Bella Solids Parade | Expert's Picks Day 3

Today's jumping off point was this deep shade of brown, fittingly called Hershey:

Moda Bella Solid in Hershey (9900-41)

This bundle was a classic case in failure to self-edit. When it came down to it, I just couldn't make the hard decision of which solid and which print to cut ... so I left them all:

Top row: Bella Solids in Etchings Stone, Pink, Together Tan, and Weathered Teak
Bottom row: Central Park Lawn Zoo, Modern Workshop Courtyard Green Roundabout Dots, Bohemian Soul Hay Endless Dream, Tammis Keefe White Later Alligator

This is my favorite bundle so far, and just might just be my favorite of all of them. What would you add to this combination of prints & solids?

Visit Shruti and see more over at 13 Woodhouse Road for the Fat Quarter Shop Bella Parade!

Bella Solids Parade | Expert's Picks Day 2

Today's inspiration color is Peach. Not an easy challenge! This isn't a color I am accustomed to working with.

Moda Bella Solid in Peach (9900-78)

Here's what I pulled together. What do you think?

Top row: Bella Solid in Terrain Cactus, Bella Solid in Bluebell, Bella Solid in Etchings Charcoal
Bottom row: My Happy Nursery Shell Leaves, Silent Cinema Pink Intermission, Tammis Keefe Multi Cage Free

Visit Shruti and see more over at 13 Woodhouse Road for the Fat Quarter Shop Bella Parade!

Bella Solids Parade | Expert's Picks Day 1

Have you heard about the Moda Bella Solids Parade that fellow blogger Shruti is hosting? Shruti, who blogs at 13 Woodhouse Road (great blog name, right?), had a fantastic idea:

All month long, Shruti's highlighting a color and shade represented by a Bella Solid fabric and asking her readers to share inspiration photos that somehow feature that color. In addition, there are contests, giveaways, quilt-alongs, and more from Shruti with support from the generous folks at Moda and the Fat Quarter Shop. You can see more here.

One of the other activities is to show fabric bundles that are built around each color to showcase the (sometimes very) different ways in which a particular color can be used. Each bundle is comprised of 3 additional solids and 3 prints to complement the day's color. I was thrilled when Shruti invited me to participate in her "Expert's Pick" series to create some of those fabric combinations.

(I know, I thought the same thing you're thinking right now: me? An expert?!)

Over the next several days, I'm going to share my fabric combinations both on Shruti's blog and also here with you. I'd love to hear what you think of each, or any other prints that you might add in to the mix. These posts will be auto-scheduled to go live while I'm at market too, and I can't wait to check in with you all when I'm back!

Before showing my first fabric combo, let me share a brief intro that I wrote for Shruti highlighting my thought process when putting these together:

--

Hi! My name is John Adams and I blog at QuiltDad.com. I am also a founding member of Fat Quarterly, a popular e-magazine written by and for modern sewists. Come learn more about us and our magazine on our blog, which always has fresh, fun content about the modern quilting community. I live in Cary, North Carolina, with my wife, 6 year-old twin daughters, 5 year-old son, and dog named Tula (named after one of my fabric designers, Tula Pink!)

I've been sewing and quilting now for about 4 years, and one thing has become clear to me in that time: my absolute favorite part of the entire quilting process is selecting my palette of colors and prints for my projects. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy making small project like pillows, mini quilts, and mug rugs so much -- I can scratch that creative itch and try out new fabric combinations on quick & easy projects. I love Shruti's Bella Solids Parade project and I jumped at the chance to submit my expert's picks!

Shruti's challenge was a bit, well, challenging for me. When pulling fabrics together for a new quilt or project, I typically start with an inspirational print or two. I then draw complementary prints and colors, including solids from that starting point. However, here I was asked to start with a solid, which is a bit different than my usual approach. What I found is that each focus solid would still lead me to a "focus" print or patterned fabric, from which I drew the rest of my palette.

This challenge was GREAT fun, and I hope you like my fabric bundles as much as I do! For those who read my blog, you know that I often have a hard time editing myself, so for a few of my bundles I couldn't help but throw in an extra print or solid or 2. Now I am inspired and already planning projects with each of my new bundles!

Thanks for the opportunity, Shruti!

--

And now, on to the parade! Today's inspiration color is Sunshine:

Moda Bella Solid in Sunshine (9900-130)

And here are my coordinating picks:

Top row: Max & Whiskers Blithe Grunge, Bella Solid in Magenta, Bella Solid in Willow
Bottom row: Alhambra II Buttercup Spanish Petals, From Little Things White Partridges, Silent Cinema Blue City Lights

Mother's Day Giveaway

Happy Mother's Day from Quilt Dad to all of the Quilt Moms out there! (And grandmas, aunts, sister, godmothers, guardians, and friends, too!)

Do you remember this spring-y patchwork quilt top I first showed back in February? I love this quilt. Sometimes a simple patchwork quilt that lets the fabric and color do all the talking is all I need to make me happy. And I had a blast pulling all of the fabrics for this one and seeing it all come together.

So here's the thing. I finally finished the quilt top by making it even bigger (I think I ended up with a layout of 10 x 12 blocks of 8" squares). So yeah, it's pretty mammoth. And I have a lot of already-cut 8.5" squares in these fabrics left over. A LOT.

I'm not going to assume that anyone else loves my fabric combo as much as I do but, if you do, would you like all of my leftovers? There should be plenty to make a nice-sized bed quilt for yourself.

Edited: this giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! The winner will be drawn at random and announced soon. Don't forget -- the Fat Quarterly Fat Quarter bundle is still available at Wish Upon a Quilt!

Rectangle Swoonerie Redux

You may remember this from a blog post that I wrote back in December. I made this quilt from a pattern by Monica (aka The Happy Zombie) and fabrics from the Swoon line by Melissa Averinos. I have had the pleasure of getting to know both Monica and Melissa and I both adore them and am in awe of their mad skillz, so this quilt was already chock full of love.

And then it got quilted. And the love multiplied.

The fabulous Jackie of Canton Village Quilt Works offered her quilting services for this soon-to-be-for-charity quilt (if I can let it go, that is.) I packaged up the quilt top and the backing and sent it off to Connecticut to let Jackie have her way with it.

Her quilting really blew me away. First of all, I don't know what pattern she used, but I love it. I'm still trying to figure out all of the stops and starts and overlaps and criss-crossing lines that make up this pattern. But whatever it is, Jackie made the perfect choice and truly bought the quilt to life.

And lest you think her genius was limited to only the quilting pattern, check out how she used colored thread to enhance the design:

Yeah, that's right: purple and orange thread to match Melissa's prints. This next picture shows the backing and binding fabrics that I picked to complement the quilt top. For some reason, I've really been enjoying shopping for backing and binding fabrics lately. I love the hunt to find something a little off and a little unexpected for these two elements -- something that both complements and offsets the front a little bit. In this case, I selected a print from Tina Givens for the backing and -- because I love me a striped binding -- a print from Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley line that highlights the rusts and purples featured in the Swoon fabrics.

That solid brown you see in the next pic is a Moda Grunge solid. Grunges and cross-weaves are quickly becoming two of my favorite types of fabrics to use in my quilt tops. (Sorry for all of the rogue threads that are still on the quilt!)

I am just thrilled with how this quilt turned out. I really couldn't recommend enough all of the different pieces that I pulled together to make this quilt: Melissa's awesome fabric designs, Monica's amazing quilt pattern, and the unbelievable quilting services offered by Jackie. Please go visit these amazing women. Tell 'em that Quilt Dad sent you!

http://www.yummygoods.com/
http://www.thehappyzombie.com/blog/
http://cvquiltworks.blogspot.com/

Confetti Quilt | Fat Quarterly Issue 5

I spent much of my Quilt Dad hiatus tending to the care & feeding of the Fat Quarterly blog as we prepared for and launched Issue #5. This issue is all about pre-cut fabrics -- you know, charm packs, jelly rolls, ten squares, fat quarter bundles, roll-ups, layer cakes and the like. I know I'm biased, but I think it's our best issue yet. Fat Quarterly is really hitting its stride, and though it's a ton of work, I'm having a blast being part of the team and building the brand from scratch!

My original pattern for the issue is a quilt that I decided to name "Confetti". I was itching to make something with my friend Aneela's Sherbet Pips line for Moda, and was thrilled to discover that the colors coordinate beautifully with some of the prints from Basic Grey's Blush line. (Some of these prints are getting hard to find -- trust me, I'm trying! -- so try to score some if you like the way they look with the Pips, like I do.)

Why "confetti"? Well, the design that emerged as I cut up charm squares into alternating sizes of rectangles and squares reminded me of confetti falling down against the backdrop of the Blush prints. Plus, it's just a really fun quilt, and there aren't many words more fun to say or spell than confetti!

As you can see in the picture above, I backed the quilt in a solid charcoal Kona fabric, my first time making a quilt with a solid backing. I quite like it. I also quilted this large throw quilt myself, keeping it simple with some straight horizontal lines.

I'm SO happy to report that this quilt is already getting lots of love and use in our home, jumping from one kid's bed to another!

Final Hoop Up Embroidery + Quilt Album Winner

OK, so it's been a while. Life happens, and May was a crazy month. Insanity at the day job, my son's 5th birthday, houseguests in the form of my visiting mother, brother, and future sister-in-law, Easter, taxes, the release of Fat Quarterly Issue #5, some super secret sewing commitments, Spring Quilt Market prep, and generally helping to keep our household afloat as my wife careens towards finishing the first year of her PhD program have all conspired to keep me away from the Quilt Dad blog for the past few weeks. I do have lots to share though, so I hope to get at least a few more posts up this week.

First, I realized (embarrassingly) that I hosted a giveaway and never posted the winner! The winner of the Quilt Album software package was Andrea, who blogs at Random Musings. (Andrea was notified right away, but I never got back here to announce it.) Congratulations, Andrea! You can find a list of all of the Quilt Album winners on Pat Sloan's blog here.

And because no post is complete without pictures, allow me to share the final piece I made for the Hoop Up! Stitch & Send embroidery swap over on Flickr. I made this piece for the super talented Amy in Australia, better known as badskirt-amy to her Flickr friends:

Amy's requested theme for her embroidery pieces was Roadside. She wanted the themes of vintage, adventure, and quirkyness to come through in the finished pieces, and you can read more about her theme (and her gocco adventures) here.

I decided to keep my piece pretty simple in an attempt to be more graphic, and embellished the piece with a piece of fabric from Basic Grey's Basics line that I fused on and secured with a machine blanket stitch. All in all I think it turned out OK, but in retrospect I wish I had added more detail for Amy ... especially because I took SO long and was late getting it back to her. I think she deserved more than what I delivered.

Have you ever sent off a swap piece and immediately wished you could have it back? One that you felt wasn't quite "up to snuff"?