Did you know that 2019 is the 40 year anniversary of the invention of the Olfa rotary cutter?
Oh, how I love my rotary cutters! It is the most frequently used quilting tool on my work table. I constantly switch between different rulers and templates, but I always use my rotary cutter.
Today I am excited to launch a brand new series that I have been working on for a couple of months. I have partnered up with a group of amazingly talented artisans, quilters, embroiderers, and sewists to launch the Ruby Ambassador series. I’m kicking off this series with one of my favorite quilting artists- Timna Tarr!
I recently finished a really fun quilt commission, which has now been given to its new owner. Who is actually the founder of the Sasquatch Music Festival.
We sewers usually have some sort of a fabric stash. A literal stockpile of cloth to be used for making quilts or other projects. We sketch designs on scraps of paper or we start with a pattern. We form a plan, with a sincere hope to start soon. There’s comfort in knowing that when we are ready to start, there’s a pile(s) of pretty fabric, right at our fingertips, to pull from. A fabric stash represents hope in our lives, a future of creativity! The promise of quilts.
The challenge a scrappy quilt poses fascinates me constantly. They are bit like a puzzle, with all the pieces fitting together to create a scrappy story that is most successful when it creates a visual story. Creating a good visual story with scraps is a great challenge for me. I start every one of these quilts from my fabric stash. I love the idea that I am constantly dipping into and using up all those fabrics. That’s why I bought them, right? But did you know that some fabrics are better to use than others? I have two tips for you!
When I am one of those creative stops- in between projects or not sure what to do next- creating a new collage for #myquiltcouldlivehere always gets me re-inspired.
Color value is a good thing to understand when you are designing your quilts. It can help you create and define shapes in the layout, and is an important thing to be aware of when choosing fabrics and deciding color placement. I just posted a little mini lesson on value in my Instagram Stories and thought I’d post it here too!
On its surface, determining color value differences between two fabrics is not a difficult. One is light and one is dark, right? In my lectures and workshops, I focus more on the concept of relative lightness or darkness of fabrics. This can be a bit harder to understand, especially in the context of a full quilt layout.
About a year and a half ago, I had a spec of an idea. To design a functional quilting and design tool that could be used to creatively utilize the many fabric scraps I had in my stash, accumulated over years of sewing patchwork. My thinking was, if I have this many scraps and fabric cuts that need to be used in quilts, there must be others out there with the same problem.READ MORE
There is something special going out in my next newsletter, which will be sent out tomorrow (Tuesday, 1/22). If you’re not signed up, now’s a great time to do it!
I am thrilled that this quilt, Candy Mountains, is headed to Nashville for Quiltcon 2019 in a few short weeks!READ MORE