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Yippee! Glory Days is finally finished.  The pattern jackets arrived from the printer, we assembled the patterns and have begun shipping them to shops.  They will also be available through United Notions.

The quilt shown is 88" x 88" and features easy piecing using stitch-and-flip techniques.  The applique shapes are relatively large and simple, so believe it or not, the borders come together rather quickly.  The freezer paper and starch technique is the applique method I used to prepare my patches.  Then, using dabs of glue, the patches were basted to the borders. A narrow zigzag stitch using monofilament thread secures the applique in place.  Once all the applique was complete, I cut away the background from behind the patches and removed the freezer paper. 

As far as the quilting goes, I didn't do anything too fancy.  A medium stipple fills all of the light background areas and I quilted a flower motif in the star centers. A diagonal line was stitched through the navy plaid and navy paisley squares.  A cable feather fills the inner and outer borders. Oh, and I did stitch a vein down the center of the leaves.

Gallery in Red & Blue by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics is the featured fabric collection. The pattern includes instructions for the quilt shown and for a 106" x 106" version which has an outer border featuring the large floral from the fabric collection.

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This project called Glory Days has been in the planning stages for what seems like forever. I sure love the classic red and blue color story.  Why I don't work more with these colors is a question I am asking myself, because I sure like the crisp look.  Gallery in Red and Blue by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics is the fabric collection I am using.

And yes, I am somewhat "old school". I use a notebook and write down my cutting, measurements, notes, etc. as I work.  I have an IPad I purchased with the intention of modernizing my process . . .  well, you can see how that is working.

Here is another look . . .

The quilt will have a center of repeating blocks and an applique border.  I'll post more pictures when I get there!

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I cannot tell you how exciting it was to see my drawings in color on fabric and my name on a selvedge--especially since "fabric designer" was not something I had planned to add to my list of occupations.

What began as a suggestion to Marcus fabrics--that we should print a wide fabric for customers to use as a backing for the Amish With A Twist BOM quilts--turned in to the 60"-wide fabric you see here. 

Why 60"?  Because the second Amish BOM, Amish With A Twist II: The Classics, is a 105" square, a 110"--wide backing fabric was not feasible.  I did not want longarm quilters cursing me for designing a backing that was just quite wide enough.  So, the 60" wide fabric seemed the perfect solution!

In addition to the navy background, we have one with a red background and one with cream.

And it just dawned on me that a while back I did a reversible tablecloth and napkins pattern for Marcus.  These wide fabrics, combined with some coordinating solids or prints, would make for fun and colorful table settings.  I can see my Fiestaware on the navy tablecloth!

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What am I working on?   I just received an order of a fabric collection called Anna Bella in two color ways brown/peach and blue-grey/ pink.  Of course I want to use them all together!  Since I am a big fan of scrappy quilts, I picked a block--in this case Rolling Stone--and started sewing.  To unify them, I used the same large scale floral in the middle of each block. 

These are just a few of the fabric combinations I used.  Oh, and by the way, I used about five different tone-on-tone light fabrics for the background. So, thirty blocks later, here they are.  Now I am pondering layout.  Plain sashing? Contrasting sashing? No sashing? Pieced sashing? This is the stage in designing and putting together a quilt where I can really make myself crazy.  And this is the dangerous stage because if I tell myself to set the blocks aside and come back to it next week, next week can turn into next year or never.  Trust me I have too many "next week" blocks packed in my closet!

Hmmm..... sometimes simple is best . . .  You can see I am trying a subtle print sashing.  Didn't look that yellow until I got it up on the wall.  Not sure.  I don't think the border stripe likes it.

Let's see what I can come up with in EQ7.  Thoughts??

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