Lookie, Lookie!!  I made the cover of American Patchwork and Quilting.  It’s always exciting whenever we have a quilt published and even more exciting if we can be the cover!!

It’s the February 2022 issue.  You can start trying to find it on the newsstands now.

Of course this quilt has a story…don’t all of the quilts I design have a back story?  This one certainly does.  Grab a cup of coffee or drink and read on…

First off, this quilt was inspired by a vintage quilt I found when Kalissa and I were out and about.  We were shopping at a vintage store in Sumner, Iowa called Maker’s Market.  It’s a fun and cute little shop that Kalissa actually sells her shirts at.  I love it when she invites me along.  Kalissa snapped this picture of me with the quilt.  My intention was to go home and draw it up on EQ.

I got home and ugh…it wasn’t working.  I ended up back at the shop about a month later and the quilt was still there.  I’d been thinking about the quilt all that time..I looked at it again.  Man, I loved the quilt.  I just bought it.

I got the quilt home and was so disappointed.  The quilt blocks had inset seams.  UGH.  I didn’t want to recreate that!!  I can do them but I didn’t want to do enough to make the quilt.  UGH.  I let the quilt sit.  I was so disappointed that I spent the money and now wasn’t going to reproduce it.

The quilt sat on my dining room table for a month.  UGH.  Every time I passed it I was disappointed.  I only spent about $50 on it and that wasn’t terrible…but still.

Then one day I decided I was going to sell it at the next postage auction.  I picked it up to take pictures and WAIT.  With a little modification, I thought I could make the block without y-seams.

Here is the block I came up with…YES!!  It’s slightly different than the original but I felt good about it.

I had to learn a new technique on EQ but finally figured out how to make the border with it.  This is the quilt I came up with.  YES!!  This is what I had in mind.

I immediately ran to the sewing room but stopped.  I decided to submit the quilt before I decided what fabrics to make it with.

With the submission, I wrote that I was willing to make it in whatever color or genre they wanted.  I had thought about 30s prints.  I had thought about batiks and brights…but Jody, the editor at American Patchwork and Quilting surprised me when she said yes she would love it for the magazine and suggested reproduction fabrics.  Hmm.  YES.  I was up for that.

Here is how the block worked out on the actual quilt.

Covid was new and fresh when this all happened.  Stores were closed or had weird circumstances for shopping so I decided to contact Marcus Fabrics and see if they might be interested in supplying the fabric for this quilt and happily they were.

The pretty pink and most of the other fabrics are from them.  I did dig into my scrap bin and pulled a few more for variety.

Here’s the quilt all finished and at my house… Continue reading →