Don't Call Me Betsy

Spring Market: The Fabrics

2012-05-23T06:11:00.000-04:00

I think I'm as recovered as I'm going to be from the fabric hangover I experienced on my trip to Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City, so I figured it was time for a wrap-up post. It was a fantastic trip, with boatloads of gorgeousness to see and super fun people to visit with. Aren't quilty people just the best people?

I saw a zillion things at Market, more than I could possibly remember, but here are my Top 10 fabric-related highlights from Quilt Market...

10. Riley Blake Chevrons - I love that Riley Blake is bringing these chevrons in multiple sizes, I think it is a super smart decision on their part, too. There will be not only small, medium and large chevrons but also tonal varieties in each size. All of the varieties should begin shipping in August, and I know I will be picking up quite a few of these for my stash!

9. Art Gallery - Art Gallery swept many of the booth awards at Market, and rightly so; their booths were just so stunning. The wall of their main booth was covered in squares of all of their fabrics, all mixed together and backed with foam core. Their Summerlove side booth was also gorgeous and so cozy feeling. I couldn't resist, I just had to pick up a little Summerlove to bring home for a new project! I'm also really excited about their upcoming Rock & Romance collection, coming out in September.

8. Odif - Odif is the great company who makes my favorite spray baste, 505 spray. They also make a cleaner spray, DK5, for those moments when you overspray your 505 (and other various craft sprays)!! You can pick up a can of your own at Sew for Less. The Odif folks also let us in on a little secret: if you can see your 505 when you're spraying, you're using too much. I think I don't mind using too much, as I like seeing the spray so I know it's there, but I thought I would share :)

7. Chicopee - I adore Denyse Schmidt's fabrics, so it was really exciting to get to see Chicopee in person before it comes out. Denyse's booth had a few precut samples to thumb through and also a wonderful wall of inspiration for the collection, complete photos of Sonny & Cher, Mary Tyler Moore, and many other remnants from her childhood. The collection is full of what Denyse is best known for: beautiful small-scale prints with rich colors. I'm seriously looking forward to this collection when it ships out in August.

6. Simpatico - Coming in June from Cloud 9 fabrics, Simpatico is full of soft peaches, grays, and blues. I'm super excited for this line. The prints have a real classic feel to them and I think this line will make a great addition to any stash. I also spotted GeoCentric, a new canvas collection coming late summer, full of super fun geometric basics. Awesome line for bag-making!

5. Storybook Lane - Kelly Lee-Creel is a new designer for Andover Fabrics, with a new line called Storybook Lane, shipping in the next few weeks, and several new patterns for her Ever Kelly brand as well. Her booth was gorgeous, and I especially enjoyed the star quilt Kelly featured.

4. Ruby Star Vinyl - Melody Miller's new line Ruby Star Vinyl is so hotly anticipated and rightly so. Her booth was total retro chic, from the Ruby Star Shining sofa to the cool retro record wall installation. No one does retro quite like Melody.

3. Mama Said Sew - Coming out in August, Sweetwater's Mama Said Sew is full of black, cream, gray, and red prints that celebrate sewing. There's some beautiful text prints as well as an adorable gingham. I think this was one of the first lines to sell out at Sample Spree and I think it's going to be super popular!

2. Madrona Road - I positively adored Violet Craft's first collection for Michael Miller, Peacock Lane, but I think I might just love Madrona Road even more. I'm not sure if it's the soft colors or the cursive print, but I'm head over heels for this collection. Is it August yet???

1. Bloomsbury Gardens - Some of the biggest buzz at Market was all about Liberty of London releasing new quilting cottons. One of the things I really like best about the new line is that while still gives the Liberty vibe, the colors are very different. Very vibrant, very bold, and perfect for quilting. I recall a while back that Liberty did a quilting cotton collection with Westminster Fabrics, and I think is a very different line from that one, consciously so. We got to meet the designer behind the collection, who said that the color choices and motif choices were very deliberate, that they truly thought about quilting and how to make the collection work best for quilters. I think this collection is a full-on home run, and I cannot wait to get some!

Sample Spree was also quite fun, with boatloads of grown women squealing when the line finally started moving and we were allowed in. The Moda table, by far, was the busiest, with a huge crush of people swarming around it. The Art Gallery table also seemed quite busy, with gorgeous stacks of their solids, Oval Elements, and other print collections as well.

In other Market news, I got my hands on my some fabulous new quilting books that I cannot possibly recommend highly enough: Quilting Modern, Modern Patchwork, Zakka Style and Sunday Morning Quilts. Not only that, but the authors were some of the nicest people I met during the entire trip. My flight home was made way more bearable by these wonderful books.

All in all, Market was simply amazing. I could probably write a post a day about Market and still have more to tell, but for now, this will do. There were so many fantastic things to see, and while I do think I saw them all, these were the ones that stood out to me. I also had the chance to meet so many wonderful people that have shaped me as a quilter and to meet even more people that I've only known online, who were even nicer in person. This trip to Spring Market is definitely going down in my book as one of the best trips I've had in a very long time. For more Market wrap-ups, you can visit Freshly Pieced and Sew Sweetness.

A belated winner :)

2012-05-22T09:03:00.000-04:00

Before I headed to the airport last week, I fully meant to pull a winner for my pattern giveaway, and I completely forgot!! I owe you guys a winner! Lucky commenter #45 is the winner of my new Bella Patchwork quilt pattern, and that's Katy Cameron. Congrats Katy :) I'll be emailing you the pattern this morning!

In between unpacking and trying to find homes for all of the wonderful things I brought home from Market, I'm working on my first Market recap post, so stay tuned for that tomorrow!

Home sweet home

2012-05-20T19:16:00.002-04:00

I'm back from the trip to Kansas City for Spring Market, and so far, I've still got a lot of mental processing to do before I can tell you much about the trip, I'm still recovering from the amazing visual overload I experienced there. I can say this much for sure, though: quilty people are the best people. I met so many wonderful people on this trip, and spent a good chunk of time with some fab girls I'm super lucky to call friends. I'm working on unpacking and pulling pictures off my phone and camera, so stay tuned for a wrap-up post some time this week. In the meantime, you can check out my phone pics on Instagram - I'm @dontcallmebetsy. I love fabric and had a blast at Market, but it sure is good to be home :)

photo by Erin Sampson @ Pellon
Amy/Sukie, Colleen, me, and Lee

WiP Wednesday: The mostly wordless one

2012-05-16T08:11:00.000-04:00

To market, to market, I go! Tomorrow, I'm hopping on a plane headed for Spring Quilt Market, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm looking forward to a great long weekend with friends and fabric. I haven't gotten much sewing done over the last week, though, I've been a ball of frenzied energy, checking off last-minute To Dos and making the many ridiculous lists that I feel I need in order to travel (such as the Carry-On packing list, the Local Eats list, the Closest Fabric Stores list, and the Sample Spree plan).

I manage did finish up a quilt this week, my Bella Patchwork quilt, and put the finishing touches on the pattern as well, which you can find at both my Pattern Shop and on Craftsy.

I'm also working on finishing up a little Jane Market Bag to tote around my goodies at Market. This pattern is so simple and quick to put together, I cannot recommend it enough!!

Stay tuned for a fun Market recap next week! I'm looking forward to sharing the whole experience when I get back :) Don't forget to link up your works in progress over at Lee's!

Introducing: The Bella Patchwork Quilt & Pattern

2012-05-14T06:03:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my pit stop on the inspiration tour for Jennifer's latest sewing contest, the Summer Sewing contest. Jennifer has lined up some awesome prizes, to be given away in four different categories: quilts, home decor, clothing, and bags & accessories.

Summer sewing means a lot of things to me, but more than anything, summer sewing to me is about fun. Sewing things you want to sew, using fabrics you love, and in that spirit, I'm super happy to share my newest quilt finish and pattern, Bella Patchwork. It features some gorgeous new prints from Lotta Jansdotter's upcoming Bella collection for Windham Fabrics, paired with lots of fun supporting guest star fabrics from my stash.

I love the way the simple patchwork creates some neat echo effects throughout the quilt. I also love the pops of lemon-lime throughout the quilt, and in Lotta's new line. I think that lemon-lime is going to be a very hot color for summer.

The PDF pattern for Bella Patchwork is available on Craftsy as well as in my Pattern Shop. This pattern is charm pack friendly and would also work great with fussy-cut charms. The PDF includes full-color illustrations to assist you in your quiltmaking and provides four different size options for you to choose from, ranging from a baby size quilt to a queen size quilt. My quilt is the lap size, 62 1/2" x 75", which is perfect for a summer picnic.

I had some fabulous pattern testers helping me out with this pattern, thank you so much to all of you! Katie, Michelle, and Susan, you girls are fabulous, I cannot say thank you enough :) Check out their gorgeous Bella Patchwork quilts!

Katie from Katie's Korner

Michelle from CityHouse Studio

Susan from Patchwork and Play

To celebrate the release of my new pattern, I'm having a giveaway (GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED) of a free pattern for two randomly chosen, wonderful readers of my blog!! To enter the giveaway, simply leave me a comment here telling me about your favorite summer color palette. Are you a fan of pinks and yellows? Lemon-lime and gray? Pastels? I'd love to hear from you :) This giveaway will be open until Wednesday May 16th at 11:59 p.m. EST. THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Also, make sure to stop by to see the other great inspirational posts on the Summer Sewing blog hop:

May 7: In Color Order

May 9: Sew Crafty Jess

May 11: Stitched in Color & Canoe Ridge Creations

May 14: Don't Call Me Betsy & Sweet Deisel Designs

May 16: Olive and Ollie & I Like Orange, Too!

May 18: Diary of a Quilter & Craft Buds

May 21: Lots of Pink Here

May 23: Love Affair With My Brother & Sukie

May 25: Stitchery Dickory Dock & LR Stitched

May 28: The Busy Bean & Fresh Lemons Quilts

May 30: Random Thoughts Do or Di & Sew Sweetness

Have a great Monday!

A winner and a peek!

2012-05-07T17:18:00.002-04:00

I nearly forgot that I owe you all a winner! It's been a crazy busy kind of day in my neck of the woods, but in a good way. Without any further ado, the lucky winner of a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 5 as well as one of my patterns is Lucy, of Charm About You! Congratulations, Lucy, I'll be emailing you shortly!

And because I can't post without a new picture, here is a sneak peek of my Radiant Ring quilt, coming together thanks to the awesome ladies of the Stash Trad bee. I've almost got all of my blocks now, but I'm digging this one so much that I'm going to be making some additional blocks myself to make the quilt bigger. The blocks I've been getting in the mail are so awesome, I just love this bee!

I hope you're having a great Monday!

Getting sketchy

2012-05-04T06:54:00.000-04:00

I sat down and did some sketching this week. I usually sketch at the dining room table, while the munchkin is eating a meal, since he is a fantastically slow eater. This week, he asked for me to work on his new quilt, so I turned to a new piece of graph paper and started drawing. Inspired by what Jessica did recently with a handful of Drunkard's Path blocks, I thought about pairing some Drunkard's Path blocks with some rectangles to create long, medieval windows...like the kind you'd see in an old-fashioned castle...

See, while the munchkin is fully obsessed with all things superhero-related, his second obsession is knights. He loves the new show "Mike the Knight" on Nick Jr and one of his favorite things to do is to run around the house with his foam shield and sword and pretend to be a knight.

So I started drawing a castle with these windows on my trusty graph paper. And then, the following conversation ensued...

Munchkin: What are you drawing, Mommy?

Me: A castle.

Munchkin: What for?

Me: Your quilt.

Munchkin: Oh. But Mommy, superheroes don't live in castles.

Me: I know. But maybe one side could have superheroes and one side could have a castle.

Munchkin: (thinks about it for a moment, then smiles) That's a really good idea, Mommy.

Me: Thanks.

Munchkin: Will it be ready for bedtime tonight?

Me: Um....no, baby. Not for a little while yet.

Munchkin: Tomorrow night then?

So...I think I'm going to do a patchwork castle on the back. Goodness knows I've got plenty of gray fabrics to work with!

Now if only I could decide what to do with the front!

WiP Wednesday: The short and sweet one

2012-05-02T06:39:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy couple of days, and I don't think things are going to ease up any time soon, so let's get right to it! Here's my short and snappy WiP update...

Moving right along
My Quiltmaker 100 Blocks mini (and the giveaway is still open, click here to enter!) - It's looking super cute so far, so I'm wondering if maybe I love this enough to turn it into a lap size quilt. I really love the colors, but it's so uber-girlie...I think I'd have to sell this quilt if I make it bigger, because it sure doesn't fit with my house decor (what little there is of it!), so I'm still pondering what I want to do here.

My Precious QAL Pillow - I finished up my blocks for this little pillow, need to stitch them all together and find a fun print to use as a border to tie them all together. I'm thinking something gray, but I'm not sure yet.

NY Beauty Mini Swap - Almost done! I got as far as basting this little quilt this weekend...and promptly felt stumped as to how to quilt it. I'm hoping inspiration will strike soon!

My next pattern - Chugging right along, thanks to the help of some wonderful pattern testers. :) I'm hoping to finish this one up in another week or two.

Going nowhere fast ;)
Patchwork Wheel scrap quilt
May Stash Trad block for Felicity
Munchkin's new quilt

What are you working on this week? Hop on over to Lee's to link up your projects and to check out what everyone else is working on! I hope you're having a great week so far!

My Beautiful Math block: Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour

2012-05-01T07:08:00.000-04:00

NOTE: This giveaway has now closed. :)

Hello there, and welcome to day two of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks blog tour! I'm super excited to say that I have a block in the volume five issue, hitting newsstands any day now. If this is your first time stopping by my blog, welcome!

My block is in some wonderful company in this issue, alongside fabulous blocks from some of my super talented friends Lee, Faith, Katie, and Melissa. You can find my block, #457, on page 52.

My block is called Beautiful Math and consists of four plus signs, with one singular background fabric. I used some of my favorite fabrics from Anna Maria Horner's out of print Good Folks collection for my block in the magazine. You can do some really fun things with this block, depending on how you place your color selections. Here's a couple of fun ideas...

You can make your blocks totally scrappy, using four different colors for your pluses...

You can choose a handful of colors and create a cool staggered, stair-step look...

Or you can stick with just two colors, and create something really striking...

I spent a little time this weekend starting on a mini-quilt featuring my block in a color scheme that I've been meaning to try for a long time - black, lime, and fuschia. I haven't finished it just yet - I have a sneaking suspicion this might turn into a larger quilt, as I'm really enjoying these colors together!

black fabrics: Free Spirit Designer Essentials Houndstooth in Dark Grey and Annie's Farm Stand Seed Catalogue in black
fuschia fabrics: Erin McMorris's Wildwood Wallflower in Gray and Liz Scott's Sugar Pop Dot Dot Dot in Eggplant
lime fabrics: Jenean Morrisson's Silent Cinema Starlet in Green and Bonnie & Camille's Ruby Sundae Scallop in Lime

Be sure to check out Quiltmaker's Blog, Quilty Pleasures, for more prizes and blog hop participants! The 100 Blocks Volume Five Blog Hop runs April 30 - May 4.

To celebrate the release of volume five, Quiltmaker is giving away a copy of 100 Blocks to one of my readers and I will also be giving the lucky winner their choice of one of my patterns.

To enter the giveaway, please leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite book that you've read recently - quilty or otherwise. I'm always on the hunt for a good read :) Please be sure to include your email address, so I can get in touch with you if you win! This giveaway will be open until midnight EST Sunday, May 6th, and I will announce the winner shortly thereafter.

WiP Wednesday: The one with lots of color

2012-04-25T06:46:00.000-04:00

I'm so happy to finally share a sneak peek one of my recent finishes with you, my Springtime Hues quilt, which will be in the 9th issue of Fat Quarterly, the Kids & Teens issue. If you don't already subscribe, this is going to be a great issue to pick up, because it is chock full of new patterns, including one from me! A little birdie told me that this issue should be out very, very soon!

In other news, I managed to conquer the vacation laundry and get behind use my machine on some projects I can actually share for a change! Here's what I've got going...

NY Beauty Mini - Almost done! I finished piecing the tiny (read: evil) HST border and then added one more border for good measure. I think I'm done with the top at this point, just need to work on the backing and figure out how I'm going to quilt it. I think I'm going to be going with some straight lines, in some kind of echo formation.

My Precious QAL Pillow - I've got three more blocks done, now just three more to go. I'm really loving how these blocks are coming together, and I want to pair them with a fun pindot border for the finished pillow, just need to hunt in the stash for the right one.

Patchwork Wheel scrap quilt - Still going, just at a snail's pace ;) I got as far as making some HSTs this week, though I haven't pressed or trimmed them just yet.

My next quilt pattern - In the works! Pressing and cutting is moving right along! Thanks for the outpouring of folks willing to test the pattern, I really appreciate it. You should be receiving an email from me shortly if you have not already heard from me.

May Stash Trad block for Felicity - Felicity picked a churn dash block for her turn this month in our Stash Trad bee, playing with values a bit and using bright colors. This is going to be a fun one to work on!

Oh, and I almost forgot - my Star Crossed Stitch quilt is featured over on QuiltStory today!

What are you stitching up this week? Write it up and share it over at Lee's WiP Wednesday linky!

Happy, happy stacks of fabric

2012-04-23T06:49:00.000-04:00

It was a good weekend in my neck of the woods, in spite of the off-and-on rainy weather. We got started on some spring cleaning, I conquered the laundry, and I finished reading a good book from the library. And I even managed to do some fabric shopping :) On Saturday, I trekked over to the local quilt shop and couldn't resist picking up a couple of strong stash builders, including two fat quarters of Annie's Seed Catalogue print from Holly Holderman's Annie's Farm Stand collection for Lakehouse Dry Goods. I also really dig those two herringbone prints, they would make awesome binding!

L-R top row: Caroline Gavin Spring Street Sketchbook Flowers in Green, Stella Dot in in Navy Blue, Caroline Gavin Spring Street Leaves in Gold, and Northcott Groovin

L-R bottom row: MM Ta Dot, Maude Asbury Calypso Kite Tails Orange, The Quilted Fish's Apple of My Eye in Green, The Quilted Fish's Apple of My Eye Herringbone in Red, and two fat quarters of Annie's Farm Stand seed catalogue print in black

I've gotten some really fun fabric mail over the last week, including a special package from the fabulously productive and talented Thomas Knauer, who's third line for Andover Fabrics, Savanna Bop, will be shipping later this spring. These prints are bright, fun, and perfect for a sweet quilt. I pulled a couple of other fabrics from my stash to go with and I'm brainstorming on what I want to make with them. I suspect there might just be some paper piecing in store for these fun fabrics.

I was also lucky enough to receive an advance charm pack of Lotta Jansotter's next line of fabric for Windham Fabrics, Bella, which is just as gorgeous, if not more so than her first collection, Echo! I instantly knew what I wanted to do with these beauties, so I went straight to my sketch book and went to town. Next thing I knew, I was pulling together some stash prints to pair with this fabulous charm pack for my next quilt pattern. Speaking of which, are you interested in testing my new pattern? Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email!

What did you do this weekend? Happy Monday!

Lots of magical memories

2012-04-19T08:11:00.001-04:00

As cheesy as it sounds, even going to Disney World as an adult feels pretty darned magical. We took my munchkin on a family vacation to the house of mouse over the last week and have returned home exhausted, but happy. It was so much fun, I wish my husband had been able to get more time off of work so we could have stayed longer!

Seeing all the sights and sounds of Disney with a four-year-old is really special. His eyes would light up when he would see a character that he knew, especially those that didn't have big, heavy costumes and could actually talk with him. He was even a bit shy with several of the princesses that he met, which was just adorable.

He loved all the rides we went on, with one exception - the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride scared the crap out of him the first time around, but he later demanded to try again and loved it the second time. I think his favorite ride was probably the Toy Story Mania ride at Hollywood Studios, which really was a blast. When you wait through the line, all of the toys in Andy's room are people-sized, so you feel like a toy, and much like watching "Toy Story," you see lots of toys you had when you were growing up, which is a lot of fun, too.

The Electrical Light Parade at the Magic Kingdom was quite possibly his favorite part of the entire trip. Between the music that seemingly dates back to the first time I saw the parade many years ago and the familiar characters, he had a huge grin on his face the whole time, and so the grown-ups in our family.

The Tomorrowland Speedway at Magic Kingdom was probably a close second to the Toy Story Mania ride - especially because the munchkin could actually steer the little car, which ran on a track so even with his limited steering skills, no one would get hurt. A grown-up had to ride with him to reach the gas pedal, but he had so much fun driving!

Fantasyland was definitely a lot of fun for all of us, especially my mom, who rode on the Dumbo ride with the munchkin. He loved controlling how high Dumbo flew!

My mom treated the munchkin to his very own set of ears. He picked out a pair of Sorcerer Mickey ears and wore them for most of the trip. He loves the Sorcerer's Apprentice story and made a beeline for these ears, then proceeded to try on every other pair of ears we could find, to make sure he liked these best. I have to say, there are so many more kinds of ears than I remember when I was a kid! R2-D2 ears! Woody the Cowboy ears! Pluto ears! Very funny to watch the kiddo try all of them on :)

It feels so good to be home and sleeping in my own bed again, but we had such a good time on this trip. Definitely a magical trip, and definitely one I'll remember for a long time to come. I missed you all, and I hope to get back in the sewing groove this weekend after I conquer the humongous pile of laundry glaring at me as I type this! Wish me luck!

WiP Wednesday: The one with the packing

2012-04-11T06:51:00.000-04:00

It's an exciting week over here, between announcing that I'll be teaching at Sewing Summit and preparing for our family's first vacation to Disney World this weekend!!! I think I am actually more excited about taking the munchkin to Disney World than I ever was going there myself as a kid. I cannot wait to see the look on his face when he sees the Magic Kingdom, I am so looking forward to it! I did manage to pull myself away from the excitement of gearing up for vacation to do a bit of sewing I can actually share for a change, but I don't expect to see my machine a whole lot this week. Here's what I've got going this week...

Finished:
Mod Mosaic block for Brooke

Still going:
Patchwork Wheel scrappy blocks - Up to three blocks now! Still a bazillion to go if I want to make this big enough to fit on my bed eventually, but there's no rush here at all. Just having fun with it :)

NY Beauty mini - Still auditioning borders. I busted out a pack of Thangles I got for my birthday and used them to create a zillion 3/4" HSTs. Not really a zillion, just 160 of them because when I counted how many each strip made, I was apparently suffering from some serious brain fog...rather than each strip making 5 HSTs (by my count), they made 10. So I wound up with twice as many as I wanted, but that's okay. I'll find a way to put them to use. Anyway, I laid out the HSTs in a flying geese-like formation, and I think I might just be digging it. We'll see, I'm going to leave this up until after I get back from my vacation next week and see what I think then.

My Precious QAL pillow - A while back, Tamiko posted a gorgeous simple paper piecing pattern on her blog that she used to make a beautiful pillow in the Pillow Talk Swap. I pinned it, and thought about using it as a bee block, but I just didn't think I had enough super special awesome fabrics to use in the center of the blocks. Lo and behold, Tamiko sent me a gorgeous little scrap bundle from her very own stash (thank you!!!) and when I saw Kelly starting up the My Precious QAL, for all of us fabric hoarders, I knew it was time to make myself a little something with the fabric Tamiko sent as well as my own hoarded stash. I've made three of these little blocks so far, and anticipate making at least another 6, if not more. I'm having a lot of fun so far, taking a scrappy approach to the blocks.

What are you working on this week? Write it up and share it over at Freshly Pieced!

Psst...I'm teaching!

2012-04-10T16:48:00.000-04:00

So, the cat's officially out of the bag...

I'm teaching at Sewing Summit!!! Yippee! I'll be team teaching an advanced piecing class focusing on paper and foundation piecing with the wonderfully talented Lee from Freshly Pieced. I'm so looking forward to making paper piecing and foundation piecing less scary, because it really can be fun and create gorgeous precise blocks!

It's funny, this teaching gig makes me think of my old working days, as I spent a lot of time teaching physicians and researchers how to use PowerPoint and other audiovisual tools for presentations and lectures, so it's kind of wild to think of myself teaching about something I'm so passionate about. I am so looking forward to getting to meet all of you who are attending Sewing Summit this year and to have another fun weekend with my wonderful gal pals. I know the tickets for Sewing Summit are currently sold out, but you can learn more about the wait list at the Sewing Summit site, if you're interested. I so hope to see some of you there!

A little weekend sewing

2012-04-09T10:07:00.002-04:00

A little weekend sewing led to a finished bee block for Brooke. She's working on a Mod Mosaic quilt, and each of our blocks uses a gradated color scheme. My color was green, and I think I may have gone a bit overboard in both adding from my stash as well as in emphasizing the gradation. I had fun working on it, but I'm worried I didn't do a good job following direction here. I hope you like it, Brooke!! If not, I'll try again! :)

I also managed to make a boatload of tiny HSTs (thank you, Thangles!) that I'm thinking of using to border my NY Beauty mini. Still pondering on this one...

Hope you all had a good weekend! Happy Monday!

Tag, I'm it!

2012-04-08T11:33:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter to you and your wonderful families today :)

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I checked my email after our family egg hunt and found a little note from Cindy of Hyacinth Quilt Designs. Do you know Cindy? You should :) She's the wonderful quilter behind the wildly popular Garden Fence block tutorial, and she is such a sweet person. I made a Garden Fence quilt, using Cindy's tutorial, last year using Tula Pink's gorgeous Prince Charming fabrics.

Cindy got tagged by some blog friends recently and tagged me in return, asking me 8 fun questions...here goes...

1. If you're not quilting, what are you most likely doing?
Reading...or maybe baking. I used to spend as much time reading as I now do quilting, it was my first real hobby to speak of. It's shocking to me that I now own more fabric than I do books, since my book collection was always something that seemed overflowing and humongous to me. I do definitely still read, but these days I mostly read e-books on my Kindle. Baking is another fun hobby of me, that I've been doing my whole life. I love the precision of baking, whereas cooking is way less fun to me. I have a mean sweet tooth :)

2. Do you buy fabric with a specific project in mind or "just because"?
Rarely. I tend to buy fabric I love, regardless of whether or not I have a project in mind for it. I usually purchase fabrics in half-yard or yard increments, depending on the price, when I'm buying frivolously. This could explain why my fabric collection is starting to outgrow its current space...

3. How many quilting projects do you have going at once?
I'm usually a multitasker, flitting between several ongoing projects, but lately, I've been trying to tame that habit a little bit. In the past, I'd try to juggle as many as ten different projects, but I'm trying to prioritize my time better, rather than spending 30 minutes trying to decide which project to work on. Sometimes I really wish I were the kind of quilter who could work on just one project at a time - maybe I'd be less messy that way!

4. How many completed quilts do you own?
Um...I had to go count them :) I've given many of the quilts I've made as gifts and also some to charity, but I currently own 11 of my quilts, including 3 that belong to my son.

5. How do you use your quilts, or are they stored away somewhere?
I rarely feel cold. I mean, I live in Florida, and even in the winter, it's never really all that cold here. I tend to keep our air conditioning cooler at night, as I like to snuggle under my big warm/cool quilt on my bed at night, and my husband is always griping that it's cold, so he often will snuggle under a quilt on the couch. When my mother visits, she sleeps under a few quilts. I definitely put my quilts to use. They also make great forts!

6. What is your favorite food?
My all-time favorite food in the world is my mother's fried chicken with biscuits and gravy. So down-home and tasty, it's the kind of meal that just says "home" to me.

7. What is your current favorite color combination?
Such a tough one!! Um...I'd have to say teal, gold, and aqua. It's funny, before I started quilting, I was a bit of a color snob. There were colors I would often say I just didn't like, but now, it's almost as though I appreciate color more than I used to. There really isn't a single color I think I would say that I don't like, but if you looked at my fabric collection, it would be super easy to see what color I like best, and that's blue.

color palette from design-seeds.com

8. Where do you get your ideas and/or inspiration?
All over the place. I take pictures all the time, sometimes of plants where I see beautiful color combinations, or of fences or tile where I see a pattern that interests me. I've been inspired by pieces of furniture, fabrics, credit card commercials, you name it. Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to look. :)

This was fun!!! Now I get to tag some people, too...hmm...
Kelly from kelbysews (who's starting a fun new quilt-along - check it out!)
Jess from Sew Crafty Jess
Kati from From the Blue Chair
Kim from My Go-Go Life

Here's my questions:
1. Do you have other hobbies other than quilting?
2. What's the smallest size scrap you save when quilting?
3. How many of your quilts do you actually own?
4. Are you a pre-washer, or do you wash your fabrics after the quilt is finished?
5. What do you do while you sew? Listen to music? Watch TV? Enjoy the silence?
6. How many blogs do you read?
7. What is your favorite food?
8. Are you a morning person or a night person?

I hope you're all having a wonderful Sunday :)

Sometimes you need a muffin

2012-04-06T07:10:00.000-04:00

It's been a rough couple of days here in the Not Betsy household, between coming down with a monster of a cold and finding out that our six-year-old air conditioning unit needs to be replaced. So, I did what I always do in tough times...bake.

Yes, I love to sew, it's my most favorite thing in the world to do right now, but baking was my first love. I've been baking since I was a little girl, under the tutelage of my mother, who learned from her mother, and so on. In our family, baked goods have always been something special; never something that came from a box, always something that was made from scratch. I can remember when I learned that the way we baked in our family was not exactly the norm; my best friend's mother suggested that we make brownies during a sleepover when I was 8, and she pulled out a red box of Betty Crocker brownie mix from the pantry. That was probably the moment I turned into a baking snob. I'm kidding...mostly ;) I'm just the kind of dork who enjoys baking from scratch.

Here in Florida, it's blueberry season. Our local blueberry farm opened up for picking last week and we trucked over there on the weekend and picked ourselves 6 pounds of gorgeous blueberries. We've been going there since the munchkin was barely walking, and he's become quite the blueberry aficionado over the years. Now, the munchkin would be a blueberry-a-tarian, if we would let him, but us grown-ups prefer our blueberries tarted up a bit. Enter my blueberry muffins...

I've been making blueberry muffins since I was a little girl, but it wasn't until the last two years that I had to tinker with the classic family recipe. See, my husband is painfully allergic to all forms of dairy, so he has to steer clear of milk and butter - you know, the good stuff. And my family blueberry recipe called for milk, as well as butter, to create a rich muffin. Thankfully, through some trial and error, I've reformulated the recipe to not only taste fabulous but also to not contain one ounce of dairy. Do yourself a favor and make these muffins this weekend, even if you can only find frozen blueberries - trust me, you will be a happy camper :)

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Makes 24 muffins

2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Zest of one large lemon
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup milk (I used soy here, but regular milk works well here too)
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare two standard sized 12-cup muffin trays either with Pam or muffin liners.

2. Add sugar, oil, milk, and vinegar to one large bowl and whisk until well combined. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and lemon zest with a fork.

3. Dump your dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix gently. Don't overmix - you'll create tough muffins. A few streaks of flour are okay here.

4. Add your blueberries and fold gently into the batter, again being careful not to overmix.

5. Fill muffin liners/cups approximately halfway full and bake in your preheated oven for 20-22 minutes. Allow muffins to sit in tray for five minutes after they come out of the oven, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling, although these muffins taste fantastic when they're warm! They also freeze well.

Happy Friday to you all, I hope you have a great weekend!

WiP Wednesday: The one where I try to get back in the saddle

2012-04-04T08:03:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how quickly something can stop being a habit after being a habit for so long. The last couple of weeks, I've fallen off the WiP Wednesday horse, but today, I'm trying to climb back on and get back in the swing of blogging again. I think the last couple of weeks, I've been grasping at straws of what to blog about, as I work on some behind-the-scenes projects that I can't share for a while, but I've decided that regardless of what I'm working on, I can still write. When I first started blogging, I found so much enjoyment just in writing, and somewhere along the way, I think I got a little bit off-centered with my writing, focusing so much more on finishing projects than on enjoying the process and writing about the process. Speaking of progress...here's what I've got going on this week:

New York Beauty swap - I've moved these blocks around a few times, and I just can't seem to decide how I want to finish this one up, so I decided to make a few more blocks to see if that helps me out. I decided that I wanted to make a mini, and use some tiny quarter blocks in the corners of the mini, so I shrunk the templates by 50%, and attempted to make a corner block that failed miserably.

The tiny paper piecing was a cinch, but I was totally defeated by the tiny curves. Just not enough fabric to work with! So, I'm heading back to the drawing board, trying to figure out what kind of border to add to this mini to make it pop. Maybe I'll freehand some other kind of paper pieced border, we'll see.

Brooke's block for {Sew} Beautiful - Brooke has asked for Mod Mosaic blocks, using a gradated color plan she shared on her blog. I think this is going to be really stunning. My color pack is green, so I'll be working from yellow to green to green-blue in my block.

The munchkin's new quilt - The munchkin announced at lunch a few weeks ago that his quilts are too big. That he wants one he can snuggle up with like his Grammy blanket, a ratty old blue fleece blanket my mother gave him. He has asked that it be a superhero quilt, with lots of blue (still going strong as his favorite color!), but that's about as far as I've gotten with him. So far, I've pulled together these fabrics, working from a Batman-inspired color scheme.

Patchwork Wheel scrap quilt - I know I said I was going to wait on this, but my one Patchwork Wheel block looked kind of lonely, so I decided to make a few friends for it :) I love how simple this block is to make, and how cool is looks when you start putting blocks together.

And last but not least, I can share one tiny (and I do mean tiny!) snippet of a project I've finished up that I'm hoping you'll see in a few months.

Now, you know the drill - write up what you're working on and share it over at Lee's for WiP Wednesday. Scoot on over there to see lots of other great bloggers and what they're up to this week.

A New York state of mind

2012-04-02T07:21:00.002-04:00

Hard to believe it's April already, isn't it? Did you see Amy's fab post yesterday? If not, hop on over there and check it out. Totally awesome. :)

No April Fools' pranks at my house this weekend, just a nice visit with my mother and a bit of sewing. Not too long ago, I received a gorgeous bundle of Oakshott shot cotton fabrics. I had no idea what I was going to use them for at first, but I knew I was looking forward to trying them out.

I stared at them for a while, and this weekend, I felt compelled to whack into them and start using them. My friend Amy asked me to join in a small New York Beauty swap between friends, and I just had a feeling that these shot cottons would be gorgeous as part of a New York Beauty mini or pillow.

As I paper pieced my little heart out with these beauties, I marveled at just how gorgeous they were. Practically iridescent, these fabrics changed colors every time I moved the fabric, almost shimmering in the light. Not only that, they're super soft.

It's been a while since I've done intense paper piecing, but I've had fun so far, working on these little quarter blocks. I'm not quite sure how many more blocks I'm going to do just yet, but I'm playing around with the layout, trying to decide what I like best.

The other highlight of my weekend was seeing my dear husband tackling the crazy invasion of pollen and leaves in our front yard. I've never seen so much pollen in our yard in all the years we've lived here; it feels as if our huge oak tree has an endless supply this year! I sure hope we've seen the worst of it by now.

The mailman also made my day this weekend - I got some gorgeous bee blocks in the mail from my friends in the {Sew} Beautiful bee. For my turn last month, I asked them to make up one of three blocks I designed, strictly using squares of different sizes, to create a quilt I'm calling Squaretastic for now. I will be sharing tutorials with you guys for the three Squaretastic blocks at some point, as soon as I find some time to make some blocks of my own.

All in all, definitely a good weekend. What did you do this weekend? Did you do some sewing? Happy Monday!

Have you heard about the Zakka Along?

2012-03-27T07:17:00.000-04:00

Do you know Rashida yet? You should :) She's the designer behind one of my current favorite fabric lines, Washi, and also a fabulous author. Her new book Zakka Style has even inspired a Sew Along that I'm super excited to take part in.

Lindsey of LR Stitched and Amy of Don't You Know Who I Am? are organizing a sew-along of every single project in the book, and they asked me to join in the fun! There are 24 projects and we'll be sewing right through the book from start to finish.

The sew along starts Monday April 2nd with the first project in the book and will continue through Monday September 10th with a new project introduced each Monday. Each blogger will sew a different project and will be sharing their finished project and inspiration with you. I'll be doing the Orchard Path Tweed Pouch and finally tackling my fear of hexagons, which I'm really looking forward to!

April 2nd :: Zig Zag Tote with Sew Fantastic

April 9th :: The House Pouch with During Quiet Time

April 16th :: Zakka Pincushion with Pink Penguin

April 23rd :: Sewing Kit with Monkey Do

April 30th :: Patchwork Pencil Case with VeryKerryBerry

May 7th :: Itty Bitty Quilt Block Magnets with Little Bluebell

May 14th :: Raincloud Mug Rug with Quilt Dad

May 21st :: Zakka Block Quilt with I like Orange

May 28th :: Stem Messenger Bag with Sew Sweetness

June 4th :: Zip Organizer with Spotted Stone

June 11th :: Orchard Path Tweed Pouch with Don’t Call Me Betsy

June 18th :: Happy Couple Handwarmers with A Cuppa and a Catchup

June 25th :: Patchwork Potholder with Sew Take a Hike

July 2nd :: Water Bottle Holder with One Shabby Chick

July 9th :: Elephant Bookmark with Cut to Pieces

July 16th :: Patchwork Ribbon with {House} of A la Mode

July 23rd :: Delightful Linen Bag with Sukie(ha! that’s me!!)

July 30th :: Bread Basket with Patchwork Notes

August 6th :: Sweet Sugar Cookie Sack with BettyCrockerAss

August 13th :: Little Pocket Pillowcase with Freshly Pieced

August 2oth :: Sweet Memories Photo Frame with Noodlehead

August 27th :: Pleated Coin Purse with Shape Moth

September 3rd :: Happy Garland Message Board with Maureen Cracknell Handmade

September 10th :: Nesting Boxes with From the Blue Chair

The projects in the book are small and a lot of fun to stitch up, so I sure hope you'll join in the fun. You will need a copy of the book to participate. You can find a copy at Amazon as well as many local quilt shops.

There will be some fab prizes offered throughout the sew along and we are so thankful to have the support of Stash Books, Aurifil, Zip It, Robert Kaufman Fabrics, Timeless Treasures, Cloud 9 fabrics, Fabricworm, and The Intrepid Thread.

Feel free to join in the flickr group and be sure to grab a button!

<div align="center"><a href="http://lrstitched.com/category/zakka-style-sew-along/" title="Zakka Style Sew Along"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7199/6841837772_1b737ca48a_o.jpg" alt="Zakka Style Sew Along" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Radiant Ring block tutorial

2012-03-26T06:29:00.000-04:00

Sorry for dropping off the face of the blogosphere this last week - thanks to those of you who wrote to me with your concern :) I am indeed A-OK, just spent a lot of time enjoying our early summer weather here in Florida, before the inevitable 90 degree temperatures set in. Bike riding has become a new favorite activity of the munchkin's, now that he's physically gotten the hang of riding his new big boy bike. To make it up to you, my wonderful readers, I've got a new block tutorial for you :)

This year, I'm having a lot of fun with the Stash Trad bee. It's a group of amazingly talented quilters who have a love for messing with traditional blocks with a modern twist. Lee made us a fabulously apropos button for the bee, with that very motto in mind.

April is my turn in the group, and I waffled a lot this month, thinking about what to ask the girls to make for me, and I kept coming back to the Rolling Stone block, which dates as far back as 1898, credited as being listed in the Ladies' Art Company Catalog.

Much as I like the block, I wanted to do something a little different with it, so I fooled around with the color placement, using four colors rather than two and creating an octogon or ring in the center of the block. Then, I decided that I wanted to do something really colorful, so I played around in Illustrator until I came up with this fun layout:

After some trial and error, I found that paper piecing the corner units of each block is the most accurate way to piece these blocks, so I've created my first paper piecing template. It's hand-drawn because Illustrator and I couldn't seem to see eye-to-eye, but this template works great for this block. And if you've never paper pieced, don't worry! This is super easy-peasy paper piecing, I promise it will be painless :)

Radiant Ring block
12.5" unfinished block

This block tutorial is written for using one neutral color as well as three additional contrasting colors. In my block, I used warm colors for color A, B, and C, but I think a scrappy version of this block would also be amazing.

4 neutral 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
4 neutral 5" square
1 orange 4.5" square
4 red colored 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
4 red colored 3.5" x 5.5" rectangles
12 yellow colored 3.5" x 5.5" rectangles

All seams are a scant 1/4" unless otherwise noted. All paper piecing done with a 1.5mm stitch length.

1. Print four copies of the Radiant Ring Template for each block you're making. Cut your fabric, and keep in mind that you'll be using the 3.5" x 5.5" rectangles are used for paper piecing. This size worked nicely for me when I was piecing, but you may want to make adjustments after your first block.

2. Let's get the paper piecing out of the way. If you've paper pieced before, this is going to be a breeze, and if you haven't, that's okay, too, I'm going to make this as simple as possible. We're going to be making the four corner units using one template each. First, place one neutral 5" square right side out on the back of template, making sure that your square covers the entire template square. Pin in place, in the center.

3. Next, take one of your yellow 3.5" x 5.5" rectangles and line up the long side side so that approximately 1/4" overlaps over the seam line for part A of the template, making sure that the right side of the fabric face down onto the paper. Pin in place, if necessary, and stitch in place. Be sure to stitch into the seam allowance to lock the fabric in place.

4. Finger press your yellow fabric in place then press with a hot dry iron. Flip your yellow fabric back and trim the excess neutral fabric to approximately 1/4" or so beyond the seam. Don't worry about trimming the excess yellow fabric yet.

5. Next, flip your template back over so the template faces you. Take another of your yellow 3.5" x 5.5" rectangles and line up the long side side, with the right side of the fabric face down onto the paper, so that approximately 1/4" overlaps over the seam line for part B of the template, which is directly across from part A. Pin in place, if necessary, and stitch in place. Again, be sure to stitch into the seam allowance to lock the fabric in place.

6. Repeat step 5 for your final yellow rectangle, using part C of the template.

7. Flip your template back over so the template faces you again. Take one of your red 3.5" x 5.5" rectangles and line up the long side side, with the right side of the fabric face down onto the paper, so that approximately 1/4" overlaps over the seam line for part D of the template.

Pin in place, if necessary, and stitch in place. Again, be sure to stitch into the seam allowance to lock the fabric in place. Press your seam open and bring your finished template over to your cutting table.

Ugly, right? Let's fix that!

8. Place your template paper side up for this step.

Disregard the dotted line and trim all the way around the solid black square line of the template, and voila! A simple paper pieced square in square! Marvel at your paper piecing prowess for a moment, and then move on to the next step ;)

8. Next, let's build the other subunits for this block. Take the four 2.5" x 4.5" neutral rectangles and pair each one with a red rectangle of the same size. Seam each pair together and press seams open.

9. To finish your block, we're simply going to sew the nine subunits we've created together, in rows of three. First, lay out your subunits as shown below.

Then, remove the paper from the back of your corner subunits, which should be fairly simple. Your stitches perforated the paper, so simply fold back your paper and pull. Repeat for all subunits. Stitch each row of three together, then stitch the three rows together, and voila! A finished gorgeous 12.5" block.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you make a Radiant Ring block, I sure would love to see it in my Flickr group, Stitching with Don't Call Me Betsy! Happy Monday :)

A note to the Stash Trad gang: Please make either a Warm or Cool block, using Kona Snow as your background color, and don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

Patchwork Wheel block tutorial

2012-03-19T06:50:00.000-04:00

This super easy block tutorial shows exactly how I made the lovely mini I shipped off to my partner in the For the Love of Solids swap. When I made the mini, I made four of these blocks, and you'll see when you stitch these blocks together, they create a gorgeous, interlocked look.

I definitely plan to make a scrap quilt using this block at some point in the near future, as my scraps are starting to take over my sewing space!! Perhaps over the summer, we could stitch up some of these blocks together? Maybe as a tame-the-scraps-along?

This particular block has a rich history and dates back as far as the 1930's. It was first published as a Cheyenne block, by the Kansas City Star in September of 1933, but later in the 1960's was referred to as a Rock Garden block by Quilts magazine. When I look at this block, full of a rainbow of focal colors rather than two focal colors (dark and medium) as in the original, I see a patchwork wheel and that's how I came up with the name for this block.

Thanks, Mark and Cara, for the gorgeous Cosmic Burst fabrics to play with - I paired them with gray Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen for this particular tutorial, and I love how the bright colors pop against the gray.

Patchwork Wheel Block Tutorial
12.5" unfinished block

You'll need:
(8) 3.5" squares in various colors/prints
(8) 4.25" squares in various colors/prints
(8) 4.25" squares in a solid/neutral print

1. Draw a diagonal line on the back of your neutral squares. We will be using these to create half-square triangles. Then, match up each neutral square with a colored/printed square, right sides together, with the line you've drawn facing you.

2. Stitch a scant 1/4" seam on either side of the line you drew, then cut along the line to create two half-square triangles (HSTs).

Press your HSTs and trim down to 3.5".

3. Lay out your squares and HSTs as shown below, then stitch sub-blocks together in pairs to create the four rows for this block.

4. Stitch rows together, taking care to line up the seams as you go.

5. Enjoy your finished block!

As always, if you use this tutorial to make some Patchy Wheel blocks of your own, please add them to my Flickr group, Stitching with Don't Call Me Betsy. I'd love to see them!

WiP Wednesday: The one with lots of fans

2012-03-14T06:08:00.000-04:00

It's been a good sewing week at my house, between finishing up a quilt and a tutorial to share with you all. It's spring break this week for the munchkin, so there hasn't been a boatload of sewing time, but there has been a lot of fun so far. We've made plans to visit Thomas the Train this weekend, had a wonderful time bouncing with a school friend yesterday at an indoor play area and at storytime at the library on Monday, so it's been a good week so far. I hope you're having a great week, too!

Done!
Star Crossed Stitch quilt

FMQ Baptist Fans tutorial

Still going:
Cosmic Burst project - I'm using these gorgeous little bits of Cosmic Burst to create a new block tutorial for my Patchy Wheel block that I used in my mini for my partner in the For the Love of Solids swap, which is on its way to its destination as we speak. Hopefully I can wrap this one up this weekend. :)

Oakshott shot cottons project - Um...does admiring fabric count as progress? Not really ;) I am positively in love with the block Sara just did for the NY Beauty Along, so I suspect that might be the first one I tackle.

New this week:Modern Madness at Fat Quarterly - I'm working on my brackets for Modern Madness tournament at Fat Quarterly. Last year, I was sorry that I didn't participate, so I'm making sure to get in on it this year. I'm down to last pairing (Ruby Star Shining vs. Half Moon Modern), and I'm having a tough time deciding who wins for me. I'm sure I'm probably totally wrong on who the final four are, let alone, the sweet sixteen, but it will still be fun to follow along!

What are you working on this week? Write it up and share it over at Freshly Pieced!

Tutorial: FMQ Baptist Fans

2012-03-13T06:46:00.000-04:00

I think these baptist fans are officially my new favorite style of free motion quilting. I'm hoping that with a bit more practice, I might just be able to freehand these fans without marking up the quilt, but we'll see. I've heard from a lot of you guys over the last few days about these fans, and how they look hard, and I can tell you this much: you can do this. It may take a little bit of practice, but this style of FMQ is totally doable.

You'll need:

Circle Cut ruler, or similar

Water-soluble fabric marker

FMQ foot of your choice - I use a spring-loaded open toe foot

FMQ thread of choice - I use Gutermann or Aurifil, but whatever your machine likes will work just fine

A few notes about this tutorial:
* I am right handed, but I stitch right to left in this tutorial and 99.9999% of the time. Why? Because it makes sense with the way my machine is set up. Feel free to flip the ruler upside down and trace your fans in the opposite direction so you can stitch right to left, if you prefer quilting that way.
* This design can also be done with a walking foot, but honestly, I really intensely dislike straight line quilting (and to me, all quilting with my walking foot is like straight line quilting), so I much prefer this method. I feel it's way more enjoyable, but to each their own.

Let's FMQ!

1. Before basting, take your finished and pressed quilt top to your cutting table or another large surface. It's best to do your marking on an unbasted quilt, in case the marker bleeds through to your batting. It's also a lot easier to work with, without the extra heft of the batting and backing. Note below that I have modified my circle ruler slightly; I have added a piece of masking tape at an approximately 45 degree angle, so that I don't overtrace my fans.

2. Align your Circle Cut ruler with the bottom of your fabric, with the outside edge of your outermost circle line close to the edge of your fabric. It doesn't have to be at the edge, just close. Begin tracing the lines, stopping at the tape.

3. Repeat step 2 over and over until you have completed your first row of fans, scooting your ruler to the left and starting each new fan with the outermost arc butting up to the edges of your previous fan.

4. To start a new row of fans and create some additional visual interest, you'll want to nest your fans. To do this, set your ruler with the arrows in the center lining up with where your fans below meet as shown below.

5. Continue tracing fans and creating new rows until you have covered the quilt top.

6. Baste quilt as desired. Next, load up a fresh bobbin, your FMQ foot of choice, and get ready to quilt. Begin by putting your needle down at the start of your fans in the bottom right hand corner of your quilt. If your machine has a needle down feature (where whenever you stop the machine, the needle is down), be sure to turn it on. We're going to be moving the quilt to create the curves in these fans, but in a linear fashion. There will be no rotating of the quilt as this design is quilted.

7. Stitch-trace the outermost curve of your fan, moving from right to left, until you reach the end of your first curve. Stop, with the needle down. As you're stitching your first curve, the one after that, and the zillions after that, here's a tip: Don't freak out if your needle bobbles or wobbles a little bit as you're stitch-tracing. Just keep flowing with it, don't try to correct it immediately, you can gradually work your way back to the blue line. Once you rinse the blue lines from your quilt, you'll never see the wobbles again. I promise. :)

8. To begin stitching the next curve, slowly stitch downward from your top curve down to the next curve, as shown below. Then begin stitching to the right, again tracing the curve.

9. Continue stitching back toward where you began your fan, creating the second curve of the fan, and stop, needle down, at the end of the traced line. Next, stitch to the left, to catch the next traced line.

10. Repeat to stitch all traced lines from your Circle Cut ruler. You'll notice, however, that when you stitch the final traced curve, that you have stitched to the left of the stems of your fan curves. You will need to freehand stitch the final curve of your fan, moving back to the right, to match your other curves.

11. To travel to your next fan from your final freehand curve, stitch to the left, to the edge of the outermost curve of the next fan as shown below. The arrows show you here which direction to move your quilt as you stitch.

12. Repeat, stitching over each traced line, until all lines are stitched. Then, using a spray bottle loaded with water, rinse away those blue lines, and ta da!

Now, if my husband ever stops working 18 hour days, I will try to post a video of me doing this kind of FMQ, to help make it a wee bit clearer. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know! And if you use my tutorial to add some fans to your quilt, please be sure to shoot me an email, I'd love to hear all about it! You can also add photos of your work following this tutorial to my Flickr group. Have a great day!

Star Crossed Stitch quilt - done!

2012-03-12T07:21:00.000-04:00

Thank you all so much for your support last week when I was unquilting this quilt and trying something new. I am so excited to share the finished quilt with you! This is definitely one of my favorite finishes in a while, thanks to the fun I had quilting this one and the great texture the quilting created. I love densely quilted quilts like this one, so I'm quite sure it's going to be one of my favorites for a while to come.

before washing

after washing

A while back, I fell in love with a block I saw in a copy of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns, on loan from the library, and sketched it out in my sketchbook. Many months later, back in January, when the fabulously talented Betz White sent me some of her fantastic organic line of fabric for Robert Kaufman, I revisited the sketch and decided to finally make the block. I called it a Star Crossed block, as it felt like a fab combination of a star and cross block, and I slowly started working on this quilt bit by bit, in between what feels like a zillion other obligations that I can't share yet.

before washing

I was super excited to finish this quilt...until I realized that I didn't have a clue how I wanted to quilt it. Usually, I don't make that decision until after I see the finished quilt top. When I looked at this quilt top, I just couldn't seem to decide. I wanted to do something other than my usual smooth stipple, and I thought a pointy stipple would be fun, but rather than mocking it up to see how it would look, I just went for it. Whoops. I hated it. Intensely. So much so that I ripped it all out. Note to self: always mock up the quilting. Always. (ETA: All I do to mock up my quilts is print out a photo and draw out my FMQ design on it with a highlighter. It's uber-low-tech and fast.)

before washing

Somehow or another, I got baptist fans on the brain, and just couldn't let go. So I did them. And they were really fun to do! The way I stitched these fans is indeed in a continuous line, with one start at the beginning of each row of fans and one stop at the end. I'm putting the finishing touches on a tutorial of how I did this quilting to share with you all tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

before washing

I'm so happy I went with my gut and ripped out the pointy stipple quilting stitches I started with. I'm also really glad I tried a new style of quilting, even though I really thought it was going to be either too difficult or too tedious. Trying something new can be so much fun!

after washing

Thanks again, Betz, for sharing some of your lovely fabrics for this project!

Quilt Stats
Name: Star Crossed Stitch quilt
Block Pattern: Star Crossed block
Size: 34" x 44"
Fabrics: Betz White's Stitch Organic collection for Robert Kaufman along with some coordinating fabrics from Just Dandy, Katie Jump Rope, and So Sophie
Backing: Remants from Betz White's Stitch Organic collection
Quilting: All-over baptist fan free motion quilting (tutorial coming tomrrow!) by yours truly
Binding: Scrappy binding, using remants from Betz White's Stitch Organic collection, hand finished