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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!  
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 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.  |
About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals for Moda fabrics. Modern to transitional quilt designer. Illustrator, sewist, crafter. 
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