One-Fabric Hexagon Quilt

We spotted this quilt, “Big Stripe Hexagonal” at Fall Quilt Market and knew we had to make it. The coolest part about this hexagon quilt? It’s made using just one fabric! To get the hexagon effect, the striped fabric is cut out using a 60-degree triangle ruler and pieced back together in rows. Neat!

All you’ll need is 4-1/2 yards of fabric. We have the stripe used in this quilt in two colorways. Buy enough fabric to make this quilt and we’ll throw in the pattern to get your started, or check out the pattern online on Michael Miller’s website.

Sunflower Fields Wool Patterns

We’ve been featuring LOTS of samples in our wool area from Sunflower Fields Pattern Company. Sunflower Fields’ designer, Liz, was generous enough to provide these samples to display. We have dozens of her really cute patterns available in the shop and they just fly off the shelves. Her book, Cozy Wool Applique, has also been one of our best sellers for the last few months. Here’s some of our favorites we are dying to share with you:

 

 

Liz is an Idaho girl and we’re so happy for her success. You can check out her blog to see what new things she’s been working on.

Meet Our Staff

Introducing…Kat! She’s no stranger to many of you, but we think she still has a few surprises up her sleeve. Read on to learn a bit more about this Quilt Expressions veteran.

Here’s Kat with her aboriginal quilt.

What’s your background?
In college I was a home economics major with an emphasis on clothing and textiles. I also had a business minor. I did a lot of testing of fabrics and designed clothing. This knowledge came in handy when I opened a quilt store in Southern California. I went to a lot of quilt shows and started to design patterns so I would have some different things in my booth that people hadn’t seen before. I got hooked on the Dresden ruler and created most of my patterns with it. (You can take a look at some of Kat’s patterns on our website here or get a full tutorial on the Dresden ruler here.)

What are your favorite quilt “genres”?
Kaffe, batiks and reproduction traditional — my daughter jokes that I’m a little bi-polar!

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a flannel quilt called Pennies and another Dresden quilt. I’m also designing a new Dresden pattern that’s more modern and I’m looking forward to doing it out of Kaffe fabric leftover from the last quilt I made.

What inspires you?
I get a lot of inspiration from others and their creativity. I love going on retreats and sewing with others. Also, one of my favorite things to do is sew with my daughter — we have created some wonderful quilts together as gifts for others.

What do you enjoy besides quilting?
Knitting, hiking, jewelry-making, reading in a book club and collecting antique quilts (oh wait..that’s quilting!)

StashBusters Pattern Preview

Our next year of StashBusters is starting up in February. We’re kicking off the new year with a big, bold quilt. The best part? It only takes six one-yards cuts to piece the top. How easy is it to put six fabrics together? Big blocks are in right now and this quilt is perfect for showing off those bold prints you’ve been stowing away in your stash for just the right project. When you join StashBusters, you’ll be the first to receive this all-new pattern.

If you haven’t been a part of StashBusters in years past, here’s the low-down on our popular year-long pattern club. We meet the fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:00 p.m., or the following Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Each month you will be among the first to receive our latest original Quilt Expressions pattern. Each scrappy pattern is designed to go together quickly and use up the piles of fabric you have hiding in your sewing rooms (don’t deny it!) We give away door prizes at each meeting and you’ll have an opportunity to show-and-tell quilts you’ve made from our StashBusters patterns. At the end of the year, we’ll top it all off with an auction extravaganza.

Our first meeting will be on Saturday, February 23rd, at 11:00 a.m. or Wednesday, February 27th, at 6:00 p.m. (Did we mess you up? Our first meeting dates are different than the usual fourth Wednesday and following Saturday to account for the short month.) Call or come in to the shop to sign up. Cost is $50 for newcomers, which includes a 3-ring binder to house all your StashBusters patterns, and $45 for returning members. Let the party begin!

Do you live outside the Boise area? Don’t despair. We have a StashBusters group for all our “global” members – you’ll get your patterns mailed to you every month. You can join at any time. For more information, continue on to our website.

Our Surprise Revealed

Yesterday we had a huge celebration in the shop to announce our BIG SECRET! People were lined up in the freezing cold to be the first here for our party. Did you miss our big day? Can you guess what the big surprise is?

We won’t make you wait any longer! Our big news is….(drumroll, please!)….we were selected by Quilt Sampler magazine as one of the top ten shops in the United States! WOOO! We are incredibly excited and had so much fun celebrating with all our favorite people at the shop.

The magazine will be released in May. If you pre-order the magazine from us, you will get entered to win a $100 gift certificate. We are making kits of the quilt being featured in the magazine. We are also taking pre-orders for the kit.

Here’s some photos from yesterday’s celebration.

     

First in line!

The parking lot was FULL!

Cars lined up all the way to Fred Meyer!

Making the big announcement.

The quilt that will be featured in the magazine.

Ombre Pixel Quilt

We now have the Simply Color line by V & Co for Moda Fabrics. The line includes several colors of ombre prints (where the color graduates from dark to light) which make really unique quilts.

Jane, our Moda rep, gave us a great, modern idea on how to use the ombre fabrics. I knew I had to try it out. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make a “pixel” quilt. It’s a really fast and easy project. I used just one color of ombre, but picking two or three ombres in coordinating colors would make a stunning quilt as well.

You will need a total of 3-1/3 yards of ombre fabric to make a 54” x 70” finished quilt.

First, cut your fabric into (24) 5” strips. Then, subcut the strips into (192) 5” x 5” squares.

You will be sewing your squares together at random, so first you need to mix up your neat stack of squares. I did this by “shuffling the deck” and spreading all the squares out across my cutting table. Then, I dumped the pile into a bag and mixed them up even more.

Sew the squares together at random into (96) two-patches. The beauty of the pixel quilt is its randomness. However, at this stage I was careful to mix up the tones of the fabrics so there was at least some contrast between the two squares I sewed together.

Press your two-patches to one side. Then, sew your two-patches together to make (48) four-patch blocks. Press seams to one side.

Arbitrarily arrange your blocks into eight rows of six blocks. You’ll want to double check your seams alternate so they “nest” when you sew your blocks together. You can either rotate your blocks to make them fit, or you may need to re-press some of your seams.

Sew your blocks and rows together and ta-da! You’re all done. I love how modern and graphic the end-result is. Della gave me several ombre fabrics after her sewing-room purge and I’ve started making miniature pixel quilts to hang in my sewing room.

Have any great ombre-fabric project ideas? Please share in a comment!

– Posted by Stacy

Cute Flannel Pajamas

Psst! Kris just finished these ADORABLE pajamas for her grandson out of the Reptile Rumpus Flannel collection. But don’t tell anyone! It’s a secret until Christmas. What cute things are you wrapping up for Christmas this year?

– Posted by Stacy