Shortcake

My Shortcake fabric for Riley Blake Designs is heading out into the world at last! This group of prints is so dear to my heart, and I have to admit that it's probably my favorite collection that I've done. As always, I want to share the backstory of these prints with you...

It will be four years in June since my family made our big move from Southern California to the Texas hill country, and I'll never forget that first summer in our new home. Those early months were a roller coaster of emotions as we tried to unpack and settle in while our house was still being repaired and renovated. We didn't know a soul in Texas, and though people were kind, it was challenging to start the journey of finding a place for ourselves in this new community. In many ways, it bonded us together as a family like nothing else could have done. We spent that first summer enjoying one adventure after another, exploring nearby museums and attractions, driving to downtown San Antonio and small town Fredericksburg, and eating some of the best food I've ever tasted in my life. Dad and James taught the girls to swim, and we spent nearly every afternoon playing in the pool until dinner time. James planted a tiny orchard as well as a garden for vegetables, fruits, and herbs in the backyard, where our girls loved to help him water, pull weeds, and check on seedlings. And Mom and I slowly began to turn our rambling house into a home, one unpacked box at a time.

That first summer in Texas has been followed by two more, and even now I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one. Nowadays summer means going on long road trips and short daytrips, working on patchwork in the loft while the girls read in their library, volunteering with our church's Vacation Bible School, taking walks along the horse trail before the sun goes down, watching fireworks with all the other families in front of the local high school on Fourth of July, and looking out the kitchen window to see James and the girls coming in from the garden with freshly picked cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and watermelons.  It means movie nights in the family room laughing over classic comedies from the 1940's, quiet mornings doing puzzles in the breakfast nook, and barbecue dinners that start with tall glasses of iced tea and end with warm shortcake smothered in strawberries and whipped cream.

My Shortcake collection is a celebration of all those beautiful summer moments that I treasure in my heart. And I'm so happy to share these fabrics with you so that you can use them to make memories of your own.

Be sure to ask your favorite quilt shop to get in touch with Riley Blake so that they can order Shortcake and have it ready to go on the shelves for you. If you make anything with this collection, please share pictures online with the hashtag #shortcakefabric -- and don't forget to tag me @fabricmutt! I'll be sharing pictures of the Picnic Medallion Quilt soon, which I designed as a free pattern to go along with these prints. I hope you love these fabrics as much as I do, friends. Just looking at these pictures has me counting the days until June...

A Random Act of Craftiness

January has always been a blah sort of month for me. Once the hoopla of New Year's is past and the inevitable week of low-carb dieting reminds me that life is too short to go without bread, we settle into a quiet monotony that stretches well into the beginning of February. It can be mind numbing at times, stuck here in the middle of the school year with nowhere to go. Spring feels so far away, and I have trouble getting excited about the daily grind.

After getting through a particularly rough patch last week, I finally decided that I desperately needed some playtime in my sewing room. So I pulled out the stack of Mazy's Wonderland fabric by my incredibly talented friend Dylan Mierzwinski (follow her at @bydylanm on Instagram -- you'll be so glad you did) that I've been saving since Quilt Market and sewed up a sweet crafty apron in one afternoon.

I can't tell you how much joy and satisfaction this one little random act of craftiness gave me. I not only have an adorable sewing apron, but I feel like my creativity got a much needed caffeine rush. It feels so good to be excited about trying new projects again!

If you're feeling the winter blahs too, try a little playtime yourself. Pull together a few of your favorite prints, pick a fun small project (check out my Tutorials page if you need some ideas), and make something happy this week!

Blossom Scissors Pouch

So many thanks for all the lovely comments on my last project, both here and on Instagram! I had no idea that Liberty spool runner would be such a hit. I've received so many requests for the pattern that I'm adding it to my to-do list. Keep an eye on the blog for more news to come on that!

My dear friend Christopher (aka The Tattooed Quilter) has released a beautiful new basic print for Riley Blake Designs this year called Blossom, featuring the tiniest flowers tossed over a solid background in a rainbow of colors. I adore the small scale of this print, making it so perfect for little patchwork projects like the one I'm sharing today.

I'm a big fan of embroidery scissors, and I love collecting new pairs whenever I get the chance. This, of course, means that I also get the fun of making a pouch to hold them all, which is what I did last week. This hexagon zipper case is a variation on a pouch from the book Sweet & Simple Patchwork Gifts by Hisako Arai and Yoko Sanjo, which I highly recommend if you love small patchwork projects the way I do. I changed things up a bit so that there are only hexagons on the front and so that I could finish the pouch by machine instead of by hand.

My red, blue, white, and pink hexagons are bordered by navy gingham for a spin on patriotic colors, which is currently one of my favorite color schemes. I added a pink zipper, a red and cream twill tape loop, and an adorable scissors charm to the zipper pull. The pouch is lined in a white Blossom print featuring little red flowers, and I love the way it looks against that pale pink zipper.

This charm makes me so ridiculously happy every time I see it!

Projects like these always remind me that the only thing better than sewing with pretty fabric is sewing with pretty fabric designed by wonderful friends...

Liberty Spool Runner

I was thrilled to pieces when I heard that Riley Blake Designs was going to be the U.S. distributor for Liberty of London quilting weight cotton. I've long been a fan of Liberty's gorgeous designs, and getting the chance to work with their new Hesketh House collection was such a treat.

These prints have all the beautiful details of their famous lawn with all the durability of quilting cotton. It's a quilter's dream!

Because I wanted to showcase as many prints as I could in a table runner, I decided to do a very basic small spool block. Each spool has a different fabric as the thread, and then I used a black floral print for the spool ends to tie it all together.

The piece is hand quilted in white Valdani Perle Cotton -- my first attempt with this thread, and it was such a pleasure to use. Hand quilting always adds so much lovely texture and personality, I think. A white solid works nicely for both the background and the binding so that all the focus is on those sweet spools.

This was one of those projects where finishing is almost bittersweet. I'm so glad to see it done, but I'm really going to miss working on it every night...

Bluebirds on Roses Breakfast Placemats

It's not an exaggeration to say that I mark my calendar whenever I see that my dear friend Elea Lutz is releasing a new fabric collection. I've been collecting her prints for years now, and they're some of my favorites in my entire stash.

Her latest release is called Bluebirds on Roses, and it's absolutely beautiful.

See what I mean? It makes me SO happy just looking at it!

I've been going through a hexagon phase lately, so I decided to make EPP hexagon flowers which I appliqued to small round placemats that my girls can use underneath their breakfast cereal bowls in the morning. Won't these beautiful prints be a lovely way to start the day?!

I love to do hand sewing in the evenings while my husband and I relax in front of the television after a long day, and these hexagons were such fun to work on as we laughed together over a favorite show.

The colors are just perfect, and I especially love the tiny details that Elea has sprinkled throughout each print: bluebirds, kitty cats, strawberries, cherries, and of course, flowers galore. Her designs are such a beautiful cross between traditional and modern, and they always make me smile.

Bluebirds on Roses is appearing in stores everywhere now, but I have a feeling that it won't be around for long. I've already bought a little extra to have on hand...you know, just in case...

Stash & Carry Basket in Quilts & More Magazine

All images in this post used with permission from Quilts & More™ magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

The latest issue of Quilts & More magazine is in stores today, and I'm thrilled to have a pattern inside its pages! Of all the patterns I've written over the years, this Stash & Carry patchwork basket is definitely on the list of my top ten favorites.

This sweet fabric caddy is perfect for using your favorite tiny scraps, making it a burst of scrappy, happy color on your sewing shelf! Leather handles (which can easily be substituted with fabric or webbing ones) and an inside pocket for tools or notions are handy additions. The dimensions make it the perfect size for stashing charm packs or folded fat quarters.

I am so honored be a part of this amazing magazine in some small way. Be sure to pick up a copy at your local store. If you make one please share a photo on social media! Use the hashtag #stashandcarrybasket and be sure to tag me @fabricmutt so I can see what you're making. I'd love to see a picture of how you're using your basket too. This caddy can hold anything -- yarn skeins and crochet hooks, building blocks and legos, office or scrapbooking supplies, even bags of after school snacks or special goodies for your guest room. Use your imagination and share your ideas with all of us! I can't wait to see what you make...

Meet My Next Book: Patchwork USA

All photos in this post by Page + Pixel for Lucky Spool Media

It was all the way back in 2014, before my first book Sew Organized for the Busy Girl even hit the shelves, that I started writing a second book. I had all kinds of ideas for what I wanted it to be: colorful, vintage inspired, full of approachable projects that would make thoughtful gifts and keepsakes. More than anything, though, it was going to be a love letter to my favorite kind of sewing -- simple, happy patchwork.

It's taken me a long time to bring this book into being, but I couldn't be more thrilled with the results. Patchwork USA is everything I wanted it to be and more.

Fireworks Pillow

When I first began working on the table of contents, I looked for a theme to pull everything together. Because I so often think of my adventures in sewing as a creative journey, I thought it would be fun to arrange my ideas around the metaphor of a road trip. Not only would this allow me to use beautiful retro photo props (Hello, vintage postcards!), but it would also give me a fun new way to frame the sewing process. So instead of talking about small, medium, and large projects, we have a chapter each on Daytrips, Weekend Getaways, and Summer Vacations. You can get a refresher on basic sewing techniques at the Visitor's Center, learn why I chose the fabrics and colors I did for every project by studying the Scenic Route, and get the story behind each pattern by reading the Historical Marker.

Tagalong Pincushion

For me, this is a very personal book. So many of these projects came out of lovely memories from the past when I was a child, a single teacher, a new bride, and a young mother. It's also a book that was written very much with you, my readers, in mind. I wanted this to be a resource for each of you -- no matter what level of sewing ability you might have -- that would be useful, inspiring, and a pleasure to read. For those of you who have been so patiently requesting patterns for projects that you've seen on my blog, here you will finally find directions for the Big Bear Cabin Quilt and the Floss Mini Quilt. You'll also find the six projects which were first released as a special Fast Fabric Gifts booklet by Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine along with Issue 41, which many people have been asking me for since then. I'm so happy to have these projects together in one book as I always hoped they would be, with a grand total of twenty-four patterns in all!

Big Bear Cabin Quilt

So many people ask me how I put together fabric combinations in my patchwork projects, so I've included an introductory section with tips, guidelines, and checklists for choosing prints and helping them play together nicely to get the look you want, with additional advice for specific design questions. I also hope that this will become a go-to book for handmade giving, whether you're sewing by yourself or with a group of friends at a retreat or sew-in. There's a section in the book full of ideas for creative gifting, personalizing projects, and sewing activities for a crowd that will hopefully spark ideas for fun events and meaningful sharing.

You can get a sneak peek at the book on the Lucky Spool website here and preorder the book on Amazon here. The publication date is set for the end of April, and I'm counting the days until then!

Road Trip Pillow

I can't say enough about the guidance of my friend Susanne, head of Lucky Spool, who has believed in this project from the beginning and encouraged me every step of the way. And I'm in awe of Kristy and Nissa, the amazing women behind Page + Pixel, whose graphic design artistry and stunning photography have given Patchwork USA the vintage look of my dreams, all wrapped up inside a beautiful hard cover. When the first round of sample pages came across my computer screen last month, I was on the phone with my husband. As I started scrolling through the incredible photographs and retro design, framing the projects that have been part of my own creative journey for nearly five years, I couldn't stop the tears from coming. "This," I cried to my husband, "is the book I've always wanted to write."

Color Book

Dear friends, it gives me so much joy to finally share Patchwork USA with you. And as it goes out into the world this spring, I hope that you'll be inspired to take a creative journey of your own and, most importantly, to share it with the people you love most. This book has been the adventure of a lifetime for me, and I'm so grateful to have friends like you along for the ride.