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FREE PATTERN FRIDAY - AUGUST 2017 - BLUE WILLOW QUILT DESIGN

8/18/2017

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Hello Quilting Friends,

Here is the next offering for my special give away, Free Pattern Friday. I am offering this pattern for free and it will be available until I post the next one. Then it's gone! So make sure you get your copy. You may also want to sign up for my mailing list. That way you’ll never miss an update to my blog. I promise never to sell your name to anyone. I will only ever use it to let you know about what’s going on at my website.

Here is this month’s free pattern, Blue Willow. This design was originally published in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting March/April 2014 issue. In this blog I want to discuss the importance of value placement within your design. An understanding of value placement will help you to make a quilt that has the light, medium and dark fabrics where they need to be to achieve the look that you desire.
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 This quilt was made with fabric from Quilting Treasures Blue Moon collection. This group was great to work with because it consisted of a full scale of 10 values from light to dark. This was accomplished through the clever distribution of the texture used in the motif of each fabric print. The visual texture was achieved with blue printed onto white fabric.
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Usually I work with a standard grey scale progression from black through a variety of greys to white when I design. Whenever I work on a new design I always consider value placement carefully. The placement of light and dark is what creates the pattern that our eyes perceive. I can’t stress enough how wonderful it was to work with a group of fabrics where someone took the time to create a near perfect progression of printed fabric textures ranging from light to dark.
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For this design I used 10 values (10 fabrics) in total. It may seem like a lot of fabrics to gather together, but when you see what it looks like with less values you’ll understand why you will want to take the time to collect all the values you’ll need to complete this quilt as designed. I’ll go through a few variations where I decrease the number of fabrics used so that you can understand how more values (fabrics) can improve the look of a design.

The original design uses 10 values. I’ll start by changing the binding to match the last border. It may seem like a little thing to change but having a binding that contrasts with the last border adds a nice accent to the overall design. The next thing I’ll tweak are the light valued fabrics. In this design there are three light valued fabrics. I’m going to replace two of them with the third. This results in a design that uses 7 different values. Here is a look at both the original design and the new variation. I’ve also included a close up for detail.
Next I’ll tinker with the medium values used in the interior of the quilt. There is a swirl and a floral used to frame the light value portions. I’m going to change the floral one to match the swirl. I’m still using the floral in the border but not the interior. This creates a flatter image. The depth created by the use of the second medium valued fabric is missing. Here is the result below.
The design has two dark fabrics used in the blocks that create depth just like the medium valued fabric did. I’m going to remove the second dark fabric and use only one dark fabric in the design. We are now down to 7 values used in the interpretation of this design. Here is what that looks like.
Finally I’ll change the tile motif in the middle of the block to match the inner border. Now we are down to 6 values used in the design. I think that the design loses some of its sparkle when the palette is pared down to almost half of the number we started with. Here’s the result. You can decide for yourself how it makes you feel when less fabrics are used to interpret the design.
There are tools that will help you to discern the value of a fabric. You need a color filter and a gray scale value card. The color filters come in green and red. You use the red filter when working with cool colors and the green when you are working with warm colors. Since most of us work with a combination of the two, you will probably want to have both filters.

As you look at the fabric through the filter you place the value card near the fabric and move it around the values until you find the one that matches yours. The great thing about working with these tools is that eventually you will start to discern the value of the fabric without the red or green filter. I have these tools available at my ETSY shop for purchase. Click here to visit my shop.

I hope you’re excited and feeling inspired by this pattern I have offered you. I can’t wait to see what your version will look like! Please send me a photo of it when you have completed yours. And don’t forget to leave a comment. That way I know I’m not alone here. : )  
 
This pattern is available from download from my ETSY Shop. Click here to purchase this pattern.

I hope you have a happy day full of quilting! Namaste my quilting friend, Janice



1 Comment

FREE PATTERN FRIDAY - JUNE 2017 - OVER UNDER QUILT DESIGN

6/16/2017

2 Comments

 
 Hello Quilting Friends,

Here is the next offering for my special give away, Free Pattern Friday. Once a month, on a Friday, I will make a pattern available as a free PDF download. The pattern will be available until I post the next one. Then it's gone! So make sure you download your copy today.
 
You may also want to sign up for my mailing list. That way you’ll never miss an update to my blog. I promise never to sell your name to anyone. I will only ever use it to let you know about what’s going on at my website.


This month’s design was originally created for Fons & Porter’s Easy Quilts fall 2014. If you’d like to read my original blog post for this design click here.
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The original design was a 46” x 62” lap sized quilt. I decided to scale it down to a crib sized quilt measuring 40” x 54”. I got rid of the extra row of blocks across the length and width. I like this smaller size better. It feels like a better size for a small child to drag around. I feel that it’s important for a child to actually enjoy the quilt that a loved one made for them. Rather than having it hung on the wall as a decoration. Let me know what your feelings are on this subject, if you please.

When this design was originally published Fons & Porter deemed this design to be a great choice for their Quilts for Kids program because meets all of their guidelines. Plus it’s quick to make. The best part is that the yardages are relatively small. So you probably have all of the fabrics that you need in your stash. Better still because this design uses 2.5" wide units it's perfect for precuts!

I made a new version of this quilt for the daughter of a friend of mine. I invited him to choose the colors. He and his wife decided on green & purple. I decided to use black as the background color to set off the bright colors. My friend is a tattoo artist so I felt he and his wife would appreciate the avant-garde coloring of the baby quilt, which they did.

I want to show you how different this design can look when you change the value placement. Each of the following variations are shown with their corresponding greyscale value placement map. These maps will help you to identify what values you should use for each part of the block. They also will help show you how to arrange the blocks for each layout. The yardages shouldn't be too different but I would buy a little extra just to be safe.

I hope you’re excited and feeling inspired by this pattern I have offered you. I can’t wait to see what your version will look like! Please send me a photo of it when you have completed yours. And don’t forget to leave a comment. That way I know I’m not alone here. : )  
 
This pattern is available from download from my ETSY Shop. Click here to purchase this pattern.

I hope you have a happy day full of quilting! Namaste my quilting friend, Janice

2 Comments

New quilt Design "Spook-tacular" in Easy Quilts Magazine Fall 2016 from Fons & Porter

7/11/2016

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I have exciting news to share with you. I have a new design in Fons & Porter’s Easy Quilts Fall 2016. Even more exciting, they are offering a kit for the design. I’ll tell you more about that in a little while. The name of the quilt pattern is Spook-tacular.
The fabric is from the Creepy Hollow collection by Quilting Treasures. It’s a fun group of fabrics featuring Halloween motifs in orange, purple, green and of course black. The group includes a panel of every Halloween related creature you could imagine; friendly ghosts, dapper pumpkins, dancing skeletons, big eyed spiders and smiling bats. I fell in love instantly and decided to try coming up with an appropriate design.
The construction for the final design is very basic. It utilizes two very traditional blocks; Shoo Fly and Monkey Wrench. These two blocks are alternated in a 4 x 5 block layout. These are surrounded by a beautiful border print. I used the remaining border print strips on the back of the quilt. I alternated the borders with a tonal fabric. I finished the ends with the tonal so that it would be trimmed off and not the lovely border.
One of my ideas was to use the border on two different tops or make one top the backing for the other. The border print only had two repeats across the width so I had to find a creative use for the remaining fabric borders.
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I tried a couple of different ideas before sending them off to F&P to look at. They picked the one they liked best and the rest will live forever as a jpeg on my computer. But I’m going to show them to you first. I came up with one idea that utilized the panel and I tried another for the border print.
I hope you like it. If you make one, please send me a picture when you have the chance.
Happy Quilting!
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NEW QUILT KIT OFFERED BY FONS & PORTER'S LOVE OF QUILTING, "ROSEWATER"

6/16/2016

1 Comment

 
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I have exciting news to share with you. Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting is offering a kit for one of my quilt designs that I created for Quilting Treasures fabrics.

The collection used in the design is called Rosewater and it’s a lovely group of soft colored florals supported by a sweet selection of texture and tonal fabrics to complement the floral prints.

Quilting Treasures offers two sizes for this design, sofa sized and queen/regular sized quilt patterns. Fons & Porter is offering a kit for the sofa size of the design.

Now don’t get too excited because it won’t be available until after the beginning of July.

The construction for this quilt utilizes applique for the circle motifs and foundation piecing for the alternate blocks. If you make it please send me a picture if you have a chance. Happy Quilting!


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New Quilt Design, Honeycomb, In Fons & Porter's Quilting Quickly September/October 2015 Issue

9/23/2015

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I have a new quilt pattern in Fons & Porter's Quilting Quickly September/October 2015 issue. The design is called Honeycomb. The fabrics in the quilt are from Timeless Treasures Pashmina collection. The pattern can be made using precut 2 1/2" strips. Fons & Porter has a new twist for constructing the “snow ball” units. You can watch a demonstration of their technique, on You Tube. The design is being offered as a digital download from Fons & Porter or you can purchase a kit from Keepsake Quilting. Unfortunately the kits are on back order and won’t be available until October 13, 2015.
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The inspiration for this design was the simple “Snow Ball” Block that we are all familiar with. I was looking for a new way of using this block so I broke out my trusty graph pad and proceeded to play. The first thing that came to my mind was to try rotating the units and create a larger block of four “Snow Balls”. The sketch below is the result.
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Then I sat down and played with the idea in my Electric Quilt software. The first idea I had was to connect the units to create a visual flow across the quilt. The first two designs didn’t do it for me. They felt a little heavy handed so I thought I would try something a little more subtle. On my third try I felt that I was closer to a great design. But I didn’t love the way the grey tone values related to each other. So I switched around the grey values around and decided this was what I was looking for. Now it was time to tinker with color and create a woven effect.  
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Squash Blossoms quilt pattern now available online from connecting Threads

8/1/2015

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Hi everyone! I’m excited to tell you that I have my first pattern available for download on the Connecting Threads website. Click on the quilt image to the right for a link to their quilt patterns page.

You may remember this design called Squash Blossoms that was published in the March/April 2014 issue of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting. I really love the colors and the design for this quilt.


The fabric was from the Quilting Treasures' Cow girl up collection. The colors remind me of the geological formations called The Book Cliffs. I saw them on the border between Colorado and Utah along Highway I-70.

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The Book Cliffs are represented by the zig zag horizontal rows. The alternating rows contain a traditional block known as squash blossom. I've had my mind on this block for a long time. This seemed like the right time for including it in a design. This quilt was finished with long arm quilting by Janice Roy.

I’ve posted some pictures sent to me by Katherine Kohler of her version of the Squash Blossom quilt design. It looks beautiful! I especially love the glamour shot. Katherine put together her own group of tonal prints for the grey, brown and turquoise palette. I love her fabric choices. She also sent detail shots of the quilting. Nice work, Katherine!

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New Quilt Design "Plinko" in Easy Quilts Summer 2015 Magazine from Fons & Porter

5/21/2015

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I have another quilt design to share with you. It's called Plinko and it's a crib or lap sized quilt. You can find it in the Summer 2015 issue of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts. I named it Plinko because the diagonal elements in the design reminded me of the game plinko. You may be familiar with this game from seeing Plinko played on "The Price is Right" game show. My older sisters had a plinko game when I was little. I think all the disks were lost by the time I was old enough to play with it. Isn't that always the story? Anyway, the fabric collection is called French Navy by Studio 8 from Quilting Treasures fabrics. This collection includes pretty flowers and diagonal stripes in red, cream and blue. It was quilted by Pat Hluska. Click on the quilt for a link to the quilt kit. Click on the words that underlined for links to the fabric collection, the magazine or to see Plinko in action.
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This design came to me very quickly and didn't require a lot of further development. I sketched the design I envisioned first and then looked for the blocks within the design. Usually I design the block and then see what a quilt would look like repeating that block. Another lesson learned. As usual this was  the result of time spent waiting for an appointment somewhere. I'd have to say is was time well spent. I recommend carrying a sketchbook with you where ever you go. You never know when you might run into inspiration and you should be prepared. As Edna Mode, from "The Incredibles", once said "Luck favors the prepared."
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New pattern in fon's & porter love of quilting

10/12/2014

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I have a new quilt pattern in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine. The design is called Spinning Flowers. The fabrics in the quilt are from two collections by Quilting Treasures called Petals and Matrix. Petals is a pretty group of calicos that come in a variety of colors, textures and values. 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. You could use an easy-angle ruler for the half square triangles.

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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.
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new quilt in Fons & porter's easy quilts

7/18/2014

3 Comments

 
I have a new quilt design that appears in the Fall 2014 issue of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts, The official publication of the Quilters Club of America. The quilt is simple to construct. It meets the guidelines for and has been approved for Fons & Porter's Quilts for Kids program. The basic block for the quilt is shown below left.  It's a simple design that looks complicated but it isn't. The quilt appears to be woven in my eyes. The fabrics are from the Crayola- Ready, Set, Color collection from Quilting Treasures. This design would look cute with any fabrics. If you make one please send me a picture and permission to post it on my site if desired.

Thanks,  Janice

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Another quilt in love of Quilting!

3/5/2014

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Book Cliffs and Blossoms quilt in March/April Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting 

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I'm excited to let you know that another quilt I designed is in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting March/April 2014 issue. Click on the image of the quilt to see the page on Fon's & Porter web site.

The fabric is from Quilting Treasures' Cow girl up collection. The colors remind me of the geological formations called The Book Cliffs. I saw them on the border between Colorado and Utah along Highway I-70.

The Book Cliffs are represented by the zig zag horizontal rows. The alternating rows contain a traditional block known as squash blossom. I've had my mind on this block for a long time. This seemed like the right time for including it in a design. This quilt was finished with long arm quilting by Janice Roy.












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    Janice  Averill
    West Haven, Connecticut, United states

    Welcome to my Blog! This is where I'll share my thoughts about quilting with you. I'll post pictures and talk about designing quilts and construction techniques. I'll also post things that inspire me. Please leave a comment and let me know that you came by for a visit..

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