Virtual Fun with Julie…

I got an email a week or so ago from Julie at Me and My Stitches.  She had exciting news…She designed a fabric line!!

I’ve known Julie for a while now.   We had her come and be a presenter when we hosted the Bonnie Hunter retreat in 2017.  For our trunk show, we had Julie come and speak as well as Bonnie.  It was so fun and so great to meet Julie.

Julie and I have stayed in contact since then.  She went to our retreat in 2018 when many of us previous retreaters got together for a fun sewing weekend.  There is nothing like a retreat to get to know people!!

Julie is the person behind the awesome quilted jewelry bracelet that I have with all my grandkids…

Julie makes awesome jewelry that is a quilt theme.  Which reminds me, I need a charm for Lilly.

Anyway, I was so excited when Julie sent me some prelease images of her fabric and ask if I might be interested in designing something with it…Um, YES, of course, I would.  Here is what the line looks like…

It leans towards the Civil War side of things…I love it.  My true love is always Civil War prints but I play with all kinds of fabric.  I was thrilled to be working with the fabric and back in my element.

Julie gave me this swatch but I didn’t have the jpgs of the fabric so couldn’t really play in EQ with the fabrics…so I let it sit until Robert Kaufman announced the March release of the line-that happened on Friday.  Then I went online and got the color swatches from them on Sunday morning and I played…

A lot of times when I go to design something, I bring a picture from an old magazine for some inspiration.  This design came from a magazine from November of 2001.

You’re likely looking at that quilt thinking “Jo, you hate doing applique. How did this quilt inspire you?”

The background checkerboard did!!  So I sat down at EQ and made checkerboard setting triangles.  I know so many people are crazy over buffalo checked everything right now so I figured, why not make a quilt with it…so I did.

This was my first crack at it in EQ (Electric Quilt)  Well not really.  I had a different block in the center but it wasn’t working with the checkerboard.  I ended up having to redesign the checkerboard and make the blocks in it a different size.  Then then I have to find a block for the center.

This is actually the first design I saved.  It was a little busy for me.

I also wasn’t a fan of only using four colors.

I decided to add another color…  I kind of liked that…

Some more playing and tweaking got me to this.  I really liked this.  It says Christmas to me.

I decided yes, I like this as a Christmas quilt….It is busy but I like the checkered background.  My background is different than the original one that was in the magazine…I liked mine better for this project.

I ended up calling Kelli on the phone and she said yes or no as I tried out a few things.  This is what I ended up with…It looks much the same as the quilt above…. the only change, was coloring four square from black to green!

I ended up submitting it to American Patchwork and Quilting…I have no idea if they will take it for their December 2021 issue or not.  Now I’m trying to decide if they don’t, should I make it anyway and offer it as a download pattern here on the blog??  Should I submit it somewhere else??  Hmm.  Lots to think about.

I am really liking this line and just might sit down at EQ again and see if I can come up with something else I like.

It’s been fun emailing Julie back and forth and learning more about her fabric line and, of course, catching up with her.

You can read more about Julie’s line Homestead Harvest HERE on her blog.  She has designed several quilts use the line.  HOW FUN!!  She also talks about her family farm and the inspiration for her designs.  It was a fun post to read.

That’s what I’m currently up to on the designing front.  We do have a new pattern that will be in the shop on Friday so you’ll want to come back and check out that too!!