Midnight Poppies Virtual Trunk Show

We've had fun sharing Ann Lauer's Midnight Poppies collection with you this week! We hope you'll enjoy Ann's virtual trunk show of the quilts she has designed featuring her new fabrics. 

 "Love That Print" showcases two large prints in a quick and easy design. 

Click here to find the kit.

"Midnight Stars" - this one really sparkles! This two-block quilt is easier than it looks and shows off a large focal print as well. 

Click here to find the kit.

"Montana Summer" features on-point blocks. The pieced blocks are made from three-fabric strip sets, and the border showcases the iris border stripe. 

Click here to find the kit.

"Afternoon Delight" is made with fast flying geese, four-patches, and large focal print squares. 

Quick and easy! 

Click here to find the kit.

"Free Fall" is one of my most popular designs. The wall quilt version is assembled using quilt-as-you-go technique, and the colors blend beautifully together! 

Click here to find the kit.

"Poppy Toss" is a free quilt pattern available on Benartex's website. The centerpiece is the large poppy print, surrounded by strips of pieced stripes. Finish the quilt off with fussy-cut appliqued poppies!

Click here to download the pattern.
Click here to find the kit.

Click here to see the entire Midnight Poppies collection.

Click here to read our interview with Ann about Midnight Poppies. 

Click here to visit Ann's website and see her additional Midnight Poppies patterns.

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Debby Kratovil's Technique Tuesday: Using a Border Stripe

It's Technique Tuesday! Debby Kratovil from Debby Kratovil Quilts is here today to show us an idea for using the border stripe from Ann Lauer's Midnight Poppies collection. (Hint: it's a great focal sashing strip!) 

Here's Debby!

Lovely, lovely fabrics: Midnight Poppies. 

When Benartex invited me to design with them, I was sure I could come up with something. I was concentrating on that large border print. There is a black stripe on either side of it (shown in second picture) and I thought I could use one of my rulers to slice it up.

My approach is always simple: Make the fabric do all the work! I'll walk you through my design process.

When the fabrics arrived I was back to square one because my original plan wasn't going to work. Here are the fabrics I chose. I ended up not using the large poppy green and purple floral on the right. This will be incorporated on the back of the quilt.

Midnight Poppies with a selection of 7 coordinates

OK, Debby. Now what?

I always consult my own patterns and designs and figure out a way to rework them. Oh, yes. And I consult the "voices in my head" to see what vibes they are getting from the voices from the fabric. This is true; I'm not making this up! 

Here is my second plan, but I didn't have enough fabric of each print to get an even number of squares for symmetry. Dang! But I did know that I wanted to cut the four sections of border print and use them as vertical and horizontal sashings!

Midnight Poppies Draft 2

So, here is what I did - Plan 3! This is just the concept--I tweaked the design a bit, and you will see that scale of the prints makes the actual quilt turn out differently.

Midnight Poppies Off Center Log Cabin

First the steps:
1. Cut four 8-1/2" squares of 622-60 White Floral and one 8-3/4" square (for center unit).
2. Cut 3-1/2" strips of supporting fabrics to begin building my Off Center Log Cabin blocks (4 of them)
3. Row 1: One (5427-44 Green) 3-1/2" x 8-1/2" and one green 3-1/2" x 11-1/2" strip. Stitch as shown.

Start of Off Center Log Cabin

4. Continue adding strips, cutting for EACH block, the following:

• Row 2 (5425-40 Sage Green): One 3-1/2" x 11-1/2" and one 3-1/2" x 14-1/2"
• Row 3 (5424-44 Mosaic Petals Green/Purple): One 3-1/2" x 14-1/2" and one 3-1/2" x 17-1/2"
• Row 4 (5425-09 Daisy Petals White): One 3-1/2" x 17-1/2" and one 3-1/2" x 20-1/2"
• Row 5 - I was short on fabric and so used two: One 3-1/2" x 20-1/2" strip 5427-44 Green and one 3-1/2" x 23-1/2" strip 5426-50 (Criss Cross Dot Blue/Green)

Here's one block:

One Off Center Log Cabin: 23-1/2" x 23-1/2"

5. Make two blocks and join with a trimmed border strip (measures 8-3/4" wide including seam allowances). Here is the trimming of the border print. I allowed the LENGTH of 29" to stay until the very end.

Trim each side of the border print, allowing for 1/4" seams

6. Two blocks joined:

Two blocks joined and then border print trimmed to 23-1/2" to match the blocks.

7. Make two more blocks, but be careful of where you stitch the strips. Uh oh!

My Uh, Oh Block. Gotta remove that renegade white strip!

8. Add the 8-3/4" floral square to two remaining border strips:

Add center square to remaining two border strips

9. Join blocks and wide sashing strips; measure and trim the sashings at the very end.

10. Here is my 54" x 54" quilt top hanging in the breeze on my deck after a summer rain!

Midnight Poppies Off Center Log Cabin: 54" x 54"

Follow the cutting instructions as listed above. Here is the supply list for making the quilt as shown here. Backing and batting needs to be at least 3-4" larger around all sides for quilting.

Thanks, Debby, for showing us a great idea for using Ann's border stripe and those gorgeous poppy prints!

Click here to see Ann's entire Midnight Poppies collection.

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Ann Lauer's Midnight Poppies

Ann Lauer's poppies are back! Her new collection, Midnight Poppies, takes this iconic bloom bigger and better. The collection comes in green/purple and fuchsia/blue colorways. Scroll down to read our interview with Ann and learn more about the fabric line. 

What inspired the Midnight Poppies collection?
I love the showiness of poppies—they’re one of my favorite flowers. I wanted to do them again, but in a different way. We added in the Moonlit Poppies print, which is a really dense floral that we did as a tonal print.

What makes these poppies different?

I love these poppies because they’re realistic with artistic license. They have shading and shadowing that you don’t normally see in an actual flower—they’re prettier than nature!

Tell us about the texture that shows up in this collection.

The background in the large poppy focal print turned out beautifully. It has shaded dots, crisscrossed lines, and an occasional grid. It’s all in there without distracting from the flowers laid on top.

Talk to us about the color palette.

I just love jewel tones. That cobalt blue is gorgeous, and of course I’ve always loved purple. The green hovers between a sage and a lime color. There are four black/white prints in here as well--they range from light to dark, so you can play with just blacks and whites as well.

Can you tell us about some of your favorite prints?

The Mosaic Petals are one of my favorites in the whole collection. It’s a little angular and geometric—not as curvy—and it ties all the colors together. The Daisy Petals print uses that same idea, but in lighter shades, plus black and white.

The Criss-Cross Dot print is a multicolor version of Moonlight Texture. The random lines add a geometric feel. The colors are so deep and rich!

The Stripe combines the poppies with the Mosaic Petals and the Geometric Squares. It can be fussy cut for borders or for blocks.

Click here to see the entire Midnight Poppies collection. 
Click here for a sneak peek at Ann's Midnight Poppies quilt patterns. We'll be sharing a virtual trunk show later this week. 

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Quilt Market Booth Tour: Benartex

Ready for a sneak peek at our upcoming fabric lines? 

Last weekend we showed our future collections to quilt shop owners (watch for these fabrics arriving in your quilt shop over the next six months), and for the next three days we'll share photos from the show so you can see what's coming!

Take a peek at the Benartex booth:

These majestic purple and green prints are from Jackie Robinson's Lilacs in Bloom collection. Gorgeous!

Say hello to Ann Lauer and her stunning Midnight Poppies collection. 

A peek behind the scenes: whipstitching Midnight Poppies pillow covers closed before the show starts!

The dramatic poppy stripe works beautifully on a rectangular pillow.

My Secret Garden is Cheryl Haynes' appealing new collection. 

Warm yellows and soft blues in springy garden prints! 

Learn more about these new collections on Facebook. Click on the Videos tab and watch the Designer Showcase. 

Thanks to our set-up team! Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton designed the booth layout and brought along reinforcements (their brother and kids) to put everything in place. Nice job, team! 

Stop back to see more! 
On Thursday we'll share photos from the Kanvas booth.
On Friday, we'll share photos from the Contempo booth. 

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