Love Story Patchwork Stockings : :

Holiday making is well underway and my goodness, I do LOVE these days of non-stop making!



Last year this time my Love Story collection had just arrived at my studio and I was brimming with ideas for using these pretty prints for some surprising holiday themed handmades. I made so many bags that I never finished these Love Story stockings that were at the top of my to-make list, until now...



Making unique Christmas stockings have become one of my favorite things to make! Years ago, before I knew yet how to sew, I purchased our family's stockings from Pottery Barn. Their shape and size are the style I still like best all these years later, so when it came time to try making my own to gift and to sell, I traced one of those stockings to be the template that I continue to use for each one. The extra large size is just perfect for stuffing with all kinds of small gifts and treats!



These Love Story Patchwork Stockings include all twenty quilting cottons that make up the collection. And to add a special boho touch, I embellish each with handmade flower & fabric twine cluster!



Aren't they pretty?! I love them so much!! So much so that I made eight!

*UPDATE* All Love Story Stockings have sold out, but I would still love for you to check out my other Ready To Ship bags, pillows, quilted journals and quilts of mine, you can visit my new Instagram Pop-Up Shop --
https://www.instagram.com/shopMCH/



Thanks for looking! xo Maureen

Community Sampler Week #16

It's the final week of the Community Sampler sew-along!



For those of you that are new to my blog, Sharon Holland and I have been co-hosting this block-of-the-week community sew-along for sixteen weeks. You can visit my Community Sampler Page above in my tabs bar to retrieve all of the released PDF's to make your own Community Sampler anytime!



For the past Fifteen weeks Sharon and I have released a new PDF each Wednesday that includes a new sampler block with all of the fabric requirements and instructions needed for each, and ended last week with a PDF on finishing, that includes step by step instructions for finishing up our quilts!

This week we've reached the finale of our quilt-along and I'll link below to my Community Sampler Page, where all of the PDFs will remain for those of you still finishing up your quilts, or for those of you who are new here and would like to make your very own!



For my Community Sampler I used my Love Story fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics, with four coordinating colors AGF's Pure Element solids in Grapefruit, Sienna Brick, Denim Blue and Mediterraneo. I'm so happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to have it quilted!





My co-host Sharon finished her Community Sampler quilt with quilting on her home machines and it is so gorgeous! I've been sending all of my non quilt-as-you-go quilts out for longarm quilting for the past couple of years. I could never achieve the look of a beautiful allover floral and geometric quilting pattern that I prefer, so my plan is to send my Community Sampler out to Lady Belle Fabrics who will be adding longarm quilting services to her wonderful fabric shop this month! I'm so excited!!



To prepare my quilt to send to Brooke at Lady Belle Fabrics, I made sure my quilt top was trimmed to size and I pieced together my quilt back to send for her to longarm quilt with an edge to edge quilting design. Both batting and thread options will be included in Lady Belle Fabrics new quilting service, so there is no need to send those things. Brooke has already quilted a few of my quilt tops and I'll be sharing those this month, as well as all the details with those of you looking for a wonderful longarm service to use. You're going to LOVE the quilts she recently finished for me! I can't wait to photograph them to share!

Last night Kevin and I took my quilt out for a few new photos to my favorite spot. The sun was fading fast, but I snapped a few nice, new shots and a pretty video that I'll share in my Instagram stories later today, so be sure to stop by my Instagram to see!





I'm so excited to see how our quilts will look finished! As always, when you share on Instagram use the hashtag #CommunitySampler and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns and myself @maureencracknell so we can be sure to see your beautiful Community Samplers!

Using #CommunitySampler hashtag will also automatically enter you in the weekly IG Giveaway pool! Remember that your Instagram account does need to be a public account for your post to show up in the Instagram hashtag pool. But please don't worry, if you don't have Instagram or you'd like to keep your account private, we will also be hosting the same giveaway prize, alternately between Sharon's and my blog, so you can choose how and where to enter each week!



Be sure to check back here on Friday for this week's Community Sampler Grand Finale Giveaway! You won't want to miss this one!!

xo Maureen  

Community Sampler Week #15!

It's Community Sampler sew-along Wednesday!



For those of you that are new here, Sharon Holland and I have been co-hosting this block-of-the-week community sew-along. You can visit my Community Sampler Page above in my tabs bar to retrieve all of the released PDF's to make your own Community Sampler anytime!



Today's PDF for week Fifteen is -- Finishing, that includes step by step instructions for finishing up our quilts! You'll have all the measurements you need for batting, preparing your backing fabric and to make the amount of binding that you'll need to finish up your Community Sampler! On Sharon's blog you'll find lots of helpful tutorial links for these steps incase you're in need of extra visuals and instructions for these finishing steps!



For finishing my Community Sampler made using my Love Story fabric collection, I decided to back my quilt in AGF's Pure Element solid in Sienna Brick. I used this solid for my inner border and had ordered several yards of this solid for a different quilt, and I've decided it's just too perfect not to use to back my sampler. I love this dusty rose color! For my binding I'm using my Love Story print Daring Echoes Red, a unique take on a stripe print that I hope will make the true reds in my Love Story prints really pop!





While my co-host Sharon plans to finish her quilt on her home machines, my plan is to send mine out to Lady Belle Fabrics who will be adding long-arm quilting services to her wonderful fabric shop this June! I'm so excited!!

To prepare my quilt, I will use all of the same finishing instructions to prepare my quilt top before sending it to Brooke at Lady Belle Fabrics. I'll make sure my quilt top is trimmed to size and to prepare my backing fabrics for an edge to edge quilting design. Both batting and thread options will be included in Lady Belle Fabrics new quilting service, so there's no need to send those things. I can't wait to share more about this new Lady Belle Service next month!

While my quilt is out, I'll make my binding to have it ready for my quilt's return. I love machine binding and if you'd like to check out the my go-to method be sure to visit -- HERE!



I'm so excited to see how our quilts will look finished! As always, when you share on Instagram use the hashtag #CommunitySampler and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns and myself @maureencracknell so we can be sure to see your beautiful Community Samplers!

Using #CommunitySampler hashtag will also automatically enter you in the weekly IG Giveaway pool! Remember that your Instagram account does need to be a public account for your post to show up in the Instagram hashtag pool. But please don't worry, if you don't have Instagram or you'd like to keep your account private, we will also be hosting the same giveaway prize, alternately between Sharon's and my blog, so you can choose how and where to enter each week!



Be sure to check back here on Friday for more info on this week's Community Sampler Giveaway with our wonderful sponsor Omnigrid!

xo Maureen  

Community Sampler Week #14!

It's Community Sampler sew-along Wednesday and we are so close to finishing our quilts!



For those of you that are new to my blog, Sharon Holland and I are co-hosting this block-of-the-week community sew-along, and you can visit my Community Sampler Page above in my tabs bar to retrieve all of the released PDF's so far to jump in anytime! We're so thrilled to have so many sewing with us once again!



Today's PDF for week fourteen is -- Borders. Last week we chose our background fabrics and set our blocks on-point into a quilt top. This week we' re making lots of flying geese, using the make-four-at-a-time method that we've used several times when making our blocks, and we're creating pretty little beads to border the inner quilt top with. This is an optional step, so please feel free to be as creative as you'd like! Once again this week, if you're in need of extra visuals for adding the borders to your sampler, be sure to visit Sharon's blog to see her helpful tips for adding these border pieces!



For my Community Sampler I used my Love Story fabrics collection, so my solid fabric choices have all been inspired by the colors in this collection. For my block setting I used AGF's Pure Element solid Grapefruit, and for my border fabrics I chose one Love Story print, Reflections of Love and three solid colors -- Sienna Brick for my inner border, Denim Blue for my flying geese units and Mediterraneo for my outer border frame.

Notice how nicely the Denim Blue PE solid matches my Flower Stamp Spell print, it's perfect!



This week, for me, the most time consuming part is the making of all the flying geese units, something I truly love making! I took my time to make mine throughout the very rainy day we had yesterday, so I unfortunately didn't get the best photos. It was so dark! I was also sewing from home for the first time since I settled into my new studio. My husband is working a bunch of twelve hour shifts the next two weeks, so it's much easier for me to bring my machine home and to bounce back and forth between sewing and being with the kids, house chores, etc...like the old days vs trying to carve out a chunk of time to have gotten this done at my studio. It's funny how odd it felt sewing from home. I've become so comfortable both with my new studio and with not doing "work" at home, which is a pretty nice realization!



You can see below how choosing the three solids look altogether. I think it's really pretty and I'm happy I decided to do something a little bit different than my original plan. I may even add another wide solid border to make my quilt just a bit larger. I'm still on the fence about that.



I wasn't able to get full shots just yet. It's much too rainy and wet out to have gotten shots this morning, but I hope to later this afternoon to add here and to share on my Instagram and Facebook. So stay tuned!



I'm excited to see what you all do for your own borders this week! As always, when you share on Instagram use the hashtag #CommunitySampler and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns and myself @maureencracknell so we can be sure to see your beautiful Community Samplers!

Using #CommunitySampler hashtag will also automatically enter you in the weekly IG Giveaway pool! Remember that your Instagram account does need to be a public account for your post to show up in the Instagram hashtag pool. But please don't worry, if you don't have Instagram or you'd like to keep your account private, we will also be hosting the same giveaway prize, alternately between Sharon's and my blog, so you can choose how and where to enter each week!



Be sure to check back here on Friday for more info on this week's Community Sampler Giveaway with our wonderful sponsor Art Gallery Fabrics!

xo Maureen  

Community Sampler Week #13!

It's Community Sampler sew-along Wednesday!



For those of you that are new to my blog, Sharon Holland and I are co-hosting this block-of-the-week community sew-along, and you can visit my Community Sampler Page above in my tabs bar to retrieve all of the released PDF's so far to jump in anytime! We're so thrilled to have so many sewing with us once again!



Today's PDF for week thirteen is -- Block Setting. Yes it's time to turn all of our pretty blocks into a top! This week we'll choose our background fabric and we'll follow the PDF instructions to cut the pieces needed to set our blocks on-point into a quilt top. If you're in need of extra visuals for this week's Community Sampler instructions, be sure to visit Sharon's blog today to see her step by step how-to for setting our blocks!



For my Community Sampler background fabric I'm using Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Element Solid in  Grapefruit. I love this color paired with my Love Story fabrics, the collection I used to create each of my Community Sampler Blocks!



From the background fabric we'll cut twenty-one 9 1/2" squares diagonally.



Four diagonal cuts of the background fabrics will then be added to each of the square blocks, and two diagonal cuts added to the half-blocks, that we created throughout our sampler to set all of our blocks on-point!



Keep working until all of the blocks are in the background setting, arranging them in an order that looks balanced and that you're happy with. Because I stuck pretty closely to the mock-up that I created in the beginning of this sew-along, I was able to keep my blocks in the order I made them in. Easy, peasy!

Here's a look at my blocks arranged on the floor of my sewing studio. I had a design wall for about two weeks, but now I'm back to using my floor space once again!





Once all of my blocks were in the block setting, I sewed my three rows together to make my top!



I'm so happy with the grapefruit solid I chose to be my background!



Last night after dinner we took my top to the park behind our house for some pretty shots. It's been raining here in Pa for days, so everything is finally green and starting to bloom!



This week takes a bit longer than previous weeks when we were making the blocks, so be sure to give your self some extra time. I did all of my cutting and added my block settings to half of my blocks Monday evening, and it took me another few ours yesterday morning to finish my block settings and assembly.

I'm so happy with how my Love Story Community Sampler is coming together!



I'm excited to see your tops this week! When you share on Instagram use the hashtag #CommunitySampler and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns and myself @maureencracknell so we can be sure to see your beautiful Community Samplers!

Using #CommunitySampler hashtag will also automatically enter you in the weekly IG Giveaway pool! Remember that your Instagram account does need to be a public account for your post to show up in the Instagram hashtag pool. But please don't worry, if you don't have Instagram or you'd like to keep your account private, we will also be hosting the same giveaway prize, alternately between Sharon's and my blog, so you can choose how and where to enter each week!



Be sure to check back here on Friday for more info on this week's Community Sampler Giveaway with our wonderful sponsor Fat Quarter Shop!

xo Maureen  

Community Sampler Week #12!

It's block release day of the Community Sampler sew-along!



This week's release is for block number ELEVEN of the Community sampler! For those of you that are new to my blog, Sharon Holland and I are co-hosting this block-of-the-week community sew-along, and you can visit my Community Sampler Page above in my tabs bar to retrieve all of the released PDF's so far to jump in anytime! We're so thrilled to have so many sewing with us once again!



Today's PDF is block ELEVEN -- Sawtooth, the last block of our sampler! For this week's block we're making a half-block that comes together super quick! If you're in need of extra visuals for making this Sawtooth block be sure to visit Sharon's blog today to see her step by step how-to!



For my Community Sampler I'm using prints from my Love Story collection for Art Gallery Fabrics, and this week's block includes -- Soulmate Blooms Lust, Mixed Emotions, Delicate Veil and Daring Tribal Sunset!



This week we all get to enjoy easy cutting once again! I stuck right to my original fabric plan in my initial mock-up from the beginning of the sew-along. I'm actually quite proud of myself for sticking to a plan, because typically I change directions a dozen different times!



When it came time to sew my Sawtooth together I couldn't believe how quickly this one came together! All the weeks of making HSTs has really helped my confidence when block patterns call for the make two at a time method. I have become such a better quilter because of these sampler sew-alongs and Sharon's perfect instructions!



I can't believe this is our very last block for the Community Sampler already! I'm so excited to see how all of our samplers come together in the remaining weeks ahead!



I'm excited to see your blocks this week! When you share on Instagram use the hashtag #CommunitySampler and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns and myself @maureencracknell so we can be sure to see your beautiful blocks!

Using #CommunitySampler hashtag will also automatically enter you in the weekly IG Giveaway pool! Remember that your Instagram account does need to be a public account for your post to show up in the Instagram hashtag pool. But please don't worry, if you don't have Instagram or you'd like to keep your account private, we will also be hosting the same giveaway prize, alternately between Sharon's and my blog, so you can choose how and where to enter each week!



Be sure to check back here on Friday for more info on this week's Community Sampler Giveaway with our wonderful sponsors Sharon Holland and Art Gallery Fabrics!

xo Maureen