Back in September I was approached by Michael Miller Fabrics to design a pattern that coordinated with an upcoming fabric lined called Arrow Flight.

I was able to pick out the exact colors and design I’d use, which was fun.

I also went a little crazy with the quilting, because I felt like it needed it. It was my first time doing an all over free form design on my longarm too. What do you think?

The pattern is a free download available on Michael Miller Fabric’s website, and it comes complete with instructions and a yardage list. You don’t necessarily need to use this exact fabric too. I imagine it would look awesome with some solids or other patterns. The sky is the limit!

If you do end up trying out the pattern, please let me know! I’d love to see.

Art Gallery Fabrics reached out to numerous bloggers and asked them to make a project using one of their newest lines as part of Sewing Month! After browsing through their app (yes, they have a fabric app!) I chose Bari J’s newest line Anna Elise and made CT a new, toddler sized quilt to cuddle up with.

Before we start talking about the in’s and out’s of the quilt, let me first state that all of the fabric used in this project was provided courtesy of Art Gallery Fabrics. So this is pretty much a sponsored post. However, I would have still made this quilt on my own dime because it really is so perfect for my daughter. I never work on projects or with companies I don’t already love.

OK, now that that is all out of the way, let’s talk quilting!

The fabrics used in this quilt are not 100% up my taste alley, however they ARE up my daughters! She loves everything dainty and flowery. It’s just an added bonus that bunnies are involved too. She loves bunnies.

I kept all of that in mind when designing the quilt pattern. I still wanted a little of my taste in the mix, because I like the idea of when you look at a quilt, you know I made it. So I decided to basically divide the design in half. Added bonus, it looks like a sunrise over a sea of hexagons!!! The finished dimensions are 45″x60″, a perfect size for a small child to wrap up in and drag around the house.

The bottom half is almost all Bari J’s Anna Elise line, I think it’s only missing two prints? I used Sizzix’s Full Hexagon Die with 5″ sides to perfectly cut out all the pieces, and pieced them together using Y-seams. I decided half hexagons would have jumbled those pretty fabrics up too much. I still stand by that decision because I just love how clean and awesome those huge hexagons look together.

I decided to do some petal like leaves as the quilting. I’m not very good at feathers, so this is my version, haha. I only quilted the bottom half in this style, to help define the two halves.

The top half is a nice mix of Art Gallery Fabrics solids and blender in different tones of blues. To be more specific, I used Pure Elements Solid is Warm Wave, Prisma Elements in Subtle Turquoise and Larimar Sea, and Oval Elements in Zephyr. I pieced them together using a quick pattern I drew up that looked like the rays of the sun right before the sun rises. If anyone is interested in the templates, let me know and I’ll draft them up as PDF’s. I actually had mine printed as large blueprints at Fedex because I despise taping patterns!

For the quilting, I wanted to do a wavy cloud like design. So I mimicked the way I always draw clouds in my own illustrations. It turned out denser than I originally imaged, but I’m happy with the results. Also, it matches the density of the petals on the bottom. so it will crinkle nicely in the wash.

I backed the quilt entirely using Wind Melody Soft from Bari J’s line and then bound it using Art Gallery’s Pure Elements Solid in Verve Violet.

I am just so in love with the way this all came together! It was outside my comfort zone, but I am so glad I made it. I needed some change from my black, white, blue and purple (though I did sneak big chunks of blues in there!).

I’ve decided to start something fun to go along with these quilt posts! I have so many photo’s that just don’t go along with the writing or they are just too ridiculous not to share, so here is the first installment of…

Behind the Scenes and Outtakes:

Here you can see the quilt on the long arm and then me adding the biding on! I always take these photos with my phone, since I have it on hand, because you never know if you’ll need to go back and look at these steps. Plus, everyone loves work in progress shots. Or is that just me?

Here are my two failed attempts at using super strong magnets to attach the quilt to the playground equipment down the street! The photos aren’t TOO bad, but they weren’t what I was looking for. Though that one on the right looks like a child tried to take a quilt photo.

These two were me trying to use my new photo backdrop holder for the first time down at the train yard. The yard is right next to the Potomac River, so the wind is kind of bad. Also the clamps I bought to hold the quilt didn’t fit over the bars, so I thought using wooden pants holders was a good idea. It wasn’t!! I can only imagine how funny I looked to the commuters getting off the MARC train. The things we do for good quilt photos (and I still feel I could have done better with this one!)

The last one didn’t come out too bad, however I had accidentally switched my camera over to low resolution. So this is the biggest this photo will ever get!!!! 440px wide!!!!! I am soooo upset over this one.

Oh well, lessons learned!

Thank you again to Art Gallery Fabrics for providing the supplies to make this quilt for my daughter. She seriously loves it so much.

I hope you enjoyed the photos of the quilt, and the behind the scenes outtakes. I know it’s close to the end of the month, but you still have 5 days to make the most of Sewing Month. Get to sewing!

Today I am super excited to share a project from the newly released book Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble by my friend Samarra Khaja. When she contacted me asking if I would like to review the book, my response was “I’m not great at reviewing things. I don’t hate enough. So how about I make something?” She went for it, and here we are!

To make this post even more awesome, there is a giveaway involved! You just have to read on a little more for all of the details.

The Book:

Samarra is one of those ladies who sees the fun in everything around her, and her sense of humor is great. When you flip through Sew Adorkable, you can see just how much of herself she poured in to this book. Every project has just the right level of cute, funny and nerdy and most can be made for kids or adults. All of my favorite things.

There is a nice mix of small and large projects, so no matter your time constraint, you can finish something! You can see above the super cute Toothy, the Tooth Fairy pillows and the Typewriter Tissue Box Cover, that are perfect one day projects.

Then there are projects like the Candy Dots Quilt and the fabric Prehistoric Portrait Painting

Plus there are clothing projects for both kids and adults, more home decor and even more quilts. Then to top it off, Samarra talks about her life as a textile designer and shows a peek at her process. I love a good back story!

If you would like to see more inside peeks at Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble, and hear Samarra talk, then check out this cute video CT Publishing put together to promote the book.

The Project I Made:

It took a little while to pick out the perfect first project to try from this book. I was torn between the Calculator Quilt, The Odd Socks Quilt and the 8-Bits Bird Quilt. With help from my husband, I settled on the Odd Socks Quilt.

I’m not going to give away the secrets to making this quilt, but I will say the instructions are well written and not scary at all! You need to buy the book to get all the juicy details.

I used a nice mix of white on white fabrics for the socks, scrap fabric for all the details and Hoffman Fabrics new ME+YOU batiks line for the background and the binding.

The overall finished piece is 38″ square and I long arm quilted it using two layers of cotton batting to give the piece even more texture and dimension.

I absolutely love the finished piece and have already hung it up in my home, right outside the laundry room. I am also already planning on trying out one of those other projects I wanted to make. Maybe the 8-Bit Birds quilt first? I wonder if I have any family members who would like it as a gift? (I’m in holiday sewing mode these days)

The Giveaway:

Here’s that giveaway I was talking about earlier. Samarra and C&T Publishing are giveaway away a free copy of Sew Adorkable to one of my awesome readers! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below telling me your favorite nerdy thing. It could be a TV show/movie, book/graphic novel, video game, board game, event or anything else I’m forgetting. Let it all out!!

Now the technical details: One book per winner. Open internationally, however if winner lives outside of the US, they will receive a promo code to purchase the ebook version free of charge. US winner will receive a hard copy. Entries are open until midnight, October 26th. Please make sure your email address is correct when commenting, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you! Winner will be chosen at random, using random.org.

The Rest of the Tour:

I am just the fifth stop on the Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble blog tour. I highly recommend checking out all of the other super talented and interesting bloggers and companies involved. I’ve already seen some amazing projects, and from the looks of this list, I bet all the future posts will be just as awesome.