OVER UNDER Medallion

A medallion quilt for a table topper or wall hanging makes a beautfiul summer piece

for entertaining or decorating.

OVER UNDER Swirly Girls 3 sizes table or under your tree Full color pattern HERE
pattern uses the Creative Grids 30 degree triangle ruler. 

Nested Churn Dash Quilt Along

Who is ready for a quilt-a-long of the Nested Churn Dash? Starting 1st June 2014, I will be taking you through the steps to make a 24" x 24" nested churn dash block.

Joining me will be 10 of my favourite quilters who will be making their blocks into a mini quilt.

For the more adventurous, you can continue on and using the 24" x 24" finished block you can make a pillow or mini quilt or make a quilt, ranging in size from 28" x 80" (1 x 3 block bed runner), 54" x 54" (2 x 2 block setting), 80" x 80" (3 x 3  block setting) and 106" x 106" (4 x 4 block setting). I will provide instructions for each setting.

Fabrics - April Showers, Happy Go Lucky

by Bonnie & Camille for Moda 

June 1st - Requirements, fabric selections and layouts.

June 6th - Tips and hints for making the blocks.

June 9th - Carrie Nelson - http://lavieenrosie.typepad.com/lavieenrosie/

June 10th - Kim Niedzwiecki - http://www.gogokim.blogspot.com.au

June 11th - Pat Sloan - http://www.blog.patsloan.com

June 12th - Lissa Alexander - http://www.modalissa.blogspot.com

June 13th - FatQuarterShop - http://www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com.au

June 16th - Frances Newcombe - http://www.bellybuttonsboutique.blogspot.com

June 17th - Katy Jones - http://www.imagingermonkey.blogspot.com

June 18th - Sherri McConnell - http://www.aquiltinglife.com

June 19th - Sara Lawson - http://www.sewsweetness.com

June 20th - Amy Smart - http://www.diaryofaquilter.com

June 23th - Making a quilt using the Nested Churn Dash block.

June 30th - Finishing the quilt.

July 30th - Winners selected from the Flickr group.

The block pattern can be purchased and downloaded from here and here.

Upload your finished blocks or projects to the Flickr Group to win some beautiful Aurifil thread packs and other great prizes. Use #NestedChurnDash on IG, FB, Flickr and twitter. Winners will be announced 30th July 2014.

I was so thrilled to be invited to the Nested Churn Dash QAL. When Jane asked me I couldn't wait to make it. I was at quilt market and I knew I wanted to make it out of what was left over from my next fabric line "Cherie" which comes out this July only a month away! I am excited about this collection because it has different looks. It is a low volume collection which means it has mid-tone values (low contrast,  white background, light colors.) So I wanted to try Jane's amazing pattern with this low volume look. I adore this mini quilt it is so fun and easy to make. I have made a churndash block before but never nested like this! I would love to make four blocks and put them together for a lap quilt.

      

Come on over and enjoy a summer get together with friends using this awesome Mini quilt.

I started my center with my darkest fabrics from the collection then graduated the colors out to the lightest fabrics. 

I chose ART GALLERY FABRICS floral element FE -519 Icy Blue for the background. I had a tough time choosing my binding color, but I hope I made the right choice.

Makes a great wall hanging or table topper for entertaining and fits the colors of my home!

The quilting was done by my friend and local quilter, Frances Rice Ferrnand. She is amazing and I met her last Fall and she quilted all my Safari Moon projects and had to have her quilt This! Check out the sweet details.

In the last year I have fallen in love with Aurifil thread. It is the most amazing quality. So silky smooth. And the threads last forever, so you don't run out of bobbin so quickly. These are the colors I used for this project. The middle thread is one of my favorite colors that I like to use for piecing. I gave my quilter the last color spool to quilt this project. I love they way it turned out. The color is beautiful. Thank you so much for coming to my blog and I hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you Jane for inviting me to play along. Much love, Frances

izzy @ Ivy and a Safari

 LOOK HOW CUTE THIS HEADBAND IS! 

The headband is from the amazing Annelee Giese at The Ruffled Cupcake.  HERE

Loving this Little girl dress from  izzy Ivy designs 

you can find their SHOP HERE

When I saw the photos from instagram I immediately wrote to them and wanted the pictures to share I was beyond excited. Thank you guys so much!

The dress with the Zebra bodice is a sleeveless hack of our Tallulah pattern and the one with the lime striped bodice is a mash of our Evie and Tallulah dresses.

Best Drawstring Bag pattern Ever ! Jeni's Bag…

 I made this bag out of my last bit of Strike offs of Cherie coming out this July! The fabric is Memorandum CosmosMemorandum Cosmos (a text coffee feed sack type print) I am excited about this fabric… I think Men will like it! I made this bag for my buddy Del for his lunch sack. I hope he likes it.

He is an awesome artist and works at NBC.

I made this bag for my son Jonah, in Safari Moon and Art Gallery fabric solids.

 Ok, I just have to say that I have made a log of drawsting bags… and this is the best pattern ever.
I have been admiring this bag for awhile and the pattern is so great. There are so many size options in the pattern and it is very well written and organized. There are also color pictures inside and each size gives you an idea of what they can be used for.  It can be found Here at the In Color Order Blog and shop
There is also a Patchwork Drawstring Bag tutorial on Jeni's Site which I can't wait to make HERE Thank you Jeni for this fantastic pattern!

INTERNATIONAL QUILT MARKET PITTSBURGH Spring 2014

This Spring quilt market was my debut of my second collection with Art Gallery Fabrics Cherie!

I am really excited about this collection and had a great time sewing it for quilt market! The line is very versitle and can be made masquline or femine. Grunge and a mixture of text prints and floral prints.

I was happy with my booth this time it was easier decorating a 12 ft by 8 ft wall instead of a full booth.

My Friend Karen Turchan of Queen bee quilt designs HERE designed the quilt on the wall and will be available as a free pattern download on the Art Gallery Fabrics Website. 

I was so excited about my concept for my booth. A little French bistro!

 Thanks to Scott Griffn who made this incredible messanger bag and the gorgeous quilt on the bistro table.

LOOK AT HIS AWESOME BLOG HERE!

 I got to participate in 2 school houses and help Sara from Sew Sweetness with her school house!
Look at this great group of women, I am very proud to be amongst them.
Jeni Baker, Sara Lawason, Angela Walters, Katarina Roccella, Caroline Hulse, April Rhodes, Pat Bravo, and Bonnie Forkner (Bonnie Christine)

 Thank you so much Mandy Leins for helping me with props and set up! I am truly grateful!

 Thank you Nancy Helpinstil for making these awesome small bag pincushions! The pincushion pattern can be found HERE Thank you so much Nancy!

 Pat Bravo, Sara Lawson, Kim Niedzwiecki, myself and Katarina Roccella

 Super excited by these chocolates to finish off the bistro made by my friend Susan Vasquez. Thank you so much Susan!

Some wonderful french inspirations…. Cherie!

Kerry and Penny from Sew-Ichigo the sweetiest ladies from UK. Create the most charming paper pieced patterns and when I found this set of Parisan Cafe I nearly fell off my chair! Perfect for my quilt market booth!

HERE IS THE LINK TO THIS SET!

Sulky threads is doing an incredible block of the month on desserts! I am seriously dying over these! Wait till you see them done in Cherie fabrics by my friend Susan!

BLOCK OF THE MONTH ON DESSERTS FOUND HERE!

Wonderful Eiffel Tower by one of my favorite embroidery sites Urban Threads!
Can be found  HERE

GETTING READY FOR QUILT MARKET…

                                   This spring at Pittsburgh my booth will be for my "Cherie" fabric line.
 One of the fun parts of getting ready for Market is selecting the best blenders that go with your fabric line. I went through all of Art Gallery Fabrics Blenders and selected colors from all of the blenders that I thought looked the best with Cherie. I hope this chart might be useful to anyone who makes projects in the future. It was hard work to make this but worth it in the end! Now I can break down the elements for the specific projects. I am loving the color pallet as I select the wonderful AGF coordinating fabrics.

Each Cherie fabric will get a coordinate for its project. Sometimes a designer has to 'Stretch' the fabric for market because we do not get a lot from our strike offs. So it's time to get creative!
Jeni Baker of In Color Order is amazing at stretching her projects for Quilt market. She can take a quarter yard of fabric and somehow turn it into something remarkable and with not a lot of cost. She also said volume is good. Like pillows or things that fill your booth so it looks full.

This is one of the projects I moked up in photoshop that I plan to make when my fabric strike offs arrive. The pattern is called Candy Dish 16' square pillows by JayBird Quilts.
I am excited about the look of this pillow and I hope the real one will be as cute : )
anyways. I still have a lot of planing to do and a lot of sewing with some help from dear friends.
It's gonna be a mad rush to the finish! I hope you come see me if you go to market and anyone who has
any cute ideas or patterns they would like to share with me. I really welcome anything!
Think about going to Paris!   Much Love , Frances