I’m thrilled to be participating in Pat Sloan’s Focus on the Center Book Tour. There are 10 quilters participating in the tour this week and we each have two copies of Focus on the Center to give-away to our lucky readers. See below to enter my give-away and for the links to the other participants.
Plus, visit Pat’s blog as she’s asked each of us some fun questions and her publisher’s blog too:
Focus on the Center features seven medallion-style quilts. Confession, I have never made a medallion-style quilt before, but I’m really tempted by this one called Lucky Charms:
I just adore the scrappy-ness of this quilt and the unique on-point borders around the center appliqué followed by rectangular borders. There’s lots of interest in this quilt! It finishes at 61″ square, but you could easily make it larger or smaller by adding more borders or removing some. I also love that it has flying geese .. I really need a quilt with lots of flying geese for myself.
I’m not really big on making Christmas quilts that only get enjoyed for a month, so I would do the alternate center that’s included in the book for this quilt, here it is:
For the center appliqué, I’d use solid white and then scraps of my other fabrics. I’ll also continue the white into the large half square triangles/flying geese units around the appliqué. Here are my fabrics:
The colourful fat quarters and yardage prints are Treasures and Tidbits by Piece O’ Cake Designs for Robert Kaufman fabrics. The black and white prints are a fat quarter bundle put together by Jodie of Fort Worth Fabric Studio.
The red yardage will be used similar to how Pat used red in her sample: inner thin border and triangles around the white appliqué, for the wider border around the entire on-point layout and for the binding.
For the green used in the sample, i.e. the setting triangles in the center and for the flying geese sky units, I’ll use the black and white prints. I’ll alternate between black on white vs. white on black prints for the flying geese sky units. It’ll still be very scrappy, but the black and white will add some calm to the wild colours in the prints… I think! The prints will be used for the flying geese body units, the two scrappy outer borders and the rectangles inside the on-point layout.
Can you picture it?? I really wish I had time right now to start something new as this quilt is calling me! Maybe later in the summer.
See that fabulous yellow flowered print beside the red one above, well I have a few yards of it and there will be enough fabrics left over from the above quilt to make a coordinating one.
I love this one from the book, Antique Mist, and would use that flowered print in place of the large blue aqua flower print that Pat used for the middle border. Black and white prints would replace the pinks and the coloured fabrics would be used in place of the off whites. Not sure if I’ll have quite enough red yardage for the pink striped borders, but if not, a solid from my stash would work well too. This medallion quilt finishes at 57″ square.
One of the things I love about Pat’s book, is that she’s included quick piecing methods such as making four flying geese units from squares of fabric.
I find when I’m browsing new books at the local quilt shop, I’m disappointed when I see authors not using the quicker methods we’ve all come to love from quilting tutorials from our blogging friends. Please tell me I’m not alone in this!
Give-Away
I have two copies of Pat’s Focus on the Center book to give-away. Leave a comment below answering:
Have you ever made a medallion-style quilt? If so, how many rounds did it have? If not, are you encouraged to do one now after seeing a few from Pat’s book?
Winners will be randomly chosen on May 7th.
Be sure to visit the other quilts in the tour too and enter their give-aways:
Tuesday
- Our hostess: Pat Sloan
- Carrie of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.
- Vanessa Christenson of V & Co.
- Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville
- Michele Foster of the Quilting Gallery – that’s ME!
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
P.S. Here’s a flying geese tutorial from my friend Bradie. It is similar to the one Pat has in her book.
Winners:
Congratulations to #149 quiltmom anna and #138 Pam. Emails have been sent to you from Pat Sloan.
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