EZ Quilting Tool Mini Quilt Challenge & Kate Spain Canyon Fabric

This is my entry for our the Southern CT Modern Quilt Guild's EZ Quilting Kate Spain mini-quilt Challenge.  We were each allowed to choose a tool when Michele Muska came to do the trunk show at our meeting this spring.

My chosen tool

I chose the mini Fat Cat.  Then we got samples of Kate Spain's new fabric line with Moda "Canyon" to use to make a 16" square mini quilt.  So.Much.Fun.  The quilts will be hung somewhere at Quilt Market (the Simplicity Creative Group's booth?), so if you go to market and can take a picture I would be THRILLED.

Mini Fat Cat Tool Kate Spain Challenge

I am wildly embarrassed to say that this is the first quilt I've ever made that I put a written label on.  I feel quilt shame.  Michelle Muska told our quilt guild about the importance of labels and how meaningful they are.

I realized after I handed my quilt in that I didn't put a name on it.  It's actually called Musical Chairs.  The two floating fat cats are supposed to look like they are going into the open background color spots.  It made sense when I drew it on paper, but I'm not sure how well it translated in my actual design.

Back of my Mini Quilt Challenge

My guild's president snapped this pic of Kate Spain herself at a LQS shop hop stop when she saw all of the challenge quilts made with her newest line...I think she looks pretty excited, don't you?

Photo credit M. Lieberson

My First COVER and Some Summer Catch Up

The lazy days of summer. They are wonderful aren’t they? It’s light out earlier in the morning AND later in the evening, and still, I realize things are getting scratched off my to-do list more slowly.

I’ve had some pretty exciting things happen though, during July and August. I’ve plastered them all over Instagram, but I decided it was important to memorialize them here.

My first published quilt pattern was published in the British magazine Quilt Now, in it’s June 2015 issue, number 12. The quilt is an oversized version of a single block. I absolutely love the look of bold, large scale designs like this. It’s made with Petal & Plume fabrics, by designer Bari J. of Art Gallery Fabrics. I also made a matching pillow, and called the two projects a “nap set”.

The editor Katy Jones had told me which issue the projects would be in, but it was a complete surprise to find them on the cover of the issue! I was scrolling through Facebook, and there they were…

That's my quilt, ON THE COVER

I didn’t find a copy of the magazine until around July 1st here in the US. It was a wonderful, fun day for me. 

As if that wasn’t enough, Michele Muska invited my quilt guild (Southern CT MQG) to come to the Simplicity creative offices in NYC in early August. I took a day off from work and spent a gorgeous sunny Wenesday travelling to the city to meet 6 of my fellow guild members for the day.

Me, Michelle our hostess, and my guild members

Michele took us around the office, and introduced us to lots of the people who work in the pattern making part of the business. It was so much fun to hear about what each person did, how the process worked, and get to see garments actually being made up.

Then we met with some of the folks from other areas of the business to talk social media, sewing tools, and the future of quilting. It was fantastic.

Michele lives in CT and had done a wonderful trunk show for our guild in March with the quilts from her book Quilting the New Classics. The quilts were just amazing in person and it was a treat to see them all at once. The book is beautiful, and full of color and inspiration.

Michelle's Wonderful Book, hyperlink above

August and September will be filled with making t-shirt quilts for customers, a Kate Spain/Simplicity mini-tool challenge, and my swap gift for my partner at Glamp Stitch-a-lot. I’d better get back to work!