Tag Collection Makers Panel Plus Free Craft and Play Apron Pattern

It feels like all I am doing here lately is hustling. Buy my fabric! Look what I made that you can make too! I promise, I am more than that. There is creating for the sake of creating happening. Just not much to report on yet. In the meantime... look what I made that you can buy!

As a partner to my Tag fabric collection I created a couple of fun panels. These are actually the colours I'd intended for the entire collection, but we made the switch to black and white during the process. Despite that, this panel was still destined for printing. I am so happy about that.

The message on the big panel is open to interpretation.

Make, Every Single Day

Make Every Single Day... Count... Beautiful... Funny

Make. Every. Single. Day

Whatever you like, however you want to use it. The coloured section is almost 20'' square. I've made it a pillow here, I've sewn it into a quilt that I still need to share with you. It would make an excellent tote bag (on my list). But wait, there is more!

This is the rest of the panel. Four smaller versions with some fundamental quilting terms and two of my favourites - alliteration and Play! These panels come in close to 8'' square, bigger if you include some white space. I see these are small wrapped canvasses, the centers of improv log cabins, pockets... endless possibilities.

Speaking of pockets, I used a few of these on a new apron pattern. 

The pattern for the Craft and Play Apron is free! Something fun, super easy to make, and it takes advantage of those cool panels. But really, you could use any fabric you like. My beautiful friend G is modelling for me here, but I've been wearing my own apron while sewing. It keeps things rather close by. And for those of you that do craft shows, it would be perfect!

Download the pattern for free from Connecting Threads or Craftsy. Not everything is for sale. This is my treat for you!

Hopscotch - Perfect Kids Quilt with Tag Fabrics

Hopscotch

70'' x 88''

In the fabric design process not everything makes it. My designs evolved, changed, and both got cut and grew. One of the prints that got cut was based off sidewalk chalk games, like Hopscotch and Four Square. The entire line is based on the marks that we make throughout our life, so the sidewalk chalk made so much sense. But things happen. And so when that design got cut I immediately regrouped and designed an entire quilt around Hopscotch! Win win.

And can we talk about that 80s laser school photo background quilting? Not planned to be that influence, it was about adding colour to the quilt, but oh so fun.

This pattern is really easy. Some applique for the numbers, but otherwise straight piecing and not much of it, really. This makes it perfect for impatient children who just want it done so they can play!

My son, who is now 5, was desperate for this quilt to be finished and then back home so he could play. The day it arrived back from Connecting Threads it was immediately spread on the living room floor and painted rocks procured. We hopscotched with the snow falling for over an hour. Currently, it is hanging over some furniture in his room creating a fort, a fort he slept in last night. It is truly a kids quilt. 

The pattern itself makes a twin sized quilt, but with some wider side borders it is easily transported to a double/full bed. You can buy the pattern from my own Etsy store, or both the pattern and a full kit direct from Connecting Threads. 

Whether you use Tag fabrics or any favourites of your own, this quilt is a guaranteed smile maker!

Spiral - Values Quilt with Tag Fabric

Spiral

60'' x 60''

There was a moment while making this quilt, as I put the trimmed blocks on the wall, when I stopped breathing. Not in a bad, call the ambulance way! No, in the held my breath because I was so excited way. That was the moment when it hit me that I was sewing with fabrics I designed. Until that point the fact that I'd designed fabrics for sewing seemed distant, almost ethereal. Not even when I approved final designs, not when I got my strike offs, not even when I was cutting into the fabric for the first time. The moment only came when I'd already cut, sewn, and trimmed over 100 HSTs for this quilt. I put three blocks on the design wall and simply had to stop.

It is a moment I remember clearly. The sewing room door was open and the rest of the family was watching Bear Grylls, the one with Mel B from the Spice Girls. I started in the top left corner of the design wall and three blocks in just stopped. I had to sit down. Then stand. Then sit. Then stand. Then lean. I may have jumped a little, just a little. And I kept talking to myself about how cool it all was, annoying the family. Tough on them - this was my new quilt with my new fabric! All mine! I would say it was surreal, but the truth is that it was profoundly real. That's why I lost my breath.

Thankfully I managed to forge ahead and make this quilt, plus a few others to be shared.

I will fully admit, that it was a bit of a struggle to make quilts and write patterns with ONLY Tag Fabric. If you've been reading here for any amount of time you know that I have a hard time being so exclusive. Even with my own fabric that was really difficult. 

When I designed the fabric it was originally supposed to be full colour. Through the iterative process with Connecting Threads we switched with black, grey, and white. Without too much trouble it became 20 fabrics evenly split along value lines. That meant it was ripe for making a Values Quilt. Because value is relative, it is ridiculously easy to have the fabric line do the work for you. But also an excellent lesson for learning value. Also conveniently, a fat quarter bundle gets you this quilt, with enough blocks left over for another small quilt or pillow.  You get all that in the pattern. Yes, there is a pattern for the quilt.

Patterns and full quilt kits are available from the Connecting Threads site. Or you can buy the PDF pattern directly from my Etsy site.

The Splendid Sampler - In The Sunshine

In The Sunshine

18.5'' x 18.5

My 15th wedding anniversary is coming up in a couple of months. One of the more entertaining moments of our wedding day (aside from the baby nearly born there) occurred as we walked down the aisle after the ceremony. After almost 6 years of dating it seems our wedding was a much anticipated affair. So our friends standing up there with us shouted out a coordinated, "Finally!!' 

After nearly a year of The Splendid Sampler I kind of feeling shouting Finally!! myself as my block debuts.

In the Sunshine was envisaged to celebrate my love of applique, a desire to not have really tiny pieces on this small block, and just a little bit of my true love, improv. And really, who doesn't love a flag waving in the sunshine?

Get the pattern here. Finally!

It was fun to play with my own fabric in this mini quilt. My first line, Tag, recently came out with Connecting Threads. I've made a handful of quilts already with just my fabrics, but the true measure of a fabric is how well it plays with others. So the background squares include my fabric plus a mix of stashed black and white prints. Then I dug into the scrap bin for the solid fabrics on the flags.

Now making a mini is hard for me. I get why people love them - boy is it fast from start to finish - but I prefer to Go King or Go Home! And when I am sewing for myself I default to improv piecing: curves, letters, slabs, and everything else.  That being said,  I really enjoy the switch up to designing patterns. It gets my brain working in a different way plus seeing the different results from other quilters is pretty thrilling! That's why I am so excited to see what each of you do with the block. This was a quick one to make, even with the needle turn applique. Get the pattern here. 

For those of you new here let me tell you a bit about myself. I live on intersection of the Rocky Mountains and the Prairies, in Calgary, Alberta. A pretty dreamy location. We get a proper winter - which I love - and it gets just hot enough in the summer. I'm such a Canadian! We have 3 nearly feral, outgoing, and active kids. My girls have followed me to the pool. In my youth I was a competitive swimmer then rower. After a decade working on environmental policy and sustainability issues I switched gears to staying with my kids and to become a professional quilter, writer, and a teacher. With three published books, online classes, national and international travel to teach on top of our busy lives I could say it is a fine balance, but it is more like a rocky seesaw that just can't quite make it even. But hey, I chose it and I'm making it work!

So take a few moments to hang out here. Check out my quilt gallery for inspiration, read through the blog for a glimpse into my compulsion to create, and feel free to sign up for my biweekly newsletter. My mission here and in everything quilting is to inspire creative action in everyone, for everyone. I am what you see - bold, blunt, kind, generous, open, and a little bit weird.

PS If the curves make you nervous, check out my episode of The Quilt Show, where I break it down.