What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Once again, time seems to be spinning out of control, and I’ve lost track of the days. Maybe it’s because I turned 57 this week. Whatever the reason, here’s my sewing update a day late. The Iris Quilt? No progress to report. But honestly, who cares... I met Corey Yoder!

 First, I just have to share this adorable new fabric that arrived in my shop last week.

The collection is called Hey Cowgirl. It's got a little bit of a retro vibe to it and plenty of pink, coral and turquoise for that "girlie" cowgirl in your life. We've got several patterns in stock that would really show off these fabrics - quilts and bags.

I'm planning to make a Tourist Tote using the border print as the main fabric for the outside of the bag. I might use one of our new cork fabrics or faux leather ...

Believe me when I say, I really didn't want to leave the house yesterday.  I have a family dinner today and that means I should have been in the kitchen, not shopping for fabric.  Being on a tight schedule would make you think it would have been a quick shopping trip.  I can't just get what I need and leave.  I have to look at all the pretty things.  Do I need a rainbow fat quarter bundle?  Nope, but it sure is cute and fun to pet.

 A customer told me about her favorite tote bag pattern recently. It's called the Tourist Tote. It looked like a good pattern and I had a good recommendation for the pattern, so I ordered several copies of it.

Then I had to make one!

I used four prints from the new Serene Nature fabric collection that arrived recently. This is a very nice bag and a nice pattern. It's not a very complicated bag pattern but you could easily add some pockets (inside or outside between the handles). You could also add a magnetic snap or zipper to ...

 These new fabrics arrived in my shop recently from Lewis & Irene.

The name of the collection is Secret Garden.

I think these are just so lovely! I couldn't resist making something up with these. I chose the Honor pattern from Villa Rosa Designs.

The main print is the one I used in the center of the quilt. Here is a close-up photo of it.

 I got some new patterns in my shop recently. 

Tick Tock, Tango, Simplify, and Boxed Up

I love all of the Cluck Cluck Sew patterns because they are all well-written and include fabric requirements and directions for several different sizes of quilt.

Also new in my shop is a fabric collection called Swatch.

I decided to use some of these fabrics and make the Boxed Up pattern.

I don't have it all sewn together yet but you get the idea. This is the crib size version.

 I've had the London City Bag pattern in my shop for a while, but just got around to making up one. I shouldn't have waited so long!

It's a Pink Sand Beach Designs pattern which means it's a good bag pattern. I opted to do the B version of the bag so the outside pocket is a single fabric instead of strips like is shown on the pattern.

On one side inside it has three pockets.

On the other side inside it has a zipper pocket.

The fabrics I used are from a new collection called ...

 Sometimes I order fabric and when it comes it is sooo much better than I expected. This is one of those collections. It's called Spirited.

The collection has this gorgeous horse panel.

A coordinating border stripe.

And gorgeous coordinates in browns and teals.

You can view the entire collection in my online shop by clicking the following link: Spirited

I have a fairly simple quilt in mind for this collection that will feature the panel and border print, but I don't plan to use the border print as a border. You'll have to wait a bit for ...

 I don't have this quilted yet, but the top is done.

The pattern we used is a Villa Rosa Designs pattern called Quilters Palette. It finishes at 45" by 60". Again, the fabric collection we used is called Sundance. The binding will be the same red fabric we used for the inner border around the center fabric.

We made a little oopsy when cutting the center fabric and had to adjust the red inner border around the center, but it still works. When we cut kits for this we will be sure to adjust the yardage for the main ...

 These beautiful fabrics arrived while I was out sick and have been "flying" out the door - pun intended. The collection is called Songbird Serenade from P & B Fabrics.

The last photo is the panel. It's standard size 24" wide by width of fabric panel - so those birds are pretty big. They'd be great cut up and used for placemats or the outside of a tote bag. They would also make awesome throw pillows! Again, these fabrics are from the Songbird Serenade collection.

 I am slowly getting back up to speed. My shop received a lot of fabric while I was out sick!

This is Sundance from Windham Fabrics.

File these under better late than never! These gorgeous western prints are a bit late in arriving (originally scheduled to arrive in March) but they are worth the wait. Lassos, horses, ranch wear, bandana paisleys and an awesome cattle drive print! I have a pattern in mind for these that will really show them off.

 I received a beautiful new collection from In the Beginning Fabrics last week - two months earlier than it was scheduled to be here! Believe me, that is a first of late! I am still missing orders from March, April and of course May of this year. 

First the fabrics - Sci Fi fabric collection:

 I had these in 2020 in turquoise and they sold out quickly. The fabric company decided to offer it again, but changed the turquoise to red for the re-release. Below is a photo of the original one that I made up to cover one of the Bernina 930 machines I have in the classroom at my shop.

 I am not normally drawn to this style of fabric - traditional - but these are just absolutely gorgeous! This is the second collection by Julie Letvin for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It's called 6th Street Cottons.

 One of the fun things about owning a quilt shop is that I get to see LOTS of fabrics that are available for me to order and pre-order for my shop. Last week I had a couple of sales reps come to see me and one of them is my rep. for Lewis & Irene fabrics. She showed me their Queen's Jubilee collection and I fell in love. Unfortunately, I didn't have the budget to order it for my shop. I asked her if she had sold this line to any of her other customers and she had. The ...

It's no secret that Fall is my favorite time of year.  I've talked about it many times on my blog.  When it comes to ordering books and patterns, if there is a pumpkin on it I am a sucker!  As I was shopping for new fall fabric lines, this free pattern showed up.  I instantly saw a cute table topper or wallhanging, and since it had pumpkins....I had to order the whole fabric line!

Northcott fabrics has a new collection called Itsy Bitsy panels. These are one yard by width of fabric panels that each have 9 fabrics per yard.

What can you do with these you might wonder. Well, I show you two options:

One is called Stacked. The pattern includes instructions for three sizes of quilt: Crib (40.5" by 47.5"), Lap/throw (53" by 63.75") and Twin (74" by 87.5"). For the crib size you just need one panel, but you need two panels for the other two sizes. I made the crib size using the unicorns panel ...

I'm just wild about this new collection - pun intended. The name of the collection is Wild, from Dashwood Studios.

The panel is just adorable.

And the coordinates are so sweet!

The squares in the panel are large, about 14" by 14". A super simple and adorable quilt idea is the cut the panel into 14" by 14" squares. Pick 6 of the coordinates to cut two each of the same size squares. The layout will be four squares across by 5 squares down. Just mix them up! The seventh fabric from the collection would be the border. You'd ...

In the 18 years that I have had a shop, there is one thing that has remained constant - having a nice variety of greys and a nice variety of yellow is never as easy as the other colors of the spectrum.  I don't know why that is, but it is.....

For that reason I had ordered in this line months ago:  Songbook Praise & Joy  

 It's always exciting when new fabric comes in.  The biggest disappointment is if there are backorders.  Unfortunately, this load is about half what was ordered.  Traditionally, solids have been used in Hawaiian quilts, Amish quilts and 30s reproduction quilts.  Now we are seeing a huge trend of solids in Modern quilts.  I'll be honest, I haven't used a lot of solids.  I can count on one hand how many quilts I have made with just solids.  Here are a few examples of highly popular patterns: