Quilt-achusetts

Merry Christmas!  I love this time of year.  The family gatherings, giving presents and decorating.  Since I packed up up house back in March/April I don't have access, without extra considerable effort, to my Christmas stockings so I took this opportunity to make some stockings for CoraJoan and I.   Since these will are just temporary stockings I went with a non-traditional Christmas color palette for the stockings and my jumping off fabric was the fruit fabric.  I pulled out the reds, navy and off white form the fruits and raided my stash for solid fabrics that would work.   When I was growing up my parents always included a fruit in our stockings, usually an orange.  I've read many reason why this is a Christmas tradition but in our house my parents included the fruit as part of an old family tradition, both my parents would tell us what a special treat fruit at Christmas was when they were growing up. I used a stocking template and the quilt-as-you...

I began fabric designing about 5 years ago and there have been plenty of ups and downs.  I've been blessed with three fabric collections with Paintbrush Studios, Sketchbook ,  Road Trip and Mod Textures .  I've also invested in offering an exclusive line of basics, Sidekicks , in my shop .  Along with those fabric lines I've had the same number of fabric lines not picked by Paintbrush Studio.  Some of those fabric collection were a little rough but one of them standouts, Landscapes!   Landscapes by Heather Black on Spoonflower.com   The Landscapes fabric collection is one of my favorite collections but Paintbrush Studios passed it by, which is fine.  I sat on the collection for many months wondering how I can share it with other people and then I thought of Spoonflower .     These prints are inspired by an oil painting that I did when I was younger and includes two feature collage prints along with a mix of medium and small blenders....

I'm dropping in to say Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone enjoys the holiday with family and friends.  To show my thankfulness for each and everyone that has supported my quilt journey I'm offering 20% off all orders through quiltachusetts.com now through Monday with promo code: GIVTHANKS20     In the spirit of the season, I thought I'd pass on a fun fact about myself.  I am a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims, Issac Allerton, Mary Allerton and their daughter Remember Allerton.  Mary died the first winter in Plymouth but Mary grew up and lived near Salem.  I hope to make it to Massachusetts one day and see where the Allertons lived. " As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. "  Colossians 2:6-7

I've been keeping a secret.  Over the summer I designed a fabric line made to coordinate with solids.  So many blenders and basics are designed to to work with prints or stand alone but I wanted a set of blenders designed to work with solids.  My Sidekicks fabric line is full of depth and texture and designed with a purpose, to enhance solid fabric. These fabrics are printed in the USA, on 100% organic cotton and exclusively available in my shop, quiltachusetts.com .  There are three blender prints: Framework, Cascades and Fantasma, and one feature print, Cobbles.  All the blender prints come in 6 different colorways: Aged Black, Hazel, Jasper, Mustard, Rose Quartz and Succulent . I also designed the prints each have a different color value even though they hue didn't change.  Framework is the lightest, followed by Cascades and the darkest being Fantasma .  Cobbles is a great print so tying them all together.  Cobbles also makes a fantastic bind...

As part of the Connected Stripes sew along I wanted to share one of my favorite design techniques, curves and stripes! I love designing with stripes.  They can quickly communicate the mood and feeling of a design,e.g.  calming, energetic, chaotic.  They also, instantly add movement and interest to the design.     Stripes make their way into so many of my designs and so do curves.  Curve piecing can be intimidating and piecing curves and stripes together can seem seem too much for a first time curve sewer but much for curve piecing is no different than straight piecing, each seem is sewn one stitch at a time.   You can incorporate a printed stripe in your design, like the 1/2'' aqua stripe fabric in my Clambake quilt shown above.  Finding the best or even perfect stripe for a project can be a satisfying treasure hunt and often will lead to even more breakthrough inspiration while designing.   Sometimes the perfect stripe isn't out there and in...

Another new quilt pattern!  Fall is right around the corner, thankfully, and I can't help but feel the fall influences in my Geo Collage Quilt !   My inspiration for this quilt came from a fabric line, Paintbrush Studio's Rainbow Dust by Kate x Kasey .  When I saw this fabric line I was instantly drawn to the terrazzo prints in soft modern colors.  The prints come in two sizes and 11 colors.   I chose a size for this quilt that would be perfect for a wall hanging, baby blanket or lap quilt.  The 40'' x 50'' is great for a wall hanging because it isn't an overwhelming size so it's great when wall space is limited.  It's also good for baby blankets fitting most cribs and small enough to keep in a car for the car seat or stroller and not to mention great for throwing on your lap while sitting at a desk or watching a movie.     I picked the title for this quilt right away, Geo Collage , because it served as a double meaning.  First because ...

As many of you know, I often teach for guilds and at quilt shows but in addition to those teaching opportunities I am also teaching Dynamic Designs: Multi Layer Curve Piecing at Empty Spools Seminars February 27 - March 4, 2022 !!     Empty Spools ' quilt retreats take place at the Asilomar Conference Grounds .  Located near Pacific Grove, CA, Asilomar Conference Grounds are known as the Monterey's Peninsula's "Refuge by the Sea," and a beautiful backdrop to meet fellow quilters and sew! This unique 6-day retreat offers students a chance to deep dive into a project and technique while spending time each day with the same instructor!  After each day in class, learning and creating, you'll have an opportunity to explore the beautiful grounds or catch a shuttle to the quilt shop. In my class I will go over curve piecing 101 including essential techniques for successfully cutting, sewing and experimenting with curves.  As the week progresses there will be new tec...

While the first part of the year I spent much of the time working on projects, quilts and fabric (wink wink), that I couldn't share, I'm happy to finally show all of you two of those quilts both published!  First up, One Ways in Make Modern Magazine .   This quilt is inspired by my 16 year old self's fear of one way streets.  I was convinced that I would go the wrong way down a one way and as a new driver trying to act like a seasoned driver I couldn't imagine anything more embarrassing or terrifying.  Fortunately, I never turned the wrong way down and one way but the impression stuck with me and is now a quilt. One Ways is currently a pattern in Make Modern Magazine Issue No. 41.  It, appropriately, features my Road Trip fabric line and is available as a kit in my Quiltachusetts shop!   I decided the best option for quilting this design was to unify the rows with similar quilting.  The chevrons or arrows vary in size depending on the height of the ro...