Guest Posting!

Today I'm guest posting over on the Benartex Sew in Love (with Fabric) blog! I'm excited to share a fun quilt tutorial for the Kid's Quilts Blog Hop. Each day a guest blogger will share a tutorial and Benartex will highlight a children's charity.

Hop on over to the Benartex blog where you'll see my English Rose tutorial, and you can read more about Quilts for Kids!

My Modern Tote!

I'm so excited to share that my Modern Tote has been published in the March/April issue of Love of Quilting!

Fons and Porter did such a great job photographing the tote, I just love it!

Here's my original tote. I used metal rivets to secure the handles, but the pattern calls for simply stitching them to secure. Much easier, and no extra tools needed!

The pattern includes a variation on my technique for covering 1" webbing to use for handles. I love the sturdiness of the webbing, and this allows me to use fun fabric without sacrificing that sturdiness!

If you sew up a tote, I'd love to see it!

Hexie Chains Quilt Pattern!

I'm so excited to finally share this quilt and accompanying pattern! I created this quilt a year ago as a custom order for my aunt. I love the design, and I think this is one of my favorite quilts!

The pattern is deceptively simple, and involves NO y-seams! It would be suitable for an intermediate quilter, or a confident beginner who is careful when handling pieces with bias edges.

I designed the quilt using the Hex N More ruler by Julie Herman of JayBird Quilts, but paper templates are also included if you don't have the ruler.

For my sample quilt, I chose fabrics from Bella and Glimma by Lotta Jansdotter. The large hexagons show off the prints really well! The background is a grey kona (ash, perhaps?), the border is yarn-dyed essex in denim, and the binding is a text print from Architextures.

I quilted the quilt in the "honeycomb" quilting style, which I found over at Crazy Mom Quilts!

You can find the Hexie Chains Quilt Pattern on Craftsy or Etsy!

Paper copies of most of my patterns are now available as well! Ruby Scissors Quilt Shop in Glens Falls, NY now carries them. I will update when they are available in more shops.

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to purchase a paper copy. I'm happy to ship them out to you!

Yarn Kites Quilt Pattern

I have another pattern to share with you! Sometimes I have an idea that tumbles around in my head for awhile before it becomes a tangible object, and other times I dive right in. This quilt certainly falls in the later category. I love this line, Sunnyside by Kate Spain, so I snatched up a layer cake from my local shop as soon as I laid my eyes on it. I must have been in the middle of a few intense projects, because I had a simple idea for the layer cake and I went straight home to play!

This quilt is great for beginners, especially those who are interested in trying something different from traditional piecing. The instructions walk the reader through how to create modern, one of a kind blocks, and how to put those blocks together into a quilt similar to the one pictured. There is very little measuring in the block construction, and squaring the blocks up after piecing ensures that everything fits together easily in the finished top!

The wide open background fabric is a great place to show off some quilting. I did what I call "mummy quilting", aptly named because it reminds me of layers of wrapped bandages!

I also went a little wild playing around with the quilting in the blocks, and I quilted each pieced section differently. It was a fun project to play around with, because if I wasn't crazy about a quilting design I could choose something totally different for the other areas.

The pattern uses 1 layer cake (42 - 10" squares) and 1 1/3 yards of background fabric for the quilt top. It finishes up at 57" x 72", and it's so fast and fun that you could have it pieced in a weekend!

The pattern is available for purchase through Craftsy and Etsy!

Modern Nine Patch, Baby! Quilt in MQU!

There's a new issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited that is just starting to hit newsstands around here (Winter 2014 Issue). I may have been stalking my local Barnes and Noble, until I received my copy in the mail!

I designed a super fast and easy baby quilt, which is being featured on page 33!

(I'm not sure what I'm more geeked out over....seeing my name in print, or seeing my name on the same page as the awesome Elizabeth Dackson of Don't Call Me Betsy!)

I made two quilts, one in solids and one in Briar Rose by Heather Ross.

I'm hoping to share a few pics of them this week. Let's just hope I can snag a few minutes of sunshine to snap some pics! Until then, here's a shot of the solids quilt.

If you happen to see the magazine, flip through it! There are lots of fun projects in this issue.