Wednesday, November 2, 2011

New fabric designs -- and progress on the next book!

I have been away from my blog for quite a while, concentrating on my new facebook group for swapping quilt blocks (if you're interested in swapping with us, you can find it here).

In the last few months, I have been working on lots of new things. Unfortunately I haven't finished too much! But I have gotten a few new fabric designs posted and available for sale. You can see my fabric store here. I have a few monkey prints and a few prints I put together for my Sigma Sigma Sigma sisters. They're sized to be used in letter shirts, but would be fun for other things as well. I have a few more that I have to tweak before they can be made available as well. One is a one-yard skirt pattern for little girls (called Rainbow Hibiscus, it's a really fun skirt), and I also have a plushy monkey I created to coordinate with my Monkeying Around fabrics.

I'm also working really hard on getting a new book out there. This one will contain at least 6 fat quarter quilt patterns in 5 sizes each. I'm hoping to make it available in both print and e-book formats, so you can put it on your Kindle, Nook, etc. I'm almost finished with the diagrams, so next I'll get to writing the actual directions. I'll keep you posted on that!

So there's a lot going on. I'm hoping to be able to get some things finished really soon!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Monthly Pinwheel Block Swap

This is a swap for 6.5" (unfinished) pinwheel blocks - 5 blocks make a set. If the blocks are a little big, that's fine, but blocks that are not at least 6.5" will be returned unswapped.
I'm not going to insist on quilt shop quality fabric because I know how expensive it is, but please avoid using very poor quality fabric. Jo-ann's fabric is fine. Fabrics should be pre-washed. You can trade up to 4 sets per swap. Attach an address label, or tape a small label to the back of each block with your name on it (so I can do my best not to give your own blocks back to you!)

The pinwheel block can be found here:
http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltblocklotto/ss/pinwheel_quilt_2.htm

Please keep your dark and light fabrics where they're shown in the diagram. One block with the colors reversed sticks right out!

To make your half square triangles easier, you can use this template:
http://www.blockcentral.com/hst/hst-3inch.pdf

This template makes enough half square triangles for two blocks, so three copies will do per set. Make sure when you print, the scaling is set to "none" so it doesn't shrink to fit the page, or your blocks will be too small! You could also use the 4 inch version and trim them to fit if that makes you more comfortable, but you'll need one copy per block for that template. (http://www.blockcentral.com/hst/hst-4inch.pdf)

To keep the colors within the color families, I'm suggesting using a color wheel. They are available for purchase in the quilting notions section of Jo-ann's, but I've been known to forget mine when I go there. So I grab one to use while picking fabric, and then put it back before I leave. There are 12 color families on this color wheel and it shows different shades of each color. Each swap will cover one color family. Just choose two fabrics per set. You'll need about a quarter yard of each fabric to make your sets. Make 6 blocks, keep one block for yourself and mail the other 5 in for swapping.

If you're interested in swapping, contact me through my facebook page (Shannon's Quilty Corner) or by email (quiltyshannon@yahoo.com) before the mail date, and let me know how many sets you will be swapping for that month. Mail date is the 15th of each month. I will swap out on the 25th or sooner, if I have received blocks from all that have signed up. Make sure to include an envelope with return postage attached for me to swap out & mail back to you.

Block colors by month:

July 2011 - Red/Violet
August 2011 - Yellow
September 2011 - Blue
October 2011 - Green
November 2011 - Red
December 2011 - Violet
January 2012 - Orange
February 2012 - Blue/Green
March 2012 - Yellow/Green
April 2012 - Red/Orange
May 2012 - Blue/Violet
June 2012 - Yellow/Orange

When you sign up, I will send you the address to send your sets to. I don't want to post it all over the internet! If you have any questions, please let me know.

On a side note, if you're fast at sewing, or busier some months than others, or you just want to save on shipping costs, feel free to do blocks ahead of time and send them in together. I will hold onto them until they've all been swapped, and then send them back all at once. Just be sure there's enough postage for the blocks you're sending on the return envelope.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Come 'Like' my new Facebook page!

I have found that I am more likely to update a facebook page, and since most people have facebook accounts now, I made a page! If you have an account, come search for my page on facebook, it's also called Shannon's Quilty Corner. Like it and see what I'm working on!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Thomas and Friends Quilt Pattern

Here is the pattern for the Thomas and Friends quilt I designed for my son.
--------------
Thomas and Friends quilt
Finished size: approximately 72” by 74 ½”





Uses Cranston Village “Thomas and Friends” fabric collection

Fabric Requirements:
1 Thomas and Friends Wall Hanging (61835-Y)
2 Thomas and Friends Panel Blue, preferably not cut apart (62343-B – discontinued but you may still be able to find it in quilt shops or online. This link is just for reference)*
¼ yard red solid (try to match it to the border of the wall hanging panel as closely as possible)
1 yard Thomas and Friends Gears Allover (62346-B)
2 yards Thomas and Friends Scenic (62344-BG)**

* If you can only find one of these panels, you can use 1 Thomas and Friends Panel Blue and ½ yard Thomas and Friends (no name, 74138-N) instead.
** If you like, you could use Thomas and Friends Station Scenic (74101-BG) instead.


Cutting instructions:
1. Trim the Wall Hanging panel to 43 ¾” by 35”, keeping the border even on all sides. (piece A)

2. From the two Panel Blue panels, cut the side borders off and trim them to 5 1/8” by 41 ¾” (2 - piece B) Then cut the 6 smaller panels apart, trimming them to 14 ½” by 10 1/8”. (6 – piece C)

3. From the red solid, cut:
4 – 1 5/8” by 10 1/8” (piece D)
4 – 1 ½” by 5 1/8” (piece E)
2 – 1 3/8” by 63 ½” (piece F)
2 – 1 3/8” by 46 ¼” (piece G)

4. From the Gears Allover fabric, cut:
2 – 5 3/8” by 64 ¾” (piece H)
2 – 5 3/8” by 56” (piece I)

5. From the Scenic fabric, cut:
2 – 8 ½” by 74 ½” (piece J)
2 – 8 ½” by 72 1/8” (piece K)


Putting it together:
1. Sew a piece E to both ends of each piece B. This will be Panel 1.

2. Sew a Panel 1 to each side of the Wall Hanging Panel. This will be Panel 2.

3. Sew the train panels together in this pattern: piece C (James), piece D, piece C (Thomas), piece D, piece C (Percy). This will be Panel 3. Sew the name panels together in this pattern: piece C (Percy), piece D, piece C (Thomas), piece D, piece C (James). This will be Panel 4.

4. Sew Panel 3 to the top of Panel 2. Sew Panel 4 to the bottom of Panel 2.

5. Sew a piece F to each side. Sew a piece G to the top and bottom.

6. Sew a piece H to each side. Sew a piece I to the top and bottom.
7. Sew a piece J to each side. Sew a piece K to the top and bottom.

That’s it! Sandwich, quilt, and bind. Enjoy!

As I said in the fabric requirements, one of the fabrics has been discontinued. Pieces B and C come from the Thomas and Friends Panel Blue fabric. If this can’t be obtained, piece B can be replaced with less than ½ yard of 74138-N, and piece C can be replaced with any other Cranston Village Thomas and Friends fabrics that you like. I suggest replacing them with two 14 ½” by 10 1/8” pieces of each of: Thomas Toss (74102-R), Tickets Allover (74103-B), and Train Toss (64325-G), but feel free to use any fabrics you like.

Monday, April 11, 2011

My current project

A friend of mine is expecting a baby soon, and I wanted to do something special for the baby. So here's my most recent project. I've made this quilt before, for my son's kindergarten teacher when she had her baby, and it came out so nicely I decided to do it again! I even have pieces traced onto heat and bond to start a third one at some point. This is the one I am making for my friend. I have a yellow fabric that matches the green that I will be using for the sashing.


And this is the one I made for my son's teacher! This one was more scrappy, I used 7 different pink fabrics for the blocks, and another for the border. For anyone interested in making this quilt, the pattern can be found on Quiltmaker.com. It's called Just Bugs, and it's free! just go here and click Download the PDF at the bottom left. http://www.quiltmaker.com/patterns/details.html?idx=105

Friday, March 25, 2011

WOW!

I have to say today has really been a great day. I got the nicest email this morning from someone named Niki, who told me that my monkeys make her smile :) She also told me she'd forwarded my blog link on to her quilt lists, which is apparent in the 400 blog hits I got so far today! So I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has visited my blog, and especially to Niki, who helped them find me :)


In honor of the over 500 hits I've gotten in the last 2 days, I've decided to post a sneak preview to my new quilt pattern that I'm working on! How do you feel about owls? Let me know!


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Almost...

I got my final proof ordered this morning, and I have my distribution channels set up and ready to go. In fact, it's already live on my createspace estore page! It's not available for sale yet, but as soon as it is, Monkeying Around can be purchased here:



https://www.createspace.com/3548723



Come check it out! It should be available for sale this week.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Hope to be sewing again soon!

We recently moved. Well, not terribly recently, we moved in December. But now that we live over an hour from my job, and I work in a very high traffic area, I am driving and working longer hours so I have had ZERO time to sew. I haven't even had time to unpack my sewing room, which has been in boxes since early November. The only sewing I've done since then was to get pieces put together for a cub scout troop craft for Christmas, and to sew the gaping hole up in the behind of my son's snow pants.

And my job gives us a Friday off every 2-3 weeks. So you'd think I'd have time to get things put together! But it seems every time I get a ME day, Logan (my oldest) either has the day off school or gets a snow day, or Ridley (my youngest) is sick and can't go to school/day care (which I have to pay for anyway, whether he goes or not).

So I've been kind of aching to get things out and ready to do SOMETHING. The pattern has been a good outlet, but not a complete replacement for actual sewing. This past Friday, Ridley was sick so I spent the day with him, folding laundry and playing with him, and working on my book. Saturday my husband had to work so I had both boys home.

Once I got the boys in bed, I put my foot down and decided to get something set up. I managed to unpack my sewing cabinet although I don't have a final place to put it yet, and I got my quilt frame set up. All I need to do is plug in my machine and I can get back to some quilting!

I'm currently about 1/3 through quilting a mystery quilt top I made a few years ago but never got any farther with. It's a very geometrically pieced quilt, so I decided to go a little curvier with the quilting. It's taking much longer than I'd like because I don't have a long arm machine yet, so I can only sew in 3" rows or so. I am hoping to get a long arm machine in the next year or two, but money's tight for everyone these days. If the monkey quilt pattern sells well, maybe I can do it sooner rather than later!

Here's a picture of the mystery quilt I'm working on getting quilted. I will probably sell that one, I already have 2 people fighting over it and it's not even done!


Just wanted to share my first quilt design :)


I thought I'd share a picture of the quilt I designed for my 2 year old last year. It's a Thomas the Tank Engine quilt made from Cranston Village fabrics. My son absolutely LOVES Thomas! So, since I'd made the Fons and Porter Victory Lane quilt for my oldest (it's a Disney Cars quilt), I thought I should make one for my youngest too. But I didn't like any of the existing patterns out there. So I started looking for fabrics, and came up with this. I didn't get exact measurements of the pieces till I had the fabrics in my hands, but it went together very quickly after that!

I was going to try to put together instructions for how I made it, but one of the fabrics doesn't appear on Cranston Village's website anymore. So I will have to rework it a little before I can do that, but in the meantime, here's what I made.

This was the first quilt I ever designed, although I have a few more floating around in my head waiting to get out!

Friday, March 18, 2011

It's HERE!


Wednesday was the big day that my proof copy of "Monkeying Around" arrived! It seemed like it took forever, but it was really less than 3 weeks. Next time I order a proof, I'll spring for better shipping than media mail!

Anyway, here's a photo of my first ever book!

This pattern was inspired by the children's song "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." I've been working on it off and on (mostly off) since October of 2009. I just finished it in February and submitted it for publishing.

Getting the pattern itself designed wasn't a huge deal, but the formatting and diagrams took a while. I use AutoCAD for work, so that was what I used to do the entire book except the cover (which was done in Photo Shop). The book includes directions for five sizes of a fat quarter quilt, and directions and pieces to applique the five monkeys onto it.
I'm currently trying to upload the file with my changes, and by tomorrow I should be able to order another proof. That is, if I can ever get the file to process! Cellular internet doesn't seem to like me too much, but we have very few options where I live. It may have to wait till Monday when I get to work again. Either that or my little guy and I will have to make a stop for lunch at a local wi-fi hot spot.
I am confident that I've made all the changes I need to. It was all minor fixes. So as soon as they tell me that my proof has shipped, I'll approve it and it'll be available for sale!! I will post a link here on my blog as soon as it's available.

I always wanted to write a book. I always thought it'd be a novel if I ever did it, but here I am with a 36 page quilt pattern with my name on the cover. Snazzy!
EDIT: As of March 22, this pattern is available for sale! You can get your copy here:

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

About me and my quilts

First and foremost, I'm a wife and mom. I have been married for 9 years, and we have 2 boys, ages 7 and almost 3.

I am also currently working full time as an electrical engineer. Not the kind that designs cars or electronic gadgets, I work with buildings. My background is in loss prevention systems like fire alarm and security. But I lost my job back in 2009, and after almost 2 years of being unemployed, I'm now working in lighting and power. It's a contract position though, and in this economy I'm not holding my breath that I'll get hired when my contract is up. I would certainly be happy to accept the position!

I have been quilting since January of 2007, when I jumped in with both feet and took part in 2 mystery quilts. Before that, I'd never found a craft I'd been able to stick with. Crocheting, scrapbooking, cross stitch...none of them gave me the satisfaction that quilting has. I think it's because with quilting, it doesn't take that long to make a block, and for a newbie, that's a great motivator!

Since then, I've done a few more mystery quilts and a few standard pattern quilts. Back in October of 2009, I was playing with my youngest son and we were singing the 5 Little Monkeys song. I'd always called him my little monkey, so I started looking for a quilt inspired by the song. But there wasn't one! I couldn't believe nobody had ever made one. So I decided to take it upon myself to design it. I use AutoCAD for so many things, why not for quilting? So my 5 little monkeys were born.

But it's hard to make an applique quilt pattern with no direction for the top! So I designed a fat quarter quilt top to go with it. I decided to use pretty large pieces so if someone with a large collection of monkey fabrics (such as myself) wanted to showcase those fabrics, the pattern would allow for that.

I worked on the pattern off and on (mostly off) for over a year, until I decided to try to wrap it up and publish it. In February, 2011, the first edition of Monkeying Around was sent to CreateSpace.com to be printed. I'm still waiting for my proof copy, and as soon as I get it and approve it, it will be available for sale!

I'm also working on a second quilt pattern, which will showcase owls. It's still in the design stages though, so it won't be ready for a little bit. Once my proof comes in for the monkey pattern and I can see how it turned out, I'll be able to better move forward on the owl pattern. I'm expecting the proof this week!