Irish Chain Quilts Schoolhouse at Spring Market

Thursday morning of Spring Quilt Market marked the opening of Schoolhouse and I absolutely love this day!!!  You go around from room to room and listen to presentations on new fabric lines, books, notions, programs ect.   It really is a What to Expect for the next 6 months. Normally, I am just in the audience listening, but . . .

This Market I was able to do a Schoolhouse on my book,  Irish Chain Quilts.  Here I am looking totally at ease, right.   Nope,  I have to tell you, I was so nervous.  I knew that once I got started it would be fine . . . but the waiting . . .  Luckily my hands were like ice cubes so I could use them to cool my face that was on fire ;)

But before you knew it, the waiting was over and it was time to start.   I was shocked when I got up to start and the room was jam packed!!!  Oh my goodness, so exciting!!!  And, like I had hoped, about 3 minutes into it the nerves settled and I was just enjoying myself (although the adrenaline didn't wear off so I still shook through most of it ;)  and sharing my love for Irish Chain Quilts!!!

I started with telling the inspiration behind Irish Chain Quilts and how I wrote it for all quilters.   (you can see more about that in this guest post ).  Then I got to show all of the quilts from the book in each of the 4 sections: Twists on Tradition, Modern Patchwork, Improvisational Piecing, and Appliqued Chains and share a bit about the techniques use to make them and the variety that can be used to kit them.

 The quilts were paraded up and down the aisle and there was a lot of oohing and ahhing, so I am going to assume that is a good sign that they liked the quilts ;)  Yup, that made my heart soar ;)  And Sidenote -  that gentlemen holding the quilt is Conner who did all of the amazing graphic design and layout for my book.  Thanks Conner!!!

And then before you knew it . . . It was getting the 3 minute wind up signal.  It went by so fast, but it really was oh so much fun!!!   I can't begin to thank everyone in that room, and everyone here at Happy Quilting for the wonderful reception Irish Chain Quilts has received.   It just means the world to me!!

And just for kicks . . . I had to share these.   As I was going through the pictures that wonderful Barbara took for me of the Schoolhouse I had to just laugh.  Ya, I really like to talk with my hands ;)  I think if you were to tie my hands behind my back, I wouldn't be able to talk at all.  Good Times ;)

And one last little tidbit before I sign off.   My wonderful friends at Fat Quarter Shop were on the front row smiling at me the whole time, as well as filming me.  Which luckily, I didn't know at the time ;)   So . . . If you want to see Irish Chain Quilts entire Schoolhouse (with me shaking like a leaf and all) , keep an eye on the Fat Quarter Shop You Tube Channel.  It will be up soon.

And ya, my twin sister didn't make it to Market so Kimberly stepped in, aren't we so cute and matchy matchy ;)

Thanks for joining me today.  I'll be back tomorrow with more from Market ;)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!

Peaks and Valleys Table Runner

The last thing I made for Market was this super fun Peaks and Valleys Table Runner.

I was so excited when the gals at Camelot Fabrics asked if I would make a sample of this for the booth because I loved designing the pattern (yes, free pattern right here) month's ago and it has been on my "to-do" list ever since.   And of course, it got bumped up the list when it had a deadline attached ;)

The fabrics in this runner are from the Zoey Collection for Camelot Fabrics.  I loved the beautiful colors and pulled from them when it came time to quilt it.

I decided to do some super fun matchstick quilting, but as a new  twist I hadn't tried, I added color!!  I started by randomly quilting 10-12 lines all across the runner in each of the 6-7 colors I pulled from the line.  Then I went back and filled in all of the blank space with a beautiful blender.   And I have to say, I am so loving how it turned out.  I will be doing this again soon.

And here it is hanging in the Camelot Booth at Market.    So fun!!!

And that is my Peaks and Valleys Table Runner ;)  Like I mentioned, if you want to make your own runner, you can download the free pattern right here ;)   And if you do make one, I would love to see it.  You can email me a picture at happquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or add it to my Flickr group here ;)

And that's it for today ;)   I will be back on Monday with more from Market :)

Frivols #4 x 3

Don't you just love that word . . . Frivols!!  So fun :)  For market, I was asked by my fantastic friends at Moda to make 3 samples of one of their new Frivols Quilts.  If you haven't heard about Frivols, it is a new collectors tin program that Moda is doing and there will be 12 tins total in the series. You can see all about them in the Schoolhouse Video that Fat Quarter Shop did :)

Anyhow, this is Frivols #4 using Brenda Riddle's gorgeous new line Windermere and it will be out in November.  And I hear the tin comes with all sorts of extra goodies!!  Ya, I am totally going to be frivolously collecting these ;)

Brenda Riddle designed this fun flying geese quilt.  It is made with 4 blocks and a whole flock of geese.  And there are lots and lots of pretty points to line up.  Yippee!!!

The pattern uses the no-waste flying geese technique, which is my favorite.  The geese went together fast and then it was just building the blocks, which didn't go so fast (more on that later).  All 3 are the same, sans the color placement and the backing fabrics.   I have to say, it was kind of fun to assembly line piece these and turn around to find I had 3 finished quilts!

When it came time to quilt them, I decided to do an all over mixture of echoed paisleys, swirls, and curly cues.  I used 401 So Fine Superior Threads and it perfectly blended away to give the quilts a beautiful texture.  I really love my So Fine Threads!!!  (which incidentally, I have a big So Fine Thread giveaway going on right now . . . trust me, you are going to want to win these threads!!)  

It was so fun to "find" these 3 Frivols all over Moda Land at market.   I found the first one hanging in the Brenda Riddle center section of the booth.

And the second one draped over the table at Brenda's booth in Designer Row.

And the third one took me a little longer to find until I thought to check in the United Notions booth.  It is the one hanging on the ladder with the cute Frivols tin on top of it!!  They are just so cute!!!

And those are my 3 Frivols quilts!!!  But, I had to share this little story about making them that I referred to above.  This is in the true spirit of "Keeping it Real".  Of course, I was making these on a "fast approaching deadline"  I had all of the geese made and stitched into rows.  All I had to do was stitch the rows together.   In an effort to speed things up, Barbara came up and pressed as I stitched.  We were rocking it out until we came to the very last row.  As I laid out the blocks to put them all together, I noticed something looked off.  These didn't look like the blocks in the pattern.  Oh ya, that's because the blocks in the pattern have the geese pointing outward, not inward . . . like I had stitched every row of all 12 blocks for all 3 quilts!!!   My seam ripper was my best friend for the next several hours.    Oh ya, Keeping It Real :) 

But it all worked out . . .and all three quilts turned out so pretty and on-time ;)  And in the end, I did laugh at myself, after a few frustrated tears while ripping ;)

Thanks for popping in today ;)  I have 1 more Market finish to share tomorrow and then next week it is on to the Schoolhouse and Book Signings ;)

Have a Happy Quilting Weekend!!!

Linking up these 3 finishes to Sarah's and Amanda's ;)

True North

Today I am so excited to share with you one of the quilts that I made for market.   I am also sharing it as part of Blogger's Quilt Festival!!!  (yup, just squeaking it in there in time)   I call it True North and I have to say, I love it!!!

When the gals at Riley Blake Designs asked me to design something for their Postcards for Santa Christmas Line, I knew right away I wanted to do a play on a Star design.   I really played with this design a lot getting the look and the piecing just right and I just love how the off balance layout makes those beautiful stars pop!!

And of my goodness, can I just say I love the Gold Shimmer in this line!!!  It was so incredible to get to work with.  The quilt finishes at 92" x 92" making it perfect for your queen size bed.   

When it came time to quilt this beauty, I decided to do some custom ruler work in the Stars, and Pebbling to give it the look of snow all piled up.  So fun and so much yummy texture!!

On the border I quilted echoed paisley's (video tutorial found here)  I used my all time favorite 402 So Fine Superior Thread for all the quilting.  I love how it blended perfectly in the background as well as the Star prints!!   And funny story on this one, with about a 1/2 a row left, I completely ran out of 402.  Like, no extra cone lying around, completely out.   And of course, I was trying to get this in the mail to ship for Market, so I didn't really have time to get a new one.  Lucky for me, it happens to be another local Long-Armers favorite thread as well, and she let me borrow a cone to finish the job.  Thank heavens for good friends to get you out of a pickle.   And yes, I stopped at the Superior Threads Warehouse on our way to market and picked up 5 Cones of 402.  Good to Go!!!

And here is True North hanging in the Riley Blake Designs booth at Market!!!  I had to stop and stare each time I walked by, so fun!!!  And let me tell you, I wanted to take that little dress off the mannequin and bring it home for my little one for Christmas.  Adorable!!!

I plan on writting True North up as a pattern but just haven't gotten time yet ;)   And of course, it will have size options.  This is such a fun Christmas quilt, but the design would really look great in any combination of prints.  Stars are just so versatile :)

Oh, and I just got some wonderful news on True North this morning.  The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Oregon that is held in July has requested that True North be part of the show!!!   So it has another pit stop to make before it makes it's way home ;)  So excited!!!  And that means I will have to get the pattern written up sooner rather than later ;)  You know I always work best under deadlines ;)

And that is True North!!!   Thank you so much for stopping by today!!!  If you are stopping by for the first time from Blogger's Quilt Festival Welcome!!!  I would love it if you came back and visited often, I am always excited to share my daily quilting adventures ;)

And be sure to pop back to the Blogger's Quilt Festival and check out all of the amazing quilts!!!!  There are so many, talk about your super Quilting Eye Candy!!!

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Spring Market Part 1 - Collecting

So market was amazing and I have been sitting here going through loads and loads and loads of pictures and trying to put them into a cohesive post and coming to the conclusion that it would be the worlds longest post that would be jumping all over the place because there was just so much that happened at Market this year!!!    Which left me with option of breaking things up a bit and spreading the Market love out over the next little bit.

You can be expecting to see some of the projects I made for Market that I have been keeping super secret, and then I will move onto my Irish Chain Quilts schoolhouse and book signings, and then finish with some of the new collections.  (See, I told you, way to much for one post ;)

So for today, I thought I would just share a few of the fun "collections" that I gathered while at market.  The first were pins!!!   I was so excited to trade pins because each time I traded I got to meet someone new or chat with a wonderful friend that I only get to see every 6 months.   And my, oh my, did I do a lot of trading and chatting!!!

If you wonder if 3 lanyards worth of pins hanging around your neck is heavy, the answer is yes.  But oh so fun, so I decided totally worth it!!!

The next thing I collected at Market was signatures.   I decided to turn my Irish Chain Quilts Advanced Copy into a sort of "yearbook".  I can't tell you the funny looks I got when I asked friends to sign my book, they kept telling me I had it a little backwards ;)   But oh my goodness, this will be such a treasure for me.   It is an amazing collection of everyone who helped me get to where I am today in this wonderful industry.  So special!!!

And finally, you can't go to Market without collecting a little fabric ;)   I have to say, I was pretty proud of myself as I left the credit card at the hotel and only took my allotted amount of cash.  And I came home with some wonderful treasures.  Can't wait to get cutting into these!!!

And that wraps up with my collections.  Before I sign off, I have to write a quick bit about Irish Chain Quilts, because I just can't wait for later in the week to  share.   I just want to say Thank You so much for the wonderful reception Irish Chain Quilts has received!!!  Thank you for your sweet emails of how much you love it, thank you to everyone at Market who pulled me aside and told me how much they loved it, Thank you for all of your fabulous comments on it.  I truly honored and so very appreciative.   This is such an amazing industry to be a part of!!!!

And one last note on Irish Chain Quilts . . . Martingale had me do a super fun guest post at their blog Stitch This!  so if you want to read lots more about Irish Chain Quilts you can pop over here to check it out ;)

Alright, that's it for today ;)   Be back tomorrow with some Secret Market Sewing ;)


Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!