quiltology...

Okay, I admit I’m a much better patchwork piecer than photographer and sadly some of my pictures prove this point all too well.

With summer in full throttle, we’ve had lots of visitors to the shop and many of you have told me that the pictures on the web site don’t do the quilts justice. Of course I could blame the bad pictures on my old digital camera, but then that’s like saying my sewing machine can’t sew straight seams. Clearly there’s some operator error at play here.

I’ve promised Julia from Michigan and Karen from Iowa that I would try again. So I’m posting new (and bigger) pics on my web site so you can see them in their full glory. I’m also creating a new section on the site where they will live for all of you to reference should you want to recreate them.

Our newest Quiltology quilt and kit is a mellow batik we’re calling Modern Thinking. This one was a real collaborative effort—Susan applied her keen color sense and pieced the blocks from a Blue Underground Studios pattern and palette of new Benartex fabrics. Then I took it from there, laying out the blocks on the design wall and sewing the top together. Finally our favorite long-arm quilter Sally added her quilting magic with the new Lotus pattern in a dusty lilac thread. This one’s hanging up by the front window—across from the two chairs where most of our gentlemen visitors park themselves while their better halves shop. And let me tell you, the guys really like this one!

The Midwest Modern In & Out quilt is perfect for a sunny afternoon picnic in your favorite park!

This kit includes a 26 quarter yard cuts from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern collection—enough to make a patchwork top measuring 63” x 77”. That’s a nice size throw or a short twin. The kit also includes the Blue Underground Studios In & Out pattern.

63” x 77” Throw

Kits sold out.

Our Curved Log Cabin is a whole bunch of Amy Butler scrappy wonderfulness.  

The kits include fabrics from Amy's recently retired Belle and Lotus fabrics cut into 2" strips for you, so all you have to do is make the sub cuts for the log sections, white setting fabric and the Blue Underground Studios pattern. 

Get them while you can--these fabrics are going away and once they're gone--they're gone forever!

Kits sold out! 

There’s nothing like a rainy afternoon to make some progress on my new Lincoln Park Patchwork quilt.

My plan was to play with rows of color so I used Anna Maria Horner’s new fabrics in two palettes—a lighter golden pinky red grouping and the chocolate and plum color way. The construction is easy schmeasy--sort of a variation on Urban Amish.

I’m playing with the sizing right now. I’m not sure I like the width of my strip set rows. I’ve already trimmed them back once, but I’m not sure it was enough. Of course the idea of borders has crossed my mind too. It always does when I get to the point where I’m piecing the top together. But in the end I know the patchwork top will speak to me. And it will either say, “I’m not done yet, don’t let me out of the house without my make-up on,” or it will scream “you can’t box me in!” Time will tell.

When Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern collection arrived earlier this summer, I cut a quarter yard piece from each print with the idea of recreating her amazing Charm quilt. After cutting up the background patchwork, I spent a few weeks trying to lay this out but it just wasn’t working for me. I put it up on the design wall, stepped back and waited for that “yes” moment. It didn’t come. So I took it home and tried again. Still, I couldn’t get the pop I wanted. I loved the scrappiness of it, but I just couldn’t make it work with the appliqué ovals. Sometimes this happens. You have an idea, but once you start putting it all together, it just doesn’t match up to the picture in your head.

So fast forward to an absolutely beautiful Sunday afternoon—everybody must have been at the beach or the Cubs game—the shop was slow. I pulled out my rotary cutter and started sub-cutting the Charm patchwork into new blocks. Before I knew it, our new shop sample In & Out Modern was born!

Fast forward again—a few really bad days at my day job with a few evenings of therapeutic sewing later—and the blocks were finished. Then life kicked in—I escaped the bad day job for a much better (and happier) position. Life was good—but my poor blocks fell by the wayside, relegated to a plastic bag in my things-to-do pile.

Luckily Susan stepped in and worked her magic—laying out the blocks—and sewing them together into—dare I say it—a finished quilt top. Next stop—Sally’s house—where she will work her magic on the long-arm machine and finish this baby into a real quilt. I’ll bind it and hang it in the shop.

stay tuned…

Colette