Peppermint Pinwheels - On The Design Wall: completed

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Inspired by Amish Quilts? Um, YEAHH!

Recently, the modern quilt guilds of the SF Bay area were approached for an exciting new project. The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles will be showing Ohio Amish quilts from the collection of Darwin D. Bearley and guilds were invited to submit Amish inspired quilts of our own for a simultaneous show, called Amish: The Modern Muse, curated by Joe Cunningham.

Wow! I didn't even know where to start designing because there's so much inspiration to choose from! Well, I finally narrowed it down to wanting to work with triangles, so I chose the traditional Railroad Crossing pattern to work with. I decided that I wanted to incorporate scraps and pieces of up-cycled fabric, so I visited SCRAP, a great re-use store in San Francisco that carries a huge variety of donated fabrics, and picked up a lot of small pieces of black fabric scraps. As much as I love the wonderful prints of new fabric designs, I really enjoy the process of making quilts the way they were originally made - patchworked with small bits and pieces left over from other things that were too small for making clothes, but too dear to throw away.

Once I'd but the quilt top together, I decided to use a wool batting, as I've been a bit obsessed with Welsh quilts lately, as well as Amish. The wool batting gives the quilt some loft, so that when I quilted the borders, the design really shows through. This is important on Welsh quilts, because they are often wholecloth, so the entire design comes from the quilting alone, plus, they have a lot of wool there! Welsh quilting is AMAZING - kind of a bit chunky and archaic looking and so much fun! If you are on Facebook, follow Jen Jones' Welsh Quilt Centre as she occasionally posts photos of her collection. Drool!

So anyway, enough chatter about my quilt. Here's what it looks like!

X Quilt

X Quilt, back

X Quilt, quilting detail

The Modern Muse show is curated, so it's possible that my quilt won't make the cut, but I've seen some of the other East Bay Modern guild member's entries, and I know it's going to be amazing! If you want to check it out, the Amish show opens on November 15th and runs until March 1st. If you can't make it to San Jose, you might want to get a copy of Darwin Bearley's book, Antique Ohio Amish Quilts. He sells it personally through his E-bay site, so you could even ask for a signed copy. That's what I did! It's a beautiful book!

In wrapping up, I'm excited to announce the winner of the Kim Andersson's Tidal Lace fat quarter collection is Nancy! Kim was on the Modern Sewciety podcast a few weeks ago talking about her design inspirations and you can really get to know her a little bit just by listening!

Tidal Lace Blog Hop and a Give-Away!

Who's my favorite expat Aussie? Kim Andersson of I Adore Pattern! I met Kim awhile back when the fledgeling East Bay Modern Quilt Guild was still meeting in a coffee shop in the early days of the Modern Quilt Guild movement. She has a great sense of humor and always has on the biggest smile. I'm so happy I get to see her at least once a month for guild meetings!

We were all very early supporters of her fabric design career, (as everyone who has seen a Kim Andersson quilt knows - she does great design!) and followed her progress on the The Printed Bolt fabric design competition without surprise when she did spectacularly. I kept gushing that her Tidal Lace print was amazing and I MUST have it...and then guess what -- she got Windham Fabrics to print it for me! Isn't that the best?!!!

Of course, when her first fabric line came out, I snatched it right up and today I get to participate in her first blog hop, which is my first blog hop, too! I decided to make a Mariner's Compass floor cushion, as it seemed fitting with the sea theme and I LOVE paper piecing. (My dog keeps eyeing it lovingly, so it might go from fancy floor cushion, to pampered pet bed...we shall see...he's been stealing the cat's bed a lot lately.)

Photos by Danielle Collins

Want to make one of your own? I'll have a pattern coming out soon and if you'd like to win a Tidal Lace fat quarter bundle of your very own, enter a comment below telling me what cool project you've got in mind for the collection. I'll pick a winner at random on September 30th!

Win your own Tidal Lace fat quarter bundle!

In the meantime, check out the other posts on the blog hop to see more exciting projects, or check out Kim's beautiful look book!

Monday, September 15 - Windham Fabrics / Kim Andersson - I Adore Pattern
Tuesday, September 16 - Erin Harris - House on Hill Road / Amy Gunson - Badskirt / Cath Mosley on Instagram
Wednesday, September 17 – Anne Sullivan - Play Crafts / Stacey Day - Stacey In Stitches
Thursday September 18th – Adrianne Ove - Little Bluebell / Terri Carpenter - The Quilted Fox
Friday September 19 - Pati Fried - See How We Sew / Amanda Hohnstreiter - My Sewcial Hour
Saturday September 20 - Ann Haley - Sew Messy / Madeleine Roberg - Domestic Strata
Sunday September 21 - Cal Patch - Hodge Podge Farm / Rebecca Ringquist - Drop Cloth
Monday September 22 - Alicia Wietholter - Swoon Patterns / Stacey Sharman - Peppermint Pinwheels
Tuesday September 23 - Jen Carlton Bailly - Bettycrockerass / Miriam Blaich - The Berlin Quilter

Lovely Tidal Lace

Yay! My friend and fellow East Bay Modern Quilt Guild member, Kim Andersson, of I Adore Pattern has a new fabric line! Called Tidal Lace, it's full of fun and whimsy and I was lucky enough to watch her develop her first line from the beginning. I'm a huge fan!

Working in top secret, I made a floor cushion for the Tidal Lace lookbookhttp://www.windhamfabrics.net/cgi-bin/fabricshop/catalog.cgi?brochureID=19.

Compass Floor Cushion, photo by Danielle Collins

The lookbook is filled with tons of other wonderful projects. I especially love the star fish hairclips and the starfish pin cushions, but those are just what first pops out at me. There are so many creative uses for these prints!

The Tidal Lace Lookbook.

Congratulations, Kim! I can't wait to see what comes next!

Making: The Embers Quilt

The Embers Quilt is finished! It's the latest sample for my Confetti Quilts class, so I rushed it down to the shop and hung it on the wall. I barely even had time to take a picture of it! I think it photographs nicely next to the blazing red wall of the New Pieces class room.

If you are interested in learning how to make your own Confetti Quilt and live in the SF Bay area, I'm teaching the next class on March 7 & 14, 2012, 10 AM - 12 PM at New Pieces in Berkeley, CA. It's fun - I promise!

I pulled an all-nighter!

Well, I didn't actually stay up all night, but it was close! I'm a big fan of sleep, so you know it's important if I'm staying up late and waking up early. I'll just come out and admit it, I went on vacation, over-committed myself, and fell a bit behind on my obligations. But, although I'm a bit sleepy today, I'm happy to say, I finished!!!