Quilt Sandwich Fabrics

Spring Quilt Market Recap!

Howdy! Well, it's been a few weeks since Spring Quilt Market in Portland and I think I've finally recovered. There was A LOT to see! We had a great time in Portland and even got time to do a little bit o' tax-free shopping. I don't really even know where to start, but I'll give it a try - here goes! 

I think we can safely say that Tula Pink is one of Quilt Sandwich's most favorite designers EVER! We got to meet her and newsflash: she is awesome. Also, she is tall, not unlike Quilt Sandwich, so we liked her even more. (I was the shorty in the group at 5'11".) However, let's focus on the quilts. This stunner in Tula's booth was amazing! I love love LOVE IT. 

I just love all of the different blocks and the quilting is gorgeous (probably Angela Walters, but I didn't actually ask.) 

Also, Tula had a really cool floor in her booth. These cool motifs are from a fabric in her upcoming collection called Acacia (it's also used in the border of the butterfly quilt). I love these weird geometric designs and the colors are so pretty. Needless to say we are counting the days until we get our Acacia fabric! 

Another favorite person of ours is Heather Bailey and her booth was amazing. (Also, she is tall too! We know how to pick them.) She won a creativity award for it! One whole wall was covered with a natural colored burlap fabric that had a beautiful embroidered design on it to announce Heather's upcoming embroidery patterns. The really cool thing is that Heather actually embroidered on it while we watched! She used a huge needle and yarn for the design. What a great idea - interactive and inspiring. 

Next, here's a quilt pattern I really loved - I am a sucker for my iPhone, so of course a quilted version is going to catch my eye! I also loved the colors and patterns in this fabric, which is a new collection called Collage by Such Designs. The quilt pattern is also by Such Designs - her entire booth was really interesting. Collage will be coming out soon from Windham Fabrics. 

Another cool quilt at the Windham booth was made from Lotta Jansdotter's newest line, Glimma. We love Lotta's simple Scandinavian look, and her color scheme in this line is beautiful - bright colors like turquoise, fuchsia and gold are toned down with charcoal, taupe and navy. I love this quilt! 

Continuing on with a Scandinavian theme, we have this adorable quilt made out of the Nordika collection by Jeni Baker for Art Gallery Fabrics. Hexagons are all the rage, and these ones are in such fun, bright colors and patterns on a dark charcoal background to make them pop. 

Speaking of things popping, you might want to put on some sunglasses for the next one because your eyeballs are probably going to go blind from the colors. That's not to say that it isn't AWESOME because it is! I LOVE me some bright red, pink and turquoise, especially when combined with adorable Japanese-inspired art. This was at the Robert Kaufman booth and was so eye-catching and cute. I totally want fluffy white chairs now! 

More Japanese inspiration! I am OBSESSED with this chair! This is from Rashida Coleman-Hale's awesome booth. Rashida has two collections of graphic, simple fabric designs with Japanese flair for Cloud 9 fabrics (which means it's organic too!). The chair and footstool here are from her current collection called Tsuru. 

Rashida also has another collection coming out later this summer called Koi which is also beautiful. Instead of bright colors, she used jewel tones accented with soft neutrals. I love all of these clutches! I can't wait to get these fabrics! 

Continuing our trip around the world, we now go to Australian quilter Jen Kingwell. Jen's booth was gorgeous! The whole thing was covered in her amazing quilts, like this one called Steampunk. Jen has some great patterns for sale and we are hoping to start carrying them soon! We love her eclectic use of colors and patterns, and those pillows are so cool! We can never get enough of circus fonts. 

Now, back to the U.S. - Portland, Oregon, to be precise. Did you know that Portland is also referred to as Bridgetown? There's a reason for it - there are bridges galore there! If you're driving in Portland, make sure you know which one you're on. Portland designer Violet Craft was inspired by the bridges and more with her new collection Waterfront Park for Michael Miller. I don't know if I can describe how much I love it - the colors are all fab, from coral and lilac to chartreuse and charcoal, it's all fresh and funky. She has tons of great prints with bridges, birds, hexagon tiles and cherry blossoms, and her booth had this beautiful quilt and bench in it. 

We spent A LOT of time at the Alexander Henry booth, and if you've followed our shop at all, you know how obsessed we are with the Henry! They just have a way with unique, special fabric designs. Their booth was very cute and patchwork-ey and featured a new collection called Everyday Eden, which is full of flowers, birds and more in vibrant colors. There was so much to see that I can't recap it all here, but luckily I did a round-up of what's new for Alexander Henry over at True Up, one of our favorite blogs. Click on the link to see what else is coming soon! 

One great thing about Quilt Market is finding new products to try out. So far we've mainly stuck to just fabric since there is so much already that we love, but we've decided to try some ribbon out. Some of our favorite designers, such as Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett and the aforementioned Tula Pink, have collaborated with Renaissance Ribbons to create some truly lovely ribbons! You can use these ribbons as accents on quilts, pillows, clothing, tea towels, bags, and more - it's all machine washable! The ribbons are woven, not printed, and a few are even reversible. They are totally stunning! One of my favorite ideas was these beautiful cuffs made out of Amy Butler ribbon and vintage brooches. I am totally doing this. 

There was way more than just this at Market too - so much so that I didn't get pictures of everything and even if I did, this blog post would just be too long to cover it all. But we are getting lots of great fabric in from Andover (new Lizzy House and awesome Allison Glass basics!), Birch (more organic including Charley Harper!), Blend and Anna Griffing (we'll be getting new Halloween and Christmas from Blend!), David Textiles (ONE DIRECTION - need I say more?!), In The Beginning, Westminster, and probably more that I'm forgetting (sorry, other companies!). 

Finally, it wouldn't be a trip to Portland without a visit to Voodoo Doughnut! And if you're going to Voodoo Doughnut, you might as well get a doughnut with Cap'n Crunch on it. Here's their display case of their fabulously colorful treats! (Also, I scored said Cap'n Crunch doughnut for free, just for wearing a Van Halen t-shirt. Thank you, anonymous Voodoo Doughnut employee!)

Also, FYI re Voodoo Doughnut: 

Whew, we made it! Thanks for reading and supporting Quilt Sandwich Fabrics! We will let you know when our new awesome fabrics arrive. In the meantime, check out our current finds!

Becca 

 

 

Destination: Sleepytown!

Hi everyone! We hope you're having a great April! 

One thing I love making is pillowcases. I've made quite a few, and they are fast, easy and fun, and they make great gifts. Plus, there are so many possibilities for fabric choices! Whether you want something wacky, preppy, classic or romantic, there's a fabric out there that is perfect. The pattern I like to use has a coordinating cuff, plus a small accent piece in between the cuff and pillowcase body so you get to choose three fabrics and really have fun with finding something interesting. 

Recently Quilt Sandwich got a fun novelty print from Timeless Treasures featuring vintage travel posters. We really loved the retro feel and all of the fun destinations on the posters, and the colors are great - sort of 60's colors and faded brights mixed together. Our cousin Alicia really liked the fabric and thought it would make great pillowcases for her camper. We agreed, so we helped her pick out her coordinating fabrics, and we think they turned out great!

To go with the fun travel poster fabric, we used this funky Jay McCarroll print from Center City called Palm Springs, which has paint splatter-like dots in some of the colors from the posters, including lime green, mint green, coral and gray. For the accent flange we picked this lime green stripe from the line Painted Summer by Lida Enche. It was just the right amount of bright green to add some color. 

Hopefully Alicia and her family will get a lot of use this summer in their camper with their fun pillowcases! As always, we love to see what you're making with fabric from Quilt Sandwich, so let us know what you're working on. And remember, Quilt Sandwich is your DESTINATION for awesome fabric! (See what I did there?) 

Becca

Quilt Sandwich 

New-ish Alexander Henry in the Quilt Sandwich House!

Hello all, 

We love Alexander Henry! Let's just come right out and say it, shall we? They really have a way of coming up with unusual, striking designs and they use vibrant colors. You can almost always pick an Alexander Henry fabric out in a quilt or other sewn project, and their larger-scale prints are great for bags or home decor, or for a rockin' quilt back.  We recently got some awesome AH fabrics in - what will you use them for? 

This fabric is called Zahara, and I LOVE it! This fuchsia and warm brown color combo is fantastic - I think it's more fun than a "traditional" zebra color. I'd love to make an awesome tote bag out of this fabric (it's on my huge list of things to make), so we'll see if it happens. I think it would also be great in a quilt though - a friend of mine used some in a quilt and when it's cut up into smaller pieces it still looks interesting even though you can't really see what the design originally was. Give it a try! 

Next is a beautiful Japanese-inspired fabric called Anasema Dolls. 

These delicate dolls are surrounded by beautiful patterns and fun colors. I love the mix of soft colors like pink and tan contrasted with the bright colors like red, aqua, and green. (It looks even better in person!) This is a really large-scale pattern, so there is more to it than what you can see here. It would be a great quilt back for a simple quilt, or a throw for an elegant bed. 

Now this one is just fun - Cartas Marcadas! 

Alexander Henry always does a great job with Mexican Folk-Art designs, so of course these little lottery cards are awesome! Instead of scary skeletons, these folks are just livin' life - waitressing, teaching, playing soccer, what have you. (The soccer one is adorable!) The colors are really pretty too - bright and happy colors on a soft cream background. 

The last two we have are from a collection that is fun and funky - Urban Garden and Mercer.  

I love the colors in both of these - kind of retro with the gold and mint, and the midnight blue is a pretty shade that accents all of the other colors beautifully. The top print, Urban Garden, has mod flowers with fun shapes and details, and the bottom print, Mercer, has some of the same flowers mixed with funky trees and groovy buildings. They would be great for pillows or for something fun in your kitchen, like placemats. 

If you like Urban Garden, check out this post at Sew Katie Did to see what the amazing Katie Pederson paired with it from our shop! We are super excited to announce that we are sponsoring Katie's blog, which means we'll be letting her choose her favorite fabrics from Quilt Sandwich every month for her to talk about. And that means that you'll get to see what Katie likes and how she puts her fabrics together, which is pretty cool because she is awesome! If you don't know much about Katie, check out her blog to see pictures of her beautiful quilts. And look for her book, Quilting Modern, which she co-wrote with Jacquie Gehring, because it is full of great quilting patterns and tips for modern quilting. 

Talk to you later! Hope you're working on some fun projects! 

Becca

QuiltCon Episode 3: Revenge of the Quilts

Okay, that title reference is probably only going to be understood by the extreme nerds. (Think Star Wars.) ANYWAY, now we're going to get to the quilts at QuiltCon! Believe me when I tell you there were so many amazing quilts that it got pretty overwhelming. I took lots of pictures, and I'll show some of my favorites here. I wish I could show you all of them but that would get a little ridiculous.

Not only were there tons of beautiful quilts by quilters from all over the world, there was a great show of some of Denyse Schmidt's favorite quilts, and they were so fun to see in person. They really do have such a presence when you get to see them in person - the details on the quilting, the little bits of scraps that Denyse chooses to accent her solid pieces, the bold designs. I loved them! In fact, let's just take a peek at a few now. 

This beautiful quilt is classic Denyse - I love the soft colors. 

This is one of my favorite Denyse designs, called "Single Girl" (maybe that's why I like it?). It's her take on the traditional double-wedding ring design. I have the pattern for this one but I have yet to tackle it. The pattern has lots of sizes so maybe I'll make a small one or pillow. So cute! 

Here are two from Elizabeth Hartman - Touch This Quilt and Honey In Space. Elizabeth has a definite style of her own, and I always love her fabric and color choices. 

Here's a fun one by Thomas Knauer called In Defense of Handmade - this bar code is the actual bar code from a mass-produced quilt by Martha Stewart at Macy's. 

Here are two that use natural linen and bright colors in a fun way. This is called Fresh Linen by Vickie Owen from San Antonio. I really liked the use of the heavier linen Echino fabrics in this quilt - I have always loved those groovy Echino fabrics but I never really knew what to do with them. I don't know why I didn't think of making a quilt! It looks great! Beautiful quilting too, by Karen Nanos.

Here is Neutral and Neon by Latifah Saafir, she of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild. I love the combo of neon, graphic black patterns, and neutral tan linen. 

This groovy quilt is called Psychedelic Baby by Katie Pederson of Seattle (shout-out!). Katie is awesome and is the co-author of Quilting Modern, which is a great book you should get if you like this cool shattered look. I love the colors in this quilt!

Now, I don't think it gets much cooler than this quilt. I hope you know who it is, but if not, start watching Parks and Recreation now! This quilt is RonQuilt: The Ron Swanson Quilt by Monica Solario-Snow of Astoria, Oregon. It's a pixelated image of the character Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman, aka Mr. Megan Mullaly), who is just awesome on the show. Watch it! (After you finish this post of course.)

I love these bold and bright diamonds. This quilt is Broken Diamonds by Kati Spencer of Utah. Pretty!

Finally, we have the bomb-diggity of quilts from the show: Double Edged Love by Victoria Findlay Wolfe from New York. This quilt won Best in Show, and for good reason! It is AMAZING. I totally love everything about it. 

Victoria used Jay McCarroll's Center City fabric collection (is it self-serving of me to remind you that some of this fab line is available at Quilt Sandwich? No, I've decided) and pieced together a whole quilt top. She then cut it up into the pieces she needed and accented it with solids in really interesting ways. I love the very 80's feel of the white, black and pink. (Speaking of 80's, I'm pretty sure I saw Victoria at the 80's Dance Party wearing a Melrose Place shirt - can she get any cooler?!) What makes the quilt even more spectactular is the beautiful quilting done by Lisa Sipes - she did a lot of different patterns in sections on the quilt and they are all really cool and perfectly done. Here's one close-up I especially liked: 

I LOVE that plaid pattern! And you can also see a nice, small pebble pattern too - I cannot imagine how much thread she went through to do this. And the time it took of course. Amazing! For some reason I didn't take a picture of the back of the quilt, which I really regret now. It looked great. 

Well, I hate to follow that, but I'm going to - finally, we have a picture of my own quilt, Oreos and Creamsicles, hanging up in the show! It was really exciting to see it displayed, and I even saw someone I didn't know taking a picture of it! That made me feel pretty good. I did not plan to coordinate with it but hey, look at that. I don't look too bad with my black and gray. (The yellow is a bit off, but I like it.) 

Well, that's it for my QuilCon updatin'! I didn't even talk about how awesome Amy Butler and David Butler were, or that I got to chat with them after their talks and they super cool. Oh look, I just talked about them! 

Okay then. Get quilting! 

Becca

QuiltCon Part Deux

More on QuiltCon! I had a really full schedule - I'd signed up for two workshops, plus there were lectures going on every day! The lecture schedule was awesome - a keynote speech by Denyse Schmidt, plus talks by Amy Butler, David Butler, Heather Ross, and panels on fabric design and publishing and more. I've also heard that a lot of these lectures were filmed and are now available on Craftsy so if you weren't able to go to QuiltCon, check them out! And if you haven't looked at Craftsy, do that too - it's really cool. 

ANYWAY. Where to start? I guess I'll start with Thursday - I was super excited for Thursday because I had signed up to take Machine Quilting with Elizabeth Hartman! I have both of Elizabeth's completely awesome books, and I've made a few of her quilts too. I could never figure out how she does her cool machine quilting all on her own home machine - she does not do the longarm thing. Some of her quilts are pretty big and that can be difficult on a regular sewing machine so I was eager to learn her tips. I think the big takeaway was that Elizabeth recommends putting your sewing table against a wall or better yet, in a corner. That way when the quilt is behind the sewing machine it will stay on the table and not fall off the back, which drags the quilt down. I am still trying to figure out how to reorganize my sewing room to make this happen because I think it will help! 

Here's Elizabeth: 

During the morning session of our class, we practiced some different free-motion quilting designs on a big piece of muslin. Elizabeth would demonstrate a few different designs and then we would practice, and she also talked about the importance of making a good quilt sandwich (shout-out!). We learned some really cute designs - besides the usual meander, we did some square designs, pointy star-like designs, a super-cute clamshell design and my favorite, a dogwood flower. In the afternoon we worked on making small samples of each pattern to keep in our sewing rooms. I really enjoyed Elizabeth's class - she was really friendly, fun and helpful. I'm excited to work on my quilting now! 

On Friday, I went to a lecture by Heather Ross, and later got to meet her: 

Isn't she adorable?! Her lecture was absolutely delightful! I loved it all. She read an essay from an upcoming book she has coming out, and it had some details about her childhood. She has had quite a life! Example: she lived for a year with her family in a geodesic dome! She also talked a bit about her career and how she got to where she is now. I was so impressed by her - she was in her mid-20's and pretty broke when she connected with a lady who screenprinted her artwork onto fabric, so she made up a few clothing samples and took them to a tradeshow. She ended up selling tons of the clothes and everything grew from there. Another thing that I found very inspiring is that Heather believes that anyone can draw. She said if you want to improve, just spend 20 minutes every other day drawing and in a few months, you will see a difference. When I met Heather later at her book signing, I told her how I wanted do do that, so she wrote "20 minutes every other day!" in my book. I'm afraid that so far I've let her down, but I am gonna do it, Heather! 

Here's another one of my favorite people: 

Jay McCarroll! Did you watch Project Runway when it came out? I was a little late the the party, but once I started watching it, I quickly became obsessed with Jay. As far as I'm concerned, he's the only winner that matters. I love his fabric too, so I was excited to meet him. He was super nice, and I love that he did this cheesy pose with me! Jay was teaching a workshop at QuiltCon, but I didn't end up taking it. I heard it was a lot of fun, though. 

Well, this is getting long so I'll talk more about some of the other lectures later. Believe me when I tell you that there was A LOT of information, so it was kind of overwhelming! But in a really awesome way. 

Becca

 

QuiltCon!!!

Howdy from Austin! I got back on Monday evening from QuiltCon, aka the most awesome event ever! I really had a great time, it was all I hoped it would be and more. I'll probably have to recap it in more than one post because there was a lot of stuff going on - I don't even know where to start! 

How about the welcome sign? Isn't it nice? The QuiltCon logo and colors are super pretty.

After you cross the hallowed sign threshold, you enter the exhibition hall which had the quilt show (awesome!) and a ton of booths for all kinds of vendors (also awesome!). Some of the booths were from local fabric stores, so there was shoppin' to be done, and there were some sewing machine companies, fabric manufacturers and publishing companies. Like I said, lots to look at. 

The quilt show was amazeballs, and I will cover it all in a different post. There were so many gorgeous, inspiring quilts! There was also a special show of Denyse Schmidt quilts, since Denyse was the keynote speaker, and let's not forget - the Queen. Here's a view of Denyse Row. 

Woo hoo! 

Here's another fun little item - the SWAG BAG! 

Seriously, this thing was chock-full of LOOT! Free fabric, rulers, coffee mugs, magazines, thread, product samples and more. Here's something cool that was in it: 

It's a huge vinyl bag! Awesome. 

Also, go back and check the swag bag pic again if you  must - did you notice that groovy pin on it? That's something I got that says "My Quilt is in the Show!". And I got it because - my quilt was in the show! Here is a not-great picture of me by it. 

After seeing the other quilts in the show I am so honored to have been a part of it! 

What else was going on in the convention center? 

OH YEAH! I got a glimps of an RV through the door - jealous much? 

Speaking of jealous, you haven't tried bottled water until you've tried....OZARKA!

I will say I was very glad they had this around the convention center. It's hard to beat a cold, plastic cup of Ozarka. 

Another fun Austin fact that you may know is that Willie Nelson is BIG there. In fact, Second Street is also called Willie Nelson Street. 

And on Second Street/Willie Nelson Street, there is a statue of the red-headed stranger himself! 

Finally, here's a picture from around town that I love. 

If you're in Austin and need a bail bond, there's your number. 

Okay, so I guess I didn't say too much about QuiltCon yet, but I am still organizing my thoughts! Stay tuned for my pictures from the quilt show, and also more details about the workshops and lectures I attended. Some of the highlights include a machine quilting class with Elizabeth Hartman, lectures from Heather Ross, Amy Butler, and David Butler, and the keynote address from Denyse Schmidt. OH! AND I met Jay McCarroll! He was rad. 

Okay, more coming soon! Hope you're all doing great! 

Becca

 

 

 

Fun new novelty prints in the house!

Hello! Let's get right down to business: we have a lot of awesome new fabric in the shop! If you're like us, you have a bit of spring fever that only new fabric will cure. It's worth a try, right? Let's see what we have. 

Most of our new fabric is from Timeless Treasures. One thing we love about TT is that they have such a great mix of designs. You never know what they're going to come up with next! First is something for the menfolk: 

We don't think the mustache trend is going away any time soon, so now is a great time to get some funky mustache fabric! These are cute, with the  manly patterns like pinstripes and plaid, and the neutral colors. Why not pair them with these awesome wingtips?! So many cool patterns and the colors are perfect: brown, gray and white, with a pop of blue and green. Great for Father's Day gifts (plan ahead!) like a special placemat or quilt, or just fun for home accessories. 

Here's a miscellaneous group of cute, fun prints. 

We totally love the top fabric - it seems straight out of Hello Kitty or something! These adorable little circles are filled with fruit and jam and are just precious. This little print would be super cute for a zipper pouch or some potholders. In the middle, we have a cute fabric with TINY hearts! They really are miniscule, everyone. The colors are fun and bright too, giving it a nice 80's feel. (We are suckers for anything with an 80's feel, as you can tell by our 80's Pinterest board.) On the bottom is an awesome chevron in super bright colors accented with charcoal, black and white. We like this fun take on the ever-popular chevron trend! 

Here's a really cool fabric with vintage-inspired posters! 

We really love the faded colors on this pretty fabric - soft coral, yellow and mint green, with cool blues and reds and black and white accents. This groovy medium-scale print would be perfect for a tote bag to take on your summer travels! 

Now, here is something SUPER AWESOME: STAR WARS FABRIC!!! (And other cool techie fabrics.)

So, here's some news: we are huge nerds when it comes to Star Wars. We just love it! So when we saw this licensed fabric we knew we had to have it. (The Star Wars fabric is from Camelot Fabrics.) Since it's licensed, it's LEGIT. These are the real characters and Death Stars! First we have this rockin' all black and white graphic print with groovy illustrations of the characters. Next, we have this awesome print of blue on space-ey black of technical specs of the Death Star and a variety of ships. It's so cool. On the bottom, we have our awesome Pac-Man-esque ghost fabric back in stock (it was popular and sold out fast!), and we have this cool black and white computer keyboard. Any of these awesome fabrics would be so cool for geek-chic accessories and home decor projects. (We are fond of pillowcases for these kinds of fabrics.) 

Finally, a couple more from Camelot:

These two fabrics are from the Vintage Vogue collection and we think they both have a bit of flair! The top print is in a lovely tomato red and white and features this chic pattern that is reminiscent of a Greek Key pattern. You can channel your inner Jonathan Adler or Tory Burch with this fashionable fabric! On the bottom is a coordinating stripe with pretty accents of aqua, citron, pink, teal and yellow. We adore stripes, and this one is no exception! It would be great for throw pillows or quilt bindings. 

Well, that's it for now! Check out the Quilt Sandwich Etsy shop for these and other great fabrics! 

Becca

 

 

 

2013 Quilt Sandwich project time!

Happy New Year! For 2013, we at Quilt Sandwich have decided to embark on a Block of the Month (aka BOM) project! Neither of us have ever done a BOM, and I for one am excited. If you don't know what it is, each month you have a block that you make and then after awhile, you have a month or two to complete the project. Most of the BOMs that I have seen take about a year to do, so it nicely spaces everything out which makes it a lot more doable. If you think making a quilt seems intimidating, it can be a lot easier to make one or two blocks a month, and at the end of the project you have a quilt! 

I wasn't actively searching for a BOM to do but I had been toying with it, and then my sister Kris found a cute one online. It's by Gen-X Quilters, and you can find the details on their website. Here's a picture of the finished quilt: 

Cute! I like that it has a nice mix of traditional blocks and modern arrangement and color. It should be fun. It can be done in two sizes - with 9" blocks or 12" blocks. I am doing the 9" block version and Kris is doing the 12" block version, so we can compare when we're done. Each month you make two blocks and the pattern each month is the same, so you only have to learn how to make one block each month. January through October are block-making months, and then you construct and finish the quilt in November and December (and possibly well into 2014 if you are at all like me). 

If you're doing the 9" block you use 9 fat quarters and then a main background fabric. I'm using white for the background and these fat quarters: 

The first fabrics I chose were the dark brown floral and pretty coral leaf print, which are from Lizzy House's "Hello Pilgrim" collection. Ever since we got them in the shop I've been in love with the sweet floral patterns and bright but elegant colors. I added a few more Lizzy House basics (including the much-loved Pearl Bracelet) and then rounded out the mix with some classic Amy Butler and a wildcard from Moda's Sugar Pop line, which had a similar color scheme to the Lizzy House fabrics. I think it will be a fun, fresh, cheerful quilt! 

Here are Kris' fabrics. 

Since Kris is doing the 12" block, she needs 12 fat quarters. She decided to pull from our extensive collection of Amy Butler prints! I love the aqua, lime and coral colors, and the fun florals and dots. For the background, Kris is using the natural linen/cotton fabric from Rashida Coleman-Hale's Washi line. I think this will also be a great quilt! 

We will be blogging our progress throughout the year, so stay tuned for our blocks! We would love to hear if our customers decide to partake in this project too, so let us know if you decide to do it! 

Becca

Valentine's Day is a-comin'!

Happy New Year! We hope your 2013 is off to a great start. We have some exciting things in the works, so stay tuned! So far, our big plan for the year is attending International Quilt Market this May! We can't wait - it's in Portland, only 3 hours away. You can bet we will be blogging like fiends when we go!

In the mean time, it's only about a month away from Valentine's Day! Even if you are terminally single, like a certain blogger we might know, you might still enjoy the holiday. Something about Valentine's Day designs are just cheery - all the red, white and pink, hearts, and flowers is fun. 

So, here are some great fabrics for fun Valentine's Day projects! 

Here's the most "Valentine-ey" fabric collection we have - Smitten! There's a nice main print with larger flowers and lots of rich red, and the aqua print is a nice break from the pink and red. And both of these heart prints are great - the multi-sized tossed hearts on pale pink, and these cute old-fashioned ones. 

Here's another cute heart print from Marzipan by Julie Paschkis. Julie does the coolest ink art and this fun fabric has a nice Scandinavian feel. We think it looks great with this chic chevron in pink and burgundy. 

These four are super bright and fun! Red and pink is such a vibrant color combination, and these fabrics are just happy. The upper left and lower right fabrics are by Jennifer Paganelli, the upper right is by Dena Designs, and the lower left is a Heather Bailey classic! 

These two aren't strictly Valentine's themed, but they are so nice, I had to include them. On the left we have this striking Amy Butler print from Cameo in pretty coral, lilac, and rust. On the right is something a little different from Erin McMorris' La Dee Da line. It has tiny pink hearts in it, but the 80's-ish pastels make it a little funkier.

Finally, dots! Who doesn't love dots? Again, we have a fun red and aqua dot, and more red and pink dots from Lecien. On the lower left is a dot from In The Beginning with varying shades of dark red, and the big dot on the bottom right is from Moda. 

What to do for Valentine's Day? Well, we are always fans of little items like potholders or placemats, since those are easy to store during the rest of the year. You can also make a special throw or wall-hanging, or some fun and simple throw pillows to decorate your couch. Seasonal pillowcases are also a nice treat! 

Happy sewing! 

Becca

 

Pinterest roundup for December

Hey y'all, what's up? I don't know where that y'all came from, but I am obsessed with the show Nashville so that might be it! It's so awesome. 

Anyway, we are out there on Pinterest, which is a site you may have heard of. There are tons of great ideas on it, so I try not to get too sucked in. Here are a few cool things that caught the eye of Quilt Sandwich lately. 

I love this colorful quilt! So bright and cute. The strip piecing is easy and all of the solid colors are so pretty. This quilt was orginally shown on the blog Peas in a Pod, in a post about the book Sunday Morning Quilts. This quilt is apparently not in that book, but it's still a great book and I highly recommend it! 

Here's another fun quilt idea: 

I love the serpentine layout! I don't know if I've ever seen that in a quilt. I also love these colors - the aqua with the bright corals, lavenders, browns and lime greens is unusual and pretty. The link on this image went to a blank page, but it was originally on Moda's website, and I recognize a lot of Moda fabric there, including Quilt Sandwich fave, Sugar Pop! (Now on sale for $6 a yard!)

Here's a cool take on a star block. 

This is called Oregon Star, from a blog called Freshly Pieced. I've never seen this blog until now, but it looks like a good one, and there's another great version of this block in pretty aqua and yellow. 

Besides quilting, we at QS also love crochet! In fact, we grew up with it, thanks to our awesome grandma! We both love this colorful afghan. 

It's so clever that this afghan is inspired by Matryoshka dolls! We love those too, by the way, so this afghan is the best of both worlds. You can find more pictures of it on the blog Sewing Daisies. They have a cute logo, too! 

And since we can't craft ALL the time, we have a Pinterest board called Just Fun! Here's one of my favorite quotes, probably of all time. 

If you haven't seen Elf, what are you waiting for?! 

Finally, here's a life lesson for all of us: 

We love pugs at QSHQ, because Kris has the cutest pug ever named Pickles! Pickles is our unofficial mascot, and we love her. So we know we have to obey the pug! Pug and other dog art available on Obey the Pure Breed. 

What are you finding on Pinterest? 

Becca