Cherry Blossoms; Finally Finished

Way back in 2014 I started a quilt. Here it is 2019 and I can finally say it's finished.

Cherry Blossoms was one of 4 quilts I made during early explorations and development of a pattern called Interweave. While this was the first quilt I made of the design, it ended up being the last one to get finished. It was quilted at the same time as the others but I just never got around to binding it. Then I simply forgot. Can you relate? A project gets tucked away and you forget about it.

Credit goes to the BoulderMQG UFO challenge for motivating me to finally finish Cherry Blossoms. The guild challenge for 2019 was to list 6 projects and specify what we wanted to accomplish. We were encouraged to have a variety of goals from simple to more involved. This was certainly an easier one and far overdue. But then I guess all UFOs are overdue aren't they? Of course I have far more than 6 UFOs. Way more! But at least I'm making the effort and things are getting done. Done is good!

The colors are spot on for 2019 with Pantone's Color of the Year, Living Coral and Kona's Color of the Year, Splash. I've loved this color scheme for a long time. Most of the fabrics are from older Amy Butler fabric lines like Love, Cameo, and Soul Blossoms. I've been a fan of her fabrics for years and will certainly miss her lines now that she has moved away from fabric design. : (

The colors feel very summery and make me think of swimming pools and flower gardens in the tropics which probably isn't reflected in the quilt name. I chose the name Cherry Blossoms because my favorite fabric in the quilt is of the cherry trees in bloom. I hope to get a good photo in the wild once summer arrives and things are little more colorful outside.

When I design a pattern, choosing which fabrics to feature as the main cover quilt can be one of the hardest decisions in the whole process. Since the pattern is designed to showcase large scale prints, I chose a range of Kaffe Fassett blues for the cover quilt.

Another variation of the pattern features a single Amy Butler fabric for the main horizontal sections.

The last version (and my personal favorite) is this smaller black and white with warm floral accent strips.

One of the best parts of pattern design is exploring all the different versions and looks that can come from the same design. I know some people make something once and then they're done. I find it really fun to make something again and again to explore new looks. What about you? Do you make the same design more than once or is once enough?

I haven't joined a linky party in a long long time so thought I'd join in the fun again. I'm linking up with Cheryl's Favorite Finish Link Up because I finally have a finish. WaHoo! Go check out what some other quilters finished this month.

If you're interested in the Interweave pattern you can learn more about it here.

Follow

Introducing a New Pattern: Interweave

I'm thrilled to introduce my newest pattern. Interweave.

Interweave was designed specifically to feature large scale prints. Kaffe Fassett. Amy Butler. Philip Jacobs. All those beautiful, big prints you're afraid to cut. Go ahead and cut them up. This pattern is the perfect place to show them off.

If big prints aren't your thing you don't know what you're missing. Give them a try. That said, Interweave will make a beautiful quilt with all sorts of different fabric choices. Use your favorite fabric collection. Try different scale prints. Think batiks. I think it would even look stunning in all solids and give you a wonderful space for showing off your free motion quilting skills. Maybe a different motif in every row.

The Interweave pattern includes:

• A design lesson to help with choosing fabrics.
• Yardage for baby, throw, twin and full/queen sizes.
• Information on how to alter the size to meet your needs.
• Design explorations illustrating additional ideas.
• Fully illustrated step by step instructions.
• Coloring pages for all 4 sizes so you can color your own version.

The design looks amazing on a bed. If I'd had enough fabric of the quilt shown above I would have made a queen size for my new guest room. Some of those black and whites have been in my stash for years and I was down to just small amounts so could only manage a small throw. Right now I'm playing with another Interweave throw for the family room using some traditional large scale leafy prints I've hoarded. So many ideas. So much fabric. So little time. Can you relate?

To celebrate both the new pattern and because my birthday was this week, I'm putting Interweave on sale for 20% off. No coupon code needed. Sale runs through Sunday February 6th 2017 ending at midnight CST.
Edited: Introductory sale has now ended.

Head to Craftsy or my Etsy shop and give Interweave a try. I'd really love to see what you make. Send me a photo, or better yet, post it to Instagram using #springleafstudios and #interweavequilt.

Happy Quilting.
Anne

Follow

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Small Quilt Entry

Welcome to my Blogger's Quilt Festival post. If you're brand new to my blog, I do hope you'll look around a little. I'm a graphic designer turned quilter with a love of strong graphics, bold colors and an affinity for large scale prints. Thank you ever so much for stopping by. I want to give a big round of applause to Amy for putting on this virtual quilt show twice a year. It's always so good.

Now I'd like to introduce Tequila Sunrise, my entry in the Small Quilt category. This quilt is 42" x 58",
a nice small lap size made specially for my daughter.

Tequila Sunrise is my latest make using the Cascade quilt pattern. I had this great collection of Amy Butler fabrics in the orange/teal colorway and pulled several other fabrics by Kaffe Fassett and Tula Pink that had similar coloring.

I would really love to get a photo with a great sunrise but getting up that early isn't my strong point. Maybe someday. I took this fun shot last week though and would like to go back when the lighting is better and get a few more shots. The color washed out a bit.

This shot was taken shortly after I finished the quilt in the spring. Another location I'd like to revisit.

If you'd like to read my original post about this quilt it can be found here.
I find it amazing how different fabrics and different fabric placement can change a design. That's the part of pattern designing that I really love to play around with. Just look at the difference between Tequila Sunrise and my original Cascade on the right. Fabric and position make all the difference!

I love designing my own quilts. Most are for my home and family plus some charity work through my local modern guilds. I turn a few of my designs into PDF quilt patterns that are sold through Craftsy and in my Etsy shop in case you're interested.

Thanks again for stopping by. Hope you are enjoying all the beautiful quilts in the festival. You can see my other entry here.

Follow

Snowball Quilt; the Diamonds

My design wall is bursting into full bloom.

I'm well on my way to making a snowball quilt. My wall is covered with squares of Kaffe, Amy Butler and several older traditional prints from my stash. Lots and lots of cutting from lots and lots of different fabrics. Putting them up on the wall is like watching a fabric garden bloom. Love it!

Before I cut any fabric, I cut white paper squares to represent the diamonds. Then I fussy cut the blooms. See this blog post for my fussy cutting method. As more and more fabric blooms went up on the wall, I ran out of paper squares and decided not to bother with any more.

It's interesting to see the difference in the layout with and without the white diamonds. My first reaction was that the section without the white diamonds looked flat. The floral squares alone seemed incomplete. However as more and more squares went up I liked the look better and better.

Here's a section with the diamonds.

And here's a section without. Which do you prefer?

I don't really think one is better than the other. It's more a matter of what you're after in a design. I actually think a really large quilt of simple squares would be quite stunning. Especially one that included several of those big blooms with the dark background. They add depth and a focal point that helps to break up the overall surface. At this point in the process I have not played with fabric placement. Only cutting squares and throwing them up on the wall. Distribution of color and fabrics will come later.

My original plan was to use white for the diamonds but before committing I tried another fabric from my stash. A small black and white dot. This quilt will be used in my guest room where I've used a lot of black and white decor. At first I didn't like the dot. The white paper stood out so much that the dot looked flat. But the more dotted squares I added, the more I liked it. It's more subtle than the white which allows the blooms to really stand out. Plus, the little tiny touch of black is just right for the room.

Even though I grew to like the idea of all squares, perhaps that's another quilt for another time. Right now I'm making a snowball quilt.  A snowball quilt with black and white dot diamonds. This process reminded me of how important it is to continue to fine tune and work through design issues as you go along. If I hadn't bothered with the paper diamonds I wouldn't have had a good idea what the final quilt would look like. It's good to see all the parts come together. It's also good to be flexible if those parts aren't working the way you envisioned. Be open to making changes along the way. You just might discover a whole new concept that's even better. Or at least different and equally worthy of being made into another lovely quilt.

I'll be back soon with a post on how I decided on the size of the corner squares plus how I sew them.

Love gardening with fabric. Just wish my design wall was bigger so it could hold even more
beautiful flowers.   : )

Follow

2016 Finish Along Quarter 2

I haven't linked up with the Finish Along since early 2015. I'm thinking it's time.

So without further ado, my 2nd quarter list . . .

1. Quilt and bind my latest Kaffe quilt. This one will be new pattern I'm working my way through and I just love how it looks. Deep, rich colors. All you Kaffe and big scale print fans stay tuned.

2. Piece, quilt and bind the Amy Butler version of the above mentioned pattern. It's all cut and ready to go. I'm really excited about this one. A new color scheme for me . . . oranges and darker blues.  Hmmm, dark blue seems to be a theme.

3. Quilt the top that first put this pattern in motion. The top has been sitting around for at least a year. Time to wrap it up.

4. Bind my leafy checkerboard. I finished the top in February. It was quilted in March. Now it sits. Binding it and putting it on the bed is long overdue. This is the biggest quilt I've ever made and I've been procrastinating something as simple as the binding because I don't relish the thought of tugging it through the machine yet again. Silly silly me. Just do it!!!

5. Start my first QuiltCon entry. I have a concept. I have fabric pulled and ordered. Time to start cutting, piecing and playing.

I think I'll leave it there for this quarter. There are a lot of other things I'm dreaming up but I'll save those for next time.

You have until April 16th to add your list to the Finish Along.

Follow

Cascade Amy Butler Style

My newest finish . . . Tequila Sunrise.

I've been wanting to make a new quilt with my Cascade pattern and when these lovely, mostly Amy Butler, fabrics found their way to the top of my stash it was time. After months of winter drab, some intense color therapy was definitely in order. Think tropical sunsets or desert blooms.

In the beginning, I pulled several fabrics for consideration. Some are Kaffe Fassett. There's also some Tula Pink and Valorie Wells. But mostly it's Amy Butler prints from her Bright Heart and Soul Blossoms collections. While not all are from the same fabric line or designer, they are mostly from the same manufacturer so the coloring works quite well together.

To start, I auditioned the fabrics on my design wall to determine which ones worked. I eliminated the far left top row as too white, the 4th and 5th from the right in the middle row because they had too much green/blue and the far right bottom row plus the big floral hanging down lower. Leo was a great help in the selection process. He really knows his colors.

Once the final palette was chosen, the cutting got underway. I just love to see the pile of trimmings build up. Even though none of this is really useable I still have trouble throwing them away. I've been known to throw trimmings like these into glass jars just for the color. Now I toss them in a bag to be used later for pet bed stuffing. What can I say? It's hard to let go . . .

With the pieces cut, the next step was figuring out the arrangement of prints. I started by nailing down the large square arrangement on my design wall. I ended up placing the cool colors in somewhat of a value sequence from dark to light. The colors are so intense and saturated there isn't a great deal of value change so it's mostly a contrast of color rather than value. After the large square positions are determined, I placed the small squares that form the triangles by folding them over on the diagonal.

Piecing the top went quickly once my design decisions were made. That's one of the things I love about the Cascade pattern . . . it goes together fast. All the seams nest so the alignment is easy too.

Basting isn't my favorite thing to do. Usually I clean the floor, then spread it all out and baste on my hands and knees. Talk about sore knees and lower back!  So this time I used my folding craft table. I could only do part of it at a time and was a little worried the back might not be smooth enough but it all worked perfectly. I can't see doing a very big quilt this way but for quilts up to about 60" wide it works fine. And to think I nearly sold this table because I wasn't using it. Whew . . . glad I didn't. It's coming in handy for a lot of things. And my back is happy.

I quilted wandering wavy lines from top to bottom. The back is pieced with a row of blocks and I needed to make sure these were as straight as possible to the quilt front when I basted the layers. I think it turned out pretty darn good.

Finishing up wasn't without a small glitch. I managed to twist the binding when I sewed the ends together. It wasn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last time I make this mistake. Bet you've done that one at least once too. At least it's an easy fix.

I usually hand stitch my bindings but this time I used the machine binding method where you sew the binding to the back (instead of the front) and then fold it over to the front and top stitch it down. I like this machine method because I can see how the stitching lines up along the binding. It's not without it's problems though. For one, the binding is just never as straight as my hand stitched binding are. For another, I don't love how the stitching shows on the front. But it's better than when I stitch in the ditch and blindly try (hope) to catch the binding on the back. That method never works well for me. I'll keep trying and experimenting with my stitching alignment and maybe I'll get better and it will look nicer. I used aqua thread on top to match the binding and orange in the bobbin to make the backing. Worked fairly well. Do you have a preferred machine binding technique?

I tossed it on my studio chair last night after finishing the binding and first thing this morning a certain fuzzy girl found her way underneath. Isn't she sweet?

If you're interested in Cascade you can find it on Craftsy and in my Etsy shop.

Linking up with NTT at My Quilt Infatuation.

Follow

Quilty Randomness

I'm still here. Still sewing. You just wouldn't know it by my lack of blog posts lately. Today I just want to catch up a little with what I'm making.

Right now I'm playing with this group of mostly Amy Butler fabrics. I've had them pulled aside for awhile and am so happy to finally be cutting into them. Aren't they luscious?

Here is what's taking shape on my design wall . . . a new variation of my Cascade pattern. Hopefully I'll be ready to sew it together this weekend at our guild sew day.

Yesterday I sent this wall hanging off to my longarm quilter. The queen size quilt is also finished as is the massive pieced back. You can read more about that here. Don't think I'll piece a back that big again anytime soon. It felt like making an entire second queen sized quilt. ugg. It will be sent off for quilting soon too. I'll post about both quilts when they are completed.

I've also been making bee blocks. In January these beautiful blue blocks were made for Elizabeth/OPQuilt. I can't show the entire block because she's creating a pattern from the design. It will be very graphic and bold.

This week I finished up February's blocks for Cindy/LiveAColorfulLife. She's making a sweet quilt for her newest granddaughter Ella. My stash doesn't contain much novelty fabric for kids so I bought this cute panel fabric. The images were a bit too big for the block size but with some careful cropping I think I managed to make it work. The pattern is Books for Baby found in Patchwork Please by Ayumi Takahashi. It's a really cute pattern.

That's about it for now. Lots of plans . . . not enough time.
Hope all your sewing plans are moving forward.

Follow

WIP Wednesday . . . a Little Amy Butler Love

I started this week by starting a new project.

Not that I needed to start something new. I have plenty of nearly finished things that should have taken precedence. Two quilts with binding sewn on just waiting for the hand stitching. Two patterns almost done. Another one in the planning stages. Two bee blocks due very very soon. Plenty that I should have worked on . . .

But these fabrics were calling . . . no shouting my name. I just felt the urge to make something with these gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics. Maybe it's a touch of spring fever because the colors really spoke to me. So yummy, so fresh and spring like. I've had many of them for awhile and recently added a few others to the mix. They just needed to come together.  : )

A quilt design I reworked a little fit these fabrics perfectly. I pulled a couple of solids to go with the prints and started cutting. Soon I had a nice little pile of these lovelies.

I have the hardest time throwing away these tiny little trimmings? There's something about slivers of fabric that I just love. I've been known to save piles and piles of them. Always think they would make the most colorful bird's nests but of course I never get around to doing anything with them.

Do you save tiny trimmings like these? If so, what do you do with them?

The quilt is going to together quite quickly. I'm thinking it will make a great pattern so another project gets added to my growing list. Eventually I will get all of them finished. In the meantime, it's multiple projects in various stages but I think that's what keeps me going. Maybe I have quilter's ADHD.    : )

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. Go check out what everyone else has going on.

Quilt Market: the Booths

What is Quilt Market without the vendors and their fabulous booths? There's everything from the simple, clean design to over the top extravagance. Much the same as with the quilt exhibition, it's hard to take in all the details of booth after booth. Here are some of my favorites.

First up is the Westminster booth along with some of their individual designer booths.
Westminster/Free Spirit is one of my favorite manufacturers. Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, Anna Marie Horner, Tula Pink, Joel Dewberry . . . what more can I say?

Amy Butler's booth showcasing her new line Hapi

Heather Bailey's booth showcasing Lottie Da.  The butterfly is a framed pieced quilt. Fantastic detail.

Anna Marie Horner's booth showcasing her new True Colors and Dowry.
I love how the inspiration wall blends right into the quilt design.

Art Gallery also had eye-catching booths completely filled with color down to the tiniest of details. Love their fabrics too . . . especially their new basic lines.

Pat Bravo's newest collection Rapture will be in stores soon.

I can't wait for Jeni Baker's new line Dreamin' Vintage which comes out in April.
I'm really liking this line a lot. Might go really well with the vintage sheets I've been collecting.

Art Gallery's newest design Frances Newcombe's booth. She won the Best New Exhibitor Award.

Angela Walters was such a sweetheart and her quilt was absolutely stunning.
You can see more info on how she did it here. It's  worth taking a close-up look.

And just a few of the other amazing fun booths . . .

Who knew batting by itself could be so interesting?  Amazing textures on their batting tower.

Just a very small portion of the very blue booth by Michael Miller. This table setting was gorgeous.

Hope you liked my little Market tour. Wish I had even more detail shots as well as better photos.
As I've said before . . . so overwhelming it was hard to take it all in.