Modern graphic blooms stand tall, reaching for the sun. This is the inspiration for my Towards the Sun quilt pattern.

I wanted a quilt to go with my Dandi Annie fabrics that reflected the round spheres of the mature seed puffs of the dandelions. The main prints have a play of large circles behind the plants and I thought they would play nicely within larger circle shapes. This became the overall composition for the blooms within a grid structure for mixing in coordinating prints. With such a graphic and geometric structure, I felt straight sectioned lines as stems would work well to support the blooms and add a new graphic element to contrast with all the circles.

This was my first time making a quilt with half circle and full circle blocks. I created a paper template to go with the pattern that you can use for making the blocks or if you'd prefer to use a specialty ruler template I'd suggest the Creative Grids Circle Savvy Quilt Ruler (CGRSAV1). It has a large range of circular sizes and I used this ruler to make my 6" finished circle blocks. Working with circles was actually quite fun and I found I was most successful with my shapes when I slowed down my sewing a little and lengthened my stitch length to help with the give and stretch going around curves.

This quilt can be made as pieced blocks or as applique, either fusible raw edge or turned edge. The white and yellow quilt here is pieced using the Creative Grids circular ruler and the pink and gray quilt is made with the fusible raw edge method. I top stitched on my machine close to the edges of the shapes after fusing. 

The quilts were long arm quilted by Sally at Corona Quiltworks (IG @coronaquiltworks) using pantographs that also use circular shapes and lines, further reinforcing the graphic shapes. Towards the Sun is available at Quilt shops when it ships with Dandi Annie from Moda Fabrics in November. It is also available at my etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/robinpickensinc. If you get the digital PDF make sure you print out the template at actual size or 100% vs letting a printer resize. You can double check the sizing with the 1" marker on the template.

​Happy sewing!

Positively Bohemian quilt pattern uses quick piecing and cutting to make a quilt with strong vertical movement and an interplay of shapes, colors and plus signs. Four color families of Dandi Annie fabrics group together in panels that shift up and down vertically to create a more random look.

The bohemian influence came from using the Dandi Annie collection (shipping from Moda Fabrics in November 2018) which feature wild and free dandelions and lots of print on print blocks. I could just imagine being carefree in the meadow, picking dandelions and soaking up the warm sun. 

This is the first quilt I've made with my fabrics that has been completely all prints on the quilt top. I usually balance some of the small and large scale designs with solid colors to give a calm place for the eye to rest. But I have to say I'm loving the mix of all the prints, especially the little birds picking dandelions in the grass. With all the prints, it felt like a good contrast to make the backing a solid color and use a strong saturated one- in this quilt I chose Moda Bella Solids Flamingo 299! Love that burst of lively pink!

Another interesting way to try this quilt would be to put solids in the thinner rectangles or to play with even more placements of plus signs, adding them stacked on top of each other at times. I'm looking forward to trying it with soft and subtle low volume prints and bright plus signs to see how that changes the feel.

Positively Bohemian is a pattern that uses yardage and is appropriate for more beginning level quilters or someone looking for a fast and fun easy project. You can find the pattern through local quilt shops or you can visit my etsy shop for print or pdf downloadable versions. 
Happy sewing!

Each year spoonflower.com has a calendar tea towel challenge. This year I thought it would be fun to make one that coordinates with Dandi Annie, my new line with Moda that is shipping to stores soon (November!) So here it is with dandelion seeds floating off to bring wishes to you and a great 2019 ahead! This is sized for a fat quarter of Cotton Linen Canvas and I'll be sampling it soon to make it available in the marketplace. Check out spoonflower here!

Wouldn't it be great color fun for the kitchen to make cloth napkins or placemats from Dandi Annie? There is a cute pattern for a Pocketed Table Runner at the Moda Bakeshop blog by Heather Long of @Coffe_and_Quilts using Dandi Annie. Check it out and get started with some kitchen goodness sewing! ​Bakeshop Runner

And if you don't want to sew a tea towel yourself, you can get one already made for you at Roostery! I think I'm going to order one since I have a big list of sewing projects :) and I think I'd like it ready-made this time. Check out the Special Edition Spoonflower Tea Towel!

I remember having a knit poncho growing up with colorful fringe hanging from the bottom edges. I loved the sway and free feeling of the long strands of yarn. I wanted to capture that idea of fringe- of fibers extending off beyond the edges- in my new quilt pattern "FRINGE."

FRINGE is a Layer Cake friendly quilt pattern (but yes, you could use yardage instead of precuts). The quilt design "frames" big squares with small squares and lines in a grid structure that is easily scaled up or down to make different sizes. The pattern is written to a Twin or Lap/Wall size but could work as well on a Queen or King bed by adding more columns of blocks.

I like designing big florals so I also like having some quilts that can showcase larger blocks to show them off! Fringe gives you great squares for doing just that. I decided to use mostly dark charcoal fabrics in the small corner squares to make those pop nicely and be a cohesive color story. 

I wanted to combine yellows with my Dandi Annie fabric collection to emphasize the warmth of the fabrics. I love how the quilt looks so sunny and happy! I've used Moda's Bella Solids Baby Yellow 31 and Maize 273. Maize is one of my new favorite colors to work with! 

There is an alternate twin quilt with the pattern where the "fringe" is longer. I wanted to play with an asymmetrical layout to emphasize the fringe borders and give them even more length and space. The larger borders would be a great place to do some custom quilting sewing. 

Sally Corona from Corona Quiltworks did my longarm quilting and for the asymmetrical alternate twin we opted for straight line quilting to mimic the direction of the fringe. The regular twin uses a wonderful swirling design to create a different type of texture and feel. I like to see the contrast of styles and how the longarm quilting designs impact the look of the quilt.

Fringe printed patterns are shipping with Dandi Annie fabric to quilt shops in November and I hope you will check with your local shops for it. You can also find it at my etsy store, along with other new patterns that launched with Dandi Annie - Positively Bohemian, Farmhouse Crossing, and Towards the Sun.

Houses. Neighborhood. Homes. All the differences that make up our communities. This is what I was thinking about when I was pondering the theme "Houses" for the Curated Quilts Mini Quilt Challenge.

I thought it would be interesting to eventually expand the mini quilts into a series of quilts based on houses. I started with "regular" houses bookended by the wholesome "House of God" and the not-so-wholesome "House of Ill Repute." Then I was thinking of new developments, the following of the rules of sameness in the "Homeowners Association", dense housing neighborhoods to living far away and in more solitude. It was fun to play with the rough ideas on the computer.

For challenge I thought I'd make my original "house of God and house of ill repute" neighborhood. For the structure of the houses I started with the houses from Miss Rosie's Quilt  Company "The Village" quilt and made them mini...scaled down to 2" across. I also added some reference to side view angles for roofs and sides of houses.

I quilted in straight lines with the steeple of the church going vertically to emphasize the height and direction of the cross. The binding is a faced binding- my first! Hopefully I'll have time to do some more of the house quilts and grow my neighborhood.

My big learning experience this summer has been starting the Splendid Sampler 2 sew along. It has pushed me to try things I would not have tackled on my own. Luckily there are tutorials and instructions from the block designers on how-to's and techniques. Lots of learning for me on this one! I think its safe to say I need to improve my turn-edge applique skills!

For this sampler I decided to use grays and yellows. I am using mostly fabrics from my Dandi Annie collection for Moda (ships to quilt shops Nov 2018) with the addition of some of the grays from my Blushing Peonies group. The block above is "Point Taken" designed by Susan Ache. 

In the "Clamshells" block designed by Helen Stubbings, there is a mix of embroidery and applique. Helen's flowers for embroidery were a different design from these but since I am using a number of my Dandi Annie dandelion fabrics I wanted my flowers to mimic that. I like doing the dandelions so much that I am doing some other needlework projects with those as well! For the clamshells I used my applique glue on the pieces to wrap them around the templates but I mistakenly glued the bottoms too so I had some ungluing and pressing to do. Oops. Like I said, lots of learning on this one. After sewing the clamshells down I was pretty excited to see this all together. 

It was the first time I've ever done English Paper Piecing when I attempted the "For the Love" block by Sharon Burgess. I'm sharing this because I think its interesting to document our learning and clearly I'm a beginner on this. Sometimes we are hard on ourselves when our work is not as perfectly matched up and sewn as what we are seeing online by other quilters. We all start somewhere! You can see my center square is really a trapezoid and my sewing is a bit stretched. But I got it done!! Time to say "good enough"!

Applique with circles is also an area that is new for me and I got the chance to do a little practice with some other blocks. But one thing I got to try with this sampler that I'm really liking is Foundation Paper Piecing! I absolutely love the "Flowering Tree" design by Amy Friend! I had my quilt bee friends come over and Greg Stewart kindly taught me how to do FPP for our bee block that month. After that I zipped through this block and I love the look of the tree and the branches. This would be so great as multiple trees through the seasons on a whole quilt!

These are my first 8 blocks and looking forward to doing more and seeing how this gray and gold quilt evolves! Join along by checking www.splendidsampler.com every Thursday when they release a new pattern up to the first 20 blocks. Then get the Splendid Sampler 2 book by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson to keep sewing along!

Its coming folks! September 15th, 2018. So get your Jelly Rolls ready! I have been mulling over what I am going to make this year and I think a little computer planning and designing is in order. Last year I used my Sliding Shoji Screen pattern which uses solid Bella Jelly Rolls to divide the blocks but I flipped it so the Jelly Roll of Blushing Peonies became the strips and I used solid pink, eggshell, and the Ikat print from Amy Ellis' Serenity collection as the large panels. I loved the result! 

In honor of the new National Sew a Jelly Roll day coming up I wanted to share the most recent pictures of last year's project. When I got the quilt back from my longarm quilter, Sally Corona of Corona Quiltworks I loved it even more! The quilting design has a great retro mid century modern feel and lovely flow. When it is on the wall in the foyer it lightens up the space with a calm pretty feel without being overly girly. I recently got this new lamp and I'm liking the feel of these together. Now off to start planning for September 15th...

Blues, teals, robin's egg blue. Having fun trying out my Blockstep pattern in Dear Mum fabrics. 

I enjoy looking at the difference in light vs dark backgrounds. The feeling changes completely when the fabrics are against a darker teal vs white. 
​Happy color-play!

Next week school is back in session and I'll be getting back to a slightly more regular schedule. Although I like the break of summer, I also find I gravitate to the schedule and comfort of my routine once fall is here. My daughter will be moving back into the dorm at college next week as well so the house will soon feel very quiet.

Some fun activities that started this summer were two samplers- Moda Blockheads 2 and Splendid Sampler 2. I haven't typically been super active on Facebook and there is a vibrant and lively community there with the Blockheads page, so I find myself hanging out at Facebook more than normal. As a result of being on Facebook more recently, I realized I should relabel my business page to make it easier to find. It was previously just called "ColorAndQuilt" and I've added my name now so its "RobinPickensColorAndQuilt." Duh!! Why didn't I think of that earlier?? I can be really facebook-challenged sometimes! My instagram feed updates there so if you don't hang out on IG, check me out at facebook at: ​www.facebook.com/robinpickenscolorandquilt/

But back to Blockheads! I look forward to Wednesdays and seeing what the new block pattern will be and seeing all the beautiful versions people make. When I see how people sometimes add more pieced blocks within parts of the blocks I appreciate how they customize and creatively push the boundaries to make it their own. I'm using blue, green, pink and some yellow in my blocks and keeping it in that range of pretty colors while using fabrics from my Poppy Mae, Blushing Peonies, Dear Mum and Dandi Annie lines. It is really thrilling when I see other people using my fabrics too and in ways I would not have even imagined! What a gift!

These are just a couple of the blocks and I'm loving the mix of sizes in this project. We have 6" blocks up to a 24" block! That is huge! I can't wait to see what the overall layout is going to be and its fun to have it be a surprise. Join along with the Blockheads!

Up next...Splendid Sampler 2 update!

How did I not share this earlier? I was probably writing patterns and sewing and finishing calendars. But its never too late, right? This is the overview of the quilts I launched to go with my Dear Mum collection for Moda Fabrics at the Fall 2017 Quilt Market. And Dear Mum is in shops now!!

Left to right is Harlequin, Starlet, Equalizer and a refresh of Tokyo Terrace in Dear Mum. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the Robin's Egg blue/aqua color in this group and the Tokyo Terrace re-fresh was an idea I had rambling around in my head. It was a last minute decision to add that one in (because there is not enough sewing to do before market!) and I'm so glad I did. I wanted to use that lovely Bella Solid Dovetail with the mums and I love the warmth of that gray.

Here's my booth with the quilts I designed and the totes I made using Amy Sinabaldi's Riverside tote pattern. The quilt on the chair is from Tula Pink's 100 Modern Blocks book and I used my previous lines on it. Equalizer got to hang up in the sales area!

The beautiful applique quilt is by Barb Cherniwchan of Coach House Designs. She makes stunning quilts and kits.

A fun moment for me was meeting Tula Pink and taking this picture with her with my version of her City Sampler quilt using the 100 Modern Blocks book she made. I'm using all Poppy Mae and Blushing Peonies on this, mixed with solids. 

And on the last day a bit of fun playing on the APQS Millie longarm! Drawing on fabric- oh yes! Market is wonderful for seeing new things and lots of inspiration.