On Memorial Day...

On this day we remember all those who died in service to our country. 

We thank them and their families for their sacrifice. 

Click here to read more about the origin of the Memorial Day holiday.

Quilt Market Booth Tour: Benartex

Welcome to day 3 of our three-day Quilt Market booth tour. Last weekend, we were in Salt Lake City sharing our newest fabric collections from Benartex, Kanvas and Contempo with quilt shop owners. Now we're ready to give you a sneak peek so you know what to watch for (and ask for!) at your local quilt shops. 

Today we're showing the Benartex section of the booth. Grab a cup of coffee and sit back--we have a bunch of photos to show you! 

First, a look at the booth as a whole, and then we'll get into the details. 

We'll start off with Jackie Robinson. The main focus of her section is her new Bluebird Gathering collection--fabrics that are sure to be popular with everyone who loved her hummingbirds! Available in shops June/July. She also had a few quilts made with her My Little Chickadee collection, an extension of the Chickadees and Berries line.

A closer look at the bluebirds--so realistic! 

A stunning quilt design with Jackie's signature border stripe. 

We continued our skinny quilt display concept that we've used at past Quilt Markets, but with a twist. In our Bali section, the design flows from quilt to quilt, the same, but different. 

These skinny quilts showcase our Bali lines:

Cast Away, Rainforest Mist, Desert Sunset, Berry Delight, Lullaby, and Winter Whites

(Available in shops November/December.)

And on the end, Cheryl Haynes' newest collection, Bear Paws. Available in shops July/August. (Say hello to Ashley Fraites, getting ready to show these new lines to quilt shop owners!)

On the opposite side, we have Rose Ann Cook with her Glass House collection, including this quilt, a contemporary wall design. (Available in shops Oct/Nov.)

And more skinny quilts! 

From left: Dreamscape, A Miracle, and a combination of Flora, Forget Me Not, and Morning Glory, which are all part of Eleanor Burns' new Forever Love collection, and then finishing up on the right with Chelsea and Ribbon Floral.

(Dreamscale and A Miracle available July/August, Forever Love is available in shops now; Chelsea Sept-Oct and Ribbon Floral August-Sept)

Next up is Ann Lauer with her rich new collection, Irresistible Iris. Deep purples and gorgeous flowers. Yum! Available in quilt shops July/August.

So much fun new fabric! Thanks for joining us on our booth tour. 

Click here to see the Contempo booth tour. 

Click here to see the Kanvas booth tour. 

Quilt Market Booth Tour: Kanvas

Welcome to day 2 of our three-day Quilt Market booth tour. Last weekend, we were in Salt Lake City sharing our newest fabric collections from Benartex, Kanvas and Contempo with quilt shop owners. Now we're ready to give you a sneak peek so you know what to watch for (and ask for!) at your local quilt shops. 

Today we're taking you on a tour of the Kanvas section of our booth from Quilt Market! The Kanvas booth featured three lines: The Music in Me, Dance of the Dragonfly, and Nature's Pearl.

Here's a look at the entire Kanvas booth:

No, your eyes are not deceiving you! We had a baby grand piano in the booth! It was the perfect scene setter for The Music in Me collection. Prints include piano keys, musical notes, baby grands, and musical words and symbols, all in a classic black, beige and cream palette. 

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

Next up, the Dance of the Dragonfly collection (there's a sneak peek above in the quilt displayed on the piano!). Beautiful lavenders, greens, and blues, all with a delicate gold accent. The purple colorway is shown here in the booth. 

Dance of the Dragonfly mixed with Nature's Pearl in the background.

Love the detail of these 3-D dragonflies on a backdrop of Nature's Pearl collection quilts. 

Click here to see the entire Dance of the Dragonfly collection.

Lastly, here's the Nature's Pearl collection. Black, gray, and cream prints--dandelions, swirls, dots, leaves and circles--a beautifully subtle line with pearlized accents. 

This quilt echoes the dandelion prints from the collection:

(And check out the monochromatic pillows on the bench below.)

Closer detail on the quilt and the dimensional dandelion puffs, which are made from antique lace.

Fantastic detail on this artsy quilt! 

Click here to see the entire Nature's Pearl collection.

Click here to see the Contempo booth tour. 

Check back tomorrow, when we'll finish our Quilt Market booth tour. 

Quilt Market Booth Tour: Contempo

Welcome to day 1 of our three-day Quilt Market booth tour. Last weekend, we were in Salt Lake City sharing our newest fabric collections from Benartex, Kanvas and Contempo with quilt shop owners. Now we're ready to give you a sneak peek so you know what to watch for (and ask for!) at your local quilt shops. 

First up, Contempo. 

Here's a look at the full Contempo section. We highlighted three main lines: Kitchen Love by Cherry Guidry, Sparkle by Amanda Murphy, and Lemon Squeezy by Holly Helgeson

Cherry in her booth. Her new collection, Kitchen Love, is exactly what the name suggests: lots of love for all things kitchen-related! And of course, with Cherry, you'll see plenty of whimsical applique and embroidery work as well. 

Sweet hand towels and a cupcake wall hanging:

Table toppers, wall hangings, a purse, a pillow and more:

Love the main quilt in the booth--so much detailed and beautiful applique and embroidery design!

This beautiful wall hanging uses the text print as the background:

Click here to see the fabrics in Cherry's Kitchen Love collection. Available in shops August/September.

Next up is Amanda Murphy's new collection, Feathers & Flourishes. This line features Amanda's well-loved feathers and flourishes, as well as intricate medallions! Don't forget dots, a fancy stripe, and geometric prints--great coordinates or stand alone prints. 
Here's Amanda in the booth:

And a closer look at this medallion-style quilt, built out from an appliqued center motif.

Quilts, pillows, sundresses, a sunhat, a tuffet...so much fun!

Click here to see the fabrics in Amanda's Feathers & Flourishes collection. Available in shops July/August!

And last but not least, Lemon Squeezy by Holly Helgeson! This summery line is full of lime, bright pinks, and happy yellows. The prints include lemons (obviously!) and lemonade, but also an adorable pennant print, text print, and a cool chevron stripe. Think of Lemon Squeezy as an upgrade on your childhood lemonade stand ambitions.

Click here to see the fabrics in Holly's Lemon Squeezy collection. Available in shops June/July.

Check back tomorrow, when we'll continue our Quilt Market booth tour. 

Find that Fabric! Answers + Winners

Happy Monday! 

We hope you enjoyed our Find that Fabric game, introducing you to some of our new fabric collections that debuted at Quilt Market. We'll be back soon with a tour of our Quilt Market booths, but for today we're sharing the answers to Find that Fabric and the winners, randomly drawn from emails with the correct answers. 

First, the answers:

And now, the winners:

Ann Dunn

Gene Black

Judy Chastain

Allison Church Bird

Mary Davis

Diane Oaks

Renie Rowland

Beth Talmage

Diane Schumtzler

Congratulations and thanks for playing along! 

The winners will each receive a randomly selected FQ bundle of fabrics from one of the collections featured in the game.

We'll be contacting you for your mailing addresses so we can get your fabric prizes sent out. 

Find that Fabric! Day 3

Today is the third and final day of our Find that Fabric! game--some fabric fun for you while we're at Quilt Market.

Here are today's swatches; if you need a quick recap of how this works, scroll to the bottom of the post or click here for the full instructions. 

Find that Fabric: Day 3

Swatch #1

Swatch #2

Swatch #3

Remember, to enter: 
Find the fabric on our website and identify the collection name, the actual fabric name, and the fabric SKU. Email us at socialmedia23 (at) gmail.com by 10 a.m. Sunday, May 22 with the correct information for each swatch. This contest is now closed. Thanks for playing! 

Find that Fabric! Day 2

We're back with another round of our Quilt Market game, Find that Fabric! 

Here are today's swatches; if you need a quick recap of how this works, scroll to the bottom of the post or click here for the full instructions. 

Find that Fabric: Day 2

Swatch #1

Swatch #2

Swatch #3

Remember, to enter: 
Find the fabric on our website and identify the collection name, the actual fabric name, and the fabric SKU. Email us at socialmedia23 (at) gmail.com by 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21 with the correct information for each swatch. 
This contest is now closed. Thanks for playing!

Find that Fabric! (+ Bali Hop Winners)

We're in Salt Lake City at Quilt Market this week, sharing our newest fabric collections with quilt shop owners. While we're doing that, we thought we'd have some fun sharing some of these same fabrics with you! 

It's time for...

Find that Fabric! 

Each day, we'll post a fabric swatch from each of three different brand new fabric lines from Benartex, Kanvas, or Contempo. 
Your mission: Find the fabric on our website and identify the collection name, the actual fabric name, and the fabric SKU. 
How to win: Don't leave the answers as a comment. Instead, email us at socialmedia23 (at) gmail.com with the correct information the day's swatches and you'll be entered for a chance to win a FQ bundle of one of the fabric lines we'll be featuring. Each correct answer each day is an entry, so if you correctly identify all nine fabric lines we show, you'll have nine chances to win! One email per day per person, please.
Timing: We'll be showing three swatches a day for three days, beginning today. You'll have 24 hours to find the fabric and email us; then that day's contest ends and we move onto the next one. 

Here's an example:

Find this fabric:

After browsing the website, we found this swatch in the Chelsea collection. The specific fabric name is Addison Light Turquoise, SKU #894-84.

You'd send us an email with "Find that Fabric" in the subject line. In your email, you'd write:
Swatch #1: Chelsea - Addison Light Turquoise #894-84

Caution...browsing our website may introduce you to many new "must-have" fabrics! 
Have fun! 

Find that Fabric: Day 1

Swatch #1

Swatch #2

Swatch #3

Remember, to enter: 
Find the fabric on our website and identify the collection name, the actual fabric name, and the fabric SKU. Email us at socialmedia23 (at) gmail.com by 10 a.m. Friday, May 20 with the correct information for each swatch. This contest is now closed. This contest is now closed. Thanks for playing!

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

Bali Blog Hop Winners

Here are the winners from last week's blog hop. Congratulations! We'll be contacting you via email for your full names and addresses. Prizes will be sent out after Quilt Market. 

Monday: Chris @ made by ChrissieD
The winner is: Karin

Tuesday: Stephanie @ Stitched Together Studios
The winner is: Sue Halter

Wednesday: Benartex Blog Design Team
The winner is: Dody

Thursday: Kirsten @ KD Quilts
The winner is: Monica

Friday: Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts
The winner is: Janet T.

Saturday: Debby @ Debby Kratovil Quilts
The winner is: Rosa

International Museum Day

Did you know that today is International Museum Day? 

(Side note to whoever comes up with all of these "days"...we'd like a "No Housework Day," an "Eat All the Chocolate You Like Day," and a "My Bobbin Will Never Run Out Day," if you're ever short on themes to celebrate...)

In honor of Museum Day, here's a list of (and links to) several quilting museums. Plan a trip to visit one--they're an amazing combination of visual eye candy and rich history! 

The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY

The Quilter's Hall of Fame in Marion, IN

The New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA

The San Jose Museum of Quilts in San Jose, CA

If you've been to one of these or another quilting museum, leave us a comment letting us know what you liked best from your visit. And feel free to also leave a comment adding other museums to the list!

Bali Blog Hop: Day 6

It's Saturday! Welcome to the last day of our Bali Blog Hop. We hope you've enjoyed all the block tutorials we've featured this week. Up today is Debby Kratovil with a lesson in ruler use that you'll enjoy! Debby always likes to say that she lets the fabrics tell her what they would like to become. Whether they whisper to her or send text messages to her cell phone - she trusts what they say! Check out her tutorial on how to make hexagon flower blocks and then head over to her blog for a chance to win a bundle of Rio and Dolce fat quarters. Let's join her as she tells us how the  Rio and Dolce Collections of batiks guided her.

Batiks from the Dolce and Rio Collections by Benartex

Hello, blog readers! 
Here are the five colors I chose for my project from the lovely Dolce and Rio collections. 

Five fabrics for Debby's flowers

I am still enamored with hexagon shaped blocks and patches. The most recent is the jewel (some call it a gem). I discovered how to cut it using a standard acrylic ruler with 60 degree lines and a 60 degree multi sized triangle ruler. For a finished 6" high jewel, I cut 4-1/2" wide strips. Then I cut the selvedge off on the left side at a 60 degree angle as shown below. I measured 4-1/2" from that edge and cut again. I was able to get three of these diamonds from each 4-1/2" x 22" strip (remember, I'm working with fat quarters).

Cutting 60 degree diamonds

I did this for each of the four bright batiks. The black and white will be my background fabric.

4-1/2" 60 degree diamonds

Then, to make the jewel, I needed to cut a 2" triangle off of one pointed end. Why 2"? Because the diamond will finish to 4". Other than that, I just know it works, ok?

Cutting a 2" triangle from one end of each diamond

Jewels and cut away triangles (which I don't use in this project)

I then cut 2-1/2" triangles from my black and white batik. These are cut using a multi-sized 60 degree ruler which I bet is in your sewing studio!

2-1/2" high 60 degree triangles

Here's is how these patches work together:

Sew a small triangle to each short side of all the colored jewels

And then what? I used 6 of the units above to make my daffodil block.

Sew 3 jewel/triangle units together into a large half-hexagon; repeat

I pressed the triangles away from the yellow fabric (toward the black batik). All other seams were pressed open.

Here is my "Daffodil" block, which finishes to 12" high.

Daffodil Block #1

And then I sewed a block using two each of the other 3 colors:

Tri-colored Block #2

And then I sewed one last block, also using two each of the other 3 colors, but this time I put each color together and if you use your imagination, you might see hearts!

Three Hearts Block #3

I hope you enjoyed seeing how versatile your acrylic rulers can be. No need to buy single size templates for these shapes!

For a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the Dolce and Rio fabrics we're featuring in this blog hop, head over to Debby's blog. Let her know which of the 3 blocks you like (#1, 2, or 3).

Click here to see the entire Rio collection.
Click here to see the entire Dolce collection. 

Stop back each day this week to catch all of the tutorials!
Monday: Chris @ made by ChrissieD
Tuesday: Stephanie @ Stitched Together Studios
Wednesday: Benartex Blog Design Team
Thursday: Kirsten @ KD Quilts
Friday: Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts
Saturday: Debby @ Debby Kratovil Quilts