Mystic Gold

Mystic GoldFall Quilt Market is quickly approaching and guess what? – we are finally catching up with this blog post about quilts we designed for the Spring Quilt Market in St. Louis!  Oh my – how time does fly!

Fabric designer and artist, Anna Marie Horner, debuted her gorgeous new fabric collection called “Floral Retrospective” at the Spring Quilt Market – which is now out in stores  – and we were fortunate enough to be asked by Free Spirit Fabrics to design a quilt for their booth using her new fabrics.   Introducing Mystic Gold!

When Carl designed this pattern in EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7 software), he wanted to accentuate the rings moving outward from center (as if a pebble had been dropped in a calm pool of water) and give the quilt that almost mystical  “vibrating” or “zingey” look (think of hitting a gong) – hence the pointed tips around each curve.

Mystic Gold PetalsAnd what looks to be complicated curved piecing –  really isn’t!  Here’s how we did it:

  1.   A simple half squared triangle block is created first;
  2. ….then we added the corner triangles;
  3. …then we created the petal applique by sewing the lightest weight fusible interfacing right sides together with the fabric petal, slitting the center and turning the unit right side out;
  4. …lastly, we fused the petal to the center seam line, topstitched the edges  and voila! – it looks like some serious curved piecing occurred when in fact, it was super easy!

Mystic Gold Drawings

mystic-topstitch.pngTopstitching was super simple using my #10 Edgestitch Presser Foot (a must for this type of job!) and a matching 40wt Aurifil thread. Perfect every time!  If you’ve ever made an orange peel block, then this is very similar if not the same method indeed!

 

Teresa, from Quilting at my Bliss, did some awesome custom machine quilting.  The free motion feathers across each petal were to die for and her custom quilting in between was equally gorgeous. (click on the pictures to enlarge).

By the way, Teresa has a new book launching in October, called the “Longarm Quilting Longarm Quilt WorkbookWorkbook”.  It’s filled with great tips on basic skills, techniques and motifs to help get you started  longarm quilting – so if you’ve just purchased a longarm or are considering buying one – this would be a great book to consider adding to your reference library.  And of course, if you’re just looking for some new and fun ideas on how to quilt something – there’s lots and lots and lots of eye candy!  Of course, you can buy directly from Teresa and have her autograph it too!

mystic-at-market.jpgAll in all, this one was super fun quilt to design and create,  and we were so honored that Free Spirit chose this one to hang in their booth at Spring Quilt Market.

If you like this design, it is now available as a free download on the their website – here’s the link!

Until your next colour fix~
Linda & Carl

 

 

…Just exactly what do you guys do?…

IMG_6104For the trade only – Quilt Market happens just twice a year and it is ‘the place’ to preview the newest fabrics, patterns and notions that will be arriving at your local quilt shop in the coming year.

Like most Quilt Markets it was exhausting but very energizing….  The ‘exhausting’ is in the designing, making and preparing all of our quilts for display, coming up with a new look for our Colourwerx booth (see below for a couple of snaps) , designing and printing handouts and brochures, and the final step – hoping that it all arrives (including us and the quilts) in one piece to the venue and on time.

The ‘energizing’ is actually just being there – being able to view and or try out the latest fabrics, notions and patterns, seeing a vast variety of quilts all made with different techniques and styles, and lastly and most importantly catching up with friends and colleagues and meeting new ones. Here were a few of our favorites:

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Amy Butler’s Booth

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Sew Many Creations’ Booth

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Tula Pink’s Booth

We were also thrilled to see several of our ‘secret sewing’ designs hanging in the Free Spirit Fabric booth and Quilt Gallery.  ‘Secret sewing’ – meaning we were not able to reveal them to you until now because the fabric had not yet been released.

Which brings me to this important note:  We get asked alot “….just exactly what do you guys do….”  – well, aside from the obvious fact that we sell patterns for our original designs and make quilts (and we make alot of them!), we also design quilt patterns and make quilts for many well known fabric companies.  Hence, the term “secret sewing”.

For example, a new fabric collection is due to be released in the next 6-9 months but the fabric designer may be a well known painter or illustrator and know very little about quiltmaking…so that’s where we step in….we are contracted by the fabric company to take the fabric collection and design several patterns highlighting that collection…then we are asked to develop one or several of these designs further by writing a pattern and actually making the quilt for display – it is great fun but it is also ‘top secret stuff’ as we can’t reveal to you what we are up to until the collection is released.

Back to Spring Quilt Market, we designed and made five quilts that were on display at Spring Quilt Market, and these were fairly “top secret” until about 2 weeks prior to Spring Quilt Market.  Some of these designs had been in the works since January so it was mighty hard not to tell you what we were up to….

We’ll highlight these designs later but here’s a short preview of them hanging in the Free Spirit Fabric Gallery of Quilts.  And we must give credit to our dear friend Teresa at Quilting is my Bliss – she custom  quilted all of these and did just an absolutely fantastic job!  If you see a quilt you like, then jump on over to the Inspiration page on the the Free Spirit website to download the free pattern  – some of these are available now and some are coming in a few weeks or so, plus there are loads more free patterns there by other fellow designers that are super terrific, so check it out!

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Mystic Gold

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Hat Boxes

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All Stacked Up

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Easy Sunday

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Racetrack

And finally –  Colourwerx (meaning Carl and I)  designed and debuted three new patterns which are now available at your local quilt shops – they are also available for purchase on our website!   PDF versions of these are in the works and should be available by the end of June!  (drum roll….) They are: ModCats, Mod TV and Mix It Up!  All are super fun patterns and incorporate the slash ‘n sew method we love!

All in all, a great time was had by all and now we’re turning our thoughts towards the Houston Quilt Market in October (yes, October already!)

Thank you to all for following along with us, and until your next colour fix~
Linda & Carl

Our shop, Linderella’s Will be Closing….

Have you heard the saying “Some of the best things in life happen when you least expect them…?” Well, something has happened and it’s of course, when we least expected it….The Linderella Brick & Mortar shop will be closing…..

cwlogowebAs many of you know – this past year we’ve had lots of pots percolating – operating two full time businesses – Linderella’s Quilt Works, the shop & Colourwerx, the design business. We knew at some point we would have to make a choice between the two – well, we’re excited to announce that one “colourful” pot – Colourwerx Designs – has recently boiled over with loads of exciting opportunities that we intend to pursue. Unfortunately that means just one thing…the Linderella brick & mortar store will need to close.

We are “Movin’ On Up” to something new and we hope you’ll join us to say goodbye to Linderella’s Quilt Works in grand “sale-abratory” fashion!!  In order to prepare for this – the shop will be closed Mon-Wed., November 7th-9th! But…

img_2623Starting Thursday, November 10th at 10am-
Our “Movin’ On Up” sale-a-bration to celebrate over 8 years in business will begin, and all Linderella assets will be liquidated! This will be fast, folks – so don’t delay!  You snooze, you lose!

*  Storewide – All Merchandise Discounted at 25% to 35%!!
(Online shoppers – stay tuned! What doesn’t sell in the shop will be made available online at substantial discounts in a few very short weeks – Yippee!)

* Beautiful designer quilting cottons discounted –
No moldy-oldies here. It is definitely worth the drive!

* All books, patterns & kits on sale – current titles!

* All notions substantially reduced! Blades, cutting mats, needles & thread – oh my!

* Fixtures, furniture & all equipment for sale –
sewing machines, sewing tables, irons, classroom tools & notions, custom fabric shelves, racks, decor, displays –
all first come, first serve basis!
**Note: Shop owners also welcome – by appointment – please call!
**All fixtures, furniture & equipment must be paid for in full at the time of purchase and picked up from the shop at your expense and muscle prior to the closing date – Failure to do so, will result in you forfeiting your monies and that item and it will be
sold to the next person!

So grab your friends and come on down to our Linderella”Sale-A-Bration” to close out our shop!
Starting Thursday, November 10th at 10am!

img_2621Just a little note from Linda & Carl ~
We appreciate each and every one of you, and will always cherish the memories we made with you these last 8 years. Please know that while we are sad to be closing our brick and mortar shop, we are also equally excited about our next adventures with Colourwerx and hope that you will continue to be part of our colourful quilting journey!

Thank you as always for your continued support! It has been our pleasure to serve you, and we hope to see you in the shop for our Sale-A-Bration on or after November 10th  – Happy & bright quilting always!

New Patterns for the New Year!

Happy New Year and wishing you all a joyous and happy start to 2016!!

But without further delay, we have a special new year announcement for you all….Covers

We are so thrilled to announce that our new Colourwerx patterns are now available.  That’s right – Cosmos, Dazzle (formerly the dragonfly quilt), Skyline, Spikey, Colourstruck and Feelin’ Groovy are all available and you can purchase them at our new  Colourwerx Shop located here – http://colourwerx-shop.myshopify.com

We’re delighted to offer them to you in printed form or as a PDF digital download.

Save20And to sweeten the deal and to thank you for your patience, we’re offering a New Year’s Special…save 20% off all orders just using the code NEWYEAR20 at checkout. This special will be for limited time and expires on January 15, 2016.   All orders for printed patterns will ship out no later than Friday, January 8th (PDF’s will be available as a digital download file immediately after placing your order).

And with the New Year means new things coming your way – over the next few months, watch our blog for free tutorials, more colour features and free patterns ….we’ll also be starting up Colourwerx Newsletter – We hope you’ll sign up to catch up on the latest news about us, Colourwerx and what colour adventures we’re up to. …just click here to sign up!….http://colourwerx-shop.myshopify.com/pages/newsletter

Happy New Year and thank you all so much again for your continued support!

Until your next colour fix~

Linda & Carl

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Back to the Future….

floorIt’s hard to believe that in a few short months we will be headed back where it all began some 14 years ago….back to the Houston Quilt Market trade show…..but this time under our new design company….Colourwerx.

We booked our very first trade booth at the Kansas City Quilt Market in the Spring of 2001….we debuted with just six Linderella patterns…it was a monumental task for two individuals who knew nothing about the industry and who were really going because it “sounded like a fun thing to do” (oh my!)   At that time, we were both working full time at our “TV jobs” in Hollywood – we designed in the mornings and made quilt samples in the evenings…we drew the illustrations by hand and scanned them into Adobe Illustrator without having a clue about how to use the program – we must have set up and auditioned and re-auditioned the booth in our backyard about 20 gazillion times – we direct mailed to quilt shops across the country inviting them to see out booth and enclosed free patterns for them to test (can you imagine?) Instagram and Facebook would have been great assets but at that time, they weren’t even invented! – in short, we jumped in head first and never looked back.  Our patterns were a hit and we were on our way!application

Now we’re headed back to where it all began – to Quilt Market and the funny thing is, it is under very similar circumstances… our full time job is running our quilt shop (Linderella’s)  but at the end of each day, our attention turns to Colourwerx and the patterns and design process….we collaborate each evening….free moments are usually spent designing, sketching or feverishly sewing up a new quilt sample for our booth….Sunday is no longer a day of rest  but rather a day to squeeze in all that Colourwerx needs doing….we are essentially headed back to our future, and it feels great!  Colourful things are coming – see you in Houston!

Until your next colour fix~Linda & Carl