Quilt Kits Available for Spring Blooms

We always enjoy seeing what all of you do with our designs. We try to add new quilts to our gallery on the website to provide inspiration for using a variety of fabrics and colors to achieve your own unique look. We are often asked if we have kits available for the patterns and we are happy to say that we are working on making some of them available. One of our popular patterns, Spring Blooms which was made using a line of Moda fabrics has been made into a kit by The Fat Quarter Shop. It is adorable and uses Hunky Dory fabrics by Chez Moi by Moda. They call is Cotton Candy Blooms. You can see it on their website at http://www.fatquartershop.com. If you have madequilt using our patterns, please feel free to send photos (electronic is best) and we will be happy to add them to our site.
Our best to all of you -
Laura & Diana

HATS OFF TO BLOGGERS

Hello Bloggers -
We have had a run of orders on our Going to Market Basket pattern over the past few weeks. When I asked some of the customers where they had seen it, a few of their favorite blogs were mentioned. We want to both acknowledge and thank them for the promotion. It was fun viewing their blogs and I found myself getting caught up in the moment (or should I say hours) of jumping from one to another. I think I now fully understand the excitement over these delightful online spaces to share and stay connected with others. Yikes, in a matter of minutes I found myself clicking from quilting to knitting, artisan bread baking and cupcakes (also a few of my passions). This can be dangerous, but in a good way. I need to stop and get some work done. If you are not familiar with these blogs, please take a few minutes to visit them, as they are wonderful: www.fredashive.blogspot.com, www. mrsschmenkmanquilts.wordpress.com, www.okperisplace.blogspot.com and www.quiltinspiration.blogspot.com.
Let us know if you have a favorite blog you like to visit.
Until next time, enjoy blogging!
Laura & Diana

On Set With Ricky and Alex of The Quilt Show

While Diana is off at Asilomar I had the pleasure of taping a new segment for an upcoming episode of The Quilt Show. Ricky and Alex were taping in my area and invited me to be a guest. It was just the perfect day at the beautiful Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, CA (home of the annual Alden Lane Quilt Show). This is definitely a dream team and I now know why Alex is so very happy working on this project. Everyone is delightful, easy to work with and so supportive. I demonstrated one of my favorite techniques - y-seam construction. There are lots of tricks and tips for taking the fear out of this often-dreaded technique. I'm not sure when it will air on the show but I'm told it will be sometime this year. I'll keep you posted as you will want to watch. In fact, if you are not already a member of the online Quilt Show, I suggest you sign up soon as there are lots of helpful and inspirational programs available.
Until next time - our best to all of you.
Laura & Diana

Out of Hibernation

Perhaps it's the sunshine or the beautiful blossoms on the trees outside that inspire me to come out of hibernation and get back onto the blog page. Although it's been a wet winter, we have kept busy sewing and creating new designs. Our latest one (an adorable new Spool quilt) will be featured in an upcoming issue of The Quilt Life, a new magazine by Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson by American Quilter's Society. My copy of the first issue just arrived last week and WOW what a wonderful magazine. If you haven't yet subscribed, I encourage you to do so immediately. Not only does it contain lots of beautiful quilts and inspiration, but also many tips and tricks for making your quilting experience more successful. Speaking of successful quilting, have you checked out our instructional videos on the website yet? I am ready to add more as we would like our site to be a resource library where you can visit when you need help or just fine-tuning. Please let me know what you would like to see included (cutting tips, pressing tips, etc.) It could be anything quilt related and I will do my best to provide a clear demonstration. We have a few extra copies of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine and would like to send it to one lucky winner who provides an idea for a new video demo.

Until next time, we send our best to you.
Laura & Diana

Welcome to Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Blog Tour Visitors

Thank you for visiting our blog today to celebrate the release of the new edition of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks from Today’s Top Designers. Several months ago we were inspired to create new blocks to submit for inclusion in this publication. To our delight, both of our designs were accepted. The design source for the blocks came from Japanese circular crest designs. For several years we have enjoyed working with both Asian themes as well as Asian fabrics, although we feel that these designs would work up nicely in a variety of fabrics and color schemes. We simplified the designs so they can easily be appliquéd, either by hand or machine. [At top right, Diana's design; at bottom right, Laura's design]

Our goal is to make several more blocks in this same style to make a larger quilt. We used a blue/green plaid fabric, which was cut on the bias for the outer circle of Laura’s block. (To watch a video demonstration on cutting bias strips, go to our website at www.dianaandlaura.com and click on Instructional Videos.) To provide unity to the blocks, we intend to use this fabric in each of the blocks.

Our color palette was a soft blue/purple for the berries and flowers with several shades of green leaves to represent all the colors in the garden. The inspiration for the color scheme came from a gift bag, which we purchased because we liked the soft colors and designs on it. We started pulling fabrics from our stash and then went to our local quilt shop to fill in the needed colors and textures to complete the designs.

Be sure to post a comment for your chance to receive a free copy of the magazine!

Thank you for stopping by today. Be sure to follow the Blog Tour until Nov. 13th. Simply go to www.quiltmaker.com/quiltypleasures to receive more inspiration, ideas and giveaways galore. Look for 100 Blocks from Today's Top Designers in your local quilt shop, or purchase it at www.quiltmaker.com/100blocks.

Hear Our Stories

What a busy and exciting week. Just when we thought it couldn’t get better, we receive word from our friend and fellow quilter, Annie Smith of Annie’s Quilting Stash that the interview she did with us a few months ago is now available on her website at www.simplearts.com. Look for Program #170. Annie is celebrating her 4th year of producing podcasts. She says she loves to talk and interview quilters (Alex Anderson, Ricky Timms included) and shares their stories on her blog. The best part is that it is all free and you can even become a subscriber. If you haven’t yet tried listening to podcasts you should try it. You just might become addicted – you can listen to them while sewing. They are both fun and informative. Thanks so much Annie. We love you and all you do for the quilt world. Keep up the great work!

We're So Excited

The August issue of American Patchwork and Quilting just arrived and as you might guess, we are the featured artists. We didn’t expect it to be out for at least another month but when we received a call from a woman in Iowa last week asking about our “Neiman Marcus” pattern, we knew that copies had hit the stands. Be sure to get your copy to see photos of Diana’s beautiful studio where we meet to work each week. Also included is our new “Asian Teacups” pattern. It is complete with yardage, cutting and construction for the quilt. To our surprise, there is a smaller variation made from fabrics designed by our friend Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics. Be sure to read about this talented young designer on her blog at www.lizzyhouse.typepad.com.