Wonky Piecing & Easy Applique QAL – Week 2 -Wonky Piecing Made Simple & Cutting Out Your Animal Shapes!

Welcome back!   It’s Week #2 of our Wonky Piecing & Easy Appliqué QuiltAlong !  This week we’ll be creating our Wonky Piecing Strip Sets, fusing your animal shapes onto those strips sets and then cutting out the animal shapes.

If you’re just joining us this week, be sure to review Week #1’s Blog Post to find out how to purchase the pattern and what fabrics and materials you’ll need to gather –

READ WEEK #1’S POST BY CLICKING HERE

Also, just a friendly reminder!   If you want to join with other quilty friends and aren’t yet a member of our Facebook group, I invite you to join our free QAL Facebook group where you can ask questions, share your progress and of course, post pictures of your finished projects so everyone can share in the fun!  Also feel free to share this invite and any other QAL news with quilty buddies and invite them to join along in the fun!

JOIN THE COLOURWERX QAL FACEBOOK GROUP HERE

Let’s get started! —
I love ‘wonky piecing’!  It’s liberating, easy to do and best of all you don’t need to have an exact or even perfect 1/4″ seam.   First, gather your strips.

Lay out the strips near your sewing machine in a pleasing manner.  This can be in whatever order you think looks good and there is no right or wrong. I’ll be making a ModCat with you while we quilt along together so here are my strips laid out on the cutting board in what looks like to me a very pleasing manner.

Follow the directions for wonky piecing in your patterns:  MiniModDog – Page 1; ModCat – pages 3-4; ModFish – pages 4-5.  In the pattern you’ll find fully illustrated diagrams to assist you.

But first I want to share a little trick that I like to do.  I like to “audition” the wonky angle before stitching 2 strips together. Begin your wonky piecing with the two bottom strips.

Here’s what I do to “audition” the angle before stitching:  I place the top strip Right Side Up on the other strip, slanting it at an angle or in the case below, slanting from top left to bottom right  – this allows you to “audition” the wonky angle before stitching it.

Once satisfied with your “slant”, just flip the the top strip over on top of the bottom strip mimicking that angle so the strips are now Right Sides Together.

Next just stitch the strips together and cut away the extra fabric beyond the stitching line as per your pattern instructions.

To add the next strip, just take the third strip in sequence, place it Right Side Together slanting in the opposite direction and “audition” the angle.  Looks good!  Ok – Flip that strip over so the strips are now Right Sides Together mimicking the angle and stitch to the second strip.

Then just continue on until your wonky pieced strip set is large enough for your animal shape.  Here are my (2) Wonky Pieced Strip Sets for my ModCat – one for the body and one for the head .

And here’s an example of what some Wonky Strip Pieced Sets might look like for a ModDog or ModFish:

ModDog

ModFish

Now you’re done with your Wonky Piecing and the real fun begins…fusing your animal shapes onto the wrong side of the strips sets and cutting out your animal shapes out!!

First, Rough Cut Out Your Shapes From the Fusible Web —
This step seems to confuse some people. 

Simply put, it means to cut out your animal shapes from the fusible web 1/4″-1/2″ BEYOND THE DRAWN LINE NOT ON THE DRAWN LINE like so…

Next, fuse your shapes to the WRONG side of your wonky pieced strip sets.  Also fuse the other shapes to the your selected fabrics at this time:  for example, the dog collar, or let’s say the fish faces or cat eyelids, etc…

With a sharp pair of scissors, cut out the shapes on the drawn line – take your time here and be exact.   Here’s my ModCat shapes all cut out.

Here’s what your ModDog or ModFish shapes might look like after being cut out:

Just a word on scissors — I love these Karen Kay Buckley Precision Tip scissors pictured below.  These are about 5″ long, easy and comfortable to grip and are the perfect little pair of scissors for precision cutting of applique shapes of any size.  There are my go-to scissors for just this kind of work and I highly recommend them!

You can purchase them at your local quilt shop or any online retailer.

Look for a little companion video on Week #2 – Wonky Piecing to be posted in a few days!

Yay!  🙂  That’s it for Week #2!!  Next week – Week #3: we’ll be machine quilting up the background fabric and I’ll show you a few different ideas that you can incorporate into your quilting!!

Until then, please be sure to email us at colourwerx@yahoo.com if you have any questions.  Or feel free to post progress pictures on our Colourwerx QAL Facebook Group.

Until your next colour fix and next week’s QAL post ~  happy and bright quilting always!    L&C xxoo

Abstract Garden Blog Hop & Giveaway!

WINNER  WINNER! 

Congratulations to Allison!!  Molly (our Beagle) selected Comment #72 – Allison in Alabama –  with the Random # Generator  as the Winner of our Colourwerx/Abstract Garden giveaway!  Hurray, and congratulations to Allison.  And thank you to everyone who played along!

Hey y’all !  Today is our day on the Abstract Garden Blog Hop and we couldn’t be more thrilled that Benartex Fabrics and designer, Christa Watson asked us to join in on the fun! To find out more about the Abstract Garden Blog Hop and Christa’s inspiration behind this fab fabric collection, check out Benartex’s Sew in Love (with Fabric) blog and Christa’s blog here!

We’re one of the last stops on the hop so first let me say – there are giveaways!!! Yippee!  Christa and the nice folks at Benartex are giving away an Abstract Garden Fat Quarter Bundle and we here at Colourwerx are also throwing in a pattern pack of the three patterns we used when making the projects you see here: ModCat, Mini ModDog & Disco.

Here’s how the giveaway works: Just leave a comment below and we’ll select a winner Saturday morning.  It’s that easy!   Back to the hop….

Abstract Garden is the new signature collection of designer extraordinaire and Colourwerx good friend, Christa Watson of Christa Quilts.    The collection is super modern, fab, fun and bright – just my cup of tea!  Last year, when Christa mentioned that her Abstract Garden Fabric Collection was coming out soon, I jumped at the chance to make her a few projects to display in her booth at the Fall Quilt Market. Here’s a picture of the finished projects…

Christa is also always so generous with her fabric!  Here’s the assortment of fabulous fabrics Christa sent out to me.  Check out the #colouricious tones and those fabulous mid-mod designs (can I get a ooooo and an ahhhhhh please!), ….not only did Christa send me  fat quarters of the entire collection of Abstract Garden, but she also included some fabrics from her first 2 collections, Modern Marks and Fandangle – and yes, I do have big plans for these other fabrics soon! 🙂

Now – what projects to make for Christa??  Well that was easy – what could be better than a ModCat and Mini ModDog out of Christa’s super modern fabrics!!

I made the ModCat trio first – this is the wallhanging version of our popular ModCat pattern.  First I needed to divide the fabrics she sent me into three colorways – I decided to make a yellow/orange, blue/aqua, and purple/pink cat.  After wonky strip piecing the fabrics together, I cut out the cat shapes and then appliqued stitched around the cat eyes before fusing everything to the background fabric.   Hint – hint!: By stitching around the cat eyes first, I have more control over my stitching and it’s easier to control the zigzag around the smaller shapes.

I had a lot of scraps left over so next I made (2) Mini ModDog pillows for her booth – these are always so much fun and work up quickly – I made Christa a girl and a boy dog pillow!!.  Again first I machine quilted the background, then wonky strip pieced the the fabrics together, cut out the shapes and appliqued stitched the pups to their fabrics.  These came out super cute if I do say so myself!

Finally, I worked up for Christa my Disco pattern in her new collection. I placed this version of Disco on the back of my pattern cover!    I just love it!

Also on today’s blog hop are Tara and Stephanie – check out their links below and hop on over to their blogs!   And be sure to check out Benartex’s blog tomorrow where they’ll present a virtual trunk show of Christa’s Abstract Garden quilts.  Here’s the full list of my fellow bloggers and the quick links to their blogs ….

Monday 
Benartex Blog – Intro & inspiration about my designs

Tuesday
Sherry Shish from Powered by Quilting
Lee Monroe from May Chappell

Wednesday
Annie Unrein from Patterns by Annie
Pam and Lynn from The Stitch TV Show

Thursday

Linda Sullivan from Colourwerx (YOU ARE HERE!)

Tara Miller from The Quilt District

Stephanie Kendron from Modern Sewciety

Friday

Benartex Blog – Virtual Trunk Show of my Quilts

Finally – go ahead and leave a comment below to enter our giveaway!  Molly the Beagle – office manager in charge – will randomly select a winner on Saturday morning! 

And be sure to ask your local quilt shops if they have Abstract Garden.  If not, check out Christa’s online shop to order some of these great fabrics for your stash!

Happy quilting and until your next colour fix~Linda & Carl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching at AQS Paducah!

A few weeks ago I returned from Paducah, Kentucky and had a great time teaching at the annual AQS 2018 Spring Quilt Week- Paducah.  If you’ve never been before – well then, place this city and the show on your list of must see adventures in the quilt world.

First, let me say how honored I was to be asked to teach two classes for AQS (American Quilter’s Society), and secondly, what a thrill to be teaching in Quilt City USA, Paducah, Kentucky!!

AQS and their staff do an awesome job of organizing the show, classes and other activities in the convention center and all around town.  There was so much to see – not only within the show but in the city as well.  Shuttle buses were readily available to take visitors in and around town to see all the sites available: The National Museum, Quilt in a Day & Hancock’s of Paducah quilt shops, more fabric shops and antique shops galore, historical and Civil War buildings and monuments, and the famed river wall murals along the edges of the great Ohio & Tennessee Rivers.

The show itself was fantastic and big…. staged in over four areas in and around the Schroeder Expo Center –  one of them being a huge tent as big as a football field known as the “Dome”.  And of course , lots and lots of quilts to see and lots and lots of vendors to shop from.

 

The exhibition quilts were fantastic.

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And adding to the excitement was the fact that my Dazzle Quilt (beautifully machine quilted by Teresa Silva- Quilting is My Bliss), was also juried into the show and on exhibit! Needless to say, I was beyond excited….

“Dazzle” on Display at AQS Quilt Week-Paducah 2018

The first class I taught was my Wonky Strip & Easy Appliqué Mini Mod Dog class.  Twenty four eager ladies awaited me – I was a bit nervous – but they were all so fantastic and gracious!  Everyone enjoyed the evening and finished their playful pups – what a great time!

The next day was a day off for me so I went sightseeing – my first stop was the National Quilt Museum.  Special exhibits included Japanese Quilters Who Have Influenced the World, Minature Quilts and a special exhibit of quilts using the BowTie block.  Unfortunately no cameras were allowed but you can see some of the fantastic quilts by perusing the museum’s website.

After that I hopped back on the bus and toured the city – The famed river wall murals, the downtown area….

Then I was off  Hancock’s of Paducah, where I spotted several of our patterns that we had designed for Free Spirit Fabrics using Kaffe Fassett Fabrics hanging in the shop and kitted up !

The next day I taught my second class : Appliqué Stitch Lab.  Another sold out class and another eager set of ladies ready to rock machine appliqué.   They all did awesome, as evidenced by my ‘action shots’ below.  I was so proud of them – diving in without trepidation, and wildly selecting decorative stitches to embellish their appliques! Wow!  They were all super students!

And then in a flash – my time in Paducah was over and I headed home….but what a great time!  Thank you AQS and Paducah!

To Market We Go! Houston Recap & Giveaway!

To market, to market we go!  As always,  the Fall Quilt Market was held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.   Except this market, someone came knocking early – yup – Hurricane Harvey crashed our quilty party a few months prior.  Many of us vendors and many more shop owners and attendees were concerned that either Houston would not recover or that the promoters of the Quilt Market would be forced to cancel.    Well, I’m happy to report that neither was true and Quilt Market went off without a hitch – and amazingly, there was no sight of any effect from Hurricane Harvey except for upbeat banners and artwork like this one throughout the city!  The downtown Houston area was lively and the convention center (which just completed a gorgeous 2 year revitalization) was perfect!  And added to this excitement, the Houston Astros were in the World Series!  This all made for a very exciting market to say the least!

We debuted 2 new patterns – Mini ModDog & Mini Spikey – and before you change that channel – make sure you leave a comment at the end of this blog and ask your friends to follow us and do the same to enter the giveaway!  Two lucky winners will win either a Mini Spikey fabric kit or a Mini ModDog fabric kit –  just leave your comment below and let us know which one you’d like and why.…ok – ‘nuf said…..anyway back to market……we debuted 2 new patterns – Mini ModDog and Mini Spikey – both are now available for purchase on our website!

We also attended our first ever Sample Spree selling already made Mini ModDog samples along with 6 Mini ModDog patterns – this way, shop owners have an already made sample and take it right back to their shop and start selling the patterns – nifty idea, right?!…Here’s Carl,  moments before the madness started.   Btw, the dog samples were a hit and the shop owners were thrilled to have an already made sample!  Below is a slideshow of all the Mini ModDogs samples we put together – we made 2-4 versions of all the styles you see – all in all, we estimated that we stitched up about 45 samples in the weeks prior to market – Wowwee!

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Of course, I needed to share these cute little pups with others too.  I also made a few for my friend, Jackie Kunkel at Canton Village Quilt Works to display in her booth –  using her new fabric collection, “Blue Moon” for Island Batiks.  This batik collection is super  gorgeous and so super saturated in all those blue, aqua, lavender and purple colours.  And of course, a play on the name – “Blue Moon”,  I couldn’t resist adding a moon behind one of the pups to make it extra super special for Jackie.  🙂 Jackie was so nice she even showed the Mini ModDog pillows to her schoolhouse attendees to generate more interest!

And spotted in another booth – Renaissance Ribbons had their very own Kaffe Fassett Mini ModDog too.  Renaissance Ribbons makes the most gorgeous ribbons and trims and since we embellish all of our Mini ModDogs with these trims so it only seemed quite natural that a pup pillow should be in their booth too!

And finally , we also designed and stitched up (with a lot of help from Teresa at Quilting is my Bliss and her extraordinary custom machine quilting) a grand total of 6 more quilts for Free Spirit Fabrics and 2 more quilts for Island Batiks. 

Free Spirit Fabrics always does a great job of displaying the new collections via their quilt gallery and this year they won the blue ribbon for best booth!  Yay! Super secret sewing was in full swing here at the Colourwerx Dezign Haus from early May onward – some of the fabric designers we had the honor of designing and making quilts for were:  Kaffe Fassett Collective, Tula Pink, Jenifer Paganalli,  and Corrine Haig.  Most of the quilts you’ll see here are now available as free PDF pattern downloads on Free Spirit’s website here.

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In addition to that, we also made large lap size versions of our Colourwerx patterns:  Spikey and Mix It Up! for our friends at Island Batiks in the their newest fabric collections debuting at market.  They displayed these in their booth – Take a look!

Whoo – time to rest?  Nah – we’re already planning our trip to Spring Market which will be in Portland…Yippee!

Anyway, thanks as always for following along with us!  And remember to leave a comment to enter the giveaway for a either a Mini ModDog fabric kit or Mini Spikey fabric kit! And be sure to ask a friend or two to do the same and leave a comment   Two winners will be randomly selected next Friday, November 17th!  Until your next colour fix – sew the rainbow and happy quilting!  L&C

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Road Again….

We 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.

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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We 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 colours 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.

The Fear of Fire by Anna Koelewyn

I Don’t Follow Rules by Anna Koelewyn

Wild Eagle by Bonnie Marshall-Creel

Mermaid by (my apologies as I did not write down the artists’ name)

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