Monday, August 29, 2016

Cloud9 New Block Hop Starts in 2 Weeks!


Two weeks from today (Monday, September 12th) the Cloud9 sponsored New Block Hop will be kicking off! This fun hop is an extension to our 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop that wrapped up in July.

We have almost 70 participants in this hop and they will each be presenting a tutorial for a new 12" (finished) block using 5 fat quarters of Cirrus Solids generously donated by Cloud9. Be sure to check in at each of the hosts' blog posts each day for the whole list of blog participants and a chance to win a bundle of Cirrus Solids. All of the quilt blocks featured are going to be collected and assembled into charity quilts.

Monday, September 12th
Host – Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl

Tuesday, September 13th
Host – Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs (me)

Wednesday, September 14th
Host – Stephanie @Late Night Quilter

We curated the “Berry Harvest” palette for the quilters to design their blocks with.


We hope that you will "hop" along with us :)





Friday, August 26, 2016

Row by Row Design for Stitcher's Quest

This spring I had the opportunity to help out a quilt store called Stitcher's Quest in Fort Walton Beach in Florida with their Row by Row pattern.


The Row by Row Experience is an international program (throughout the US, Canada and Europe) where each participating shops designs a quilt row pattern that is distributed free to customers throughout the summer.  Each row may be horizontal or vertical and finishes at 8" x 36".  Quilters visit different stores throughout the summer to collect the patterns and combine them together into a quilt.

The 2016 theme was Home Sweet Home, and each shop worked with that theme theme in their row.  Stitcher's Quest wanted to incorporate 3 things into their row: a white sand beach, houses, and some F35 jets to represent the nearby Air Force base.  

After playing around with some different options and going through some different iterations we settled on a horizontal layout with the background (sand, water, sky) and the houses being traditionally pieced and the palm tree and jets being appliqued.

Stitcher's Quest found some great fabrics that worked really well for each of the parts of the design.  I added quilting to highlight and give texture to different parts of the quilt. 


Below is a picture the Stitcher's Quest display area (along with some of my Meadow Mist designs patterns :)


I had such a great time working to make Stitcher's Quest's vision into a quilt and pattern.  Thank you again Judy for allowing me to design and create a Row by Row pattern for you!




Friday, August 19, 2016

Crush With Eyeliner - Quilt Finish

My local Modern Quilt Guild, the Greenville MQG, recently had a challenge to create a mini quilt (no more than 36" on a side) using white, gray, and black fabrics (solid or print) along with a pop of just one color. The reveal was last weekend and I would love to show you the mini and take you through my process of making it.



I have been in sort of a minimalist kick recently, wanted to play with the petal shape, and wanted a chance to try out Lara from BuzzinBumble's Crafted Applique technique (that she teaches in her Crafted Applique book).

With those parameters, I started with some Kona black and some petal shapes I cut out of construction paper. I cut a bunch of different sizes of petals to play with them and decide on number, size, and orientation before cutting into actual fabric. I was originally going to cut the petals using a template, but I really liked how my slightly imperfect paper petals looks so I decided to cut the fabric petals freehand too.

To make sure that there would be no black shadowing through the petals I used two layers of white fabric (each treated with the crafted applique technique). The petals were really stiff so I would not do this on a lap or bed quilt, but for my small wall hanging it was perfect and no black showed through the white.

Now for the pop of color - I had some Timeless Treasures white and black striped fabric and loved how it looked with the white petals and black background. I needed a pop of color and tried a bunch of other prints and solids, but kept coming back to the striped fabric.

Just for fun, I decided to paint the fabric to color the white part of the fabric a color using my children's Crayola washable water color paints. I had a great time "creating" new fabrics and tried out a bunch of colors until I settled on a dark teal/blue color. I will admit that I was not thinking about longevity of the colors (more on that later in the story).


So I painted a bunch of the striped fabric with the teal/blue paint, let it dry, applied the crafted applique technique, and then cut out some petal shapes.

I attached all of the petals onto the back fabric by machine stitching along the outer edge of the petal, then layered the quilt top to prepare for quilting. I outlined the petals and then filled in all of the negative space with pebbles. Because the quilt was so small (18" x 22") the quilting went pretty quickly.  I used a black Aurifil 40 wt (number) for the background quilting to match the Kona black. The 40 wt is just a little thicker than my usual 50 wt and helps the quilting show up more.




I was originally going to face the quilt, but when I had basted it and saw the batting behind the quilt top, I really liked how the quilt top looked framed so I bound the quilt using white fabric.

After the quilt was bound, I noticed that the petals were getting pretty wavy due to the fact that the background was heavily quilted and the petals were not quilted at all. So after the quilt was already bound I went back and added the extra quilting in the petals using white Aurifil 50 wt (2024). I used the 50 wt because I did not want the quilting to overshadow the petals.



At this point, I was way ahead of schedule and then quilt sat for about a month. The day before the quilt meeting (and challenge reveal), I noticed that my pop of color no longer had the same amount of pop as it once had, the blue had faded to a much lighter blue. So I sat in my kitchen and recolored in all of the blue parts with paint again.

If I were to remake this quilt I would have quilted the entire background before applying the applique and would definitely have looked into more permanent coloring options designed for fabric to add the color.

We had a great turnout for the challenge with 10 mini quilts being submitted and I got 3rd place for my quilt.


I love that challenges, they are a great reason to try something new (design, technique, etc) and for someone who is not an applique lover, Lara's Crafted Applique technique is awesome and makes applique much quicker and easier!










Wednesday, August 17, 2016

WIP - Paintbrush Studio Charity Quilt

Back in the spring, Paintbrush Studio generously sponsored a New Block Blog Hop with their new line of solids called Painter's Palette. Over 35 bloggers participated in the hop which was co-hosted by Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl, Stephanie @ Late Night Quilter, and myself.


You can check out all of the great blocks along with their tutorials on Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal's Pinterest page.


Once the hop was over, the participants mailed all of their blocks back to the hosts and Yvonne and I split the blocks to make charity quilts out of.

Here is a random array of the blocks I wound up with, I think that they are going to make a great quilt! My goal is to get these blocks sewn and the quilt finished by my next Greenville Modern Quilt Guild meeting where I can hand in the quilt to our charity chair. The quilt will be donated to the Greenville Hospital System where it will go to a child that was recently taken from their home.

Many thanks again to Paintbrush Studio for providing the fabrics to the participants and the binding and backing for this charity quilt.

I am linking up with Let's Bee Social at Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts and Needle and Thread Thursday at Kelly @My Quilt Infatuation.





Thursday, August 11, 2016

WIP - Snowflake Shimmer - Cut Fabrics

I am participating in Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl's first Quilt Along called Snowflake Shimmer and so far the fabric selection and cutting instructions have been posted.

 


I am on track with this quilt along and have my fabrics selected and now all cut out. I am making a mini Snowflake Shimmer for my sewing room wall (so all of my pieces are scaled down by 4x from the original instructions).

My version of Snowflake Shimmer will contain Widescreen Crosshatch in black by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman, Cotton Couture in Candlelight from Michael Miller, and Kona Cotton in Turquoise by Robert Kaufman.

Here are my cut fabrics, all ready to be pieced :)


Thanks Yvonne for hosting such a fun quilt along! (There is a great Facebook group so everyone can share their fabrics and in-progress pics.) 






Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Meadow Mystery Quilt - My Cut Fabrics

I am having such fun with the Meadow Mystery Quilt and am loving seeing everyone's color choices and fabric pieces.  If you want to join in, it is not too late!

Some links for more information:

For the Meadow Mystery Quilt, I am making two very different versions, a more traditional version using Gentle Breezes by Maywood Studio (you can find this kit to make mystery quilt here) and a more modern version using some of my favorite text prints (you can find out more info about my fabric picks here):

Gentle Breezes

 Modern Text



The instructions are given out on the first Thursday of every month so the next set (first piecing instructions) will be posted on the blog on Thursday, September 1st.

I am linking up with Let's Bee Social at Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts and Needle and Thread Thursday at Kelly @My Quilt Infatuation.





Friday, August 5, 2016

American Patchwork and Quilting - Monday August 8th at 4pm


I have some exciting news, I will be on Pat Sloan's American Patchwork and Quilting Podcast on Monday August 8th (episode will be live at 4pm EST)!

I was so honored to be asked onto the show. I hope that you will tune in (live or through the taped podcast) and that I will not be so nervous that I will trip over my own words too much :)

You can get directly to the American Patchwork and Quilting podcasts right here and can visit Pat Sloan’s website to keep up with the latest podcasts and news.



Canvas Lines Quilt and Quilter's Planner



I wanted to share with you today, The Quilter’s Planner and my latest pattern, Canvas Lines, that is included with the planner!

The Quilter's Planner is my friend Stephanie from Late Night Quilter's project. This is the second year of the planner and it is better than ever! You can pre-order the planner from her Indiegogo site.

I use my 2016 planner to schedule my blog posts, organize my to-do lists, and manage my work, home, and quilting calendar.  One of my favorite parts of the planner are the patterns and I am honored to have a pattern called Canvas Lines in the 2017 Quilter's Planner.


I designed Canvas Lines with a slight tribal feel with alternating diagonal geometric shapes and negative space. Canvas Lines combined some of the prints from the Doe collection by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman with some crisp Kona white fabric. 

I quilted Canvas Lines with a square meandering pattern using Aurifil 50 wt in white (color 2024). I think that the square meander added great texture to the negative space without taking away from the pieced blocks.




Aren't these some of the most beautiful quilt photographs you have seen? Kitty from Night Quilter has taken pictures of all of the quilts for the planner patterns along the coast of Maine. (If you would like Kitty to take some wonderful pictures of your quilts, you can find out more information about her photography offerings right here).

There are 14 beautiful full quilt and sewing patterns, with color instructions, including Amy Friend of During Quiet Time, Amy Sinibaldi of Nana and Co., Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter, AnneMarie Chany of GenXQuilters, Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs (me), Christa Watson of Christa Quilts, Karen Lewis of Karen Lewis Textiles, Kari Vojtechovsky of Craft-Happy, Katie Blakesley of Swim Bike Quilt, Lee Monroe of May Chappell, Lindsey Rhodes of LR Stitched, Rita Hodge of Red Pepper Quilts, Stephanie Palmer of Late Night Quilter and Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl.


Hop over to The Quilter's Planner web page to learn more about what the planner includes and all of the new features in the 2017 version.  Remember, The 2017 Quilter's Planner is now available for pre-order through Indiegogo.







Thursday, August 4, 2016

Meadow Mystery Quilt - Cutting Instructions - August

Welcome to the August Instructions for the Meadow Mystery Quilt, we will be cutting our fabric this month!  We are just getting started so please join us! 

In case you are new to the mystery quilt, you can find out all of the relevant information (schedule, fabric requirements, prizes, easily printable pdf pattern instructions, Facebook group, and more in the links below).





Cutting Instructions



Notes:  

If you like to oversize and then trim down your half square triangles (HSTs), flying geese, and square in a square units then oversize the pieces indicated with a * by about 1/4”.

Within this quilt pattern instructions to follow in coming months, the following colors will be used to represent the different fabrics.


FABRIC A


1. Cut 4 strips* 3" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strips into 48 squares* 3” x 3” (each strip can yield 13 squares).



FABRIC B


1. Cut 2 strips* 5 1/2" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strips into 12 squares* 5 1/2” x 5 1/2” (each strip can yield 7 squares).
2. Cut 1 strip* 5 1/4" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strip into 4 squares* 5 1/4” x 5 1/4”.
3.   Cut 2 strips 2 1/2” x WOF.  Do not sub-cut the strips.



FABRIC C


1. Cut 1 strip* 5 1/2” x WOF. 
     a.   Sub-cut the strip into 2 squares* 5 1/2” x 5 1/2” and 4 squares* 5” x 5”.
2. Cut 3 strips* 5" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strips into 24 additional squares* 5” x 5” (each strip can yield 8 squares).
3. Cut 1 strip 4 1/2" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strip into 16 rectangles 2 1/2” x 4 1/2”.



FABRIC D


1. Cut 1 strip* 5 1/2” x WOF. 
     a.   Sub-cut the strip into 4 squares* 5 1/2” x 5 1/2” and 4 squares 4 1/2” x 4 1/2”.
2. Cut 3 strips* 5" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strips into 24 squares* 5” x 5” (each strip can yield 8 squares).
3. Cut 1 strip 4 1/2" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strip into 8 additional squares 4 1/2” x 4 1/2”.
4.   Cut 1 strip 2 1/2” x WOF.  Do not sub-cut the strip.



FABRIC E


1. Cut 2 strips* 5 1/2” x WOF. 
     a.   Sub-cut the strips into 10 squares* 5 1/2” x 5 1/2” (each strip can yield 7 squares).
2. Cut 4 strips* 5" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut 3 strips into 24 squares* 5” x 5” squares (each strip can yield 8 squares).
     b. Sub-cut 1 strip into 4 additional squares* 5” x 5” and 1 square 4 1/2” x 4 1/2”.
3. Cut 7 strips 4 1/2" x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut the strips into 56 additional squares 4 1/2” x 4 1/2”  (each strip can yield 8 squares).
4. Cut 2 strips 3 3/8” x WOF.
     a.   Sub-cut each strip into 3 3/8” x 3 3/8” squares (11 per strip) to yield a total of 16 squares 3 3/8” x 3 3/8”.
5.   Cut 1 strip 2 1/2” x WOF.  Do not sub-cut the strip.

Be sure to share your cut fabrics in our Facebook Group.  

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