Colorful Quilting EUREKA

Looking for a quick six fat quarter pattern?--EUREKA!  I wanted to use the bundle I bought a few seasons ago in a shop in Pismo Beach CA.  The colors were unique enough from that time, that I did not want to add any other fabrics.  This little guy is just right--and fun and fast. 

3 down, 37 to go.

Colorful Quilting Project

I decided I wanted to do something fun for me, quilting wise (what else!).  I would like to see all of my RoseCards made up in Kaffe Fassett collective fabrics.  With what I have in stock, stash, Grandma Pam's (I might be assuming too much here, but isn't that what kids do?), and a little online and in-store shopping, I think I just might be able to do this.  What good is having a stash of fabric, if I don't start using it?  Plus it would make a killer trunk show.

40 quilts for the 40 patterns--nothing to it.  And I have a jump start--2 already are on covers, and I have the models.  I have bits of Kaffe's Collections stashed all over the workroom.  I have the feeling I will find more as I poke around and do some cleaning.  The first one is already picked out and started for LOVERS LANE--what fun!

To review what I already have done--

2 down...38 to go!

Market Highlights

We're barely back from the Houston marathon.  Wholesale Market was fabulous.  The Rosecards are well received and shops are sharing how they are using them.  We saw our favorite designers and their fabulous new fabric lines--and ordered, of course.

I was joined by daughters Leann and Jessica.  Leann for the first couple days, and Jessica for the whole 2 shows.  How great it was having them with me--my yin and yang girls.  Polar opposites in looks and nature, they are best friends.  Market goers will remember them.

Before Leann had to leave on Sunday, the two dashed around the show, checking exhibits and making friends. 

Here they are with Amy Butler--Amy and the Rosettes......

4 Shows, 10 RoseCards

4 Shows and 10 RoseCards since I last posted.  Fall is the best season, but busiest for us.

They have all gone to press by today, thanks to my editor and sample makers--the chief cook and bottle washer here at the Villa Rosa.  Now to cut and pack for Texas--Houston Market and Festival via Austin. 

Two Places at Once

Yes, it can be done--with a little help from my friends.  Last weekend it was shows in Los Banos and Sonora.  The ever-enthusiastic group in Los Banos found me booth coverage from Jeanette Lopes, longarm quilter supreme.  The members unloaded and loaded my goods and helped sell to each other.  Gotta love them.   This small but mighty group is producing a lovely show every year.  Fun for me to see fabrics I sold them last year in quilts this year.  My favorite, though many to chose from, is by Darla Fagundes.  She used a lot of fabric from my stock and chose contrast fabrics with some great advice from Judy West.

Florentine 3

Gorgeous golden fabric from Robert Kaufman designer Peggy Toole.  Three colorways to mix and match--neutral Pewter,  radiant Jewel, and rich Earth.  The yardage is listed and fat quarter bundles will be ready soon.  Now, what to make...something old or something new.  I am madly working on the Fall RoseCard releases, and these fabrics would make a glittering cover.

Nearly PERFECT MOMENT

I love to cut my complete lines of fabric into Sample Slices 5"x 9 1/2".  Rectangles are such a great shape and this size shows off so much more of the fabric than 5" charm squares. 

Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms is 33 pieces.  I figured that 2 sets should be good for one of the Slice and Spacer patterns--PRISTINE or PERFECT MOMENT--11 slices wide by 6 tall.  I liked the light spacers of PRISTINE with Amy's Midwest Modern, so I grabbed a light fabric.  Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane print was perfect.  I didn't want it to be too dominant or make the quilt too wide, so I cut the spacers down to 1 1/2".  The quilt needed to be longer, so I added the 2 1/2" row spacers of PERFECT MOMENT.  I loved a green stripe from Nicey Jane, so I blasted away and added it to half of the rows.  WRONG! [interject buzzer here].  Found a good show, and ripped it off.  Went back with the more of the light.  The airiness and modern look is what I was after--whew.  I really better get a design wall up.


The darker row sashing would probably have been fine if the spacers were also darker, as it all is on the cover of PERFECT MOMENT.

This may be a new card someday--it would work well with a Layer Cake.

Meanwhile, here are the specs for this one.  Fabric for the Spacers and Row Sashing--1 1/2 yd.  Cut the Spacers 1 1/2" wide.  To offset the blocks, cut 2 3/4" off the right end of the odd rows, 2 3/4" off the left end of the even rows.  Sashing is cut 2 1/2" just like the pattern.  The top finishes 58"x 63".

New Tribute Star

I am busy working on the next 10 RoseCards for Fall Market release.  One design is a larger version of SILVER STAR--the throw size we have been making for years with 8 Fat Quarters.

Naturally, I had to try it with the Tribute line from Pat Sloan.  It will make a perfect quilt for donating to your favorite Armed Forces group.  We have used it many times over for young people's gifts as well--great in any theme prints or colors...and flannel, too.

The kit is listed in the Quilts of Valor--pricing based on $6/yd.  A draft of the pattern will be included, as well.  It finishes 56"x 70", using 8 fat quarters, 1 1/4 yd background, 3/4 yd border, and 5/8 yd binding.

While working, I listen to a lot of NPR and books on tape.  Today there was in interview with a publisher of Smith Magazine.  They feature "Six Word Memoirs", soliciting contributions through their website.  Labor Day, today, ended a contest with Work themed phrases.  My favorite--"What Matters is What We Do".

Shop Hop on the Side

Can't visit the kids without a stop at a local shop.  Glad I caught this one--Millie P's on Main Street in Anoka MN.  What a great vibrant shop--loads of bright fabric, samples, ideas.  My photos here don't begin to do it justice.  Check them out online, and better yet--if you are in the neighborhood like me....

Minnesota via Texas

So we don't travel in a straight line.  And when you fly Southwest, it is even less so.  But we had to see Leann's play in Austin.  Then way overdue for a trip to see the grandkids, we flew up to Minneapolis to spend the week with Evan's family before school starts.  Leann is a wonderful as ever to watch, and the kids are cute and clever.  Sigh--a much needed group of hugs.

Moose and Squirrel

We watch wildlife all day at the Villa Rosa.  Now I also have Moose and Squirrel in the workroom--Rocky and Bullwinkle.  We boomers loved this goofy show, and some of our kids got in on it the second time around.  Something old, or something new--which RoseCard design to use?

Long Beach and Back

Quilt Festival in Long Beach was terrific.  Thanks to all who shopped my little corner here.  It was great to see old friends and meet new.  The coast weather and ocean breezes were perfect.  And I stayed with my favorite Aunt Rosie--what could be better?

Meanwhile, back at Villa Rosa, fabric arrived.  I have some listing to do.  Here is a little preview of some Tonga Batik yardage.  Two of the Treat Strips are in, too--Pomegranate and Gelato--yummy!!

Long Beach and Back

Quilt Festival in Long Beach was terrific.  Thanks to all who shopped my little corner here. 

Going to Long Beach with Amy

Long Beach Quilt Festival is this week, so it is cutting and packing time.  Just got in Soul Blossoms, so I will be taking Amy Butler with me.  I have the whole collection, and I'm cutting yards, fat quarters and Sample Slices 5"x 9 1/2".

Sample Slices are my answer to Charm Squares.  They are bigger, so easier to cut and you get more of the fabric to enjoy.  I have patterns that work with them--Eden Rose, Pristine, Happy Child, Gypsy.  There are at least 2 new ones in the works--Pam Cakes (the larger Eden Rose) and a frame block.  And it is a size that other folks use, too.  Check out Atkinson Designs' Texas Two Step--my kind a' quilt!

Race 'n Roll

Basic instruction for the Jelly Roll Race quilt--
Sew all 40  2 1/2" strips together, using a diagonal seam, to make one long 1600" strip.

Cut 18" off one end.  Bring the end up to the beginning, and sew together down the 800" length,  cutting it open at the end.  It is now 2 strips deep.

Bring the end up to the beginning, sew down the 400" length, cut open at end--now it is 4 deep.

Bring the end up to the beginning, sew down the 200" length, cut open at end--now it is 8 deep.

Bring the end up to the beginning, sew down the 100" length, cut open at end--now it is 16 deep.

Cut in half so you have 2  50" pieces and sew one on top of the other to finish about 50"x 64".

Now you can press, trim and square it up. Add a border if you want.

Be sure to find the video and visit Heirloom Creations website for more.

Jelly Roll Racer

So I had to try the Jelly Roll Race pattern Cheryl told me about.  I grabbed some leftover Christmas strips Laurel had given me.  And yes, I should have left the white out, and not used as many duplicates--but it was worth it to use up all of these strips.  So do I now have to applique or write on the white stripes?

This was a lot of fun to do--I highly recommend it.  And I will do the next from Hoffman's Zinfandel Bali Pop--low contrast, lots of variety...and gorgeous fabric.

Fourth at Home

Happy 4th of July to all.  For us, it is a quiet day at home.  I just got back from a nice show in Reno--the Quilting, Stitches & Crafts Expo.  Had a great time selling kits and meeting RoseCard fans.

Most fun was seeing Cheryl at Sew Kwik Quilter.  Along with her wonderful kits, she carries Jelly Rolls, including some original combos that she puts together and sells on her website and shows.  Cheryl told me about Jelly Roll Races.  See the quilt on her table there?  It is made by sewing your entire Jelly Roll into a 1600 inch long strip.  To start the races, cut 18" off one end.  Then you bring the far end up to the beginning and sew down the 800 inch length (2 strips deep).  Then bring the end up to the beginning and sew down the 400 inch length (4 strips deep)--and so on, until you have a piece about 48"x 64".

The races and instructions are on a YouTube video by Heirloom Creations from Sioux Falls SD.  What a great idea for a retreat or guild workshop for community service!

New Home in the Family

Leann just signed the papers and took possession of her new home--a condo in Austin.  Out of ratty (quite literally) apartment living into a place she make her own.  And plenty of room to set up the order fulfillment department for the RoseCards. 

Creative Community

In the spirit of the quilters before us, who made use of every scrap, I like to see what I can do to use up a group or piece of fabric.  Community Service quilts made with donated fabric or stash fabric is the perfect place to put this to work.  I love the creative process, which for me is much like engineering to make it fit and work.  And I love results--this one I think is destined to be a Rosecard soon.  What a bonus.

So here is how this one happened.  I had just enough fabric to cut 3  4 1/2" strips of the yellow,  3  5 1/2" strips of the green, and 3  6 1/2" strips of the blue.  I made three identical strip sets--in order, 4 1/2-5 1/2- 6 1/2.  Subcut them each into 6  6 1/2" sections, for a total of 18.  Flip every other section upside down.  Make 3 identical rows of 6 sections each.  Hardly anything to match.  About an hour to sew.

I love the whimsical jogging effect this has--pretty fun for a 3 fabric quilt.  This finished 36"x 45".  Borders certainly could be added.  I am thinking this will work as a 3 1 yard bundle quilt.  A small floating border of the remaining piece of the 6 1/2" cut fabric.  A little bigger border of the 4 1/2" cut fabric.  Binding with the 5 1/2" cut fabric.

Order Department

The California Order Department is now properly outfitted.  Roses are blooming and I am cutting.  So far the gardener, aka husband, is winning the battle with the deer, who think rosebuds are deer candy.

It's a Wrap!

Spring RoseCard releases are at press.  The crush of shows and printing deadlines have passed, and I can poke my head up and enjoy the season, if Spring will ever come to our fair country.  I've missed posting some of my travels, since I cover so much ground and have no evenings to sit and relax at the keyboard.  So, I hope to post some retro photos of some of my favorite stops of the past two months, as well as the Market happenings.

San Antonio Memories

We had the most perfect day in San Antonio yesterday--75 and sunny.  It was made even better by the fact that we escaped Thursday before Northern California became a snowy mess.

I started San Antonio with a quick stop and delivery at the Quilters Market show.  Then we made a little jaunt over to see the Memories by the Yard shop.  What a wonderful, big shop---full of all kinds of quilt fabric and decorator fabric, too.  Their RoseCard displays are shown over on the rosecardpatterns.blogspot.com site.  Here we a a nice shot of the colorful front area of the shop. 

Then we cruised on downtown to the Alamo and Riverwalk.  I had no idea what a treat we were in for!  We literally spent the entire afternoon walking.  Besides the perfect weather, which certainly added to our lovely day, we enjoyed this magical place immensely.   Our lunch spot looked out over an intersection of the river.

Beautiful pathways, ornate historic buildings, a riverboat tour, and art.  A beautiful mosaic here, pretty as a quilt.

And just before we left, we caught a guacamole making demo courtesy of a dinner cruise chef.

A-Muck, A-Muck, A-Muck

Before the duck hunting waders get put away for the season, they must be used for mucking out the reeds from the pond.  Those pesky reeds are prolific, so hand-pulling them out by the roots is the most permanent solution.  The 60 year old body did not agree at the end of the day, but it was a good dig.

Junior Quilters Rock

I spent yesterday as a guest helper at the Junior Quilters Workshop.  Our Pine Tree Quilt Guild offers classes for young quilters--unique in Northern California.  Group leader Dianne chose 2 RoseCard patterns to use for the projects, so naturally I wanted to be there.  Moms are there to cut and support, and other guild member assistants.  We have one veteran family who have done a lot of quilting with the guild--their projects were half done!  I'll wait to show them off when they are done, which will likely be soon.

Austin Snow Day

Leann had a snow day Friday--Austin nearly shut down with 3/4" of snowfall.  She was amused, and loved reporting to her brother in Minnesota that Texas declared a day off, while he has yet to have one with all of their cold, snow and wind chill.  Texas weather being Texas weather, though, it was 65 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, we in Northern California are basking in warm winds, and nearly 70 today.  We have doors and windows open, and hubby is working in the yard.  Last night we had one of the most spectacular sunsets ever.  Enough clouds to have red light from east of the house to the west.  Coming down from the red and gold clouds we had over a dozen ducks landing in the pond to start a Saturday night rumble.  Two or three rival gangs were chasing easy other around, trying to establish territory.  It was all beautiful and funny to watch--glad we are here.

Community Service=Design Ideas

One thing leads to another when you start playing with quilt design.  I think this is especially true when making do.  The first quilt here is one made from a bag of salesmen sample fabric pieces from the Valley Quilt Guild.  I like to use every inch of fabric provided, which was the 30's prints and some backing flannel.  So I decided to cut the pieces 6 1/2" x 12 1/2", and even piece a few as needed--the samples were a irregular in length, though they were the same width.  Then I went to my box of old solid scraps, used up a few (yeay!), and added a 3 1/2"x 6 1/2" piece to each end of the rectangles.  With a little math ahead of time, I figured this would all come out fairly close to a throw size.  30 blocks, 18"x6" finished, laid out 3x10--and here we have a 54"x60" quilt.  I added a scrap of flannel I had from back trimmings, and added a racing stripe to make the donated lavendar flannel big enough for the back.  And it was all finished with binding scraps.  Win-Win-Win--I used all of the donated fabric, used up some of my scraps, and have a new design idea.

So I took this design idea, and used it with my 5"x9" slices.  The idea here was that I wanted to make a quilt top to fit a piece of guild batting that was leftover--how frugal can you get?  Here I have 30 5"x9", and I cut 20  5"x9" down to a total of 60 3"x9" of a different color.  Same plan, adding the little pieces to the ends and sewing these blocks into the same 3x10 layout, so it finished 41"x45".  I like the effect of what looks like 4 patches going down in columns.  It was fun and fast again,  and I used up some 5"x9" slices, and some Grandma Pam back and binding fabric--and the leftover piece of batting, of course.

So what's next?--let me see how this design works using 10" squares or Fat Quarters......

The Quilt Asylum

Catching up on my Fall travels....

If you are in the Dallas area, you must stop at the The Quilt Asylum in McKinney, at 153 S. Central Expressway--right off Highway 75.  Fun begins here.  Warden Susan Allen has assembled crazy, amazing collections of fabrics and samples to feed your addictions.

They feature a large selection of the Kaffe Collective, bountiful batiks, and contemporary collections from Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Sandi Henderson, and more.  The photos below show only part of the batiks and Kaffe Collective displays.  Plus they still have room for reproductions and basics, having recently moved to a bigger store.

Bright, fresh samples are everywhere, along with crazy fun shopping displays.   They fat quarter almost all of the fabric, which I find really great for choosing projects.   If you check out the online store and newsletter, you can see all of the fabulous events they have planned.  Wish I were there.












This is just one of the bundles I bought.  They make custom rolls--20  10 1/2" x22""--perfect for many of the RoseCard designs--another reason I bonded with this store.

And I love the way they put together fabrics for their kits.  This combination of Kaffe and batiks is stunningly rich.

My meager photos here don't begin to capture the amount of eye candy.  You just have to go see for yourself!

Modesto Quilt Show

Country Crossroads Quilters--Heart of the Valley Quilt Show was wonderful.  It was very special for me to see all of the people with whom I spent over 25 years--we have such a history through our time quilting together.  

The show is always a class act--a great way to kick off the new year.  A professional venue at the Convention Center run by a group of quilters who have it down to a science with their art.  Vendor chairs Linda and Sue are pros, and we were treated so well with lunch at set-up, snacks and drinks during the show.  And help hauling from Carolyn's crew at Seams So Nice--wow, what a difference that made!

I had a blast.  My colorful products were well received.  Great neighbors--Linda at Quilter's Quarters took home RoseCards for her shop in Hanford--if you're in the neighborhood be sure to check her out.  Missing a Few Buttons, on the other side, had fabulous pretties to play with.  Caught up with Bernice at Cloth and Quilts.  Cloth and Quilts bought fabric inventory from a retired shop --they are having a $5 a yard sale of that merchandise next weekend,  Jan 21-23.  Details are on their website--clothandquilts.com--Events page.

Quilt 6

I left Pat Sloan's UFO party at Quilt 6.  I met new people, including Julie Ann, who lives in Anoka MN, near Evan.  She also told me about a new quilt shop Millie P's that I missed when I was there last year--won't miss it on the next trip.

It took most of the day to assemble the top, quilt and bind. I did get back to cutting kits for the Pine Tree Quilt Guild--I would like to hand them out tomorrow night (and get them out of my sewing room).

Quilt 5 Top 6 UFO 7

Quilt 5 was finished last night--and listed for sale.   Top 6 took a little more time to finish, but it is done this morning.  Looks good with a border--fewer blocks than the DOUBLE DELIGHT pattern, so a bit faster.  I cut the spacers the wrong length, so now I will have to make a quilt with the miscuts and leftover 5x9 slices.

UFO 7 is a PTQG closet fabric project again.  I had started these blocks to test a coloring variation for the ICED TEA block.  The center was an odd shaped scrap, and I have cut frame fabrics as I go through the fabric baskets--anything that has those colors.  We'll see if this color theory works.

Quilt 4 Top 5 UFO 6

Quilt 4 was made from 3  5" strips.  3 different strip sets--1,2,3  2,3,1  3,1,2.  Sub-cut into 6 6 1/2" sections.  Then made into 6 Blocks.  Nifty little formula.  Used the fabric efficiently.  Not a bad baby/lap size 36"x41", and could easily be bordered.  I'm thinking it might even work for 6 Fat Quarters--will have to test it out.

Top 5 was the layout gone amuk.  Great to have it reworked, and now loaded on the quilter. 

UFO 6 was mock-up blocks for DOUBLE DELIGHT.  This type of pile tends to get put aside when working on the real thing, so it is good to do something with it.  Just old scraps, it will become a CS quilt.