With An Open Heart

Well, I don’t make my plan A in time for the Project Quilting deadline but plan B did get done. However I was not going to let plan A sit idle! I’m so very happy I pulled this too-long-on-the-shelf bundle out and went for it, despite knowing it was a bit of a reach. I am even more happy that I finished it!

The warm sunshine made for a beautiful outdoor shot today.

On the Garden Path

I have a finish this week, and it's the table topper or wallhanging option of my newest pattern, The Light Within. I've called this one 'On the Garden Path' because of the path-like appearance, the garden blooms and birds in Pat Sloan's beautiful new line, 'Bird Song' by Benartex Designer Fabrics.

It truly is a thrill when something you've designed and mocked up in EQ8 comes alive in fabric.

It goes together super-quick!

Judy's Bloom Project Hop for Benartex Designer Fabrics

Welcome to my stop on this week's fun little jaunt around QBL (Quilt Blog Land) showing off a beautiful new line, 'Judy's Bloom' by Eleanor Burns for Benartex Designer Fabrics. I sure got some spring in my step when Stephanie asked if I'd like to be a part of this Fabric Feature. The fabrics are just lovely! I chose to make myself a new spring tote bag.

After all a girl can never have too many bags, right?

If this is your first visit here, welcome! I hope you'll poke around a bit, and see what I get up to in my patch of the world. If you decide to follow me, see my sidebar to get my posts in your email inbox. I am also on Instagram, @mmmquilts. If you are a long-time reader, the welcome is just as warm because I appreciate you for returning again and again! There is a giveaway at the end of my post, so be sure to check it out.

A Cover for Billie

I have needed to make one for my Featherweights since I got them. Yes, them. I wanted one for a number of years, and somehow when I finally seriously searched one out, I ended up buying four(!) vintage Singer machines, two of which are Featherweights. This one is a 1947, named Billie, 'born' in New Jersey, US, bought in Belle River, ON. The other is a 1951, Tillie, 'born' in Clydebank, Kilbowie, Scotland, bought in Tillsonburg the day before I got Billie. I take turns sewing with them: one will be out for a couple of months, the other sitting in her hard case, waiting for her turn. Yes, I should sell one, but I love them both. Anyhow. The Project Quilting 13.5 challenge was Rhythm and Repetition, and this cover is the result of that prompt.

I've had the vintage machines fabric for a few years, so it feels good to put the half yard to its intended use!

Follow Your Own Path: Fifth Annual QAL Announcement

Welcome to my fifth annual Quilt Along! I am so glad to have you here. You are on the Main Page for the QAL. We will be making my quilt, Follow Your Own Path, a fun arrows with shadows quilt.

Here is the HTML code so that you can paste the button on your sidebar. Anyone who clicks on it will be taken to this main page.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.mmmquilts.com/2021/03/follow-your-own-path-fifth-annual-qal.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwoCWLPCOQ3j2yxOFNbyorOyj_slvikdcVNE2WNJ9uU6JJv9xx8FzAoDOkL1E0LOR9GV8Td03NkbgKDynB1mkQhkTJNVoVMIeRLvFJ40odk8FI4zu7-IuoNoL8r9qUTaUVegfp67T7jk_/s200/Follow+Your+Own+Path.png" / /></a></div>

*Note as per Marly's comment below, I've resized the HTML code to make the button smaller, something I forgot to do when I added in the URL for the button to direct people to this post! If you want the button even smaller, then change where it has height="200" to 150 instead of 200.

As in previous years, the QAL will begin on April 3, with the final parade of quilts on June 15. The pace once again is slow, which hopefully allows you to fit this in with your regular programmed quilt schedule. Those of you who have quilted along with me in previous years know that these two dates are rather auspicious for me: June 15 is the birthdate of a 'famous Canadian' aka my dad, who, every year, would write the birthday of a famous Canadian on that date on our wall calendar, all the while with a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous little grin! April 3 is the birthdate of the daughter of that famous Canadian.😉

Things are Coming Up Sandra

My previous post showed you my latest quilt publication, 'Follow Your Own Path'. It was the cover quilt for Modern by the Yard, issue #15, Benartex's ezine. That was quite the thrill! If you read the ezine all the way to the end, you may have noticed another design of mine, 'Let Your Star Shine'. It was featured in 'Flashback Favorites' as one of their most popular designs. Wow! 💖 

This week I received not one, but two emails from blog readers, sharing photos of my patterns that they'd made. One was Let Your Star Shine! Michelle in Scotland wrote to tell me she'd noticed the quilt at the end of the ezine, and that she'd actually made it! Would you like to see her version?

Cover Girl! and A Giveaway

I am so pleased to show you another design featured in Modern by the Yard, the ezine by Benartex. I am over the freaking moon that it's the cover quilt! This is a first for me, and feels pretty good.

You can download your copy for free either by clicking the photo above, or here. You'll find not just four fabulous projects within, but also fabric bundles inspiration and a modern twist on the spool block.

Shine: Benartex Christmas in July Blog Hop & Pattern Release

Welcome to my stop on the Christmas in July blog hop with Benartex Fabrics. I had the pleasure of working with Nancy Halvorsen's newest line, Better Not Pout.

As with most of my quilts, this one has a little story to it. It is my own design, and yes, there is a pattern for it, and yes, it is available today!

I tried for a bit of a Christmas vibe against our neighbours' cedars and trumpet vine and other vines-covered fence. Christmas isn't snowy and cold in a lot of the world, right? Christmas is about gifts, and so there is a giveaway in this post...

Kaleidoscope Dreams

Well I have a finish, and I am pretty stoked about it! For those who have followed the build on Instagram, here is the final cushion cover, which I've named Kaleidoscope Dreams.

I made the first cushion cover using Paula Nadelstern's line 'Wonderlust' for a Benartex blog hop in 2018. When Sheila was at our house for Dayna's wedding in November that year, she fell in love with the cushion, and asked me to make her one.  Exactly the same. Time went on. Earlier this year we were chatting, and she brought up the cushion again because she had seen it in a yoga photo I put on Instagram. I said I might have enough of the fabric left but I wasn't sure... She said she'd pay me for it, and I told her no, there was no need, but within 24 hours, she had emailed me some, and refused to hear otherwise.

Elvira Hands2Help Comfort Quilt #3

Back in March I participated in the Elvira QAL hosted by Gudrun Erla. Although I didn't sew the entire weekend with everyone, I did get my top made within the week that followed. I knew this would be another H2H quilt.

Stars Aligned New Quilt in Modern by the Yard Issue #13

Benartex's new issue of Modern by the Yard is out, and I have another design in it! I was so honoured to have been asked again to design a quilt for their ezine. This is actually a quilt I designed in last year's #30quiltdesigns challenge that I've hosted for a few years now.

Don't you just love how they photographed it? I sure grinned when I got the photo!

Bohemian Rhapsody: Benartex Precut Project Blog Hop & Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Benartex Precut Project blog hop! 'Aha!' you're thinking. 'This is one of her secret sewing projects she's mentioned.' Yup!

I was honoured to have been asked by Benartex Fabrics to create a quilt with one of their new lines. I chose Mabon by Shelley Cavanna of Cora's Quilts. It makes me think of Morocco, spices and heat with its rich colours. I kept thinking Boho as I worked with the fabrics, and it's not too hard to see the small leap to Bohemian Rhapsody.

This is the third time I've made my Pockeful of Sunshine pattern. Why is it that we designers like to remake our patterns? I do not know, but I really do! Not so with books; I rarely re-read them, even favourites, but patterns? Yes. This pattern sews up super-fast, and would make a quick comfort or baby quilt.

Benartex supplied the fabrics for this lovely lap-size quilt.

The pattern is available in my Etsy store. This was the very first pattern I wrote and published.

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!

TGIFF! and My Mother's Lilacs

Welcome to my blog and my turn to host TGIFF! If you would like to be a host it is easy-peasy: you can sign up here! If you're new to my blog, I hope you'll poke around a bit, maybe even investigate my current ongoing QAL, Beothuk Star.
For those of you who read this post and it wasn't then the TGIFF post, don't be confused. My originally planned finish did not quite get finished due to a bunch of real life happenings, but this post was only published hours before, so with the approval of the monthly manager, Anja of Anja Quilts, I am using this post to host. Did you follow all that?!😜 With any luck I'll link up the originally planned one with my own linky party!

My finish was actually a finish back in February, but I couldn't tell anyone...

However, I can now, so it is finally time to show you my latest publication in all her glory and intricate detail. There will be lots of pictures, but then you know me, that's how I usually roll! And, in keeping with how I roll, there's a pretty amazing story to go with the making of this quilt.

I named this quilt 'My Mother's Lilacs', as it is a tribute to my mother in design and in fabric. I designed it back in September 2018 when we Island Batik ambassadors got a call for submissions for the May/June issue of McCall's Quilting with the theme of mothers in mind. I submitted it. And.

It didn't get accepted. I was disappointed as I thought it a perfect tribute: block, fabric and issue, being one year to the very month since my mum had died. A year later I still can't say that without tearing up, can barely write it. Just doesn't seem real. I think being so far away exacerbates that 'can't be real; she's still there, in her house' feeling.

But then! Round about the beginning of December I got an email out of the blue saying they'd like to use my quilt for the July/August issue and could I get it made by mid-February? Yikes! .......  Yup!

Autumn Winds & Giveaway

I am so pleased to be a part of the "Autumn in the Air" blog hop with Benartex! You can see lots more Autumn inspiration all week long at their blog Sew in Love With Fabric. Giveaways each day!

Even though autumn is the second furthest thing from my mind right now, winter being the furthest, I do so love the colours of the Fall season, so when I was asked if I would like to be a part of this hop, despite the real life goings-on right now (animals, renovations, summer planning, to name a few) I jumped at the chance. Besides, just say two words: "'free' fabric", okay yes, but I actually meant "Amanda Murphy", and you've got my full attention and adoration! This is her new line for Contempo, by Benartex, named 'Thankful'. It is wonderful, fresh modern colours for Fall. And yes, there is a giveaway of some of it! Be sure to hop over to the Benartex blog to read an interview with Amanda about this line!

A Roll of the Dice Cushion

Last year I was part of a blog hop for Amanda Murphy's beautiful line, Free Motion Fantasy for Benartex. Teaser: I'm part of one coming up the first full week of May and I get to use her latest line, a Fall one, squeal! Once I designed the blocks and the runner for last August's hop, I had the idea to make the blocks smaller and create a cushion, and I finally have it done. Sadly I do not finally have the pattern finished, but the plan is to have it and my suitcases quilt, Oh! The Places You'll Go! both done by the end of my Beothuk Star QAL, which is June 15. This is the second finish for the Q2FAL. You can see my list here. I actually had this done over a week ago, just hadn't written it up.

Modern by the Yard New Issue and I'm in it!

And it's not a quilt of the fabric kind but a block of the digital kind!

MbyY, in case you are not familiar with it, is the ezine put out quarterly, for free, by Benartex Fabrics. You can get your copy by going to their blog, Sew in Love With Fabric, where you will find the link to the ezine on the sidebar. When they contacted me to ask if I would like to design a digital block, the assignment being a modern twist on the Log Cabin block, I jumped at the chance for several reasons. First, I love a good challenge to my creativity and second, it was another opportunity to work with EQ8, and third, well, being published is always a thrill that never gets old. Fourth, I'd just played with a log cabin challenge for November's Island Batik challenge, so log cabins were still bouncing around in my head. You can see that quilt top here.

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!

Free Motion Fantasy Blog Hop and Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Free Motion Fantasy Blog Hop, showcasing Amanda Murphy's newly released line, Free Motion Fantasy. I was super-excited to be asked to participate in this hop; I love Amanda's style, her fabrics and her free-motion quilting prowess. Fabric that incorporates her beautiful FMQ? I'm in! Be sure to check out the link; betcha want 'em all! I know I did.

And just look at that fabric on the hop button.... Right?!!

I decided to sew up one of my designs I sketched while on an extended stay at my darling grandson Brady's house last summer. This fabric is perfection for this design, which I've made as a bed runner.

Plus Playtime Winner

The random number generator picked #5 out of the eleven linkups which is Louise of My Quilt Odyssey who made this beauty:

Isn't it just so vibrant? Five Alarm Chili is what she's called it. Congrats Louise; I can't wait to see what you buy, and I hope some will be for yourself! Louise gives the bulk of her quilting away to charitable causes.