Modern Marks does the weave

We've got more Modern Marks fun for you! Designer Stephanie Sheridan used a lime and blue color palette of Modern Marks prints to create the ultra cool Mid Mod Criss Cross quilt featured in Mc Call's Quick Quilts magazine. Read more about the quilt below. 

"Mid Mod Criss Cross"
designed by Stephanie Sheridan and quilted by Linda Leathersich;
featured in McCall's Quick Quilts April/May 2018 issue

How did you come up with this design?

I'm always intrigued by quilts that have a three-dimensional quality and that look way harder than they actually are to make. I started playing with a woven three-dimensional look, and that’s where this quilt came from.

Christa Watson's Modern Marks collection is so fun! How did you narrow down your palette?

I started with the two lime greens because I really liked that pop of color. I chose the aqua, medium blue and dark blue to be the light, medium and dark values because they were all in the focal lime print.

Why did you use both the focal lime print and the tonal lime print?

This pattern is great for showing off a larger focal print. I think confining the focal print to the middle adds to the dimensional quality because it draws your focus into the center of the quilt.

What was challenging about this design?

Creating the right sized blocks to make the woven parts of the quilt extend beyond the inner blue frame. It was important to make everything line up correctly. It looks almost like that frame was appliqued on top, but it’s pieced into the quilt.

 

Photos: The Quilting Company

Tell us about the quilting.

Curved quilting shapes soften the angles of the design and also mimic the shapes in the fabric. Each woven color has a different quilting design to help enhance the woven look.

What do you like best about the quilt?

It’s made from very simple blocks—half-square triangles, and what I call quarter-square triangles—the three-piece blocks. By just twisting and turning them and careful fabric placement, you end up with a very complex looking design made from easy-to-piece blocks.

Click here to see the entire Modern Marks collection.
Click here to purchase the Mid Mod Criss Cross pattern.
Click here to learn more about Stitched Together Studios.
Click here to find McCall's Quick Quilts April/May 2018 issue.

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

Retreat with Paula Nadelstern!

June 18-22: Join Paula Nadelstern for a 5-day KALEIDOSCOPE QUILT workshop at the gorgeous Madeline Island School of the Arts. 

In a longer format, Paula doesn't need to oversimplify. Time is provided for both process and product and for setbacks -- which often turn out to be the take-aways, the lessons that occur when a misstep needs to be fixed. Skills get cemented and integrated, making the processes richer and layered. 

Click here for details.

Love It? Share It!

Changing Lanes: A Dreamscape quilt

We all love a gorgeous quilt where the fabric does all the work! The Changing Lanes quilt, designed by Stephanie Sheridan of Stitched Together Studios, uses a cool palette of our Dreamscape collection in a simple yet stunning design. The Changing Lanes quilt is featured in the April/May 2017 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. Read on to learn more about it.

"Changing Lanes" by Stephanie Sheridan; machine quilted by Linda Leathersich;
featured in McCall's Quick Quilts April/May 2017

What attracted you the Dreamscape collection?

I love the soft mottled quality of this line - all of the colors just flow and blend, and the actual fabric print is understated.

How did you choose your palette from the wide variety of colors of the Dreamscape print?

Given the choice, I always tend towards a palette of cool ocean colors - blues, greens, turquoise, aqua and my personal favorite - purple! I actually also colored this design in a rainbow and a warm color version with Dreamscapes and a neutral color version using Nature'sPearl, but the cool colors became my favorite.

How did this design come to be?

My inspiration for this design concept was a bar code - I was thinking of it as a modern monochromatic quilt. When the editors asked me to try it out in colors I couldn't believe how great it looked!

Why does the Dreamscape line work well in this quilt?

First - it had the right amounts of lights and darks (you need 4 of each)! It also is a good blend-y line, so the colors are the star, rather than the actual fabric print. The flow of the fabric plays well with the straight lines of the design.

What do you like best about this quilt?

The way that the flow of the fabric design plays well with the straight lines of the quilt design.

Tell us about the quilting.

As always, Mom's quilting perfectly complements the quilt design. She used straight lines making open boxy shapes.

p.s. Lori Baker from McCall's shared a blog post about making the Changing Lanes quilt. She added rows to make it queen size, and created a beautiful pieced back. Click here to read her post. 

Click here to see the entire Dreamscape collection.

Click here to visit Stitched Together Studios' website.

Click here to find McCall's Quick Quilts.

Love It? Share It!

Concerto

While the word "concerto" technically means a musical composition, after seeing this quilt, also named "Concerto," it's easy to see how the definition could be stretched to a quilt as well. After all, it's a composition, and it's created entirely by musically themed fabrics! Stephanie Sheridan of Stitched Together Studios designed this quilt for Quick Quilts magazine using The Music in Me collection from Kanvas. 

"Concerto" designed by Stephanie Sheridan and machine quilted by Linda Leathersich;
featured in McCall's Quick Quilts magazine, February-March 2017

What attracted you to The Music in Me collection? 

Music collections are always so much fun to work with and very popular. This is actually my 2nd magazine quilt with a music collection by Kanvas - the first was "Symphony in B" and it was a real hit - I still get requests from quilters looking for the fabrics to make it.

Do you have a favorite print in the collection? 

I am always attracted to stripes - and I love finding unique ways to use them in a quilt, so my favorite would have to be the Duet Stripe! I fussy cut it for this quilt (it became the vertical sashing) - it looks like a pieced strip, but isn't - total time saver!

Did you fussy cut the focal print for the big squares? 

I actually used 3 different focal prints - and I did do a little fussy cutting to have the pianos balanced across the quilt. There is a lot of fussy cutting in this quilt - just take your time with it!

How did these fabrics lend themselves so beautifully to a quilt design? 

Both the Piano Bar and the Duet Stripe fabrics helped make a more complex looking quilt without additional piecing and created an interesting background grid for the focal fabrics. 

Any tips for making the quilt? 

Pay careful attention to the direction of the fabrics! So many of these fabrics are directional, and they will stick out like a sore thumb if they are upside down or sideways!

Can you talk about your background print choices, and your decision to use one of the background prints as the outer border?

The two different background prints add another layer of subtle dimension to Concerto, and the light border allows the center of the quilt to just float, rather than be anchored down by a heavier dark border.

What inspired this quilt design? 

The fabric line inspired it ... I had kicked around a design like this and when I saw The Music in Me - I knew it was the perfect fabric for the design.

What do you like best about this quilt? 

I really love the light and airy quality of this quilt, in spite of the amount of black in the fabrics - I feel like it reflects a soft and quiet type of classical music.

Tell us about the machine quilting. 

Mom really outdid herself on the quilting with this one! She used more traditional motifs like a feathered oval wreath on the focal squares and a lovely swirl in the border, but then added in some treble clefs and hearts to really accentuate the musical motifs in the fabrics. The magazine even has the quilting motifs drawn out in the pattern section so quilters can get the same look as our quilt.

Click here to see the entire The Music in Me collection.

Click here to learn more about Stitched Together Studios.

Click here to find McCall's Quick Quilts magazine.

Love It? Share It!

Dreamscape Block Blog Hop: Day 3

Hello, fabric lovers! We're continuing to share our Dreamscape Block Blog Hop today. It's the third day of seven different block tutorials for you featuring our luscious Dreamscape prints; we'll be featuring a tutorial each day through next Wednesday (we're taking the weekend off!). For this blog hop, we selected a six-color palette to play with: Navy, Cloud, Lime, Grape, Daffodil and Lead. You'll love the variety of blocks our designers have created! And make sure you enter each day's giveaway for a chance to win fat quarters of these six Dreamscape prints! Enjoy! 

Hi everyone! Stephanie from Stitched Together Studios here ... I am very excited to have had the chance to work with these fantastic Dreamscape fabrics!

When I laid out the fat quarters the colors reminded me of birthstones of some of my family! A Garnet (grape) for my oldest son, Emerald (lime) for my husband, Sapphire (navy) for my daughter and Citrine (daffodil) for my Mom, whose birthday was yesterday! These gemstone colors inspired my "Jewel Box Block" ~ a riff on a classic attic windows block. I have a quick and easy method for creating the inset seam ... give it a shot!

JEWEL BOX BLOCK

Finished size: 12" (12-1/2" unfinished)

Cutting:

Cut (1) 5" square each of grape, lime, navy and daffodil

Cut (4) 2" X 6-1/2" rectangles each of cloud and lead

Step 1: On the back of each 5" square make a small dot 1/4" from the corner.

Step 2: Lay 5" daffodil square on top of 2" X 6-1/2" cloud rectangle, then sew together with a 1/4" seam, stopping at dot. (Note - I don't normally piece with black thread ... I just did it here to make it easy for you to see!) Then press with seam allowance towards 5" square.
               

Step 3: Add the 2" X 6-1/2" lead rectangle to adjacent side, again stopping at the dot and press.

Step 4: Fold the block in half diagonally, lining up seams and edges of the lead and cloud rectangles. Line up a small ruler (I used a 2-1/2" square) as shown and draw a line from intersection of seams to the corner of the top rectangle. Use a pin if desired to hold the 2 rectangles in place.

          

        
Step 5: Sew on drawn line, then press open and trim to 1/4" ... there you have a perfect 6-1/2" attic window block!
                   

Repeat steps 1 - 5 to create your Emerald, Garnet and Sapphire blocks as shown below (Note: placement of lead color strips on the grape and navy squares is different than the lime and daffodil).

Step 6: Arrange the 4 jewel blocks as shown and sew together.

Here is a mock-up of what 12 blocks would look like - a beautiful bright 36" x 48" lap quilt.

Thanks, Stephanie! Leave a comment below letting us know that you follow us on one of our social media platforms (here on the blog--right hand sidebar, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest), as well as your favorite Dreamscape color. 

Follow along each day of the hop!

Tuesday 11/15: Chris from made by ChrissieD

Wednesday 11/16: Alison from Little Bunny Quilts

Thursday 11/17: Stephanie from Stitched Together Studios

Friday 11/18: Kristen from KD-Quilts

Monday 11/21: Benartex blog design team

Tuesday 11/22: Debby from Debby Kratovil Quilts

Wednesday 11/23: Wendy from Ivory Spring

Love It? Share It!

Turning Cartwheels

What quilter doesn't love a pattern that looks harder than it is? 

Cartwheels, designed by Stephanie Sheridan for McCall's Quick Quilts magazine, is just that. Stephanie combined Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's beautiful New Wave prints with solid blacks using half-square triangle blocks. The rest is just placement! (and great quilting!)

"Cartwheels" by Stephanie Sheridan and machine quilted by Linda Leathersich;
featured in McCall's Quick Quilts August/September 2016

We asked Stephanie to tell us about her design: 

What attracted you to the New Wave fabrics? Why do they work well for this quilt?

I have always been a fan of Caryl's work - the fabrics that she designs just have so much texture and movement in them. The New Wave line works well for this quilt because of that texture and movement, as well as the way her colors all blend so nicely, and the perfect amount of lights and darks.

Why did you choose to pair them with black?

I actually tried several different background colors (white, gray and light blue) before deciding on the black - it just really makes the colors pop and sparkle.

Can you talk about the palette you did choose? 

I am a sucker for the cool tones - show me blue, purple and turquoise fabrics and I fall in love! Using the different values gave the quilt more depth and helped to emphasize the spinning movement in the quilt. 

How did you come up with the design?

I really enjoy designing quilts that look difficult, but are actually very simple to make. This quilt is all half square triangle blocks - so while it takes a while to make all 120 of them - it is actually pretty easy! The fun part for me was the layout - having the starting point of the pinwheels off center give the quilt even more movement and interest.

Where did the name, Cartwheels, come from?

The spinning illusion in the quilt makes me think of little girls turning cartwheels on blacktop.

Talk about the machine quilting.

Mom (Linda) used a modern spiky feather on the black, and a combination of curves and spikes in the colors - it really added to the movement in this quilt.

What do you envision this being used for? 

It is a slightly wide twin sized quilt (72" x 86") - I can see it in a teenage girl's bedroom or as a college dorm quilt! The quilt is now in our guest room - it goes really well with the Tiffany blue walls and black wrought iron furniture.

Click here to see Caryl's New Wave collection.

Click here to learn more about Stephanie and Linda's work.

Click here to find McCall's Quick Quilts magazine.

Love It? Share It!

Soho Calicos 2 Ways

Today we have two projects using Maggie & Flo's Soho Calicos to show you, one in each color way! They were both designed by Stephanie Sheridan of Stitched Together Studios, and they're both featured in magazines currently on sale. They're also both quick and easy to sew--perfect for a relaxing summer project! We asked Stephanie to tell us about her two Soho Calicos quilts.

"Canal Street" by Stephanie Sheridan; machine quilted by Linda Leathersich;
featured in Quilting Quickly May-June 2016

What do you like about the Soho Calicos pink color way? 

I love the Soho Calicos line because it reminds me of the calicos of my childhood, but with a modern twist. I love that these pinks and purples and greens are a little more sophisticated ... the rose, sage and currant colors make these classic prints very modern.

This looks like a variation of the 1600 concept. Is it?  

This quilt started out with some 1600 inspiration, but with a bit more structure. One of the things that I love about NYC (Canal Street is located in the Soho neighborhood) is the variation in the length and widths of the city blocks - short, long, wide, narrow - and all together they make something beautiful. Plus in a quilt, wide spaces (like the sashing) give a place for the quilter to have fun! 

Tell us about the striped borders you added. What do you think they add to the quilt?

I think that the pieced borders frame the quilt while echoing the center portion.

What do you like best about the design? 

I like how easy it is on the eyes. Sometimes with quilts using jelly-rolls, they end up really busy with all of those narrow strips of different colors, but the sashing in this quilt gives your eyes somewhere to rest before looking and the next group of colors.

What do you see this quilt being used for? 

This is a more of a lap sized quilt, so it would be great to snuggle under - or maybe for that little girl that has moved from a crib to toddler bed and has a mommy that loves the sophisticated color palette!

Click here to see the entire pink colorway of Maggie & Flo's Soho Calicos collection. 
Click here to find the Canal Street quilt kit. 
Click here to learn more about designer Stephanie Sheridan.
Click here to find the May-June 2016 issue of Quilting Quickly.

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

"Furrows" by Stephanie Sheridan; machine quilted by Linda Leathersich; 
featured in McCall's Quick Quilts June-July 2016

What do you like about the Soho Calicos blue color way?

The blue colorway seems very serene and calm to me - my favorite would have to be the Dianthus prints - I love the way the colors of the whole line come together in these prints.

How do precuts make this project quick and easy?

This is a FQ friendly quilt - even though it doesn't look like it! You can just stack the FQs up and cut using the cutting diagram in the pattern--it goes really fast!

How did you come up with this design? 

Last summer I saw a field of corn where the watering tractor had cut across the field, leaving these diagonal lines in the perfectly spaced rows and I thought it would be an interesting concept for a quilt.

What do you like best about the design?

I like the juxtaposition between the horizontal rows and diagonal lines, there is a lot of movement in this design! And of course, my mom (Linda Leathersich) created even more movement with her wave quilting motif.

How did you decide what shade to use for the diagonal squares and border?

I wanted the "furrows" to be really dark to stand out against the body of the quilt so that they draw your eye across the pattern.

What do you envision this quilt being used for? 

It is a great twin sized bed quilt - perfect for a teen girl that isn't into pinks and purples.

Click here to see the entire blue colorway of Maggie & Flo's Soho Calicos collection. 
Click here to find the Furrows quilt kit.
Click here to learn more about designer Stephanie Sheridan.
Click here to find the June-July 2016 issue of Quick Quilts.

Love It? Share It!