Snappy Quilts

There is a wonderful little quilt shop here in the Denver metro area that I want to tell you about. It's called Snappy Quilts and it's a great shop full of modern fabrics.

Their tagline is Modern Fabrics, Fresh Ideas and I think that sums up the shop quite well.

They have a large selection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics so that makes them an instant winner in my book. There's also a large selection of Art Gallery Fabrics along with Amy Butler and many other modern lines. It's eye candy everywhere you look. Go to their website for a peak at the shop and all the fabulous fabrics. Get directions and store hours too. They are open late on Thursdays which I love.

Snappy Quilts is one of the first shops to carry my patterns which is a big thrill for me. Plus they are hosting my very first trunk show!  Here are a few photos of the day I delivered the quilts.

Cascade quilt pattern

Facets quilt pattern

That's owner Nancy Boyd, aka "Snappy" on the right. Her bio says she's been called Snappy for years.

If you're ever in the Denver area, I highly recommend a stop at Snappy Quilts. It's well worth the visit. They're on the south side of town not too far from Ikea and Park Meadows mall. When you're there, say hi to Nancy, Janice and the rest of the staff and tell them Anne at SpringLeaf Studios sent you.

Pattern Survey

I'm deep in the midst of working up my next patterns and would love your opinion on a few things.
I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a moment to comment on the following questions. I value your input and really want your experience with my patterns to be the best it can be.

1. Do you prefer paper or digital patterns?
2. If you buy a digital pattern, do you use it by viewing on screen or do you print it?
3. If you buy paper, do you prefer loose sheet format or a stapled booklet format?
4. Do you buy a pattern with the intention of making the cover quilt pretty much as shown with the same or nearly the same fabrics?
5. Would you like alternative ideas on how the pattern can be used included in the pattern like those shown below?

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate each little bit of info you're willing to share.

Hope you had a very relaxing weekend and wonderful, safe 4th of July if you live in the States.

Pattern Sale

Just a heads up about a pattern sale going on over at PatternSpot.
You can take 10% off all Modern Quilt Patterns now through May 22nd, 2013.
Use coupon code MOD10

Cascade and Facets are in this category so it's a great time to go ahead and give them a try.

I'm also quite curious as to which type of pattern you prefer; pdf downloadable or traditional printed paper pattern? Leave me a comment letting me know your preference.

We Have 2 Winners!

The Quilter's Blog Party was my very first time participating in a giveaway and I really enjoyed reading all the comments. I had lots of fun visiting the other participating blogs as well as the blogs of people who commented on my giveaway. I found some wonderful new blogs to follow and hope you did too. All this online inspiration is simply amazing. 

Thanks to all of you who became a new follower of mine and to those of you faithful followers who came to visit. I had a winner from both camps, one new, one faithful. Love that!

Now, on to the winners .  .  .

First up is Amy from (Amy's) Crafty Shenanigans who said:
"New follower and looking forward to seeing more :) I absolutely LOVE cascade - and the colors that it has been done in - true inspiration thanks!!!"

And the second winner is Carla from Lollyquiltz who said:
"Anne, your patterns are all so great and I'm excited at the chance of winning one! If you pick my name, I'd choose the Cascade. Thanks a bunch!"


Seems Cascade was the pattern of choice for most of you.

Although there were many votes for Facets too.

For those of you who commented and didn't win you can purchase my patterns through my Etsy shop. I hope you will come back and visit often. I have a new pattern in the works right now with more to come this year. 

Happy quilting, Anne

Giveaway

I'd like to welcome you to my blog if you are hopping over to visit from the Quilting Gallery as part of the Quilter's Blog Hop Party. Give a shout out to Michele for hosting this great event!  There are some awesome posts and giveaways happening and hopefully you'll be one of the lucky winners. 

While you're visiting please do wander around a little and get a feel for my style. I sometimes go modern and sometimes more traditional, but the one thing you can always count on is lots of color and strong design elements. 

2 lucky readers will win their choice of one of my patterns featured below. The pattern will be emailed in a PDF format.

Both patterns include:

• 2 different versions of the quilt as seen on the cover.
• Size options.
• Additional ideas on how to use the pattern to make different variations.
• Coloring page to envision your own color scheme.
• A bonus pillow project made from the scraps.

Great design is first and foremost in all my patterns. In addition to directions for making the cover quilt, I include a Design Lesson and a Design Exploration page so you can envision optional ways to use the pattern. My hope is that these ideas will inspire you to try your own version based on the basic pattern. A coloring page is also included so you can try out your choice of colors and fabrics.


First up is Cascade. This is a great pattern for large scale prints but is equally at home with solids. It works well with fat quarters and layer cakes. Below are some examples of ways  I have used this pattern. As you can see, there are many possibilities.

This is the Design Explorations page included in the Cascade pattern. 

This bold zigzag baby quilt plus the bonus doll quilt were both made from the Cascade pattern. 

Cascade was also used to make a bright summery tablecloth and matching table runner form the Tradewinds fabric line by Moda

Next up is Facets. This quilt also works well with large scale prints and is the perfect quilt for using up scraps, charm squares or your favorite fabric bundle.

This is the Design Explorations page included in the Facets pattern. 

This is the alternative quilt as seen on the Facets pattern cover.

These two pillows were made as part of the bonus project included in the Facets pattern.

To win your choice of one of these patterns (to be emailed to you in PDF format):

• Become a follower or let me know if you already are.
• Tell me which pattern you like best and why. 
• Please be sure that your comment links to your email. No email = no win. 
• Comments are open through March 15th (MST). Winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Good luck !

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy the rest of the hop.

QuiltCon

Three quilts entered.
Two quilts accepted !
One quilt wins an award ! ! !

Rhythm & Blues won 3rd Place in the Use of Negative Space category sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I am.

I've seen lots of pictures on Instgram and there are some amazing quilts in the show. I don't really have a lot of quilt show credentials under my belt so this is all rather new and most definitely an honor considering all the great talent out there.   : )

If only I was in Austin right now to see them in person.  : (  
I didn't even know which quilt won what award until just now when the winners were finally posted online. For a complete listing of the winners go here.

I made 2 new quilts to enter in QuilCon. Both were based on concepts that had been in my sketchbook for ages. Seemed like a great opportunity to finally bring those concepts to life.

The first quilt was "Rhythm & Blues".
The inspiration for this quilt initially came from studying the design elements in woven interior decorating fabrics. I was interested in the interweave of colors that occur within the strong horizontal format of the weave. As the idea progressed, I became more intrigued with the vertical movement that could be created as different colored groups of lines interact with each other. The quilt morphed into a graphic representation of the sound bars that move up and down on digital recording equipment and "Rhythm & Blues" was born. I have plans to explore other versions of this basic design later this year.

I quilted it with horizontal lines. A single line in the white bars, double lines in most of the blues and triple lines in the darkest blue. It made for a lot of starting and stopping, which is an area where my skills need improvement.

The second quilt I made was "Mondrian Unleashed".
"Mondrian Unleashed" was inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian, an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement of the early 1900's. He simplified compositions into vertical and horizontal lines and used primary colors plus black and white. I was intrigued by his compositions and the limited placement of color and initially planned to reproduce this structure using print fabrics in place of solid colors. As the concept evolved though, I broke free of the rigid horizontal and vertical structure in favor of diagonal lines. The placement of color within the spaces created by the intersection of lines falls in a way that intentionally leads your eye through the quilt.  I have other color options I'd like to explore with this one as well.

I quilted random diagonal lines all over the surface that echo the randomness of the quilt design.

The third quilt I entered was "Zebras in My Garden" made using my Facets pattern. While this quilt wasn't accepted, it's actually my favorite in many ways simply because of the use of color and Kaffe prints.

Making these quilts was a great learning experience. One of the main things I realized about my personal quilt journey is that the design process is what I love the most. Guess that's why I have so many sketches and so many "yet to be made" quilts. I really enjoy the compositional aspect of designing and working with color. And while it was a lot of fun to work with mostly solids, I realize my first love is prints and riots of color. I'll still design and use solids frequently because there are just so many delicious colors available, but I'll never give up on prints . . . especially Kaffe.

I encourage all of you to go out on a limb and enter a competition this year. If you aren't accepted into one show it certainly doesn't mean you won't be accepted into a different show. Sometimes it just means finding the right fit for your work. Be confident in your ideas, improve the skills that need work and let the rest of the world see what you do.

I hope QuiltCon is a grand success. I can't imagine that it won't be. 
To all of you lucky enough to go, I'm quite jealous but hope you had a blast!!

WIP Wednesday

It's been awhile since I've posted for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced but it doesn't mean I haven't been doing any sewing.

I've been trying out a new machine-quilting style for one of the projects I decided to tackle as part of the Finish-A-Long with Leanne. I chose just 2 projects to finish for this quarter that have been sitting around FOREVER and thought it about time I made a dent in the UFO's. Of course I plan to work on far more than just these 2 quilts but this will at least get me finishing those projects that get set aside and sometimes forgotten.

The current quilt under progress right now is one of the smaller samples I made as part of my first pattern "Facets". I've really admired the circular quilting done so beautifully by people like Karen at Blooming Poppies and have always wanted to give it a try. (Check out her tutorial for circular quilting here.) This quilt seemed like a good choice to try the circular quilting on because it's always reminded me of ripples of color expanding outward just like the ripples of quilting expanding out from the center. I'm so glad it's small because I don't know if I could handle a larger quilt with the small arm space on my machine. Not a lot of progress yet but I plan to work on it more this week.

In an effort to get more involved this year, I'm taking part in my very first quilting bee. The Mid Century Modern Bee put together by Cindy at Live A Colorful Life. You can read more about the bee and see my first block here.

I'm also joining the newly formed Boulder Modern Quilt Guild which will have their first meeting in March. I've been a bit isolated here in my studio and look forward to getting out and making new quilty friends in person. If you live in the Boulder CO area and are interested check out the Facebook page.

My new year also started off with a project I was asked to do for a magazine. All I can show for now is this sneak peek.

One last note, I'm curious as to what you think about fusible batting. Has anyone used it for lap size quilts and does it stay fused while you work without shifting from all the manhandling? What brand do you use?
Connecting Threads has batting on sale through mid February and I thought I might give it a try.

Hope you are having fun stitching away into the new year.

It's Been A Good Day

It's been a really good day here at Springleaf Studios.

Craftsy chose my pattern Cascade to be featured as one of their favorite pattern picks!  I'm thrilled, plus it's been a nice boost to my sales. You can see this pattern here and of course over at Craftsy. Hope you'll visit and consider giving it, or my other pattern, Facets a try. All my patterns are available in my Etsy shop.

I'm also in the midst of sewing together a new quilt that Generation Q asked me to make up for an upcoming issue. I just love their magazine! It's full of all kinds of quilty goodness so if you haven't seen an issue yet, go check one out or better yet subscribe and you won't miss anything.

2013 is off to a great start. I've got lots planned including more attention to my blog so I hope you'll become a follower and keep visiting. Wishing all of you a great 2013 full of lots of fabric fun.

Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop

Hello all you bloggers hopping in to visit. Today is my day on Beth's Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop. I'm so very glad she put this together for newbie bloggers like myself. I've found many inspiring blogs through participating in the hop. Hope you have too.

So welcome to my little corner of blogland. Please take a few minutes to explore some other posts and get to know my style. And be sure to hop over to Kristy's blog at Cotton Addiction today for more quilty goodness. Don't you just love her blog's name? Then on Thursday, stop by and visit Julie at That's Sew Julie and Chelsea at Pins and Bobbins.

Now for a little about me. My name is Anne and I live in sunny Colorado. I'm a graphic designer turned stay-at-home mom who has now become an empty nester turned quilt blogger/pattern designer. I've quilted for at least 15 years, but it's been an on/off affair in the midst of raising kids that resulted in lots of UFO's. Last fall our youngest left for college and it became the perfect time to fully commit to my quilting. So this year I started my blog, decided to finish some of those UFO's and ventured into the world of pattern design.

I love color and pattern so when the two are combined into gorgeous fabrics I'm definitely addicted.  : )  I'm a huge Kaffe Fassettt fan, love the new modern prints, and have become a true convert to solids. I like working with traditional blocks in a new way and I like going totally modern with more abstract designs. I've got more sketches than I can manage to sew into finished quilts but that's ok because I love the design process.

When it comes to designing a new quilt, my design background takes over and I find myself exploring all kinds of possibilities. With all the exploration and variations I was dreaming up, I decided to start publishing patterns that included those extra options. Patterns are available in my Etsy shop. Each one includes 2 basic quilts plus several optional ideas. You can make several quilts and no two would be the same.

As for a blogging tip, I feel like I'm still figuring it all out but the one thing I'd say is find a QAL or something to participate in. You'll meet lots of nice people and learn/try something new at the same time. And please leave comments. Something I've come to truly appreciate. I love to respond to other quilters and find those little connections we might share. I wish I had known about blogging years ago. The work being done out there is always inspiring, and it definitely motivates me to get more done. But be careful about comparing yourself. Lots of people seem like super sewers who get loads done every week and have a bazillion followers. Another bit of advice . . . be yourself and sew what you love instead of simply copying other quilter's work. Or if you're inspired by their work give them credit. I've realized I just need to be me and do what I love. I need to stick to my own style and continue to develop my own vision. So be yourself.

If you've visited my blog before, you know I have a collection of fruit/veggie dishes along with a fabric collection to match. Each month during the spring/summer/fall I put up one of several quilts I've made with these fruit/veggie fabrics. A couple of years ago I made a series of tablerunners from a simple design I came up with and thought I'd share that with you today. Of course those original tablerunners are still technically UFO's, but this one for fall is finished. Wahoo!!! Thank you Beth for motivating me. One less UFO.

The design works perfectly with whatever fabrics you want to use. It requires just 2 fat quarters and a few strips. Easy peasy. So here goes . . .

Fat Quarter Table Runner
finished size: 15" x 48" (shorter if you prefer)

Fabrics required:
Focus fabrics:  2 fat quarters - 1 each of 2 different fabrics.
Works best if fat quarter is 18" wide but you can adjust later to accommodate a slightly narrower fat.
Narrow accent strip:  3 strips 1 1/2" x 18+"
Wide accent strip: 3 strips 2 /12" x 18+"
NOTE: I've listed the length with a + because it's best to cut your strips a little longer and then cut to size after they are sewn.

Step 1.
Layer the 2 fat quarters face up on your cutting board.
Cut 3 strips 6 1/2" wide across the 18" side for a finished size of 6 1/2" x 18+".
NOTE: if the fat quarters aren't a full 18" wide it's ok as long as you have 17" to work with. You can adjust later.

layer both fat quarters right side up.

18" side of fat quarter runs top to bottom in picture.

Step 2.
Arrange 1 strip of each fabric into a strip set as shown below. Place the focus fabrics on the outside and keep the accent strips in the center. Arrange 3 of these sets using one strip of each fabric for each set. Be sure to keep the same order for all 3 sets. Before sewing read the following if you have directional fabric.

If either of your focus fabrics is a directional print and you want them all to read the same direction, then cut each strip of one set in half so you have 2 strips 9+" long per fabric. Flip the directional fabric around keeping the same order for the strips. Make one full 18+" set and one 9+" half-set per arrangement. This will make more sense when you see the pictures below.

Strip set with pumpkins facing to the left.

Notice that the pumpkin fabric is flipped around in the bottom photo
but the other fabrics remain in the same position.

Step 3.
Sew strip sets together and press all seams to one side.

Step 4.
Cut sets into 4 segments 4 1/2" wide per segment.
NOTE: If your fat quarters were under 18" then just cut your strip sets into 4 equal width segments across the width of your strip set. It just means your finished runner will be somewhat shorter than 48".

Step 5.
Rearrange by flipping every other segment around so that the focus fabrics alternate along the sides. This is the point where the directional issues come into play. If you made the alternate sets all your directional fabric should be facing the same way. If not they will look like this. Absolutely nothing wrong with this but I just want you to be aware of what happens.

This photo shows what happens when you arrange the segments
without flipping your directional fabric.
Note the pumpkins go in 2 different directions.

Step 6.
Sew segments together into pairs and pairs together until runner is finished. Using a pin at the far side of each seam intersection helps to match the points. Otherwise pins aren't really needed unless you're a pinning kind of quilter. Press these seams open to reduce bulk.

TaDah!  Your runner is finished. Quilt it, grab a cup of tea and enjoy your newest creation.

Here's a look at two earlier runners I made. The proportions are slightly different but it's the same concept. This design works nicely with focus fabrics that come in both a dark and a light background. The lemon one is one of my favs.

Here's another one using just 3 fabrics instead of 4. Same basic construction. Just make one of the focus fabrics shorter so that when the accent strip is added on this combined measurement is the same width as the other focus fabric.  This way when segments are flipped the accent strip is staggered down the middle.

Well, that's it for my stop on the hop. Hope you've been inspired by some of what you've seen here today and I really do hope you'll come back again. It's been fun getting to know all of you.

Keep on quilting . . . Anne   : )

My First Pattern!

I’m super excited to share my quilt with you here at the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. My festival quilt marks a huge turning point for me and my quilting. 

Last year I finally discovered all you talented, enthusiastic quilters in blogland. A little late arriving, but so glad I finally made it to the party. A quilter for 15 plus years, I’ve never quite felt the connection to other quilters that I feel now as I discover more and more of your inspiring blogs. I’ve been more excited and inspired than I’ve been in years. So this year, I decided to join you and play along. My hat's off to Amy for creating this great online event.

Bloggers' Festival marks the introduction to my newbie blog and my very own quilt business, SpringLeaf Studios. And my festival quilt, Facets, is the very first of my pdf patterns to be released for sale. I have to tell you, it’s super exciting and scary all at the same time. I hope you like my quilt as much as I like looking at all of yours.

I’m a designer at heart and by training, so when I design a new quilt, I’m always exploring all the hidden potential within that design. There’s always more than one way to do something and I love looking at all the options. Simple changes to colors, fabrics and placement can make significant changes to the look of a quilt. One of the goals with my patterns is to share my process and explorations with you so that you can envision more possibilities beyond the featured design. 

The Facets pattern comes with 2 versions, optional sizes, plus 8 additional ideas and a bonus pillow project that's made from the trimmed leftovers. It’s like getting one pattern with endless possibilities. Pattern is available at Craftsy and in my Etsy shop. Check it out.

Lastly, I want to thank you for sharing all your inspiring work with the rest of us. No matter your level of experience, I believe we all have something to offer. You never know when your own little idea might be just what someone needs to give them inspiration to make something beautiful. And nothing is more beautiful and meaningful than something made by hand and with our heart for those we love. That’s what quilting gives to me. The opportunity to share my creativity and make the world more beautiful. : )

Here's a final shot of both quilts. Don't you just love that striped chair? My talented daughter, Emily, redid it last summer for her apartment. Love it!