Kona Cotton 30th Anniversary - And Giveaway!

I use a lot of solids in my quilting and choosing a color palette might be my favorite part of designing so of course I'm a huge fan of Robert Kaufman's Kona Cottons. Did you know they're up to 303 different colors now? That's pretty tough to beat.

I was so honored when I was asked if my Wakefield quilt design (PDF now available in my shop!) could be part of the Kona 30th anniversary celebration. Robert Kaufman put together a look book called 30 Quilts for 30 Years which features beautiful designs from 30 incredible quilters. You can check out all of the other amazing quilts in the look book here. The Wakefield quilt is a perfect match for Konas. It's simple and graphic and a great way to highlight a bold color palette.

This pattern was originally created when I needed two quilts for the soon-to-be-born twin daughters of a good friend. She had jokingly referred to her babies as Jessica and Elizabeth, the Wakefield twins from the Sweet Valley High book series. The pattern could only be named after the twins and Wakefield was a perfect fit.

All of the other quilts in the look book are fabulous but if I had to pick a fave it would have to be the beauty by my pal and fellow LAMQGer Latifah Saafir.

Isn't it wonderful? Latifah always uses color in such unexpected ways.

Now, who's up for a giveaway? Leave a comment on this post in the next 24 hours and you could win a copy of my Wakefield pattern and a charm pack of the new 2014 Kona colors! If you haven't seen them in person let me tell you, not only are they gorgeous colors but they also look incredible together! (International entries are a-ok!)

For more chances to win and to see LOTS more eye candy, check out all of the other stops on the blog hop!

Week 1:
Saturday, November 1st: Johanna Masko
Sunday, November 2nd: Alyssa of Aria Lane
Monday, November 3rd: Dorie of Tumblingblocks
Tuesday, November 4th: Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations
Wednesday, November 5th: Daniela of Cozy Quilt Designs
Thursday, November 6th: Faith of Fresh Lemons Quilts
Friday, November 7th: Anita Grossman Solomon
Saturday, November 8th: Debbie of Esch House Quilts

Week 2:
Sunday, November 9th: Alex of Teaginny
Monday, November 10th: Darlene Zimmerman
Tuesday, November 11th: Nichole Ramirez
Wednesday, November 12th: Rita Hodge of Red Pepper Quilts
Thursday, November 13th: Lee of Freshly Pieced
Friday, November 14th: Julie of Jaybird Quilts
Saturday, November 15th: Latifah of The Quilt Engineer

Week 3:
Sunday. November 16th: Elizabeth Hartman
Monday, November 17th: Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting
Tuesday, November 18th: Karrie of Freckled Whimsy
Wednesday, November 19th: Valori Wells
Thursday, November 20th: Marilyn of Quilt Moments
Friday, November 21st: Cortney Heimerl
Saturday, November 22nd: Shayla and Kristy of Sassafras Lane Designs

Week 4:
Sunday, November 23rd: Shea of Empty Bobbin Sewing
Monday, November 24th: Carrie Strine
Tuesday, November 25th: Rachel of Stitched in Color
Wednesday, November 26th: Liz of Lady Harvatine
Saturday, November 29th: Carolyn Friedlander

Week 5:
Sunday, November 30th: Elizabeth of Don’t Call Me Betsy
Monday, December 1st: Emily of Carolina Patchworks
Tuesday, December 2nd: Ken Kaufman
Wednesday, December 3rd: Grand Finale!

Log Pyramid Quilt Along

It's official, next week I'll be starting the Log Pyramid Quilt Along!

In case you missed it, the original Log Pyramid quilt was part of the show at QuiltCon and now you, gentle readers, can make your very own version.  Over the next few weeks I will be making a new version of the pattern and letting you all in on the process.  My new quilt will be a smaller, baby quilt version of the pattern but I will provide instructions for any sized quilt.  I hope you will join me!

You can find the rest of the quilt along at the following links:

Friday, April 12 - Fabric and supplies

Monday, April 15 - Making your template

Tuesday, April 16 - Cutting your fabric

Thursday, April 18 - Piecing the main blocks

Tuesday, April 23 - Piecing the side blocks

Thursday, April 25 - Making the quilt top

Tuesday, April 30 - Making the quilt back

Thursday, May 2 - Quilting

Friday, June 28 - Binding

Monday, July 1 - The End!

And you can share your progress in the Flickr group, here!

I'll add the links to this page as they go up as well as a link to the QAL page in the righthand column.

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!

QuiltCon here we come!

And by we, I mean my quilt and I of course.

I'm calling this bad boy Log Pyramids.  Get it? 

Of course, the quilt is already at the show in Austin.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it's already been judged.  Yipes!  Wish me luck!

I wanted to do a play on log cabin blocks using triangles as the "hearth" instead of a square.  The center triangles are random sizes as are the strips around them.

The solids are all Kona cottons and the rest of the fabrics are various neutral polka dot prints.

Since I couldn't find a triangle template larger than 12", I had a plexiglass template custom made so that I could cut the blocks down to size.  I couldn't come up with an easy way to trim them down to the same size while keeping them centered using regular rulers.

Because I designed and made this quilt expressly to enter into the show at QuiltCon, I was extra careful with all of my piecing and I must say, I'm very proud of the result.  Look at those points!

In fact, I liked this quilt so much that I used a photo of it to make this snazzy new case for my snazzy new phone!

I've been thinking of doing a tutorial for this quilt or even, dare I say it, a quilt-along?!?!  If I can drum up enough interest, it's on. 

I arrive in Austin tomorrow evening so I will miss the first day, including the awards ceremony but after that I'm in for three fun-filled days of lectures, workshops, hanging out with my quilty friends and hopefully making some new ones.  So if you're going and you spot me or my log pyramid phone case be sure to say hi!

Merry Christmas!

That's right, get over it.

This quilt has been in the works for too long.  I finally finished it this year so I'm not letting another year go by without blogging about it.

I used my Mod Beads pattern and started the top in 2010, right after I released the pattern.  In fact, I finished the top the same year as evidenced in this post.

The color palette was inspired by the backing fabric which I had to hunt down online so of course I started the top before it arrived.  My fabric choices miss the mark a little bit but that's okay.  I was working from memory.

Because this is a Christmas quilt I couldn't possibly work on it after Christmas.  Or maybe I just wasn't inspired once the Christmas tree was on the curb.  And...I guess the same thing happened the following year.  I got it out and intended to finish it but it just didn't happen.

Somewhere along the way I did quilt it but you know how it goes...sometimes it's hard to make that final push.

After all, who likes binding?  

Not me, that's for sure.

 And so I finally did it in time for Christmas 2012 though truth be told, it did sit on our love seat with the binding only sewn to the front for a couple of weeks.

Despite this post being dreadfully off-season, I can assure you that it was in fact finished well before Christmas.

The proof?  These photos were all taken in conjunction with our Christmas card photos.  Hence all of the Ginny-filled outtakes that I can't resist posting.

PS Here are the photos that ended up on the card.

 A very, very, very late Merry Christmas to you from the Harvatines!

Happy Anniversary!

The LA Modern Quilt Guild just celebrated it's third anniversary!  I am proud to say that I have been a member since the very first meeting.  

And here we all are, three years later!

So big we had to take a panoramic shot!  iOS5 to the rescue!

Every year we do an anniversary scrap swap, where participants bring in a ziploc bag of scraps, take home someone else's scraps and make their partner something out of them, only adding one additional fabric.  Sadly, I wasn't able to make it to the meeting where we swapped baggies so I couldn't participate but...I never shared what I made for last year's anniversary!

I made this quilt for Nicole Ramirez last year.  The stripes are all made from her scraps and I added the gray background fabric.  I used the same fabric for the back, trying to play by the rules and intended to use it for the binding too.  But by the time I finished the whole thing I thought, "F*** the rules", I'd put so much time in, I didn't want to put on some stinky old gray binding.  So I cheated and added the polka dots.  I didn't get in trouble.

Cats, babies and quilts, amiright?

That's a line from my quilt themed stand-up routine.  It's a riot.

This quilt was made for some friends' baby girl.  Different sized squares within squares.  I had the finished block sizes worked out and piles of fabric strips of various widths, then just went to town.  I laid the blocks out on my design wall as a completed them so I could avoid similar colors touching.  All of the fabrics are solids except for a small white on salmon polka dot and (I think) a simple little white and yellow geometric print.



An embroidered label!  You don't see those from me too often, do you?  I did my usual tracing the computer screen but this time stitched over it.  The larger letters have three strands of embroidery floss and the smaller letters have two.  The bunnies on the back are flannel which made an especially snuggly quilt.

What to do in LA this weekend

 

Denyse Schmidt is coming to speak to the LA Modern Quilt Guild tomorrow night and everyone is welcome!  The talk is free for paid members of the guild and just five dollars for everyone else.  I am very excited.  Denyse's quilts were the first to really inspire me to try quilting and to this day her book is my favorite quilt book.  So come if you're in town!  Eight o' clock at the Art Center College of Design, Ahmanson Auditorium, 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena.

And then on Saturday night...

My good friend Trisha Gum along with artists from the crew of Robot Chicken are hosting an art show to raise funds for the production of Trish's first live-action film "Losing Ferguson", part of AFI's Directing Workshop for Women.  The show is from 6-11, Saturday night at Hold Up Art, 358 E. 2nd St, LA.
Harv donated some of his toy photography and I made a series of miniature quilts.  This was a tough show to make something for because I wanted to give something that would sell, since the whole purpose of the show is to raise money.  The series is called "Ferguson's Cabin" after the film.

As you can see, they are all simple log cabin blocks, made up in fun, modern color palettes.  The quilts will be available individually but you can get a deal if you buy more than one.

Each quilt has a label printed on the back of the binding.  The labels say "Ferguson's Cabin ##  by Liz Harvatine  June, 2011".  (Sorry I didn't get a better shot of the label.  These babies were past due when I hurriedly took photos.  It's tough sewing on a deadline with a 5 month old in your care!)

 

So if you live in LA please stop by, support the film and take home some art!

Little Anvil

This quilt was made last fall for my pregnant friend who was due about a week after I was but beat me to the punch by nine days!

Anvil was the "working title" for their little boy.  They have a penchant for all things Scandinavian.  I kept that in mind when coming up with the color scheme for this quilt.  I think the white/neutrals with a pop of red are very reminiscent of Scandinavian design.

The label echoes the curves on the front of the quilt.  I traced the text off of my laptop screen and appliqued it on.