Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Mosaic Lap Quilt

Today I'm introducing you to the Mosaic Lap Quilt, the latest pattern available in the Lady Harvatine shop!


The pattern itself isn't exactly new.  You may have gotten a peek of this original version last Spring.


This was made for Alissa's yet to be born son Gabe (who's now almost a year old!).


One-year-younger Ginny dug it too.  Or it could have been the bubbles.


You also may have seen the pattern floating around because, as I mentioned last week, it was temporarily available on the Robert Kaufman website to promote their Spot On fabric line.  


Now the PDF is available for the low, low price of $8, ready for immediate download!

This pattern includes full instructions for making a 54" x 54" Mosaic lap quilt. It is suitable for a bold beginner who isn't daunted by a lot of piecing. The quilt is made with a lot of strip piecing so there is much less piecing of little bits than you may think.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

QuiltCon Wrap Up Part 5: Lady Harvatine Sightings (and the end!)

Saving the best for last?  I might think so but I'm clearly biased.


First and foremost we have the Log Pyramids quilt that I entered into the show.  I didn't win any prizes (boo hoo) but I was still super excited to have my quilt hanging among so many other amazing quilts.  Plus I've since found out that my quilt was selected to be a part of the Best of QuiltCon Traveling Show!  So far the show will be making appearances at HMQS in Salt Lake City, Sisters in Sisters, Oregon and Patchwork Europe in France with more stops possibly in the works.


Although I did not win anything, this mini quilt inspired by my Confetti Quilt tutorial won an honorable mention!  The quilt was made by Felicity Ronaghan from Vancouver and was entered in the handwork, small quilts category.  Felicity gave me a very nice little shout out in her quilt description.


And last but not least, there were a couple of sample quilts made from one of my patterns hanging up in different vendor booths!  This was such a great surprise!  (Mine is the the one with all of the squares.)


You may or may not have seen this pattern before.  For the last several months it has been available on the Robert Kaufman website but due to my lazy blogging I never got around to sharing it here.  The good news is that you can now get the pattern from my shop!  It's called the Mosaic Lap Quilt and I will do a much more detailed post about the quilt and the pattern very soon.  But if you're interested now you can check out the pattern here!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

QuiltCon Wrap Up Part 4: The Good Times

Are you tired of these posts yet?  I'm alllllllmost done.  Just one more after this.

It probably goes without saying that I had a great time at QuiltCon.  The LAMQG had a great contingency and it was so much fun to hang out with everyone.  We also had several guild members who've moved away come to QuiltCon and it was so nice to get to see them all again!


This is only some of the LA guild that was there.  It was hard to get everyone together for a photo.


This was highlight from my weekend, for obvious reasons!  I promise I only asked to take a pregnant lady photo with Anna, it was her idea to touch bellies!  Of course I was secretly hoping we could do that.


 Emily, who's one of our LAMQG members gone on to new frontiers, was one of my roommates.  Here we are at the Michael Miller booth.


Lovely ladies out for dinner before the 80's Dance Party.  The party was tons o' fun, and that's coming from a pregnant lady who couldn't have any cocktails and who didn't think she would be up for dancing very much (she was).


And of course, the good times wouldn't be complete without sharing the loot that I brought home.


Wednesday, March 13, 2013

QuiltCon Wrap-Up Part 3: The Workshops

I took two workshops at QuiltCon.  The first was a half day class with Lotta Jansdotter, textile printing. I love Lotta's fabrics and I just wanted to spend a little time with her and learn a little about the way she works.  The class was really fun.  She had us try two different methods of printing, stenciling and block printing.

The little half moons in the photo below are my stenciled design and the triangles are block printed.  Because this was just a half day class and we did two techniques, we really just got a quick overview of each.  But it was great to learn from Lotta and to see that, no big surprise, she's got a really loose and free-spirited attitude when it comes to printing and design.  We kept hearing "Figure out what works for you!"  I know there are people who don't respond well to such loose structure but it's definitely a big part of the way I work and I enjoyed it.


The second class I took was a full day, block printing with Lizzie House.  I know it seems weird that of all the workshops I had to choose from I picked two on the same subject but in my defense, I didn't know that Lotta's class would entail block printing when I signed up.  Once I realized what we would be doing I was a little nervous that Lizzie's class the next day would be a little redundant.  Thankfully I had nothing to worry about.  
Lizzie's class was completely different from Lotta's.  She has a very strong background in block printing and she treated the workshop like more of a class you'd take in art school.  She had us start by drawing, giving us prompts like autumn, sewing notions, etc. to inspire us and we moved onto the block carving from there.  She was very helpful and engaged with each student every step of the way and gave us tons of useful information and tips while still having fun and chatting with us.  At the end of the class she made sure to reserve plenty of time for us to display all of our work on a design wall and had us each talk about what we had done and get feedback from her.  


Below is the geometric print that I came up with.  I wanted to make something like this with a repeat and Lizzie gave me great advice on how to make it happen.  While I love the free wheeling, organic approach of Lotta's style, my left brain really appreciates the structure and focus of Lizzie's.  After all, I do have degrees in math and computer science.  The logic and structure love is still strong within me!


When I chose these workshops I was trying to pick things that I probably wouldn't do on my own, which is how I ended up in two printing classes (I also considered a class with Malka Dubrawsky!).  I do really well teaching myself things from books or the internet, or just figuring stuff out as I go so I never feel a great need to take quilting classes.  However, I did learn through taking a class with Elizabeth Hartman last fall that it can be very fun to just spend a day trying something new with a cool teacher, even if it's something I could figure out on my own.  At QuiltCon, I found myself wishing I was going to do some sewing (duh), so next time around I will keep these things in mind and really push myself when choosing workshops.  The ones I took were really wonderful and I'm so glad I took them but I had time for more and I wish I had taken advantage of it.  Of course, the amazing thing about these classes is that even though I didn't get to sew in them, I got to make some awesome fabric that I can't wait to sew with.

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

QuiltCon Wrap Up Part 2: The Lectures


There was quite an impressive line-up for the lecture hall at QuiltCon.  I only had a lecture pass for Friday since I didn't arrive until Thursday night and had workshops Saturday and Sunday.  Regardless, I got to hear some awesome women speak.  
First up was Heather Ross.  I don't really use novelty prints in my quilts but ever since having a kid I totally get her appeal.  She read an essay from her upcoming book that was a wonderful mix of bits from her childhood and adulthood and how they have influenced her work and her art.  I think that's a pretty generic description that probably applies to the entire book but it was quite lovely and I'm sure the book will be too.
Next I got to hear Anna Maria Horner speak on the subject "Making Me".  I'd heard her speak once before when she visited our guild on what seemed to be a very similar topic and yes, there were some tidbits that I already knew but for the most part it was just great to hear her speak.  Anna Maria is a wonderful and inspiring woman and I'd be happy to listen to her talk about her life and inspiration any day of the week.


 Not to mention that she shared some fabulous quilts.
 The last lecture I went to was Angela Walters, talking about what else, quilting.  I'd never met Angela before or heard her speak and I was so glad that I was able to.  She was funny and likable and it was great to hear the story of how she got started quilting.  It was also nice to hear that despite the amazing detail in her quilting she doesn't do a lot of planning or sketching before hand.  I don't know why but that made her seem more human to me, impatient to get to the good stuff.  It also shows, along with her story of how she got started, that she's had a LOT of practice.  She's amazingly talented but she worked really hard to get that way.
And there's good news for those of you who couldn't make it to QuiltCon: you can watch Angela's lecture as well as many others by people such as Heather Jones, David and Amy Butler, Jacquie Gering and Mary Fons for FREE at Craftsy.com.  Go here for the QuiltCon 2013 lectures!