Endless Summer

Endless Summer

It's such an honor to be part of Mathew Boudreaux aka Mister Domestic's blog tour! Mathew launched his first fabric collection, Loved to Pieces for Art Gallery Fabrics this spring and I couldn't be happier for him!

Mathew's a power house of positive energy and brilliant sewing ideas. He's lovable and personable and you can't help but have a smile after watching his engaging You Tube videos!

Here's the amazing line up of designers for his tour:

Mister Domestic’s Loved to Pieces Blog Party

Monday July 16: Amanda Woodruff of A Crafty Fox

Tuesday July 17: Sharon Holland of Sharon Holland Designs

Wednesday July 18: Angela Wolf of Angela Wolf Pattern Collection

Thursday July 19: Brittany Jones of Brittany Jones

Friday July 20: Sharon McConnell of Color Girl Quilts

Saturday July 21: Elina Temmes of Elina Temmes

Monday July 23: Meghan Buchanan of Then Came June

Tuesday July 24: Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft

Wednesday July 25: Cristy Stuhldreher of I Love You Sew

Thursday July 26: Kate Basti of Quilt with Kate

Friday July 27: Courtney Davis posting at Melly Sews

Sunday July 29: Mimi Goodwin of Mimi G Style

Monday July 30: Kim Niedzwiecki of Go Go Kim

Tuesday July 31: Tara Curtis of Wefty Needle

Wednesday August 1: Saija Kiiskinen of Saija Kiiskinen

Thursday August 2: Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth

Sunday August 5: Brett Lewis of Natural Born Quilter

Monday August 6: Karen Tripp of The DIY Addict

Tuesday August 7: Tracy Martin of Tracy Bug Creative

Wednesday August 8: Sharon Burgess of Lilabelle Lane Creations

Thursday August 9: Maureen Cracknell of Maureen Cracknell Handmade

Friday August 10: Kylie Gersekowski of Little Moo Designs

With the wind of his daughter Helena’s love at his back, Matthew created Loved To Pieces. Helena's love for flowers and Mathew's love for paper piecing fused into a world where florals and EPP geometrics play against an array of blue tones with touches of vibrant pinks and subtle greens.

To signify the eternal love that's woven into every fiber of this collection I chose to make my Endless Summer table runner that I designed and first published in July/August 2013 Quilt-it...today magazine. 

This runner is made from half-square triangles and quarter-square triangles and the overall effect is as if it's been woven and a nod to Mathew's amazing woven fabrics sewing projects. There's a lot of pieces but once you make the units you're ready to put the runner together so it actually goes together pretty quickly. If you need extra help with HST and QST triangles, take a look at my tutorial for them HERE.

To share the love, this is now a free pattern for you to download from my Free Patterns page. 

I adore using a striped print for binding, don't you? To get the maximum effect, it's best to cut a striped binding on the bias. For a tutorial on how to cut and attach regular and bias binding, see my How to Bind a Quilt tutorial.

I really love the colors in Mathew's collection and these cool greens and aqua's are scrumptious and made me feel like I was in a Mediterranean getaway! You better believe I ate those props after the photoshoot!

I didn't have enough left over of the striped print to cover the back so I added my Woodblock Splendid print for AGF to each end, giving this runner a second look if flipped over.

The machine quilting is kept very simple because I didn't want to take anything away from the pretty prints. I followed the overall shape of the radiating rings which was plenty of quilting to use on the Hobbs Tuscany Silk Batting that's the perfect thickness for a table runner. 

Be sure to follow along on the blog tour and on Mathew's blog and @MisterDomestic Instagram as he'll be having weekly drawings for Loved to Pieces fat quarter bundles and loads of sewing inspiration. 

Happy sewing,

Sharon

Sewcial Bee Sampler Block #10

Sewcial Bee Sampler Block #10 

Today we'll have enough blocks to complete the first two rows of our Sewcial Bee Sampler quilt! I've been so impressed with all the blocks being posted each week--you're an extremely talented group of quilters. Thanks for inspiring me with your beautiful patchwork.

My very good friend and co-host Maureen Cracknell and I are thrilled that this sew along project is so popular. We're still seeing new SBS Makers joining us every day so please be sure to welcome the new members and help out where you can with encouragement and any pass along any tips you've learned along the way. Thank you for being such a wonderful, supportive community, I know many new friendships have been made because of the SBS.

If you're just joining, you may want to start at the beginning of the community sewing bee with my first post The Start of Something Sewcial and work your way up to the present. I've included tips and tutorials with each new block and they can be helpful, especially if you're new to quilting. 

Download the free Butterfly Crossing block from my Sew Along page.

Block #10 Butterfly Crossing

Today we will introduce a new patchwork technique - Quarter-Square Triangle (QST) Units

Much of what you've already learned in this sampler quilt will be used in this new technique. You've sorta been doing this all along with our 8-at-a-time HST units, and 2-at-time HSTs. The biggest caution I have for you with this block is to cut your pieces carefully to begin with and be certain you're using an accurate 1/4" seam allowance (SA) when sewing. Not only is it imperative to sew the QST units with a true seam allowance, this block has many pieces to it and small infractions on your seams will only multiply in a block with a lot of pieces. To double check your machine for an accurate seam allowance, review my Perfect Patchwork post and take the graph paper test.

1. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of each 3-1/4" fabric A square (or lightest fabric). You could draw the line corner-to-corner, in the center or, use a seam guide tool like this one by Omnigrid. To use the seam guide tool, center the yellow line of the ruler from corner to corner, then draw the actual 1/4" SA stitch lines using the outside edges of the ruler.

Place a marked square right sides together with a 3-1/4" fabric B square. Sew a 1/4" SA on each side of the drawn line or directly on the drawn line for the seam guide ruler method. 

2. Whichever method you use to mark the square, you will cut the HST unit apart down the diagonal center, separating the two units and leaving 1/4" seam. Make a total of 10 HST units for this block. I chose to make 6 with a fabric A/B combination and 4 with a fabric A/C combination. Press open toward the dark fabric. Trim dog ears.

3. Pair matching HST units right sides together as shown with same fabrics in opposite corners. Nest the seams and draw a diagonal line (or seam guide lines) perpendicular to the seam line on the wrong side of one unit. Note: You can mix and match as desired. Pairing two different HST units will yield two QST unit with a mix of those fabrics. 

4. Sew a 1/4" seam allowance on each side of the marked line (or directly on the sewing guide drawn lines). Cut apart, open, and press. Makes 2 QST units. Make a total of 10 QST units (there will be one left-over because we only need 9 for this block).

Your QST units should measure 2-1/2" square--the same size as the squares used in the block. 

My Butterfly Crossing block is not perfect and some of my points are a little clipped here and there when it all was put together. That doesn't bother me and no one will notice it once it's quilted. Take your time with this block and have fun.

Some of my spring bulbs are starting to bloom and most of these pretties were picked from my yard. I can only imagine it won't be long before real butterflies are flitting about the flowers. I've made this block using my new Bountiful fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics and one of my favorite Pure Element solids - Sweet Macadamia. My Bountiful Blog Tour is just underway this week and I'd love for you to follow along. I've got an amazing line up of talent for this tour-- see the full list on my Bountiful Blog Tour post. If you've been wondering where to buy Bountiful, check out my Shop Fabrics page for shops that carry my various fabric collections. 

Aurifil      Circa 15      The Intrepid Thread      Fat Quarter Shop      Omnigrid      Llama Fabrics      Color Girl     Lady Belle Fabric      Needle in a Fabric Stash      Dritz      Knotted Thread    NeedleandFoot      Stash Builder Box

Also, don't forget that Friday is Giveaway Friday and this week Maureen will be hosting the giveaway from her blog. We've got a great giveaway planned from Lady Belle Fabric I know you'll not want to miss! 

Happy sewing!