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Showing posts from July, 2020

Christmas in July with Benartex, Day 4

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Today is the last day of 11 in the Christmas in July Blog Hop. Our last designer is: Tammy Silvers, Snow Village & Rustic Village Christmas  https://www.tamarinis.com/ .  Today I want to share several projects I made using Festive Season, a past collection designed by Jackie Robinson. Here is a table topper that was featured in 2017 on the Benartex blog. Click that link to see my steps to this beautiful table topper. Festive Season Table Topper I even show how to fussy cut that center hexagon: Steps to fussy cutting the center hexagon Then I kept playing with these gorgeous fabrics. Who could resist? Dozens of half hexagons cut but they sat for a few years I used a few to make a large Twisted Hexagon wall banner. I was able to fussy cut some more of those awesome cardinals. I loved using the cardinal vertical printed panels for the sides. The colors are SO rich in this beauty! Twisted Hexagon Wall banner I also was able to use the remaining half he

Christmas in July with Benartex, Day 3

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The Christmas in July designer for today's Benartex Blog Hop is Kate Colleran . She is featuring the Joy collection  by Cherry Guidry. Go check it out! I looked in my own Benartex Christmas vault and pulled out  Mistletoe . Can I show you? I did a fun blog post about these (just click that link). Fabric postcards using Mistletoe I have been a huge fan of Benartex fabrics since the early days of my Quilt Magazine job. I just counted the Benartex folders on my computer: 99! I'm not kidding; just one short of 100 in these past 20+ years. And I loved it all! Especially when I can make something other than a quilt. Like this vest for my granddaughter. The blog post has a lot of steps for making these fabric postcards. Child's vest using these sweet panels Do you remember  Nordic Holiday ? I made a very large (29" center) Lone Star quilt. You can see the steps by clicking on the link. You can find the pattern in my Etsy store. Holiday Lone Star quilt : 29

Christmas in July with Benartex, Day 2

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Today's featured designer is  Sandra Walker  using the  Better Not Pout Collection by Benartex. It's a delightful set of fabrics by Nancy Halvorsen. Check it out! My Benartex Christmas vault quilts for today are from  Season's Greetings  and   Christmas Spectacular . The first is Season's Greetings that had these awesome panels with beautiful pictures and holiday well wishes printed on them. I made several items. The first if my Big Block Lone Star with a 29" center! Big Block Lone Star using  Season's Greetings I captured two of those panels with the black background in my candle mat. I also made some greeting cards. Check out the lengthy blog post and get the FREE pattern. Candle mat and greeting cards tutorial I also made a much larger Lone Star quilt using my "When 4 Blocks Become 5". Lone Star with 19-1/2" blocks Now for Christmas Spectacular . And I discovered that I made yet ANOTHER Twisted Hexagons quilt. Are you

Christmas in July with Benartex, Day 1

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I hope you've been following along on the Christmas in July Blog Hop for Benartex with 11 designers. We still have 4 days left and I want to stay with the theme (and share their links each day). Today's designer is  Charisma Horton    http://charismascorner.com/   and she shares her project using Deer Festival .  OOOHHH! I want those fabrics. They are red and white and designed by Jackie Robinson. Classic! Go check out what Charisma has done with Deer Festival . I checked my files and see that I've featured about 13 Benartex Christmas Collections over the years. I'll share those with you this week. All have some great tutorials and even a few free patterns! The first one is Catitude from 2019. Check out the post and the Magical Mitering tutorial . Here are some of the sassy kitties. Sassy kitty getting ready to trim the tree With one of his/her buddies: Another sassy kitty distracted by the beads! Check out my Magical Mitering lesson on the blog pos

Christmas in July with Festive Chickadees

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I shared this awesome collection back in April. Check out the post and the cute quilt I made using the panels. I was invited to blog about these fabrics again in our Christmas in July blog hop for Benartex. I have had such fun with these Chickadees. They are a continuation of the original Chickadee fabrics by the very talented Jackie Robinson. First the fabrics: Festive Chickadees by Jackie Robinson And the quilt I made using several of the panels and my own birdhouse patterns (upsized). You can see the steps for this  by clicking the link, with lots of photos close up of these beautiful fabrics. Festive Chickadees Quilt : 43" x 48" I used 10 of the 14 panels and have 4 left to play with. They are rectangles! Each one features a special Chickadee on black with holly berries. Chirp, chirp! Now for my next project, made especially for this blog hop. I am revisiting my Twisted Hexagons block because I wanted to fussy cut some of these chickadees in the center

Jack's Chain Updated

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I posted about the Jack's Chain block and quilts a few years ago. I made two blocks and pooped out. But they were calling to me from my closet and I decided to put the rest of the units together and found I had FOUR blocks! Here she is! Jack's Chain 4 Block Quilt : 64" x 64" These are BIG blocks (22-1/2" x 22-1/2" finished). But, hey: 4 blocks makes a nice sized quilt! I was an editor with Quilt Magazine from 1993 to 2007. We featured many, many traditional patterns. Jack's Chain was published many times. This is one of the images which shows the basic structure of the block. As you can see, to put other blocks together with this one, there will be those DREADED y-seams! Jack's Chain is made using a center hexagon, six equilateral (60 degree) triangles and simple 9 Patch blocks. I made my 9 Patch blocks first. 6" finished 9 Patch blocks using 2-1/2" strips We all look for blocks and quilts that use up our Jelly Roll bundl

Christmas in July Blog Hop with Benartex

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It is the middle of July … the sun is shining and flowers are blooming, so it is the perfect time to start thinking about Christmas! Join Benartex, Kanvas and Contempo fabrics and 11 talented pattern designers for a Christmas in July Project Hop from July 20 th through the 31 st .  See 11 v ideo snippets at the Facebook page - 11 Designers giving a sneak peek of what's coming! Each day will bring an amazing new project and fabric collection feature – all the fabrics are in stores now so you can get started on your projects right away and beat the holiday rush! Hang your stockings, play your favorite Christmas carols, make yourself a mug of frozen hot chocolate and enjoy! My day is FRIDAY (I can't wait!). Here is the full list for the 11 days: Monday July 20 th – Nancy Scott, Winterberry http://masterpiecequilting.blogspot.com/ Tuesday July 21 st – Heidi Pridemore, Rejoice  https://heidipridemore.blogspot.com/ Wednesday July 22 nd – Laura Piland, First

Christmas in July, Day 5

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I want to feature a quilt that is an "oldie goldie." It's my Photo Corner Birds . You've seen this before. Let me show you again! Christmas Photo Corners Quilt : 31" x 31" I first made this pattern over 10 years ago! It was part of my Rainbow Strips and Curves workshop. Rainbow Curves quilt The "photo corners" are raw edge appliqué with fusible interfacing on the back to stabilize. Can I show you some of the steps? Cut out the appliqué patches  Next . . . Align on fabric square that has the motif you want to feature I also made one using a Benartex collection called Avignon: Another Rainbow Curves/Photo Corners quilt I bet you have some lovely fabrics with special motifs that you can feature inside these photo frames! I may decide to make another one myself! Check out my Photo Corners Christmas quilt  pattern for more pictures of the process. Beginning Monday, I will have links to 11 days of Christmas with 11 sp