Block of the Week 9

Block of the Week 8

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

 

Wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Thank you so much for you support and encouragement over this year. I'm planning a wonderful 2016 year and can't wait to share the details with you.

Sandra

 

Block of the Week 7

 

 

 

Other possibilities to design your block:

American Patchwork & Quilt - Pat Sloan Show

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/magazines-more/quilting-podcast

Friends,

I'm excited to announce my guest appearance on the American Patchwork & Quilting Podcast, hosted by Pat Sloan.

The show run every Monday from 2pm to 3pm MST. I'm on this Monday, 12/ 14. Click the link below to listen live or return back to listen to a taping.

 

I have the great opportunity to discuss my upcoming book called Scrap Patchwork for Stash Book and my 2015 Quilts & More Sew Sampler.

Check it out!

Sandra

McCall's Quick Quilts February/March 2016

Friends,
I have a quilt featured in the McCall's Quick Quilts February/March 2016 issue, called Sunset.

 

Most of my quilt designs are made first, then I find fabric to fit it, but for this one, I designed this quilt specifically for the fabric. I wanted to take a modern approach and thus why I choose to define each row for a specific color. I felt this defined the quilt boldly.

Other ideas to consider when choosing a fabric for this quilt... You could still use this design to place blocks at random or perhaps make two-color quilt. Even reverse the tone by making the triangles of the block light and the background dark. You could pull out your low-volume stash of fabric and scrap in the background. There's so many possibility to make this quilt unique to you.

If you so choose to make this quilt, then I would love to see it! Feel free to share/tag me on facebook and/or instagram.

Meanwhile, don't forget, I'm running the Block of the Week.

Enjoy,
Sandra

Thank you Sponsors!

Red, Orange, and Yellow Simply Colorful by V & Co. for Moda Fabrics

50wt Aurifil Thread

Warm & White batting by the Warm Company

 

Press
Here is the link to the McCall's Facebook page introducing this new issue: https://www.facebook.com/McCallsQuilting/videos/10153690837587295/?l=8542735259074214393

  

Please use the following permalink to link to the issue: http://www.mccallsquilting.com/quickquilts/issues/February_March_2016

 

Your pattern feature permalink: http://www.mccallsquilting.com/quickquilts/articles/Sunset-Radiant-One-Block-Lap-Quilt-Pattern

 

Subscription issues began shipping December 8, 2015. By December 29, 2015, the issue will be available on newsstands, as well as in print or digital download format at QuiltandSewShop.com at the following link: http://www.quiltandsewshop.com/category/quick-quilts  

Block of the Week 6

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I just love this time of year. Last year at this time, my home was filled with quilts and deadlines. My publisher had a deadline to have my manuscript and all my quilts for the book finished by the end of the year. My family carved out all the holiday parties and activities to help me finish my manuscript and quilts. While I continued to stitch my way to completion, even on Christmas Eve and Day, my husband made our meals and made sure we were ready for eve church service and kept me informed of the college football scores. I even had to give up my running and fitness to make my book a reality. While many families were gaining the holiday weight on yummy holiday foods, I was filling up cups of coffee and food items that didn't take more than 5 minutes to make. Welcome back to my college favorite: shin ramen.

This year, we are enjoying the season. One activity that is worth mentioning... This past Sunday, my daughter and I attended Frozen on Ice. This was her first experience of figure skating and she loved it. She was in awe of the performers and of course her favorite Elsa. All eyes were on Elsa. Although I was skeptical of going (is there such a thing as too much Disney princess?), her happiness made the time and money all worth it. We went with her best friend, a friend she has had since they were 3 months old. I'm guessing this will be a memory she'll remember.

Here's to gaining the holiday weight.
Sandra

Block of the Week 5

Block of the Week 4

Friends,
Here's the 4th Block of the Week. Enjoy! Wishing you a happy turkey day!

Sandra

Scrap Patchwork Book by Me

Friends,
I've been talking about my book for so long, perhaps many of my close family and friends might have felt it was made up...Well, the day has arrived! My quilt book, called Scrap Patchwork is available. You can pre-order a copy now! Click the link on the right side board to get the scope about the book or click here.

Check out these lovely pictures of the quilts you can make from the book. Wow, it is so amazing. I am so proud of it. There's 15 projects in the book: 13 of them are quilts. Most of the quilts include an alternative color and/or size options. Resulting in more possibilities to make a quilt special for you. In the book, I explain how I pick color and fabrics for my quilts as well as how to organize and store fabric, and much more. You're going to love it!

Over the past year, it's been a sacrifice to make this happen. My husband and I worked on this over late nights, weekends, and holidays. It's been the task to juggle our day jobs, raising our daughter, and fitting in family time, where our nearest family member is a 12-hour drive away. We have neglected our family and friends. We have appreciated your patience and support. It's been the busiest time I have ever experienced, even back to my days at university, juggling track, tutoring, and overload class schedule.

I've been blessed to have the encouragement of my husband to keep me pushing through. Those family and friends, who had kept by my side, understood, sent words of encouragement, when I hadn't done a good job of keeping up on my part of the relationship. You know who you are. You are a true example of true friendship and love. We are truly thankful to our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and for all he has provided for us. My successes are a true testimony of God's mercy and grace on my life.

As I conclude, it would be ever so kind to help me spread the word about my book and the things I'm doing. I'm mostly on Facebook, Instagram and here. The statistics show that every household in the US has at least 1 quilter.

Living a blessed life,

Sandra

Block of the Week 3

Hello Friends.

This week and last week have been crazy busy juggling this business and my day job. But I wanted to fulfill my weekly commitment by getting you the 3rd Block of the Week.

Enjoy!
Sandra

Block of the Week 2

Hello Friends,

I had a lovely response from many of you for the Block of the Week. It is joyous to hear the positivity and motivates me to keep on posting.

Thanks,
Sandra

Welcome to Make It Blossom

Hello Friends,

It is official. I have established my business as Make It Blossom. I received my approval from the United States Trademark office.

You may have seen it here and there, but I had kept mum about it until today.

 

I believe a name is important, because as I continue on my entrepreneur journey to establish a viable business, a name creates formality and foundation. Sure, I could have continued to use my name, but I wanted more. Call me silly, but if my daughter chooses, I'd like to fold her into the business to become a mother-daughter team and eventually give the business to her. This is the lofty task today and not quite clear on how we will get there, however, I know in my heart the first step of getting to that dream is to create a name.

Make it Blossom was a name my husband and I thought of while we were traveling in our car to pick up my daughter from school. It was rainy and cold day in Denver. As we had brainstormed names for the business, we came up with names more clear to point out this is a quilting business to names more vague. I had favor ideas that were vague, because I didn't want the business name to be so specific that if I wanted to explore other markets, I'd have to come up with another name, because the new marketplace would be confused by the name. All of sudden I came up with Make It Blossom. Instantly, my husband and I said that's it. We were deep into the winter months and I had thoughts of spring, the buds of trees and flowers. I thought of quiltmaking, and how we pull ingredient together to create our quilts, then we cut them all up, stitch them together, and watch as our creativity 'blossoms' into something more beautiful then the individual ingredients alone. We do this blindly, not entirely sure how all the ingredients will come together, but as we finish blocks, we begin to see our vision 'blossom.'

I've already started to brand my business in this new name, but will become more apparent in the months ahead.

The first logo is the formal. Then, I made variations of the formal, which you see throughout the posts. I'm still playing around with the styling, but I'm pretty sure this is it.

Sandra