Ombré Popsicle quilt tutorial

If you've been around for awhile, you may remember my Ombré Popsicle quilt (if not, you can read all about it in this post). Well, today, you can find a brand-new tutorial to make your own version over on the Havel's Sewing blog!

If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, this tutorial is just in time to make for your upcoming summer. If you're with me up north, then set aside the pumpkin spice and apple cider for next week and take advantage of these waning summer days to celebrate the sweetness of summer. This quick and easy throw goes together in no time, trust me.

You can find the tutorial here.

Charming Geese pillow tutorial

Did you miss me? I'm sorry it's been so long since I dropped in here, but hopefully you've been following along on Instagram, where I hang out a lot. But today I wanted to pop in to let you know I have a new tutorial up on the Havel's Sewing blog today for this fun Charming Geese pillow. It's a great way to use all those mini charm packs you've been hoarding.

The tutorial also includes instructions for adding more geese to make other items, like a wall hanging, table runner, or even a larger quilt.

I hope you enjoy it. Happy sewing!

STL Traveling 7: Angie's quilt

Now that you've seen the starting block for my STL Traveling 7 traveling quilt, let's start looking at the additions I've made to some of the other quilts in the group. The first quilt I received was Angie's. Her starting block was the round star with the triangle border (bottom left corner in the pic below).

Design-wise, she was up for anything. In terms of color, she wanted a lot of neutrals with pops of teal and mustard yellow. Just my thing.

This seemed like a great opportunity to break out my Modern Triangle Quilts book by Rebecca Bryan. There are so many fun triangle designs in there, and I basically went wild. I picked out a variety of blocks in the 4" size and then combined them with "solid" (not pieced) triangles and a few designs of my own.

Once I'd added the triangle section on the right, I needed something to add a row along the top to bring them together, so I scoured another favorite block book of mine, Elizabeth Hartman's Patchwork City. I eventually decided on the Bookstore block, adding some extra negative space to bring the row to the size I needed.

I gotta admit, I was pretty chuffed with how this one came together, and it was definitely a fun one to work on.

Felt gift card envelopes tutorial

Hello all! I'm just popping in today to tell you about a new tutorial I have up on the Havel's Sew Creative blog for these super cute felt gift card envelopes.

They are so quick to make and add a little something special and homemade to what can seem like an impersonal gift. The felt is so easy and fun to work with, and I appreciate having a handwork project where I can sit on the couch by our twinkling Christmas tree. (P.S. I get all of my felt from Benzie Design. It comes in a million colors and sizes, and it's a dream to work with. They're not paying me to stay that; I just love their products.)

The tutorial includes templates and instructions for three different designs, plus embellishment ideas. Click on over to the post to check it out!

Oh, and if you happen to be looking for an envelope you can sew by machine, check out this tutorial from last year.

STL Traveling 7: Traveling quilt 2017

This year, I decided to join another traveling quilt group with some of my STLMQG buds, and boy has it been fun. Unlike last year's quilt (which is actually still going on due to some scheduling issues in the group), this group isn't secret, so we've been able to share the progress of our quilts on Instagram (#stltraveling7), which has been really fun to see. I'll be sharing my additions to the other quilts here as well. But first up is my quilt!

Back over the summer, I got my hands on a fat-eighth bundle of April Rhodes's Observer collection and decided to use it as the basis for my starter block and color scheme: off-white, tan, mustard gold, navy, blue-gray, light blue, and denim.

I pulled in a few more coordinating fabrics from Carolyn Friedlander and Cotton + Steel and went to town on a paper-pieced block I designed called Stacked Diamonds (I'm hoping to make it available soon). Eight templates combine to create a 16" finished block.

I put together a color card to send along with my block, as well as the rest of the fat-eighth bundle. I also suggested the other group members add their own fabrics, noting that some Essex Linen and chambray would be nice.

I chose "Layered" as my theme and told the others they could interpret it however they saw fit. So far, the progress has been really interesting, and I'm always anxious to see what will pop up next!

November do.Good Stitches blocks

For November's quilt for the Emerge Circle of do.Good Stitches, Rebekah decided to make a sampler quilt unified by the colors navy, orange, and gray. She asked us to pick any two 12" sampler blocks we wanted and to stick to prints in navy, any shade of orange, and light gray.

I loved the freedom of this month and chose two blocks from The Quilt Block Cookbook by Amy Gibson (the second one was slightly modified). I particularly like this play on the X-plus block and think it might have to make an appearance in a future quilt of my own.

Who doesn't love a good sampler, right? And this color combo is one of my faves. Happy to get this one in the mail early!

Black Friday comes early at Havel's Sewing

Psst...I have a secret for you. Havel's Sewing, my favorite source for sewing scissors, cutters, and mats, has started their Black Friday sale early, and there are all kinds of sweet deals up on their site. We’re talking rotary cutters for $7.95, people. And, as always, you can use coupon code “blueskycrafter7” for $7 off a purchase of $25 or more. So treat yo' self (or your friends!).

I highly recommend that giant pink cutting mat to help with your holiday projects, like this fun felty goodness from Benzie Design that I’m about to cut into. Happy shopping!