QuiltCon 2015

Last week we had the pleasure of exhibiting at QuiltCon 2015, a modern quilt show and conference in Austin, TX, hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild. Today we would like to share some pictures that we took at QuiltCon and let you know about all of the things that we saw!

Our booth featured "Our Town," one of our newest lines from Contempo Studios designed by Michele D’Amore.

 

The runner quilts that were displayed in our booth will be available soon as free patterns on our website! The quilt on the table is from Deanne Moore's book titled "Fabric Play." To find out more about this great quilt pattern and book, visit Creative Sewlutions.

We shared the booth space with our sister company - Brewer. They are a distributor of all things sewing, quilting, and crafting. Here is their booth display:

Check out what is available ... Benartex scissors and bias tape makers! Your local quilt shop can order them through Brewer.

And here is a picture of our entire Benartex/Brewer booth:

On Thursday we gave a talk called "Think Big" showing quilts that use big prints and/or big blocks to make a BIG impact!

Each day we had a fun little project to demonstate to the attendees - and a free pattern and kit for them to take home. One of our projects was a four patch coaster:

Watching the demo:

A lovely little girl named Emily got to sew for the very first time - making a coaster to take home:

Our other project was a luggage tag:

 

One quilter even ran home after the show on Friday to make her luggage tag and brought it back to show us!

               

We had a great time meeting and talking to all of the quilters that visited our booth! Please stop back here on Monday to see  our pictures of the magnificent show quilts--so much inspiration!

Make it Modern: Daily Zen

Inspired by the modern quilting show QuiltCon over the weekend, we're sharing projects and fabrics with a modern twist this week, as well as some photos from QuiltCon itself. 

First up is the "Daily Zen Quilts & Projects' by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton. This 56-page book features' 11 projects made from Michele D'Amore's Daily Zen collection for Contempo Studio.

The projects keep with the Zen theme--in addition to quilts, you'll find a yoga mat, an eye mask and neck roll, and a carry-all tote that can hold sewing projects or your yoga class supplies.

Joanie and Melanie worked with Benartex and Landauer to develop the "Daily Zen" book, with the idea of showing quilters many different ways to use a fabric line, all in one resource. We asked Joanie to talk about the book and projects she and Melanie designed.

Why did you use the Daily Zen collection?
It was fresh and fun to work with--Michele had some neat colors blended together, and a lot of grays that worked with colors that pop. Her black and white prints are perfect for modern quilts. I think both quilters and quilt shops are drawn to the contemporary and modern fabrics (like Daily Zen) but aren't always sure how to use them in patterns. Our book addresses that.

Tell us about the cover quilt. 
The "Unified" quilt on the cover is an example of a traditional block we tweaked--it's an oversized snowball block. The design looks like a chain, but very oversized. 

Do you have a favorite quilt from the book?
We loved all the quilts, but I really liked the Zen Garden quilt. It's a very contemporary take on a Drunkard's Path square. Bright and modern, and not as hard as it looks. 

And how about some of the other projects?
Our theme for projects was based around the theme of the fabric. For us, sewing is very zen. When you work on a project and it all comes together, you have this lovely calming feeling. That's what we took from the fabric--where is that place in your life where you go to have that peaceful feeling?

The carryall tote was a super fun bag to make, and so cute!

 The eye mask and neck roll go with the "feeling zen" theme. 

What else do you want readers to know about your book?
The projects are easy to make--we tried hard to make them accessible to many skill levels. But most of all, we hope quilters and sewers can find the corner in their world where they can sit and relax and enjoy the projects they've made!
Watch for Melanie and Joanie's next book, debuting at Spring Quilt Market!

Melanie and Joanie even have a bonus project to share with you, thanks to Landauer!

Click here to download Melanie and Joanie's free pattern for a travel sewing wallet.


Click here to find the Daily Zen Quilts & Projects book. (You can also click on the "Look Inside" tab to see a short video with sneak peeks of some of the other projects featured in the book!)
Click here to see Daily Zen featured on the blog and here to see our Contempo booth from spring Quilt Market featuring these fabrics. 

Spring is in the Air (right?!)

Hummingbirds and morning glories...we can't think of a better combination to help us look get through the rest of winter by looking forward to spring!

Fortunately for us, the February/March 2015 issue of Quilters Newsletter features a quilt designed by Jackie herself, using her Glorious Hummingbirds collection. "Flight of the Hummingbird" combines two star blocks with Jackie's classic floral stripe border for a quilt that's guaranteed to speed along spring's arrival. Keep reading to see what Jackie has to say about her latest design.

"Flight of the Hummingbird" by Jackie Robinson

Tell us about the two different star blocks you featured in this quilt.

We keep hearing there’s such a lovely affinity for using the pink and blue together in the collection, so this quilt has pink stars and blue stars. The stars have different-sized center blocks, ideal for fussy cutting. And then of course the floral stripe border ties the two colors of stars together.

Tell us about the fussy cutting in this quilt.

Both star block designs have fussy cut centers. Because of the different scales of the print, I wanted to use a smaller scale as the fussy in one of them and a larger scale in the other. The smaller square [on the pink stars] shows a hummingbird. The larger square [on the blue stars] shows some flowers as well.

And how did you develop the secondary design with the blue squares?

Piecing blue squares into the background of the pink stars creates the crosshatch for the quilt—it is kind of an argyle look—and it’s more interesting than just a plain block. The first border around the quilt center is more of that checked design, so the stars float.

What do you like best about this quilt?

Easy. It has blue in it. I often say that I like any color as long as it’s blue. It’s a deep robin’s egg blue and I find it so comforting.

Click here to see the Glorious Hummingbirds collection.
Click here to find the kit for "Flight of the Hummingbird" (It's available with a black background as well!).
Click here to find Quilters Newsletter Magazine.

We Love Our Town

Does your town have

Bicycles?

Houses in tidy rows?

Tulips?

Graffiti?

Our Town does! 

Our Town, Michele D'Amore's latest collection for Contempo Studio, has modern appeal in fresh, eye-catching colors. From rows of bicycles to tulips, two hump/loop stripes, text prints and two cool textures, everything about these prints say "take me home!" 

What would you make with Our Town? 

Below are two free quilt patterns to get you started. You can also see more of Our Town in action from the award-winning Contempo booth at Fall Quilt Market. See the pictures here.

"Small Town Living" designed by Stitched Together Studios

Click here to download the free pattern for Small Town Living.

"Painting the Town" designed by Heidi Pridemore

Click here to download the free pattern for Painting the Town.

Click here to see the entire Our Town collection by Michele D'Amore for Contempo.

A Hint of Spring

Butterfly Effect.

A new Contempo Studio collection by Michele D'Amore

Butterfly Effect  (but-ter-fly ef-fect ).

      (1) Adverb. To feel free. To take flight. To imagine. To create something new.

      (2) Noun. A new collection of incredibly beautiful prints from Michele D’Amore and Contempo.

Modern prints. Manhattan Style.

Elegant butterflies, created by painterly brushstrokes.
 Round, hand-sketched blooms with watercolor layers.

Cool textured coordinates.

This line is rich with contrast--shades of blue versus bright colors, soft brushstrokes versus geometric shapes; large versus medium butterfly and bloom prints--all rendered with Michele's artistic touch.

Brushstroke details on each butterfly's wing:

And on the blooms:

A unique stripe that combines the various motifs in the line:

More brushstrokes in a fractured stripe-look:

Which colorway appeals to you?

Click here to see the entire Butterfly Effect collection in both colorways.

Valentine Blog Hop Winners!

Happy President's Day! 

Are you still on chocolate overload from Valentine's Day? 

Here are our randomly drawn winners from last week's hop--these lucky followers will have a head start on next Valentine's Day with the fun fabric they've won!

Day 1: Love Is All Around

Kristy

Day 2: Batiks

Joyce Carter

Day 3: Chocoholics

Jacklynn Grimm

Congratulations, ladies! Please email us at sewinlovewithfabric (at) gmail.com with your mailing address so we can get your fabric prizes sent out.

And if you missed the tutorials last week, check them out here:

Day 1: Be Mine heart garland

Day 2: Hearts on Fire quilt

Day 3: Heart pillow

Hummingbird Love

We're adding a little bit more "LOVE" to this Valentine's week with Mischele Hart's "Lovely in Lace" quilt, appearing in the April 2015 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. The quilt features Jackie Robinson's Glorious Hummingbirds collection. And Hummingbird lovers, as well Jackie fans, at the risk of overusing the word "love," there's lots to love here! Keep reading to see what Mischele has to say about her beautiful design.

"Lovely in Lace" 

Designed by Mischele Hart. Used with permission from

American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2015 Meredith Corporation. 
All Rights Reserved.

What appeals to you about the Glorious Hummingbirds fabric line? 

The hummingbirds themselves are what initially caught my eye.  The activity of these little birds is artfully displayed in the collection. It was really tough to figure out whether to use the darker or lighter color way because both are very appealing.

Tell us about your block design.

Gosh, I might be lazy, but it is really gratifying to get that “set on point” look without dealing with side setting triangles and the other work involved in diagonally setting a quilt top. So I look for a block or piece of a block that can create a visual diagonal line and dink around with it until it is a new block. The curved effect was truly serendipitous. (I love the ease of using Electric Quilt to add and subtract block elements and audition fabrics.)

Can you talk about the more complex-looking center blocks?

I’m intrigued by quilts that appear to have stacked blocks. The idea of combining quarter blocks to get a brand new block seemed like fun, so that was the jumping off point for designing the center blocks. The stacking resulted in only one complete block and several stacked partial blocks. The blocks look complex, but the sewing is easy. That’s a win-win.

Why did you choose to put a blue "outline" around the outside edge of the blocks?

It seemed that there were actually two areas that needed darker, or stronger, color values to emphasize important design elements: (1) the star points in the center of the quilt and (2) the diagonal center line of the border blocks (in order to delineate the edges of the design without adding a pieced border). The color values of the blue and the green create the desired emphasis nicely.

Can you talk about your choice of the hummingbird print for the outer edges?

I had to grin when I read this question. It’s ALL about the hummingbirds for me. I knew I wanted to frame a quilt in a BIG way using the hummingbirds. The challenge was to build a center so that I could get to the border and see those cute birdies.

What do you like best about the quilt?

That’s a hard question to answer. I really appreciate Jackie Robinson’s ability to create awesome fabric collections for all of us in the quilt world to use, so I am always excited to see anything new from her. Also, I really loved the design process. I think this quilt is a future family heirloom.

Tell us about the machine quilting.

The quilting was done by Susan Scheer. It is beautiful, and beautifully done. Susan quilted straight lines in the interior of the quilt to echo the geometric shapes that reside there and then moved on to quilt wonderful hummingbirds on the hummingbird print that encloses and finishes the quilt. 

Click here to see the entire Glorious Hummingbirds collection.

Click here to order the kit for "Lovely in Lace."

Click here to find American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.