The Seaweed Is Always Greener...

...in somebody else's lake. This quilt was so incredibly fun to make. Maybe it was the fun, asymmetric design that I'm not used to. Maybe it was the beautiful shot cottons I used to make this quilt. Or maybe it's just fun to quilt. I'm going with all of the above! Introducing "The Seaweed Is Always Greener" quilt.

I had a ton of fun making this quilt. I've always struggled with the mustard color seen in this quilt, so it's always a personal challenge to use it. I love the look of it in a lot of quilts, but I'm just not as into earth tones as I am jewel tones. At the same time, I am always in love with the quilts I make that use colors out of my comfort zone.

And like most of my quilts, this one was paper pieced. I designed it when playing with a parallelogram design and just adding in random lines. Sometimes freeform designing yields some of the best results, as is the case with this quilt. Because I used shot cottons, I made sure to really starch them first before piecing with them, as it's not good to use any form of liquid with the paper template.

As for the quilting, I matchstick quilted this using my HandiQuilter longarm. I used channel locks and took my time carefully avoiding quilting anything in the mustard yellow. I did that so the fabric would pop. I only used one layer of batting, but the 3-D effect still comes through loud and strong. I love the look of matchstick quilting. It sure uses up a ton of thread, but it's so worth it. In the end, I'm so in love with this quilt.

This quilt measures 33.5" x 44" and is available as a pattern in my Craftsy shop. 

Twirling Delight

I was recently asked to publish my Twirling Delight pattern, which originally appeared in Quilty a few years ago. Upon receiving that ask, I looked back through my blog and realized I never blogged about this quilt.

This is a super simple paper pieced quilt that has only seven pieces per block with minimal points that need to be matched up, making it ideal for the beginner paper piecer. The colors of this quilt remind me of spring and summer, a much welcome color palette right now given that I spent the morning snowblowing my driveway and shoveling my front walk. I could go for a picnic in the park or on the beach, just sitting on top of this quilt.

This quilt was machine quilted by Angela Walters. Some day I hope to be able to quilt swirls the way she does. She brought so much texture and movement to this wonderful quilt with her magic.

If you want to make this quilt, visit my Craftsy page here for the pattern. 

New Patterns Available

Happy New Year to everyone!!! For those interested, I've made two patterns available in my Craftsy shop.

The first is my Dream Diamond quilt that first appeared in American Quilter earlier last year. You can find the pattern for this quilt here.

The second is a free pattern for the quilt block I used to make this baby quilt. Yup, this one is free! The pattern for this one can be found here.

Both of them are paper pieced patterns. If you're new to paper piecing and want a free tutorial, check out the pattern and tutorial section of my blog for a free how-to and some of my favorite resources.