Fat Quarter Fizz

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for swinging by my blog today. I'm thrilled to be posting along with some of my quilting friends to kick off Fat Quarter Shop's newest Shortcut Quilt video, the Fat Quarter Fizz. You can download the free pattern here, and be sure to watch Kimberly in action on the FQS YouTube channel. If you don't subscribe, you should! There are fabulous video tutorials, free patterns and lots of ideas all for you.

I really love this series because these quilts feature precuts and the projects are super simple to make. If you are a beginner quilter, or if you want to teach someone how to quilt, these patterns are a perfect place to start. Plus, i always learn some clever little piecing tip from Kimberly. Bonus!

For Fat Quarter Fizz, i chose to use Solstice, my newest Christmas fabric collection for Moda (in shops now). The pattern gives you options for whatever size quilt you'd like to make. I decided on the large lap quilt that uses 20 fat quarters (10 light, 10 dark). Despite it being August, and 80 degrees with 85% humidity, this quilt went together quickly and was fun to make!

I really should try to make a design wall in my little studio, because as soon as i hung this up i could see a few blocks i would have rearranged. C'est la vie! To get some of the palest greens to "work" with the rest of the light colored fabrics, i flipped the print over so the back side was facing up. I was surprised at how well nicely they fit in to the mix.

Here is a small detail. When you zoom in and crop an image like this, it kind of gives you ideas for another quilt block design, doesn't it?

And for the backing, i kept things super simple and pieced it in large striped bands:

Here's another detail of the backing with only touch of red in the binding fabric.

The white sashing strip is a white-on-white tonal snowflake print. I always try to work something like this in to my holiday collections because it adds a beautifully subtle texture to an ordinary white. Oh, and i took this photo out on our picnic table because despite having one less Christmas present to buy, it's still summer!

Thanks again for visiting, and enjoy all the other stops on the blog tour:

Barb & Mary of Me and My Sister Designs

Sherri from A Quilting Life

Melissa of Happy Quilting

Shruti from 13Woodhouse

Pam from Pam Kitty Morning

John from Quilt Dad

Jane from Quilt Jane

Michele from Quilting Gallery

Caroline from Sew Can She

Vickie from Spun Sugar Quilts

Tonya from the Crafty Mummy

Have a beautiful day!

xo,

kate 

Winner Announced!

Let's pretend it's still Tuesday, ok!? Thank you all for sharing your fun plans
for the Solstice last Saturday. Sounds like everyone squeezed the most
out of the day!

The Garden Conservancy hosts a summer series called "Open Days" where gracious people open their exquisite spaces to the public. Who can resist! I had a really wonderful, inspiring day touring a couple gardens in Litchfield County with my sweet friend Denyse Schmidt. Here are a few photos from Bunny Williams' extraordinary grounds and gardens.

Denyse talking a stroll along the poolside
(she was hoping to "accidentally" fall in)...

A beautiful folly with tree trunk columns and a pine cone pediment...

Denyse and me being captivated by the same little blossom in Bunny's magical woodland garden...

This is the photo i was taking in the image above:

Such a beautiful planter and transition space that lead to...

... a compact boxwood parterre ...

... lovely combination of spent allium blossoms and giant hosta ...

...and a vegetable garden to die for!

So beautiful!! Can't wait for next month's adventure.

You probably didn't come here looking for another garden tour, though, did you? So without further delay...

You're the lucky winner of the Solstice Fat Quarter Bundle! Please email your mailing address to pete(at)katespain(dot)com and we'll zip that off to you today!

Thanks so much to everyone for participating.

xo,

kate

Summer Solstice aka: The Longest (Sewing) Day of the Year

Hi everyone! Can't believe the Summer Solstice is already here (it officially arrives tomorrow morning June, 21st at 6:51am EST). Hope you've got some fun plans for making the most of the longest (or shortest) day of the year. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, the days will only get longer now for you – hooray! We’ll be visiting family, checking out some gardens up in the foothills of the Berkshires with some friends, attending a local fundraiser concert for the public schools, and...weeding the garden.

Before the crab grass stakes its claim on all the cracks and pathways, thought i'd show you some photos of our garden from a couple weeks ago, along with some of my favorite spring blooms.

Here's the veggie area in raised beds that we built last year.

Because we've had such a prolonged and cool spring, it's been the best lettuce season i can remember in a long time!

We also had a healthy harvest of baby bok choy:

Here's a view of the flowery garden area with the flagstone patio and parterre we made last summer — i still kinda can't believe we took on a project like that. Crazies!

And here are the beauties of our spring garden...whose gorgeous colors and elegant shapes will continue to inspire me long after their blooms have faded.

The summer bloomers are already on their way, and so are the sweet peas! Stay tuned.

Almost forgot! to celebrate the Solstice, and to kick-off the summer sewing season, we're giving away a Fat Quarter bundle of...Solstice — my new Christmas/winter fabric line for Moda Fabrics!

Please leave a brief comment regarding something you like to do on the longest (or shortest) day of the year. One entry per person. The winner will be randomly selected on Tuesday June 24th.

Have a beautiful weekend!

xo,

kate

And on the 13th Day of Christmas...Finally, Fabric!

Franny, Lou, and the orphan-kitty-who-we-found-last-week-and-who-appears-to-be-spending-the-holidays-with-us-and-might-even-end-up-living-here just asked us: 

So what's a giveaway without fabric?? They're right (as usual). So, here we are to announce the 13th day of our 12 Days of Giveaways.

Enter using Rafflecopter (below) by 11:59 AM Eastern time on Wed. Dec 18th for one of these prizes:

Moda Fabrics jelly roll of Sunnyside

photo courtesy of Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Or…for a peek into the distant Christmas future, you might win either a jelly roll or layer cake of Solstice…my next wintery collection for Moda to be released in 2014!

More photos of Solstice to come soon…i was just too excited when these precuts arrived yesterday and wanted to share them with YOU!

And as a last-minute shopping special, we're having a sale on all holiday aprons, dishtowels, and our felt table runner at shopkatespain.com. Through this Sunday (Dec 15th), receive 20% off all. Use code joy20 at checkout.

Good luck on the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway