I've Moved

...but you guys didn't seem to move with me.
I have a brand new, beautiful website and I'm super excited about it, but I'm a wee bit lonely because I found out that all my wonderful followers here at blogger didn't have their feeds forwarded to my new site.
Anyway, I'm so glad to have the opportunity to welcome you all to my new space on the web.
All my patterns have been updated and are available there as downloadables and there are links to my shop and flickr and much, much more.
Even more importantly, I'm hosting a giveaway in my new space right now.
Mosey on over there, comment, and be entered to win a copy of this pattern:

My Klee's Trees pattern is ready to go and, along with the giveaway, I'm announcing a sew-along for this project starting the first week in June.
See, I told you, fun stuff.
So, click over to http://stitchindye.com/blog and, while you're there, subscribe to receive email updates from the blog. That way, we'll never be parted again.

Once upon a time...

There was a quilt.

It was a pretty quilt, but it longed for adventures and new friends.
So, it made plans to travel to a faraway land.
By magic broom.

Magic broom promised to take the quilt to a wonderful place filled with beautiful fabric and sewing machines that never needed oiling.
But, magic broom warned, we may encounter some dangerous creatures.

Some might even have sharp springs and jaws that clamped.
Happily, the first being that the quilt met in the new land was a comfy chair.

Granted this was the kind of chair whose wooden seat really needed a nice padded, patchwork seat cushion and people had grown tired of asking when the sewer of the land would get around to making one, but it was a sturdy, friendly chair purchased for practically nothing at a garage sale.
The quilt and the chair shared a passion for all things fibrous, be it wood or textile, and set off to find more chairs or quilts, whichever they spied first.

Can you imagine their glee when they came upon yet another garage sale chair!
They were a very happy threesome.
And what better way to celebrate their newfound trio than to make a fort to snuggle under.

The quilt and the chair and the other chair loved their creation and lived happily there.

Friday Finishes

I probably shouldn't have titled the post like that because it implies that this will be a weekly feature much like "What I'm Working on Wednesday".  And, though I think I could show something finished every Friday, I'm not so sure it would always merit being seen.
Also, in all honestly, what I'm showing today as a finished product...isn't. The top is finished. but there's still plenty to do.
Before I feature the top I wanted to thank everyone for their feedback regarding whether it's ok to show the work in progress. My gut says it should be. If the point of a blog is to re-create a journal that just happens to be on the web, then work-in-progress and not-quite-rights should appear there. If this was a paper and pen journal, and I have those too, it would be filled with quick notes and bits of inspiration as well as evidence that things had been tried and failed.
Anyway, back to the pseudo finish:

The top is done!
It's a smaller quilt than the Boyfriend Quilt, more baby or lap size. That means that I'll be quilting it myself this weekend and hopefully getting started on the directions. I'm hoping to have that ready for release by the end of April. And then, I was thinking about a sew-along. Anyone interested in that? I've already bought black fabric for my second version so I can play with a different effect in the background.

I don't think I'll be using the same colored strips either. I have a different plan for these leftovers.

I will be adding a few new items today to my store, all fabric, so, if you're interested in that, please stop by.

What I'm Working on Wednesday

New fabrics for my shop.

I especially love this pattern. It's one of that I created for my next commercial collection for Moda, but this one is obviously hand patterned and dyed and each hexagon is larger in scale than it will be in the commercial version.
I'm also working on new color ways for existing patterns like this one:

And new lengths for a few much loved patterns.

Due to a custom order, I recently ordered some blank yardage that 60" wide instead of the traditional 44" wide and am wondering if other folks would be interested in single yard pieces that are extra wide? Feel free to pipe in here and give me some feedback.
I  haven't forgotten about my monthly pattern and am making good progress on my Klee's Trees quilt. Hopefully I'll have the remaining 8 blocks done by week's end and will be ready to start writing the pattern as well quilting the top.
In the meantime, here's a progress shot to give you a hint of how it's coming together.

I know there are different schools of thought about whether you should post images of work in progress, especially when it has a commercial purpose, but I'm only human and I get excited about what I'm working on and I want to share that excitement.
I don't think that diminishes other people's interest in making the quilt when the pattern becomes available, do you?

What I'm Working On Wednesday

Last Friday, I featured the beginnings of a quilt inspired by a digital pattern I found on Pinterest.
Since then I've worked on tinting the black and white version to be able to highlight different parts of the pattern. I like finding secondary and tertiary patterns and playing with those.
All that play resulted in this single block:

My plan is for the finished quilt to include 9 blocks and would therefore end up measuring about 64" x 76". 

Because I tend to mentally complete images I can pretty easily imagine the interaction between the different patterns that will be created by just varying the colors and values of the stripe combinations. it's actually very easy to piece. Everything is either a strip or a triangle. No complicated set in seams here.

While I was working on this though, I noticed this:

Do you see it too? Don't sweat it if you don't. But, at some point I noticed a motif that reminded me of another motif that I'd seen and sketched in November of 2012. 

I was in Switzerland and visited the Paul Klee museum in Bern where I saw lots of amazing work, made note of many things, but made several sketches of a motif I decided to call "Klee's Trees".

Since then I've made several attempts to figure out how this pattern/motif could be interpreted in patchwork,

but never quite figured it out until my eye was caught by that pieced section. It took a bit of color tweaking and probably will be adjusted more as I become more familiar with the pattern, but this is what I've come up with:

One of the things I'm discovering is the possibility for play just within each block.

I can vary the color of the strips simply to create a bit of difference.

I can vary the color of the strips to emphasize a section or create a secondary pattern.

Or I can vary the color of the background either part or all to emphasize diamond shape of  the "tree".

I can even play with the values of the strips that make up the tree and background to make the entire image drop back into the background.

I'm sure I'm not done discovering things about this pattern and maybe even finding new patterns that are outgrowths of this one just as it was an outgrowth of the larger block.

I suppose that's why we all do what we do. You just never know what's around the corner and what little inspiration from the past will come back to play a role in your present and maybe even in your future.

Inspiration: The Quick and Dirty Version

I've been thinking about this a lot lately: inspiration, where it comes from, why it's different for every person, and what you really end up doing with all those bits of inspiration you gather in the average day, week, year.
I think about this a lot primarily because I love Pinterest and gain a lot of inspiration from looking at images there.
Having said that, all I have time for today is the quick and dirty version of the discussion. It's the hey, here's a bit of inspiration I found and here's what I'm making of it.
I would, however, love to have a more extensive discussion about the topic, so I'm planning that for next week.
Today?
I have this:

Strips of color all neatly cut and ready for my next quilt pattern.
And this:

The inspiration image, found you know where, but linked to this site, and the beginnings of a quilt I'm calling "A Star for Baby C".
And even this:

The reject block or blocks. Because before you have the aha moment, you have a bunch of "eh, this is not quite it" moments.
The aha moments are a lot more fun. Here's hoping for a bunch of those this weekend!

What I'm Working on Wednesday

I'm a little late in the day posting this morning (yes, I know it's only 8:00am CST, but I usually like to get this done earlier). Anyhoo, I'm late because I was busy crafting a new shop banner with updated pictures and...my new logo. Yay!
Soon, very soon, my entire site will be fresh and user friendly and just plain fabulous. New posts, new tutorials, new patterns and shop offerings, and a complete listing of workshops, lectures, and publications.
In the meantime, here's what I'm working on today:

My basic starting point for what I'm calling "leftover play" is the smaller rectangle in my Boyfriend Quilt pattern. I made a few rules such as if the rectangle was already the largest size needed I wouldn't cut it ant smaller and that the patches that were made up of smaller bits had to have equally sized components. Makes sense? I just find that when you're trying to improvise in any way, some parameters are useful. Also, I stuck to alternating warm and cool colors like I do in the larger pattern.

Ideally, I'd like to use up all the scraps I have leftover from the larger quilt as that would make me feel very virtuous. We'll see how that goes.

Sale, sale, sale!!

Hey, do I have your attention?
Would it have been better if I titled this post: Free Cookies!?
Probably.
Anyway, the new pattern, Boyfriend Quilt, is listed and ready and, on sale, this week and next for 10% off.
But, before I give you the discount code, I want to add that EVERYTHING in my store is, in honor of the new pattern release, on sale for 10% off.
Yep, everything.
Want to get in on all that goodness? Apply this code, STITCHINDYE2014, at the time of purchase, anytime between now and March 28, 2014 and you'll receive the discount.

So...what are you waiting for?

It's Almost Here!

I'm going to be away from this space the rest of this week, but I wanted to tell y'all about something exciting and wonderful and...new.
Next Monday, March 17 I'll be adding this to my shop:

It's a PDF pattern for my first in my 12 in 12 series, the Boyfriend Quilt.
I am super proud of how this project turned out and to celebrate next Monday I'm planning a little something here on the pattern release day.
So, stay tuned, come back, and have a terrific week!

What I'm Working on Wednesday: Leftover Edition

When I was a kid I hated leftovers. I called it "old" food and why would I want to eat that.
Now, I'm, hopefully, older and wiser and I realize that: a. said leftover is the remains of what probably was super tasty last night and b. oftentimes the flavor is enhanced by having sat in the refrigerator overnight.
I think the same is true for fabric. As I mentioned in this post, I've wrapped up the initial design process for my next collection. Getting to that point necessitated making quite a bit of fabric, much of which wasn't needed for the samples I sent in to Moda.
So, I'm using some of those leftovers to make this:

It's a modified version of a design I created for my book, Fresh Quilting: Fearless Color, Design, and Inspiration and crafted out of 5" square scraps of my hand dyes and a simple cream colored cotton.

It's simple and quick and very visually tasty.
Perfect for leftovers.

Last Shots

...of the Boyfriend Quilt before it becomes a PDF pattern and belongs to someone else.

To answer a few of your questions:
This is my pattern and not available somewhere else.
I will be including information about the exact fabric(with color names) that I used.
I will also be including Moda Bella Solid substitutes(I do work for them, so...makes sense to me).
I anticipate the pattern being available early to mid March.
I don't actually know what caused the Polar Vortex.

Ok, no one asked the last question, but my answer is as true as the previous 3. If you have other questions/concerns, please feel free to share them with me via email or in the comments.

Outtakes

Titling this post "Outtakes" kind of assumes that there are intakes. In actuality there aren't...yet.
I went to a local park yesterday to take shots of the finished Boyfriend Quilt for the pattern and promotion and because the boyfriend's birthday is coming up next week, so my time with this quilt is getting limited.
Although it was a beautiful day, I just couldn't seem to find the "right" spot to take full view shots. I have some ideas for other locations and plan to try those out this weekend.
Until then, I'm sharing the "outtakes" from the photo shoot with you all.

Right now the quilt is in the dryer. All that nature got it a little dirty.

In shop news: More bundles and scrap packs listed for those who want them!

Have a great weekend!

What I'm Working on Wednesday

What am I working on this Wednesday?
Pretty much the same thing I was working on on Monday.
I did finish binding The Boyfriend Quilt and might have a chance to take some shots of it today, but I'm very much in the thick of things with these:

I'm constantly making and re-making lists of which patterns make the final cut and what color ways I still want to try. It's a good thing I have a deadline because my tendency is to wonder, " what if..." and I need to wrap up the group. I have told myself several times that not every pattern has to make it into this collection. I can always hold on to it and include it in another group down the road. That's the reasonable side of me. The other side? She's not so easily swayed by sensible arguments, but we're coming to the end here, so....
All this patterning and dyeing has yielded a few more bundles and a scrap pack for my store, so check that out if you have a minute.

Be back on Friday!

Patterning Ups and Downs

The other day I was having dinner with some friends and one of them suggested that we all name a highlight from the previous week. Though this may sound a bit awkward and forced, I think a lot about issues relating to gratitude and being present and possibly so do the folks I gravitate towards, so we thought this was a great idea.
We then took turns naming a single event that brightened our week. Several pointed to a particular work achievement and one or two mentioned something relating to relationships or friendship as their personal highlight.
I focused on creating. I'm hot and heavy at work on my next collection for Moda and I've struggled a bit with it. It seemed like lately that just as I'd I test a pattern I'd reject it for some reason. That is until last Thursday.
I can't pretend to say that I know what changed and I realize that that would probably be a good idea, but, in the course of one day, I went from having 3 "for sure" patterns to 7 definites and 2 probablies.
That was a very good day.

This shot of my design wall doesn't even represent all the possibilities, both accepted and rejected.

It makes me feel excited to have all the pattern possibilities because now I can play with the palette. That part I do have nailed down.

As for the patterns and/or color ways that don't make the final cut:

Look for these to be quilted, crafted into pillow covers, and added to my store.