Windham Wednesdays with the Aria Collection

Don't you just love beautiful fabric? I do and always love seeing what Windham Fabrics sends my way. This is the new collection called Aria by Kelly Ventura.

Aria Collection by Kelly Ventura

I asked my daughter Hilary to select a few pieces so that I could make her a surprise birthday present. She is an avid crocheter like me (she's more so) and I've seen her piles of yarn around her house and I got an idea to make a hook holder. I found a pattern in the latest issue of Make it! Patchwork magazine. It was for knitting needles (we can't knit), but I knew it would work for crochet hooks.

Here is a pic of the outside (navy) and the lining (yellow). I used my walking foot to quilt straight lines. The first line I sewed was wobbly because I thought I could do it WITHOUT any guidance. Ha! But I was too lazy to walk to the basement and get my marking chalk. I instead cut 2" wide pieces of freezer paper, ironed them in place, and used those as my stitching guides. And it worked!

Quilting using strips of freezer paper to keep my lines straight

And what does it look like finished?

Crochet hook pouch outside

And where do the hooks go?

Isn't this awesome?

I hope to make a few other items for Hilary from the Aria Collection. It is so modern and fresh and bright. And yes, she absolutely loved this. Maybe I should make one for me, too?

Wait! Wait! I made something else with the Aria Collection. As you know, I've been sewing various hexagon blocks from Katja Marek's New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar.

The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar by Katja Marek (Martingale Publishing)

 While I can - and often do - English Paper Piece these blocks, I can also find quick ways with my rotary cutter to whip them up so fast. Here's my process with the January 31 block:

I selected these 3 fat quarters from the Aria Collection

Then I cut 2" strips of each fabric. The navy was then trimmed at a 60 degree angle on the left side and I recut the strip into 2" segments/diamonds using my regular acrylic ruler: 6 diamonds

I used my 60 degree triangle ruler to cut 2" high triangles: 6 of the light print and 6 of the peach print.

Cutting my patches from 2" strips

Sewed a triangle to two sides of the diamonds. Notice that there will NOT be a single y-seam in there!

Six larger triangles stitched with 2 triangles and one diamond

 Stitched together for a sweet little block!

January 31 Block from the New Hexagon Calendar

Glad you stopped by today. These colors give me hope that Spring is coming soon!