sewtakeahike

Good Neighbors

 

 

Amanda Jean has done it again! Not only does she make the coolest things, but now she has a line of fabric to make all those fabulous things with!

Her line of fabric with Connecting Threads is called Good Neighbors and for those of you who have spent any amount of time with Amanda, know that  is the perfect name for her fabric.

In celebration of her fabric line, the folks at Connecting Threads are throwing a pincushion blog party! Once again, very fitting for Amanda who must have hundreds of pincushions!

 

 

For my Good Neighbors pincushion, I used the Ann block from The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt book, reduced the block to 3" (!!) and paper pieced it.

 

 

I always color in my paper piecing patterns so I don't get the fabrics confused!

 

 

For the back, I crocheted a little 3" single crochet patch to sew onto the block, and stuffed it with wool scraps.

 

 

 

Here are the Good Neighbors pincushion party participants for you all to check out! There are lots of great pincushions featuring Good Neighbors (like this one by Krista! and this one by Faith!, and these by Anna!, so inspiring! 

 

9/1/2015	Amanda Jean	http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/
9/2/2015	Anna	http://www.noodle-head.com/
9/3/2015	Mary	http://maryonlakepulaski.blogspot.com/
9/4/2015	Svetlana	http://sotakhandmade.blogspot.com/
9/5/2015	Debbie	http://www.eschhousequilts.com/
9/6/2015	Holly	http://www.bijoulovelydesigns.com/
9/7/2015	Carla	http://carla-graceandfavour.blogspot.com/
9/8/2015	Faith	www.FreshLemonsQuilts.com
9/9/2015	Vanessa	http://www.vanessachristenson.com/
9/10/2015	Anna	http://www.thimbleanna.com/
9/11/2015	Krista	http://poppyprintcreates.blogspot.com/
9/12/2015	Erin	http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/
9/13/2015	Lee	http://www.maychappell.com/
9/14/2015	Alex	http://teaginnydesigns.blogspot.com/
9/15/2015	Cheryl	http://naptimequilter.blogspot.com/
9/16/2015	Penny	http://sewtakeahike.typepad.com/
9/17/2015	Amy	http://duringquiettime.com/
9/18/2015	Debbie	http://aquilterstable.blogspot.com/
9/19/2015	Anne	http://www.springleafstudios.com/
9/20/2015	Melissa Corry	http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/
9/21/2015	Amber	http://www.oneshabbychick.typepad.com/
9/22/2015	Nettie	http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/
9/23/2015	Adrianne	http://www.littlebluebell.com/
9/24/2015	Cindy	http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/
9/25/2015	Amy	http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/
9/26/2015	Chase	http://quarterinchmark.blogspot.com/
9/27/2015	Rene	http://www.renecreates.com/
9/28/2015	Erin	http://www.houseonhillroad.com/
9/29/2015	Nicole	http://modernhandcraft.com/
9/30/2015	Teri	http://blog.connectingthreads.com/

 

One last bit of exciting news, Connecting Threads is offering up a charm pack of Good Neighbors to one of you (Canadian or US residents only please!). Leave a comment on this post to enter, and I'll choose a winner in a week. 

 

Magical sale at FabricCadabra

 

You guys won't want to miss this! FabricCadabra is having a sale to move out their sale items. So they have taken 25% off the sale prices in the sale section!

Also, they are giving away a fq set of Amy Butler's Violette line to one of you! Just leave a comment and tell me what your summer plans are!

 

 

I'll choose a winner on Friday! Thank you FabricCadabra for the awesome sale and giveaway!!

xo, Penny

Happenings...

 

 

 

I can't believe it. My book is finally out and I had my first book signing. I am still waffling between periods of disbelief and pure excitement. I mean, I never would have thought even 5 years ago that I would have authored a book.

It was an honor for me, having my first signing at favorite fabric shop here in Fort Collins, Mama Said Sew/Jukebox Quilts. The Fort Collins MQG showed up in full force (including my friend Maggie from the Front Range MQG, thanks Maggie for the awesome surprise! and L-man even made an appearance!), and they were all so encouraging and genuinely excited for me. I am so grateful to have this quilting community!

 

(Barbara, Susan, me, Maggie at the signing)

 

Interweave did an amazing job capturing my style from the fonts they used to the page layout. I am so blessed to work with them!

 

Which brings me to my next topic, a paper piecing interview I'm doing over at Crafty Planner. She is doing a Learn More, Sew More series on paper piecing this month and you'll want to make sure and click on over to read it and leave a comment on her post to enter a drawing for a copy of my book The Paper Pieced Home!

 

And congratulations to Ruth, the winner of the P&B Colorweave Medley fq set! I've sent you an email!

 

One last thing, I'm super excited to announce a Bundle Up sale FabricCadabra is having and a blog hop bundle giveaway they are hosting!

 

First, FabricCadabra has 20% off all bundles from today through Jan 26.

Secondly, they are having a bundle giveaway hop. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win this fq set of Follie by Lotta Jansdotter.

 

 

Then make sure and leave a comment on Nicole's blog Modernhandcraft for a chance to win a Priory Square bundle,

and

on Erica's blog Kitchentablequilting for a chance to win a specially curated Winter Warm Up bundle she put together available only at FabricCadabra!

Lastenia and Mayka, the sister duo behind FabricCadabra are super fun, energetic partners. If you'd like an extra chance to win the Follie bundle, go and follow FabricCadabra on their Facebook and Instagram then come back and leave another comment for me on this post that you're following them and you'll be entered into the drawing twice!

Good luck everyone and Happy Monday!

xo, Penny

 

More from P&B textiles!

 

P&B textiles loves you!

They recently came out with more collections and asked me to choose one to offer up to you! My choice was Color Weave Medley. It's an eclectic collection of prints with a woven look.

To enter the giveaway of a fat quarter set of Color Weave Medley, leave a comment telling me what your favorite line is of all the P&B collections I linked to in this post! I'll choose a winner on Monday the 19th.

As I was scouting out P&B's website, I came across the line Fresh Pick, aren't they awesome?? The peas are adorable, and I love the monochromatic veggies and tomatos!

And I'm really liking the colors in the Zenith line!

 

How about this pigeon stoop print from the Port City line? So cool! I've used it as a bag lining here.

 

 

And then this Fantasy Garden print is just so pretty!

 

 

Good luck!

xo, Penny

P&B textiles Butterfly quilt with Gene Black

 

Today I'd like to introduce you all to Gene Black (make sure and check out his blog, he is an incredibly talented artist!).

He was the winner of the P&B textiles fq set a few weeks ago and he chose Island Breeze to make his project with.

 

 

 

 

 

I love how Gene explains his process in this post, and the result is a vibrant, happy quilt!

Nice work on the quilt Gene, and the quilting you did on it is fabulous!

 

 

Here's Gene!

 

The first thing that drew me to the Island Breeze collection was the vibrant colors.  I almost immediately saw butterfly wings flitting in the sunlight.  Penny had asked for a the comment of which collection you would choose and " if you already have an idea, what you might make with them?"  I thought, "These would be so fun to make a wall quilt for our church youth room."  I had heard that the Youth Director was looking for something to put on the walls.   She had looked at one of my quilt wall hangings a year ago but it sold to someone else.  

When I won,  I realized that I needed to make a plan.  So I did a mockup in Electric Quilt.  Of course I had to use the embellishment butterflies that were in the program unless I wanted to create them from scratch for the mockup.  

 

 

 

After I had a basic plan,  I thought about how I would use the fabric to make the butterflies.  I decided to do fusible applique and die cut the shapes. I used some heart shapes and some "feather" shapes to create the wings.  For the bodies I cut some single daisy petals. 

 

 

 

 

Some of these I modified by free cutting with scissors for the final quilt. Of course I applied the fusible to the fabric before cutting the shapes.  That required choosing the fabrics to be the butterflies.  I chose these. 

 

 

 

 

I also had to make the background blocks and I chose to use black along with a couple of the other fabrics from the line. 

 

 

 

 

I got the quilt all sewn and free motion quilted.

 

 

 

 

 

It all went quickly since it was so inspiring to me. I love the quilting on the back which is all black. 

 

 

 

 

I am glad this quilt is going to be where I can visit it again. As you can see, it really makes me smile.

 

 

 

 

Gene