New Patterns & Early Book Sales!

Big news today, friends!! I am so thrilled to announce the launch of my first PDF patterns for sale: The Soda Pop Shop Quilt and The Motel Key Pillow.

You've already gotten several peeks at my Soda Pop Shop Quilt on previous blog posts. I love this quilt so much!

The Motel Key Pillow is a special pattern that I wrote to go along with the release of my new book, Patchwork USA. I designed these blocks to look like retro motel key rings with a key attached. This little pillow is sitting on my guest room bed as we speak, and it goes perfectly with the vintage travel theme I have in that room. I think this block would be just as darling on a pouch or in a quilt, and it's absolutely perfect for fussy cutting!

Both of these patterns are beginner friendly, requiring only traditional piecing skills, and they have lots of illustrations to walk you confidently through the instructions. After getting so many requests for the Soda Pop Shop Quilt pattern, I was searching for a way to make the patterns available to you as quickly as possible, and my amazing editor Susanne came to the rescue. You can now purchase them on the Lucky Spool website at this link. 

But wait, there's even bigger news!

Lucky Spool, C&T Publishing, and Martingale have all declared April 21-27 to be National Craft Book Week, a celebration of craft books and the wonderful people who create them for us. There are going to be special promotions all week from these publishers.

Today is my special day at the Lucky Spool website because they're not only selling my patterns at a  20% discount, but they're also selling a limited number of advance copies of Patchwork USA while supplies last at a 20% discount today too if you use the code NEW20. That means you can get your copy of my book before it's available anywhere else! AND everyone who buys a copy today gets entered into a drawing for a $100 gasoline gift card, a fun way to play along with my book's road trip theme. Is that amazing or what?!

Remember, the discount is for today only, so hurry over there if you're interested. I couldn't be happier to share these patterns and my book with all of you, and I can hardly wait to start seeing your projects popping up on social media. I hope that they bring you all kinds of joy!

Mini Majestic Easter Gift Basket

There are some patterns that you go back to over and over again, that fit you like a comfortable sweater or your favorite slippers. They're familiar and lovely, and you know they're going to be just what you need. The Lunch Bag Tutorial by my friend Ayumi is one of those patterns for me. I don't know how many times I've sewn this one, but it never fails to be a joy. This time I thought it would be fun to do something crazy and shrink it down to half size for a mini gift bag using the Majestic collection by Gerri Robinson for Riley Blake Designs.

The footprint of this finished bag is only 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" -- such a sweet little size!

I met Gerri for the first time last June when she was kind enough to drive me all over Missouri while we were both teaching at Missouri Star Academy. She and I spent hours together that week chatting about everything under the sun -- fabric design, the quilting industry, our families. I loved every minute of it. Watching her teach was an education in itself for me. She is an incredibly talented and generous lady, and I admire her so much.

I chose just three prints from the Majestic collection for this project in a range of scales. The smallest scale white floral was especially perfect for a tiny bag like this one. These prints all work together so beautifully, don't they?

Whenever you shrink a pattern -- especially for a bag or basket -- there are positives and negatives. Smaller pieces make a much quicker sew, but the logistics can definitely be more difficult as you try to navigate your needle with a more narrow bag opening. The drawstring casing was a bit fiddly, but with some patience and care, I was able to get it right. It took me a while to decide what to use for the drawstring itself until I remembered my box of chunky thread by Lori Holt. This pink was a great match and just the right weight to fit easily in the casing. It's always hard to hit a speed bump when you're almost about to finish a project, so I was awfully glad to have that thread on hand!

Now that I'm looking at this little bag, I'm thinking that it would make a darling mini Easter gift basket. Just toss in some candy and other small goodies, and you're all set.

I have the sneaking suspicion that I may have just launched my next sewing obsession...

Soda Pop Shop Quilt Finish

I just took a walk down to the end of our driveway to see if the mail was here. Our mailbox was empty, but it was absolutely worth the trip. Texas is looking gorgeous today. After a rainy weekend, the trees and plants are looking lush and green again, and the sky is pure blue. My neighbor has hopped on her riding mower next door (my husband will probably be doing the same thing tonight after he gets home from school), and I can smell that amazing scent of cut grass in the air. There are butterflies dancing on the wildflowers, horses grazing in the pasture behind our property, and birds chirping at each other in the trees by my front door. Best of all, the temperatures are starting to warm up enough that we just might be able to try a dip in the pool this weekend. The girls can't stop talking about it and were already laying out their swimsuits last night in excitement.

My Soda Pop Shop Quilt came home from Farm Fresh Stitches last week, and I just can't say enough about their quilting. I asked for a Baptist fans pattern, something I've always wanted on one of my quilts. Wow, was I thrilled with the results. It looks so beautiful, and the texture is amazing. I cut up the last of my green and blue plaid from the Perfect Party collection for the binding, and it stretched exactly long enough to fit. James helped me take some photos of the quilt outside after we got home from church on Sunday. By then the thunderstorms had stopped, and all the trees were dripping wet but lovely in the background.

After long thought, I decided to give this quilt to my youngest daughter. Mouse has always been such a little thing that most of the quilts I've made for her have been on the small side -- perfect for cuddling but not quite large enough to cover her bed properly. This one is a wee bit small, but much closer to the right size. She was perfectly delighted to get it and keeps telling me how much she likes it, especially the quilting, which she says makes it so much more "comfortable." I'm just always content to see my projects in use and well loved.

I've gotten so many requests for the pattern for this quilt, and whether it winds up in a third sewing book or gets released some other way, I promise I won't forget to share it with you at some point here in the future. I'm so happy that you guys love it too.

My Tea Party Quilt in APQ Magazine

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

It's amazing to me how many events in my life have been marked by a tea party. My mother loved to splurge at least once a year by taking my sister and I to a tea room in our small town when we were growing up, and sometimes my grandmother would come along too. For our first official date, my husband James took me to the Rose Garden tea room at the Huntington Library in California on a rainy January day. I remember walking around the gardens with him afterward, sharing an umbrella together as we laughed and talked and took our first steps into the most important relationship of our lives. I took my extended wedding party out for tea before I got married, joined my mother and mother-in-law for tea when James' parents came to visit from Arizona, and celebrated a bittersweet tea party with the women in my family before we left California for Texas. I've hosted special holiday teas in my home for friends and family each year, and I've enjoyed making tea and cookies for my daughters on Friday afternoons to celebrate the end of a long week. Every family has little traditions that become part of the fabric of who they are, and this has definitely been one of ours.

So it seemed like such a natural fit to design the Tea Party quilt featured in the June issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. I wanted to make a different kind of sampler quilt, something small that would be fun for fussy cutting, and I loved the idea of using tiny traditional quilt blocks to decorate teacup blocks. The flying geese border makes me think of a string of party bunting all around the quilt. It looks so happy!

There's nothing that I enjoy more than a scrappy quilt, and this project is perfect for emptying out the scrap basket, especially treasured little bits that are out of print now. Some of these fabrics were designed by wonderful friends and a few were even from my own collections, so that made this quilt extra special to me.

I think this mini would be so sweet to hang on the wall in a kitchen or dining room or even a child's room. Finishing at only 38 1/2" square, it makes a nice gift for a little one. I often made quilts this size for my daughters to use as play mats for tea parties or soft spots to cuddle up with a pillow and a picture book when they were young. If you don't have time to make a whole quilt, try turning one block into a cute mug rug (see the magazine for this adorable idea from one of their project testers). And wouldn't these blocks make such a darling set of little tea time placemats?

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

If you make one of these, please share it! You can add the hashtag #teapartyminiquilt, and be sure to tag me @fabricmutt. The June issue of American Patchwork and Quilting is out on newstands now -- isn't that cover quilt amazing?! -- so be sure to grab a copy while you can!

Rabbit Trails

One of my favorite paintings is a piece of concept art that Mary Blair created for Disney's Alice in Wonderland. I ran across it once when I was doing research on her, and when a tiny version of the painting printed out along with the text, I framed it. At first glance, it looks like a soft wooded landscape...until you look closely near the lower right edge to see a glimpse of the white rabbit hurrying off on his way, the sight that sent Alice running off on her great adventure. I've often thought that this painting reminds me so much of the way I tackle my creative pursuits. I seem to follow all the white rabbits that come across my trail.

I've been playing along with the Sunny Day Supply Log Cabin Sew Along on Instagram (#sunnylogcabinsal) since last week, and it's been such a relaxing, enjoyable project for me. I decided to make my quilt entirely from my linen and canvas stash, prints I've been collecting for years but don't use as often as I should.

I cut 3" squares from a darling teatime print for my centers and then cut a whole bunch of 1 1/2" wide strips for the rest. I wanted the quilt to have a light, airy look to it, so I pulled in a lot of neutrals to balance out the colors.

Every block felt like a new adventure to me as I lay out centers and strips on my cutting mat and played with placement as you can see above. I had no idea where I was going with each one until I finally settled on something that felt right. Sometimes I would have everything in place and then get another idea and pull it all to pieces to follow that white rabbit, which almost always seemed to lead me to better things.

My original plan was to make 9 blocks, but after sewing together 4, that white rabbit came running past me, and I had to follow it. I played around with different arrangements of blocks and strips and center squares, and this was the result. It's a small quilt, only 40" square, but packed full of fabrics that I love.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to quilt this one by hand or by machine, but that's okay. There's time. That's what I love about this sort of sewing. It doesn't matter where you go with it or how you get there or what time it takes you, just so long as you're having fun.