Tallinn Fabrics Blog Tour : :

Today is my stop on Jessica Swift's blog tour for her colorful collection, Tallinn for Angles by Art Gallery Fabrics, a division for AGF! Tallinn is inspired by Jessica’s travels through Eastern Europe and is a playful take on the picturesque Estonian villages, combined with quirky, colorful folk motifs. This collection is so much fun and I hope my pillow project inspires you to sew with Tallinn!



When Jessica asked if I would like to stitch up something with these beautiful fabrics as part pf her first fabric collection blog tour, of course I said yes! She has quite the list of talented designers who have joined in, so be sure to visit the list of makers below to see more wonderful Tallinn sewing project!



Thursday April 19 – Mathew Boudreaux | Mister Domestic
Friday April 20 – Katie Skoog | Simple Life Pattern Company
Monday April 23 – Sharon Holland
Tuesday April 24 – Eleri | Sew and Tell Project
Wednesday April 25 – Paola Baker | Love of Fabrics
Thursday April 26 – Maureen Cracknell
Friday April 27 – Alexis Wright | My Sweet Sunshine Studio
Monday April 30 – Isabelle Selak | South Bay Bella Studio
Tuesday May 1 – Cassie Massolia | Lily Shine Creates
Wednesday May 2 – Becca Plymale | Sunflower Seams
Thursday May 3 – Alisa Kutsel | A Stitch In Between
Friday May 4 – Sharon McConnell | Color Girl Quilts
Monday May 7 – Karen O’Connor | Lady K Quilt Designs
Tuesday May 8 – Sarai Schuk | Sarai’s Hobbies
Wednesday May 9 – Elise Baek | Elise & Emelie
Thursday May 10 – Jessica Swift
Friday May 11 – Gwyn LaSpina
Monday May 14 – Loni Jakubowski | Havin Sew Much Fun



For my project I used mostly prints from the Faabula colorway, made up of pretty red-orange, sky blue and navy, that to-me felt very primary and just perfect for a nursery, toddler room, library or play space for any little boy or girl!



This is a new quilt as you go pattern that I shared a few months back, Friendship Braids QAYG. I've made a quilt, holiday stockings, bags and pillows using this pattern and I plan to share a tutorial very soon! If you enjoy the Herringbone QAYG technique that I teach in my Craftsy class and use so often, then you'll love this new braided pattern!





To make this 18" square pillow I started with two cotton batting pieces measuring 10"x19" that I pieced until covered with 2.5" strips of Tallinn prints. Once my batting rectangles were completely covered with fabrics, I trimmed them up to 9.5"x18.5" and sewed them together to finish as this quick, happy pillow with an envelope style back in an AGF heavyweight denim.









I hope you're inspired by my stop on the Tallinn blog tour! Be sure to follow along by visiting the list of makers above and on Instagram by following the hashtags #TallinnFabrics and #TallinnFabricsBlogTour!

xo Maureen

Little Log Cabins : :

Today I want to share a glimpse of one of the new Nightfall projects I'm working on made up of the cutest little quick quilt as you log cabins!



While this project isn't turning out exactly as I had envisioned, I'm still loving it. So much so that I'm taking careful time to photograph each step along the way for a tutorial. Here's a peek!







Sixteen mini blocks will be turned into a large Moon & Stars Pillow that I'll share finished during next week's Nightfall Parade!



I hope you'll follow along! ♡ Maureen  

Hello Pillows : :

This past October my Fleet & Flourish Fall Quilt Market sewing came to an unexpectedly abrupt halt when my son Jacob ended up in the ICU with Colitis just a week and a half before I had to leave for the show. What I was able to make up to the point of him getting sick had to be enough, and it was. Thankfully he recovered quickly, I was able to leave for my trip without worry, and it all came together as I hoped it would without anyone seemingly noticing there was a whole list of things missing that weren't able to be made. When I finished setting up my booth it was just the absence of a few more pillows that had me a little disappointed. And so... this time around my Quilt Market pillow making is verging on excessive! I figure I can always edit some out if it's too much in the end, right? I mentioned last week that I had made three new pillows with a star theme and today I thought I'd share two more of those before blogging about the three I made this week, Ha!



This first pillow is a simple Sawtooth Star block with a tiny Nightfall patchwork center and border.
My patchwork squares finish at just 2" and I was able to use so many of the tiny scraps I had leftover from my larger projects. Love that!



I finished the back of this pillow with AGF's Solid Textured heavy weight and Smooth Solid denims, a framed piece of my Moon Stories in Spark bunny & moon print, with narrow strips of Nightfall scraps.



I used my very favorite denim, Cool Foliage, for the binding! I love this vintage gray-blue with my Nightfall fabrics!



This next pillow is made using the same quilt as you go method I teach in my Craftsy Class, Quick Quilt As You Go, to make my Criss Cross Diamond Quilt project. For the pillow I simply switched up the size of each block, used different piecing, and strip width. I can't wait to make a Nightfall quilt using this QAYG pattern!



I designed this one to feature my dragonflies print, Nox Iridescence in Aglow, adding a single, pretty, fussy cut dragonfly to each corner!



I finished this one using up the last of my Nightfall scraps and more denim!



I'll be back soon with a few more things to share, but first... Tomorrow I have a Bohemian Garden Aurifil Thread Box Giveaway planned, so be sure to stop back!  ♡ Maureen

A Diamond Star Pillow : :

On Monday I blogged my little stack of newly denim bound, scrappy Nightfall pillows and asked for you to share some thoughts on all the Quilt Market prep sewing & sharing, and today I'm back to say thank YOU for all of your kind comments and to begin sharing each pillow in a little more detail! I honestly thought I'd receive a more balanced mix of opinions in regards to asking if you find it inspiring or a bit overdone to see so much leading up to the show, and in my case a couple of months before the new fabrics are available. It was so nice to read that the great majority of those of you who took the time to chime in truly enjoy watching the process. Thank you for sharing that with me! Whether you enjoy following along with all the Nightfall sewing or maybe not so much, reality is that once the Quilt Market show wraps in just a few weeks, I'll be back to waiting for Nightfall's release along with all of you! I hear more sample pieces are on the way, but for right now, I'm completely out & done with Nightfall sewing until August when yardage is available and the collection hits stores!



When I set out to make these pillows I was down to just the very narrow strip and scrap pieces left from creating my Nightfall quilts. I knew I'd have to get creative and decided a great start & theme for these pillows would be "the stars," inspired by my Magical Gust and Luminaries prints!



For this first pillow I decided to make a "diamond star" shape using the Quick Quilt As You technique I teach in my Craftsy Class!



I started by patch-working several little squares for the pillow's center and from there I simply stitched and flipped, just as I do when teaching my Craftsy class projects, working my way out to the corners. Most of the strip pieces I used were just 1" in width, but Quilt As You Go is such a great way to use even the tiniest scraps!



I especially love this colorful Butterfly strip leftover from my Moon Stories in Ash print!



For the pillow back I used up the rest of my Moon Stories in Ash strike off, building off of my bunnies with more patches and strips!



I finished this pillow with my favorite AGF Smooth Solid Cool Foliage denim binding! It fits a 14" pillow form and I love that by adding the insert is curves out the shape of my star a little, giving it a more rounded shape that more mimics the shape of the stars in my Luminaries print!



I'll be back soon with more star pillows! I've been sharing as many project peeks as I can on my Instgram & Facebook page as I sew away, so feel free to follow me there, as well. Today I hope to finish the quilting & binding on my Nightfall QAYG Owl Quilt!



Wishing you all a lovely weekend! ♡ Maureen

A Moonrise Herringbone Pillow : :

During the holiday and Spring Break vacation I didn't find much time to sew, besides whipping up Etsy orders of course, so yesterday when I found a stretch of sewing time to turn last week's fabric bundle of love into a pillow to share here today, it felt great!



This fabric pull full of moody blues and soft peach was inspired by the Moonrise colorway of my new collection Nightfall, minus the mustard yellow which I now wish I would have added in just a little. This is my favorite Nightfall colorway of the two -- minty aqua, peachy pink, smoky blues, and slate gray, I love it all!



Because sewing time was limited, I cut just a couple narrow strips from each fabric in the bundle and made a Quick Quilt As You Go Herringbone pillow for a quick, satisfying finish!



For some fun, added texture I decided to leave the frayed denim edge exposed!



This denim is from Art Gallery Fabrics new line, The Denim Studio by AGF, and it really is so beautiful! I incorporated my favorite colors into this pillow -- Indigo Shadow, Cool Foliage, Frosted Sage, and Nectarine Sunrise. These solid denims play so well with my Nightfall collection, you'll be seeing lots more of these denims combines with my prints in the weeks ahead once I start preparing for Spring Quilt Market!



For the pillow backing, I used a heavier, more sturdy denim, Evergreen in Slate. Again, letting the frayed salvage edge show. I love the look of it and it made for a super fast finish!



I used more of the Hello, Bear Summit in Twilight print for my binding. The colors perfectly matched those within my pillow!





I plan to add this pillow, along with a few more new items & scrap bags to my Etsy shop soon. If you're interested you can always email me at maureencracknell@hotmail.com anytime! I'm planning to phase out making the Birthday Crowns this next month, so if you've ever wanted one - be sure to get your order in soon!

XO Maureen

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