains the first 5 digits of pi, 3.1415.  At 9:26 am or pm, the date will be 3/14/15 9:26, 7 digits of pi, 3.1415926!  That alone is worth an extra piece of pie!

Two years ago, I made a Pi quilt for my husband containing 49 paper pieced digits of Pi and I thought that I would post it again for the occasion.

Go have a piece of pie today to celebrate Pi Day :) 

Use Your Illusion - MGQ March Pattern of the Month

I am so happy to show you my newest quilt, Use Your Illusion, which is the March pattern of the month for the Modern Quilt Guild (free to all MQG members)!

For quilters coming over from the MQG, welcome!  I hope you have a chance to take a look around my little blog including some of my recent finishes and mystery quilt (in the tabs above).  You can also find me over on Instagram as MeadowMistDesigns.

I came up with the design for Use Your Illusion when I was playing with idea of echoed diamonds in EQ7 and then started randomly erasing some of the lines.  I loved the resultant effect with the partial and full geometric diamonds set on negative space.  The quilt reminded me of the 1990's Guns 'N Roses song "Use Your Illusion", so that is how it earned its name.

Abby Latimer of Latimer Lane quilted this quilt for me.  This is the first quilt I have ever had long arm quilted and Abby did such a wonderful job.  I wanted a curved quilting pattern to contrast with the straight lines of the piecing, but I wanted the curved quilting to be precise (my quilting with my domestic machine always has an organic, more random feel to it).  I picked out a figure 8 pattern that I think gives the quilt texture without taking away from the piecing.

This pattern is totally paper pieced which gives such precision to the quilt top. (It is a lot to paper piece, but the paper piecing is very beginner friendly having only straight parallel pieces.)

In case you love the design but do not want to commit to a lap size (56" x 56"), the pattern also contains instructions for a wall quilt (35" x 35").  The paper pieced templates and quilt top are designed so that all of the seams within the quilt top nest for perfect points and less bulk in the seams.

Here are just a couple more pictures of the finish.  This is one of my favorite quilts I have made, thanks for taking a look!

I am linking up to Link a Finish Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday, Finish It Up Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday,  Sewjo @ My Go Go Life, and Show Off Saturday @ Sew She Can.

The 15 Minute Little Girl Skirt Tutorial

A while ago when I needed to go to my local quilt shop for some fabric, I rewarded bribed my 4 year old daughter with some fabric of her own for good behavior while in the store.  She picked out this pink Cupcake Toss Fabric by Timeless Treasures and told me she wanted a skirt.

Now, I am not a seamstress by any means, but I figured that I could make a quick and easy little girl skirt.  I took some pictures along the way in case you wanted to make one too :)

Materials needed:

• about 1/3 yard of fabric for a 4 year old, older/younger children will need more/less
• about 2 feet of elastic (I used 1/2 inch non-roll elastic from JoAnn)
• Basic sewing supplies (sewing machine, thread, etc)

I used 1/3 yard to make the skirt.  I found that the 42" width of the fabric was large enough to go around my for my daughter's waist with a good amount of gathering (she is 4 and weighs about 32 pounds) and the 12" length was plenty to make the hemmed skirt.  I washed, dried, and ironed the fabric before beginning these easy steps:

1.  Trim off the salvages and square up the top and bottom edges of the fabric. (In the picture below, the fabric is folded in half with both of the salvages on the right hand side.)

2.  Sew along the trimmed salvage edges, right sides of the fabric together to form a short tube of fabric.  (I do not own a serger so I used a simple zigzag stitch along the edge of the seam to finish the seam.)

3.  Form the top elastic channel: With the wrong side of the fabric tube facing outward, fold over the fabric about 1/2 inch all around the skirt, press.  Fold over an additional 1 and 1/2 inches and press again.  Sew along the fold of the fabric leaving a 1-2 inch opening.

4.  Hem the skirt:  Hold the skirt up to your little one and determine the desired length of the skirt. With the wrong side of the fabric tube facing outward, fold over the fabric about 1 inch all around the skirt, press.  Fold over the fabric again to the desired skirt length and press again.  Sew along the fold of the fabric.  (I hemmed my daughter's skirt a total of about 3 inches.)  

5.  Adding the elastic:  Approximate the amount of elastic needed by measuring around the waist of your little girl and adding about 6 inches.  Pin a safety pin through one end of the elastic and pin another safety pin through the other end of the elastic and the skirt (this will prevent the end of the elastic from getting pulled into the elastic channel).  Thread the elastic through the channel and secure the ends of the elastic by sewing the ends together or tying them in a knot.  Sew the gap in the elastic channel closed.

6.  Give the skirt to your little one and bask in the praise of being the best mom/grandma/aunt ever!

I am very happy to link up with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced.

I am also linking up with the linky party Tips and Tutorials Tuesday over at the Late Night Quilter's blog.

Yesterday - a quilt for Make Modern

Today I am so excited to show you one of my quilt finishes from January!  The quilt is called Yesterday and it appears in Make Modern Issue 4.

Yesterday is a modern interpretation on a classic quilt block dating back to the late 1800’s, the “double hour glass” block which is also sometimes referred to as the “wondering lover” block.  The quilt measures about 65" x 65".

I "modernized" the blocks by enlarging the block so that the block became the entire quilt top.  For my version of Yesterday, I used Kona Cotton Solids in White and Black by Robert Kaufman.

I decided to quilt all of the white areas of the quilt in a 1 inch grid and quilted the black triangles in a dense back and forth pattern.  I made some ghost white triangles in the background mirroring the black triangles.  There was a lot of marking and thread burying in this quilt.  I used 50 wt. cotton Aurifil thread in white and black. 

The quilt is backed with a Carolyn Friedlander extra wide fabric.

I love the Make Modern magazine, the magazine is so full of great quilts and inspiration.  There are 14 projects in this issue as well as other features and articles.  Check out Make Modern Issue 4!

I am linking up to Monday Makers @ Hug-a-Bit Quilts, Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts, and Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts.

I am linking up to Link a Finish Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday, Finish It Up Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday,  Sewjo @ My Go Go Life, and Show Off Saturday @ Sew She Can.