Table runners are such fun projects to do. I love the smaller scale of the project and doing things that have a seasonal feeling or specific color theme. When I heard Doug Leko was releasing his Tabletastic 3 book, I knew it was a good time to have a little fun with my upcoming Pansy's Posies fabric in rich purples. With large florals, I often like some larger panels in quilts to show them off. I felt like this Mansfield runner did exactly that by having the larger rectangle spaces and sections divided almost like windows and window panes. I played around with placement on the smaller blocks by mixing them but decided I liked the order of two similar fabrics together. This runner finishes at 17 x 49". The pantograph I used to longarm this runner is called "Groove" and is from Jess Zeigler at Longarm League. I love the gentle curves and retro-modern feel this texture has. I kept my binding the same color as the sashings since they already seemed to have a structured feel to the whole piece. The fabric I used is Pansy's Posies which should be shipping in Oct/Nov 2022. The sashings are made from Bella Solids Prune. This pattern went together easily and was fun to make. It was just hard to pick which one of all the great designs from Doug's book to make. And speaking of Doug's book...he has some to give away! So if you would like to enter to win a free copy of Tabletastic 3, head over to my instagram page https://www.instagram.com/robinpickens/ and enter on my post. I'll be randomly selecting a winner by Wednesday, August 10th. Check your local quilt shop for Tabletastic 3 by Doug Leko!
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I've got a lot to cover today so keep reading! There is a book giveaway included from Martingale at the end! New block pattern, color studies and book giveaways...sounds like a good Wednesday to me! I'm very excited to share my block this week "CORNER GARDEN"! This block came out of the leaves in my Bird Talk quilt with a desire to do a simplified floral bloom. I think this block would be adorable in the corners of a pieced border of a quilt, plus it plays off the 4 corners of the block, thus the CORNER part of the garden name. The pattern is here in the gray link box right under this paragraph, but keep reading for color play and a BOOK GIVEAWAY from Martingale Publishers! Big square flower blooms and leaves....simple in flat colors or you can try them with a color ramp from light to dark. Change up the colors and contrast from one bloom to the next and switch up the leaf colors. I also played with the negative and positive shapes in the last one, with a change in leaf backgrounds too. Since the corners of the pattern are made up with stitch and flip squares, why not try greens to the center to make a base for the flower bud with two of the corners? And you can play with varying shades of color to give the illusion of angle and perspective on the flower sides. The bottom images also play with the rectangles that border the leaves. If you make part of those the leaf colors it creates an image of stems weaving together in a flower twist. Then I started to break down the shapes to be less literal as flowers, and to emphasize the triangles to the sides of the leaves. They start to look like supergraphic stripes and boxed in angled stripes vs leaves. I also explored a blue/cream/green palette. The last image starts to play off the faceted corners of the octagonal shapes. And this last one breaks down the shapes even more to the churn dash idea and graduated stripes. These feel graphic and can work well if you are more focused on shapes and don't want blocks that suggest flowers and literal objects. I think this block has lovely possibilities to explore pairs and reflected units, playing off rainbow colors or just simple groupings. These are my all-Thatched and scrappy versions of Corner Garden. The scrappy one uses Abby Rose and Dandi Annie plaid with Cream and Tangerine Thatched. These are 8" blocks. I tend to make my corner pieces a little larger and trim them down to size. And if all the HST corners are the same, I make my HST with an 8-at-a-time method vs individually. The 4" block I made in V& Co Ombre Confetti. I just love doing these little blocks! And I thought it would be fun to try making a block from strip/string quilt pieces. The block below is a 12" block using strips from Solana, Dandi Annie, Painted Meadow, Sweet Pea & Lily, Blushing Peonies and Abby Rose. I used the Ombre Confetti for centers since I thought the dots reminded me of big pollen filled flowers. There are lots of ways to have fun with this block! The other exciting piece of news today is the Martingale giveaway of some of the Moda All-Stars books! You can enter to win a digital download version of one of the quilt books. I am taking names here on my blog to be entered into a random sweepstakes for a digital copy of Lucky Charm Quilts. Sales of this Moda All-Stars book benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand, a Foundation for kids with childhood cancer and has funded over 1,ooo research projects. TO ENTER TO WIN A DIGITAL COPY OF THIS BOOK, enter a comment below telling me your favorite color to sew with! I'll be drawing a winner on Friday and will contact the person through their information on the blog comment. Thank you for supporting the All-Stars books that benefit wonderful charities! But I'm not the only one doing a giveaway! All the Moda Blockheads designers are giving away one of the All-Stars books this week. Please visit the other designer blogs and enter for more chances to win one of the digital books! Links to their blogs are below:
7.1 – Robin Pickens - we are here! 7.8 – Janet Clare 7.15 – Jen Kingwell 7.22 – Joanna Figueroa 7.29 – Corey Yoder 8.5 – Sherri McConnell 8.12 – Betsy Chutchian 8.19 – Jan Patek 8.26 – Brigitte Heitland 9.2 – Lisa Bongean 9.9 – Lissa Alexander 9.16 – Laurie Simpson 9.23– Vanessa Goertzen 9.30 – Stacy Iest Hsu Happy Moda Blockheads Wednesday and happy GIVEAWAY NEWS! First, the block! We are starting ROUND 2 of the blocks from the 14 designers. This week's block is STARRY EYED by Corey Yoder. You can get the block pattern on Corey's bog. I am busy pulling colors today for another project but will get to sewing, hopefully this afternoon! Once I have my block I'll post an update here. But for my start, I did some color studies with the block to figure out what I am doing. I am doing a block that will live on the blue stripe of my rainbow row quilt. I sometimes pull colors from the other rows in to the blocks in bits and pieces and since the blue and green are next to each other I could put in some green accents too. I liked the idea of making a little optical illusion on that top left one by having a light blue next to a medium blue in the outer ring of quarter square triangles. I feel like it gives it a shaddow look, as if the sun were coming from the left and casting a shadow on 3-dimensional diamonds. On the block to the right, the four quadrants are each home to blue or green families with a light white and gray center that sets them off. And green takes more prominence in the lower left. This is too much green for my blue row, however I like how graphic and strong this one looks. And the last one is the idea of lightness emanating from the center, with the quarter square triangles and stitch and flip triangles making the directional rays reaching out into the dark. I also really like the strength of this block but I wonder if it will pull TOO much attention since that light radiating center is so focused. Which one to make? I make a plan like this and the blocks do evolve a bit on their own as I sew and depending on my fabric scraps. But while I am figuring that out, I wanted to share my mockups and also let you start entering the MODA BLOCKHEADS BOOK GIVEAWAY from Martingale Publishing! There are a couple versions you can possibly win. Martingale is giving away a PRINTED book and you can leave a message on their page (click the box below) AND you can possibly win a digital version of the book from one of this year's Moda Blockhead designers! Each of us has our own giveaway to do with a digital version of the book from Blockheads 1! I started doing Blockheads, sewing along and not as one of the designers, on Blockheads 2. So I am also really excited about this book since I haven't made these blocks yet! And no, I can't win my own giveaway. That would be cheating! But one of you can! How to enter my digital giveaway of Moda Blockheads 1 book from Martingale? Leave me a message below in the comments about what you have learned so far doing Blockheads. Doesn't have to be long. One thing I've learned is how much I like my different seam rippers! Ha, ha, I'm sure some of you can relate. I do like how I've tried new things and learned so much (triangle paper, applique techniques to name a couple). I will pick a winner next Wednesday morning, just in time for the next block from Sherri McConnell. Here's a couple more images to get you excited for the book! Check out the other Blockheads designers to see how to enter for more chances to win a digital book!
Happy sewing everyone! 4.22 – Corey Yoder <–this week's designer and pattern blog 4.29 – Sherri McConnell 5.6 – Betsy Chutchian 5.13 – Jan Patek 5.20 – Brigitte Heitland 5.27 – Lisa Bongean 6.03 – Lissa Alexander 6.10 – Laurie Simpson 6.17– Vanessa Goertzen 6.24 – Stacy Iest Hsu 7.1 – Robin Pickens 7.8 – Janet Clare 7.15 – Jen Kingwell 7.22 – Joanna Figueroa Jenelle Kent has a charming new book out with Martingale, Farmhouse Fresh. The projects are absolutely lovely! They use 16" wide toweling, which Jenelle has with Moda Fabrics. This Rock Pool Toweling in the seafoam color is such a fun combination with Abby Rose! The modern farmhouse look of the toweling works so well with the cabbage roses and pink, green, orange and seafoam colors in Abby Rose. The ends are made with patchwork squares that add such a nice mixture of colors. My friend Susan, the Felted Pear (@thefeltedpear on IG), had the lovely idea to add some applique and a label and I think it is such a nice touch! Jenelle has numerous applique projects in the book and her needle-turn work looks so good on the toweling. I usually do fusible raw edge applique and I think that works well on this fabric as well. This cover ends up being a perfect size for my Juki TL2200 sewing machine! Its my main piecing machine so its always out and definitely deserves a pretty cover. I also like the way this side patchwork looks from the end of my work space. If you are interested in winning a digital copy of Farmhouse Fresh by Jenelle Kent, head over to my instagram feed and enter! I'll be drawing a winner from people who follow me @robinpickens, Jenelle @piecestotreasure and Martingale @martingaletpp on Instagram and enter on my IG sweepstakes post in my feed. Jenelle will notify winners on February 25th of the IG book tour! Other IG posting peeps to check out for the IG book tour:
@piecestotreasure @martingaletpp @modalissa @gailpandesigns @robinpickens @quiltedmoose @karenatsomerset @janeteclare @helen_stubbings @debbie_maddy @justcarrieintexas @corianderquilts Happy sewing!!
I was so honored that Katja Marek asked me to participate in her instagram book tour for her book, The New Hexagon 2, published by Martingale. This is a second book on hexies, after her popular The New Hexagon. I love the image on the cover here so much! First off, that color palette of greens and teals is stunning and her layout of large and small blocks to make the diamond shaped sashings creates such a wonderful movement within the quilt top.
Katja named the blocks after women she admired and I was so honored that she selected me for one of the blocks! Thank you Katja!! I certainly admire what she has created as well. And I appreciate how thoroughly and well she explains English Paper Piecing in this book with photos and tips that make a difference.
So meet the ROBIN BLOCK! It is block number 7 in the book and is a 12" size, one of the larger blocks. I appreciate having that fun center triangle for putting in something with some fussy cutting. All those rays would look great with fussy cutting too but I decided to make mine with an emphasis on one of my bees and coneflower centers in the middle.
I used my Painted Meadow fabrics to make my blocks since it recently landing in quilt shops. I keep thinking that this block would be great as a lion face (embroidered in the center?) with the rays being a gold lions mane. Or with a graphic sun? I think you could have so much fun with this one.
Say his to my bumble bee! She's nice and plump and busy in the garden.
If you want a copy of Katja's book, give some love to your local quilt shop and see if they have it! If they don't, you can follow these links at the bottom of this post to find her new one as well as the original The New Hexagon (also by Katja Marek). If you'd like to visit the other designers and quilters on instagram that joined in on the book tour, check out the list below. There were giveaways, which are closed now, and I hope that everyone who won a book has a happy sewing journey with their hexagons.
On INSTAGRAM: @katja_marek @karenburns1 @martingaletpp @paperpiecesepp @modalissa @kim_brackett @robinpickens @alisonglass @la_casetta_nel_bosco @allie.and.me.design @quilterpatsloan @lynetteandersondesigns @gailpandesigns @sewmorequiltsmom @poppyprint @stitchpublications @stashlabquilts @meghawkey1 |
About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals for Moda fabrics. Modern to transitional quilt designer. Illustrator, sewist, crafter. I am proud to be a designer for Moda Fabrics!
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