Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle

I had a blast wandering through the Fat Quarter Shop picking out fabrics for my own Designer Bundle! 

In case you haven't heard, Quokka Quilts and FQS have a great giveaway going on.  

• Choose 12 prints and 3 solids from the awesome selection of fabrics found on the FQS website.
• Create a picture collage of your choices, blog about your bundle.
• Go to Quokka Quilts to post a link to your blog post.

Easy peasy because it's fun!!  You can get all of the details on the post.


My starting point was the color chosen by Pantone for 2012--Tangerine Tango.  I'm not sure if that exact shade is in any of my orange fabrics, but there were lots of lovely orange fabrics to choose from.  Then I picked out some of the other prints in those fabric collections.  Next was choosing the colors to compliment the oranges--I decided on blue-green and red-violet.  Oh my goodness,  they said 12 prints not 20+!!! 


To winnow down my selection, I pasted the jpg's into my Paint program.  Once I found a combination of prints that I liked,  I chose three Kona solids to set them off.   I think this bundle would make up great as a summer into fall quilt.  


Here's my list of print fabrics (l to r):

• Crazy Daisy Blue Rhythm
• Meadow Friends Dragonfly Orange and Boy Lots of Dots
• Floral Folio Dark Orange Wavy Stripe
• Outfoxed Peach and Purple Wild Vines
• Floral Folio Dark Violet Allover Leaves
• Floral Folio Cream Large Floral
• Floral Folio Dark Violet Little Floral
• Flora Tangerine Secret Windows
• Crazy Daisy Turquoise Tile
• Meadow Friends Dragonfly Orange and Girl Curly Swirls
• Flora Turquoise Flower Bed
• Floral Folio Dark Orange Lots of Dots

The 3 solids are all Kona cottons:

• Eggplant
• Peach
• Snow

Window shopping in my pj's is always fun.  Maybe I can even save enough money to purchase my collection before all of the fabrics are sold out.  Maybe....

2011 Trends in Quilts

This past year certain trends have caught my eye.  I've seen lots and lots of aqua and red colored quilts.  Orange was seen a lot, too.  Maybe that is why Pantone's color of the year for 2012 is Tangerine Tango!  Yummy :)


Another trend, and one I truly love, is embroidery.  My great-grandmother taught me how to sew by hand using cross stitches on checked gingham.  This started my love for hand embroidery.  In the 70's, when bell bottoms were the rage, I embroidered a rose design on my husband's jeans using satin stitch.  He would wear his embroidered chambray shirt with the jeans whenever we went out dancing.  Wish I had pics!


One of my favorite sources for original embroidery designs is Bustle and Sew.
Helen puts out a monthly magazine that has lots of great ideas for embroidery and vintage knitting and crochet.  January's issue comes out tomorrow!  Until the end of the month one can subscribe for $4.50/month.  Starting in January the cost goes up to $5.70/month.  Bustle and Sew also has free patterns and downloadable patterns at reasonable prices in the Etsy shop.


Now I need to get myself into gear!  Lots of 'to do's' and UFO's just a-waitin'.....

Henry Glass Holiday Project Parade

I've been having a blast doing all the hops available this time of year. It's a great way to find new blogs full of inspiration. There are usually projects and/or recipes to collect and often giveaways, too! And who doesn't love a chance at free quilty goodies :0)

Right now I'm doing the HGHPP (see post title). Great projects that would make great gifts and decorations and lots of giveaways. There's even a grand prize at the end from Henry Glass! There's still time to join in the fun....

In Stitches is doing the Holly Jolly Bingo again by popular demand. I was surprised since I thought they were closing their store The Quilt Shoppe.

Merry Christmas!!

Lone Star skill building book giveaway!

There is a virtual book tour going on right now that features a truly awesome book about Lone Star quilts.

Star Struck Quilts by Barbara H. Cline starts with beginner skills and builds up to more advanced piecing. The pictures I've seen of her quilts are truly awe inspiring.

Check out this blog tour at Canton Village Quilt Works for an opportunity to win a copy.

I found another GO! giveaway

thanks to Rene at Luv 2 Kreate.

Check out the really cute hexagons Sherri has been making. She used the hexie die and Flea Market Fancy scraps. Cute, cute, cute :D

So if you want another chance at winning an Accuquilt GO!, GO! check out A Quilting Life.

Good Luck!

Hexie tutorials and a GO! giveaway

Lots of giveaways in blogland, but the ones I can't resist are the ones that are giving away an Accuquilt GO! cutter!

Sew Many Ways has one going on right now.  It ends Sept 1st so there is still time to enter.

To show off the great stuff that can be made with the GO!, Karen is using the hexagon die to make all sorts of cute projects. Which means great tutorials for us!  In fact she has a tute for English paper-piecing hexies as well as one for machine piecing them. Which way do you prefer: hand stitching or machine stitching?

Check out her tutorials and be sure to enter the giveaway--Good Luck!!

Another GO! giveaway

Accuquilt is so generous! There are giveaways happening all the time. I keep entering and keep hoping I'll be one of the lucky winners :D
For instance:

Sweet P Quilting and Creations is doing a great tutorial on making courthouse step blocks using the Accuquilt GO! Paulette is using the 1 1/2 inch and 2 1/2 inch dies to make the blocks and strip sashing. This is going to be a really cute quilt using homespun cottons from her stash!

Oh yeah, the giveaway! It ends August 31st, so hurry over to Paulette's blog and enter soon. Good luck :D