Sunny Isle Free Quilt Pattern

Sunny Isle fabrics are here! I was given the opportunity to design and make a quilt for this fabric line! Christie from Christie's Quilting Boutique did the quilting after I sent her the top so I don't have a finished quilt photo, but you can see the work in progress photos below. If you want to download the free pattern, go here & get it. The blocks are 12" & the finished quilt is a queen size at 77x101". Enjoy the sunshine from this pretty fabric line!!

The Village Quilt Along

Get ready to start your quilt! I gathered my Hotel Frederiksted stash & am ready to cut! 

Here is where you can download the pattern for $1. Sewfunbymonique

 **There are some errors found in cutting both the Hotel & Bungalow roof pieces, see below for corrections**

The instructions are for cutting out each Hotel, Bungalow & tree individually to allow you to be able to have each one made up of different fabrics. One organization method that has helped me with this quilt is placing each house or tree pieces on a paper plate. I can stack those & pull each one that I want to sew.

When you are ready to sew your block, a flannel board like the one below is super helpful! I bought it at Fat Quarter Shop & it is a Lori Holt design. If not, just assemble your block next to your machine. I am able to understand the instructions better if I can seeing the parts I'm working with.

My next post will be sewing a Hotel & a stacked tree.

**Corrections: (In bold)

Bungalow, step 1 should read:

"Draw a diagonal linen the wrong side of ONE 5 7/8" fabric S square. Place it right sides together over a 5/7/8" roof square. Sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line. Cut the triangles apart on the line. CHOOSE HALF FOR YOUR ROOF SECTION AND SET THE OTHER HALF ASIDE." 

Do not make 16 triangles! 

This is what you start with:

This is what you should end up with. Just use one chimney piece from the first square & one roof piece from the lower square.

The Village Pattern is Available!

I finally got the final instructions from Free Spirit to offer to you as a download! The Village can be purchased for $1 as that is the lowest amount I can charge in the shop for it to go through paypal or credit card routes. I'd love to see what you create with this pattern, my first published pattern!

Hotel Frederiksted is Enchanting!

I have become enchanted with the new Hotel Frederiksted line. There's something about this color combination of vintage red, vibrant green and bright blue that just sings. Jennifer knows how to put colors together, I just sew it up! There are also touches of orange and I love the Krysta print with the white background. It just lights up the group! 

I sewed my usual random patchwork pattern for Jennifer,  but this time I got to design & sew a quilt for Free Spirit  using this line! It's called the Village and I had so much fun designing it. It will be available from Free Spirit as a download sometime in November from their website. It will also be hanging at Quilt Market in Houston!! I'm so excited!! I hope someone can get a photo for me as I can't be there to see it.

I thought doing a hotel & bungalow theme worked well with the fabric line name and added the selvage for a touch of whimsy! Jennifer showed my ideas to Free Spirit and they wanted a whole quilt. I added 2 different trees & made a scrappy brick path between rows and now you have a Village with a Hotel Frederiksted on each street!

Terrie is the cute tiny diamond shaped print that is so perfectly awesome as a roof. Since this was for Quilt Market, I had a bungalow represent Free Spirit

Here is the Jennifer Paganelli bungalow! The smaller scale prints make cute details on this quilt.

Once the pattern is made available I will let you know & look forward to seeing what you create with it!

You can order a patchwork & minky blanket made in Hotel Frederiksted here

The Handmade Dorm

My daughter Holly is heading off to Pepperdine this fall & she I had so much fun making things for her dorm that I thought I'd share our creations with you. When you make it yourself, you are able to put in your own unique style! We started off with a purchased duvet from Pottery Barn Teen in a deep navy with white pattern. We then went to my fabric stash & picked out fabrics for her patchwork & minky throw that will be at the end of her bed. You can find a listing to order one yourself from my shop here & I can customize it with your colors!

We created some custom pillows pulling fabrics from her blanket. We used a print from Hawthorne Threads called Cascading Border for one of them

This pillow I used Anna Maria Horner's pattern in her pattern booklet called Love from A-Z  & bordered it with a print that is out of print from Sarah Watts.

We found a really cute doily at Barn House Chicks that matched her bedding perfectly & I sewed it to a solid navy fabric & used piping from Hawthorne Threads called Arrows in peacock

Holly picked out a verse that had meaning to her but also gave a nod to Pepperdine as a Wave. She painted the canvas a deep navy & then glued letters & hand wrote some words in aqua. 

We both got into embroidering, so Holly had bought a pattern from Sublime Stitching with treats on it & since she loves to bake & used to work at an ice cream shop, this pattern group was perfect! She told me what she wanted written & so I did the small hoop that says "Lord Let them see you in me". The P is from the Moda Alphabet called "Spell it with Fabric" that was available as a download & thought it would be great in Pepperdine colors & I embroidered 'Go Waves' in aqua thread.

An obvious, easy make was a tie blanket made from 2 yards of Pepperdine colors tied together while we watched a movie together. We bought these at Joann Fabrics.

These thrift store finds painted aqua will be great for some free downloads she printed out from French Press Mornings "Encouraging Wednesdays" for the scripture.

Holly is ready to go to Pepperdine, but am I ready to send her?? I will post a finished dorm picture.

Fantasia by Sara Lawson

I had the opportunity to work with Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness new fabric line called Fantasia recently. I love the feel of Art Gallery fabrics, they were a pleasure to work with! I wanted a picture with Holly in it because she is 5'5" and I wanted you to see how far it hangs.

My favorite print is definitely the unicorn in the grey color way. It resembles a chalk board and I love the storybook quality! The cute novelty prints in this line are the mushrooms & horseshoes~ great for fussy cutting and accents.

 The small floral is so pretty, I put it inside the bag. It comes in both pink and teal & would make great clothing. Thank you Sara for letting me play with your new collection! The bag will be listed in my shop in the next few days here. The collection should be available by the end of this month!

Caravelle Arcade

Jennifer sent me her newest fabric line, Caravelle Arcade, due out in May to play with. I made my usual random patchwork and was overjoyed at the fabulous color ranges in this line!

I took the finished blanket to the local Santa Monica mountains to get some pictures with the vivid green that covers our area this time of year. Unfortunately, it was super windy and light was fading fast, but I had Holly help me get some pictures!

Next, I decided to try the mini dresden using my tiny scraps and used the tutorial from Amanda at Westwood Acres.

I also made a selvage flap purse with some more scraps. Even though there isn't any navy in Caravelle Arcade, I love the contrast with the other colors. Jennifer's fabrics always play well together!

Below is a fabric grouping I put together combining Caravelle Arcade with her past collections as well as the newest Jenny Eliza due in Joann stores any day now if not already! If you love this collection as much as I do, you can preorder a blanket in my shop here

Farmers Wife Blocks

I'm really enjoying the Farmer's Wife Quilt book. I work on a block here and there choosing fabrics on a daily whim. It's been a fun side project & process. This quilt will be all mine (which is rare)!  I thought I'd share my blocks so far. If you are looking for perfection, you won't find them here! Tiny piecing is new to me and I enjoy the challenge & embrace my mistakes. When it's finished it will definitely look hand made!

A few things I've decided in the process: I'm not making every single block.  Some blocks have millions of pieces and I just don't enjoy that. My mistakes multiply and I get frustrated spending so much time on something that doesn't line up in so many places. 

I figured out that my Bernina 350 pieces way more accurately than my Juki TL 2000. The Juki is so heavy duty that it's not easy on the delicate pieces like the Bernina. So, after so many blocks, I'm only piecing them on the Bernina.

I'm drawn to navy & red in these blocks often buying fabrics that fit that mold even though I have  SO. MUCH. FABRIC! I decided to make the blocks without regard to my house colors, just fabrics & combinations that excite me.

I love being able to use some fabrics I've held onto because I can use really small scraps. Ideally, these blocks should all be from scraps, but I can't help pulling from my stash!

Those tiny bit of Susan Branch pie fabric is one of my favorites and I had just a teeny piece of it. Perfect use!

Hope you're inspired to make a quilt for yourself! I feel like these blocks reflect me in some sort of way and when it's done it will be a piece of me to pass on to my kids.

Good Company Love

I've been having lots of fun playing with sample yardage from Jennifer Paganelli's upcoming line, Good Company due out in November. I'm crazy for her color combinations and this time around I especially love the periwinkle/pink combo with the shot of yellow. I got out my beloved Casey Scroll fabric and used almost all of it for the exterior of my purse. (I did save some for quilts)

The strap & interior are Jane from Superfly. I used scraps from the random patchwork blanket I made her out of the fabrics. The back pocket was a great place to showcase some of the prints.

Below is the blanket ( I call it a blanket if it's minky backed with no batting in between or quilting).

I am taking preorders if anyone is interested. The fabric line will be out in November!