I woke up on a Monday morning a few weeks ago to an email that made my week!  Lizzie Clark asked me if I would be part of a blog hop introducing her new fabric line.  How absolutely exciting for me to be asked that!  This was the first time a designer reached out to me and asked me to make something for their line!

I looked at the fabrics and knew there was no way I could say no.  The night before I had been going through my library of Kansas City Star blocks and this fabric seemed perfect to use in an updated version of one of those blocks.  (I love vintage made modern, don’t you?)

I did check with Lizzie to make sure that a quilt top would be okay, I knew with the kids home and hubby away, that quilting would probably not happen.  She was fine with that, so I signed up and then excitedly got out my design notebook and started drawing away.

I chose the Propeller block from the Kansas City Star because I felt it would be a great way to show off all 14 of the fabrics from this line.

Kansas City Star patterns are usually made by hand, but that was not going to work for me. I needed to devise a new way to create this block. I grabbed my Classic Curves ruler from Color Girl Quilts that I’ve been dying to try out and went to work.  To cut down on possible cutting errors I taped over the slots I did not need on the Classic Curves Ruler.  I loved using the ruler, it made fitting the curves together go very smoothly.

 

I enjoyed pairing the fabrics with each other.  Honestly, there wasn’t really a wrong decision to be made, these beauties are so complimentary.  I loved the richness of all the tones together .

 

Here it is in all its glory.  Wowzers!!!

What?  You only count 13 prints?  Well, that’s because number 14 is going to be my binding!  It will be cut on the bias so the buds will appear on the diagonal of the binding.  Cute, right?

I already have my thread for quilting and will be searching out an appropriate backing this week.

I don’t have a name for this yet.  I originally was thinking “Flights of Fancy” since the block is called Propeller.  But every time I look at this quilt I start singing “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner, so maybe it should be called “Rolling on the River.”  It does seem more water wheel to me than propeller in the end.  What do you all think?  (you’re all singing Proud Mary now, aren’t you?  Big wheel keep on burning!)

I don’t have a pattern created yet since I was making a lot of this up as I went along (who says I don’t improv quilt?)  but I will work on it.  I will be entering it into some AQS shows that are coming up.  I’ll let you know if it gets in.

Here are some more gorgeous shots.  It really pays to have an in-house photographer.

And for more inspiration, check out all the Wonder Full makers and creators participating in the Wonder Full Blog Tour.

6/25 Sarah Goer

6/26 Becky Vandenberg

6/27 Becca Plymale

6/28 Stephanie Jacobson

6/29 Allison Dutton

6/30 Andy Knowlton

  7/1 Lissa LaGreca <—– You Are Here

  7/2 Jennifer Strauser

  7/3 Sherry Shish

 

Lovingly,

Lissa

It has taken me 24 hours to calm down and stop shaking enough to write this blog.

I have some exciting news to share with all of you!

My quilt, Stargazing, has been juried in to AQS Spring Paducah!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(is that enough exclamation points?)

I am over the moon.  I cannot begin to tell you how surprised I was when I received the email yesterday and how hard it was for me to not scream at the top of my lungs.

You see, I’ve only ever entered two shows and both just recently.  I entered Quiltcon with two quilts and both were rejected.  No big deal.  I then entered the same two to Paducah.  I had thought of entering them in a smaller show, like AQS Daytona, but they weren’t ready when that deadline hit.  I figured I would go ahead and enter them into the Spring Paducah show since they were done.  AND ONE OF THEM IS IN!!!!

Oh, which one?  You’ve seen it before.  It just appeared in Make Modern issue #20 this past January.

Stargazing

In a few weeks I will receive the rights to publish the pattern back from Make Modern, so if you didn’t purchase the pattern through the magazine and you want it you should find it here soon!

If you want to get a real life view of it, come join the 30,000 visitors to Paducah this April and see it along with 404 other great quilts.

Can’t make it to Paducah?  That’s okay, I have a feeling I will be blogging daily from there.

Lovingly,

Lissa

I thought I would share a quick Finish Friday with you all.

First is a set of Noodlehead Open-Wide zipper pouches  I learned about this tutorial last year when a swap partner requested one and I became addicted.  They are so easy and quick to make.  She has three sizes listed on the tutorial, but it is easy to extrapolate additional sizes, so I added an extra-large and an extra-small.  It used one yard of fabric for the exterior fabric and an additional yard for the lining.

 

 

 

Now for the BIG FINISH!!!  On Work in Progress Wednesday  I showed you a quilt I was working on for the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild.  Well, Cassandra and I finished it up on Thursday.  It looks AWESOME!  Check it out.

Front of the quilt;

Doesn’t it just look fabulous?  I love all the different quilting from the members who worked on this.  It really adds personality to the quilt.

And for the ‘other front.’  I can’t call it the back, because this is a reversible quilt!! (yeah, there’s a label and sleeve, but it is on its way to QuiltCon, so we had to put those on.)

Finishing this quilt was an adventure, but Cassandra and I really enjoyed working on it.  It makes things go quickly when you enjoy and appreciate the company you have.  Once the label and sleeve were on, we just sat there smiling at it.

So..wow!  That is two posts from me this week!  I’m working on building up my blog, so you should see more posts from me from now on.  Not necessarily two in a week, but definitely more often.  I hope you enjoy them.

I am currently working on my daughter’s birthday present. I’m using mermaid sequins on this project and that is truly something special to work with.  I hope to have that up next week.

Until then!

Lovingly, Lissa

 

I thought it would be fun to show you a work in progress.  Wednesdays seem to be a nice day to do it.

Currently I am working with Cassandra Beaver on a project for our guild, Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild.  It is the Charity Quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild Quilt Con, occurring in Pasadena next month.

All local chapters are invited to participate. We are given a theme and a color way.  Our guild asked members to submit designs and we voted on which quilt we liked the best.

The theme this year was Modern Traditionalism.  Cassandra and I worked together to design several different pot holder style quilts.  Pot holder quilts are basically comprised of mini quilts. Members of the guild each created a 12 1/2″ square Ohio Star quilt, completely pieced, quilted, and bound by the member.  The mini quilts were collected and then sewn together by Cassandra and I.

We have to mail this off next week, so Cassandra and I have been busy little Beavers (HA, inside joke for you Cassandra!!) getting this ready.  Here are some of our progress pictures.  Stay tuned for the finished picture soon!

 

It was my birthday this past week and I just want to share all the wonderful sewing related presents I received!

First up is a light box.  I tried to make my own and realized that my birthday was coming up soon so just put one on my wish list!  Also is a Gingher rotary cutter.  My rotary finally gave up the ghost and I know my Gingher scissors have lasted for over 20 years at this point, so I asked for them.  I like the weight, still getting used to closing them before putting them down.

This book showed up on my doorstep from my mother in law on the same day my friend, Cassandra Beaver came over to sew.  I now have one autograph in it!  I don’t know when I’ll get another autograph in there, but I’m thrilled to have this one.

An adorable Binding Baby and Spool!  A Thread-o-stat to help grab threads as I thread my needle and a Wefty needle set.  I can’t wait to use all of them!

Now, look at these cool items;

New toys to go with Frannie, my Featherweight.  And a key for the case!  I’m looking forward to see how the buttonholer works.

I did receive a few *non* sewing items as well.  I can happily state I was thoroughly spoiled.

Lovingly, Lissa

(I’m not receiving any money for posting any of these items, just wanted to share what I got for my birthday)

No, I am not being sarcastic, even if we did come home to frozen pipes!! (YIKES!)

My first ever published pattern is out TODAY!!

Make Modern Magazine Issue #20 is available NOW!  Use code MM20for6 to purchase this virtual magazine for a discounted amount of $6 (Australian).

You’ll get my pattern and get to know me more through a wonderful article written by Anne Beier of Hudson Valley Quilts.

Want to see the quilt now?  Well, no problem.  Here are some great pictures taken by my in-house photographer (who is really excited to be officially published as well!)

Here is a closer look at my quilting.  I am so proud of how far I’ve come with my abilities.

Finally, a scrappy version.  The additional instructions for this will be included when I release the pattern for sale here on the blog.  I expect that to happen about mid March.

Lovingly,

Lissa

Last week I was the guest on the 52 Quilters Blog and Instagram.  I spent the week telling almost TEN THOUSAND followers about myself and hosting an emoji tutorial.

I’m glad I didn’t think about the number of followers before the week started, I might not have had made it through!

I created a 14″ square pillow with an emoji face on it using machine applique as I did for my emoji quilt this past winter. 

Isn’t it the cutest ever??!!

I experimented with some batting, using wool and another layer of scrap batting I had to get a real poof in the quilting.  The kids and I were very tickled about the poof and spent a little bit of time poking at the quilted circles and yelling “POOF!”

I’m putting the tutorial on the pillow up on the patterns page RIGHT NOW.  It also has instructions on how to make the EMOJI QUILT!

If you create a pillow or quilt, be sure to post on instagram with the hashtag #emojiquilt and tag me @lovinglylissa I can’t wait to see what you make.

Lovingly,

Lissa

 

I was recently invited to participate in a quilt along with the Fat Quarter Shop  I couldn’t be more excited!  Let me share it all with you!!!

The pattern is the Jolly Bar Jazz Quilt.  It is 12 large quilt blocks, sashing, and borders.  Easy and beautiful.  The best part is the use of the jolly bar precuts.  I’m starting to really love using precuts, they truly simplify cutting.  When you are me and just want to sew, this is a huge pro!

I decided I wanted to make a seasonal quilt.  Believe it or not, I have no seasonal quilts in my home.  I’ve never made one!!  So I chose the Juniper Berry by Basic Grey for Moda fabrics.  I love the traditional and not so traditional colors all mixed in.  For the sashing I used Vanilla Grunge and the binding is Cherry Grunge.  I’ve been admiring the Grunge line for a while now and was thrilled to get to use it.  And let me tell you the Cherry Grunge can only be described as luscious.

The pattern is very straight forward.  You can quickly chain piece all the smaller parts of the blocks together and then move on to each large star block.

For me the next part is the best.  I was told my quilts need “more quilting”  So here you go!!  I free motioned what I call my “Snowmen in a Blizzard” pattern.  There are snowballs everywhere and every now and then a snowman on the quilt.

  

What I love best (other than the cute snowmen) is that the quilt already looks all crinkly and I haven’t even washed it yet!

Now for some glamour shots of the finished quilt.  Lucas was thrilled to be a model for me.

 

If you head to the Fat Quarter shop Blog you can see the quilt finished in an array of fabric choices.  I always love to see how one pattern can be interpreted.  What will your interpretation be?

Lovingly,

Lissa

If you follow me on Instagram then you have seen some sneak peaks of the quilt I’m about to show here.  It is called Starstruck and is a pattern in Christa Watson’s new book “Piece and Quilt with Precuts”

Let me tell you how I started with all this.  As soon as I found out I was to be part of the book tour Blog Hop I went through all the quilts in the book looking for one that would just call to me.  ALL OF THEM CALLED TO ME!!!    So I called my mom.  I hadn’t made a quilt for her in a while.  I’m not one to surprise people with quilts because I want to make exactly what they want.  So what did my mom want?  Starstruck.  AND she wanted it exactly as Christa had done in the book.

Luckily I had a stack of 12 fat quarters that fit the bill for the light fabrics needed for the quilt.  I took one each of the colors with me to my local quilt store with two friends and we searched for the 12 dark fabrics.  Christa’s quilt is very neutral with white, light grey, and tan for the lights and dark grey, brown, and black for the dark.  Do you want to know something though?  Colors can be a neutral.  I just had to add some color to this!  So some of my black fabrics became navy and a really deep plum.

The piecing of the quilt went quickly.  Christa’s book uses precuts for all the quilts, and this one was fat quarters.  I made a what I thought was going to be a huge mistake by purchasing 1/4 yards instead of fat quarters for the dark fabrics, but I was able to cut all the pieces I needed.

I spent an evening and the following morning laying out all my stars, looking for the best arrangements of lights to dark and am so happy with the way it came out.

Now to the true test of my quilting capabilities.  The book has 11 quilt patterns and 18 quilting motifs.  Christa walks you through a quilting motif for each quilt in wonderful detail and encourages you to mix and match the motifs to make the quilt your own.  Quilting is where I feel less confident in my abilities, but take a look at how this turned out.

This is a free motion design called loops and stars, with instructions on how to quilt other motifs.  Soon you will see a quilt on Instagram where I will use hearts in the place of the stars.  It is so easy to follow Christa’s directions and come out with some amazing quilting.  She has two other books that focus on quilting that are now on my wish list!  I also plan on taking Christa’s Craftsy classes.  I think my confidence as a quilter is going to grow a hundred fold by the time I am through.

I want to thank the budding photographer in my house who took all but the final picture in today’s blog.  Didn’t she do a fantastic job?  I spent most of the day trying to decide what to use, and well…I’m just going to add all these here.

 

 

However, here is the money shot that I took!  Taken on Aug 21st during the solar eclipse.  Can’t go wrong with an eclipse on a star!

 

My goodness, I’ve had so much fun with this blog hop.  Please check out the line up for the entire hop here and check out all the fantastic interpretations of Christa’s patterns.

And don’t forget the giveaways!!!  There are a few, including 2 right here, right now from me!!!!

For a free eBook of “Piece and Quilt with Precuts” leave a comment below.  Do you like to stick to one motif when quilting or do you prefer to mix and match?  Do you use a walking foot or free motion quilt or both?  Any tips and hints for those of us who struggle a bit?  I take a piece of my back fabric, a piece of the batting, and a fabric left over from piecing the top to make a practice sandwich.  This way I can fix any thread color issues or tension issues and get a feel for the quilting motif before the needle hits the quilt itself.

You can’t Piece and Quilt with Precuts without some precuts, now can you?  So, head over to my Instagram, @lovinglylissa to find my IG give away.  Two charm packs (each with 20 fabrics) of Amy Butler’s Timeless to get you started on your own quilt!  You can’t miss the post on my feed, it’s a picture of the charm packs with “GIVEAWAY” written across it.  Instructions on how to enter will be posted under it.

Winners will be chosen when the blog hop ends on August 31st.

Also, Christa has her own shop called The Precut Store where I am positive you can find the perfect precuts to use.

Lovingly,

Lissa