Introducing JUBILEE!!!

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Some secrets are really hard to keep!  And professionally I don’t think I have ever had a bigger one than what I have been working on this past year.  As many of you now know, it was my honor to design Jubilee, a fabric collection and set of projects designed to commemorate BERNINA’s 125th Anniversary.  And now everything is back from the printer so I can share the information with you.  But first let me say, “HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, BERNINA!”

When BERNINA approached me last summer to do creative work for their 125th campaign I honestly couldn’t believe it.  I’m still pinching myself and words cannot adequately describe how honored I was (and am) to be involved with all this.  Thank you, BERNINA! It was my goal to design fabric, embroidery, and projects that reflect the elegance, beauty, and innovation of the BERNINA brand.  All of the projects debuted just a few weeks ago at BERNINA University and now I get to share them with you here!

The feature print fo the collection was built the BERNINA paisley motif from their 125 Anniversary campaign.  Of course, I drew many more motifs to round out the the print.

4 of the 6 paisley prints in the Jubilee collection printed by Benartex.  The others are a cream tonal and a black tonal.

The metallics are beautifully printed by Benartex and they are set off by some eye-catching pearl prints as well.

Jubilee features an elegant palette of black, gold, and cream, with a touch of sparkle!

I really strove to feature a modern aesthetic, but with a firm grounding in tradition – just like BERNINA itself.

Of course we had to include the BERNINA red!

The red and creams of Jubilee also make a dynamic palette on their own!

The first quilt I designed with this collection was the 125th Anniversary quilt itself.  We’ll be doing this as a quilt-along this fall on their blog We All Sew and kits will be available at your local BERNINA dealer.  I’ll have more information on this as time goes on, but wanted to give you a peek!

The BERNINA 125th Anniversary Quilt!

I really hope you all love it!  Have you heard?  The new 125th Anniversary machines are coming with a special bundle that includes the kit for this quilt!  You’ll also be able to purchase kits from your local BERNINA dealer.

Since we kept the palette to gold and cream, I wanted to explore other variations in my pattern line.  All of the following patterns can be ordered at your local shop.  I do have links included in this post as well for those of you who don’t have local shops, but if you are lucky enough to have one please support them!

First up is Diamond Jubilee.  After the 125th Anniversary Quilt, this one might be my favorite this time.  Normally I am not into paper piecing but this was definitely worth it!   (Plus it is an easy pattern by paper-piecing standards since there are just two templates.) The pearlized background fabric is really spectacular.  I wish that you could see it in person!

A close-up of the quilting on Diamond Jubilee.

Next up is Platinum Jubilee.   This is a pieced quilt, but the piecing is in the sashing rather than the blocks.  This pattern is 10”-square friendly, but I chose to use yardage instead because I just wanted to use the golds and creams for the blocks.  SKU info is in the pattern, as always.

Detail of Platinum Jubilee – can you see how the print glow?

And of course I needed to do a take-off on a traditional red and white quilt.  So Ruby Jubilee HAD to happen.

Detail of Ruby Jubilee. The gold gives it an unexpected twist.

Some of you may have heard the rulers that I have quilting rulers.  I DO and they are with Brewer Sewing and are branded as Good Measure!  They will be shipping at the end of summer so more on that in a later post but I wanted to tell you the surprise hit of the show for me was my Hanging Ruler Organizer.  This is a really simple pattern – I can’t stress that enough.  This is a pattern for people like me who are intimidated by bags and want to basically quilt flat piece of fabric, attach zippers by sewing them right on the fabric, and then just bind.  Nothing fancy here but the neat thing is that you can hang it in your studio and you can also fold it up for easy transport to class!

My Hanging Ruler Organizer in Jubilee fabric. (You can see a peek of the rulers if you look closely!)

 

I also have a set of three rulers with BERNINA (dealers – you order these from BERNINA).  They are for the 125th Anniversary quilt but I also designed a ruler panel to go with the collection.  There is a Jubilee Ruler Panel Guide available to learn how to use the rulers on the panel, and how to use them on your own quilts in the process.  The panel makes a great set of pillows, or a runner or bag.  There is also a free pattern called Star Jubilee that features a block from the panel in its center.

The Jubilee Ruler Panel Guide. Even a practice panel should be pretty!

 

BERNINA Jubilee Ruler Set used in the 125th Anniversary Quilt and the BERNINA Ruler Panel.

Ok… on finding the fabrics.  Most of you know but I don’t stock fabric so as to not to compete with quilt shops.  This fabric is exclusive to BERNINA shops through the summer and into the fall, but many SKUs were sold out at BU, and everything is backordered and being reprinted right now.  So check with your shop to be sure it is on order, but be patient with them because it might be September before they get it in.  But it is coming if it isn’t there already.  Everyone is working in overdrive to make that happen!

There is also a Jubilee BERNINA embroidery collection that is beautifully digitized by OESD, so check that out too.  I did a free bolster pillow pattern that is included!

 

If you made it to the bottom of this post congratulations!  I hope you love the Jubilee projects.  BERNINA wanted this anniversary to be about you all – so thank you!

Happy sewing, piecing, embroidery, AND quilting!

Amanda

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Free Figure Skater Pillow pattern and a Cricut Maker demonstration!

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Hi everyone!

I hope you are having a lovely time getting ready for the holidays.  I’ve been working on a few special projects and I’m just loving one in particular – my Figure Skater Pillow.

I love it so much I thought I’d share it with you so that you could make it for a special person in your life.  (Quilting tutorial link below too!)  You can download the directions for the pillow here.

I used the Cricut Maker to cut out this pillow and learned so much!  Of course, you can also make it by tracing the templates directly onto paper-backed fusible web, but I thought it would be great to share what I learned about the Cricut Maker with you in this video.  It is my favorite fabric cutter BY FAR now because you don’t have to starch or stabilize the fabric with anything when cutting.  Which means I can use  SoftFuse without starch – yay!  Its teeny-tiny rotary cutter can even cut something as thin as gauze!  Amazing, huh?

Once I had all the shapes cut out I fused them down and secured them with a blanket stitch on my BERNINA 780 using Aurifil cotton.

I also filmed a tutorial about how to quilt a wintry background using my Blizzard print from my Winter Games collection from Benartex on my BERNINA Q24 that you can view here.

This was a special request that was made in my Facebook Group, “Quilting with Amanda Murphy” – thanks for the idea, guys!

The Figure Skater Pillow is based off of just one block from my Winter Sports quilt.  If you are interested in getting the patterns to make other skaters, or skiers and snowboarders, you can order it (and the SVG files) here.

Also, I filmed a video of how I made a card to go with the presents.  I’m not a paper crafter and was amazed how easy it was!

I hope you enjoy the pattern and these videos and have enjoy the holidays!

Happy quilting!

Amanda

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December 2017 Aurifil Block-of-the-Month Block

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Hi everyone!

I’m excited to be participating in Aurifil’s Block-of-the-Month this year.  This year’s theme was the rainbow and I was thrilled to get AQUA!!!  Do you think I design enough prints with aqua?  I’m not sure…

Some aqua SKUs from my most recent collection for Contempo of Benartex – “Winter Games”

 

More aqua in my “Winter Sports” quilt.

 

And more aqua in “Fa La La Latte”, which is a pattern for placemats and a runner or bed pillow.

I love using feature prints in my work so I decided to make a block that would allow you to really make use of them!  I called the block “Tightrope”, because it looked like all the elements were trapeze artists balancing on a rope!

First, I made a block in mostly aqua.

 

But then I made two more with aqua as the focal point.

Want to sew along?  You can get the pattern delivered to your inbox by clicking here.

You can find the patterns for prior blocks by visiting Aurifil’s blog.

If you make this block, don’t forget to post to a photo here because they are giving away a large 12 spools thread collection of Pat Sloan’s to a lucky winner who has sewn the block!

I sewed along this year at a inconsistent pace.  Some months I had no blocks, other months I had multiple blocks, but such is life… For my version of the quilt, I pulled from all of my collections this year to make the quilt: Folk Art Fantasy, Meadow Dance, and Winter Games.  I chose the grey ring fabric from Winter Games for sashing and I just loved how it turned out.

Aurifil 2017 Block-of-the-Month by Amanda Murphy

Thanks to Aurifil for including me in their 2017 Block-of-the-Month! I really enjoyed it.

I hope that you enjoy the block pattern.  I’ll be back with another special free pattern for my followers before the holidays – so be watching your email!

Happy quilting!

Amanda

 

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