Back to the Drawing Board

The hot weather and a tight deadline have added incentive to spend lots of time in the studio this month.
Since Westminster has requested two lines of new fabric per year I now have until September 1 to complete some new designs. I love to immerse myself in designing, but I'm not fast so it's a bit frantic.

Here is our latest quilt from the Early Birds line. It is the Fancy Nine Patch recipe from the new book, Patchwork Sassaman Style. It is made with just four fabrics. The blocks are made with four fussy cut squares from two different colorways of the Prairie Poppy fabric. The blue and black border is a selvedge to selvedge cut of the blueberry Cheeky Checks. The border is  the blueberry Prairie Poppies again. Solid black squares anchor the corners.

Above is the fabric in it's original form. Below you can see the wonderful swirl that was formed by fussy cutting and stitching. The graduated greens really radiate nicely.

Just a reminder... tomorrow is the last day of our wonderful Blog Tour to celebrate the new book. Don't forget to check into Nancy Zieman's blog for your last chance of winning a copy for yourself.
In any case, you can find it at your local quilt store or online. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit our generous blogging friends.

July 6th Blog Tour Winner!

I have drawn the fortunate winner for my day of the Patchwork Sassaman Style Blog Tour!
It is Caryn, who says she is a new quilter. Hopefully this prize will encourage her to join this devoted
bunch of fabric fondlers and become a dedicated quilter. Congratulation, Caryn!

Don't forget to follow the rest of the tour. Today, July 8, our blogger is Gloria Hansen, extraordinary quilter and computer wizard. Her digitally designed and printed creations are unique in the quilting world. She has a regular column Professional Quilter Magazine to help us all better understand the technical side of our business. Her book, Digital Essentials, is a constant companion next to my computer. She also has a successful business, GloDerWorks, designing user friendly websites. Learn more about her on her blog and try your chances of winning again.

Jane's Day to Host the Tour!

Welcome to my blog! Those of you who are regulars here, know that I often begin with a weather report to set the scene. And you know, too, that I love bad weather. But HOT weather is not included.
It hasn't been this hot for years. Even the studio, which is basement cool, has warmed up to an uncomfortable degree.

Greg has been diligently watering, but all his best efforts can't keep up with this heat. But it is amazing how sturdy most of the prairie plants are.

I got several emails this week asking about the quilting on the Folk Art Flag from last weeks post. Here is how I did it... I draw my quilting lines on Golden Threads paper and pin the paper to the quilt. Using 12wt thread through the top of the machine and a matching color of 50wt in the bobbin, I stitch right through the paper.

This paper has revolutionized my quilting life! I used to mark directly on the quilt with a soft pencil which took lots of time and was not as precise. Golden Threads paper tears off beautifully and leaves the stitching undisturbed. Then I pull all the thread tails to the back, tie and bury them with an Easy Threading Needle.

You can read more about my quilting and designing techniques in Patchwork Sassaman Style. In fact,
I will give away a signed copy of the book and a Curlicue bundle of half-yard cuts (from the Early Birds collection of fabric) to a randomly selected reader who leaves a comment below. Good luck, everyone!

PS... There is a new link to my webstore at the top of this page, just incase the website is still under construction.

July Blog Tour July 2 - 28!!!

Today is the first day of the Big Blog Tour to celebrate the publcation of Patchwork Sassaman Style!
So don't forget to visit Laura Wasilowski's fun site today for a chance to win your own copy. For a list of participants, scroll down to the previous post.

Above you can see our latest project. I'm usually not a big fan of patriotic paraphanalia, but once I realized that the Early Birds line contained lots of red, white and blue this quilt immediately came to mind. The Blueberry Poka Dot and the Strawberry Checky Checks stand in for the stars and stripes.

Its simply four flags surrounded by royal blue sashing and corner squares of the checks. We couldn't resist stitching up some pillowcases to play along using our Pint Sizes Pillowcase pattern.

I wanted my flag to be optimistic, peaceful and feminine so I quilted it with 12wt. threads in wavy lines over the checks, crisscrosses over the dots and scollups around the borders.

It would be fun, too, to do the reverse with the Strawberry Poka Dots and the Blueberry Checks.
The back of my quilt is finished with the Strawberry Serinade fabric in the Blueberry colorway and trimmed with our last piece of the vintage Night Life (bugs) design from the Prairie Gothic line*.

This quilt is the perfect size (aprox. 57"X 79") for an after beach snuggling wrap or summer porch blanket. We are tempted to package this flag top pattern in kit form, depending on the responce we get from you. So leave a message and let us know what you think!


*All fabrics are designed for and produced by FreeSpirit.