Technique Tuesdays with Debby Kratovil: East Meets West

Debby Kratovil is here today, working with the Sakura collection by Greta Lynn for Kanvas, and making perfect circles!

Beautiful fabrics from the Sakura collection from Kanvas

What did these fabrics say to you, Debby?

Butterflies remind me of Spring. Are you coming, Spring?

I wanted to make something simple, letting the fabric take the stage. Simple shapes: circles and squares. Did I say that circles are simple? Easy? Of course. Let me show you how!

Isolate a butterfly. Cut out a circle of freezer paper.

I drafted a 6" circle and printed it. Then I traced it onto freezer paper. I will center it on my butterfly.

Captured all of the butterfly within the circle

Now I iron the freezer paper circle to the WRONG side of the butterfly. It will be my sewing guide.

Cut a piece of medium weight interfacing larger than the circle

Now for the fun part!

Sew along the EDGE of the freezer paper circle (I've already peeled the circle off)

 Now we trim, leaving 1/8" - 1/4" seam allowance.

Trim!

OK. Now you're confused, right? It's like I painted myself into a corner. How do I get out?

Clip into the interfacing and turn the butterfly circle right side out. Press well (but not on the interfacing side)

OK. How does it look from the front?

Butterfly auditioning for a background fabric

Chose this due to the irregular etched lines.

Butterfly pinned and ready for stitching

What color thread did I use? Black, but I also found that finer-than-usual thread disappears into the fabric much better. I changed my thread after the first circle was stitched. I also used black in the bobbin. Why? Because sometimes the bobbin thread "beads" up to the top and I didn't want little specks of white or cream to show on the front.

Now it's time to clip away background fabric and interfacing

Notice that I used a narrow, short machine zigzag stitch.

Now it's time for my alternate block for the 5 butterfly blocks.

Make simple 4 Patch blocks

 And how does the quilt look?

Sakura Butterfly Quilt

10" blocks. 42" x 42" quilt. I will quilt it with my friend Jeannine's walking foot along the straight lines. Then I'll free motion quilt each block individually.

Thanks, Debby, for the great tutorial! 
To enter to win some Sakura fat quarters, make sure you are a follower of our blog (you can sign up to follow by email or through a blog reader in the right hand sidebar) and then head over to Debby's blog and leave a comment on her Sakura post, letting her know you're following, and if you've ever made circles for a quilt before. The giveaway will remain open through Friday, March 14th at 11:59 pm EST.

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Blue Skies: Downloadable PDF pattern

It's March (finally!) and spring is around the corner (right?). 
We all need a little incentive to get to spring right now, and Jackie Robinson is providing it with a free pattern for Benartex blog readers--her Blue Skies quilt. 

The quilt uses her He Still Loves Me Collection (read more about it here), and those daisies and sunshine-y blue and gold hues are certainly a much-needed breath of fresh air! 

Here's Jackie!

I'm WILD about log cabin blocks, of any type.  The alternate blocks in the Blue Skies quilt are the courthouse steps variations of the traditional log cabin.
And stars . . .  well, they are always wonderful.  The larger ones have fussy cut centers of the lovely daisies from He Still Loves Me.

I had been tempted to call this quilt 'BIG SKY' as a nod to my Montana home, though I decided BLUE SKIES was a bit more generic, and they are certainly blue here! I hope you enjoy this free quilt pattern--it uses some of my favorite blocks and fabrics (including that daisy border!). 

Click here to download the pdf of Jackie's Blue Skies pattern. Printing directions: Print in landscape format, placing pages 2 and 7 on the back of 1 and 8,  and 4 and 5 on the back of 3 and 6. Fold. Instant pattern! 

I'd love to see your version of Blue Skies! Be sure to stop by my Facebook page, like it, and share a photo of your work.

Find the kit for Blue Skies here.
Learn more about Jackie here.

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Kids' Quilts Blog Hop Winners

Thanks to everyone who commented on our Kids' Quilts Blog Hop! Please send a photo of any quilts you make using the patterns from the hop to sewinlovewithfabric (at) gmail.com or post them on our Facebook page--we'd love to see them and feature them. Below are the randomly selected winners for each day's bundle.

Congratulations to:

Day 1: Monkeying Around Bundle

Day 2: English Rosey

Day 3: Doodle Dogs

Day 4: Yard Dog

Winners, we'll be emailing you to get your mailing address so we can send out your fat quarter bundles. Happy sewing!

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And...we posted the Sewing Olympics winners on Facebook, but just in case you missed the announcement, here they are:

Gold: Janice Stockwell 

Silver: Laura Piland 

Bronze: Karen Johnson 

Congrats, ladies!

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What a star!

As you might expect, we love seeing our fabric made into quilts. And we love seeing those quilts in magazines and patterns. But there's just something about seeing a quilt made with our fabric on the cover of a magazine! Walking into a quilt shop or Barnes & Noble, or even the grocery store and having this jump out is pretty great!

Yep! That's a quilt made with Benartex fabric on the cover!
Diane Tomlinson used the Dori collection by Mitzi Powers to create this star-studded beauty, called Star Flowers. The pattern is featured in the March/April 2014 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine. Check out the flat shot of the quilt in the magazine--row after row of stars, point to point. Beautiful!

"Star Flowers" by Diane Tomlinson and machine quilted by Luann Downs;
featured in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting March/April 2014

After admiring this quilt, which we fell in love with at first sight, we asked Diane to share with us how she came up with the design, chose the fabrics, and even worked with those tricky set-in seams!

What attracted you to the Dori collection?  

The colors and whimsical design of the collection.

What do you like about mixing the fabric collection with white?

In this case, it shows off the clear jewel tones of the fabric!

Why stars?

I had the design drawn up and when I saw the collection, it just fit and was perfect.

Any tips for cutting the diamonds? Or for set-in seams?

Use the Fons & Porter Diamond Ruler for cutting them out and mark the corners for the set ins, starting and stopping at each, and you'll get along fine.

How did you narrow down the color palette?

I wanted the softer prints to soften the piecing.

What do you like best about this quilt?

How springy it feels.

Can you tell us about Luann's machine quilting?

When I sent it to her, I told her to do what she felt fit the quilt and when I got it back, I was pleasantly surprised to not only see the colored thread, but unique quilting that was perfect!

This looks like a project for which a design wall would be a huge help. How did you go from having the stars and diamonds on the wall to assembling them?

I worked in sections, laying out on my floor after it outgrew my design wall and put parts together and then rearranged to try to distribute the color.

What do you envision this quilt being used for?

My granddaughter's youth bed when she is old enough.

See the entire Dori collection here.

Find Love of Quilting here.

Watch a video lesson on cutting 60 degree diamonds here.

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Kids' Quilts Blog Hop Follow Up

We hope you enjoyed our Kids' Quilts Blog Hop last week! 

Today we're sharing a couple additional patterns for kids' quilts as well as information on more charities accepting quilts. Stephanie Sheridan of Stitched Together Studios recolored two of Benartex's free patterns using the four lines featured last week. 

The Park Avenue pattern, originally designed using the Cachet collection, shown here in Doodle Dogs and Monkeying Around:

Doodle Dogs

Monkeying Around

Find the free pattern here.

Yardage requirements:

	Original Cachet Fabric	Monkeying Around Fabrics	Doodle Dogs Fabrics
A	FQ 3430-70	6445-84	6442-84
B	1/3 yd. 3431-70	6446-44	6442-09
C	1/3 yd. 3432-70	6447-44	6442-12
D	1/3 yd. 3434-70	6446-12	6441-84
E	1 1/8 yd. 3437-12	4800-04	6440-01
F	¼ yd. 3437-22	6448-12	6440-12
G	¼ yd. 3437-66	6448-44	6440-84

The Purr-fectly Precious pattern, originally designed using the My Little Kitten collection, shown here in English Rosey and Yard Dogs:

English Rosey

Yard Dogs

Find the free pattern here.

Yardage requirements:

	Original My Little Kitten Fabric	Yard Dogs Fabrics	English Rosey Fabrics
A	½ yd. 3630-55	¼ yd.   5717-77	½ yd. 6436-09
B	½ yd. 3630-01	¼ yd.   5717-79	½ yd. 6436-55
C	¼ yd. 3633-01	1/3 yd.  5874-07	¼ yd. 6438-55
D	¼ yd. 3633-55	5874-07	¼ yd. 6438-84
E	2/3 yd. 3635-84	2/3 yd. 5718-09	2/3 yd. 6437-01
F	2/3 yd. 3635-10	2/3 yd. 5718-79	2/3 yd. 6301-99
G	2/3 yd. 3635-59	2/3 yd. 5718-77	2/3 yd. 6437-26
H	¾ yd. 988-52	¾ yd.   5717-10	2/3 yd. 6436-84
I	1/3 yd. 3634-55	1/3 yd. 5874-12	1/3 yd. 6439-26

Binky Patrol
Making blankets (quilted, knitted, crocheted) for children born HIV+, drug-addicted, infected with AIDS or other chronic & terminal illnesses, those who are abused, in foster care or experiencing trauma of any kind.

Wrap Them in Love
Collecting donated quilts and distributing them to children around the world, so they can be wrapped in love and comfort. 

100 Quilts for Kids
Wherever you donate your quilt, share it here--an online initiative to encourage quilters to make and donate quilts in their area

Margaret's Hope Chest
A family's way to turn tragedy into hope, by collecting and donating quilts to those in need (many of them children).


p.s. If you missed last week's blog hop, check out the links here:

Day 1: by the Benartex Blog Team, featuring Monkeying Around
Day 2: by Nikki from The Girl Who Quilts, featuring English Rosey
Day 3: by Emily from Mommy's Nap Time, featuring Doodle Dog
Day 4: by Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict, featuring Yard Dog

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