BERNINA University and NEW FABRIC Recap 2019!

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Hi everyone,

Are you excited for some summer sewing?  It has been SOOOO hard to keep secrets these last few months so thank goodness I can finally show what I have been working on.  My newest fabric lines for Benartex and Contempo or Benartex were just featured at BERNINA University a week ago and I’m so excited to show you!

If you’d rather watch a video showing all the patterns and fabrics you can find one here:

Pictures speak louder than words so let’s get started!  The new line inspired by the features of my favorite BERNINA machines is called “Celestial Lights”.  It will start shipping in July and is beautifully printed by Benartex with details delineated in pearl inks.

 

There are a variety of shot-cotton prints perfect for embroidered embellishment, including a pearl-on-white not pictured here.

The first Celestial Lights pattern is called Stardust.  It features twelve star embroideries – each with a different blackwork pattern – from the coordinating BERNINA-Exclusive Celestial Lights Collection.  The Embroidery Collection also features the quilting files for this quilt digitized for both longarms and domestic embroidery machines.  There are directions for both a blue and a  red color story.  We’ll be giving tips and tricks for sewing this over on BERNINA’s blog this fall!

Again with red and blue options, is my new piecing pattern – Constellations!  It uses a half yard of twelve fabrics.  Lots of pieces but I REALLY love this one!

And super-fun to piece is Hometown, in a combination of red and blue!

Next up is Floret, a fun appliqué pattern that includes a download code for SVG files.  There is going to be an Aurifil thread box for this one, so you’ll have an easy way to locate the 28 wt. thread I like to use for the blanket stitch and the 12 wt. thread I like to use for the triple-stitched vines.  Also a July ship date.

The fabric collection features five different panels: two ruler panels, two quilting panels, and one embroidery panel.

Shown in the first row: Endless Quilting yardage and the embroidery panel. Shown in the second row: two ruler panels. The Endless Quilting yardage has no divisions between the repeats and extra fabric near the selvage for seams so you can practice quilting to your heart’s content on a project of any size!

The Celestial Lights Embroidery Panel Project Guide shows you how to make that panel into a pillow, table runner, wall hanging, and quilt!

The Celestial Lights Ruler Panel Guide in conjunction with the ruler panels show you how to use my new Good Measure Every Oval Ruler set in a myriad of different ways.   You’ll love this set I promise and guess what?  Hot on its heels will come another new ruler set – RIBBON CANDY!

Next up are my Market lines. With all the BERNINA University prep I never wrote a blog post for them so I apologize for this being a bit late.  The patterns for the patterns below one will be ready in a few weeks.

Silver Jubilee is an elegant sophisticated line in silvers and charcoals, accented with a rich plum.

Because of the traditional nature of the paisley feature print, with patterns I went more modern in feel.  Here is my favorite… Amethyst Jubilee!  (And yes, it is paper-pieced but with just one block and its mirror image.)

Following on its heels in the modern category is Linked.  It is fat-quarter friendly so is super easy to kit!

Then we have Mirror, Mirror.  My goal here was to develop a 10’’ square-friendly pattern that was dynamic and different.

Since Silver Jubilee was modeled after the original gold Jubilee line, I had time to draw another collection.  This one is close to my heart as it arrived in my head pretty much fully formed and that hardly ever happens.  I just love the rich tones in this collection and the birds… even though I’m scared of birds in real life.  Nightingale is very subtly detailed in just a little bit of pearl.

For patterns we have a large-block quilt called Salt Water Taffy…

And Sunrise, which is such fun to quilt with a straight line ruler and simple loops. (I have a video of the quilting somewhere that I’ll have to dig up to show.)  You can use quarter yard cuts or fat quarters for this one.

And then we have my favorite to make because each block was such fun – Night Garden!  This is fat-quarter friendly too.

All patterns include SKU information and will ship in late July; I’ll let you know as soon as they are available.  In the meantime if you love any or all of these lines please ask your local shop to order them through Benartex! Thanks so much and happy quilting!

Amanda

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“Thankful” fabric and patterns are now shipping! (Info on where to find them and a giveaway!)

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NOTE: The winner of this giveaway (chosen by random number) is Brenda Ackerman.  Congratulations, Brenda! Please send me your snail mail address. 

We’ll have a giveaway for Christmas Magic soon!

Hi everyone!

I have some exciting news to share! My Thankful patterns and fabrics from Contempo of Benartex are both now shipping!  Perhaps you remember seeing sneak peeks of this line from Fall Quilt Market?

The “Thankful” portion of my Quilt Market booth.

 

Some prints from “Thankful”

 

The panel that goes with “Thankful”. This is one of my favorite panels I’ve designed.

There are two patterns that I designed specifically for this line.  The first is a pieced pattern called “Autumn Leaves” – it is quick and really fun to piece.

The second is called “Plenty” and includes instructions to make a pillow, a bed runner, and a table runner.  It includes a download for SVG files of course.

 

You can order these patterns from your local shop or, if you aren’t lucky enough to have a local shop, from my website.

There is also a free pattern for a lap quilt and pillow using the Thankful panel on the downloads page of my website.

I don’t stock fabric, but I asked Benartex to put together a list of shops that ordered the fabrics.  (This is not a complete list, as if shops buy from distributors I don’t have that information.  If you are one of those shops or you just have Thankful and are not listed for any reason I am happy to add you to this list if you contact me!)

ARIZONA
BERNINA Connection
The French Seam

COLORADO
eQuilter.com

FLORIDA
Once Upon A Quilt
The Sewing Garret

GEORGIA
Fabric.com
Augusta & Atlanta Sewing Centers

INDIANA
Rossville Quilts

LOUISIANA
Allbrands.com

MICHIGAN
Kean’s Store Company

MONTANA
Back Porch Quilts
Bernina Sewing & Fabric Center

NEW MEXICO
Gathering Stitches

NORTH CAROLINA
Sew Much Fun!

NORTH DAKOTA
Bismarck Sewing & Quilting

PENNSYLVANIA
Pine Tree Quilt Shop

SOUTH CAROLINA
Bernina Sewing Center

TENNESSEE
Stitcher’s Playhouse

TEXAS
Cupcake Quilts
Quilt Country
Stitchin’ Heaven

Ok – now for a giveaway!  I have a bundle of Thankful fat quarters to give away., courtesy of Benartex! To enter comment below telling what you’d make with them.  One entry per person and the winner will be chosen by random number generator.  The deadline is end of day Saturday March 30th.  (International entries are welcome if you are willing to pay the difference in shipping.)

Happy spring and happy quilting!

Amanda

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Introducing Christmas Magic! (and a little Jubilee Holiday too!)

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Happy holidays, everyone!

I’ve been busy drawing new fabric and getting new patterns sent to the printer in the midst of cookie baking and present wrapping.  I thought it would be fun to take a moment and show you my holiday collection for next year!  (Note that some PDFs for patterns are available now, but printed patterns will start shipping the first week in January, so you can ask your local shop to order!)

Some of you might remember pictures of my booth at Fall Market.

The “Christmas Magic” and “Jubilee Holiday” side of my Fall Market booth.
The “Thankful” side of my booth.

I already introduced “Thankful”, my fall collection shipping in March, in this post, but I haven’t showed you the holiday goodies in store for next year so here it goes…

My new holiday collection is called Christmas Magic.  It ships in April from Contempo of Benartex and I’m so excited about it!  The project that best encapsulates this collection is my favorite new pattern.  It is styled in the vein of Sewing Room Sampler and is called Christmas Magic Sampler.  Can I even say how much fun this one is to sew?  The pattern will start shipping the first week of January.  There will be extra finishing instructions on my website for smaller items.

Christmas Magic Sampler is just available as a printed pattern because of its many pages and full-color illustrations.  My website just can’t accommodate a file of this size unfortunately, but I do have very reasonable shipping rates for patterns for international customers who don’t have local shops so I hope this helps. 

Ok, so I got so carried away showing you the sampler I forgot to talk about the fabrics themselves!  Christmas Magic has just 19 SKUs, making it really do-able for quilt shops.  It is sort of a “gingerbread meets stained glass” look and the prints are exuberant and happy!

Some prints from the Christmas Magic collection. If you love them please ask your local shop to order!

When I design large quilts I also like to give people options for smaller projects.  Gingerbread Star is a small applique table topper perfect for gift-giving.  (I actually am hoping someone who is better at finishing than myself is inspired to make a box-edged pillow out of it.) And it includes a download code for SVG files for digital fabric cutters of course.  I had so much fun playing with the color combinations with this pattern and hope that you do too!

My final pattern for this collection is the quick and easy Christmas Magic Tree Skirt.  This one is 2-1/2” strip friendly so you can make it scrappy out of strips or you can make a more planned version out of yardage.

The back cover of Christmas Magic Tree Skirt shows the planned and more scrappy options.

I also sewed Christmas Magic Tree Skirt in Jubilee Holiday.  And oh my goodness speaking of which, did you know that Jubilee holiday ships next month???

Christmas Magic Tree Skirt in Jubilee Holiday!

Here are just a few prints from my Jubilee Holiday collection for Benartex.  (Since we already had red prints we could not resist having green!)  Also… I can’t even express how beautifully Benartex printed this, and with all the pearls and metallics, that isn’t an easy feat!

 

I hope you love this one too!  You might be thinking that January is pretty early in the year for a Christmas collection, but guess what you can do with it?

We have to ship it in time for St. Patrick’s Day for the new Lucky pattern!

Ruby Jubilee also looks great in Jubilee Holiday!

I didn’t get a chance to sew this version, but I did get to sew some of the blocks into pillows and a runner and you can see some of them in this corner of my booth.

How about Platinum Jubilee in Jubilee holiday?

Or Star Jubilee, my free pattern that you can download from my Downloads Page?

 

Fabric requirements for the Jubilee Holiday patterns can be found here.

If you have made it to the bottom of this post thanks so much for staying with me – I know it was long, but I have a ton of new product next year! The printed patterns for all of the above patterns, plus the new Thankful patterns, will ship around the first week of January. I hope that you are excited about these projects for next year and that you thoroughly enjoy the holiday season in this one!

Best wishes and happy quilting.  And thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.

Amanda

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