Cherry Guidry's Kitchen Love

If you're a fan of all things homemade (especially sweet treats!), you'll love Cherry Guidry's new Kitchen Love collection for Contempo. Scroll down to read more about her inspiration and see the patterns available using these fun prints. 

Where did the idea for Kitchen Love originate?

I had been wanting to make a furniture or house-themed line and the kitchen was the first thing I thought of. It’s all about heart and home. Home is important to me. It’s the place where everyone gets together, shares their lives.

Tell us about some of the kitchen items included in these prints.

A lot of the stuff you’ll find in my kitchen. I have a white stand mixer and I just love it. I thought I needed an aqua one because I love aqua—this collection seemed like the perfect place to get an aqua one without buying one.

The little timer and the scale—I have ones just like them.

I like tea, so I included tea pots and tea cups.

How did you develop your color palette?

Of course aqua/turquoise always makes it in. But I also wanted to incorporate a little more deeper color. One of the main prints and one of the word prints have a black background. I still used the lighter colors too, and they coordinate with previous lines. Some of the beaded circles are the same colors as in Sunday Ride, and then we added in a few new colors—red and fuchsia. These darker colors provide options for a more traditional feel to your quilt.

Tell us about all these fun coordinates!

I created the scallop looking print to look like stacking plates.

My husband thinks the daisy print looks like candy corn.

I love word prints—I was excited to include it here. I looked for cute fonts and incorporated words having to do with the kitchen and backing, and then added in items from the other prints, like the spoon and rolling pin.

What’s your favorite print?

The apron print. I love how it turned out with the shadowing effect behind the aprons. I made a little wall hanging with aprons in it. I got onto an apron kick. And of course the panel for this collection is an apron.

Cherry designed "Just Eat Cake" as a free quilt pattern available on our website.

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

These three patterns are available for purchase from Cherry's website:

"Kitchen Love," a themed sampler quilt full of fun appliques

"Tea Time," a table runner and two small wall quilts

"Live Simply," a wall quilt a small quilt, and placemats

Click here to see the entire Kitchen Love collection.
Click here to find out more about Cherry and purchase her quilt patterns.
Click here to read Cherry's post about her Kitchen Love Quilt Market blog post.
Click here to find Cherry's free quilt pattern. 

Carmen in Stars

We always love to see what our customers make with our fabric collections! We recently received the photo below and knew we had to share it. Jill Baxter from the Minding My P's and Q's Quilt Shop in Denton, Texas, combined the Carmen collection with the Shimmering Constellation free quilt pattern available on our website. We think you'll agree that the result is stunning!

Our Shimmering Constellation free quilt pattern, made by Jill Baxter using the Carmen collection.

Wendy Sheppard originally designed the Shimmering Constellation quilt using the Gold Standard/Simply Sterling collection from Kanvas.

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Click here to see the entire Carmen collection.
Click here to find the Shimmering Constellations free quilt pattern. 
Click here to visit the Minding My P's and Q's Quilt Shop website.

Amanda Murphy's Sewing Room collection

Amanda Murphy's new collection is designed with sewists in mind--she calls it a "celebration of sewing." It features all our favorite things--sewing machines, scissors, rotary cutters, spools of thread, pins, buttons. Sew much fun! Keep reading as Amanda talks about her new Sewing Room collection. 

The sewing machine print also comes with Bernina branding. This print is available only in quilt shops that are also Bernina dealers. Ask for it at your local Bernina dealer--it will be available soon!

Where did the idea for the Sewing Room collection come from?

I’m a BERNINA Quilting and Longarm Spokesperson and I always thought it would be so great to have Bernina machines on fabric. Every print has to do with a particular facet of sewing. In addition to the machines, the line has scissors and rotary cutters on a herringbone background, which I think gives it a modern feel. The print that looks like circles is actually pins. The spools of thread look like Aurifil spools because I have coordinating thread collections with Aurifil.

Tell us about the palette.

The colors are all bright—starting with the Bernina red. I added black to ground it. Then there’s a periwinkle blue, aqua, green, and light red. I wanted the line to be really happy.

How did your Sewing Room Sampler Quilt play into designing this collection? 

(scroll down to see the quilt image below)

All of the things in the line are reflected in the blocks—the sewing machine, the dresses, the spools, a big scissors. I designed the quilt as I was designing the collection, so I was planning for it all along. The pattern is a Block of the Month. I will soon be releasing free alternate finishing directions—showing ways to use each block for something else. For example, the thread block becomes a thread bin, the buttons become a pillow, the machine becomes a sewing machine cover.

What are your favorite prints?

I have to say the Bernina sewing machine print because I love my machine. But I also like the thread spools, the embroidery print, and the tape measure makes a really great binding.

Amanda designed a free quilt pattern, Zig Zag Stitches, which can be downloaded from our website. 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Amanda has two thread collections that coordinate with the Sewing Room collection. 

The first contains contains 8 spools of 28 wt. and two spools of 12 wt.

The second, for piecing and quilting, contains 11 large spools of 50 wt.

Check out Amanda's quilt patterns available for purchase--they've been designed for her Sewing Room Collection: 

Click here to see the entire Sewing Room collection.
Click here to find the Zig Zag Stitches free quilt pattern.
Click here to find out more about Amanda and her work (and purchase her patterns).

From the comfort of your own home...

Imagine taking a quilting class without leaving your sewing room. You can wear your pajamas, choose to sew any time of the day or night, and even pause and rewind the teacher's words. Sounds great, doesn't it?! These are just a few of the advantages of taking a quilting class via video. 

McCall's Quilting University has produced a set of quilt along videos to make this Glorieta quilt featuring our Ribbon Floral collection. The videos are currently available for free on the McCall's website; so get your fabric for the quilt, start watching them now, and get quilting! 

"Glorieta" Quilt Along quilt; designed by Sarah Maxwell and Dolores Smith of Homestead Hearth;
pieced and quilted by Peg Spradlin

Click here to find information on the Glorieta Quilt Along.
Click here to find the kit for the Glorieta Quilt Along.

Chelsea

Today we have another Dover Hill Studio collection--very different from the Heritage prints we showed you recently, but just as fun! Chelsea brings back the turquoises and olive greens of the 70s in retro-style prints. Big 70s-era florals and tapestry prints, a classic paisley, and cool coordinates. Great for accents in a neutral family room (pillows! curtains! a cozy couch quilt!) or a redecorated guest bedroom. 

Check out our two free quilt patterns featuring Chelsea:

"Capri" 

by Linda Leathersich and Stephanie Sheridan of Stitched Together Studios

Click here to download the quilt pattern

"Chelsea Morning" designed by Heidi Pridemore

Click here to download the quilt pattern

Click here to see the entire Chelsea collection. 

Click here to find the free quilt patterns. 

Splash of Color: Series Finale

Back in the spring, we introduced you to Sarah Vedeler's "Splash of Color" quilt, which was being featured as a 6-part series quilt in McCall's Quilting magazine. The sixth part just came out in the November/December 2016 issue of the magazine, and we fell in love with this quilt all over again! 

The quilt combines fussy-cut pieces, patchwork, and applique, all featuring Sarah's Transformation collection from Contempo. 

You see so much detail, but the fabric does so much of the work! 

Click here to read our original interview with Sarah about the Splash of Color quilt.

Click here to see Sarah's Transformation fabric.

Click here to visit Sarah's website and find the Splash of Color designs. 

Click here to find McCall's Quilting magazine (The November-December issue features the 6th part in the Splash of Color series.)

p.s. Have you seen Sarah's Transformation Black & White collection? It's featured in a tutorial here and you can see the entire collection on here our website. 

A Taste of Americana

If you love vintage prints and a patriotic palette, we know you'll love the new Heritage Reds & Blues collection from Dover Hill Studio. These mini prints are beautiful in rich reds and burgundies and deep navies and colonial blues, all accented with warm cream tones. The details in these prints are reminiscent of the old mill-engraved prints from the 1800s. Our favorite? The wallpaper stripe, available in six different color combinations. 

We've split the fabrics up into blue and red palettes below, but of course they work well together too. 

Ready to use these gorgeous red and blue prints? Try the two-block design in the "American Tradition" by Heidi Pridemore. This free quilt pattern is available on our website. 

Click here to download the quilt pattern.

(p.s. Watch for a table runner pattern featuring these prints in the upcoming issue of our Fat Quarterly newsletter!)

Click here to see the entire Heritage Reds & Blues collection.

Click here to find the free quilt pattern. 

This quilt along is calling your name!

Have you ever participated in a quilt along? It's like taking a quilt class from the comfort of your own home with long distance quilting buddies to keep you moving forward! 

McCall's Quilting University is hosting the Glorieta Quilt Along featuring our Ribbon Floral collection, and you can join in right now! This 12-week quilt along is hosted by contributing editor Laura Stone Roberts, and in addition to the pattern, you'll find video lessons to help you along. 

"Glorieta" Quilt Along quilt; designed by Sarah Maxwell and Dolores Smith of Homestead Hearth;
pieced and quilted by Peg Spradlin

Click here to find information on the Glorieta Quilt Along.
Click here to find the kit for the Glorieta Quilt Along.

Somebunny to love

We've got another sweet baby collection to share with you, Hunny Bunny from Kanvas. The collection is packed full of sweet little bunny silhouettes and comes in two colorways, pink/gray and blue/green. You'll fall in love with these prints from the bunnies on plaid to the carrot geometric print. Of course there's a stripe, and two different sizes of scattered bunny prints (love those plaid bunnies!). We've rounded out the collection with three Colorweave prints--a great textured tonal. 
And...it also comes in flannel! 

The "Snuggle Bunnies" free quilt pattern uses a classic quarter Log Cabin block to make a snuggly quilt for a baby. It's shown below in both the pink and blue colorways. Download it today! 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Click here to see the entire Hunny Bunny collection.
Click here to see the flannel version!
Click here to find the free quilt pattern.