Fat Quarterly Issue 17--Spinning Pinwheel Quilt

I'm excited to share with you my next pattern--the Spinning Pinwheel Quilt.  This quilt is featured in Fat Quarterly Issue 17.  This issue is all about using pre-cut fabrics and if you have been following my blog during this past year, you may have noticed that I really enjoy designing with them.

For this stunning quilt, I was able to play with Moda Fabrics new line April Showers by Bonnie and Camille.  It is so much fun to have a completed quilt and pattern created as soon as the fabric arrives at your local shop.  The fun umbrella prints added a juvenile feel to the fabrics along with a touch of nostalgia.  The plaids have an antique gingham feel which accented the larger scale polka dots.  To compliment the fabrics, I used solid cream, lime and red for the sashing. The spring green is in honor of my mother--whose favorite color is green.  I feel solids appropriately placed can add to the nostalgia feel, yet adding a "modern" flare.  It was a fun project to make.

Here are some more photos:

To quilt this, I stayed relatively simple (for one of my quilts).  I used a tight stipple in each of the blocks, ditched all of the blocks and borders, did a leaf vine (naturally) in all of the lime green sashing and an alternating swirl in all of the cream setting sashing.  It turned out precious!

Now it's your turn to share for KISMIF 12.  Feel free to share your favorite links of thinks you've been working on.  Remember to "Keep It Simple and Make It Fun"!

Fat Quarterly Issue 16--Eye Spy Quilt

January 2014has been a crazy month!I  Two quilt pattern features all at the same time!  Now you know I've been sewing like a mad crazy woman all December!  And for those of you just dropping in, go get registered for my Give-Away from Vintage Modern Fabrics.

Well, it's finally here!  I have been WAITING for several months for this.  I have a featured article in the e-magazine Fat Quarterly Issue 16--all about using up your SCRAPS.   I know I need to use up more! 

It's a simply pun on the game, "I spy with my little eye...".  Everyone likes to play that with their little ones.  Traditionally, "I-spy" quilts are boring squares with sashing and are not very interesting to look at--unless you have some crazy fabrics.

I wanted to create something with motion so I chose to skip the sashing and create blocks that rocked back and forth.  Then, to make it different, the squares were changed to octagons to look like circles.  Now it's a bouncing "Eye-Spy" block.  All of the prints I used were juvenile prints from my stash, and having 3 boys then a girl is definately represented in this quilt.  There are so many boy prints!  But I think that's good, it can often be a challenge to find a boy-friendly quilt or pattern.

I hope you like it and go check out Fat Quarterly Issue 16!

Do you like my pattern?  I've designed more!  They can be viewed and downloaded at the following  sponsors: My Etsy Shop (don't forget your coupon code on the LHS side bar), Craftsy, Connecting Threads and Pattern Spot.  Thanks!

Now it's your turn to share some fun project in the home arts that you have been working on!

<div align="center"><a href="http://moderntraditionquilts.blogspot.com" title="Modern Tradition Quilts"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtXBQxLM5i_ZuIMYHzRhBpDGgVjRhwpxIgOykYrtNhi2BW0mf3YjcqEOUS7-FTIHmenu-iAy1Uy2LvveE1f577IGvfZG1QSJjs3CISDGlQgiDICrAj9PoAeNGi_wRux325tBfgTO5bx4w4/w198-h197-p-no/" alt="Modern Tradition Quilts" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Moda Bake Shop Feature-Quilting Bee Sampler Quilt

First things first, don't forget to enter the Give-away from Vintage Modern Fabrics hosted here on my blog.  You can click on the "Give-away" to link it or scroll down to the previous post for your chance to enter.

Moda Bake Shop gave me the opportunity to play with Kate Spain's newest fabric line, Daydreams for my next project.  The fabric should be hitting the shelves of your favorite local fabric shop this February.  I fell COMPLETELY in love with this fabric line.  My four-year old daughter has already claimed the quilt and I guess I will be making another one. --But that's enough talk for now...here's some photos:

I just can't get enough of looking at this picture!  I'm pinching myself that I actually took the photo and made the quilt.  It's one of those that if it were in a magazine, I'd just look at it over and over.  I usually like how my quilts turn out, but this one I am just in awe over.  Did I REALLY just do that?  Whoa!  Please excuse my ramblings, haven't you ever had one of those moments?

I was so infatuated with this quilt, that I tried every new and difficult machine quilting technique I possibly could on it!  It was well worth the challenge.

I could not resist micro-stippling down all of those swirly stripes!  I just had to do it.  It was so tricky that the quilt had to be loaded 4 times on the frame to reach them all.  First it had to be ditched for stability, then rotated 90' for the outer borders.  Then it had to be loaded diagonally to do those stripes (a little crazy, I know, but well worth it).  Then it was diagonally loaded again because I only had enough diagonal reach to do one half of the quilt.

Diagonally loaded.

I used two layers of batting to create that "puffy" look.   The quilting ideas were a combination of my continuous curve & swirls method along with those I learned in a Craftsy course "Dot to Dot Quilting" by Angela Walters.

I did it!  Curved Cross  Hatching!  At this point I was doing (literally) my "happy dance" and my little girl walks in the room and said, "Uh, Mommy, you okay?"  I explained to her what I did, she looked at me like I was TOTALLY NUTS!  That's okay, I'm going to curve cross-hatch again.  I learned the technique from Ronda K. Beyer's book co-written with Karen McTavish and purchased "Ronda's Rulers" from Quilter's Rule.

 Since this was so much work, this counts as my KISMIF (keep it simple, make it fun)  FMQ (free motion quilting) post for this week.  In a future KISMIF FMQ (probably February because I have yet ANOTHER quilt pattern feature to show next week) will show photo step-by-step of how to do the continuous curve cross-hatching.  Until then, share something fun in the home arts you've been working on!  Also, don't forget to enter the give-away!

Do you like my pattern?  I've designed more!  They can be viewed and downloaded at the following  sponsors: My Etsy Shop (don't forget your coupon code on the LHS side bar), Craftsy, Connecting Threads and Pattern Spot.  Thanks!

Holiday Surprise!

What a fun holiday surprise!  Without me knowing it, Craftsy featured one of my Stop 'N Go quilt pattern on their quilting blog.  Angela did a blog tutorial showing how to create the classic Snowball block and linked several of their online independent designer's patterns featuring the pattern.

Here's the link to view the article:  http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/12/snowball-quilt-block-tutorial/.

Thanks Craftsy!

Moda Bake Shop: Candy Squares Table Runner

I am so excited!  I'm honored to be the guest blogger on Moda Bake Shop today.  The post tells how to make this cute table runner from pre-cut 2 1/2 inch squares called Moda Candy Squares.

Go check it out!

Also, for those of you visiting from Moda Bake Shop--a hearty WELCOME!  I'd love to have your comments and even join as a follower.  I have written several patterns which can be viewed and downloaded (some are even FREE) on my left-hand side bar.  Also, I write a weekly post about free-motion quilting thread-paths called KISMIF (Keep it simple, make it fun)!  Feel free to browse around a while!  :)

Since it's so close to the big Christmas day, and I've got too much stuff to finish, this tutorial will have to count as my post for the week (since it really was quite a bit of work).  I'll be sharing this post with :http://conniekresin.com/, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, and Needle & Thread Thursday's Linky Partys.  These blogs all have buttons on my RHS button bar.

Happy Quilting!--Shannon

BTW, Diana at Sew Crafty Chick just made this table runner following my Moda post.  Check her verion out here:  http://sewcraftychick.blogspot.com/2013/12/something-to-share.html!