The Nightfall Parade | | BIG GIVEAWAY : :

As promised I'm back today with one last BIG Nightfall Giveaway to thank you all for following the Nightfall Parade!!



See these pretty rolls of fabrics?! Well I'm giving away 1 yard of each quilting cotton print + 2 yards of my Canvas + 2 yards of Voile!! That's 24 YARDS of Nightfall Fabrics!! Half will be given away right here on my blog and the other half over on my Instagram: http://instagram.com/maureencracknell so be sure to enter both places!!

As a bonus gift each winner will receive their fabrics in one of the Nightfall Tote Bags I made during the Nightfall Parade!





Enter to Win!

Here's how,

• Simple leave a comment telling me your favorite Nightfall print or project from the Parade OR what you'd like to make with Fleet & Flourish?!  
• Follow me on my Facebook or on Instagram (where you can enter for a second chance to WIN!)

I'll randomly select one winner here and one from the hashtag pool on Friday, November 4th! Winners will be announced at the bottom of this post, here on the blog!

Be sure to keep an eye out this week for more peeks of my new collection, Garden Dreamer! I can't wait for you to see!!

CONGRATULATIONS to commenter, Cynthia Brunz Designs! You are the BIG Giveaway winner and have been emailed! :)

XO Maureen

The Nightfall Parade | | Nightfall New : :

It's a dark and cold and wet Thursday in Potter County, a good day to stay bundled up, with lots of hot coffee, while working on my next collection. Since I'm not attending this weekend's Fall Quilt Market show in Houston, where Garden Dreamer will make it's debut, dreaming up new fabric creations seemed like the perfect thing to dedicate a little time to this morning. I really love designing for AGF! I can see the growth in my work and that's so exciting! I'll have lots more to share about Garden Dreamer very soon, but first...



I hope you've been enjoying this Nightfall Parade these past two weeks, it certainly has flown by! I have two, brand new finishes to share today, well new versions of two of my favorite projects -- a Mystical Woods Easy Tote and a Birds of Night Pillowcase!

First up, my new Nightfall pillowcase!



I loved those pillowcases that I made earlier this week so much that I decided to offer them as a made-to-order item in my little Etsy Shop! You can find the listing right HERE, for those of you interested (US residents be sure to use coupon code: FREESHIP to enjoy free shipping on your order!)



This custom order request for my Bird of Night Slate + Lunation Bright + Nox Iridescence Aglow made such an amazing combination. I just love it!





Next up are the two, new Easy Tote Bags that I recently made both featuring my Nightfall Canvas, Mystical Woods in Solar!



Art Gallery Fabrics Canvas is a heavier weight Pima cotton, making is suitable for home décor and all kinds of bag making! This was my first time using it for a tote and it worked so perfectly. This canvas print became the pillow backing fabric to so many of the Nightfall samples I made for Quilt Market last Spring, it's so nice to add this useful pattern to my canvas project list!

I love using AGF's denim whenever possible and these Wicked Sky Solid Smooth bag handles pair so perfectly with the pinks & peaches of the Mystical Woods canvas!



Once again I reached for my Bird of Night in Slate print, this time to be used as my Easy Tote bag lining!



I hope that both of these projects inspire you to sew with Nightfall! It's been a ton of fun getting creative while making all the new Nightfall project these last several days. I still have so much that I want to make and share, which means the Parade is likely to continue until Garden Dreamer arrives next month!



I'll be sending off the BIG Nightfall Parade Giveaway prize in one of these Easy Tote bags, so be sure to enter on Monday!

♡ Maureen

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* You can find the list of online retailers currently carrying Nightfall under my SHOP my Fabrics page -----> https://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

The Nightfall Parade | | A Soaring High Quilt Pattern in Nightfall

For yesterday's Nightfall Parade project I had every intention of blogging the Easy Tote bags I recently made using my Nightfall canvas, Mystical Woods in Solar. Lately the mornings have been dark, and as I waited to take photos of my finished bags I moved onto my next plan -- a Soaring High quilt in Nightfall! Once I began work on this fun project, I didn't want to stop, and as a result I'm so excited to have a new quilt pattern to share with you all today!





I designed this quilt a few years back to showcase a Skinny LaMinx collection for Cloud9 and have been dying to remake it using one of my own collections now that I'm designing for Art Gallery Fabrics. Nightfall happens to be the perfect match to this modern take on the traditional flying geese block! This pattern is made simple and addictive with my "make four at a time" flying geese method and chain piecing, you're going to love making this quilt!

Let's get started!



This quilt is made up of thirty flying geese blocks using some of my favorite Nightfall prints. My son Kaiden picked this particular combo and love how gender neutral it is!





Follow these easy cutting and assembly instructions to piece together your very own Soaring High quilt. I made this quilt top from start to finish in just a little more than a day! It's truly one of the quickest, most enjoyable quilt patterns that I've designed!



After stitching up those last few final seams that were waiting for me this morning, my husband and I took my newly finished Soaring High quilt top to a nearby pond for some quick photos. The morning mist suspended above the water was stunning, I was lucky to capture such pretty photos to share so soon!





You can see that I arranged my quilt blocks alternating rows of geese pointing up and geese pointing to the left. When you make your own I encourage you to have fun playing around with other layout options. There really are so many possibilities for this particular block pattern!



I hope you love this project as much as I do! If you do give it a go at anytime, be sure to share on my Facebook page or on Instagram with the hashtag #NightfallFabrics & #NightfallParade -- I love seeing what you create!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!! ♡ Maureen

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* You can find the list of online retailers currently carrying Nightfall under my SHOP my Fabrics page -----> https://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

The Nightfall Parade | | Nightfall Pillowcases : :

Today begins the second week of the Nightfall Parade!! I hope you're all enjoying this series of projects featuring my new Nightfall collection for Art Gallery Fabrics!



I would love nothing more than to have a set of sheets for our bed made using my Nightfall fabrics. Wouldn't that be dreamy? These designs are so perfect for bedding and I've already figured out the math for making a custom queen size set! When the advanced yardage that I receive as a fabric designer for AGF arrived, it was a sincere consideration. But these rolls are precious and with all the sewing I do each week, they seem to dwindle down so fast as it is. Since I couldn't commit to a sheet set just yet, I settled for the next best thing -- brand new Nightfall pillowcases!



I love making pillowcases! Have you tried? It's incredibly simple and is such a great way to admire your favorite fabrics!

I've made dozens over the several years that I've been sewing, always using FITF's Pretty Quick Pillowcase tutorial, including French Seam instructions that result in a beautiful finish! By now I could probably make a pillowcase using this tutorial blindfolded, so I stuck with what I know to make the ones I'm sharing today. Still, I have to direct you all to the amazing tutorial kelbysews just shared for her own set of Nightfall pillowcases & matching pouch! Kelly used the Nightfall prints that were included in this month's Stash Builders Box, a subscription for makers that's delivered to your door each month including 3 yards of designer fabric, thread, a signature pencil, and an exclusive pattern -- how awesome is that! Below are the beautiful pillowcases Kelly made and her tutorial can be found right HERE!



Kelly's work is such a beautiful example of how well both my Bird of Night owls and Moon Stories prints work for making pillowcases, so I decided to make my own this morning using different fabric variations, specifically to showcase my Magical Gust print in both colorways!

First up, Magical Gust in Fog + Aura Fletchings + Nox Iridescence Aglow - -



I chose the creamy white colored Aurifil 50wt from my thread set to pair up with this collection of fabrics and it made such a pretty combination!





I love the Aura Fletchings as the pillowcase trim here, I think this print was the perfect choice to divide the main floral from the dragonfly accent fabric, I love it!



For the second pillowcase I used the other Magical Gust colorway in Crisp as the main fabric, my Labyrinthine in Dawn blender as the trim, and my Lunation in Bright moon phase print for the pillowcase cuff.  I chose a Jade thread color from my Aurifil set to use for the exposed stitching. I love the contrasting blueish green color against the yellow fabric and how visible it is this time!







I made both of these pillowcases just this morning and would love to make a dozen more, mixing and matching my Nightfall prints all day long! These might just become my go-to Christmas gift this year, they're so much fun to make and I'm really happy with how they turned out!



I really hope today's Nightfall Parade projects have inspired you, too!  ♡ Maureen

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* You can find the list of online retailers currently carrying Nightfall under my SHOP my Fabrics page -----> https://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

A Nightfall GIVEAWAY : :

We're ending this first week of the Nightfall Parade with a special Giveaway!



Since the theme of this week's Nightfall Parade projects was to showcase how well Nightfall lends itself to "fussy cutting" -- the careful cutting of fabrics to frame the way I have in both my Moon & Stars Floor Pillow and Midnight Observer Quilt, today I'm offering one winner here on the blog and a second winner over on my Instagram account, a chance to win a HALF YARD bundle of my Bird of Night owls and Lunation moon phase prints in both colorways!!



Enter to win! 

Here's how,

1. Simply leave a comment here under this post! I'd love to know what you'd like to make with these fabrics?! (one entry)

2. My followers get a second entry! If you follow on Bloglovin', Instagram, or on Facebook just let me know by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (optional extra entry)

3. Help spread the word!! Whether by Instagram, tweet, Facebook, pin, blog, etc... (optional extra entry) 

That’s 3 possible entries! Enter now through Monday, October 24th! The winner will be picked next week at random and I will announce their name at the bottom of this post, here on the blog.

* Note * This giveaway is open to EVERYONE! If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please remember to include your email address in your comment! 

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A BIG thanks to all who have visited the blog this week during the Nightfall Parade!  The Giveaway winner is commenter, Bonnie! Congratulations, I will be in touch shortly! ♡ Maureen

The Nightfall Parade | | A Midnight Observer Quilt : :

The Nightfall Parade continues today with my Midnight Observer QAYG Quilt, featuring my Bird of Night owls in the Slate colorway, along with Nightfall prints and AGF Solid Smooth Denims!



I'm so excited to follow yesterday's tutorial with this quilt! It was made using the same exact method with just larger batting squares and additional fabric strips. Each block began with a fussy cut owl at the center, but this time while I added my fabric strips (logs) I was inspired by this Converging Corners quilt block pattern. I'm constructing these blocks similarly to my Mini Log Cabin QAYG blocks I shared yesterday, with a little twist! After I frame each owl with low volume prints and solids, as I work my way out into the corners of each block, I'm adding darker solid and printed fabrics to two opposing corners. This creates a really cool, interesting design once a group of four blocks are put together.



Looking at the quilt as a whole, notice how those dark corners seem to form a scrappy four-pointed star. To me it appears to sparkle, such a perfect reflection of the Nightfall theme!



Using the owls in this way was so much fun for me! I had a very limited amount of strike offs when I began this quilt for Quilt Market, but as my army of owl blocks grew it was so satisfying to see how such little fabrics could stretch into a quilt that I really love!





Once my quilt blocks were finished and joined, because of the beauty of quick quilt as you go, all that was left to do was back & bind with minimal quilting!



From the reverse Prisma Element side of my quilt you can see how I attached the backing by simply stitching my way down from the top of the quilt to the bottom, as well as from side to side, sewing about 1/4" from both sides of each of the seam lines. It works perfectly!



I chose to bind the quilt in a yummy stripe from Pat Bravos' Essentials II collection. I love how the yellow of the stripe brings attention to the golden butterflies of Nightfall!



I hope you're all enjoying the Nightfall Parade projects thus far! I think tomorrow it's time for our first Parade Giveaway, so be sure to stop back!!

♡ Maureen

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* You can find the list of online retailers currently carrying Nightfall under my SHOP my Fabrics page -----> https://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

The Nightfall Parade | | A Mini QAYG Log Cabin { Tutorial } : :

My Mini QAYG Log Cabin tutorial is a Quilt-As-You-Go style quilt block, featuring my Nightfall fabric collection, that you can use to create a beautiful Moon & Stars Floor Pillow!

Fabric and Materials Required : :

• a variety of four different teal & blue Nightfall prints cut into 1" strips x WOF
• several 1.5" x WOF strips of both Luminaries in Silver & Gold 
• Sixteen fussy cut moons { eight from Lunation Light || eight from Lunation Dark } 
• Sixteen 6" cotton batting squares
• fabrics for the pillow backing and binding
• 22" pillow insert
• rotary cutter/large cutting mat/ruler set
• sewing pins 

* Notes*

• Synthetic batting is NOT suggested, only use a 100% cotton batting. It is important to be able to press the batting with a hot iron and steam.
• Use a Low or standard loft batting. The #1 question I receive about QAYG is folks wanting to know if the seams are bulky. My answer is NOPE, not to a noticeable degree I promise.
• This style of Log Cabin quilt block can be made into any size! The measurements I'm sharing makes a large floor pillow, but feel free to adjust to any size.

Now, let's get started!! 

Making the Blocks : :

1. Begin by preparing your materials. I cut leftover cotton batting scraps into sixteen 6" batting squares.



2. Place a single fussy cut moon, alternating colors, in the center of each of the sixteen batting squares.



3. Begin adding the fabric strips {logs}. Cut two strips from one of the dark Nightfall prints. At the sewing machine, place one strip right sides facing the moon fabric and sew a 1/4" seam along the raw edges on the matched up side. You will be sewing through the batting, permanently attaching the fabrics in place. Once attached, open the fabrics so the right side is exposed and smooth to press with your hand.



4. Add the next two strips exactly the same way, but this time using a low volume Luminaries star print. Attach these logs continuing with a 1/4" seam, smooth & press open as you go.



5. Work your way around the center moon, alternating the dark 1" Nightfall strips with the 1.5" Luminaries prints, adding each log, stitching, flipping, and pressing until you fill up each batting square.







6. Once the fabrics have been added to each batting square, use a mat, ruler, and rotary cutter to trim to a 5.75" square.



Use the diagram below to arrange the finished mini log cabins in the Moon & Stars pillow top design.





Joining the QAYG Blocks : :

7. Begin with two blocks and place them right sides together. Use sewing pins to secure their place and sew along one side keeping a 1/4" seam allowance. Use a hot iron with steam to press the seams open as you join them.



8. Repeat this step with the remaining blocks, sewing them together, pressing all seams open as you go.





9. Press the pillow top front well once all the mini log cabins are joined together.





Finishing the Pillow : :

10. Prepare the backing fabrics with a double seam or bound edge to finish with an envelope style closure.



11. Using your favorite quilt binding method, bind the pillow just as you would any quilt. Insert the pillow form and Viola, your pretty Moon & Stars Floor Pillow is finished!





If you do give this tutorial a go at anytime, be sure to share on my Facebook page or on Instagram with the hashtag #NightfallFabrics & #NightfallParade -- I love seeing what you create!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!! ♡ Maureen

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* You can find the list of online retailers currently carrying Nightfall under my SHOP my Fabrics page -----> https://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html