Category Archives: Guest Blogging

“Pillow Talk” Pillow Fight!

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Vote HERE! (on The Fat Quarter Shop Blog)

Have you been following along with The Fat Quarter Shop’s “Pillow Fight” to celebrate the release of Edyta Sitar’s amazing Pillow Talk book??? I am so honored to have been invited to participate in a Pillow Fight between myself and Elise Baek of Elise and Emelie. Ironically enough, we both chose the same pillow from Edyta’s book without communicating about it. 🙂

There are SO many amazing pillows in Edyta’s book that it was really hard to narrow it down to one pillow. If you’re in the same boat I was in, The Fat Quarter Shop has offered up a kit for the pillows in Edyta’s book. Laser cut shapes that have already been fused!

For the pillow I made, I chose Edyta’s Dot Dot Dot Pillow. I knew I wanted to do fussy cuts for my circles the second I saw this pillow. I had lots in my stash from various designers (Tasha Noel, Amy Smart, original Cotton + Steel, Ruby Star Society, Heather Ross) and wanted to feature my favorites on this pillow.

I used a base of Robert Kaufmann Essex Yarn Dyed Classic Nautical for my front and backing. I wanted something that still had some personality without distracting from my fussy cuts. I quilted more or less a cross hatch down the centers of each square using Aurifil 50wt. I quilted on the diagonal before I fused my fussy cuts. For my process on fusing and cutting my fussy cuts, check out this blog post.

I then hand quilted around each circle using Aurifloss. It added a fun touch that fits my personal quilting style very well. Gradient + hand quilting = true love.

I added a Sally Tomato zipper to the back as well as a fun squirrel label because who hasn’t been distracted by a quilting squirrel or two or twelve before?! I’ve never quilted the back of a pillow before, but it will definitely become my go-to now.

The Fat Quarter Shop has opened up voting for this round of myself vs. Elise on their blog HERE. Who will come out victorious? Only time will tell!

What Shade are You? with RJR Fabrics

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Our home computer died and it’s been a long few weeks without it! We just got it back last week and my dear husband has reinstalled everything. Unfortunately, it happened during the time that my guest blog posting on the “What Shade are You?” tour with RJR fabrics came up. In trying to catch up on things I’ve missed, here’s a posting about that!

I feel like there’s a big misconception out there in the quilting world that fabric distributors look around and reach out to people to participate in things. Yes, this happens to some extent, but most of what happens is quilters reaching out to them instead. It is SCARY and hard, but I’m trying to be brave. A good friend once said, “They can’t say yes if you don’t ask.” Yes, you’ll hear lots of no’s, but you’ll also get an occasional yes as well!

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I reached out to RJR fabrics last October. This was possibly one of the scariest emails I had yet sent. What did I have to offer that was different than the big names that were already participating in the RJR “What Shade are You?” tour??? I sent the email just asking if they were still doing it and if there was space for me to participate in the future. They said yes, and my date was set for February 10th. They sent a color card containing a swatch of all of their cotton supreme solids and I went to town. They are such a fabulous company with which to work. They are so generous with their product. I picked a basic idea of what I wanted to do and then very nervously got to work. It is terrifying to do these projects for big name manufacturers for me. What if they don’t like it? What if they expected something better? What if what if what if????

In the end, I loved how things turned out. I had my dear friend Kaylene Parry (@quilterlove66 on Instagram) quilt it in this amazing graffiti motif using invisible thread. It is just PERFECT. My sweet 5 year old loves to use the “celebration” effect via iMessage and calls it Confetti Bomb. Confetti Bomb just seemed like the perfect name for this quilt and it will always remind me of my sweet boy.

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Be sure to stop by RJR’s blog to see a full write up and a million photos!

Missouri Star Quilt Co. Tutorial Reboot: Flying Geese Log Cabin

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I was contacted by Missouri Star asking if I’d be interested in being part of their #tutorialreboot series on their blog. Once a month they ask a blogger/quilter to do an older tutorial in a new way. When I saw the Flying Geese Log Cabin tutorial I KNEW that is what I wanted to do. I am so pleased with how it turned out and feel so honored to have been included in this amazing series. Head over to Missouri Star Quilt Co and check out my post as well as the others who have been involved. There are some amazing quilts!

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