Framed Up - McCall's Quilting January/February 2014

Last night I arrived home and found a quilt on my doorstep. Not just any quilt, it was my Framed Up quilt that I had finished in January and sent off to McCall's Quilting this summer to be featured in their January/February 2014 issue. That's right, I have a quilt in McCall's Quilting Magazine!

 

I originally designed and made this quilt last year, sending it off to the talented Angela Walters to machine quilt it for me. I knew I wanted to try and get this pattern published, so I held off sharing it on my blog. Problem is, I wasn't really sure about how to go about submitting it. Luckily, QuiltCon was right around the corner and there was a session on submitting to magazines!

I sent of my submission to McCall's shortly after returning from QuiltCon. Why McCall's, well it was the first magazine I subscribed to 11 or 12 years ago when I first started quilting. But I also submitted quilts to other magazines over the next few months. Some were accepted and others weren't. Why am I telling you this? To encourage everyone that's thinking about submitting a quilt to a show or magazine to do it if you really want. Not every quilt is meant for every show or magazine. But when it's the right fit, it's an awesome feeling.

Regular readers of my blog know that I love paper piecing, so of course this quilt is paper pieced. I would consider this an intermediate paper pieced pattern for those that know how to paper piece. There are a number of points that you need to line up when piecing blocks together, but that's pretty much the most difficult part.

I gave Angela pretty much free reign when quilting this quilt. I don't know about you, but I think she did a really great job.

The folks at McCall's agreed and included another page, in addition to the pattern, talking all about the quilting.

In addition, Quilters Newsletter posted a recent video on Modern Quilting, which featured Framed Up as one of the examples. Check out the video below. They begin talking about Framed Up at the 4:30 mark.

This issue of McCall's Quilting hits newsstands next week, but if you have a subscription, it should be in your mailbox any day if you haven't already received it. 

McCall's Mystery - Part 2 Done

I completed part 2 of the McCall's Mystery Quilt last weekend. Here are the two blocks.

Now to work on catching up on the steps, seeing as though they're onto step 4 already.  Time to catch up!  This is one WIP that was really hit by our move into the house a few months ago. 

Step One Complete

I completed step one of the McCall's Mystery Quilt tonight.  I had already made the star blocks, but I needed to make the rectangular blocks.  Here's one of the finished block.  I'm making it mostly out of blues and yellows with hints of reds and greens.  The examples shown have been a bit more random, but I wanted to be a little more uniform.  We'll see if it pays off when the quilt is complete.

Here are all of the blocks.  Step two is already out, so I still have some catching up to do, but I'l get there eventually.  

New Mystery Quilt

So recently, I've been working on the McCall's Magazine Mystery Quilt.  My husband got me a quilting magazine for Christmas, but after 3 months of receiving nothing, he determined that it must not have gone through because he canceled his credit card and couldn't remember what magazine he originally ordered, so he went online and ordered this one for me.  A week later, I received a different magazine, so now I get two.  

Here are a few pics of the first 20 blocks.  There are 10 of the green, 4 of the red with the brighter blue, and 6 of the other red.  I didn't have enough of the blue speckled background, so I ended up improvising.  I'm going to use mostly Mark Lapinski's Calfilon line of fabric for this quilt.  The one with all three best depicts the color of the fabric.  I didn't notice all the stray thread until now, so please ignore those.  

I've got most of my quilting room packed up at this point, hopefully I'll be able to get a little in, but we'll see.  We're spending time with my family this weekend and the hubby and I are going on a date on Sunday!!!