The social aspect of having a blog is odd. There are people you talk to often, keep up with their kids and daily goings on and sometimes you haven’t the faintest idea of what they look like. I’m still uncomfortable getting to know people online, having existed before the internet made that normal, but I’m getting better at it. Slowly, there are many people that I call my friends, not my “friends.”

Dorie is one of those people. She is a ridiculously talented knitter and a damn fine quilter too. With her quilting knowledge and a background in coding, Dorie has made something new and fantastic: Quiltr. Quiltr is a tool for quilters to play with colors and patterns before they start a quilt, but it is also a super fun, crafty video game. In it, you choose a quilt pattern (zig zag, lone star, etc) then you can plug in not only colors, but photos from you flickr stream.

If you a crazy person (like me) who takes pictures of your fabric, well then your next quilt is practically made already. But I have found playing with pictures I’ve taken to be the most fun. It’s got me running off to Spoonflower to design fabrics–something I’ve wanted to do on and off for years. It’s also got me sewing actual quilt squares! Ok, so I really could go on (and on) about Quiltr, but you probably want to go play with it yourselves. So do! and stop on by tumbling blocks while you are at it and tell Dorie what a superstar she is!

edited to add: there is a quiltr flickr group now too!

Kathreen Ricketson has come out with a phenomenal new quilting book called Little Bits Quilting Bee. All the quilts in the book are made out of charm squares, jelly rolls, layer cakes, and fat quarters. If you think I’m talking about delicious pastries you are not that far off. Although those are all names for packs of fabrics, sewers ooo and ahh over them like kids in a candy store. I know I have drooled over a jelly roll, but had no reason to buy such a delicacy.

The book is beautiful, the designs are young and graphic, and the directions are thorough. That is practically a given when you pair Kathreen + Chronicle books. But lets get to the fun bit: choosing fabrics. I picked a favorite quilt from each of the four categories in the book and then stood staring in front of the giant wall of fabric that is the internet.

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LAYER CAKE: pre-cut 10 in./25 cm squares that usually come in packs of 40

I think the sunny day mat is the perfect project to make for your best friend who is finally having a baby. I would love to do it mostly in navy and white (because she will of course know babies love looking at high contrast colors), then play around with some beautiful blue and white hand printed fabrics for the inner circle and all those prairie points!

1. brushstrokes in teal
2. blue jars fabric
3. huts handprinted fabric
4. organic cotton block printed fabric
5. weave hand screenprinted fabric

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CHARM SQUARES: packs of pre-cut 5 in/12 cm squares

Cloud song is everyone’s favorite quilt from the book. Maybe because it’s gray and cold outside right now, but I think this quilt would be amazing with a blue/gray color scheme. Wouldn’t some liberty of london prints make a lovely sky? Look it there, they sell a charm square pack that is just perfect.

1. blues for you fat quarter stack
2. liberty of london muted palette charm squares
3. kona shades of gray and charcoal scraps

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FAT QUARTERS:  a quarter of a yard measuring about 18 x 22 in/46 x 56 cm

I love the Garnets and Gold quilt in the book mostly because I reminds me of my first quilt, but also because it’s so stinking cheery. Done in vintage floral sheets, you couldn’t help but be happy making it–and sleeping under it!

• pick your own sheet fat quarter bundle

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 JELLY ROLL: pre-cut 2 1/2 in/6cm strips of fabric cut selvage to selvage

I would love to tone down the rainbowness of this bold quilt with some muted, hand dyed fabric. Actually, while I was looking around the internet for fabrics I found it very difficult to find handmade fabrics made up into packs like this–jelly rolls were by far the hardest to find. If there are any screen printers or other fabric makers out there–here is your niche! Quilters are crazy for fabric. Cra. Zy. And I’m betting they would love make a quilt from your hand printed goodness.

1. cool fall leaves hand dyed jelly roll
2. hand dyed cotton jelly roll, AUTUMN

As a little treat I have one book to giveaway! So leave something lovely in the comments and I’ll pick a winner tomorrow evening. Good luck! And follow along on the book tour to see more lovely quilts from Little Bits Quilting Bee.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Wednesday, November 9 – luvinthemommyhood & Elsie Marley
Thursday, November 10 – True Up
Friday, November 11 – House on Hill Road & CraftyPod

Monday, November 14 – Handmade by Alissa & Hello My Name Is Heather
Tuesday, November 15 – West Coast Crafty & Foxy Art Studio
Wednesday, November 16 – Patch Andi & The Last Piece
Thursday, November 17 – In Color Order & Duo Fiberworks
Friday, November 18 – Kristin La Flamme & Camp Follower Bags & Quilts

Monday, November 21 – Quilt Dad
Tuesday, November 22 – Pat Sloan & Pleasant Home

I am, admittedly, one to judge a book by it’s cover.  I mean if it’s crap inside, I’m not reading it, but I’m still happy to look it at (luckily I have discovered the inter library loan system and now am not broke with a house full of poorly written, pretty books). This is the picture of a cover of the book called Book Quilts 1700-2010. Kathreen wrote about it on whipup and I’ve been itching to get my hands on it ever since (it hasn’t been released quite yet). I mean just look at that quilt on the cover!

Magda at bohemian girl made some monotype butterflies with her son, painting a design on one side then folding it in half to print on the other. We followed suit with some butterflies of our own a few weeks ago, but now that spring has stalled a bit we may need to make them again.  The mask she made in the same manner for carnival and I just can get over how eerie and beautiful it is. (Magda also has quite a nice etsy shop, if you didn’t know)

I loved the double wedding ring design the first time I saw it, but always thought it was a little too old fashioned for me to make for my home. Denyse Schmidt, of course, made a super fantastic modern version called the single girl quilt, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been a single girl. So when Molly posted this photo of her friend’s quilt I was in love all over again. They took this very traditional quilt pattern and made it super modern. It might even be a little too modern, but a few prints thrown in the mix could even it out for me. Go check out the post, because Molly has some nice thoughts on this modern/traditional juxtaposition in design.

And one little awesome baby coat rounds out this week’s things on the internet that are awesome.  It’s a poncho! It’s a jacket! It’s two! two! two mints in one! It’s the crabby baby jacket, designed and skillfully executed by Lisa from Mama Uses Needles. I’ve always said that baby clothes should have no arms and finally someone heard me. This poncho pops over the little one’s head and then you just zip it up the sides. genius! and cute to boot.

Dorie from tumbling blocks asked me if I’d like to help her start a quilt block swap much like the virtual quilting bee and common thread, where 11 people make a quilt block for one person each month.  Of course I said yes and many months later we actually got the thing up and running. Dorie had the first month and picked some pretty fantastic fabrics. I had the idea to do some sort of fussy cut looking at the tree print and came up with what I thought was a pretty simple design. It took much longer than it should have. Nothing big went wrong, but every single little thing did (bobbin threaded wrong, a batch of strips cut too short, out of white thread mid block, and on and on).  So finally it’s done and in the mail a day late, oh well. I don’t really have much quilting experience (here is my one and only quilt) and piecing is harder than it looks–at least for me.  This swap should get my piecing skills up to snuff. It’s my turn next (well this) month to pick the colors and eveeeeeentually make the quilt.  It’s for our bedroom because I spilled bleach all over the quilt we normally use in the summertime (it was just a store bought one, but still. damn). I only have one color in mind so far: gray. I need to get crackin.  You can check out everyone’s block at our flickr page if you like and see all the lovely ladies who are involved.

some greens for today. click on the picture for all the photo credits.