Lap of Luxe Quilt | An Art Gallery Fabrics Project

I'm excited to be back over on the Art Gallery Fabrics blog today with another free project tutorial.  I had a blast working with AGF's new Luxe in Bloom line, and although I originally intended on making a small project, I couldn't stop myself from making a quilt.

This lap-sized quilt was made using fat quarters of the new Luxe in Bloom line along with some yardage of Art Gallery's Pure Elements solids.  I used two different shades of grey for a bit more of a scrappy feeling, but you could easily unify the solids for a cleaner look.  Made simply from squares and half-square triangles, my Lap of Luxe quilt pattern is perfect for showing off large prints and is easy enough to be considered beginner-friendly.

The Luxe in Bloom collection is great in that it is clearly cohesive and looks great together.  Yet, without a single unifying theme, the prints still seem eclectic enough to look like a more diverse fabric pull.  While the florals and patterns are sophisticated, I still think the size of this quilt would make it perfect for a little girl or baby gift.

Art Gallery Fabrics is generous enough to let one lucky Quilt Dad reader win a bundle of fabrics to make this project.  Interested in getting your hands on some Luxe?  Simply leave a comment on this post and let me know what you're most looking forward to this February.

As with all AGF Fat Quarter Gang giveaways, you must follow Art Gallery Fabrics on your favorite social media platform (Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter). Subscribe to the AGF blog to stay up to date on all things AGF & the Fat Quarter Gang!

If you make a Lap of Luxe quilt, I'd love to see it.  Be sure to add it both to the Quilt Dad is my Homeboy and Art Gallery Fabrics Flickr groups.

Rock & Romance fabric winner

Thank you all so much for your comments and kind words on my last post.  Y'all really know how to make a guy feel loved!  The warm welcome back was exactly what I needed to start feeling comfortable in this space again.

Thanks also for your patience with this giveaway.  I am so happy to report that the amazing team at Art Gallery Fabrics is still willing to fulfill the prize, despite my delay in selecting  winner.  So, without further ado, the winner of the Rock & Romance fat quarter bundle is Cori from Let's Eat Grandpa (great blog name!) who said:

CoriNovember 2, 2012 at 3:58 PM

I hit both ends of the spectrum -- I spent a lot of time sewing and I did a Tough Mudder. :)

Congrats, Cori ... and congrats also on finishing a Tough Mudder!  Those things are hardcore.  Send me your mailing info and we'll be sure to get your AGF fabrics out to you ASAP.

Re-entry

Our 2012 Christmas card

Hello, friends & readers.  Happy 2013.  It's been a while.

The more observant of you may have noticed that I haven't posted since October 29th.  (Note: and I even left a giveaway open.  What terrible blogging etiquette!)  And the truth is, the longer I've gone without posting, the more intimidated I've become to post again.  So I'm just going to dive right in with a quick update and hopefully make it easier to start posting more regularly again.

The #1 question I've always received on my blog is "how do you do it all?"  Sewing, quilting, blogging, swapping and Fat Quarterly, all on top of a full-time corporate job and raising 3 small children.  In short, it all caught up to me in 2012.

Professionally, the summer and fall brought a whirlwind of activity resulting in a major promotion at work.  Now leading a global team, I've been on the road a lot more than I had been in the past.  If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you've probably followed me along on my trip to Argentina as well as countless trips to Boston, New York, and Atlanta.  In fact, I finished up this post in the Munich airport and am posting it while on the Heathrow Express on my way into London.  You can imagine how all of this travel has impacted my sewing time!

Personally, my family went through a major transition in 2012.  Without going into too much detail, my Christmas card above shows that the face of my family changed over the year.  Everyone's healthy -- don't worry -- but I've spent a lot of time working through this transition and I'm currently adjusting to a new pace, a new schedule, and a new lifestyle.  To be frank, I went for several months without the desire to even walk into my sewing room.  There was just too much on my plate.

So, yeah -- a lot has been going on.  But I've missed this space.  I've missed being creative and making things.  I've missed the community and camaraderie of blogs, Flickr, Twitter, sewing events, and my local quilt guild.  Most of all, I've missed you.  The past few months helped me to realize how many true friends and kindred spirits I've met and been blessed with through this very blog, and it's too much of a valuable treasure to give up.

And now we're all caught up.  I promise my next post will name the winner of the Art Gallery Fabrics giveaway -- quite possibly the longest giveaway ever open in the history of blogging!  I also have some fun new stuff coming up both with Art Gallery and Liberty of London fabrics.  I have about 8 draft posts in my blogger account of things I've made and meant to blog about in 2012, so I'll try my best to catch up on those.  And Portland Quilt Market and the 2013 Fat Quarterly retreat are both on the horizon.

There's much to blog about, but I can't promise that I'll be able to get to all of it as quickly as I might have in the past.  I'm hoping to ease back into things.  If I can post once a week or even 3 times a month for a little bit, I'll consider that a success.  In the meantime, I'll continue to be more active over on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram -- let's face it, they're MUCH easier to handle on a phone!

Thank you all for your patience and support.

xoxo
John

Rock Garden Lounge Pillow | An Art Gallery Fabrics Project

I haven't been making too much lately, but I did take some time to sew together this fantastic lounge pillow recently and I absolutely adore it! It's made from the gorgeous new Rock 'n Romance line by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics, and I made the free project pattern available over on the Art Gallery Fabrics blog today.

I'd love to be able to share some of this amazing new fabric with a lucky reader!  Want to win a fat quarter bundle of Rock 'n Romance?  Simply leave a comment on this post and I'll randomly select a winner later this week.  Since I haven't been around much this summer, I'd love to hear what y'all have been up to.  What's your best memory of this past summer?

Good luck, and keep rockin'!

Skip the Borders Winner

Thanks for all of your great ideas for fabric choices for Julie's "Box of Chocolates" quilt.  I'm happy to announce the winner of Julie's book, Skip the Borders, is Veronica of Vivid Felicity who said:

Veronica A.M.October 16, 2012 11:02 AM

OOOOooo! I'd love to use the new Joel Dewberry Line for this quilt! Throw in some Robert Kaufman Quilters Linen, and I think it would be sooo pretty ;D!

Veronica, I'm happy to send you the book if you promise to send a picture of that sure-to-be-fabulous quilt!

I'm back tomorrow with a new Fat Quarter Gang project for Art Gallery Quilts.  See you then!

Skip the Borders Book Tour

I'm back today to bring you the final stop on the Skip the Borders Blog Book Tour.  Skip the Borders is the first book by blogger and quilter extraordinaire -- and one of my bestest quilting buddies -- the always fabulous Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts fame.

Skip the Borders is a collection of 15 quilt patterns, bound together by the fact that Julie has chosen to present them all without any borders at all.  The running theme throughout all of the projects is that the designs themselves are the stars, and Julie shows them off by letting the design run from side to side and from top to bottom, without the framing effect of borders.

The book, quite ingeniously, is broken out into three sections: one-block quilts, two-block quilts, and outside-the-block quilts.  It's pretty amazing to see how Julie creates such large-scale, original patterns using such simple elements.  And through it all, Julie brings all of the voice and personality that is such a signature of her blog.  Her writing is very conversational, and I felt like I was sitting at market with her again!

Instead of showing off several of the beautiful quilts in the book, I decided to just showcase my favorite.  Box of Chocolates is one of the book's two-block quilts, and it is representative of some of my favorite quilts: simple to put together, a basic patchwork approach, and a design that showcases its fabrics.  Plus, it may look like a square-in-square or log cabin block, but Julie introduces a strip-piece method to making these blocks that may surprise you.

I love this quilt, and it's only one of the 15 great projects in the book.  Check out some of the other photos on the other stops of the blog tour.

The fact is, Julie is one of the best pattern writers in the business.  Her patterns are easy to follow and accurate beyond belief.  Plus, Julie always gives options to help personalize the quilt to best meet the quilter's needs.  The book has a fantastic overview and basics section, which makes this a great book for beginning quilters.

Julie and the fab team at Martingale are giving away an ebook copy of Skip the Borders to a lucky Quilt Dad reader.  Want to get your hands on this awesome book?  I know you do!  Simply leave a comment on this post and tell me what fabrics you would use to make your own Box of Chocolates quilt.  The pattern has such versatility, and I'd love to hear about all of the different ideas you have for this single pattern!  I'll be picking a winner shortly.

Hexa-Go-Go Winner

Thanks for all of your entries in the Hexa-Go-Go book giveaway! I am pleased to announce that the winner is Amy of [Amy's] Crafty Shenanigans, who said:

"It is a lovely book. Am I brave enough to try hexagons? I think I am - I've seen so many amazing things made with them that this book would encourage me to be brave :) Thanks for the chance."

Congratulations, Amy!  Please email me with your contact information to redeem your prize.