Yorkshire Park Blog Tour

Posted on November 10, 2014March 23, 2015 by Amanda Murphy — 79 Comments

Note: The Quilters Newsletter magazine and fat quarter bundle winner is Audrey and the winner of my patterns is Karen of Karen-Quilts etc. Both liked Mini-Garden Paths! Thanks to everyone who commented!

Hi everyone! Today is the first day of the Quilters Newsletter’s Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 blog tour. Don’t you love fat quarter quilts? They are so fun and easy to choose fabric for! Quilters Newletter has giveaways scheduled for the entire week (and mine is at the end of this post) so keep your eyes peeled!

My quilt for this issue is Yorkshire Park. The original was made in Topiary.

But I’ve been playing around with it tonight and I like it in Modern Lace, my new collection for Blend Fabrics, as well (plus a little green from Topiary for the leaves). What do you think?

Or maybe with a navy background, but with light blue leaves?

We’ll have two winners for the giveaway, ok? The first will win a copy of the magazine and a fat quarter bundle of Silvia’s Sonnet by Silvia Vassileva from P&B Textiles, courtesy of Quilters Newsletter. The second will win a copy of three of my newest patterns: Mini Blossoms, Mini Garden Paths, and Chantilly. To, enter, let me know which one is your favorite of these patterns )(shown below) by commenting on this post sometime today (Monday, November 9th). You can enter until midnight Mountain Time.

Make sure to visit Quilters Newsletter throughout the week for fun prizes!

Happy sewing!
Amanda

Fall Market 2014 and Modern Lace patterns

Posted on November 7, 2014March 23, 2015 by Amanda Murphy — 1 Comment

Oh my goodness has it really been almost three months??? It has been a really busy three months even though I can’t really say what I was working on most of the time yet. Suffusive to say I got the the end of September and what seemed like my twentieth deadline and realized Market was only a few weeks away so I had better work fast.

Luckily Blend Fabrics sent plenty of my Modern Lace line my way (shipping to stores now).

First up in the new pattern category is Chantilly.

Chantilly (45-1/2” x 64-1/2”)

It features just two appliqué motifs that are combined to give an elegant look. Best of all, most of the appliqué is ended in the seams so there isn’t a need to knot threads!

I did two mini quilts this time as well, Mini Blossoms and Mini Garden Paths…

Mini Garden Paths (19-1/2” x 23-1/2”)

Mini Blossoms (20-1/2” x 20-1/2”)

They were such fun to sew. And I loved the way the whitework blue print worked for the flowers so I just had to make up my original Blossoms quilt in the pink whitework print.

So here’s the original Blossoms in a new cover!

Blossoms (64-1/2” x 82-1/2”)

I also redid Love Birds and Forever in Modern Lace. I really love them – they give those patterns a completely different look!

Love Birds (18-1/2” x 26 1/2”)

Forever (30” x 30”)

Modern Lace has 12 SKUs and I really strove to combine them in ways to make each quilt look totally different. The SKU info, for easy ordering, is listed on each. I hope you like them! You can find them in my store and on Craftsy. All printed patterns are in with the exception of Mini-Garden Paths – I’m expecting that the middle of next week and will ship it right after. (And shops that ordered at Market, your orders will be on the way the middle of next week as well!)

To celebrate the new patterns let’s have a little sale, ok? 20% off of patterns using the code MODERNLACE in my store. Now through this Monday night (November 10th).

Happy quilting and I hope you are having lovely fall!
Amanda

Sundance Quilt: Part 6

Posted on August 18, 2014March 23, 2015 by Amanda Murphy — 3 Comments

This weekend I made my Dresden plate blocks for my latest version of the Sundance quilt, directions for which available through your local BERNINA dealer.

As you can see, these plates flank the sides of the quilt, which is set on point, so the plates are actually applied to large quarter square triangles.

First I cut a 8 plates from each of five fabrics. You can use the template provided, but if you happen to have Darlene Zimmerman’s Easy Dresden Ruler, you can use the 6″ mark to cut the plates as well.

Note that I changed some of the fabrics for the plates from the original plan. I like to sew with pre-washed fabrics and I didn’t have enough of some of those already washed so I took a shortcut and opted to switch out some of the fabrics to others from my Topiary line for Blend Fabrics instead!

Chain-piece the ends of the plates – I like to backstitch at each end.

Clip off the excess fabric at the corners, press the seams open, and turn the plate right side out. Press, centering the seam.

Join the plates, pressing the seams open. I like to fuse a little piece of Steam-A-Seam tape onto the edges of the Dresden because I find it is a more secure method of securing the plates when I sew.

Remove the tape’s paper backing and fuse it down onto the background triangle, being careful not to stretch the triangle’s bias edges! Use the background fabric to align the quarter circle before trimming it away to reduce bulk.