An Autumn Vibes Friendship Braid Quilt : :

I'm so excited to share this new quilt, my Autumn Vibes Friendship Braid Quilt!



Before I share a tutorial for this new Quick Quilt As You Go, first I have to share my pretty, newly finished quilt featuring my brand new Autumn Vibes collection for Art Gallery Fabrics!



When I designed this collection I tried so hard to capture the warmth and coziness of Autumn, full of prints and colors that would create the perfect quilt to leave on the sofa all season long!

This Autumn Vibes Friendship Brand Quilt is definitely the one for me!



Since we're still a few weeks away from when the Fall foliage is in full flourish, on Friday I stopped by the local Farmer's Market to pick up these gorgeous, colorful Dahlia's and Zinnias to use in my photos.







Yesterday afternoon we were able to sneak out to a favorite local spot for photographs just before the rain. The weather was changing fast and the light & cool breeze were perfect, I wish you all could have been there!



See that backing fabric peeking out? Well, that's my Autumn Vibes Harvest Trails in Walnut and I think it's my new favorite quilt backing fabric!



I set out to create a design reminiscent of a vintage Kilim poncho, with a woven look and texture, and I'm so happy with how this print turned out!



Mister Goat agrees!

I especially LOVE the way it looks from afar in this full shot!



In recent weeks I've been quite obsessed with quilting using the built-in wavy stitch that's a feature of my Janome Quilt Maker 15000. It adds just the right amount of quilty goodness without much effort, which is just perfect for me! These days I'm so busy designing fabric collections that I don't often finish a quilt without having to send it out to a long-arm quilter, if I even get that far. This stitch, PLUS quick quilt as you go, makes for a very achievable quilt finish from start to finish. LOVE that!









I'm already ready to make another!

How about you, do you think you'll give this Friendship Braid QAYG pattern a try?

Autumn Vibes Friendship Braid Quilt Details:

Available for purchase: HERE
Measures: 60" x 72"
Fabrics: Autumn Vibes
Batting: Tuscany Cotton by Hobbs Quilt Batting
Thread: Aurifil 50wt cotton 

xo Maureen

A Roadside Guides Quilt : :

It's been way too long since I shared a new quilt photoshoot here on the blog! This quilt traveled with us to the beach last week where we had planned to carve out a little time to finally photograph it after sitting folded up for months and months. I was so excited to see it's beautiful colors against the ocean landscape. Each day away we'd decide tomorrow would be a better day until we completely ran out of days, oops!

I made this quilt months ago for my Fleet & Flourish fabric collection Quilt Market booth and LookBook using Art Gallery Pure Elements Solid fabrics, inspired by the only print fabric included in the quilt, my Roadside Guides in Opal print. I'm so excited that we made photographing it a priority now that we're back home in beautiful Potter County, PA!



Below you can see it on display at Fall Quilt Market in Houston last October, and you can also find it featured in my Fleet &  Flourish LookBook!



Even though it was shared a couple of times already, for me there's nothing quite like taking a quilt out to our beautiful surroundings here in Potter County. I never feel completely done with a quilt project until that happens!



This quilt is made & finished using my Quick Quilt As You Go technique with QAYG Log Cabin style quilt blocks turned on point to mimic my Roadside Guides fabric design. I only had a small amount of strike offs to mix into the quilt pattern, so I chose to add it in little triangles at all four corners and four points within the quilt top. This is the quick phone snap photo I shared on my Instagram way back when I was still working on it!



It was such a fun, creative way to show off this fabric design at Quilt Market, without having much fabric available to use! I've always wanted to create an all solids quilt and although this does include a little print, it still feels like I can go ahead and cross an all solids quilt off my to-make list!







I still have one more finished Fleet & Flourish quilt to photograph and share! I'm hoping to do that next week, because I hear my newest fabric collection, Nightfall, should be arriving in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!!

♡ Maureen

A Diamond Weave Quilt : :

Today I'm so very excited to share my finished Diamond Weave Quilt! This is the very first quilt/sewing project I started this year, back in the early days of January. My fabric rolls of Fleet & Flourish had just arrived and I was completely wonderstruck with all the possibilities before me. Traditional quilts, particularly those made up of half square triangles, had really been catching my eye at the time, so I decided to begin there, with lots of HST making! I didn't have a solid block plan in mind when I began cutting & piecing, but that's the beauty of making HST units ~ the options are truly endless!



Once I committed to a block design, after making several, I shared a couple of posts here including a few different quilt pattern options asking for opinions on which layout you all preferred. It was really nice to receive so much wonderful feedback and to have the time to share so much of this quilt's process, after being so occupied with designing my next collection & those busy holiday weeks. I definitely didn't think it would take this long to get it completely finished & photographed, but we had such a beautiful, fun day hiking, exploring, and taking pictures together this past Monday, I think it was worth the wait!



Once my thirty-six block quilt top was all pieced together I sent it off to my friend Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting to add an allover floral stitched pattern design, she always does such an amazing job!



For the quilt back I stitched together one large piece of my Fleet & Flourish Thriving Threads in Deep, denim colored ditsy floral.



You can see how pretty the quilting looks against all that blue from the backside of my quilt below!



For the binding I used my Gentle Mantle stripe in the Land colorway, full of the same blues, aqua, peach, & reds that make up this quilt!





Throughout the rest of this week I plan to work on putting together a tutorial for this quilt pattern to share at Janome.com soon! I know you're all going to love making a Diamond Weave Quilt of your very own and I can't wait to see!



Thanks so much for stopping by today!  ♡ Maureen

A Wild & Free Quilt

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 13th Wedding Anniversary!! Since Mondays are always so busy and today is all about celebrating our son Jacob who turns ELEVEN, we decided to honor the occasion with a quick breakfast date, stopping after at a few of our favorite spots along the road back home, to finally photograph my Wild & Free Quilt!



This quilt was made for my Wild & Free fabric Quilt Market booth, it's the very first idea I ever dreamed up for my Limited Edition collection with Art Gallery Fabrics. I started it weeks before my strike-offs even arrived, beginning with a pile of Pure Element solids that coordinated nicely with the colors in my collection which I turned into dozens of HST's, until I could fill in the center squares of my design with those first fabric samples.



Of all the quilt patterns I've dreamed up for Wild & Free, to me, this one's the most fitting. For sentimental reasons, it's become one of my very favorites, and the pattern is one I would love to take the time to try again. It's on this Summer's to-make list and I'm hopeful!





As much as I love each little piece of it, one of my favorite parts is the finished quilting, a beautiful wildflower pattern longarm quilted by Sew Shabby Quilting! The sweet flowers were the perfect choice to add a little touch of femininity and to accent the wildflower prints!





Since it was returned to me after being photographed for the Wild & Free lookbook, it's been in constant use! For weeks now I've been meaning to take it out, to finally have the chance to share it photographed in the same place that inspired my collection. It feels really, really special to be able to do so today!



Thank you so much for stopping by to see! ♡ Maureen

A Diamond Strings Quilt in Gramercy : :

Last evening, just before the sun was beginning to settle, we finally found a moment to take my new Diamond String quilt out for picture taking! With each newly finished quilt my husband suggests this beautiful waterwheel that he passes often on his runs, but I've been holding out for a quilt that just seemed to fit this special place. A quilt made in a certain style that worked or in a pattern that mimics the shape of it's parts, but as we drove in that direction I decided, for no reason at all, that this quilt was it!



This quilt is made up of a large variety of AGF Pure Element solids and Leah Duncan's Gramery collection, a unique combination of modern geometric and sweet floral prints, with a contrasting palette of strong black and earthy browns paired with happy yellows, blush, and azure. I love it all!


This Diamod Strings quilt design is a quick & simple modified version of my Herringbone QAYG pattern, in rectangle blocks measuring 10" x 18" rather than long quilt as you go panels. After finishing the quilted quilt top I attached the backing by sewing about a 1/2" from each vertical and horizontal seem using a bold Aurifil 50wt in black, a first for me!



For my backing I chose one of my most favorite Gramercy prints, Leah's Brooklyn Bridge in Flare. It's so striking!



I do think my most favorite part of this quilt just might be my binding, a bright Canary yellow Pure Elements solid!


You can find many Gramercy prints still available at Pink Castle Fabrics, Fat Quarter Shop, Stash Fabrics, Llama Fabrics, The Intrepid Thread, and Bobbie Lou's Fabric Factory!

♡ Maureen   

Introducing : : Wild & Free

Yesterday in the late afternoon Art Gallery Fabrics shared on their blog the full reveal of my AGF Limited Edition fabric collection, Wild & Free!

Wild & Free is a collection of eight quilting weight cottons, two knits, and one voile in prints inspired by my family, home, and lifelong love for Potter County, PA; where the warm colors of wildflowers, the glowing sun, and night sky jump out from the lush wooded landscapes!

The natural beauty of this place inspires so much of what we do. Each road takes us to a new little spot, beautiful field, untouched piece of land, and new adventure! In my finished quilt posts, I love to share our most favorite places as the backdrop for my quilt photography...

Wild & Free was created from my sketches of wildflowers, pretty plaids, and folk inspired designs that reflect my bohemian spirit! Through this collection I wanted to capture the feeling of being free, when you let your hair down, kick off your shoes and run though the meadows!

To me, Wild & Free is a celebration of both the raw beauty of the landscape and of losing yourself in a long day spent wandering and exploring nature!

Take a peek at this fun video the Art Gallery Fabrics' creative team put together for you to get to know a little bit more about the inspiration behind both my collection and Katy's Priory Square!

 

Limited Edition Collections for Art Gallery Fabrics - Fall 2014 from Art Gallery Fabrics on Vimeo.

I am over the moon excited and so honored to be a new member of the Art Gallery Fabrics family and I can't wait to have my fabrics in hand! As you can imagine, I have so many projects already sketched that I can't wait to create and share with all of you! Wild & Free is scheduled to ship in November, I plan to give a more in depth look at the work and inspiration that went into creating each print in this collection and to share all the ideas I have now and the many to come, while we wait!!

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement! 

XO,  ♥ Maureen