The updated Margaret Bag pattern is now available in my shop! This great little bag sews up quickly and would make a fabulous holiday gift.
My sample bags are made with some pretty mid-weight solids and prints from Lotta Jansdotter's Echo collection for Windham.
I'm donating all net profits from the sale of Margaret Bag patterns during the month of December to the Oregon Food Bank, so please don't hesitate to buy a pattern to help this great cause.
The Perfect Zip Bags pattern is now available in my shop.
Thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway.
Ruth, who wrote "I would love to win your pattern. Thanks for the give away" won the zip bag making kit and a copy of the pattern.
Suzanne, who wrote "Wow, this is such a generous giveaway! The details of your bag are so polished" and Yukari, who wrote "I love your pattern!!!!! It's going to be my early Christmas Present!!!" both won copies of the pattern.
I'm so thrilled with the finished product and want to give a huge thank you to my fabulous pattern testers, who I'll talk more about on Wednesday.
Picture Day Quilt
To celebrate the release of the new pattern, all of the other patterns in my shop will be on sale through Friday, November 11. Have you had your eye on one of the other patterns? Now is the time to pick it up!
Rec Center Picnic Quilt
My new zip bag pattern will go on sale Monday, November 7. Between now and then, you can enter to win one of 3 free copies of the pattern by commenting on this post.
One winner will also receive this kit, which includes beautiful Ruby Star Spring fabric, coordinating Kona Solids and everything else (zippers, hardware, interlining, etc.) you'll need to make zip bags.
To enter, comment on this post before midnight Sunday, November 6.
Note: Because of shipping restrictions, the kit giveaway is only open to US residents. Pattern giveaway is open to sewers everywhere.
Thank you so much to everyone who bought patterns during the sale last week! The Mixtape II Pattern is in the shop now.
This 31" x 31" mini quilt is made using the Favorite Songs layout and scrappy block piecing from the Mixtape II pattern.
The fabric I used is from a fat quarter pack that I picked out (with help from my mother) for Sew, Mama, Sew! I believe they're going to post about it later this morning. ETA: Here is a link to their post. Comment there to win one of the fat quarter packs!
All patterns in my shop will be 30% off July 15 - 17.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, while SMBQ is back in the shop, the Mixtape update won't be there until July 20. However, I set up a preorder option, in case anyone wants to take advantage of the sale this week and have the pattern automatically send to them on the 20th.
Thank you, everyone, for your nice comments about the new pattern! It's in the shop now.
The winners of a copy of the pattern are: Natalie, Jenny and Bailey. I've sent you all a copy of the pattern. Enjoy!
Here's the "Stamps" version of the pattern. It's based on the Stamp Collection quilt, but uses fewer and slightly larger squares for a less labor-intensive project.
I'm not a purple person, but I love these colors together!
Here's a shot of the back, with the pieced strip and that wonderful (and gigantic!) Kokka floral.
Here's the "Stacks" version.
It's sort of a coin quilt, but the stacks are "woven" together.
Here's the pieced back.
And, of course, you're familiar with the "Frames" version. Please check out the shop listing for more information.
I made this quilt especially for myself and I'm in love with it! It's the Greatest Hits layout of the Mixtape II pattern and measures about 69" x 69".
The blocks are 6" x 6" and are made with 18 fat quarters from Lizzy House's fabulous new collection, Castle Peeps.
I made a last-minute decision to switch (from Essex Putty) to Kona White for the sashing and I'm glad that I did because the whole quilt is nice and bright. I don't use pure white very often, but I like it here. I think it sets off the colors nicely.
I used my favorite castle print for the back. Yay for printed backs!
The binding is Kona Pepper.
The Mixtape II pattern will be in my shop on July 20. ETA: Shameless plug! I set up a preorder option, since all patterns are on sale right now.
In the meantime, for those of you who asked, these are the differences between Mixtape and Mixtape II:
Basically, all of the changes are to streamline the look of the quilts and make the pattern more user-friendly.
The new pattern will be in my shop on July 15.
It differs from the original pattern in the following ways:
*Remember, my free machine applique tutorial can be found here.
More details and photos of the other versions will be posted on Thursday.
If you'd like to win one of three copies of the new pattern, please leave a comment on this post. Comments will be open until the pattern goes on sale Thursday, or until there are 500 comments, whichever happens first.
ETA: For those of you who are asking about why the appliques and Minky have been replaced . . . I found that most people who were buying the pattern were only using the piecing directions anyway, so I thought it would make more sense to expand that part of the pattern by offering more piecing options and advice on choosing fabric. Even without those changes, the pattern was due for a revamp (much like Mixtape) to bring the format in line with my other patterns.
I'll be teaching a Freestyle Machine Quilting Workshop at Modern Domestic on August 7. Read all about it here. The four-hour workshop will cover the basics of machine quilting with both a walking foot and a darning/free-motion foot, plus you'll get to make a sampler pillow like the one pictured above. I'm calling it "freestyle" machine quilting, because we're going to concentrate only on methods like stippling, wonky lines and echo quilting that do not require measuring or marking the quilting surface.
ETA: The August 7 class is full, but we've added another on July 31. It should be on the class list soon.
I also wanted to give an update on the Mixtape and Simple Modern Baby Quilts patterns, since I've been getting a lot of e-mails. (Gosh! I didn't realize they would be missed so much!) The new versions will be in the shop shortly, along with an explanation on my blog of how they will vary from the originals. The short version is that Mixtape will be substantially similar and SMBQ will be almost entirely different. A more substantial explanation and exact timeframe will be posted soon. I appreciate your patience!
Thank you all for entering the giveaway and for your kind words about the project!
The winners of a copy of the Rec Center Picnic Quilt pattern are Marie, Lael, Tom, Mary Claire, and Liz.
The winner of the July Fat Quarter Bundle, courtesy of Fabricworm, is Little Munchkins. Thank you, Fabricworm, for another fabulous giveaway!
The pattern is now in the shop and will be marked down through July 4. The fat quarter bundle is also available for purchase.
A lot of people asked about quilting with the denim. The denim adds weight, so it's a bit more physically strenuous to move around during quilting. Free-motion quilting through denim may require gripping and pulling the quilt around more aggressively than you're used to. I've never had any trouble with either of my home machines not wanting to quilt through it though.
You do want to make sure that you're using a sturdier needle for denim. I usually use 90/14 needles for quilting anyway, so I didn't make any adjustments here but, if you usually use something smaller, this would be a good project to try a larger needle.
If you don't think your machine is up to working with denim, or you just don't want to fuss with the heavier quilt, a picnic quilt like this would also be perfectly lovely finished with yarn ties!
