Bonnie Christine's Quilt Market Booth with Art Gallery Fabrics

With another quilt market behind us, I thought I might share some photos of my daughter's booth at Art Gallery Fabrics. We (Bonnie, Sarah and I) were busy bee workers in the weeks prior to market, finishing projects in record time! Bonnie's new line will release in February, and will be the perfect lift for a wintry sewing day!

These soft colors of grey, teal, peaches, deep rose and creams are feminine and calm. Forest friends include a hare and a luna moth among all the botanicals you'll find in a forest. A pattern for the quilt, shown above (more pics here), will be available when the fabric releases and at that time you'll find links to all the projects in the coming Forest Floor Look Book that will be published online by Art Gallery Fabrics. A shout out to Sarah for sewing up the rabbit ear jacket and the knit peach top, and the 241 Tote from Noodlehead.

Here are a few close-ups with a little more detail:

Bonnie made her logo using her Silhouette Cutting Machine. I can't say enough about how great these little machines are. In my book, quality and ease of use are two essential must-haves for anything technical, and Silhouette fits the bill on both fronts.

All the skus shown above will be available in 100% Pima Cotton, with a couple in canvas and voile.

Bonnie made this huge moth, which will probably land on the wall in little Ollie's nursey soon!

Stellar seamstress Sarah skillfully sewed a sweet shirt, smock and shoulder-bag).

Thank you for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless. Maxie

International Quilt Market Time!

It rolls around every October...International Quilt Market! I usually go with my daughter, Bonnie Christine, to both fall and spring markets, but I'm sitting this one out because Bonnie has a new baby girl! That aside, we (Bonnie, Sarah and I) still made lots of projects with her new fabric line, Forest Floor, for her booth with Art Gallery Fabrics. It will begin shipping in January, and I think it just might be my favorite line yet! I thought I'd share the quilt I made with you today. I've named it Forest Floor Path, and I'll release the pattern to coincide with the fabric launch, which I'll post here at that time, in case you're inclined to make your own!

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At about 50" x 65", it's perfect for the sofa or chair!

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The piecing was easy as pie, and the design left lots of negative space for quilting. It stitched together quickly and it was on the longarm after just a couple of days at my sewing machine! Now the big question of how to quilt loomed overhead. In usual mode, I made several printouts of the quilt and went to town drawing various free-motion quilting designs on them.  This gave me a good start, but I always change things when I'm actually at my HandiQuilter.

The blocks were fairly easy to quilt with a geometric design in the plain corner patches and a grid in the cross. I discovered that the 4" HandiQuilter circle ruler fit in the center of the block, and the largest one fit around the outside of the 9" square. So the design just naturally grew from the way my rulers worked with the blocks. Sometimes quilting just happens, one design at a time!

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While the circle didn't fit over the block, the 2" line fit perfectly on each side of the block. I quilted all four sides independently with the ruler and filled the arcs with circles and ribbons. Recently, HandiQuilter offered a new channel lock for their line-up of non-computerized machines. I can't tell you how much I love this option! It makes stitching straight horizontal or vertical lines and grids a breeze!

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If you haven't tried quilting in negative space, I hope this encourages you to give it a try. Let it happen one design at a time and see what happens! Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless! Maxie

It Seems I'm Partial to Partial Seams

There are some types of quilt blocks that some of us avoid because we believe they are harder than usual, right? I've written about 'Y' seams with tumbling blocks and hexagons and I hope you've given those a try. Today I want to take the mystery out of another technique: the 'Partial Seam'. I'll break it down into each individual step and I know you'll see that it's really a piece of cake!

Here are the patches, laid out as they will be sewn together. As you can see, the seam lines don't line up straight across the block as they would in, say, a nine patch block. What to do?

In the first photo, I've flipped the white square up on the strip unit, right sides together. Taking that unit to the sewing machine, I've sewn about half way down the side of the white square (middle photo). Open it out and place it back in position.

The next unit to sew in place is the unit on the right side of the white square (shown above in the first photo). The third unit to sew in place will be the bottom unit (middle photo). The last unit to sew in place will be the left unit. Fold the unsewn portion of the top unit out of the way so that the last unit can lie flat against the white square's edge.

Now, there is only one last step!

Fold the block so that the edges of the unsewn sections are right sides together. Stitch the remaining portion of the seam, overlapping the beginning stitches (on the white block in the first photo) just a tad. Press your seams and you're done! Now all your friends will say, "How'd she do that?"

Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless! Maxie

Succulence Fabrics Look Book!

I've been anticipating the release of Art Gallery Fabric's Look Book for Bonnie Christine's newest fabric line, Succulence! My wait is over! The free online book is ready for your viewing pleasure! Inside you'll find lots of inspiration for beautiful quilting projects, bags, clothing and home decor. I love the colors Bonnie chose...rich burgundy, emerald green and warm golds. Take a peek and don't stop until you reach the end, where you'll see the tumbling block quilt Bonnie and I designed as a free download for Art Gallery. Click on any of the photos below to view the book, which has live links that will take you to the sources for most of the projects. And if you live in my neck of the woods, stop by my quilt shop for a trunk show with many of the actual projects from the book!

Click the picture to view the Look Book

As you probably know, Bonnie Christine is my daughter! You might enjoy her blog, going home to roost, filled with lifestyle inspiration, tutorials, free fun stuff and more. You can also read a little about her in the Look Book. (Yes, she's as sweet as she seems!)

Click the picture to view the Look Book

Here's a little peek at that tumbling block quilt, Terrarium, that Bonnie and I designed for her fabrics. In the Look Book, you'll find a link to the free pattern. You can find the fabrics here, with free shipping!

Click the picture to view the Look Book

I hope you enjoy the book and are inspired to create something beautiful today! Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless. Maxie

Quilt Inspiration

We can find inspiration for quilts in the most unexpected places. Like the entrance foyer to Mimi's Cafe Restaurant. I snapped this picture as we stood waiting for our table, and pondered the possibilities throughout our dinner.

It's in the very preliminary stages...but I took the image to my Electric Quilt software and in just a few minutes I had this drawing. It needs a bit of work, granted, but I thought I'd share how our inspiration comes when we least expect it. Maybe it's just a beautiful color palate from a photo that you love, or an architectural structure that has great geometric lines.

Because Electric Quilt offers Bonnie's fabrics as a download, I was able to choose them for this color variation. (You can also import your own fabrics from the web or by scanning fabrics from your own stash!) Where do you find inspiration?

Thanks for visiting. Happy sewing and God bless. Maxie