The Space Dust Quilt-Along

Introducing the Space Dust Quilt-Along!

It's funny how these things come about sometimes.

I was enjoying an otherwise innocent conversation over on Instagram (about quilts and fabric and such, of course) with Kela (from Quilter's Square), Paul (from Evildemondevildog Quilts) and some others.

We were gushing about Katarina Roccella's new line for Art Gallery Fabrics, Indelible.

I was also sharing that Tula Pink's Space Dust quilt was on my quilter's bucket list, and that I was contemplating starting it soon.

It occurred to me that Space Dust made with Indelible would be pretty damn epic.

Others agreed. A quilt-along was mentioned. And I was volunteered (volun-told?) to host it. I agreed, as I tend to do.

I recruited Paul to be my co-host, Kela offered to pull together quilt kits (at a discounted price!), I asked Tula to offer a pattern discount to participants (she agreed!), and the Space Dust Quilt-Along (#SDQAL) was born. I am hoping you'll join us on this journey!

The Pattern

The Space Dust pattern by Tula Pink is a paper-pieced (foundation pieced) pattern. (Not English paper piecing -- aka hand work -- as some of you have already asked.) If you're unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or inexperienced with paper piecing and want to practice / get better, this is a GREAT pattern for that. It's fairly straightforward and Tula's instructions, as always, are amazing.

The PDF pattern is listed at $24.95 but Tula is offering 15% off for SDQAL participants. Just enter SDQAL as the discount code. (Shhh, don't tell anyone, but this code is good on ALL of Tula's patterns. So if you've been eyeing some other favorites, NOW is the time to buy.)

As a reference, here are the fabric requirements for the pattern:

• Background fabric: 5 yards
• Color fabrics: 22 quarter-yard cuts of your choice
• Backing: 8 yards
• Binding: 3/4 yard
• The quilt finishes at 88" x 96".

Link to purchase the Space Dust quilt pattern.

The Fabric

The quilting community is all abuzz with talk about Katarina Roccella's debut line with Art Gallery Fabrics, Indelible. Personally, I think it's much deserved. The line was a standout to me at Quilt Market in Pittsburgh and I've been (not so) patiently waiting to get my hands on some. And, given the prints and colors of the line, I think it will be an amazing complement to the Space Dust pattern.

The pattern calls for 21 quarter-yard cuts of prints, so you can of course use any fabric you want for the quilt-along. It is not a requirement that you make your quilt from Indelible!

If, however, you would like to use the line, Quilter's Square in Lexington, KY is making quilt kits and offering them at a discounted price. Kits are normally priced at $125.75, but are being offered for $100.00 for SDQAL participants.

Link to purchase quilt kits from Quilter's Square.

The Schedule

We'll be starting the quilt-along in a few weeks to give everyone enough time to collect their supplies, prepare their materials, etc. Paul and I will be alternating posts on our blogs (but I'll always link to his posts so that you won't miss anything.) The initial schedule is posted below. You will see that we will be posting on Fridays -- making it easier on you weekend warriors! -- and tackling the pattern row by row.

• Friday, 8/1 - Gathering materials, printing pattern, cutting pattern pieces, brush up on paper piecing, general prep
• Friday, 8/8 - Row 1
• Friday, 8/15 - Row 2
• Friday, 8/22 - Row 3
• Friday, 8/29 - Row 4
• Friday, 9/5 - Row 5
• Friday, 9/12 - Row 6
• Friday, 9/19 - Row 7
• Friday, 9/24 (MY 40TH BIRTHDAY!) - Row 8 & finishing up

A note about quilt-alongs: the posts will always remain live on our blogs. If you need to get started a few weeks (or months or years!) late, no worries. You can always come back and follow the posts. Likewise, if you're a Speedy Sally and want to jump ahead, you are always free to do so. The quilt-along is simply a place for encouragement and fun picture-sharing to keep everyone motivated throughout.

Of course, it wouldn't be a party without giveaways! Be on the lookout for fun giveaways to be offered throughout the quilt-along for anyone participating.

If you're participating and you're active on social media, please be sure to share all of your progress on Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag #SDQAL. Feel free to start now with photos of your fabric ideas, your prep work, paper piecing tips, questions and requests for help, etc.

So, who's in?

Remember this rescue quilt?

About 2 1/2 years ago, I wrote a blog post and called it "Can this quilt be saved?" In it, I recounted the story of a college friend who entrusted her husband's well-loved (but badly damaged) childhood quilt to me to see if I could somehow restore it so that it could continue to be enjoyed and appreciated by their own children.

I must admit, I was a bit surprised by the responses that I received to that post. While I expected the posts that both admired my efforts and provided invaluable tips and advice on the cleaning and restoration process, I was a bit surprised by the number of people advising me not to try to alter the quilt too much and to avoid using modern fabrics in an effort to maintain the authenticity of the quilt. This being the first such project I had undertaken, I truly appreciated all of the feedback and it gave me a bit of pause as I decided how I wanted to proceed.

Ultimately, I stayed the course and finished the project according to my original plan. I remembered that my friend entrusted the quilt to me, with the implicit understanding that she trusted my judgment and my aesthetic in bringing it back to life. My original plan to infuse life into the vintage panel by pairing it with more modern (though vintage-inspired) prints was very much in keeping with my personal design style. If I loved it, then I could be fairly confident that their family would too.

Above, you can see a picture of the quilt after I was finished with my updates. I kept to a very simple courthouse steps / log cabin design in an effort to keep the focus on the sentimental middle panel. I absolutely love what the oliver + s prints brought to the project: a bit of whimsy with colors that really drew from the main panel.

The quilt finished at a nice toddler / cuddle size. I hope it's very happy in its new home, and that its owners are too!

Teaching in Lexington, Kentucky

While at Camp Stitchalot I had the pleasure of meeting Laura, Lin, and the gang from Q First in Quilting in Lexington, Kentucky. Good thing, because I was traveling to teach a class at their shop the following weekend!

I headed to Lexington on Friday, July 13th, and was welcomed by Laura and Lin and some of their customers with a reception in their shop. (If you are in, near, or traveling through Lexington, I cannot recommend Q First in Quilting enough. It's a big, beautiful, airy shop with a killer selection of modern fabrics.) I was able to introduce myself, meet some new people, sign some books, and do a brief trunk show of all the quilts from Beyond Neutral. I also helped some students select and purchase fabrics for the next day's class -- my favorite thing to do!

On Saturday, I taught an all-day class, leading people through the pattern for the Beyond Neutral cover quilt, Pacific Crest (shown above.) I had a blast taking the students through my design process for the pattern and watching their unique and beautiful quilts come to life. (And I had a major fanboy moment when I learned that Erin from House on Hill Road was one of my students in the class.)

Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend:

And Linda Peevy was the first to send me a photo of her completed quilt top. Linda used batiks to make her Pacific Crest quilt. Isn't it gorgeous? Thanks, Linda!

Shop owners and guild leaders: I am available for trunk shows, speaking engagements, and all-day quilt classes. If you are interested in learning more, please let me know.

Even more photos from Beyond Neutral

Quiet week here, so I thought I'd take another opportunity to share some more images from my book, Beyond Neutral: Quilts Inspired by Nature's Elements.

This first one is called Cape Lookout, and it was inspired by the view of sunrises and sunsets over the water. As you can tell by the photo, it's an easy quilt to piece together and a great showcase for your favorite collection of gradient prints.

With Canyonlands, I took a free block pattern that I had designed for Generation Q magazine's blog a few years back (Modern Starlings, found here.) As soon as I designed the block I envisioned an entire quilt of starlings, and was finally able to realize it in my book.

Today's third quilt is called Half Moon Bay, and in it I used my long-hoarded (and much-loved) collection of Cake Rock Beach fabric. I love the graphic nature of this quilt and think that, with different colors and prints, the pattern can be taken in so many different directions.

I hope you're all enjoying the book. If you've been able to browse through a copy and are so inclined, I always appreciate Amazon reviews of the book. And if you've made anything from Beyond Neutral, please send me photos of your quilt tops. I'd love to feature them in future posts!

Link to purchase at Amazon.
Link to purchase at the Fat Quarter Shop.
Link to purchase at Barnes & Noble.

Camp Stitchalot

OMG. I am still getting over the massive sewing high that I experienced as a counselor last month at Camp Stitchalot last month. Unfamiliar with Camp Stitchalot? Well, it's only the most super awesome sewing retreat run by Brenda and her all-star team at Pink Castle Fabrics. (You can read more about Camp Stitchalot here.)

First of all, I got to hang out with this chick:

Yep, that's Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey, one of my very best friends. No, that photo of the two of us is not from camp, but I love it and wanted to share it anyway. Two of my other quilting besties, Laura Jane and Tula Pink, were there too, as were fellow counselors Deborah Moebes (Whipstitch) and Rossie Hutchinson (Fresh Modern Quilts) and a whole gaggle of amazing, beautiful, and talented sewists (too many to name here, but you know who you are!)

Blog followers know that I've been in and out of the sewing and blogging game for the past two years or so, but I credit Camp Stitchalot for full restoring my quilting mojo. Spending such great quality time with like-minded crafters truly refueled my tank. I got a lot accomplished at camp -- and had a heckuva time doing so -- and have been sewing steadily since my return. (Hopefully that will result in more things to share here on the ol' blog!)

Rather than bore you with all the details (that would take hours for me to write anyway), I'll share the story of Camp Stitchalot in pictures.

Looks like the best time ever, right? If you thought that, you wouldn't be too far off.

The setting was the beautiful, rustic, and humorously eclectic Hankerd Inn in Pleasant Lake, MI. It's a fantastic setting for sewing retreats, should you ever find yourself looking for one.

Thanks again to Brenda and her team for inviting me to be a camp counselor. The weekend was capped off by a trip to the kingdom itself, Pink Castle Fabrics, where I emptied my pockets and left with a rejuvenated stash of amazing fabrics. I can't recommend her shop enough.

#NGAQB Mr. March: Andrew Youngman

March was Andrew Youngman's month in the #NGAQB. Andrew is a quilter living in upstate New York and working in the healthcare industry. It's been great getting to know Andrew through this bee as well as over Instagram, where he posts under the handle @TESTOSTERSEWN (he currently does not have a blog.)

Here's Andrew's intro:

I’m the other Andrew, or Mr. March. In a brief introduction about me, I would tell you that I sent to art school and concentrated in photography. I now work in healthcare, specifically as an aide in Intensive Care and Cardiac Services.  

Quilting was introduced to me by my mother a couple of years ago when I asked her to teach me, knowing she wanted to get back into it. I made one small table runner and one lap quilt then put my machine away, only to pick it up again 6 months or so ago.  

Thanks to social media, specifically Instagram, I started noticing more and more male crafters and quilters, and started to follow them and begin a conversation about an all-male quilt bee. And here we are.

I chose the Inverted Star block (available on craftsy.com) because I haven’t yet worked with half-square triangles and wanted the challenge. And I asked for the color inspiration to come from a photograph I took on my last trip with my husband to Key West. We’ve been there twice in the last year and love it. Asking for your help to commemorate this new favorite place of mine seemed appropriate.  

Thanks you all for the stunning blocks that I’ve already either received or seen online. They work you each produce is amazing and I’m glad to be a growing amateur in such an elite group of fun and talented craftsman! 

Here is the beautiful photograph that Andrew provided for inspiration:

Based on the muted blue, grey, and black tones of the picture -- along with a touch of light green -- here are the fabrics I pulled for Andrew's blocks:

With the fabrics selected, the blocks were fairly straightforward to assemble. Lots of HSTs, but that's OK. I went with a completely scrappy layout rather than a more coordinated one, and I'm very happy with how the stars turned out.

Can't wait to see Andrew's blocks all come together!

Chattin' with Pat (again!)

I'm so excited to be chatting with Pat Sloan again today on the American Patchwork & Quilting Podcast. We'll be talking about fabric, shopping for fabric, selecting fabric, and more about fabric, fabric, fabric. Sense a theme? We'll also be talking a bit more about Beyond Neutral and the Fat Quarterly Quilt Color Workshop books.

You can listed to the podcast live today at 4PM EST by clicking on this link.

Wish me luck!