Reverse-Value Mod Mosaic Quilt

Another summer WIP finished!  It has been so stinkin' nice out up here recently, and I took it outside for some glamour sunshine shots.

Back in March 2012 (ouch!) I asked members of the New Bee on the Block quilting bee to make me Elizabeth Hartman's Mod Mosaic Blocks for my month. Instead of using white for my "tile grout" strips, though, I sent out Kona Cerise, and used Kona Snow and a pretty print from Lotta Jansdotter's Echo line as background. I love how the geometry becomes the focus, not the prints.

Refresh (& Protect): Sewing Chair Covers

A while back, one of my cats adopted my sewing chair.  He proceeded to systematically love it to death, a.k.a. destroy it.

To protect my sewing seat, as well as its office twin, I  decided to make some chair covers.

Before:

After!

I didn't want to buy any fabric for the project, and luckily I found just over a yard of Sarah Jane's Out to Sea in my stash. This being Maine, some type of nautical decor is almost mandatory, and I love those pink boats ;)  For the backs of the covers, I used some tan solid I also had stashed.

Here's a rough outline of what I did. Perhaps these steps will help you make your own custom cat protectors chair covers!

Patchwork, Revisited

I recently had the chance to do something new, for me, in terms of quilty experience:  I got to visit with (and use!) a quilt I made quite a while ago that has since been used and incorporated into daily life.  That's the point, right?

I think I am in love with simple patchwork all over again.  Something about the way it drapes on a bed is so lovely, and I definitely see more in my future. 

Scrappy Hexie Pillow

Hooray!  Another long-term WIP knocked out: some English paper-pieced hexagons.

Over two years ago, I (temporarily) caught the hexie bug-- it looked so simple, and people's inspirational results were so pretty.

I gathered together scraps, basted them to the paper templates during a massive tv binge session, and put them in a ziplock bag.  Whenever I needed some hand work, I could pull them out.

Patty Pan: XL Block = Throw Quilt

Well, I went on vacation, and brought this quilt with me.  And if it was nice weather, I promptly forgot about taking pictures.  Luckily, Maine island light is pretty bright, even through the fog.

For this Patty Pan throw-size quilt, I decided to go for a scrappy, patchworky look, using mostly Anna Maria Horner fabric scraps from previous projects.

Patty Pan: The Full Size Quilt

One of the first really big "fabric treats" I indulged in was a full FQ set of Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi line.  She is one of my favorite fabric designers, and I'm always impressed with all the beautiful and quirky details that are included in her prints.

With this quilt, made up of 24-inch Patty Pan blocks, I found a way to use my loot while prominently featuring the intricate large-scale prints. This block structure allows for you to feature any 12-inch (finished) block in the center, making it perfect for sampler quilts, too.

I've been working away at this quilt for quite some time, so what follows is a pretty photo-heavy version of the whole process!

Quilt Pattern Debut: Patty Pan

I'm pleased to share the release of a summery new quilt pattern: Patty Pan!

Named after the delicious summer squashes with ridged edges about to hit farmers markets (I hope!), this block design uses half-square triangles to create zig-zag frames for your favorite "centerpiece" fabrics.

"Patty Pan," in some places, can also mean that little ridged paper cupcake/muffin wrapper, also a nice match for this shape. (If you are a Beatrix Potter aficionado, you also might know one of my favorites, The Tale of the Pie and the Patty Pan...)

The pattern contains cutting and piecing instructions for three block sizes with varying difficulty (based solely on size):