Today, I'm very lucky to be featured on the Emma's Garden Blog Tour. I'm so glad you stopped by. It is a great honor to be invited by Patty Sloniger to be part of the tour and more importantly, great to have the opportunity to make fun items with the new Emma's Garden fabric line designed by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller Fabrics. I first met Patty when she came to Houston Modern Quilt Guild and told us all about how she became a fabric designer. I was instantly enamored with her amazing fabric designs.
I fell in love with the Emma's Garden collection immediately because of the rich, vibrant colors, in both florals and graphic patterns. The Michael Miller cotton feels silky to the touch and just begs to be fondled. We quiltaholics do have a problem fondling fabric, don't we? The Garden Bouquet and Big Blooms really stand out as my favorites and I can think of lots more things I would love to make from them.
Just a few of weeks before spring market, Patty provided fabric and I began cutting and sewing faster than a speeding Janome. I made a cute baby quilt using Emma's Garden Blush Colorway. I started with just a six inch strip of each fabric, I matched up each one with a white strip and cut six inch squares of each. Sewing around all four sides of the squares and cutting on the diagonals, I made lots of half square triangles.
This is so easy to do that I did not even need a pattern. Then the fun began as I layed out all the half square triangles to design a quilt.
Here is the cute baby quilt which I also quilted all over with flowers since Emma's Garden is abundant with flowers.
I actually made enough half square triangles to make a table runner to brighten my table in spring and summer. I changed up the design a bit and quilted this a little differently.
The center of each square is quilted with a funky flower and swirls to adorn the negative space.
The great thing about half square triangles is all the fun designs you can make with them.
Houston Modern Quilt Guild went on a retreat in early May. During the retreat, I made a paper pieced circle of geese pillow from all the pinks, violets and purple fabrics in the collection. This pillow was lots of fun to make and really goes together quickly with just four blocks and some added borders.
These flying geese got some simple straight line quilting. You can find this free patern on Craftsy.
Patty has generously donated a fat quarter bundle of the Blush colorway of Emma's Garden and you could win it by commenting below. Tell me what your favorite fabric is from the entire collection of Emma's Garden. As always, if you are a no-reply commenter, please leave an email address for me to contact you! I'll pick a winner on Friday, August 22!
I hope you have been enjoying the blog tour each and every day, but in case you missed a day, check the schedule below
Don't forget to pop over to beckandlundy tomorrow for a Grand Finale giveaway!
8/7 - Michael Miller's website (that's Patty!) www.makingitfun.blogspot.com
8/8 - Hilary - youngtexanmama
8/9 - Karri - karriofberries
8/10 - Felice - sewscatterbrained
8/11 - Sally - sallysangelworks
8/12 - Liz - www.fatchickquilts
8/13 - Julia - starsandsunshine
8/14 - Jacey - jaceycraft.blogspot
8/16 - Pam - pamquiltaholic
8/17 - Patty (yup, that's Patty's wrap up!) beckandlundy