Tear-able News!

I am so excited! I get to share a new free quilt pattern with you today! I designed this project for the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store. They put together fat quarter sets with some gorgeous new menswear plaids and gave me a bundle to play with.

Working with these fabrics was so much fun and inspired the name for this quilt - tear-able - because, well the fabric rips perfectly on grain! I tore all the strips and then sub-cut them to the sizes I used for the blocks. I like the pun on the word terrible/tearable so I decided to use that for the project name.
Here are the project instructions: I can email them to you as well. Just send me a note that you'd like me to do that.
Tear-able Quilt
This is my fourth free project I've designed for the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store. You might remember the Tree Poncho that I designed for them last November. That was featured on Craft Gossip and the Woolen Mill Store blog!

There are so many ways to layout this quilt. The fat quarter sets are 8 different plaids and are larger than a regular fat quarter because the width of the fabrics are sixty four inches. The set I used is called the Alberta Set. And all the fabrics are sold by the yard so you can get any of them for the back. I can't wait to see what you make!

PS Got a great shout out over at Craft Gossip for this project! Thanks guys!!!

McCalls Quick Quilts + Fast Fun Flannel

Autumn has arrived in Portland, Oregon! The leaves are starting to turn, it is cold in the morning and it is getting dark earlier. This is my favorite time of the year. I love the light, the colors and the transition. What is your favorite season?

I am also happy to celebrate fall with the publication of my quilt design, Fast Fun Flannel, for McCall's Quick Quilts October/November 2012 issue.

And guess who quilted it? The fab Nancy Stoval of Just Quilting! When I asked her to work with me on the project with a super tight deadline she rose to the occasion. McCall's is offering this as a kit, which is so awesome!

This opportunity came about last January when I met Judy Livingston at a PMQG meeting. She told me they were always looking for folks to create designs using their fabrics and I jumped at the chance to give it a try. I worked with several collections, the first project I designed for them was a winter themed quilt called Snowball Frost. They have this as a free download on their website. After that they gave me a challenge of working with a new Maywood Studio flannel collection called Flowers of The Forest. The colors felt very early-fallish to me, and I started to play around with some compositions. I liked the idea of playing with a traditional basket weave block and thought the heavier weight of the flannel would lend itself nicely to this technique. I added my twist, using shades of light and dark and a black floral to create depth. As I started to sew it I realized it reminded me of the green cherry tomato baskets from my childhood that I used to collect from my grandmother and take home and weave ribbons through!

I am super proud of this design, and am happy that it is going to live with my sister-in-law Kim. Let me know if you make this quilt. I'd love to see your version!