Get Your Colour Game on with Prismatic!

PrismaticI’m catching up on new pattern blog posts – so let’s talk about one of our newest patterns – Prismatic!.  Boldly go where no colour has gone before!  – It’s  a terrific pattern for batiks, prints or solids! And good news, it may look complicated, but it’s not.

Prismatic! is a fun, easy to piece quilt.   All the blocks Prismatic Front Cover copyare pieced exactly in the same fashion..the only difference is how the fabrics are combined and in what order they appear in each block.  Luckily, we gave you a handy reference chart in the pattern, and if you follow that and a few additional tips below – you’ll be on your way to creating this gorgeous quilt.  Click here to purchase the pattern in either a paper pattern or PDF download pattern.

This new pattern from Colourwerx was designed by Carl on a whim….he was playing around in EQ7 designing quilt block patterns while watching TV one night and happened to switch the channel over to CBS…the logo appeared….this was the result —- see the similarity? Kinda like a cat’s eye, right….    Sometimes it takes just a little inspiration to light a creative fire; and yes, that old saying that ‘inspiration is everywhere’ is absolutely true.

Since the quilt is entirely pieced (and not foundation or paper pieced as many think), a good 1/4″ seam is imperative,  so you’ll need to whip out that 1/4″ patchwork presser foot for your sewing machine.  Mine is the #97 for my Bernina 750QE – it comes with this handy metal guide that keeps my 1/4″ seams perfect and I love it!

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Fabric selection for Prismatic! is super easy too – you just need twelve coordinating fabrics plus three neutrals for the backgrounds.  The pattern includes two sizes: a Large Prismatic New Back CoverLap with a 6″ finished block – and measures 72″ x 84″ – which uses just twelve half yards; and a Small Lap Size with a 4″ finished block  – and measures 48″ x 56″ – which uses just twelve fat quarters. Refer to the Material List at your right  for further information on yardage requirements.

So if you’ve been lusting after half yard bundles or fat quarter bundles this may be the perfect pattern!  I selected to use one of our personally curated bundles of gorgeous batik fabrics from Island Batiks.  This is now available for purchase in Fat Quarter or Half Yard bundles in our Colourwerx shop – click here for more information.

It of course follows colour wheel order (….and I always love a good colour wheel order quilt…), but the depth of saturation and gorgeous texture of the Island Batik Basics really callModTiki out to me.  This colour palette may also look familiar to you as I chose this exact same bundle to use for the Big Kahuna version of my ModTiki quilt – this pattern is also available on on our Colourwerx website here.  For the background fabrics, I used my favorite Island Batik neutrals in the colors of Smoke (dark gray), Tin (light gray) and White. Once your fabrics are selected, creating a fabric color key is paramount – just snip a 1″ square from each fabric, staple the fabric squares to a piece of paper and label them accordingly.  This key will aid you continually in keeping your fabrics coordinated and in the order needed to make the pattern work.

Cutting your fabrics is also pretty easy too – using the pattern templates provided and following the cutting chart provided in the pattern,  each fabric has exactly the same quantity of shapes cut – it’s just a matter of cutting the correct template shape from each fabric.   Once the fabrics are cut, the most challenging part is to separate and combine the the fabric shapes into the different block combinations, following the color coded block combination chart provided in the pattern.    There are thirty three different block combinations, so getting the right shape in right color in the correct combination is important – check and double check!.

Once my block combos were separated, I placed each of them into ziplock bag and labelled how many blocks I needed to make for that combo –  all I needed to do was select a bag and sew the units together in that bag.    Eazy peazy, right?

Once all thirty three combinations were completed, I laid out the blocks on my design  board and began to sew the blocks together. I then quilted it on my APQS Lucey longarm with an all over pantograph pattern.  Voila!!

This pattern is so versatile and as mentioned above, choosing twelve coordinating fabrics will always create beautiful results…Here are a few other versions of Prismatic!

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Prismatic! is a super fun quilt  – so dive in and step up your colour game!    Thanks for your support and happy holidays!  Until your next colour fix~Linda & Carl

 

 

 

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Blue Moon Batiks

Blue-Moon-Blog-Hop-Button-300x300UPDATE!!  AnneD from @batiksbythebay – you are the randomly selected winner for our Blue Moon Batik Blog Hop – please email or dm me at colourwerx@embarqmail.com with your mailing address to receive your prize!!  Thank you to everyone for playing along!! 

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Hey y’all !  Today is our day for the Blue Moon Batik Blog Hop and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

We’re one of the last stops on the hop so let’s get that very important ‘blog business’ out of the way first – there are giveaways !!!

We’re giving away a free Mini ModDog pattern  and there’s a giveaway over at Canton Village Quilt Works too!  So be sure to leave a comment below and then after you read this – hop on over to Canton Village Quilt Works and enter the giveaway there too (scroll towards the bottom of her blog post)!  Back to the hop….

Blue Moon Batiks is the new signature collection of designer extraordinaire and Colourwerx good friend, Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quilt Works for Island Batiks.  Kathy Engle designed this collection for Jackie and it is filled with lots of super yummy, super saturated moody blues, purples, lavenders and turquoises.

Carl and I met Jackie almost a year ago at the Spring Quilt Market.   Jackie is also the author of the best selling book “Splash of Color”  and of course, a lover of everything #colouricious – so naturally, we three hit it off!

When Jackie mentioned that the Blue Moon Batik Fabric Collection was coming out soon, I jumped at the chance to make her a few Mini ModDogs to display in her booth at the Fall Quilt Market.

Here’s the assortment of lovelies Jackie sent out to me.  This also gives you a wee bit closer look at the fabulous batik designs in this collection – can I have a “ooo” and a “ahhhh” – especially for those snowflakes and pinecones please! (thanks!)
BlueMoonFabric

I first set out to make (2) ModDog pillows for her booth.  One with the snowy white background and the other with that deep indigo blue.  Of course both dogs had to also have beautiful ribbon collars from Renaissance Ribbons!  ok – that was fun!

 

Once I finished those two  –  I had fabric left over and of course, and a few spare moments to make another  (well – more like a few spare hours….)  Wanting to make something ‘just for Jackie’, I decided to play up on her ‘moon’ theme and applique a huge, bright moon in the background of the next ModDog.

I used my trusty Creative Grids Circle Savy Ruler to cut out the moon and applique it to the background fabric.

 

Next – I made a beautiful indigo colored ModDog and appliquéd him over the background.  And voila!  I was just ‘over the moon’ in love with this guy!

 

Blue Moon Batiks will be in your local shops very soon so be sure to ask for them by name and tell your quilt shops you “need” some Blue Moon Batiks by Jackie Kunkel!!

 

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Ok – remember to enter our giveaways – make sure to leave a comment below to enter  for a chance to win a Mini ModDog pattern,  and then hop on over to Canton Village Quilt Works and enter Jackie’s big giveaway!!!  We’ll pick winners on Saturday, February 10th!

Thanks for hopping along with us!  Until your next colour fix~ Linda & Carl

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On the Road Again….

Glendale 1We just returned from vending at the 2017 Glendale Quilt Guild show and for us, it was a first of many things:

  1. …the first time vending in California;
  2. ….the first time vending as Colourwerx and not Linderella’s;
  3. …and the first time Carl and I vended together as a team without one of us being in the booth and the other in the shop.Glendale 2

All in all, it was fun time and the Glendale Quilt Guild put on a marvelous show with hundreds of quilts on display and several nice exhibits and boutiques.  It was held at the Pasadena Convention Center – a somewhat familiar setting for us as this was our home turf some 15 years ago.

Our small, but cozy 10 x 10 booth was an experiment of sorts – seeing whether we could survive with each other in such a small space for longer than 3 hours – I’m happy to report that we did!  Here’s a little tour of our booth – a major plus was the nicely patterned carpet at the convention center and tons of natural light!

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BlueDogWe brought our inventory of Colourwerx patterns and also added the popular Mini ModDog fabric kits (a hit!), fabric packs for Spikey & ModTV,  as well as our new colouricious Kona Cotton bundles (yummmmm!)  –  a special, curated blend of  luscious CW Bundlescolours to inpire you.  The MOD TV fabric kit was the runaway hit followed closely by the Mini Mod Dog fabric kits!  I’m happy to report, as you might have guessed, that these items are also now available in our shop!

Of course, there were many beautiful quilts on display!  A few of my favorite quilts from the show were these below – find the title and credit to the quiltmaker when you click on the picture.

All in all I think the weekend went very well – we met many new faces, met up with some old friends and had a great time.

Next stop on our road tour?  You’ll find us here:
•  October 2017 – Quilt Market (Houston, TX)
•  January 2018 – Road to California (Ontario, CA)
•  February 2018 – Quilt Con – Modern Quilt Guild (Pasadena, CA)

Hope to see you there!  Until you next colour fix~
Linda & Carl