Cozy up in the cold

With this week's Polar Vortex (is it 2014 again?), sharing a toasty winter quilt seemed appropriate. Kymberly Pease used the cool hues of our Winter Blues collection to make North Wind, a monochromatic half-square triangle beauty that you can curl up under on chilly days. Find the pattern in the winter 2014 issue of Easy Quilts magazine.

"North Wind" by Kymberly Pease; quilted by Kristen Hoftyzer;

featured in Easy Quilts Winter 2014

Q. What attracted you to the Winter Blues fabrics? How did you choose which shades of blue to use for this quilt?

Kymberly: After accepting the pattern Fons and Porter asked me to make a quilt using aqua and navy. Since this quilt was going to be in the winter issue of Easy Quilts, I fell in love with the Winter Blues fabric line. I like that these fabrics make a winter quilt that is okay to stay out past Christmas.

Q. Tell us about making a monochromatic quilt.

Kymberly: Most of my quilts are monochromatic. I struggle with choosing fabrics that compliment each other. I find it much easier to choose a single color and play with different shades of that color.

Q. Tell us about your pattern--did you play around with the block placement before settling on the final design? 

Kymberly: Last year I started working on the Farmer's Wife quilt. I began playing with several of the blocks to see how they worked on their own. After reading "Vintage Quilts" I liked the idea of twisting blocks to discover secondary patterns. I began experimenting with the Flock block and was surprised when the pinwheels popped out at me.

Q. What do you like best about the quilt?

Kymberly: I love that this quilt looks so much more complicated than it is. It's almost like the quilt contains a secret since it's all made from a single block that gets lost in the secondary design.

Q. Any challenges in making this quilt?

Kymberly: I think the biggest challenge with this quilt was working on the deadline. I had a month from getting the fabric before I needed to send it back. Ideally I would spread all of the triangle trimming out over a couple of weeks, but instead I sewed and trimmed 300+ triangles in a couple of days.

Q. Can you talk to us about the machine quilting? 

Kymberly: Since we were working on a tight deadline Kristen (my longarmer) and I wanted to choose a simple design. I like how the stippling softens the sharp lines of the block.

Q. What do you envision this quilt being used for?

Kymberly: I've had this quilt on my couch ever since it came back from Fons and Porter. It is so comfy to curl up at the end of the day while watching t.v. with my family.

Q. Anything else you'd like to share about this quilt?

Kymberly: I've heard some people say that they love this quilt, but don't have the skills to do it. This really is a very easy quilt that anyone can make.

See the entire Winter Blues collection here.

Learn more about Kymberly here.

Find the kit for this quilt here.

Find Easy Quilts here.

Cool Blues

The calendar may still say summer, but the cooler (and quite un-September!) temps much of the country is experiencing this week suggest that fall and winter are looming right around the corner. 

Which means it's the perfect time to share Theresa Porter's "Wintertime in the Woods" quilt from the fall/winter issue of Fresh Quilts magazine--a cool quilt in more ways than one. 

This lap quilt has a wintry feel from the cool hues of the Winter Blues collection, mixed with white and a silvery gray, and it stitches up quickly so you can be curled up under it by the time the snow flies!

"Wintertime in the Woods" designed by Theresa Porter;
featured in Fresh Quilts magazine fall/winter 2014

Q. What attracted you to the Winter Blues collection?

Theresa: Love at first sight. Stunning blues, I love bare trees, great accent designs.  It's one of my favorite lines this year. My favorite print…probably the aqua smaller trees.  I love that color and again with the stark winter trees.

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

Theresa: The 'skeleton' of the design was in a sketch book I have. So many lines have a focal fabric that can't or shouldn't be cut down too much and I have a few outlines of future quilts with those fabrics in mind. From there I just start playing until I have something I like. I wish I were adept at using software but I'm still a grid paper and random loose sketches girl:)

Q. Why did you choose rectangular log cabin blocks rather than square?

Theresa: Two reasons: 1. I like the rectangle look…squares get boring:)  and 2. To get the length for a lap size quilt without making it too wide.  I could have used squares, but  busy people also want to be able to make a quilt quickly.  If the blocks are a bit bigger/longer, the project goes faster for them.

Q. Why did you choose gray/silver as a complement?

Theresa: It's wintery and I liked it:)

Q. Can you talk a bit about the elongated log cabin borders and why you used them?

Theresa: I like scrap quilts but they can be overwhelming visually for some and time consuming.  Adding just a bit of scrappy to this but toning down the colors made it fun. I do love log cabins also, though I didn't even really think about that when I designed this. I just sew until I like how it looks.

Q. How is the quilt machine quilted and how does that enhance the design?

Theresa: Something of a snow-swirling in the tree blocks and rectangles in the rest. Ditch work throughout. I like ditch work to give texture and definition to the quilt/blocks. I also like the simplicity of some geometric quilting.  It tones down the busier designs. The swirls … I was going for a snowy feel.

Q. What do you like best about the quilt?

Theresa: Fabri-Quilt's tree fabric:)  

Fresh Quilts magazine

See the entire Winter Blues collection here.

Find the fall/winter 2014 issue of Fresh Quilts magazine here.

Design Your Own Palette!

When you head to your local quilt shop, sometimes fabric shopping by collection is the way to go--the designer and fabric company worked hard to put together a well-rounded grouping of colors, different-sized motifs, and blenders--and you can't go wrong by taking their advice.

But sometimes, depending on the project, it's fun to mix and match fabrics, creating your own "collection." We've done just that today--selecting a focal print and then picking four coordinating prints that actually come from other fabric collections. We hope you enjoy our picks and use them as inspiration for your own!

Main print: Calypso Goldfish

Coordinating prints (clockwise, from upper left):

Marblehead Global Brights

Imagine This

Batiks

Tweet

Main print: Imagine This

Coordinating prints (clockwise, from upper left):

Tweet

Batiks

Calypso Goldfish

Bella Casa

Main print: Bella Casa

Coordinating prints (clockwise, from upper left):

Batiks

Calypso Goldfish

Marblehead Venetian Glass

Marblehead Global Brights

Main print: Tweet

Coordinating prints (clockwise, from upper left):

Winter Blues

Marblehead Global Brights

Cosmopolitan

Calypso Goldfish

Which is your favorite?

Top 10 Two-Color Designs

Two-color quilt designs face an extra challenge--with a monochromatic palette, the design really has to pop. But when it works, it works well. Here are 10 of our favorites (many of them free patterns!), including links for where to find them yourself. Enjoy!

#1: Junctures quilt by Tony Jacobson; featured as a Web Bonus project for Easy Quilts magazine, made using the Black & White collection

#2: Roses Are Red by Tammy Silvers; featured in the October-November 2013 issue of Quilt magazine, made using the Roses are Red collection

#3: Winter Blues free quilt pattern by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar; featuring the Winter Blues collection

#4: Seaquarium free quilt pattern by Terry Albers; featuring the Coral Sea collection

#5: Cool Blue by Dawn Stewart; featured in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting July/August 2013 issue, made using the Indigo Blues collection

 #6: Red Rose designed by Diane Arganbright and Patricia Sue Nelson; featured in February/March 2014 issue of The Quilter magazine, made using the Roses are Red collection

 #7: Indigo Blues free quilt pattern designed by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar; featuring the Indigo Blues collection

#8: Black Tie Affair by Cathy Miles; featured in Simple Quilts & Sewing Spring 2013, made using the Black Tie Affair collection

#9: Two-Color Quilt tutorial by Rebecca of Our Busy Little Bunch; featuring Lady in Red

#10: ...a sneak peek at a brand-new quilt, which we'll be featuring here on the blog soon: Pane by Pane by Tony Jacobson; featured in the March/April 2014 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, made using the Marblehead Northern Woods collection

(Okay, you might have noticed a tiny hint of blue in this quilt...technically it's not quite a two-color quilt...but we loved it and had to include it in the list, perhaps with an asterisk?)

Feelin' the Winter Blues

weather.com

weather.com

Polar vortex.
Arctic blast.
Harsh temperatures.
Frigid air.
Looking at the maps above, it's no surprise that one of the main conversation topics this January has been the weather. For much of the country, it's been a chilly month! (And if you live somewhere warm, please don't make the rest of us jealous by sharing those temperature numbers in the 60s and 70s!)

This chilly backdrop is the perfect introduction for our new collection, Winter Blues:

Blue lovers, these fabrics are for you! If you like anything in the blue family, we're pretty sure you'll find at least one or two prints to love in this collection. 

And look no further for inspiration; Pine Tree Country Quilts designed this free pattern, Winter Blues, using these icy cool prints. 

Find the pattern here. 

Take advantage of the cold weather and spend some time quilting!