Shot Cotton Week: Day 1

No, not from the barrel from a gun! These are cotton fabrics that are truly woven with two different threads - one color is "shot" in and out of a second one. Check it out with this bundle of Artisan Cottons (still around in quilt shops). What's with the red threads coming out of that purple fat quarter on the right? Well, that piece of fabric gets its color from those red threads woven in and out of another color. Amazing, right?

Artisan Cottons by Windham Fabrics

Here's one of the fabulous creations I made using these colors. This is my 10" Palm block which is paper pieced. (I've taken the papers off and you can see how it's pieced like an off center log cabin.) It's one of the classes I'm teaching this week in Raleigh for the Sewing Expo.

And here's the quilt I made using 8 of these blocks. I set them on point and used a multi-print to spice it up a bit. My students will be stitching these 10" blocks but I can't offer this size via my Etsy store because most people don't have a large format printer (using 11" x 17" paper). But you can find it in the 7" block size.

Paper Pieced Palm Quilt

Let's see a few more of these blocks. Here are four together.

And 4 more with SUCH sharp points, really only possible with paper piecing. I love the multi-colors. And these shot cottons have a rich texture that flat, single color fabrics just don't.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you another quilt made using these shot cottons.