Sew Fresh Quilts

27 October 2017

Sweater Weather for Quilty Magazine

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Quilty magazine. I was also approached to make a submission for a quilt to be featured in an upcoming issue. This was the design I settled on.

Elaborating on an earlier quilt I made called Ugly Christmas Sweaters, I drew up a revised design on grid paper and wrote myself out a pattern to follow. Then set to work cutting all the pieces. This design includes life size sweaters, mittens and hats.

The front is made using a new collection by Tula Pink called Holiday Homies. And the backing is Makin' Waves in Ink from the True Colors collection, also by Tula Pink for Free Spirit Fabrics. The boldness of this print is a great contrast to the front.

What I love most is that those big blocks allow for those Holiday Homies fabrics to shine!

Of course, the quilting is my usual organic wavy lines using my walking foot. I used plain white Gutermann thread both on top and in the bobbin. The retro look of those adorable deer and the graphic look of those blue triangle Christmas trees are so cute on the binding!

The "Sweater Weather" quilt finished at 54" x 60"

and was the 57th use of my 2nd edition of 100 labels

ordered from Ikaprint.

Imagine my surprise!!!

I'm a cover girl!

Quilty magazine November/December '17 issue, includes my Sweater Weather quilt and can be found at your fave fabric shop or newsstand beginning today!!!!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday with

Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

Keep On Quilting On!

To follow Sew Fresh Quilts by email....

26 October 2017

Giraffes in a {Rainbow} Row

Look up! Way, way up!

Is it a quilt? Is it a sail boat?

No! It's a row of rainbow giraffes!

After a lot of indecision about choosing prints or solids, the giraffes were finally made using all Kona solids - Lipstick and Deep Rose, Tangerine and Orange, Sunny and Canary, Avocado and Pea Pod, Cyan and Pool & Magenta and Violet.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to go dark or light for the background, but in the end I chose white to match my blog header. And I am so happy with how the quilting stands out against that crisp white!

Prior to this quilt, I have never had one of my tops sent out for quilting. I had this quilt professionally quilted by Sarah Yetman of Spooled Rotten Quilts. I met Sarah when I was giving a trunk show for her guild back in September. She is a longarm quilter who offers custom quilting. I was hesitant to have someone else quilt one of my quilts, but I am so glad I took her up on the offer. My only instructions were to have fun with it. And she sure must have followed those instructions.... It turned out beautifully! Thank you Sarah! You are a master!

For the backing I sent along this print called Wideback White Words from Mad About Patchwork. And I used Kona black for the binding.

The "Giraffes in a Row" quilt finished at 60" x 60"

and was the 56th use of my 2nd edition of 100 labels

ordered from Ikaprint.

You can see my 4 giraffe version of this pattern here.

The Giraffes in a Row quilt pattern comes with instructions for the 4 giraffe quilt, that finishes at 39" square, using one colourway (yellow/brown) OR 4 different colours, AND for the 6 giraffe quilt, that finishes at 57" square, using 6 different colours. And you can find the pattern here.

Giraffes in a Row - 39" square all same

Giraffes in a Row - 39" square 4 different

Giraffes in a Row - 57" square 6 different

Linking up to Finish it up Friday with

Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

Keep On Quilting On!

To follow Sew Fresh Quilts by email....

Fat Quarter Shop Quilting Fabric, Kits, Notions and Patterns

25 October 2017

Let's Bee Social #200

Welcome to the Let's Bee Social!

A few weeks ago I noticed that Jennifer of The Inquiring Quilter had joined us for the Let's Bee Social by sharing her Dog Gone Cute block that had been modified to look like her family pet that she grew up with. Jennifer had made her dog block with long floppy ears and I asked if she would be willing to share the instructions for how she made them. She agreed to do so, and you can read her post here.

For the record, I just want to say that I love it when I see people using their imaginations. It excites me to see when you take something I designed and "tweak it" to make it suit your needs. That's why I asked Jennifer to share her instructions with us today!

A couple of other quilts I wanted to share with you today....

Made by Deanna of Wedding Dress Blue, these two very sweet patchwork quilts make me so excited. I mean who doesn't love the look of some simple, colourful patchwork? And Deanna has also added a row blocks to each quilt. You can click on any of the photos below to be taken to Deanna's blog to read about these adorable finishes.

Cows by Deanna of Wedding Dress Blue

Cars by Deanna of Wedding Dress Blue

Don't you just adore how those backing fabrics were chosen to match the piecing in the fronts? Deanna used the cow blocks for the first quilt and car blocks for the second quilt, but you can use any block pattern in a repeat to make the row. I think it's a great way to make something really fun!

I am on my way to Houston today. My sister is coming along with me to Quilt Market. If you are attending, please drop by booth #209 and say hi! I hope all goes well. We are driving down and back in my old pickup truck, stopping in Nashville for the overnight, both ways.

All my blog and facebook posts for the next week are scheduled to post automatically. So I hope there isn't any trouble with the link ups!!! If you send me an email during this time, you likely won't be hearing from me until I return. But I do appreciate your comments and good wishes and will get back to you in November!

Let's Bee Social!

Click to visit the Tablerunner Bliss bloggers who are quilting along this week:

Taunja (Carried Away Quilting)
Lorna (Sew Fresh Quilts)

Want to quilt along?

Tablerunners a great for a quick make for gift giving... Even if you end up wanting to keep it for yourself! Tablerunner Bliss by Sherri Falls is the perfect book for inspiring you to create.

You can order your own copy of this super cute book here at Fat Quarter Shop.

Now... It's your turn for Show and Tell!!!

What have you been working on?

Sew Fresh Quilts

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep On Quilting On!

To follow Sew Fresh Quilts by email....

24 October 2017

Mingle Tablerunner

I'm so excited to be sharing my Mingle Tablerunner today!

I've been sharing little progress posts along the way and today is my day on the Fat Quarter Shop blog hop. For my project, I chose the Mingle Tablerunner pattern from Sherri Falls new book - Tablerunner Bliss. I shared a few photos of this book in this past post, but if you want to see some really great photos and read all the details, please click on over to have a look at this super cute book here at Fat Quarter Shop.

For this runner I decided to change things up a wee bit from my usual. I used my walking foot to quilt both straight lines along the sashing and organic wavy lines from edge to edge along the blocks. This really helped to emphasize the on point setting!

I think my favourite is the backing print. No wait! The binding print. Oh dear! I really love the aqua prints too. I guess I love them all! You know I am print challenged, so being able to choose from a collection makes it so much easier for me. And you know they are going to look great together!

Fat Quarter Shop has such a wide selection of beautiful fabrics, but I couldn't help myself once is spied the Lulu Lane collection by Corey Yoder. I just linked to the charm pack so you could get a look at all the prints that come in the collection, but if you like the Lulu Lane prints, they are also sold in yardage. Just do a search for them in yardage!

The "Crossroads Tablerunner" finished at 26" x 66"

and was the 55th use of my 2nd edition of 100 labels

ordered from Ikaprint.

If you are a regular around these parts.... You know by now that Fat Quarter Shop is hosting the Tablerunner Bliss blog hop. Check out the list of all the participating bloggers!

Here is the schedule of bloggers with links that you might like to visit during this Quilt Along:

Tuesday, 9/5 - Anorina (Samelia’s Mum) and Pam (Pam Kitty Morning)
Tuesday, 9/12 - Sinta (Pink Pincushion)
Tuesday, 9/19 – Lorna (Sew Fresh Quilts) and Connie (Freemotion by the River)
Tuesday 9/26 – Amanda (Jedi Craft Girl) and Jennie (Clover & Violet)
Tuesday 10/3 – Melanie (A Bit of Scrap Stuff) and Sherri (A Quilting Life)
Tuesday 10/10 – Sinta (Pink Pincushion) and Lisa (In the Boon Docks)
Tuesday 10/17 – Vickie (Spun Sugar Quilts) and Susan (yardgrl60 on Instagram)
Tuesday 10/24 – Taunja (Carried Away Quilting) and Lorna (Sew Fresh Quilts)
Tuesday 10/31 – Greg (Grey Dogwood Studio) and Melanie (A Bit of Scrap Stuff)
Tuesday 11/7 – Melisssa (Happy Quilting) and Kim (Persimon Dreams)

Each Tuesday for 10 weeks there will be 2 bloggers sharing their beautiful tablerunners.

I'm one of the luckiest ones!

I was able to share TWO different projects made from this new book!

Tablerunner Bliss is written by Sherri Falls of This & That Pattern Company. This 80 page book is gorgeously illustrated and contains instructions for 20 different beautiful table runners of various sizes and styles. The step by step instructions are easy to follow, complete with plenty of diagrams. The only thing that is difficult..... is choosing which pattern you want to make first!

Want to quilt along with us????

You don't have to have a blog to participate!

If you are looking for the perfect excuse to make something just for fun, these table runners are great for that! You can order your own copy of this super cute book here at Fat Quarter Shop.

You can follow the #tablerunnertuesdays and #tablerunnerbliss hashtags on Instagram and Facebook to see all the pretty tablerunners! Grab a book and make a runner, and add the hashtags so we can see what you're making!

Thanks again Fat Quarter Shop for the book and the fabric!

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