How are you keeping? I hope that you are managing through the unprecedented times in which we live. I won’t even mention the “C” word here, but I’m sure you are being affected by it in some way, shape or form. In times, like these, I want to retreat to sewing. I find it offers me  a moment of comfort and stability in a world of instability and change.

If you are looking for a new project to distract you in these times, consider the 2020 Summer Sampler.

I am thrilled to be a designer in this year’s quilt along. As you can see from the photo below, I’m in very good company! 

Here are this year’s designers, from the top left:

Me!
Sherri McConnell, A Quilting Life
Erica Jackman, Kitchen Table Quilting
Lee Heinrich, Freshly Pieced
Katie Blakesley, Swim Bike Quilt
Cheryl Brickey, Meadow Mist Designs
Stefanie Satterwhite, Satterwhite Quilts
Faith Jones, Fresh Lemons Quilts
Giuseppe Ribaudo, Giucy Giuce
Malka Dubrawsky, Stitch In Dye
Megan Pitz, Canoe Ridge Creations
Vanessa Christenson, V and Co
Allison Harris, Cluck Cluck Sew
Devon Iott, Miss Make
Carolina Oneto

The theme of the quilt along is “Easier than it looks.” Each week features one of 16 blocks that look more complex than they really are.

Of course, I had to make my block in pink and orange.

The quilt-along runs from June 1 to September 21. If you use the code MAMALOVEQUILTS, you can save $5 from now until May 31st.

Sign up here: 2020 Summer Sampler

When you sign up, you’ll receive a welcome pdf with fabric requirements, the schedule, the solids used in the mockup, and answers to FAQ and more!

I hope you’ll join in the fun.

How is the new decade treating you?!? Well, I hope.

I am so thankful to have made it through 2019. As you may have noticed, I haven’t blogged in quite a while. Well, I have a very good reason for that: Life!

It all began near the end of 2018 when I resigned from my job. I spent the latter part of 2018 sending out job applications. That carried me in to early 2019, which I spent traveling for job interviews. To make a long story very short, I got a job offer in Michigan that was too good to turn down.

Last summer, I packed up my family and moved us to the Great Lakes State. I spent the rest of 2019 settling into the new home, new job, and new schools for my girls.

Well, dear reader, it’s been about 6 months of transition and I can truly say that I love my new job. I miss friends in North Carolina, but I’m so happy that I took the job offer. And just in time for the new decade!

Now that 2020 is here, I feel like I can take a deep breath and dive into some sewing. First up is a long overdue project that’s been waiting for some attention. It’s a memory quilt that I volunteered to make for a young girl who lost her mother way too soon.  The family gave me some of the mother’s clothes and I added some of my own fabric.

I used the “Baby” quilt pattern from the Wise Craft Quilts book by Blair Stocker.

The most challenging part of the pattern for me was figuring out the placement of the squares to maximize the contrast. To make things easier, I used solids in creams and off-whites as the background fabrics to give a strong contrast with the fabrics from the clothes. I also added in some of my own print fabrics to supplement the clothing fabrics.

Before I started quilting, I made a little practice swatch, just to remind myself of how to quilt since it’s been a while. And you know what, reader? Driving a longarm machine is just like riding a bike!

I chose a loopy all-over meander. It’s one of my go-to quilting designs mainly because of the speed and ease of the design.

It also gives great texture.

Next up is trimming, binding and then sending it off to its new home.

What’s your first project of the new decade?

Today is my turn on The Quilter’s Negative Space Handbook blog hop! If you’re new here, feel free to pull up a chair and have a look around.

Courtesy of C&T Publishing

I’m so tickled that Sylvia Schaefer of Flying Parrots Quilts asked me to review her new book. She has done an amazing job of providing step-by-step instructions on how to design quilts using negative space.

The book walks you through nine design techniques. The techniques range from removing parts of quilt blocks to supersizing quilt blocks. With these techniques, Sylvia makes it easy to use a traditional quilt block as a springboard to make a modern quilt.

One of my favorite techniques is “Disintegration.” This technique takes parts of the blocks apart.

Courtesy of C&T Publishing

Sylvia follows each technique with a pattern to show you how to make the featured quilt. Here’s one of my favorites from the book: Jewel Drop.

Courtesy of C&T Publishing

As I was reading through the book, I realized that I used the disintegration technique in one of my recent quilt designs: Rifted Rails.

I started the design with a block in each of the spaces in the quilt grid.

I then added negative space by removing some of the blocks. I added a little bit of orange, just for fun.

Rifted Rails is featured in the QuiltCon 2019 magazine. Here I am with it at QuiltCon last month.

After reading Sylvia’s book, I’m ready to get started on designing a new quilt!

Are you ready to start designing with negative space?!? Here’s your chance to get the e-book version of Sylvia’s book. Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below. In your comment, tell me what you do to make time to quilt or sew. 

Enter between now and Saturday, March 16th at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern time). Make sure you leave your email so I can contact you if you win. I’ll let random.org pick the winner.

Good luck!

The giveaway is closed. 

Would you believe it’s taken me almost 2 weeks to recover from QuiltCon?!? It was a blast!

While I was there, I had the pleasure of taking a class with Denyse Schmidt. Here we are holding a couple of my blocks to make her Proverbial Quilt pattern.

At some point, I will make a quilt that says, “For we live by faith, not by sight.”

In addition to taking a class with Denyse, I had the honor of teaching at QuiltCon for the very first time!

I taught my Big and Bold workshops on large-scale freezer paper piecing. I had two wonderful groups of participants.

Related: Big and Bold Quilt Making: A Look inside a Mama Love Quilt Workshop

Everyone was so engaged and focused. It truly was an honor for me to work with these lovely, talented folks.

Here is the sample quilt I made for the workshop.

One of the things I love about this technique is that you can have a finished quilt top in no time. Because of the size of the pieces, the quilt comes together pretty quickly. Many people in the workshops walked away with a finished top!

For the quilting, I opted for straight lines that were about 1/2″ apart. I was going to do my go-to echoing of the shapes, but at the last minute, I changed my mind and decided to do something different. I marked random triangular spirals and echos in the individual pieces. I let the individual shapes determine the kind of marking.

I’m pretty happy with how the quilting turned out. I think if I had to do it over again, I would make the lines 1/4″ apart. There’s something about narrowly spaced lines that makes my heart sing.

Here’s a look at the back of the quilt. If you look closely, you’ll see different colored threads, matched to the threads I used on the front of the quilt.

I used facing to finish the quilt. I didn’t want a binding to interrupt the edges of the quilt and I was not up for piecing the binding to match the fabrics on the sides of the quilt.

This was my first time facing and I clearly have some practicing to do at the corners, but that’s how we get better. Am I right?!?

So now that I’ve recovered from QuiltCon, it’s time to figure out what’s next on my stitching list!

I’ve had quite a few folks ask about the freezer paper technique I use to make large-scale quilt designs. It’s a quick and easy technique that has endless design potential for quilt making.

Related: New Year, New Project

If you’re curious about the technique, check out this video for a tutorial I did for Fresh Quilting TV and the Modern Quilt Guild.

Let me know if you have any questions about the technique. And if you ever want me to come out and teach this technique to your quilt guild or group, just drop me a line and let me know. I love to teach! 

Related: Want to Learn Big and Bold Quilt Making?

Many of the participants came with a sketched design they wanted to translate into a quilt.

For those without a design, I shared a sketch of one of my quilts that they could use to learn the technique.

These talented women picked up the technique of using the freezer paper quickly.

Many of them left the workshop with a finished quilt top.

One of the women is planning to turn her top into a pillow!

If you are interested in having me teach this workshop to your local quilt group or if you are interested in one of my other workshops, feel free to reach out.

Related: Mama Love Quilt Workshops

I’ll be teaching this workshop at QuiltCon this year in Nashville, Tennessee. I can’t wait!

I hope the new year is off to a good start for you. I jumped right into the new year with a new project!

I started working on samples for my upcoming class at this year’s QuiltCon: Big and Bold Freezer Paper Quilt Making. In this class, I will teach on how to use freezer paper to create quilts with large, irregular shapes.

The thing I love about this technique is how quickly and easily the quilt top comes together.

After cutting out the templates, it was a breeze to put the top together.

The top came together so quickly that I made another one. This time I reversed the orientation of the pieces.

I recently taught a class on this technique at my local quilt guild. I’ll be back soon to share photos of the class. Until then…

I’m still in a bit of denial and shock that the last month of the year has arrived, but doesn’t it always?!? And with it has come my predictable desire to work on a Christmas quilt! But for now, I’m denying myself the pleasure. I have a couple of quilting deadlines that will have me stitching up a storm over the next few weeks. Then there’s also the ambitious Christmas sewing to make presents…but first, there’s this quilt that has been languishing in my W.i.P. bin.

I’ve been working on lots of stitching straight lines. Each of the lines are about 1/4″ apart. I mark every other line – that is 1/2″ apart – to minimize marking and save time. I then go back and stitch between the lines to make them 1/4″ apart.

I’ve also added in some echo quilting to complement the pieced shapes.

Unfortunately, all this quilting involves lots of stops and starts. And lots of stops and starts mean lots of thread burying!

Hopefully, I’ll be back soon with a finish to share. But if you don’t hear from you, you’ll know I’m sewing like the wind!

What are your special sewing plans for the season?

How are you? Things have been mighty hectic, but I’m coming up for air and getting back into the quilty swing of things. I can’t wait to share what I’ve been stitching, but in the meantime…

Have you checked out Fresh Quilting TV?  If you haven’t, go on and check it out. I’ll wait for you here.

I had the pleasure of filming a couple of episodes of Fresh Quilting TV last year. One episode is on minimalism in quilt making. That episode airs Friday, November 9 and runs for 7 days. The other episode is on large scale, freezer paper piecing. Check out this page for more info: http://freshquilting.com/index.php/category/nicole_neblett/

Here I am on the set.

Photo courtesy of Fresh Quilting TV

Related: Do you watch Fresh Quilting TV?

If you’re looking for free inspiration and instruction, check out some of the other videos at  Fresh Quilting TV.

August is like a blur to me, yet it reminded me about three valuable life lessons.

Lesson #1: Quilty folks are the best. 

I started August packing up my quilts and taking them on the road to give a lecture/trunk show at the Gate City Quilt Guild.

It is always such a treat for me to meet other quilters and talk quilty talk. And the Gate City quilters did not disappoint. They welcomed me and allowed me to share my love of modern quilting.

Lesson #2: Be open to discoveries. 

After visiting Gate City, I checked out of town for a couple of weeks and traveled to California to act like a tourist and visit friends. While in Oakland, I stumbled upon A Verb for Keeping Warm, while out looking for cupcakes. It’s a lovely shop with all the things my heart loves: fabric, patterns, yarn and friendly staff. My favorite thing about the shop is that they have samples of the AVFKW patterns in every size for customers to try on. Well, I went right ahead and tried on a couple of samples and promptly bought two of the patterns. I loved being able to see right then and there if the pattern would work for my body, rather than wait until I stitched it up at home.

As soon as I came back home, I stitched up the Endless Summer Tunic.  The only alteration I made was shortening it from a tunic length to a top.

I love how the top turned out. And I’m thankful that it’s still blazing hot here in North Carolina so I wear it every chance I get!

Lesson #3: Keep it simple; get it done.

With all that travel, I still managed to get some quilting done.  I finished my scrap quilt! Here it is in all its scrappy gloriousness.

It’s been a while since I made a simple patchwork quilt. I forgot how gratifying it can be to sew simple squares together and have them magically come together as a quilt.

Many of the squares are scraps from garment sewing or other quilts. Seeing them together brings back memories.

After too much deliberation on the quilting, I decided to keep it simple and go with gentle waves, spaced about an inch apart. I didn’t want the quilting to be too dense as to make the quilt stiff. These gentle waves were fairly quick and easy to stitch and are far enough apart that the quilt has a lovely drape.  It finishes at 70″ x 84″.

Related: The simple and easy peasy way I use up my scraps

Now that quilt is done, I’m feeling good about my continued progress in finishing up my works in progress (w.i.p.s). I still have several projects to go, but I’m counting this finish as a victory in the battle of the w.i.p.s! Here’s to knocking out more w.i.p.s in September!

And I’m counting it a blessing to recognize the lessons life is teaching me. Here’s to continued learning!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday!