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Showing posts with label blog event. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog event. Show all posts

Monday, September 18, 2017

Christmas Caroling Row Along: A Midnight Clear


Thank you for stopping by today! I am so excited to share with you my Christmas Caroling Row, as part of the Christmas Caroling Row Along hosted by the amazing Marian of Seams to be Sew!



After I share with you my row, I have some awesome giveaways that you won't want to miss!! So don't forget to keep scrolling!



A Midnight Clear

I designed my row from the Christmas Song, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. A song I've always loved, and which also lended itself greatly to being able to design something that I love (and after living in flat North Dakota for 9 months now, I am also greatly missing...) mountains, forests and beautiful crisp winter skies!


Measures 12 inch x 36 inch
The entire row is foundation paper pieced.


If you have never paper pieced before, or even if you have, you can view my video tutorials for how I paper piece, how I use my cutting templates (which are a tremendous help - especially with a pattern of this size), and more tips on my YouTube channel HERE!


This pattern is packed full of instructions, diagrams, pattern templates, cutting templates (for easy fussy cutting, easier piecing, and minimal fabric waste!), and lots of coloring pages to help you plan your block just right before you cut into your precious fabrics!


Here is my row

I decided to make my block a little playful and added some villages to the mountains along with a little nature and animals. I've been having a lot of fun with fussy cutting lately, which is fun for adding images, as well as getting your lines and textures (like in the trees to line up)!


Northcott was so kind to send each of the designers some fabrics, and can I just tell you how nice they are to work with?!! I received the whitish print that I used for the snow, a similar green that I used in the trees, the medium blue in the sky, and a fun snowflake print that I'm going to put on the back when I quilt this!

Aren't these beautiful?!!



You can download the pattern in my shop, HERE.
OR get it on Craftsy HERE!
It will be FREE until Tues September 26th, so be sure to grab it now!


 

Check out the other designers and their rows that have also been released today, and don't forget to enter their giveaways!


You can find the full schedule HERE. Please note, all patterns are FREE for the first week only! Though some designers will be keeping theirs free indefinitely, not all will be, so don't miss out!


 3 Giveaways:
Enter all 3! Please read the giveaway guidelines at the very end of this post. 



 

 $50.00 Gift Certificate 

Shipping is worldwide! so everyone can enter!
 You can read more about this prize HERE.

Starts September 19, 2017 / Ends September 26, 2017









1 FQ bundle, 2 yards total fabric 
from Northcott
Fabrics are from an assortment of different collections, valued at $20.



Shipping is worldwide! so everyone can enter!
 You can read more about this prize and see the fabrics  HERE.

Starts September 19, 2017 / Ends September 26, 2017









Calibre Art 18x24 Mat
from Calibre Arts
Value $59.99



Shipping via Amazon, USA Only
You can read more about this giveaway HERE. 

Starts September 19, 2017 / Ends September September 20, 2017



Thank you so much for stopping by! Best of luck on the giveaways! And I hope you enjoy the pattern!! 

I can't wait to see what you make! You can share your project with me on my website HERE, or if you are on instagram, use #fbpAMidnightClear and #fbpPatterns and I'll be sure to see it! You can also join my Facebook group HERE!


Happy Quilting & Happy Creating!!









Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways
Please take the time to read it.

1. Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.
2. There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor themselves.
3. You'll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.
4. Not all giveaways can be entered at Seams To Be Sew.
5. I will start announcing winners on September 12, 2017, and finish announcing winners on October 12, 2017.
6. In most cases, the blog where you won at also will announce their winners.
7. You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.
8. With the exception of Show and Tell Day, all giveaways run for approximately one week.
9. You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don't do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.
10. If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.
11. In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter the giveaway... do the right thing and thank them for the time it took to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and...
12. Thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways. This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you don't win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive and they really do love hearing from you.
13. No purchase whatsoever is necessary.
14. You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.
15. You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.
16. All winners are chosen at random.
17. All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.
18. Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.
19. This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
20. Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.
21. The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.
22. Most of the giveaways are international shipping this year in some cases, you will be asked to pay for shipping your giveaways.
23. I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.
24. If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping. All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home within 48 hours of my having heard from you.
25. An invoice will be sent to you via Paypal, and shipping will take place via Paypal, so your Paypal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. All shipping will either be first class which averages out at 2.77 to 4.00 up to 13 ounces. Paypal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee. All fabric bundles from Michael Miller, Hoffman, and Moda will be shipped via Priority Mail to protect the fabric itself.
 Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an air tight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.

Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven't received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.

Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn't read them, they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is no excuse for not reading them.


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Friday, September 1, 2017

Seams to be Sew: Christmas Caroling Row Along!

I'm so excited to share with you the Christmas Caroling Row Along that Marian of Seams to be Sew has organized and put together! I joined as a designer in the spring wanting to do something fun and new-to-me. I am amazed at all the hard work that Marian has put into this and it's definitely something you won't want to miss!!! The rows that everyone has designed are gorgeous! And the giveaway prizes are, well, I wish I could win them ALL!!!




Please read THIS POST for all the details, rules, and guidelines to the Row Along!


The Christmas Caroling Row Along Schedule




Thursday, September 14, 2017
Barbara Dieges
Cynthia’s Creating Ark
The Quilted Snail
Ms. P. Designs USA
                                                        (sponsored by Just Let Me Quilt)



Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Cheryl LaPlante
                                            (sponsored by Quilt In Piece)
Morning Glory
Pampered Pettit
Fun Threads




Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Show and Tell Day
Bloggers will be announced at a later date


Check out these amazing Sponsors!




As you can see in the schedule, I'll be posting my row and pattern on September 19th. I'm really excited about how it turned out and I hope you'll like it and have as much fun with it as I have!

All of the rows are quite different with a good mix of traditional pieced, applique, and foundation paper piecing methods. Some are more traditional in design and others are more modern, and I think all-in-all, they will make some beautiful and fun Christmas quilts, or even just banners, wall hangings, or table runners, etc.

Be sure to check back, and visit all the other designers to see their amazing rows as well as their giveaways! You won't be disappointed!!



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Friday, July 21, 2017

Did you hear about the Rise Above Quilt Along??!!!

Since "quitting" my job a few months ago, I have come full circle right back to my job! Didn't see that one coming! ;) But I couldn't be happier! I feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and have a completely different perspective on life and for my job. Sometimes it's not what we do that needs to change, but how we see it.

That's what quitting my job did for me. It made me see it differently. And for that I am grateful!!

That being said, the last month or two has been BUSY!! I finished up my Rise Above patterns, which are available HERE. And you HAVE to check out the #fbpRiseAbove and #RiseAboveQAL tags on Instagram to see the beautiful blocks that everyone is making!!

AND... last minute I decided to host a Rise Above Quilt Along to go along with the patterns! It started on Monday, so at the close of the first week, I am loving it so far!


A few weeks before I decided to host the quilt along, I was thinking about what I love most about quilting. At the top of the list was the people! I love the socializing and meeting so many different people who have similar interests and love fabric and quilting! :)

This is something I've really been missing lately. I loved(d) Flickr, and of course that changed a long time ago. Then I loved Instagram, but especially lately, I feel like the social involvement has declined significantly. It probably doesn't help that I haven't been posting as much, but that's just it - unless I stay hyper active, then I don't get the involvement that I used to before they changed it. Facebook is, well, it's Facebook. I love my newsletter - it's the one place where I can share with everyone who is actually interested and wants to see what's going on, but it's mostly one sided. There just doesn't seem to be a happy social platform anywhere...

Then I thought about how much I loved hosting my Celestial Star Quilt Along in 2014, and how fun it was to "hang out" with everyone who was joining in! But I also thought about how busy I was behind the scenes, and how I didn't actually get to hang out with anyone, though it was still a blast! I decided that I wanted to do that again, with all the perks and without the busy work.

 Introducing the Rise Above QAL! 

https://fromblankpagespatterns.com/pages/rise-above-qal

This is a laid back, go at your own pace, meet new people, make beautiful things, and have fun quilt along!! And there are a few giveaways! ;)

Read more about it HERE.

Do you want to get the patterns?!! Here are some coupons you can use!


Coupons expire Friday 7/28/17 - just one week left!

 

A little about the Quilt Along:

Rather than making lots of tutorials and instruction posts, I am focusing on the social aspect of quilting. I do have tutorials on my blog and YouTube, as well as all the many other tutorials all over the interweb, and while I'm more than happy to share my tips and help you along, I'll assume that unless you say something, that you've got this! ;) 


To keep it simple, updates will be found on this page, but all events and social gatherings will take place on Instagram using #RiseAboveQAL, or in my Facebook group!  


What I do have planned are:

1. Weekly progress and meet and greet prompts! 

I'll post a picture with a photo prompt and question, and then you can post your photo and answer the question! A fun way to get to know each other and share what you're doing!

Here is this weeks prompt:


I am indecisive and picked these 6 balloons as my favorite! ;) You can read my facts on Instagram and/or Facebook.


2. Thursday night Virtual Quilt Nights! 


We had our first one last night, and I might have had the most fun, I thought it was a blast! 

The point is to share what you're working on, and your progress through the night, and then following the hashtag (#RiseAboveQAL) or in the Facebook group, chat/comment on each others posts! It's a fun and simple way to meet new people, share what you're doing, and have fun! 

Since we can't all get together in real life, this is a fun way to include conversation while we work in our own places across the world! (Which for me means that I hardly get anything done, because I'd always love to chat over quilt. ;) But it's worth it! I love it!!)

I will be doing this every Thursday night from 8-10 pm CST. 
Come join in the fun!!! 

Even if you aren't working on your Rise Above blocks, it's a fun little event! I loved getting to know new people! :) And of course, if you are in a different time zone, you can adjust your hours accordingly, although that's when I'll start it, and you can keep hanging out with others even after I go to bed. :)


The quilt along goes until October 2nd, which is nice and long to allow for time during the busy back-to-school and last minute summer holidays and everything else!

I hope you'll come join me!!

And until then, 

Happy Quilting & Happy Creating!

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Friday, September 2, 2016

Announcing a New Monthly Event: Exploring Creativity!

Hi!! Welcome to September!!

I am so excited to share with you a new monthly event that will begin this month! I've been scheming this up for quite a while now, and I'm excited that it's finally coming together! Before it officially begins, I want to tell you how it came about and share some details!


Over the course of this year I've thought a lot about what it is exactly that I love so much about quilting and running my business. As I set new goals, I want to make sure that I set ones that I am passionate about, will enjoy working towards, and ones that hopefully you will enjoy the end results of!

I found that some questions are more difficult to answer. What is it that I have to offer this amazing quilting community? What is it about me that is worth sharing with the world? I still don't understand how others would answer this question about me, but after long contemplation, it became clear to me. Two words that have been a part of my soul my entire life! 

 Exploring & Creativity

So here it is: my place and personality in this quilting community is a "Creative Explorer". And my purpose is to share that journey of exploration through the patterns that I create.


And thus my slogan was born:



As a partially self-taught quilter, I do not claim to be a perfect quilter or follow all the rules, and I'm ok with that. I am still learning, as we all are!


What I can do, however, is design. And create patterns that stimulate creativity and open the doors of exploration. Exploring color schemes, design possibilities, and more. Designs that can be made with as little or as much creativity as you want to give them! I feel blessed to have found this perfect niche where I can feel like I have something I can contribute to this ever growing community of talented men and women!


And this is how I found my goal, to use patterns as the vehicle of creative exploration, with the end result of finding my own unique style and create my most beautiful work! And my goal is to help you to do the same as you join me, if you will, through the on going process of learning new techniques and lessons that will carry over from one pattern to the next, that can be gained from one project to influence many projects to come! A journey where we together can discover our own unique styles, and build upon them to create our most beautiful work!



And thus an event was born!

Exploring Creativity
One pattern at a time
One month at a time!


Each month, at the beginning of the month, I will announce a pattern that I will be exploring during that month. Most of the time this will be a pattern that is currently available, which I will be improving and updating prior to the beginning of the month. If you have previously purchased the pattern, you will be able to receive the updated pattern. If you haven't purchased it yet, there will be a short flash sale when the pattern is announced. Then throughout the month, I will share my creative process with you, including tips, tricks, shortcuts, ideas, answer questions, share my progress and finished projects with you.

Throughout the month, I will invite you to join me and share your creative process as you explore the specified pattern, and share what you make, ask questions, share what you've learned, your frustrations, your successes, etc. I will be by your side as you create your most beautiful work through your own unique style!

By the end of the month, we'll hopefully both have learned something new, experienced success and fulfillment, and have at least one new beautiful project!


AND.... to make it extra fun! At the end of the month, I will share one of your finished projects in my newsletter. The creator of the chosen project will win a $10 store credit to my shop as well as a $25 credit to a specified fabric shop! Both sponsored by me, as my gift to you!

 
Here are a few more details for the giveaway:
  • The finished project must contain the spotlight pattern for that month, but may also contain other patterns as well.
  • The finished project can be old or new, but must be shared (or reshared) during the specified month.
  • Project can be any size or shape or product. i.e., a bag, pillow, pouch, mug rug, pincushion, quilt, mini quilt, notebook cover, basket, etc. If you make it, and it's finished, it counts. 
  • Projects can be made for swaps or other purposes. The end destination does not matter, only that you made it.
  • Project must be linked up or shared some place where I can find it. If you blog about it, link your exact blog post to my blog linky (Which will be contained in the announcement post for that month). You can also share it on Instagram using the specified hashtag(s), or in my Facebook group. (All of this information will be found in the announcement post.)
  • Store credit is only valid in specified shops.
  • Winner will be announced in my newsletter only (so be sure to sign up, and tell your friends to sign up). 
  • Winner must contact me to claim prize. If prize is not claimed before the winner for the following month is announced, prize is forfeit, and can no longer be claimed after that time.
  • AND just to be clear. You can participate as much or as little as you want during the month. This is low commitment. To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is share a finished project during the month. If you made it a year ago, that's fine, just make sure you reshare it so it is a fresh image. :)

I realize that in the process of self-exploration, which is required when exploring our own creativity, the process can be intimidating and scary. That as we experiment and through trial and error, we might create ugly things, and we might create amazing things! But to say just one thing on this matter, I want to let you know that above all, I want my blog and this creative space to be a safe space! A place where we can share our beauties and our uglies. And we need not fear judgement or criticism. Where we can laugh and cry together over our successes and failures! I won't hesitate to share my mistakes, and I hope you won't be afraid to as well. Because through our mistakes we learn the greatest lessons of all!


And as I know many of you are like me, where quilting is our therapy, and well, therapy is not always pretty. So feel free to be open, and we'll get through this together!


 So enough rambling. Let's begin the party! I will announce this months pattern in a following post.

Updated to add:
I'll add a running list of each months patterns, so you can follow along.

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Monday, August 29, 2016

Multi-Shop Sale!! Today's the last day!

"What is this strange place??? A blog? what is this?"

That's kind of how I feel as I realize that I haven't blogged since June! And with my last post being the Cancer block, I will definitely be blogging soon so I can share the next two Zodiac BOM blocks with you. School starts tomorrow (thank goodness!) and with the change to kindergarten being all day, I am going to have a good solid nap time to do a lot of things I haven't done for a while! Yeah!

But until that time (tomorrow), I wanted to quickly share an awesome sales event with you!!

After taking the year off social wise, I'm feeling anxious to jump back into this awesome quilting community! So to start off, I joined up with some super talented pattern designers and quilters to give you a multi-shop sale!! Because if you're like me, entering the kids-are-going-to-school what-will-I-do-with-my-time mode, then a few new projects are a good incentive to make stuff and be creative! :)


So here it is...

9 shops, one coupon code, save 20%!! 

use code: Time2Quilt
ends tonight, August 29th, at midnight PST 


Here's the line up (click on the links below to go to our shops):



Pen and Paper Patterns 
(prices discounted, no coupon necessary)



Here's a peek at our favorite patterns!!






Enjoy!! 

I hope you find some new patterns you love! And if you are on Instagram, be sure to follow these awesome ladies!




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Sunday, October 18, 2015

My Bee Hive Block: Hidden Gems & My Design Process

 I am so excited for this blog post today!! Almost a year ago Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts emailed me and asked if I would join her in being a guest designer for The Bee Hive - a quilt block tutorial series that she's been hosting all year. The focus of each block design has been taking a single block that when repeated creates an interesting secondary design, which is one of my favorite things to do!! (I could look for secondary patterns all day long if I had the time.)

Each month Alyce posts her own quilt block designs, and has one quest designer share a quilt block. All of the blocks are fantastic!! I do hope you will check them out!


Today I am guest blogging over at Blossom Heart Quilts and sharing my block!

Hidden Gems


I must admit, it doesn't look like a whole lot here, but on Alyce's blog I share loads of photos of what you can do with it on repeat. Though there are more than what I shared, so definitely use the coloring pages I included in the pattern! Be sure to take a look... and then come right back! Because I have more fun things to share with you.

 Did you check it out?! What do you think? The pattern is available for free on Craftsy! Due to the size of the paper piecing templates, I formatted it for printing on two different paper sizes:
  • You can print it on letter size paper (the standard 8.5"x11" paper. Note, the pattern will need to be taped together before piecing.) 
  • OR legal size paper (8.5"x14". Because it's the same width as letter paper, you can print this size on all printers. Just be sure to change the paper size settings before printing.Oh, and you don't need to tape anything together if you print on this size of paper.)
Not sure which you want to use? Grab both patterns! They're both free. :)


 *****

 The next thing I want to share with you is how awesome Alyce is! (you can follow her on instagram by the way, she's @blossomheartquilts. And if you don't already, you should.) Anyway, this month she has been hosting her DIY Block Design: Challenge and Blog hop! It's been really fun! She's has been encouraging all of us to take our quilt design ideas from our head, put them to paper, and turn them into an actual quilt! Sound fun?! But maybe a little scary?

 If you have ever had the desire to design your own quilt block, but haven't known where to begin, I do highly recommend Alyce's ebook! It's called, DIY Block Design: Your designs from sketch book to quilt by Alyce Blyth.
eBooks are nice because you can take them with you eveywhere you go!! Put it on your phone or tablet, and you never have to worry about losing these great resources!!


She does a fantastic job at explaining the ins and outs of quilt block layouts, breaking them down into basic structures making them easy to assemble.

 


She also includes a lot of the quilt math for you so you don't have to! (Like what size block to start with when making HST's, QST's, flying geese and even no-waste flying geese! and more! Thank you Alyce!!)



That alone is useful information for anyone designing a quilt block - beginner or experienced!! Be sure to check it out! Purchasing the book isn't required for the challenge and blog hop, but it would definitely be helpful. And I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't think it was awesome!


So anyway, my point is, is that Alyce asked me if I would share some of my design process with you to go along with her event this month! And of course I would!


My Design Process

On Alyce's blog, she shares a great list of tools and software you can use to design your own quilts. One thing she mentions is graph paper. That is one thing I always have near by! Though I don't use it as much as I used to.

My go-to software, or tool, that I use to design is Adobe Illustrator. I know there are other designers that also use Illustrator, though it's not designed to be a quilting software, so it doesn't have all the advantages that other programs do (like telling you how much fabric you'll need. I'm a little jealous of that feature). It also has a steep learning curve if you aren't familiar with it. But you can find so many tutorials online, on YouTube, as well as online classes, that will teach you all about it. So don't be afraid of it! Though it isn't cheap either, (and now I'm sounding like it's all negative) but I do recommend it if you are serious about designing! I absolutely love it and could NOT live without it!

So now I'll going to share with you a little bit of my process of designing, hopefully without boring you too much.

Thinking about my process, I realize how much it has evolved over the years! I started out on graph paper, making a bunch of quilt block outlines, and drawing away, creating lines and shapes and designs until I found one I liked.

Here are some early drafts of my Grandma's Lawn Chair pattern.

Now I feel like I've found a freedom in Illustrator where I can just sit down at the computer and a little while later (and sometimes a lot later) I have a design that I then spend hours more exploring and coloring - not because I have to spend hours on it, but because that is maybe my favorite part of the process!

I think that is one huge advantage of using computer software. It takes me two seconds to copy and paste a design, a minute to color it in, or I can re-color it a hundred times! Whereas graph paper, for every adjustment, or color change, I want to make I have to redraw the entire block all over again.

Anyway, it's fun! :) So let's begin:

First I start by making a box. (Since I design quilt blocks, I always start with a box. Though lately I've really enjoyed the idea of creating designs that are not square... I'm excited to see where that takes me in the next year!)



Since I mostly design paper piecing patterns, my process is a little different than what Alyce shares in her ebook, though the concepts really are so much alike!


I am kind of obsessed with geometric designs, so the next thing I almost always do is make up a grid to fit inside my box.




I have recently started making my grid very small (each square being 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch). It means that I have more accuracy in where my lines start and stop, and I can also create more detailed designs.

A quick tip: there is a grid tool that will make the grids for you! You just enter the finished size of your block, and how many lines you want, and there it is! Super fast and easy!


In this image I made 1/2 inch squares. Notice how I have 23 divders instead of 24?! It's just like cutting bread. If you want to cut a loaf of bread into 5 pieces, you only need to make 4 cuts. (Something I remember from my early childhood years. I don't know. lol. But it helps me remember!)


I use the grid, not necessarily to section off my block, but more as guides in creating symmetrical or asymmetrical designs. It helps me ensure that everything is accurately placed, and that everything will line up perfectly when I go to actually piece the pattern with my fabric. If one line ends even just a little bit off, it makes it harder to get my fabric sections aligned just right. And we all know how much we love those perfect points!!! This has been a great method for helping us all achieve that to the best of our abilities!

Also, because it's a paper pieced pattern, I don't have to worry about all the quilt math in a traditional quilt block. Which is really nice. ;)


From here I use the line tool and start drawing lines!


 I will usually lighten my grid lines, or make them a different color or weight so that I can tell the difference between the grid and my lines.


I get my inspiration for this step from anywhere and everywhere. When I look at patterns on clothing, buildings, photographs, nature. From other quilt blocks - I might see a design and think about how it would look if I changed basically every line, but using the original concept as a starting point. etc.  There are so many possibilities everywhere you look!


I usually will only draw lines in one quadrant of the block, depending on the type of design I'm making. My quilt block I'm sharing today, Hidden Gems, is basically a giant half square triangle (HST) with a design in each triangle. Once I have something I think I'll like, I group all the lines, and copy, paste, and rotate them until I have a complete block.



Next I'll make a copy of that block and color it in to get a better idea of how it will look.


From here I'll either make adjustments and repeat until I have a block I like. Once I have something I'm satisfied with, I'll put the block on repeat and color that in.

...reapeat block colored...
I like to play around with the repeats as well. Simply repeating the design, and then rotating the blocks within the repeat.

Repeating a block is a HUGE part of what I do. I love blocks that can stand alone and be beautiful, but I love even more the creativity that comes in finding different ways to play with it on repeat.


My Winter Holly block is an awesome example of that.


this is a 16 block repeat: or 4x4 design


Look how changing up where you place the colors and values, really change up the look of the block!


From here, I'll make more adjustments to the initial block and repeat the process until I have something I like. Once I'm happy with the design, I then go back to the individual block and then convert that into a paper piecing pattern.




This step can also sometimes change the overall look of the block.

See how once you add the lines that break up your block for paper piecing adds more options for coloring it?

And the repeat design changes also! But don't worry, you can still create the original design! You just have a few more options now.


After finishing this step I'll often go through all the steps again, making sure I'm happy with the repeat design, and will sometimes go back and adjust my lines even further.

Pretty soon after that I have my pattern pieces! Next I label and number them, and create cutting templates and coloring pages! I throw it all into Adobe InDesign, and poof! I have a pattern! Ha! I wish it were that simple, but that's the basic process from start to finish!



Now I have to add, as I've been reading through the stops on the blog hop, I realize that I design a little differently than some. It seems like a lot of people start with a design, or a color scheme and go from there. Sometimes I do start with a specific design in mind, but I don't know that I ever have a color scheme. I just seem to wing it! And personally, the color schemes I use to color my blocks with when I'm testing it out, are almost always super ugly! And never anything I would make in real life! It's not until I have the finished pattern, that I can then take it to my fabric and start figuring out colors and prints to use. :)

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul." Elder Uchtdorf #quote:

Isn't this so true?!! Creating is such an important part of who we are!

And I'm alright with that! Because it works for me! If you are starting out, and learning the design process from others, and something just doesn't flow for you, don't fight it! Try everything, explore new ideas and techniques, and find what works for you! That's the only way that you'll love the process and be happy with the end result!

nice...while I love to sew and craft sometimes things don't turn out the way I see them in my mind!:
I had to include this quote too! Because it's so true! Don't let the fear of failure stop you! Whatever you create will be beautiful!! So enjoy the process!!



Thank you so much for stopping by today! And thank you so much Alyce for having me! I have enjoyed this so much! 


If you do use my Hidden Gems pattern, I would love to see what you make! You can tag your photos on Instagram with #fbpPatterns and I'll be sure to see them! Or you can share them on Craftsy, or shoot me an email fromblankpages@gmail.com. It always makes my day to see your beautiful creations! And be sure to share your pictures with Alyce too! For the Bee Hive blocks: #thebeehivequilts and for the blog hop: #myDIYblockdesign



Have a great week!


Diane

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