My book is in stock!

 

 Just in case you haven't heard - my book is in stock!  Hooray! You can order your signed copy here.  

 

Introducing Diamond in the Rough and some exciting news!

  

I am happy to say that I am currently tracking my first shipment of books from AQS and I can hardly contain my excitement!  Secondary Designs with Judi Madsen is my second book and will be arriving in my hands on Monday December 19th. This book has been 3 years in the making and is sure to be a winner, I think - at least for me - I love the projects and I hope you will too.  It was 3 years ago that my first book, Quilting Wide Open Spaces made its debut, so to have 2 books under my belt is an amazing feeling.  I don't know if you realize how much work goes into writing a complex technical book like Secondary Designs, but I hope you enjoy making the projects as much as I did - just be grateful you didn't have to write it. Haha!

 

So, this next book project I am introducing to you today is called Diamond in the Rough.  This quilt top was the first finished project for the book and is also the project that was submitted to AQS as an example of my Secondary Designs book concept. Let's just say this quilt sealed the deal.  I wanted to have a simple quilt design that allowed me to really show off the secondary quilting. I think I was able to achieve that with this quilt.  It is fabulous and like always, the pictures don't "do it justice," but hopefully you get the idea from the pictures I am sharing with you today.

 This quilt was quilted with Kimono Silk thread by Superior Threads and I used 2 layers of Hobbs Cotton/Wool batting - which really adds to the texture dimension of the quilt.

What I love about the quilt is the different fills used throughout the quilt.

The ruler work - it was so much fun.  I love the look of the straight lines going into points and creating such an amazing secondary design throughout the top.

The center motif is an amazing design, and I had so much fun working within the space I had.  This design was a result of that space.

There are a lot of designs in the background, but they all work together.

Here are some close ups of the stitching using Kimono Silk 100 wt thread. I think it made sense to use this thread for this particular quilt top, especially with the scribble fill because there is not a lot of thread build up in the dense areas.

Isn't this texture amazing?

I love looking beyond piecing and really enjoy coming up with these designs in the background.

The back -- Ahhhmazing!  This quilt, from start to finish, tension - everything - ended up almost perfect.  You will read about my not so perfect quilt in the book, I really hope you love learning more about this quilt and have even more fun making it! Piecing and quilting instructions are included in the book.

Scrumptious.  I love this quilt.

Okay, so buy your signed book copy here.  I will ship them out as fast as I can!  

Candy Cane Wall Hanging! Merry Christmas!

Free Pattern!  My gift to you this Christmas season.  Read on!

Okay, so I just had to make something to reflect the time of year right now and I have always loved candy canes.  As you can see, this fabulous Candy Cane wall hanging is just perfect for the season, I love it.  The design was really fun to come up with, and it was even more fun putting together.

I wanted to incorporate a star in the project and it works perfect on the candy cane.  I just love how it turned out.

This wall hanging is 26 x 36 inches and is perfect as a fun accent to your Christmas decorations, it also fits nicely on a table as a center piece.

The wall hanging only took me a day to put together and only 1 hour for the quilting.  I went with quick and easy quilting on this one.

I was also able to use up some of my cute Christmas fabric that has been sitting in my stash for a while.  So, I hope you enjoy making this adorable wall hanging.  You can get the free pattern here, just print it off and enjoy!  I hope you like it! You can also check out my patterns here - I have a lot of fun ones in the shop.

Oh, and my book is shipping to me this week, that means it is shipping to you next week.  Hooray! It's about time!!!!