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Friday, September 7, 2018

Wildflower Pinwheel Placemats Published!

I am published again.😁 This makes five publications, (the number five is an auspicious number of late!) four digital and one print. Six if you count the Moda Bakeshop one I guess! A new edition of Modern By the Yard is out as of today, woot! woot! and I am super-excited to let you know of more secret sewing that was done a few months back, June to be exact.

You can click the ezine cover which will take you to Benartex Fabrics' blog, Sew in Love With Fabric. I hope you are on their email list so you never miss a post; there's always lots of new fabric lines information, designer interviews, blog hops, and giveaways from time to time too! Here is my project in this issue:
See one's own work professionally photographed never ceases to thrill!

When I saw the line I'd be working with, Color Calypso, it immediately conjured a past workshop (waaay back in my quilty past) and a few quilts done with the watercolour technique. This is similar to that used by such painters as Monet, with his brushstrokes and textures. Up close? Not so much. Step back? Voilà! One pièce de résistance! Well, his work, maybe not mine!

I was asked to work in plenty of pinks over the blues to round out the issue. We all know blue is my favourite colour, but it works so very well with pink, n'est-ce pas? (Désolée, but my French teacher background is saying "Bonjour!" rather beaucoup in this post!)

I thought of placemats, and played with a few possible designs, settling on this one, with Lisa, the editor's, approval. In no time I had the first flimsy done:

Here are all four complete.

Don't they work well with my solar lantern? They may all look identical, but look closer, and you'll find subtle differences.

First of all, here are the two threads I used to quilt them, both Essential threads from Connecting Threads. These were quilted on my Bernina. Sure, I could've loaded all four onto Avril, but I do have a deep love for my first love, FMQ on a DSM!

Here's a closer look at each one. The first two have the pinwheel spinning to the right:

This first one has straight lines that radiate out from the centre. All four share the same quilting design in the side panels, all done with my walking foot: two sets of two straight lines with a wavy line between.
This one spins the same way, but the quilting design in the pinwheels is an all-over meander. Note that the side panels are a different fabric too, no lime green in this and it's more purple-pink.

The next two spin to the left.
They share the same side panels quilting motif, but the centres vary again. Here I did a large dot to dot in the blue triangles with figure eights filling in the bottom space. In the pink pinwheels straight line quilting 1/2" apart.

And finally:
The side panels are from the more purple fabric with the lime green in it. The pink triangles of the pinwheel have the same straight line quilting as the partner placemat, whereas the blues have the same straight line quilting perpendicular to the pinks. Cool.

I wanted to show that you can have a cohesive set with different quilting motifs, and also that you can use placemats as a place to practise FMQ and to just play and relax.

The binding is the stripe-esque fabric (love) machine-stitched to the backs and top-stitched down on the fronts.

Here are the backs!
Isn't this fabric divine? One blue mat has the cloth label and one purple-backed mat has the satin label.

Here's a close-up of the purple-pink with lime and orange hits fabric.
I matched bobbin threads to the top threads. I can't wait to get these back!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Wildflower Pinwheels, original design
Size: 12 X 18"
Fabric: Color Calypso by Kanvas Studio for Benartex Fabrics
Batting: Warm 'n Natural
Backing: Color Calypso
Quilted: with a walking foot and also FMQ on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Essential 100% cotton 50 wt thread by Connecting Threads

You can get the ezine free by clicking the first photo, or by clicking here. Look in the sidebar for the magazine cover, and click!

WINNER! Announcing the lucky winner of my Island Batik fabric prize from The Great Outdoors Blog Hop of Maple Leaf Rag:


There were 128 comments, and #114 was Pat! I've contacted her by email. Thank you to all who commented; I read every one!

Affiliate links follow! Craftsy has a huge sale on their classes this weekend, with every. single. one. under $20US...

Sale! ALL Craftsy Classes Under $20 at Craftsy.com 9/7-9/9/18.

or perhaps you'd like to have a free week to binge watch?! You can sign up for a free trial of bluprint (see link in sidebar). Well, wow, I have just this minute learned that Connecting Threads is no longer offering affiliation, sad to say, as I love their products, (batting, for example, Hobbs Tuscany that I just love so much is on sale 30% off) and their prices and the fact that they ship to Canada, UK and Australia with a $75 minimum order, and I just ordered some stuff two weeks ago for my blog-iversary bash... Thank you to those who bought through my link. Crafsty commission has gone down, again, to less than 4% on product that isn't Boundless, sigh. Maybe I need to investigate Amazon!

Linking up
Crazy Mom Quilts (her Finish Party is now on the first Friday of the month)
TGIFF at Katie Mae Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts

19 comments:

  1. Great pattern to use those dreamy fabrics, Sandra! Congrats on another publication.

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  2. Such festive placemats. Love the design and your quilting. The backing fabric is positively yummy! Congrats on another publish!

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  3. Sounds to me like one of the blog updates you will need to do is add a publications page, Sandra. Congratulations on another fun publication!

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  4. Congratulations, Sandra! These placemats are so pretty! Love the colors! The back fabrics are awesome too!

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  5. These are so pretty and cheerful. I wondered when I saw the first photo if they were pieced squares and thought "No, it's just the way the fabric is printed." But of course they were pieced! Wonderful quilting, too.

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  6. Oh, those fabrics are just so refreshing! They remind me of fruity drinks, sipped on hot summer nights. Perfect for summery placemats! Congrats on another publications, you pattern maven, you :)

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  7. These place mats are gorgeous! What rich colors in the prints and the design is wonderful!

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  8. Beautiful placemats! Yeah, you would want to be getting those back. :D So excited to be the winner of your giveaway ... thanks so much.

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  9. I think you are ready for Mardi Gras, those are really rich in color!

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  10. Congratulations on another publication! Great use of those pretty fabrics ..... your placemats are beautiful!
    Barbara x

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  11. Love them - front and back. Looks great on your patio table. The fabric has a very pretty watercolor look.

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  12. They're gorgeous! I love how they're almost, but not quite, identical. Their differences are like a little surprise for anyone who cares to look closely enough :)

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  13. Hi Sandra! I do follow Sew in Love With Fabric. I love their fabrics and they also offer many free pattern that highlight their lines. I am a huge fan of pinwheels, and these just shout summer to me. The two different directions of them spinning was easy to see, but the differences in the quilting and even the fabrics was harder. What a nice job, and how fabulous to be published six times. SIX!! Yousa - I feel like I should send you the .pdf and ask you to sign it. Thanks for the quilting description - I love the side panels with the curvy line in the middle. I've been meaning to try Essential threads - they match so well and look so pretty. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  14. What beautiful placemats. I love the almost pixelated pinwheels.

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  15. Congratulations! you are knocking it out of the park these days with publications. I love the watercolor technique and it works really well with this collection.

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  16. Congrats on getting another project published! That is very, very cool. The placements are so pretty, love those florals.

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