The Modern Medallion Workbook

Just thought it was time to share something I've been working on the past year or so :)

The Modern Medallion Workbook: 11 Quilt Projects to Make, Mix & Match

by Janice and me

with quilts from Erica, Alexia, Christina, Latifah, Becca, Karen, Kerry, Amy, and Melissa

plus instruction on how to design your own unique medallion quilt by mixing and matching the centers and borders from the book (including how to figure out how to size the blocks) and a section on advanced techniques commonly used for medallions including paper piecing, flying geese, piecing curves, and more. 

Available May 1, 2015. Available for preorder now on the C&T website, Amazon, your local bookstore or quilt shop and more. *just noticed that C&T and Amazon

are listing it as in stock April 25, 2015 so yay!

And if you want to see some sneak peaks of the quilt, follow me on instagram (plumandjune) - we've been sharing some of the quilts over there. And I'll be sharing more about the book on here soon.

*this post contains affiliate links.

Modern Rainbow Blog Tour

I'm excited to share with you this new book written by Rebecca Bryan from Bryan House Quilts (scroll to the bottom of this post for a chance to win your own copy.)  I've always admired Becca's style and this book definitely does not disappoint! The quilts are seriously gorgeous and the book includes valuable information for choosing fabrics and techniques to make your own! Here are some of my favorites:

I've been loving all of the projects that have been made for the book's blog hop. You can see the full list at the bottom of this post. I, unfortunately, haven't made a project from the book yet but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about which fabric I would use. If you are familiar with my blog, you probably know that I don't use too many bold colors but I looked through my fabric stash to come up with my own version of a modern rainbow palette.

Modern Rainbow Blog Tour Schedule

March 23rd             C&T/ Stash Books

March 24th             Heidi Staples of Fabric Mutt

March 25th             Generation Q Magazine

March 26th             Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane 

March 27th             Sally Keller of Sally’s Angel Works

March 30th            Amy Garro of 13 Spools

March 31st            Angela Walters of Quilting is my Therapy

April 1st                Rebecca over at Craft Buds

April 2nd               Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness

April 3rd               Sarah Craig of Confessions of a Fabric Addict

April 6th                Janice Zeller Ryan of Better Off Thread

April 7th                me!

April 8th                Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft

April 9th                Giuseppe Ribaudo @giucy_giuce

April 9th                Shannon Brinkley of Bottle Tree Quilts

April 10th              Rebecca Bryan at Bryan House Quilts

Giveaway

Becca and C&T publishing are offering a copy of Modern Rainbow to one lucky reader. If you are interested in winning a copy (hard copy if you are in the U.S., digital copy for all others), just leave a comment below. The giveaway will remain open until April 10th at 10pm ET and a winner will be chosen at random and notified by email.

The giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced soon. Thanks to everyone who entered.

february

Just a few photos from Instagram - find me there at plumandjune. 

january

*The collage is of my photos I posted throughout the month on instagram and I made it using the collect app. If you are on Instagram, come find me there - my username is plumandjune. 

Scraps, Inc - Autumn Flight

Have you heard of the Elephant and Piggie books? My 3 year old daughter has several books in that series including one called We are in a Book and while writing this post, I keep thinking of Gerald (the elephant) when he finds out he is in a book - because um, I'm writing this post to let you know that I am in a book! 

The book is called Scraps, Inc and is published by Lucky Spool. The book is all about scrap quilts (my favorite!) and includes designs from 15 designers. There really are so many amazing quilts in the book and the photography is gorgeous! You can see some of the other quilts on Lucky Spool's website by clicking here.

My contribution is Autumn Flight (shown above) and includes a bit of improv piecing and triangles. When I get the quilt back, I plan on taking lots of photos and I'll write a longer post about the specifics including my process. I did take a few pics before sending it to the publisher but I was so worried about accidentally ruining the quilt while taking the photos that well, you know. . .  

Scraps, Inc was published earlier this month and Lucky Spool is currently offering the book for 30% off until December 1, 2014 at 11:59EST. You can find it at this link - and the code is SCRAPS30. 

I am so excited to have been included in this book. Working with Susanne Woods and Lucky Spool was a wonderful experience and I think they produced a fantastic book. The book should be arriving at my doorstep any day now and I really can't even imagine what it is going to feel like to open that package. And what is also really exciting for me is how very excited my daughters (and the rest of my family) are for me - I think my 9 year old has told everyone she knows! It still seems unreal to write it but Yikes - I'm in a book! (And is it okay to admit that Gerald's reaction after finding out he is in a book resonates with me too - his next line is "That is so cool!" - um, yep!)

blogger's quilt festival

I'm not really sure what is up with my post writing these days - I keep writing and deleting, writing and deleting, stepping away, coming back, writing and deleting. 

Well, this is my entry for the blogger's quilt festival. I really wish I had remembered that the blogger's quilt festival was this month and saved a project or two to post about but - um, well, I didn't. I originally wrote about this pillow earlier this month. It is basically my most recent try at making something for my couch that I'll hopefully like looking at every day. I've had handmade pillows on my couch since I started sewing but I've never quite made one that fits the aesthetic of my first floor. It is kind of like I wrote about in the post about why I'm redoing the removable covers for my dining room chairs. Don't get me wrong - I love novelty prints (or are they called conversation fabrics or illustrated fabrics?) and I will continue to use them often especially when making things for my daughters. And I love my pile of patchwork quilts that we use almost every day for keeping us warm but, hmm, I'm not even sure how to explain this to me, let alone write about it. I just haven't yet made anything that "fits" - well, this might be it, at least it feels like it "fits" the October 2014 me.  So, while this pillow is not an award winning, wow project - it is my current favorite and that is why I'm using it for my entry this year.

Improv Patchwork Quilt (sort of)

I'm not sure why but I have a difficult time starting something new if I know I have a WIP waiting to be finished. I know some people prefer having lots of projects going on at the same time and I definitely see the benefits of that but I prefer to start new projects with a clean slate. So, since I have a couple of projects I need to start, I decided to first finish this WIP from a few months ago.

Well, it is not that I don't like having any WIPs, just none that are as close to being done as this was. For this quilt (which I last wrote about in the beginning of July), I just needed to add several more rows and quilt it since I had already completed the back BUT I knew if I had to add the number of rows necessary to make it the size of the backing that it would continue to be a WIP and I would never start my other projects. So I just added a few more rows so that it would be a big throw size and backed it with some flannel from my stash. Actually, I guess having that finished backing means I kind of, sort of have a lingering WIP then, right?

Actually, size is not the only reason I chose to make a different back. Um, well, I only have one package of batting in my house right now (and only a very small batting scrap) and I want to use those for my other projects. Yes, I could have just ordered more batting and I considered that but instead I decided to try backing it in flannel without any batting - which I guess makes it more of a coverlet? 

Since I didn't have to worry about quilting it according the batting instructions, I barely quilted it at all - just some random, somewhat wavy horizontal lines spaced very unevenly throughout the quilt.

Then when it came time to add the binding, I'm not sure what I was thinking but I just folded the front over to the back and used that for the binding. I 'm not sure how to describe it but you can see in the photos. I've seen people do this by folding the back over to the front (which I considered) but I liked it better this way. I even got one of the corners to miter the right way!

Well, it might not be the best quilt I ever made but it is out of the WIP "pile" and will soon be being used so YAY! Right???