Pat Bravo’s “The Mini Quilt Blog Tour”
I am especially excited for today’s blog post. As most of you know, I create children’s clothing patterns. I spend pretty much all day working on new patterns or sewing up some cute clothing for my girls or for special projects. What most of you don’t know about me is…. I AM A QUILTER! Ahhh. The cat is out of the bag. Quilting was my first love. I made my first quilt 6 years ago when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, Emma. I was a pretty hardcore quilter; I even have a longarm machine (now collecting dust). I havent quilted in 2.5 years and it was time to put an end to that streak- so I made not one but TWO mini quilts (yay me!)
want to WIN some Dare & Essentials II fabrics??? I am giving away my scraps… read through to find out how to win!
The Minis Blog Tour is hosted by the super talented Pat Bravo. She is an amazing Fabric designer and owner of Art Gallery Fabrics. We were all sent fat eighths of one color way for her 2 most recent fabric lines: Dare Fabrics & Essentials II fabrics. To read more about #theminisblogtour check out her blog HERE.
The tour started yesterday, be sure to check out the 2 amazing ladies that posted yesterday:
Laura Piland http://sliceofpiquilts.blogspot.com Instagram @sliceofpilife
Courtney Zadik www.thewholesomemama.com Instagram @wholesomemama
I still remember the day I got into girls sewing patterns. I had about 10 quilts in the works (as usual) and I was just not feeling “it” that day. I jumped on Etsy and found a girls peasant dress pattern. I needed a project that would give me instant gratification (or in a few hours). I made 3 dresses that day! From that point on, I was in love with girls sewing patterns. Once I started designing patterns, quilting was put on the back burner.
I have had some really bad quilting urges lately and when I saw Pat Bravo’s call for her #TheMinisBlogTour I jumped on the opportunity. I had been wanting to quilt again but just never jumped back into the saddle. Once I saw I was picked for the blog tour – I knew I HAD to quilt, I was being held accountable, no backing out now. Well guess what ladies…. I AM BACK!!! And I don’t think you can stop me now (hehe)! OH how I missed quilting. So much in fact that I made TWO mini quilts. My first mini quilt was the diamond one – which grew more into a stroller size quilt because I made too many HST and I just loved watching it grow. I was going to scale it down but I really loved it so I set it aside (it finishes at 30″x36″).
I wanted to showcase the fabrics as much as possible, which is hard to do when you have that many prints and such a small quilt. I found some scrapbooking pins on Pinterest and one was a flower burst in all shapes and sizes and I knew that is what I wanted to do. I just randomly cut out my shapes. I didn’t fuss too much about size or anything – I was too excited to work on it that I didn’t care too much about the little details. I used a decorative stitch and appliqued all my petals to the pink background (Pure Elements – Crystal Pink). I really wanted to see if I still had my quilting mojo… I don’t. But that is okay. I had too many ideas in my head for the actual quilting on my mini, so I decided to do a little sampler on it. If you are wanting to try new patterns, my best suggestion is a water soluble marker! Draw your design on first, then trace it with your machine. It is nice to have a guide sometimes. I used this method for a few parts on the quilt. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of Pat Bravo’s Aurifil threads. I used 4 colors from her kit to quilt my mini (pink, yellow, green and blue). The thread was amazing, it was my first time using Aurifil and it won’t be my last – didn’t break 1 thread while quilting both quilts! (to me – that is amazing! hehe).
I can NOT wait until I start my next quilt! Pat Bravo, you reignited my love for quilting… Thank you! Who knows what will happen next!
Be sure to check out the ladies posting tomorrow – you wont want to miss them!
Amanda Woodruff www.acraftyfox.net Instagram @acraftyfox_amanda
Jessica Stewart http://snickerdoodlestew.com/ Instagram @IzzynIvydesigns
Be sure to follow me on Facebook @SimpleLifePatterns and Instagram/Pinterest @SLPco.
Be sure to check out Pat Bravo’s social media accounts – she is always posting super neat projects and beautiful pieces of work. Follow her on Instagram & Facebook @PatBravoDesigns
Need more inspiration? Check out the #DareFabrics & #EssentialsIIFabrics look books.
Now, who wants to win some fabric? I have a lot of scraps left over and I am giving them away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is comment below with which mini quilt you like more – the diamond quilt or the petal quilt. Easy peasy. Winner will be chosen randomly Wednesday April 27th @ 3pm central time
Happy Sewing,
Katie Skoog
