Free Pattern: Farfalle with Windham’s Whisper

Hello Friends, it’s Friday again! :)  I hope you have had a good week.  It’s time for me to share another free-to-use pattern — Farfalle using Windham’s Whisper fabric group.  This is my fun and a bit modern take on the traditional basket blocks.

Click here to view the fabric collection.

Click here to download the free to use pattern instructions.

Kudos to the Windham team for coming up with such a cute name for the design.  For the record, I am absolutely, woefully hopeless coming up with names!  So I generally leave the naming part to the companies, and they never disappoint…

Thanks for stopping by!  I want to hear from you if you are going to make Farfalle! :)  Have a great weekend, Dear Friends!

***

My 2016 Line-up

Note:  You may click here for the exhaustive list of my published work.

Editorial Features:

American Patchwork & Quilting 2016 Calendar: In Your Corner

McCall’s Quick Quilts (December 2015/January 2016): Rows of Roses

McCall’s Quick Quilts (February/March 2016): Early Birds

McCall’s Quilting (January/February 2016): Sherbet Stars

 

Free-to-use Designs:

January: Heads Up Crib Quilt & Playmat (Quilting Treasures)

January: Big Love using Go Big or Go Home (Windham Fabrics)

January: Star Dust using Brittany (Benartex)

January: Wish You Were Here (Hoffman Fabrics)

January: Farfalle using Whisper (Windham Fabrics)

FREE PATTERN: Star Dust

Happy Friday, Friends.  I hope you have had a great week.  Mine went by too fast without enough things checked off my list.  So I will be working this weekend.  But enough about my trials and tribulations…

I am happy to share with you a free-to-use pattern, Star Dust, that I had designed to support Benartex‘s Brittany fabric group.  Brittany has a very Provencal look, which many of us love!

Click here to view the entire Brittany fabric line.

Click here to download Star Dust free-to-use pattern instructions.

So what do you think of Star Dust?

I will catch up with you again next week!  I hope you have a most blessed weekend.

***

My 2016 Line-up

Note:  You may click here for the exhaustive list of my published work.

Editorial Features:

American Patchwork & Quilting 2016 Calendar: In Your Corner

McCall’s Quick Quilts (December 2015/January 2016): Rows of Roses

McCall’s Quick Quilts (February/March 2016): Early Birds

McCall’s Quilting (January/February 2016): Sherbet Stars

 

Free-to-use Designs:

January: Heads Up Crib Quilt & Playmat (Quilting Treasures)

January: Big Love using Go Big or Go Home (Windham Fabrics)

January: Star Dust using Brittany (Benartex)

 

FREE PATTERN: Sassy

Before I go on, I want to say I do love the cover picture — using a powder blue wheelbarrow to hold all the quilts for a glamor shot is such a brilliant idea, don’t you think? American Quilt Retailer kindly sent me their June magazine issue because they had very kindly included my upcoming book Creative Quilts and Projects in their Spring Market 2015 report.

I had the most pleasant surprise when I saw two of my designs being featured in Quilting Treasures’ ad in the same magazine issue.

And one of them is Sassy!  I love love love this newly released fabric line!  I don’t know, there’s just something sunny and bright and cheerful yet sophisticated when yellows (golds) and blues are mixed together!

Click here to view the entire Sassy fabric collection.

Click here to download pattern instructions.

I am curious to know what you think of the Sassy fabrics, and what you would do with the fabrics.

Thank you for stopping by.  I have been in pre-Fall Market rush of late… and so, I’d better get going and get working.  I owe MANY of you emails/responses — thank you for your patience! Hugs to you all.

p.s.  Quote of the day from the long drive home after music lesson…

Miss Baby: “Mom, I figured out a way to teach little kids to say the word perhaps.  You first teach them percent, and then you teach them to say happy.  So, Per-Hap with an s at the end is perhaps.”

Brilliant – got it, kid! :)

***

[My free to use designs from previous years are listed under “FREE PATTERNS” on the side bar.]

January: A Red Letter Day using Seeing Red (Benartex)

January: Star Struck using Caryl’s Feathers (Benartex)

February: Happy Home House Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

February: Happy Home Runner (Quilting Treasures)

February: Happy Home Throw Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

February: Farmville using Green Farms (Benartex)

February: Zoey’s Flowerbed using Zoey (Benartex)

March: Camp Cozy Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

March: Pretty Little Houses using Tango (Benartex)

March: Ariel (Quilting Treasures)

March: Flutter B’s using Butterfly Effect (Benartex)

April:  Baby Bunny using Bunny Hop (Benartex)

April: Yuki (Hoffman Fabrics)

April: Shimmering Constellations using Gold Standard (Benartex)

April: Bonjour (Quilting Treasures)

April: Baby Boutique (Quilting Treasures)

May: High Speed Racer using Vroom (Benartex)

May: Flower-Scapes using Blue Paradise / Sundrenched (Benartex)

May: Rusty’s Sleeping Hollow using Rusty & Friends (Benartex)

May: Christine’s Rose Garden using Christine (Benartex)

June: Treeline Drive (Hoffman Fabrics)

June: Frosty the Snowman (Quilting Treasures)

June: Jolly Old St. Nick (Quilting Treasures)

July: Memento (Hoffman Fabrics)

July: Monkey Business (Quilting Treausres)

July: Dream Blossom (Hoffman Fabrics)

August:  Birdhouse Neighborhood using Tweet As Can Be (Benartex)

August: For the Birds using Tweet As Can Be (Benartex)

August: Christmas Morning using Santa’s Here (Benartex)

August: Chelsea (Quilting Treasures)

September: Charlotte (Quilting Treasures)

September: Sassy (Quilting Treasures)

FREE PATTERN: Christine’s Rose Garden

Happy Friday, Friends!  I hope you have had a great week.  While I am able to, I thought I would quickly share with you a free-to-use and VERY EASY quilt pattern, Christine’s Rose Garden.  I designed this quilt with Eleanor Burns’ Christine fabric collection.

I hope Eleanor is pleased with this little quilt that seeks to highlight sweet Eleanor!

Click here to view the entire fabric range.

Click here to download the pattern instructions.

Thank you for stopping by.  Have a great weekend!

***

[My free to use designs from previous years are listed under “FREE PATTERNS” on the side bar.]

January: A Red Letter Day using Seeing Red (Benartex)

January: Star Struck using Caryl’s Feathers (Benartex)

February: Happy Home House Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

February: Happy Home Runner (Quilting Treasures)

February: Happy Home Throw Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

February: Farmville using Green Farms (Benartex)

February: Zoey’s Flowerbed using Zoey (Benartex)

March: Camp Cozy Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

March: Pretty Little Houses using Tango (Benartex)

March: Ariel (Quilting Treasures)

March: Flutter B’s using Butterfly Effect (Benartex)

April:  Baby Bunny using Bunny Hop (Benartex)

April: Yuki (Hoffman Fabrics)

April: Shimmering Constellations using Gold Standard (Benartex)

April: Bonjour (Quilting Treasures)

April: Baby Boutique (Quilting Treasures)

May: High Speed Racer using Vroom (Benartex)

May: Flower-Scapes using Blue Paradise / Sundrenched (Benartex)

May: Rusty’s Sleeping Hollow using Rusty & Friends (Benartex)

May: Christine’s Rose Garden using Christine (Benartex)

Sunny Delight in Fons and Porter’s LOVE OF QUILTING (January/February 2015)

Hello Friends, I have been terribly behind on posting about my magazine quilts this year.  One of the reasons is that I have been really pressed for time… it always takes a bit of time for me to style my quilts for my very un-professional photo shoot sessions.  My photography skills are very minimal, and I often rely on the outdoors to be the backdrop of my quilts.  Anyway, the weather was finally warm enough for us to venture outdoors a couple of weekends ago.

I am happy to share with you my Sunny Delight quilt that was featured in Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting January/February 2015 issue.  Click here to purchase quilt kit that will save you time in gathering your fabrics.

This quilt has LOTS of pieces.  I have to say I actually enjoyed piecing the quilt top.  Maybe my love for piecing has grown over time without me even realizing it.

Sunny Delight uses fabrics from a sweet, bright and cherry fabric line, LuvBugs by Benartex.

I used quite a bit of white to break up the prints used in the quilt top.  And that means, lots of quilting opportunities. I meant for the quilting to reflect a feeling of informal and fun.

You may recall I had shared with you two free-to-use designs featuring the same fabric line.

Lovey Buggy (Click on name to download pattern instructions)

Sweet Hearts (Click on quilt name to download pattern instructions)

And with that, I shall bid you good bye for now.  Thank you for visiting, and I shall catch up with you tomorrow.

***

My 2015 Line-up

Editorial Features:

American Patchwork & Quilting 2015 Calendar: Get Happy

American Patchwork & Quilting 2015 Calendar: Migration

Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting (January/February 2015): Sunny Delight

Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting (January/February 2015): Family Dinner

Fons & Porter’s Scrap Quilts (Spring 2015): Stars are Brightly Shining

Fons & Porter’s Easy Quilts (Summer 2015): All In Knots (Cover Quilt)

McCall’s Quilting (March/April 2015): Making Valentines

Quilter’s World (Spring 2015): Zigs and Zags

Quilts and More (Spring 2015): Exclamation Point

Free-to-use Designs:

January: A Red Letter Day using Seeing Red (Benartex)

January: Star Struck using Caryl’s Feathers (Benartex)

February: Happy Home House Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

February: Happy Home Runner (Quilting Treasures)

February: Happy Home Throw Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

February: Farmville using Green Farms (Benartex)

February: Zoey’s Flowerbed using Zoey (Benartex)

March: Camp Cozy Quilt (Quilting Treasures)

March: Pretty Little Houses using Tango (Benartex)

March: Ariel (Quilting Treasures)

March: Flutter B’s using Butterfly Effect (Benartex)

April:  Baby Bunny using Bunny Hop (Benartex)

April: Yuki (Hoffman Fabrics)

April: Shimmering Constellations using Gold Standard (Benartex)

April: Bonjour (Quilting Treasures)

Rise & Shine in QUILT (October/November 2013)

Hello Friends, I am happy to be able to share with you my chooky Rise & Shine project that is featured in the latest (October/November 2013) QUILT issue!

Rise & Shine is a kitchen decor project that comprises of a small wallhanging and a set of two placemats.

Wallhanging:

Placemats:

Both wallhanging and placemats use the panel blocks cut from Quilting Treasures‘ Rooster Royale panel print, as well as the accompanying prints in the collection.  The chicken wire prints are my personal favorites – that’s why you see them showing off in full force in my Rise & Shine.

Both the placemats and wallhanging feature a play of snowball blocks in the designs.  I designed these projects with SUPER EASY in mind so that they can be easily put together, to be given as gifts, or something quick to dress up your kitchen.

[image source: QUILT Magazine]

Quilting was pure straight lines for Rise & Shine.  I felt like my usual style of quilting won’t really lend itself to the placemats and wallhanging.  So I tried out some “no obligation” straight line quilting – meaning the straight lines where quilted in sort of a random fashion.  The straight line quilting gives a nice overall textured look on the placemats and the wallhanging.  As always, I piece and quilt with Aurifil Mako 50 threads over Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting.

I find that a well starched and pressed quilt top (before basting) works well for straight line quilting.  I tend to not encounter significant slack when my quilt top is prepared that way before quilting – even though I do use my walking foot to quilt the straight lines.

Both the placemats and wallhanging projects are offered as kits (backing and binding included) by Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts (319-622-3657) for $29.99 and $49.99 respectively, plus shipping.  Click here to purchase to placemats kit, and here to purchase the wallhanging kit.

AND… the wallhanging pattern is offered as a free downloadable pattern on QUILT’s website.  Click here to download the pattern instructions.

You might recall I have shared with you three more Rooster Royale projects that are offered as free patterns by Quilting Treasures.

A throw quilt:

Throw Pillows:

(more) Placemats:

Click here for the information to download the pattern instructions for free!

I sincerely hope you will really enjoy making these projects if you are planning to do so!  I can see all these projects lovingly made and packed as a gift ensemble for a housewarming, bridal shower, or birthday or even Christmas gift for your “fowl-ish” loved ones!

Do tell me how you will use these projects – would you make them for yourself or as gifts?

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a lovely rest of the week…

***

Have you seen the line-up of my other featured projects in 2013?

Annie’s Love Those Precuts Book (January 2013):  Apple of My Eye

Annie’s Sweet Layer Cakes Book (April 2013): Sunburst Melody

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Spring 2013): Baubles, Baubles

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Summer 2013): Curious Cats

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Summer 2013): Fabrique Foursome

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Fall 2013): Interlock

Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting (March/April 2013):  Now I know my ABC’s

Machine Quilting Unlimited (March/April 2013): Quilting Curvy Feathers

QUILT (June/July 2013): Color Burst

QUILT (June/July 2013): Pattern Play

QUILT (August/September 2013): Enchanted Forest

Quilt-it…today (July/August 2013): Yay Day

Quilt Trends (Winter 2013, Cover Quilt): Tango

Quilts and More (Spring 2013): 2 Wishes

Quilts and More (Spring 2013):  Watercolor Sketches

Quilter’s World (February 2013): New Life

Quilter’s World (April 2013): Monkey Around

Quilter’s World (Summer 2013): Garden Mist

Quilter’s World (Autumn 2013): Christmas Cheer

Quilter’s World (Autumn 2013): Quilty Christmas Ornaments

Quilter’s World QUICK & EASY QUILTS (Spring 2013): In & Out

Quilter’s World QUICK & EASY QUILTS (Spring 2013): Garden Maze

Simple Quilts & Sewing (Spring 2013):  Stained Glass

The Quilter (December 2012/January 2013): Not Too Square

The Quilter (April/May 2013):  In the Meadow

The Quilter (August/September 2013): Rising Stars, Cover Quilt

Benartex Free Pattern (March 2013): Pumpkin Patch/Autumn Fauna

Benartex Free Pattern (March 2013): Flora Linda/Catalina

Lecien Free Pattern, Lynette Anderson (April 2013):  Forest Floor/Wildflower Wood

Quilting Treasures Free Pattern (January 2013): Mediterranean Dream

Quilting Treasures Free Pattern (February 2013): Butterfly Kisses

RJR Fabrics Free Pattern (May 2013): Nature’s Harmony/Silent Harmony

RJR Fabrics Free Pattern (May 2013): Tied with a Bow/A Gingerbread Christmas

Quilting Treasures Free Pattern (June 2013): Simply Sweet using lief!Lifestyle

Benartex Free Pattern (June 2013): Birds on a Wire using Let’s Tweet

Benartex Free Pattern (July 2013): Silver Lining using Urban Oasis 

Quilting Treasures Free Pattern (July 2013):  Rooster Royale

In the Meadow in THE QUILTER (April/May 2013)

Happy Monday, Dear Friends!  I hope you had a good weekend, and do wish you a lovely week ahead of you.  I am happy to share with you today another of my recently featured magazine quilt:  In the Meadow in The Quilter‘s April/May 2013 issue.

In the following, the quilt is shown with the books on my current reading list.  I promise you quilting is not all I do, ha!

The fabrics are from RJR’s Thimbleberries Sweet Home collection.

I was reminded of the Jewels game that I used to play on the computer eons ago, so I sought to design the quilt with the feel of “jewels”.  It turned out to be a neat way to highlight the different fabrics in the collection.

http://www.gameduell.com/play/jungle-jewels.html

You can see the blocks close up in the following:

This design turned out to have quite a bit of negative space — perfect for any kind of background quilting.  I chose free-handed feathers – surprise!

Quilting was done tone-on-tone using Aurifil Mako 50 Cotton threads over Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting.

It was hard sometimes during the quilting process to perfectly fit a rounded feather lobe right into the geometry of a square or triangular quilting area.  So I quilted little what-nots at the end of the feather lobe to fill in the gap.  I wrote more about the what-nots here.

I hope you enjoyed visiting me today.  As always, I am tickled you choose to drop by.  Have a blessed day.

p.s.  If you have written personal emails to me in the last three weeks and hadn’t heard from me — don’t worry, your emails did reach me more than likely.  Time has evaded me the last couple of weeks.  I really felt like I was a hamster on a wheel.  You WILL hear from me when I can carve out some time to get caught up with my emails!  Meanwhile, keep those emails coming.

***

My 2013 lineup thus far besides “In the Meadow” – click on links for more information:

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Spring 2013): Baubles, Baubles

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Summer 2013): Curious Cats, to be posted

Fons and Porter Easy Quilts (Summer 2013): Fabrique Foursome, to be posted

The Quilter (December 2012/January 2013): Not Too Square

Quilt Trends (Winter 2013, Cover Quilt): Tango

Quilter’s World (February 2013): New Life

Quilter’s World (April 2013): Monkey Around

Quilter’s World QUICK & EASY QUILTS (Spring 2013): In & Out

Quilter’s World QUICK & EASY QUILTS (Spring 2013): Garden Maze

Annie’s Love Those Precuts Book (January 2013):  Apple of My Eye

Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting (March/April 2013):  Now I know my ABC’s

Machine Quilting Unlimited (March/April 2013): Quilting Curvy Feathers

Quilts and More (Spring 2013):  2 Wishes, to be posted

Quilts and More (Spring 2013):  Watercolor Sketches, to be posted

Quilting Treasures Free Pattern (January 2013): Mediterranean Dream

Quilting Treasures Free Pattern (February 2013): Butterfly Kisses

Benartex Free Pattern (March 2013): Pumpkin Patch/Autumn Fauna

Floral Mosaic in THE QUILTER (April/May 2012)

Dear Friends, my Floral Mosaic quilt is back with me from The Quilter Magazine.  It is a nice feeling to have something featured in that magazine.

[from http://www.thequiltermag.com]

Here is a larger view of the style shot:

This quilt was designed with piece-makers in mind!  I know some of you simply love love love to piece! :)  Hopefully, if you decide to use this pattern, you will enjoy working with all the different pieces.

I really like how the navy stands out among the other colors.  Don’t navy and red strike an eye-catching combination?  I can see this quilt used with patriotic accents.  How about you?

Due to the busy-ness of the fabric prints, quilting on this quilt is mainly an allover textured quilting.  The motif is a combination of swirls with floral shapes added in.  I used Aurifil‘s Mako 50 Cotton threads to quilt over Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting.  If you have not used my highly acclaimed Aurifil threads, you have got to give them a try!

The fabrics used for this quilt are from Thimbleberries’ Pressed Flowers, released by RJR Fabrics.  Unfortunately the fabrics are hard to come by/no longer available.  You might check with your local quilt shops.  The kits for this quilt were sold out quite early.  You could probably also substitute the fabrics with the other Thimbleberries fabrics from your stash.

The back of the quilt is pieced with fabrics from the same collection.  I left the selvage in to keep a record of the name of the fabric collection.  I actually saved myself some time by not cutting away the selvage. ;)  I love that big floral print.  It is also used in the border in the front of the quilt in case you couldn’t get a good look.

For now, this quilt is being folded up and stowed away as I haven’t found a use for it yet.  I keep telling myself I need to buy a few quilt ladders to display my quilts, but I haven’t.  If you know of any good sources for some nice quilt ladders, PLEASE let me know!

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have enjoyed Floral Mosaic.  Blessings to you!

Bedazzled in FABRIC TRENDS (Fall 2011)

Yeap, quite a few hands I see when I asked for Robyn Pandolph fans out there! She is definitely no stranger to quilters and home decorators who love shabby chic, flowers and romance! I just think her Desired Things collection (which has a total of 35 different fabrics) is one of her best collections yet. Just look at these swatches… or click here to view the full scope of the collection:

I was over the moon when I was asked to work with these fabrics for a magazine feature. Bedazzled is the end result. It is featured in the Fall 2011 issue of Fabric Trends.

If I have to pick a favorite quilt I have made this year, I think Bedazzle is probably it – but only if I am backed into a corner and stipulated to come up with only one favorite quilt! I love how it was photographed for the magazine spread.

Photo from Fabric Trends

The quilt is made up of simple pieced blocks. I think in this case, the fabrics are what made the quilt!

I am rather partial to the quilting even though the motif isn’t feathery. Quilting is done on my domestic home machine with a pale mustard yellow thread (Aurifil Mako 50, color 2125) over Hobbs Tuscany Silk Batting. I will share more about the motif in my Thread Talk post tomorrow.

Kits are available for sale from Fat Quarter Shop. They have chosen a slightly different fabric in the blue colorway for the backing. Of course, you can definitely pick whichever fabric out of the 35 choices in this collection as your backing fabric of choice!

It’s another sunshiny day over here! I can just hear it now — another beg-gathon to go to the playground from Miss Baby. We already went earlier, but I guess we will again later. The cold weather is going to descend on us before too long… Thanks for stopping by, Friends! I hope you enjoyed my Dedazzled quilt, and are dazzled by Robyn Pandolph’s Desired Things fabrics!

Purple Parade: Sneak Peeks

Good day, my friends!  I hope those of you in the northern hemisphere are keeping yourself warm and cozy!  If you aren’t, maybe this purple quilt with purple wildflowers would send thoughts of warmth along your way:

You can see that I have even quilted “free-spirit sunbursts” on my blocks!

Purple Parade is schedule for feature in The Quilter‘s May 2011 issue if all things go well.  Fabrics are from RJR‘s Mariposa collection.  I have completed two out of three quilts that are due this week.  So I just need to hunker down and get the third one done.  I’d better get going…. thanks for stopping by!  Have a lovely day!

Bloggers Quilt Festival: Scattered Leaves

In keeping with the fall season, I thought I would show my Scattered Leaves in Amy’s Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival this year. My Scattered Leaves quilt is special to me because it was selected to be the cover quilt of The Quilter‘s November 2010 issue. My regular readers are probably sick of me showing this quilt (sorry!), but I thought the new visitors might like seeing it…

Fall is a favorite season in my household. So I jumped at the opportunity to work with RJR‘s Autumn into Winter fabric collection. I used just about all the fabrics in that collection to achieve a scrappy look even though the fabrics are from the same collection.

The blocks are the popular maple leaf block, with a “signature” twist. Instead of stitching and commemorating names of people, I hand stitched popular food items we enjoy in the cold months of the year on each block.

Quilting was done free-motion on my domestic machine. I quilt all my quilts on my Bernina 640E.

I used Aurifil Mako 50 threads of different colors to match the main color of each block for quilting.  Using Hobbs’ Tuscany Silk Batt makes my quilt soft and cuddly.

This quilt will be treasured in our household because it will memorialize the comfort of food in our family for many many years to come.

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you have enjoyed the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  Should you feel like viewing more fall quilts I have made this year, here are the links: Fruit of the Vine, Cascade of Leaves.  You may also click here for my Japanese Fruit Pie recipe – a favorite at our house.

Have a blessed and fantastic autumn!

Reach for the Stars: Final Sneak Peeks

I love that A is for Anabelle by Tasha Tudor gives us glimpse of what beautiful girlhood is all about.  It is…..

1.  sharing secrets with the best-est friend

2.  enjoying twiddling on a  rocking chair (by the way, I am convinced every girl has to have her little pint-sized rocking chair)

3.  playing dress up with dolls

4.  and playing MORE dress up with dolls

5.  and, and reading A is for Anabelle!

I thought it’s really neat how the wonderful people at RJR  Fabrics were able to capture so many sweet illustrations from A is for Anabelle for their upcoming A is for Anabelle fabric collection.  The reason this little quilt project is named “Reach for the Stars”  is because it is a growth chart, thus the silk ribbon rosebud bands I have used  as markings.  You can see this growth chart in all its sweet starry glory at the RJR booth at Quilt Market in Houston this year.

I have a couple more projects in the works using more A is for Anabelle fabrics.  Stay tuned.