GIVEAWAY - 24 FAT QUARTERS!

What luck! RJR Fabrics has given me the opportunity to share a second fabric giveaway (they are also running the same giveaway on their Instagram account). You could win this gorgeous bundle of 24 Supreme Cotton Solids fat quarters. All of the colours that I used to make my Pop Stars quilt!

This giveaway is also running on my IG account, but I will add entries from both places. You can enter here by leaving one comment and you can also enter on IG by leaving one comment on the post - double your chances! If you enter here on the blog, you MUST have your email linked to your comment, or include your email address in your comment [go ahead and use the form bob(dot)smith(at)location(dot)com if you like]. Sorry, but if I can't contact you, I will chose another winner.

Giveaway open until 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time Wednesday, August 2, 2017. ETA: comments are now closed on the giveaway. After deleting duplicate comments, adding the 105 blog comments to the 372 IG comments, the Random Number Generator chose 306, which is @createthepoint on IG. Congratulations, Jo!!

Good luck!

Pop Stars - A New Quilt and Giveaway

In case you're all thinking that all I do in July is celebrate my birthday, I've got news for you. I've been working on a new project for RJR Fabrics' What Shade R U bloghop. You can read all about it on the RJR Quilt With Love blog here.  There's lots to know, so check out my guest post over there because there's a HUGE giveaway involved.

I can't resist sharing here because staring at this photo just makes me happy. I've wanted to make an 8-pointed star quilt for ages and finally figured out that I could use my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique to build the star diamonds. It's a riot of split complimentary colours and the outstanding quilting by Carol of Twin Creek Quilts is jaw-dropping. It's so much fun to look at!

There are lots of close-up detail pictures in the main blogpost and you'll be able to see how I avoided y-seams in the construction of this quilt, so check it out!

**GIVEAWAY ON INSTAGRAM** Keep an eye on the @rjrfabrics IG account for a full FQ bundle giveaway of every colour of Supreme Cotton Solids (25 of them) I used in this quilt. Over 6 yards of fabric! Woohoo!

Round Peg, Square Hole - a New Quilt!

You've seen this design from me before - I made a 4-patch version and called it Quarter Round last year for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's Modern Mini Showcase exhibit. It also proudly hung in the Small Quilts category at QuiltCon 2016. I did a digital mock up of the design in Touchdraw and I got so excited about all of the design possibilities available just by colour-blocking certain strips and making more blocks to repeat the pattern.

When I sent a picture of the 4-patch to my creative genius friend Berene looking for name suggestions (Quarter Round was her idea), she also thought I should try making it with an ombre effect. I held that thought.

Recently, RJR Fabrics asked if I'd like to participate in their What Shade Are You? feature on their Quilt With Love blog. The blog hop showcases their Supreme Cotton Solids. This was my chance to choose as many colours as I wanted to make any project my little heart desired. "Yes please" was my reply!  Of course, actually choosing the fabrics took me f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

The last couple of years I've been enjoying working with the contrast of warm and cool colours in my improv work, so I thought I'd do the same with this quilt. Here are the colours I finally chose from the Supreme Cotton Solids colour card.  They are listed in ombre order from lightest to darkest in their colour groups.

Shell Pink 175T

Candyland 86T

Hot Pink 217

Rhododendron 181T

Ruby Slippers 286

Glow in the Dark 204

Peridot 342

Wimbledon 205

Clover 128T

Kelly Green 127T

Goldenrod 92T

Carrot 131T

Tangerine Dream 276

Mandarine 159T

Chili Pepper 49T

Seafoam 301

Nile Green 90T

Toy Boat 366 C&S

Horizon 354

Twilight 353

and finally, Kerchief 364 C&S as a warm white background.

And here it is! All 38" square. Because I can't stop myself, there's a lot of straight line quilting 1/2" apart in concentric squares and it's all on the bias grain of the fabric. There was definitely some distortion of this little quilt (even with ditch-stitching the edges of the blocks to stabilize them first).  A full wash and blocking was in order, so I did that prior to finishing the edge (see below). I can honestly report that these fabrics are 100% colourfast in cold water. No running, no fading. I used a mild, unscented powder detergent in a front loading machine and the colour catcher came out completely white. 

The quilting is all done with Aurifil thread #2026 in 40 wt (with white Aurifil 50 wt in the bobbin). 

I love this positive/negative star that happens when the 4-patch blocks meet in the middle! Every one of the sixteen 10" blocks in this quilt are built with the same pieces. The resulting illusion of round edges within the square block are all about the colour placement and which strips are designated "background", or in this case white.

I just couldn't bear to border the blocks in with a binding, so I chose to face the quilt. I've done this before using different techniques and always been very pleased with the results. This time, I followed a tutorial by fellow VMQG member Terry Aske. You get such nice, sharp corners! (I used the method of cutting out a 1/2" triangle of batting in each corner of the quilt).

Here you can see both a front corner and what it looks like on the back where the facings overlap.

I'd like to thank RJR for the opportunity to work with their lovely solids. I'm excited about issuing a pattern for the Quarter Round block with some layout suggestions and colouring pages so that you can try it, too! I've got a couple of pattern testers raring to go, so hopefully I can finalize the pattern early in the fall.