A Breath of Fresh Air

Jennifer Young's Ambrosia collection is a breath of fresh summer air! These gorgeous florals, complimented by paisleys, dots, and a unique plaid, come in a blue and seafoam colorway and a lime, rose and peach colorway. 

Which do you prefer?

What would you make with the Ambrosia prints? Here are two ideas:

"Ambrosia Star" from Tailormade by Design; 

a free pattern available on our website

"Garden View" by Wendy Sheppard; 

featured in The Quilter June-July 2014

See the Ambrosia collection here.

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Looking out the window

What's your favorite window view? Wendy Sheppard created her own with the Garden View quilt, featured in the June/July 2014 issue of The Quilter magazine. She used the large and medium blooms from Jennifer Young's Ambrosia collection for the "view" out the window, and then surrounded it with  several pieced and traditional borders. Wendy is visiting the blog today, sharing the story behind this refreshing quilt design, and then she has shared more details (and photos!) about the machine quilting on her blog. 

"Garden View" by Wendy Sheppard;
featured in The Quilter magazine June-July 2013

What do you like about the fabric line?

I like all the fresh flower prints.  With the smaller scaled flower prints, they almost feel like calico print, but they are updated and fun and fresh!

How did you decide to create the windowpane look in the center of the quilt?

I really wanted to use the large print floral (my favorite print in the entire line).  I thought cutting that print up wouldn't do it any justice.  So, I decided to make a windowpane  - that way I could use a large piece of that swatch without cutting it up.

Can you talk about your border choices?

The floral prints are light - that's why I used a lot of white to continue that "light" feeling. I decided to use spinner blocks to the light, open and airy feeling in the overall design because the blocks afford me more usage of white.  I also used the blocks to convey the illusion of blossoms lightly floating in the air.

What is your favorite part about this quilt?

I think the quilting is my favorite part on this quilt.  I was feeling a bit sad when I was finishing with the quilting for this project.  I shared more about the technical aspect of the quilting in my blog post.

Wendy also mocked up this quilt using the pink/coral colorway of the Ambrosia fabrics (shown below). So we asked her, which do you like better, the warm or cool version?

Since it is summer and I just heard that the DC area recorded the highest temperature in the nation the other day at noon, I think I am liking the cool version better -- for now!  Seriously, I do like both versions though.

Read more about Wendy's quilt in her blog post.

See the entire Ambrosia collection (both colorways, plus a free pattern for another quilt design) by Jennifer Young here.

Find The Quilter magazine here.

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March Madness: Final Four Game 2

Here's the second of our two Final Four games! In this round of voting, we're sharing a bit more information about the quilts. We hope you enjoy hearing what the designers have to say about their patterns and the fabrics they used! 

Find voting information at the bottom of the post.

Ambrosia Star

Ambrosia Star by Tailormade by Design, featuring Ambrosia

Melanie and Joanie talk about Ambrosia Star:

How did you come up with the quilt design?  

We use Electric Quilter which allows us to "play" with the different fabrics and blocks until we are dizzy. We like to use two or three blocks and see if we can get the illusion of other blocks or layers...it is just a twisted game we play together!

What do you like best about the design?

The white circles that happen around the stars and the soft trellis chain that happens on top of everything.

Why stars?

No reason...we weren't really thinking stars, they just happened.

You chose to use just a few prints and stay in a single colorway. Any reason why?

We wanted it fresh and simple looking.

Can you talk about how the quilt is constructed? It looks complex.

It really isn't!  The quilt is made up of two fairly simple blocks. One has a flying geese section which can be a little bit of a challenge if it is your first time working with triangles, but everything else is just sub-cutting strips for four-patches and framing.

What appealed to you about the Ambrosia fabric collection?

It's soft florals and airy feel.  

Glass House

Glass House by Stitched Together Studios featuring Palazzo

Stephanie and Linda talk about Glass House:

How did you come up with the quilt design?

This was a combined effort with both of us adding unique elements as the design evolved. We actually started with the border and worked out the center of the quilt last.

What do you like best about it?

The modern feel using some pretty traditional quilt blocks.

What prompted you to do such an "untraditional" design?

We both love mixing the traditional and modern aspects of quilt design - this fabric line just called for something a little "funky."

Why did you choose to use such a variety of block designs in the quilt?

The outer border was so strong visually that we felt that the center of the quilt needed to be just as strong. By using lots of different blocks and many of the fabrics in the line we kept the two components of this quilts balanced.

Talk about the inner/outer border.

The inner light border became really cool negative space reminiscent of a body of water around an island.  The outer choppy border was the first element that we designed in this quilt...we wanted it to look like pieces of the center that floated away.

What appealed to you about the Palazzo fabric collection?  

The colors! We love aqua and teal and the addition of the greens made these colors all blend perfectly!

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Leave a comment below with your vote for this game (choose Ambrosia Star or Glass House). One comment per person, please. You can also vote a second time on our Facebook Group – Sew Interesting, and you can see all of the fabrics in each of the featured line on our Facebook page. 

Voting for this game is open through Friday, April 4 at 1 pm EST.

To see the full bracket of sixteen we started with and/or read the details of March Madness, click here.

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