KT Bernina News

The new bernette Sew Pink Edition sewing machine is available October 1st at KT Bernina. This adorable little workhorse is all dressed in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month. For each machine sold, Bernina will donate $20 to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. This is a great machine for traveling or your newest little quilter. Come in and try one out today!

 

 

Robert and I are in TX for a few days visiting his youngest daughter, Jacque, and squeezing the newest addition to the family, Evan, born just a month ago. He must be the most content baby ever since all the pictures we've seen are of him asleep! Can't wait to meet him and see what his big brother, Eli, has to tell us.

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To celebrate another grandchild (since Evan missed being in the Layers of Love book by just a few months) we're giving away a Layers of Love book this week. Comment here on grandchildren - yours or in general -to win. I'll have pictures to share of Evan with his eyes open next week!



 

Paisley Park Preview #4

Day at the Park

Our Paisley Park Preview was happily interrupted by the Moda Love Blog Tour. I hope you all had a chance to visit the other designers' blogs to learn more about their fabric collections and what they all love about quilting. I enjoy discovering a few little secrets about these talented women I see only twice a year at market. So fun!

Now, for the final project from our Paisley Park collection - our Day at the Park charm quilt. For each KT fabric line, I challenge myself to create a simple quilt using just one charm pack plus a couple extra fabrics for a fast & easy project. Whether a wall quilt, table runner or pair of pillows, my charm-ing inspirations provide lots of options for your home decor or gift giving throughout the year. For example, Day at the Park requires a charm pack, mini charm pack plus 2 fabrics for borders - kit price, including pattern, is only $29.88!

The Day at the Park quilt was inspired by a brick path in our favorite park that meanders past flower gardens, fountains and bird baths to a bench hidden under a blooming trellis. A lovely spot for an impromptu picnic lunch. Love it! I could see the brick work as charm squares and took a picture to remind me of it's pattern. Look around you - inspiration is everywhere!

By starting with 2 precuts, your project is half done. Piece traditiional half square triangle blocks from assorted charm squares. Cut a mini charm into fourths, then layer two of those squares on opposite corners of bias squares and stitch. So easy!

Play with the blocks as you're laying them out - there are several ways to create even more designs!

Comment here about your favorite spot for a relaxing lunch (or dinner or snack) to win a Paisley Park charm pack and our Day at the Park pattern. See you next Monday!

Moda Designer Blog Hop winners....

Great Girlfriend Getaway
I've been in Mackinaw City, MI with Pam Buda of Heartspun Quilts this week playing with 30 fellow quilters at a KT/Heartspun Retreat. What a wonderful bunch of ladies from all over the Midwest. We had such a great time watch for info on another retreat in 2015. Our husbands came with us to work/play so we're celebrating with a getaway of our own to Mackinaw Island. It's so beautiful here I've barely noticed the chilly temps! More horse drawn taxis rides, shopping, great food and the butterfly garden tomorrow before heading back to reality.

Thanks to all of you who stopped by my blog and commented.  Check in each week for more KT news & giveaways. Now for the winners!
Paisley Park fat 1/4 bundle - Gloria.   gyates625@bellsouth.net
PPark Layer Cake - Paula from Hudson, FL
PPark Jelly Roll - just.wingit@yahoo.com
PPark Honeybun - Lovetostitch
PPark honeycomb - quiltonia
PPark charm #1 - Beth Beal
PPark charm #2 - Connie. naej95@mchsi.com

Paisley Park is on its way to a quilt shop near you. Get yours now before it's all gone!
Lynne

Moda Love Designer Blog Tour

Welcome to the Moda Love Blog Tour!

Each day you've been able to visit 3 different Moda designer's blogs for inspiration, giveaways and lots of Moda Love. Sensing a theme here??? Today's fellow Moda designers are the delightful and whimsical Bunny Hill and the extraordinarily talented and lovely Deb Strain. I can't wait to see what their Moda Love brings.

For me, after almost 15 years with Moda, the respect for Mark Dunn and his family company continues to grow. He is an outstanding businessman with a generous spirit and inspires us all to do our best work. But it's Lissa Alexander, Director of Marketing, that makes all the fun happen. Her ability to bring dozens of designers from all over the world together is incredible! She's the inspiration behind Moda Love and had a few questions for each of us:

When did you fall in LOVE with quilting/textiles?
It must have been a genetic thing since my Mom claims I complained about polyester blend sheets and scratchy blankets from the very beginning. Soft, cotton, natural fabrics have always been my first choice. My Gramma Ethel showed me how to make Barbie clothes by hand and had quilts on her beds. Her first love, however, was rug hooking. There were rugs everywhere in her house! I had access to her scrap bags of cottons, wools and buttons for doll clothes. Hand-stitching instilled in me the love of petting the textiles as I worked, enjoying the smoothness or texture of the various fabrics. A couple of treasured quilts from her mother inspired me to make my own quilts from new fabrics that looked old. Now, I have cupboards full of vintage quilts and quilt tops just waiting to be made into new KT fabrics!

What fuels you to create?
When I'm stuck and haven't had an original thought in days, I go shopping! Antique quilts and textiles (actually anything old and worm) inspire me to design. Sometimes I just go into my stash of old quilts and take out a pile to explore for new fabric prints and something about it always gets the creative juices flowing. Living in the country is always inspirational as well, with the changing colors of the seasons, the foliage and flowers changing outside my studio window, the wildlife that visit and call for me to come sit with a glass of iced tea on the porch to watch. I guess slowing down, breathing it all in and loving every minute of what I do is the fuel that keeps me going.

I love the color....RED.
Red is full of life, energy and possibilities. It's in virtually every fabric line I create and is a staple in my home decorating schemes year round.

I get shaky knees when... I find a gorgeous antique quilt/fabric - OR when my husband, Robert, kisses me.

When I teach workshops, I love...the quilters!
I learn so much from everyone I interact with at a workshop - their lives, their friendships and the fun that comes from a shared passion for quilting. Since I work by myself, I enjoy the stories, feedback and support of quilters all over the country. Here's a group of delightful ladies from a workshop at Patchwork Garden in Buffalo, NY.

What is your all time favorite Moda precut?
It's so hard to choose, but I'd have to say Charms because they play so well with all of the other precuts. I collect all the Moda designer's charms when traveling to quilt shops just for fun. That means I also have to search for antique boxes, tins and baskets that are the perfect size for holding all those charm packs. Win/Win! I use precuts in almost every quilt I design because I love to have my quilt ready to start sewing without alot of tedious cutting. They also work well with my layered patchwork technique AND you get an instant fabric collection in a beautiful little bundle. Gotta Moda LOVE it!

These are all Moda charm packs by the various designers -
and not a one is KTQ! Now I'm hooked on collecting mini charms, too!

Each of the Moda designers made a quilt from the same basic pattern with their new fabric collections. Here's my Moda Love quilt featuring a Paisley Park Layer Cake. Find the instructions for using a Layer Cake, charm or mini charm at Moda Love Layer Cake Quilt.

Now here's the good stuff! Comment here to win one of these awesome Moda precuts.
Check back for the list of winners on each of the designer's blogs on September 13th.  Good Luck!

A chair full of goodies - Moda's precut charms, Honey Bun,
 Jelly Roll, Honeycomb and a bundle of fat 1/4's.
Don't miss a chance to win!

The quilt behind the little red chair is our Rustic Star quilt from the October issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. We haven't even received Paisley Park fabric yet and are almost sold out of kits! If you're interested, call Jamie today to reserve your very own Rustic Stars kit. 785-488-2120.

Paisley Park Preview Week #3

KT Winners

Forgot to announce last week's winner of the Paisley Party pattern & Jelly Roll. Congrats to Ann X. And for this week's winner of the Perfectly Paisley pattern & Layer Cake, congratulations to Mia's Cottage. Please send mailing info to lynne@ktquilts.com.

Prim Pinwheels

Have you ever fallen in love with a block or a quilt that has a dozen seams and you break out in a rash just thinking about piecing it? Then, your blocks come out less than perfect and it's difficult to keep them flat and square? That's why I LOVE my layered patchwork technique. It simplifies traditional pieced blocks by eliminating some of the seams and pressing that can distort and cause lumps in your blocks. Our Prim Pinwheels quilt is the perfect example of that theory. Instead of pesky y-seams and lots of lumpy seam allowances in each block, I've layered triangles over precut Jelly RollTM strips for dimensional, primitive pinwheels that are so easy to make!

Intricate looking pinwheels made easy with layered patchwork
and Jelly Roll strips. A JR + 3 fabrics is all you need to create
a huggable lap quilt for someone on your list. 

Layer triangles over JR strips; stitch. Piece pairs together, then 4 of a kind.
Layer quarter cut triangles to each side for easy diamonds/pinwheels
 that lay flat and measure the correct size.

Comment here to win a Prim Paisley pattern and a Jelly Roll to get you started!

Moda's Designer Blog Hop continues! Come back Wednesday for KTQ's day of the hop. 

Paisley Park Preview Week #2

Paisley Park Fabric to arrive soon!

We listen for the rumbling of the UPS truck each day, waiting for boxes and boxes of Paisley Park to arrive on our doorstep. It can't be long now! As soon as the precuts arrive, we'll be kitting up some of the projects from the Layers of Love book and our Paisley Park patterns. This week, take a peek at Perfectly Paisley, a galaxy full of layered patchwork stars dancing amidst traditionally pieced 9-patches. A Layer CakeTM, background and 3 borders is all you need to create this 

My layered patchwork method makes star points simple and
dimensional with no chance of cutting off points. Start with a
Moda precut Layer CakeTM for a whole fabric collection in one
 neat package. 

We've layered triangles cut from squares & rectangles on top of the
 tan background rectangle to create perfect star points. Just stitch
about an 1/8" from the bias edges of the triangles for the star center &
star point units. Piecing is totally simplified with fewer seams, less
pressing and less chance of distorting your base block. That means
a more square block and more perfectly pieced paisley quilt!

To win a Perfectly Paisley pattern & Paisley Park Layer Cake, comment here on the layered patchwork technique - thumbs up, thumbs down, want to try it. I'm eager to hear your thoughts. 

Moda's Designer Blog Hop starts tomorrow! Don't miss a single day of designer inspiration, new product previews and tons of giveaways! The first designers up are Janet Clare Designs, Kate Spain, and Thimbleblossoms. I'll be up on September 10th. See you then!