Introducing... A Bit of Appliqué!

Yippee!! The release date for my book (Yes, I wrote a book!!) is only a few days away!

A Bit of Appliqué: Easy Projects with Modern Flair starts shipping next week, on July 14. It seems so long ago (yet it was only last summer) when I sent the manuscript and projects off to Martingale. For all that time, and even longer, I had to keep almost all of it secret. It's hard to describe how excited I am to finally reveal this! I have much more to say about writing the book and what it contains, but for now I'll keep this short and sweet... and simply show you a few sneak peaks.

Transform everyday projects -- quilts, pillows, bags, and wearable items -- into one-of-a-kind objects with a variety of hand- and machine-stitched appliqué techniques. Learn bias tape appliqué with the Sound Waves Quilt.

Or reverse appliqué with the Petals Pot Holder and Trivet.

Practice raw edge appliqué with the Circles Baby Quilt or Polly the Penguin Softie.

A Bit of Appliqué contains full size templates and clear instructions with plenty of helpful illustrations.  Here's a sample page from the Garden Skirt section.

If you've been wanting to try appliqué, or feel inspried to further your appliqué skills with one or more of these quick projects, I hope you'll check it out!

Learn more, and see all the projects in the book, in Martingale's shop.  Or find it on Amazon.

Cheers and happy sewing!

Bright Lights - Bloggers Quilt Festival

If you're visiting from the Blogger's Quilt Festival, hello... and thanks for stopping by!

I'm entering my Bright Lights quilt in the festival, and realized I hadn't yet shared it here on the blog. This is the second quilt I've made. Ever. That's right. I made a quilted table runner in 2012-13 (It took a while!), and then this one, so it was very much a learning process for me.  Which, really, every quilt is!

© leiyagami

The design was inspired and made for a 'Modern in the City' challenge organized for the International Quilt Festival show in Chicago last year.  It's loosely based on this photo I found through a Google image search: a blurry image of a city street at night. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything more to credit the artist/photographer, other than the copyright info above.) I blocked out some general shapes/sections based on the one-point perspective of the photo, then improvised the piecing using different width strips.

I pieced the top while at a retreat with the the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild in March 2014, just a few days before the deadline. Then I quilted it to emphasize the perspective lines. The fabrics were all from my stash. I didn't really know what I was doing, which made it a fun challenge. I just put it together without thinking about it too much; it felt a little like painting! This was also the first time I needed to bury threads, since my only other quilt was a narrow table runner that I quilted so all the stitching ended at the binding edges. And I attached the binding by machine because I worried I wouldn't finish it in time otherwise. Since then, I've come to love binding by hand, and wouldn't dream of doing it otherwise!

It was fun to see it in the IQF show, along with other quilts created by members of both the Chicago and Naperville Modern Quilt Guilds.  I hope you enjoy seeing it (and all the other quilts!) in the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.  I'm entering it in the Original Designs category.