Colorful New Quilt Design!

I can't wait to share this new quilt design with you -- it's CALICO STARS, and boy, is it a fun and colorful project!  It combines traditional quilt blocks with fun colors and easy stitch patterns to create a very special counted canvaswork piece:

 It's larger than most of my other quilts, being 12.5" x 12.5", but that just makes it a bigger feast for the eyes (and fingers).  And speaking of your stitchy fingers, I decided to combine #5 pearl cottons (which make up the main textured sections of the quilt) with the easier-on-the-fingers DMC floss colors that are used for the background areas.  I don't know about you, but as I get older, and after having stitched dozens and dozens and DOZENS of pieces with #5 pearl cotton, my fingers are getting a bit tired of pulling it through the 18 ct. canvas.  So I've found mixing in cotton floss offers a nice break for my hands!

Anyway, this was a very happy piece to stitch up.  I built the PINK palette around the pastel colored Watercolours thread 048 - "Far Horizons."

Then I decided to include a BLUE palette as well, featuring Watercolours thread 236 -"Appalachia", shown below.

Both colorways are equally yummy, but for those of you who love blue, I hope you'll enjoy the threads I've picked out.

My philosophy for designing these small quilts is to make them look as if they were real quilts.  I love the idea of stitching precisely pieced miniature quilts (much easier to me than sewing itty bitty snips of fabric!), and for that reason I avoid using stitching "gimmicks" like beads or fancy composite patterns in my quilt designs.  The most I'll do is add some metallic ribbon, if I want a bit of sparkle. And as you can see in the detail photo below, just using a few easy stitches can create quite a bit of textural variety:

So if you'd like to stitch up your own miniature quilt for the new year, please skip on over to my website and get all the ordering info on this new CALICO STARS pattern! 

Oh, YUMMERS!

I just got a packet of Caron Collection's twelve newest thread colors:


These are the WATERCOLOURS versions, but they're also out in WILDFLOWERS and WATERLILIES.

Here are their names, from the top of the photo:

Barely Blue
Porcelain Blue
Cornflower Blue
Ink
Primrose
Geranium
Claret
Spearmint
Garden Path
Black Hills
Prairie Grass
Sunflower Seed

Aren't they delicious? And their names are worthy of designs using those names, I think....ANYWAY, I was glad to get these new threads and have no doubt they will inspire a several new designs in the coming months.