Designing Quilt Patterns for 2014

I’m super excited to announce that I’m in the process of designing and testing patterns for two beautiful large quilts and a baby quilt.

One thing I’m not always particularly talented at is mixing fabrics from different lines and the Fat Quarter Shop Blogger’s bundles has helped me fill up my stash with beautifully sets of fabrics that pull from multiple designer lines. These combinations are beautifully coordinated without being matchy-matchy and I had a hard time finding patterns and quilt designs that would suit these fabric sets. That’s why I set out to build a Fat Quarter Bundle series where each pattern will feature 12-15 fat quarters plus a small amount of additional yardage.

[pullquote align=right]Signup below to be notified when pattern testers are needed[/pullquote]Over the weekend I completed the instructions and 3 revisions of the pattern for one of the larger quilts, it’s a scrappy Irish chain variation that I think you’re all going to love. The two larger quilts ended up being more intermediate than I had planned but the baby quilt will be a really interesting twist on a fairly simple pattern that will be perfect for a comfortable beginner.

Since it’s Wednesday I’ll post my WIP of one of these patterns. It’s a scrappy-loop Irish chain pattern. I can’t wait to finish it and get better pics taken!

The final quilt will be 70″x70″. I didn’t know what to do for backing but I already had my Essex Linen black swatch up on the design wall and had a HUGE ah-ha moment when I realized how perfect of a backing it would be with those colors. Thinking there might be an applique I want to add to the backing. More on that for next Wednesday!

The fabric I used is from the Stephanie Alvarez, from Quarter Inch‘s Blogger’s Choice Fat Quarter Bundle from the Fat Quarter shop circa 2013 (no longer available.) It’s full of beautiful fabrics from Moda S’more Love, Tule by Leah Duncan, Sweetwater’s Road 15 and a few other beautiful designer lines.

I cut the pieces and sewed for ~12 hours on Monday and an hour last night, I think there’s probably 6 more hours to go on the rest and the top will be done.  I’m already on v.3 of the 10 page instructions having corrected my miscalculations while using the pattern to make the quilt myself. I’m quite thankful for the graphic design and desktop publishing classes I took in high school and college because with quilt patterns I find illustrations or diagrams much easier to work than photos. Here’s a snapshot the instructions

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Linking up with with Lee at Freshly Pieced and visiting many other work-in-progress Wednesday posts to provide encouragement and support to my fellow Internet sewists and quilters.