Meadow Mystery Quilt {My Flying Geese and Square in a Square Units}

This month for the Meadow Mystery Quilt we made some flying geese and square in a square units. The Facebook group so full of some wonderful versions. If you want to join in, it is not too late!

Some links for more information:

Mystery quilt tab which contains all of the mystery quilt information and instructions

Facebook Group

Link to sign up for printer friendly pdf monthly instructions

I am making two versions of the Meadow Mystery Quilt, a more traditional version using Gentle Breezes by Maywood Studio and a more modern version using some of my favorite text prints. 

I once again only have the Modern Text units to share today.

The instructions are given out on the first Thursday of every month so the next set of instructions will be posted on the blog in just a few days on Thursday, December 1st.

I am linking up with Let's Bee Social at Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts and Needle and Thread Thursday at Kelly @My Quilt Infatuation.

Reminder - Thanksgiving Pattern Bundle Sale Ending Soon

Just a little reminder that my limited-time pattern bundle of Meadow Mist Designs patterns on Etsy will end at midnight tonight.  The bundle contains five (5) of my most popular patterns in both digital and printed versions for only $30 (a $50 value).

You can find the Digital Bundle here and the Print Bundle here.

The Quilter’s Planner 2017

As I recover from my Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and do some Black Friday shopping today, I am also starting to plan out and organize the start of next year by starting to fill in my new 2017 Quilter's Planner.  I just love to start writing in a new planner, it is like a new blank slate for a new year.

This year's planner is even better than last years!  The cover and tabs are more durable, the photography is amazing and there are more project sheets included to keep your on going and planned quilting projects organized.

I utilized my 2016 Quilter's Planner extensively, using the monthly spreads to organize my family, quilting, and work schedules and plan out my blog posts.

I used the weekly spreads for to-do lists and due date reminders. My pages definitively did not look as beautiful and stylish as Stephanie's below but they really got the job done.

Also included in the planner are 14 beautiful full quilt and sewing patterns, with color instructions by way of a supplemental e-book. (Just these patterns alone are worth the price of the planner!)

My quilt pattern Canvas Lines is one of the quilt patterns included in the planner.

The Quilter's Planner is available to from Stephanie's online store: The Quilter's Planner.

To receive planners by Christmas or Hanukkah, orders need to be placed by December 10th. To receive orders by the New Year, orders need to be placed by December 20th.

Drawstring Bags and Pincushions

In my local modern quilt guide, the Greenville Modern Quilt Guide, we recently held elections and voted in a new president.  I was the president for the last two years and was the vice-president for two years before that. We are a new guide so we did not have much money to bring in speakers and therefore relied on our own members for our content.

I am in awe of the talent that we have in our group and so grateful for them to have shared their talents and their time for our guide.  I made each member that contributed to the group that held a chair position and/or presented a presentation, tutorial, or workshop.

I shared four mini quilts that I gifted last week and today I would like share some drawstring bags and pincushions I made for some members.

For the drawstring bags, I used Jeni Baker from In Color Order's Lined Drawstring Bag Tutorial and customized each bag for the recipient.

Drawstring Bag 1 - For our incoming president who taught a quilting workshop and presented a trunk show (and who I know loves this blue print by Rifle & Co. for Cotton & Steel).

 Drawstring Bag 2 - For our treasurer who also organized and hosted the guild challenge, a Cotton & Steel version.  The yellow fabric is a Japanese print that is all about handwriting to go along with the theme of her guild challenge piece.

  Drawstring Bag 3 - For one of our board members who lead the creation of the by-laws and co-organized our one year anniversary pattern, a Kaffe Fassett bag.  

All of the bags together.

I also made 4 pincushions for other members who have contributed to the guild.  Since I stopped selling pincushions in my Etsy shop I have actually missed making them so these were fun to sew up.

Pincushion 1 - For a quilter who shared a trunk show

Pincushion 2 - For one of our Charity Chairs

Pincushion 3 - For our QuiltCon Charity Quilt Chair

Pincushion 4 - For a quilter who shared a trunk show

I hope you enjoyed seeing these little gifts!  Have a wonderful weekend!

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 Can She.

Thanksgiving Pattern Bundle Sale!

To celebrate Thanksgiving, I am offering a limited-time pattern bundle of Meadow Mist Designs patterns on Etsy.

The bundle contains five (5) of my most popular patterns in both digital and printed versions for only $30 (a $50 value) and will be available until midnight EST on Monday November 28th.

You can find the Digital Bundle here and the Print Bundle here.

The bundle contains the following patterns (and you can click on each pattern to see more pictures, finished quilt sizes, and fabric requirements for each):

On a "Jelly" Roll - Jelly roll friendly pattern in baby, toddler, and lap sizes.

Outlined Plus - Pattern in baby, lap, twin, queen, and king sizes.

Broken Frames - Charm pack friendly pattern in baby, lap, and twin sizes.

Charming - Charm pack and layer cake friendly pattern in baby, lap, and king sizes.

Sea Star - Pattern in baby, lap, twin, queen, and king sizes.

I hope you all have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!!

Pat's Mega Fun Book Tour

I had the wonderful opportunity to be on Pat Sloan's radio show back in August and have gotten to know her better over the last few months.  When she asked if I would like to review her newest book called Teach Me to Machine Quilt (her 33rd!!) and be part of her Mega Fun Book Tour, I immediately said yes please!

I gave the book a read through and my initial thought was, I wish I had this book when I started quilting.  Pat truly takes you step by step through the quilting process from picking the thread and batting, to quilting with your walking foot or free motion quilting, all the way through burying your knots at the end. 

One of the most helpful parts of the book I thought was all of the different trouble shooting and tips Pat gives.  She goes into what the cause of the problem is, why it is happening, and how to fix it.

In addition to all of the quilting instructions, the book also contains 5 wonderful projects.  My two favorite projects were:

Dresden Candy Dish - I have never made a Dresden Plate quilt (though I have owned the ruler for years).  I really like the small scale of this quilt so you can try out a new sewing and/or quilting technique without committing to a huge quilt.

Cherry Pie - My sister loves red and white quilts and just moved into a new house, I think that she might need me to make a Cherry Pie quilt for her :)

Would you like a chance to win Pat's book? Visit the link to Pat's Giveaway Page to enter to win one of the 5 copies of her 'Pat Sloan's Teach Me to Machine Quilt Book'!

blog.patsloan.com/pats-mega-fun-book-tour/

Physical Copies for US residents, digital copies for all other winners. Be sure to enter by Midnight Dec 1 and then visit the others on her Mega Fun Tour to learn more about Pat's book, some have interviewed Pat, a few might have a giveaway, or have made a project... it's all listed on Pat's page!

Please take some time to hop over to the other blog's participating in the hop today:

Helen Stubbings of Hugs n Kisses
Kimberly Jolly of The Fate Quarter Shop

* All images courtesy of Pat Sloan and Martingale publishing.
** Disclaimer: A digital copy of Teach Me How to Machine Quilt was provided by the publisher for my review. All thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.

Four Mini Quilts

For the last two years, I have been the president of the Greenville Modern Quilt Guild (and vice-president for two years before that).  It has been a joy to see our guild grow and flourish and I have built strong friendships with some wonderful women.  I am happy to step down at the end of the year and hand over the reins to our new president.

During my presidency, we grew from 7 members to 54, became a non-profit, and joined the Modern Quilt Guild.  We were a new guide so we did not have much money to bring in speakers and therefore relied on our own members for our content.

I am in awe of the talent that we have in our group and so grateful for them to have shared their talents and their time for our guide.  I wanted to make a special thank you for each member that contributed to the group that held a chair position and/or presented a presentation, tutorial, or workshop in 2015 and 2016.

Today, I would like to share four mini quilts that I gifted some of our members.

The first mini quilt went to a member who (in addition to many other things) taught a paper piecing workshop.  I used the pineapple block I made for the free pineapple block template I have up on Craftsy and finished it into a 6" x 6" finished mini.  I straight line quilted the mini following the seams in the block.

The next mini quilt went to a member who taught a gentle curves workshop and a tutorial on facing a quilt.  I used the block I made in the workshop to make this mini adding some gentle walking foot curvy lines and some facing.  It finished at about 10" x 14".

I made a mini for our vice-president who also had taught a tutorial on raw edge appliqueing while quilting.  She likes bright colors and whimsical details so hopefully she likes this 6" x 8" mini made using the technique.   

The final mini I am sharing today goes to our secretary and webmaster extraordinaire.  For this 8" x 10" mini I used a block I had made in Bill Kerr's modern quilt design class from QuiltCon 2015 along with some of the fancier stitches on my Bernina.

I hope that my gratitude for our wonderful Greenville Modern Quilt members comes through with these little gifts.

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 Can She.

5 Tips for Easy Quilt Backings and Giveaway

As you probably know, making backs for a quilt is not high on my favorite parts of quilting.  I would love to share some tips with you today on how I make the easiest, most stress free quilt backing possible.

(Hint hint...at the bottom of the post, there is a chance to win some wonderful wide fabric to back your own quilt!)

1. Use 108" Wide Fabrics

Wide back fabrics are wonderful as there is no piecing involved, they are hands down the easiest backings there are!  They save time (no piecing) and money (wide back fabrics are typically cheaper per square yard than the usual 40-44" wide fabrics).  You also use a sheet (you can read my experiences and tips for using sheets here), but over the past few years, there have been more and more options for great quality and beautiful wide quilting fabrics for use as backings.  Another benefit is that you know that the fabric is quality and will last for years to come.

2. Over-sized Your Backings

When basting a quilt, it is typically recommended to size the backing such that the backing is about 4" larger on all sides of the quilt top.  I can get away with a smaller overhang for smaller baby quilts, but for large bed quilts having a 4" overhang or even more can make basting easier and less error prone.

By skimping on the backing size, there is a greater likelihood to accidentally have the corner or side of the quilt top hanging off the edge of the backing.  Having to totally unbaste and rebaste a large quilt is no fun (ask me how I know).

Note: This is for basting for a domestic machine, if you are giving your quilt to a longarmer to quilt, check with them to see how much overhang you need for your backing and make to provide at least that amount.

3. Print Fabrics

If you want to make your quilting a little less noticeable and hide any bobbles and oopsies, then pick a print for your quilt backing.  A solid backing fabric can give you a really cool whole-cloth look to the back of your quilt but they tend to me more stress inducing (at least for me) because every stitch of your quilting shows up.

4. Random Print Fabrics

For a stress free basting experience, I highly recommend going for a more random print design for your backing.  If you use a very directional print (like lines, oriented dots, etc) and have the quilt top skewed even a little relative to the backing, the pattern on the back of the quilt may be noticeably slanted.

5. Color Matched Fabric to Quilting Thread

I always use the same color thread on the top and bottom when quilting so if you want your thread to blend in on the back (again hiding any bobbles and imperfections), pick a backing that is similar to the thread color.  Quilting with white thread on a black backing would be stressful to me as every stitch is going to stand out.

Backside Fabrics was kind enough to give Paige (Quilted Blooms) and myself two quilt backings for use in some secret sewing projects.  I had such a great time going through all of her huge amount of fabric selections, it was like heaven for those that hate to piece backs. Here are some of my favorite wide backing fabrics from Backside Fabrics that I think would be excellent backing choices:

108" Eclectic Elements Correspondence Sateen by Tim Holz - Blue 

108" Value Collection Gray and White Wide Quilt Backing - Sun Burst

108" Spot on Wide Quilt Backing - Chartreuse

Giveaway

Backside Fabric has been generous to offer a $40 gift certificate to one lucky reader (the giveaway is being hosted on my and Paige's blog so you only have to enter through one post).

To enter, use the Rafflecopter widget below (if you are reading this via e-mail, you will have to open the post on the internet.)

The giveaway ends Sunday, November 20th, at 10pm eastern time and a random number generator will select the winner. Giveaway open to participants 18 years or older and international participants are welcome.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


I'm linking up to Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl and Stephanie @ Late Night Quilter link party Tips and Tutorials Tuesday.

Trunk Full of Quilts - An Online Trunk Show 2016

Welcome to my stop on the Trunk Full Of Quilts online quilt trunk show event hosted by Soma @ Whims and Fancies. 

 

If you are new to my blog, I hope that you will take a few minutes to look around. In addition to the quilts/tutorials I highlighted below, you can find all of my recent finishes in the sidebar to the right and you can find my free Meadow Mystery quilt along, Quilt Pattern Writing Series, and other tutorials in the tabs above.

When I participated in last year's Trunk Full Of Quilts online quilt trunk show, I showed off my first quilt as well as some of my favorites from the past few years. This year, I thought it might be nice to show you some of my favorite tutorial quilts I made.

Candy Circle Quilt 

Original post about quilt
Link to free tutorial

Candy Circle was my first Moda Bake Shop quilt tutorial. My goal with the design was to be able to make a quilting using some of the (then) new candy charm packs (also called mini charm packs). The quilt is a baby sized quilt using some the Mirabelle line from Fig Tree & Co. With just four mini charm packs (or just one charm pack), a focal print fabric, and some background fabric, you can have a cute baby quilt ready to gift. This quilt was juried into an AQS show (I believe it was Chattanooga) and then was gifted to my brother for his new baby girl.

Building Blocks Quilt
Original post about quilt

Link to free tutorial

Building Blocks was another one of my Moda Bake Shop tutorials. For this quilt I really wanted to be able to make a good size baby quilt using only one charm pack (to help myself and others come up with ways to use all of their single charm packs in their stash).  I made the baby quilt using the Daysail collection by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.  Building Blocks became one of the top tutorials on the Moda Bake Shop website for 2015.

Rainbow Rail Fence Quilt

Original post about quilt

Link to free tutorial

I made the Rainbow Rail Fence quilt and corresponding free tutorial for the Bear Creek Quilting Company. My son loves rainbows and had requested a rainbow quilt for his room.  I used one Kona Sunset and one Kona Sunrise roll-up (by Robert Kaufman) to create a double bed sized quilt (80" x 80").

Nordic Playlist Quilt

Original post about quilt

Link to free tutorial

The Nordic Playlist quilt and corresponding free tutorial were also made for the Bear Creek Quilting Company. My daughter was just moving up to her big girl bed and needed a new quilt right when Bear Creek picked up some Paradiso collection by Kate Spain for Moda at Quilt Market.  My daughter loved the colors and helped me pick out the prints that she wanted to use. One nice thing about this pattern is that each 18" block is made using one fat quarter so it is easy to scale up or down in size.

Peg's Garden Quilt 

Original post about quilt

Link to free tutorial

I made Peg's Garden for my Grandma-in-law, Grandma Peg for Christmas in 2013. She was 98 years old at the time and was a blessing in my husband and my life.  She passed away a few months ago at over 100 years old.  For the quilt, I used some more traditional colors and prints than I normally do, but the quilt would look awesome in some more modern fabrics too.  The pattern is available as a free download on Craftsy.

   

I hope that you enjoyed my trunk show and found a pattern that might would work for a future quilting project.

If you would like to follow my blog for some more fun, quilting adventures you can find me on Bloglovin, via Email, on Facebook, and on Instagram.

Thanks!

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 14 - Pinwheel Punch - Blog Hop and Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 14 Blog Tour!

I am so excited to have a block called Pinwheel Punch in Volume 14 of the 100 Blocks magazine by Quiltmaker!  This is my fifth block to appear in the 100 Blocks magazines.  You can see my previous 100 Blocks: Sewing Triangles in Volume 10, Outlined Plus in Volume 11, Paper Star in Volume 12, and Cloud Burst in Volume 13.

Pinwheel Burst is a great beginner level paper-pieced block.  The 12" (finished) block is pieced from four sections with few seams to match.  

Here is what a lap sized quilt using this block might look like:

Here is the quilt rendered in some other colors...

How about some holiday versions?  Below are Halloween and Christmas variations... 

Candy Corn Pinwheels!!!

Candy Cane Pinwheels :)

Getting a little crazy, I selectively erased some of the pinwheel parts for a more modern and abstract version... I think that this one might go on my to-do list...

I hope that you have enjoyed all of these renderings of Pinwheel Punch being used in different quilt tops to see how versatile the block is. 

Make sure you stop by Quiltmaker's blog, Quilty Pleasures, for some great prizes and a complete list of blog tour participants! 

Now on to the Giveaways (yes plural!):

Prize 1: Quiltmaker is sponsoring the giveaway of a copy of 100 Blocks Magazine Vol. 14.  This magazine drawing is open to everyone-international included.  The magazine will be shipped directly from Quiltmaker.

Prize 2:  I am also sponsoring a second prize, a copy 100 Blocks Magazine Vol. 13 plus a printed copy of On a "Jelly" Roll (my most popular pattern).  This giveaway is open to everyone-international included and will be shipped from me.

To Enter:  

1.  Leave a comment on this post, any comment.  If you would like a topic, you can tell me your favorite color combinations right now.

2.  My blog followers (old or new) get a bonus entry.  Leave a second comment with how you follow the blog.  (Here are some links for following... Bloglovin, Email)

The giveaway will run for 1 week, until 8 pm EST on November 21st.  I try to respond to each and every comment I get on my blog, but with giveaway posts the numbers are usually too great to do this.  PS - If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your e-mail address so I have a way of contacting you if you win.

Thanks!