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

The Fleet & Flourish Blog Tour : Melissa Kelley & GIVEAWAY!

Today ends an amazing final week of inspirational projects made by my talented friends for the Fleet & Flourish Blog Tour, I hope you've enjoyed following along! Each Friday throughout the tour I arranged a new Fleet & Flourish fabrics Giveaway with a few of my sponsors, but before I share those details I have to show you my friend Melissa Kelley's beautiful project!



Melissa is the amazing long arm quilter, Sew Shabby Quilting! Every quilt I've ever sent out to be quilted has gone straight to Melissa, she does such a fabulous job and I just love her so much!

For the blog tour she made this beautiful plus quilt to share, complete with her gorgeous quilting!





The quilt pattern she chose highlights each of my Fleet & Flourish prints so perfectly, what a thoughtful and amazing way to end the tour! Be sure to check out more of Melissa's machine quilting work HERE at Sew Shabby Quilting, and to follow her on Instagram to see all of her daily sewing adventures!



To see more of this week's projects, and all the sewing inspiration shared throughout the tour, be sure to click on the links below!

Here's a scheduled list of the talented folks that have shared Fleet & Flourish projects! 

Feb 22nd ~ Amy Friend : During Quiet Time { Blog & Instagram }

Feb 23rd ~ Heidi Staples : Fabric Mutt { Blog & Instagram }

Feb 24th ~ Amy Smart : Diary of a Quilter { Blog & Instagram }

Feb 25th ~ Amanda Jean: Crazy Mom Quilts { Blog & Instagram }

Feb 26th ~ Brooke Sellmann : Silly Mama Quilts { Blog & Instagram } Visit Maureen Cracknell Handmade for a Fleet & Flourish GIVEAWAY with Lady Belle Fabrics!!

Feb 29th ~ Amber Carillo : One Shabby Chick { Instagram & Blog }

March 1st ~ Nicke Cutler : Kiss Kiss Quilt { Instagram & Blog }

March 2nd ~ Nicole Daksiewicz : Modern Handcraft { Instagram & Blog }

March 3rd ~ Christopher Thompson : the Tattooed Quilter { Instagram & Blog }

March 4th ~ Alexis Wright : My Sweet Sunshine { Blog & Instagram } Visit Maureen Cracknell Handmade for a Fleet & Flourish GIVEAWAY with Llama Fabrics!!

March 7th ~ Jessica Stewart : Izzy & Ivy Designs { Blog & Instagram }

March 8th ~ Stephanie Kendron : Modern Sewciety { Blog & Instagram }

March 9th ~ Heather Bostic : House of A La Mode // Citizens of Textile { Instagram }

March 10th ~ Ali Brorsen : Because of Brenna { Blog, Facebook, & Instagram }

March 11th ~ Melissa Kelley : Sew Shabby Quilting { Blog, Facebook, & Instagram } Visit Maureen Cracknell Handmade for a Fleet & Flourish GIVEAWAY with the Intrepid Thread!!

March 14th ~  Maureen Cracknell Handmade { Blog, Facebook, & Instagram }

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This week we're ending the tour with one last AMAZING Giveaway with the Intrepid Thread!!  

With over 15 years of experience in ecommerce, The Intrepid Thread is a family owned business employing 5 amazingly creative quilters and sewists. Julie, the owner, is dedicated to offering quality quilting fabrics at competitive prices and takes special pride in knowing her customers receive unparalleled service!
  
SHOP  *  BLOG  *  FACEBOOK
 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We hope you enjoy visiting The Intrepid Thread's sites!
  

For this week's Fabric Giveaway, we're offering a complete Fat Quarter bundle including ALL TWENTY of the colorful prints that make up my Fleet & Flourish fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics!

You can find Fleet & Flourish available HERE in The Intrepid Thread Shop! 

Enter to win! 

Here's how,

 
1. Simply leave a comment here in this post! We'd love to know which project from this last week of the Blog Tour most caught your eye, feel free to share! (one entry)
2. Follow the Intrepid Thread on Facebook or on Instagram! Just be sure to let me know you do by making a separate comment here for an extra entry! (optional extra entry)
3. My followers get a third entry! 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 Instagram, tweet, facebook, pin, blog, etc... (optional extra entry) 

That’s 4 possible entries! Enter now through Monday, March 14th. Winner will be picked at 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! 

A BIG thanks to all who entered our Giveaway! This week's lucky winner is commenter, Lauren Smith ~ Congratulations, I will be touch shortly!

♡ Maureen   

A Folk Medallion Quilt : :

This Summer has been much busier than I ever anticipated, and this past weekend was no exception. Swimming, picnics, & parties - it was so much fun! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too!



I had big plans to take my finished Folk Medallion Quilt along for picture taking, but kept forgetting to grab it each time we headed out the door. This quilt, made with the last of my Wild & Free fabric strike-offs for my Fall Quilt Market booth months ago, has such an Americana feel. It was too perfect a weekend not to share it here today, thankfully we found a few extra minutes to venture out with it last night.



The pattern is just a jumble of different ideas really. I started with the center medallion patchwork, unsure if I was making a pillow or quilt at first. But with limited fabric and time, decided to combine several of my different works in progress to make a sampler style quilt.



This quilt showcases so much of what I love most about Wild & Free. Especially how well the denim-y blue Folk Plaid print works so well with all the colors! For those blocks I simply framed 8" cut squares of plaid with several different shades of my favorite Pure Element colors.



I think my most favorite part is this row of improv patchwork along the bottom! I still hope to create an entire Wild & Free quilt in this style someday.



For the binding I used both a Bari J. honey yellow print and my Sun Tracks print. I made sure to alternate the corners with each print and love the effect!





For some extra added patriotism, and to represent my Midnight Roof stars print that didn't make it into this quilt because I had already run out, I chose an allover loops and stars quilting pattern by Sew Shabby Quilting. I love it!



You can find more photos of this quilt in my Wild and Free fabric Look Book by Art Gallery Fabrics! Here's one of my favorites!!

Sharing these photos today means we can finally start using this quilt, hooray! I wish you all a wonderful start to the new week!

♡ 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 Wanderlust Quilt : :

Yesterday, braving rain and wind, we took my Wanderlust quilt in April Rhodes' Wanderer collection out for photographing! I didn't get as many shots as I had hoped to, I forgot to snap a few of the Midnight Roof in voile quilt back altogether, but I'm too excited to share this one to wait any longer!



Because of the weather, we just took a quick trip out to one of our favorite roads nearby where both the waterfall stream above and this beautifully painted, smoky blue, rustic barn exist. Both made a perfect backdrop for the colors in my quilt!





It also wouldn't be a Cracknell quilt photoshoot if my husband didn't get to climb something!



The pattern is the first idea I quickly sketched out in a new graph paper notebook I've been using for the past several weeks and several quilts. I'm trying to make myself slowdown to take notes as I work on each new quilt in hopes to be to able to offer at least a few quilt patterns this year, and I'm finding this notebook super useful!


I love making flying geese using the make four at a time method and this new layout idea felt both fresh and unique to me!



The long arm swirly quilting that Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting added really complements the movement of the flying geese pattern. I really love it!



I hope your week is off to a beautiful start! Thank you so much for stopping by today!! ♡ Maureen    

A Winter's Garden Quilt in Emmy Grace : :

I'm so excited to have finished and photographed this newest version of my Winter's Garden Quilt!



This one is made using Bari J.'s Emmy Grace collection and a rainbow of Art Gallery's Pure Element solids!



I had originally planned to recreate my first Winter's Garden Quilt to draft the pattern, but once I began I just couldn't commit to making that same exact pattern with these fabrics. Right away interesting design changes kept coming to mind while I worked. I ended up giving in to just one idea, to patchwork my sashing with the Emmy Grace low volume prints. I love the look of soft, low volume patchwork so much more than using just one light print or solid as a background fabric!



Next I decided to frame each of my blocks with narrow strips of Pure Element solids in a variety of colors that would play nicely with Emmy Grace. As a result, a completely different pattern emerged that I love even more than the original design I created!





I chose Bari J.'s gorgeous Emmy Grace voile print, Budquette in Nightfall, as my quilt backing. At 52" wide, the added length of Art Gallery Fabric's voile makes piecing together a quilt back so super quick & easy!



I really wanted this one to be quilted with a beautiful floral design, so I splurged to have it long arm quilted by my go-to girl, Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting. I chose the pretty Emily flower & leaf pattern from her stitch catalog and, for the first time, chose her Quilter's Dream 100% cotton batting. WOW, am I ever thrilled with how it turned out!!



Now I know I say this all the time and then my plans fizzle for whatever reasons, BUT I really, really hope to release this patten sometime soon!  This year, one of my BIG goals is to focus on my pattern work. Your interest and encouragements always drives me to work harder, so if you happen to be interested, please do let me know!

Thanks!  ♡ Maureen