Moda Blog Hop

Looking for my post about the Moda Blog Hop?
Click here.

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.

What I'm Working on Wednesday

Truth be told, what I'm working on today doesn't make for great visuals.
I'm writing the pattern for this:

and unless you're someone who would find a screenshot of a word document interesting there's not much to see...yet.
Even this photo is not exactly what I had planned. I took it with my phone. I usually don't post those pictures here as I have a lovely DSLR to take really(hopefully) good pictures with. It's battery was dead though and I wanted to post, so here you have it.
I am super eager to get this pattern out because: a. I think you all will like it and b. I want to do the sew-along. The first reason is my community-based, good citizen reason. The second one is closer to the truth.
So, I'm tentatively setting the end of April for the pattern release and mid-May for the sew-along.
In the meantime, this Wednesday, I'm writing...and designing the next quilt!

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?

Hungry Eyes

That's the way I used to describe my need to be visually inspired. I honestly felt like my eyes were hungry in the way my stomach would be if I hadn't eaten.
When I first discovered online places like Flickr, I felt like that unquenched need had a place to turn to be satiated. And this, despite the fact that it might take a bit of searching to find images that spoke to me personally.
As an artist and designer, I think Pinterest does an even better job of meeting that need. Maybe it has to do with the way it is organized. Maybe it's because you  curate what you see, but I find myself turning to it on a daily basis, pinning images, and reviewing those images when the creative well is a little dry.
Today, I thought I'd share 5 images from my Inspirations Board, that's 5 out of 1,307 pins. These are not my 5 favorites, though I love each one. The board is packed with favorites, so I couldn't possibly pick 5. These are just a sampling, somewhat randomly selected, but all very beautiful. I hope they inspire you too. I've linked each image which hopefully will guide you to the original maker.

This is a knitted blanket design by Kristin Kapur. I love many of her designs and it's easy to see how this inspired this:

Next up is a print by one of my all time favorite artists/designer, Anni Albers.

Though this is a screen print, I can definitely see it re-interpreted as a quilt, couldn't you?

I find myself returning often to this image of crocheted blankets. I love thinking about ways to re-envision this concept in fabric rather than yarn.

Here's a rug design that would make an amazing quilt!

Sometimes, it's a simple twist on the tradition that catches my eye. I love the Double Wedding Ring pattern and I think this is a lovely rendition of it, but what really caught my eye and made me think about applying it to my own designs was the use of black rather than a traditional white or cream as the background color. This block is the perfect kind of inspiration because there's something in it that starts me thinking about seeing or doing things in a different way. That's exactly what my eyes are hungry for.