Pattern Roundup 3: The Tula Pink Edition

Posted in Tutorials and Patterns by StaceyinStitches

Today I thought I would dive right in to one of the most popular fabric designers I have the pleasure of working with; Tula Pink!

Every 6 months or so, Tula releases a new collection with FreeSpirit Fabrics, and I have so much fun taking those fabrics and turning them into quilts for you to enjoy. The entire process takes about a week per pattern, between designing, tweaking, writing, illustrating and technical editing. Myself and the tech editor at FreeSpirit do our absolute best to make sure you get a pattern that is clear, easy to read, and straightforward to make. I get to really branch out with the skill level on these ones; I aim to have a beginner friendly pattern and an advanced level pattern. The advanced level assume prior knowledge and experience in things like paper piecing, fussy cutting, templates, applique, ect. The beginner level patterns I try to make straightforward, and introduce at least one new skill for quilters to develop and start gaining confidence.

As I have about 3 releases of quilts to cover, I will take a day for each collection. I am prolific when it comes to the fabrics and designers I love 😉

Today we will dive into the glorious explosion of Tula Pink True Colors.

The release of Tula Pink’s new True Colors collection made all my wildest rainbow dreams come true. With a full spectrum of 42 hues to chose from, it is entirely possible that I may have gone overboard when designing for this one. I enjoyed every second of it, and poured so much of my love of all things color and fabric and texture into it, that True Colors will always be one of my favorite lines. The best part? It is a supporting line, so will be around for at least the next 2 years!

The first quilt for the True Colors collection was finalized while I was on my quilting cruise; Woven Radiance. I wanted to utilize every single print in the collection in a non-traditional rainbow layout. I took inspiration from my previously designed Radiance quilt. This quilts name is a nod to the previous. I assure you, the two are nothing alike and I may be the only person to see the inspiration on first glance.

Woven Radiance

The next offering for True Colors left me undecided on a background. I wasn’t the only one torn between colorways, so we went with both! A simple substitution of background hue breathes a different life into this quilt, which I called Stardust. The lighter version uses the fairy dust print from True Colors in Whisper for the background. The dark version used the Tula Pink Solid Diva. I may reimagine these with the new Tula Pink Solids, I think Legendary would make this quilt…..wait for it……LEGENDARY! haha!! See what I did there? yes? Okay! moving on….

In my mind, this quilt represents light in all it’s full prismatic glory, gently bathing the world in color as it rains from the stars.

Stardust Light

Stardust Dark

I loved True Colors so much I needed to express it in quilt form. I also wanted a quilt that could possibly be made with a jelly roll. While the jelly roll aspect was a fail, the quilt itself was a WIN. I just can’t seem to make a quilt small enough to suit jelly rolls…….but that’s okay! More fabric for you to love!

Floating Hearts uses a combination of strip piecing and stitch and flip piecing. The best part is all the leftovers could be turned into a mini quilt or throw pillows if one was so inclined. And since I also can’t seem to do anything the easy way, the colors flow one into the next. My brain was a gooey pile of rainbow spaghetti after editing this one, but so totally worth it! The release of this pattern was delayed because of the background print. We had to wait until the announcement of the next collection before releasing this one, so it had been sitting in the ready folder for FOREVER. Okay, okay, not forever, but it really felt like it!

Floating Hearts

I don’t always remake my old patterns, but the next two quilts are updated colorings of my quilts for the previous true colors collection in 2016.

Confetti was first designed when Tule Pink All Stars released. The Stripes, Pom Poms, and Tula Pink Solids were meant to continue on into future collections, and I wanted a quilt to show off the supporting prints and carry them forward. I have an ongoing love affair with stars, and I’ll take any chance at creating one with fabric in different and exciting ways. I wrote Confetti as a beginner friendly quilt. The building blocks are HST. My whole vision was no two Confetti quilts would be the same. Cut the triangles, throw them in the air like confetti, then pick them up and start sewing them together at random. While I don’t usually encourage throwing your fabrics all over the place (who wants to recount squares or lose one behind the sofa) I do encourage letting go and grabbing at random to create the sections.

Confetti

Each of Tula’s lines has an exclusive pattern that you can only get in the quilt kit released by FreeSpirit Fabrics. For True colors, my design was chosen for the kit! Solar Flare is an updated version of the original true colors quilt kit, Prism, that was Craftsy Exclusive. ALLLLLLLLL the way back in 2015. 2015!!!. I loved that quilt, and now I love it even more with the expansion of colors.

You can find the exclusive quilt kit at your local quilt shop or online.

This isn’t the last quilt in True Colors, but it is the last for today. The next True Colors quilts are spectacular, but both are part of different posts, and I cannot wait to introduce you to them!

As always, please tag me on Instagram when you make your quilts. I love to gush over other quilters makes from my designs!!

Happy Stitching

6Feb2016

Will You Be You?

Posted in Finished Quilts by StaceyinStitches

I am so excited about this quilt! This is a QDAD to reality quilt from the summer. I love it for a number of reasons.

I made it at my Grandma’s house, so it will always bring back good memories of sewing with her
STARS! WOO!
I was able to use batiks in a modern way, and I LOVE batiks!
It is just so colorful and fun, that it can be enjoyed even without the social commentary
It’s been published in Modern Quilts Unlimited, along with a pattern from my good friend Amy Garro of 13 Spools, who just happens to be that issues covergirl

Will You Be You

What’s that? Social Commentary you say? What could that possibly be?

Well, in QDAD we often have themed design weeks. Kim Andersson of I Adore Pattern was in charge for this theme: Song Lyrics! It was a ton of fun, and an interesting challenge. on May 27th, Kim posted this beauty of a lyric and palette:

We have all heard the song, and know it’s about a breakup. But when you take just those first five lines of the song out of context, it dramatically changes. If you had never heard the song before, you might think this was a song about being discovered, but at the same time having everything about you changed to fit the ideal of someone else without much control. Which really struck me. How often to people change themselves, or have themselves changed, in order to fit in? To make others happy? To become something or someone else entirely in order to please someone else? And when you change everything about yourself, what do you lose in the process? How much of the real you is left?

The design started off a whole conversation that was a lot of fun, and people had such a positive response to it that I decided to submit it to MQU. Happily they accepted it, and I changed a couple of colors to work with what I had in my stash (that light lavender is gorgeous but so hard to find in a batik). The color change did lighten the mood of the quilt, but the message remained the same.

The original QDAD design

Recolored

It was a lot of fun, and a challenge to put together in a cohesive manner. Eventually I realized that one star at a time was the way to go, and used a combination of quarter and half square triangles to keep things interesting (also less seams). I quilted it using a pantograph, mostly because of time constraints, but there is a TON of potential there for custom quilting. I think some radiating straight lines from the yellow star out to the far borders would be an appropriate subcontext to the quilt. In yellow thread, it would read as the superstar overshadowing the original pieces. Also, it would look really really pretty!

I have been trying to use colored or contrasting threads for my quilting lately. I get to hang out with some awesome quilters and longarmers, and one thing that has stayed with me since my last conversation with Miriam, who owns Whispering Pines and is an incredible longarm quilter, is that it’s hard to go wrong with a bold thread choice. Yes, it’s a risk, but it tends to pay off. For example, I have a black and white quilt that I quilted with navy (almost purple, but it was more plum than violet and wasn’t quite as effective)

I hope you all pick up the Winter 2016 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited. The issue has a great assortments of quilts and projects, and most of them are pretty spectacular (especially mine and Amy’s, wink wink!)

If you do make your own version, I would love to see it! I love to see what people make from my patterns! Tag me on instagram @staceyinstitches or email me a picture so I can ooh and aah over it and post it here!

Also, a huge special thank you to my neighbor Debbie and my friend Anne! Today was the first sunny afternoon in ages, so I had to try and take pictures like NOW. My little H (who isn’t so little anymore) tried his best to hold up the quilt but it was just a little too long and heavy for him, but Deb pulled up just in time and totally volunteered a hand to hold. Then Anne took my twilight photos and made them colorful again! Thanks both of you! <3

Stay tuned for my stop on the Dryad Blog Hop next week, and, as always,

Happy Stitching!

6May2014

Vote for Stacey!

Posted in Other by StaceyinStitches

I recently submitted a block to the Accuquilt Win the Dream contest. My block is the Hummingbird Star.You can click here to vote. It finished at 16″ square, and is constructed using freezer paper templates and applique methods. The top blocks right now are very gorgeous, with over 608 votes there is still a ways to go, but its fun, and I will release a tutorial when voting is all over for the block!

Happy Stitching,

Stacey

9Aug2013

A WIP update

Posted in Finished Quilts by StaceyinStitches

The last couple weeks have been filled with some WIP’s that I have finally complete. The Hoffman Challenge Quilt being the most notable, because I actually wrote about it! I also had a couple commissions and a personal quilt going as well at that time. One is at the quilting stage, and the other two are Finished. Phew!

First up is the First Years Memory Quilt

This was a very fun project to take on. I was contacted through a mom group on Facebook, she was looking for someone to make a quilt using her daughters clothes from her first year. The theme was sweet and simple, and I love how the quilt turned out. It finished at 45×60, the perfect size for a toddler bed.

Applique from a skirt lining

The finished quilt.

The clothes were adorable. Its always hard cutting into someones cherished pieces of clothing, but it gets easier when I think about it as transforming instead of destroying. =) Now the pieces will live on a a quilt, and each time she looks at it she will remember a part of her daughters first year. I try to preserve a memorable part of each outfit, whether it is a bit of applique, some silkscreening, or a tulle skirt with a bow. My favorite block in the quilt is in the center of the 3rd row up. It was a princess dress with a bow and tulle overskirt, and a satin lining. I used the satin lining for the name on the bottom, and then gathered the overskirt into the 6″ block.

I also finally hung the mini wall hanging I made a couple months ago. It was supposed to be for a swap but my machine tension was all goobered. Once I got the tension issues fixed I took it to the Free Motion Quilting Class that the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild put on. It was a great class, and not just because I got to go sew on a Sunday afternoon! It was super informative, and I managed to get the tension issues ironed out.

Compass Star Mini Quilt

The finished size is 24″x24″. I used some of my coveted Kaufman Fusions stash for the green spikes between the Star points, and some leftover ivory text print from the Canadian Cottage line by Robyn Pandolph. The entire color scheme was insired by a pink/green batik in my stash. I used it for the outside corners.

Quilting detail-spikes

Quilting detail-star

I designed the quilting pattern myself. I have been practising my feathers, and I am very happy with how it turned out. I used a very very pale seafoam green thread for the quitling, and it worked very nicely with all the colors involved. This one is hanging in my kitchen until my mother comes to visit. Then I am sure it will be found somewhere in her house, which is fine by me =)

Happy Stitching!

Stacey

5May2013

April Star Block Bee

Posted in Other by StaceyinStitches

Two more star blocks for my Star Block Bee! April’s Queen Bee wanted the Star Crossed Block from Don’t Call Me Betsy. It whipped up fast! It’s a great block if you want something fun, colorful and quick for a gift quilt. I also enjoyed working in Tula Pink’s Salt Water line. I have had my eye on it for a while!

I especially like the hegagon print, it cuts up nicely into small pieces and still maintains the movement of color in the print. The seahorses would be great to fussy cut with.

For May we are taking a short break, then it may be my turn in June! I haven’t quite decided what to do. I am going with a fuchsia, chocolate and tangerine color way, mostly inspired by the Citrus colorway of Madrona Road.

I am leaning towards the Swoon Block. It is 24″ finished, but I thought instead of asking for two 12″ blocks, I would ask for one 24″ block and it all works out about even. It would be 12 blocks big instead of 9, so I might add some large pieced borders and make it a California King for our room. Maybe some feather quilting. We will see.

Up next on my list is the Hoffman Challenge quilt for 2013. It is due in July, so I should really get cracking!

Have yourselves a Quilty Day!