What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Alamosa Quilt Company has participated in the monthly online FabShop Hop for over a year now. There are always great prizes each month but this month the grand prize is a serger with a retail value of over $1700! You got to be in to win it though! All the details are lower down in this post so keep scrolling and get ready to starting hopping.

 I have a new fabric collection which means a new shop sample. The fabric collection is called Whimsy. It's a really nice "basics" collection. A basics collection is a collection of fabrics that are designed to be blenders or "go with" fabrics for the trendy, designer prints. These are the fabrics everyone needs to have in their stash to compliment the designer prints and allow them to shine, the supporting actors so to speak.

But just because these fabrics are basics doesn't mean they don't look fabulous on their own in a project! Most of the prints ...

 I received a really lovely fabric collection recently called In the Garden. The collection includes two convenience fabrics - one is a panel and the other is yardage. They are both featured in the shop sample.

Above is the front of the quilt. It features the printed block panel. These blocks are about 20" by 20" and look like I did a lot of work to make them, but I didn't. It's printed just like that! Other uses for this fabric is to use one of two of the blocks as the outside of a tote bag, use one ...

 Today is the last day of the Online BlowOut Event.

I still have plenty of good deals available! Click here to go directly to the BlowOut Event section of my website.

 I pieced this quilt several weeks ago as soon as the fabric arrived but I just got it back from my longarm quilter and finished the binding.

This is such a fun and easy pattern. It's a Villa Rosa pattern called Honor and it takes one yard each of five fabrics (this includes the binding fabric). The fabric collection is called Secret Garden. I sell fabric in half yard increments on my website so if you want to make one just like this you'd need to get a quantity of 2 of each of the fabrics. 

For my ...

 Today is the official first day of the online BlowOut Event. There are lots of great shops participating along with me. Click this link to go to the clearance section of my website and check out the great deals.

I have lots of great fabrics, kits, patterns, books and notions in my clearance section that are up to 75% off. This month I am featuring batiks in my clearance section. All batik fabrics are $9 per yard, full yard increments only.

If you'd like to check out some of the other shops participating click the following link: FabShop BlowOut ...

 The official start of the Online BlowOut event isn't until Monday, August 7, 2023, but I'm giving my customers a head start. Click this link to go directly to the clearance section of my website.

 Last week was rugs, this week it's pillows.

Both of these are 18" pillows. I'm working on writing up the pattern and then I plan to make up some kits using these exact fabrics and then probably some other fabric combinations.

The first one I made is the blue one at the back in the photo above.

This pillow is made from the Winter Solstice fabric collection. It has an envelope back and the outside edge is finished with binding just like you'd do for a quilt.

The front pillow shown in the first photo above is ...

 Despite the assistance of my feline "helper," I was able to finish a second rug last weekend.

I was a little uncomfortable with how close her tail was to the needle, but we managed! Here is the finished rug. It's the original Jelly Roll Rug pattern.

I used one of the new packages of 2 1/2" strips I've gotten in my shop recently from Wilmington Fabrics. What I like about Wilmington is that they have pre-cuts that are collection specific just like most other fabric companies, but they also have pre-cuts that are color specific. None of ...

 I just love the Easy Striped Table Runner pattern! It's fast, fun and all four of the layout options sew up so nicely. Here is our latest version using the new Nature's Winter collection from In the Beginning Fabrics.

And here is the back.

These are the fabrics in the collection :: Nature's Winter Fabrics

The beauty of the Easy Striped Table Runner pattern is that it really only uses one fabric, a border print. You do need backing and binding fabric too plus a 60 degree ruler to cut your pieces. And it gives you four layout ...

 I have another finish!

I used the blue version of the monkeys print for the back.

I made up several kits for this quilt if you want to make one too. The Animal Crackers Quilt Kit is $59.99 plus applicable tax and shipping. The kits include all of the fabrics for the top plus the binding fabric and the pattern, with my corrections to it as it includes an error as printed. But my kits included the corrected pattern!

If you click the link to view the kit there are other links in the product description to the exact ...

 I will be offering my first virtual class through my shop later this month. Since the class is virtual (gonna use Zoom), you can participate from anywhere. Here is what we will be making:

This is a Canvas Tote Bag. The class fee is $20 and includes a copy of the pattern plus enough canvas fabric to make one bag.

Here is what the pattern looks like, Canvas Tote.

I've got a few kits cut already but I have more canvas to be able to cut quite a few more kits, if necessary.

When you sign up for the ...

 This one took me a while to quilt. I used rulers for the whole thing. It took so long because I didn't get a chance to work on it for over a week. Too busy with other things at the shop!

Here is another photo of it without shadows.

The pattern is called Boxed Up. Its a Cluck, Cluck Sew pattern - which means it is a good one. This is the crib/baby size and finishes at 48" by 58". The fabric collection I used for this is called Swatch.

Here is a close up view so you can ...

 I found a free pattern online from one of the fabric companies and decided it would make a great baby quilt kit. Whenever I use a free pattern for a kit, I always make one first. I'm sure glad I have that rule because this pattern had a pretty major cutting error in it!

It turned out pretty cute though once I figured out why things weren't fitting together as they should! Because of the error, I don't have this ready for sale yet. I have to fix the pattern first and make sure that the fabric ...

 I'm having a great time with this new pattern! It's called Tourist Tote. For these next ones I shopped from my stash.

Here they are both completed and ready to use!

And check out how green the grass in my backyard is already! We've had a lot of rain here recently.

My plan for these bags was one for me and one for my son. He turns 21 on Saturday! How did that happen?! He needed a new bag to carry his dinner and snacks with him to his new job. Right now he is working nights ...

 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 ...

 The name of this post is a joke. A group of us here has been making these and we joke that "we've gone down a rabbit hole." Hence the name, rabbit hole covers. Actually these will eventually be turned into pin cushions once I can stop hand sewing them and find time to turn them into pin cushions.

This first set are woven patterns. You do some stitching then you weave through the stitching to create the design.

This one is a rice pattern.

This one is just a spiral ending with an X in the middle.

We started ...

 I shared with you recently about the new Cluck, Cluck Sew patterns I just got for my shop and that I made the Boxed Up pattern using the new Swatch collection. Well, here is the completed top.

I quilted in the ditch to stabilize everything and now I am quilting the blocks. Here is what I am doing in the big squares.

I am using the Westalee 2" circle template for the circle design and the Westalee 12" Straight-Arc template for the straight lines and for the stitching in the ditch. I haven't decided what I will do for ...

 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 have a new product in my shop that I think is very useful for both quilters and general sewists. It's called the MyPad Needle Keeper Set.

I made a short video explaining what it is, how it works and why you might want one.