Thinking About Christmas in August

I recently had the privilege to design some sample quilts using a new line of fabric coming out from Fabri-Quilt this fall.  What fun!  Their new Marblehead line by Ro Gregg is worth waiting for.  And is right up my alley!!  Similar to Northcott’s Stonehenge line, this has wonderful colors and textures.   I could play with this line for months and never run our of ideas!  LOL. 

Oh Wait. . . .let me start by saying my new pattern, Bath of Apolausis is coming out this month in the October issue of Quilter’s World.

This next picture is from the magazine.  I downloaded it from their digital issue which just came out on their website.  I had to laugh when I saw this page.  Not only is there a whole picture of the Bath quilt but the other two pictures in the ad are both my quilts!  LOL The cover quilt on their April issue is my Romantic Posies Table Mat and the pattern illustration below is my Roses Around Bed Runner Pattern!  WOW

OK, now to move on to the new stuff.  Not sure where these will end up.  Likely I will publish some of these.  Fabri-Quilt used several as promotional models for their fabric line.  Here are a few of the ones I designed.  For some reason that sort of have an “eastern” and “southwestern” feel to them.   I was exploring the possibilities of using just two blocks and creating lots of different looks based on rotating and color blocks.  Tell me what you think?

Marblehead in This Direction VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then I did another series of quilts using the Marblehead Christmas fabrics that I based on a quilt I designed for my friend Kathi some years ago for a BOB (bag o’ blocks) that I put together for here.  Here are a few of those.

Christmas in August VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then I worked on some more fun and whimsical patterns using Ro Gregg’s new Calypso line.  That was a bit more challenge but still fun.  They selected one of them for Fall Market, so I will keep that one a secret.  Here are a few of the designs they didn’t select.  I sort of like these better!  LOL

Calypso by Ro Gregg VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ok, I am looking at these saying to myself.  So. . . what is my style?  Oh wow, what a great give-away question.  Leave a comment and describe “my style.”  I need to be able to put it on my website and can’t really decide IF I have a style. . .LOL

A free Morning Glory Designs Pattern of your choice goes to the best description of “my style.”  Contest ends Sept 3, in one week.

Correction BOM 8

There is a small correction in the BOM Block 8 instructions.  I have fixed the error and uploaded a corrected version of the instrucions.  Please go to the BOM page and download the instructions again if you already got them so you have the correction.  [Step 6 should say red "rectangle" instead of red triangle.]

Thanks to Barbara Kious who spotted that mistake!!

Winners in New Website Signup Contest

I just love announcing winners and my random number generator pulled three numbers from among the 50!!! quilters who signed up for my newsletter on my NEW and IMPROVED website!  Whoo Hoo

So here they are:

1. Winner of a pattern of her choice:  Jeanette Hansen

2. Winner of a complete BOM of her choice: Debbie Harmon

3. Winner of the 2 charm packs is: Ingrid Mulder

Congratulations to our three lucky winners!!!  And thanks to all of you who entered.  You are all winners because everyone who signed up for my newsletter in August will receive a 20% off saving coupon on any of my patterns, and a 10% off savings coupon for any EQ products!! 

Please contact me to arrange for the shipment or download of your patterns and prizes!!

I so appreciate all of you who checked out my new website, provided me with encouraging comments, and even a few people who helped me correct a couple typos and broken links.  I so appreciate all those sharp eyes checking for errors.  It really helps to know that I have so many proof readers!  LOL

And in September, I will be doing another give away as I bring several new patterns onboard on my website.

My New Website is LIVE!!!

It is finally ready.  My long awaited NEW and IMPROVED website is up!  I am so thrilled with all the new things it will do.  Mostly, it displays my patterns and programs in a much more accessible format.  Please go take a look.

WWW.MORNINGGLORYDESIGNS.NET

Why, you ask??  Well, not only am I really proud of my new site, but if you go there and join my mailing list you will be hooked up for a great give away!!  3 winners will be selected from among those who sign up for my Newsletter/Mailing List.  What am I giving away?

• winner #1 will get their choice of any pattern on my site FREE
• winner # 2 will get a complete Block of the Month set of patterns FREE
• winner #3 will get 2 -- count em -- two Moda Charm Packs: "Hemming House" and "Roman Holiday"

This is a fun way to see my new site, hear about all my upcoming events and patterns, and quite possibly nab some great free goodies!  Give away will close on August 15 so now is a GREAT time to wander over, look around, sign up for my newsletter (of course I never share your info with anyone!).  Since each month's newsletter will have a special coupon in it, it might be worth getting!  Whoo Hooo.

New BOM blocks posted

BIG NEWS this month!!!

First, Jewels in the Crown BOM is doubling up!  This month I am posting 2 blocks!  I know, its like an end of summer bonus!!!  But I want to get all the borders for this quilt in before the end of the year so I needed to double up on a few blocks.

GO TO THE BOM PAGE TO DOWNLOAD BLOCKS!

Block 8 is Glowing Sceptor and Block 9 is Carnelian and Ruby.  Instructions and optional foundation patterns are available FREE for 2 months (August 1 to October 1).

Block 8: Glowing Sceptor

Block 9: Carnelian & Ruby

Next, post a picture of your completed blocks 8 and 9 on the JEWELSBOM Flickr site and be entered to win a free patterns and Fat Quarter Pack.  I got a little behind on this during the spring, but all the prize packs have now been sent out and I am ready to start up again.

So here are the winners for May, June and July:

May: Swalla2011 is the Winner!!!!!

Send me your snail mail address so I can send you your free pattern and Fat Quarter Pack!!

 June: Sassymisspeanut is the Winner!!!!

Send me your snail mail address so I can send you your free pattern and Fat Quarter Pack!!

July:   Quiltyjen is the Winner!!!!

Send me your snail mail address so I can send you your free pattern and Fat Quarter Pack!!

Congratulations to the summer winners!!  I am just thrilled by the colors you use and the gorgeous blocks you create.  Please be sure to post pictures of completed blocks for the 2 August blocks as there will be a DOUBLE PRIZE PACK for the August Winner!

BIG NEWS!!

I am having my website rebuilt and it is going to be spectacular!! Want a sneak peek??

It will be going live the beginning of next week and I am so excited about it.  It will have SOOOO much more functionality, much easier shopping cart, a wholesale site for shops, and a much nicer look.  I am learning to use Word Press and working with my web developer to make everything work.  Once the final testing is done on it we will go live.

To celebrate my new site I am having a BIG contest!  Watch for details.  There will be some great prizes and entering is easy.  Stay tuned for more on this big event.

Finally I gotta brag on my web development TEAM!  Anne Ashley, the graphic designer is just the best and so great to work with!  Thanks to my friend Connie in MA for putting me on to her.  She is a treasure!  And her buddy Jo Ericson, the web developer, is so talented and amazing.  If you are looking to update or develop a new web presence I strongly recommend these two incredible women.

anne@pixelmapcreations.com

jo@yourpagetoday.com

Phew!  Now back to my apple core quilt!  Oh, and did I mention, I got the borders on last night so the top is finished????  I can't believe I actually got something done JUST FOR ME!!!!  LOL

  Till later. . . .

The Apple Core Quilt

This little quilt patch is called an "apple core."  It is a traditional "charm quilt" shape.  A charm quilt was a quilt made from patches that were all the same shape (square, diamond, hexagon, trianglel, kite etc.) with lots of different fabrics.  It was the quintisentiall scrap quilt.  I have always wanted to make one.

I bought an Accu Quilt GO Cutter a year ago and bought the apple core "die" to go with it.  At a retreat a few months ago I brought it along and everyone brough 30's fabrics.  We all cut up TONS of fat quarters and swapped them around.  I had a HUGE pile of them and have wanted a chance to put them together.

The gentle curves are easy to piece and the "built in" notches from the die make lining up the curves simple.  I put them together without pinning as I think it is easier to align the two edges when you aren't wrestling with pins. 

The only challenge is to be able to work with both hands doing different tasks.  For me, my right hand controls the bottom piece and my left hand controls the top piece.  The raw edges don't line up until just before they get to the presser foot.  This works great and I find the ends work out very close to each other.  I keep a small pair of pointy tip scissors close by to clip curves as I go if one pieces needs a bit of stretching.

At another retreat Iattended this past week I finally got the top together!

There are 288 apple cores in this quilt top.  I am going to add another 72 apple cores of solids in 30's colors as a single row around all four sides as a border.  Then I plan to bind it with bias around all the curves!  The final tally will be 360 apple cores!  A happy co-incidence that a quilt with curves should have the same number of degrees as a circle.  Whoo Hooo. 

I'll post more pics once I get the border applecores cut and assembled. I am thinking about writing this up as a pattern.  Any interest in that?

This has been a totally fun project!

Irish Chain top done

Done is good.   I completed the Irish Chain runner last night and off it went to the quilt today.  I was going to quilt it myself but chickened out at the last minute!

 I really like how the borders came out.  And in this picture you can't see the very cool piping.  Can't wait to see what the quilt does with this. . . .

Now onto another project. . . hmmmm, after I finish writing the instructions for this baby.

Irish Chain progress

I am working on my Irish Chain table runner and making some good progress on this long weekend.  I started with this design:

 and then I bought this yummy pile of fabrics:  Farmhouse Retreat from Andover Fabrics.

Then I cut strips and started putting them together in 9-patches.

Once they are together in rows, I join the rows to make a block:

I build some sashing strips to join the blocks and get my first MAJOR four-patch.

Whew!!  that's a lot of little squares!!!  Especially when they only finish to 3/4"!!  But they are totally fun to make, and actually very easy since the whole thing is strip pieced.

So then I had to make another four-patch, cuz there are gonna be three of them in this quilt.

Now I am considering if I need to do another whole set of four blocks or if just two more would make it long enough.  Hmmmm, what do you think?
Now, some serious self criticism -- I am not crazy about using the blue and white plaid in there.  I think the scale of the plaid is too large for the size of these squares.  I wish I had used a solid light blue instead (which is what I originally designed).  There was one in this line of fabrics but I couldn't find it and ended up using the next best thing, which was this plaid.  Not so sure it was a good choice.  oh well.   This design will be published in the Feb issue of Quilter's World next year.

Back to the sewing machine to finish these blocks and do the border.  Suggestions are always welcome.  Hehe, wait till you see the piping!  LOL

July Block of the Month is Posted

July is finally here and that means several very special things at Morning Glory Designs:

1. The new BOM for the month of  July is posted on the BOM Page.
2. Summer is well and truly begun and oh how I love the summer!
3. I am working on my last deadline quilts I have scheduled for this year!

Here is a peak at what I am working on. This is called Spinning Stars and my great friend Peggy Harnett made the top for me.  She did an INCREDIBLE job.  I am going to quilt it this weekend.

I am also working on a Irish Chain table runner using Farmhouse Retreat fabrics from Andover.  Aren't these luscious??

And there is one other piece of incredible news!!  Well. . maybe 2 pieces.  hhhh or more.

First -- I am getting a new website and it is going to Rock Out!  Anne Ashley and Jo Ericson are doing the work for me and they blow me out of the water every time I get a peek at it.  All I can say is WOW.  Anne is a Kick A*s Graphic Designer and Jo is an incredible Web Developer, and the two of them together are blowing my socks off!  I highly recommend them!

Second -- I have been dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age by my graphic design team.  I now have a Facebook Page for Morning Glory Designs.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with it.  LOL

Finally -- My last capitulation to Generation Exers. . . .I got an iphone and one from my husband also.  I figured that if I was going to do it he had to also!! Ohhhh and what fun I am having with apps!

My favorites so far. . . besides the cool calendar, camera, and other great utilities. . .

QuiltCalculator from Robert Kauffman

Quilt Fab app

Color Matcher

Sewing Kit

Check these out at the App istore.  If you know of other great apps for the iphone related to sewing or quilting that you want to recommend, leave a comment and I will send you a free pattern download!  Be sure to leave your email if you want the free pattern.

That's all the good news for now.  Hope you all have a great July 4th Holiday weekend.

Diamond Argyle Pattern is published

This month Quilter's World Magazine published my Diamond Argyle quilt pattern as a web bonus.

That means you will be able to download the pattern as a PDF file and print it out (if you have a digital or print subscription to the magazine).

If you buy the magazine at the newstand you will also be able to download the pattern!  You will find a code for accessing the download on page 45 of the August 2011 issue.

But please note that the download code is only good for 2 months (until the next issue comes out) so download and save the pattern or print it out while the issue is current.

Of course if you get a digital subscription you have access to all the web bonus pattern as well as digital copies of all issues going back to 2006.  That is what I do.  That way I have access to all the patterns, and the digital subscription is cheaper than the print subscription!

This was a really fun quilt to make.  I used all diamond shapes which were cut from strips and followed a chart to help me keep all the colors straight.

You really do need a design wall for this quilt, so you can lay the strips out on the wall as you go.  It goes together really fast by creating diagonal rows and then sewing the rows together.

This is a picture of my quilt getting started and up on my design wall.  I put together 4 rows at a time as I worked from the upper left to the lower right corner.  Then when all the quilt was made it was easy to sew the 4-row sections together.  If you make a mistake it is way easier to remove a section when only 4 rows are together, than if the whole beastie is put together!!!  LOL

And yes, I did make a mistake or two when I was piecing the top.  But it was easy to fix.

I cut strips of all the colors I planned to use, counted the number of each color I needed, then cut diamonds using the Marti Michell diamond template.  I love her templates because you can cut off the points and it makes lining up the diamonds to sew them together WAY easier.   Then I stacked all the colors for each diagonal row together in a stack so I could just pick up 2 diamonds and start sewing.

I would lay out the strips on my ironing board (I have a big board) and double check the position and color of each diamond against my chart so I was sure I didn't make any mistakes.

NOTE:  When using batiks for this project it is great because there is no right or wrong side!!  I loved that and it sure made it easier than trying to be sure I always had right sides together.

Once I had four rows completed I would sew them together and double check again.  Then they went up on the design wall while I worked on the next four rows.

The cool thing about this pattern is that you can use any size diamond!  So your quilt can get bigger or smaller just by changing the size of the diamond template!  As I was cutting all the diamonds for my quilt using 3" strips I cut any remaining strips in half, to 1-1/2" strips and then cut the same number of mini diamonds!  I plan to make a half sized version of the quilt as well.

Since the is a "CHARM" quilt = all the pieces are the same size and shape -- there are no blocks to sew together.  Once the diamonds are cut you are putting the quilt together as you go.  It is fun to see the results come together on your design wall with each seam!!

You can also increase or decrease the size of your quilt by making more rows or fewer rows of diamonds.  That requires a bit a graphing it you want to make it bigger.  I used EQ7's one-patch layout feature and that made it really easy to make it bigger or smaller.

Now I know you are fretting already about binding those ziggy zaggy edges.  I found a great video tutorial the other day on how to do those and it is really really good.  Go here and take a look at this great resource by Marci Baker for Alicia's Attic.

Scroll down to the 4th video tutorial to see this one.

She demonstrates how to do both "innies" and "outies" on diamond edges, just like the kind you will find in this quilt.  And yes, it really is easy to do.  She also talks about how to do it in her book "Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin."

Hope you have fun making his quilt!

And -- hold the presses -- I will have a quilt in the December issue of McCall's Quilting called Civil War Stars.   Watch for more info on this quilt in my next post.

Have a great quilty day!!!!!    Reeze