Whether we are finishing old projects, starting new ones, where we stitch can change our outlook.
I work from home – almost all the time. Unless I’m teaching or presenting to a guild, I’m in my basement studio…sewing, designing, blogging, or quilting. Being home a lot shouldn’t make much difference in my productivity, mood, focus or lifestyle. But, wow, is THERE a difference! For some reason, because I HAVE to stay home, everything has changed. In this case, where we stitch makes a real difference.
Today I’m going to share some inspirational friends’ sewing spaces. You’ll see a few sweet “regular” sewing spots and you’ll see some where the quilters have moved their machines for a fresh view or to be nearer to family.
Linda’s sweet sewing spot (loving that colorful “card catalog” cabinet)!Merle’s new sewing spot (award-winning and published quilt on the wall). Octavia Marie was “born” April, 1940.Sandy’s perch next to the fireplace AND her great porch view!Mary’s sunny porch view that got us all thinking! That’s LauraLouise in the corner.
I’d love to share some outdoor sewing views, but it’s too cold and rainy here for that! Those will be coming soon, I hope! So in the meantime, here’s my beach-dreaming quilting spot (in the form of a quilt). See more about this quilt HERE.
I’d rather be quilting at the beach!
Can you relate to “where we stitch”? What’s your go-to spot? Do you have a porch, deck or view to enjoy?
If you remember Merle’s Bouquet, you’ll see the difference a focus fabric can make!
To review, you might recall that Merle is my neighbor and owner of this vintage watering can. When Merle leaves town, this is the can I use to water her flowers.
I happen to love vintage watering cans, too. Therefore, when AQS requested a quilt design that used both beautiful sides of fabric, I instantly thought of arranging a bouquet in Merle’s vintage watering can.
Use both beautiful sides of one focus fabric.
As a result of the editor of AQS (American Quilter’s Society) requesting a new pattern for their magazine, I asked Merle if I could photograph and sketch her beautiful collection of vases and her vintage watering can.
As a result, the watering can made the cut!
Ultimately, Merle’s vintage watering can was the inspiration for this fun, easy art quilt. Learn about the quilt featured in AQ Magazine.
Similar to Little Susie, the mason jar or Noelle, the ice skates, and Kate (plus many more), this bouquet will be made with a modern broderie perse technique. The bouquet and binding are made from the RIGHT side of fabric, while the watering can is made with the REVERSE.
Notice the light value of the watering can (made from the reverse of the focus fabric) seem to reflect the bouquet made from the front. The flowers are cut from the fused fabric (broderie perse) and arranged as the quilter desires. Aside from auditioning and choosing fabrics for the background, this is the most satisfying part of the process! Quilters in classes really enjoy watching their bouquets “grow’. Each individual’s vision of their bouquet makes these quilts a little work of art.
This vintage watering can quilt has a new, bold look, due mostly to the focus fabric. This RJR Digital floral has a bold motif of painted flowers and birds. Because the value of the focus fabric is strong, it can handle stronger background fabrics.
Auditioning both sides of fabric.
Each pattern describes how to audition both sides of fabric. It’s all about value. In fact, when you learn to audition both sides, you are honing a skill you can apply to all your future quilts! Using of both sides of fabric is like a study in the nuances of value. Learn more HERE.
Finally, remember Merle’s Bouquet is made from floral focus fabrics, but might find other fun motifs as well or ones with little extras, like butterflies, bees, or birds!
Shop more than 50 quilt patterns designed to use BOTH beautiful sides of fabric.
Use digital downloads for quilt patterns and start auditioning BOTH sides of your fabric TODAY!
You probably know that many of my first designs used full-size paper templates. With more and more requests for digital downloads (especially from friends overseas and in Canada), I’ve started adding digital versions of my patterns to my Etsy shop. You can still get the paper versions, even for those patterns sans large templates. Therefore, if you need to avoid high shipping fees, you now have more options available to #usebothsides!
If you are like me, copying and pasting small papers together to make a large template (24 x 36 inches) is not something you crave. That’s why I decided early on to provide full-size paper templates whenever possible. However, paper templates do limit distribution. I also strive to keep the prices as low as possible without losing value.
But, I have to say, it pains me to fill orders for quilters who pay more for shipping than the patterns themselves (sometimes even double). So, digital downloads are a great option. You might choose one if you want to immediately “shop” your fabrics or have deadlines for your quilt projects.
Made with BOTH sides of only THREE fabrics, this bursting variable star quilt goes together fast!
As a result, I have five current digital downloads in my Etsy Shop and more on the way. Some in the future may require a small increase in the template size, but not more than you’d see in a magazine. One example of that will be forAria (the singer).
In conclusion, you have options! You can still purchase the full-color, full-size paper template patterns. Choose digital downloads for immediate “delivery” with the same high-quality you’ve come to expect.
The Pinky Quilt Pattern is another fun way to use BOTH beautiful sides of your fabric!
As with most of my patterns, it all starts with the fabric – the focus fabric!
When I saw this darling fish-bone fabric by dear Stella, I immediately imagined a cute octopus – but first, I had to google: Do octopus eat fish? Well, deep water ones do and this little gal has enjoyed her fill!
So, here is the Pinky Quilt Pattern! Keep in mind, if you find a great blue or purple fabric or even the blue/gray fish-bone by dear Stella, you can call her/him “Inky”!
There are lots of nautical or coastal motifs on the market that would work well for the Pinky quilt pattern!
In case you are new to this concept, these easy quilt patterns are designed to use BOTH beautiful sides of fabric to achieve an interesting balance of values. The patterns teach you how to audition BOTH sides of focus fabrics to choose just the right one AND how to audition BOTH sides of your focus fabric with your scrappy background fabrics. In the process, you learn the nuances of value – a great skill to apply to all quilt planning.
The top of Pinky’s body and the binding are made using the front side of the focus fabric and her under-side and bubbles are made using its reverse. Gather up some fun beachy and “water-y” background fabrics and accent strips for a delightful mix.
The Pinky Quilt Pattern comes with a full-size paper template and detailed instructions.
I’m declaring it a red and white quilt day! It was still a minute and a half to the end of the Superbowl and the fireworks were going and lasted a while!
The Kansas City Chiefs sport red and white. Apparently, the colorful fireworks after their big Superbowl win were pretty significant, too! Here they are shown on Bob Clubb’s (social media-rologist) weather radar:
You can find Bob on Facebook at Weather with Bob Clubbs. He’s a weather enthusiast, not a meteorologist, but his “One Gallon Freak-out” or “Two Gallon Freak-out” predictions are usually spot-on!
It’s a great day to wear red and white – and take a look at one beautiful red and white quilt pattern- which happens to remind me of fireworks.
This stunning quilt pattern is by Nancy Rink. Visit her website HERE. She has many beautiful patterns and quilt kits as well as notions, thread, rug hooking, and more.
This design uses Tri-Recs tools by EZ Quilting by Wrights, making this quilt easier to piece than you might think. I’ve used these tools for Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts before and they are fun to use.
Show and Tell is one of my favorite reasons for joining quilt guild.
Apparently, lots of guild members across our industry feel the same way! While visiting guilds to do presentations, I love to observe the personality and differences of each guild.
From participating in community projects, planning retreats, taming snarly budgets, or making group decisions, each guild has its own way of doing things. Even the interaction between members varies from guild to guild. Some are quite reserved, while others’ members are bursting with enthusiasm.
But one thing guilds have in common is Show and Tell.
As a new quilter and guild member, I couldn’t wait to see all the new quilts everyone had made. We used to hold that feature right after our guest speaker. However, some members started leaving our meeting directly after. Consequently, our board decided to move that anticipated time to the end of our meetings!
I recall from my earlier years at guild that very seasoned (perfect) quilters would show quilt after quilt after quilt that they had completed that month. I’m talking LARGE ones, too. And those same quilters would do this month after month. When did they eat? Or sleep?
But, alas, our guild grew and now there is a limit of two quilts at the end of our meetings. I’m sure those fantastic, prolific quilters are still churning out the quilts!
Below is a small Show and Tell segment.
Bootheel Quilters’ Guild of Sikeston, MO had a wonderful class turnout.
Enjoy these class works of art, finished and shared by area quilters at their Show and Tell.
Featured are three very different “Phoebee” bee quilts, “Kate”, the bouquet, and “Belle”, the butterfly, each using BOTH sides of fabric! Shout out to JoAnn, Betty, Chris, Darlene, and Debbie for sharing their quilts!
Notice the threePhoebee quilts that look nothing alike! Each quilter adds their own loving touches and personality through fabric choices and placement of the broderie perse elements.
Rummage your stash to use three random fabrics OR choose a line of fabrics you love. Make the Contrary Wife blocks in this one block quilt pattern by using both sides of three fabrics on a soft white background! Learn to audition BOTH sides (I tell you how) and discover the nuances of value that’ll make your quilts sing!
I used a line of fabric featuring sea life, but you could make this quilt with Christmas, Americana, florals…any theme or colorway you like!
Toss in a sweet background fabric…
It can be solid…or NOT. As long as the values work together (I tell you how), you can choose a background you love!
The Contrary Wife quilt block has been, well, around the block a few times! The key to the sparkling nature of this quilt is the use of the reverse sides in each block and the placement of the blocks.
“Treasures” was so named because I’m continually amazed by the effect of using both sides of fabric…it’s like the quiet moment of discovering a precious gem in packed antique store. While I love all kinds of quilts, the ones that really get my juices flowing are the ones I have to linger over a bit…that make me pause…ponder.
I hope you like the “Treasures” quilt pattern as much as I. If you like these fabrics, stay tuned to my Etsy shop for fabric kits coming soon!
You can SHOPHERE for all my patterns and focus fabric kits.
Choosing colors for quilts doesn’t have to be difficult. While it might not be simple, using Nature’s Color Wheel can help!
Being a quilter who likes to have more than one quilt idea going at a time, I like to use nature to help guide my color choices for a quilt.
If you are in a time crunch or have run across a line of fabrics you adore, choosing fabric and colors for your next quilt can be a simple, quick process. I find that every now and then I need to grab a kit and make it up, quick as possible.
Most often, though, I like to have a longer process for choosing my quilt colors and fabrics. It’s a process. A dance, actually. You know, it involves colors, value, hue, and tints. But also, this requires a careful consideration of how each fabric interacts with one another, based on its placement. And sometimes the fabrics and the project need to…age.
If you like to have more than one quilting iron in the fire, like me, maybe you cherish this process, too!
When choosing my own fabrics for a quilt, there are two concepts I often rely on: color in nature and value.
First, let’s look at color. Nature just doesn’t get it wrong. Start observing natural settings, plants, animals, bugs, everything around you. Take pictures, or pin ideas to an idea boards. This might be in the form of photos in an album on your phone.
There are many variations in the blooms above. These petals aren’t the truest red of the color wheel, but variations to the left and right. Shades of pinks and oranges grace these blooms. That’s why they look so beautiful with the very TRUE green!
Observe nature to choose colors and you can’t go wrong. I like to think of it as Nature’s Color Wheel.
The excitement in the photo above is partially from the vibrancy of the colors, but also the difference in value.
This beach sunset below may be dark, but even it has many colors in it, if you look carefully. Notice the purples, greens, pinks, coral, and blues? The values in this photo are more similar. Notice the calming effect?
Christmas traditions abound. It is a season filled with activities we do over and over. Traditional Christmas colors are a big part of that tradition. It’s the things you do every year, without fail. Like rules, you don’t mess with tradition!
But families change. Kids grow up. Christmas traditions (including colors) do change.
What do traditional Christmas colors have to do with quilting?
I always took pride in our Christmas traditions from decorations to cookies. We listened to certain music and watched specific Christmas movies. We always baked the same cookie recipes. I actually used to think I had to use every decoration we owned each year.
Well, a few years back, aqua became the new Christmas color…wait, what? That’s not even one of the traditional Christmas colors!
It took me a moment…but only a moment, to embrace that idea. I threw that red and green tradition (rule) out the window!
(To be fair, aqua happens to be my favorite color.)
Therefore, I stopped using my quilts of traditional Christmas colors of red and green anymore. As quilters, you’ll understand, I had to make new ones with all the pretty blues!
I think a lot of people embraced the blue Christmas – for one or two seasons. However, for me it was a NEW tradition!
In other words, I found that my comforting traditions were holding me back. Similarly, the rules I’d embraced as a quilter were doing the same.
For example, last year I realized that the beloved tradition I’d started at our old house of making St. Lucia Bread, hadn’t risen properly one time at our new house – ten years in a row!(I’d tried all the yeast tricks, too.)
I made the original “JOY” quilt pattern using a vintage ornament fabric that was very classic Christmas colors. Therefore, in a need to show how a variety of fabrics could be used for this pattern, I stitched this new JOY – using both beautiful sides of a digital aqua Hoffman panel!
JOY Quilt Pattern
Fast forward to grown kids, job schedules, tight budgets, and limited time together. We changed Christmas traditions this year. We are brainstorming about how to make our time fun and meaningful. What’s interesting is that the more we talk about setting aside our old traditions (rules), the more creative we have become in our brainstorming. A weight was lifted.
Seriously, how is this post about quilting?
Now, when I first started quilting, I was all about the rules (traditions). I wanted to learn every single one of them. Some were paramount to good technique and skill-building and very important. Others were just plain silly. I heard a quilter say one day, “Rules are meant to be broken”.
It was then I realized I had ingested each one of those rules. I realized that some rules (traditions) were limiting my joy for quilting and my creativity for fear of breaking them.
Therefore, I’ve noticed now that I watch for the rule-breakers in quilting. Their work excites and inspires me, regardless if the technique is traditional or contemporary.
If you know me personally, you know I embrace tradition. If you are familiar with Lutherans, I am a “page 5 of the old, OLD hymnal” kind of gal!
So, don’t let your need for traditions RULE your world…whether it’s Christmas or quilting.
In conclusion: This 2020 Christmas Traditions update shows that I still love aqua – but now I include red! Here is the NEW pattern, JOYFUL! See how her borders sparkle? #usebothsides
It’s beginning to look (and feel) a lot like red truck Christmas quilt season!
Merry is a red truck Christmas quilt that’s easy and fun to make! You can start your holiday decorating with a fun Christmas wall hanging OR make one for a favorite friend!
Use BOTH sides of one red Christmas fabric on a snowy bed of winter fabrics to make this quilted wall hanging.
This little red truck is dashing through a snowy lane. On a background of winter trees, various sizes of snowflake motifs, cardinals on lighted lines, and glitzy deer, this red truck Christmas quilt is made with both sides of one focus fabric. So toss a tree in the back, add the mirrors, tires, license plate, and reversed details to “trim out” your truck. Pull out your winter/Christmas stash and start auditioning your fabrics!
Shop the “Merry” quilt pattern in my Etsy shop: HERE
Below are the current Christmas quilt patterns available. For each you will use both sides of at least one fabric. With each #usebothsides pattern, you’ll discover the nuances of value as you learn to audition BOTH sides of fabric. I teach you HOW, like what to look for and how to use value to your advantage.
Look at each picture below and notice where the reverse side is used. Look carefully because you’ll see that the reverse is often used in the background as well. Chances are you have fabric in your stash that will work, with beautiful reverse sides. So pull out some stash and turn it over! Once you learn about what makes reverse sides work, you’ll never look at one side of fabric again! It’s almost like doubling your stash (without taking up any more room). Plus, it’s fun and makes choosing fabrics easy!
