More Owls

We received a shipment of some cute owl fabrics in soft colors: 

with some coordinates:

And a cute border print:

 Remember I said the new Timeless treasure precut batiks came with a free pattern? Well Nancy was very industrious and whipped up this colorful table runner from a charm pack seen below:

 

Very pretty and perfect for fall!
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Also, we were able to reorder the camp-a-lot line from Riley Blake for folks who were interested in making the quilt from our free pattern or because they had their own plans for these adorable fabrics!

The fabrics should be in the store soon!

Camp-a-lot-Quickie!

Camp-a-lot Quickie

(Camp-a-Lot fabrics are by Riley Blake Company and available at Quilters Crossing)

You will need:

1 Camp-a-lot layer cake

1 Camp-a-lot panel

7/8 yard light beige background

1 1/2 yards backing (I used fireflies)

1/2 yard binding ( I used brown zig-zags)

Optional: 1 1/2 yds wonder under or steam a seam

Cut your beige background fabric to measure: 29”x39”

Cut 8 of your layer cake squares in half so you have 16 5”x10” pieces. I stuck to the darker prints so there would be plenty of contrast. Be mindful of the directional fabrics---->(If they are directional think about how you will place them around the 29”x39” panel and let that determine whether you cut them up and down or side to side- if you want all your words etc.. to be right side up.)



Lay your 5”x10” pieces around your beige background. You want an even distribution- move them around until you like what you see! ------>Remember to be careful with the directional fabrics if you want everything right side up! Sometimes it is easier to space them out and then fill in with the ones that aren’t directional.

You will sew three end to end for the top and repeat that for the bottom. Sew onto the beige panel top and bottom. Press.

The sides will each have 5 sewn end to end. Sew them together and then sew onto each side. 



Option 1.You can make a “ticker tape” quilt from here- meaning you will layer the quilt thus far on batting and the backing as you would to baste but do not pin! 

FIRST cut up the panel arrange the pieces in a pleasing way leaving 1/4-1/2” space all around. Move them, rearrange etc... You will have a few holes that you can fill in by cutting pieces of your leftover layer cake to size for the hole. When you have everything as you like it all the holes filled THEN you pin everything down with safety pins-- going through all the layers. Take the quilt to the machine and do a narrow but dense zig-zag stitch around each patch. This method makes puffy little pillows in each patch and is quick and easy. It will fray when washed and is generally not as durable an end product but is a fun and easy method. After all the patches are stitched down you quilt the border as you please and finish it off with binding as you normally would any quilt.

Option 2. You can make a sturdier version of this quilt by applying a fusible to the panel BEFORE you cut it up. Then proceed to arrange the pieces as above in option one. Fill in the holes with your extra layer cake pieces be sure to apply the fusible to them as well. Once your arrangement works for you, iron down all your patches and proceed to layer your quilt with batting and backing and stitch down all the patches with a narrow, dense zig zag stitch through all the quilt layers. Then finish the quilting of the border as you please and bind normally.

(note- I did not use every bit of the panel, there were some leftover which could be used on the back as a label)

New for the kids

It's been a while since we have had a new line in the shop from Riley Blake but, "So Happy Together" 

was just too darn cute to pass up!

 Little houses....

 Mod flowers and Hexies!

 Circles and stripes! 

Then we whipped up samples of this bib pattern:

We chose the "Oink a Doodle Moo" charm pack- 

this pattern makes three different bibs out of 1 charm pack and 3 fat Quarters! See:

As the kids say, "Totes adorbs!" 

New Fabrics

Moda has come out with charm packs of batik fabrics! Its like candy! Love it!

We also received a pattern seen above that uses these charm packs to make three table runners. Quick and easy you start sewing when you sit down instead cutting first- the work is done for you!

We also received these Riley Blake Sewing and handwork themed bolts:

 More definitions- yes we are sewing nerds but it is so darn cute!

Closer look: 

Just over one week left in Quilt Across Texas Shop Hop 2012! 

Samples for the shop

Here is a completed quilt, as promised. It is a crib/throw size and made using Riley Blake Fabrics from their line called "Wheels". They are a smaller fabric company that honestly, I had never heard of before Deb and Patricia started the shop. They were a good find though. We are carrying 2 of their lines: Wheels and Colorful Christmas. We also have some of their fun notions- velvet rick-rack in several colors! (I am such a sucker for rick-rack, I will definitely be adding that to some projects soon) They are one of those companies that use the same colors and designs for multiple lines so it is easy to mix and match a project using their fabrics.

The pattern I used is from "Quilter's World" magazine April 2010 issue, designed by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar. I changed it a bit outside the lattice work to suit my taste and the fabrics I had chosen but, it looks pretty close to their original design. I think this pattern would work well for a lot of kid fabric lines if they are traditionally designed (one large scale print, one strip/plaid, dots, a tone-on-tone and smaller scale colorful coordinates). With this recipe you can kind of plug the fabrics into quilts like this to make quick cute quilts.

Here is a close up of the details.

I quilted it on my domestic machine with pretty good results though don't look too close! The polka dots with the brown background are prairie points. They added a cute touch on this especially since it is a kid's quilt.

Patricia is busy with other shop samples as well as customer quilts on the longarm. It is so neat to watch the quilts transformed by the quilting! I will post some pictures of other samples as they are completed.