Indigo Blue : :

These rainy days have inspired my next small batch collection, Indigo Blue!

I'm such a fan of Japanese Shibori dyeing, but haven't yet found the time to try it like I had hoped to over the Summer. Thankfully for folks like me, who love the look but don't have time to dye my own fabrics, April Rhodes created the Observer collection for Art Gallery Fabrics that is full of beautiful blue patterns!



I love the fresh color palette of calm to deep blues and this fabric pull inspired me to do a little reading up on Indigo.



Indigo is the color of wisdom and intuition. It represents an inner awareness of spirituality, gives an ability for planning the future, and brings about a love of rituals. Those who feel connected to indigo are faithful, idealistic, and intuitive. They are truthful by nature and have sincere personalities.

Learning these things about Indigo inspired me to seek out these Shibori Tie-Dye Journals to pair with the quilted zipper pouch bags I plan to make with these fabrics. How special it will be to include one of these beautiful handcrafted journals as part of each Indigo Blue gift set, perfect for fellow Indigo lovers' writing, sketching and doodling!





To complete this set, I sourced out the perfect Indigo cotton and mirrored glass Fanned Tassel Charm to add to the zippers on each bag!



My hope is to start working on these tonight or tomorrow to have ready for sale next week!



xo Maureen  

Autumn Winds, Coming Soon!

This month my new Autumn Vibes LookBook will be released, and I am very excited! Today I'm popping in to share a quick peek of the free companion quilt pattern for my Autumn Vibes collection, Autumn Winds!





This quilt is so special to me because it was designed by friend, AGF sister and sampler sew-along partner, Sharon Holland. It's full of HSTs, patches & flying geese and is just so perfect for Autumn Vibes. I love every single piece of it!

The Bloc Loc 2.5" Half Square Triangle and Bloc Loc 2"x4" Flying Geese acrylic rulers shown in these photos have changed my life, I love them so much! Incase you're not familiar, Bloc Loc rulers have a groove that locks the ruler into place so that it doesn't move during trimming, making the tough job of squaring up easy, fast and accurate. For this Autumn Winds quilt, and other quilt patterns and projects heavy with 2.5" HSTs and/or this size flying geese, these rulers truly are a timing saving, useful tool to have as part of your ruler collection.





I hope you'll join me in making an Autumn Winds quilt for yourself. I can promise that this quilt is beautiful, and that you'll feel pretty darn proud of yourself when you're finished!





My hope is that this quilt pattern peek will inspire you to start stitching with Autumn Vibes!

xo, Maureen 

Journal LOVE!

I have more Whole Cloth Quilted Journal goodness to share with you today! I had a blast last month, pulling from new and old favorite fabrics to make more of these pretty and useful quilted journals!



Making each of these Quilted Journals has been such a joy. The process allows me to showcase the fabrics that I design for Art Gallery, while bringing new goods into the world and into your hands that are useful, beautiful and well-made. I'm so excited to share these with you!

Crystal Awakening is a favorite and one of the first rolls of fabric I reached for when I set out to make this batch of journals.





Sprinkled Peonies and From Within Sparkler are two recolored prints of mine that are both brand new to stores and to my studio. Sparkler Fusion is one of my favorite Fusion collections to date. These prints in soft sweet blush, creamy white, cinder grey and touches of metallic shimmer, made the prettiest set of journals!







Of course I had to make several new journals with Autumn Vibes. These are perfect for our family, teachers and friends heading back to school and the season that is upon us! I only wish I would have had the time to make one in each of the twenty Autumn Vibes quilting cottons.



Here we have,

Autumn Nectar Honey



Pressed Ablossom Royal





Floral Glow Twilit



Foxes In Fall



Cozy Ditzy Plum



and Acorns & Pinecones Mint



I'd love to know which of these new journals is your favorite? I always look forward to feedback from fellow fabric lovers!





Thank you, as always, for visiting me today and for your support and interest in the things I make and sell! I'm incredibly grateful for it! Next I'll be sharing a peek of the Autumn Vibes quilt top that I just finished for my LookBook due out later this month. Stay tuned!

xo, Maureen

New Boho Quilted Bags!

Sometimes when I'm not sure what to sew, I'll pull from my scrap basket pieces to make a stack of 5-¼" squares and four x's as many 2-⅞" squares in contrasting prints to make four-at-a-time flying geese that measure a 2-½" x 4-½" rectangle once trimmed. A very useful size for patchwork with endless possibilities. Recently I used my most recent batch of flying geese, along with prints from Flower Child, Soulful and various recolored prints of mine from Art Gallery Fusions collections, to stitch up some quilted zipper pouch bags and I LOVE how they turned out!





These prints and colors together are so pretty and cheerful!



I use Hobbs Batting for everything I make now and these quilted bags were made with Heirloom Natural Cotton. Because I use quilt as you go when I make my bags, I always choose a 100% cotton or natural fiber batting that can handle a hot iron with steam, and Hobbs brand quickly became my new favorite this past year. I love to use batting to foundation piece the bag fronts and backs and finished these with a little additional wavy quilting.



How fun are these yellow zippers with coral pink faux suede zipper pulls!



Each of the bags I made are lined with my Swifty Flora Boho water color floral, for an interior just as pretty as the exterior!



I love makin' stuff, and these days there's a particular excitement for putting gift sets together that include a handmade bag, fancy bag charm and handcrafted journal that tucks perfectly inside each bag. I think this harmonious set would make such a lovely gift!

I already have plans for my next batch. More on that soon!

Thanks for visiting! xo, Maureen

Friendship Braid Baby Quilts : :

Last week I had every intention of playing catchup with my backlog of projects that I never found time to share here on the blog. So much goodness was made this Summer! When the kids started school last Wednesday, I was determined to get right back on schedule. But then I decided to give myself one leisurely day to just breath, and that turned into taking it easy the rest of the week. Yesterday was spent on computer work and Etsy orders, so here I am today. Happy Tuesday, friends!

Using an array of prints from my various fabric collections and those made by fellow AGF designers, I made two friendship braid qayg baby quilt using the same quick quilt as you go pattern as my recent zipper pouch bags.





The friendship braid panels used to make these quilts can run vertical or horizontal and can be made any size your heart desires! The finished size of these two baby quilts is around 36" x 44" and I love how different this pattern can look using different fabrics for the quilt top.





For the quilt made in my fabrics, I chose to do the binding in the pretty Terra Firma Sunlit print from my Garden Dreamer collection. I love how framing this quilt in a happy yellow visually brings it together.





The backing is Garden Dreamer Moment in Time Dim.

For the quilt batting I used Hobbs Tuscany Silk which makes it all the more sweet and soft. I've been using silk batting since the Sewcial Bee Sampler and I think the result is really the perfect weight for a baby quilt. It drapes beautifully, moves around and cuddles well.





Although this quilt is quilt as you go, I added additional quilting using the built-in wavy stitch on my Janome. I started using this stitch when making my whole cloth quilted journals and I just really enjoy the look of it.



Quilt as you go using batting as a foundation means that only minimal quilting is needed as a final step to attach the quilt back. I love the simple, super quick, no fuss way of finishing a quilt using this method without any additional quilting, but sometimes it's fun to experiment with baby quilts due to their manageable size. A good reminder that I need to make time to make more of them!



I'm feeling good and optimistic that I've finished this first blog post now that Summer vacation is officially over. Hoping to share so much more in the days ahead!

p.s. I'm planning to share my Friendship Braid QAYG tutorial sometime this Fall, so be sure to keep an eye out!

xoxo, Maureen