Have you met Hannah?

We are so excited to introduce you to one of our new collections, Hannah! These fun prints pair classic black and white with lime, fuchsia and coral for a bright, modern look. 

Looking for inspiration for using these great fabrics? You'll find Tammy Silvers' "Hannah's Garden" pattern for FREE on our website. (And we'll soon be featuring a tutorial here on the blog using the Hannah collection)

Find the free quilt pattern here.

Let's take a closer look at some of the prints:

Isn't this a great dotted stripe? Perfect for sashing or binding.

Love the modern vibe of this geometric print.

And the large floral? So much to love here! Can't you picture it as a large outer border (like in Tammy's quilt) or as focal squares in a big block quilt?!

See the entire Hannah collection here, or look for it in your local quilt shop. 

Top 6 Ugly Christmas Sweaters

(It was going to be top 5, but we just couldn't narrow it down!)

As the holidays approach, the hunt intensifies...not for the perfect Christmas tree, but for the perfect ugly Christmas sweater! Maybe you have a themed party to attend; perhaps it's just to wear to work to put you in a festive spirit...either way, the attraction to ugly Christmas sweaters seems to grow each year!

Now, we know that one man's treasure is another man's trash, and what some may consider the perfect "ugly" sweater, another may consider to be his/her favorite sweater without irony, so keep that in mind as you peruse the photos in this post and check out our Ugly Christmas Sweater Pinterest board! This post is all in good fun.

6. A nod to a classic Christmas movie:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/142215300706876894/

5. Who said ugly Christmas sweaters actually have to be sweaters?

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/142215300706876891/

4. Tellin' it like it is:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/142215300706876788/

3. Like quilts, some things are best when they are homemade:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/142215300706876806/

2. Roaring fireplace, anyone? 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/142215300706876813/

1. Not sure anybody can beat this guy! Wow. 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/142215300706876808/

See any you especially like?
:)
Better yet, do you own an ugly Christmas sweater? Put it on, take a photo and email it to us at fabriquiltblog (at) gmail.com. We'll add it to this post!

Great news! There's also a book about throwing your own ugly Christmas sweater party,

as well as a ribbon you can purchase to award to the best ugly sweater!

If they don't have one lurking in their own closet, many people have luck finding sweaters like these at Goodwill or local thrift shops.

If you strike out there, many stores now sell purposefully ugly sweaters.

Here are a couple fun sites we found:
Ugly Christmas Sweater

Ultimate Ugly Christmas

Morph Suits Ugly Sweaters

Toile, Holiday-Style!

The Christmas carols have started! (Okay, who are we kidding...they started the day after Thanksgiving and holiday merchandise has been in stores since before Halloween!) 

But...now that we've reached December, it's much easier to get in the holiday mood. 

And nothing does that more than great Christmas fabric (Christmas in the Woods) used in a beautiful quilt, like Tony Jacobson's "Santa in the Woods," featured in Love of Quilting magazine.

"Santa in the Woods" by Tony Jacobson;
featured in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting November/December 2013

Q. What attracted you to the Christmas in the Woods toile prints?

Tony: I've always liked toile prints and I liked the aspect of a Santa print that wasn't the obvious Santa carrying a sack of toys or with a child on his lap.

It's more like Santa in his off time. It makes it a little more "winter" than just Christmas, to me.

Q. Why did you decide to vary the centers of the red and green blocks?

Tony: I wanted a nice sized area to show off the Santa print so there would be a better chance of seeing a bit of the cabin, deer, and Santa all in one block. The green toile is more of an allover print so it wasn't as necessary to have the large area to show. I also wanted to have the variation in the star block.

Q. What is your favorite part of the quilt?

Tony: I think the overall design of the quilt melds together well and gives that warm and comfortable feeling we're all looking for as the temperatures in Iowa fall below the freezing mark. It will be nice to cuddle under this quilt while sitting on the sofa with all the four-legged kids around, watching our favorite Christmas shows.

Q. Can you talk about how it was machine quilted?

Tony: I decided that I wanted to keep the quilting consistent for all of the blocks, so I just mimicked the in-the-ditch quilting I was doing in the green star blocks over the red star blocks. I wanted to keep the pattern simple so it wouldn't fight with the toile print.

See the entire Christmas in the Woods collection here.

Find the kit for this project here.

Find Love of Quilting here.

Winter Elegance

Q. What do you get when you combine two traditional block designs with an collection of Oriental prints in an updated palette? 

A. A quilt worthy of a magazine cover, rich in texture, detail, and color

"Winter Elegance" by Diane Arganbright and Patricia Sue Nelson, featured in the Winter 2014 issue of Quilt Trens magazine, pairs our unique Cherry Blossoms collection with coordinating Marblehead prints to create a stunning design. 

Keep reading to learn more about it.

Q. What attracted you to the Cherry Blossoms collection?

Diane: The colors and design of the Cherry Blossoms collection were both big draws for us. Pink and purple are not traditionally the colors of Oriental fabrics, which made this collection fun to work with. We always love oriental designs.

Q. Why did you decide to use purple as the main color?

Diane: Purple seemed to be the best color choice to accent the focus fabric without taking away from it.

Q. How did you choose which blocks to feature?

Diane: We wanted to do a traditional quilting design with oriental fabrics. The colors of the Cherry Blossoms collection blend so well together that a log cabin block seemed to be a good choice to use with them.  The stars were added to break up the melting colors.

Q. Can you talk about why you added in Marblehead fabrics as well?

Diane: The blending qualities of the Marblehead collection were the perfect addition to the log cabin blocks to fill in otherwise missing gradient colors. The natural-colored Marblehead used in the background lends a softening touch to the quilt. We felt that a more solid fabric would have been too stark for the desired effect.

Q. What is your favorite part about the quilt?

Diane: The log cabin blocks are my favorite part of the quilt. Patricia Meek and Denise Combs did an amazing job of cutting and piecing this quilt in less than two weeks to meet a deadline!

Q. Tell us about the machine quilting.

Diane: Our long arm quilter, Shawna Crawford, did an outstanding job of combining swirls and feathers to create a unique quilting pattern for this quilt.  The quilting truly enhances the design without taking away from the beautiful fabrics. 

See the entire Cherry Blossoms collection here and Marblehead here.
Find the kit for Winter Elegance here.
Find Quilt Trends magazine here.

Blog Hop Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway during last week's Blog Hop!

Random generator chose:

Congratulations to Nana-Bob! We're sending you an email to get your mailing address so we can get a bundle of Marblehead fat quarters sent your way! 

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy, food-coma-inducing Thanksgiving!

Marblehead Challenge Winners!

We're excited to share the results of the Marblehead Challenge with you! A big thank you to the talented quilters who entered, and everyone who voted, as well as our sponsors for providing great prizes for our winners.

1st Place Winners:

Quilt, Original Design: Ocean of Hawaiian Turtles by Marilyn Wilbanks

Ocean of Hawaiian Turtles

Quilt, Published Pattern: Floating Stars by Rozanne Johnson

Floating Stars

Small Project, Original Design: Bella Breeze Jacket by Patricia Lackey

Bella Breeze Jacket

Small Project, Published Pattern: Shazam by Teddie Broughton

Shazam

2nd Place Winners:

Quilt, Original Design: Shooting Stars by Troy DeFrates

Shooting Stars

Quilt, Published Pattern: Stack and Whack by Shirley Rodgers

Stack and Whack

Small Project, Published Pattern: Kaleidoscope Garden by Marcia LeBlanc

Kaleidoscope Garden

Honorable Mentions:

Quilt, Original Design: Rainbow Squares by Will Simpson

Rainbow Squares

Quilt, Published Pattern: Field Greens  by Bobby Gladbach

Field Greens

Quilt, Published Pattern: Marble Lobby by Betsi DeFrates

Marble Lobby

Congratulations!

 Each winner will receive a customized prize package containing Marblehead Fabrics from Fabri-Quilt, a quilt finishing package from Quilted Memories, a Pellon product, and an OLFA 5" applique scissors. 

We'll be in touch with the winners to confirm mailing addresses.

p.s. If you missed the deadline for the 2013 Marblehead Challenge, don't worry--we'll be holding the Challenge again in 2014. Watch for details in early 2014.

Blog Hop Party

Happy Thursday! Only 7 days until Thanksgiving!
Today we're taking part in the Blog Hop Party put together by Michele at Quilting Gallery.

Today we are giving away a fat quarter bundle of Ro Gregg's Marblehead Global Brights. We love the rich color and texture of these prints and hope you do too! 

We've featured several tutorials made with these great fabrics (and using some of the regular Marbleheads too). 

Here are a few:

Wonky Log Cabin Mug Rug

Chevron Mini Quilt

Zippy E-reader Bag

Disappearing Nine-Patch Table Runner

Quilt-As-You-Go Hot Pad

The giveaway:

To enter to win this fat quarter bundle, sign up to follow our blog via Bloglovin' (or your preferred following program) or by email (both options can be found in the righthand sidebar) and then leave a comment telling us your favorite Thanksgiving dish. Like us on Facebook and leave another comment telling us you did so for a second entry. Make sure we have a way to contact you if you win! The giveaway is for US addresses only and will be open though November 26th at 11:59 EST. We'll randomly draw a winner and announce the name on the 27th. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Find the entire list of participating bloggers here.