Spring-spiration!

It's mid April and we're all eager for spring flowers. If Mother Nature isn't cooperating, we can enjoy those flowers in fabric! Today we're featuring two magazine quilts packed with florals. These issues are on sale now, so grab your own copy and start sewing!

Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton used Kanvas' Floral Impressions collection to create the lovely Romantic Impressions quilt. The name describes this soft rose and ivory quilt perfectly! 

"Romantic Impressions" designed by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton;
quilted by Naomi Polzin; featured in Quilter's World Summer 2018

 Joanie talked to us about this quilt: 

What attracted you to the Floral Impressions fabrics?

I think what pulled me in first is the background print of loose petals and flowers. I actually worked backwards on this design—I knew I wanted that in the background because it was so romantic and fresh.

This collection comes in two colorways. How did you choose which to use?

I’m not usually much of a pink person, but the blush and cream combination was such a fresh coloration.

Tell us about the design.

The orange peel is such a nice gradual curve to work with, and I love the effect it creates. I like on-point layouts because it changes the feel of the block. It really creates movement and helps the circles to show up. We added a thin border to help stabilize the bias edges without standing out too much.

What do you like best about this quilt?

I just think it’s pretty. It has such a soft, romantic feel and I always love a good butterfly print. And I really love how the background fabric pulls everything together.

Click here to see the entire Floral Impressions collection.
Click here to find the Summer 2018 issue of Quilter's World.

Jackie Robinson designed this striking wall quilt using the delicious blues and yellows from her Hydrangea Blue collection. Made up of a simple block, the Color Drift quilt flows from blue to yellow with plenty of blooms along the way! 

"Color Drift" designed by Jackie Robinson;
pieced and quilted by Pat Szymanski;
featured in Easy Quilts Spring 2018

Jackie talked to us about her quilt: 
What inspired this quilt design?

It’s a take-off of my Easy Trip Around the World pattern. It uses the same simple block, but I changed the layout and color placement to create this design.

What makes this quilt so easy to sew?

It’s made from strip sets—you make what I call a “fancy nine-patch” which is a 3x3 with a couple of double long units.

You love the blue and yellow combination, don’t you?

I do. This quilt gradates from blue to yellow. There are three main color combinations that make people happy, and this is one of them. The prints that are both blue and yellow help to bridge between the tonal coordinates.

Photo: The Quilting Company

Click here to see the entire Hydrangea Blue collection by Jackie Robinson.
Contact Quilting and Crafts by Mercer to purchase a kit for this quilt. 
Click here to see Jackie's other patterns featuring Hydrangea Blue. 
Click here to purchase the digital quilt pattern. 
Click here to find the Spring 2018 issue of Easy Quilts magazine.

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Hydrangea Blue Virtual Trunk Show

If seeing Jackie Robinson's Hydrangea Blue collection has put you in a spring kind of mood, you'll enjoy her virtual trunk show today. Jackie is featuring her fabric in five quilt patterns and has also designed a free quilt pattern available on our website. 

"Easy Trip Around the World"

This quilt is made up of nine-patch blocks--what we used to call fancy nine-patch blocks. It works really well to make a Trip Around the World quilt. And the stripe border just finishes is nicely. 

Click here to purchase the Easy Trip Around the World pattern.

"Midnight Sky"
This is avariation of a Colorado Log Cabin, with stars in some of the corners. The different values of blues show up really well in this quilt. The center of each block features a fussy-cut hydrangea.

Click here to purchase the Midnight Sky pattern.

"Song Sung Blue" 
This is a Block of the Month quilt. It has five different kinds of blocks, so with assembly, it becomes a six-step BOM. It's a medallion-style quilt that is assembled in an on-point setting. There are little star flowers in the center and near the outside. I like this one alot.

Click here to purchase the Song Sung Blue pattern

"Weaver Four-ver"
This quilt is one of the reasons I like to have four values in my fabric collections. It's one of my favorite quilts. It's made from strip sets, sort of a bargello technique.

Click here to purchase the Weaver Four-ver pattern

"Woven Garden"
This quilt is so simple; it's a stripe flanked by two tonal strips. It looks more complex than it is.

Click here to purchase the Woven Garden pattern.

"Spinning Hydrangeas"
This is a unique quilt block made using snowball corners and half-square triangles. The yellow four-patches create a subtle secondary pattern in the background. There's a lot of spin in this quilt!

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Click here to see the entire Hydrangea Blue collection.

Click here to read an interview with Jackie about Hydrangea Blue.

Click here to visit Jackie's website and find her patterns.

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Hydrangea Blue

We're kicking off another January week with more spring inspiration. Jackie Robinson's new collection, Hydrangea Blue, is arriving in quilt shops now. Warm and fresh golds and blues, beautiful hydrangea balls, and a wide variety of tonal prints. Take a peek:

We asked Jackie to talk about Hydrangea Blue:

Did the hydrangea idea come from your garden?
Nope. We have too many deer to have things blooming. I think I have one tulip two daffodils. But hydrangeas are such a pretty flower with nice shape.

Let’s talk about the palette.

I’ve done a couple blue and yellow collections, and it was time for another really good blue and yellow story. It’s a popular color combination. The blues are pure and clean, as are the yellows. The greens have a tad bit of yellow in it—it’s a green that I can work with almost anything. The navy functions as the “black” in the collection. And because I like to do so many log cabin quilts, there are multiple shades of each color. I need those values.

Do you have a favorite print?

The big allover print with the dark blue background. I love how the flowers pop. Typically, the large focal print gets designed first, and then the stripe, because it uses the flowers from the large focal and makes it vertical.

Can you tell us about a few of the other prints?

The fresco petals have such a nice, soft texture.

The wave print is still a favorite of mine—it has such wonderful non-directional texture. There’s an entire line of different colored wave prints coming out later this spring, so watch for it.

I do like the tonal butterflies too. They have a nice flow and they’re a natural pairing with floral prints.

Click here to see the entire Hydrangea Blue collection.

Watch for a virtual trunk show featuring Jackie's prints this week!

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