Melinda Bula class

My quilt guild offered a workshop with Melinda Bula last week, and this is my version the Summer Rose pattern she taught (you can see her finished version in her shop) so far. I picked the dots mainly ’cause they were the only type of fabric I had several shades in, and I’m pretty happy with how the rose came out. Melinda was a great teacher—I learned a lot, and she kept us laughing all day. If you’ve got a chance to take a class with her, sign up! I’m loving her California School of Fuse.

I’m looking forward to trying out her quilting techniques when my machine comes back from the shop (please come home soon!), but first I have to get the leaves fused together. I’m just not sure what color to make them to work with the grey background. I’m not sure green would be right—what about brown?

Giveaway winners

Congratulations to Shawn, winner of Through the Keyhole, and Silka, winner of Slash/Backslash! You should both have an e-mail in your inbox with instructions for downloading the patterns.

Winners were selected at random by the independent accounting firm of The Other. Thanks to everybody who entered—those who didn’t win should have an e-mail waiting with a coupon code for a discount at my pattern shop. (louise r and knottygnome, I couldn’t find your addresses! Drop me a line so I can give you the coupon code too.)

New patterns—and a giveaway!

Observant readers may have noticed two new patterns quietly added to my website the other day. Thought it was about time I put a few pictures of them up here! Details about the giveaway are at the end of the post.

This quilt, Through the Keyhole, is an “I Spy”-type blankie. I had tonnes of fun picking out monsters, aliens, farm animals, and other novelty prints I don’t get a chance to use very often. It’d be cool made up with prints all in a particular theme, too—maybe all pirates, or a Halloween version with cobwebs instead of wood grain for the sashing. The keyholes can be appliquéd by hand or machine (the pattern gives instructions for both). Probably best to do it by machine if its juvenile recipient will be dragging it round on their adventures!

 

 

Slash/Backslash uses a special technique to make the front and back of a reversible quilt at the same time (or two quilt tops). The pattern includes two sizes; the front and back of the wallhanging size are shown above, and the throw size is shown below.

 

These are just a few of the ways you could arrange the blocks—the pattern shows several other possibilities for each size. I taught a workshop at my quilt guild using the pattern, and they came up with lots of clever settings…

Anne, who made the Christmas quilt at left above, and Snow, in the middle of the previous photo, both used the “back” blocks as a border around the “front” blocks. Great idea! You can see a few more shots from the class on Flickr (dimwit here had the autofocus off and spoiled most of the pictures—drat!). Anne took her quilt to In Between Stitches in Livermore, and they took a photo to include in a “mini quilt show” post on their blog!

By the way, congrats are in order for In Between Stitches on two fronts: first, they’re celebrating eight years in business this weekend (and one year in their bright new space). And second, they’re going to be in the spring issue of Quilt Sampler! A while back, I wondered out loud to shop owner Melissa when Quilt Sampler was going to come knocking—they seemed like a perfect candidate for the magazine—and she sort of evaded the question. Now I know it’s ’cause they already had come knocking but she had to keep her lips zipped! Congratulations, you guys deserve it.

So, giveaway time! Leave a comment on this post, and you could win a free download of one of these new patterns. Just make sure to fill in your e-mail address when leaving the comment (or make sure it’s accessible in your Blogger profile), and mention which pattern, Through the Keyhole or Slash/Backslash,  you’d be most interested in. I’ll pick the winners at random on Friday, February 19, so make sure to comment before then! There might even be a discount in it for those who don’t win…