Color Love--The BOM Quilts

Okay, so a while back I showed off my upcoming Color Love fabric collection from Marcus Fabrics with a sneak peek at an applique block. Since we leave tomorrow for Spring Quilt Market, I thought it might be a good time to show a few images of the Color Love BOM quilts. The reason I say "quilts", plural, is because there are two versions of the same quilt: an applique version and a pieced version. The quilts finish at 87" x 93" and the program is designed as a five-part BOM, with "flex" options to make it longer if desired.
Here is my EQ rendering of the applique version.  See the eight cute applique blocks surrounding the center star?  They are made up of simple shapes, and to make things even easier, we are offering the blocks as laser cut, pre-fused blocks.



And here is the pieced version for those who do not do the "A" word.


And here is a photo of the actual applique Color Love quilt spread out on my living room floor. I had A LOT of help with this quilt from some great ladies in Albuquerque,NM. Thank you Amanda Ruden!  The pieced quilt was made by Sandy Kent who lives in Texas. I'd show you photos of it too, but it is all folded and packed in a suitcase, ready to go to Pittsburg tomorrow.


Isn't the quilting perfect? Elizabeth Anne Dawson of Albuquerque, NM worked her longarm magic on the quilt.

Ask for Color Love at your local quilt shop. The program is slated to begin September 2014. You can find additional information on the Marcus Fabrics website.

Quilt Market 2011-Houston

I know I haven't blogged in quite a while.  Getting ready for my FIRST market took over because I wanted to get everything right.  Market went well--I think--since I have nothing to compare it to.  But there were some unexpected glitches, but those will be for another blog!
Amish With A Twist (88" x 105"), our new block-of the-month quilt debuted, which we are doing in conjunction with Marcus Fabrics (http://marcusfabrics.com/).  Seven new solids have been added to their Centennial Solids collection for the program, which runs February-June 2012.  Designed with the beginning quilter in mind, the pattern instructions are in full-color and feature lots of diagrams and photos.
Check with your local shops to see if they are participating!

New Block of the Month Quilt

It's time for the new block of the month quilt, Galactic Explosion, to grace my website. I agonized over a colorway for this quilt. I had about four or five diffferent versions, then finally narrowed it down to two: a cool blue/green/aqua/ colorway and and a warm red/orange/coral/yellow colorway. Which one would people like more? I pondered. Red, Blue? Then, it came to me--duh! Why couldn't I just show both and leave it up to quilters to decide what they wanted to do. Heck, it's a free BOM quilt--quilters can make it in an autumn palette, Christmas themed fabrics, or muted taupes. What was I thinking--and why do I think so much? What's that old saying . . .keep it simple. To get the free monthly patterns visit my website http://www.nancyrinkdesigns.com Then YOU can decide what fabrics you want to use for you Galactic Explosion. By the way, if you want to buy the fabrics for the blocks each month, the kits are only $5 each!

Working on the New Block of the Month Quilt

Designing, making, and writing the directions for a block-of-the-month sampler quilt always seems to have me frazzled. I want each BOM quilt to have a theme, so that's the first task. The theme of the new quilt is "Building Blocks", which, coincidentally, is the name of the quilt. When I selected the theme of building blocks, what I had in mind was all of the building toys I played with as a kid. I wanted each block to be named after a different building toy, so I sat down and began brainstorming the names of toys.

Legos, Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, erector sets . . . . . Uh, wait . . . that's only four. The quilt has twelve blocks.

And so I began some online research into different types of building toys. I certainly found a lot of very interesting toys. Some of them I had seen and my own children had played with, but I certainly didn't know the official name of the toy. Other toys I had never seen before but was intrigued by them. One such toy is Kapla, a French toy made from marine pine.

It just goes to show you. Quilt projects can take you to some unusual places. I got to revisit my childhood and some really cool websites with really cool toys!

Oh, and by the way. Yes the quilt is done and will debut July 2008 on my website, nancyrinkdesigns.com.