Yellow Diamond Strings : :

Yesterday I finished up another Diamond Strings quilt top using my favorites yet again - April Rhodes' Wanderer and Pat Bravo's Indie, along with my Wild & Free fabrics!



The last one was made in a hurry for a local quilt raffle that turned out to be a huge success, hooray for that! It made it much easier to let that quilt go but, here I am just a couple weeks later already making another! This time I am changing up the design just a little. It's much more scrappy for one! I didn't use a single strip wider than 2."





I also didn't start and finish with blocks including the larger cuts to create the sharp angles you'll see at the tops and bottoms of my other Diamond String quilts. Instead, this time I began and ended each of my qayg blocks with a few strips of the warm, golden yellow that all three of these collections include.



Choosing that one color to begin and end with really makes all the wonderful diamonds that are created within this pattern pop!





I'm always so amazed at how the slightest change in a pattern can create something so new and different, even when using the very same colors and prints. These three collections just speak to me, I can't seem to get enough of them! Hopefully you all don't mind!



I'll be sending this one off to be photographed and shared along with an article I'm writing on quilt-as-you-go for a magazine due out this Fall, and then I have plans to make it our porch swing quilt!



♡ Maureen

Oh, and if you love these fabrics together as much as I do, the Intrepid Thread still has some of their custom bundles available that were inspired by these quilts right HERE!! XX

A New Diamond Strings Quilt : :

Yesterday we took my newest Diamond Strings QAYG quilt out for pictures, choosing this cute, old building nearby that's always made me think of the Little House on the Prairie Walnut Grove Schoolhouse. Since this quilt was made for a local quilt raffle to benefit the 6th grade class trip it just seemed to fit. I don't know the history of the building, these days it looks to be used for just storage by the local Consistory. I've always loved it, especially the brick red color and old double doors!



Last week I shared that this quilt came together quick! It's actually the fastest quilt I've made yet, coming together from that first cut of fabric to the last binding stitch all in just a little more than one day. I credit that to my super speedy quilt-as-you-go method and some surprise snowy weather that allowed a few extra hours at my sewing machine!



This quilt is made up of twenty-four Diamond Strings QAYG rectangle blocks and measures a nice 56" x 68" once finished. For the fabrics I used my Wild & Free collection paired with my two favorites, Indie and Wanderer. I love this fabric combo! The colors and prints create such a warm, bohemian vibe and I love that little touch of sparkle from my Midnight Roof metallic stars print!



Ever since I finished my recent Wanderlust Quilt using my Woven Path print for half of the binding, I've been wanting to finish another quilt using this denim blue stripe print. It makes such a cool finish and I love the contrast against my Luminous Field wildflower print. It helps keep the style of this quilt more gender neutral, which I was trying for and is challenging for this flower fabric loving girl! I think the colors, the stars, many of the prints, and the binding finish really helps with that, along with this denim blue plaid flannel backing! It made such a soft and cozy back, I need more!



I really hope this quilt raffle is a big success! We started selling tickets over the weekend and so far, so good!



Wishing a wonderful Monday & happy sewing to all!   ♡ Maureen

A Fabric GIVEAWAY : :

It's Fabric Giveaway Friday!  

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My sponsor Stash Fabrics is an online store full of fresh, modern fabric. They carry many of our favorite designer fabrics, including Art Gallery, Cotton + Steel, Free Spirit, Cloud9, Moda, and many more! They offer exclusive Club offering and FREE shipping on all orders over $50 in the US!!

We invite you to visit Stash at their --

 SHOP  *  BLOG  *  FACEBOOK  *  TWITTER  *  INSTAGRAM
 

We hope you enjoy visiting the Stash Fabrics sites!! 
 

For this week's Fabric Giveaway, Stash Fabrics is offering the winner a beautiful bundle of Pat Bravo's Indie, a favorite collection of mine! I used many of these prints in my most recent pillow and plan to begin a new quilt including Indie this weekend! This Fat Quarter bundle of Indie will include thirteen different fabrics, one of each print pictured below! Aren't they gorgeous?!!

In addition, Stash Fabrics has both Wanderer and Wild & Free in stock, if you're feeling inspired by my recent makings! They offer 1/4 yard minimum cuts, a great amount if you're looking to stash! Plus there's free US shipping on any order over $50!! And, don't forget to check out Stash Fabrics amazing selection of clubs...



And custom bundles!

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Enter to win!

Here's how,   

1. Simply leave a comment here in this post! If you'd like, we'd love to know which of the Art Gallery Fabrics collections, from the ones deputing at Quilt Market this Spring, that you are the most excited about?  AGF recently shared these new collections on their Instagram right HERE! (one entry)
2. Follow Stash Fabrics on Instagram or Facebook! Just let me know that you did by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (optional extra entry)

3. My followers get a third entry! Whether you follow me here, on Facebook, or on Instagram, just let me know that you do by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (optional extra entry)

4. Help spread the word!! I know that many of you already do, so I thought it would be nice to add that as another way to enter! Whether by tweet, instagram, facebook, pin, blog, etc... (optional extra entry) 

That’s 4 possible entries! Enter now through Monday, April 20th. The winner will be chosen by 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! 

Thank you to all who entered! From the 741 comments #387, Camille Mendel was chosen as the winner! Congratulations, I will be in touch shortly!

My New Pillow : :

I finally have a new pillow to share, hooray! Although it took me about a week to finish completely, taking a few minutes of extra sewing time here and there, this pillow is truly a super quick make! Along with these photos today I'll be including the details for those of you who'd like to make your own!



As I shared last week, this is simply a fun pillow version of my Herringbone QAYG tutorial. To fit the long 14" x 28" pillow insert that I purchased for this project, I started by making four quilt-as-you-go blocks that each measure  7.5" x 14.5."



Once my fabric strips were sewn to all four qayg rectangles, I squared them up, and sewed them together to create my finished pillow top. I chose to leave mine simple, but added hand or decorative stitches would be really lovely here!



You can see below that this is the exact same method I use to create my Diamond String QAYG quilts, using just slightly different measurements for my rectangle blocks. One of the many reasons I love this pattern so much is because you can get so creative, using any size block you'd like, rectangle or square for this style of pillow or quilt. For a quilt, just continue making blocks until you have the desired size, sew them together when finished, and attach the quilt back by sewing 1/4" to 1/2" from each vertical and horizontal seam. So easy and a beautiful end result!





To finish my pillow I quilted up a large piece of this Indie print with an Auriful 40wt in a sweet pink shade. Once quilted, I cut it into two pieces measuring 14.5" x about 16.5" for an envelope style back, and bound each unfinished edge with some leftover bright orange Tule fabric binding!



Next I made and added my pillow binding in this rich chocolate brown Pure Elements solid. To create enough binding for this size pillow you'll need just 3 strips, 2.5" x wof. Brown isn't a popular choice very often, but I personally have always loved the combination of brown with pink so, when I auditioned all the binding options yesterday, the brown won out and I'm really happy with how it turned out! This pillow will live on our bed after all, and I think a little added masculinity is a nice contrast to all the flowery sheets, quilts, and duvets that dress our bed throughout the year!





Be sure to let me know if you give this pillow design a try! I plan to make many more myself! ♡ Maureen
 

A Sketch Stitch Quilt Plan : :

This week I plan to begin work on a brand new "sketch stitch" quilt and I'm so excited! Here's a reminder of the first one, An Applique Art Quilt!



This time my plan is to create a throw size quilt-as-you-go quilt, using this block style method, one of my most popular tutorials! I plan to include lots of "sketch stitch" elements to showoff both how creative one can be with this type of "freehand" embroidery and with all the amazing built-in stitches that my Janome sewing machine offers!











I recently had a nice chat with one of the education supervisors at Janome and signed on to create this quilt project to send in to have on display at the Janome education center, as a way to share this type of unique, creative work that's made possible by Janome's amazing machines! Whether you're using the wonderful Horizon Memory Craft 15000 that I use daily, other Memory Craft models, or their newest Skyline machine, in the quilt process posts that I'll be sharing along the way you'll see lots of tips and new ideas to add to your own projects!



For the fabrics I'll be using my very favorites, Art Gallery Fabrics' Indie by Pat Bravo, Wanderer by April Rhodes, and my very own Wild & Free collection!






Just a few more orders and projects to finish up and I'll be ready to begin, I can't wait to share more soon!

♡ Maureen

A QAYG Pillow Beginning : :

Have you tried my Herringbone quilt-as-you-go technique for a pillow? I make so may things I can't even keep track anymore, but I'm pretty certain I hadn't! This first one started with that beautiful stack of Wanderer and Indie that I shared last week!



I had purchased a new-to-me size pillow form measuring 14" x 28" a few weeks back to make a new pillow for our bed and I love the length of it! To create a pillow cover to fit, I started with four pieces of batting scraps cut to measure approximately 7.5" x 14.5," plus lots of narrow fabrics strips cut into 1" to 1.5" pieces, and I started qayg-ing!



After all four pieces were finished, I simply sewed them together to create a diamond pattern. I love how scrappy it is and especially love the little touches of pink from the Indie Royal Nature in Nectar print!



All that's left to do is to quilt up two larger pieces of fabric for my pillow back and to make some binding!



I promise to have this one finished by Monday, I'm so excited to see it on our bed!

♡ Maureen    

A Pillow Plan : :

This week is flying by and we haven't found a single moment to photograph my newest finished quilt, Wanderlust, that I so badly wanted to share here this week. Hopefully that will happen this weekend for a Monday blog post! The rest of this week's sewing time has been spent filling Etsy orders, so all those colorful quilt wips I shared last week are still hanging around and likely won't see any action until next week, since those projects are all about tiny piecing that are pretty time consuming. So for today, incase a little stretch of sewing time does present itself, I have a pillow plan ready!


Just as excited as I was to combine April's Wanderer fabrics with my own Wild & Free collection, I've been waiting for the right idea to strike to mix Wanderer with my most favorite AGF collection to date, Pat Bravo's Indie! Our bedroom is decorated with this beautiful, bohemian collection. My Indie Symmetry quilt lives happily on our bed...



Along with my most favorite pillow, this scrappy chevron Kantha inspired creation!



It's hard to believe this pillow is nearing three years old! But since it is, I think it's time to make another -- a perfect use for a Wanderer + Indie mash-up!



I'll share how it turns out next week! Be sure to stop back tomorrow for a wonderful, new Giveaway, and to have yourself a beautiful weekend! ♡ Maureen    

One More Pillow : :

This week is going to be an extra busy one for crown making especially, but I do plan to make a little time for finally finishing Kaiden's Making Rows Quilt, for beginning at least a few quilt blocks for those last two quilts I need to make in time for Christmas, and for hopefully more pillow making. This time using some Anna Maria fabrics, maybe one or two in the Indie I have leftover from my Symmetry Quilt, and some more in Chicopee charms!





I had forgotten how much I love making patchwork pillows and I think my skills have improved quite a bit from all the quilts I've made these past few months. Finishing pillows with a little binding is my new favorite thing!





There's a story behind this pillow and those ones I shared last week, beginning with some news that broke my heart and ended with me being able to take the money I made from selling them and send it as a small gesture with my love & prayers to help someone I love very much. All of your comments, likes & shares led to quick sales and I thank you all for helping me do that!

Wishing you all a wonderful & productive new week!  ♥  Maureen