Calypso Winner!

Congratulations to Catskill Quilter, who was randomly selected as the winner from Bethany's Calypso Tote Tutorial last week. 

Thanks so much to everyone who visited the blog and commented on Bethany's tutorial, on both our blog and hers!

p.s. If you missed the tutorial, you can find it here. 

It's time to vote!

American Patchwork & Quilting's One Million Pillowcase Challenge has passed the halfway mark! 

Stop and think about that for a second--more than 500,000 pillowcases have been stitched and donated to charity through this initiative. That's impressive. 

During the month of July, AP&Q is holding a contest on Pinterest. They've picked 20 of their favorite pillowcases and pinned them. The pillowcase with the most repins at the end of the month will be declared the winner and featured in a special hop. We are proud to be a sponsor of the Pillowcase Challenge, and we'll be participating in the hop in August.

How can you be part of this? Head over to their Pinterest page and repin your favorite pillowcase. 

(And keep reading below to be part of our contest here!)

By the way, did we mention that TWO of our pillowcases made it into the top 20? That's right! We wouldn't want to sway your vote or anything, but we did want to show them off:

Calypso by Ro Gregg

Lady in Red by Ro Gregg

We'd also encourage you to make a pillowcase (or more!) to donate. It's a quick and easy project, and you can make a difference for someone in your own community. You can find a huge variety of pillowcase patterns (including for all the pillowcases you see on this blog page) here.

In the meantime, we're holding our own contest right here, just for fun. Below you'll see all of our pillowcase samples from the Pillowcase Challenge from 2012 and 2013 (photos courtesy of American Patchwork & Quilting). Which one do you like best? And why? Leave us a comment letting us know!

Log cabin pattern using Marblehead 

Uneven hourglass pattern using Fall Tapestry

Churn dash pattern using Garden Whimsy

Cottage in the forest applique pattern using Garden Whimsy

Crazy rail fence pattern using Pretty in Pink

Snowball pattern using Marblehead Pleasing Pastels

Precut strips pattern using Focus

Train pattern using Calypso Frogs

Chevron band pattern using Tribal Council

Spools pattern using Lady in Red

X block band pattern using Flutter

Bubbles applique pattern featuring Calypso

Rick rack pattern using Cambridge Flannel

A Hint of Spring

The dreary gray days of January (and February) seem to be when we most need a glimpse of some spring warmth.
Something fresh, bright and cheery. Something like Reeze Hanson's "Calypso Carnival" quilt, featured in Easy Quilts Spring 2013.

"Calypso Carnival" by Reeze Hanson 

Reeze designed this quilt using Ro Gregg's Calypso line using simple four-patches and sashing. The quilt measures 72" x 96". She shares some of her thoughts about the quilt below.

Q. How did you come up with the design idea?

Reeze: I wanted a simple design which would allow the fabric to do the work.  Putting four-patches on point with a simple slashing added interest, and secondary designs that work with the bold colors and large scale prints.

Q. How did you choose what colors to use?

Reeze: I used Ro Gregg's Calypso line. The bright colors contrasted so nicely with the white dot/stripe.  I wanted to challenge myself to find a way to use all the colors in this flower print in one quilt and still keep it unified and simple.

Q. What do you like best about this quilt?  

Reeze: I love the way the colors blend in a diagonal progression across the quilt from corner to corner.

Q. What was most challenging about this quilt?

Reeze: Organizing the piecing was critical.  I needed to make lists of each color combination and then divide the quilt in rows for assembly.  A design wall was really helpful to stay organized.

Q. Who did you make this quilt for?

Reeze: When I get a grand baby, the quilt will go to him or her.  Hope hope!

Q. Tell us about the machine quilting.

Reeze: Brenda Weien of Brenda's machine quilting does a great job complimenting the design with simple but engaging quilting.  The pumpkin seed or melon design in the four patches breaks up the starkly geometric lines of the quilt and adds some softness to the design.

Click here to buy a kit for this project.

Click here to learn more about Reeze and her work.

Click here to find Easy Quilts spring 2013.

p.s. Psst! Ro has a follow-up collection to Calypso due out in February, called Calypso Frogs. Below is a sneak peek, but you can check out the entire line here.