52 Alturas Blocks

Up to 52 blocks now. In six months.

It doesn't seem like six months. But I know that I started these while the girls were out of school for Christmas break. And I took them with me to Mexico in early January. And here it is summer vacation.

Not once have I been bored with these. I may not touch a block for weeks, but there are always a few ready to go when the mood hits. And then I might make three in a weekend. Or two at night while I watch the Tour de France.

I said at

the very beginning

that I was only committed to making 9. Then I said that I would go until I was bored. Now I think I might go until I make 72. With a border  - yes, I am actually planning a border - that will give me a finished quilt of 60'' by 75''. At least that is how it is coming together in my head.

Of course, I have to say thank you to everyone who sent me squares and scraps of fabric

when I asked for help

. Every time I go to prep another set of blocks I have so much to choose from. It has definitely helped in expanding the range of fabrics in the blocks. All the appliqué pieces will be unique, but the backgrounds to have a bit of repeats. 

So, thank-you to:

Carolyn Forster

Erin Harris

Barb Robson

Anna Passafiume

Penny Gold

Latifah Saafir

Katrina Hertzer

Liz Zok

If I missed someone, I'm sorry! Some of the envelopes may have been recycled by eager little girls after the mail was opened.

Sewing Machine Quilt

Well this was a fun finish!

It took 50 different fabrics. Some hours... One day I should actually track how long things take me. And a whole lot of fun. It has been a long time since I had this much fun sewing.

Making this quilt really just started with an idea. I wanted to simply see if it would work. One block led to another and another and then there were 25. I played around with different sizes of the final block. I started with 12.5'' squares but the sewing machine got lost in it. Now each block finishes at 10.5'' square. It is a great size now and makes a much easier cutting job.

Now I want to play with this concept a bit more. This includes working on some different sizes and a precision pieced option. And, I think a new pattern may emerge from this. What do you think?

It's amazing to be so excited again.

Friday Favourites - Soakbox

With two little girls in the house manicures are ever present. My nails always look horrible - I can barely make it out of a salon without wrecking a manicure. But that never stops me from buying pretty colours. So when a certain Monster was turning 8 last month we upped our game in terms of nail polish.

Soak, makers of the awesome laundry wash for knits and lingerie as well as the lovely Flatter pressing spray also has these curated collection of custom nail polish sets put together by fabric designers. Lizzy House, Denyse Schmidt, Sandi Henderson, and Fig Tree & Co each have a set. Four custom colours packed in a box created by the designer herself. And, on top of that, you could give yourself a custom manicure inspired by the fabric itself!

The one below was given to me for my book signing at Quilt Market last year.

I was away the week of The Monster's birthday and had the pleasure of teaching at The Workroom again. After my class Jacqueline Sava, the creator and creative drive behind Soak, came to visit. We hung out, chatted, picked fabric, drank champagne, and generally laughed away an afternoon. Aside from the fact that she's a pretty awesome person (and so funny and taller than me!) I adore that her company is Canadian. I always look to support businesses from home wherever possible.

Now, I have a few more choices when the girls ask to do my nails. And boy do they ask. Or they take to it themselves. Truth be told, they work so hard at perfecting their manicures that they've been known to paint and repaint their nails for hours!

More Circles! This time for Lucky Spool's Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmaking

Do you know what these are? Just some of my favourite tools in an arsenal of circle making things. Front and centre is my compass and elementary school geometry set. School supply nerds take note! You can find out about these and how I use them in the new book from Lucky Spool,

The Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmaking

.

This great book is like taking a workshop from each of your dream teachers - Jacquie Gering, Denyse Schmidt, Penny Layman, Angela Walters, and more. If you can't be in the classroom with us, this might be the next best thing! Each teacher has a chapter devoted to a specific concept or technique. You get the benefit of their experience and all their Quilter to Quilter tips. And then you get a pattern that uses those techniques.

At the end of the book is a phenomenal gallery of modern quilts. Some serious eye candy there.

My quilt in the book might be a new top favourite of mine. It comes with my chapter on Circles and Curves. You could probably call it a sampler of the techniques, but it is more than that. Inspired by two favourite fabrics it takes geometric block design to a really fun place. You could make the pattern as is or you could change up the layout to suit your own preference. Or maybe make repeats of your favourite blocks for a completely different look.

I debated long and hard about the colour selection for this quilt. It needs high contrast and I really wanted to keep it to two colours. But it is me and where one fabric will do I will pick 10! You could say this is a pretty masculine colour combo with just navy and gray, but I call it calming. Despite the bold geometry of the quilt, it has a very serene quality. Keeping the background fabric to a single choice really helps with that. 

To check out the other contributors and see what they are saying about the quilt, you can follow along with them.

Kari Vojtechovsky

teaches on The Principles of Color

Alissa Haight Carlton

teaches on Working with Solids

Dan Rouse

teaches on Working with Prints

Denyse Schmidt

teaches on Improvisational Patchwork

Jacquie Gering

teaches on The Alternate Grid

Penny Layman

, of course, teaches on Paper Piecing

Heather Jones

teaches Large Scale Piecing

Angela Walters

teaches Modern Machine Quilting

Heather Grant

then takes us on a Study of Modern Quilts.

Lucky Spool

is a new publisher on the book scene for quilting. Led by Susanne Woods (formerly of Stash Books and Craftsy) they are bringing a number of exciting books to the market. Their Essential Guide for Modern Quiltmaking looks like it is going to leave its mark for quilters everywhere.

Right now you can get the book on a great discount from Taunton Press (Lucky Spool's distributor). If you buy it from them get a 20% discount between now and July 21.

Click here. Use the discount code EGMQ20

UPDATE: the correct code is EGQM20. My apologies for the typo.