Another beautiful Twist and Shout

About a year ago, my design,Twist and Shout, was featured in McCalls Quick Quilts magazine. I had originally made the quilt as a three part mystery and named it Snake Dance. I enjoyed teaching it as a mystery...watching the students try to figure out what was going on with the design from week to week.

After it was published in the magazine, Cheryl from Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting decided to make the quilt for her son's upcoming marriage. She enlarged the pattern to make it queen size, but along the way she made an error in size while making the half square triangles. She didn't want all of those HST to go to waste, and they did match the quilt, so she ended up making a pieced back too. You can read her story about making this gorgeous quilt here.

I love her quilt...and the fact that she shared with me. It's so much fun to see the finished quilts from my patterns. Thanks for sharing, Cheryl!

And the winners are...

Twist and Shout

It's been fun celebrating Twist and Shout's publication in McCalls Quick Quilts magazine. I had three contests this past week...the first one was for one of my patterns.

Missy Shy won and she asked for the Miss Tess pattern. 

McCalls generously agreed to give 5 of my readers a copy of this issue. Those winners are:

Betsy

WhoMom

Barbara Woods

SandyQuilts

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

 The Moda Chantilly charm pack was won by Kathy Davis. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone for stopping by and helping me celebrate!

A local quilter emailed me and told me that she had taken her Twist and Shout to be quilted, so when I was at Cut UP and Quilt the other night, I took a peek...and pictures. She used 2 different florals  that seem to be climbing posts.

Lorraine's quilt

 I love what she did to end them! Quilters are so creative! If you make Twist and Shout, please send me pictures of it...I love to see them!

Yummy fabric? try this giveaway on for size!

Moda Chantilly

 As you know, I've been celebrating all week because my design, Twist and Shout, is in the new issue of McCalls Quick Quilts magazine. You can't celebrate a quilting milestone without celebrating fabric. That is a really important part of quilting..looking at fabric, touching fabric, buying just the right fabric. I sometimes wonder what comes first...the fabric or the quilt?

These are just some of the pretty fabrics in the Moda Chantilly charm pack!

Do you see fabric and try to figure out what you could make with it or do you find a pattern and then try to find fabric that will be perfect for it?

For me it's a little bit of both. I love designing and making quilts and other projects with fabrics. Sometimes I find fabric I have to have...and try to decide what I could make with it.  Sometimes I'm collecting fabrics for a project that I know I will be making (it's a good reason to collect, right?) and need more versatility.

 I went shopping at Cut Up and Quilt for a charm pack to giveaway this week and found Moda Chantilly. I love the range of color...the prints were unique too. I decided if I wanted it, someone else would too!

This one has to be my favorite, though there are many awesome prints and I loved them all!

While I was at Cut Up and Quilt, I saw the kits they made up for Twist and Shout. Right now they have a limited number of kits made up using the fabrics I used...they look so pretty all stacked up and tied in a bow! If you are interested in a kit, contact them at the shop!

So what do you think? Are we quilting because we love fabric or are we buying fabric because we love making beautiful things? Leave a comment answering this question on this post for a chance to win this gorgeous Chantilly charm pack!

You can still leave a comment on the previous posts to win one of my patterns, or a copy of the magazine. Just click on the links. All giveaways are open through Sunday, March 9. Thanks for helping me celebrate!  

I'm in a magazine! well, my QUILT is....

I am excited to announce that one of my designs is in McCalls Quick Quilts newest issue! You might remember last spring when I teased everyone with clues to the Snake Dance Mystery quilt week by week. I think everyone was happy to see the final quilt and those that made it said it went together quickly because they had made the pieces between classes.

It was chosen to be in the magazine last June, so it seemed like a long time to wait for publication in March.It was finally time to send it off in November to be photographed and it arrived home last Tuesday, and with it an advance copy of the magazine! I was excited to see it in print! Here it is on their website (There was an editorial decision to change the name of the quilt to Twist and Shout).

I thought it would be fun to show off some of the finished quilts from the mystery class!You can see that it is pretty made out of a variety of fabrics, though using several values of a color and a dark for contrast is what gives this quilt its 3D look. I think the hardest part of making a mystery quilt is picking out the fabrics without knowing what you are making. I gave them a picture of my fabrics on the supply list so that they could see what I meant by using a 2 shades of a color in their quilt. They all did a great job picking out their fabrics!

Barb's golds and blues were stunning!

Kellie and her mom ended up switching a few rows between quilts, so if you look closely, you can see that some of the dark stripes running vertically are different in her quilt. Her mom, Lora's quilt is below. Even with different colors in the dark stripe, it still looks awesome!

Kerstin of Cookies Treasures lives in Germany but wanted to make the mystery quilt too, so I sent her the clues when I gave them out to the students. She loved playing along and is currently testing the pattern for my new mystery quilt, Against the Tide Mystery. She will be blogging about it soon as the 2nd group begins their mystery next Sat. She quilted this on her home machine.

Anne used solids and they just popped! She has since finished the quilting this,  but I couldn't find the picture!

Betty was the first to get her top completed. She used soft shades of blue which are not captured very well in this picture, unfortunately. But you can see the 3D effect well in her choice of colors.

Dianne used bright colors to make this festive top. You can see that some of the quilters made larger tops. When I taught it as a mystery they had the choice of making it lap or twin size.

Because I'm so excited about this publication, I'll be hosting a giveaway this week, more info tomorrow!

This issue should be out at your favorite quilt shop or store today or tomorrow, so take a look!  If you do  make it, please share pix with me! I always love to see what you've done with my patterns!

Snake Dance class

Snake Dance was originally a mystery quilt class that I taught last May. After it was revealed, I was asked by several people to teach it again, so that class was last Sat.This time it was no mystery, so they were able to choose fabrics based on what they saw, not just what I told them. I had given them some precutting instructions too, so they were all ready to sew when they got there.

As you can see, they all got a few blocks finished in one colorway.  We all thought Lorraine's florals were going to be pretty climbing the tree branches....

These blocks belong to 4 different quilters, but would look great with each other.

Anne took the class in the spring, and brought it to show us last night completely finished. She hand quilted hers by stitching in the ditch. It's gorgeous!

I taught the Sampler # 17 class last night...they are working on the last set of blocks to finish their quilts. There are 12 Road to Oklahoma blocks, which are fairly easy ones to do. One class left in this sampler club!

Last class for this group...lots of progress!

 Last night was the last class for this 6 month session of the Sampler Pick class. These ladies chose which sampler they wanted to make out of the seventeen I have designed and have been working on them for the past 6 months. Lora is making hers for her niece, who loves lots of color!

Dorothy's blocks are all finished except last night's pattern, so she is ready to put this queen size quilt together. Dorothy has made fourteen of the samplers!

Kelli learned how to measure and put on a border on last night. This splash of green is for her brother. 

 Lora also brought her Snake Dance Mystery for show and tell. She and her daughter had swapped a row so she added a yellow row for some contrast. It's so much fun to see my design in so many different colors!

 Today is my last day before I go back to work at school, so I am going to do some shopping with a friend...first stop is a local quilt shop. I'm still looking for inspiration for two baby quilts I want to make, so wish me luck!

Kerstin's finish!

Kerstin, at Cookies Treasures, finished the quilting on her Snake Dance Mystery quilt. It looks so pretty. I love the quilting she did on her home machine. She said not as many people in Germany have home quilting set-ups or take their quilts to be quilted. I think it looks awesome!

I spent some time cleaning up the quilting room yesterday, as I had project leftovers stacked all around. So now it is a little bit more organized. I separated out the smaller pieces to put in the "string" tub. It was full, so I cleaned out another tub that was bigger and transferred them into it. It's time to make a new string pieced project to use them up. A friend wants some too, so I will send some to her.

I found a small quilt that I started to hand quilt a long time ago. I knew it was there, I've just been ignoring it. I will take some pictures and post tomorrow. I don't even like the fabrics anymore, so I have to decide if I really want to spend time finishing it.

I can't stop making them!

I sewed with friends yesterday and worked some more on the new quilt, then I made a few more Snap Happy Bags for fun.    

 While shop hopping we got a pattern to make these little bags. This started out as an 8 1/2" square. It would make a great coin purse.

 Dianne worked on her Snake Dance Mystery quilt and got the center all sewn together.  She is planning on making one for her brother too.

I am teaching the first Kid's Camp, Pajama Pants class today. Should be fun!

More Snap Bags and a Snake Dance finish....

 I spent Sunday cleaning and making  a few more snap bags. These are so much fun to make and will make cute gifts. I have three more cut out and ready to sew.

 I like this one the best and I might have to keep it myself.

 Earlier in the month, I taught the Snake Dance Mystery classes at two local shops. Kerstin of Cookies Treasures joined in from Germany. She finished her quilt top and posted about it here. I think it turned out beautifully!

I did some sewing yesterday on a new project. I hope to finish sewing the top together today. I'm heading out to sew with the Tuesday sewers. They've added some friends since last summer, so it is a busy happy group. Should be fun.

Drum roll please: Snake Dance Mystery revealed!

My Snake Dance quilt!

It has been pretty exciting this week, as I revealed the Snake dance Mystery to both groups that have been working on it. I had told them they could come early to start working on the last clue if they wanted, so I got them busy working on it as they came in. Once I revealed the quilt, they got to work making blocks. Since they had kept up with making all the clues, the blocks went together quickly.

Kerstin, of Cookie's Treasures did the mystery via email from Germany. She got her last clue on Saturday, and a few days later had the blocks all completed. She will be blogging about her quilt as well, but she was honoring her vow of mystsery quilter's silence so that she wouldn't ruin the surprise for anyone! 

Betty started with one group, but had to go out of town for the last night of class, so came to the other group's last class. She brought hers to show me on Tuesday.

It's always so much fun to see all of the different colorways and how they work up into each quilter's vision. They were all happy with their fabric choices and anxious to try out the different color combos in their blocks.

Last night I taught a class on the Modern Cathedral Windows pillow, so I will share those pictures tomorrow. I am heading out this morning with friends to visit some Iowa quilt shops on the All Iowa Shop Hop. If you live in the area, there are many great shops to visit and you can qualify for prizes just by visiting. Visit the site for the passport and the map of Iowa shops. I started my hop at Cut Up and Quilt, of course....more about that tomorrow.