Sunday, August 29, 2010

September: Jelly Roll Madness Month at Crafty Girls Workshop



I know it's a couple of days early, but if you happen to be like me you probably appreciate a couple days advance noticed on things. Yep, it's true, I am officially declaring September to be Jelly Roll Madness Month!! That means that all month long I'm going to search out posts around blog land to find great projects and ideas to make using jelly rolls! Mostly this was inspired by the


and then I saw the CUTE tutorial by Sarah B on Moda Bake Shop for making that



and of course I just LOVE the

Random Reflections Quilt on MBS (Fandango JR plus a Bella Snow JR).

So right there are THREE great projects to make using a jelly roll! Would you like to play along with all the JR Madness fun? If so, use the cute badge I created to post a link to this post and share your great ideas for JR Madness! You can use the BIG picture I have at the top of this post (please link back here to to my shop) or use this cute smaller one I whipped up. Just right-click and choose Save Picture As... then paste it into a blog post or on your sidebar and link it back here to http://blog.craftygirlsworkshop.com/


I'd LOVE to see what YOU can make with a Jelly Roll!

Also, check out the Jelly Roll page of the Moda Bake Shop blog, this is an index of ALL their posts using just jelly rolls! At the end of JR Madness Month I plan to add a permanent link to all the posts about Jelly Rolls in a new tab at the top of this blog. I want it to be super easy for you to decide what to do with your precut fabrics.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Jelly Roll Pleated Skirt Tutorial on Moda Bake Shop

Pattern Click Here
Isn't this just the cutest skirt ever? It just uses one jelly roll and the instructions say you can get more than one skirt out of a single roll!  This is one of the FREE tutorials on Moda Bake Shop, which is one of my go to sites for great patterns using precuts. Well, guess what? As of today, we have this EXACT jelly roll, from the Origins line by Basic Grey, in the shop and as an added bonus you can use the coupon code JR10 to get a 10% discount off your ENTIRE order! I think this skirt would be awesome done up in the new Bliss jelly roll by Bonnie and Camille OR the Fandango jelly roll by Kate Spain. The tutorial, a debut by Sarah B of SaraB Designs, is really well written with lots of photos PLUS Sarah gives an added BONUS of the applique pattern needed for that adorable t-shirt on her blog! Thank you Sarah! So why don't you roll on over to the shop and grab yourself an Origins jelly roll to make up this skirt and pick out a second JR to get ready for the Fat Quarterly Quilt Along which starts in September! Don't forget to use the coupon code upon checkout!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. We have 4 BOLTS of coordinating yardage in the Origins line plus 4 BOLTS of coordinating Fandango yardage, in case you just need a little extra while you're taking advantage of that DISCOUNT!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Fat Quarterly Quilt Along! and New Fabrics from Bliss and Origins

You know my favorite blog Fat Quarterly? Well I signed up for their blog feed so whenever they post new content it goes straight to my e-mail box, and it turns out they are going to have a quilt along in September! Yippee! The bestest part is that it uses a JELLY ROLL and I just finished listing some Brand new jelly rolls from Bliss last night. Yep, YOU can get yours Right now and be all ready to start the quilt along in September. Click the FQ badge to see the details of the Quilt Along.



Then, go visit my SHOP to see all the new JRs that are in or coming in, most likely TODAY including Fandango and Origins! Oh and I just got 4 new Bolts of Origins that are just BEAUTIFUL in the green (they call it kelp) color group.




Aren't these fabrics awesome? Totally in the Crafty Girls Workshop signature colors of aqua and red too! I hope you'll stop by and grab a jelly roll to join in the fun! Or if you already have one or two laying around that's cool too. They do give the option of using fat quarters as well. I hope you'll comment here if you plan to join the Quilt Along. I'd love to know you're joining the fun!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Monday, August 23, 2010

Coming to San Antonio Soon, Modern Quilt Guild!

SA Mod Quilt Guild

Thursday, September 2, 2010 will be the inaugural meeting of the San Antonio Modern Quilt Guild! I'm sooo excited because I've wanted to join one of these since seeing posts about them around blogland. I didn't know if there were enough people in San Antonio who would find it appealing, I mean, what does Modern Quilt Guild mean? Well, I guess I'm going to find out on September 2. I'm going to be in charge of publicity and the newsletter for the guild to begin with and I can't wait to get started shouting from the rooftops about this great group! Our fabulous president, Jordan, has already organized an amazing first year of meetings including a day long workshop with DENYSE SCHMIDT!! How awesome is that!!!!!!! We're very lucky that the International Quilt Show is in Houston and she'll be there in November for that so she's willing to come down to San Antonio to do a workshop (of course there will be a fee but that's expected). If you are in or near San Antonio, I highly recommend you check out the awesome website that Jordan put togther to find out more information about the SA Mod Quilt Guild (we call it MQG for short). Also, grab the code for the badge (to the right) and pop it into your blog and help spread the word! That's it for now.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Bella Solid Precuts - Inspiration


Lately, I've been very pepped up about the new solid precuts that Moda has released. I've seen more and more modern/contemporary quilts that use solids, which is sort of funny since the Amish only used solids anyway, but the look is distinctly modern and fun! I'm not exactly an expert on the history of this style, but I first noticed it when I got the book Material Obsession which was written by two awesome women in Australia. It seemed as though the quilters in Australia had chosen to use lots of white in the sashing to really make the colors of the printed fabrics they chose pop off the quilt. Of course, AmandaJean from Crazy Mom Quilts was also a big proponent of white sashing and a simple but sort of modern design of quilt. I was soooo excited when Moda announced back in April that they would start making precut charm squares (5" squares), layer cakes (10" squares) and even jelly rolls (2.5" strips) in solid colors! The charms are absolutely PERFECT for making half square triangles, resulting in beautiful pinwheel quilts, or even for making a coin quilt. The Jelly Rolls just happen to be the PERFECT size for sashing (or at least the size I usually use) at 2 1/2" strips. And that means LESS cutting and MORE time for SEWING and QUILTING! Yippee!! Thanks MODA!! But Moda even went a step beyond that, they put together some amazing combinations of their Bella Solids into those precut lines, I'm trying out the 1930s line which even though it seems specific to a time period, it's not, if you look at it away from the time period context. To me, putting those beautiful saturated colors, they are all solid, against a white or even black background (by surrounding them with strips of those colors) will really make a rather modern statement. They also have a line of precuts that use the Marbles, which are an incredible array of marbley (is that a word?) colors. The specific one I purchased for the shop is called Citrus and I LOVE it, I can't wait to put it together with one of our Bella Solid Black jelly rolls to make those Marbles just JUMP off the quilt! Just look at how this beautiful quilt came together with solid strips and some grey to set it off.




Fresh Modern Quilts on flickr

If you'd like some more inspiration, check out the Fresh Modern Quilts Flickr group, where I went to grab most of the pictures in the above mosaic.

So what do you think? Do you like the idea of modern quilts or do you prefer lots of prints? Spill the Beans!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. Did you notice the new tab up at the top for Fun Project Links? You should check it out. It's a place where I'm putting some links to ideas of what to do with different size cuts or colors of fabrics.

Monday, August 2, 2010

New Badge, Please Update

If you have the Crafty Girls Workshop badge on your blog anywhere, please update it with our new fancy pantsy blog badge!


crafty girls button

The code is on the right, thanks sew much!

Anna

P.S. NEW solid precuts just arrived! Check them out on the website! (Click badge above to visit site)

The CSI Project: Create...Show...Inspire

Visit thecsiproject.com

Crafty Girls Workshop is the featured sponsor over that The CSI project this week! In fact, this week's challenge item is...FABRIC!! So, if you've made something totally amazing or adorable or fantabulous (which I know ALL of you have) go on over and enter your item to WIN a $40 gift certificate to MY SHOP!!! Yes, I said $40 gift certificate!!! Go check it out. And the judges are the twins from The DIY Dish webisodes (the founders of You Can Make This website) and I just love those ladies!! More later...

Happy Stitches,
Anna