11 Bloomsbury Quilt.

I've been meaning to share this sample of my Bloomsbury Quilt pattern with you for awhile now.  It's a very late gift for a friend of mine who got married last fall. I used mostly Cotton & Steel fabrics with some Carolyn Friedlander prints mixed in. I hope my friend likes the bright and scrappy look!

I used some Essex yarn dyed linen in two different colors for the background fabric, which probably doesn't surprise you since I use it all the time! I just love the extra texture and softness it gives to a quilt.

It's quilted in a loose crosshatch pattern, which was kind of a pain to mark on the quilt (I used a hera marker as usual) but I'm happy with how it looks finished.

It's bound in a favorite green Cookie Book print by Kim Kight, and backed in a pretty teal print from Carolyn's Doe collection.

You can find the Bloomsbury Quilt pattern in my shop, here!

34 Good Neighbors Pincushion Party.

Did you know my friend Amanda from Crazy Mom Quilts has a new fabric collection that just released? It's called Good Neighbors, and is available through Connecting Threads. I first met Amanda at our annual sewing retreat in Madison last year, and she is one of the nicest people I have met! She loves scraps and we've joked that I should just start sending my buckets of scraps to her since I can't stand them :)

This Pincushion Party was the perfect excuse for me to sit down and make another pincushion for myself. I only owned one pincushion until my friend Jeni made me another recently! So after making this one, I now have three! I opted to stitch up the pincushion from Anna's book, Handmade Style, and it was so much fun to make. I love all the little pockets!

This cushion will be great to have on my sewing table right next to my machine. I stuffed it with crushed walnut shells, which give it a nice weight and sharpens the pins that you stick in it. I'm excited to have something I can use while I'm hand stitching on the couch too, to hold all my small supplies in one place!

Amanda's collection is so perfectly her. It's bright, happy, and awesome for chopping up into little scrappy bits! I decided use little strips on the top of my pincushion to showcase a bunch of her pretty prints.

Make sure to head over to Connecting Threads to get some of Amanda's Good Neighbors collection, and check out all the other adorable pincushions every day in September!

9/1/2015 Amanda Jean – Crazy Mom Quilts

9/2/2015 Anna – Noodlehead

9/3/2015 Mary – Mary on Lake Pulaski

9/4/2015 Svetlana – Sotak Handmade

9/5/2015 Debbie – Esch House Quilts

9/6/2015 Holly – Bijou Lovely

9/7/2015 Carla – Grace and Favour

9/8/2015 Faith – Fresh Lemons Quilts

9/9/2015 Vanessa –  V and Co.

9/10/2015 Anna –  Thimbleanna

9/11/2015 Krista –  Poppy Print Creates

9/12/2015 Erin –  Why Not Sew

9/13/2015 Lee –  May Chappell

9/14/2015 Alex –  Tea Ginny Designs

9/15/2015 Cheryl –  Nap Time Quilter

9/16/2015 Penny –  Sew Take a Hike

9/17/2015 Amy –  During Quilt Time

9/18/2015 Debbie –  A Quilter’s Table

9/19/2015 Anne –  Spring Leaf Studios

9/20/2015 Melissa Corry –  Happy Quilting

9/21/2015 Amber –  One Shabby Chick

9/22/2015 Nettie –  A Quilt is Nice

9/23/2015 Adrianne – Little Bluebell

9/24/2015 Cindy –  Live a Colorful Life

9/25/2015 Amy –  Diary of a Quilter

9/26/2015 Chase –  Quarter Inch Mark

9/27/2015 Rene –  Rene Creates

9/28/2015 Erin –  House on Hill Road

9/29/2015 Nicole –  Modern Handcraft

9/30/2015 Teri –  Connecting Threads

8 Bound Quilt.

So I haven't blogged in months, oops! This summer got away from me, I can't believe it's already September! I've spent most of the past few months taking senior portraits, but I've got some really exciting things coming up that I can't wait to share here very soon! In the meantime though, I've got a few quilts to share here, starting with this baby quilt that I just finished this week.

I was able to finally meet April Rhodes this past spring at Quilt Market, and she is just the sweetest! She asked if I'd be interested in sewing with some of her new line, Bound, and of course I said yes. Her prints just really speak to me! I mixed up the Morning palette with some prints from her last line, Wanderer and a bunch of Leah Duncan prints. Their fabrics go so well together! I had to mix in a bit of Essex yarn dyed linen in a couple colors too to give some spots for the eye to rest.

 
Anna and I narrowed down the fabrics I was going to use at our annual sewing retreat, and she suggested that I make a log cabin quilt with them. I love log cabins so I thought that was a great idea!

Since I only had FQs of some of the prints, I had to get creative with the piecing as the strips got longer, and just started adding on other random strips. I really like the easy, relaxed look it gives the quilt!

Piecing this quilt was so much fun, I want to make a million more of these. It's just so easy to cut all the strips ahead of time and add a few here and there!

I kept with the easy theme with the quilting, and just stitched in a square pattern starting from the center and through each strip. It looks nice, took no time at all and makes the quilt really soft.

It's backed in my favorite print from Bound, Painting Celebration and bound in April's Coming Home Spring print and ready to gift to it's new owner as soon as she makes her arrival!

Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful fabric with me April!