Sewing Room!

Posted on July 24, 2016August 20, 2016 by Amanda Murphy

Hi everyone,

It has been a busy couple of months here and I can finally talk about all the secrets I’ve been keeping all this time. At BERNINA University this past week I debuted a brand new collection for Benartex – Sewing Room! This one is close to my heart as a BERNINA Spokesperson because it has my very favorite sewing machines!

Although the collection is available to quilt shops everywhere, the SKUs with the BERNINA logo are only available to BERNINA dealers. If you like the collection please ask your quilt shop to give Benartex a call.

Patterns are just starting to ship this week to distributorsand are also on my website. Of course, if you can order from your local shop please do so – shops are the heart of our industry and we want them to stay in business!

First up is a new pieced block-of-the-month pattern called Sewing Room Sampler. It is my favorite pattern ever I think because it was such fun to sew and to quilt. (I quilted it on my BERNINA Q 24 and I’ll be talking about how I did so in my Facebook group later in the year.) It is a larger pattern than my usual patterns – 16 pages full-color. Shop owners can find the shop guide for this sampler here.

Next up is “S is for Sew”. It is a fun project that incorporates appliqué and basic piecing. It comes with a download code with embroidery files for “in-the-hoop appliqué”, cutwork files and SVG files if you’d like to digitally cut your fabric so it is something new for me. I also have a new Aurifil thread collection that I’m really excited about that allows you to try appliqué with the 28 wt. thread I love for a reasonable price. (More on that at the bottom of this post.)

The third pattern is called “Sewing Garden”. It is a simple pieced design made from two stacks of 10” squares.

I also have two Aurifil thread collections which I’m really excited about, both of which coordinate with not only Sewing Room, but with all of my collections so far. The first is great for piecing and quilting – it contains 11 large spools of 50 wt.

The smaller thread collection is perfect for appliqué! I love to use thicker thread for my appliqué, so it contains 8 spools of 28 wt. in a range of colors for blanket and specialty stitches and two spools of 12 wt. to use for the triple stitch and/or to mimic (or actually do if you are brave!) hand embroidery. Aurifil is having a giveaway over on their blog for this one so check it out!

Next month I’ll be coming out a coordinating Sewing Room Quilting Collection as well for long arms and embroidery machines, similar to my Feathers & Flourishes Quilting Collection, which just started shipping as well.

There is also a coordinating embroidery collection available from OESD. I’ll post pictures of that soon!

I hope you are enjoying your summers – happy quilting!

Amanda

Feathers & Flourishes Complimentary patterns

Posted on June 26, 2016June 26, 2016 by Amanda Murphy — Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Well the word is that Feathers & Flourishes is starting to ship to shops – YAY! So excited to see what you make with this line!

The free patterns that go with this collection are now available for download. The first is called Cinema and is a 2-1/2”-strip-friendly bargello quilt reminiscent of 1920s design.

I have to brag for a minute – my daughter quilted most of this one using rulers on the BERNINA Q24! Proud mom!

The second pattern is called Evolutions and is a re-release of a pattern formerly in my line that was just perfect for this collection. (The blue version is in a box on its way to BERNINA University and I forgot to snap a picture of it so I’ll have to show you that one later. Special thanks to Jo Anne and Traci for helping with these!)

You can get this and all of my free patterns on my download page. This includes the free pattern for the Feathers and Flourishes Embroidered Runner, which utilizes the OESD embroidery collection but also would work well by simply fussy-cutting centers from the medallion print from this collection.

FF_embroidery — “Feathers & Fourishes” embroidered runner

You can get the other patterns that go with this collection in my shop or, better yet, please consider asking your local quilt shop to order them. The local shops are the lifeblood of this industry and we want them to do well!

If you make something and have an instagram account please post to Instagram with the #amandamurphydesign and @amandamurphydesign labels – my user name is AMANDAMURPHYDESIGN.

Have a lovely weekend with lots of sewing!

Amanda

Spring Quilt Market 2016

Posted on May 26, 2016June 1, 2016 by Amanda Murphy — 159 Comments

NOTE: The winners of this giveaway are Donna B. and Roberta Lottino, both of whom who liked Plume! Congratulations, ladies – send me your snail mails please. I’m sorry I don’t have more precuts to give to all of you, but we’ll have another giveaway later this summer!

Hi everyone! I haven’t blogged in SOOOO long! It has been busy here with (in the spirit of Quilt Market) secret sewing stuff, but I’m finally getting around to writing about what I have been working on. Since pictures speak louder than words I’ll try to keep words to a minimum.

Market01 — My booth at Spring 2016 Quilt Market…

My new collection for the Contempo division of Benartex is called Feathers & Flourishes and it is shipping in July. It is inspired those shapes that we see so often in the quilt world. This time my goal was to create a collection that allowed people to really experiment with color. So I have added a deep navy and vibrant red, along with the greens and aquas that I love. Consequently, each quilt can look dramatically different depending on the proportions of the prints used. Here you can see a wider view and a little of my friend Cherry Guidry’s booth next to mine as well.

I have 4 new patterns that will be released with this collection. They will be on my website as soon as I get them back from the printer, probably in a few weeks. The first is Plume. This is a REALLY simple medallion quilt. The blocks are made from a stack of 10” squares so you just change the borders and background to get an entirely new look!

Market04 — “Plume” – Special thanks to Traci Adams and Joanne Leonard for piecing the color variations hanging on the sides of the red version!

The next quilt is called “Starstruck”. This one almost never made it off of my computer screen. It was one of those that really sang in person and even more so once it was quilted so that the secondary diamond pattern came out. It was probably the “hit” of my booth so that shows you how much I know… haha! Oh – and it is made from a couple 2-1/2” pinwheels and two background fabrics.

The third quilt is called Posies. You can only see a little of it here because it is folded up due to limited wall space. Posies is a fat-quarter friendly quilt and the flowers are on-point – I’ll show you more once I have the patterns back. I love how different the prints look against the navy background!

Market06 — “Posies”, an adorable tuffet from Tuffet Source (thanks for putting it together, Mom, and a cute little in-the-hoop bag from Pickled Pie Designs

And my final set of patterns is called “Flourishes”. It is a set of 3 designs that can be finished as a tryptic of min-quilts or a pillows. There is an SVG option on this pattern as well and Hill Creek (now Just Another Button Company) is producing a button pack for both the white and navy versions.

Market07 — The white version of “Flourishes”

Market08 — The navy version of “Flourishes”, finished as a pillow and peeking out from behind the precuts and a quilt made from one of the free patterns for this collection.

Market09 — To the left of “Flourishes” you can see the free embroidery pattern for this collection that I designed. The embroidery collection is put out by OESD.

Market11 — You can see more embroidery from Feathers and Flourishes here…

Market10 — In another corner of the booth you can see a peek of my other free pattern for this collection called “Cinema” – more on that soon!

I almost forgot! For the first time I’ll be coming out with a quilting collection to coordinate with my fabric collection! So excited as it will be well-timed with the arrival of the Q-Matic system for the BERNINA longarm. The Feathers and Flourishes Quilting Collection is undergoing testing in June and will be shipping in July.

Market13 — Here is my friend Cherry Guidry’s booth next to mine. Isn’t it pretty?

So that was Market! I can’t believe it is over. You prep for months and then it goes by in a blur. (Maybe even more of a blur considering we had an emergency evacuation of the hotel the night before we left due to a water pipe break which, when combined with a red-eye home, made for a very hazy couple of days!)

Market14 — My booth at Spring Quilt Market 2016 – a final view…

If you love this collection I’d love for you to ask your shop to order it – thanks!

SO if you have actually lasted through all of these pictures (hi Mom!) it is TIME FOR A GIVEAWAY! Did you see those precuts sitting on the chairs at Market? I snagged a couple for you guys. I have a stack of 10” squares and a bundle of 9 fat quarters to give away so leave a comment below telling me which new pattern you like best – Plume, Starstruck, Posies, or Flourishes? Please only enter once and leave me some way to reach you if I can’t see it through your profile. The last day to enter is Tuesday, May 31st.