Monday, June 17, 2019

Ladder Links in Modern by the Yard Issue #11

I am pretty pumped to announce another publication: my quilt Ladder Links is in the latest issue (out today) of Modern by the Yard. This is the ezine that Benartex puts out quarterly, and you can find it on their blog, Sew in Love With Fabric.

Each time I get a copy of my professionally photographed quilt, I always get such a thrill! This one gave me a good one, with its eggplant cushion, and fluffy rug accessories!



This quilt is an example of a try try again submission. I designed it during last year's 30 Quilt Designs Challenge but I didn't count it as one of my 30 designs because I knew I would submit it somewhere right away, I knew it was a good one, and magazines don't like their designs to have been 'out there' ahead of publication date. It was originally accepted for publication in the January 2019 issue of Modern Patchwork; however the magazine folded. I then submitted it to American Patchwork & Quilting, and it was rejected, as "it didn't fit their themes for 2019".

However, Modern by the Yard wanted it! I started sewing it on my birthday, April 3, the same day that the Beothuk Star QAL began.😁

I really like the pale grey background which is Color Weave. Color Weave is a basic put out by Benartex with a wide range of colours and shades that have this woven texture that just adds a lovely dimension to a quilt.

Ladder Links is constructed in columns. You can really see the depth, almost suede-like, in the mauve of this Shadow Blush fabric. I just love these fabrics! And no, I was not told to talk about how wonderful these fabrics are; this is just me being honest. Love.

By the next day I had a column and the beginning of the next ones:

And on April 5 the top was born.
Sorry for the not-great inside photos where it's difficult to discern between the navy and the deep purple.

Avril my longarm was still living upstairs, under imminent relocation, but I managed to persuade MacGyver that I could knock this out in a day, so I loaded it up and got started.

This is a design loosely based on one of Christina Cameli's called "Effervescent' that I did on Playtime Plus, but I changed up a bit by adding in the rectangles to echo the rectangular links. This is a super-fun design, and I need to do it more often! Those of you observant types may have figured out that the quilt is loaded sideways. I wanted vertical wavy lines running like water down the links. Loading the quilt sideways enabled me to quilt the wavy lines, circles and rectangles all in one long pass.

In no time at all, less than a day, I had the top quilted and bound, on April 6. That's pretty good for me, start and finish within three days!
Isn't that fabulous texture?
I couldn't quite seem to hold my phone way up over my head and get a good shot of the entire quilt, so this had to suffice:
Here you can see the difference between the navy and the royal purple. I am so glad I took several shots of the quilt, as I haven't got it back yet, but it's in the mail.

The back is a beautiful soft turquoise in the Color Weave line. You must check out all the colours in it and in the Shadow Blush line too, which has a nice subtle depth to it because of the variance in colour. It's not quite a solid and I like that.

The turquoise works well with the blues and the purples on the front.

I applied one of my precious cloth labels to the back but I haven't written on it yet.
The binding is stitched to the back of the quilt and then topstitched down on the front as close to the edge as possible. I really like the effect of doing the same colour of binding as the background. The links just float, don't they?

I even sneaked in my usual initials in a lower rectangle of the quilt! The thread, Essential from Connecting Threads, went through Avril like cream in coffee. It blended really well on all the colours too. Again I was needing speed to get this mailed away for photographing. I'm thinking I need to do this more: fast-pieced quilts, fast-quilted quilts because otherwise the stash is not going to go down fast enough within my remaining lifetime!

You can download a free copy of the ezine at Sew in Love With Fabric within which you will find the pattern to make this quilt, and patterns to make three more projects! There are also some good articles within the ezine as well as lots of fabric eye candy of Benartex, Kansas and Contempo lines, in case you have been sewing up fast-to-piece and fast-to-quilt quilts, and your stash needs some mmm-hancement! 😉 That's me, the mmm-nabler up to her tricks again! 😇

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: original design
Size: pre-quilting 54X72"; 53X72" after quilting
Fabric: Shadow Blush and Color Weave by Benartex
Backing: Color Weave by Benartex
Batting: 100% polyester
Quilted: on Avril my Avanté:  96 269 stitches
Threads: pieced on my Bernina; quilted with Essential 100% cotton 50 wt in Stone, The Bottom Line in the bobbin.

Linking up:
Cooking Up Quilts
The Madd Quilter
Quilt Fabrication
My Quilt Infatuation
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Storied Quilts
Busy Hands Quilts
Quilting & Learning: What a Combo!


28 comments:

  1. Love it!! Sure, I really do need more quilts to make .... NOT!!!! Still, I will check out the ezine and drool a bit. Then I will look on my messy sewing room with despair. Congratulations on such a quick turnaround. The quilt looks great.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations. And well done on such a quick turnaround. We can all work fast when we want LOL But it's easier to put the quilt top to the side and start something new. ha ha ha

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's funny how attached we get to our designs! Congrats on finally getting this quilt out there in the world! Thank goodness for professional photographers! I love seeing what they come up with in photo shoots!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations on getting this fun design published, Sandra! Your persistence really paid off! I like the colors you chose, and will have to check out that fabric line, too - I'm a big fan of those fabrics that read as a solid, but have more texture and dimension than that. My bundle of fabrics for Beothuk Star is from the Benartex Contempo line, and I really enjoyed sewing with them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Sandra! The texture in that quilt - wowee. What a lovely design, and I just adore the colorway you chose to make this in. I love every.single.thing.about.it. Ooh, that has to feel so squishy wonderful. I just want to snuggle under it. You know I'm running to check out the ezine right now, and will have to add this to my to-be-made list sooner than later. ~smile~ Roseanne

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats!! This is very interesting. I really like the colour combo.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another fun quilt, Sandra! It's so fun to see your designs in magazines. This one would be a fun one to make!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love this pattern Sandra. It doesn't look terribly difficult and the result is fantastic. I agree with using the same color binding and background. Very nice!! I am hopping over to download the pattern. Thank you for sharing :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love this pattern, Sandra. Love the quilting - nice all-over design that looks so interesting. My eyes keep following the lines to find circles and rectangles!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Congratulations on having this great quilt published. I love the details about the fabric, how fast it went together and the quilting design. What an exciting time for you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Congratulations on your published design Sandra, I’m so happy for you. The quilt looks wonderful on those colours, lovely texture too. So exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is awesome, Sandra!!! Well done. Love the whole thing. The quilting texture is just perfect. Congratulations on your publication.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yes, another winner!!! Love the soft grey that shows the links just perfectly,and the quilting lines with circles, this fits it to the 100%. !!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a great quilt Sandra and an interesting piecing method. I really like the woven like fabric in the background and your great colour selection for the quilt. It's very nice indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh, goody!, blogger is going to let me comment today. It’s so random. Sandra, you literally blow me away! Congratulations! Your quilt is definitely publish worthy, and came out great. I can’t believe you made it in such a short time. Love how you quilted it, too! XO

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a super design, Sandra! Bold, geometric, modern. And I love the colors your chose, like steel chain links but better. A little known fact about me is that I am the boatswain on Vector and I love my beefy steel anchor and sturdy chain. This is a boatswain's quilt, for sure :)

    I'm also tickled that the magazine accepted a machine sewn binding. There seems to be a lot of prejudice against them. Perhaps that tide is turning! Yours looks great, clean and crisp.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Congratulations on this inspiring design - quilt could be used for a new graduate or someone who got a great job promotion or just for someone special (in my head "ladder of success"). Love the color choices and designs!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Pretty design, I love it! Congratulations on being featured!

    ReplyDelete
  19. This is so awesome! I love everything about it. The quilting design is fun and yet simple, just like the design of the quilt. What a great accomplishment. Hooray for you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. It is a beautiful quilt. Your color choices are just perfect. I really like the quilting on this one. It is so modern and even though the dense quilting with all the feathers and fancy swirls is very impressive (for a non-FMQ person like me) this is really what I like :-) Congratulations on yet another feather in your cap :-)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Congratulations on another publication and a gorgeous quilt! Three days start to finish is very impressive :) I think you might have a mis-type in the history of the submissions, though, as Make Modern magazine is still alive and well :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. You are on fire, Sandra!! I love the column construction and the bold modern look.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi Sandra, what a great quilt and a wonderful story! The colours and quilting design are really great. Congrats, and thanks so much for linking up to Free Motion Mavericks.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Great quilt Sandra! Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thats awesome!! Congrats!! what a great quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  26. You are so clever! Congratulations on another wonderful publication, and 3 days... yikes, I need to get me some of your breakfast juice! Love your quilt and the quilting you put on it. xx

    ReplyDelete
  27. Congrats on the publication! Three days start to finish WOW. Love this quilt simple beauty!

    ReplyDelete