Win a copy of Quilts du Jour and completed Petits Fours quilt

Marny here...last Friday C & T posted our Quicker Bindings from Quilts du Jour blogpost. Head on over there and enter the Raafflecopter giveaway on their site to get a chance to win a copy of our new book. Only a couple of days remain for entering.

Plus, take a look how we apply binding quickly, accurately, and in a way that is meant to last through washings and lots of love.

You can see below, the cute bias binding Jill put on a recent sample made from Quilts du Jour! The sample will soon be hanging at the Quilting Connection here in Ames, Iowa. They plan to have kits available! Hint, hint!

The newly completed Petits Fours quilt using It's a Wrap Blocks,
found in Quilts du Jour. 

Jill blogged about this quilt backing here. 

Close up of the bias cut binding and the cute Blend fabric collection! 

Bound and 'bound for' the Quilting Connection as a sample.
Kits available!! While they last.

Petits Four Backing Tutorial

jill here...A brand new book sample is close to completion.  This Blend collection is a perfect  gender neutral baby combination.  Polar bears and penguins, oh my!

I had 3 fairly large pieces of a similar taupe to get my backing  started.
I left the selvages intact and turned to the outside.
The majority of the piecing will be central to the back.

As we showed you earlier with scrappy backings, I'm using pretty much of what is leftover (plus scrap yardage from my stash).  The last chapter of our book Quilts du Jour shows all the backings of our quilts with descriptions and some recipes to build on.  An improvisational flip side is not always faster but is definitely more interesting.

Small rectangles, leftover strips, a fat quarter and some yardage
from my stash will be featured.

The prints were sewn between the white backgrounds
that were made the same width.

Here are the leftover strips pieced .

I checked my widths and trimmed to keep
them straight and square.

Trying different arrangements for better balance...

I'm not usually a pinner but sewing long spans
helps those measurements to merge equally.

My big board helps keep those edges straight while I pin.

A bit odd but lots of fun and different from the usual!

We'll show you the finished product soon.
'till next Tuesday....

Quilts du Jour shipping!

Marny here...two pictures tell it all!

Today!! Quilts du Jour is shipping from C & T Stash now!
This means distributors will be receiving them soon and will be shipping them onto stores soon!

To illustrate how far we have com...photo of the first six patterns taken in September 2010. Where did the time go? We've come so far.
Thrilled to meet a lifetime goal...book published. Check!

Till Tuesday...

Urban Architecture Walk

jill here....Took a walk on the ISU campus. .  The patterns, textures and rhythms of line and shape are all inspirational.

A rusty circle ...

 Fence patterns, different materials and angles...

Vertical height tempered with glass, horizontal line
and the atrium's semi-circular shape
are featured in the College of Design building.

This engineering building is reminiscent an ocean liner
(well a complete photo would be more illustrious).

A modern cantilever with a great mix of materials...

This new building, across from campus, is not quite finished.
Although one massive structure, the facade is sectioned into
different exterior materials.
Stone, glass, brick and metal make it a very interesting collage .

'till next Tuesday...

DMMQG fabric game!

Marny here...the Des Moines Modern Quilt Group meeting on Thursday, August 20th was so much fun. The first bit of time was spent meeting the new and sharing with the current members. 

Wish I had taken pictures, lots of productivity going on! And even though I didn't have a quilt to share, I got to share an advance copy of Quilts du Jour. Such fun!!! 

Our upcoming January lectures and workshops for the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild were also announced. We are excited to teach and share.

Then Emma (with her son acting as DJ) had a musical fabric game for us to play to set the stage for our group challenge. We had each arrived at the meeting with one yard of any fabric we felt other members would enjoy and rotary cutters, mats and rulers.  

First we cut our fabric into two half yard pieces, set one aside and took the other with us to a circle of chairs. The music started, thanks to our cheerful DJ, and we passed the folded half yards around the circle until the music stopped. Whatever we had in our hands at that time was taken to the cutting station and turned into two fat quarters by cutting it at the fold. We set one aside and returned to our chairs and started the music and passing and stopping. The fat quarter we wound up with was then cut. I can't remember the direction of each cut, but the game lends itself to impromptu choices! Stop before the pieces get too small. We eventually returned to the half yard set aside initially, and cut that one as well. We stopped once we had six fabrics pieces in a variety of sizes.

The 'spoils' from the fabric game...six very different fabrics!

My original fabric, from Kate Spain's Paradiso collection for Moda.

The group challenge is to use any number of the fabrics we wound up with, with any other fabrics and make something to share at a future meeting. Talk about an open ended challenge! 

August is my birthday month so I was able to choose a fat quarter from our group's collection basket. Look what I scored...a Zen Chic. Brigette Heitland is a favorite designer. Just maybe the pops of color on darks inspires a solution for the challenge! 

Till Tuesday...