I belong to the Connecticut Piecemakers Quilt Guild. Every two years in February we have a guild challenge. The theme for this year was circles. I remembered that I had tinkered with making a quilt that was a Fibonacci spiral.
Hi Folks, it's just come to my attention that Quilting Treasures has updated their web site. Therefore none of the links I've created to their page are valid anymore. They've also deleted some of the older patterns. Here is the link to their new page, where you can find many of the patterns I've designed for them. If there are any you can't find, please let me know and I'll see if I can find the file on my computer.
This is another couple of free patterns that I designed for Quilting Treasures. The collection is called Lauren by Kensington Studios. The designs include a throw sized quilt and a bed runner. Click on the images to see the instructions. Click on the image to get the directions from Quilting Treasures. I looked for the fabric on-line and found it at Fabricsnquilts.com.   These are couple of free patterns that I designed for the Juno collection by Liz Kolansky for Quilting Treasures. The collection is formed around a beautiful image of iris. There is a wonderful assortment of values in the fabrics collection. These are great to play with when developing transparency in the design. The pattern designs include a throw sized quilt and a table runner. I looked for the fabrics online and found them at Melinda's Fabric Shop. Click here for the link. She also has kits for both projects. As always, please send me a picture if you make one of these designs. Happy Quilting!   Quiltmaker's Block #901 Le fleurHere it is!  You've seen what inspired this design. Now you get to see how I developed the design. The flow of my thoughts starts with the sketch at the left. Click on the images to enlarge. The first sketch was a rough draft of what I had in mind. I love curly cues and I really wanted to incorporate some into the fleur de lis design. To save time I work with one quadrant of the design. If I like it, I work up all four quarters to see what it looks like. When I'm at home I use quilt design mirrors to see the design. Click here to see a video on how too use design mirrors.      Next I do a mock up of the block with my Electric Quilt design software. As I design the block, I place it in a tiled quilt layout to see how the design looks when it's repeated. If there is something that bothers me, I tweak it and repeat the process until I am satisfied. As you can see below I took out the curly cues on my final block design. I felt it was too busy. Maybe someone else might think it was fine, but I wasn't happy. So I changed it. Click on the images below to enlarge. Starting with the block at the left, you can see the direction the design took. The last image is what it would look like in a tile layout. Here is the design and what it looks like when it's tiled in basic grayscale. I like to design in greyscale because I feel it removes the distraction of our emotional response to color.   Now that I was happy with the block design, it was time to see it in fabric with different layouts. Click on the images to enlarge.      Thank you for visiting my blog. Please leave a comment and I'll put your name in the hat for a chance to win a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Designer Blocks Volume 10. Happy Quilting!
Hi Folks, today I want to show you the Safari collection from Quilting Treasures. This is a fun group of animal prints. The textures come in a variety of color ways. I only used a couple of them in my block. You'll have to wait till tomorrow to see which ones I used. Hi Folks. Today is the first day of Quiltmakers 100 Block Blog Tour. You won't get to see my block until Wednesday. In the mean time, I thought I would show you what inspired my block design. I've become fascinated with decorative tile lately. I like to see the secondary designs that appear when the tiles are laid out next to each other. I also like the look of Fleur de Lys. Even though it's a fairly common emblem, it has many variations. As you can see below. Make sure that you check in on Wednesday and leave a comment and send me your e-mail address. I'll be giving away a free copy of the magazine to one lucky person.     I was very excited to find out that a block I had designed and submitted to Quiltmaker's 100 Block challenge was accepted. I'll be taking part in the blog tour that they host on their site Quilty Pleasures.  I have a new quilt pattern in Fon's & Porter Love of Quilting magazine. The design is called Spinning Flowers and it uses fabrics from 2 collections by Quilting Treasures. The collections are called Petals and Matrix . Petals is a group of pretty calicos that come in a variety of colors and textures. Matrix is a group of blenders that has a cross hatched texture printed on it. The two together make a great combination. The pattern can be made using precut 2 1/2" strips and an easy-angle ruler for the triangles.  I used a block that I found in 100 Great Quilts Blocks by Maggi McCormick Gordon. The block is called Formal Garden and it's a nine patch block. Below is the original block with the value placement shown in the book. Next to it you can see what it looks like when you join four blocks.   When I looked at the four blocks together, I saw a flower at the point where the blocks meet. So, I proceeded to change the value placement to make the flowers the focus of the design.   I'm very excited to tell you that I recently did an interview with Diane Harris from Quiltmaker magazine. You can find the link for the interview in the post about me on the EQ Blog- Behind the Mouse. In the interview I explain how I design blocks and quilts using Electric Quilt software. Don't forget to click on the link for the Scrap Squad. These quilters always come up with awesome variations on the design. I'm always amazed by their creativity!  | 
Janice Averill
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