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Wednesday, June 29, 2016

NTT Today

Unfortunately, there will be no Needle and Thread Thursday this week. Strong storms moved through our area on Monday and our house was struck by lightning.  Among many other things, it affected our internet and home phone, and it has not yet been restored. In fact, I am making this post from my cell phone. :(.

I am hoping to have my service back up and running after my service appointment  tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to show you my finished Stacked Squares quilt!  Until then, I'll be spending plenty of time at my machine!

Thanks so much for your understanding and I'll see you next week!

:) Kelly

Monday, June 27, 2016

Stems and Stones with the Courthouse Quilters

This weekend I had the pleasure of teaching my Stems and Stones pattern (along with a foolproof method for sewing snowball corners without drawing lines!) to the Courthouse Quilters Guild just outside of Nashville, TN.


It was so much fun to see all of the different interpretations of the pattern, from more muted colors, to seasonal fabrics, to vibrant batiks with a black background.  One quilter is using Kate Spain's Cuzco collection with a teal background, and I can't wait to see it all finished!

I didn't get a photo of everyone's fabric choices, as several quilters in the class opted to make a larger sized quilt.  Since they wanted to be sure that they had plenty of flexibility in their layouts and had a good grasp on the design of the pattern, they opted to work on individual block components during the class, rather than finishing a smaller section.   I made everyone promise to send a photo to me when they put their quilts together, and I can't wait to see them start rolling in!

It was such a joy to have the opportunity to laugh and visit with these fun ladies, and I'm super excited to know that I get to return there in August to be a part of another event.


Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Winners and Needle and Thread Thursday

Happy NTT, friends!  Lately, I've been working on a Stacked Squares quilt in shades of aqua, gray, navy, and green.  I have always loved the illusion of this quilt, and although I have made a few of them, I have never kept one for myself.


This is such a soothing color palette, and since this entire quilt came from stash, clearly I'm drawn to fabrics in these colors.  Now that I am presenting classes and trunk shows, I have the perfect excuse for keeping plenty of my quilts!  In fact, I'm traveling to teach a class this weekend, so finishing this one will have to wait a little while.

I owe you some winners from my June sponsor giveaways!  First up, the winner of the Shabby Fabrics Welcome Home giveaway is comment number 7 (Kathy E.)!


And the three winners for the Juniper Berries Jolly Bars are comment numbers 92 (Teje), 12 (Jen), and 46 (Therese).
                           

I'll be contacting you via email very soon so that you can collect your prizes, ladies.  Congratulations to all!

So, let's get to the highlights from last weeks fantastic party!  This Fractal quilt from Afton at Quilting Mod is absolutely stunning!


and check out this Fabulous Foxes baby quilt from Lori at Crossquilt.  I was privileged to see this one in person at our guild meeting and it is so cute, and especially cuddly with that minky backing!


Finally, I am loving this Scrappy Strips quilt from Sarah at Georgia Girl Quilts


Let's link up, y'all!  

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!
2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.
3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  
4. Spread the comment love far and wide!
5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)



Monday, June 20, 2016

Jingle All the Way

Okay, so let's just all pretend that this quilt is showcased with a pristine snowy backdrop, and a mug of hot chocolate in hand, instead of the lush, green landscape that is reality.


The heat index was close to 110 degrees today, and it feels a little weird to be spreading Christmas cheer amidst these sweltering temps, but I really love this finish!  The Baubles pattern works perfectly with the Jingle holiday fabrics, and really look like vintage blown glass ornaments.


I used all of my Jingle scraps, along with a leftover piece from the Santa's Here line, and filled out the backing with Kona Basil Green.  The darker solid and tonal green fabrics really make those scraps pop, and I do love how the quilting really shows up on a solid.


This one got a Kona Red binding, and it creates a perfect frame for the quilt.


I have made several Christmas quilts over the last few years, but I've never kept one for myself.  Well, this is the year that my own couch gets a special, snuggly quilt during the holiday season, because this one is all mine!


Friday, June 17, 2016

June Sales and Giveaways!

We're halfway through another month, which means I have another run down of amazing fabric sales at my favorite shops, as well as a couple of giveaways for you, so read on!

Let's start with Shabby Fabrics!  The owner and head designer of Shabby Fabrics, Jennifer Bosworth, has just released a brand new fabric line with Maywood Studio called Welcome Home, and these fabrics really are super sweet!

These fabrics are available in a wide range of precuts, as well as yardage and kits!  Shabby Fabrics is graciously giving away two yards of the Welcome Home collection to one lucky winner this month, in your choice of prints!

         Shabby Fabrics

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that Shabby Fabrics has LOTS of great fabric collections on sale right now, including a couple of my favorites, Color Theory, Hello Darling, and Canyon.  Definitely head over there and check it out!



Fort Worth Fabric Studio also has tons of great fabrics in their sale section, but right now, there is a special sale on Moda's Lil Red collection.  You can get 30% off all Lil Red purchases with the code RED30!  That's a really awesome savings on these oh, so cute fabrics!


          Fort Worth Fabric Studio



If you're a Cotton and Steel fan, you need to head on over to Lady Belle Fabrics!    Right now, ALL Cotton and Steel collections, with the exception of Les Fleurs, are 25% off.   This includes yardage, bundles, precuts...everything!

There is no code needed to take advantage of this great discount, but the sale ends on Sunday 6/19 at midnight, so hurry on over!

        Lady Belle Fabric


Five Monkey Fabrics is my favorite place to shop for basics like chevrons and polkadots, and right now, you can stock up and get free shipping on any order over $50 with the code FREESHIP!

           Five Monkey Fabrics


Lots and lots of awesomeness is happening at LouLou's Fabric shop right now!  I love the LouLou's offers installment plans for their preorder fabrics.

Right now, there are some brand new goodies that have just been added to LouLou's preorder section, including Chestnut Street and Farm Fun.  Personally, I have my eye on the newest Bonnie and Camille collection, Handmade!

So many fabrics have been added to their sale section as well, including Gooseberry by Lella Boutique!

Right now, LouLou's is offering 15% off your entire purchase with the code quiltinfatuation.  This special offer is only good through Sunday!

             LouLou’s Fabric Shop



Southern Fabric also has many new arrivals, including a few holiday lines.  The happy colors and retro prints in Cotton and Steel's Garland collection are so much fun!

          Southern Fabric

If you've ever shopped at Southern Fabric, you may remember that they used to host an amazing Daily Deal, good for only 24 hours.  Well, the Daily Deal has been replaced with Weekly Deals, which still boast fantastic savings on great fabrics, but rather than just one item on sale for a single day, there are several items, and the deals change weekly.  I was excited to see this change, because as much as I love to take advantage of amazing sales, I just don't have the time to stay on top of them from day to day.  Weekly sales are much more manageable for me.


Last, but never least, is Fat Quarter Shop, who also happens to be sponsoring the second giveaway of the day!  Fat Quarter Shop is very generously offering a set of Juniper Berry Jolly Bars to three lucky winners!

Jolly Bars are a newer precut, and they are exclusive to Fat Quarter Shop.  A single Jolly Bar pack contains (42) 5" x 10" cuts, and each and every Jolly Bar includes a free pattern, just in case you need some inspiration on how to use them.


          Fat Quarter Shop

Each month, Fat Quarter Shop also features a Basic, Book, Pattern, and Notion of the Month, and offers them at 20% off.  The Basic of the Month for June is the new Art Gallery Denim Basics, and they look especially drool-worthy!

So, I know I've given you a lot of information to digest, but I also know that you want to know how to enter the two giveaways for this month.  Easy peasy.  Just leave a comment on this post and let me know what fabric goodies are striking your fancy right now.

Remember to leave an email address if you're a no-reply blogger, and only one entry per person please!  Unfortunately, replies to your own comment counts as an entry (the system numbers those, too), so remember to put your email address in your comment.  Additional replies/comments/entries are always deleted.  I'll announce a winner at next week's NTT!

This giveaway has now ended.  I'll announce the winners soon!

Best of luck in the giveaways, and happy shopping friends!



Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Jingle and NTT

Nope, your eyes do not deceive you.  I am in fact working on a Christmas quilt right now, complete with my fave Christmas music playing while I sew.  You might recall that last summer, I posted a tutorial for a Poinsettia Table Topper made with Kate Spain's Jingle collection.  I fell in love with the fabrics then, and have had this bundle for a while, just waiting for the opportunity to turn them into a Christmas quilt for myself (can you believe that I don't already have one??)


So here's the thing.  By the time the Christmas season rolls around, we are all bombarded with red and green everywhere, and I don't really want to sew Christmas things.  I enjoy my Christmas projects much more when I'm not seeing the decor everywhere.  I know it's a little bit weird.

I have always thought that my Baubles pattern would be perfect with holiday fabrics, because the shape of the blocks look like vintage glass ornaments, and it definitely creates the effect I was hoping for.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough forethought to order backing fabric from the Jingle line when I got the bundle, so I need to figure that out, but I can't wait to get this one finished!

Last week's party was full of amazingness!  It always makes me smile to see someone enjoy making one of my patterns, and Celine at Espritpatch shared her version of my Stems and Stones pattern last week!


Jennie at Porch Swing Quilts shared this happy, and fun Polka Dot Pinwheel quilt.


and Jess at Quilty Habit shared this wonderfully modern Emergence quilt.  Look at the all of that awesome quilting!


Choosing highlights each weeks is so difficult. Y'all just rock!  Let's get to it, friends!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!
2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.
3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  
4. Spread the comment love far and wide!
5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)








Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Text and Tiles, and NTT

Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, friends!  The party is a tad bit earlier than usual today, but I know if I wait until this evening to post, I'll forget.  Today is my wild thing's 12th birthday, and yesterday was mine (39, which is a hard number to type).  Anyway, wild thing and I have spent the day making cheesecake from scratch, his favorite dessert EVER, and my hubby is coming home early this evening.  Then we are heading out for an evening of laser tag, miniature golf, go-karts, batting cages, and arcade games.  These activities were clearly chosen by the birthday boy, and not necessarily the birthday mom, but I know we will all have tons of fun.   Sometimes, when life gets crazy, you just have to get things done while they're on your mind.


I am super excited to share my latest finish with you though.  I've named it Text and Tiles, and now that it's all quilted, I love it even more.

*Edited to Add- since a few have asked and I forgot to mention it, this is my Courtyard Tiles pattern, and it is available in my Craftsy and Etsy shops!  :)


I think the scrappy text background adds so much great texture and interest to the quilt, and doesn't detract from the focus fabrics at all, which was an initial worry.  Even though the pattern and fabrics themselves are both modern, something about the text background makes it feel even more artsy and modern to me.


I pieced the backing with all of my scraps, and although you can't really see it in this picture, the text prints are pieced together in a large strip across the top of the backing.


I opted to make a scrappy binding, and that kept me from adding those pieces to my scrap jars, so that's definitely a win in my book!


Without further ado, check out some of the highlights from our last party two weeks ago.  I'm loving the color illusion in this quilt by Quilting is More Fun Than Housework-


Erica at Dresses and Spurs shared this fun quilt.


And this rainbow Modern Cross beauty is from Deb at New Creative State.


Even though I was having a fabulous time on vacation, I really missed last week's party.  I can't wait to see what you link up this week!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!
2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.
3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  
4. Spread the comment love far and wide!
5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)


Saturday, June 4, 2016

Texts and Brights

Well friends, we just got back from vacation last night, and though our trip was exhausting, it was so much fun.  It was my wild thing's first trip to Washington, DC and the surrounding areas, and so much was crammed into the past week.  I finished up this quilt top right before we left though, so I wanted to go ahead and share it.


Once again, the siren call of large scale, bold prints has taken hold.  I love making quilts where I can throw all of them together.  This quilt is made with my Courtyard Tiles pattern and in this quilt, I decided to set these bright fabrics against a scrappy text background.  


I've been hoarding text fabrics for awhile to use as a background, but have been a little apprehensive about using them with other prints.  I needed to be sure that there was enough contrast so the pattern wasn't a busy mess.  The Courtyard Tile blocks are large though, and the prints are so bright and bold that I think they work beautifully with the text and have plenty of contrast.

I have really missed sewing, and can't wait to get some time on my machine to finish this one up.  Of course, since we just got back last night, my bags are still waiting to be unpacked and the resulting mountain of laundry will have to be tackled first.  As nice as it is to be home and sleep in my own bed, somehow the aftermath of vacation isn't nearly as fun as the preparation.



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