Feeling the Blues with Vera Cruz

This spring, we've had two quilts made with the lovely florals of Vera Cruz featured in magazines. These quilt patterns have more in common than just the Vera Cruz prints they use--both are perfect for blue lovers! 

In the January/February issue of Love of Quilting, Diane Tomlinson used just four blues and the traditional apple core shape to make a cool curvy quilt. Doesn't it create a fantastic illusion of colors weaving over and under each other?

"Core Connection" by Diane Tomlinson;
featured in Love of Quilting Jan/Feb 2016

Find the Vera Cruz collection here.
Find the kit for this project here. 
Find Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting here.

Then in the March/April issue of Quilting Quickly, Lisa Swenson Ruble used a snack pack of 2-1/2" wide strips plus plenty of blue floral to sew a variation of the barn raising design. The pieced strips add so much movement to this design! 

"Modern Barn Raising" by Lisa Swenson Ruble and machine quilted by Diane Oakes;
featured in Quilting Quickly March/April 2016

Find the Vera Cruz collection here.
Find the kit for this project here. 
Find the video tutorial for this project here. 
Find Fons & Porter's Quilting Quickly here.

Pillowcase Party!

Happy Friday, everyone!
American Patchwork & Quilting's 24-hour Sew-a-thon kicks off this afternoon! 
You can find more information on the sew-a-thon and an abundance of pillowcase patterns here. 

But we also thought we'd share a little eye candy here--the One Million Pillowcase Challenge's two most recent band patterns, stitched in our fabric. 

Pattern 50: Bull's Eye Band

 featuring Briarcliff fabrics

Photo from Allpeoplequilt.com; download the pattern here.

Pattern 51: Square-in-a-Square band

featuring Vera Cruz fabrics

Photo from Allpeoplequilt.com; download the pattern here.

Happy pillowcase sewing! Have a fantastic Sew-a-thon, AP&Q!!
Learn more about American Patchwork & Quilting's One Million Pillowcase Challenge here.

5 Fave Free Patterns!

We're starting off the week right, sharing 5 of our favorite free patterns! 

Which one do you like best?

1. "Garden Squares" by Pine Tree Country Quilts

featuring the Vera Cruz snack pack

Click here to download the "Garden Squares" pdf.

2. "Vintage Stars" by Barbara J. Eikmeier

featuring the Vintage Shirting and Dress Prints collection

Click here to download the "Vintage Stars" pdf.

3. "Monkey Wrenches" by Airborne Heirlooms

featuring the Shadows Snack Pack

Click here to download the "Monkey Wrenches" pdf.

4. "Autumn Splendor" by Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis

featuring the Autumn in the Forest Snack Pack

Click here to download the "Autumn Splendor" pdf.

 5. "Marblehead Gems" by Pine Tree Country Quilts

featuring Ro Gregg's Marblehead Gemstones, Jewels & Quartz

Click here to download the "Marblehead Gems" pdf.

Find more of our free patterns here and here.

Pillowcase Time!

American Patchwork & Quilting has posted the two latest pillowcase patterns as part of the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge!

First up is the Bull's Eye Band, shown here in our Briarcliff fabrics.

And second is the Square-in-a-Square band, shown here in our Vera Cruz fabrics.

Find and download both patterns here.

A Pillowcase Party!

Sewing pillowcases is ALWAYS a party! 

And when those pillowcases benefit a charity as part of AllPeopleQuilt.com's 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge, it's even better. 

Last week the lovely ladies of the Miriam Circle at Trinity Lutheran Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan transformed some of our favorite prints into 15 pillowcases to donate. 

For some of the group, this was their first experience with rotary cutters and rulers; others already knew how to sew. Regardless, they were all hooked on the simple burrito method of pillowcase making by the end of the evening! 

First, a demonstration of cutting fabric using a rotary cutter and ruler

Getting right to work!

One of the fabric groupings--from the Briarcliff collection.

Pressing the flange

Pinning the "burritos."
(If you aren't familiar with the burrito (or "roll it up" method of making pillowcases, check it out here--it's so quick and easy--just 2 seams!)

Time to stitch!

One seam done--flange and cuff added (with no exposed seams!) All that's left is to press it and sew it into the pillowcase shape.

Pressing the cuff

A finished pillowcase! Ta da!

The pillowcases will be donated to the Gospel Mission, serving the homeless in the Kalamazoo area.

Thank you, ladies, for using our fabric and for helping the Pillowcase Challenge get 15 cases closer to 1 million!

Have you sewn a pillowcase for the Challenge? Let us know!

Find out more about how you can get involved in the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge here.

See the fabric lines used in these pillowcases:

A Walk in the Park

Bear Hugs

Briarcliff

Morriston

Vera Cruz

Summer of the Snack Pack! (and giveaway winner)

We've recently added a couple new free quilt patterns that you can download right from the blog. And in case you've been outside enjoying the start of summer rather than taking a daily perusal of all the tabs on the blog, we wanted to point them out to you. 

We're declaring this the Summer of the Snack Pack! When outdoor activities are calling your name, you can still get some quilting done quickly with pre-cut strips. Try these free patterns; while they're designed specifically for the fabric line featured, they'd work great with any of our snack packs! 

Florals with a feminine touch:

"Garden Squares" by Pine Tree Country Quilts

featuring the Vera Cruz snack pack

Click here to download the "Garden Squares" pdf.

Get a head start on the holidays with:

"Christmas Keys" by the Quilting Hen

featuring the Season's Greetings 2015 snack pack

Click here to download the free "Christmas Keys" pdf.

And while these aren't new, they're still favorites!

"Monkey Wrenches" by Airborne Heirlooms

featuring the Shadows Snack Pack

Click here to download the "Monkey Wrenches" pdf.

"Bella Chevron" by Marija Vujcic of Mara Quilt Designs

featuring the Bella Snack Pack

Click here to download the "Bella Chevron" pdf.

Find all of these downloadable patterns (and many others) here.
Ask for these snack packs at your local quilt shop.
Enjoy the Summer of the Snack Pack!

*********************************************************************************

Thanks to everyone who checked out our first summer tutorial, the sunglasses case! The randomly selected winner, who will receive a bundle of Graphix 3, is Beth:

Congrats! We'll be sending you an email for your mailing address.

Matching up Classique

The other day we gave you a sneak peek at the new "A coordinate for every project" Classique collection--swatch after swatch of tonal coordinates to play with! Today we've matched up prints from Classique with some of the focal prints of our newer collections--you can subtly alter the palette of a collection based on what coordinates you choose. See what you think!

Paired with Briarcliff:

Paired with Vera Cruz:

Paired with Eggcellent Adventures:

Paired with Jungle Party:

Paired with Bear Hugs:

See our original Classique post here.
See the entire Classique collection here.

Make your own Washington Pavement block!

In honor of President's Day, we showed you a few blocks with presidential connections using the Vera Cruz collection. Today we're back with the cutting and assembly directions for the Washington's Pavement block.

To make this block, cut:

From the white solid:

(4) 2-5/8" squares

(3) 4-1/4" squares, then cut each diagonally in half twice

(2) 2-3/8" squares, then cut each diagonally in half once

From the green zigzag:

(8) 2-5/8" squares

From the blue floral:

(1) 2-5/8" square

From the paisley:

(4) 2-5/8" x 6-7/8" pieces

Step 1: Assemble (4) 2-5/8" white squares, (4) 2-5/8" green zigzag squares and (1) 2-5/8" blue floral square into a ninepatch.

Step 2: Sew (2) 4-1/4" white triangles to a 2-5/8" green zigzag square. Add a 2-3/8" white triangle to the top. Stitch a 2-5/8" x 6-7/8" paisley piece to the bottom. Make 4. (Triangles are cut larger and will need to be trimmed after block is assembled.)

Step 3: On two of the units from step 2, add 4-1/4" white triangles to the short sides of the paisley piece.

Step 4: Sew the remaining units from step 2 to opposite sides of the ninepatch. 

Step 5: Sew the units from step 3 to the remaining sides of the ninepatch. Square up the block to 1/4" past points so it measures 12-1/2" square.

You're done!

And just for fun, here's what nine Washington Pavement blocks look like in a quilt.

Block Assembly Source: Civil War Quilts

Find more details for making this block, as well as its history and variations (hint: with different fabric placement, this is also the classic Album Block!) at Civil War Quilts as well.

See the entire Vera Cruz collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop.

Were Washington and Lincoln Quilters?

Maybe these two famous presidents never actually stitched quilts, but there are several blocks named after them! 

In honor of President's Day, we're sharing several Washington and Lincoln-themed blocks here with you today using our new Vera Cruz collection. Leave a comment letting us know which block you like best and we'll post the directions for making the most requested block next week.

Washington Pavement Block

Washington's Puzzle Block

Lincoln Quilt Block

Log Cabin Block 

(okay, technically this block isn't named after Lincoln, but as every elementary school child learns, Lincoln and log cabins go hand in hand!)

Want to see more of the Vera Cruz collection?

It's a breath of fresh air--big blooms and paisleys with zigzag, floral and scroll coordinates--just the touch of spring we all need in mid February!

See the entire Vera Cruz collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop.

Red-apalooza!

With Valentine's Day around the corner, we've created a virtual gallery of our favorite reds, pinks, mauves, fuchsia, maroon and even purple prints. We hope it inspired you to do a little valentine sewing! Look for these fabrics at your local quilt shop.

See the Batiks here.

See the Eggcellent Adventures by Heidi Pridemore collection here.

See the Changing Seasons collection by Ro Gregg here. 
(Available April 2015: Coming soon to a quilt shop near you!)

See the Classique collection here.

See the Graphix 3 collection here.

See the Marblehead Gemstones, Jewels and Quartz collection by Ro Gregg here.
(Available April 2015: Coming soon to a quilt shop near you!)

See the Shadows collection here.

See the Vera Cruz collection here.

See the Marblehead Global Brights and Marblehead Pleasing Pastels collections by Ro Gregg here and here.