The first thing to fall by the wayside when energy is scarce will always be cleaning.
So it’s no surprise that the sewing studio got even more out of hand than last year. All the systems in the world won’t keep a space tidy if you just don’t have the energy to put stuff away, or your temporary holding places have filled up and you aren’t up to the task of dealing with them.
When I started my quilted Arctic Vortex tree skirt to go under my Christmas tree, I wanted it to feel like an eclectic collection of meaningful bits and pieces, with maybe a bit of filler to pull it all together.
I went through a dozen iterations of fabric pulls until I landed on the red, green, and navy colour scheme to work with the ornaments on my tree, while letting the fun and meaningful print fabrics in my stash shine.
No matter how I quilted these blocks, the busy fabrics would dominate the quilting.
They lurk at the back of our craft cupboards, taking up space and emotional energy: the UnFinished Objects.
You started the project with the best of intentions, but then you ran out of something: materials, time, passion for the project, motivation, direction (how do I quilt it????), the skills to do it justice…
You’ve invested precious time and money into the project, so you’re not about to trash it. With the pandemic putting further pressure on our crafty budgets, time, and energy, this is the perfect time to dust off those UFOs and help them back on their journey to completion (and potentially fast track some holiday gifting!).
Welcome to the 2nd edition of UFOvember! Over the next 30 days, I invite you to join me in examining our crafty orphans and deciding whether to Resume work on them as planned, Rework them with a Plan B, or Rehome them to another crafter, who can joyfully get them across the finish line.
There’s a chill in the air and the days are getting shorter. That means 3 things:
Everything is about to get VERY pumpkin spice oriented on social media
Squirrels are trying to live in my roof rent-free*
Quilt palettes are about to turn warm and cozy, like roasted root veg and decorative gourds << sweary comedy article! Don’t click if you’re offended by swears!!
So pull up an overstuffed armchair, grab a steaming mug of pumpkin spice oat milk chai tea latte and a gluten free, nut free, dairy free, vegan, free range pumpkin spice scone, and prepare to be inspired by some beautiful, seasonal colour palettes!
It’s no secret that I love making colorful quilts. Bright fabrics are fun!
When I show my quilts in a trunk show, one of the comments that I hear the most is “I love the color palette you used for this quilt!”
Here are my 3 simple secret formulas for picking the perfect palette of prints for a quilt, without using a color wheel or color theory.
Y’all know I have this thing for designing graphic, modern quilts with strips and curves. What if we did curves within strips, but the strips are actually rings??
That was the idea behind Orbital.
My initial sketch of what turned into Orbital. I flipped some of the curves and moved others around to give it a better rhythm.
I’m so excited to share all the beautiful Orbital quilts that my pattern testers made! This modern curvy quilt pattern is so versatile, as you can see with the variety of looks here.
I’d love to know which Orbital quilt is your favourite! The Orbital quilt pattern also has a Mini size, Twin size, and King size option. I can’t wait to see what you’ll make with it!
My quilting studio has finally gotten so messy, that my brain totally goes offline when I’m in there.
Thankfully, I had committed to do some quilt studio spring cleaning as part of the Spring Clean your Studio blog hop! As I said in last year’s Spring Cleaning post, nothing gets my butt in gear like a deadline. After a year of pandemic, my sewing room was soooo much worse.
How bad was it, you ask?
I shared these Before pics on Instagram with a double-bagged warning, and still, some viewers were shocked. Use the little arrow thingy on the side to scroll AT YOUR OWN RISK!
I was beyond thrilled to receive Heather Black’s new book Design, Make, Quilt Modern which released just last week.
In the book, Heather walks you through all the steps of designing a modern quilt. Heather lectured on creating balance and depth in quilt designs at QuiltCon a few years ago, and I refer back to my notes from that lecture when designing every quilt since; these design principles are beautifully explained in the Design Basics chapter, with illustrations from Heather’s own design process on her award winning quilts.
Recently, I’ve been sharing a lot of mock-ups that I create in EQ8, and I got this great question.
Does EQ8 allow you to create a quilt completely from scratch? For example: Could I put in the overall measurements then draw in the pieces? And does it help you calculate fabric and seam allowances?
Today, in the light of day, I can show you what some of that looks like!
