Pat Sloan's Holiday Celebrations Book Tour & GIVEAWAY!

Today I'm so excited to share Pat Sloan's upcoming book with Martingale, Holiday Celebrations -- an amazing quilt book full of holiday inspiration for all the fun and warm moments throughout the year including 17 designs for lap quilts, table decorations, Halloween bags, Christmas stockings and many other holiday projects to bring new comfort and joy into your home with each new season!



Decorating for the holidays is something I have always loved to do to make each holiday extra special, so when Pat asked me to join in her book tour, I was thrilled to! Holiday Celebrations is full of projects for all the seasons, from amazing quilts to special smaller projects, there are so many projects in this book that you will want to make!



For my stop on the book tour I whipped up one version of the two heart block patterns that are included in Pat's Be My Always throw quilt pattern in Holiday Celebrations! When I saw this heart block I knew it would be perfect for pairing with the pink and coral prints from my newest fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics, Open Heart!





These 18.5" x 16.5" size heart blocks would also make an adorable quilted pillow that you could enjoy all year round!



I've also always loved Pat's scrappy-happy tulips from her previous book, Celebrate the Seasons, and I knew her pretty tulip quilt blocks would be another perfect block for my Open Heart fabrics, so using the same prints I used for the heart block, I stitched up this sweet patchwork tulip!



Look how adorable the two blocks look together! It has me wanting to create a sampler style quilt using a variety of blocks from my collection of Pat's amazing books!



You can find Pat Sloan's books, including her newest Holiday Celebrations in quilt stores, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and more! To follow Pat you can find her on her website, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram!



There are lots of wonderful Giveaways as part of this book tour!! You can visit Martingale to enter to win the grand prize: a HUGE, fabulous assortment of quilting things! 

PLUS I'm so thrilled to offer a special Giveaway to my wonderful readers for a paperback copy to US residents and PDF copy to International friends of Holiday Celebrations!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED • a HUGE thanks to all who entered and a BIG Congratulations to the random winner, Scottylover!

xo Maureen

Inspired Patchwork : :

I made half a dozen of these pretty patchwork pillows a few weeks back, but I've been so busy making since then that I'm just now finally sharing them here!



Each print that I pulled from stash to stitch up these pillows was inspired by a beautiful Swan Patchwork cushion by artist, Carola van Dyke. I completely fell in love with her lovely combination of color and the sketch stitching style of her applique that I often use myself. And, since I prefer my pillows to come in pairs, I decided to try my best to make my own patchwork pillows to match!





Right away I thought of AGF designer, Bonnie Christine's collection Hello, Ollie that's full of sweet swan motifs. From there I chose prints completely based on Carola's sense of color and in the end most of my stack included Bonnie Christine prints. A very happy discovery!



I even added my own sketch stitched applique swan to each pillow!



I've been using a variety of Hobbs batting for mostly all of my projects since they sponsored the Sewcial Bee Sampler. For this pillow I used their wool batting and it's extra squishy, which I love! Because it's a natural fiber I can use it for quilt as you go, which is how I made my pillow tops and finished my envelope style pillow backs.







I plan to keep a few of these Swan Patchwork pillow sets and to add a few to my Etsy shop soon. I really love how they turned out!

xx Maureen

Love Story for Holiday : :

I promise that I'm not one to skip over Fall & Thanksgiving decorating and celebrating, but in an effort to get a jump on my holiday sewing, I dove right into my list just as soon as I flipped our calendar to November! I mentioned last week that when I unpacked my rolls of Love Story I realized right away just how perfect this collection will be to add to my holiday sewing. I've never been one to stick to using just the traditional red and green color scheme, always adding in lots of minty blue, aqua, teal, blue, black and metallics to the mix. Since I love patchwork and home décor with a bohemian feel is without a doubt my go-to style, I decided to test out Love Story for holiday on a set of extra large, scrappy quick quilt as you go stockings and I LOVE the results!



I spent both Friday and Saturday's studio sewing time strip piecing, cutting patchwork and quilt as you going my assembly line of Love Story stockings, snapping photos to share along the way. Creating at the new studio has been an adjustment, it all feels so new & different after being in the same home studio space for the past several years. But already the extra space has made making more a possibility and now my children join me with their own creating at the same big table once again, which is so nice!





While working on my stockings I think I fell in love with one Love Story print in particular, Soulmate Blooms. Inspired by my appreciation for flash art and ink drawn florals, this print amongst the mix of patchwork squares kept catching my eye! I love the way the leaves and flowers look to be growing right out of the seams no matter how it was cut and pieced, it's so pretty!



It's been dark and pouring rain here for days, so finished photos of my first little collection of Love Story stockings will have to wait a bit. Plus I think I'll add a floral embellishment to each just as I did to last year's stockings. (You can see those here!) I'm certainly biased, but I do believe that Love Story is adding some high-style to my handmade holiday plans!



Today I'm beginning a new quick quilt as you go quilt pattern that I came up with while making pillows for my Flower Child Booth! I'll be back soon to share these new blocks and finished stockings just as soon as this weather decides to cooperate. Happy Sewing!

xx Maureen

Love Story Canvas & Patchwork : :

Today I have a new Love Story canvas and quilted patchwork tote bag to show you...





I made this project up as I sewed, so I don't have a pattern to share just yet. I was looking for a way to use up my single piece of Love Story canvas Daring Tribal Noir strike off, a fabric swatch measuring around 14" x 33," and my tiny patches of Love Story quilting cotton strike off scraps. What I ended up with is this pretty simple, basic tote bag with a deep front and back quilted patchwork pocket featuring tiny Love Story patchwork squares.  Rusty red, heavyweight AGF Denim for the handles. Fully lined with a lightweight, dark solid smooth AGF cotton denim.  A finished tote made with lots of LOVE, that measures approximately 12" x 16," that I'm pretty happy with! I'll definitely give this bag pattern another go, when I get a chance, with hopes of sharing a tutorial with you all!









Just a reminder that the fabrics used here are my upcoming collection with Art Gallery Fabrics, Love Story. This collection ships in November, which is coming fast! I've been busy stitching up lookbook samples using my strike offs while I wait for my advanced yardage to arrive, which should be very soon. I'm working ahead these days because I'll have a brand new collection to share with all of you at International Quilt Market next month, I can't wait! These days are busy and I've been so inspired to sew with these new fabrics. Let me know if you're interested in making a tote bag with me and I'll see what I can do!

xo Maureen

A Winter Patchwork Pillow : :

I love the combination of fabrics that I chose to make yesterday's patchwork stockings so much, that I had to make a patchwork pillow, too!











This one will join my stockings and the other items I've recently listed in my Etsy!

I wish you all a lovely weekend! ♡ Maureen

Quilted Patchwork Stockings!

These stockings are right up there with my favorite things to have EVER made! I LOVE patchwork and unique, dreamy, homey décor with a bohemian feel is without a doubt my favorite style!

Yesterday I shared a little peek of the fabric & felt flowers I spent the last couple of days making to dress up my first ever stockings-for-sale, and today I'm so excited to share this new handmade holiday item with all of you!





I started my own stocking assembly line by tracing one of my favorite extra-large sized stockings,  purchased several years ago before I had learned to sew, to use as my template. I picked out a collection of fabrics with a "wintry theme" in mind -- low volumes, shimmery solids, with some traditional holiday jewel tone prints mixed in.



I added my patchwork using my Quick Quilt As you Go method to create these double-sided stockings that can be hung whichever direction you choose!



Each stocking is lined with a Fleet & Flourish knit and the hanging loops are made with AGF denim!



With each stocking comes a beautiful fabric & felt flower cluster with recycled sari silk fringe. I had so much fun making these and love how they turned out! Each is finished with a vintage ricrac loop so they can be easily removed to double as a pretty ornament, as well!





You can find these new quilted patchwork holiday stockings and my other handmade gift items in my Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/maureencracknell

I hope you love them as much as I do!!  XO Maureen

Nightfall Bags : :

A couple weeks ago when Svetlana of s.o.t.a.k handmade shared on her Instagram one of her Megan Foldover Tote bags she had just made using my Fleet & Flourish fabric, I messaged her right away to see if she might make another using Nightfall for my Quilt Market booth. I have a few of the same friends who have helped with making my samples since I started this adventure in fabric design, particularly with the small accessories, garments, and bags that would be a huge challenge for me, a quilter. I appreciate each of them more than I could ever say! Asking for help is one of my least favorite things to do, but when Svetlana's bag popped up on my IG feed, I completely fell in love! I had to her ask if she could lend her talents to help me showcase Nightfall with a bag or maybe two. Thankfully, she said Yes!



I sent her a package including some large cuts of AGF's new denims and some very small patchwork pieces from the Nightfall strike off samples I've received so far. I was confident Svetlana would make something beautiful, and gosh did she ever! I've honestly never seen handmade bags more exquisite, so perfectly made, with such an impeccable attention to detail than these. I was hoping for just one item, she sent me THREE incredible pieces!



First Svetlana made one of her Megan Foldover Tote bags, a PDF pattern she offers in her Etsy shop! The denim makes it nice and sturdy, the Nightfall patchwork along the top of the bag displays the prints she used so thoughtfully, and the exposed front zipper & each piece of hardware are just perfect!



Before moving onto a second large bag, Svetlana used all the tiny Nightfall scraps leftover to make one of her adorable Lola Zipper Pouches! This PDF pattern is available in her shop, here, and includes two different pouch sizes. This one is the smaller of the two, each little patchwork piece measures just 1"! She used more AGF denim for the contrasting bottom band, zipper binding, as well as the lining. With each new project, the more I love these Nightfall fabrics & denim together!!



Lastly, Svetlana used my Nightfall Mystical Woods Canvas to make one of her Jenna Tote Bags. The combination of the sweet, peachy-cream forest and dark solid smooth denim she chose for the exterior is so good! I couldn't have dreamt up a more perfect bag to showcase my Nightfall Canvas print!



I can't wait to have these bags in my booth next month! If you're attending the show, you must stop by to admire them in person! I feel so lucky and have never felt more encouraged to try bag-making myself. If these bag are inspiring you, I highly recommend you visit Svetlana's blog & pattern shop!

I'll be back soon to share my new, "sketch stitch" dragonfly pillow!

XOXO Maureen

With Purple : :

Today I ship out the biggest box I could find filled to the brim with weeks worth of secret project making, so much hard work, and most of all excitement & pride. I can't wait to be able to share more with all of you very soon! There's such a wonderful release that comes after checking that final task off a lengthy to-do list. This one called for some celebrating, and insanely enough for me that means more sewing! Well, some carefree sewing for one of my very favorite little people, my niece Sylvia who LOVES her some purple! During a FaceTime chat, with her expert taste & guidance, I pulled a new collection of fabrics from my stash to make her a little baby doll quilt with just enough purple to gain her approval. I promised that if she had her Mama check this blog today when she woke up (Hawaii time) I'd have pictures waiting here to show her. So here I am today, sharing my newest baby doll quilt, with purple!



Since I don't really have many purple prints in my stash, a lavender binding and purple backing fabric was key!





Just like the first, I made this doll quilt in a sleeping bag style to fit one or two dolls comfortably!





Besides being super cute and an enjoyable sew, these doll quilts make great practice for new patchwork ideas. I think this design is destined to become a larger quilt, soon!



Happy sewing! ♡ Maureen

p.s. I love you, Sylvia!